We have used Tunnel Bear to watch BBC online as well. It has MUCH better and balanced coverage without as much hokey commentary and commercials. I will never go back. $5 is well worth the cost and you can cancel any time.

I have struggled with histamine intolerance for years. I recently discovered there is an enzyme supplement which I can take right before I consume something I know will give me trouble. There are a few brands but the one I use is Histablock. It has changed my life!

We love camping. We spend at least 30 nights a year camping and there was one year when dd and I had an 8-week string where we camped every weekend. We have a very small and OLD pop-up that we use about half of the time and the other half we tent camp. Both have their merits. The pop-up is more comfortable and makes everything from cooking to changing easier but tent camping allows us to camp in more secluded or hard-to-get-to places. We particularly enjoy camping on beaches. We find that we enjoy all sorts of camping. We like busy campgrounds with lots to do and people to meet but also like being where there is no one else and we do absolutely nothing the whole time. For us it is just a super inexpensive way to "vacation". We have lots of camping available near our house so we can camp at night but still go to work/activities during the day. Insects can be a bother so we try to avoid the worst weeks. But bug spray usually works well enough and we live where it is cool enough to cover up, even during the day. The only thing that we will cancel a trip for is severe weather. After "The Summer of Two Tornados," I now have a new appreciation for extended forecasts. There's nothing quite like hunkering down in your car hoping you won't land in Kansas. We do also tick check every night. To summarize, we like the sounds of nature, the feeling of living in the elements, being dirty, eating camp food, relaxing, sleeping to the sound of waves/leaves/animals/etc, feeling cozy in our tent during a rain shower, and letting our kid (and her friends) go feral for a few days.

There are none within hours of our house so this has never come up. Plus it is not really a thing my dh or any other male I know would be interested in. So kind of a moot point for me personally. But in theory, no, I do not consider it adultery and aside from finding it odd and a poor use of money would not have an issue with dh going to one. Nudity is a non-issue for me. My bigger issue is the ethics surrounding the industry, as others have brought up. Just as we try to avoid factory farmed foods or sweat shop goods, I would also advocate for avoiding an industry with so many common abuses of workers. However, I am close friends with a former dancer who had a very positive experience in the industry. I think abuses vary widely from establishment to establishment. What do people here think of people who paint, sculpt, or photograph nudes as art? Or the people who enjoy that art as consumers? Not that I am saying strip dancing is "art," although I'm sure I could find someone who would argue that it indeed is, but some here have equated it with porn which I find a bit of a leap. Just wondering how far that leap stretches?

Interesting. I forgot those even existed! I'll look into it. Thanks!

Good tips! We had planned to keep the cash issue to ourselves until after settling on a price but I was not sure what we were going to say when it was asked. This is partly why I cannot just call the dealers to ask what they accept (check, cc, etc....). My guess is that they will assume we plan to finance since the cars we are looking at are typically targeted to lower-income people and the car we will be driving in also screams these-people-will-need-a-loan. On the trade-in one, can I ask why? Won't they give us a better trade-in deal if they know we are going to buy from them? We are replacing a older car which we think we might be able to get around $4000 for with a private sale but would take as little as $2500 in trade-in just to not have the hassle. We took it to a couple of local dealers (which we knew we would not buy from) and they gave us $2800-$3000 trade-in value so we think we are being realistic. We even got it in writing so we can use that as a bargaining tool. I am going to see if our credit union will cut cashier checks to the three places we are going for an amount significantly less than we expect to spend then allow us to cancel whichever ones we don't use. Then bring a couple thousand in cash to make up the difference. We have some major house renovations happening later this summer which we have saved cash for so we have enough in the bank to cover up to three checks. Another option is to just go ahead and finance but pay the balance immediately. Any flaws with that idea? We would of course inspect the terms carefully to make sure there is no penalty for paying off early. A final option is to "finance" through our CU then pay off right away but that is significantly more complicated since we will be in another state and may not be dealing on a day that our CU is open so I'm hoping to avoid that.

Did this have to be during weekday business hours? We are now seriously considering a car that is 7 hours away and the only way we can get there is to do the transaction on a Sunday. The dealer is willing to have someone come in for this. Sometimes I hate living in the middle of nowhere......

I avoid GMOs (and factory farmed, non-organic, high mileage, etc.... foods) due to the ethical issues. That is how I vote with my dollars. But I do not worry about any personal health issues from eating GMOs so do not scrutinize every bite. I do not even think about it when eating outside of my own house.

Well, I must be shallow and so are all of my friends. I had several couples over to my house last night and I brought this question up. All five women said they most definitely would want one of us to say something in a situation like this and would not hesitate to say something themselves. Then my dh piped up and said he certainly hoped one of us would say something to him if his undies made his butt look weird. The other dhs assured him they had his back (or butt, ha ha). We are a bunch of blunt people. The women (I'll leave my dh out of this) all dress pretty simply but up-to-date and while none of us are fashion plates, we all like to dress nicely. I know I do a butt check when wearing something new but if I miss it, yes, I would like someone to clue me in....preferably a friend.

The problem is that we do not know the amount so cannot have a bank check with us. Nor do we know who to make a check out to since we are looking at more than one dealer. We are looking at several cars at different list prices, not to mention negotiating. None of our credit cards have a high enough limit. And we would like to be able to drive away with the car that day if we find one since one of the dealers we are going to is 4 hours away. We really don't want to have to make the trip twice. Anyone have a dealer NOT accept a personal check? It would be a weekday so they could call our credit union and make sure it is good.

We are getting ready to buy a new-to-us used car. There are a few we are going to look at over the next week, all are at dealers that require 2+ hours of driving to get to. We plan to pay cash. How do we arrange the money? I assume personal check is out of the question. Do we really bring $12K in cash? Or is there some sort of bank transfer we can do? Do I need to talk to my credit union? We have always done a cashiers check before but those cars were local so we could just go to our credit union and have one cut the same day. I do not want to have to drive back and forth twice if we happen to find the car we want. I do plan to call my CU but don't want to sound dumb if there is just a way this "is done" that I am unaware of.

We have been drinking raw milk for close to 10 years now. I cannot always get it so when I cannot we generally do not drink milk. I cannot speak of any amazing health effects but the taste is much better. So much better that none of us will drink pasteurized milk. It just does not taste good. I also like that I can skim the cream off to use for other things and for whatever reason it makes much better yogurt. I agree with others that you have got to know the farm, farmer, and the practices. Illness from drinking raw milk is rare but pretty serious. I'm willing to take the risk because I want to support my local and humane farmer. Our source is part of a dairy share for raw milk only so any illness would be a serious problem for the farmer. It is illegal to sell in my state so our farmer has even more to lose than a consumer should he not follow safe practices.

I would be reluctant to for the reasons others have already stated but I personally would for sure want a friend to tell me so YMMV.

Also remember a "family dinner" is simply a dinner your family eats together. It does not have to look like anyone else's as long as it is nourishing, healthy, and is eaten as a family.

Start by setting a schedule for meals so that everyone (who is home) eats at the same time. At 12, your ds can make his own food. I would start by making whatever you like for the rest of the family and give ds the option of preparing his own meal, all to be eaten together at the same time. Maybe offer him a small portion of each meal to try if he wants. He might find he likes things he didn't think he would if the pressure is off and he knows he can make his own thing. The downfall of this, of course, is that perhaps your 8yo is not picky but would still prefer the frozen pizza your ds makes over the casserole you make. In that case, you might have to get more creative. I like the assemble-your-own approach where you prepare all of the ingredients but each person decides what and how much of each item to put in their meal. This works for stir-fry, salads, pizza, burritos, baked potatoes, rice-and-beans, pretty much anything if you think about it. I don't have any picky eaters but we do this a lot because it is easy for me and fun for everyone else. I also like having the leftover bits of this and that to make into fun leftovers. I can use the leftovers from baked potato bar as toppings for chili. Leftovers from taco bar are great in omelets the next day. I'm not above dumping just about anything into a tortilla and making one-of-a-kind wraps.

Black bears really don't like people. If your kids are loud when they play, that is the best deterrent. If not, would they agree to bells on their outside shoes or some other noise maker that warns the bears. As an extra measure you could also have them carry whistles, both to scare any bear they come across and to alert adults that there is an issue (bear or anything else). I live in a city neighborhood and we even get bears from time to time. The city is small and surrounded by mostly-empty woods so they come in looking for garbage and other goodies. They bolt as soon as they see us. But even when we lived in the country, we saw them so frequently that we got used to them, but we never saw them when making noise. I swear raccoons can be more dangerous as they do not seem to have any fear of humans.

I also feel like a softie. I know that a check-up could be done. I would not hesitate to bring my younger cat in. She also hates the vet but bounces back just fine afterwards. Our avoidance of the vet office is two-fold. I felt the whole debacle 8 years ago was handled so poorly on top of the unwillingness to help with the prescription food issue that it seemed best to just stay away. Then there is my poor older cat's anxiety. We could obviously take her and I'm sure she would be thoroughly examined and treated if necessary. But I am weighing that against her psychological well-being. At some point the trauma just is not worth it it my opinion. Those feral cats you speak of don't have a secure homelife and humans that they trust. Mine does and very easily feels those things threatened by contact with strange people/situations. At this point, I have a 16 yo cat that I am almost certain would rather die than be touched by a stranger, let alone carted to a strange place, separated from "her" humans, and prodded. We have two vets. We have seen both as has almost everyone we know since they are the only ones within hours of driving. They are overbooked and you feel rushed and almost like you are an annoyance to them when asking questions or seeking advice. I am sure they are doing the best they can given the circumstances but I have felt more confused and uncertain after every visit than I did going in. If I was certain that we would have a good experience and they were willing to help me with ways to ease her anxiety (meds, if necessary), I would be more open to regular visits. They had gone in annually, as had all of our previous pets, until that fateful series of visits. I realize this makes me a negligent pet owner but it is not inspired by laziness or cheapness. I just could not see my cat go through any of that again, even if it meant a shorter life. Obviously, I do not want to see her in pain either. I just have to find the line between physical pain and psychological pain.

She is not missing any additional teeth from the ones that were pulled 8 years ago. That would very much alarm me! My point was that she does not have many teeth left to be affected. They pulled 14 teeth during that procedure. We had no idea that was going to happen. She went under for a good cleaning and they called saying she needed some teeth pulled. "Some" in my mind was 2-3. Not 14! She does still have all of the teeth she had after that procedure. But, I would like to talk about the plaque/tarter. From what I can see and comparing them to photos on my google searches, she has "minor" visible build-up. Would you address this in a 16 yo cat who has very high anxiety?

Our cats were on Science Diet (whichever one is for crystals) dry and wet food. It was a huge step down from the food they had been eating previously. Lots of filler and junk. Way too many ingredients. Smelled awful. Within 6 months, both cats had dull fur and eyes. One had dandruff. The older one had lost about 20% of her body weight. Both were lethargic and stopped grooming themselves. One was constipated and the litter box stench was unbearable. It was terrible. The only thing the food DID do was clear up the crystal issue. I did a ton of poking around looking for an alternative. Raw food was the most promising. Our vet was not helpful at all. I brought them in and explained their changes and asked about feeding them raw or if there were any other suggestions he could give to get them back to their previous health. He was very annoyed that I was questioning his advice and predicted dire consequences if I took the affected cat off the prescription food. That was the last time we went in with the cats. I decided they were already in rough shape and clearly not healthy/happy, so had little to lose by trying something else. We went to mostly raw with occasional grain-free canned for cat sitters. I sometimes make my own raw but usually purchase the frozen kind by Nature's Variety. I had to start by mixing it with dry food and very gradually increasing the ratio until they were 100%. It took about a month for them to acclimate. The improvement in their health and activity was almost instant. Within 3 months they had their shiny, flake-free fur back, the older one had gained her lost weight back, and both became the playful, bright cats they had been before this whole ordeal. I cannot say for certain that raw is the answer for crystals in general. I could very well be that my cat was going to be fine regardless. Crystals don't always come back or can be "grown out of." But there is a lot of evidence pointing to foods that are high in fillers/grain having a higher likelihood of causing urinary issues. I hope you find an answer! We too had little luck finding a suitable "urinary health" food for our cat.

So I have been watching and messing with this poor cat all morning. The drooling only happens when she is purring. She is pretty much always purring when she is in a lap or being carried so we notice it all the time. But watching her, she does no drool at all when not purring. So, I googled it. I should have done that first. Doh. Apparently this is a thing. Some cats drool when they are purring and content. Just for extra measure, I checked out her mouth. She does not have many teeth left. There is no inflammation or redness but she does have plaque. It looks like there are ways for me to attempt to remove it at home. I'll see if I can get her to allow this over time. Of course, we still have the litter box issue but since that has been going on for so long without any obvious medical problems, I am going to let that go for now. This has been a good exercise though. I now know that we do not have a handle on how to address a medical problem for an old cat who has such high anxiety. For an obvious terminal illness or extreme injury/pain, we do know what we would do. But what if she really did simply have a minor and fixable issue that was causing discomfort? What is the cut-off for the 16 yo cat who it dearly loved but very easily traumatized. I cannot imagine putting her through such trauma at the very end of her life. This is hard to figure out. Surely there are others with seriously fearful cats? Tell me how you decide.

Anyone know if there is a way to tell if a cat is in pain. We are calling it "drooling" but I'm not sure that it truly is. It is very clear and only appears when her mouth is closed. It could be coming from her nose....which might be indicative of another issue that should be addressed? She loves to have her face massaged so sometimes I can get close to her mouth and even massage her gum area. This does not seem to bother her. It is not about the expense. I would pay just about any amount to ensure she is healthy and free of pain. She is just so emotionally fragile that I am concerned that any close contact with a stranger, be it in a vet office or in our home, would be so stressful to her that it would not be worth it. We travel often and have had the same cat sitter who comes twice a day for over 6 years. She has not once seen this cat. This cat hides for hours after dd has a friend over. We have had houseguests that have been here for days that have not ever laid eyes on her. After the last fateful vet experience, she hid behind the washing machine for two months only coming out when everyone was asleep to eat and use the litter box. She STILL has not fully forgiven us for having dd....13 years ago. I just don't want to put her through stress unless I am fairly certain she is currently in a significant amount of pain. If anyone knows of a way that I could discern this, I am all ears.

I do wish some of these options were available here. We have two vets. That is it. Within hours. They do not do house calls for cats any reason. They are so overbooked that they have zero interest or time in doing me any favors since my cats have not been here for so long and I took them off the prescription food against advice. Just getting an appointment for a consult is nearly impossible. My options are take cat to the vet as comfortably and I can given what I have access to. Or leave her be in what appears to be a happy, secure, and comfortable life (secure being VERY important to her). She is currently very loudly purring on my lap. But I realize cats don't show pain the way I would notice easily. There is physical pain and mental pain. Trying to choose the right balance given my situation and options.

None of our local vets do house calls except for putting animals down. And even that is very difficult to get them to do, especially for cats. Unfortunately, we are in a very isolated geographic location so there are not a lot of options.

Nowhere near Atlanta. But thanks for the offer! The litterbox thing has been going on ever since the fateful vet visit 8+ years ago. We only recently figured out which cat was doing it! We thought it was the other one all of this time and assumed it was a leftover habit from the crystals. We were shocked to discover it was the other one. In that time we have done everything imaginable to "fix" the problem. Even now, we only replace/clean/refill litterboxes one at a time so there are always familiar ones to use should they want to. We have 4 boxes. After 8 years, it is possibly just "programmed" into her head that that is where she is supposed to go. I am OK with that as long as she is not in pain.

This is sort of a S/O of the elitist pet owners thread. I have two old cats. One is 14 and the other is 16. Both are currently in good health. That has not always been the case. We went through a period of time when the younger one developed crystals and had to be put on prescription food. Both cats had to eat the same food for a myriad of reasons I won't bore you with. The prescription food is total junk and within a year, both were in poor health. This resulted in many vet visits and a lot of expense before we did our research and found an alternative to the prescription food. Their health improved immediately and the crystals never returned. During the string of vet visits, the older one had to have a bunch of dental work as it was discovered she had a lot of issues. It was a long time ago so I don't remember the details but several teeth were removed and she had to be put under for the procedure. We never took the cats back to the vet after all of that. It has been 8+ years. They never go to a kennel or leave the house so there really has been no reason to visit the vet. Which is good because the older cat has never been the same since the last time she went to the vet. It was extremely traumatic for her and it took months for her to trust us again. I felt really bad. Fast forward to now. The older cat appears to be in great health all around except that she drools and she defecates next to the box instead of in the box. I have done some poking around and it is possible that the drooling is due to more dental issues and could even be quite painful. She does still eat normally but has not been able to chew up dry food or treats since her dental work. We feed her all wet or raw. She is not at all cooperative to us looking in her mouth but from what we can see she does appear to have significant build-up on the teeth she has left. I have no ideas on the outside-of-the-box defecation. It appears normal. We have tried all of the different suggestions for litter box issues. They are cleaned daily and we have many of them in many locations. She does her thing in the exact same spot every time and it happens to be in our crappy basement that has no other purpose than to house litter boxes so it is really not a big deal to us but could be an indication of a health problem. Due to her age and complete terror of all strangers and specifically the vet, we have discussed that we would likely not seek extensive treatment should she ever get sick. Should she need to be put down, we would have a home visit. What do I do here? What is worse? Having her live out the rest of her years with what might be painful dental/defication issues or see a vet which she is seriously almost-deathly afraid of. Like I am concerned that taking her to the vet (or anywhere, really) will either kill her from her terror or result in her never ever trusting us again. I'm not even sure a vet could do anything anyway since she would have to be put under to have her teeth worked on and she is far too old to withstand that (I think). And the litterbox issues are usually a complete crapshoot as well. But it also seems cruel to not address them. She is still as lovey as ever. She loves her people (and only her people), her toys, her napping spots, her food, etc.... She does not appear to be in pain. She follows me around the house all day long, "chats" with me, and sleeps on my neck. Aside from the drooling and defecation issues, I have no reason to suspect that she is anything but 100% healthy. She is 16. Is there anything to gain from putting a 16 year old, very nervous cat through seeing a vet to address these issues?