I made the mistake of using this term in reference to my resident man yesterday. I had forgotten that men do not *know* what a Man Cold is and he was curious about the term. What was I to say? The term fits here, no question. But I think he figured out the gist without an explanation from me.

I don't know if Advantage is said to work for ticks, but I put it on our indoor\outdoor kitty in September and it was very effective...for about 3 weeks. Ds and I just finished pulling *8* ticks off kitty. And weirdly, 2 were deer ticks that appeared to be adhering to the bodies of the dog ticks-I didn't even see them at first. Sneaks! But I just picked up the Advantage in Target. Need to get some more, obviously.

This thread is bringing back memories for me of the 3 years ago when we hosted a Pakistani exchange student for 10 months. He LOVED Halloween and we took him trick or treating with our only remaining trick or treater at the time, our youngest. Host son was 17 and most definitely a Big Kid. He had a blast and talked about it for days. In fact he remembered the night as one of the high points of his stay in the USA, he said, because it was family and community-oriented, we got to be scared a little bit in a gentle way, and he loved dressing up in a costume and seeing others in costume. I guess Halloween seems like pretty harmless fun. But does anyone recall Halloweens from their childhood that involved more risky stuff? I know vandalism on Halloween used to be a problem, when I was a kid.

Impetigo is my best guess. I'd need to know more about whether it hurt, how long he had it, other symptoms, etc.

I see our job as doing whatever is needed to help them get started in life. For us that includes money for school and any other assistance, including housing, help moving, staying on our cell phone plan. Our situation is slightly complicated by a bonus child who we've provided many forms of support for and who is still figuring things out as a young adult. There is not a plan for us to fund all of his college education, if he chooses one, but help with a portion of CC tuition is our plan, as long as he is doing well academically. I have also had a child who has struggled with depression and may not go directly to college. Still figuring that out. But for him support has included a lot of academic hand-holding through the roughest periods, medical intervention (which takes time and money). I have no problem with this...we will do whatever is needed. Just mention it because medical\mental health issues were not in the original plan, of course, but still have to be dealt with and we will do whatever is needed. Thank goodness he can stay on our insurance until he finishes his bachelors!

My son and I are reading an interesting book called The Elements of Murder and it has a long section about mercury, its salts, and their use throughout history as poisons. Mercury chloride gas is highly toxic, but elemental mercury is not harmless, because it sublimates over time into the air and can be ingested or inhaled that way, and it is poisonous, but gram for gram much less so that mercury chloride.

Some friends of ours had what seemed to be an ideal arrangement: they left the kids in the house and alternated which parent lived there, initially week by week. They had 2 sons, one who is a special needs child who needs constant supervision. It wasn't easy for them to do this. Eventually, their special needs son left for residential living, at around the same time the older son left for college. So the arrangement lasted for only about 3 or 4 years. Repeatedly, I have heard children of divorced parents say that the hardest part of it for them was not having an established home base and this arrangement solves that nicely.

It's only a couple of chapters, but there is a reader in both Famous Men of Rome and Famous Men of Greece named "Paradise Camouflage" who has the most gorgeous Scottish accent. I've looked and he read just a couple of other chapters randomly of books I was not familiar with.

Please don't be reassured if your child is on the spectrum. Kids who struggle with social stuff, in my IRL experience, are often drawn to drugs and alcohol as young adults. Just FYI-be vigilant.

It isn't always the same for me. I have been in need of stress relievers lately...and I have been playing some classical music that I love, very loud, in the car while driving somewhere alone. Dvorak's New World, Beethoven's ninth and fifth symphonies, Handel's Water Music, Mozart's Requeim. I know nothing about classical music...all of this is based on just how it makes me feel, which is usually triumphant, free, alive. I need to be alone sometimes to "realign" and alone time recently has been long drives, so I listen to music or stories that speak to me. When I'm able I work out, usually with my dh, and that always feels good. Honestly, in years past, crying was one stress-reliever, but I think that is best when you are in a temporary, very difficult and inescapable situation. It's just acknowledging the powerlessness to change things, then get on with it. When I was an intern, I used to cry while driving home almost every day. It wasn't a choice, really, but after awhile I accepted it because it sort of helped me shed off some of the stress of the day and feel like I'd left it behind by the time I was home.

Yes, I think finding a way to encourage some buy-in might be helpful, IF you are sure this is simply laziness and not some deeper issue.

