I'm so sorry you're going through this - it's a difficult road you and your family have ahead of you. I'm a doctor who has a practice limited to geriatrics, and most of my patients have dementia. There is a lot of info "out there," but you might find some clear info (written at different levels) here: http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/AlzheimersInformation/GeneralInfo/ (There is info about dementias other than Alzheimer's on this site - your relative may have "multi-infarct dementia" which is more commonly (now) known as vascular dementia.) As far as what YOU can do, I think that if I received a note from a grandchild (or another relative who does not have power of attorney) detailing (briefly!) their concerns, I would be inclined to read it and act on it. I'm assuming that your g'father has regular appts with his doc? (I say a note, because you might not make much progress if you try to call.) Things the doc might want to do: Medication review Vision/hearing tests Mini mental state exam Nutrition eval Social work eval (for need for outside help) Lab work Driving test HTH - best wishes. Feel free to ask if you have other questions.

I would use it (now) as 'a drink, [usually intoxicating]' -- originally meant a drink offering to gods.

I was just in Merchant's Square this evening thinking fondly of the Scribner's that was there many (many) moons ago, and the *huge* treat that consisted of buying a book (The Thorn Birds, of all things!) and a Cheese Shop sandwich (had to save those nickels and dimes in order to splurge), and taking them down to a garden in CW during a fall break when I cdn't afford to go home. Oh, well, even Scribner's probably wdn't have had the logic books I was looking for. :) Thanks! Amazon it is.

Not really answering your question, but we did SOTW I-IV, then did SL5 (Eastern Hemisphere) and it was a great transition year for us.

LOL! Dating myself here, but we did the exact same thing with St. Elsewhere! (Does anyone remember THAT one?!) And in your post below where you mention Dr. Green taking care of the OB patient - I remember how he would do EVERYTHING in the Emergency Dept. I thought this was ridiculous (and it is!), but then when I worked in a very small ED, I was working late one night and a pregnant woman came in with heavy bleeding. There was no OB near the hospital, and the Director of Nurses said, "Well can't you do a C-section here?" (in the ED) WHAT?! That would be a BIG "No, I can't!"

Not too far, but closed on wkends. Blah. Any others?

Can anyone answer this quickly?! I'm here for a professional meeting, but am always thinking of homeschool! I need to look at Logic books and get some Wordly Wise (or similar). Thanks!

Hey, Robin! Always good to see you! I'm not around here much anymore, but think of you with affection. We're in the thick of CD PreAlgebra - and your finishing it will no doubt be inspiring to US! Thanks for letting us know.... (off to crack the whip!) (I'm embarrassed to admit that I saw Les Mis on Broadway a bazillion years ago, but was post-call (up for 36 hrs straight)... and fell asleep. Isn't that AWFUL?! I did enjoy the Focus on the Family dramatization :) - and now I'm completely embarrassed.)

I second many of the above suggestions. These two are a bit away from DC proper, but might still be do-able since you'll be there so long - and a drive might be nice for everyone, rather than walking around DC in summer! Gettysburg (new center; about 1.5-1.75 hr drive north of DC) National Cryptologic Museum (Fort Meade - about 30 min NE of DC; small, but good - all about code-breaking - and free (or very inexpensive))

Umm, this morning in the car, on the way to the ITBS, I asked ds how to divide fractions, how to multiply fractions, where the commas go in a series, what punctuation you use in dates, in business letters, etc. (IOW, not much prep! Actually, I just remembered 2 days ago that he was signed up for the test - we've been out of town for 2 wks!) He always does pretty poorly on punctuation and capitalization, although he can always tell me what the sentence SHOULD look like - he just insists it uses up too much graphite and too many trees to add caps and commas. Smart alek. In the past (this is his 4th non-consecutive year doing the ITBS), I *have* used workbooks to get him used to 1) the bubbles to color in, and 2) the time it takes to sit there. We always stress that the scores are for ME to know where *I* need to focus on teaching him. However, this year, I think he's in BIG TROUBLE if he can't capitalize!!! (Just kidding!) After today, he said he thought he spelled "----ible" wrong, but he's spelled it at least 4 times since we got home, so I think he's learned it :). (The "----" are because I didn't want to give away one of the spelling words for this year and skew those results LOL!)

