Ds needs this for astronomy lab and optics this semester. There's not a specific one recommended. All the cheap compasses that I have don't stay in position well. A set in a little box seems nice. Does anyone have a recommendation for a brand or set? I'd love to order something from amazon today to be here this weekend.

Look for all-natural powdered food dye and shake some into the bottle. Or buy a bag of Just Strawberries or other freeze dried fruit and shake the crumbs/powder from the bottom of the bag into your pill bottle. Enough will stick to color them

The "way too far" was what I was thinking about. There's nothing you could do but worry OR you could text the neighbor and know everything was OK. Maybe I'm more of a worry-wart, but from Kinsa's thread, I know I'm not the only one.

It's hard when elderly parents move. Scarlett, I think you are like I was, you've known your parents neighbors for years. It gives a feeling of security.

You are just the kind of person long-distance relatives need!

It's just an electronic version of passing the hat or giving money to your sob-story second cousin. You really have no idea what happens to the cash. If I give, I give with that knowledge and accept it. For Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/terms-of-use

I know we are all worried about Kinsa's sister, but I wanted to suggest using the energy for something productive. I couldn't get in touch with my sister for a couple of days. It turned out that a storm had taken out internet (and VoIP) and the cell tower. I realized that I didn't have anyone to contact besides the police, so I asked for the number of her good friend J that I knew they kept in contact with several times a week. I told her to give J my number, too. So if the time comes again that one of us can't get in contact with her, we can get in touch with each other. (J knew about the issue, but didn't even think about calling me and wouldn't have known how.) I think everyone has a friend, neighbor, pastor, or someone that they wouldn't mind you contacting. If you call your relatives now and tell them what your friend Karen is going through, they will probably be happy to give you names, phones, e-mails, addresses or some information. Even if you do decide to call the police, you can say "Her best friend Jane lives at 203 Elm, maybe she knows something." Still thinking of you and your family, Kinsa :grouphug:

Thanks! I didn't go page by page that far. I searched for it using the box at the top here since I knew the thread title. Since it didn't show up, I used google to search this site and still couldn't find it. I think I need to start book-marking all of my threads, because I never seem to be able to find them except the page by page method.

She's out of surgery! I'll know more when I talk to the vet this evening. BTW, does anyone know why old threads disappear?

I simply can't find my thread about my dog that started bleeding Friday night. Thanks for all of the help, though. Braved the icy roads for the vet this morning, and she stayed for surgery. It might just be a wart, but more likely a recurrence of the skin cancer, so they are knocking her out to get clean margins on removal :-( We kept it wrapped in bandages and the Spanx all weekend, but once the vet cleaned it, it would not stop bleeding. It was cauterize (which means we can't biopsy) or just do the surgery. Going to be a pins and needles day here.

ETA: Sorry, I didn't notice the "Principles" in the title. My post was directed at CS A. If you are willing to go with a specific curriculum, it can be very easy. I love Java Methods by the Litvins and have used it in my classes. They have an already approved syllabus, so all you have to do is e-mail them for the number and do the audit paperwork. It is automatic approval. The information is here: http://www.skylit.com/javamethods/syllabi/index.html Your student would need to get the book and follow the syllabus, but can use as much additional information/videos/classwork as they would like.

Oooh, I used to love to go to our local Irish Pub in college for sing-a-long night :-) To the OP, I can't believe either and I get that you lose some of the belonging feeling. If nothing else, it would just be nice to have an answer to the constant question of "Where do you go to church?" I used to feel some of the way you do about all of the good religion brings society, but over the last decade I've realized that it brings most of the bad, too. So it's just like humanity in general. Over the past couple of years, I've seen more bad than good. I agree that you should think about what you "do" believe (and maybe share here). That would be a first step to finding the place where you feel you belong.

A good first piece of information is your EFC from the FAFSA. Ours was much higher than we expected, so not having "need" meant searching for merit aid only. Use several of the estimator calculators to get a rough idea of the number: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm?execution=e1s1 Colleges will expect you to pay at least that number before providing any aid that has a need component. If the number seems completely manageable, look at schools that "meet need" or come close. (Do be aware that some of that need is often met with loans!) If the EFC estimate is way more than you could ever afford, look at colleges that offer high merit aid. This is where being in the top 25% of the students really helps. Some colleges offer both, but some will be knocked off your list with this information Regentrude is right about the very competitive schools (often called "lottery" schools). They get two or three times more qualified applicants than they have space for, so even if your dd is qualified, there is no way to tell if she will get in. Be sure to have safeties that she can get into and that you can afford as back-up.

A rabbit trail before we move on to the next week. I was looking at the gemstone challenge, wandered over to Google Books, and typed in garnet. You might find a book you want to read OR you might waste lots of valuable reading time learning about: The Garnet Resource Area (Montana) Management Plan of 1985. It wasn't engaging enough for me to want to read the sequel (and see which of the five plans they picked), but if I'm ever in Montana I want to visit the Garnet Ghost Town. The Tryal and Execution of Father Henry Garnet who was involved (maybe) in the Gunpowder Plots. This from a description of the events written in 1679, where I learned that it is really hard to read print with the old looks-like-an-f letter s, and that nocent used to be used for guilty as the opposite of innocent. I'm not convinced that he knew about the plot ahead of time, but I only read the one source. Henry Highland Garnet who was an African-American militant abolitionist in the 1800s. I didn't research deeply (rabbit trail!), but my initial impression is that he was like a Malcolm X to Frederick Douglas's MLK Jr. I'm interested in learning more. A publishing company in the UK called Garnet Publishing where I was mostly engaged by a Lebanese cookbook, but they have some fiction, too! And last, maybe I've learned why I don't finish books at the rate I used to. Curse you wonderful internet!!

