One of my kids' middle names is the name of an aunt of mine who died. At some point after the kid was born and named, I ended up with a horrible boss with the same name. Aunt or not, I'm not sure I could have gotten past that association if I'd met the boss first.

Laurel - The Columbia disaster happened while I was pregnant with my oldest, and this was the name of one of the astronauts. I was drawn to the name, and it seemed a nice tribute. But DH didn't like it. Anneliese - Also considered this with my oldest, for family reasons (it's not a family name, but similar), and it might have happened, but he ended up being a boy. Then my cousin named her kid that - came up with it totally independently, for the same reason I did - so it was off the table. Erik - this was the boy name we had picked for my younger two, who ended up being girls. In fact, we didn't even decide on a girl name until after the youngest was born and turned out to be a girl (she didn't cooperate on the ultrasound).

My last name has a combo of consonants not normally seen in English, including two that sound similar to other letters. I spell it out phonetically every single time.

Maybe a combo? It seems to be a common complaint for this age group. My 19 year old is similar (and it's getting darn frustrating). My 16 year old seems to be quite the opposite, though. So I don't think it's totally generational, or caused by our parenting choices. I only ever use them to clarify soundalike letters such as B vs. V, and even then, I'm more likely to use whatever word pops into my mind rather than the standard phonetic alphabet. I even have it memorized - as a child we had placemats with the phonetic alphabet, and I spent a lot of mealtimes reading it, and have my own little alphabet song for them. I just don't think to use them when it is actually relevant.

I use an epilator, though I imagine that might have the same issue as far causing break outs. I get the occasional spot, but not enough to stop using it. I feel that eating low carb has made a difference in this for me, but am a little hesitant about suggesting it, as I do not know if it would help the same for the normal and expected physiological changes of perimenopause as it would for hair from hormonal imbalances. I use the epilator mostly to deal with heavy peach fuzz hair growth, which just seems to be a genetic thing. In addition, since at least my early 20s, I've gotten the occasional long, thick hair. I don't seem to get these long hairs anymore, even on my neck, where I used to get them and don't epilate, so it's not just that the epilator is catching them. I am pretty sure I am in perimenopause myself now, and still don't get them like I used to. If laser worked well, home IPL is likely to be effective for maintenance.

This is my view, too. Sugar is objectively harmful. Artificial sweeteners are not known to be harmless. I really do not think that having an *occasional* soda, diet or regular, is going to have a significant negative health effect, but I don't feel I can drink it like water without potential adverse effects, as many people do. I experience compulsive eating issues with sugar, and carbs in general. Not so much with artificial sweeteners - I can eat a reasonable serving and be good with that. Therefore, I feel that, in the balance, using artificial sweeteners in extreme moderation is probably the better option for me than using sugar, even if neither is 100% ideal. I prefer monk fruit and erythritol, but have stopped using them on a daily basis since the link to increased stroke risk with erythritol came out. I was using a spoonful or two a day in my coffee/tea, but I'm realistically just about as happy without.

Wouldn't even looking over a brief summary of the book clarify this? Usually such books would include some sort of information on what subjects they cover, since "disabilities" is a broad topic, and advice aimed at someone with physical disabilities would be vastly different from that aimed at someone with sensory issues, for example. While I have seen people use language that is at least disability-adjacent to talk about LGBTQ+ people (including themselves), I have never seen someone self-aware enough to be writing a queer sex book use it in that sense. In addition to what has already been said, which I agree with, there are well known health disparities between the LGBTQ+ population and the general population. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5478215/ provides a good overview of the subject (while this particular article is focused on youth, similar issue do apply throughout the lifespan). Given that, it is reasonable to think that there may be higher levels of disability in the LGBTQ+ population.

Oh, herding! When I was in labor with my youngest, I thought I'd walk around our pasture to help labor progress. But the goats weren't having any of that - they kept herding me back to safety.

I slept for five months on a mattress that was too hard for me, and gave me shoulder and hip pain, because it was a perfectly good brand new mattress that I couldn't justify replacing. Finally bought a mattress topper, and definitely kicked myself for not doing so sooner.

If you like Hakim's History of US in general, there is a 4 volume "concise" edition which might be a better fit if the length is overwhelming.

My first dog... my husband had brought home a rottweiler puppy without consulting me first. I was really less than thrilled with the whole idea. When she was 6 months old or so - reasonable size, but still young, and not full grown - I took her for a walk. We came across another dog. She was friendly with the other dog... but I noticed that the whole encounter, she kept herself positioned between me and the other dog. I forgave him for getting her.

