Toro Ultra 12 Amp Electric Blower/Vacuum #51599
Customer Review: Very powerful and easy to use. I found an easier way to use it!!!
3 years ago I purchased the Black and Decker and this season it could not mulch the leaves the way it used to because the blades were made out of plastic and they were dull. This year I bought the Toro and the blades are metal. It worked great. It is only designed for dry leaves. I found a real easy way to use it. When some landscapers do a lawn they pile all the leaves together and feed them into a huge vacuum mulcher. Well my back and arms were getting tired so I made a pile of leaves and laid the Toro on its side (not to disrupt the air flow) and fed the leaves into it. It was faster and easier on my back then carrying it around.
Also the blower part is very powerful and I like having the ability to adjust the power. I love Toros and it is the only brand I buy!!
Customer Review: GREAT PRODUCT
GREAT PRODUCT, THE BAG IS TOO BULKY TO BE CARRYING AROUND WHEN 1/2 FULL BUT IT STILL DOES THE JOB…THANKS FOR SELLING QUALITY!
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List Price: ?3.99
Amazon Price: ?2.74
Used Price: ?0.94
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List Price: ?19.99
Amazon Price: ?17.98
Used Price: ?30.64
Customer Review: A star is born
This is the opera that shot Georgiu to stardom. It’s easy to see why, with her combination of acting, looks and singing. Violetta is a very difficult role, it places very different demands on the singer in each act. Georgiu isn’t quite ideal for act 1, but after that she’s really in her element. You can practically see the paternal pride in Solti’s face as he watches his young protegee bloom. Surely the definitive Traviata.
Customer Review: Great singing, problem with the sound
Decca ought to consider whether using surround sound is really such a good idea. Surround sound tends to emphasise background noise. Add to this the tendency for modern systems to favour low-frequency sounds, and personally I find the scenes with chorus marred by a distracting clumping of feet and shuffling of bodies.
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List Price: ?14.99
Amazon Price: ?7.99
Used Price: ?5.50
Customer Review: Absolutely riveting
Rarely do I find a book that I simply cannot put down, but this is one. I have read all of Tess Gerritsen’s books and thought this would be a Rizzoli/Isles story again; I was disappointed when I read the synopsis when I realised it wasn’t but oh how I was hooked from the very first page. I particularly loved the past and present story line and Rose Connolly was a wonderful heroine. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Fabulous stuff.
Customer Review: Medical mysteries offering twist to a historical thriller
In her 11th medical thriller, “The Bone Garden,” Maine physician Tess Gerritsen turns from the exploits of Boston detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles to give readers a historical thriller about a serial killer - known as the West End Reaper - loose on the streets of 1830s Boston. more stories like this The tale of crime from a bygone era emerges as the parallel plot to the modern-day story of a divorcee who finds human bones buried in her Weston yard. Isles appears briefly, but her presence is not essential to Gerritsen’s story. Soon the protagonist, teacher Julia Hamill, is spending much of her summer break in Maine going through old letters and other papers with the octogenarian relative of her house’s previous owner. Gerritsen has won praise for her prior medical thrillers, and her previous effort, “The Mephisto Club,” was a bestseller. “The Bone Garden,” however, does not quite come together. The parallel stories are uneven, with the greatest weight going to the 19th-century murder mystery. The modern-day tale is part narrative device and part love story, but it isn’t hook enough to justify its existence, and the plot around Julia’s life is barely developed, leaving the reader to wonder if it is necessary at all. The historical murder mystery fares better, but the suspense sometimes lags. This plot centers on an Irish immigrant, Rose Connolly, and on a group of medical students studying at the hospital where Rose’s sister, Aurnia, died in childbirth. Aurnia’s husband is a brute with little interest in raising the baby girl, so Rose takes charge of her niece, Margaret, and is determined to keep her from mysterious parties equally bent on snatching her. Medical student Norris Marshall, a poor farm boy from Belmont out of place among his gentleman classmates, takes an interest in Rose’s plight. Along the way, people associated with the young aunt turn up dead. Norris is earnest and idealistic, admirable traits, to be sure, but a tad boring in a hero. Rose is plucky, panicked, devastatingly poor, and a good deal more interesting than Norris. Gerritsen also includes a fictionalized Oliver Wendell Holmes, the physician and author who was the father of the famed jurist, in the group of medical students, and that adds some spice. Gerritsen, as always, puts her medical training to ghoulish use in her descriptions of both the murders and the dismayingly frequent deaths in childbirth in the hospital’s maternity ward. These vivid descriptions are not for the faint-hearted. Indeed, despite the book’s shortcomings, the medical practices that Gerritsen depicts are fascinating. In addition to the well-drawn scenes in the hospital, she takes readers on grisly journeys with a procurer of cadavers, to be used in the training of medical students. Here, too, she calls on her experience as a physician to render situations in excruciatingly horrific detail. Boston readers will also appreciate her description of the mid-19th-century city and its environs. “The Bone Garden” ends with some neat plot twists, both in the murder mystery and the mystery of maternal deaths. Much as readers might wish that Gerritsen had sharpened the thriller and done more with the contemporary story, they will come away from the book with an appreciation of the evolution of medical practice.
