Am I the only one who gets skeeved out seeing medical professionals wearing their scrubs in public after work? Is there anything more revolting than shopping for your produce, and seeing that the customer pawing through the lettuce is wearing scrubs? Scrubs that were around a variety of seriously ill people all day? Scrubs that were possibly sneezed, vomited, or bled on? Yuck! Step away from the raw veggies, please! And yes I do know that not everyone who wears scrubs works with contagiously ill people, but I still find it disturbing! I don't know what those scrubs have been through that day, and I don't want to find out either.

You know, even though women changing their names upon marriage doesn't bother me in the least, I have to admit that the title changing upon marriage (for women and not for men) does kind of make me say "huh?". Formal titles get used pretty rarely in my life, so it's largely irrelevant. But it's the kind of thing that makes me wish I had gone to graduate school, so I could be addressed as Dr. H, without any debate about whether I'm Mrs/Ms/Miss H. ;)

It certainly was not my intention to imply that anyone else should follow my personal feelings and reasoning about name choice. I firmly believe that everyone is entitled to their own decision, and I can understand that many women might have a strong attachment to the name they were given at birth, and I completely respect the fact that several of you (Amira, Poppy, Frances, I appreciate your posts!) have expressed that sentiment. I guess it just boils down to the fact that I didn't feel that kind of strong attachment. I did have some friends/acquaintances who said things like taking your husband's last name is declaring to the world that he owns you, and the more I thought about that, the less sense it made to me. Because IF that's how it works, then it means that having my father's last name meant that he owned me. Luckily, all of that is irrelevant, because sharing a name doesn't mean ownership, it means family. I'm not saying there aren't good reasons for a woman to keep her birth name. There are tons of good reasons for that choice! I just didn't find that whole ownership/patriarchy thing to be a compelling one, personally. Patrilineal is not the same as patriarchal. I hope that I've clarified and not made things worse. Please forgive me if I offended.

Ah, yes, that brings up another condition under which I would not have changed my last name. If I had married someone with an unpleasant-sounding last name, I probably could not have done it! My married name is far more unusual than my maiden name, but it isn't weird or unpleasant, doesn't sound like a body part you'd rather not think about, or anything like that. :lol:

I changed mine to my husband's, but I really don't think of it as being a big deal or an "issue" either way. I don't think twice about what other couples do, except to try to remember the correct name to use! My reasoning at the time was twofold. First of all, even if I'd kept my maiden name, it wasn't any more "mine" was it? I mean, it was my father's name. So either way I was being named after one of the two major men in my life, I figured it was appropriate to choose my husband over my father at that point. Secondly, I just wanted to have the same last name as my kid. That really settled the matter for me. I've known several couples who *both* hyphenated their last names after marriage. I think that's really sweet! Could get pretty cumbersome if more than one generation does that, though. :) On our honeymoon, we met a couple in which the man had changed his last name to his wife's. He was complaining about the ridiculous way other people were over-reacting to it. Apparently it was not meeting with general approval! He seemed pretty upset, so I was not about to ask him why he'd made the decision. But I think it's just as valid as the traditional method. I hope his friends and family came to accept it. ETA: If I had already established a career with my own last name, there's a very good chance I would have made a different decision. But I got married pretty young, and became a SAHM shortly after, so not an issue!

Another vote for Mesa Verde. :) The train ride from Williams to the South Rim is something that I suspect two young boys would really like. The train gets boarded and "robbed" by cowboys. I was actually pretty impressed to see how fast those horses galloped up to catch the train. Not experienced with horses, but it looked fast to me! I don't know if they do that year round, or if it was a special occasion when we were there, but it was fun. A lot more fun for kids than the long ride from Durango to Silverton. But check on that website as well, because at certain times of year they do have shorter "excursion" rides. We did a Thomas the Tank Engine ride there when my dd was just a little thing. It was a very short ride, but she loved it. (She was 4 or 5 at the time.) Everyone says to stay in the Strater in Durango. I've never stayed there myself - they've always been booked when we were there! So I guess make your reservations early if you want to do that. Oh, and that reminds me, South Rim lodging books up well in advance! If you want to spend a night there and haven't already made arrangements, do so asap. And the day before your trip, call them again to ask if they've had any cancellations. We did that and got upgraded to a room with an absolutely breath-taking view. The rooms at the South Rim are kind of small and fairly pricey, but that view made it worth it. I've never camped there, but I've heard the campgrounds are nice. How fun! Enjoy! ETA: Sorry - you did say you'd be camping. When we camp, my limit is two nights, and then I demand a hotel with a real shower and a real bed, so I guess I was picturing the same for you. You're probably not a wimp like I am. :D

How dare you tell me what my motivations are? How dare you presume that I don't care about the innocent victims and I'm just exploiting them, for, well, for WHAT? What exactly are you accusing me of really wanting out of this, since you've so insightfully concluded that I don't want to save lives? Please, explain to me what *exactly* you're accusing me of.

