:iagree: It sounds horribly wasteful. I still have my dress. It is hopelessly out of style (from 1989). 19yo dd and I were talking recently about how she might update it for her wedding. Basically, remove the big puffy sleeves! Anyway she doesn't even have a boyfriend at this point so no wedding in the near future - but it was fun to talk about. And she loves to remake clothes, so it would be fun for her. (someone asked her once, "where do you get your fashion style?" b/c it's so unique. She said, "Um, Goodwill?")

Why would you freeze the bacon grease? I keep mine in a jar in the fridge and it lasts FOREVER. (months and months and months...and it has never gone rancid).

This is my favorite: Spicy Citrus Pork Roast It's for the slow cooker. So good; I might have to go out & buy a pork roast this week. :)

Yes, I'm doing that for any 1st class mail that we receive.

We moved into a new house 3 weeks ago. The previous owners get about 3 catalogs in the mail EVERY DAY! (they come to "Jane Smith or Current Resident" so they don't get forwarded). The first few days I tossed them in the recycling. Now I've started calling every catalog and asking to be removed from the mailing list. I'm spending about 15 minutes a day on this! I looked up the direct marketing association. It looks like my only choice through them is to create an account in the previous resident's name. I am loathe to do that - it seems wrong. When I make the phone calls, I'm not really lying or pretending to be them - I just say something like "Can you please take Jane Smith off the mailing list?" Ugh. Will this all be over in a month or so?

I won't spoil anything. But if you've seen Robin Hood, you won't be able to get "Isabella" out of your head!

It doesn't show DVDs when I search anymore either. (it used to tell me that the movie I wanted wasn't available on streaming and did I want to add DVDs?) There is a DVD tab that you can click on the home page. Then when you search, the DVDs will show up.

Oh, I've seen it too. But I deleted my post because I thought I sounded too gloating. :) Yes, it was good. But I have to say I didn't particularly like Irene Adler played by Lara Pulver. I think it was because I didn't like Isabella on BBC Robin Hood played by her!

Show tickets. Dd & I are going to NYC to see shows the first week of June - it's counting toward my b'day, her b'day, and mother's day!

nm

We are currently renting a house from someone of another faith. It was obvious when we saw the house, because of some items on display. It didn't bother us at all. I don't think you should be expected to take anything down, and if somebody asks you to, give them a shocked "I beg your pardon?"

I just posted almost the same thing but then saw your post. I am in Orange County too and can't believe how much we pay. :001_huh:

nm

We just moved from a very large house to one that's almost 40% smaller - and proportionally fewer bathrooms, etc. I had a housekeeper come in at the old house on an occasional basis, and I asked her to look at the new house & tell me how much she'd charge for the same. In addition to the house being smaller, it is MUCH closer to her house and would reduce her travel time and gas $. I was SHOCKED that she reduced her rate by a less than 15%. I had a range in mind based on comparing the sizes of the houses (which was confirmed by what the owners of our current house mentioned they had been paying someone). I don't know why she's asking more than the going rate. The only reasons I can come up with is that she either thinks I can afford it & will pay it, or maybe that even though the house will take less time, it will still be more than half a day's work and she needs to bring home a minimum amount per day? As we chatted I think she picked up on my distress and she back-pedaled a bit with statements like "whatever you think is fair." So now I'm in a quandary. I like this woman and want to give her some work. But I don't want to pay how much she originally asked for. I'm sure she would do it for less (I guess I'd have to offer the high end of the range I was considering) and that she would be happy to have the work. BUT I am just totally uncomfortable with bargaining with her. I think I'll forever feel like I'm the client that cheated her, in my eyes and hers. So my options are: 1. Hire someone else (or clean it myself) 2. Pay her the high rate she requested 3. Pay her a lower rate and feel like a cheap jerk. I hate all the options. I wish she had just quoted me a reasonable rate to begin with. :( What would you do?

