Locating my keys and my phone are the bane of my existence. At least I can usually get my husband to call my phone, but there's nothing that can help when it comes to the keys.

I once discovered that my package included two right-side pieces but no left-side one. I had made an out-of-state trip to get a ton of stuff to furnish my new house before starting grad school. I just called the store, described the problem, and they promptly sent me a new part. Driving back to the store was not an option for me, and they were very nice and understanding.

Some of these things have been mentioned, but here are a few things I did to save money: --lunch reception (we wanted a full meal, since he had many guests who traveled from afar) --cupcakes and small cake to cut from local co-op grocery store. they had a great bakery, and it was significantly cheaper than wedding-specific options. I got some reasonably priced tiers from Wilton to arrange them. --print your own invitations from Target. Keep an eye on the clearance items--I see them there every few months. They're normally about $30-some for 50, but I have definitely seen them at 75% off (and if you can't get enough matching ones, your guests will never know that they didn't receive identical invitations). --got married the Saturday after Easter so the church was overflowing with lilies and other flowers --flowers from Costco (a friend had done bouquets and boutonierres for for her sister's wedding and still had all the supplies, so she did it for me as a wedding present) --photographer who was photo editor of the student newspaper at the local university--he did not charge much for his time, and we got CDs with all the pictures (pros often charge a lot for that) In my case, a local boutique hotel with a well-regarded restaurant was the best value. The food was much better than your average reception location, and the price was very reasonable for what we got. They also included a simple flower centerpiece, which meant one less thing I had to worry about. I found that cheap/free locations were often more expensive once I factored in catering costs and renting tables, chairs, linens, etc. It was important to DH and I that we have a nice meal, so the bulk of our budget went towards that, and we didn't bother with a lot of things like limousine/car, band, etc.

This has been my go-to recipe for years: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/super-sloppy-joes-recipe/index.html

I like this recipe for drumsticks: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/saras-secrets/oven-fried-chicken-thats-as-good-as-fried-recipe/index.html It calls for drumsticks and thighs, but I have made it with just drumsticks. It is a bit of a pain to remove the skins, but that helps cut down the greasiness--I find that using scissors makes it a bit easier for me.

Ticket to Ride Scattergories (sp?) Taboo

I like to wash and roast vegetables as soon as I get home from the store. That way, I have them for a few meals and they take up less room in the fridge. Sometimes I do different vegetables in different pans, and sometimes I mix them together.

Angels in the Outfield--the original is from the 1950s and there was a remake in the 90s.

Most of the libraries in our region use a single online catalog, so I usually don't scan the list of holdings to see if it's at my library. Our system keeps holds for ten days, so I make a trip once a week, since the library's not exactly down the street. No one ever seems to mind that I usually have a huge stack waiting for me.

My DH is 6'7" (and skinny), so I feel your pain. I have occasionally found good deals on jeans in his size at TJ Maxx & Marshall's (sometimes even on clearance)--I buy everything I can get my hands on if I see it in the store and just save them until he needs new ones. Once or twice, I've been lucky enough to find XL Tall sweaters and polo shirts on clearance at an Eddie Bauer outlet. Otherwise, I usually shop online to get things in Tall; besides the places you listed, I've been able to find clothes online at Gap and Eddie Bauer. At least men's pant sizes are based on actual measurements and there's less of an issue with vanity sizing, so that makes online shopping easier.

This is my go-to recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/saras-secrets/oven-fried-chicken-thats-as-good-as-fried-recipe/index.html It uses Melba toast for the coating, which gives it a nice crunch.

Brideshead Revisited (the miniseries with Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews from the 80s, not the movie version released a few years ago, which is dreadful) The Buccaneers--adaptation of an Edith Wharton novel (not a pirate movie) from the mid-90s Scarlet Pimpernel--I like the version with Jane Seymour and Anthony Andrews

I love ratatouille, but I'm the only one who eats it, and my recipe makes a ton. So once I start to get tired of it, I puree all that's left and freeze in smaller portions. I add it to tomato sauce, and no one has any idea that I've added eggplant, zucchini, etc. Personally, I find that it gives the sauce a nice depth, but you really can't taste the veggies (even when I'm lazy and just add it to the store-bought stuff).

