Nowhere in the article does it say that Ms. Jallah or her husband were tested. In fact, my understanding is that there is no point in testing people until they are showing symptoms - until enough of the virus builds up in their bodies, the tests can return a false negative. From the article, it appears that even Ms. Jallah and her husband do not understand why the CDC said that they could return to work. ETA: "In fact, the PCR test is sensitive enough that by the time most people show up with symptoms in a hospital, it will be able to detect the virus" (from the article "How Hospitals Test for Ebola"). Also see "How It Feels to Have Ebola" which describes a false negative test on a patient who was showing symptoms. Also, the CDC page on Diagnosing Ebola has a chart of the diagnostic tests available, and the earliest listed are "within a few days after symptoms begin"

Yes, the facts usually do change as the stories get more thoroughly vetted. This is a shortcoming of our present-day media system, and definitely complicates matters for the CDC. However, I also consider this to be a shortcoming of the CDC in handling this situation - their media management has been awful to nonexistent. If the CDC wishes to build credibility with the citizenry, they need to get control over information and be releasing clear, consistent information. If something happens that seems inconsistent - e.g., if they clear someone to return to work before 21 days are up - especially in the health care field - and they've previously said that the quarantine period is 21 days, then they need to explain the difference. I'm surprised that they do not have someone issuing press releases, monitoring and responding to media reports at least daily, or maintaining a web page where they respond to discrepancies / inaccuracies in the media reports. When we're talking about a potential epidemic (in the worst case scenario), they need to be responding to misinformation to limit panic and build trust in their capabilities. And Ms. Jallah and her family have my admiration for being cautious enough to voluntarily quarantine themselves to protect others. I hope that no members of her family develop the disease.

My first instinct, too, is quarantine. However, I can understand (intellectually) that *IF* the CDC and other experts are correct in their analysis of how the disease is transmitted, then the protocols in place should be sufficient. The CDC states that people do not begin to shed the virus until they begin to run a fever, and even then in the beginning they shed very little virus until the illness progresses. So if you believe you have a risk of exposure, then it is sufficient to take your temperature twice a day and to go to the ER / get quarantined at the first sign of fever, because you cannot infect anyone else prior to that point. That saves people from the psychological and personal financial costs of quarantine (unable to work for 3 weeks, etc.), and it saves society the costs of establishing quarantine facilities for a large number of potential contacts who never get sick. I do hope they're right about how the disease is transmitted. But I am not yet (personally/emotionally) convinced of that.

I'd be furious if I was one of these deputies or a family member. The article says that on Friday, they met with county health officials who told them the danger of contracting ebola was remote because no people in the apartment were showing symptoms - yet - the next day they were told to bag up the clothes they had been wearing and their cars were pulled out of service. Who made those decisions? Was it a health official? Why were the cars quarantined but not the people? Why was the bagging up of the clothes not done until the next day? The article also seems to answer the question of why he went to the walk-in clinic -- he was just doing as instructed: "He says they were told to check their temperature at least once per day, and if they begin to show any flu-like symptoms to immediately go to the doctor."

There is now a report that there is a 2nd possible case of ebola in Dallas in one of the people who had contact with Mr. Duncan. The identity of the person with the new case is not given. ETA: I note that the report came from Care Now, which is apparently a walk-in clinic. That makes it sound like this person was not one of the people being closely monitored with twice-daily fever checks by the CDC. That makes it very concerning if this does turn out to be a second case. I will hope that it turns out not to be ebola. And my sympathies go out to Mr. Duncan's family. ETA 2: The article was just updated to state that the affected person is "an employee of the Dallas County Sheriff's Office, and had been in the apartment Duncan was staying in before he was hospitalized Sept. 28."

