Hotels usually hold more than they charge for the room in case you use the room phone or order room service or whatever else you can charge to your room.

I love that book. I'm almost halfway through the 5th Michael Vey book (Storm of Lightning). My son listened to the whole thing yesterday. He said it wasn't as good as the first four because nothing super exciting happened (um... some exciting stuff has happened so far in my reading, but, whatever, I guess it's not like blowing up the Ampere). He said it was filler like he only had stuff for 6 books and he is making it a series of 7. I can kind of see what he means, but everything that is happening is clearly setting up the final two books and everything is very necessary. These book are 300ish page books. Without this "not so exciting" book, he'd have to add 150 pages to the next two books, but Richard Paul Evans clearly wanted to keep these books within the same ballpark length of each other.

But it does in fact look a whole lot like clock innards.

Texas classes are not uniform across the board. The school districts have a lot of leeway and schools within the districts have some and then teachers can even get permission to change a class around (for example, when my daughter was in 9th, her geography teacher got permission from our ISD to teach the class differently, mostly covering human geography, and they decided to use her classes as a test for changing the whole district). So the question that needs to be answered is what is the syllabus of the specific class at the specific school where this student attends. Teachers have webpages that are easily gotten to on the school's website and some of them include syllabi and what not. You'd need his engineering teacher's name to potentially answer your question. I volunteered for a while in the front office of a middle school. Rumors spread, they make it to the admin, and the admin get to the bottom of it. Rarely, very rarely, is what the rumor says actually what happened. It's the nature of rumors. Even if the principal heard a rumor that Ahmed had a bomb, it was irresponsible to call the police before investigating further and asking the kid what he had (note: if a bomb squad was being called and the school was being evacuated then that would be different - that was totally not what was going on).

I didn't know there was anywhere that still had a different credit vs. cash price. I believe the answer to his question is yes if you use it as a credit card. Not all gas stations actually do the large hold. We've got one chain of gas station near us that doesn't and then we have another chain that does. We always use a credit card (yay, air miles!) but since I check it daily I always see the authorizations. The one station authorizes the exact amount of the gas we buy while the other one authorizes $101. Within a couple days the authorization changes to the actual amount of gas and then it posts a day or two later. I think it's just the way the gas station makes sure the card is good and has enough credit/money in the account. I am 99% sure it works the same way no matter if it's a debit or credit card if you tell the machine it's a credit card. I'm not sure what a gas station does if you input the PIN.

I hate talking to most people on the phone so I will only call someone if absolutely necessary. Usually I respond to a text with a text, unless it doesn't require a response.

YMMV due to different banks and their policies. My teens have debit cards through USAA. It's been a great experience. No fees at all. Debit cards can be used at POS or on-line. It's the same as anyone using a debit card. They're doing really well managing their money on their own. They keep track of how much they have. We've been really happy.

No. Just no. Does he ever look at his daughters and think "You were already (whatever age) when I was your age?" What would they do if some man had been raping one of those girls since they were 12? FWIW, I knew a couple girls who were sleeping with an English teacher when were were 14/15. He was very good looking and just out of college, around 22 years old. It was so many kinds of wrong, but was kind of an open secret. When Dawson's Creek had the storyline where Pacey was sleeping with the teacher and people were like "That would never happen!" I was like "Oh, yes, yes it does."

Nope. I really can't give her a break. Not for this. A. It looks like the innerds of a clock all put together to make it work. I have a kid who likes to take things apart. My dad (who also did that as a kid) says the trick is to put it back together so it works again. My dad became an electrical engineer probably because of all the times he took things apart and put them back together. Because of his experimenting he understood how things worked. Also, I don't think it was ticking. Digital clocks don't generally tick. In order for his clock to work he had to plug it in. So, even if it did tick, unless he was plugging it in while it was in his backpack it wasn't going to be ticking. B. The teacher never once thought it was a real bomb. If she had, she would have sounded an immediate alarm and had the school evacuated. That I could give her a break for. What she actually did I cannot. They never accused him of making a bomb. They accused him of making a *hoax* bomb. The teacher kept it in her desk for several hours. She knew there was no risk of the school blowing up. C. Except, perhaps, people could tell it wasn't a bomb in this case. All or most of the school shootings have been by white people. He wasn't acting suspicious. He was happily and excitedly showing his creation to his teacher. D. He told her it was a clock. When she said it could look like a bomb to some people, he disagreed because it was a, you know, clock.

A clock, apparently.

Three strikes. He is in fact Muslim (from a tweet he posted thanking everyone for the support).

