Thanks for trying, I'll try again when I get home; I'm on a UK server here at work so maybe it works differently.

Must be a squash thing...here are two of my (adult) dogs with a blue hubbard squash that didn't even make it into the house before they attacked it.

I don't know if I mentioned it in my post earlier, but in the applications market, you can get SwiftKey, which can be set to use data from Facebook, Gmail, text messaging, contacts, etc. for their suggestions, making things MUCH easier. I also can't say enough about their voice recognition. I dictate several-sentence paragraphs into my phone and it gets it almost exactly right, with minor tweaking here and there. It saves me tons of keystrokes (err..."screen touches"?).

Yes, I would definitely go to another dentist. He won't even give you a prescription for valium? That's what got me through the removal and replacement of my 8 porcelain veneers a few months ago. I've got big fears of gnarly tooth procedures and with the valium, I wouldn't have cared if they had yanked them all out of my mouth lol.

In my absolutely NONprofessional opinion, that doesn't look like a "bang" bruise. Praying it's nothing. But see the doc...Why wait?

Every bagless vacuum I had wound up in the trash heap within a year. I finally got the no-frills Hoover Tempo bagged vacuum and have used it for 4 or 5 years now, with no problems. I will never fall for the gadgetry they try to sell on the fancy ones again! http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hoover-Tempo-Widepath-Bagged-Upright-Vacuum-U5140900/14237588

Duluth Trading company has tall items that are not cheap but very durable. I particularly like their firehose pants as well as their long tail shirts, which protect our delicate eyes from my husband's plumber crack: http://www.duluthtrading.com/

It's confusing but in time, you'll get used to it. Good luck! :)

I use a mac at home and a pc at work. I hate having to stop and think about which system I'm using; I wish I were all one way or the other. My biggest complaint is that "control" doesn't work on the mac...you have to go over to the "command" button. And I do a lot of "Control +" navigating (ctrl + arrow to skip among words, ctrl + end, ctrl + delete or backspace to delete entire words) which doesn't seem to work on the mac...the "command" button doesn't replace the control button in those instances.

HATED the touchscreen at first. I still miss my palpable keyboard but on my Droid X there are a couple of things that make it more comfortable. 1. Haptic feedback: You can set the levels of this; it's a brief vibration that indicates that your "keypress" has registered. Too much and it's distracting, so I turn it down so I can just barely feel it. 2. The many virtual keyboards that are out there in the market. The original "swype" keyboard is nice. The "swype" idea is a good one and worked well. I went with swiftkey (there's a free version in the market to try). It's a little invasive (if you want it to be most effective, you give it access to your facebook, text, twitter, contacts, and gmail so it can "learn" what you're in the process of typing) but it's a remarkable keyboard and often I only type 2 or 3 letters of a word before the proper word is displayed. And often, it predicts phrases for me - not just "standards" (i.e. salt > and > pepper) but phrases I use in my own correspondence (i.e. my address 23 > main > street) so it's just a matter of the right word appearing and I select it. 3. Voice recognition. The voice recognition in swiftkey is the real reason I love it. I can dictate into it, a paragraph of 3 or 4 sentences and it'll pick up almost everything. After dictating, I have to go through and clean it up but it only takes a few seconds; much better than having to type it on the phone. So yeah, I miss my keyboard and its realness, but the virtual keyboard can be gotten used to.

Yep, I guess my google isn't nerdy enough lol I tried it as one big equation, then separated them by their commas and it didn't work no matter what... :(

The wine might help those chores go a little smoother if you've got a pre-bottle to spare! :)

I'm with MG - Clear off the sofa, tell her things are crazy and you hope she doesn't mind the house is a mess but you'd love to see her. All you have to spare is the sofa, but she's welcome to it. Then break out the wine and enjoy a visit with your friend!

I'd cook it now and freeze it, but wouldn't refrig/freeze it without cooking it. Yup, not a problem for me.

My folks are snowbirds and go back and forth from upstate NY to Florida and back each year. Sometimes they pay someone to do the driving for them. If I'm not mistaken they give the person $250 + gas each trip to do it. NY to Eastern TN is about 14 hours; might it be worth asking a friend or family member if they're interested in making the drive for them?

I'm bleeding over here!

