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NittanyJen

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Posts posted by NittanyJen

  1. 17 minutes ago, madteaparty said:

    Thanks both. So it’s just a calculator? My DD’s school uses Desmos classroom which must be a whole other thing 

    Desmos is a whole huge thing. I will occasionally use a Desmos activity that some other amazing soul has programmed into it in my AP Stats class— the students can work through problems together, with everyone adding their results to a shared board, add comments, do matching activities, you name it. It’s a pretty neat ecosystem.

    Jen

    AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

     

  2. 7 hours ago, silver said:

    Another question about editions here ...

    I might wait until the 7th edition comes out and hope that the price on the updated 6th drops. If it doesn't drop, is the 5th edition (along with AP classroom material) okay to use for a student planning on taking the AP exam? Or is the 5th edition missing topics?

    The fifth edition is a fine book, and many schools are still using it. It is missing a couple of topics, and the last half of the course won’t match the order in which the practice exercises and videos are presented in the College Board site (this ordering was one of the things reworked the last time the CED — course and exam description— was updated). The publisher does have some pages to help show the missing material, and the missing material is not difficult (I believe mosaic plots were introduced after the 5th edition, but I’m working from memory here) but it will be a little more work for you to line everything up with the College Board materials. It’s very workable, though.

     

    • Thanks 1
  3. 7 hours ago, silver said:

    If we use the textbook to learn, and then make use of AP classroom for practice for the exam, do you think that would be a good compromise for exam prep and make it so that we wouldn't need a TM?

    Yes, obtaining the TM won’t be completely necessary. As the course instructor, you will be able to set up assignment that will allow the student to see explanations and grading rubrics.

    The AP Stats videos on the College Board site have been redone over the past couple of years; they are much shorter and more focused now, so a student can actually take in a video or two at a sitting and absorb the information. 

    The toughest thing for many parents will be helping the student to really pay attention to the details in the grading rubric. Many students see they got an appropriate numerical answer and ignore the rest— but AP Stats is very different from other math courses in that it’s the “all the rest,” ie understanding why things work and being able to interpret the results in context, that are really at the heart of the course. AP Stats is also really good at developing some lateral thinking; it is not uncommon to be asked a question in a form the student has never seen before, but can address, using related information they have learned. I tell my students, “Don’t count on just memorizing algorithms in this course. It won’t get you very far. You will need to make sure you are understanding why and how we assemble these bits of information, so you can figure out how to apply them in an entirely new context.” 

     

     

     

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  4. 11 hours ago, serendipitous journey said:

    May I ask you about how you use this book?  I could not figure out how to assign the problems, or how to figure out how much work per day was reasonable.  Could you share any suggestions for problems (all the odd ones?) and for an estimate of time/day or week?

    Also -- why the black-bordered if prepping for AP?

    There was a 6th edition released quickly when the standards were being changed, but a couple of changes made to the standards were more significant than anticipated, so the authors ended up issuing the 6th edition UPDATED to more fully align with the course and exam description (CED) issued by the College Board. There is a new edition coming out (supposedly in January 2024) with some more organizational changes, but the 6th edition Updated is just fine; the material covered and the order in which it is covered largely matches the current CED, and the rigor is an excellent match for the CED.

    The odd and even problems are a bit like matched pairs; so if you do problem 1, problem 2 is pretty equivalent. Problem 3 goes a bit farther and is matched by problem 4, and so on. So many teachers assign all the odd numbered problems. I more or less follow that, though if there are too many problems for an easier topic, I will winnow those down a bit, making sure to include most of the hardest problems in the topic, just to keep the homework load reasonable. And if I find something I don’t quite like in in a series of problems, I’ll just pick the evens for that set.

    The toughest thing for you as a home educator will be locating a reasonably priced TM. The TM is very well-done, with alternate examples and solutions that are far more complete in terms of meeting scoring expectations- the back of the text does have solutions, just not always fully worked out, and AP Stats is about 50% scored on clear communication- showing all work, labeling correctly, placing answers in context, providing correct justifications, etc. A good bit of that IS in the back-of-the-book solutions, but not always expanded quite enough. However, someone who is comfortable with stats can do just fine with the student text alone.