This is largely how I look at it. At one point, I was a stay at home parent. I spent a lot of time planning, piecing together curriculum, and teaching. Now, I'm a single parent working full time. My kids use a computerized curriculum for their spine, which they can do mostly independently. Not so I can totally ignore them and be uninvolved, but so that I can be sure the basics are covered and we can spend our time when I'm not working focusing on areas where they are having trouble, interests, and enrichment, rather than the day to day of trying to get them to do their math. I also use a lot more canned food, frozen veggies, and so forth in my cooking than I ever did previously. But they get a home-cooked dinner Every. Single. Night. Just with less time spent on the chopping. For those interested in the drama... apparently Power Homeschool has agreed to reinstate progress for the affected students and allow them to get their records and complete their courses, but tutor mode will not be available for enrollment going forward. They are blaming the parents involved, saying that this change was announced a year ago, which the parents say is not true.

I agree with you. This is an offensive assumption. I'm an experienced homeschooler and long-time forum member who is currently using Miacademy, which is often lumped into the same category as Power Homeschool. I came on over here today to find out what exactly the Power Homeschool drama was all about, since I knew someone here would have the scoop. The drama has been alluded to in the FB group I'm in, which is being flooded with new families jumping ship from PH, but people are referring to it very vaguely, with no details. We've done it other ways in the past, but this is a tool that is working for us at this point in our lives. And I agree - the most important point in this is that people lost access to a resource they had paid for, and were relying on for legal compliance, with no advanced notice, regardless of their reason for choosing it. You can always switch curriculum mid-stream, but losing the documentation is much harder to recover from, and could potentially get people in a lot of hot water.

I've been overwhelmed by my taxes this year and procrastinating, but saw some recommendations for this and gave it a try last night. I feel like it does a great job of asking clear questions to make the right choices, and would be a good choice for someone new to doing taxes (having not actually done my own in 20 years, when I was single, childless, and used the 1040EZ, this was basically me). Just make sure he's aware that there's a lot of options for situations that won't apply to him, and it's ok to skip over those. Filing federal is free (I believe without income or other limitations, as there are on other sites), state costs $15 (I don't know if this varies by state). They do attempt to upsell with things like audit defense. Again, just be sure he knows it isn't something he needs.

It's just DD3 and me at home right now. I bought frozen Marie Callender's beef pot pies for dinner, and little personal fruit pies, and we'll watch some sort of "Pi for Kids" video on YouTube. I got peach, cherry, and apple (because DS might possibly be home for dinnertime and I didn't want him to be left out), and will let her choose two of those for us to split.

I admit, I ordinarily pay minimal attention to financial news. However, I'm one of the people who didn't get paid last Friday because of the SVB failure. I'm fine - both my company and the payroll company addressed it admirably quickly, and even if they hadn't, I'm not living paycheck to paycheck. But hitting so close to home, it was a bit of a wakeup call to reconsider how I'm managing my finances. Currently all my money is in one bank. While the balance is well below $250,000, something that even temporarily interfered with access to it, whether it was something widespread like a bank failure, or more personal like an account security breach, could be a major problem. Also, as far as savings go, there are banks offering much better interest rates. Therefore, I'll likely be pulling money out of my current bank and putting it in one or more other banks in the near future. Eventually, I will likely be transferring most of the money from that bank to others, but am considering doing so gradually in order to avoid contributing to a bank run. However, I'm not intending to go pull my money out of banks entirely and hoard cash or anything like that.

Ok, I'll need you to PM me your email address.

Ok, I got a Versa for Mother's Day, so I'm back on the Fitbit wagon! I can add people to the group again if anyone wants.

A lot of William Sleator's books would fit. Madeleine L'Engle has a lot of fantastical elements, but tends to have science (though not exactly current science) mixed in as well.

I had pins put in my finger to stabilize the bone after I broke it. When they pulled them, they stuck them in a container and gave them to me. I've still got them floating around my room somewhere.

...and then you give them to the kids when they grow up. "Here's your baby teeth! You were one odd baby. We had to stop nursing early." I didn't keep my kids' teeth. I do feel a bit guilty about it, but what in the world do you do with them other than hide them away in a drawer?

Thank you. I've told them to PM you (just on the off chance they don't want me giving out their email).

Farrar - I think the fact that you ALWAYS post exactly what I'm thinking, regardless of the subject, is clearly witchcraft.

So someone just requested to be added to the group, and I found that I can no longer invite people because I don't currently own a fitbit. Nor can I see any way to modify group ownership. Can other members add people? Does anyone else want to take over invitations? Or is no one paying attention anymore and it needs to just die?

Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist in 1998. It was for a college class.