You found no mention because they did not evacuate. In fact, the English teacher kept the clock with her for several hours before calling police. They never actually thought it was a bomb.

You mean if a teacher didn't call the police on a kid who made a clock and brought it to school? If so, I believe there would be no issue at all. It simply wouldn't be news.

That is what they have said, but their explanations haven't made sense. Kid had two, maybe three, strikes against him from the outset. 1.) He looks Middle Eastern. 2.) His name is Middle Eastern sounding. 3.) He is Muslim (I do not know if he is, but have read some things people have said that indicates so). This is racism. They say they couldn't determine his intent, but how hard is it to infer that he made a clock when he tells anyone who asks that it is a clock. He was proud of his clock for goodness sake. He wasn't trying to make anyone think it wasn't exactly what he said it was: a clock.

Seriously, if he was trying to make people think it was a bomb, why would he say it was a clock? Repeatedly. He wouldn't have said anything if he was trying to make people think it was a bomb! After keeping it in her desk for hours? And the POLICE? Really? Not, say, show it to some other teacher who is more versed in electronics or the principal or any number of people inside the school? Why right to the police? She clearly wasn't scared of the clock since she kept it with her so long. This is why they couldn't charge him with anything. There was clearly no intent to make others think it was a bomb. His intent was to make others think it was a clock. Since it was a clock. And he told everyone it was a clock. I can just see how that went: Police: What is it? Ahmed: A clock. Police: What is it's intended use? Ahmed: To be a clock. Police: And just what does it do? Ahmed: It's a clock. That, you know, tells time. Police: But what is the purpose? Ahmed: It's a clock. Yeah, what in the world did they expect? Most people understand the concept of a clock.

She quit totally by 12. So, since the littles are 9 and 7 I have hope!

I think that's why they called it a "hoax bomb." It looked like a bomb minus the explosives so it obviously wasn't a real bomb. It kind of looks like a bomb like they have on some TV shows and movies. Kind of. If you squint. He never called it a bomb. He always said it was a clock. He never threatened anyone or even insinuated the thing he made could be used as anything other than a clock. The only conclusion that seems reasonable is he looks Middle Eastern and has a name that is typical of that area and so the teachers, principal, and police freaked out due to nothing but racism. I'm assuming this is a very smart kid and his teachers, if not the principal, know this and so shouldn't have been surprised that he made the clock like he did. He's been invited to the White House. So that's a pretty cool result of the whole thing.

I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray this morning. I liked it. It got wordy sometimes. Loved the moral and the kind of angel vs. devil on the shoulder idea and killing the angel and all.

This sort of thing happens all over the country because zero tolerance policies seem to also equal zero brains. I mean, a school in Maryland suspended a kid a few years ago for eating his pop tart into a gun shape and pretending to shoot with it.

I was hoping typing would work for my kid. Hasn't helped one bit. Sure, misspelled words are underlined in red, but his spelling is so wrong that it has no suggestions for him. My husband once wrote something (for work - thank goodness he forwarded it to me to proofread first!) and he misspelled a word (the same word) four different ways in one paragraph (he did not spell it correctly at all). Spell check had no suggestions for any of them. Typing has definitely solved the random within word capitalization. When he types he leaves everything lowercase. *sigh*

Probably. My kids have never had flu shots before. I haven't had one since I was a teenager. We're getting them this year because my dad will be moving here in a few months and he has cancer and will be recovering from some extremely invasive surgery to remove the tumor. We're getting the flu shots in an attempt to protect him. I never had a baby in the fall/winter when I had older kids (my younger two were the spring/summer babies). If I was having a baby in the fall/winter now I would get everyone flu shots.

Oh, my gosh, that was hilarious! It's was exactly what happens here in San Antonio when it rains right down to the "crazy 11 seconds" (though no earthquake... we don't get those either). Whenever it suddenly rains (and it is almost always sudden) while taekwondo classes are going on my daughter (who works there) says the kids all stop and blankly stare out the window at the stuff falling from the sky. The umbrella thing cracked me up because I have seen people panic and get confused on how to open it and by the time they figure it out the rain is over. We have an umbrella, but I have never actually used it in over two years of living here.

I have been told I am the only person in the world who hates Terry Pratchett books. Ha! I'm not!

I know many, many, many RNs that have an associate's degree only. They never got a BSN. Many of them have retired without going on to get a BSN.

And that is why I am perfectly happy to let my oldest son continue with them (dyslexia and dysgraphia).