I am amazed that what I found horrifying when my Dad wore it, today's teens find to be cool.

Aunt Sally is the mnemonic device for remembering the acronym.

I wasn't thinking of a program for sex offenders. I was thinking more along the lines of the guy being in Alcoholics Anonymous and making the connection between his past actions and his use of alcohol. And then he made a misguided attempt to confess and make amends. Note: I have no knowledge that this was the case, but it is the first scenario I thought of when I read about his confession letter.

I don't disagree with you, but many people who have been around a 12-step program (and probably other recovery programs) has seen someone who thought they were doing the right thing, but missed the mark.

I'm sorry, but this is laughable. This author has never experienced true sleep issues. Maybe this will work for a toddler or young child who has gotten off schedule a little, but someone with deep-seated sleep issues like the OP is discussing cannot be brought back on track this easily.

She probably said this because she's used to being judged by people for being a single Mom in need of a good deal. I see it all the time on a buy and sell group I belong to on Facebook. ETA: it's the judging and criticism I see all the time.

Yes, the legalities can be murky. There are no national laws regarding mandatory reporting -- they vary by state, and sometimes local jurisdictions or organizations may have other rules in place.

Am I the only one who is wondering if the guy is in some sort of 12-step program or something of that nature, and is at the point where he is supposed to be confessing his wrongs?

No, I read that she was actually hoping that she was legally obligated to report, so that she could honestly say, "We didn't have a choice", thereby maybe avoiding some of the backlash she would face if she voluntarily reported it.

I taught an Algebra Refresher class this week for students who are heading into Algebra 2 after a year of Geometry. We found that scientific calculators "know" the order of operations. All of the versions we had in class would have gotten the correct answer to this problem. However, I made the students do several examples by hand because I'm mean :laugh: and because, as I told them, as they get into the more advanced Algebra problems, they will encounter things like this that contain variables, not just numbers, and they need to be able to deal with those.

I just received an email from my bank saying that they are issuing me a new debit card because my card may have been compromised, although there is no indication that any fraud has occurred. Our niece recently had her card compromised, and the culprit was able to complete two $1000 transactions (we're guessing for gift cards) before it was caught. I joked at the time that my card would have been declined long before they got to the first $1000.

Count me among those who can generally read and write well, but cannot explain the meanings of many of those terms you mentioned. I am a stickler for using proper grammar, though. (And yes, I am acutely aware that as soon as I post that previous sentence, all kinds of mistakes will pop up in my writing.)

I teach Geometry at our Co-op. Every year, I have several students who tell me that one or more of their parents says they never took Geometry. That blows my mind. My Mom, who was on the "business skills" track in high school in the 1950s, took Geometry, for crying out loud.

My Dad was a technical editor / writer. One day a new engineer took offense to having his work checked by someone else. He fired off a letter to his boss, saying that he had an engineering degree and didn't need someone checking his work for grammar, mispelled words, etc. His boss passed it along to my Dad, who read it over, used his red pencil to indicated that the engineer had misspelled the work "mispelled", and sent it back to the guy's boss. Dad never had another complaint from the guy.

Ours don't get broken, but the paint / finish tends to wear off. I know, weird, but it's true. I will admit that I don't invest a lot in a high-quality seat.

Baseball isn't the same as most other sports, in that there is time to sit, hydrate, and cool off as the team takes it turn at bat. The coaches and parents ought to be making sure the kids are doing that. And the umpires ought to be gracious in allowing the kid who was first at bat, then stranded on the bases, to get a drink before returning to the field. Oh, and someone ought to be watching out for the umpires as well -- they don't have the downtime that players do. Back in the old days, baseball players used to soak a leaf of cabbage in water and put it on top of their heads under their caps. I never did understand who that helped ....

Also, there is a sort of homeschool bookstore that is between Spartanburg and Greenville, about a two-hour drive depending on what part of Charlotte you're coming from. It is like a warehouse full of homeschool curriculum and such. They used to be called Children's Books, but changed names when the ownership changed. Here is their website: http://www.homeschooldiscountproducts.com/about-us/ You should definitely call to confirm store hours before driving down.

We replace as needed. I like the kind that has a quick-release attachment, so that the whole seat can be easily lifted off for cleaning. I don't think we bought new seats when we moved in here -- 17 years ago. But we have replaced them a couple of times, in each of the three bathrooms.

That's what I say. The idea was that you could level off something like flour in a dry measuring cup, by scraping off the top with a butter knife. Now that I'm a more experienced cook, I rarely worry about exact measurements, except in a few baking recipes.

Several years ago, a big group of families from our church camped together over a holiday weekend. One morning, I stopped by a friend's campsite as they were fixing breakfast. I watched as the husband took an egg, and carefully tapped it with a knife to crack the shell. He tapped, rotated slightly, tapped again, repeatedly until he had cracked it all around, then pulled the two sides apart over a bowl. He did this for a bunch of eggs. I could have cracked a dozen on the rim of the bowl in the time it took him to do one egg.

I think of Mrs. Stephens, my seventh grade home ec teacher often. Especially when I use a "dry measuring cup" to measure a liquid. That was against the rules in our class. I've even told my son, "Don't tell Mrs. Stephens I just did that." (I have no idea if she is even still alive.)

PSA: I was going to apologize for hijacking this thread, but I was the one who started it, so I don't think I can hijack it. And I am still not arguing -- I am still trying to understand this. But this is what I've been trying to say all along: When I blow up a balloon, I am adding air molecules, and therefore mass, to the balloon/air system. Right? If it has more mass, then it has more weight under the same measuring conditions, doesn't it? Switching from weighing it in air versus under water is a whole other issue.

I'm afraid I'm just ornery enough to be tempted to hire the guy and give him that very task to do for his new job. And then watch him squirm when I said that it shouldn't take long, since he's already done it once.

I am a huge fan of potato salad, but no one around here ever brings it to picnics and barbeques. When I do, it always gets eaten, though, so that's what I would bring. I used the recipe that is on the Best Foods / Helman's mayo jar or website. No mustard, thank you very much.

So why, then, does the balanced stick demonstration work? Or does it not really work? I haven't actually done it, but I have read about it on many sites and in one of the Apologia texts. Again, I really am interested in understanding, not trying to be argumentative.