I tried picking and choosing which questions to assign to my daughter, and I did not find it to work well. I've come to think that the Set II / III problems are designed to be an integral part of the lesson. The lesson text introduces the basic concepts, but the Set II / III problems allow the student to expand that information step-by-step into new areas. It lets them have a series of aha! moments that allows them to really explore and extend the concepts in a logical manner. When we skipped problems - even if they looked repetitive - there was more confusion than when we did them all. Now, we do the Set II problems together as part of the lesson and I assign the Set III problems as homework. I actually just wrote a blog post about it, if you're interested in a little more detail. ETA: As far as the scaffolding, I think that you could often adjust to skip that by simply introducing the problem and asking for the final answer, and checking to make sure the key interim points were hit in reaching the answer. If the student is struggling with how to approach the problem, you could then use the sub-questions for guidance in working through the steps. We often start discussing the problem before we've read all the way through the sub-questions, only to discover that in our discussion we already answered a number of the sub-questions.

Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream. Apply to any dry skin, not just cuticles. It is magic - you'll see improvement begin immediately. ETA: The containers are small and appear to be very expensive, but they go a loooong way. You only need to use a very small amount - for small areas like cuticles, or when I use it as a lip balm, I just rub my finger across the surface to pick up enough to use. For larger areas like dry skin across my feet, I'll scoop out a little more - maybe 1/2 the size of a pea.

Are you the only person bringing food, or is your food a portion of the offerings? If you are the only person bringing food and it's for 44 people, I think a second quiche would be a good idea. Could you make a second quiche that does not contain meat - just some veggies and cheese perhaps? That way those who don't eat meat would have an option.

I think this is an important article, and am glad that the issue is being highlighted/discussed: U.S. nurses say they are unprepared to handle Ebola patients The article discusses nurses, X-ray techs, transporters, and hospital janitors as not being sufficiently trained or having access to adequate equipment. Beyond that: What about the training of paramedics? How do you adequately clean/sterilize an ambulance after transport? Who do you call to come in and clean and disinfect a house or apartment? If people clean up a house/apartment themselves, how do they dispose of the waste?

What my daughter does (on her own) is braid her hair after she showers and before bed, and lets it dry in the braids overnight. (If your daughter's hair is thick enough that it won't dry in that time, she can partially dry it before braiding it.) The next morning, she has waves. With the length of your daughter's hair, she might need to do two braids. If she can learn to French braid her hair (it's not that hard), the waves will go closer to her scalp, but she can start out by putting her hair in a ponytail and braiding it in a regular braid from there, to see if she likes the effect that she gets.

My dd has been asking me to set up a private Minecraft server. She seems to think I am capable of doing anything! LOL But I have no idea where to start with this one. Can anyone explain the process to me? Or point me any Setting-Up-A-Minecraft-Server-for-Dummies sites or videos? Thanks!

My daughter liked to take a bag of Sun Chips last year - she would share them with anyone who wanted some. Nutella doesn't have peanuts in it, does it? I might get her one of those dippable Nutella snack packs as a treat this year - or pack some Nutella with some apple slices or grapes for dipping.

We looked into services like Lifelock but concluded that they were overpriced for what they offered. The most effective tool that we found for protecting against identity theft was placing a security freeze on our credit reports. That means that no companies can access our reports for the purpose of issuing new credit, so any credit applications will be denied. It is a slight pain because you have to place the freeze on your credit reports at each of the 3 credit agencies, but we've found it to be highly effective. If you want to apply for credit yourself, you can temporarily lift the freeze for a fee of around $5 (per agency). It wouldn't be appropriate for someone who needs to apply for credit themselves frequently, but if you don't anticipate applying for credit yourself then it is a great tool.

Hi to all the other swim moms out there! I was wondering what type of stuff your kids pack to pass the time at meets? I'd particularly like ideas that can be social and shared with other kids. I know, for example, that last year it was very popular to bring the Rainbow Loom kits and make bracelets. Thanks! ETA: Girls

OK, so it sounds like she's a pretty typical algebra student and we just need to not panic and keep soldiering on. We can do that! Thanks!!!

