Pretty sure I'll be in the same situation as the OP. I'm the only one in the family paying for insurance (hubby gets it at work, kids are grandfathered in to the state free plan) so we try to look at it like "this is what we're paying for the whole family" (instead of for just me), but I fear we'll be priced out of even that this year. I'm considering a sharing program like Medishare or Samaritan Ministries, or something else. ETA: Yep, as I expected based on what I'd heard. My cost is more than tripling. Will look at other options including being added to dh's policy at work, the sharing programs and now (because of this thread), a private broker.

I'd really like to sit at home with my kids and watch the Dodgers take the series in seven tonight ( ;) ) but we don't have cable. I don't want to spend the first part of the game searching and searching for somewhere to watch it online and never find anywhere except for a YouTube hack that's going to be taken down before the game is over. I know Fox Sports is showing it, but I believe you have to have cable to watch it. Are there any places offering it (with permission) either free or as a pay per view? Any help and especially links would be super appreciated. I Google it and get lots of hits, but I don't know if they're supposed to be showing the game or not and if they'll be shut down. I just want a sure thing if one exists. I don't mind paying. My now 80 year old dad has been a Dodger fan since he was nine years old when he listened to the underdog Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Yankees on the radio. He's been to several games at Dodger Stadium, and goes to their spring training in Arizona, but he'd never been to a World Series game. My mom, sisters and I pooled together to send him and a friend to Game 2 last week, which was a lot of fun for all of us. They lost, but it was an amazing record-breaking game. The whole series this year has been fabulous. But I really want to watch the last game without distraction if possible. Any ideas?

We just did this -- only four kids, not five. Our 17yos is converting a large tack shed on the property to be his cave. It's pretty close to the house so he uses the bathroom in here. It's a great set up for our situation. We have one teen girl who gets her own bedroom and two pre-teen boys sharing a room. For me, as a single unit rental owner and the Airbnb host of a different unit, when I see "detached apartment" or anything similar to that, I immediately think rental income (vacation or otherwise) . :) Would it function well for that purpose? The house we just purchased is a basic '60s rancher and it's set up in such a way that with the addition of a shower in the already existing powder room at the one end of the house, that end could be closed off and function as an apartment some day. That works in our situation because we live in a college town and aren't too too very far from the campus, but I'd also consider doing Airbnb if we're still into that in ten years.

I use GoDaddy for our parish website and have been nothing but pleased. It's a WYSIWYG, no coding required. Have been using it for about three years now.

The largest university in our state, the University of Washington, doesn't accept students who have a GED. They only accept high school diplomas. At least that was the case a few months ago when I spoke with the Registrar there about a situation my daughter was in. The second largest university in our state -- Washington State University -- indicated that they much prefer a diploma over a GED.

I contacted WHO yesterday inquiring about eastern Washington possibilities and the gal got back to me. If you want her contact e-mail, let me know.

Please know I know nothing about New York City. That said, having watched "Woman in Gold" with Helen Mirren last night, I'd want to go to see the Klimt painting. What a story. http://neuegalerie.org/content/gustav-klimt-and-adele-bloch-bauer-woman-gold

Don't worry. We're used to being ignored. :D We retaliate by calling everything on the west side "the coast." Seattle, Vancouver, Enumclaw, Arlington, Bellingham, Ocean Shores? All "the coast."

To clarify, in Washington state, there's a difference between "the Eastside" and "the east side." :D The Eastside to which Tess is referring is 10-15 mins. east of Seattle (but still western Washington). I live on the east side (which means east of the Cascade Mountains, where Spokane and some other larger towns are). I don't know if Spokane or towns on this side of the state have anything going on around that time, but I can snoop around. I'm in Ellensburg which is right on I-90 two hours east of Seattle and 2.5 hours west of Spokane.

As long as there is no glitch or red flag placed on the passport app, yes. With glitch, add several weeks. Our "glitch" was a home birthed child. Well, she wasn't the glitch. The glitch was the state department employee who didn't recognized an official state-endorsed birth certificate for a live birth at home that said child had. I never thought this would be an issue because I had done everything right when she was born, but because the certificate looked different from a hospital generated one, it was red flagged.