Eating vitamin C rich foods at the same time that you eat iron rich foods increases your absorption of the iron. I think certain types of shellfish are also really high in iron, but I'm going to check to be sure. ETA: Yeah, I don't typically eat them, but clams, mollusks, mussels, and oysters are apparently very high in iron, as are chicken and beef liver. Also, animal sources are recommended because they contain heme-iron which is more absorbable than the non-heme type in plant foods. Beef and turkey are both apparently good sources, though not as good as liver and shellfish.

I don't know when/where this magical time/place existed in which children could be trusted with guns without dire consequences. I grew up in small town OK, very, very much "gun culture" where kids were taught gun safety from a very young age, and hunting was a big sport, and guns were a right of passage, and kids were raised to understand the power and responsibility of guns. And there were disasters and near-disasters in my own community and family. My cousin, who had been taught all the things that gun advocates say will protect everyone involved when taught, still did something stupid when he found a gun in my great-uncle's bedroom, and it's only sheer dumb luck that my little brother didn't take a bullet because of it. When I was in high school, a classmate was killed when a friend of his found a gun and thought it would be funny to pretend to shoot him in the head. He didn't know it was loaded. He was SIXTEEN years old. Old enough to know better. One life ended and another ruined because of a moment of stupidity. And the thing is, kids are ALWAYS going to have moments of stupidity. There is no avoiding it. I am grateful that my moments of stupidity didn't have disastrous results like that, but they could have. It is incredibly naive to think that kids educated about guns will be safe with them. Even adults have moments of stupidity so I really can't fathom thinking that children, who are less capable of understanding repercussions, will not. As to this particular case, though, I think there was a lot more going on that just stupidity. I hope the parents are prosecuted, but it's probably a vain hope.

Good points, Mark, and I am very sorry for what you went through. ETA: I want to clarify that when one demographic group really does have it worse, that's something we need to examine and work to change. I wasn't trying to imply otherwise. Women are far more likely to be victims of sexual and domestic violence, and that is worth addressing. Men are more likely to be victims of violence overall, and that is worth addressing too.

I wasn't generally afraid of violence until I moved to Albuquerque. We had several bad experiences and close-calls our first few years here, and became much more cautious since then. There's a lot of stuff that we simply don't do because of fear of crime. And though it affects my husband as often as it does me, it affects him in a different way than it does me. He avoids a certain activity because he fears the car will get broken into. I avoid a certain activity because I fear something will happen to ME. I know that it is still statistically unlikely, but when you hear the stories of women being grabbed off the sidewalks and running trails that you walk on every day, within a mile of your home, to be raped in the arroyos in broad daylight, it dramatically affects your perception of your safety. That said, however, I believe that guns are part of the problem of violence against women, and not the solution.

The facts do not support such a conclusion. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2015/01/good_guy_with_a_gun_myth_guns_increase_the_risk_of_homicide_accidents_suicide.html

A centrally important fact which, astonishingly, often gets ignored in these discussions.* So I wanted to thank you for bringing it into this one. I don't think mental illness is the answer to why the US is so much more violent than other countries. * I was thinking of FB discussions, which aren't exactly known for being rational or insightful. :D

You pretty much can't go wrong with this list: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_joint_winners_of_the_Hugo_and_Nebula_awards Also, though he's not on this particular list, I love Jack McDevitt! His Alex Benedict series is my favorite. It starts with: http://www.amazon.com/Talent-War-Jack-McDevitt/dp/B000UP898U/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I can't use benzoyl peroxide, and since my dd's skin is even more sensitive than mine, I just bought her a BHA lotion (salicylic acid). Works beautifully, and doesn't irritate sensitive skin. (Which may not be an issue for your son, of course.) So my first thought would be a simple cleansing wipe and a BHA product. Some good info here: http://www.paulaschoice.com/expert-advice/acne/_/how-to-prevent-acne

I've only stayed in Amarillo overnight once. It was at the Country Inn and Suites on the far west side of town, and I felt it was very safe. Despite being close to I-40 it was a pretty quiet area, and the hotel itself was nice as well.

