You beat me; I think I paid a whole dollar for mine! :D Congrats!

30 Rock :blush: {hate to admit I watch it}

We bring food on planes all the time. Our favorite thing to eat is a really yummy sub sandwich. Roast beef w/ horseradish mayo, or an italian-style cold-cut sandwich (with only a tiny amount of dressing; you don't want italian dressing all over you on an airplane). Made on a crusty sub roll or ciabatta roll. Lettuce & onions on the sandwich are usually OK; tomatoes tend to make it soggy so we skip those. I wrap the sandwiches tightly in plastic wrap, and keep in a cooler until we are actually getting out of the car at the airport. It will probably be 2-3 hours before we get to eat it, so some folks might be squeamish about leaving it out that long. But we aren't dead yet. :) I'd definitely make that the meal for the first flight, though; I wouldn't save it for a later flight. Other than that...we try to bring other favorites, such as cookies, fruit-other-than-bananas-which-bruise-too-easily, snack mix (either trail mix or oriental rice mix). I have food insecurity when I travel - you never know when you'll be stuck on the tarmac for 3 hours - so I tend to pack more than what I think we'll need. If it's pre-packaged stuff then it can easily make the return trip home. But don't bring too much homemade or fresh stuff that will have to be thrown away if it's not eaten.

This. I wouldn't have posted it, unless you were a *really* good friend of mine and I wanted to help you out. (which it sounds like your friend did!)

For us, if we are only considering the math, the state U still comes out better. 4 yrs *$20,000 = $80,000; whereas 5 yrs * $4500 = $22,500. (the annual tuition costs I'm using are my guesstimates of what we'll be obliged to pay out-of-pocket after scholarships). $$ isn't our only consideration, but it's a big one.

Those stories are terrible...the universities in California are in trouble also. At the local Cal State school, they canceled many spring classes after students had registered. This left some students who were supposed to graduate, without the classes they needed and thought they had. Apparently they resolved it by allowing graduating seniors to enroll in other sections that were full. But if you weren't a graduating senior and a class got canceled - too bad. I've heard that you should expect to spend 5 years at a California public school now instead of 4, just to get the classes you need.

I went to Goodwill today! The entire back of my Jeep was filled (the back seat was folded down, and we have the "unlimited" Jeep with a little extra room, so it was a big space to fill). I had a very large trash bag of clothes/toys, plus several smaller bags of stuff, plus a vacuum cleaner and TV stand and some small electronics (wired router, cable modem...stuff that works but that we don't use anymore). What a relief that was! I feel like I lost 10# - every time I declutter it feels as good as losing weight. :) On Friday my church is having a curriculum sale; I have a table reserved and hope to sell 3 shelves worth of books/curricula. :)

That sounds wonderful. My dd and I like to see Shakespeare performed live. We go every year to outdoor Shakespeare in Orange County. And we have traveled to Washington, DC twice in the last 2 years, and saw 2 different productions there. We saw Macbeth at the Folger theater, and it was absolutely MESMERIZING. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to go to Ashland, and have tried to convince dd that we should do it as a graduation trip next summer. But my hubby has promised her Maui. Hmm. I would honestly rather go to Ashland than Maui!

I am in the "don't answer the door" camp. I just don't feel safe. So what I do is, I look through the peephole and if I don't recognize the person, I'll call out, "Who is it?" When they start their spiel, I call out "I'm not interested, have a nice day!" and I walk away from the door and go about my business. Sometimes they keep talking to the door. :tongue_smilie: It's too bad they have a hard job. But there's no law that you have to engage them in conversation. I do the same with phone solicitations - try to be halfway polite but not waste any of my/their time. "I'm not interested, have a nice day!" and hang up before they can responds.