I can relate to this, as we're completely gutting and renovating the house we just bought in TN. Hubby, who has never as much as unclogged a sink, intends to install the entire plumbing system in the house. Anytime I ask him if he's sure he knows what he's doing, he gives me this stricken look and says, "Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence!" So I'm left here next week, hoping for the best. The county does require plumbing inspections so I guess if it passes inspection, I won't worry. If it doesn't pass inspection, I'm sure it'll be due to some factor beyond his control...because it can't be due to the fact that he's not a plumber. That's unthinkable!

Our new place is near Knoxville and we have a similar problem. I don't know what the solution is...so I'm: :bigear:

If it's really your favorite, and you don't mind spending a couple dollars, TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) can be bought at home depot, lowes, etc. in most states. It's generally used to clean the walls of a house in preparation for painting. Make sure you get the red box, not the green (that's "phospate-free TSP" which defeats its own purpose). For a mess like you've got, I'd put the dish in the sink and add maybe a teaspoon or so (for, say, a 1.5 qt. casserole - more if it's bigger) add a small squirt of dish soap and fill it up with water. Let it sit for a day or two and you should see the black layer peel right off. If you don't, add some more TSP and let it sit again. I have yet to find a burned-on mess that can defeat a TSP soak. I also add 1/2 of a teaspoon to each dishwasher load now that phosphates have been removed from detergents; it eliminates the cloudy mess on my glassware and the stuck-on food that would normally have been washed away but now stays on the dishes.

We're in Morris County, NJ now and pay $9,000 a year in real estate taxes (mostly school tax). We have an 1800 s.f. house and 1/2 acre of land on an unpaved road. We're moving to Roane County, TN, and on that house we pay $460 a year in real estate taxes. We have an 1100 s.f. house and 4 acres of land on a paved county road. Both houses are about 20 minutes from what I require for "civilization"...Wal mart, groceries, gas, post office, etc. So especially as homeschoolers (once we move), the better deal is obvious...

Praying for healing for your sweet baby boy, wisdom for the doctors, and strength for you and your family.

Unfortunately there are an armload of breeds that are commonly considered "pitbulls" and are discriminated against by municipalities and insurance companies, without the individual dog having the opportunity to redeem him/herself. Different entities consider different breeds "pitbulls". The great Dane is fabulous in the house; she doesn't run around like the others tend to. In fact, she "hollers" at them to knock it off when they start horsing around in the house. None of our dogs are huge "ball-chasers", and we don't have access to a swimming hole on our property so they've never...[swum]? lol ...been swimming since we've had them. I imagine they're not ball-chasers because they occupy themselves by playing with each other. If there were just one dog in our house, we'd probably be playing a lot of fetch. I don't have any experience with boxers but I do know they're great family pets too. There are so many great dogs out there, it's hard to choose one! I guess that's why we have four. Have you considered going to the pound and finding a puppy...of whatever breed...that you connect with? One thing I can recommend against, and that's a hound. Our Reba, whom we adore and is a sweet, loving little princess, is the most stubborn dog I've ever known. She leaves the yard (in spite of the heavy-duty invisible fencing around our yard) without hesitation, yelping as she crosses the boundary and gets a shock. She follows her nose deep into the woods so we also have to have a remote trainer on her to call her back home. So this skinny little 50 lb. dog has two big boxes hanging off her collar and still does what she wants, when she wants. I've never known a dog like her, to disregard pain to follow its instincts. Very frustrating. Love her though, when she's home and calm! I like collies' personalities generally, but don't like a long-haired dog and I don't care for the pointy muzzle (in spite of our redbone's slender, pointed nose lol). We like some meat around the nose and mouth; it's just more...smooshy and kissable.

Super chill; ours is about 3 y.o., probably around 120 lbs. She runs around and plays with the other dogs, bounding around like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, but only for a while...then she comes in and roasts herself in front of the fire. We can tell when she's walking past the piano because she plays it with her tail. Oh, and she talks when we talk to her: "Woo-woo-woo-woooh!" She's a great big sister to the other three nincompoops.

Not to derail too much, but have you considered the great Dane? They're great fun and are active for a while but then love to lay by the fire and chill too! They don't eat much more than a lab, and don't really require much room to run either, short hair so no furry mess. Tons of them available at rescue. Great family pets! Oh, and they have those...lips! Our Sharona: Sound asleep in this shot, it's her favored sleeping position. Lord knows why...

Even in NJ we can shoot a dog if it's endangering livestock... Sorry about your hens; we love our little gals and when a hawk got one, we were so sad.