This is kind of fascinating to me.. I've never heard of an adult sleeping with a stuffed animal! At the same time, I imagine it could be kind of nice. I did sleep with a giant stuffed animal dog into high school!

I'm so sorry, I had one once and it was horrible. I recently learned of this supplement that's supposed to be fairly good at breaking down kidney stones: Chanca Piedra. I don't know much about it at all, but maybe it's worth looking into?

I think something like this is all in the wording. So, "While you're staying in this room, you'll need to rotate the eggs." vs "I'm so sorry, but this is the room with the incubator which can't easily be moved. I hope you don't mind if we come in a couple times/day to rotate the eggs. Or if you'd prefer, you can certainly rotate them yourself and then we won't have to bother you with coming in!"

Here, the standard rule of thumb is that if teeth are impacted, it's done by an oral surgeon. If none are impacted, the dentist can do it. If an oral surgeon does it, you can usually choose between general anesthesia or local (they might give their recommendations). Three of our are kids had impacted teeth so went with the oral surgeon and GA; the fourth had no impacted teeth and had them removed right in our regular dentist's office with local. It went smoothly for all of them with the exception of one, who ended up getting dry socket which was very painful. We had thought about planning a trip a couple days after her surgery but decided not to. I'm glad we didn't!

I'm so sorry... I went through a similar loss just recently and it's hard. Personally, I would enjoy reading your dad's obituary as written! I like the humor, especially if you think it reflects your dad. We did write something about my mother... "XXX continued to be devoted to his wife XXX after a decline in health required her to move into a long-term care center. He spent most every afternoon by her side..." We didn't list dementia specifically because we didn't think our mother would have wanted that, but if you think your mom wouldn't mind, I don't have a problem with that. I think your sister was rude, but for family peace, I'd probably try and find a version that everyone is okay with. My siblings and I passed our dad's obituary back and forth between us and tweaked it several times and made compromises and eventually found a version that we all agreed on, even if not perfectly.

I usually don't get into hype about anything, but I would absolutely love to see a total eclipse someday, even if I have to travel. I understand thinking that all the hype and tourism that goes into this seems over the top, but I get it too. It's such a magnificent phenomenon -- daylight suddenly changing into darkness mid-day! and yet it's a totally explainable natural event. It kind of blows my mind. It reminds me of how great and mysterious the universe is and how small we are.

I sometimes use top sheets in place of fitted sheets. Or, folded in half, a top sheet can be used for a makeshift bed on a cot or sofa, or camping. I also use them to cover up things when I have a visiting pet who likes jumping on furniture. 🙂

I start out on my back but usually end up on my side, use two pillows but the top one is a Snuggle-Pedic, and keep a window open at least a crack (unless the AC is on, which is rare at night)... even when it's mid-winter. I generally sleep well.

I'm sorry. I'm praying for you and your whole family.

I have very dense breasts too, and have a mammogram plus a breast MRI every year, at least. If something suspicious is seen on the mammogram, they do an ultrasound next. The last time that happened (maybe 4 years ago), they were able to see on the ultrasound that what was seen on the mammogram was nothing, or at least nothing suspicious. I can't remember if they said it was nothing at all, or just old scar tissue from a past cyst, or what. But, this is a place that specializes in women with dense breasts and a family history of breast cancer, and I trust them. I've been seeing them for 20 years now! But yeah, sorry about the expense. Even though we've always had good insurance, preventative breast MRI's (even for someone considered at risk for breast cancer) have never been covered, and I've always felt badly to have to spend up to $2,000/year for that, esp. when our kids were young and money was much tighter. I think you could probably contact your doctor though and ask her that question. She'll probably say something such as sometimes mammograms pick up shadows but we can see on an ultrasound that it's really nothing. Or, it was a likely a cyst that's not there anymore. But just hearing her explanation would be helpful!

Someone at my church has recommended the book, Finding Darwin's God by Kenneth R. Miller. I have it but haven't read it yet, so I can't tell you anything about it. I'm looking forward to reading it one of these days!

The Dick Van Dyke Show MASH Star Trek (Next Gen) Favorite show as a kid: Bewitched 🙂

Yes, I'm pretty sure it was her!

I kind of remember someone who opened a nice restaurant in southern California that was doing well...

Another more recent one that seems to be missing is Quill. I'm sure some of you are in touch with her! Someone from about ten years ago who was very active was Sparkly Unicorn. I'm not sure what happened to her.