My oldest is a college junior...he is bright but has never been a stellar student...he is only really motivated by interest and couldn't care less about grades. Well, that is not completely true, he would like to have good grades. But not badly enough to work and plan, study and review, so that he had all A's instead of A's and B's, and the occasional C. Anyway, he is a junior math major and did research last summer with his advisor, and is now taking his graduate topology class, and handling it well. He told me that his advisor thinks he should, and could, go to a top math graduate program. That he could benefit from working with the best minds in the field, but also that he might even have something to offer them. This is sooooo sweet....for any of you with gifted, difficult,really asynchronous kids, hang on. It might take until graduate school, but they will eventually find their place. Not that we are there yet...but it might happen.

I am shepherding my second child, a high school senior in brick and mortar school, through college applications. We are paying a second visit to the school his brother attends. Ds is applying there ED. I think it would be a great place for him, IF there is a great place for him. He's had his struggles and even though he is bright and has good test scores and several awards to his name, his grades are not great. His GPA, from a top public school, is about 3.0 unweighted. I have real concerns about whether he is ready to handle college. Anyway! He seems to really be falling for this place and I fear he won't get in. But I also fear he will and not be able to do it! Crazy situation.

Cannot link on my iPad! Just search " Tell your nerdy jokes here"

JFS, I wish you did not have to go through this!!! I am so sympathetic. Have you read the nerdy joke thread? It might help a bit. I love your FB video idea!

http://www.amazon.com/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413090511&sr=1-1&keywords=the+gun The Gun was written by a man whose wife used to frequent these boards, though I haven't seen her recently. This book tells the history of automatic weapons and is absolutely fascinating. The author is a Marine Corps captain, Ivy educated, award winning journalist. I read it with my ds in middle school.

This board is my community. It's really the only place I've found where I am not an outlier. We are in a co-op now, and ds does a monthly book club there. But IRL I just haven't found a like-minded community. I too have had the joy of a thank you from a child and I treasure it. He was a challenging student to teach so it was very meaningful to me.

My son just went to one for the first time with some friends. They had fun and followed our rules about everything. I couldn't completely get over my feeling that such venues must be huge "creep magnets" though.

I think this is quite variable, even *within* a given CC. When my son took DE courses, he found physics, even non-calc-based, and chemistry, quite challenging. College writing and Chinese at the same school were so watered down that they were nearly worthless. What I just recently learned about this situation is that the CC has a co-operative agreement with the state university engineering program, which is well-regarded nationally. Student with an AA from this CC are accepted without further application into the state U's engineering program as juniors. I think that fact has to explain why ds reports the non-calc physics he took at this CC was just as hard as the calculus based engineering physics course he took as a sophomore at a decent 4 year school.

As a first generation college student with zero $$ from home, the SAT was absolutely instrumental in garnering me a chance for a college education. That is also exactly the case for my dh, who not only was a first generation college student, he attended an Ivy. Both of us have observed that the SAT alone has more to do with our current socioeconomic and educational situation than any other single factor. So I agree wholeheartedly that even with its many imperfections, and even with my deep ambivalence about the CB, I am deeply indebted to the SAT.

1. Bradley method classes. Very helpful. 2. Yes, read Ina May Gaskin's books-very hippy, but for me reading stories of good outcomes after seeming disasters (in labor, birth, socially, etc.) was very affirming and built my confidence 3. Find "the position". I used a similar resting position for my last 2. Both were less than 4 hours, the last less than 3 hours, so really by the time I knew I was in labor, I couldn't walk much, talk, eat or drink. 4. Relaxation techniques, practiced ahead of time. 5. Dh massaged my hands and it was heavenly. They taught him something called "break the popsicle" that I adored. 6. Practice thinking about "letting it happen"-labor can be so overwhelming and it really really helped this "all up in my head" girl to dwell on letting go, letting it happen, choosing to not have control. That more than anything helped me get through transition.

He's taking Japanese because he chose it. He would like to go to Japan. We also do Latin, more as an academic subject than a "language" if that makes sense. IOW, there is no expectation of fluency...we are just trying to reap the benefits of knowing Latin. I had one child who was a serial language learner. He is good at languages, and at this point has some Chinese, Is fluent in German, some Spanish, quite a bit of Russian, and some French. He was a total autodidact in this area.

Thanks for the great ideas! Orthodox6, I went to the website, but I didn't see any resources there. Is there something in particular you had in mind?

There is a boy with Asperger's in my son's religious education class. Over the next year he will be spending a lot of time with this group of kids and he finds this boy to be very difficult to get along with. Can anyone recommend a resource like a book, website or other resource that would help him to understand this boy, and get along with him?

OOHH say can you see.... Go Orioles! You can hear the cheers in my house from outside, I am sure. Sorry Faith, but we smoked the Tigers the last 2 games...and hope to do it in three games tomorrow. After that...dh is already checking out Series tickets online. I may get him some for an early Christmas present. In fact, our anniversary is coming up!