This has been our favorite butternut squash recipe for several years now. It's YUM. Don't skip the gremolata and serve with soup-sopping bread. Butternut Squash Soup with Thai Gremolata

I'm sorry for the sadness so many of you feel. Just a question: It's 6:50pm ET (2+ hours after the original post) and I'm not seeing anything from numerous news sources saying he has died. I did see that he was removed from life support, which admittedly probably isn't a good thing. But did someone see it announced somewhere that he has actually died? I don't think he's dead yet.

Do you mean a cleansing cream or a moisturizer? I have always used soap and water to wash my face, too. I'm 51 and still do. If you mean moisturizer, the best I've found is one that the sisters at St. John Greek Orthodox Monastery make and sell. It's divine. Thick and creamy and all-natural. And inexpensive! (Even with shipping, actually -- even with shipping it's less than half what I used to pay for Burt's Bees face cream.) Here's a link.

Our parish (eastern Orthodox)does a full-on potluck meal every single Sunday after the liturgy ends. Most Orthodox parishes have some type of coffee hour (ie, agape meal) although not all are a full-on spread with main dishes, sides, desserts, etc.. I've talked with some of the other moms in the parish and we all say we'll fight tooth and nail if anyone ever says they want to go to just bagels and cream cheese or (worse!) pastries and coffee for simplicity's or effort's sake. None of us want to have to go home and make/cook another meal later that day and we always have enough food. We have the big meal at about 1:00 PM and then at home later, people are on their own.

Thanks to you all!! So many good ideas. Here's where things stand today based on feedback from here mostly: Instead of Plymouth, we're heading north to see Portland Head Lighthouse and hopefully have lobster rolls at the Bite Into Maine foodtruck in that park. Then to Westbrook for an overnight sleep before we do a five-hour loop that includes the Kanc (I was told this is how locals say it, LOL) the next day. Then we'll hang out near our Old Orchard area Airbnb the next day, and maybe hit some sites in Saco. This is our flexible day. The following day we'll visit the Orthodox church in Portland and maybe do the boat-based lighthouse tour. I saw that "Billy Elliot" is at a theatre there that night but I don't know if I could talk my husband into that. :) The next day is another hang out at the beach day at Old Orchard -- I will be working a few hours this day (online) so it'll be in and out around that area. Finally, the next day we still go back into Boston for Freedom Trail stuff (not HUGE history buffs, so will just do a few things), having some more seafood (or other?) and then Fenway that night. We fly out the next day. As if you're all interested in all those details, LOL, but I just finished figuring out the parts that had to be figured out so it's fresh in my head. Thanks for helping me with this! Any other suggestions / recommendations will be considered!

I quoted you all in reverse order because I roll that way. Oh, looks nice. Thank you! Thanks for this, maybe lunch there that first day if we don't go to Plymouth. Maybe we'll get an Airbnb here for one night if the place we have booked in Maine can't accommodate us the first night of our trip. [Plugging ears about the Freedom Trail nanananana] ;) I found this drive in the White Mountains and we're considering this, thank you! It'd be a five hour drive round trip, so we'd make it an entire day, but we like driving and sightseeing. We'd probably do this instead of going to Concord. And YES to fresh seafood. Our Airbnb host is making a lobster dinner for our anniversary. :) These are all useful tips, probably Legal Seafood most of all. :D We won't be driving IN Boston, just picking up the car at the airport and moving out and away. When we come back in for our last night, we're getting a place near the airport, and then using public or uber type transport to get around that day. Thank you!

Thanks! It's our 25th. We're not able to go right on our anniversary, but close enough. :)

