I sometimes wonder if the cat I just adopted is only a year like we were told. He's already slightly snaggletoothed. :/ Either way, he's a great cat, and I wouldn't trade him for the world. I hope you get a lot of loving years from your old guy. <3

It also sounds like he lied to you? He said he checked it himself, then when you brought it back in and he checked it in front of you, he admitted it was wrong. I don't know. My sister is a pharmacist and she is also the director, and I can't imagine her letting her pharmacists get away with this type and quantity of errors. Good luck.

The last few days, Pinterest has been really wonky. They are growing faster than they can keep up with, and it's causing things to be buggy. :/ I love it, but I really hope they get the bugs worked out. But maybe don't judge it for it's behavior this week? Try again in a few days? Good luck! Sincerely, a Pinterest Addict

Hey, I just discovered something! I was looking inside some of my books at the library of congress number on the page with all the publisher's details, and I found that a lot of books already have a DDC # assigned, and written right in there for me! I've started labeling the spines of the books where I'm finding the info. Whoot!

Does librarything assign a DDS # for you? I really need to do some organization as well. Looking at the DDS is overwhelming. Why are books on chemistry in one century, but books on chemical engineering in another? :/ I also see huge sections that would just be completely empty for us. Not sure if that is a pro or a con. But the "WTM system" would only work for some books. Lots of books wouldn't necessarily fit into any of those categories. Hmmm..... So many options....

Yes! That's his name; I can never remember. Maybe that's what I'll do then. Somehow just talking it out helped. :) Thanks!

I spent my day yesterday sketching out a new fine arts appreciation "curriculum". My son doesn't like "Meet the Great Composers", so I looked around and found a series of books called "Getting to know the Great Composers". There's also an artists series, and a scientist/inventors series. I took the composers list of books [that the library has] and then artists list, and put them in spreadsheets, and added their life dates, nationality, and school/style. I've sequenced them chronologically and then tweaked a few here and there to group them more closely by style. I color-coded them in chunks roughly by style/school. But now what? The composer list has 35 people on it [i added a few others from Great Composers 2 even though DS doesn't like that. I figured I could find other resources to learn from about them] and the artist list has 37. My original thought had been to do one person from each list per month and spend the month listening to that music and exploring that artist's style... But that would take us years. Course, maybe that's ok.... If we start now, we'd roughly follow the sequence of our history studies. We're about halfway through the Middle Ages. The first artist on my list is Boticelli and he was mid-15th century. Thoughts? TIA! [ETA: Should I have posted this in the curriculum board instead? :( ]

It sounds really neat! I hope you find a way to check them out in person.

Can you see this link: http://www.pepperplate.com/recipes/view.aspx?id=910650 I've never made it; it's my SILs recipe. This was going to be my first time. :(

Mine is .... hmmm, probably around 10? I'm not sure. It has a digital display, a count-down timer, and also will count-up if you just turn it on so you know how long it's been cooking. It has "keep warm", low, medium, & high. I love it, except it's huge. I'm letting the meat finish cooling off before doing anything with it. So sad. Luckily it was on sale for half-price. *sigh* I suppose I could back and see if they have more on sale, but it won't be done by Thursday like I'd hoped. :(

Thanks everyone. That's what I thought too, but DH is hard to convince. I'll share the dog poop analogy. Ok, so the next question is how do I dispose of this crockpot full of meat and greasy broth? I can't put it down the disposal. I guess tomorrow is trash day. Let it cool and then just put the whole thing in the trash?

Ugh ugh ugh!!! I need food advice. Yesterday I cooked a pork roast. After I shredded it, I was supposed to put it back in the crockpot on lo/warm [and it was supposed to cook for the next couple days at that temp]. Well apparently, I forgot to actually push the "start" button, and so it has just been sitting on the counter all night. Now between the ceramic crock and the metal cooker, and the lid, the meat itself is still warm [though I doubt it's at a food-safe temp]. Is it ruined? Do I have to throw it away? I'm so mad I could spit nails. :( DH -- the stomach of iron -- says just heat it up real hot and kill any germs, but it's pork.... :( It was sitting out from about 9:15 last night til 7:30 this morning.

