It, The Stand, The Talisman, The Green Mile are my favorites (other than the "classic" King books - Salem's Lot, Carrie, Christine, Cujo). "It" gave me nightmares as an adult. Also high up on the list would be Bag of Bones, Black House, Delores Claiborne. I never cared for the Bachman books.

I just walked a friend through hacking her registry to get rid of this trojan last week. Quite delightful. McAfee and Norton do not play nicely together. I'm actually surprised you could install Norton with McAfee still in residence. A few years ago, Norton was required for one of my customers' networks and I had to remove any trace of McAfee before it would install (had to go to the registry hacking place). Unfortunately, Norton - at least earlier iterations - doesn't play nicely with some popular VPN clients, either. Anyway, here's a link to an explanation and how to remove it. http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-antivirus-360

My Latin is a little rusty, but wouldn't a plural "peni" imply that the singular is penus? Further, fetus is of Latin origin but, apparently, the plural is fetuses, not feti. Ugh.

Not currently experiencing the symptoms myself, but I would highly recommend Christiane Northrup's book The Wisdom of Menopause. There are a number of herbs that help support the journey and balance the hormonal rollercoaster. Women's support is actually the subject of my current lesson in the herbalist course I'm taking. (Please, somebody, remind me of this when I start.) Jenn - I've gotten to the cart-ditching, cooling off in the car place in the grocery store before. I'm pretty sure it's them and not hormonal. :glare:

You can get all of their recipes free from the website. (Oddly, for a few years, you couldn't, but they changed it back a while ago) Is somebody vegetarian, or are you just trying to pare down the meat as a source of calories?

Just wanted to check in and mention the new Knitty issue is up. Yippee! (I love knittinghelp.com - learned to Kitchener graft from her video and still hear "knit, off, purl... purl, off, knit" in my head while I'm doing it. :-) )

Shave them - carefully - with a regular razor. It's also how you de-pill sweaters when you a) don't own a sweater shaver gizmo or b) when you discover the sweater shaver gizmo doesn't work so well. ;)

My carnivorous husband really enjoyed losing weight a few years ago, just by planning our meals with Cooking Light recipes. They use enough protein to keep you satisfied, trim extra calories without affecting taste, use real food, and tell you how much a portion is (which is our biggest downfall). Many of the recipes have become family favorites.

I'm sure I share the same pathological opposition. :rofl: Thank you, Aubrey. I just laughed so hard I snorted and startled my husband. Prior to your post, I was having what can only be described as a crushing pain in my chest at the thought of all those rogue apostrophes being sanctioned "out there". Next thing you know, Merriam will accept "definately" as an alternate spelling. Also, for anyone finding themselves unable to singularize when referring to herds of degreed people in print, please, I beg you, write it out. Because, truly, if I come across "M.'s Div.", apoplexy may actually come back into fashion.

I'm an "over-thinker". (Who totally used quotation marks correctly there, to my own great amusement, thankyouverymuch) I could, in fact, care less about weird, nonsensical idioms and horrifying punctuation but, like Lynne Truss, they both annoy and amuse me. Can somebody in the corn belt please explain "de-thaw" to me? Isn't that actually freezing?

:iagree: (w/ hornblower)Find another name for her "grade" and call it a day. There is absolutely no value in her being upset about what is a completely arbitrary label. My kids have much the same reaction when asked what grade they're in. :001_huh: And then they say they're homeschooled and move on to talk about something they're doing.

:iagree: I have no issue with the symbolic celebratory toast. In fact, I have no issue with my children participating in an actual champagne toast (but at school, that would certainly raise an eyebrow). But, if it bothers you, then you need to acknowledge that and act accordingly.

My 7 y.o. uses it... and has for more than a year, I think. I occasionally use it with my boys, who are 4, but they need help staying bent over the sink and working the pot. They don't mind the rinse, but object to being jacked up over the sink a bit. We don't use any pharmaceuticals for colds, but I do use a salve that I make, with garlic and eucalyptus, on the soles of their feet at night when they're congested. (Vapo Rub would work the same way, but the thought of slathering my kids in petroleum products gives me the willies). A warm mist humidifier or steam vaporizer with some eucalyptus oil in the medicine cup works nearly as well. I hope she feels better, soon! Sinus drainage stinks!

Um, no recipe, but you could easily make pie crust, then create a filling out of homemade cream soup (butter, flour, stock, cream or milk), your turkey, and whatever veggies you prefer in pot pie. Or, if you're looking for a biscuit crust, just make drop biscuit dough and plop it on top of the same. My favorite biscuit dough is: 2 c flour 1 T baking powder 1 t salt 1/3 c shortening 3/4 c milk Mix the dry stuff, then cut the shortening in, add milk (you would want to increase that to 1 or 1 1/4 c for drop biscuits) and mix.

No, the charge is for DVR, not just the TiVO brand name. To my knowledge, you pay for the privilege of recording - they charge based on the card in the box that they activate. At least, that has been my experience with DISH, DirecTV, and Comcast, none of whom have we purchased the actual box from over the years. Sorry. :glare:

My husband used to develop rashes and irritation from shaving. We found that lathering the old fashioned way, with a brush and shaving soap, did a better job of lifting the hairs and getting the lube under them. Also, shaving after a hot shower (though he seems to run through there in about 5 minutes, so...) seems to help.

