Great idea!

That sounds yummy!

Do you like tahini? I often have a bed of greens with quinoa and hummus, Greek yogurt and tahini plus whatever veggies I want to use up. Infused oils with a different acid like lemon juice can work well for a variety of veggies.

Lots of love, Baseball!!! 💓

Oh, so that was you! Okay, now I know. I was trying to avoid the bad juju by NOT fiddling with our sailboat, and trying hard to make the universe believe I do not want to go sailing or put a plant in a pot so as not to tempt the evil weather spirits. At least I can rest easy knowing I didn't mess up inadvertently! 😁

Lewis is on the bed with us now. He will be 13 in August and seems to need a lot of cuddling to feel secure. He no longer sleeps well in his crate, and I have a feeling that our heavenly mattress from the Westin is a balm to his achy bones. I wish it was not this way because I don't sleep well with him on the bed, but he is my baby, and he doesn't have a lot of time left so I can't bear to kick him out.

I agree.with you. And yes, men are not told to smile. Misogyny strikes again! I am sorry.

That is what we want to do. Watch and see, time it for a wave, hope to have the added protection during the crisis. We haven't gotten them yet, but we are watching the numbers closely.

We are getting ours too. I will continue with boosters since we come through them just fine. My mental health needs for me to resume some normalcy, and so I will take all the protection I can get.

Michigan rocking back up. We had been staying below 800 per day, but today's weekly report was a daily average of 1104. Sigh. Thankfully cases are very very low where ds's commencement will be, and we will mask, all the students and faculty/staff will be masked. Crowd won't but we have KN95's so fingers crossed. My own county is at a bizarrely low level right now. Fingers crossed we will make it through commencement. After that we have summer stretching ahead and a ton of outdoor activities. Our trip west will include masking in gas stations, rest areas inside, and hotels when not in our rooms. We are packing food, cooking, grilling out, no restaurants, and all our activities except a couple of quick visitor center stops and the Golden Tower at the North Platte train yard are outdoors. If the pool and hot tub area of the hotel isn't busy, we may risk swimming and soaking. We can always skeddaddle if it gets busy.

Please keep your boundaries. Long periods of time commuting and sitting through chemo treatments fives her prime opportunities to abuse you. Ask me how I know! Learned that the hard way, and eventually gave my father a lump sum of money and said, "Find someone else to drive you because I will never take you again." So he found several local friends who were retired who took turns driving because he paid them for expenses and time spent. First thing, does she really want chemo. You will want to establish that she in fact does. Some folks do not, and may not gain significant time while also losing a lot of quality. So your husband should check on that. Beyond that, your county may have a center for the aging, and meals on wheels who can provide housekeeping and meals. We now have my mother in law signed up for four weeks of weekly housekeeping and they will even do laundry. She doesn't do meals on wheels because dh works from his office in her home five days a week, and she is capable of making her owns salads and sandwiches. If she has the money, she can hire an in home CNA if she needs help bathing and what not. Chemo nausea is better managed these days with a lot of support drugs so she will be really fatigued, but not likely vomiting and dehydrated if she takes the meds. She may not have much appetite. But, let her doctors, the in-home CNA, her chemo nurse work on that. This stuff is fraught with opportunities for her to draw you guys in and then abuse you. BTDT got the t shirt. Make sure she pays a lawn company or local teen for yard work so she isn't calling you about that all the time too. If she needs a LOT of help, she would be better off in assisted living or a nursing home. You can't force her. You also do not need to let yourself be held hostage by her. There are consequences for abusing people and no one stepping up to care is one.

Facebook Marketplace. You advertise on Facebook Marketplace. 😁

This give new meaning to "organic gardening". Oh Mark............😂😂😂

Thank you for saying this. I was unable to.think of a good way of expressing it.