Yeah, the article did say that one particular such bacteria has been shown to cause inflammation in mice. But it said that it isn't known whether that's the case for humans. I suspect it isn't. I'm pretty darn sure it isn't for me. I mean, I never eat strict carnivore or anything, but I do eat a significant amount of meat and cheese, and the only time I get inflammation is when I eat grains. Many years ago, I was a vegetarian for five years. When I decided to eat meat again, I knew I had to take it slowly, because my body had reduced the amount of HCl, bile, and certain enzymes needed to digest meat. So I introduced it in small amounts, but my body was apparently so happy to finally be getting some good protein, that it made me really hungry for it. So I over-indulged on a huge piece of grilled salmon, and paid a price. I went back to *gradually* increasing amounts after that, and I was fine. So I agree with you: our bodies do adapt to our diets, but that doesn't mean that other diets aren't healthy.

I've noticed that my appetite is also very STRONGLY mediated by protein intake. I should do a better job of remembering that on those days when I'm suffering from the munchies! The high-protein snacks are a great idea. I've noticed that nuts can be a trigger food for me IF they are sweetened, even with non-caloric sweeteners. (It was my recent low-carb cereal experiment which finally clarified this point for me!). But when they are salty and savory, they don't seem to affect me that way. Sounds like that might not be the case for you, though, if the tamari almonds were problematic. Thank you for sharing this! Oh, and wow you have my respect for baking for your boys but not eating it yourself. That is hard to do! I pretty much stopped baking when I went LC. I figured my husband and daughter are both perfectly capable if it's important enough to them. You're a much nicer wife and mom! :)

I sure didn't think my school was anything special when I was growing up. Small town Oklahoma K-12 school which I attended with the same 70 classmates all those years. But one good thing about the situation was that it was kind of "old-fashioned" and still taught things like phonics, grammar, geography, and some (though not enough) memorization. It wasn't until I got to college and my study group commented several times what good courses I had in high school because things that were new info to them were review for me, that I began to think maybe my school wasn't quite as lame as I had thought it was. :)

I remember my 5th grade teacher being very clear about the fact that flat maps conveyed the shape of the continents, but not the relative size. And I remember discussing that in more detail in my 7th grade geography course. I had no idea that this wasn't generally well known, but like Tanaqui said, I know there are many, many things of which I am completely ignorant that are considered common knowledge by others. Guess I should thank my teachers for being thorough!

Wow, that was an interesting little experiment! Is there a notable difference between the way you were eating when you were losing faster, like "higher fat percentage" or "more/less protein", etc.? Or do you think it was something more subtle and harder to distinguish than that?

Thanks, Debbi! I appreciate hearing your experience with it. I don't think that I will try it myself, but I love hearing about other diets and how well they work (or don't) for people. If you do decide to try it again, then best of luck!

Yeah, the difference between sweet tea and unsweet is so stark, that I really can't imagine anyone accidentally ingesting more than a sip. Maybe others are more sensitive, but one sip isn't nearly enough to do me any actual harm. The difference between diet soda and regular can be a bit less clear. At least, it is to me. Maybe it's because I don't drink sodas very often, but to me, even the diet tastes super sweet! I have my daughter take a test sip for me, because she's much better at distinguishing them than I am!

It is for some of the more extreme people, yes. That's one of the reasons I eloped. It was clear as I was trying to plan the wedding that there was no place I could hold it which would make my mom happy. So mom didn't get to be present at her daughter's wedding. In one way I regret it, though, because my dad didn't get to be present either, through no fault of his own. We've talked about it, and he has said it was fine with him. But I can't help but wish that I'd had that moment of my daddy walking me down the aisle, and I wonder if part of him feels the same way. On the up side, though, we had more money to spend on the honeymoon. :)

I can imagine. I know that people mean well, so I just smile and try to accept it in the spirit it was intended, but I do get tired of people telling me I could cure my migraines with {insert currently-popular hocus pocus here}.