I have been doing Algebra with my 13yo 8th grader last year and this year using Jacobs' Elementary Algebra. It is not my goal to push her through math at an accelerated schedule; my goal is to keep her appropriately engaged and challenged and I thought it was appropriate for her to begin algebra last year. My intention was to move through the book at half speed, covering it in two years. Last year my goal was to make it to the midpoint of the book, but we didn't quite make it there. Reviewing her grades from last year, she was generally scoring As and Bs. Where she scored lower was usually due to sloppy work. This year, I planned to move a little more quickly, with the goal being to complete the book by the end of the year. But over the past month, we've been struggling. I did slow down the pace to take the time to review and reinforce some concepts (which seemed reasonable after a summer break). Today she took her first chapter quiz and only scored 73%. The thing is, she seems to get the algebra concepts. She sets up the equations properly and understands how to work with them. But where she's struggling is with thoroughness and accuracy in her work. In almost every problem that she missed, it was because she dropped a negative somewhere along the line. To address this, I've been struggling to get her to show her work (and she is improving). I also can’t get her to understand how important checks are - that she should *never* get a question wrong due to faulty arithmetic because the check will tell her whether she got it right or wrong. She’s sloppy with her checks and so doesn’t catch her wrong answers. She also is working more slowly than I expected, so homework takes much longer than I budgeted, and the time it took her to do the quiz took much longer than I expected. So at this point, I'm wondering if it's appropriate to continue with algebra and assume that these skills will improve over the course of the year as we continue to work on them? Or should I switch to other things for this year and let her re-take algebra again next year in 9th grade? If she were struggling with the algebra concepts themselves, it would be an easy decision for me to decide to wait another year. But are these other sorts of issues - attention to detail, accuracy, speed of work - maturation issues for which it would be beneficial to delay a year?

Our church used to hand out bag lunches after the service (when I lived in a big city). We'd fill brown paper bags with things like a pb&j sandwich, apple, cookie and bottle of water and then people could take them as they left and hand them out. I'd suggest starting out with something simple like that, and if you're handing out to the same people over time you'll get to know them and can watch for their needs or gently ask about their needs.

In my experience (not mine personally, but friends that I know and rental experience), if a corporation wants him to relocate quickly it will usually pay for the packing and moving. If that is a possibility in your case, that would be a *huge* amount of stuff off of your plate. I actually think it would be easier to deal with a move when you're 6-7 months pregnant (if you're having no pregnancy complications) than with a newborn. And this time of the year is better for a move than in the midst of winter (depending on where you're located.) I'd prioritize: * Finding a rental property or other housing at your new location. * Finding an ob/gyn at your new location. * Finding out details of medical insurance - will you be on new insurance immediately? will you need to extend your medical insurance under COBRA and will you get reimbursed for that? Then I'd focus on getting rid of stuff: * Declutter down to only the true essentials and consider hiring not only movers but packers and movers (if the corporation doesn't pay for them). The less you have to pack and move, the less expensive it will be; if you get down to essentials and can afford to pay for packing as well as moving, that would save you almost all of the physical labor involved (except for the unpacking) and would let you focus on logistics. * If you have a storage space (garage, basement, attic), and you're not sure yet about whether this move will happen, pack up everything that you'd be willing to declutter if you move but want to keep if you don't, and put it into storage. That will get it out of your way to allow you to do other packing, work in the house, get accurate quotes from movers (based on what stuff is left), etc. Then if the move happens, just call one of those places like the Veterans or Lupus that will pick up and have them pick up everything that's in storage in one big pickup. * If you're not going to hire packers, then I'd start boxing up as much as possible now and put it into one of those storage/moving pods, thus clearing as much space in the house as possible. Then I would expect dh to spend every spare minute from today forward working on house repairs - putting in flooring, sheetrock, painting, making sure the plumbing and electric works, etc. and getting the place at least presentable to show. You don't have to do all of the repairs / upgrades you had planned, but just make sure it has its bare bones in place. I wouldn't just assume that it won't sell or won't sell for a decent price. If you don't end up moving, you could have the pod returned and you'd have a house with floors, etc. for the new baby.

