<faints>

We had unseasonably cold temps in November, and now we're having unseasonably warm temps. The boys were out in shorts and t-shirts today. The Farmer's Almanac says it will be warm (east of the Rockies) early in the month, then colder and snowier in the middle/end of the month than normal. We don't usually have snow in December, so that would be fun. If I recall correctly, January is supposed to be warmer again, with cold dips in February, at least in the mid-Atlantic. Weird winter. I remember being out on New Year's Eve in my shirt sleeves one year in high school, though. We seem to have these oddball winters every so often. The oddball snowy ones seem to balance them out. :)

I've not seen sufficient evidence either way to form an opinion. I tend to agree that the "x is inherently dangerous/toxic/detrimental" hype is normally just that. I don't believe that my dishwasher detergent is leaving poisonous residue on my dishes, either, despite Sally Fallon's claim (which appears to be data-free). I also don't buy the "newer is better" way. So I try to look at the larger environmental, global health, economic and cultural impacts and see where I want to draw the line on such issues. (Needless to say, most people I know would say I overthink things)

Place them on your "future decorative changes" list. They open the doors. Our house is 150 years old and has had some absolute DIY nightmares perpetrated. We just do one thing at a time. Nothing is perfectly yours on day one.

Um.. I would vote "builder standard", too. But they scream "flush" to me. (I am very fortunate to have a house with "builder standard" from the 19th century, so I may not be up on doorknob trends) And, yes, congratulations! New homes are exciting.

I think it's entirely up to you. I know adults (one who is well into his 70s by now) who have never had a driver's license, and those who have and have let them lapse because they don't feel like driving is that important to their lives. My great grandfather immigrated from PEI to rural Maine (but in town) and never had a driver's license. He walked to work in the paper mill every day, in all manner of weather, wearing a suit. I'm not sure my great grandmother ever drove, either. I think you need to weigh the cost and difficulty of going through the process again, if you plan to pursue it in the near future. Or whether you can reasonably go about your life indefinitely without driving. Can you extend your permit? What is the timeframe where you will have to go through classes and the permit process again? What are your transportation options where you live, as well as where you want to live in the future?

I'm not scared of GMOs insofar as I think there is some sort of definite health threat. I do avoid GMOs, though, because of the unethical business practices that seem to largely be their purpose. (E.g. Herbicide activated seed that keeps growers dependent on Monsanto.) And I do wonder what the long term repercussions to all creatures in the food chain is. I don't think there's an answer to that yet. I take exception to the cavalier way our government allows corporations to basically experiment on our food supply in the name of commerce.

So cool! And what an excellent cause. :)

My driving test 25 years ago was on the closed course at the MVA. A couple right turns, a left, 3-point turn and parallel park. 6.5 minutes sounds about what it took me. (Ditto the Class A test to drive emergency equipment though it's obviously more involved than passenger vehicles) Back then, you didn't even have to take driver's ed, but you paid more insurance if you didn't. My eldest daughter's was the same 7 years ago, though she had to log driving hours. I've had no moving violations (though did have a ticket for expired tags once), and one, single vehicle accident (road debris) in 25 years. I can still parallel park on either side of the street, on a hill, in traffic, in under 20 seconds. There are all kinds of head cases behind the wheel out there. I think it has more to do with the attitude of drivers than how their test was formatted.

I love it in theory. A time of renewal, etc. In reality, as others have said, the pressure, the surly, stressed out people, the greed... Yeah, not so much. Maybe it's like a spiritual/social chemical peel...

We've generally gone by categories: N slots for main dish, X sides, Y salads, desserts, and so forth, but people have always signed up for each slot and said what they intended to bring. It was helpful so people could contribute according to their budget, preferences, specialties... And we didn't end up with 12 baked pastas. I can't imagine assigning people specific categories, let alone specific baked goods. That seems so presumptuous, unless you're asked to bring something that is a particular favorite that you've contributed in the past.

Two of mine prefer minimalist shoes (NB Minimus), one prefers a more traditional one. My recommendation is always to find what the individual kid feels good in.

I don't remember. I think I'm blocking it.

Cables look clever but are stupid easy. Really. You slip x stitches off the left needle onto a dpn and flop it in front of or behind your work (depending on what it says), knit the next x stitches, put the dpn stitches back on the left needle and knit along. That's what makes the twist.

I had the old version of the SkipHop Duo, too, and loved it. It held everything I needed (for twins, in cloth diapers) and wasn't too big.

Ew. Ew, ew, EW.

Me, too. And I only caught up (having fallen asleep) because they locked it. Honestly, there were some points in there that I wondered if we all weren't jacked up on cold medicine or something. It must have been a full moon.

We have an '05 Odyssey with 120k miles on it. No issues from day 1 to present. Oops, sorry. Didn't see that last bit. I have a friend who's had her Kia every bit as long as we've had ours and hasn't had any mechanical issues. (She's had body work issues due to deer, but that's not a Kia problem. :) )

I still have pumpkins and gourds on my porch. It IS still autumn, after all. So no. No Christmas / wintery decorations yet.

Yes! I wonder what that was. Midsomer Murders, Prime Suspect, Black Books, Doc Martin, Bones, Burn Notice... My kids are watching Merlin as I type.

I use If You Care unbleached parchment liners. They never stick, even with GF blueberry muffins. ;)

The second link I gave is a template for felt ones.

I hid this guy in my boss's office last year, after she scared the sense out of her daughter with the book and elf. http://spoonful.com/printables/3d-elf-character I think this year, I may make her a felt one: http://spoonful.com/crafts/shelf-elves

Ok, first I have to tell you that this thread has made me positively giddy. Nothing like finding out you're not the crackpot loser who completely missed the part about scrubbing the brains out from under the dishwasher door. It's quite liberating. And I thought you would appreciate this: yesterday, I opened the (clean) dishwasher to get a butter knife and there, hanging out of the end hole of the upper rack whirligig thing... A piece of grass. Grass! Whaaaaaaaat??? I blame the evil, sock stealing gnomes. They're leaving brains and grass in there. I just know it.

It's 70 in the living room and 72 in the kitchen, according to the fridge, but I just baked a pie. We haven't turned our furnace on yet, though, so it's much cooler upstairs. Probably 60. The woodstoves at opposite corners downstairs keep things toasty. Back porch thermometer says it's 38F.