Some sort of breakfast wrap? Or this looks good -- Sweet potato hash

Yeah, ds reads that and the Economist. I guess my thinking is that there is a lot to think about in the teen years, from discovering your passions to planning your future to dealing with acne and nagging parents. ;) My ds is not the kind to seek out resources on his own, like a career planning book or a men's style blog, but he might very well read an article in a magazine on those topics. Short and sweet, with practical advice and interesting stories. "What does net neutrality mean for you?" "Alternative options to 4-year college" "Best sports for a couch potato" "How to throw a great party" "Mindfulness in a busy world" "Teen-owned businesses around the world" Heck, maybe we should start our own.

Are there any good general magazines for teens out there? I'm not sure exactly what I mean, but I'm thinking something that would have a little bit of health/lifestyle, a little bit of career/education, some profiles of teens doing interesting things, maybe a little bit of fiction, poetry, current events. Even a little bit of fashion ("How to develop your own sense of style", "What to wear to that college interview", etc.) or relationship advice would be okay, but as part of a balanced whole. A friend recently posted this article-- Appalled Graphic Designer Shows Girls' Life Magazine What Their Cover Should Look Like And I thought the magazine on the right looked fantastic! Does anything like that exist? My teen is a boy and I'd be looking for gender-neutral publications, but feel free to post about anything you know of.

I think it would be hilarious too if a little kid corrected someone about Moby Dick. What I don't like is when people pretend that they are embarrassed or dismayed by it instead of being honest that they are tickled pink. I haven't seen someone do that with respect to sports that I can recall. Instead, they would say, "I can't believe little Harriet beat Uncle John. I think we have a future Astro in the family!" Not, "Oh no, I'm so embarrassed." That's the part that I dislike.

Wow, I didn't read the OP as being against bragging. I thought she was pointing out the weird "humblebrags" that I admit I too find annoying. Things like: OMG I'm so embarrassed. Little Harriet corrected our dinner guest about the plot of Moby Dick. Yikes! or I can't believe I have to go to state robotics competition AGAIN with Sammy. My geeky kids will be the end of me! Just brag for real. We'll all celebrate with you, I promise!

I work at a library and someone came in the other day wanting some of her favorite holiday movies. Which ones? Trading Places and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. I never thought of those as holiday movies myself! We're pretty traditional here, but we do include the Die Hard movies as Christmas movies.

I remember thinking the same thing when ds was a young teen. Boys' stuff was too small. Men's stuff was too big. It was really annoying! On the other hand, it didn't last very long because he shot up and filled out. Stretchy shorts seemed like a good bet at the time, but that doesn't work so well in the winter!

How close are the 28s to fitting and has he had a big growth spurt yet? I might just go for the 28 and a belt. He'd probably grow into them pretty soon.

My ds17 recommends Splendor or Kings of Tokyo. Splendor is mostly cards and Kings of Tokyo has a small board but not very subject to the bumping issue. We've played both of these with ~10 year old kids. Not sure about younger than that but you could read reviews.

I don't understand why you are embarrassed. She misunderstood at first, but then you clarified. She acknowledged your response and explained her reaction. After that you both understood each other. Doesn't that resolve the situation?

I second the suggestions for Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde. And these possibly? Agatha Christie Connie Willis' time travel series -- start with To Say Nothing of the Dog Laurie King's Mary Russell series -- start with The Beekeeper's Apprentice

I think there's another factor that might come into play: doing it for yourself vs. doing it for pay. It's difficult for me to sustain motivation in projects that I'm not required to do. My job requires some amount of tedious work and physical work. I just do the tasks, even when I don't want to or am getting tired, because it's my job. At home when I'm working on my own numerous tedious and/or physically demanding projects, I am far quicker to take a break. I feel mentally and physically "done" much sooner, and it can't be entirely attributed to real physical limitations. Obviously aging and conditioning are much more likely culprits giving Quill's description of the situation, but I know for me the home vs. work comes into it as well. I used to clean houses for a living as well and I never was able to do my own house with the same energy level that I did my paid work. It's why I know I could never run my own business. I'm too lazy without outside accountability.

