I would advise you to research very, very carefully into the CA landlord laws, which heavily favor tenants. It is really hard to get rid of a tenant who doesn't want to go. And from what I've heard from friends who have been landlords, it can turn into a huge pain in the neck. People can be horrible and will sometimes tear an apartment apart as they leave. It's a beautiful house in a nice area. I can understand your temptation! But it could very easily be a money sink and a horror show, so be careful.

Ick. I had it last January and am praying I don't get it again! Utter misery, it was horrible. I hope you are all better soon!

Oh, Julie in Austin is too, but I haven't seen her around lately.

I am not a convert. My parents are, and my best friend (since high school) is--I met her right after her baptism. And yeah, it isn't necessarily very easy. But I can't speak from personal experience, sorry.

I read it for the first time when I was about 14, and disliked it then. I like reading stories about teens, and I remember what it was like, but Holden leaves me cold.

It seems to have made a lot more sense back in the day, apparently a lot of teens identified with it and saw it as a search for identity. Now, after 40-50 years of societal change, maybe not so much. My husband liked it, but he's the only one I know. By the end of the book, I just want to give Holden a big sandwich, a glass of milk, and a long nap. Then, once he was rested and rehydrated, I would give him a job in construction for the summer. That oughta fix him up pretty quick.

I would put both the animals away until they could work out what they want to do. I'd give suggestions, like they can alternate days, or flip a coin, or something. They can work it out though. (Or, if I got really sick of it, the animals could bless some other kid!)

Seems to me that if shaming worked, we'd all be thin by now.

BTW the video makes me giggle a bit, it's so 90s and cool. Reminds me of Sarah McLachlan's original video for Possession--anybody remember that one?

I finally got a chance to listen to the whole thing. It was disconcerting, but interesting.

I stopped it at 1:00 because my husband next to me couldn't take it. He says it's weird. I think it's weird too but am interested in hearing more. I could have sworn I'd heard a major version before but maybe not--it's not familiar enough. Now I need to listen to Stand. I love Stand. :) Have never liked this one much, but I love REM generally.

I sew, and so fabric and clothing are of huge interest to me. Looking at a beautifully designed and sewn article of clothing is like looking at art, only I'm good at it and can understand what's going on. I don't wear fashion myself--I am a plain dresser--but a good dress makes me happy.

That's your belief (and fine by me), but in the Bible, Jesus says that baptism is necessary. I think you can argue about whether Jesus' words at the Last Supper constitute a commandment (I think they do), but it's hard to get much clearer than Mark 16:16. If even Jesus felt the need to be baptized, then it's probably an important thing to do. And there we have an example of what I was saying. We can't both be right. Either baptism is, or isn't, necessary for salvation. Thus we have denominations.

I am LDS, which means that a lot of other Christians would not consider me to be a Christian at all. (Would you?) I think the answers to your questions are going to vary a lot, and sometimes I'm going to say yes and no at the same time. The Bible gives us rules for living, so I figure that yes, God has rules. He is also a loving and forgiving God who meets us where we are and encourages us to walk further along His path. I don't know if He's worried so much about where we are on the path, as whether we are moving in the right direction. We're going to fall down and make mistakes all the time, and sometimes we're going to fall very badly, but He's got a plan for that. So, while I think that yes, God cares about how well I am keeping the rule about loving my neighbor, He also knows that I'm not going to keep it all that well. I think that denomination matters in some ways and not in others. I think that good Christians exist in all denominations, and God loves all His children, and that he has plans for each of us. He can certainly inspire a Baptist and a Methodist and a Catholic to do His work in the place where they are. At the same time, I think an objective reality with a moral law exists, that human beings are not too good at seeing that reality, and that various denominations are our attempts to define that objective reality--hopefully, but not always, with the help of divine revelation. As such, some denominations are going to be more correct than others, though they might be patchily correct. For example, Protestants believe in the priesthood of all believers, RCC and Orthodox believe in a priesthood handed down from St. Peter that must be transferred, and LDS believe similarly to RCC and EO but believe that it was lost and then restored. We can't all be right, and someone must be more right than the others, unless we're all completely wrong. If we were all completely good at receiving revelation, there would only be one united church. Someday we might be able to learn more and gain more knowledge about God. Probably mostly after this life (I mean, we might each gain more individual knowledge of God throughout our lives, but until the Second Coming, there probably isn't going to be a single clear public answer for everyone). I'm quite sure that all of us will have quite a lot to learn, don't you think? I'm sure we've all got some mistaken ideas. Happily, God wants us to keep learning and growing. It depends who you're asking. An LDS Christian takes the word of anyone who claims to be a Christian. If you believe in Jesus Christ as Savior, then that makes you a Christian. You might not have as much truth as someone else, but we're all in that boat to some extent or another. LDS belief does not put a lot of people in hell. Rather, it seems that we will all gain the desires of our hearts--if we want to be close to God, we can learn how to do that. If we don't want to be very close, we don't have to be. Some few people won't want to have anything to do with God at all and will reject all His works. They have to be free to make that choice. Well, like Parrot said, Mother Teresa wouldn't expect to walk in and take Communion--nor would I. Communion is a specific thing that comes with weight. In LDS thought, it happens after baptism and is a renewal of baptismal covenants. By taking Communion, you're promising to always remember the sacrifice of Jesus and to keep the commandments. Taking Communion renews your bond with God and has to be done worthily; it's a problem to take it unworthily. From an LDS perspective, if Jesus was there and a person walked in off the street and was converted, we'd teach a certain amount of doctrine to make sure the person knew what he was getting into, and then we'd fill up the baptismal font. It would take a little while. There are steps to take before you get to the Communion part; does that make sense?

