Anyone else watch? I think this was the best episode so far. Halley got some of the credit he deserved and I learned a lot about him I didn't know. My kids found the History of Fish stuff really funny. The galaxies colliding together at the end was amazing. It gave me chills.

I went to CTY Chemistry when I was in jr. high. I'll date myself by saying that we watched the Iran Contra hearings while waiting for lab experiments to complete! I learned a lot of chemistry. It was rigorous. We were there I think 6 hours/day and there were another 3-4 hours of homework. I enjoyed using a college chem lab and the better equipment. It was humbling as there were some really accomplished kids there. In retrospect, the humbling was good for me. :blush: I also made friends and kept in touch with them after the program. We're no longer in touch, but we were for many years. It was a struggle to get my parents to agree to pay for it, but I think it was worth the experience and they would agree. There were kids there from out of state who had obviously flown in and depending on the price of airfare, that might have put it over the top for what I got. Fortunately we were close enough to drive, which saved money and increased its value. ETA: I don't think I received any other benefit from the test scores except increased confidence for the PSAT and later the SAT. We had a separate test for GATE, I think.

I'm still trying to understand this. If it was a spy satellite, what's the secret? Isn't it assumed that these exist, are watching these areas (if not always, at least during this crisis), and that they have the capability to see something as large as 777 wreckage? And don't most countries with spy satellites (how many are there?) keep track of where they all are? I don't know anything about the topic and I know these are dumb questions. I just have heard this a lot wrt this incident and it doesn't make sense to me. Help? :blush:

I would just let it go. It's not like they are behaving differently or singling your kids out. They are just being who they always were. I would feel differently if they were normally active, outdoors types with lots of hobbies and activities who just plopped your kids in front of the TV. Besides, they raised you the same way and you are now very aware of media, so you never know. You turned out okay, right? :tongue_smilie:

We're in the Bay area and almost all winter we had a ridge of high pressure that sent Alaskan storms north. We're in a drought and they got a lot of rain. I also read that deforestation/logging had a lot to do with it. Maybe that's why it was larger than in the past? I think the 108 figure is accurate for those unaccounted for. Some might be traveling or something though. :crying:

We love it now but I started too young. DS didn't enjoy it until recently and he's almost 10. I'm glad I waited a couple of years and tried again. DD, who's 5 doesn't really like it but I'll try again with her later. So maybe put it away and try in a year or two. I'm glad I didn't give up.

They like to do the realtor tours on weekdays so the buyers' agents are prepared with their own clients for the weekend. They can see the place and then speak knowledgeably and schedule times with their clients or let the buyers know the open house times if they're going on their own. If you're wondering just drop a quick line to the realtor asking if he or she is setting up the tour or if they come on a standard day. It's not harassment to check about the marketing of your home. :)

Around here towns have sort of fallen into specific days for tours so the realtors can see all the new houses from one town on one day, another town the next, etc. We live in a densely populated area so it's almost a necessity due to the numbers of houses plus the driving and traffic. Our town's day is Tuesday. It's not official, just that if you hold a different day fewer realtors will come so everyone complies. Does your town have a day? No reason to worry yet unless you live in an area with extremely high demand.

Forgot to throw in music I've been listening to. Mostly it's been kd lang's Hyms of the 49th Parallel, which has a couple of wonderful Neil Young covers on it, plus Hallelujah. I just love her voice and control and could listen to it all day long. Also Simon and Garfunkel.

Go to the dollar store and get a bottle of Simply Awesome aka Totally Awesome. It works great and is cheap. I got a coffee stain out of light blue carpet just today. it' works well as a degreaser too. http://www.dollartree.com/20-oz-Totally-Awesome-Cleaner/p8056/index.pro Check the reviews. And it's only $1!

You know that saying about inviting people over if you want to get your house clean? Yeah, that's us. Our weekend has consisted of doing the stuff we don't get to enough like cleaning carpets and washing walls and windows. DS, who has some social problems, has 2 new kids over today! He met them at a birthday party for his best friend yesterday. This morning, even though his jealous best friend told him the new kids wouldn't want to play with him, he wandered the neighborhood, found their house, and invited them to play. They all went to the park and then came over for board games. DH hurried to the store to get snacks! Jealous friend came over and tried to lure the kids to his house but they said no. If you knew what we've been through, this is a big victory for us. Between the only friend treating him badly, him having the confidence to track these kids down on his own despite thinking the'd be mean, and having a get together, we're so excited! I know it may not seem like a big deal, but for him it is. :thumbup:

Coffee, another good person to talk to re:incorporation is regentrude. Send her a PM if she doesn't drop in on this thread.

