We planned Thanksgiving around a visit from my sister who lives 4 hours away. Meanwhile, we turned down the possibility of spending it with friends here locally, or other friends in another city. Sis said she'd arrive Tuesday and have to leave Thursday evening (to be at work Friday morning). Then a few days ago she said she'd arrive by 1PM today. Then yesterday it was arrive by 3PM today. Just got a text from her saying she was held up but is now leaving. :confused: With traffic, it might take her as long as 6 hours to get here - so we're now looking at her arriving between 6 and 8PM. And she has to leave as soon as we have Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I think she didn't want to come. If she didn't - she should have just said so and left us to make other plans with people who actually want to spend time with us.

I wondered about that, too, that's why I'd like to try mesh/lingerie bags.

I know a family that eats out every.single.meal. It is 2 parents and a teenage son. "I don't like to cook" and "We all like different things" was how she explained it to me. If one or more of them can't eat at a restaurant that night, they just get a carry-out meal. They eat the leftovers for lunches.

Wow, 30 hours a week is a lot. My dd wouldn't be able to do that and keep up with her schoolwork - but she is also in rehearsal/dance class 3 nights a week. She just started a job of about 12-16 hours a week, and I'm worried she won't be able to keep up. But she is only committed through the end of the year, so I think she'll be OK since her CC class is almost over.

And the scene where he's shirtless and being fitted for armor...oh, my. I blush when I watch that one with my teenage daughter.

The ones posted on FB make me cringe because they always have glaring typos.

I like my Keurig, but I'm growing weary of paying $.40/cup for coffee. I also wasted money trying coffee we didn't like. :( It can be easily used for tea (or any other use that needs plain hot water); my dd uses it all the time to make a quick cup of hot water to brew tea.

Thanks for sharing that. I found a couple of other related videos - I'd like to try to copy these: AGreenerKitchen

I try to use as few produce bags as possible. What I do is try to combine produce into one bag when possible (if it's a per-item basis and not per-pound basis). For example, I will put my 2 bunches of scallions in with a bunch of cilantro, or with the celery. I also don't put items such as lemons or avocados into bags, since I don't typically buy more than 2 or 3 at a time. But for tomatoes, apples, etc., I haven't found a way around the plastic bags. I thought about re-using ones from home but that seems like a lot of trouble and I'm worried that even if they look clean they might not be.

I've never seen it in California, and I buy eggnog every winter. :(

Wow, I'm amazed to hear this. I just have not found mine to be that useful. I've only used it for the occasional soup. I use a blender for smoothies, and just beat pancake batter with a spoon.

I bought one of these a few years ago. I can count on one hand the number of times I've used it. :001_huh: Other bad buys for me were: citrus juicer (have NEVER used it; luckily it was used); dutch oven (only used 3 times in 2 years); waffle iron (haven't used it in at least 4 years); and food saver (I "saved" everything I owned the minute I got it, and have never used it since). I have room in the cabinets for these right now, but next time we move they are gone. My absolute favorite gadget ever is a microplane grater. It's used almost every day in our house. Who knew that parmesan or romano cheese goes on EVERYTHING? Seriously, though, it is a great gadget and takes up so little room in the drawer. I used to have one of those roto-grater things that they use in restaurants like macaroni grill. But it was a pain to use and store.

Oh, I wish I hadn't seen this post...maybe I could sit ds down at his desk with strict orders not to bother mom while she watches her favorite 4 hours of TV? :D Or maybe I should help ds w/ his schoolwork, finish my fall housecleaning, start my Thanksgiving cooking, etc. Decisions, decisions.:tongue_smilie:

Good for you!

I have been doing Fall Cleaning for about two weeks! We're not taking off from school but I've been devoting an hour or two a day to heavy cleaning (in addition to general housekeeping). I've been focusing on one room at a time. We've been in our house over 2 years, and some stuff hasn't ever been cleaned, like pulling our bedroom furniture away from the wall and vacuuming. YUK! (we did that in all 3 bedrooms on Saturday when dh was here to help). I also completely cleaned the kitchen - almost every drawer & cabinet was emptied and washed out. This morning I did the dining room (actually hand-washed all of the china & knick-knacks on display, instead of just whacking with the feather duster as is my usual routine). This afternoon, on to the laundry room - I'll scrub baseboards, cabinets, etc. By the time my sis arrives on Wednesday afternoon, the whole house will have been done except our schoolroom which will have to survive another month or so of the feather-duster treatment. I may have to wait until the week before Christmas for that one; too many bookshelves and desks to move away from the walls. :(

I ordered a 16-18 pound free-range turkey. We are going to smoke it. There will only be 5 of us but we love smoked turkey leftovers.

Gospel for Asia does this; my kids have fun picking out "presents" every year from their catalog. Gifts from the Stable

I would have whispered something to her. I occasionally do this even with people I don't know, if I think it's something they'd want to fix. I had to discreetly tell a woman in Costco a few months ago that her pants were split in the back. :blink: She was mortified but so happy I told her!

For me, it's even more than 8 hours. Dh and I have discussed under what circumstances I'd be willing to fly. My parents live 15 hours away - if they have an emergency, we'd drive. (because of having to change planes, and the distance my parents live from an airport, it would take over 10 hours for us to get there by plane/rental car). The only circumstance I can think of right now that would get me & my children on a plane is if my m-i-l had an emergency. She is 24 hours away by car, or about 8 hours by plane. For the last 6 or 7 years, we have taken about 2 plane trips a year to visit family or go on vacation. Because of my dh's frequent flyer miles, it was nothing to us to hop on a plane, for example, for my cousin's wedding in another state. If anybody gets married next year, too bad for us. :(

There's lots of anecdotal evidence that at most airports, there's no random-ness to the selection of passengers to go through the virtual strip-search machine. Agents are choosing women and children at a much higher rate than men, and the younger & more attractive the woman is, the more likely she is to be chosen. As I said, it's anecdotal - apparently the TSA isn't tracking or sharing numbers. I imagine that soon they will be forced to change their selection process and/or report demographic breakdown on those numbers. (if you search on "statistics" at the TSA website you'll find a helpful list of the number of lighters they confiscated in 2006. 11.6 million)

By "opt out" do you mean refuse both the scanner and the groping? So you are willing to not get on the plane?

I heartily agree. I told my husband a couple of weeks ago, when the changes were first reported, that I don't ever want to fly again. The new x-ray machines are being called "virtual strip searches" - I've seen the naked pictures. The new rub-downs involve what would be called molestation in any other circumstances. I shouldn't have to subject myself/my children to either of these just to get on an airplane. The American Airline Pilots Association says the new procedures are "degrading" for pilots to have to go through. I say they are degrading for anybody to go through without reasonable cause!

Wow, this brings back memories. I remember my own tour of UVA in 1983. :blink: The strongest impression I came home with was that the girls were all tall, blonde, and tan. Then I went to visit UT-Austin, and my best friend when to visit Duke. We came home and compared notes, and realized *all* college girls were tall, blonde, and tan! :D (we were obviously very impressionable and insecure brunettes).

Oh, that's surprising but good to have that info. Because the other 2 colleges have "marketing" files on dd, I assumed the 3rd one would, also.

I read Fierce Wars & Faithful Loves a year or two ago. I was extremely disappointed when I couldn't find anything else similar by the author!