The reason that I mentioned the previous invasion was because I was shocked that they'd have an unlocked door. Seems to me that even people that don't lock their door would start when they see a scary home invader dressed in black. Although they did say Sliding Glass Door. I used to have a Fox and Jacobs house (starter homes) and if you got the mirrored floor plan, they installed the sliding glass door inside out. So all a home invader had to do was to lift off the sliding door. That happened to me.

Wellllll, the Story of the World activity book did suggest the same thing as an option. When I read that in the book, I thought to myself No No No NO. I'm not criticizing WTM since I know that the book makes lots of suggestions and expects people to pick what works for them. But it does show that the idea isn't ridiculously far out.

Thinking about this some more, it was an article about how cell phone data showed that he had been stalking them. Then it said his cell phone was in the area when the earlier home invasion happened. I can see why that wouldn't be a part of the legal case since just having the cell phone in the same area many times doesn't really prove anything, or that he was the same home invader.

I had thought that was standard knowledge. I read a news article on that and I've been paying half attention.

But, they know he had broken into the house in the middle of the night once before.

On hint on baklava that I got at the local Greek Orthodox festival. Instead of layering it like lasagna, do one full layer and then roll. It takes much less time, but the different items are evenly mixed. Sometimes I've gotten it in Greek restaurants and there will be like 1/4" of honey-nuts mix and then 1/4" of phyllo dough.

Our local Junior College system has some amazing Summer Camps. Each one-week long and just during the day, but not all day. Things like Electronics, Robotics, Forensic Science.

It really isn't that bad. Maybe take off the crystals once every 5 years. Use the duster on the end of the long stick when do normal cobweb cleaning. I grew up with Crystal Chandeliers so I know them well. My parents still live in the same house. We have plans to buy a large and a small crystal chandelier in our new front room.

I have learned that mine is the same. Although on mine, pure cold is the Wool setting, cold with a tish a warm added is Cold. Although thinking about it some more we have a tankless water heater. I don't think it turns on for just a small volume for a short time. So, I guess I've been washing on completely cold. Thinking about it even more, we live in Texas, 'cold' water in the summer isn't all that cold. Like some other posters, I do everything except for towels and underwear in cold. Clothing stains will be food and I put dish detergent on those. Since I wash in cold and don't use a dryer on my clothes the stain isn't set if I didn't catch it the first time. One idea would be an occasional vinegar cycle for the clothes that you would otherwise wash in hot. I have a front-loader and an occasional vinegar cycle cleans out the inside and keeps the stinkiness away.

DD is in the Spring class. They have corrected that. All the assignments are up at the beginning. I scrolled through and there aren't any assignments due the first full week of March. Then they say that you can take any full week off in March for Spring Break. I bought it on Jan 3rd, the first assignment is due Jan 9th. Everything was available Jan 3rd. DD requested the Python class. Not that she was given a choice of classes, it was out of the blue. She also has a minimum list of work to do everyday. She is doing fine in Math. So I changed, "You must do an hour of math a day" to "You must do an hour a math or programming a day." I didn't want her to feel punished for requesting a class. Guess who hasn't touched math since Jan 3rd? I like DD's enthusiasm. So, I'll let this continue and then in a week or two then change it to where she does some math every week so that she doesn't forget anything. I would also like her to get and stay a couple of weeks ahead in Python since the end is supposed to be intense.

You silly! Having me. Of course. 🙂

Early childhood was Minnesota, since then has been Texas. Both places, people say "I could never live there (referring to the other place)." What I realized was that they would envision what it was like in the other place during a time of year that they normally spent outside. So, in Minnesota they would think of July in Texas and envision themselves stuck inside. In Texas they did the reverse. What I realized is that what matters is the ratio of how many days of the year you might want to go outside, vs. how many days it is too miserable. It is just in Texas the days are different (and there are many more nice days). BTW, moving to Texas was the second best thing my parent's ever did.