DH and I love our Stearns and Foster. He needs a firm mattress for his back, and I usually dislike firm ones, but this mattress is somehow firm without making it feel like you're sleeping on a board. Their softer mattresses felt heavenly at the furniture store, though, and if it were just me, that's what I would have gotten. Any time we're sleeping at a hotel or someone else's house, we always comment that we can't wait to get back to our Stearns and Foster. It was pricier than Sealy and Serta mattress we looked at, but it also made the other mattresses feel like junk, so it was worth it to us.

The teal bathroom jumped out at me, too--mainly because of the fuzzy toilet seat cover. People seem to either love or hate toilet covers/mats, so it might be better to remove it. The color combo seemed okay to me, though, minus the cover. Maybe make the bed in the boy's room a bit more inviting, so that it's more like the other beds in the house?

Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians (Jeffrey Agrell) The author has also written Improv Games for One, but I've never looked at it.

I had local anaesthesia for one and general for the other three (done all at once and two were impacted). For the local, I either didn't get enough anaesthesia or it hadn't taken effect when the dentist went to pull the tooth out. Needless to say, it hurt dreadfully, and I shrieked so loudly that I'm sure that it was heard in the waiting room. So I got another shot and was told to raise my hand (?!?!) if it hurt. I'm sure I'm a freak case, but I had a much better experience with the general.

While I don't like the look of most press teapots, I love that my second (and third) cup aren't overly bitter. Also, you don't need to use a strainer when pouring the tea because the leaves stay in the pot. I just wish the teapots were prettier!

From last Nov/Dec's Cooks Illustrated: Bread Stuffing with Fresh Herbs 2 lb hearty white sandwich bread, cut into 0.5 inch cubes (~16 cups) 3 lb turkey wings, divided at joints 2 tsp vegetable oil 6 tbsp butter, plus extra for baking dish 1 large onion, chopped fine (~1.5 c) 3 celery ribs, chopped fine (~1.5 c) 2 tsp table salt 2 tbsp minced fresh thyme 2 tbsp minced fresh sage 1 tsp ground black pepper 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley 2.5 c low-sodium chicken broth 3 large eggs --Spread bread onto two baking sheets and bake at 250 until edges have dried, stirring several times during baking. Transfer to bowl and turn up oven to 375 --Use tip of paring knife to poke 10-15 holes in each wing segment. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over med-high heat until it begins to shimmer. Add wings in single layer and cook 4-6 minutes each side (until golden brown). Transfer wings to a bowl and set aside --Return skillet to med-high heat, add butter. When foaming subsides, add onion, celery, and 0.5 tsp salt. Cook 7-9 minutes stirring occasionally until softened but not browned. Add thyme, sage, and pepper; cook until fragrant, about 30 sec. Add 1 c. broth and bring to simmer, using wooden spoon to scrape browned bits from bottom of pan. Add vegetable mixture to bowl with dried bread cubes. --Grease 13 by 9 dish with butter. In a med. bowl whisk eggs, 1.5 c broth, 1.5 tsp salt, and any juices from the wings until combined. Add egg/broth mixture and parsley to bread mixture and toss gently to combine; transfer to baking dish. Arrange wings on top of stuffing, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and place baking dish on rimmed baking sheet. --Bake on lower-middle rack until thickest part of wings registers 175 degrees, 60-75 minutes. Remove foil and transfer wings to plate to reserve for another use. Using fork, gently fluff stuffing. Let rest 5 min. before serving. (My family likes a lot of celery and onion, so my only change is to add quite a bit more of those two ingredients. It reheats pretty well, although I think that it's best right away. Since finding this recipe, I've also occasionally served it for regular dinners with cranberry sauce and a vegetable, and we just eat the meat from the wings.) This is actually one of the variations; the other two are Bread Stuffing with Sausage, Dried Cherries, and Pecans and Bread Stuffing with Leeks, Bacon, and Apple. For the first, use 1 lb bulk sausage and brown it in the skillet after browning the wings. Transfer to paper towel-lined dish and set aside. Then reduce butter to 4 tbsp and add to rendered fat. Omit parsley and stir in 1 c. dried cherries and 1 c. toasted and finely chopped pecans with the broth egg mixture. For the second, sub 0.75 lb bacon (cut into 0.5-inch pieces) for sausage and cook until crisp. Like sausage, set aside on paper-towel lined plate. Pour off all but 2 tbsp fat, then add 4 tbsp butter and continue with recipe, substituting 2 leeks (white & light green parts sliced thin) for the onion, 3 granny smith apples (peeled and cut into 0.25 inch dice) for the cherries, and omitting pecans. The recipe also gives the alternative of using 2 lb chicken wings (increase broth to 3 cups, reduce butter to 2 tbsp, cook stuffing for only 60 minutes), but I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as using the turkey wings. Not worth the time, in my opinion.

