I’ve spent most of my 56 years on a septic system. Never worried about using bleach as needed, but I’ve never been a heavy user anyway. Never worried about buying any special type of toilet paper. I would be careful to not flush anything other than TP. I wouldn’t put any grease or food scraps down the drain. Our current house has a garbage disposal but I won’t use it. Not all systems need a pump, so that might not be something you need to be concerned with. We have ours pumped every three to five years.

DH had one on a back tooth a few years ago and it failed miserably. I don't know what went wrong, but they can't seem to make a cap that will stay on it. I lost a back tooth (next to last) a few months ago to an abscess, and am debating whether or not I want to do an implant. It's expensive even though we have (according to our dentist) better than average dental insurance. For a front tooth I'd probably go ahead and do it. Our dentist says they rarely do dentures anymore, but I'm wondering at around $2,000 per tooth how people can justify--or afford--many implants. Do the math and it could cost a person a whole lot of money over a lifetime.

DH and I have both had very beneficial results from taking Florastor. There are quite a number of studies that have been done using it. We get it from Amazon, as it's significantly less expensive than other sources. We've had no issues at all.

Rain and storms, possibly severe and with straight line winds or tornadoes. I'm very glad that (a) I'm long past having little ones to take trick-or-treating and (b) I only bought one bag of candy.

I agree that it's highly unlikely you'll get a better offer from Bean. And not to be a bummer, but FWIW -- I also got the 25% off email offer, and it might have been because I was poking around on their site Friday and (maybe) Saturday. But DS23 got a catalog in the mail today with the same offer, and I doubt he did anything to trigger it. So who knows?

DS20 has used an Echo smart pen for several years. They get mixed reviews, but he finds his invaluable and has never had any problem with it.

Every credible source I've ever read (research based on my own IBS-C and DH's cancer medicine induced diarrhea issues) says that anywhere from three times a day to three times a week is considered normal. Obviously, quite a broad range.

Constipation. It's from a cancer board, and many of the medications those people are on can cause either diarrhea or constipation, or alternating bouts of each.

The short answer here is -- yes. That very well may be his situation. Chronic constipation is very, very common. Millions of people deal with it. It's WHY you go to the store and see shelves of Miralax, Metamucil, Benefiber and other stool softeners and laxatives. First thing you need to be aware of is that the advice to add more fiber may be spectacularly wrong for him. For some people adding fiber just makes things worse. Perhaps much, much worse. It's very much a trial-and-error process to figure out whether that's true for any given individual. These are the things that work or have worked for me. Some have been helpful long term, some for only a few days/weeks. Again, it's trial and error, and sometimes when you think you've got a routine figured out your body will rebel and you'll have to start figuring something else out: Miralax. For me it truly is a miracle. I've been taking it daily for years and doubt I'll ever stop. Magnesium, taken with the evening meal or at bed time. I take inexpensive magnesium oxide. It's the most irritating to the stomach/intestines, and for constipation that irritation is exactly what you want. Too much can cause diarrhea/loose stools, so it's best to start at a lower dosage and increase as needed. Benefiber. I only take it when traveling and eating normally is difficult, but for others it's helpful to take it regularly. Be careful, though, as it can cause gas and/or cramping to begin with. Start with a tiny amount and work up. I eat a very high fiber diet (both types of fiber), because those are the types of foods I love--lots of whole grains, beans, veggies, etc. Sometimes I have to intentionally dial it back (because -- see my second paragraph in this post). And I shall repeat -- too much fiber is absolutely disastrous for some people. Recently I'm playing around with a little extra fat in my diet, particularly at dinner. Fat can be very beneficial in helping with constipation (or at least the reverse is true--too little fat can contribute to constipation). A warm drink in the morning. I do coffee, but I'm guessing anything warm would serve the purpose. And as others have said, exercise and adequate fluid intake. This recipe is often recommended on the cancer board I'm on. I've never tried it so can't make a personal recommendation.

I think February is the month most vets offer a discount on dental cleanings.

The boys' pediatrician was knowledgeable about it, and encouraged them to have both (they did).

There is no way on earth I'd send a kid off to college w/o that vaccine. No way.

If you find a duvet/comforter cover you like that doesn't have ties you can use clips. This is one I randomly picked from Amazon, there are lots of other manufacturers.

DS23 texted yesterday, around 4:00 Pacific time, and said the smoke in San Jose was pretty bad.

Search for "comforter" in the Home and Kitchen department at Amazon. Bed Bath and Beyond stores generally have several to choose from.

Assuming Wikipedia is correct, they're a privately owned company.

I generally wear Gloria Vanderbilt Amanda petite jeans and find the pockets to be very functional. I love the brand because the jeans are comfy (as far as jeans go) and about the only one I've ever found that I don't have to hem. I don't know if they're too "mom jeans" for someone younger, though.

FWIW -- DH and I are seriously planning on going in the same direction furniture wise. I don't know that our stuff is really super heavy, but it's the pretty good quality stuff you expect people in their late mid-50's (I don't want to type "approaching 60" ) to own. And we are so tired of moving it around. We moved here a little over three years ago, then put down new flooring and painted. So we've moved/shoved this stuff completely around too many times fairly recently, and not just to dust behind it. We're tired of the heaviness and bulkiness and are thinking of moving to much lighter stuff. Maybe a platform bed with no headboard and a good quality foam mattress in a box. No box spring. As minimalist as we can make it and still be comfy. All that to say -- you're not totally alone.

I’d be a little concerned about kennel cough or something similar. Or maybe he’s allergic to something? How long have you had him?

I’ve never bought into the notion that any human needs massive amounts of protein. I’ve yet to see any credible science that seems to really support that idea. To me it seems mostly a fad, and perhaps one that will eventually be proven to be harmful. That said, once a year or so I roughly keep up with my average protein intake over a few days, just to monitor. It’s always fine—based on reasonable ideas of how much a person actually needs—just from eating beans, cheese/other dairy, nut butters, whole grains and the occasional egg. IOW, a fairly typical, low(ish) processed food, American vegetarian diet.

I’ve been a mostly vegetarian for thirty years. Usually I make a “normal” meal for DH and the boys and then I just skip the meat portion. If the main meal is a casserole or meaty soup or something like that then I fix me something easy—a bean burrito and some veggies, grab some veggie soup from the freezer, etc.

But even with one of those it can be difficult to impossible to remove machine tightened lug nuts. DH is 200+ pounds and I’ve seen him struggle to loosen lug nuts with one of those. There’s no way my 110 pound self could do it even with a four way. When I was a kid/teenage driver my dad always insisted on hand tightening lug nuts on all our vehicles. Back then the tire places allowed it; I bet they’d put up a big fuss about it nowadays.

I wash bras in a lingerie bag along with synthetic athletic clothing. Cool or cold water, no bleach or softener or anything other than detergent, delicate or permanent press cycle. I hang bras to dry. I separate laundry by color and fabric as much as possible without driving myself nuts. Towels are a separate load, as are jeans and other dark clothing. Whites and light pastels are a different load. Pretty much everything else I consider colored clothing and that gets its own load. For multicolored garments I tend to go with whatever will likely do the least harm. So if the item is primarily navy but has some red I’d probably put it in with the darks. If it was primarily red but had some navy I’d probably put it in with the coloreds.

My sister-in-law’s elderly parents both had something that totally resembled the flu. They each went to the doctor a couple of times, were tested and told it was flu-like but not actually the flu, and that it was something going around in this area (NC). Her father in particular was very sick, and ended up needing antibiotics for a secondary infection. I hope you feel better soon.

Corelle