Vets aren't making it in today, but I talked to a tech this morning. There's no swelling, heat, redness, or pus so we are just going in first thing Monday. I'm thinking a skin tag or a small tumor. She has a history of skin cancer, so hoping it's not that!

It's clotted into a messy wound this morning. I don't know what it is since I wrapped it right back up. She seems fine and was more disturbed that I wanted her to go out and pee on the cold white stuff than the fact she is wounded and wearing Spanx. Dh and I will check it out better once he is up. If it's torn growth, it can probably wait til Monday, but if it is some type of wound, we might need to battle the elements.

I've no doubt this will have to be dealt with, probably the same way. Our vet is usually open on Saturday but with the weather I'm not sure.

Thanks all! I did have styptic for the quicks. Now we have her rebandaged with a maxi-pad stuck to the inside of one leg of my Spanx. It's way more secure than the bandage stuff I had before, so I'm more hopeful it will stay still long enough to clot. Who would've thought I'd ever feel lucky that my dog's chest was the size of my thigh!

My dog is bleeding from a place on her chest. It's not anything we've noticed before, but it looks like a small tumor. I know any blood seems like a lot, but there is a good bit. Pressure helps, but I haven't been able to get it to clot up. We've bandaged and bound it, but there is some seeping through on her bed. Are there any tricks besides pressure that I am missing? (The emergency vet might be an option but the sleet is coming down and the roads are slick with ice. I'm not sure the chance of us getting there without needing more medical care.)

I'm joining in this year! I haven't finished reading this whole thread, but I did finish my first book of the year: Felicia Day's memoir You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) I'm a huge fan and the book was great. She was homeschooled so the first few chapters really spoke to ds and I. She's always funny, but it covers some darker times in her life, too. Ds hasn't finished it yet. I did listen on audiobook (hope that counts here!), because she narrates it herself. I've started Trevor Noah's memoir and have a book on India in the queue. If I ever finish reading this thread, I'll probably have an entire list for the year!

A friend recommended this one to me: The American Reader by Diane Ravitch

Yes, winter and summer make no difference to me since my skin doesn't seem to make Vitamin D

It just doesn't work for everyone. Either some condition or a medication (the docs aren't sure) mean I can't make it from the sun. So in the summer in Georgia with a kid I took to the park regularly (and no sunscreen use because I'm allergic), I had a Vitamin D level of 9.7! I have to take 5000 IU a day just to keep it in the 30 range. In general, autoimmune diseases correlate with low Vitamin D (even with good sun exposure). There doesn't seem to be a consensus about cause and effect, but if anyone has autoimmune issues, it's a good idea to have the Vitamin D checked.

You are working now and just can't do it. That is in no way unreasonable. If it won't be too much stress, I would tell them that the extra two hour drive to the airport and back is not possible on either Wednesday or Sunday because of getting home from or ready for the work week. If they can Uber to your house Wednesday and Uber to the airport Sunday, you will drive them to the beach. If thinking about that is stressful, I think it's perfectly reasonable to say "I can't drive anyone this year." In my case, there would just be too many moving parts to pack and get the family ready to leave to have people show up on my doorstep at the agreed upon time. I'd need flexibility to leave an hour later without having people waiting on me. I would be telling them no rides this year.

It's ds's first semester in college, and he is wishing that he took more APs, particularly sciences. I'm not sure how he compares to your son, but he is a very deep independent learner. He loathed the idea of learning for the test and he found the tests very stressful, particularly the length (with all the reading of directions the Chem one took over 5 hours). He opted to not take any his senior year, after one a year 9th, 10th, and 11th. Now? He knows most of the material in all of the freshman classes and is having a tough time scheduling all of the lab classes that he needs. He's ready to move on to higher level material, but he has to take the intro series in each subject to get there. He wishes that he had at least attempted the tests in some of the subjects that he was studying anyway. I actually used sample AP and SAT subject tests to assess his knowledge for hs grades. He doesn't test very well, particularly written portions, but he is at a non-competitive college so 3s would have been fine. He's looking at a few CLEPs for this summer, but that doesn't work for the sciences. So my thoughts, if I had had another. If a non-competitive college is in the future and 3s won't hurt, take the tests for every subject you cover at a college level. Learn the material well for 8-9 months and then spend a few weeks learning the details and format of the test. If a competitive college is in the future, remember that AP scores can be canceled (which I don't think is weird if you aren't taking official AP classes) except that it takes time. I'd have to double check, but I think junior year scores wouldn't cancel fast enough to not be on college applications. So take tests freshman and sophomore years, cancel what you can't use, and then take as many as possible senior year. Unless you have some sort of conditional acceptance, I don't think bad AP scores senior will affect admission. Probably too much detail, but I thought our 20/20 hindsight might be useful.