Uh, yeah. I think the 2m fence sends a clear signal. Alas, mastery of the obvious does not seem to currently be in vogue.

I knit in bed during my evening "me time". My husband is at work every third night, but even when he's home he usually has other work stuff to take care of or appreciates being able to put on ESPN and play computer games without feeling like he's taking something away from me for a little while before he comes up to bed. Then, it's US time. :D

Carbonara sounds great. :drool: I haven't made that in a long time. Cooking Light has some great crowd-pleaser recipes (I think that's even a category) and their Enchiladas Verdes rock! I had a holiday open house once, where I basically put together a "pasta bar" and had pasta (obviously) and a couple of different sauces and toppings so everyone could create their own, then salad and crusty bread.

:iagree: That's me, exactly. I don't have "me time" in the sense I see it used very often, but I do try to structure my life so that I have regular time to have uninterrupted thoughts. Sometimes, my "me time" is spent ironing while watching t.v., but I generally have about an hour after lunch and the same after the kids are in bed, depending on the day, when there is quiet and no immediate demands. I also don't think it's a bad thing to acknowledge that I am something other than a mother / wife. It's simply another facet of me as a human being and needs to be nurtured and developed just like being a good mother and wife. These things aren't mutually exclusive, and my having facets of self in addition to my roles as wife and mother don't diminish them.

Pour some tomato juice in a pan, hack up a clove of garlic into it, add a tablespoon of lemon juice. Heat it up, nice and steamy, then pour it into a mug, add a few dashes of Tobasco and sip like tea. It should unplug that puppy in no time. You may have to sip the tomato "tea" a few times, but it generally gets rid of the plugged-shut sinus issues when I have them.

Mix them together. It's a veeeery loose dough that will resemble a sponge when the yeast gets going.

Use "stir" or 1 and, if the dough starts climbing up the dough hook, crank it up to 2 or 3 (I never go beyond 2) and the centrifugal force will fling it back down.:001_smile:

We have a lab/beagle mix adopted from the Humane Society. We have a 3 story house and a (recently) fenced back yard, not an extraordinary size. She likes cats, but our cat doesn't like her (she's 9, he's 17, and he will STILL jump on her face every single time she tries to approach him... and she always acts surprised). She gets along with other animals, and is great with young children (has always been). Essentially, our dream dog. If you can find a rescue dog that's been fostered, rather than kept at the shelter, I think that makes a difference in how they interact in multi-pet, family situations. Well, some dogs are delightful no matter what, some dogs not so much. But I think the continued normal household interactions of being fostered helps.

:lurk5:

I keep a wishlist on Amazon, too. If somebody called and asked about what my children would like to receive, I might even consult that list for ideas. But I wouldn't put a link to it in birthday party invitations given out at our homeschool co-op. That. Is. Tacky.

Uh, I'm a liberal. And I homeschool. And I think it's ok that other people choose their own educational venue for their children. :confused:

Yeah, I think the rule for produce is, it ain't bad unless it looks bad. Produce is delightful that way, very accommodating by getting slimy, spotty and fuzzy to rule out any doubt.

:iagree: There needs to be a Miss Manners Smackdown. Honestly. What is WRONG with people?

I have a Bissell Flip-It (same principle) and use it on old, gappy hardwood, as well as the click-lock cork in my kitchen. What it puts out isn't really enough to leak through the joints, and you suck it back up so quickly... I haven't worried about it. As a point of reference, water stands on the floor longer when I spill something and have to wipe it up, or with traditional mopping, than it does with a floor cleaner.

Sure. Joann has it, though I always need one of the fabric ladies to find it on the interfacing rack for me. It's translucent, like tracing paper, so it's easy to see through - easier on white paper than the tan patten paper, too, I would imagine - and I've used anything from a marker (which can bleed through) to a colored pencil to trace on it. No special kit required. If they didn't have it, you could use lightweight, sew-in interfacing, but the Pattern Ease is wider. I really like it because it doesn't get all crunched up or tear like pattern paper. And if it does, you can iron it (on a low setting) and flatten it back out. This will give you an idea, but that price seems high. I think it's normally about $1.99/yd.

