Premium white play sand, from Home Depot. It was about $8.00 for a big bag. I change it a couple times a year.

Yes, it's done, and many thousands of people get sick from it. BUT, the illness from B Cereus is usually fairly mild, compared to other forms of food poisoning. Typically, people have severe nausea and vomiting for a few hours, and then they're fine. Hospitalization is rare, and I don't think there have been any reported deaths from it (in the US, anyway). So if by safe, you mean you won't die from it, I agree. I personally would rather make a new batch of rice than take the chance of severe puking for a few hours, even if the actual chance of that happening is pretty low. But I'm a wimp that way.

The initial heating activates the spores, but they won't grow and produce toxin at cool temperatures. So as long as it's refrigerated soon after cooking, it's fine. They aren't killed by cooling, it's just that they won't multiply. Some types of toxins are heat sensitive, so if they form in food but the food is reheated, they will be destroyed. But the type of toxin produced by B. cereus spores (the enteric kind found in rice) are heat stable, so even if you reheat the rice, they aren't destroyed and can still make you sick. I don't know how common the spores are. They may not be common at all, which would explain why so many people eat leftover and fried rice without getting sick. But since rice is cheap and easy to make, I'd just make a new batch.

I wouldn't. Rice is cheap. Bacillus cereus

My girls dance, and it is a big commitment. We have Sunday practices twice a month. We've never had a holiday weekend performance or rehearsal, but the rest of it is similar to what we do. It's all voluntary though. We pick and choose which classes to take. Older dd doesn't have time for competition any more, and has cut down on her classes. Foot problems go with the territory, especially if she does pointe. Since my girls aren't pre-professional, we have decided against allowing pointe.

:hurray: I'm so glad he liked it. It's one of my all time favorites.

:lol: It's not THAT cold here. It was 70 degrees today. I'd say it's really cold for 2-3 months. January and February are the worst, with occasional bad Decembers. It does snow quite a bit, but we love that. He doesn't sound like a 4 year college kind of guy. Has he looked into community colleges? I don't know much about NICC, but our CC in Cedar Rapids is outstanding. I wonder if the more technical/trade/vocational programs might suit him better. The job market is pretty good for many of these programs.

Not me. I love teaching math myself.

Yep. 20 pages would be 1000 posts for me. The record is 828 posts.

Love my Fascinate. The only major drawback that I've found is that Fascinate uses Bing instead of Google. Bing stinks. The screen and swype keyboard are fantastic.

The only apps I've downloaded are Google maps (love), Flood It (silly game) Kindle and Pandora, all free. There are a bunch of apps preloaded but I never use them. I use my phone mostly for phone/texts, web surfing, and the Kindle app. Mainly because I don't have any idea what all I could be doing with it.:tongue_smilie:

I recently got a Samsung Fascinate (android), and I (mostly) love it! I really didn't want a touch screen, because I've had trouble with them in the past, but I've had no problems with this one. The amoled is screen is fantastic, and the swype keyboard is really slick, once you get the hang of it. There are plenty of pre-loaded apps, but I don't use many of them. I've only downloaded a couple, and they were free. It uses bing instead of Google, which I really, really dislike. And there is a problem with email not showing up unless I manually refresh. This seems to be a common problem and is supposed to be fixed with an update soon. I've never had a windows phone, so don't have anything to compare it to. But I'm very happy with android.

She was posing in a photo in a way that deliberately made it look as if she were drinking a beer. If you carry a box into the airport with "Explosives" written all over it, you would expect security to be slightly unhappy with you when you tell them the box is empty, and you were JUST KIDDING! Wouldn't you?

Maybe my experiences with local teens is coloring my opinion. Drinking is totally out of control here. So are drugs. I don't see much smoking. The girls on dd's pom squad are a good bunch this year. Last year, they were not. Several had major drinking issues. One is in rehab. A couple others probably should be. So when I see a cheerleader messing around with a beer bottle near her mouth, I don't think innocuous, I think red flag, trouble ahead.

But she was posing for the picture. It isn't "fair" but these kids ALL know that any picture can show up on FB.

I'm curious. Why is it such a terrible thing that the school has a policy that prohibits athletes from engaging in illegal activity? It's against the law for them to drink, buy cigarettes, and take drugs. The school is simply saying that if they get caught participating in these illegal activities, they will be punished. I'm not getting why that is such a problem. This girl might not have done anything illegal, so it seems a little extreme, but she certainly was intending to appear that she was drinking.

It depends on whether you're interested in scientific evidence, or faith. Based on science, it's about 4.5 billion years old.

This is my favorite too. I almost made it tonight, but decided on taco soup instead.

No, they can attend. They just shouldn't stick a beer bottle in front of their mouth and let someone take a picture.

My dd's pom coach is her fb friend.

I was curious so looked up our ps' good conduct policy: So it doesn't specifically say anything about being present where alcohol is served. I think the coaches set their own expectations in addition to the school's policy. I know dd's pom coach has a zero tolerance policy, but I think at heart she has the best interest of the girls in mind. Drinking is a huge problem here, and the administration is trying to address that. I don't know if these rules help or not. I know many of these kids drink often. I also know that my dd would know that that picture was not a good idea. Not saying she wouldn't have done it though. :tongue_smilie:

But it's on facebook. It's not private anymore.

My dd is a pom, and it's made very, VERY, clear to them, that you don't ever put yourself in a position where it even appears that you might be drinking. Kids have been suspended from the squad for being at a party where alcohol is present, even if they aren't drinking. This girl might not have been drinking, but I'll bet she knew full well that it that picture would have been unacceptable to the administration. If that were my daughter I'd be fully supportive of the school's decision.

When my son was a baby, his pediatrician told me that boys with older sisters tend to be the most well adjusted of children. I don't know where she got that information, but it is not how things have played out in my house.

Carol Burnett show Mary Tyler Moore show Laugh In