:iagree: I get holes everywhere. It's just the cheapy fabric. At least the shirts are inexpensive so I don't feel bad when I have to toss them after 1 season. I'm actually probably better off - I used to keep t-shirts too long and they would be very worn-out by the time I noticed I needed to get rid of them. :tongue_smilie:

Our charter school uses PH math texts. My ds is using Lial's Intermediate Algebra, but occasionally I need to refer to the PH text for certain assignments he needs to turn in. I have found that the PH explanations aren't nearly as clear as Lial's. Lial's is detailed enough to be self-teaching. I don't think I could teach strictly from the PH text unless I had a better background in math myself. (oh, and I have access to the teacher's edition & other resources through our school - but it is still hard). I would go with Lial's or another program that others have easily adopted in their home schools.

This is considered a good path in California to save $$. Start off at your local community college, and then transfer in to the very selective UC system. (note: they are selective at the transfer level also).

My dd has worked minimally (about 4 hours a week) her freshman year. She upped that to about 16 hours a week during Christmas break, and we expect her to work at least that much during summer break. This is basically for her spending money. We are paying all other expenses for her to attend a private college, so it seems fair for her to earn her Starbucks money. But we realize it would be impossible for her to work enough hours to make a dent in the tuition bill, so we don't expect that from her.

Since the utilities are in your name - can you turn them OFF? That oughta get him moving. Sorry no other advice, just :grouphug:. This too shall pass!

That's what I was thinking, too. Now that's it's over - you can laugh hysterically at her bizarre behavior. It was NOT personal!

Or they might not even be able to get care. When I had surgery last year (non-emergency, if you don't consider cancer an emergency), the hospital verified my benefits and collected $ for both my remaining unmet deductible and expected co-pay. Luckily my deductible was only $1500, I think - the co-pay amount was higher! What if I hadn't had the money up front to give them several thousand dollars? I didn't ask, just gave them a credit card number! If a previously insured family's deductible & copay amounts go up, care might be out of their reach when it wasn't before.

I have a friend who took her two kids cross-country on Amtrak a few years ago. They were about 9 & 12. It was a disaster. Afterward, she wished she had flown as it ended up costing her as much! 1. They were careful to keep an eye on their stuff but at some point a thief snatched a portable DVD player that she had borrowed from another friend - so she had to replace that. 2. For food, there were only 2 options: Yukky fast-food type stuff (moderately inexpensive) or very expensive sit-down dining. They only had the dining room meal once, but the food costs still added up. (I don't know how convenient it is to bring your own food). As I said, she wished she had flown for what it ended up costing her. It will be even trickier for you since you have to care for your littles. If I were you I'd fly or drive.

Can a buyer cancel a contract for any reason? Our house was on the market for about 4 weeks when we got, and accepted, an offer. A few days later, when our realtor called the buyer's agent to find out when the inspection & appraisal were scheduled, the agent told him that the buyer was having some personal problems and would order the inspection next week. Our realtor says it sounds fishy and that he might be looking for a reason to get out of the contract. We always thought that the buyer could get out of a contract within the contingency period, only for named contingencies - inspection, appraisal, & financing. But when we asked our agent today, "Doesn't he HAVE to order the inspection & appraisal before he can say there's a problem?" the agent told us no, that as long as it's within the contingency period, he can make up any reason and we have to return the earnest money. Obviously the contract doesn't say "any reason" - it lists several contingency reasons. So why would our realtor tell us that? Edited to add: I looked at the inspection contingency more closely. The buyer doesn't HAVE to pay $500 for a professional ainspector. He can make any type of "buyer investigation" w/in the contingency period and cancel the contract. So, for example, he could say he doesn't want our house when he finds out the pool has a salt-water system, or anything else that wasn't immediately obvious. :(

Good for you! I just used Craigslist for the first time today. Someone had agreed to buy my washer, and was going to pick it up today - I found out mid-day that she had changed her mind. :( I really needed it gone ASAP, so I put an ad up on Craigslist. The washer was gone from my house in less than 4 hours. :D