Would anyone want to give some suggestions as to the route we should take and/or not-to-be-missed things to do? One thing to keep in mind is that while we know we're going to be in the history belt of America, this is a milestone anniversary trip for dh and I and so we're more about relaxing, being together and seeing new things than visiting a bunch of history sites. I do mention some history-related things below. Here's what we have going on: We fly into Boston late at night on a weeknight and have an Airbnb near the airport. We pick up the rental car the next morning and currently have plans drive to south to Plymouth for a night. But we're also toying with the idea of heading north instead. We have a place on Old Orchard Beach, south of Portland, for four nights and we might head that direction instead to make it five nights. Once there, we want to spend a couple days relaxing and enjoying that area, one day driving to see whatever fall colors we might be able to see on not-too-long of a drive, one day going to Portland to attend the Orthodox Church there and maybe go on a lighthouse tour (maybe on a boat), and then on our final day, we'll drive back to Boston, do some of the Freedom Trail, and attend game at Fenway in the evening (flying out the next morning). Specific questions: 1) If we do go north, and are open to driving a little bit that day, should we drive out to Concord, and then to the beach in Maine? Or is there somewhere else in and around there that might be nice to visit on our way to the beach south of Portland? Or should we just take a leisurely drive up the coast? (We'll be driving down the coast a week later, although not in a leisurely fashion). OR should is stick with our original plan and head to Plymouth after all? 2) Any day trip ideas for seeing the fall colors? (Or maybe that could happen during #1 above?) We're willing to drive up to two hours away for this. Or are there other must-see things to do on a day trip 1-2 hours away from the place we'll be on the coast, half an hour south of Portland? 3) How about our day in Portland ~ does the light house tour via boat sound good or would driving around on our own be better? (We both love being on the water.) Or is there something else we could/should consider doing? I kind of wish there was a theater or music show or something similar that night but I haven't found anything yet. 4) Suggestions on the Freedom Trail? We won't want to do the whole thing. I'm thinking Paul Revere's House, Old North Church and that area. Would my husband especially like going out to Bunker Hill and seeing the things out there? We will be walking/ubering/T'ing on this day. The game at Fenway is at night. 5) Oh, and is the Barking Crab restaurant worth all that experience wise, or would we do just as well saving some money and time and eating a lobster roll just about anywhere? Thank you for any thoughts/suggestions!

Or Ottilie? I also like Evangeline, Daphne, Eliza and Charlotte.

i used t moderate a "buy local" business group here (the founder handed it over to me). I did it for a couple of years and appreciated the purpose of the group. But in the end I realized it was a time suck with time I didn't want to give away for that purpose anymore. I offered it to someone. I don't love how he runs it (he made some changes in the rules that I never would have), but when it comes down to it -- I don't care. It's lovely to be free of the effect it had on me and my day.

Remember that time I wanted to talk husband into going to Puerto Rico for our 25th anniversary, which is in a few days? Thankfully, due diligence was done on the best time to visit PR and the Maine coast gets us instead. Hurricanes Jose and Katia are apparently coming in behind Irma.

This is completely me. I had no idea until this thread that there were any religious aspects to this movie whatsoever. I grew up in a small town in western Washington state.

We don't have the ash, but definitely the smoke. My husband said the ash must be going up and over us because it's raining ash two hours west and three hours east of here We live about 20-25 miles ATCF from the Jolly Mountain fire in central Washington. Our big county fair and rodeo ended yesterday, but the day before it started last week, the local health department was talking about canceling it. We have foothills surrounding our entire valley, and most of the time, we can't see them at all. My daughter is feeling ill.

Message me! We might be neighbors someday, haha, that's our dream too. I would totally consider Airbnb over VRBO. I have virtually no experience with VRBO but a lot of experience with Airbnb and think it's a lot more popular these days. Maybe just in the area, I live, but for sure it is here. I think VRBO has an annual fee and I think you do the updating of your booking calendar and/or payment collection yourself. With Airbnb. everything is within their system and they take care of everything, including, in some areas of the country, collecting and paying the state and local sales taxes. They do have a fee that the guest pays but it does not come out of my nightly charge. It is aside from that.

Do you mean something like this? The Tides in Seaside OR. Each unit is owned by an individual and they can choose to put it in the vacation rental pool and have it rented by the night (two night minimum). The HOA and other fees provide for an office, management, and cleaning. From the guest's side, it's like a motel/hotel on the beach. We looked at this a year ago and didn't have the finances to purchase, but if we ever do have that kind of cash, I'd be interested. I did call the lawyer or accountant or whoever they passed me to when I called for information, and I thought that -- while the regs were specific and the costs decent -- it sounded like it could work well if run well. If you mean an individual unit, I am an Airbnb host with a pretty successful apartment in our small-ish town (18,000 people). We live in an area where a lot of travelers pass through, plus we have a state university here and a great downtown area, and I keep pretty busy. I do my own management and cleaning.