I would put "on request". We have background checks (at the Y) and there is a separate form for that, which includes that information and permission to run the check. I'm always a little :001_huh: when people brig in an application with their SSN. I don't really feel comfortable having that kind of information in my possession, even to just stick it in my boss's office.

I'll look under my counter for your stuff. That's where the evil gnomes hide mine (like single shoes). :glare:

I would cook them up and freeze the overage to thaw and chunk on top of a salad or something later. That way, you can avoid double cooking and drying out.

I'm fairly sure brown rice malt is what is called brown rice syrup in NA. It's thick, neutral flavored, and less sweet than other syrups (honey, molasses, maple). I'm pretty much in the camp of "sugar is sugar is sugar" for general purposes. Less processing is desirable (for me) for many reasons, but for general health benefits, it's all just sugar. (I also don't think sugar is evil, though I'm not a fan of it - in any iteration - being added to food for no reason, like HFCS is here) I wouldn't think it would be healthful for diabetics or anyone else who has trouble processing sugars.

It sounds like what half of my daughter's lacrosse team has been dealing with this season, from running on hard ground in cleats (and heel striking). Most of them have had a fat-pad bruise, right at the back of the heel. The other half have had Achilles or lateral tendon pain. Ice helps. Anti-inflammatories (Bailey was using turmeric and devil's claw on a nightly basis, along with a cold clay pack I picked up at Rite Aid - its cold and ready after an hour in the freezer). When I had an Achilles strain from running, I found that ice, anti-inflammatories and kinesio tape worked really well.

I wonder if it's a mulberry. One of the defining features is that the leaves are all different. Looking at mine, there are spade shaped, heart shaped, mitten shaped, tri-lobed and rounded, like a lily pad. The only thing they have in common, other than all being on the same tree, is the serrated edges.

We do stuff like that. Its frustrating. I also have The Cavern of Missing Shoes. No lie, I could only find one of my favorite wedge slides for THREE YEARS. I was about to give up and throw it out when I got down on the floor to retrieve something that had rolled under a cabinet and, 'lo and behold, there was the missing shoe, all the way back, blending with the back of the dishwasher! Happiness! The other day, I went to break out my favorite flip-flops and... One. After looking under the bed and preparing to give up and wear tennis shoes, I cast an eyeball under the cabinet. Yup. Second one under there. I'm beginning to think I should just store my shoes there and be done with it. But then the evil gnomes would have to hide single shoes somewhere else, wouldn't they?

I'm in! I'll have my husband inventory the freezer while I'm at work today.

I'm not a fan. Perhaps it's from having a narcissistic mother - EVERY day is all about her, but the OFFICIAL day to celebrate her greatness? :001_rolleyes: And, of course, since I am also a mother, I should be full-scale cotillion "celebrated", too. (but I suppose that would have to happen on a different day, since I should obviously be busy adjusting her tiara at her Me Gala, right?) But I'm not a big celebration kind of girl. I'm a celebrate and appreciate people in real time kind of girl. If I want to take a day off, just for me, I will do it when I'm feeling like a need to recharge, not on the third Sunday of May. And I appreciate it less when people are forced to appreciate me. (I have the same feeling about performance reviews at work, too; it's not just a holiday thing.) I'm working today - which I'm blah about because Sundays are slow and boring - and, since I closed last night, I have left myself a to-do lost of all the things that annoy me (dust on the fans in the group-ex rooms, smudges on the walls) and I'm going to tackle them all this afternoon. And I will be happy because a) they will not annoy me anymore and b) I will be doing something instead of sitting at the desk lamenting all the stuff I could be doing at home. Woot!

MD is pretty straightforward. You notify the county each year that you're continuing to homeschool, and you are reviewed each year, by either the county or an umbrella group, for evidence of having and executing an educational plan. (parents are reviewed, not children) There is no testing, no attendance, etc. We have full-spectrum weather. Hot and humid in the summer, cold in the winter. Snow is not guaranteed, but it happens fairly often. And people lose.their.minds every time. We also have beaches and lots of other day-trip attractions. In the Ft Meade area, you'd be perfectly situated for DC, Baltimore, and Philly, beach trips in summer, PA apple picking in fall, ski and tubing trips in winter, hiking in Western MD year round...

Bonus! It HAS a smartphone app, so you can make a list of stuff to pick up and he can see it on his phone. :D I use the shopping list specifically so my husband can pick stuff up on his way home from work, 45 minutes away and close to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. It's easier than him having to parse items from texts.