I read most of it but haven't gotten to the last preview page yet. It's really painful. Why does he think that modern schools offer something resembling a well-rounded liberal education?

Please update us Julie! :grouphug:

I love that book, and the whole series. Really ought to read Eyre Affair again... I've read Physics for Future Presidents by Richard Muller--is that the same book or a different one? I thought it was excellent and plan to make my kids read it before graduating from high school. My husband took physics from Muller in college, and thought he was great.

I have finally actually finished a book. I have all these books going on at once and they are mostly very very long, so this is my first finished book of the year! It's Five Billion Vodka Bottles to the Moon, by Iosif Shklovsky, and I thought it was great. It's a memoir sort of book, personal stories about his life as an astronomer in the USSR--from grad school in 1940 (evacuation and manual labor) through the Stalin regime up to the start of SETI. Lots of Soviet stuff, and funny stories. If you're interested in the USSR or science, it's a good read. Also, all this month I've been doing a series on lesser-known children's classics. Today was Tove Jansson but I've done a bunch of them. I'm sure that WTMers already know all the books I'm highlighting but IME most people don't!

It sounds like it's only happened 2 or 3 times? I wouldn't worry for a while yet, though it must be driving your poor girl crazy. Give it some more time.

Julie, I keep thinking that what you do now will show your kids what to do when things are utterly horrible. What they see you do, they will do themselves. If you check out, they will do that. If you keep going through this awful thing and stay for them, broken as you are, they will do that. Or, as Elizabeth says, they'll go to their dad and he'll be much worse. I'm thinking of you and praying for you.

Yes, they need you. If it's scary with you around, it is way more scary without you around. It's OK for you to be grieving and in bad shape--you're still there. Sometimes taking the next breath does seem like too much. You can do that one thing, though. I do like the walking idea--the weather is perfect for it and the sun and fresh air will help you.

I am so happy to hear about this! How great for your husband that he got a new position, and it sounds like everything is working out well. Yay!

Yes, I would expect 16 and 17yo girls to be able to handle that and enjoy it. If it helps, I did it several times at that age. At 15, I spent a year as an exchange student. Volunteers met us at the airports and shepherded us around a bit, but we were expected to handle layovers and delays on our own. When I was 17, I flew to Denmark and back on my own, with stops in Paris and Amsterdam. The only problem was a changed flight at the Amsterdam airport, when I couldn't figure out how to get the dang Dutch pay phones to work so I could inform the people at the other end, and it did get solved. That was pre-cell phones of course.

WD, have you got a link for that? Looks interesting.

According to LDS belief, the Atonement happened both in the Garden and on the cross. It took both. There is an excellent description of it in a book...hang on... well, of course now I can't find it. But LDS doctrine says that the Atonement started in the Garden of Gethsemane, as Christ took the weight of all sin and death and suffering upon himself. Then, upon the Cross, it happened again and the presence of the Father was even withdrawn from him for a time. After that part was finished, Christ voluntarily ended his life and gave himself as the final sacrifice.