11.   The city was exceptionally peaceful, and he and I were quietly shopping and enjoying the last precious hours of the weekend.

12.   Precious hours -- and possibly hundreds of lives -- were lost as officials hesitated in sending in troops, clearing roads and accepting foreign help.

13.   Amid the stink of sewage and scrape of bulldozers, Californians used precious hours of dry weather Wednesday to dig out of the muck left by storms.

14.   He dedicated those precious hours to intensive physical therapy and to icing his sore shoulder.

15.   The weather was calm Wednesday, so Shetlanders were using their few precious hours of daylight to dig out as best they could.