There is a comic book and antique store in West Branch, MI that has a very big collection. I don't know if they would be interested in buying all of it, but it might be worth asking. West Branch Comics and Antiques - 989-726-5015 A&A Comic Book Store Lansing - 517-303-3445 The Shire Comics, Commerce - 248-895-8037 They are actively advertising that they are buying comics. I am so sorry about your brother. Hugs

Have any of you seen the movie, "Mona Lisa Smile"? The propaganda from those looking to restrict women to a Leave it to Beaver type nostalgia reminds me of the scenes from the movie in which the instructors of Vassar College tried to prep the students for their inevitable marriage outcome in which they have to be perfect 24/7 without ambition or aspiration, making everything just perfect for their perfect, pipe smoking, successful, future politician/rich/business husbands going so far as to not require class attendance nor test taking or homework if they married prior to graduation so that they could set up house and make things all nice nice for their perfect husbands. If you haven't seen it and have HBO MAX streaming, I think it is available on that platform. It is exactly the kind of thing that Prairiewindmomma and others are alluding to, and it is kind of thought provoking. We haven't had the right to vote, to own property, to have bank accounts and investments, an ability to live as adults with autonomy and non-dependency upon men for very long. There is, I believe, a movement within some conservative, religious elements to erode those rights until the accepted narrative for women is Mona Lisa Smile or worse. In the instance of this speech, I think the entire thing, not just her voice, is the issue. There is so much subtext with the speech, the setting, the slant, mannerisms...

My.eyes.are.bleeding.

Navymom, your instincts are screaming at you that being involved is bad for you and your family. You didn't want financial POA and got goaded into it. Do not agree to the loan, and rescind your POA. You didn't know want to be pulled in, and now they are trying to do that. NO, stoutly given, is a full sentence, and that is ALL the attorney, your parents, and anyone else needs to hear. Once you tell them you are no longer willing to be POA. Do whatever has to be done in your state to be removed from that, and then ignore communications from your dad and the attorney. If they can't draw you into communications, they can't manipulate you. Put your mental health and your family's future ahead whatever this mess is they are trying to draw you into.

I would not do that. States are going after people who help hide parental assets and income from medicaid. This close to the application time, and it could very well be problematic. You want to keep your financials entirely separate of your parents and let the chips fall where they may.

Nm

That makes sense. I thought she was recovering in one of their not in London castle/palace/houses. I can totally Ser things being green in London. I sure wish that they didn't need to make any kind of statements or release photos or anything.

I am now up to 1 bell pepper, 8 lettuce, 2 sugar snap peas, and 2 broccoli having sprouted. Onwards and upwards. I am making sure that the grow lights are on my new seedlings for 8 hrs a day or a little more just to make sure they don't get leggy. Of course they are still very small. Fingers crossed for more new babies tomorrow!

Okay, this new revelation is just bizarre to me! My impression of the British royal family, admittedly from the perspective of being American, is that they basically can't even admit to sneezing without a script. (Obviously an exaggeration but you get my point.) But it was so all fired important to release a Mother's Day photo that the bright idea was to have an amateur alter a photograph and release it? What? This makes no sense. If it was so ridiculously important to release a holiday photo and show her off as being healthy, then why didn't they bring in a photographer, prop her up on some couch cushions, set the kids around her, and everyone say "cheese"? Seriously, even Prince William could have done a better point and shoot candid photo and averted this crazy mess. I just don't get it. It seems like if ending speculation was the objective, this made it worse and was an easily foreseen outcome. And they are letting her take the wrap which I also find odd. One would think that to preserve family dignity, they would have found a staff flunky to make the fall guy. Isn't that normally how it is done? Oh well. I really wish that they didn't feel ANY pressure to release information, photos, anything. Good grief. She had surgery, and anyone with a brain knows that a two week hospitalization and a pre-emptive " She is going to be out of commission for 2-3 months " statement means it was serious, and she needs time to recover. Even my niece needed 6-8 weeks to be recovered from her very infected gall bladder removal. It seems insane to me that there was any need to release a statement or a photo.