My kids take classes at Biola's STAR program. It is not a "co-op" program as there is a real, paid teacher. The high school classes are about $450/year. The parents have to sign up and sit in class as a parent helper 3x a semester. As far as grading goes, for most classes, the parent is responsible for grading the daily homework but not the big assignments. For math, for example, we'd have to mark the daily homework but the teacher would grade the in-class quizzes and the take-home tests. For English, the parent would have to mark things like vocabulary homework, and review the first draft of a paper to make sure there are no glaring errors. But the teacher grades all final drafts of papers. My dd took the second semester of Algebra 2 there. I decided to sign her up for it, because she was finally at that point in math where she was running into some things that it was hard for me to help her with. The teacher was great. And although I had to mark the daily homework, if we had questions on something that dd didn't understand, or for which her answer differed from the answer key but we didn't know why, I just circled it and didn't spend any time trying to figure it out. The teacher took questions on the homework at the beginning of every class so dd could get it explained by an expert. It was great. All that to say - I wouldn't pay the big bucks for a true co-op program. But I am willing to pay for programs in which the teachers have some expertise, and provide value that I can't at home.

We have found that some are better than others. We LOVED A History of European Art. The professor was engaging, and the course was well organized. We were sad when it ended. :) We DESPISED Age of Henry VIII. The professor was mind-numbingly boring. He used almost no visuals, which was frustrating as he literally described a painting or the map of a battle - and didn't give us a visual! We watched the first few videos and gave up. I was going to tell you to check the reviews before ordering - but I did that for the Henry course, and the average rating is 5 stars. :confused:

This is the reason I would wait a day. I'd be more worried about the chemicals than the poo germs, b/c the chemicals kill the germs. We have a pool and find dead stuff in it periodically. It is so gross. Usually it's a tiny field mouse. But we've also found a rat, a vole, a toad, and a very large black bird (a raven or crow, I think). Every time we find one, I think, "I'm never swimming again." But then I do. Because we have a lovely chemical balance to kill the germs. (that's what I tell myself reassuringly)

I'd like suggestions for either/both lessons and conversation. Thanks for the French link; I'll have my dd check out the free lessons.

Yes, it's Spanish Spanish. I live in Southern California which is why I'm more interested in Mexican Spanish. One of them is from iTunes U; it's called Portales: Beginners' Spanish. It has a cartoonish look, but the subject matter is more geared toward adult interests (tourist attractions & such). It's completely in Spanish so you have to know a little bit to follow it. The other one is a podcast called Coffee Break Spanish. It starts more from the beginning beginner level.

Does anybody subscribe to a podcast in French, German, or Spanish that you recommend? I have one dc taking French...another taking German...and I'd like Spanish for myself. I've tried two Spanish ones already, and both turned out to be Castillian Spanish which doesn't help me. So I thought I'd ask for recommendations before downloading more... Thanks!

Hmm. If there was not a smell or something else "off", I would eat it. If only one of the 3 cans had been different, I'd be more worried. But since they all just seemed thinner than usual, I'd *guess* they are OK.

Nicholas Cage.

Wowza! I am in awe of you teachers/students who did 3 or 4 AP tests and scored well!

You inspired me. Yesterday the house was too hot to do anything. So today I cranked up the A/C, and so far I have: 2 grocery sacks full of old papers/workbooks/magazines out in the trash can! 1 entire shelf of books in the school room cleaned out - stacked neatly aside to go to the library book sale next week. 1 grocery sack of misc stuff placed in the garage to go to Goodwill next week. :D

If they are an IRS-recognized 501© organization, they must provide you with their financial report if you ask. Even if they are not...I would ask before contributing anything other than required fees/dues. If they are on the up & up - why would they object?

Ack, I didn't mean THAT! I just meant that seeing someone's posts, even if they are on ignore, still involves an active process of ignoring them. It takes mental energy to ignore something that is sitting there saying, "Ignore me!".

This sounds great...but it means I have to actually get off the computer today...

:grouphug:

A couple of weeks ago I was traveling through a city we used to live in. I posted the name of the city as my FB status. While I pumped gas, a FB friend, whom I hadn't seen IRL in 3 years, posted that I should call her and come over and visit. She didn't post her phone number...but, Voila, it showed up right there on my friend list on FB mobile. I ended up at her house where we had a lovely 2 hour visit! I think it's a nice feature. You don't have to use it if you don't want to.

A friend of mine, who has an advanced degree in math and also teaches math classes, is offering a 90-minute workshop for jr high and high school students to teach them to use a graphing calculator. She is doing it on a donation basis to help raise funds for an adoptive family in our church. 1. Would it be helpful/necessary for my rising 9th grader to attend this? (I expect him to go through calculus by 12th grade). 2. How much should I contribute for this?