A service cat?!?! That makes absolutely no sense to anyone who knows cats. Sure, animals can calm and soothe, but a cat might love you one second, and then spend the next two days pissed at you because the grocery stopped carrying the one flavor of Fancy Feast entrees she will eat. they would be highly unreliable for pretty much any task I could envision, because they are very hard (I won't say impossible, there are circus cats) to train. A cat certainly wouldn't be any help at all in Walmart, unless for entertainment purposes. Neither would a monkey in a cage, but perhaps he gets out and grabs things off shelves? A service cat. A cat. My mind is blown.

What I'm most upset about reading this thread is: if those are all the cut off dates, why are my June and July kids always the youngest ones in their grades? And why do things like camps say "grades 9-12", but the child must be 15 by May 15 or something? It's getting terribly aggravating.

It's awesome! The writing is great. Could do without the soft core porn...I know my oldest would love it but not that aspect so I am annoyed it contains so much. It also features toothbrush shanks, which I had never heard of. Obviously, sheltered.

I just love this thread- thank you for putting it "all out there" and bringing this discussion here. My personal feeling (dunno how helpful this is) is that both you and he have learned a whole lot from this year- definitely not a waste! These are lessons it's good to learn now, when you have time to remedy them, rather than later. And hey, the computer hacking bit was deceptive and wrong and all...but awfully clever. I'm impressed, anyway!

This is interesting to me, as one of Ds friends is being "made" to go to high school this year. He really doesn't want to go, and Ds, who is dual enrolled, feels strongly it is unjust to make him. But it's not our choice, obviously. Would I? I don't really know. If circumstances meant I thought he'd get the best education there, Maybe? I am a pretty big proponent of letting my kids choose their path, and so they are home schooled. If they wanted to go to school, I'd be fine with it. I don't see myself ever forcing one or the other, but I do see it as a parents right to do so. I have tried to articulate that to Ds, but he sees only the side of friend, as you'd expect. I won't lie, I am hoping they change their mind and allow the friend to home school!

Have you been watching Orange is the new Black, too?

I don't understand how she could be returned to adoptive parents, since her bio dad clearly wants to raise her and gave up parental rights only because he was being deployed. How could the bio mom give her up for adoption in that circumstance!?

One of my kids is an extrovert, and I wish I were more so for him. He wants me to socialize with the other moms at activities, and I just...don't want to, lol. I do, for him, but it's so draining. I have to prepare myself, I am not a spontaneous "oh sure, let's all go to dinner" type person. And I wish I was, for him. I suppose it's good in a way- he needs enough disfunction in his childhood to be interesting after all.

I personally would have wandered over towards the car when I saw you get out and walk away, and linger nearby until you came out, and then gone back to my coffee. I do think whoever called greatly overreacted, but sadly I am not surprised. At the dance studio a group of moms were talking, and one saw a woman pull up at the post office Nd go in and her baby was in the car seat. She called the police as soon as the woman got inside. I was totally flummoxed as to why she didn't at least say "hey lady, you gonna leave your baby in the car?" but everyone agreed she might have gotten angry and possibly pulled a gun. Seriously- they thought she might shoot the lady telling the story and told her she did the right thing. So I just sat there, and the consensus was she did the right thing by calling the cops. But it makes no sense to me. if you are worried, say something, otherwise keep an eye out, but the cops? Over reacting. It's like no one talks to each other any more. Neighbor trouble? Call the cops! Dog out? Call the cops! What happened to saying "hey, I'm worried about this"?

I wear a size 2, but you'll pry my spanx out of cold, dead hands. There is a fair bit of...ahem...sagging that is going on, and with the spanx, my body looks 20 years younger! They need face spanx. This thread has inspired me to buy some dresses- I love dresses! (with spanx!)

I grew up in the Seattle area- those spiders are no joke! But not to my knowledge poisonous, they can bite and leave a patterned itchy spot, but not like a black widow or anything. If you have a woodpile or live in the woods they are more prevalent. They are just huge, hairy, gross spiders...but living in tick land I'd actually rather have spiders! The gray and rain, and dark long winters, is harder on some people than others. It was hard on me. you won't really know u til you are there to find out. But the no umbrellas thing is true. And it's mild so you can still go hiking, to the beach, whatever in the rain (and if you don't, you won't ever go anywhere, so go!) It's a place that is very welcoming of alternatives to the norm, I really miss that. Home schooling is pretty common. I can't help with the housing, when I lived there rent on was pretty sketchy but it's been 20 years so perhaps that has changed. My family is all in the Tacoma- Olympia area now save the oldsters still in south Seattle (which is still sketchy!).

