I've had bad experiences both at dealerships and at Jiffy Lube. I've been going to Valvoline for years now, and nothing but good experiences so far. I don't know if they do Carfax or not (I'm guessing not since they've never mentioned it) but I do keep all my receipts for any potential new owner of my car. I can't imagine it would make much difference in the resale value, though. Like you, I don't plan to sell my car anytime soon, maybe not until it's scrap metal, so probably irrelevant.

:lol: Ok, maybe not the best book for a true beginner.

So! Many! Things! :D But right now, cooking is on my mind. I can cook, but I'd love to be able to cook the kind of meals that really wow people. I'd also like to be able to keep a cleaner home. I'm not very well organized, and I'm not neat by nature, though I'm trying to change that. Having three dogs doesn't help. I took a lot of French in college, and yet can't speak a word of French. I'd like to change that too. I wish I could sing. I wish I could speed read. Cutting hair isn't one of my things, though. I'm more than happy to leave that to the professionals. :) I just can't even imagine myself ever being that trustworthy with a pair of scissors. :lol:

Thank you for mentioning Julia Child -- I have been thinking about her! I didn't know if her books might be a bit too advanced for a newbie, but maybe the one you mentioned (The Way to Cook) would be a good place to start? Do you think that one would work well for the approach you mentioned (pick a good cookbook and work through it)?

I finally got around to taking a look at this, and it looks great! I think this might be the way to go. Covers all the basics and then some, like I wanted, and it's in a video format, which she would enjoy a lot more than a book. Thank you! ETA: Plus, my library has it! Might be worth buying to be able to keep it on hand for more than two weeks, but at least this way I can try before I buy.

Thanks, I will look for this! Yes, basic basics are exactly where I want to start! I'd be embarrassed to show you how, just a few years ago, I was chopping an onion in a ridiculously time-consuming and inefficient way. My Mom offered to teach me how to cook, but I foolishly declined, and have had to learn all this stuff the hard way. Since dd is now interested, it seems like a good opportunity to save her the trouble of learning the way I did. :)

Yes, that sounds perfect! I guess I was hoping that someone out there had put together a cookbook or program designed to do just that - in other words, that someone had already done the thinking and planning for me. :lol:

Sorry I wasn't clear - I tried to explain that a bit in post 30. She is the one who has expressed interest, it wasn't something I wanted to force. She's pretty busy during the week, but I was thinking that every Saturday we could cook a meal together. I don't want to just hand her a book and say "good luck". I think that approach might work perfectly well for some kids, but not for her! And the reason for the systematic approach is that I don't think my own cooking skills are good enough for me to be the sole teacher -- I'd really like to improve my own skills while teaching her (learning alongside her). I want to teach her the basic skills while also filling in the gaps in my own. I don't know the best way to accomplish that!

I'm generally pretty frugal. I try to buy inexpensive skin care and cosmetics. I own a whole lot less shoes and clothing than most women (heck, I own 1/10 as many as my husband!). I don't get manicures or pedicures or massages or facials. But I do get my hair professionally done every six weeks. I have an amazing stylist, who is ridiculously cheap compared to others in my area: $75 for cut and color. Since she hasn't raised her prices in years, I tip generously.

Good to know. Thank you!

And suddenly I'm hungry for salad. :) I used to make my own vinaigrette years ago. Now that I think of it, I don't know why I stopped! I never got any more advanced than that on salad dressings, but that's my favorite dressing anyway. Easy and good.

See, these are the things that you might miss out on with the sink-or-swim approach. On this, I sank. Thank you! I am going to learn how to make all of these!!!

Patty Joanna, I can't like your post, but I do like it! :) Thank you!

I'm really enjoying reading everyone's posts! I've done the interest-led thing up until now, and the result is that my daughter can make some truly excellent cookies and cakes from scratch, and a pretty decent sushi roll. And that's it, because those are her interests! :lol: I realized today that she didn't know the difference between simmer and boil, and she doesn't know how to chop an onion. So, we need something a little more well-rounded that will teach the basic skills. And it's good timing - she is interested right now, because she has realized that she hates frozen, pre-packaged foods and likes everything from scratch - better for your health and your budget too. She knows she'll need to figure out how to do that once she's on her own and Mom isn't there to do it all. :) And apparently I need to fill in some gaps in my own cooking self-education, because I do not know what the five mother sauces are!!! :blushing: So, Sneezyone, if you feel like enlightening me, I would be grateful. :) Rosie, neat idea about the salad dressings! I'm generally too lazy to make my own, maybe I'll put her in charge of that! ;) KungFuPanda, she does really like watching Alton Brown - maybe that's what has inspired her recent interest, and realization that she doesn't want to have to eat ramen all the time when she moves out. :D

