Wow. If this is you trying not to sound cold or snarky, I'd hate to see what you *really* want to say.

Yeah, there's nothing I really want. I know the dh *hates* shopping and I respect that. I did go ahead and buy myself my favorite LL Bean slippers recently and told dh he would have to wrap them and put them under the tree. To me, Christmas is for the kids. I get plenty of pleasure watching ds open his presents.

This is something I saw in my twin brothers. I think one of them wanted to make more of a separation from his twin and forge his own identity. It's something that still plays out to this day, even though they're 40 and live in separate states. When they get together, G. is frustrated because J. still does the whole cooler-than-thou thing.

I feel more free owning a house than renting one. For one thing, I have too many animals. For another, I want to be able to do whatever I want with where I live. There's no incentive to paint or make any upgrades when you rent.

Yup. Ds (11) has a 4x4 Expedit in his room. It's all full up, except for one box, which has a towel in it. The 21 yo cat naps there.

I started with the fake trees in 1997, the year we moved to Florida, because I was afraid I'd bring scary bugs into the house with the tree.

Sort of. The dh went on a rental house hunting trip without me (ds was 6 months old at the time) before we moved from FL to WA. At the time we had 5 cats and 2 dogs and didn't want to lie to any potential landlords about it. How awkward if the landlord happened to live next door or something! It was an incredibly frustrating weekend for dh. Even though we are very responsible people so many potential landlords just laughed and refused to deal with dh. I can't blame them--it is a lot of pets. He finally found *one* place that would take us, with a HUGE deposit. It was much bigger and more expensive than what we needed or were looking for (it was a lakefront house). Basically dh looked at it and signed the lease. After the weekend he had, he would have taken pretty much anything if the landlord had said they'd take us and all our animals. I hated the place. It was cheaply made and when we moved in during the middle of September it was outrageously HOT. It's amazing what the sun reflecting on the water can do to heat up a place. But we knew it was only temporary, so we dealt with it. We didn't use the lower level at all for anything but storing the boxes we didn't need to open and lived on the upper level. Our house in FL sold within two months after we left (with all the animals, we knew it wouldn't sell while we lived there) and since we had signed a one year lease we stayed in the rental until the following summer when we bought the house we live in now.

Now...on to my new discovery. The Bloomsbury Group is republishing early 20th century books that look like my cuppa tea. I am starting with Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys. Aren't those Bloomsbury Group books gorgeous?

Ugh. I've been looking for answers too. I have the same thing going on...for about a week now...and it's no fun. I'm not sick enough to stop going about my life, but I'm sick enough that I'm totally exhausted at the end of the day. I've got the head pressure, the clogged throat. I can still breathe through my nose, but I can't quite get rid of what seems to be dripping down from my sinuses. My tummy has gotten really sensitive since getting my gallbladder out in March, so after I couple of days of my standbys--Advil Cold&Sinus during the day, Alka Selzer Cold at night--I'm queasy and had to stop. The dh had it last week as well. He was hit hard and missed work on Tuesday and came home early on Wednesday, but he's over it now. I'd much rather have had it that way than this slow misery. Plus, Saturday morning I slipped on my icy back deck and landed HARD on my butt on the edge of a stair. So I've got that discomfort going for me too. Maybe I'll make some hot&sour soup with dinner tonight.

I'm waiting to see what responses you get. It's *hard* to find a good pillow. I've always wondered what people think of those buckwheat hull pillows.

I can definitely see the points made about an expensive well-made bag lasting for *years.* But designer bags is not a path I can go down. I'm a collector. Next thing you know I'd know everything about bags. I'd be on ebay all the time--if not actively shopping, then watching to see which ones go up in value and which ones go down. I'd obsess over the new collections. It would end in the financial ruination of my family. :) I know my limits.

I'm not Christian...I'm more of a heathen than an atheist...but I recognize December as a month of giving and sharing, culminating on December 25. I love a pretty Christmas tree with gifts underneath. I love decorating the house and yard with lights. I say Merry Christmas to people, though I'm one of those who is more likely to say Happy Holidays until I know that the person celebrates Christmas. I get what Christmas is about and I honor why it is important to so many people. If the majority of the people in this country celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and his story is one of love and forgiveness, how can I not think that's a good thing and want to take part in it? And I share the story, to the best of my knowledge (but without seeking out more knowledge) with my son.

I've been told that the homeschool cafeteria is far superior to the public school cafeteria. :)

We do Santa. Ds is 11 now and he *has* to know that we are Santa. Right? In our house Santa has always gotten ds the things that mom and dad disapprove of, so that's part of the fun. Ds wants a Nerf gun? Mom won't get it (you'll shoot your eye out!), but Santa will. Video game? Mom says, "Ugh. You need to spend more time reading. And video games are too expensive." But Santa comes along and undermines me. I'm pretty sure ds knows that Santa is the part of me that's a little more...fun-loving...and is afraid that if he acknowledges that Santa is me, that part of me will go away. So I'll keep playing along.

Has your ds read the Hunger Games trilogy? My ds (also 11) really loved it. I didn't really expect him to go for it since the main character is a girl, but he did...and how! Right now ds is into steampunk and recently enjoyed Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld. He's also liked the Stoneheart series by Charlie Fletcher.

No. I don't censor. Ds picked out a Stephen King book a while ago and I suggested it might make it hard for him to sleep. That's about the limit of it.

I only use jar sauce when I'm making lasagne. When it's sauce over noodles and that's it, I make it from scratch.

I pre-read The Golden Goblet before ds (11) was to read it for our Ancient History studies and decided it would make an excellent read-aloud. I'm so glad we did it that way! Ds had me reading to him every night at bedtime and every morning before he got out of bed. He loved it!

I find The Gulag Archipelago to be exhausting. In the First Circle, also by Solzhenitsyn, is also about the gulag system and is much shorter and more readable. Master and Margarita is a beautiful book. I'm not religious and know very little about the New Testament, but I found the passages with Pontius Pilate and Christ to be incredibly moving. I mentioned in another thread (classical literature question) how much I love Crime and Punishment. At the time I read The Brothers Karamazov I loved that as well, though when I think back to it now (20 years later) it strikes me as a little overwrought. For a taste of Brothers K, a section called The Grand Inquisitor, is often treated as a stand-alone work, so that might be a good introduction. Overall, I'm more a fan of 19th century Russian literature than more modern works. Tolstoy is right up my alley. His sensibilities were probably the most European. Anna Karenina is very readable. War and Peace is more of a challenge due to the 100+ characters to keep track of and the scope of the novel itself. It's really easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees. I'd recommend reading a few critical essays about W&P before tackling the novel, just to help you see what the big message is and understand how Tolstoy is trying to convey that message. I have to admit, I really enjoyed this anthology we read in one of my survey classes: Russian Literature of the 1920's (http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Literature-Twenties-Carl-Proffer/dp/0882338218/ref=sr_1_31?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291188037&sr=1-31. It's a collection of poetry and shorter prose. Some of the writing is experimental in ways similar to European writing of the same period--neologisms, new verse forms, etc. And other writings are satirical and/or critical of the newly formed Soviet government. It's interesting to see how at this time of upheaval some artists were apolitical, interested only in craft and the new and modernism; other writers were highly politicized and yet others considered new uses of language to *be* a political act.

WOW! I've got to check that book out! My BA is in Russian Literature and since I was uncomfortable speaking the language I went straight into an MLIS program after graduating. I worked as a librarian for 5-6 years before becoming a mom and haven't worked in that field since. And I don't particularly want to go back. Since then my part-time work (which ceased entirely in September when I started hs'ing ds) has involved handling medical records--assembling them, pulling them for reviews, getting copies to doctors who need them urgently for care, chasing doctors down to complete their dictation or insurance paperwork--which has been surprisingly satisfying in its own right. I love working in a healthcare setting! So, for the past few years I've been going to CC (which also ceased in September, for the same reason), doing the prereqs for pharmacy school or medical school, even though I haven't been quite sure those are roads I really want to travel down. I'd love a book that might help me find my path before I invest a whole lot more in my education. I've been resigned to waiting until ds (11) is done with high school to go back to school, in which case I'd have to start all over with my prereqs, since the science ones are only good for 3-5 years. And that's fine. I'm very happy to be doing what I'm doing. But it sure would be nice to have a real and solid plan before I go back to school or work, to know what I really want to do with my life.

I used to be a clear-lights only person. Like others I think they look like stars or reflected snow. But the dh and ds love colored and snuck out and bought a set of LED colored lights to decorate the house with one year while I was off at a movie. I have to admit, I'm rather fond of them now. And when I bought some of those lighted tree spiral things to put in some empty planter boxes in front of the house this year, I chose colored lights. (They also bought a 10-foot inflatable Santa, which I still hate) My tree has clear lights though. When it's time to replace that I may go for colored lights. I don't know. I'm awfully fond of my tree just the way it is.

For me, it's Advil Cold & Sinus during the day and Alka Seltzer Cold at night.

Echoing everyone else, please see an ophthalmologist and see one soon. Then report back. As someone with only one functioning eye, I can't emphasize enough how important preserving your vision is.

I don't think the dh does. I don't think he has time. We have a common use computer room and the only time he ever gets a chance to be alone in it is in the early morning for the 15 min.-1/2 hour before I get up. And he's eating his cereal and fighting off the cats who want to stick their faces in his bowl, which I don't think is too conducive to optimal porn-viewing. Having grown up with 3 brothers, I suppose I wouldn't be horribly *shocked* to find out the dh was getting in some porn time. But I'd be disappointed. He's very courteous and generous at tea time, in a way that makes me feel like it's more than a physical act to him--that there's more to it for him than mechanics and body parts.

Nah. I wouldn't worry about it. Savor it while you can! Physical touch is my love language. If you were to see me in front of the teevee with my dh and ds you would see me snuggled up against one of them and rubbing their scalp. Or if I was really tired you'd see my with my head in dh's lap and him stroking my hair. It's like we're a tribe of monkeys around here!