    Jen

     

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  5. 11 hours ago, serendipitous journey said:

    May I ask you about how you use this book?  I could not figure out how to assign the problems, or how to figure out how much work per day was reasonable.  Could you share any suggestions for problems (all the odd ones?) and for an estimate of time/day or week?

    Also -- why the black-bordered if prepping for AP?

  6. On 10/27/2023 at 12:52 PM, silver said:

    My 9th grader will be finishing up precalculus before the year is done. I'm leaning toward statistics as her next course, but I have no idea what would be a good textbook to use.

    I'm capable of teaching statistics, but I need a book that can be done without a school license. I worry that most stats books are going to be very closely tied to some online learning system that costs $200+ to access and isn't designed for homeschoolers. I just need the book to have an easily available answer key or student solution manual, not a teacher manual. 

    AP Statistics teacher here (PA Homeschoolers). There are two really good stats books out there— The Practice of Statistics (any recent edition will do if the student is just studying stats and not taking the exam; you will want the 6th edition updated (black border around the usual flamingo pic) if taking the exam. You can find the older editions in print fairly inexpensively on Amazon; the most recent edition is going to run in the neighborhood of $100 (though that price may drop after January, when the 7th edition comes out). The other really good one is David Bock (et al)’s Stats in Our World. It also has several editions out which are all fine; the most recent is aligned with the current AP exam standards and pacing.

    If you are looking for good, but not necessarily AP level, Tabor and Franklin put out a text called Statistical Reasoning in Sports, which is great if you have a student who is interested in sports applications.

    The Practice of Statistics— I really like the problem sets in this book. They tend to be well-written, and they scaffold the learning well. The book itself is still very readable while being solid on the rigor. It contains excellent examples as well as activities you can do at home with playing cards, pennies, candy, and online simulators. This is the book I use in my class.

    Stats Modeling The World— this is also an excellent book, popular in part because it’s readability is much friendlier than most other stats texts. The material is broken into much smaller chunks at one time, with a higher chapter count than TPS. The book also has a higher page count than TPS, partly due to the writing style and partly due to ample white space throughout the book.

    Both of the above use a lot of real-world data and settings for their problems, and either would be a great choice.

     

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  7. On 6/30/2023 at 10:06 AM, PeterPan said:

    At least when we tried them, their method was assynchronous and they had this low tech posting method. It was dissatisfactory for my student (very ADHD, needing more structure, clarity, and maybe a live or competitive approach) and we dropped it quickly. I would look at your student. They may have upped their game since then and their format clearly works for some people. My dd moved on to DE courses, which have the advantage of guaranteed credit, better technology interfaces, etc. and was much happier.

    I’m not sure how long ago this was, but there is an entirely new in-house classroom for PAHS, and many instructors opt for Canvas, augmented by live zoom sessions and Discord.

    The individual listings will detail what the class structure and environment is for the current upcoming course.

    Jen

    AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

     

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  8. Having read your follow up responses, I’d sit down with him and ask this:

    What is it that you want to do after graduation? Is this something you cannot do while finishing high school? After all, homeschooling is quite flexible in how students can use their time. There are so many creative ways to branch out right now, when you don’t have adult responsibilities sucking up your time! Does he have a fair amount of control over what he studies and how he goes about it? If he has enough credits to graduate, he could perhaps still stick around until graduation time, but take just 1-2 classes and spend the rest of the time on an internship or special project (be prepared to explain use of time to colleges, some of which can frown upon a slack looking senior year). My youngest had a largely self-designed senior year that he found both satisfying and a nice change of pace.

    Teens may underestimate how much time is taken up by the tasks of “life” after graduation— if school is old, then the novelty of earning enough to live on, paying bills, arranging doc appointments, dealing with housing issues that crop up whether you are renting or buying, financial planning, and so forth, wears thin quickly.