I'm afraid my interests as a child were much more pedestrian. The only conductor I know by name (now, or as a child) is the Muppets Nigel. I think it was Nigel. My favorite thing about him was that he was on the Muppets, lol.

Oh gosh, that just breaks my heart. That poor brave man. And you all dealing with the fallout. I'm so sorry.

Oldest started history since an online class started, and is sort of, not enthusiastically doing some math over the summer. Youngest has done diddly. Everything is planned, but I can't quite get myself to finish setting up notebooks and final stuff. We didn't get much down time this summer, maybe that is why?

I detest this area, frankly. The traffic makes me stubby, and there is zero guarantee it won't be a parking lot on 95 in the middle of the day. It's difficult for us to find activities that aren't expensive and very competitive- play an instrument and join the band? They all play 5! And go to Julliard in the summer. Tumbling- there's a team for that...why isn't your kid on it? Dance? Soccer? Swimming? Private lessons, expensive teams, lots of competition and a feeling you are perpetually behind somehow. I hear academics are similar in the public schools, lately we have met several ps "refugees" whose children left due to rather drastic emotional consequences from the rat race. I have run into that a bit with hs, but not much- we don't really do many hs activities. It is so expensive, and living here on one income is very hard- perhaps because of all the opportunities. I probably have the wrong sort of mindset or temperament or some kind of personality flaw, but I feel it acutely that I can't give my kids all the "extras" here- and I haven't felt that way other places. We lived here previously and literally did everything, not knowing we'd be back. I am pretty sure my kids know more about Mt Vernon, all the Smithsonians except for Hirschorn, and the local trails, parks and hiking that the park rangers do. There are still a million more things to go and see (we see all the new exhibits at the museums, for example) but there is only so much American history we can do, so...we are kind of "over" that. I'm also from the PNW, so...stay there! I miss it so.

We're doing student led history- 20th century(ish) Asian History. I've pulled together about 100 million things for it, including coursera classes and tc lectures. He is going into the 3rd week (course started so we just started history even though we are taking a summer break) and so far, so good.

That is so cool! (imagine a clapping guy here..I can't figure them out)

Rights violation. Mississippi makes me sad.

Dear Army, Thanks for sending dh away for a year, again. @&$! Signed, Sisyphus, whose rock is getting heavier every day

My Ds was totally ambidextrous- I even sent him to pre k specifically to get guidance on this, and the teacher was just as flummoxed as I was. As we are all right, I made him right, too. Fast forward to age 11, he breaks his hand and suddenly, he is a lefty with no problems. Perhaps he is a natural lefty forced (I prefer encouraged, lol) to be right, and so it isn't a problem? I'd say at 6 let him be. My Ds was 5 1/2 before I finally assigned a hand for writing, and obviously, I picked wrong. No harm in switching hands now, or giving him time To figure out which he wants to use.

I only opened this thread because of the title. :lol: I guess I just love me some big blue cocks...

I could not rationalize them, and am now an atheist. My oldest is also an atheist, despite my many attempts to give him a faith. I logically find faith and a faith tradition a very comforting thing, and important to the human experience (especially as Americans) but...sometimes it doesn't work out no matter how much we want to believe. I think some of us are just missing the "faith" gene, the ability to suspend logical thought and truly believe. I often feel I am missing out on a large part of the human experience because of this, but it is what it is.

For a modern take on labor issues, Nickle and Dimed by Barbara...Something with an e, lol. Ds read it this year and it was one of his favorite books.

A friends brothers wife (did you get that?) did that to my friends mom! She was a nurse and she said the mil would carry too many germs. I knew my friends mom, too, and she was just devastated. It's not like she could quit her job. She couldn't touch the baby until he was a few months old- it was very weird. Apparently the fact that her husband, child of said germy nurse, grew up just fine wasn't obvious enough to her. The brother ended up sneaking the baby over one day, if I recall. It was very weird. Totally anecdotal, but the people I knew who were most uptight about germs, schedules, etc had the most neurotic and sickly kids. It seems like a self fulfilling prophecy sometimes.

I think it's kind of funny that someone would actually do it, like the joke. I'd think he had a good sense of humor, not that he was threatening to kill my son.