What your husband said to you is just plain disrespectful; my husband used a much more colorful gutter term to described your husband's behavior. Why he is behaving in this manner is not relevant. He is an adult who needs to grow up. An object lesson just might be in order.

I have not read any of the responses. The word "ghost" probably means different things to different people, so I will answer it this way: I do not believe that a person's conscience is a separate entity from his physical body. Conscience does not survive death. If I experienced what others call ghostly phenomena, I would look for natural explanations first since a natural occurrence would be more likely than a supernatural one. For example, if I were in a national military park and "saw" a solider in uniform, I would assume (1) that a re-enactor must have wandered away for a stroll by himself or (2) that I was concentrating so intently on the past history that my eyes and mind played trick on me. Now if I saw the apparition of this same solider on an ongoing basis, I would assume that I was experiencing visual hallucinations and seek psychiatric help. We once lived in a house that was plagued with electrical issues. Lights would flicker, and we were constantly replacing bulbs. After having spent a pretty hefty sum on rewiring, the problem continued although not quite as intensely. In another house, we heard scratching and sometimes clanging sounds in den. As soon as I would turn on light, the sound immediately stopped. This went on for quite some time before our toddler one day announced, "I see a nose in the fireplace." A mama raccoon had a nest in our unused chimney. A few odd coincidences have happened in past that I cannot explain, but again that does not necessarily mean that they were supernatural. However, ghost stories are appealing because of the fright of being seen by something you cannot see. We rented Discovery Channel's "A Haunting" series, but we do not consider these to be true but more like campfire ghost tales. It seems that those who are predisposed to a belief in superatural events and beings or specifcally in ghosts are the ones who witness or experience ghostly activity. However, as with gods, I am always open to changing position should evidence arise that can be objectively verified

You do not need a prescription for Heartgard if you purchase it from Petshed in Australia (or maybe NZ). However, the manufacturer will not reimburse you for heartworm treatment if you do not buy product directly from vet. Actually we use an inexpensive generic heartworm pill from Petshed. We administer the pills monthly since we reside in a subtropical climate area. For flea control, we buy the supersize Frontline Plus from Petshed but I am not sure how competitive their pricing is. The vet provided us with dosage amounts for canines by weight. You can buy vaxes and wormers at farm stores and through breeder co-ops. You can also buy worm meds from Petshed. I am not sure but I think the rabies vax has to be given by a licensed provider since it usually is tied in to securing county tag. We do not do most of the vaxes. Our dogs live inside with a dog door leading out to a large privacy fenced backyard. They do not leave home except for occasional walk. They never have been boarded anywhere because family is large enough so that there is always a caretaker here for them.

Is anyone else surprised that 54% of the hive's children never believed in Santa? I assumed "believe" referred to a corporeal Santa concept.

The difference, I assume, would be that many people in predominantly christian cultures literally or metaphorically believe the nativity story throughout their entire lives while they relegate other legends to childhood relic status. You are correct that it all depends upon perspective. However, religious fables generally have a much stronger longer hold over people than childhood make believe does. For those who support naturalism, yes, it is all playing one game or another.

From the outset, our personal choice was to not mislead our children about existence of Santa Klaus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, and other imaginary entities, but the truth never distracted from the joy and celebration of special times that included making a pretend game of the myths. We wanted to err on side of caution since a thinking child would inevitably and justfiably question the logistical impossibilities and the suspension of natural law: how a single man could circle the planet in one day to deliver gifts to all children, how a sleigh and reindeer could fly, how the man could return to North Pole to repeatedly refill an emptied sleigh. Further, they would ponder why Santa has so many mall impostors, why advertisers suggest gifts when Santa already knows what kids desire, why many people do not celebrate Christimas with or without Santa, and so on. When the Santa topic arises, people are under no obligation to bolster folk tales up as fact because others choose that path. The parents referred to in the original post could reasonably expect a discussion of Saint Nicolaus's relationship to the Santa legend in a religious ed program. I doubt that younger children or even some older children can distinguish between a concrete belief in a corporeal Santa and a metaphysical approach to magical spirit of Santa concept. Hence, our motto was when in doubt, the truth wins out. If a 7th grader maintained a belief in a literal physical Santa, I would be concerned about his naivete.

Men hold the economic power in the developed world, and, unfortunately, that is about the only power that is relevant in industrialized societies. In hunter gatherer socieites, I would posit that men also held the power since their size and physical strength exceeded that of females.

My adult child's next door apartment neighbor is a city police officer who has loud fights with his spouse or girlfriend. He is on end townhouse, which is why I assume the cops have not been called on the cop. He is an all around angry guy, so my child avoids him.

Rodney King

At work

All homemade: Vegetable fried rice with the onions sauteed to a golden brown. Creamy baked macaroni and cheese. Potato skins with sharp cheddar, bacon, green onions, and sour cream. Emeril's corn dip. Mexican beef and bean stew.

I think it is a lovely traditional Irish name. It was among our choices for a pregnancy which did not work out.

I find nothing wrong with the coach's admonition to the boy.

I won't go into mindnumbingly boring details of our litigation, but we did do an asset search of debtor. Search revealed he owned land in another state. Because of certain factors, we were able to persuade him to quit claim the land to us in lieu of cash payment of judgment. Land value was not close to what we were owed, but it was better than nothing.

I paid for several telephone counseling sessions for a close family member who was going through a difficult situation. First we tried local counselors, but they lacked experience in this particular situation. After much research, I paid for several telephone counseling sessions with a nationally recognized expert who had counseled thousands of women in same or similar situations. She was worth every cent I paid because she wasted no time and had personal experience with the issue. However, my first response to online counseling is wariness.

Neither.

No

Applauding the courage and bravery of all those who have faced the arrows to live life honestly.

This is not one of those feel good you're-as-young-as-you-feel posts. Why is turning 40 a good thing? I posit that it is neither fundamentally good or bad. It is merely an objective measurement of the amount of time that has lapsed since birth. Nothing more. Nothing less. Everyone born on same day you were is now 40. On the positive side, the longer a person exists, the more likely he is to accumulate wisdom and maturity but it is not an automatic given by a certain age.

We had some experiences that were similar to those above; these negative experiences led us to eventually stop fostering. Definitely it takes much more than love, patience and perserverance. It can be stressful so don't jump into the water unless everything else in your life (your marriage, your finances, your family routine, your children's emotional wellbeing, etc) is stable.

If I witnessed it, I would intervene to stop the toddler from defacing another's papers. Then I would show tot where his/her drawing paper and markers are stored and allow him/her to use those for awhile.

I eat a spoonful with of it with small glass of milk.

I was relieved to get to end of thread to learn the pipes were not lost. A quality set of pipes is a true treasure. Although my family still cannot bear to listen to a capella Scots-Irish tragic ballads, they do enjoy some of my bagpipe CDs. Thank you for training your son on the pipes.

Why not use the name they had chosen anyway? Seth was my first choice if our last had been a male. Who is to say that the other Seth's family will be in same area five or ten years from now? There are two Ashleys in one daughter's close circle of friends. The girls merely add the middle names to distinguish between the two Ashleys.

In the mid 80s when limit on expressway was 55mph, I was ticketed for going 70mph in a rural area around midnight. About 7 years ago, I was ticketed for going 45mph in a 40mph zone. Foolishly I assumed the lights were flashing because the police wanted me to pull over to clear the road for him. Imagine my surprise when he pulled in behind me.