    I told my kids— don’t be in a rush to start adulting. You’ll have the next many decades to enjoy that part of life. Don’t waste the last years of being able to be a kid. Both of them have been very responsible young men to start with.

    On the con side of graduating early, I’d echo what many have already said. Being much younger than your classmates in college can be a real bummer. Dating, driving experience, drinking, social experience, and that last bit of growing up can really set you apart from your classmates and make fitting in very difficult. On the job, particularly if the student is under 18, there will be frustrating restrictions, and the same social issues with bonding with coworkers. It’s amazing how much they continue to grow up in those last couple of years of high school.

    That said, for a very small number of kids, it’s just the right thing to do to move on.

    But I’d start with understanding how he plans to use his time after graduation and whether it’s just some “early senioritis” that can be helped with a. Shake-up in how school is approached, or a rosy view of adulthood. 

    Good luck! These darn kids didn’t come with instruction manuals…

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  9. On 4/8/2023 at 10:02 AM, cintinative said:

    I understand how to get something notarized, just not how it works when the document has to be submitted electronically via Common App.  Generally notarized documents are provided hard copy.  

    Depending on the state, notaries often have a few options: They can use a stamp, they can use the embosser, or they can use the embosser and a special ink pad to make it visible in copies.

     

    Jen

    AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

     

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  10. I know the PAHS APES instructor in real life.  While our teaching styles are quite different, she is a subject matter expert and an experienced college professor who homeschooled her own kids (we homeschooled our sons of similar ages at the same time locally). We co-taught the APES course one year, and I will vouch for the fact that she understands how to get the material across, and has great conversations with the students in class. She’s a good teacher to pick if you not only want your kids to pass the AP exam, but actually engage with the material and get something lasting out of the class.

     

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  11. On 4/2/2023 at 2:25 AM, Plagefille said:

    We have only used Khan as a supplement, but I would say it is not enough. We are doing AP Stats this year and Khan did not go through every topic that the textbook did and the Khan questions were easier. Maybe if you were just trying to pass the test it may work, but not to get a high score.

    We are just using AP approved textbooks and it has worked well so far.

    I would add . . . AP Stats is such a valuable course on content, that it’s worth doing right— to actually learn and explore, rather than just putting a notch in the scoreboard.

     

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  12. On 3/2/2023 at 10:19 AM, mlktwins said:

    Hope this is ok here as I know there are moms with lots of knowledge with this!

    Freshman boys - 2 different schools.

    Hall bath or suite style for freshman year?

    For DS2's school, small and not a party school, hall baths are cleaned Mon-Fri. Suite style would be 4 boys with 2 sinks, one shower, and one toilet (does have a privacy door like a public bathroom stall would have). Boys would have to clean it, little older dorms, and we provide the TP.  Hall baths at this school are in recently renovated within the last couple of years - the whole buildings were renovated and we have toured one of them. They are nice! Any thoughts?

    For DS1, we are going to be able to go into about 6 different dorms this month and he doesn't have to decide just yet. He is my less neat kid in the bathroom 😬.

    However they behave now in terms of taking care of their own bathroom…. Is likely how they will behave in a suite style dorm room with their own bathroom. 

    My youngest is in the dorms and happy someone else does the cleaning. He could wish for more privacy, but knows it comes at a cost lol.

    My oldest is in an apartment that he has rented for a couple of years, sharing 2 bathrooms between four people (mix of male and female). I helped him get it clean when he moved in, because there were no roommates around at the time, and he has simply advised me to not come visit ;P. I reminded him a couple fo times that disease is a real thing, germ theory is not “just a theory,” and that if he doesn’t get his deposit back because he wrecked the bathroom, it’s on his dime. Then I keep my nose out of it (literally and metaphorically). 

    Both were taught how to clean a bathroom properly before college, and had years of practice at it; the rest is up to them! I figure the hygiene issue is a trade-off between fewer people and less cleaning done.

     

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  13. On 3/3/2023 at 10:31 AM, mlktwins said:

    🙄 Neither of my guys want to do the social media thing to find a roommate. I know mine aren't the only ones. In the JMU 2027 FB group, all the girl moms are wanting to know where to go to find roommates. Insta, FB, etc.  A boy mom responded that her son said, "H$LL no to that!" LOL. A bunch of responded the same of our sons. A lot of the boys are saying they are going to wing it and meet people when they get there.

    JMU has pretty good success with roommate matching. Not sure about UMW, but I guess we will find out. I'm going to let it go since mine aren't doing the social media thing.

    Anyone going through this? Boys or girls?

    Neither of mine chose a roommate in advance. My oldest has found he has always just gotten along with rooommates— even now that he’s been renting an off-campus apartment for a couple of years, sharing his apartment with strangers (they all have separate locking bedrooms and separate leases, and share main living space, kitchen, and 2 bathrooms). My younger is still a freshman, and was assigned to a single, which has been both good and bad— as an introvert, he likes having a completely private space to end up in at the end of the day. But, as an introvert, it’s been harder to meet people and make friends, because there is no natural person to head to dinner with, or just decide to go to the gaming zone with, and since he doesn’t naturally reach out, nobody bangs on his door, either. So the single (which he didn’t request) has been a yay/boo. But, he says next year he wants to stay on campus, and he’s again taking the “eh, whoever they assign me to will be fine” route, like his brother.

     

  14. We found a lot of colleges say that, but at application time, none actually required an “accredited” program. I sent an official transcript marked “Official Transcript” across the top, and in the header I had the name of our homeschool, followed by “Registered under statute xxxxx of the Delaware Code” (xxxxx = the number of the statute establishing homeschooling as legal).

    To be more confident, contact the admissions offices of the schools you think your daughter will be looking at. My kids applied to a variety of public and private schools across several states and encountered no difficulty, and we save a bundle and improved our flexibility of courses by not signing onto an “accredited program.”

    That said, TWMA is secular and accredited and NCAA compliant. TWMA has stated it is pedagogically opposed to offering AP courses, though it offers some “Advanced” courses that claim to prepare students for AP exams (only courses that have completed a college board audit process can officially be listed as AP courses on the transcript, but anybody can take an AP exam). WTMA will issue official transcripts.

    PA Homeschoolers/AP Homeschoolers online is NCAA compliant and most courses are secular (see individual course descriptions); PAHS also offers summer and honors courses. All designated AP courses have been approved by the College Board to be listed as such on the transcript. PAHS will issue official transcripts, including the AP designation.

     

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  15. 18 minutes ago, regentrude said:

    They might call it something else. Maybe visiting student, or non-degree-seeking student?
    I'd have a hard time imagining a uni refusing to take tuition money from anybody with a pulse.

    Agreed. I specifically didn’t enroll my kids as DE, because that would have limited them to specific, generally lower level classes, often pitched at high schoolers instead of actual regular college classes. I had them enroll as Continuing Ed instead. They had ‘last priority’ registration (which I expected and agreed with, because they shouldn’t displace a kid trying to get a class to graduate on time) but had no trouble getting into the courses they wanted anyway. All they had to do was meet the prerequisites for a given class.

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  16. I would go with the college he picked, all other factors being reasonable to do so.

    Success in college is not necessarily about the name brand, particularly for undergrads. It’s determined more by whether you are happy there, connect with the professors, feel motivated to do well, and can make some friends, because friends will study together, give each other advice, and be the support system. And you are still talking about so pretty decent university.

    My kids were both accepted to a number of good private schools, and both ended up choosing the state U, and are very happy there (and have found great opportunities beyond the classroom). They both commented that the state U was a far better price bargain than the pricier places they had gotten into (even with top scholarships).

