Ditto. I always picture talking to a phone rep dressed in plaid...lab asleep at her feet, fire in the background. Hardy Downeast stock.

BFSU, all the volumes. I wouldn't even bother with anything else.

Fridays have always been a bit lighter for us, with once a week subjects lioe logic and spelling, plus time to catchup. No formal math Fridays, but IXL review. Grammar instead of writing. Thurs nite is 4 hours of dance, so one more reason to adjust Friday.

From 10 ago...prob, but from 5 ago, uh...yeah. 5 ago was my stage I diagnosis. It's all diffferent, and not all in a bad way....at all.

It makes perfect sense. There's a whole movement/school of thought out there that touch is missing from medicine, and is more therapeutic than the average old-school doc would believe. That's why therapy dogs are so awesome. I had a visit from one in my room last week and those few minutes were super. That's why hospitals are getting massage sessions, rekki, and that kind of thing. I don't buy healing touch as healing what exactly ails you, as in vanishing cancer cells, but I totally buy healing touch to enormously help that non-physical component, whether you want to call it psychological, emotional, etc. Docs don't hug the same way, and I suspect it's a professional wall thing, which I appreciate, but some docs do hug, so it depends. Besides, it's RNs and social workers who really run the world, and let MDs think they do. :thumbup1:

Working on the town water -- might introduce air into the lines, so it could be related. Maybe a call to public works to confirm.

I'm not sure that it's always gender-specific, given the wide variation in the "family crucible" in which any given set of sibs grows up. I'm estranged from my sister (2 years my junior), and we were not close at all growing up, especially starting in adolescence. But then, ours was an emotionally abusive house, and I'm the one who escaped, as it were. She was psychologically torpedoed, and still lives, jobless, with my mother. My cousins (1 boy, 2 girls, about ten years behind me), OTOH are quite close as a family with their mom (my aunt), and now that the next generation is having kids, they seem to be building a supportive clan around the new grandma. It depends.

Ahhhh! The air kiss! Never had to do it until I met my MIL 30 years ago. I was 19 and never got over the mechanics. Wait....like touch cheeks and kiss into the air in front of the ear so it only sounds like but is not a kiss? What tribal thing is this? Did we Anglocize a Polynesian bump of warrior cheek tatoos, or figure old-lady powder is less toxic than old-lady lipstick in terms of cootie transfer? Though quite continental, you know.

Please. Don't wait. I hear it all the time and it's never a good idea. I think my oncology social worker said it best.... If it's mentionable, then it's manageable. Talk now, talk often, there are endless resources to help, like Gilda's Club, or simply ask at a cancer center. Everything you are facing has been done by other people, so there are great things to learn. Edit. I should mention that those of us with liver tumors tend not to look very sick.until near the end. Some cancers are like that.

Small roll of plastic trash bags, or one green one, for when every kid has a snack, but there's no trash can. Pop-up canister of WetOnes, or similar. Tissues. Extra pony tails

Varies quite a bit. With DD / DW, big hugs, with my mom, not so much, never have, mostly on her part. Friends, varies, and frankly has become more earnest, and really meanful to me as I live with cancer. Hugs from another survivor, from a fav nurse? Those are gold-plated. SIL hugs have evolved from formal to meaningful, as we've grown and worked through our respective stuff.

It's relative. Millions of happy kids grow up in, say, Manhattan, where you GO to a park or outdoor space. Millions more are happy on farms and ranches. I doubt it's about size, but about maintaining access, even if that has to ba a scheduled time, like "let's all go to the park!" Our yard 150x50 lot seems small to me, but huge to DW, who had a 12x12 piece of grass is Philly.

I only get it with my last name, but I've been spelling and pronouncing it for people forever, so...meh. DW was happy to switch to my old Middle English name from her Polish name because she saved several letters, including a silent "J." Someone like George Carlin had a bit on always spelling your name "S.M.I.T.H" when asked, but then say "but they're all silent."

I read that as "Elly-annah" shorter on the first syllable, with a second stress on the a. Nicely euro-ish. But short version to me would be Eli, one l, not 2, which is cool, but might look like a boys name. I still kile Eli. Had a student named Chantal years ago and she was called Cha with a soft ch "sha."

Shhh. ALL people outside your own group must be "in a group." I mean look at the choices. The Gay Agenda, the Femi-nazis, New York Liberals, Muslim Extremists, Gun Nuts, The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Isn't that why Sikh gas station guys in my area put american flags on their cars post 9/11, because they're in the brown skin turban club, dude, which is soooo totally terrorist. It's The Breakfast Club IRL.

There are whole online forums about building with crates and pallets. Seems furniture companies get good pallets, and bigger. Pulling nails from crates can be as picky, if you're just after the slats, or not so, if the whole thing is to become a wall. Either way, sand and paint, and shipping wood might be splintery, but even there, you cover with something else...like pipe insulation.

Never used it, but I did work for Huntington before going freelance. The two companies might be rad. different, so this is with a big grain of salt... Turnover at Huntington was huge, and pay was a fraction of what the parents were charged. Kids mill through the process and trudge through the next worksheet in the pre-planned track. Parents seemed clueless, and dropped kids off like dropping a car off for an oil change. Yuck. Maybe Sylvan is different, but after my stint, I don't trust the ads of any storefront tutoring business.

Spin off, but I read it as Son of, like a scary movie. Same diff.

WC's naming snow storms seems to play on the panic. When that gets old, maybe we'll get a color threat system, like SNOW CONDITION YELLOW! Granted, yellow snow might not be the best pallete choice....

Looking at just how often the Dalai Lama seems to laugh in his life, followers of any/no belief system would do well to not take it all too seriously.

Kelty makes a pole-less tent called Air Pitch, which looks interesting. Newish, so hard to find reviews. Unless you're packing, I'd go with more space - room for being inside in the rain, etc. Edit link. http://www.kelty.com/mobileshowproduct.aspx?ProductID=734&SEName=mach-6&category=tents-shelters

I was kinda hoping for a set of Armor of God PJs. Maybe adult size for temple wear?

If you're going off the ground, use real lumber for the base; everything on top can be pallets / recycled / not even wood. A Habitat for Humanity Re-Store might have windows and doors.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, if he could keep a straight face.

Bill Nye can not wear a kilt, because, as you can see, is the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln.