I love both (and have 3 of each at the moment), but when push comes to shove, I'm all about dogs. I no longer think they're more work than cats, either....not really. I mean, I guess they're more of a time commitment, but they don't scratch up my furniture, and when they get old and have accidents, their pee doesn't render whatever they've peed on totally unsalvagable. and when I go out of town, they can stay at a relative's house or a kennel or come with us without suffering apparently unimaginable emotional torture.

After the time I had this morning getting my 9 year old 4th grader to write 4 sentences on what he likes about Halloween.....I think it's great!

I'd go with WWE2, also. My oldest is a natural creative writer, does tons of writing on his own, but still struggled with doing structured narrations in WWE. If you're worried about timeline, I think it was in the Writing With Skill thread--I was reading the other day where SWB said that the last levels of both WWE and WWS are optional. So if he gets through WWE3 and is doing well, he should be ready to go right into WWS (which, incidentally, my son who hated WWE is really enjoying and doing well with).

oh my! I had no idea this existed! I am intrigued at the thought of ridding my house of carpet without spending a fortune (we already have hardwoods everywhere except the bedrooms). I think we're going to need pictures when you're finished!

The Science Museum has rats who play basketball. I don't think I need to say anything else.

I don't board mine together, but it's because they don't get along (well, the new dog gets along with everyone, but she hasn't been boarded yet). But I wanted to say that if you board them somewhere where they get LOTS of playtime (like somewhere that also does doggie day care and has the boarding dogs play with the day care dogs), you won't need to worry about them being bored or lonely. Even if they're in runs by themselves in between playtimes, they'll come home exhausted and very happy. The place we used last time even took our dog aggressive dog and made sure she got plenty of time with people, since she couldn't be with other dogs....they let her hang out in the office with the staff during the day and stuff.

Eek! Creepy! I try to like snakes, but they pretty much just freak me out.

Once you have your package price, that really is most of it, except, as mentioned, tips (and alcohol, if you drink it). It's certainly possible to spend more, but you don't need to. We bring stuff with us for breakfasts or use snack credits for bakery stuff. Oh, important tip....any place that serves fountain drinks will give you free cups of ice water--don't use snack credits for bottled water!

I think it's a big, fructose-laden scam, personally. It doesn't raise your blood sugar as much as other forms of sugar because the fructose is so high (a HFCS sweetened Coke won't raise your blood sugar as much as something sweetened with sucrose, either, but not because it's better for you).

DH gets paid once a month and has for nearly 10 years now. It doesn't seem like a big deal during the times when we're doing pretty well money-wise and aren't living paycheck to paycheck. When we're short on money, it's an awful long time between checks. Worst thing about it is there's never an "extra" check--the two months a year when you get 3 paychecks if you get paid bi-weekly.

My mom once had our cocker spaniel put to sleep because it was going to need its second eye removed. She now has another cocker who the same thing happened to, only this time she kept the dog, and she's been getting along very well with no eyes for several years now. My mom regrets putting the other dog down and says she wouldn't have done it had she realized how well dogs can adapt to blindness. I guess I'd need to know more about the circumstances....if the rescue took in a dog knowing it was going to wind up blind then it seems like probably not the most practical decision--given how hard it could be to find a home for such a dog, how long it would tie up a space in a foster home that could be used to rescue more dogs, and, of course, the medical expenses. But if they already had the dog in their care and found out about its needs, that's a much tougher call. I don't think its kinder to the dog to put it down because the alternative is blindness. Is it a good call on the rescue's part to devote so many resources to THIS dog when the reality is it means they can save fewer healthy dogs? Well....it's really awful that we live in a society where people have to make those kinds of decisions.

I think if you're already sending out reminders in the yahoo group then the mom already knows about the homework and is choosing, for whatever reason, not to make them do it. So contacting her individually would probably not do any good and be awkward for both of you to boot. Assuming the fact that they're not doing the homework isn't a distraction in the class, I'd let it go.

I got rid of mine after we stopped eating gluten. I think I could have sold it at least a dozen times over on craigslist, so many e-mails did I get.

yes to breakfast in the room (we didn't want to waste prime low-crowd touring time eating breakfast out anyway). Either stuff we brought from home, or last time we used snack credits at Babycakes and bought stuff for the next day.

Fourthing (?) stack the states. Mine have been playing, and I haven't been paying much attention; I was surprised the other day when my 6 yr old knew where Montana was

We just watched The Office and Parks and Rec on Hulu plus. I had a few new shows that I was pretending I was going to watch, but truth is if it's not on Hulu Plus we never think to watch them. I guess I could get one of those special machines that watches TV for you....a DVR, I think the kids call them? But, yeah, we don't have that.

My DS almost never takes melatonin anymore, but back when he did we actually cut the Trader Joe's .5 mg ones in half, and that did the trick for him. Which makes one wonder if it was a placebo effect, so small is that dose. But without it he was up for HOURS; with it, asleep in 10 minutes. Shrug.

The one I made worked fine for awhile (a few weeks?) and then suddenly our clothes got stinky. I don't know why....haven't tried it again yet!

We used to be landlords and took a class on housing law as part of our mortgage program....they were very clear that people can't sign away their legal rights just because you put something in the lease. There's your POV and then there's the law. Which I'd be checking into if I were the OP, because that would drive me CRAZY. Speaking as a former landlord, it is, if nothing else, incredibly rude.

We're thinking lining it with bricks might do the trick. Most of the fence is new and very secure, but the section along the back, adjacent to the church behind our house, is old and not in great shape; that's where she finds places to squeeze out. Fortunately, the couple of times she's gotten out, she just sniffs around in the woods back there and then winds up back in front of the house in 20 minutes (usually while we're still searching madly for her!). We're watching her when she's out now and will try to fortify the fence this weekend.

Apparently that's what they call us....people who swore there was no danger at all they were going to keep the foster dog because, "I don't even LIKE beagles." oops. I didn't know she was going to be GREAT with kids of all sizes, my younger dog's very best friend, tolerated by my old, grumpy dog, and pretty much the sweetest, most charming little hound dog ever. Now if I can just get her to stop squeezing under our fence, following everything she smells, she'll be perfect :) Also, she came with a really cool name: Fiesta. Could you resist this face?

They look good....a lot of people like to see fasting under 90 and consider over 90 something to keep an eye on (but not a reason for a diagnosis)....but you ARE keeping an eye on it, so, you know...good job :) ETA: I have trouble getting my fasting under 90, no matter what I'm eating, and I don't really worry about it (and my doc's never said anything about it) since the other numbers and my A1C are good.

I'd keep going with Practice Island, talking him through it as much as necessary until he gets it. My understanding is that Practice Island was originally intended for classroom use, with the whole class going through it together, so I don't consider it a problem if my DC need help with some of the concepts, particularly when they're new. The grammar book goes through the concepts so quickly....I really think the repetition in the practice book is essential to really nail them down.

I remember what Peter did! He was Benedict Arnold in the school play and everyone gave him a hard time about it. Cindy and Bobby tried to set a world record for teeter totting once (they didn't make it) They made a movie about Thanksgiving in the backyard one time. Those Bradys sure were busy.

Greg was some kind of boy scout knock-off and Marcia was a Sunflower Girl? I think it was. Something like that. because there was the episode where Marcia had to prove girls were just as good as boys by passing the initiation test to get in the fake boy scouts. I recall an episode where Bobby was a pool prodigy, too, but I don't think that went anywhere. Greg went surfing in Hawaii...had he already learned how to do that back home? I can't remember. And, yes, they did a lot of really groovy singing together.