    I look at Elena Delle Donne, who was one of the top, if not the top, women’s basketball recruit when she headed off to UConn, at the time the “best” school for women who wanted to play basketball . . . And within weeks, she agreed to have to not play basketball for a year, just so she could transfer back home to UDel. It turned out to be a great choice— she was terribly unhappy at UConn, the school not being a good fit, and she was very happy at UDel (and went on to the WNBA as a major player, despite not going to the “best” school in basketball). In short, she quickly found out that being miserable was not going to work out well, no matter the school’s reputation, and choosing instead a school with a good but not “First thoughts in a name brand” reputation where she could be happy was going to help her to be more successful. It was worth giving up a whole year of eligibility.

    UMd is a solid pick. He’s saying he’d be happier there. I would have no qualms about it.

    Jen

     

     

     

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  17. What do you think are their current plans? Do they plan to take the SAT or the ACT? Do they plan to take any AP courses such as AP Stats or AP Calc?

    If they plan to take AP Calc or Stats and the SAT, I think either the TI-84 or a Casio fxg series will work very well.

    If you have a seriously tech Geek kid, and have the budget for it, consider a TINspire, but if you plan on a standardized test or AP Physics or other courses, do check on the College Board site to see if the calculator they want is allowed on the exams they are likely to take.

    They are all pretty simple to use, and finding your way around the menus is pretty straightforward— the functions are grouped pretty logically on all of the TI’s and Casios I have tried. It’s a bit harder to find your way around on an HP.

    Given ease of use being I pretty similar, I like Casio for better speed and lower price. I like the TI because most textbooks give step by step directions for TI calculators. For a wow factor for running a quick and simple simulation to explore how concepts work, the Casio and TI are good, but the TINspire is the best in that category. Many book publishers have been including groups of applet/simulators available free online, too, for playing around with “What happens if I increase my sample size?” Types of scenarios.

    It’s true that most computation is actually done on computers now, but I find it’s nice to be able to just be more portable with the textbook and calculator sometimes, and once you learn your way around a bit and see the logic to where things are found, the calculator is pretty quick for doing homework problems.

     

     

     

  18. 9 hours ago, desertflower said:

    Thanks!

    I want to clarify though that he is not a reluctant writer. He just doesn’t need to write a composition every week like CAP’s writing and rhetoric class did for my dd. 
     

    He’s in WWS 2 only because he tends to take a lot of science classes. For example, he will be taking three high school science class this semester. Two of them his choosing. 
     

    The beauty of homeschooling! 

    You asked above if the rhetoric classes at TWMA were potentially too hard for what you are looking for. You can always contact the instructor to ask questions!

     

    I will say that the rhetoric courses are thorough, but not overly difficult. The writing assignments are well scaffolded— my STEM kid thinks he benefitted from them greatly in terms of college preparation. Often, they will have an assignment due weekly, but over several weeks this involves working through an outline, a rough draft, workshopping the drafts with other students (both of my kids— STEM and English kid— found the workshopping to be beneficial. So it’s not like having to produce a new essay every week; they produce a few essays and get a lot of guidance on how to gradually make them stronger, and they practice applying the different rhetorical techniques they are reading about and discussing in class. So by the end of the sequence, the student has a decent toolbox for different writing goals.

     

     

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  19. On 12/26/2022 at 4:48 PM, desertflower said:

    Hello,

    What did you guys use for writing after WWS 3?  Thanks.

    Are you essentially asking about what to do for high school composition?

    My two boys took two different paths. My college engineering major took Rhetoric I—III from The Well-Trained Mind Academy, followed by AP English at PA Homeschoolers.

    My college English major did Clearwater Press’ Byline, followed by Rhetoric I—III plus a homegrown course I called, “The Anatomy of Story,” in which we read what well-known published authors have written about developing character, dialogue, plot, setting, etc, as an elective.

    Both of them have nothing but praise for the writing courses at TWM Academy online. My English major kiddo has no regrets about skipping AP English, and my STEM kid is glad he took it.

     

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  20. 3 hours ago, EKT said:

    My daughter is taking AP Art History this year (this is her first-ever AP; she's taking it through PA Homeschoolers).

