[I need to buy a vehicle that meets these very specific requirements]

Maybe look at the Subaru Ascent. It's the largest Subaru and comes in 7 or 8 passenger configurations. So you can lay seats down to fit large loads and still have passenger room. I think it is taller than the smaller Subarus so may be able to accommodate taller passengers better. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[We need prayers right now (update in OP)]

Sending caring vibes for your son, family, and all involved in his care.

[Arguing Over Obituary]

I'm sorry for your loss.

Reading this on the 4th anniversary of my own dad's passing, and having a difficult, demanding sibling myself, I say do whatever works for you.

This is your grief journey - everybody else can go kick rocks.

[Parents of 15 yo Michigan shooter sentenced to prison terms]

2 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

Echoing @Pam in CT. 
 

I don’t want the Second Amendment repealed. I want sensible limitations to this right, for public safety and order.

First Amendment rights are not a blank check, they have limitations. Freedom of speech is limited by libel and slander laws. Freedom of assembly is limited too - by all means have a parade, but you need a permit.
Demonstrations that block traffic or otherwise create chaos are either not permitted or disbanded by LE or result in people arrested.

Semi automatic long guns are for killing people and no ordinary citizen needs one. Without these weapons, shooters would be so much less powerful. Background checks need to be thorough and include mental health. Permits, training, proof of correct storage etc. need to be required. Loopholes closed. I am a small government advocate, but gun laws need to be federal so limitations and enforcement can be uniform. Yes, all limits and enforcement will be problematic and inconsistent and incomplete. But WAY the heck better than where we are.

It'd be great if they actually followed the 2nd amendment. I'm no constitutional expert, but I believe there is some wording about "well regulated militia".

I'm also 100% down with them owning the same firearms that were available at the time of the writing of the amendment. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

[Parents of 15 yo Michigan shooter sentenced to prison terms]

2 hours ago, Terabith said:

I really feel like it's shaky legally to sentence parents to prison for what their minor children do, especially when the minor was tried and sentenced as an adult.  I don't feel like our legal system can have it both ways.  Either children are charged as adults and considered as responsible for their actions (and honestly, I feel strongly that kids should NOT be charged as adults, but it's the system we've got) OR parents are responsible for the actions of their minor children.  I don't think it should be able to be both.  

I definitely think these parents are guilty of incredibly poor judgment, but I also think this is an unjust sentence of them, given what the laws were in Michigan at the time.  NOW it would be reasonable, because a safe storage law has been passed, but at the time, there hadn't been.  And I believe there's a difference between poor parenting and poor judgment and criminal behavior.  

People get charged and held criminally liable for "poor judgement" quite often.

Many accidental deaths are a result of "poor judgement" from driving tired, falling asleep with the stove on, forgetting babies in cars, etc.

Poor judgement is not a "get out of jail free" card. Nor should it be.

[We drove to totality and it was worth it.]

My DD got a great video and some good photos. All she had to do was walk outside her dorm.
 

Lucky duck was in the path of totality and I didn't even realize it until yesterday.

I knew she was close, so had ordered her some glasses (didn't arrive, grrrr) thinking she'd watch the partial, but thankfully the school had glasses.

[Calling all 1980's kids!!]

On 3/29/2024 at 3:14 PM, chocolate-chip chooky said:

Oh wow. Thank you @Dmmetler for posting this! What a trip down memory lane.

As a child, I had albums for my sticker collection. I remember taking great joy in sorting them into different categories eg animals, hearts, glittery, food, flowers, scratch 'n' sniff, puffy etc.

But what to do with the glittery heart or the scratch 'n' sniff flower or the puffy puppy?? 

Oh the dilemmas that came with being 8yr old  *sigh* 

 

Yes! And the "trading parties" at recess with all the other girls. We learned some great bartering skills at a very young age. 😁

On 3/29/2024 at 4:32 PM, knitgrl said:

Yup. Born in the 70s, but do not really remember them. The 80s I remember well. Both the scratch n' sniff stickers, and the way Strawberry Shortcake smelled.

I bought myself a "retro original" Strawberry Shortcake doll last year.  She sits in my office (in the box). I take a sniff when I'm feeling nostalgic and need to feel like a care-free kid for a moment or two.

