Here is an interesting article with some good news about the outbreak in Africa (I didn't want to start a new ebola thread just for this article, and so I am putting it in here because this is the thread that was active last): In Liberia, Ebola Survivors Find They Have Superpowers. It highlights not only the health care workers but also the survivors who then go on to help others (some of them begin to help even as they are still recovering themselves) - truly real life superheroes! Some interesting bits from the article: * "World Health Organization figures showing that, for the first time in weeks, there are fewer new cases of Ebola in Liberia. At ELWA3, empty beds outnumber the patients, and only about 80 to 85 confirmed cases remain." * "Ebola survivors are immune to the virus for as long as three months." Interesting that immunity is not permanent. In the comments, a commenter stated that people stop producing the antibodies after around 3 months. I wonder what effect that has on the potential vaccines - I guess the vaccines would only be useful if administered at the start of an outbreak in the immediately-affected area.

I like my basic julienne peeler. Simple, works well and easy to clean up. Mine came in a set of 3 peelers: http://www.google.com/shopping/product/5230441553053694615?lsf=seller:4535634,store:13738973694224814292&prds=oid:408151315470938044&hl=en

I am surprised at all the comments about kids not trick-or-treating once they're in middle school or teens. That's not the case at all in my area. All of my daughters' friends (6th & 8th graders) were out and having a blast!

His friend might even have a costume that he can borrow.

Why not put your home on the market? An experienced realtor could help you to price your home to sell, put in an offer on the house that you want, and advise you on how to juggle the closings of the two (e.g., bridge financing).

"Some cheeses, of course, are deliberately infected with fungi. Penicillium roqueforti gives blue cheeses such as stilton and roquefort their flavour." Does that mean that if you are allergic to penicillin you should not eat blue cheeses?

I understand this thinking, and I used to think this way as well. But "sharing the music evenly" is from the *parent's* point-of-view. First, the kids did not necessarily agree with me - what I saw as "sharing evenly" was not necessarily fair and equitable to them. And second, even if they agreed that what I was proposing was fair and equitable, if *I* was the person proposing it then the "difficult" child would still reject it - your classic power struggle. The kids were perfectly capable of working out their own agreements. Sometimes they took even turns (you listen to one song and then I'll listen to one song) - perhaps after negotiating that we'd listen to Sister B's song first. Sometimes Sibling A didn't really care much about the music and realized that Sibling B *really* cared about the music, and so they'd both agree to go along with what Sibling B wanted. That seemed totally unfair to me, and like it was rewarding Sibling B for making a fuss, but it worked perfectly fine for them. (If I felt that one child was just giving in so that it wasn't a true agreement, then I wouldn't accept the agreement.) Believe it or not, sometimes the opposite happened, too - Sibling B realized that Sibling A really cared about the music, and Sibling B didn't really care about it, and so agreed to go along with what Sibling A wanted. In this case, usually Sibling B had gotten upset over some related slight - for example, mom put on sister's music first without asking. Or she was mad about something totally unrelated. By letting them work it out, their true needs were met. Not my decision of how to balance what *I* perceived to be their needs. Sharing the music equally was not always the right solution. After all, Sibling B is highly skilled at negotiating and advocating for herself. As lauraw4321 said in her first post, "Everything is a negotiation." So let the kids negotiate with each other, so long as they keep it respectful (no yelling, etc.) They were also much more willing to work it out with each other because there was no power dynamic there - they were both on equal footing. What Sibling B would reject if it came from me (because of our power dynamic), she would often accept if it came from her sister. Also, banning music doesn't reward the bad behavior. Sibling B doesn't get to listen to her music either, unless they're able to work out an agreement. If Sibling B is truly unable to reach a compromise with Sibling A after numerous chances, then you might need to try an alternative - for example, let Sibling A listen on headphones or give her some other reward to make up for the loss of music and to thank her for being willing to come to a compromise even though her sister wouldn't agree to one. ETA: Lastly, if the "difficult" child has sensory issues, listening to music in the car may be overwhelming. Or it may have been overwhelming on that particular day at that particular time after there was a series of other events that overloaded her and pushed her to her limit. Sometimes silence is what's *needed* even if the other child wants to listen to music and is willing to share equally.