How much is left? How about these croquettes? http://allrecipes.com/recipe/leftover-chicken-croquettes/detail.aspx?src=ShareOnFacebook&recipeID=17868 They're meant for chicken, but I made them with turkey last night and they were delish. I bet pork could be good too!

....you get excited with the UPS truck comes and you realize it's the new MCT curriculum you ordered the other day, and then you spend the rest of the afternoon mapping out how you're going to use it! :) Yup, that happened to me today! Yippeeeeee! Grammar Island, here we come!!!!!!

Mine probably won't help you tonight as I started it yesterday, but... I used the carcass of a turkey and some bits and pieces of veg peels and tops to make broth in the crockpot yesterday, then today I strained all the solids out of the broth, added some leftover turkey, and then cleaned out the fridge & pantry: some wilty celery, half a head of cabbage, a wilty carrot, a turnip, a handful of lentils, and about a cup of rice. I also added some fresh parsley that was getting close to its end of life. It's been cooking all day, and smells great! I might dig some bread out of the freezer to go with it, though it has rice, so maybe not....

I found Dr. Amen's books good. He addresses both children and adults, but very informative. My therapist lent me a book about women with ADD, but I can't remember the title [but I don't think it was the Solden one that Findley2 mentioned]. It helped me ID that, yeah, that's me, but I didn't find the suggestions all that helpful.

I'm a tiny bit surprised to hear so many people say they have found UU churches to be anti-Christian.... not surprised in a "I don't believe you way", just a "I'm glad that hasn't been my experience" way. Our minister often cites Biblical verses as supporting her points, she sometimes uses "God" and "amen", and she openly admires Jesus. Last fall she did a sermon on the book, "Love Wins" by the evangelical Christian minister Rob Bell. She is openly agnostic, but I don't find her anti-Christian. I guess my point is that every congregation, even UU ones, are different. Isn't there another UU congregation near you? I don't know whether it would be more intellectually stimulating, as it's been YEARS since I visited it [but I'm pretty sure that's where I learned about CSAs]. How much longer is your husband president? Politics suck. There was some of that going on when our last minister stepped down. Or I should say, that caused our last minister to step down. I didn't care for her preaching style, but she is/was a very nice person and didn't deserve that treatment. :(

Rivka, as you know I've been attending a UU church for many years. It's where I met my husband. I'm/we're not as deeply ingrained in the church as you and your dh are, and part of it is probably some of the same stuff you're talking about. As much as I connect with our principles, I don't always feel pushed in a practical way to do anything about them. Heck, until recently I'm not sure I understood all of them. Some of my disconnect might have been minister-related. I was not inspired by the minister who was in the pulpit when I first started attending services at my current church. Then we had an interim minister who I liked a bit more, but still... I LOVE our current minister. When I manage to attend a service of hers, I'm almost always inspired, uplifted, left asking more questions that I seek answers to, etc. But even still.... I've racked my brains to figure out how I could feel more involved in our congregation, what my contribution could be. I know how to teach, but I don't want to do that all the time because then I never get to go to service. My one and only suggestion is something that our interim minister started. Our congregation has small group discussion groups that meet once or twice a month. I've never participated, though every year I wish I did. But my understanding is that they delve deeply into some of the theological questions in a personal way. There is some sort of structure, but also lots of time for discussion and reflection. A friend of mine is involved in the organization of it; I could get you two connected if that is something that interests you. My family is calling me away to dinner, but perhaps I'll have more to add later! I wish you lots of luck in your journey to wherever you decide to go!

Back when I had my first apartment I got a timer for the lights so that I could have them come on at certain times. It was an "old-fashioned" one with the dial and all. I could set two "on" and two "offs". Perhaps something like that would work for you?

Oh, I forgot about Monarch of the Glen. I did like that one quite a bit. There's another one.... Ballykissangel! I really liked it too. :) ETA: oh, but I see it's not available to stream. That's a shame.

I tried to watch Middlemarch last night, and couldn't get into the first episode. :/ When does it get interesting?