My family loves stuffing, and I have to make extra on the side because the turkey can never hold enough. Last year, I finally found a recipe from Cooks Illustrated magazine that makes the stuffing taste as though it were baked in the bird. The trick is to cover the top of the stuffing with turkey wings that have been poked full of holes and browned. Cover the whole thing to bake, and the drippings from the wings make a huge difference compared to baking with stock alone. I can dig out the actual recipe if anyone wants it

My DS turned two at the end of September. DH and I just figured that he was a late talker, but we brought it up at his two-year check up, and the pediatrician referred us to early intervention. He doesn't seem to have any problems understanding what people say--if asked, he'll point to things, retrieve things, do whatever you request, etc. Since he spends a lot of time with my parents, he also understands their native language (I am fluent, too, but at about the level of a first or second grader). But when it comes to speaking, he only has a handful of words in each language that are clearly pronounced (I'm not counting words that we understand but would be unintelligible to an outsider). He can also make a number of animal sounds. He often doesn't vocalize words when imitating us; they tend to be whispered. His babbling is vocalized, though. He is not able to say simple two or three word sentences. I haven't tried signing because I wonder if it will delay his talking more. We had a screening evaluation with the early intervention coordinator, who has referred us for a formal evaluation by a speech therapist (scheduled for the end of the month). I guess I wonder if I should have seen this as a problem earlier--we knew that he was late, but we figured that it was still in the acceptable range. And is it still likely that he'll catch up in his own time? I've read conflicting things about whether learning two languages might delay speech, so I"m not sure if he's late because of the two languages or because of other issues. Any wisdom from the hive would be very much appreciated!

Hellman's Light

I'd definitely would (and have) asked priests to clarify things. However, I have also known priests who willfully say or do things contrary to what the Church teaches, and I wouldn't necessarily trust what they would say. This was an issue for me in the previous diocese where I lived (though I hear that things are slowly changing due to the installation of a new bishop a few years ago). Personally, I think it's a good thing that lay people can be more familiar with canon law and I love that I can easily access encyclicals and other church documents. But, yes, one should be wary of self-proclaimed "experts" :)

No. Canon 1253 -- It is for the conference of bishops to determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence and to substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.

Universally, canon law does stipulate abstinence from meat. There can be modifications determined by the Episcopal Conferences, such as the USCCB's, which is: "Every person 14 years of age or older must abstain from meat (and items made with meat) on all other Fridays of the year, unless he or she substitutes some other form of penance for abstinence." Off topic from your original point, the bishops in England and Wales have returned to no-meat Fridays, with one of the reasons being that "pick your penance" resulted in abandoning Friday penance altogether.