In my high school social circle (mid-2000s) that meant "Will you be my boyfriend/girlfriend"? Same thing in college.

I've learned that the media almost always gets bills wrong. :glare: Along with court cases. That and people like to to imagine the furthest extremes to which a bill/court case could go, and broadcast that as the inevitable consequence if the bill passes/the court case is not reversed.

Yes. Make a friends list - either the people you *want* seeing the pictures, or the people you *don't* want seeing the pictures. Then change the album's privacy settings to "visible to these people" or "not visible to these people." You can also do this without using friends lists - just type people's names. Lists simplify the process.

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Congratulations on your little girl in utero! Your in-laws sound truly toxic. I hope your finances improve so you can get far far away from them.

The link posted by the OP contains a link to the actual text of the bill. This bill is *clearly* directed at preventing wrongful life lawsuits, such as the one mentioned in the other thread. I do not think it is supposed to make it possible for doctors to lie to their patients in order to prevent them from having an abortion. I don't see anything in this bill that mentions doctors withholding information! I think you could still sue the doctor for failing to provide medical information, but you couldn't sue claiming wrongful life. And I think that's a good thing. ETA: This is based on my college-educated, non-lawyer reading of the text of this bill. I highly doubt the journalists who write the news articles are lawyers either.

Rachel Held Evans has a post with a lot of links about this, both for and against the IC campaign.

I'm one of those who grew up hearing the word "retarded" used as slang (by others my age, not by adults), and never as a word to describe someone with mental disabilities. I wasn't aware that it was still a medical diagnosis. That being said, I try not to use the word, as I know that it is seen as offensive - and after watching that beautiful video, I'm convinced even more that it is a word I should avoid. I wish I could say that I have absolutely never used the word "retarded" as slang, but I'm sure I have at least once. I do use the words "idiotic" and "stupid" on occasion - I am never quite sure if those are okay, especially since I know that "idiotic" has roots similar to "retarded." I try to avoid calling *people* such terms on principle (along with a host of other negative epithets) - it's almost always laws, events, or actions that I find so ridiculous. People are so much more than one action, or one facet of their being!

We have a Sony Bravia as well, and I watch Netflix all the time. We used to have Clear 4G Internet (with a max speed of 3mbps I think - I don't recall), and sometimes Netflix would play 2-3 minutes and then load, then play 2-3 minutes, etc. The Clear wasn't very reliable Internet. Now we have AT&T U-verse, with 12mbps speed, and I don't think we've had that issue since - except with one show which was playing in high definition. So, I would check your Internet speed. I think high traffic times may contribute to the problem. Also, I think it happens more with some shows than others. Sometimes restarting Netflix and/or the TV (or even the Internet) will help. Pausing the movie as soon as it starts to play sometimes gives enough space that it won't stop. Otherwise, check Netflix's help. I hope it starts working better!

I was on the pill for about two months after my cycle went whacky. Turns out it was a side effect of a steroid shot I received for a bad cough. I didn't know that at the time, though. I was miserable on the pill, and as soon as I stopped taking it I could cope with life again. That has been my only experience with artificial birth control so far.

I watched it - only because I live in the area. I laughed. But this is not the Dallas I know. I haven't read the book, but I want to.

Actually, in most states, the employer, the employee, and the federal government assumes that TIPS will make up the majority of your salary - and they mess with the waiter's wage accordingly, giving the employer a "tip credit" which allows them to pay the waiter a minimum of $2.13 an hour instead of $7.25. So yes, you ARE expected to tip. If a waiter does not make at least $5.17 in tips per hour (to bring his actual wage up to $7.25) then the employer is supposed to make up the difference. That being said, if (general) you receives truly bad service feel free to tip accordingly - but if your drinks are refilled, your orders are taken and arrive, and your waiter checks up on you at least once, that's decent service, IMHO, and deserving of a decent (15%) tip. If you can't afford the tip, you can't afford to eat at a sit-down restaurant in the US - at least until they change the laws.

I have a journal software called Day One, but it's a Mac-only product. Of course, you don't have to have a special software - you could just use a word processing program if you wanted. Journaling for me is very personal, so I do it in a private space. Blogging is typically meant to be read - my journal is meant for no one but me. :)

At my husband's restaurant, all credit card tips are reported automatically and the vast majority of tips are left on credit cards. My record of dh's wages and the W-2 were quite close, though not exact. Also, I believe the IRS has a mechanism to estimate cash tips whether they are reported or not - and it is based on a percentage of a waiter's sales, meaning they can be taxed on money they did not make. Tipping is far closer to a requirement than it is to being customary. Giving people gifts for their birthday is customary, but if there are no gifts it doesn't really affect the birthday person (aside from possibly hurt feelings). If no one tips a waiter, he will have no money to pay the bills. HUGE difference. (However, he is supposed to make real minimum wage in that case, paid by the employer.) Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington pay waiters full minimum wage, according to the US Department of Labor. http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm

I didn't mean to imply that. My point was just that a waiter's salary can vary widely, so one should not stiff one's waiter! (And the $20 tip in question would not be stiffing.) Nor should one assume that the waiter will have a great night based on one tip of that size. :)

The waiter would have made $20 for *that* hour. To balance it out, there would have been the two hours before and after actually waiting tables when the waiter was getting paid $2.13 an hour (money that will be eaten by taxes), along with the 3 hours where people came in and stiffed their waiter. Depending on your luck, you could work an entire night and make $17 for 5 total hours of work. And in some places you still have to tip out the bar and the busboy. My husband is a waiter in a business area, which means he makes enough money to live on because there's good business and people tip. Until the law is reformed, that's how it works - waiters live off of tips. It is far more common for him to get $40-$50 for an evening shift (5 hours total, $8-$10/hr) than it is for him to receive $100 ($20/hr). Lunch shifts are better. Then again, this is a decent waiter job - we can live off of his income alone, but we aren't far from the federal poverty line. At the first restaurant he worked at, a *good* night was $40. Any waiter will see a 10% tip and be insulted. 10% says that you did not appreciate the service you received. 15% is minimum - anything above that is completely optional, but also appreciated, especially if the service was better than the minimum. I would never tip above 20% unless the service was EXCELLENT and I could afford it. ETA: This post is directed at the thread in general, not at you Wendy - I just used your post as a spring-off.. :)

:bigear: I am a grown-up and can swallow smaller pills, but the typical antibiotic and vitamin pills just don't.go.down. I think it has something to do with my tongue motion while drinking water (the only way I've tried swallowing a pill).

My husband is a waiter. 15% is for mediocre but acceptable service - 10% is considered stiffing the waiter or an indication that you did not like the service you received. Other than that, he would agree with your tipping rules. Your kids have been overtipping! I'm sure their waiters appreciated it :)

Wait a minute. Her *semester* grade went from an A to a D based on ONE INCIDENT of not having proper shoes and therefore not being allowed to participate?! Or was it a six-weeks grade or a daily grade? I can understand a daily grade, but a six-weeks grade or above going that low from that thing is ridiculous. I would talk to the teacher, the head of the department, all the way up to the principal if necessary. This grading policy needs to be changed - it makes no sense. Also, perhaps you could throw in a discussion about athletes being able to use their sports to fulfill the PE requirement...At my high school sports and marching band both qualified for PE credit. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that she will be heard if she tries to resolve this on her own. Parents have to get involved sometimes, because schools will listen to parents when they won't listen to students.

My dh had a hard time finding a job before we married - and we live in DFW, where there are certainly jobs. He finally found one, but he applied to a lot of places. I think his biggest problem was lack of job experience, but he had had a couple of part time jobs at that point. My dh enjoyed working at a nearby summer camp two summers in a row. Maybe your sons could try applying to places like that. They may be able to accommodate a mission trip. The summer camp that we worked at always needed more guys, but that may not be the case near you. Good luck to them!

From what I understand you can get shingles from chicken pox AND the chicken pox vaccine.

I have never been vaccinated. I had chicken pox at 4, so I have natural immunity. I've had whooping cough twice, once at 4 and once in high school (the second case was less severe and never officially confirmed). I am not immune to rubella, which I suppose means I never caught it. If the diseases for which we have vaccines become more common in the US, I will get the vaccines. I should get a tetanus shot just to be safe, and the rubella as well (but I think I would have to get MMR for that). I moved out of dorms the year that meningitis became required for college students living in dorms. If I ever go overseas, or to the south, I plan to get all my shots first. I currently have no plans to go overseas. We haven't decided whether or not to vaccinate dd - my thought is that we'll start the shots around 3 if we do. One of my (adult) sisters, who was also not vaccinated as a child, recently had to get vaccinations in order to be around chemotherapy patients. She did not have to get the full range of vaccinations recommended for children. I'm not sure where the list of required shots came from in her case, but found it interesting that she didn't have to get them all.

I have never heard that - but I didn't do driver's ed with a program, either, and I've never done defensive driving. Around here, everyone pulls up to the while line..or beyond, poking into the crosswalk. I agree with another poster that if you leave space, another car will get into it. I can read texts just like breathing, as yet another poster said, but I don't do it while driving. It's the unlocking the phone and navigating to the text part that would get me - any handling of the phone, actually. I also don't put CDs in or even really drink anything. I'm not that talented...

Bible is capitalized when referring to the Christian Bible, or when the word Bible is part of the title of another work (such as The Cooking Bible - I made that up, though, don't go looking for it). I would not capitalize the word "The" in front of Bible, though... The word "biblical" is not usually capitalized. Nor would "bible" be capitalized when used as a descriptor of another book (this book is the bible of __), I would think.

I've only been driving regularly for maybe six months, so I'm just now getting to the point where I feel comfortable changing the radio station while driving... I do not text while driving, or look at my phone - except possibly VERY quickly at a red light. I think I may have done that once. My husband, on the other hand, looks at texts while driving and sometimes texts back - he claims that he can do it by touch (he has a smartphone without a physical keyboard). I don't believe him. Now he has a stick shift, so he better not be texting and driving. I've never heard that you're supposed to check your rearview mirror at red lights. I just pull up to the line, stop, and wait - usually I look at the light in front of me so that I can go when it turns green. :P I'm not entirely sure that there's anything I could do if I was rear-ended at a red light, anyway - since I pull up to the line, the only thing I could do would be to go into the intersection, which would be quite dangerous as well.

I'm currently doing the Grant Horner Bible reading plan - every day, you read ten chapters from ten different places in the Bible. Tim Challies issued a challenge for others to do the plan with him, the 3650 Challenge, and created a Facebook group for it. I think that Facebook group is the reason I haven't given up on it yet. :) I have also been doing a Colossians study on my own and I am part of a small group, but those things don't require very much Bible reading.