My Dad grew up on a corn farm in Minnesota. He said you sometimes really did need a rope, and climbing out the second story window. My early childhood was in Minnesota but 'in town.' I seem to remember seeing snow up against the window. but never the entire window. But then we had a forest as a neighbor and were on a bit of a hill. Also, since we didn't have livestock we didn't NEED to go outside. We have goats and chickens in Texas. It was tough keeping them in water during this hard freeze, since even boiling water would freeze in a few hours. You end up with buckets of solid ice sitting around the kitchen floor slowly thawing.

This is so true. I remember in a work conference call someone from Chicago making a snarky comment about something they saw on their news making fun of drivers in the DFW area during a 'snow storm.' They changed their tune when I pointed out that snow quickly turns to black ice because it doesn't get much below freezing. He admitted that no one knows how to drive on black ice. DH has a friend that lives where -30F is the high. The thing is, their houses etc. are designed for that cold of weather. Here, every house I lived in had a water pipe exposed to the air. That is because it generally doesn't freeze, and when it does you know ahead and toss an old blanket over it.

The self-checkout machine used to always yelling at me. Fortunately the only place I do self-checkout now is at The grocery store in my small town. I think they have a button that tells the machine, "We trust this person. Don't complain"

For both DH and I, family of origin was one at a time while everyone watched. We've modified that. One year DD opened a present. It was on her list and it was something where you built these cute things out of felt. She was enchanted with it. Then she had to set it aside when her turn came to open another. It had lost its magic, and she never played with it again. Well, I think she found it a year or so later and did some of the things. So, we started to spread the gift opening out even more. Open a few gifts and play a game, open a few gifts and then eat, etc. Somewhere in there we open all our stockings. It is really pleasant and relaxed.

I am in the camp of self-checkout only for 5 items or less. I guess I'm lucky in that they've never abused my produce. I also spent several years living in 3-story apartments. Groceries that didn't need fridge or freezer lived in the trunk for another day. So I learned to put groceries on the cart sorted by how I wanted them in the bag. So, I guess I've never been bothered by their bagging either. Also, if all lines are long get in the cigarette aisle. That is always where the whiz-bang clerk will be.

I am coming out of my depression, and I think she is in the process of understanding why lying is wrong. I told her once she does a presentation on why lying is wrong and convincing her daddy and I that she understands, then she'll get the mp3 player back and playdates can resume. So she has been working on that. She only missed one playdate, the one the same day she lied. When she was younger, we used to listen to the same book together at bedtime. We went from my reading her picture books at bedtime, then us listening to audiobooks together with her in bed, then using a bluetooth speaker placed between us, we'd listen to the same book in our own beds, then when she got the phone she'd listen to her own book and I'd listen to mine. Last night, we went back to listening to the same book using the bluetooth speaker. It was nice. I think we both liked it. Although the switch to listening to our own book had been her choice, probably she wanted to continue the book she'd listened to earlier in the day. Back to the original question, I'm still a bit sad about Christmas, but I'll make the best of it. We are pretty lucky.

Well, the phone thing wasn't a punishment and she understands that. The problem with smart phones is that they actively try to destroy our kids. Just try to remove YouTube from a phone. Then you think you can at least not allow TikTok by not getting the app, but they thwart you in that too with "YouTube Shorts." Even when your kid isn't trying to find anything bad, she views what she thinks is a game video for this game aimed at younger kids and the characters are having strange s--. I remember one time DD was sick and we looked at "Funny cat videos" together on YouTube on the desktop computer. Some sick stuff started to appear in the suggested videos so we had to stop. Then the phones make it super-easy to disable any parental control apps. She does have a tablet that she can skype her friends, and she can use my phone for calls. The only legit other use of the phone was for audiobooks therefore the mp3 player. She might not actually get coal. Christmas isn't until two weeks from now. I just need to figure out a way to get her to understand how wrong it is to lie.