AI and Photoshop can produce some really bad photos. As much as they have all been photographed, one would think the family would have had something better to release that hadn't been published before. I get that the rag mags are always speculating about her. But they had announced she would be out of commission until Easter which is only 20 days away. Seems like releasing any photo wasn't actually necessary. I just don't get it. Wouldn't a statement like "Hey everyone, Princess Katherine is recovering nicely, and following her doctor's orders. She will follow best medical practice, and will return to public appearances only when it is deemed best. Thanks for your concern" have been a better option than a weird photo? As for altered photos with both Photoshop and AI, it is becoming pretty serious. It is very possible to utterly fake embarrassing and damning photos, and of course as a general rule, it is on the victim to prove the photos are faked. Even video as well. It is pretty scary in the grand scheme of things. From what Mark has said about the technology, it would be pretty easy to destroy people's lives because the tech is now so good.

There is something off with the photo. Louis has finger crossed, but not in the usual way of middle finger over index, and the pointer finger on that hand actually looks like the finger is amputated at the first joint. George is leaning forward with his arms around his mum, but her head is not impacted by the force of his body leaning forward. The princess is not wearing her wedding ring which seems very unusual if the point of releasing the photo is to assure the public that everything is well with the family. It appears that from the lush grass and tree leaves, the photo was taken last spring or early autumn. I don't really follow royal news, but I have been following some of the issues with AI generated photos, and the personal woes it is causing for a lot of people. So this ended up on my radar. And of course, it might not be manipulated. I don't know that any experts have weighed in on it. I do think it is sad that the family is just not left alone. This could just be another source of frustration and pain.

Hmmmm.....I think Pecan pie might be in order.

I wish I knew! Lake Michigan - red flags, waves 10-12 ft high, riptide warnings everywhere with don't swim on the sign, people still go out and drown. Lake Huron, Port Austin - Don't kayak, sail, motorboat, swim Shipwreck point - signs everywhere, big warnings, red flags, capital letters. So what does a dingdong set of parents from the burbs of Detroit do, people who have NEVER kayked before in their lives? Decide to kayak the point at sunset for the view with two kids in tow. Damn lucky to be alive. A fishing trawler saw them and called the sheriff whose water crew rescued them. They had capsized and were in the water for 2 hrs at that point. Thankfully the kids had life vests on. I doubt they would be alive to tell the tale otherwise. Lake Huron, Saginaw Bay - State Police, Coast Guard, DNR, and Sheriff warnings that the ice is thing, don't go out there. All over the news, the radio, and signs at the state parks. What does an ice fishing idiot do? Drives his pickup truck out on the ice, goes through, and drowns. Just the other day, Rocky Mountain National Park- Stay away from wildlife. Darwin Award Seeker decides to try to pet a moose and her calf, narrowly escapes the much deserved goring. I will never get it. I actually think it is related to disrespect for authority. How dare anyone tell me I shouldn't do x, y, z. That's my working theory anyway.

Nm

NM

That sounds like a crazy maker! Our ground is at 44F, needs to be 50 in order to put rhubarb plants out. Our plants are very very old and not producing so I want to buy 2 new ones and get them in before we leave for the wedding on the 28th. I have row cover so if there is a chance of deep enough cold to injury them, my mom can cover them. But still too cold. I have some old windows with really nice wood frame, and am considering covering that patch of ground in windows to help it heat up. The downside is that it is in an area that could get falling tree branches if we had high winds, and we have had terrible bouts of high wind very regularly. Just nutty. The best laid plans of mice and men..... I hope things get better very quickly so you can get your plants out. This afternoon, a lettuce sprout popped up. I have been feeling very self satisfied. 🤣

Michigan has some ordinances for tiny homes such as must meet all building codes for homes, and be no smaller than 250 square feet for two people, 450 square feet for a family of four. They allow local zoning boards to govern whether or not and under what circumstances they are allowed. They are called ADU's, accessory dwelling units, and currently are allowed in Kalamazoo, Lansing. Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Dearborn, Traverse City, and Briley Township. Our township does not specifically disallow them, but also has enough zoning in place as to what constitutes an allowed dwelling vs a shed, and where you can put them and what you can do with them, that it would be quite difficult to have one and let someone live in it. A lot of this is because they have had some very bad experiences with farmers using migrant workers and putting 10 people in small sheds for housing with one porta potty for 30 or more people leading to folks toileting in the fields and ditches. They had to tackle that issue big time which made the farmers mad, and so if they started letting people live in ADU's without meeting all the permanent dwelling building codes, there would be a pretty big backlash.

I have a broccoli seed that has sprouted! 💃💃💃💃💃

We have been to many weddings, and nearly every single favor was a flop/waste of money. If something must be given, I am a fan of a small tulle bag of candy kisses or M&M's. That said we have ONE favor we use. It was from a niece's wedding which had a very laid back reception - pizza buffet - and they gave out pizza cutters. It is a decent cutter, and was a little better than the one we had so we kept hers, and took ours to goodwill with a load of stuff. Mark would use a tea ball and loose leaf tea. But I think that would be expensive.