I agree. Though I like to think of it more like they are working toward a goal in situations like this. And, no, I'm not above bribery. :D

The rule of thumb is that you need a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a lb. That takes into account your daily activity level so, the more active you are, the higher the intake is, even creating a deficit. (The deficit would be spread out over a week, so if you're eating a 2500 calorie diet normally, 2000 would be about right) As far as cardio or weights, my answer is always "yes". They both do different things: cardio burns more calories while you're working out, resistance training keeps your metabolism higher longer after a workout. You also want to switch it up all the time. Muscles catch on and get efficient at doing one thing pretty quickly, so your progress will fall off too, if you're doing the same cardio and same resistance training all the time. Bodybuilding.com has some good goal-defined workouts that switch things up on you, using different exercises to work the same muscles, lifting heavy (low reps) one day a week, light (high reps) others, etc. On bootcamp (and other classes) (and all things fitness, really): Fitness is a moving target. You should never have a workout that you can complete all the activities, reps, etc. If you can, it's time to up the ante (more weight, more reps, more complex moves). You should feel it afterward. Sore muscles that loosen up when you work out again is appropriate, screaming pain is not. (warning: do not do heavy squats and deadlifts the same day, or you may find yourself pondering the need for an emergency cord in the bathroom at work because you have found yourself a bit stuck on the toilet. Ask me how I know. :D) I teach strength training 3-4 times a week, but when I take somebody else's class, I feel it. One of my colleagues who has taught aerobics for 30 years says the same thing. You just feel it when you ask a muscle to do something new. I regularly squat more than my body weight - 200lb cage squat is my limit without a belt - but I subbed step and cardio fusion (dance, step, cardio kickbox) this week, and my quads are ANGRY. It's certainly not because they're unprepared for work. They just did work in a different way than they're accustomed. So, keep taking classes. Ask for modifications if the level of an exercise is too much for you (eg, knee push-ups instead of standard). Any instructor should be able to give you multiple levels of any move. You don't have to complete every rep, either. And check yourself. Bootcamp is one of those classes where it's easy to get caught up in the rush of the class and overwork yourself. Finally, you may want to take complete measurements - weight, circumference of waist, hips, biceps, thighs, calves, fat caliper measurements, etc - so you can see positive changes in multiple areas when one flat-lines on you. Because it will. And it's frustrating. But when your weight hasn't changed, it is very gratifying to see that your other measurements have. ;)

Portion control was something I had to really learn (and periodically have a refresher, lol). A while ago, we used Cooking Light recipes exclusively for almost a year. That really helped to reset my portion perception (and my husband and I each dropped about 40lbs). It also helped to plan the grocery shopping, since I had a very specific ingredient list for the week. I'm not big on recipes, and I think that contributes to overpurchase and waste for me. Robin Miller might also be helpful in planning. Her thing is meal plans where each meal contributes to the next, so leftovers are purposely created with a scheduled use in mind. I'd love to have a budget grocery planning thread next month, to bounce meal ideas off one another. :D

This is me, with the additional disclaimer that I am only on when I get an email that someone's messaged me, tagged me, etc., and the 10-15 minutes a week is due to communication for our travel lax team currently; it's usually not even that much a month. I feel the same about both: I simply do not care what random thought runs through anyone's head at any given moment. In fact, I find it a disturbing commentary on our society that people think they need to share so much stream of consciousness. So Twitter is even more useless to me than FB.

Cozi.com Personal calendars for the whole family. :) It's iCal compatible, so you can import lists from FlyLady or other sites.

Love this. I have no idea why I haven't though of it... I get my daily agenda from my husband's and my calendars every day at 5 am, and it syncs with our mobile calendars! Brilliant! Also, regarding FlyLady: if you don't want the email inundation, you can import the zone calendars and task lists to your Cozi calendar (and probably a Google calendar) online.

In the meantime, I ordered some from Amazon. ;) Oh. Duh. Redundancy is my specialty this week. :P

Are you sure it's not the flapper mis-seating? That's always been the case with a running toilet for me. (which is then followed by random, ghostly flushing, if I ignore it long enough)

That. I'm originally from Maine, now living in Maryland. (and I think it's kind, your definition of deluded. ;) )

I don't think that at all. We eat mostly organic, and mostly local in season. I would hate for anyone to feel guilty about their grocery choices based on how I eat. I think, like everything else in life, it's about being realistic about where you are while always looking for ways to do better. In feeding your family, there is a huge range from eating every meal through the drive-thru window to everything local, organic, and cooked from scratch. You do the best you can with the resources you have, and always have an eye toward improvements you can make here and there, when the opportunity presents itself or you can create it. I could probably cut our grocery budget by 30%, or at least get close to that. We could definitely be more conscious of using leftovers, and I could be better about the number of ingredients per meal. I could definitely drop in more meatless meals. We used to do that. I think the hardest part for us is that I'm gluten free, so "cheap" staples (bread, pasta, flour) aren't anymore. Sigh.

Always salt and pepper. Most of the time hot sauce. And then whatever I feel like dipping them in, if anything. Could be horseradish sauce, honey mustard, ranch... I don't care for ketchup.

My boys weaned when they were almost 4. I have never, ever, nursed any of my children while they stood on a chair. I have also never, EVER, asked another woman "Are you mom enough?" That is the kind of parenting outlook that makes me crazy. Eta: This is the kind of image I imagine those who are creeped out by extended breastfeeding have when they think about it. And it would totally creep me out, too, to think of randomly picking up a toddler to nurse. As I try to explain to people, it's different when it's just a continuation of what you've done since birth. I hardly think this picture suggests that.

Yay! (and darn! I forgot the Crazy Tenants in my crazy people thread list!)

Would these work?