On the idea of an AirBnb. I used to know someone who got divorced when they were in their 70's. His wife insisted on keeping the house so that "The family could come home for the holidays." This was a 5,000 sq.ft. house that they were paying 30K a year in property taxes. I pointed out if she moved to a two-bedroom house. She could take the money saved in property taxes and rent out the floor of a hotel for Christmas and Thanksgiving, include a hospitality suite to set up random food and drinks that people like to have around at holidays, and buy a catered dinner from the hotel, and still come out ahead. AirBnb would be even better.

I normally love holidays, particularly Christmas. But I am depressed now. Daughter, aged 12, is literally getting coal wrapped in a pretty box. I never thought that would happen. Apparently, she has been lying consistently to us for a long time and we didn't catch on because we thought she was trustworthy. Monday, she lied about starting the dishwasher. If she'd told me the truth, I merely would have been grumpy. She was banned from using the dishwasher, She had been loading the dishwasher without even looking at what she was putting in. For example, I found a RECEIPT in the dishwasher. A grocery store one about 10" long. This was on top of her other favorite trick of leaving dishes sitting around for days until the food is dry and hardened. Then the wash wouldn't clean it, and the dry cycle would really bake it on. Then she'd put the dishes away dirty without even looking at them. The same day I found the receipt, I also found a sauce pan put away but in the wrong place with still wet sauce in it. So, she loaded the dishwasher (with large hunks of food on the dishes) and started it. She lied and told me she hadn't. That was Monday. Monday night I took away her mp3 player. Phone has been gone for awhile and she won't get that back until she starts to drive. Tuesday night, she is in bed and DH asks her if she is listening to something. She lies and says No, that she just has the headphones on to shut out the world. We can understand that. Except when her headphones get shut off, one of her hats hanging on her door starts to play an audiobook. This is less than 24 hours after being caught lying. Then you add in that is important to me that we have Christmas at home with daughter. Christmases before I was 8.5 we lived near family. I don't remember a single one. They were like every other holiday, miserable, driving around to multiple houses and having to be quiet while the old people talked. I don't have any cousins. So, starting when DD was 2, I insisted we stay home. Everyone is invited and no hard feelings for anyone that can't come. I am an only child, so sometimes it has just been my parents. Sometimes I thought 8 would come and 20 would. All good. Since the lockdown, my mother hasn't wanted to leave the house. She's gone out twice a year. Walking up or down even a tiny step is hard for her. We built a concrete ramp in our new garage. Not just for her, but because we never want to leave here. Now she says that she doesn't think she can do the drive. So, I am also sad that mom's health has reached that point.

Tell that to the journalists that thought that only Conservatives would be upset. I would expect everyone not a child molester to be upset.

"I have no idea what they meant with litigation??" They had started a lawsuit to help protect their butt. But they stopped it when they realized that it would just prove them more guilty. I don't think anything could legally happen to the company. But, not only should decent people stop buying their stuff, they should toss what they own already. Their stuff should be like fur coats in the 80's. Poor people don't buy their stuff. They can afford to toss some clothes after destroying them first. I do think that their should be child p--- charges for some of the other stuff seen. They'd get off with a slap on the wrist, as usual, but hopefully they'd at least be a registered pervert then and banned from working with kids. Yeah, apologizing for “the offense caused” means "I am not sorry but I've been forced to apologize." Oh, and I don't think anyone here thinks this was NBD. Previous posts could be reasonably seen that way. The first news articles on this were titled something like, "Conservatives are upset by the latest Balenciaga ads." So my first thought on this was that "if only conservatives are upset by this, then we aren't just going to hell in a handbasket, we are already there. "

Well, what should be the result for Balenciaga as a result of the Child Teddy S&M with child porn overtones? What should happen to these other people as a result of their previous child p--- photos? If the answer is nothing, then yeah that is the same as NBD.

The NBD attitude of some is THE most disturbing thing about this whole thing. Just shows how far down our society has gone.