:lol: oooooh, if they only knew!

Yeah. I keep threatening to take up with the pool boy. It's a funny because we're in a relatively poor, rural area, pools are the above ground collapsible kind that do not traditionally come with pool boys, and if you hired a "pool boy" he'd likely be a redneck who drives his lawn mower to your house. I really don't have plans for a midlife crisis. I pretty much take each stage of life as a new adventure.

Yes, but... They've already embarked on married life together. This is their second wedding. Together. To each other.

What a beautiful group! I'm so glad the joy of the day overshadowed the sadness of your loss. :grouphug:

Ok... Ok... Wait... Let me see if I can catch up. So you weren't awesome enough to be told about the impending first wedding. You're not awesome enough to be invited to the second wedding, but make the cut to be notified because they clearly missed out on the whole gift experience the first time. Their bad; they're correcting it this time. But what they're REALLY hoping for, by having the second wedding, is funding for a THIRD, destination, wedding? What's next? Gift registries for job changes?

I agree. I'm generally fine with the ebb and flow of customs, and differences in customs across groups. This seems to be just more of the "cult of self-esteem" in which children and young adults expect to be lavishly rewarded for everything they do, though, and it is something I'm seeing in all contexts: "the world owes me for existing" mentality.

Uh, yeah. My compliments to your husband on his generosity in trying to find a way that it's not tacky. It is.

Seriously? :001_huh: WTH?

No. The dog grudgingly shares her chair (a chair-and-a-half recliner) with my husband, and he might suggest that it's "his" chair, but we all know better. Eta: if someone else is sitting there, he just sits on the couch or in another chair. The dog, however, will perch on the back like a napping jungle cat on a tree limb and sigh heavily or silently will you to move. Rather like when she finds Daddy lying on her side of the bed. Yes, our dog is spoiled. :lol:

No, except for telemarketers. We either call each other "honey", or by name, or refer to each other as mom, dad, or by name, depending on who we're speaking with. I do, in print, refer to him as The Husband, but that's mostly because I tend to avoid the dh, dd, ds terms and it seems weird to refer to him as "the 42yo", as I do the children. I'm a liberal Catholic with agnostic upbringing, he's undeclared/agnostic with the same.

Roald Dahl books are great as audiobooks - The BFG (Natasha Richardson), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Eric Idol), etc. Percy Jackson was a big hit with our boys when they were 5, and my husband and I drove around a bit after the kids fell asleep on a trip, to listen to parts we'd missed. I have to say that, as much as I hate reading them, the Junie B. Jones audiobooks are hysterical to listen to.

Indeed. I appreciate seeing updates to the odd negative feedback for sellers. It suggests they actually DO care about providing good service. I'm curious: if she left a store to think about purchasing an item, only to find the item gone when she returned, would she demand the proprietor go hunt down the purchaser and take it back so she could buy it? :001_huh: (it's a rhetorical question obviously)

I'm sure a LOT of books are dual-listed on various sites. I've had transactions canceled on Amazon Marketplace with "sorry, that title is no longer available" on occasion. The only time I've been annoyed is when it's taken several days to be notified. It's just one of the "risks" you take when buying from private sellers. No harm done.

We have an Odyssey and like it just fine, no complaints at all. Now that we're out of the three carseats territory (though the boys still use their 5-point harnesses for highway trips) they occasionally ride in our Volvo wagon, which used to be the "kid car" before twins (back in the olden days when I drove a Jeep... Sigh). When we're ready to downsize, I'll probably look at the Mazda 5 first. Enough room and available in a manual? Be still, my heart!

Same here, but a Coach wristlet (slightly smaller than the VBs). And my calendar and medical stuff are on my phone.

They have a variety of cans here (Giant, Food Lion, and I think Whole Foods) but I use tomato paste rarely and by the tablespoon, so I buy the tubes. That way, I don't waste the rest of a can. ;)

I like the 365 and Trader Joe's as well, but, for easy to come by (and relatively inexpensive), I would get the Optimum Nutrition Natural (only available in chocolate and vanilla). The rest of the ON line has artificial sweeteners and some with HFCS. Dream Protein is also really good, but expensive (as is the Greens First powder Doctors for Nutrition sells). Or, you could just go with plain, unflavored whey and just flavor your smoothies with whatever you want.

Yes. That's what we use. The nice thing is that it's web based, so it automatically applies to any device on your network, without having to load control software on multiple platforms/devices. (I didn't know there was a pay version, actually)

You can run your router through OpenDNS and explicitly block the website in your dashboard there (as well as set up parental controls). It would be easier that way as I'm pretty sure most ISPs have dynamic addresses for customers (i.e. every time you reboot your router, you get a new IP address) so it would even be hard to block you on that level.

We went with ceramic when we remodeled a few years ago because we were about three times over budget and I couldn't justify the additional cost of induction. (no NG lines here, we don't have existing propane or anywhere to put a tank, and we do not have a range vent to the outside. Otherwise my preference is always gas.) It sucks, just in every way possible, including the large crack I found in it one morning, which runs front to back, through the left two burners. (nothing has ever fallen on it, and certainly not during the night while we slept) I do use my 16 qt canning pot on the huge burner in the front, and my pressure canner, and my cast iron pans with the edge around the bottom, though. It's the burners. I have the same issue and my pans are all normal sizes from "name brand" or traditional makers. When we finish all the other remodeling projects on deck, it will be replaced with induction.

No kidding. It just boggles the mind.

And you'll need to crank up the music to hear it over the mower while you work, too!

We went to a birthday party today (lots of fun!) and the weather app on my phone said it was 107. And it "felt like" 111 with the heat index. I can't even process what 111 would feel like. :ack2: Well, actually, it felt buzzy and surreal as soon as I stepped out, that's what. And gross. I was feeling wistful for western ME, where my app said it only felt like 90.

Yup. I think you pretty much are. We have two tvs: one in our living room for family movie nights or the occasional sports watching, one in our bedroom w/ a roku box for streaming Netflix or Amazon at night when i go to bed (I have mind racing issues and need something mindless to half focus on to fall asleep or I'm up for hours, thinking and planning and processing) We have antenna for local stations. We turned off the tv about 4 years ago, when B was 7 and the boys were 3, and we ditched cable 3 years ago. Before I put my foot down and outlawed it, the tv was on as soon as the first person was up, and went off when the last person went up to bed (as is the way it is at my ILs' house :glare:) and it..drove.me.nuts! It only took about a week for my kids to adjust, and I can always tell when we've become lax and it's been on more often because they become surly and bored and fight amongst themselves. And then it gets outlawed completely for a while, so they can come back to their senses.

:iagree: I always find the higher end, nearly invisible ones when I wear a suit. (not the orange "nude" ones, super sheer ones that match my skin tone) Unless it's a beach or daytime lawn wedding, I think they are a must.