No, I don't. And I'm the wife of a union president. I support what unions were intended to accomplish - fair working conditions, worker safety, living wages. In some instances, unions still accomplish these things. But no, generally speaking, I do not support the existence, politics, or membership tactics of unions in our current age.

I am definitely what one would consider "leftist" and The Economist is my absolute favorite news magazine. Of course, I also love the WSJ... come to think of it, my college economics professor got me hooked on both. :001_huh:

My 7 y.o. has an MP3 player and the 4 y.o.s like to listen to it. We set limits because, yes, it can be a means of isolating one's self. We grown-ups have iPods, and only use them in certain instances - my husband has a nifty car stereo hookup for his and listened to a number of his books for grad school while commuting, I listen to music, Car Talk and Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me while cleaning the bathroom - but not generally when we're all together in a room or doing things that should be interactive. They're great on long car trips.

BBC? NPR? The Economist? Those are my top three for news. I (definitely leftist) am fairly sick of US "news" outlets in general. I'm tired of the "worldview disguised as news" puckey on ALL outlets (not just the ones whose wordlview I don't support) and definitely the rubbish they seem to think is newsworthy. None of them I would consider "conservative", but BBC and The Economist are British and, while there are some particularly leftist shows on NPR, their news isn't particularly of any bent. Bonus: I don't think I've ever heard the name "Britney Spears" uttered on (or printed in) any of them. She'd have to actually wage war to get the attention of BBC World News or the Economist. The National Review is definitely conservative, but I can't speak directly to their advertising content. They historically have been a well respected news outlet, though.

Yeah, what Karen said. The rule of thumb is about a month for each year they've spent in school to "deschool". And what you're describing is a) normal balking that a lot of us go through (thankfully, it seems, in phases) and b) a big part of the classroom culture. Remember, she has been taught (though probably not by you and not intentionally) that learning is a chore. Also remember that when she has been home previously, it was vacation. She needs time to rekindle her interest and stop feeling as if she's on vacation and you're interrupting her "off" time with work.

I would also point you to Lane Bryant. They seem to understand the curvy female shape better than most... Old Navy seems to think women are shaped like egg cups. I'm all about low-rise (I'm 5' tall, so "low" is relative here) but their jeans that are too big for me still aren't big enough in the leg. When did women start having legs that are the size of ARMS? And when did "petite" start meaning a 32" inseam?!?! I've had good luck at Bass - they're pretty inexpensive (and usually on sale for <$20) and proportioned like an actual human. But again, I'm short, so YMMV.

I feel for you. We used to enjoy my company holiday party - small company, close relationship with each other, it was a nice time to catch up with the spouses, etc. We generally would just all go out for a meal, or to the theater. My husband is a firefighter and some of the people he works with, I have known for more than half my life. That said, I have absolutely no desire to arrange child care, arrange wardrobe, drive an hour away, hobnob with "new" (to me) people and their girlfriends du jour, drink, and drive an hour back home. The new rule at our house is that he can and should attend holiday parties (he is also the sitting union president), but unless it is something where he actually needs to have his wife in attendance, he can bring another "date" (like the VP or treasurer or one of the shop stewards). I simply have enough on my plate, too little time, energy, and sleep, and the rubber chicken ROI is too low. Oh, I'm sorry. That wasn't helpful was it? I'd go with the Seinfeld moments.:seeya:

I think that's pretty much it. Like all other things, the goal is to do the best you can and always *want* to do better. It's the attitude, not the action. If every time you make a purchase or use a resource you are examining whether this is the best you can do, then you're doing what is appropriate for your family and your finances.

I have to get the kids ready to run out of the house. But I wanted to let you know that you're not alone. Many of us struggle with getting bogged down in the planning, second guessing ourselves, "life" happening. I get out of bed at 5:30, so I can have an hour or so of quiet to plan the day before the kids come down, and try to stick to a realistic schedule. We only have three full days (subject-wise not hours) of school scheduled per week because we have activities that take us out of the house on two mornings (like today). We have afternoon lessons scheduled on those days. This year, when I decided to make an "official" schedule, I sat down with HST+, and plugged in our outside activities first. Then I looked at each piece of curriculum for number and complexity of lessons, created lesson plans (in the program) and decided how many times per week each had to be taught (roughly) to finish by June 30 (we school all year) through trial and error of sending them to the assignment grid. Do we stick to the schedule like glue? No. When life happens, though, I can adjust our school days, or use the reschedule feature, so we can stay on track instead of getting all bogged down in the interruption and having the reinvent the wheel of our schedule. If your husband's work is flexible, and you have opportunities to travel, try to account for the most likely travel / outside activity days in your schedule. Then you can adjust if, say, you have Fridays blocked out, but have an opportunity to do something on Thursday. Does that make sense? I can't imagine homeschooling without my support community. You're brave! :D