Missed Chuck at 8:00 because of swimming lessons. (Waaah!) I think there's another one on in about 10 minutes!

1850's Early American house, added to in 1920's. We put a second addition on about 3 years ago. We love the big rooms. Has many of the challenges others have already mentioned - esp. lack of closet/storage space. Did anyone mention never having a square corner? The kids' rolling toys had to be parked strategically in some rooms to keep from rolling all over the place. We've had to do alot of work just undoing "stupid" or careless things done by a previous owner. And nothing is ever a simple fix. We replaced the light fixture in the front hallway. No problem, right? Take down the old and mount the new to the workbox. No workbox - just a wire sticking out of the ceiling. Ok, install a workbox. Plaster lathe ceiling. In pretty bad shape. The 20-minute job turned into about a week of work. My advice? I love my old house. But you either need to be very handy and patient, or have enough money to hire someone who is to keep up with it!

Aaaaaahhhhh....The Overmind........... Now we know............ (I don't know if it's the new forum or what, but compared to the old boards, I'm positively chatty. I think I didn't post this months in 6 months of the old boards. Is there something subliminal going on here? Or have I just been absorbed by the hive mind?)

Thanks! I've not seen any that you have mentioned - I'll try those. I don't really keep up on this stuff, but really enjoy them when they "fall into my hands", LOL. I tend toward stuff I can share w/dd's (that's pretty much where my own sensibilities lie - I've gotten "younger" as I age, if that makes sense.) THX!

Jealous - I love having them done first thing! Still waiting for W2's here - but ready with just about everything else. Anyone else use Tax Cut or the like? I've used it for 3 years now and love it!

We discovered (well, I re-discovered & introduced to dd12) Bone several months ago - when we found that Scholastic is in the process of re-issuing the series in color. I grew up reading collections of old comic strips - and loved Pogo - so I "recognized" Bone as soon as I saw him! Alas! Our local library has only Vols. 1-4 of the re-release! I'll have to go to the B&W to finish the series. I finally caught Alan Moore's Watchmen this year (always a little late)! I guess it's actually early for me, since I "discovered" Pogo in the 70's! So - would you have any others I should check out? Maybe something within the last 5 years or so?:)

Could you do what you do now, only PT? It never hurts to ask around. My husband's firm was in such deperate need of engineers, they let me work 16 hrs/week - part from home - to help fill the gap. I've also: -Played piano for services at church; accompany kids at spring Solo & Ensemble Contest -Mystery shopped! I signed up with about 12-15 companies and took assignments at my leisure. (Did this when I wasn't doing engineering - now I'm just too busy!) Most jobs don't pay very well, but I ended up with some free stuff and dinners out, and collected most of my earnings in a paypal account (many companies use paypal) and used it to buy curriculum. Check out http://volition.com/mystery.html and click on "Mysery Shopping Companies List" in the links. The trick is finding companies that have jobs in your area. Don't be afraid to sign up for several - it may take awhile until you find activity in your area. I set up a spreadsheet to keep track of the companies and jobs I did. (Can you tell I enjoyed doing this? I hope to have time to get back to it soon!) HTH, and Good Luck!

The poor kid is destined for nerd-ville! Those initials are much preferable to my oldest dd's - PMS!

I am Michelle from Ohio. I'm a part-time EE (hence, "OhM", get it? Thanks OHElizabeth - wherever you are!) This is our 3rd year of homeschooling dd12 (7th grade) and dd10 (4th grade). I've frequented the boards beginning about 2 years before I started hs'ing. After reading TWTM, I couldn't not give my kids that education. (And yet it still took us two years to re-organize our life to be able to do it.) Now that I've done it for awhile, I can't really say I'm giving them the education SWB spelled out and I envisioned, but we are taking what we can from the book, doing what we can, and enjoying our time together. I live in a tiny town (pop. 500) which is 10 minutes away from a small city, and 20 minutes away from a larger city. We feel like we have the best of both worlds with that kind of proximity to arts and sporting events. Been married to dh for 14 years (had to engrave the date in his ring to keep track of it, because I'm bad that way :rolleyes:) I'm a sometimes-pianist at church, SS teacher, Christmas program director, VBS director, GS leader, and obviously someone who can't say "no". I like to read more than I like to breathe, but I'm not (yet) a book collector. I am a library fanatic. I'm probably every bit as opinionated as the next person, but would bite my tongue off before telling you what I think. And since I'm babbling now, I'll say, "See ya later" and go back to my shell.:)