    She's requested one of the big, fat review books, and I have a couple of questions:

    • Does this look like a good one? (AP Art History is not a super popular AP course, so this is the only test prep book I've found online. The copyright date is 2020, so I'm hoping there's been no major changes in the test in three years. Thoughts?) 
    • How did your student use their test prep book? (Did they work in it in small chunks across the school year, or did they use it as a crash course at the end of the year? Another way?) 
    • In your experience, are the test prep books worth it? (It's not cheap, so I want to make sure it's something we'll actually use and benefit from.) 

    Thanks! 

    What does the instructor say? Some courses have a ton of review built in and no need for a separate review book.

    I tell my AP Stats students NOT to buy review books unless they really have a lot of extra time on their hands, because I already provide practice tests and plenty of review. But some students like to buy them anyway, for still more practice, in which case, I do have a few on hand that I will recommend so they don't waste their time.

    My recommendation is... ask her instructor for a recommendation, based on the course plan and their experience, as well as any feedback you get here.

     

    • Like 2
  21. 1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

    Will someone see where we're going wrong?

    The problem asks for a formula to find r in the given information of the surface area of a cylinder.

    A = 2pi(r^2) + 2pi(r)h

    2pi(r^2) + 2pi(r)h - A = 0

    From there, dh and I are getting different answers and the work is just getting worse.  So, please, someone, walk me through the next steps of isolating r to find the formula!

     

    ETA: we know the formula, it's the problem of getting there that is the issue.

    OK your setup is good. Now look at this like a quadratic equation, with A = 2pi, B = 2pi(h), and C= -A

    You only want the positive solution, because a radius can only be positive.

    so, r = ( -2pi(h) +/- sqrt(4(pi^2)h^2 + 8(pi)(A))/4(pi))

     

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  22. My sons only applied to schools they were truly serious about attending if they got in with enough merit aid, so they applied EA to every school that offered it, to demonstrate serious intent, and yes, to get those decisions back sooner and reduce late spring stress, increase chances of merit aid and honors programs.

    I didn’t see any down-side. If there had been a school that was chosen to be a fallback choice only, with a dim chance of ever attending, then they might not have gone with EA there, if only to help admissions be more accurate in crafting their freshman class, but I don’t think that’s a “moral requirement” for everyone to follow. I don’t know what they would have done if they had applied to a huge number of schools, as some students do— they each only applied to 4-5 schools total.

    It was really nice to finish senior year focusing on school work and not so much on college stuff, with decisions in hand!

     

    Jen

    AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

    Honors History of Science/PA Homeschoolers

    • Like 1
  23. Many private colleges do publish their merit scholarships, so you can see what they could potentially get. Those scholarships will give you a decent indicator of what kind of aid you are likely to get as well, at least in our limited experience. My kids earned top level scholarships at several private colleges. They were offered limited financial aid— and we sound like you— in-state university is about right, price-wise, not interested in taking big loans. The private colleges thought it would be reasonable for us to pay upwards of $120k for four years AFTER netting top-tier scholarships. My kids are happy at the in-state U, where they will graduate debt-free.

     

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  24. On 8/14/2022 at 6:31 AM, DawnM said:

    Son #2 leaves tomorrow

    Son #3 leaves Thursday

    I am so excited for them and so sad for me.   

    How about your kids?

    My oldest has stayed at school this summer for the most part, since the lease on his apartment is a full-year lease. He’ll be a senior this year, and each time we see him, he seems to mature faster than we can imagine.

     

    This weekend will be the last weekend at home for my youngest; the following Saturday, we drop him at his dorm for his freshman year. And then it’s just us and our cats and our students.

    And yes, happy for them and sad for me is a good way to put it! There will be good things coming, too— it’s been 22 years since my husband and I had ourselves to ourselves for more than a few hours to a very occasional weekend. Or just been able to waive off dinner if we weren’t hungry because we didn’t have anyone else to be responsible for feeding.

    But it’s going to be very weird, too. 

    We have always eaten home-cooked meals around the table together as a family. I can foresee a few nights of eating out, despite the calorie intake, just to avoid that empty table for a few nights.

     

     

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