My "purse" is a wristlet that holds a nifty little insert for the cards and whatnot. My keys are on the wrist strap. Now, if they took my "bag"... yeah, like KAR's there would be knitting and lists to accomplish. {sigh} I would miss my wool and my brain, though.

The pieces are printed out on multiple sheets of paper, then taped together at indicated spots. I suppose, at that point, you could just cut them out and use the paper pattern, but I think that would annoy me, so I would probably end up tracing them onto Pattern Ease (non-woven material, looks like - and is indeed found with - interfacing). I do that with regular patterns I want to use more than once, or that I'm starting in a smaller size but want to be able to use in larger sizes.

I wouldn't be as concerned about the mileage and wear and tear on the used one - that many miles have to be logged on the highway, which is usually a kinder, gentler way to put miles on a car. I would be concerned about what's left of the warranty, though. And I would also point out that, in general, the interest rates on used car loans are higher than new car loans, so you would probably end up paying about the same for either... and in that case, I would totally want the new car.;)

Yep. You let milk sit at room temp and inoculate it with bacteria specific to the cheese you're making. Cheese is already "bad", it's just not pathogenic bacteria that makes it that way. The cheese is fine. Even if it's hard and greasy, it still won't make you sick - it just won't be delicious that way.

That actually happened to me once. It was a less than stellar day.:glare:

Oh, yes. I took an online English 101 (Composition) class with those people several years ago. Alas, the second commenter's observation did not apply; in our class, we posted our work to the online blackboard widget, then read and critiqued each piece... which inspired a private email to my professor to ask how he managed to not beat himself unconscious while grading papers. Seriously, I understand it's Freshman English at the community college level, but these people are native English speakers and the "essays" didn't even manage the "flow" of Dick & Jane. Forget about spelling and punctuation. It was horrifying.

That's not a phishing scam, it's just a tactic to gather email addresses to sell, like mailing lists. A phishing scam is when a nefarious spammer sends emails pretending to be from various real institutions (e.g. PayPal, Bank of America) that try to persuade you to click the link to a bogus website and input your account information, which they then capture and use to sign in as you and do all sorts of nifty banking transactions. I get them regularly "from" banking institutions I have no business with, PayPal, my bank, etc. If you hover your pointer over the "click here" link they give, it is never the regular domain of the real institution. All of those I forward to the abuse or phishing account at the real institutions. Having your email address sold is annoying, but not inherently dangerous. If gmail is catching them in the spam filter, they will probably end up blocking the source eventually.

I'm sorry. I have to disagree. If somebody sends me three children and one of them has a snack (or ALL of them have their own snack) it is a clear message that the parent wants the child to eat that snack, unless it's somebody whose children I know very well and they just stuffed something in the kids' pockets because we were going to be out. And if there is any question at all, I would call, specifically because of situations like the one camibami described. MY PB&J is made with almond butter, but my peanut butter-allergic 4 year old doesn't necessarily know that (he does know it's almond butter, but may not differentiate that he's allergic to peanut butter), and lots of parents give their kids dairy-free foods that look just like their dairy-rich cousins. And, frankly, parents shouldn't have to give you the Feingold or gluten-free diet dissertation when they could just pack their kid(s) a snack.

I would be annoyed if I sent a snack with one of my children and the host parent decided to feed them something different without asking me. Absolutely. Not only would I be really... well, you know... if somebody fed my kids dye and processed sugar, but I would probably end up being exceptionally rude while explaining to them WHY they may not disregard a snack packed for a child without speaking to the parents. Wow. That takes real guts on the part of that parent. What if a child who visits has a life-threatening (or just severe enough to be really ill) food allergy? Or keeps Kosher? Or Halal (though I think that only pertains to meat)? Or is Vegan?

Yeah, I was trying to wrack my brain to come up with anyone who would come over who a) doesn't get their milk from the farm where we get ours or b) hasn't expressed interest in doing so, and I really couldn't. But, yes, I would tell people before I served them anything with "out of the ordinary" characteristics, particularly because of allergies and dietary concerns. (Like the oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies I'm eating have nuts and dessicated coconut in them, so I'd point that out in case someone was allergic or had some odd worldview that included the shunning of coconut.)