In my experience, it is because questioning instead of 100% instant loyalty to whatever theological and lifestyle stance the parent believes is considered a sin and these folks fervently believe in eternal torture of a human like body that can feel pain and agony forever. This is what they believe so their fear overrides their judgement. To add to that injury, the ones that I know who believe it the most firey, also belong to churches that believe if your child reaches adulthood and is still questioning or has arrived at the conclusion they do not believe or believe a different dogma, they are to be shunned by the family, excommunicates, so the wayward person cannot be a bad influence in the church community. This is so painful to parents to even consider that they will often double down on the child. We have former friends whose adult daughter came out as lesbian her senior year of college. This young woman was practically family to us having grown up best friends with our sons, mentored and tutored by our daughter, and constantly with us, sometimes vacationing with us. We love her! Her parents have excommunicated her based on advice from the pastor and deacons, Wesleyan denomination, and we were told to never contact them ever again because we support her, and they know it. The pain this young woman has feels is just mind boggling. At first I was really hurt by their pronouncements, then heart broken, then angry, and then realized they are only following their faith to its logical outcome. Their faith dictates that anyone who does not follow the dictates of the church are to be "cast out as hard hearted", considered evil, and a danger to others whose souls will also be condemned if they support the person. They are protecting other souls. They are simply putting their faith into action even when it causes tremendous pain and suffering. I view them now with great pity, and consider them a bit hard hearted themselves to keep clinging to dogma that is so harmful and rips families apart. That church holds a hell house style VBS for children 3-11 each year. In my mind, totally gross and abusive! But in their minds, trying to save children from an eternity of torture and agony. I can't exactly blame them for doing it. OP, I don't have much to offer. As a deconverted person, I can say there is a lot of trauma involved when Christians use heavy handed tactics to prevent questioning or try to dogma a person back into the faith. Just try to be as gracious and open-minded and loving as you can be. Something you could consider doing together is a comparative religions course. It is really very interesting and enlightening. Even when people choose to remain in their faith it is always good to have a better understanding of other faiths. I would also respect her privacy and not tell others on your faith community that she has questions.

You mom! Hell no!!! Maybe I wouldn't say, "Hell no", but NO is a complete sentence. If pressed, and I felt like making an excuse I would say we already planned out and prepaid numerous family activities in August. However, I have learned with my narcissistic sister in law and enabling brother to just say " No" and end the conversation. They don't like it, but I don't really care. The conversation of it continues is never going to end well, and I don't need the stress. Nip it in the bud is my philosopjy, and the good news of that is that eventually they finally took the hint, and now they don't bother us. I get a text from my brother about four times a year usually Christmas, my birthday, Thanksgiving, and sometimes Easter. I respond politely but do not engage in conversation. It is soooooo much less stress.

This is truth!

I hate this promposal thing too! I do have to say I am also against elaborate proposals for marriage too. I had to turn down someone in a very public place with a few hundred eyes on us - cafeteria at college where he did this big dramatic thing. It is profoundly uncomfortable for both parties. OP, I am so sorry this happened. I will never understand all the crazy hype over prom. I must be an ole fuddy duddy because it leaves me scratching my head. It is just too much pressure on young people.

Compassion is a two-way street. Our health insurance premium is $16,000 per annum or $21,000 and change aud. We pay half, his employer pays half, so $8,000 to us, $10,000 ish aud. We then have a $7500 (another $10,000 aud ish) per annum deductible that must be paid out of pocket before the insurance kicks in, and then it pays at 90% to some providers, 80% to others still leaving us with more out of pocket expenses. My friend pays similar prices plus $1500 per MONTH for her daughter's seizure meds and this is after the insurance discount or it would be worse on an annual household income of $65,000 a year before taxes, so with state, federal, local, property, and sales tax, disposable income of less than $40,000 a year, and housing, home or renters insurance, car, and car insurance hasn't been accounted for from that yet. $40,000 and literally half of her income goes to healthcare expenses. For two years, we paid 1/3 of our annual take home income for our three sons to be in college at the same time after academic scholarships which were "generous scholarships" at some of the cheapest choices of state universities. At no time did we get a break on healthcare costs. My sister, on the other hand, pays $165 a semester for tuition. She would be dead if she lived here because she would not be able to afford her healthcare and medication. I don't act like an ass to her because I am jealous of any of this. I am freaking grateful that she has that safety net of the country in which she resides. If I had to ALSO pay your prices for food and fuel, there would have been many times dh and I did not eat. Yet, I don't get on threads and birch and moan at those who live with universal healthcare and bizarrely cheap university and trade school even though Americans RATION healthcare on a regular basis even for very absi, easily treatable conditions and injuries. I don't birch and moan in anger that you have a better social safety net than we do. I am grateful that your home country has a brain and thinks, "Hm. Damn it all. Maybe we should take health care and education needs of our people." I am happy for you. And I still have compassion for the damn awful, crazy grocery prices you pay, and recognize that it is a hardship for you. The collective you or non Americans on this thread. I don't get on the thread and crap all over you and tell you to stop whining because at least you have universal healthcare. I have compassion for the hardships life throws your way. I know people who go hungry here, who ration food among the adults of the household in order to buy insulin and epipens for their kids. But hey, apparently they are just whiney, spoiled Americans and should shut up.

