Blech. I was building some bookshelves in the garage today and I had to stop and take a shower mid-project... and again when I was done.

Hmm, we've had a few cases in our county recently. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm

What a cutie! He has the same hair color as my son (except his is thin and stick straight). I have no idea where it comes from...

We've gone back and forth on this. We had netflix for years, had Prime when they started offering free movies. Then we switched exclusively to Prime, then back to both. For a week now we've gone back to just Prime. Sigh. :tongue_smilie: It's not as good as Netflix. But we only have a few shows that our son watches. And that's really the only TV we watch. Not out of choice, we just can't ever find anything we both agree on. I usually watch my "womanly" shows (as my husband calls them). Amazon just got season 2 of Downton Abbey. (woot!) And he watches his boring whatever shows. :001_smile: Amazon is not updated with new stuff as often or as quickly. So, it depends on what you watch, and how frequently. It definitely is a downgrade, IMO. But not too much. You can see why we keep switching back and forth.

Yay for being in the center of the cone of uncertainty. As long as it stays a 1 or 2 we should be fine. Our plan is if it's a 1, meh. A 2, put up the storm shutters. A 3, get the heck out. We've ridden out a few 1s and 2s before. Never a direct hit, though. We'll look at altering our plans when it gets in the Gulf.

My son still takes an afternoon nap, but I've thought about this for when he stops. What about quiet time boxes? You fill them with special toys and books that they can only play with during quiet time. Also, you can bribe them with a snack if they stay in their room for an extended period of time without bothering anyone. You can start with a short time and slowly extend it. Use a timer or something so they can see how long they have. If they share a room, maybe there's a playroom or another bedroom you can set up for a quiet time if you want to keep them separate. And maybe switch them out every week.

I bought a book a few months ago through Prime shipping. It took 5 weeks to arrive. There wasn't anything Amazon could do after it was shipped out. It said it was delivered to someplace in Ohio. I contacted USPS and they put in a ticket to find out and called me back within one business day. It arrived two days later. So, I'm not sure. Did they mail it and the carrier lost it? Do you have a tracking number? Maybe call the carrier directly?

Yes, I reread it and I didn't mean for it to sound like that! He has high expectations. I wonder if it's just you that he has high expectations of (that's what I meant to say). I have a potty mouth (thanks to the military), I've definitely had to learn to curb it when my son started repeating me. But the occasional one will sneak out in frustration.

:grouphug: No suggestions, but that's a tough situation. I wonder if it's a mother thing or just too high expectations.

I live about 15 minutes from Destin. It's actually a very boring area (IMO). It's not relaxing, it's stressful driving around in the peak of the summer. There aren't a lot of events on the weekend and not much culture (again, IMO). BUT, drive 30 minutes down the road and you hit 30A/St.George/Apalachicola, which are such beautiful areas, so calm and relaxing. Small, quaint little shops, slow lifestyle, off the major highway. I love going there. So I think it depends on what beach you go to and what community you visit. This area has a large military population, so that doesn't slow down life. And, I'm not a beach person. I think as a family vacation it can be fun. But not living here year-round where all you have is the beach. It's a beautiful natural area, but I do take the view for granted sometimes. But then there are the beautiful sunsets and the emerald water that wakes you up. Just this weekend, we drove into Destin. It was this beautiful teal blue. So pretty.

Blick (I won't say the full name :o) is having a sale until midnight tonight. 10% off $99 or more. Free shipping $160+. I don't know if you planned to buy that much stuff, but they have discounts on large orders.

There's a $1.50 coupon on the Rubbermaid website if you were going to buy it in store.

I ask my SIL for permission to take my 16 year old niece somewhere. Definitely some serious lack of judgment at the least.

Well, I think that's stupid. But I also roll my eyes when I see that someone has a condition (before I read it). I've gotten some crazy particular ones before. I got a really nasty message from one person who said that it didn't meet the general conditions (she didn't request any specific conditions) - it had one line underlined on one page. I felt so bad because I forgot it was there. But she made it seem like I was trying to get one over on her. It makes me nervous because what if I overlook a particular request on accident? I never knew if she was going to report me to the paperback book swap police. Then, I would never be able to swap books again! But... I agree with you. Just read the request.

Our neighbors 2 houses down have their entire house decked out in a tiki/tropical theme... year round. It's been like that since we moved in 5 years ago. There's a tiki hut, those big head thingies, bamboo all over the place. It's so weird. Our other neighbors have a garage sale almost every weekend. How do you have so much stuff?! Oh, and everyone seems to be related to each other around us. We're the weird ones, I guess.

I'm sorry. :( I haven't been in that position. But I know if it was my beloved pet, I would want to know right away. Especially if it was a few days before coming home. He might want to leave camp and come home. I'm sorry for your son.

What a cool feature!

Food - 11% Other variable expenses (clothing, gas, entertainment, gifts, eating out, personal care)- 6% -We have one car, paid off, and my husband bikes to work. Besides insurance, cost of transportation is entirely dependent on how bored we are at home and how often we drive around each week. I'd say about $100/mo. If we lived farther away, gas would probably go up and have its own category. Health insurance - 9% Mortgage - 30% Utilities - 10% (gas, power, water, phone, internet) Then there's 30% left... Well, we're trying to save some money, so we've cut our budget deep. We also have a little debt that we're trying to pay off. As of now, we don't get any new clothes, no regular hair cuts, etc. We actually usually blow through the variable expenses. I try to use envelopes, but I end up using my debit when we run out. I guess you're not supposed to do that. ;) So I see the variable expenses going up when we get out of debt and money saved. Oh, charity's negligible. About 2%. That will go up eventually. So though our budget is a work in progress, our mortgage, utilities, groceries, and health insurance should always be around that percentage.

When I was young, I thought "Secret Agent Man" was "Secret Asian Man" too! Crazy :)

Oh, I forgot about this website: supercook.com Add what's in your pantry. You can exclude meat or items you don't have and find different recipes.

We just had a good meal tonight: It was black beans, sweet potatoes (but you could probably use white potatoes), frozen corn and frozen spinach with cinnamon, cumin, onion powder and garlic powder. Roll it up in a burrito with guac or sour cream. I was skeptical, but it was good. You could probably just serve it with a side of quinoa if you don't have tortillas.

I had Firefox, and I switched to Chrome too. I like it. I've never had any weird issues. Maybe you can install IE, and install Chrome through there. If you want to change. It's probably a Firefox issue and maybe it'll fix itself soon.

Maybe try unistalling and reinstalling the new Firefox? From a quick search it seems like a fairly common problem, but not many solutions.

I'm sorry. I saw your post on the "marriage is hard" thread and I never did post a reply. I just wanted to say I'm sorry. :sad:

600 meatballs?! :svengo: I don't have experience with something this large. But if you go to a party store they have those huge aluminum disposable trays with plastic tops. Maybe you could store them in that?