We have owned dish drainers in the past but years ago transitioned to the towel-on-the-counter method. In my experience, a dish drainers is useful if you are washing *dishes* -- plates, cups, and silverware. But now that we have a dishwasher, we're handwashing mostly pots and cutting boards and colanders and other random stuff. It's too big or irregularly shaped to fit in a dish drainer. For cutting boards, we lean them against our upper cabinet, which is right close by. Everything else just gets plonked down face down. We also use it for air drying tupperwares from the dishwasher. I put a new towel out each night and try toss the old one into the laundry room in the morning but sometimes it sits out all day. The drainboard does look handy and is quite nice looking. Personally, I would try it just with the drainboard and see how that works. Could be you don't need anything.

What about items that are on sale? Doesn't it make sense to stock up on them when the price is lowest? I mostly stick to my list, but if I see that the canned tomatoes we prefer are on sale at a great price, I will buy several of them.

I don't think decreased effectiveness at 12 hours is "failing". That's my experience with natural deodorants as well. Can't you just reapply (give a quick wash first if you want)? It's easy to carry some in your purse for quick touch-ups as needed.

I think Night Elf's friend is saying that *Night Elf* has an organization page. And Night Elf is wondering if she needs to change that. I don't know the answer, but at least let's straighten out what the question is.

Our family makes the same things every year. Every year we discuss changing it up, but what it comes down to is that we like having a large variety of familiar, relatively bland foods. So we want plain mashed potatoes, not garlic parmesan, to go with the turkey gravy. So that's what I will do, but I'm mining the rest of these posts for yummy things to make later in the season. roast turkey and gravy plain boring mashed potatoes plain boring stuffing plain boring cranberry sauce acorn squash casserole sweet potato casserole glazed pearl onions green beans (steamed? sauteed with garlic? not sure) rolls salad The salad is the one place where innovation is allowed. I might do roasted beets and goat cheese over spring greens drizzled with balsamic. Or pears and roasted pecans with butter lettuce. We'll see. For dessert, pumpkin pie and apple pie. Plain, boring, traditional varieties, of course. Don't get me wrong. I love our Thanksgiving meal. And I do see how putting ten plain, boring foods together makes a kalaidoscope of flavors. The complexity comes from the combination of dishes rather than within the dishes themselves. But our menu does look very boring compared to some!

Would he be interested in trying non-video games? Game stores often have a thriving community of friendly folks where adults, teens, and kids all play together. Board games, card games, miniature and role-playing games. And gamers are usually happy to teach newcomers.

I'm intrigued by the way you use your calendar. Interesting! What's the wooden decoration you're making? Looking to steal other people's ideas because I have no energy to plan for myself. LOL

That must have been so frightening. You were so brave to pull back the bush to look for the snake. I hope your healing continues to go well, and I hope you can enjoy your garden again without fear.

We finished a season of a tv show we were watching, and I checked the library's catalog to see if they had the next season available. It was listed as "on order" so I put a hold on it, and figured it would be a little while. To my surprise, the very next day I got an email that my dvd was ready for me at the library!

I hear you! I wear 5* pairs of shoes regularly, and they all really need to be replaced. I should have been doing this gradually, rather than waiting until the situation was desperate. But I HATE shopping for shoes. I have heard good things about Dansko too. Good shoes do seem to cost quite a bit. *Five sounds like a lot of shoes, but I'm really the least fashionable person I know and still seem to need that many -- 1 -- indoor house shoes, i.e. crocs (holes in the bottom) 2 -- running shoes (three years old and causing me foot pain) 3 -- oxfords (12 years old with cracked sole) 4 -- basic flats for skirts/dresses (holes at the toes) 5 -- winter boots (more than 10 years old and kind of gross)

Good luck! I joined the staff at my small town library this summer and I love it. For my interview I wore a patterned skirt and black blouse, roughly like this -- http://appleseeds.blair.com/p/reversible-print-skirt/103896.uts Our library is quite informal, so going full "office wear" would not have been appropriate. CaliforniaDreaming, that's a cool site.

Zoom and Gatherplace are the platforms that ds has used for classes in the past. At the time no chrome extensions were available, so he had to use a different computer. But I looked them up just now and both now seem to offer a chrome extension. So maybe it isn't as much of an issue anymore. That's good news!

It really depends on your online classes. Some require you to download software, and that will not work on a chromebook. But if the class is run just through a browser, it will work. For example, AOPS classes and Brave Writer classes require nothing besides a browser.