We go through a lot of mayo because I make our own dressings and dips. I'd love to do homemade...how long does it keep? A couple of days? A week? It would only be cheaper to make it if I don't end up throwing most of it away because it's gone off, KWIM?

Flying Ace: Jack Fairfax, Royal Flying Corps, 1915-1918 by Jim Eldridge The Trenches: Billy Stevens, The Western Front, 1914-1918 by Jim Eldridge Shot at Dawn: World War I (Allan McBride, France, 1917) by John Wilson Fire in the Sky: World War I (Peter Townend, over No Man's Land, 1916) by David Ward

Did any of you watch "Community"? This thread reminds me of the episode where an American version of the British t.v. show "Inspector Space-Time" is made. You're not the only ones who question American remakes...

I started, but never finished, The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir. It was a bit heavy for me, but it's a popular book. Another choice is The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser. Even though it's about her father, Fraser wrote a fair amount about Elizabeth's childhood and teenage years (and Mary's also). (I really liked this one.) Happy reading!

We've been twice for vacation and loved it. There's a tenement museum in the Lower East Side that's fascinating. The Strand bookstore. Street food. Burgers from The Shake Shack. Just sitting in Central Park and/or Washington Square Park. Cathedral of St. John the Divine is an enormous church...fourth largest Christian church in the world. The mind boggles at the size. And sometimes you just walk by someone, and then realize s/he's famous, which is strange and cool. We did not care for Time's Square...too loud and crowded.

First, my husband also swears that homemade coffee with Starbucks beans isn't as strong/good as a Starbucks from Starbucks. And we have a high-end coffee maker and don't skimp on beans/grounds. Second, I also vote for a French press! Best homemade coffee. I still like it better than this expensive machine we recently got.

I've made homemade "Larabars" for a friend of mine with multiple sensitivities. Easy to find recipes online...it's basically softened dried fruit (dates/raisins/craisins/) mashed up and mixed with chopped nuts. Yummy, healthy, and something different. You kind of need a food processor, though. If you have a health food store close by, you could get gluten-free corn flake or rice krispie style cereal and make squares (the ones with marshmallows and margarine...not butter of course). You could also buy "gluten-free oats" and make these "no-bake energy bites", changing the basic recipe to account for allergies. They are so good. My kids love them. http://smashedpeasandcarrots.com/no-bake-energy-bites-recipe/ Good luck! It can be hard to figure out recipes when you have friends with allergies/sensitivities.

We all have varying degrees of curly heads in our home (mom, dad, 3 kids). Some things I've learned: -I never brush my hair, I only run my fingers through it (but it is thin and fine, so it's easy) and do the scrunch thing to make it curlier (it's not quite shoulder length) -brushing it tends to straighten out the curls in a bad way, and make it frizzy -I do use shampoo and conditioner (organic), and also rub a few drops of lavender oil through my hair after towel drying to keep it from frizzing -a small amount (drop the size of a quarter) of olive oil also is nice -I did read that curly hair book, and went shampoo-free for about a year...it does develop a sort of coating that makes it feel like you have product in it (in a good way), but it make my scalp flakier so I was always maintaining that end of things. -the kids do use a brush, as they just get too many tangles...it's just a regular brush with those little plastic balls on the ends of the metal bristles -if your daughter wants it short, be VERY careful who cuts her hair...curly hair is hard to cut, and stylists consistently underestimate how much it will spring up once the weight of the hair is gone. More than once I've ended up looking like one of those da Vinci cherubs...nice blond, wispy halo...manageable as an adult, but as a kid I was mistaken for a boy more than once (cue the "were you ever bullied" thread). -stylists love curly hair and can get excited about using some creative license. This can be fantastic, as you have a great hair-do for the day, but it's very hard to replicate (at least it always has been for me to do). -we use a squirt bottle to mist the hair on days we're not washing, and brush or scrunch Hope this is helpful!

Any combo of: sunglasses, visor down, pushing myself up in the seat to get more out of the visor, squinting, holding free hand to block out the sun... I'm with Julie...never occurred to me that further south that doesn't really happen. Lucky-ducks.

I am sorry that you are in this sort of space. Life can seem so overwhelming sometimes. What you just said about being drained but still distressed...I had that, and it was my thyroid. I was in bad enough shape mentally that I went to a psychologist, and she bounced me back to my family doctor for blood tests...thyroid, iron profile, vitamin D...can't remember what else. You said something about other medical issues so you may have already gone this route, but I figure it's worth mentioning. Also, on the general mental health front, I find Ann Voskamp's blog "1000 gifts" to be helpful.

Hold On, McGinty! by Nancy Hartry (protagonist is from the East Coast) The Patchwork House by Sally Fitz-Gibbon The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier (Quebec) The Sugaring-Off Party by Jonathan London (Quebec) A Prairie Alphabet by Yvette Moore There is a Canadian pre-school/K curriculum called "Come Sit by Me", which I did with my son. It was lovely and is how I know most of these books. Cheers!