I'm so sorry. :grouphug:

I picked up one of her books once. In the first paragraph, she wrote "She admitted that jogging bored her, but she loved to dance. Oh, how she loved to dance." :ack2: I didn't make it past the first paragraph.

No, but I think it's a fantastic idea. We have family meetings every Sunday night, and this would be a great addition. Thanks for the idea! :bigear:

Just one tip, if you are going to buy a new car. Use the Edmund's website to learn how to negotiate price. The TMV site will teach you everything you need to know. We just bought a new Honda CRV and saved quite a bit of money. Having all the information made the whole experience much less painful than usual, and we saved quite a bit of money. Good luck!

Glad to hear you're safe and sound. Good luck to your son.

It was much easier to learn than I expected. (Posting from my phone, using swype.):D

It doesn't always work, but if it doesn't know what you're typing it gives you a list of choices. If the top choice is correct (and it usually is) you just keep swyping and it automatically enters the word. If it isn't correct, you just tap the correct word and keep going. Occasionally, it doesn't recognize the word at all (especially with proper nouns) and then you have to tap it in the old fashioned way. But once you do that, it seems to go into permanent storage, because the next time you type it, it's recognized. The first time I typed my dd's name 'Bryn' I got a list of choices, none of which were Bryn. Now it recognizes 'Bryn' as a word in its lexicon and I don't get a list. It's really pretty amazing. It's easier to watch than explain. Longer video, and I didn't watch the whole thing, but in the first few seconds you can see how fast he swypes and how he fixes mistakes.

I don't think I can tell the difference. :confused:

I don't think they come in different colors. You have to buy a case. :D There are lots of choices.

Gastroenteritis (which isn't really 'flu') can be caused by a bunch of different pathogens, most commonly viruses and bacteria, but also some protozoans (like giardia)and parasites. So when someone is talking about stomach 'flu', it could be from one of many, many different bugs, each of which have their own specific properties. Unless there is a large outbreak, doctors rarely do tests to know which germ is causing the problem. Many viruses can survive outside the body for days or weeks, but that doesn't necessarily mean they can cause disease after that amount of time. All it means is that if someone goes into your house in two weeks and swabs the toilet, they may be able to detect the virus in their lab. It doesn't necessarily mean the virus is viable and can make you sick. Outside the body, the virus is undergoing degradation and at some point would no longer be infective. And how long a norovirus can hang around outside the body may be entirely different than, say, an adenovirus, or salmonella or giardia. As far as school policies, there is absolutely no good scientific reason for most of them. :glare: The policy that you can send a kid back to school after 24 hours of no fever is a long tradition, but has no good science behind it. For most infectious diseases, you are still contagious after 24 hours. Generally, you are more contagious right before symptoms start and then for the next few days, but for some illnesses you would be contagious much longer than that. Also, young children and immunocompromised people are contagious longer than other people, so it depends some on the person who is infected. When my kids had whooping cough last month, they had to stay home until they had completed 5 days of antibiotics. This is based on research done in the past that shows that after 5 days of antibiotics, pertussis can't be detected in the nasal passages. But I was unable to find any studies where they tried to detect it after 1, 2, 3, or 4 days! Those studies apparently haven't been done. So it's entirely possible that patients are not contagious after 24 hours of antibiotics. But since they don't know, to be on the safe side, 5 days at home is advised. That is my very long winded way to say yes, kids are probably still contagious when they go back to school.

:lol: Me too. But if I have to shop, I want to be as efficient as possible. :D

I didn't read the whole thing but what I did read looks accurate. Which part are you questioning?

Skype is for talking to people with your computer. Swype is a kind of keyboard on a cell phone. I thought it would be hard to learn but it took about 5 minutes and now I'm a pro. It's really fun to use, and very fast. Yes, you do! You really do! I have a Samsung Fascinate and I use internet all the time. Here's an example. I was Christmas shopping last week, and found some moccasins that I wanted for dd at Famous Footwear, but they didn't have her size. So I used my barcode scanner app, which in 10 seconds told me that they had a pair, right color, right size, at the Famous Footwear across town. In another 30 seconds, I had put them on reserve and got directions to the store. So handy! Things like that come up all the time. I love mine.

It really depends on the bug. They're all different. But in general, you're most contagious the first few days of illness.

That's how I was at first too. But it is so convenient for certain situations, and you get much faster. Especially if you have a Swype keyboard. :001_wub:

Here are some mystery authors I like: Elizabeth George Patricia Cornwell Jonathon Kellerman John Sandford (more violent and graphic than the others) Margaret Maron Minette Walters Mary Willis Walker Tess Gerritsen

My kids are loving it too. You do need plenty of space to move around.

Here are my favorites: Cha Cha's White Chicken Chili Thai Pineapple Chicken Curry Chicken Enchiladas I Mulligatawny Soup I Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

Dana, update us when you get there. :grouphug: I hate winter driving. :crying:

Merry Christmas from my family!

You're way ahead of me. You have a list. I haven't made a list yet. I'm afraid to.

Google "holiday google doodle" and you'll find a bunch of articles about it.

I was wondering too. Google didn't help.

From the Red Cross site:

:lol::lol::lol: