When Smartwool got bought out, the quality tanked significantly. I have my very first pair that I bought 15 years ago and they are still going strong. Others I bought last year have already sprung holes. Point 6 socks are made by the original Smartwool folks and are made in the U.S. for about the same price. I have some that are three years old and still holding up after heavy use. So that is what a recommend now.

I just have to be OK not looking good getting out of the kayak. I have done the backwards knee thing too. Another alternative if you only have one car is to drop a bike off where you will get out and pedal back to car to go back and get boats. You can lock the bike up to a tree or whatever. It is a pretty common practice around here.

Chacos?

I wish we could. In winter we have a city-imposed run order in which we have to run a faucet at a pencil-sized stream at all times because the water pipes coming from the streets freeze if water is not moving. It makes me very nervous to leave home for a week knowing there is water running in my house. But if our pipe freezes up, we will not have running water until May so that is that I guess. Watching several neighbors go without running water for months has convinced me to not take a chance and turn it off.

Is that a joke? If so, I don't find it very funny.

I also had it about 8 years ago and would for sure recommend it. The day of the surgery was a little uncomfortable but I felt 90% by the second day. I also had to travel 4 hours to have it done so I think that contributed to the discomfort. My vision is still 20/20 but I am in my 40s and have been warned that I may need reading glasses eventually. So far so good.

I would be disappointed but also not surprised. I have a wonderful adult pet sitter who is extremely reliable but I still shoot her a text on the day of the first visit because I am paranoid about something similar happening. It is just too easy for it to slip the mind of someone who does not do this as a regular job. My own dd (11 yo) does pet sitting for several families and I have to remind her almost every time.

Very hot. Anything above 70 is lock-down-the-house-and-don't-use-the-stove weather here. No one has AC, including most businesses, so we are very ill equipped to deal with heat. I usually will not run in anything above 60 if I can help it. I have a race today and the high is 82 (which is the hottest temp we have seen this year). I might die. Seriously.

I second adding LFC A-C as a good Latin resource. It was an excellent introduction for my dd who is now enjoying Lukeion with her very solid LFC foundation.

Canada Goose is the rage with the college students in my town. I have one myself. But it is hard-core cold here. Like the-windchill-is-75-below-zero-and-class-is-still-on cold. I often put a down vest on under my Goose.

As we drove to the store, I was concerned this was a possibility. Fortunately for me, that was not the case....

I once had a 20 minute argument with my sister that my car was not a manual-shift vehicle. She was sure it was because the shifter was between the seats instead of on the side of the steering wheel. I kept telling her I did not even know HOW to drive a stick but she would not budge. I finally gave up. I hope she eventually figured it out. My dh is notorious for not seeing things that are right in front of him. I am constantly peppered with questions about where something is in the fridge or a cabinet only to tell him it is right in front of his face. I once sent him to a very large grocery store to pick up sour cream. He came home empty-handed and told me the store was out. Really? Out? I said this could not be. There was no feasible way the entire HUGE store could be out of such a common staple. We "discussed" this for an hour. I was not going to back down. He was so adamant and I was so stubborn that I insisted we drive to the store so I could see this crazy phenomenon. Sure enough, they had plenty. Thank goodness cell phones came around. Now when he is tasked with picking up something from the store and claims they are "out," I make him FaceTime me through the store and direct him to the item in question.

Oh good. I will just leave the closet white....and stuff the rest of the room into the closet as someone suggested. We are not selling and even if we were this house has WAY bigger fish to fry than what color paint is in the closet:) One of those fish would be the dirty ceiling tiles. Dd had a loft and had a habit of putting her feet on the ceiling. Dirty feet. Grrrrr. Can I paint them? Anyone know? They are not the kind that lay into a metal grid. They are the cardboard kind that just stick to the actual ceiling. I could try taking them off to see what is underneath but experience tells me there is a very good reason someone put them there.

I am a painting newbie. I am painting a bedroom that is currently white. It will be painted blue. Do I paint the inside of the closet even if the paint inside is in fine condition? The doors are the folding louvered type, if that matters. Also, has anyone successfully painted ceiling tiles? The papery type? Any tips?

Yep. Frozen water. I don't even drink soda, ever. I just get the ice. It is the old style crushed ice like what Pizza Hut used to have on their big red plastic cups.

We almost never eat fast food and I find almost all of it beyond gross. But I will second the Sonic ice thing. We don't live anywhere near one but anytime we are on a trip and I see one, I INSIST on stopping for ice. Nothing else. Just ice. I don't know what it is. My family thinks I am nuts. Growing up I had a thing for french fries dipped in Wendy's frosty. It has been 20 years since I've had it and other adults who shared the same love say it is no longer the same. I prefer to preserve the good memory so have not dared to try it again. Plus we are hours away from the nearest Wendy's anyway. Culver's is the new "best thing" around here. I have not tried it because I cannot enter a building with "butter burger" on the sign. Nope nope nope. So I guess I will never know..... McDonald's is loathed by everyone in my family. But, I do like their unsweetened tea. It is really hard to find a place on the road that sells real brewed, unsweetened tea. We always pack our own road food but I will indulge in a tea if the mood strikes me.

I have never been to one of these but one time dh was on a business trip and had to meet someone at one. He was trying to describe to me after the trip how awful the place was but could not remember the name. He kept saying he was SURE it was called Golden Trough. I kept saying, "honey, that does not sound right for people food....are you sure?" Google to the rescue. It may be a more accurate name but was not correct.

Do a google search for raw honey for burn treatment. This was suggested to me when dd got two nasty burns during a remote camping trip with no medical aid available. We happened to have a jar of raw honey. I was amazed at the results and we have used it ever since. It is especially good if you have to dress the burn because (ironically) it prevents sticking to the dressing. It also sterilizes faster than typical topical treatments. Check this link out: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3263128/

I live on a road with much more traffic than that and the house is only about 8 feet off of the road. You do get used to the traffic noise and tune it out. If you think you can get used to it and everything else is perfect, I would go for it. Yes, resale value might be lower but that is part of the reason you are considering it. There will always be people willing to compromise for a bargain. Unless the house has been on the market for a very long time, I would not worry about it.

I just had to pay for a handful of private lessons for my dd so that she could try a new recreational team sport. At the ripe old age of 11, she is considered too old to join a team as a beginner. Thus the lessons. Luckily I found someone who charged a very reasonable price and was willing to show me how to help my dd on our own once our lesson budget was depleted. After the lessons and working with me for several months, she is now considered "skilled enough" to be on the "recreational" team. I had the time and the little bit of cash to make it happen but I am not happy that this was the only way for her to try out a new sport. Her first practice is on Monday and I am very on edge hoping it goes well and that she will be welcomed. After being shunned in recreational soccer for having the audacity to try joining as a beginner at age 7, I am afraid another experience like this will kill any desire she has to try new things.

I am 100% with you Quill. Extra kids in the house completely stresses me out. Unfortunately, it is somewhat unavoidable as our climate does not allow for outdoor play during several months of the year. I have an only homeschooled kid with NO homeschooled friends so I suck it up and deal. But I totally get it.

All of our cats have been rescues that were adults when we got them. They all seemed "trained" to stay off of the counters....which is what I would prefer. But I suspected that they were actually getting on the counters when no one was looking. One night, dh and I decided to dust the countertops with flour to see if there were any tracks overnight. Big mistake. Not only were there a million tracks but flour tracked all over the house. Apparently the counters are a super-highway at night. So, no, we do not "allow," but yes, they do prance all over the counters. Grrrrr! At least I now know to disinfect the counter before cooking anything ever.

I have been an adjunct at a STEM school for 10 years and do not work outside of that job. Someone posted that most students do not know the difference. This has been true in my case. My school employs very few adjuncts (less than 5%), we are compensated very well, and we have the same office space, graders, TAs, computing equipment, and other resources that tenured faculty have. I am even expected to serve on department committees and am compensated for it. So maybe my school is unique. I can and do write recommendations, advise students outside of class, discuss career options, and occasionally get tracked down by former students for questions/references. I might not know the requirements for specific majors and all course info but most tenured faculty do not either. That is what the acedemic advisors are for. The only real problem I have encountered is meeting expectations for students who do not complete my classes on time (incomplete, medical issues, etc....) because I am not supported outside of the academic year. I am more than willing to devote the time required when I can but often run into problems interfacing with the school because I do not technically work there after the traditional semester ends. Because there are so few of us and most of us are well-known on campus I can usually get what I need despite this. I have also been in the awkward position of explaining what an adjunct is when students have asked about doing research work for me. As an adjunct I obviously don't do research as part of my job and students are often very surprised to learn that. I am glad to read articles like this because my own experience would have blinded me to this issue when my own dd is looking at colleges. But do know that not all schools operate this way. My question is how to find out this info about schools? What questions to ask? I somehow doubt there are brochures listing percentages of adjuncts and TAs that teach or how much they are paid or how they are supported. The more I think about it, the more important the answers to those questions should be to any parent/student when making school choices. Despite what I consider to be favorable stats at my own school, a quick look at the website does not lead me to the info I would be looking for.

My dd just (very) successfully finished Lukeion Latin 1 this year as a 6th grader. We started with LFC in 3rd grade and that was the sweet spot for my kid. We did LFC A-C in 3rd-5th. This was a nice gentle introduction and basically eliminated our need to do grammar and vocabulary. I would argue that logic skills and spelling were also "covered." I was slow to warm to the idea that Latin was a good idea and worth the hassle. I never took it. I begrudgingly did it after reading about the benefits on this board. I was floored at how much *I* benefitted from learning Latin along with dd. There were days during the time that I taught dd Latin at home that she struggled and wanted to quit. After completing her first year of Lukeion, dd has thanked me several times for sticking it out. She is already seeing the benefits in her writing and reading comprehension. She is very happy to be continuing on in Lukeion next year and also happy to have started early enough that there will be plenty of time to work on a modern language while still at home.

I had an experience this winter with a dog on a retractable leash while on cc skis at a very high speed. At night. The dog was about 20 feet from the owner when I hit the line. I had my headlamp on. I saw the dog. I saw the owner. I had no idea there was a line between them until I went down. No one was seriously injured but I went down and the dog was hopelessly tangled around me. Luckily, the dog was good-natured about the incident. As we were untangling the owner was yelling at ME. I was flabbergasted. I just hit the ground at about 20 mph because she did not have control of her dog. All three of us could have been seriously injured. And somehow this was my fault? This was a "dog free" trail. And even if it had been a dog trail (which I would never attempt at night and certainly not at the speed I was going), the rules clearly state a 6 foot max leash (unless skijoring) AND 100% control at all times. I am still flabbergasted. I have never owned a dog so had never really had an opinion on retractable leashes. But now I do.