I would say dogs (which surprises exactly no one, I'm sure! ). I think most humans will never know a love more pure than that of a good dog.

Assuming it's a casual restaurant then I'd wear my normal every day clothes. If it's a nicer restaurant then I'd put in a little extra effort. But I'm a function (comfort) over form (dressier) person whenever possible. If you want to dress up a bit more then that's fine. Do what makes you feel best!

We had something very similar to that when we had bigger dogs. It worked great.

Pretty much what Catwoman said -- Our boys are now 20 and 23. We started getting them acclimated to computers and the internet as soon as they were able to handle a mouse. So around 2 or 3? By the time they were 6 each of them had their own computer. DH is a software guy, and it was important to him to get the boys familiar with computers. We never really restricted their access. We gave each of them dumb phones around 10 (smart phones were just becoming common then, and most kids didn't have them). They each got smart phones a little before their 16th birthdays. We wanted them to have GPS capability when they started driving. Ours never had any problems with self regulation, and sometimes I wonder if it's because gadgets and the internet were never restricted. IDK. I do realize the internet is considerably different now than it was when they were young 'uns.

Absolutely. I fervently hope TPTB in NC always realize how incredibly valuable the entire UNC system is, and heed the state constitutional requirement that says " . . the benefits of the University, as far as practicable, be extended to the youth of the State free of expense for tuition." Obviously they don't offer free tuition, but compared to many other states we have a lot to be thankful for.

DS23 graduated from a "public ivy." He (and we) couldn't be more happy with the experience. When it came down to it none of us could make sense of spending the $40,000 a year difference it would have cost between Chapel Hill and the comparably ranked private that tempted him. Fortunately/unfortunately, "need blind" didn't make any difference for us.

Cowboy Caviar

Cat harnesses come in kitten sizes.

I assume you've tried cat harnesses? Especially the ones made for walking cats? I've found that harnesses are like women's clothes--you pretty much can't use sizes as anything more than a starting point. I try to take the dog with me to pet stores so I can try on harnesses, or make sure to order from a site with easy returns. Or maybe try the opposite approach of that--I wonder if anyone on Etsy does custom made harnesses? Good luck!

Probably mostly self explanatory, but -- I like critters with paws (dogs and cats). I use a "z" just to be a little different. And it's also kinda sorta a play on "pause for me."

Our previous two dogs would hunt for voles and moles. We also had two cats and a guinea pig. It was never an issue. They ignored the pig and lived peacefully with the cats.

I've had a couple of dogs who loved hunting moles and voles, and have known many more. I've never known it to be a problem for anything other than moles and voles. And this seems to be a prime time of the year for it--one of my dog's best friends is a Doxie who lives up the street, and her nose stays dirty lately. Ditto my BIL and SIL's dog's nose. I love watching them staring at the ground, moving their heads this way and that way, and then digging furiously. I can't imagine what it must be like to have senses like that.

We don't get a lot of very deep snow, but we have encountered snow related problems before. Our dog HAS to have a walk before he can poop. It just doesn't happen unless he walks briskly for at least ten minutes. Shoveling a patch gives him a place to pee, but that's not a huge problem any way--we have a covered porch that has bushes at the edge, so he can almost always access those. But pooping requires brisk movement beforehand. Usually it's not a big problem--we rarely get more than a few inches of snow at a time, and even though it takes days for a plow to come through (usually it melts first), usually there are enough cars going in/out our street to make ruts that we can walk in. But in December we got well over a foot of snow. It was deeper than he is, and even the tire ruts were too deep and too treacherous for us to walk. There certainly was no shoveling a path that he could walk for ten minutes. He was very uncomfortable by the time we could get a good walk in and get things moving. So all that to say I don't have any advice but I can definitely sympathize. When he was a wee little puppy I could get him to run around the house for awhile and then he'd poop on a puppy pad. I miss that a lot sometimes, especially on snowy and heavy rain days.

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Quietly. (Not a fan of big parties or any sort of hoopla.)

I say yes. This is totally anecdotal, but the healthiest older people I know/have known have rarely/never done any formal exercise. But they've all been active--they're people who've simply moved a lot their entire lives. They're doers, not sitters. So I've come to believe that one key to healthy aging probably isn't how you move but how much you move. I tend to believe a lot of low/moderate movement is probably more beneficial than high intensity activity that only lasts a relatively short time and is combined with a lot of sitting.

