This looks awesome, thanks!

I am sure too:) When a kid ASKS to study music theory, I figure I had better listen! She is certainly not asking for more math.....sigh.

Dd has this book and has memorized at least 50 tunes out of it already. And she spices those tunes up quite a bit just by ear and listening to different versions on YouTube. But she gets frustrated when her improv goes wrong because she doesn't understand some of the finer points of key. Something can appear to be written in A major, for instance, but is actually a different key when it comes to adding your own spin to the song. When she asks real fiddlers about this, they tell her she will need to study theory to develop confidence and skill.

This is a long shot, I know. I am looking for a very specific type of music theory curriculum/program. My almost 10-yo dd plays the violin. She is classically trained and is currently in Suzuki Book 7. She has started to dabble in bluegrass and wants to do a lot more with it. She has a very solid scale and technique background but is missing the theory required to improv with confidence. Scale/key theory specifically. I am also an amateur musician and could benefit from the same education so I would do this with her. It could be geared towards HS or even college students if that is the best we can find. I can adapt what I need to in order to make it work. But I am hoping someone might know of something more targeted toward my specific needs.

Yeah. Me neither. I figured they never changed. I should have asked a few questions when I got "scolded" at the AG hair salon for "letting" my dd play with a "collector's item." Huh? I cannot imagine anything more sad than my dd's Kirsten being put in a box and never played with. After doing some research, we learned that they did indeed used to be a little more ample around the middle and that they were hand-stuffed so the dolls varied from one to another. That was before they started making the more form-fitting clothing so the variations did not matter so much.

My dd has a very early (pre-1990) Kirsten (also retired) and we have sadly found that the dolls have "slimmed down" over the years. Our Kirsten does not fit into the clothing sold now:( This is something we wished we knew before dd spent her hard-earned money on some outfits on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the AG store..... We didn't find that they didn't fit until we were hours away from the store. I have been mad ever since. Luckily, her great-grandmother sews and has made roomier outfits for her.

I was waiting for someone to post about the "Big American" pizzas. Those cracked me up when shopping in Amsterdam. I took photos. I wasn't sure if the "big" was referring to Americans in general or to the pizza, but the pizza was not "big" so I am still confused. I didn't buy one so I have no idea how it tastes. But funny:)

I would but I am a chicken about this sort of thing.

We do this. If the roads are bad and only one person has to go out, we take the car that has collision. Same with the garage.

I just have to ask a question about shoes! We travel abroad every few years and try hard to blend in. I don't dress super-casual "American" anyway....no shorts, t-shirts, or baseball caps here. But I cannot walk for miles and miles in uncomfortable shoes. We travel on the super-cheap so we are taking public transit and our feet most places we go. Due to this, we carry everything we have with us, so often carrying 30ish pound backpacks. I would never wear sneakers but I do tend to gravitate towards Danskos in colder weather or Chacos in warmer weather. I am told the Chacos are a dead giveaway and Danskos are not much better. And I do have to admit that I never saw others wearing sport-like sandals when we were in Italy during warmer months. But, really, I cannot wear fashion boots or high heels and walk 5+ miles at a time with a load. Am I missing some great secret shoe that would meet my comfort needs and not scream AMERICAN?

I thought the whole formal name thing was a thing of the past. Dd calls everyone by their first name. I cannot think of a single time she has been asked to address anyone by anything different. She does call one set of aunt/uncle "Aunt and Uncle _____" because that is what we think they prefer but that is the only exception I can think of. Even her violin teacher, who is technically a Dr., prefers to be called by her first name. I teach at a university and I ask my students to call me by my first name. Most comply. Those that do not tend to mess up my "title" anyway which I think is far more awkward. I address my colleagues by first name though most are Drs. All of dd's friends call me by first name and as far as I can tell, they address all parents by first name.

The cheapest of the cheap boosters run around $17 in my area. Well worth avoiding the risk of getting ticketed or just the anxiety over the possibility. And if you have room to store it, I am guessing you will either have occasion to use it again when driving someone else's kid or lend/give it to someone in need. I am big on car seat safety so I follow all of the laws and above, but I have to say that NO ONE else I know or see does and I have yet to hear of anyone getting more than a warning when pulled over. I watched what looked like a 4yo bopping around the front passenger seat with no seat belt at all go by my house about 15 minutes ago...... Bigger fish to fry.

Ah! That explains that. I have been meaning to look this up. At every sporting event my dd participates in, I have this awkward moment because half the people salute during the anthem and half don't. And I'm always thinking I HAVE TO LOOK THIS UP WHEN I GET HOME!!!! Then I forget. And yes on the first part. I don't care what the attire is supposed to be for a wedding as long as it is clear. The loss of this clarity results in the wedding couple getting a hundred clarification phone calls and another hundred guests who show up it the very-wrong and potentially uncomfortable clothing because we have lost too much etiquette know-how. I am a very casual person so if I were planning a wedding, I would not care what people chose to wear. But in order to make everyone feel comfortable, I would likely add a "casual attire" note to either the invite (yes, breach of etiquette) or through a strong word-of-mouth network with special care taken to inform out-of-the-loop guests. In days of yore, this message could reliably be transmitted with simple invitation cues that everyone just knew how to read (time of day, location, length of event, etc....).

Any chance the buckle was put in on an angle so only one end caught, putting too much stress on one side over the other? It just seems odd to have two buckles fail in the same way when it is not a typical failure. The only constant is the user and perhaps the way it is being buckled is the culprit. Or maybe even check out the path on the receiving end to see if it is malformed and causing stress from twisting or bending when buckling.....which would only be suspect if you replaced only one side of the buckle......

At this point, most people are clueless, which makes things even harder since one will say something without realizing its meaning (e.g. formal attire or black tie). I have had more frustrating moments trying to figure out if something written on a wedding invite means what it says (like the "black tie" before evening time) than I care to count. Do they REALLY mean black tie or do they just want men to wear black ties....yes, someone I know made this mistake and was perplexed as to why people were grumbling over black tie attire for a 10am wedding. She thought that all men wearing black ties would make the photos more "matchy." She took it literally....wear a black tie. Yikes. Same goes for all of the envelope addressing and what it means as to who is or is not invited from your household. You cannot assume anything anymore. I have given up and just call the wedding couple every time to get the real story and intent right from the horse's mouth. I grew up in the midwest during the 1980's and my public school required all students to take a semester-long etiquette class in the 8th grade. We learned everything from formal introductions, to table service mapping, to skirt lengths, to handling awkward situations. I think it may have been the most useful class I took.

Dd is starting to do writing work that really requires typing. She is part way through WWS1 and the editing is very tedious when using a pencil. Dh and I have laptops but they are expensive and I don't really want a 9yo toting mine around. We have a "house" computer which is essentially a desktop. Dd currently uses this for email. But we often (usually) do schoolwork elsewhere so we have not used it for schoolwork word processing. Dh and I are both Apple junkies and I am not sure dh would even be willing to look at other options....but the Apple laptops and iPads are out of our price range right now. Is there anything out there that is inexpensive, light, stable, and durable that would be good for someone who only needs word processing, email, and simple web applications? Or maybe just word processing with no web access at all.....since I prefer any email or web work be done in a common room where we can see what is going on. Does such a thing exist?

I would suggest either foam-type mattresses which and inexpensive and last forever or therm-o-rest mattresses that could technically leak but are far stronger and easier to patch. We have had our therm-o-rests for 20 years of hard use and have not sprung a leak in any of them. The big bed air mattresses leak easily, are huge to store, are a pain (and loud) to inflate, and are cold. I am not sure why they are so popular for tent camping with all of those drawbacks. Tip - you can often find surplus military therm-o-rests from Campmor for far cheaper than the regular models. They are not as pretty but work the same.

This is only true if you are continuously enrolled, FYI. Not that I think it will matter for the OP, but important for people to understand.

Something similar happened to my dh. But, he did not find out until a year after he thought he graduated when he was denied a job offering because they called the university and the university said he was not a "graduate." You can imagine the shock....and we still wonder how many other job opportunities were unknowingly lost. Because we no longer lived near the school, dh had to take the class in question somewhere else. But it was not a class offered by community colleges. He ended up doing some sort of DE option and it was quite expensive. We can laugh about it now but it was not at all funny at the time. It made his graduation year change by two which he also still resents. In the school's defense, dh should have been able to figure this out earlier. His diploma was never mailed. At that time they mailed them to your "permanent address" which was typically your parents address. He just assumed it was mailed and never followed up. That or a quick check at his transcript would have tipped him off sooner. He had substituted a class requirement with department permission but never got it in writing (he assumed it was recorded in his files) and had no proof so there was no arguing it. The class he had used as a substitute (because the required class had been full many semesters running) was actually a higher-level and more difficult course, but with college accreditation audits, the school really could not just let it go without proof of the original agreement, which dh could not provide.

We say "moo point" all the time because of that episode. So much so that neither of us can not say it when in mixed company. We get some strange looks.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Was your bags touching the ice directly in the cooler? I am planning to try it out ahead of time like someone upstream suggested, but I did not want to waste any food. I have always used jars or tupperware so wasn't sure if the direct contact....or full immersion in icy water would mess things up.

I went to the Vegetarian Times website and searched "picnic salads" and just regular salads. I put a few links below, but you can seriously lose half a day looking at the recipes on that sire. We have found that the recipes that involve broccoli taste fine when first made but the leftovers are no good. Tomatoes also don't do great in the fridge/cooler. I have been focussing on the legume and grain salads so they could be stand-alone meals if needed but will also work as side salads. I got the roasted veggie salad recipe from that site too and we especially like it because it held up well to storage and my mind can think of a million ways we could use it.....on top of brown rice or lettuce, in a wrap with goat cheese, even toss it into a box of mac-n-cheese. So often, what sounded good at home does not appeal once we are camping so the more flexible, the better. We fall into a trap of too many simple carbs and our bodies are not used to the abuse. We have brought the black bean salad recipe many times in the past and it holds up very well. Roasted veggie: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/roasted-vegetable-salad-with-tabil-vinaigrette/ Rice salad http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/tunisia-meets-provence-salad/ Black Bean salad http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/picnic-caviar/

Just one kiddo and she does help with camp chores. But if the choice is between having her help me or letting her go off to chase bugs, I hate to ask her to help. Dh is always on fire/water/wood duty. I am really just looking to reduce the work required all around so we all have more time to play. I would much rather put the time in when I am home and have a full and CLEAN kitchen to work in. When camping, if there is extra time, I prefer to spend it in my camp chair, by the fire, with a beer in hand:)

Thanks for the suggestions! I was just browsing Amazon to see what is out there in the food sealer world. It looks like some can seal without the vacuum. I'll have to see what features my friend's machine has. I can always use ziplock bags, of course, but we have had more than one incident of a not-quite-zipped-all-the-way bag and soggy food. Yuck.

How do those food saver bags work? Would it vacuum-squish softer things like a bean salad? Or will I mess up the sealer if I am trying to seal something squishy like hummus? I always throw at least one meal of pre-made and frozen soup in the bottom of the cooler. Acts as ice and saves us on nights that are rainy or otherwise difficult to cook.