Weird. Went to edit and ended up quoting myself.

Before I back up, I should know what's behind my car. It's sort of one of the very most basic driving rules. I would absolutely pay.

Depending on the flavor of your cupcake/frosting, you can also add a little cherry Kool-aid powder if you're having trouble getting a red enough red. It does take a lot of food coloring though, to get a deep red. If you have time, let your icing rest for a little while, because usually the color deepens a little with time.

2-3x per day. Everything in unless at the end of the day there's still big pans in the sink, then we handwash those big pans. I have nice stuff, but mostly commercial quality, and practically indestructible.

The boys always have pockets, the girls put their phone in "the vault" if they don't have pockets. ;)

I really like this one. The menu is making me hungry, and the decor is not over-the-top cutesy. Thanks!

Do they have a website? If you're willing to share the name with me (maybe via pm if you don't want to post it here), I'd love to take a look at whatever I can find.

In your opinion, what time should a breakfast/lunch cafe open in the morning? Is it different on the weekend than a weekday?

You really didn't have to quote the whole thing! It's not that I don't believe you, it's simply that in the past it was decidedly *not* 2-8 days. Even still, it takes much more time than that for media rate packages to get to my house. I'm so very glad your books arrived safe and sound though!

Technically correct answer, no. Real life answer, I do it all the time at home, and we're all just fine.

Well, I guess I'm a hard taskmaster. It was never a question at our house. The purpose of high school was not only educating them academically, but preparing them to be adults. With that in mind, during the summers my high schoolers had/have to either be working full time, or doing a combination of part-time work and part-time school, or be doing a close-to-full load of schoolwork. It was never a decision for any of us, it just was (to us) an obvious part of becoming adults. Adults do not expect much time off. A week or two here or there, maybe. If I'd heard any whining about the process of becoming an autonomous adult, I'd remind them that if they weren't ready for adulthood, then freedom to make their own decisions in our house would be seriously curtailed, as it was when they were younger. Honestly though, of bigger concern to me would be helping a kid without good coping mechanisms to find concrete strategies to help them get through life. A fair amount of what I'd require of them would be personal improvement, implemented either with a mentor, a *good* counselor, or with a clearly developed & researched plan of their own. Self-improvement, both in academics, and in areas of personal growth, was and is my goal for my high schoolers. Rereading what I wrote, I'm not sure if it's coming off as abrasive...if it does, I don't mean it that way at all. I just know that drama doesn't usually serve adults well, and I try to avoid having that be a predominant personal characteristic that my kids will carry into adulthood. I don't really want the kids to have that mindset, that their desires must be met, that life owes them a vacation, kwim?

I know my dh didn't do this because of how I look. I also know he didn't do this because I was inattentive to him physically or emotionally (I have always been extremely attentive), or because I'm privately a hard person to live with (because I'm not), or because I'm a shrew in private (I'm decidedly not!). Still though, even some people who know me fairly well have made assumptions such as those, and I guess I needed a little reassurance that what people were thinking was probably not, "Well of course he went for _______________, have you seen how his wife looks?". I've found myself avoiding going out in public because I dread that comparison. I needed a little confirmation that people might be thinking a lot of things, but that they probably aren't thinking that I'm a total dog compared to the other...person. I feel better. Am I desperately in need of reassurance, and willing to compromise upon how I'd usually behave in order to get that reassurance? Unfortunately, yes. Do I need the ladies here to be girlfriends who allow me to be less-than-noble for a little while? Unfortunately, yes. Sometimes venting here allows me to go about my "real life" with a little more dignity than I might otherwise have had, and I'm very thankful that all of the sweet people here treat me like a friend. To be truthful, the ladies here have been so much more supportive than friends in real life...it's been one of the bright spots in a really dark time. THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH! ETA: I'm going with this theory about why my dh might have done this: "All I can say, is "Was he out of his ever-lovin' mind?" The answer clearly had to be yes--something went way haywire there." Thanks so much, Valerie!

{Sigh} I know, I know, it's really, really bad. -And out of character for me. I guess I'm caving to insecurity now, and I'm having trouble staying....well....I'm having trouble sticking to the high road. I'll snap out of it again in a few minutes, but right now, I'm craving reassurance. Sad, huh? :crying: What a small person...

Thank you. The hair part is what makes me feel better in the middle of the night, kwim? :D

Thanks, friend. I know it's a really twisted thing to do, but I just need a girlfriend to side with me for a moment, kwim? :blushing:

Ha! Got it! My dds thought the picture wasn't very good, but I'm gonna go with it. Not happy and smiling, like I used to be, but not as super-sad as I look most of the time now. ETA: HERE IS THE PLACE WHERE I POSTED A PICTURE OF SOMEONE ELSE. IT WAS BENEATH ME, AND I REMOVED IT BECAUSE I'D LIKE TO BE A BETTER PERSON THAN THAT. MY DIGNITY SLIPPED FOR A MOMENT, BUT IT'S BACK--FOR NOW, LOL! ETA: Thanks for humoring me, friends. I had to run to the grocery today, and realized that I dread seeing people because I think they'll look at me and think, "Well no wonder he was interested in someone else. The one he's married to isn't very easy on the eyes, is she?". And yep, I'm really old in comparison, and really, really overweight, and, and, and.....etc. I just needed someone to tell me that this didn't happen because I'm a total dog.

Nothing, just the gray box with the white outline of a person to indicate no photo.

Lol! It's still not showing up for me. :blink:

Still trying...

Still can't figure out what to do. :rolleyes:

I took the picture with my webcam thingy, but now the picture is too large?

Wow. Abrasive much? :blink: (Pro-cupcake & kilt/anti dog, cat, & goose living in the wild--it's clearly bad for the environment to have all of that nature stuff going on!)