MIch elle, could you tell me what didn't seem "enough" about PH Sci Explorer. I've liked it (for 6th and 7th), although we don't *do* enough. I don't care for Apologia, but ... hmmm, maybe need to reconsider. Thanks for your input!

We've been listening to all of these on audiobooks (narrated by the same actor who plays Herriott on the BBC series) and thoroughly enjoyed them. There was more "language" than I remembered (e.g., Siegfried Farnon seems to curse more than I remembered from when I had read them!), but most of it is appropriate use of earthy/farm- and animal-based terminology, and other parts are British curses that will not sound, to American ears, like "bad words." Bottom line, I found the language noticeable, since I don't typically hear it much, but the stories are wonderful, and your 13 yr old will most likely love them. (My 12 yr old did!)

If you're willing to order from Amazon.uk (although you could check Amazon here, too), there's a whole series that we have thoroughly enjoyed: Just William by Richmal Crompton narrated by Martin Jarvis (who is just excellent with voices). These were written in the 1920s/30s, I think, and are stories of the exploits of William Brown and his friends (the Outlaws). They're sort of Dennis-the-Menace scrapes crossed with Seinfeldian tie-up-all-the-loose-ends-in-a-funny-way type stories. The boys are about 11-12 yrs old, but there's also a younger female character (Violet Elizabeth Bott) who frequently enters in. Ds has loved these since he was 6 - and he still likes listening to them. His friends usually ask for "those William" stories when they're in the car with us, too. ETA: they're also on iTunes.

I'll be interested in responses from others who have walked this road before (my ds is only 12!), but my first thought is that it would be better organized if she had let the paper flow from the sentence that I bolded, above. It's not clear to me how she has organized this paper (maybe transition words *would* help), so that makes it confusing to follow. If she were able to use a formulaic 5-paragraph essay format, it might help. Her 3 body paras could address the three points she lists in the bolded sentence.

I *know*! And we were down there a few months ago and I forgot to ask K about you all - maybe next time!

Kudos! I wish I entertained more often. However, we *are* in a supper club (that has been meeting monthly since 1870!) of 16 couples (give or take), so I do have to (um, GET to) host every 16 months. My advice would depend on what type of function this will be - very casual (paper plates, BBQ-type) or sit down/tablecloth "real meal" type. I'm assuming you're talking more about a sit-down meal, so here are a few (random) tips gleaned from several hostings so far: -definitely hire someone to serve or oversee the food, if possible (I have not wanted to cater the dinners per se, so do a lot of the cooking myself, but I have had a friend who calmly cooks for hundreds help out especially on the night of). That might mean plating the food or overseeing the buffet (or serving *from* the buffet line - for a little more portion control). It also means that you and your guests aren't having to hop up and down carrying plates around, or getting drink refills. -make sure your help has enough help of their own - you don't want table 1 finished with dinner while table 5 is just starting. -keep the drinks simple - iced water (and iced tea if you're feeling like you want the extra step) - and keeping pitchers on the table is easiest, imo. Coffee for dessert/after (I'd also recommend just making decaf, unless you are <40 yrs old! It seems that almost everyone wants decaf, and those that wd prefer caffeinated don't seem to care too much - but I'm not a coffee drinker, so that might be wrong - maybe decaf does taste different!). Because I'm a hot tea drinker, I like to have hot water and a few tea bags available, but not everyone does this. -avoid "messy" foods (e.g., lasagne), or foods that are too time/temperature-dependent (if you do it yourself). We've had good success with grilling marianated flank steaks and slicing them and then serving at room temp - or even cold. -have someone available to help with clean up (again, if you have a caterer, that wd be included, I imagine) - we're always just exhausted at the end of the evening, and facing 40 plates, etc., etc. takes away the glow of the evening! -candles make even a simple table look nice - and are cheaper than buying flowers! -several of the couples in this group don't have room for 30+, and set up card tables, folding chairs, etc. all over the house. Rather than being odd to sit in someone's study or den, it's actually sort of nice to have smaller, more intimate groups. It has seemed to me that tables of 6-8 (or 10 at most) are ideal for promoting conversation. (I actually have no room to even set up tables, and just use a local community room - but that has it's own problems.) If you have other questions, please post - these are just suggestions off the top of my head, but I have a folder full of notes from these dinners! Also, check out http://www.ellenskitchen.com for more ideas. HTH!