I was mostly being a smart-aleck at this point. ;) I jokingly asked my DH if they existed, and was quite surprised when he said yes! :lol DS7 does have independent work he's expected to do while I'm putting the toddler down [Latin flashcards, spelling practice, reading, & piano practice]. I've already contacted the My Gym about ending classes once we've used up the ones we've paid for. In the meantime, I may try to go to a different class for the toddler that meets at a better time. Well, except that really doesn't exist, so it would just be a slightly not as bad time. I'm surprised to hear so many say they don't do regular trips to the library with their kids. For my family, that's just always been the way since DS7 was a baby. 60+ items is stuff for all 4 of us: board books for the toddler, pleasure books for the elder, school-related stuff for the elder, pleasure books and self-improvement stuff for me, movies for the family [we don't have broadcast TV or cable], occasionally homeschooling books or books I want to preview before buying. I make heavy use of the on-line hold system and the inter-library loan. I'll take ya'll's thoughts into consideration on this, but I love our library, love our librarians, and would miss our regular visits.

Because it's the only thing just for him. And he's closer to 3 than 2. He needs the outlet as much as the 7-almost-8 yo. Thanks, ya'll are awesome! Here's my plan for the mo': * Reduce My Gym to once a week open gym. This will take some time since I've already paid up a certain amount. I just need to find out how much. ;) * Move library either to Monday or Saturday. I'd love to move it to Sunday before church, but they don't open til noon on Sunday. :/ Oh well. A Saturday family trip could be fun. * Look into other options for movement for the elder. They love My Gym because it isn't overly structured, is not competitive AT ALL, and classes are small enough that it's not intimidating [which was the problem with the fencing class--too many kids, too many kids BIGGER than DS7= too scary] * I can't move speech, but with luck he will progress out by the end of this school year. We did manage to reduce services to just once a week this month; we were having to go twice a week at noon until January 16th! But what if I handed both of them a granola bar as they got into the car at 11:45, and then fed them lunch at home at 12:45, then we could work until 11:30 when I'd need to dress the toddler, and still could get him down for a nap by 1:30. * I'm going to ask the piano teacher if DS7 could do lessons at either 12:30 or 2. I'm not willing to drop Latin, but if we could arrange things so that we only needed to be there in the afternoon, that would free up our mornings. With any luck, DS2 would fall asleep on the way there and then he could nap in the car [either with me or I could pay one of the teens to sit in the car with him] while ds7 did his classes. * Super-smart power strips on the TV/comp so that those can only be used between 3 & 6, or on weekends. Both of them use screens too much. I need a plan for the 2yo who is not always reasonable, but that's another thread. ;) So that would free up Wed. and Fri. completely, Thurs. half the weeks, and would give me M & T mornings free and clear. Much better! Thanks!!!!!!!!!

The IRONIC part is that DS7 totally agrees with you. He frequently comments that we need more time to just BE HOME. And yet, when I suggest cutting something, he can't deal with it. :( Well, I think he needs to start dealing with it. I HATE to cut DS2's gym class, and I really wish they had a class for him at a better time. But if I cut both classes and JUST go to the open gym at 3:15 on Thursday, it wouldn't cut into our school work so much. There's another open gym on Monday late afternoons we could add in and I could call it DS2's "class". Maybe he wouldn't notice the diff? I WISH WISH WISH I could get My Gym classes at better times. :( In the spring we can just go to the park on specific days, but now the weather is too unpredictable. Well, next week when I go in, I need to see how many more weeks we're paid up for, and have them stop adding more weeks and just do the open gym for a bit and see how that goes. It IS too much. I totally agree with ya'll. Thanks for walking me through this and building up my confidence! I know sometimes I can sound like I'm fighting advice that I've asked for, but it's just my way of processing. Thanks!

And then there'd be nothing? I know, I asked, and you answered, and I appreciate it. <3 I'm not ready to give up Tuesday. It's a stressful day, but DS JUST finally started to make friends there [it takes him a while sometimes], and as I said, I've already paid for the classes and they do cover our music and foreign language objectives. *sigh* I hate to give up the gym classes, but it may have to happen sooner than I'd planned. :(