Thanks for correcting me. My kids are young so when I said they were "full courses" I wasn't thinking of credits, just that they weren't samplers and they have some breadth. Oh, and I may have been overly excited. :w00t:

Oh no, why did I allow myself to Google this? :drool:

They are quality courses and are considered full-length. Wow! :hurray:

My parents were like this. In their defense they were from a "third world" country and my father came here on a Fulbright scholarship so he didn't realize the real cost of education in dollars, even at a time when it was much cheaper. Their vision of the US was a land of opportunity where anything could be done and money could be found (true compared to their native country) and they were surprised to find that was not the case. I remember my dad crying because I got into a prestigious school and he could not afford it. I really believe he thought the money would come with the admission, as it had for him.

Yes, really. Your use of "implying" instead of "stating" or "saying" or "posting" or "insisting" is...indicative. I'm either an idiot with minimal literacy skills or I'm in the wrong thread. Please help me out by quoting exactly where these things happened and spell them out for me, using the 3 points above. They are your own points, after all, so you should have some evidence upon which they rest. If multiquote is too much of pain, post numbers will suffice. I really don't see what you see. And it's not because I agree with Sheldon, either. We would probably not put our kids in public school, but like others here, I never say never. If I decided to put one kid in school, it would probably be public because I would still be home with the other and not working. If both went back to school, I would work and my salary would cover their tuition. I know from your other posts you have wished for private school but because it is too expensive you are homeschooling. I hope that situation is not coloring your responses here....

I also do not understand the animosity in this thread. As far as I can tell Sheldon was looking for other people in the same situation. Why then respond with all the reasons you are not in that situation? Who cares what the reasons are that a person will never use public school? Is it because they earned/won/inherited lots of money? Because their family runs an awesome private school where the kids could attend for free? Because the grandparents or aunts/uncles/friends would be willing to homeschool them? Because they have 7- or 8-figure insurance policies? Is there a monetary limit over which people would not harass them and finally agree with them? One million dollars? Ten million? What about my billionaire friend who's homeschooling? Does he get to say he would never use public school? If the answer is "yes" then there must be some dollar limit over which people think a person is allowed to have that opinion. How much is it, then? Just because people are asking to find others in the same boat doesn't mean they have to justify why they can afford to be in that situation. Otherwise we should declare open season on all the Disney threads. :001_rolleyes:

I think you're Muslim. If not, I apologize in advance... Inna lillah hi wa inna ilaihi rajioon. To Him we belong and to Him we shall return.

I'm happy we are not too far from an adventure playground, one of the few left. My kids love it there. I actually worry very little about my kids getting lost or talking to people or being abducted. My biggest worry is that they will be hit by a car. While cars are much safer for the occupants than they were a generation ago, people drive in a more self-absorbed manner. Add in cell phones and texting and I do feel it's more dangerous. I haven't researched pedestrian accident rates, but my guess would be that they are up. And if they are down, it could be because more kids are being driven places.

Bumping for you. Maybe try College Confidential?

I don't have any special memories per se, but Disneyland was a place where I got a lot of independence. My parents felt it was a safe place so it was this first place where we got to go off on our own and "meet them for lunch" or whatever. The times extended out until we would get dropped off and picked up, and when we got our licenses we would drive there. It made me feel very independent and was a nice experience to manage some money, plan my day, get help/directions from strangers, solve problems etc, while surrounded by people out to have a good time. Oh, and lots of security. :-)

I think you're over-worrying. Good tenants can be hard to find. The landlord will also have costs associated with marketing/spiffing up/etc and may rather keep you at current rent than spend money to replace you at a higher rent if it's a wash anyway. Unless he sells it in a completely quiet transaction sight unseen to the buyer, you'll know. Also even if someone buys it they may keep you there. Our tenants were in the building when we bought it and we just kept renting to them. Also I don't know about other states but in CA if you've lived there for as long as you have you're entitled to 60 days, even if the lease says 30.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/05/khan-academy-gets-major-partnership-to-close-rich-advantage-in-college-test-prep/

Just from Googling around for scrapbooking gifts: http://www.amazon.com/The-Scrapbook-Frankie-Pratt-Pictures/dp/0061966908/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395360334&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Scrapbook+of+Frankie+Pratt It's a novel written as a scrapbook. It looks pretty cool. You can look inside and see what you think.