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Zach Braff (from the TV show Scrubs) stars in his writing/directing debut, Garden State–normally a doomed act of hubris, but Braff pulls it off with unassuming charm. An emotionally numb actor in L.A., Andrew (Braff) comes back to New Jersey after nine years away for his mother’s funeral. Andrew avoids his bitter father (Ian Holm) and joins old friends (including the superb Peter Sarsgaard) in a round of parties. Along the way he meets a girl (Natalie Portman) with demons of her own; bit by bit the two offer each other a little healing. Plotwise, Garden State is familiar stuff, a cross between The Graduate and a Meg Ryan movie, but Braff has an eye for goofy but resonant visual images, an ear for lively dialogue, and a great cast. The result is surprisingly fresh and funny. –Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
List Price: ?17.99
Amazon Price: ?5.48
Used Price: ?3.00
Customer Review: Garden State: Pleasantly numb
I got this film as an avid fan of Scrubs, curious to see what Zach Braff could manage away from his role as ‘J.D.’, and on the whole, although I wasn’t completely blown away, I wasn’t completely let down either. This is a fairly pleasant film, certainly not uncomfortable to watch or suffering from poor acting, etc. It successfully puts you into the state of the main character (Zach Braff) - a sense of pleasant numbness. It does however leave you wanting a little more; its all very well getting across the main charater’s emotions, but I didn’t feel quite the same upsurge of emotion at the end as the main character displays, which is a slight let down. Its been well put together and looks clean and fresh. There are a few funny moments in the film, but its worth remembering that this film is not like the scrubs sitcom where Zach Braff made his name - a little more laid back, relaxing. However, having said that, it makes for a pleasant night in, and would probably suit a couple having a quiet night in with a bottle of wine.
Customer Review: Promising and affecting debut
Transferring his goofy persona in ‘Scrubs’ to something more delicate and considered must have been a challenge but Zach Braff proves he has an eye for human frailty that many up-and-coming filmmakers simply can’t match. ‘Garden State’ is a subtlely funny and emotionally wrought drama that tends to hint rather than pontificate about the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Braff himself is excellent and convincingly switches the madcap energy of JD into the inner numbness of Andrew Largeman. Natalie Portman gives a wonderfully amusing and endearing performance as the kooky girl who breaks through Andrew’s cold exterior and it is possibly her finest role since ‘Leon’. She is mesmerising in every scene she’s in and her character’s inner vulnerability makes her all the more intriguing. Peter Sarsgaard is also great fun as Andrew’s directionless friend with a trailer trash mother and he balances Braff’s withdrawn performance neatly. Finally, the wonderful soundtrack heightens the power of the fine script with some thoughtful interludes (The Shins are a particularly inspired choice). However, the film doesn’t quite pull off the Woody Allen observations it strives for and the ending feels a little too neat and tidy after the complexity of the relationships it has created. Ian Holm is also sadly underused as Andrew’s father and their faltering relationship could have been turned into a far more interesting sub-plot. Still, a great start to Braff’s directorial career and I hope his next effort continues in this vein.
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List Price: $15.00 
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and Kleenex saver. So happy with it now my sister in Los Angeles who has had lung problems got one. Just a few days shipping, far quicker than estimated super saver, just plug it in and take a deep breath. 