I have a child like this. I found that very brief corrections done every time worked better than longer corrections with lots of warnings before them. For example, say we were at the dining room table and she's trying to take her sister's markers. After one request to leave her sister's markers alone and use her own markers, each time, I'd pick her up and carry her to the sofa and tell her she could come back when she was ready to leave her sister's markers alone and use her own. Even if she *immediately* got up from the sofa and came right back, that was OK. I might have to repeat it 2-3 times, but if she knew I'd respond that way every time, then she'd stop the behavior. (This took away the power struggle over enforcing the time out.) Also, corrections involving my presence/gentle touch worked better than verbal corrections. For example, it was much more effective to gently take her hand as she reached for her sister's markers and stop/redirect her, rather than to tell her no verbally. But my dd has always been soothed by touch. ETA: And always ask yourself: is she hungry? thirsty? tired? At that age, I made sure she had a meal or snack at least every 3 hours because hunger made everything much worse. ETA: As for the music in the car, I'd say no music in the car if the kids can't figure out how to share the music time without screaming and fighting. Let them work it out. Often my kids came up with agreements that they were fine with, even if they seemed less than fair to me. Or they'd reach the same solution that I would have proposed, but they stuck to it because it was their own idea and not imposed by me.

Our vet boards and can give the necessary shots. I'd advise your Mom to call her vet this am and inquire about boarding there. ETA: I see that you said bordatella has to be given in advance. Bummer. Sorry you're stuck with this!

Thanks to everyone for the replies! Dd has decided to stay on swim team for the time being. But I did learn that some YMCAs offer upper levels in their progressive swim program that might be of interest to kids who want to swim recreationally for fitness (without the long-term commitment and competition requirements of swim team). The Shark, Porpoise and Barracuda classes seem to work on refining stroke technique, flip turns, diving off the block and building endurance so I assume that they have similar drills as swim team practice. Not all Ys offer them, and the descriptions of what the class covers seem to vary a bit from Y to Y. Some Ys also offer "Swim Fit" classes which teach the fundamentals of team training, so they also sound similar. I thought that information might be of help to some others!

I am curious why you think that quarantine was necessary for the people that Duncan had stayed with, as they were also asymptomatic?

Will the less competitive teams generally state on their website that competing is not required? Or do I have to email and ask? Because so far the vast majority of the teams in our area have a websites that say that they participate in competitions and do not say that it's optional.

Thank you for the replies so far! She was once permitted to swim laps, but only because my dh was there swimming with her and only because the lanes weren't full. It was made clear by the lifeguard that it was a rare exception. Kids are not allowed in lap swim until they are 13. Plus, she said that she likes the camraderie of swimming with the other kids. I asked the head coach last year if she could train but not compete or compete less, but that was not an option. I like the suggestion to look for a less competitive team that might allow her to train but not require that she compete. I will do that.

Dd 10 has been on swim team for a little over a year. She's made great progress on her technique and was moved up to the intermediate practice groups this year where they focus more on speed. She has always enjoyed the practices but not the competitions. She enjoys going to swim 3 times a week. She enjoys swimming for fitness. She enjoys the longer distance drills. She enjoys diving from the blocks. She does not enjoy sprints (which they're doing more of in practice now) and competitions. Is there any alternative to swimming on swim team for kids who like to swim for fitness? Our local Y has adult lap swim times but not lap swim times for kids.The only time anybody is allowed to use the diving blocks is during swim team practice. Masters swimming is for adults only. Looking for some ideas

The Coats Dual Duty is what I always used but it's no longer cotton covered polyester, it's 100% polyester.

I've always used Coats & Clark mercerized-cotton-covered, polyester-core thread for machine sewing - for things like repairing clothes and doing crafts. But now, all of their sewing threads seem to be 100% polyester. I've also found some 100% cotton threads. But I've searched and searched and can't find cotton-covered-polyester. Does anyone know a brand or store where I can find cotton-covered-polyester thread?

It is more of a logic puzzle in this case. The Set III problems are bonus problems that extend the subject, introduce some sort of a twist or introduce some interesting application of the subject to real life. They're mostly for fun and to make you really stop and think! (edited to match up my cases!)

Thank you Wendy. I completely missed that twist!