Thank you all so much for the great suggestions! I do like the idea of doing something systematic, so I really appreciate the suggestions regarding the plaid BH&G book (that one helped me a lot) and especially the Jamie Oliver lessons (thank you Sarah!) and the Marion Cunningham book (thank you, umsami!) which sound like they're really designed to teach basic skills. Also curious if anyone has read or used this: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-cook-everything-the-basics-mark-bittman/1110767066?ean=9780470528068

Thank you guys, this is great! The hive is always such a help. :)

Is there a logical, systematic way to teach someone how to cook, without the expense of formal classes? Classes are an option, but I'd rather start at home. I know how to cook (more or less! :lol:) but I don't know how to *teach* cooking in any kind of systematic way. I learned by the sink-or-swim, trial-and-error method myself. Surely there's a better way!

I think it depends a lot on the woman and her overall style and approach to life. Some people are "younger" at 70 than others are at 50, you know? I will say that I think some women make the mistake of chosing colors that are too vibrant or too rich, and therefore end up looking unnatural. I have to be aware of this tendency myself: my hair is really dark and I dye it to keep it that way (started going gray in my 30's!), but I know that as I age I'll need to transition to a lighter shade of brown, or it will end up looking very fake. I asked my hairdresser about it recently, and she said the same thing: this shade is fine for now, but she said I'll eventually want to go a shade or two lighter. Maybe that's just me, but I don't think I have *ever* looked at a woman of any age and thought "oh, she shouldn't still be dying her hair!" but I have sometimes thought, "that shade looks fake".

I think it is a wonderful idea to have your dd start to be responsible for some of her ordinary, day to day expenses! I really wish my parents had done that for me, because I made some really stupid mistakes when I was on my own for the first time. The money I earned at my part-time jobs had always just been spending money, so I was completely unfamiliar with how to budget for expenses. I mean, it sounds simple in theory, but the reality of *doing* it is quite different! About a year ago, I was reading Dave Ramsey and listening to his podcast, so that's when it finally dawned on me that I needed to start teaching my daughter how to handle money while she is still living with us and can learn from smaller mistakes (rather than having to pay big time for larger mistakes when she's on her own later). So I talked it over with my husband, and we decided to give dd a big increase in her allowance, but to also make her responsible for buying her own clothing, entertainment, food for her pet lizard, and to pay for her own haircuts. (She doesn't wear makeup, but I buy her ordinary toiletries like soap and shampoo as part of my weekly shopping. Anything extra, she buys. We also pay for her cell phone, but she has a super cheap pre-paid plan. She doesn't use it much, but we want her to have it for emergencies.) We discussed all of this with her, of course, and gave her some suggestions for setting aside a certain percentage for long-term savings, and also for tithing and giving to charity. She was 15 when we did this. It hasn't been all that long, but she has done incredibly well! She has spent a fair amount of money on video games, I won't lie. But she has budgeted for her clothing, she has put aside savings as we suggested, she pays for her own haircuts and tips generously, and her lizard has never gone hungry. :lol: I think it's been a success, and I think it's really important to practice budgeting with little things like this before she's paying rent, utilities, car insurance, etc.

For me, insertion was quite painful, removal was a breeze. My theory is that the cervix is designed to let babies OUT, not to let things in. :lol:

Yes, thank you for the link, because at the end of that article, there is a link to another article listing organizations that are dedicated to helping. This is such an egregious human rights violation that it's overhwelming for me to even think about it. I am so glad that there are people out there who are doing so much more than just thinking about it. I want to start supporting one or more of these organizations. I would also like to ask you or anyone else who knows a question about this. My personal awareness of this is relatively recent (just a few years). Is that because it is a recent phenomenon, or recently has grown? Or has this been happening for, I don't know, decades? centuries? and we're just now aware enough to do something about it?

Considering how well it worked for you, I'd say get the Mirena again. Talk to your doctor about a prescription-strength pain pill to take an hour before the insertion, and/or a vaginal suppository to soften the cervix and make insertion easier. My first experience wasn't just "uncomfortable", it was shockingly painful and I almost fainted. The second time, we took measures. Unfortunately, I tried both types of IUD and neither one worked for me. I think it is an excellent worry-free contraceptive if you don't have the issues that I did.

Here's a different perspective on that: http://www.paulaschoice.com/expert-advice/myths/_/lead-in-lipstick-the-facts

I'm not diabetic, but I have done some reading about it because I have a family history, and I have reactive hypoglycemia and numbers in the "pre-diabetic" range. I've found this website to be really helpful: http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/ And good for you for getting him to the doctor! :grouphug:

That's funny - my dd thinks that things are currently taking a turn for the worse, thanks in large part to the internet. Edit: typo