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The pastor asked if anyone in the congregation would like to express praise for answered prayers. Suzie stood and walked to the podium. She said, "I have a praise. Two months ago, my husband, Phil, had a terrible bicycle wreck and his scrotum was completely crushed. The pain was excruciating and the doctors didn't know if they could help him." You could hear a muffled gasp from the men in the congregation as they imagine the pain that poor Phil must have experienced. "Phil was unable to hold me or the children," she went on, "and every move caused him terrible pain." We prayed as the doctors performed a delicate operation, and it turned out they were able to piece together the crushed remnants of Phil's scrotum, and wrap wire around it to hold it in place." Again, the men in the congregation cringed and squirmed uncomfortably as they imagined the horrible surgery performed on Phil. "Now," she announced in a quivering voice, "thank the Lord, Phil is out of the hospital and the doctors say that with time, his scrotum should recover completely." All the men sighed with unified relief. The pastor rose and, tentatively, asked if anyone else had something to say. A man stood up and walked slowly to the podium. He said, "I'm Phil." The entire congregation held its breath. "I just want to tell my wife the word is sternum."

On the Sch E tab you have to check Item 11 "Complete disposition of a passive activity".

The Air and Space Museum has the Udvar-Hazy Annex out near Dulles Airport. It has all the stuff they can't get downtown, and is really great. I would recommend dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill. It is on 15th street, one block east of the White House. Old DC charm... Make sure you eat in the old dining room. The *new* dining room is like a Holiday Inn. You have all the Smithsonian Museums on the Mall. Decide which ones you are interested in, and then go to them, you could get lost in any of them and burn a lot of time... However, the Hope Diamond is AMAZING. Check out the original documents of America at the National Archives. Actually quite interesting.... The Newseum on Pennsylvania Ave is 4-5 blocks from the White House, and then 10-11 to the Capitol. It has one of the best front porches in Washington. A walk up Penn Ave from the Capitol to the WH is a study in contrasts. Where are you going to stay? Traffic can be hideous. And parking expensive, and the Metro is plenty crowded during rush hour. If you have a rental car, then take different routes into and out of town each day. Massachusetts Ave, Connecticut Ave, Georgia Ave, North, East ad South Capitol Streets. You can "see" the different DC's that way. There in nothing but the Museum Shops and Roach Coachs on the mall to get something to eat. You have to walk two or three blocks to sit down and eat, but if it was my son and me, we would hit the Roach Coaches. There is some real selection there... Its about a mile and a half to walk from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. Remember that. My wife still calls it the "Death March"..... Really, its about what you are interested in. I like to "imbed" myself in the local culture, eating in local restaurants, walking the streets, seeing the off beat stuff. And playing golf.. There is no finer place to trace the roots of our country, and how it developed. Rich

The Korean War monument is also noted for realistic statues of soldiers (although, about 3/4 size, but you'll forget that quickly) instead of some smooth-faced generic statues; all ethnicities, etc, that could be your sons or neighbors or fathers. You walk among them. I think they ran out of money or space, so the polished wall was designed to multiply the number of soldiers and as mentioned create some ghost-like soldiers for those who did not survive. Catherine, tell your cousin that the Holocaust Museum is amazing. There is a children's section, if you are taking young ones; but even that tells the story honestly. In the main museum, some of the most intense exhibits are over a wall; so if you have young children too short to see over the wall, YOU get to decide if you want to lift them up to see, which also puts you right there to talk to them about what they're seeing if they need it. Schedule time to decompress afterward. In good weather you could sit in any green space. We were told to find the food court in, I think, the Agriculture Department building. It looks like offices and not open to the public, but when you tell them at the desk you want to eat at the food court, they send you back. My son who was in eighth grade and hubby and I picked our own food and gathered at a table and were quiet for a very long time, just processing what we saw.

Here is some good info on QDRO's http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/publications/qdros.html http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_qdro.html Buried deep within one of the appendices is some sample language from IRS. Of course, as we all know, IRS cautions that we can't rely upon their advice...