On 3/29/2024 at 5:23 PM, Clarita said:

My kids get smelly stickers at one of their classes. Sometimes I think the parents are more excited about them than the kids are. I was much more into the smelly markers than the smelly stickers though. I will always expect a black marker to smell like licorice.

"My kids" 😂 had smelly markers in homeschool. Thick and thin. 

18 hours ago, ktgrok said:

Did any of y'all have sticker albums? I remember having different pages for scratch n' sniff, puffy stickers, holographic stickers, etc. 

Yes!!

17 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

I'm considering making a sticker album for my adult student as her end of semester "award"-the woman probably has almost as many music trinkets as I do at this point :). I have a laminator and a binding machine....

 

Wonder if anyone has scanned graphics from the 1980's ones? 

I bought my DD a sticker album for Christmas. She is in university and LOVES it. She didn't even have an album as a kid, so it's not a nostalgia thing for her. There are cute ones for sale on Etsy and Amazon.

I think I now need to get "her" (and me!!!) some of the scratch and sniffs.

[Can an extrovert be peopled out?]

With all the stressy shtuff you've had going lately, of course you're peopled out. Right down deep into your very core. It's not even about extroversion or introversion, it's exhaustion. 
 

Big hugs.

On the introversion-extroversion scale, I'm an ambivert. I need people and I need my space.

[Is cereal with milk soup?]

On 3/28/2024 at 5:22 AM, barnwife said:

I don't know either, and I've got a kid who hates soup. (To be fair, he does like canned tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich.)

Cereal is not soup. 

My kid is the opposite. Loooooves soup. But wouldn't eat canned tomato soup to save his life. Lol But, he loves homemade tomato soup - last night's supper was homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese.

[If we changed username, would we still be identifiable to each other?]

I might be able to identify between 5 to 7 individuals by posting style or subject matter. But, for the most part, I'd just be lost and confused.

I don't think I post enough to be remembered or recognized, but some of you have genius level memories and pattern recognition skills, so I could be wrong.

 

[What are some of your favorite tv shows of all time?]

Friends

Big Bang Theory

Bones

The Beverly Hillbillies

Currently enjoying: Ghosts

[s/o Any boardies that have become really well-known or are now celebrities?]

11 hours ago, saraha said:

I just googled this and is it fries, cheese, stove top stuffing and gravy??? Omgosh I am going to make this Monday.

I know you have to be vague, but the mysteries are driving me crazy!

A boardie was on jeopardy. I can picture their avatar but can’t remember the name

Rivka maybe?

[Today stinks for 5 distinct reasons]

I don't think you went off half cocked at all. SIL needs to be put in her place regularly. Maybe she'd learn to act like a regular human with those lessons.

You also do not need permission from her to drop in on your ILs and meet the caretaker any dang time you please.

More hugs about the other stuff and having people work against you.

[Today stinks for 5 distinct reasons]

((( Hugs @saraha )))

[Symptom of Covid or something else]

On 3/12/2024 at 12:37 AM, PeterPan said:

Covid can drop b1, zinc, and iron. Low iron would cause the fatigue and also results in lower thyroid, irregular heart rate, etc. She can eat for the iron or try an iron supplement. Does her b12 run low? It's necessary for absorption of the iron, as well as copper. You can take b12 sublingually and a food source of iron (liver or liver pills) will bring the copper, etc. for absorption.

She does supplement b12, iron, d and magnesium. 

[Symptom of Covid or something else]

Thanks for checking. Yes and no; she seems to be over experiencing the immediate fatigue with eating. But she has spent more time being ill, or experiencing symptoms of some sort,  than not since September. Now she has stomach pains after eating, which is the return of a symptom from a couple months ago that had cleared up. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[How do you deal with big hurt feelings between two kids who both live with you?]

Tell the one in the wrong that they need to make amends. Or, they are welcome to find other living arrangements for the summer.

[Keep your fingers crossed/Prayers - Update in 1st post]

Congratulations!

[Menopause sucks: shoe edition]

2 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

 

I'm through menopause and I'm stuck at feeling a bit warm all the time.

 

2 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

This winter, for the first time in about ten or eleven years, I actually felt downright cold a few times. It was so wonderful. Glorious and heavenly are the words that come to mind.

 

My mom heated up and stayed that way for about 2 decades. Just in the last  year or two, she will mention feeling cool when the rest of us do.