Years ago youngest DS had an infected ingrown toenail. It looked a lot like your DS's picture. We had to do two rounds of oral antibiotics and a couple of weeks of Epsom salts soaks to get the infection under control before the podiatrist would fix it. So . . . doctor.

I use Mr. Clean Summer Citrus for just about everything. It cleans well, is inexpensive and gets a better grade from the Environmental Working Group than most supposedly green cleaners. I think it smells nice enough, but I never do large scale cleaning in one swoop. So I don't know if the smell would linger. Many reviews mention how nice it smells.

Ditto this, and turn it off at the meter if at all possible. It's easy to do--there's just a screw like thing that you turn. You can do it with a wrench or pick up a special tool (I think they're usually called meter keys) at Lowe's or Home Depot for about $10. We recently had a leak in our main water line that was under the house but before the cut off. It would have been a massive disaster if we'd been gone when it happened. We have a neighbor who keeps an eye on things, but just in a when-he's-driving-by kind of way, from the outside. And if we're gone for a longish time my brother will drive by and check on things occasionally. By the time either of them noticed water pooling in our yard there's no telling how much damage would have been inside.

No. It usually works something like this -- You reserve a site at a campground for a week, then contact a local RV rental company and arrange to rent one for that week. The day of check in someone puts the RV on the site you've reserved. They may or may not go ahead and do the work to hook it up to whatever utilities are available, start the fridge cooling, etc. On the day of checkout they come get it and take it back to their rental business. It's no different than if you drove (or pulled) in with your own RV, really.

I think it just depends. When DH was diagnosed neither of us wanted to eat much. And what we did eat was determined on the spur of the moment. You know the kind of thing where you go three days with barely taking a bite and then you think a fast food cheeseburger would be just the thing? That's how we were. People bringing food would have created a lot more stress for me, since I would have had to deal with throwing almost all of it out (and no doubt would have felt guilty about wasting it), washing and returning dishes, etc. More stress of any kind was definitely not what I needed right then. What meant the most to both of us was people offering to do the bigger stuff--we had brothers and BILs and nephews volunteering to take care of the yard for the rest of the summer (he was diagnosed in July, middle of yard work season). Also, youngest DS needed to be moved into a dorm at his university about two hours away three weeks after DH's diagnosis and about ten days after major surgery. Again--I had plenty of volunteers to help with that, which was awesome. I don't know if stuff like that is possible when you're so far away, so mostly I'm just throwing it out for consideration. I agree that anything you can do to support your niece would almost certainly be hugely appreciated. I'm so sorry.

If you have a smart TV or a streaming stick you can probably download the app.

I think I would have liked to pursue a serious career, perhaps in psychology, psychiatry or sociology (areas that weren't even on my radar in my younger days). It would be interesting to know what it would have been like to immerse myself in an interesting career, perhaps to have done some writing and lots of volunteer work. Maybe living in an apartment or condo in a walkable city.

It can be really hard to not fail at fostering. The easiest times for me are when I know our nest of permanent pets is already full to the brim. Unfortunately, that's also when fostering is the most difficult (space issues, time for attention, exercise and training, making sure a foster pet is co-habitating well with all the resident pets, etc.). Most rescue groups are happy to have some short term fosters. If nothing else they're needed when a longer term foster person/family needs to be out of town. That could be for a weekend or a multi-week vacation or work trip. Truthfully, I don't think a foster situation where the parent is relying on a child to do most/all of the work is a good idea other than for a very short time period.

DH has an implant. The process for putting in the post made my skin crawl. I'm not sure I could tolerate it. He was very happy with the implant for awhile, but then the cap (or crown or whatever the fake tooth part is called) came off. I wasn't particularly surprised. Apparently he has a much stronger than normal bite and he's had problems with crowns coming off before. I don't fully understand what's going on with the implant, but apparently to fix it he'd have to go off of his cancer medication for a few weeks to safely have whatever dental work is needed, and the oncologist is giving a firm "No" to that. So for a year or so now he's just had the post there. He says it doesn't bother him at all.