I don't know that there is a standard. But when I walked down the aisle, my father was on my right because at the head of the church the women (bride & bridesmaids) stood on the left and the men (groom & groomsmen) stood on the right (as viewed from the back of the aisle looking toward the front of the church). If we had divided seating in the traditional manner, the bride's family would have sat on the left and the groom's family would have sat on the right. So if both parents had walked me down the aisle, my father would have been on my right and my mother would have been on my left.

I agree. I think society has changed and people these days often have too much stuff and little need for more, and a small postscript requesting no gifts should be considered acceptable. I don't think people should feel hesitant to celebrate with family and friends because they'll be stressed from all the gifts. After all, isn't the goal to emphasize relationships and experiences over stuff? However, that doesn't change the fact that when etiquette rules are in flux, things still don't always work out. It would be ideal if a request for "no gifts" was considered appropriate/inoffensive and was respected by guests. But oftentimes people ignore such requests, or else risk being one of the few people who respect the request and show up empty-handed as everyone else comes bearing gifts. I think if you truly don't want gifts, you can't call it a birthday party or an anniversary party - just invite people and as part of the celebration bring out a birthday or anniversary cake. But that doesn't always work, either - I'd sure be more likely to rearrange my schedule to attend a 50th birthday party or a 25th anniversary party than to attend what appears to be just a barbecue, KWIM? For those who have requested charitable donations instead of presents, how has that worked? Has that met guests' needs to bring something? Or have they brought presents anyway?

This. If you truly wish to avoid having people bring gifts, then I would do as marbel suggested and not call it a birthday party at all, but some other type of party at which - surprise! - a birthday cake is brought out as part of the fun.

I know I'm late coming to this thread, but in case you haven't purchased yet . . . I have been the owner of three Fitbit Ones. The One worked very well and I liked that it was discreet - I would wear it clipped to the center of my bra, where it was quite invisible, so nobody would know I was wearing it. I liked that it would sync to my iPhone. I kept the charger in the bathroom and would clip it in to charge each day while I was in the shower. However, the Ones all met their demise either by getting lost or via the washing machine. Although I tried to be extremely careful, just one distracted/neglectful moment where I didn't see it clipped onto my bra, and into the washer it would go. Also, if you go with the One, expect that the little holder will wear out after about a year of use (the plastic tip comes off; you can try to re-glue it but I didn't have much success); you can purchase a replacement fairly inexpensively through the Fitbit website, though. So today I am purchasing the Fitbit Flex - that's the one you wear on your wrist. Although I'm not thrilled with wearing an obvious bracelet all the time, and I have to get used to wearing something on my wrist again (I haven't worn a watch in years), I decided to go with this one because there is no reason it should ever end up in the washing machine! And I don't have to transfer it to my wrist each night when I go to bed / then back when I get up in the am. I'm expecting that I'll need to buy at least one replacement wrist band per year, as the original gets worn. Some people say that the Flex's wristband tends to pop open, and recommend the BitBelt ($5.99) to protect against this so I'm probably going to try one of those. I also discovered that lots of people make dressier bracelets and covers, if you want to wear your Flex when you're not working out and have it not be so obvious. Hope that helps!

Every single room in my house looks worn and faded. We moved in here 13 years ago and that was the last time everything got a fresh coat of paint. The house desperately needs to be updated with fresh paint and other minor repairs. But when I try to figure out where to begin, I can't decide. It feels like everything needs attention at once, and I feel overwhelmed! So, any recommendations for how to prioritize?

:iagree:

If the room only gets dim light during the day, I'd go with the lighter color. I'd be worried the darker color would be more cave-like than cozy. Or, as a compromise, what about doing 3 walls with the lighter color and one accent wall with the darker color?