Our tail veil (the tent that attaches to our mini-van camper) is light blue. Very nice. It shows the dirt a lot more than a dark color, but I am okay with that.

This. Also, there is a lot of history to this relationship, very negative, control issues in SO many areas with this mother. So this particular issue is just one of a big pile which makes capitulation unwise since it opens the door to more very unreasonable demands, and abusive control attempts done the road. It took a while to train my brother and his wife, several years. It was absolutely worth the very strong boundaries -to outsiders it looked harsh - we put in place. It has been worth it because our stress levels dropped off a cliff. He has zero boundaries with his wife, and she is just a truly awful person to allow to have an inch of real estate in your head/life. So I get why this a big deal even if it doesn't seem like it on the face of it.

According to Pew Trust, as of 2022, 1/4th of all single family residences are owned by investment companies.

Listen to Rosie. She is very wise. Go on with your plan. She doesn't get to dictate to you which is what she wants. Continue on. If she doesn't accept your phone calls because it isn't in her plan, that is on her. I would actually make a point of NOT calling on Sunday evenings. She doesn't get to steam roll you.

I think this sounds good. Don't seek love, just seek a social group. Once you have been living and working in the area for a while and expanding your socializing, you might meet someone more organically.

These are all excellent points. That last one is the one I am going to speak to that folks from other countries may not be aware that we have a LOT of zoning restrictions that pertain to it. In a high percentage of municipalities, homes are zoned as single family residences. This means that another family cannot live with mom and dad or grandma and grandpa. Our area, one that is known for having a low number of restrictions, is one. When our adult college kids lived here, that was not an issue that the zoning board balked at. No one complained. However, if our Dd and sil came to stay with our grandsons, we would be violating the single family residence restriction, and the township, if it found out, would issue a 30 day eviction notice to them, and a large fine to us. They can visit for sure. Families can visit one another. They can't live together under the ordinance. This is very common. The US is not set up for multi-generational homes. When my parents lived with my grandmother long term until she could no longer stay in the home, they were in violation of the ordinance. The board chose not to do anything about it, and kind of looked at grandma as their "dependent", but they could have actually evicted granny. Sometimes this stuff gets overlooked, people just don't report and mind heir own business. But in neighborhoods with HOA's and busy bodies who go around snooping to see who is violating zoning ordinances, you can bet it is an issue. On top of this, many states will reduce or take away benefits to an elder if other adults live with them. Such is the case for one of our honorary daughters. Her mom is disabled from a major stroke. She and hubby want to live with mama because it would be so much easier to supervise her care if they could, and sharing expenses would be a real financial boon to both mom, and the young couple. But if they move in with her, their income counts against her, and she loses a whole bunch of vital services/safety net which she desperately needs. So they can't live with her. It is literally the dumbest thing, just stupid. And actually, the state would save money because with them sharing expenses and living there, she wouldn't need as many hours of in home health/CNA and housekeeping services. It kind of staggers the imagination, the level of stupid in our bureaucracy! So we could have dd, sil, and grandsons here for say a long visit...30 days. But if they were discovered here for longer, we could be in trouble with the zoning board. Here is the dumb thing. Since there are no restrictions against rental income, if we declared part of our home to be a rental and charged them, then they could be here as long as they wanted. A guy down the road bought a house with five acres, and put a cottage on it for his mother in law. She is very, very poor. He has to show he is charging her some sort of rent (probably on paper, I can't imagine he actually collects money from her) in order for the township to allow her to live in it. He didn't think about the consequences of not subdividing the land so that the cottage sat on its own property therefore becoming an independent, single family residence. Also, home owner's insurance in my county goes up considerably if you allow another family to live with you. Even though your home is set up as a single family residence, having another family automatically makes it a multifamily building. You can get away with not informing your insurance of the situation. That works. So long as nothing happens. But if you have a fire, tornado, etc. and make a claim and they discover the truth, you are in policy violation, and they do not have to cover any of the loss. It seems like a single young adult is still considered acceptable. They don't squawk about college kids, young adults getting launched, even an adult who never launches. But if that person moves a s/o or spouse in, or has kids, it becomes an issue in the long term. Given what GenZ and Alpha face for housing crisis, we need some serious rethinking of zoning ordinances, housing laws, and cultural biases in order to make multi-generational homes a possibility in every township.