Same here.

We call this "social eating" in my family. Dh was a pastor's kid and said he had to eat the oddest things - and he CAN eat things that I know he just hates. We've tried to do some training in that (and keep our strong dislikes to ourselves!) with ds. However: :iagree: We still laugh at (with) my mom, who said when she was first married, my dad's mom (her mil) was making salad with red leaf lettuce - but my mom thought it was rotten at the tips, so she was picking through the salad throwing away all the red leaves.... This is me - I just hate the texture of beans - and realize that if we are invited somewhere where they serve chili, I'm just going to have to (subtly) hold my breath and swallow those things whole. Very silly, but I just can't bite into a bean without gagging! (But your soup SOUNDS good, Colleen - I just wd have had a hard time with it! I promise I wdn't have been histrionic about it, though!) WHAT? Honestly, I've never heard that. I LOVE pickles. Drat. I usually just try to have something that can be "assembled" even if it's not simple - that way, if they want a tortilla with cheese and don't want the seasoned sauteed veggies and chicken/beef - well they don't have to have them! I also try to put out bowls of cut up fruits and raw veggies. Colleen, I applaud you for having the boy over - fewer and fewer folks are cooking OR entertaining (maybe that's too fancy a word for having a 12 yr old over!) - so his guest skills probably aren't really up to snuff. Clearly.

Hooray, Kelli and daughter! Kelli, you've been a light on these boards for years, and I appreciate YOU. I also appreciate your mentioning the gaps that still remained in your schooling of your children - it's terribly encouraging to me, and helps keep me plugging away, even though it's not all perfect in this old schoolhouse. Great job!

That's a good point - and I do have ds correct them sometimes - and he actually likes it - so I should save myself from craziness about grammar, eh?! The difference in labels doesn't faze him at all (which other posters have pointed out). At any rate (and a shameless plug for AG), he REALLY GETS grammar now that we're using Analytic Grammar!

I always look at http://www.ellenskitchen.com for help in estimating when cooking for a crowd. There's a link for "100" and also a link for "sandwiches." Hope one of them is helpful!

I have no idea, but I'd guess not -- since Analytic Grammar uses "pp" for preposition. Drives me CRAZY trying to correct papers, since ds used Shurley for a year and Easy Grammar for a year (and I don't recall if or how EG marked preps, but it wasn't "p" or "pp!":tongue_smilie:). Almost every lesson, I start to mark something wrong when it's ... not!

A late reply, and I'm agreeing with most other posters - from a slightly different perspective. I not infrequently have to call people about their loved ones doing poorly, dying, or having died (I'm a physician specializing in geriatrics). Besides the whole "I'm-so-witty-and-my-children-are-the-cutest" issues that many of us seem to have with answering machine messages, it is just *horrible* to have to leave a difficult message after a cutesy announcement. ("It's the refrigerator. If you want I'll take a message and stick it to myself." "Hello. This is Dr. B. I need you to call me right away, because your mother has taken a turn for the worse.") I know that the owner of the machine doesn't hear the juxtaposition when they GET the message, but I'd bet that I sometimes sound odd(er than normal!) because I'm responding to someone's child singing to me, or burping their message or something. My pref: just the facts. "Please leave your name and number and we'll get back to you." Just a thought. FWIW, we don't even HAVE an answering machine, because every. stinking. summer. a bolt of lightening hits the connection and we lose the thing. Now folks are just used to calling my voice mail :).

THANK YOU for the encouragement! Much needed on this winter day. And ... good job, for whatever you did!

I had a friend who had a similar situation to the OP's description ... and it turned out that their DOG was the carrier. Just another thought!