LOL! Probably not totally weird! :p (But you never know!)

olive oil 1c chopped onion 3 garlic cloves, minced 5c chicken broth 1c dried lentils 1/2c chopped carrot 2 bay leaves 3c chopped Swiss chard, collard greens, or spinach 1 1/2c chopped baking potato 1c chopped smoked ham 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained 1tsp dried basil 1/2tsp dried thyme 1/2tsp black pepper 4Tbsp chopped fresh parsley Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; saute 5 min. Add broth, lentils, carrot, and bay leaves; bring to a boil. Partially cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes. Add greens, potato, and ham; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 15 minutes or until potato is tender. Stir in tomatoes, basil, thyme, and pepper; simmer 10 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Sprinkle w/parsley. Yield: 5 servings (about 1 1/2 cup per serving.) The recipe came with a wine note! Riesling is usually paired with such dishes in Northern Europe, where ham and lentils often appear on the menu. EDIT: I'm a larvae now!!! Whoo-hoo!

Just moved up a category in most of these range selections a few months ago (to 40). Still hating it.

I vote for a recipe board, too! For whatever reason, I keep "losing" the link to the other one.

Does the short-e pronounciation have an accent on the second syllable then? (Just trying to work it out - I've only heard it w/long-e, too.)

Or perhaps a better way to put it is "frugal in a wrong way." She and her husband would frequently get free dinners at restaurants by complaining about some aspect of the meal. They would brag that at the least they would get free dessert out of it. I dined with them on two occasions when the "pulled" this, and it wasn't pretty - downright rude (and in one case, cruel to the people who were just trying to fairly address their complaint.) That was more than 15 years ago, and I still won't go out to dinner with them. I agree w/OP in this case - the arena was in use for two hours, the agreed upon price is $15 per hour, the owner is due $30 at the end. I would go farther (further?) - if the original agreement with the other family was, "We will all go together and rent the arena for two hours at the cost of $10. per family," then I would expect $10 even if she decided not to stay for the full 2 hours. If she wouldn't be sticking to the original agreement, then I would need to know ahead of time, so that I could adjust accordingly. (Harda$$, I know!)

Good Food Gourmet - Jane Brody (I have a 1990 edition, not sure if it's been updated - published by Norton!) and Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook - Beth Hensperger Of course, the Better Homes and Gardens "New Cookbook" I received back in the '80s is pretty battered from use - but I don't use that to get new ideas. I used to subscribe to Cooking Light, and have collected quite a few recipes from there - I always mean to pick up one of their yearbooks, but haven't yet. HTH!

I loved "NT"! And in answer to the originial question - what PixieKris said!

Thanks, Kendra, for posting this!

More for those who are interested: Jay Ungar & Molly Mason are the phenomenal musicians who are featured prominently on the soundtrack for Ken Burn's Civil War on PBS. Jay composed Ashokan Farewell. Strongly recommend giving them a listen, especially if you're fans of American folk music! (OK - here I go trying to add a link - we'll see...) http://www.jayandmolly.com/ashokanfarewell.shtml

"OhM" is just "OHio Michelle" who happens to be a EE (elec. engineer). (This, thanks to OHElizabeth - who I haven't seen here yet to know if she's still OHElizabeth?) I have Bone just 'cause DD12 & I are on a kick right now - with the Scholastic colorized versions. Does anyone know why the post is shown as "moved"? (See, I'm confused already!) Did I post somewhere else by mistake? EDIT: duh - see it now - I've been moved from the General forum to testing. (slow)

How cool is this new forum? I'm just a tiny bit intimidated! (And as usual, just a little bit behind everyone else!) ;)