 

I get the flashes. Mostly hot, but sometimes they are followed by a cold chill. So much fun.

 

As far as feet go, I've never fit into women's "cute" styles ever in my life due to wide toes and mountainous arches. For the past dozen+ years I have almost exclusively purchased wide toe box, zero drop, "barefoot"ish, style shoes & boots. So far they still fit, possibly because they already have some leeway in the fit.

[Symptom of Covid or something else]

Thanks ladies.

Unfortunately, today is her last day of reading week, so she won't get as much rest as we'd like for her to get. She is also 1800 mi/2900 km away, living in the dorms at university, so not nearby for us to help in any meaningful way. Amazon Prime shipping takes a week or more, so she'd have to attend a medical facility to test or monitor O2 or sugar levels, IF they would do it.

She does not normally have blood sugar issues. Fatigue is not outside her realm of "normal". However, extreme sleepiness fatigue that hits like a brick within moments of eating is new. Hopefully it's just a symptom that will be gone in a few days. She may have to try to fast until after classes are done for the day this week. 

[Symptom of Covid or something else]

DD tested + Thursday and - today.
 

Yesterday and today as soon as she eats, she gets fatigue so extreme she pretty much passes out from exhaustion. After having a 60-90 minute nap she wakes up and feels fine. 
 

Any ideas what might be going on with that?

 

[Is the song “Moving to the Country Gonna Eat a Lot of Peaches” a metaphor?]

A metaphor for coming from a can? Being put there by a man? In a factory downtown?  🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

[Phone call from my mom keeping me up]

22 minutes ago, SKL said:

Well OP also wasn't responding correctly IMO.  Instead of responding to the proposal, she kept insisting that she doesn't have any issue taking her mom's calls at random times (which is clearly untrue).  OP could have listened and said, "let me think about that and get back to you."  Or, "Sundays are hard but I could try Saturday afternoons."  Or "no, I can't commit to that because my weekends are unpredictable."  After failing to convince her mom that she actually doesn't mind random calls at random times, she finally said "OK."

She was responding perfectly fine.

She answers calls when she is available to talk, and doesn't when she is not available to talk. That is how the world works. In most healthy relationships it is unspoken yet understood.

Saraha has no desire to change the way phone communication with her mother works. The way it works now was a hard-fought-battle to build those boundaries. Just because her mother has decided to test the boundary does not mean Saraha needs to capitulate to her demands to set a schedule or change anything. She'll answer when she has the spoons and ignore when she doesn't.

[S/O Capitalism/Humanity/Greed]

2 hours ago, SKL said:

Be careful what you ask for.  Being able to restrict who you are selling to for the sake of the neighborhood has an unpleasant legacy, which is why it's generally illegal.

What percent of US living spaces have been converted from full-time family housing (not vacant dumps) to full-time STRs by mega real estate holders?  Is this really a issue worthy of blanket legislation?  Or does Congress have more pressing issues to address?

You really are having your own conversation here, aren't you? First everyone hates business, and now we're restricting who houses are sold to? No.

The discussion is using zoned property for the type of usage it was zoned for.

Residential properties are ... residential. Not commercial. Not to be used for high-turnover business purposes. If corporations want to buy the house for LTR, then it is what it is. It's not an individual family owning, but at least it is long-term housing designed and zoned for that purpose.

@DawnM, I see someone upthread answered your question, but I just want to confirm that is what I meant. People who educate specifically about how to get financially independent and possibly retire early.

[Phone call from my mom keeping me up]

36 minutes ago, SKL said:

Maybe what Mom was really saying was:  "Trying to call you at random times in the hope that you'll be available isn't working for me.  I've given this a lot of thought, and I think it would work better if you call me each Sunday evening when you have a moment to talk.  Can we try that?

IF that was what she really saying, she would have listened the several times that Saraha tried to insert her own responses into the conversation. But that is not what happened. Her mom was not asking "can we try that?" and does not care whether Saraha "has a moment to talk" because she was not asking anything; she was issuing a proclamation about how Saraha is supposed to arrange her Sunday evening schedule from now on.

What she really said was "you not being at my beck and call is not working for me, so I've given this a lot of thought and this is how I am taking control whether Sunday evenings works for you or not."