I just looked up the percentage of smokers in my area and was shoked to see that it is 18 percent. Very few people that I regularly interact with in person smoke. Like 2. And I by regularly I mean that I am likely to see them at least 3-6 times per year. It just isn't seen much in my family, church, homeschool, and martial arts circles.

I am not surprised that the othering had already started by the second post on this good news thread.

Yes. My daughter who is at college now has done martial arts for years. She is a big girl and she could kill someone (physically but I am not sure about being able to actually take a life) with the titanium tipped pen she carries, but always, always, always the first defense steps are be aware of your surroundings and get away if there is trouble. Don't fight; run.

The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb.

Aiden jeans at The Buckle. They are expensive, but they have jeans that fit slender builds.

Edited to remove information about my kids.

Your ignorance is showing.

I looked for a picture but don't have one. The news about my niece made everything else seem unimportant, you know? But Dh was very uncomfortable. The bites covered that area pretty thoroughly, even with me picking the mites off of him. My niece has made a lot of improvements. She has a good prognosis for someone who had a tennis ball sized tumor. And we thank God for her neurosurgeon who did an amazing job. She isn't back to normal yet, but we have hope that she will get most of the way there in time.

My husband got hundreds of them on his feet/ankles/calves the same day my niece had a seizure last fall. This spring we were thinking she might heal from back to back brain surgeries faster than those bites would fully heal. The bites did finally clear up and my niece is unfortunately still healing. Several years ago my youngest had about 50 bites. I took her to the doctor. She got an antibiotic and was better in a couple days. If we had realized she only got over it that fast because of the antibiotics, I would have taken my husband in, too.

Yup, infuriated. I am not surprised that some people support this rhetoric, but I find it very troubling. Disclaimer: I am fully vaxxed.

Do you feel that the rate people pay for medical care should be a reflection of their lifestyle choices in general?

As long as she likes my kids.

No, I can't picture myself married to anyone else.

Spy Car is quite capable of defending himself. 🤣 And what is with the gatekeeping? I've noticed it fairly often recently. But, of course, new posters who post the "right" things don't get admonished. (I've been here over a decade, although I don't post that often.)

In the 20 counties that make up our region (the only place I know to look for statistics on it), there are a total of 9 people with Covid in the hospitals. I don't know if all of them are in because of Covid. They used to maintain a website with that information, but when cases got lower they stopped.

A county near me has a 13% positivity rate - and two positive cases in the past 7 days. I don't find the percent positive to be a meaningful statistic in that scenario.

I don't believe I used the word control? Having a say means that if her spending crosses a line I have a right to discuss it with her in a way I wouldn't if she were self-supporting.

My Dd18 is not a big spender, but I absolutely have a say over her spending. And will until we are no longer supporting her. Money can only be spent once and every dollar that we spend on her is a dollar we can't spend on her minor siblings. We are happy to help pay for college and car insurance and sometimes gas. She can use some of the money she earns for fun, but a moderate amount.

My Dh and I are your parents. He is just so easy going. We have a situation going on in our family that is frankly pretty heartbreaking for both of us, but I am the one dealing with it all. He is so laid back that he thinks it is going to all work out in the end. If it does work out, it will be by the Grace of God and a lot of hard work from me. That is pretty indicative of how we handle both conflict and child raising.

I keep trying to type a response while playing cards with my family, but I get lost and have to start over. I'll probably say this badly by being brief, but... Virtually no one is concerned about transmen joining men's sports or using men's spaces, except the natural concern for the transmen. That is because transmen are not a danger to men and they aren't going to dominate men's sports. This isn't about transphobia for the majority of people. It really isn't.

Have you read The Gulag Archipelago? I read it for the first time recently.

You'd have to be extra committed to have that many books in NYC.

Kids have their own books in their rooms. My nicest books are in the living room upstairs. Bibles and some devotional books are in a small bookcase in the dining room. I have a small bookcase in my closet, because I have more books than clothes. Lol Yes, I have more than 5,000 books. I also have games, but they are stored separately.

To the left behind the couch: School books and large history non-fiction picture books organized by subject. Far wall: Unit to the left is mysteries. The rest is mostly fiction organized by author's last name. Several shelves have series. Two shelves have easy readers. To the right: It's complicated. Lol Biographies on the far unit. Next unit has biographies but also a couple shelves of pretty books. Under the tv are children's books. The next unit has children's books. It also has a holiday shelf. The next unit has science books. The next has more school books - ones for the current year. Also a Tolkien shelf and a foreign language shelf. The last unit is mostly for my books - teaching, health, and non-fiction books that I particularly want to read.

From what I have seen online (namely SEA), it is definitely frowned upon.