This is the problem from Jacob's Geometry 2d ed, Chap 2 Lesson 2 Set III: A bookworm eats its way from page 1 of volume 1 to the last page of volume 20 of an encyclopedia. The books are arranged in order on a bookshelf in the normal way. If the inside of each volume is 4 cm thick and each cover is 0.2 cm thick, through what distance did the bookworm chew? Our answer: Each book is 4.4 cm thick (4 cm insides + two 0.2 cm covers). There are 20 volumes so 4.4 x 20 = 88 cm. But the bookworm did not eat the front cover of volume 1 or the back cover of volume 20, so 88 - 0.4 = 87.6 cm. The answer key says: Covers: 38 x 0.2 cm = 7.6 cm Insides: 18 x 4 cm = 72 cm Total: 7.6 + 72 = 79.6 cm The answer key also includes a drawing that shows that they did not include the pages of volume 1 or volume 20 in the calculation (thus only 18 insides). We think this is wrong as the question is written. We think this would be correct if the question read "A bookworm eats its way from the last page of volume 1 to the first page of volume 20." So, who is correct - us or the answer key? If we are incorrect, can you please explain why?

As someone who makes it a point to be on time, I *hate* this. I arrived at the "mandatory" parents' meeting for the swim team a couple of minutes before it was scheduled to begin. The room was less than half full (small room for a fairly large number of swimmers). I wondered what time the meeting would actually begin. At ten minutes after the scheduled meeting time, a *huge* group of parents walked in. The meeting started after they got settled. Similar thing with back-to-school night. It started 10-15 minutes late. I get that sometimes people (myself included) get held up in unexpected traffic or have trouble finding a parking spot or for whatever reason life interferes. But once people know that things will be starting 10 minutes late, people don't even try to get there on time any longer. So should I get there at the scheduled time? 10 minutes late? 20 minutes late? 30 minutes late?

I think she clearly had an upper eyelid lift (I don't know what the proper plastic surgery term for that may be) which is making her eyes look larger and more oval, and her jaw is also less square which is making her face look longer and narrower. I don't know if the narrower jaw can be solely a result of weight loss, but I tend to think it's not solely weight loss because she had the square jaw shape when she did Chicago and she was quite thin then. I feel for her that she is getting so much media scrutiny. Hollywood is a brutal place for a woman, especially as she grows older. And I also despise the pressure that actors and actresses are under to get plastic surgery - you see it starting among the 20 year old starlets. But at the same time I think that playing coy about plastic surgery is silly. When you suddenly no longer look like you did a year ago and there's no obvious reason for the change (e.g., serious illness, injury or massive weight loss), then it's apparent that you had plastic surgery. Why not just own it? Is it really be so awful to say, "Yes I had my eyes lifted and I'm happy with the result, I feel great!" ? OTOH, maybe she's happy with the press attention - "there is no such thing as bad press" right? I think the changes are unfortunate - I thought she was beautiful before and she had a distinctive look. But she is still beautiful and I hope she's happy with her looks and is able to let the media comments roll off her back.

I successfully bleached my daughter's hair (just the bottom 3" or so) using the Manic Panic box set, and dyed it purple for the start of school. She was thrilled! The purple has since washed out and she has a nice ombre from brunette to blonde at the tips. We'll try another color on it over the next couple of weeks. I am curious what happened with Pippin's 100 pairs of band shoes.

This would be my ideal, but I'm not sure if I can get her there without getting overwhelmed. It looks like the local HS goes through the 1st half of the book in Latin 1 and the 2nd half in Latin 2.

The best scissors I ever bought have been some all metal "vintage" ones that I purchased from Etsy. I bought a set of 3 and love them! I used this scissor sharpener to sharpen the blades, but I'm not sure that they even needed it, really!

My dd would like to switch from French to Latin for her world language study. I am OK with that, but I have absolutely no Latin experience myself. I had hoped to enroll her in an online class, but it looks like we're too late for that option for this year. I am looking at Latin for the New Millennium because it seems to be highly recommended and it is the book that our local high school uses and dd may transition back to B&M school for 9th grade next year. How independent is LNM? If I get the Teacher's Guide, will that be enough for me to guide her through the lessons? ETA: I've been looking through the Level 1 Samples, I am not feeling very confident about using this book. :sad: Thanks! ETA: The other option I was looking at is Latin Alive. Between the DVD lessons, a Teacher's Guide that says it includes "extensive explanations" and the HeadventureLand.com website, I thought it looks like it might allow for quite independent work. Maybe this would be a better fit for us.