If Fermi is right, this is going to get very interesting as new proposed models are tested. The Haddon collider is on my bucket list. I have always wanted to take a tour.

In terms of WS, the difference here for me is very large. WS wasn't defending anyone who was in danger nor an individual who was incapable of self defense. Jada didn't need his help for any reason, and the only "attack" was a joke at an event where stand up comics have always been mouthy and insulting, everyone knows that going in, and there is zero requirement to attend. They were grown adults. In the instance of these children, it was up to the grow up authority, school officials and employees, to get involved and prevent escalation in a situation in which state law requires children to attend public school if not home or privately schooled. The fact that every state has mandatory attendance laws means they are legally unresponsible for the physical safety of students. The victim is disabled making the situation even more fraught. This went beyond words, the victim was physically attacked and in danger, and another child intervened before it got a lot worse. She never would have been in the situation to do this IF the stupid school had done its job! She was making an attempt to see to it that her brother was not physically attacked again, an attack that since the bully was clearly on a path of escalation, could have been far worse next time. If I hear/see someone being cat called by a loud mouth jerk but nothing else is happening, I am disgusted by it. But it is words, and that is something from which the victim can walk away unharmed. However, if that same jerk gets up and goes and knocks her down, then the line to physical assault has been crossed, and the possibility of serious physical danger has increased exponentially. If I have the opportunity to knock his block off, or nail him in the genitals, I will do it before she gets hurt worse. If could sit on him and keep him pinned, then heck ya, he is waiting for police to come arrest his a$$. The school at this time should be rolling out a red carpet for Mr. And Mrs. Tiggy, prostrating themselves, and hoping they don't get sued.

Her children visit, but both of her children are adults. I don't think they were minors when she was placed there, however I am not certain.

Ouch! Peppers that aren't bell are getting very expensive here, and we have never had much of a variety either. So it is really frustrating to pay an outrageous price while having so little to choose from. At this point I can get bell peppers, mini bell peppers, and jalapenos. That is it. Sigh. I haven't priced limes. Lemons are $2.00 each. Does anyone have a dwarf lemon tree as a houseplant? I have seen them in nursery catalogs and wondered how many lemons they produce and if they are finicky to keep.

I am so sorry! I don't have much to offer. I have an extended family member who went in for residential treatment, originally thought to be temporary, but ended up being permanent. What I know is that my relative is treated very well, staff is highly trained and cares. She feels safer, better able to function. The outside world is just beyond her ability to handle. She also had limited visitation at the start, but now has fairly liberal visitation. The immediate family does receive a lot of advice from staff on how best to interact. The facility is not scary, actually quite nice, but I also do not think they keep anyone who is violent. I don't know much else. She is several states away, and we are not on the visitors list. In her situation, residential has been positive or that is at least what her husband and children have reported.

We are at about $5.00 per lb for chicken breast (there are 2.2 lbs in Kg so for our friends that is roughly $11), and similar cuts of meat except wings. I think that is because local producers are being hammered with bird flu. Eggs are up as well. Ground beef (Mince in other countries) is for really fatty stuff $5.00 per lb ($11 per Kg). Other cuts of beef are higher. A good cut of roast is north of $8 lb/$16-17 Kg. Produce is getting more expensive, and the supply is spotty, quality down. It seems like when it finally arrives at the supermarket it is already really old. I am doing a lot more with frozen veg and fruit. Milk is also only two days away from it's expiration when it arrives, and is not marked down.