I grab a large handful of condiment packs every time I see them ( with a meal purchase of course)--mustard, salsa, ketchup, mayo, soy sauce. Store them in the fridge until needed. Will have plenty on hand if you are making few lunches each day..

The new 7th grader is prepping for the October PSAT. There many words in the reading passages and the fill-in the blanks sections that I know he does not have a definition. But, he has started to understand the test is about reading in context. Look for the context clues. He is doing quite well. We concentrate on math and reading. We don't worry about the grammar correction part. I don't see that as an area he can significantly improve during a short prep period.

Try using Kayak.com, expedia, or carsrental. com. for pricing comparison. Then going directly to the rental company with the best price. If you are renting for 3 or more days, look at off airport locations too. It might require you to rent a car at the airport for the first day, or making other arrangements to get to the off-site location, and getting the cheaper car before returning the first car to the airport. Another thing, the first day of the car rental sets the price for the whole period. So, again you might have to rent for one day, then return it, and get new rental for the rest of your trip. The savings can be substantial. For example, yesterday 8/22, the cheapest car that I could find at Seattle Airport was $140 from Fox. But, the next day (today 8/23), car rental by the big boys dropped to $40. Would have spent a day in Seattle and then returned the first car for a better rental package for the rest of the trip. This is what I had planned for our trip to Olympia Park yesterday. Unfortunately, had to cancel the trip--after arriving-- at the airport because of minor emergencies (nothing serious, but cumulatively a game changer).

Habitat is very hit and miss. Good to do a circuit of 3 or 4 stores, say once a month, or so. Since the best stuff is donated by builders and contractors, stores near communities with lots of development happening, tend to have better stuff ( I don't think there is too much transferring between the Habitat Stores, unless it was an extremely large donation). Each store has its niche. Pricing store by store varies greatly. happy hunting

I am a thrift junkie. I happened to be in a Habitat Restore when they had new top brand 2 inch wood blinds. They had a good selection of width sizes from 22 through -60". Lucky for me a few were perfect width, and the rest were only a inch or two off. All had more than enough length. With a combination of discounts that day, I got 13 blinds (mostly 55-57 width) for $90 including tax. Habitat Restore is hit or miss. But, I go this one every one week while my son is taking his robotics class. These happened to be new in bulk and the same brand and style. Habitat seem to always have a few in stock.

7 years ago I had the largest Trane heat, a/c, with two zone controls, and attic fan installed for $11k, So. Cal. btw This July, finally got around to replacing all the cheap blinds (the plastic or cheap steel 1" slats) with nice 2 inch wood white slats. A 10 degree drop in house temperature on the hottest days. Instead of coming home to 91 downstairs/ 97 upstairs during heatwaves, it is now 81 down and 87 up. we hang out downstairs until the night breeze cools the 2nd floor. Have not used the a/c since switching blinds. Certainly could have saved on the size of the unit, it I had switched blinds years ago.

I wouldn't be overly critical/cautious about the the tales of cc success. Probably, because California has some outstanding cc's. I know because I went that route and ended up with two highly selective degrees.

Back in the late 70's there was a small liberal art school in S. Calif. that boasted of a 100% medical school acceptance for graduates of its pre-med program. The catch, They aggressively weeded students out of the program. Completion of the program was getting the dean's recommendation. Students weren't deemed to have completed the program w/o the recommendation. The boasting stopped after some investigation of the school's practice.

I've been looking into epoxy floors and countertops for a little while. Down to the final months of a 30 yr mortgage, and starting to plan some improvements. countertops and floors are done essentially the same way, but on different scales. concrete countertop solultions, and stone countertop have many videos on how to diy turn drabby countertops into marble, granite. you tube has thousand on diy epoxy. here is one to give you an idea. Way more countertop videos than floors. From what I read, epoxy is no more slippery than marble. https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yfp-t-s&p=you+tube+epoxy+floor#id=6&vid=b9527867761c07a6ff59fc621609c140&action=view

I read this somewhere around two years ago.. A H.S. student should go to a college where he/she will fall easily in the top 15 percentile of the freshman class. If i recall the theory, there is very little movement in or out of that level. Very few students become that much stronger, and the strong students tend to get stronger. Health preofessional schools generally don't look lower than the the top 15 percentile.

Look up epoxy floors. originally for garages. but have now moved inside the house. Marble, granite, metallic, even wood like. DIYable with proper prep. A couple of coats. much harder than poly

I call him a tutor, but he does more. Ever since the new 7th grader started pre-alg with Thinkwell a few years ago, we have used the tutor for a one hour group lesson at the local community center. He charge $10/hr per kid. We save any complex issues for him. In the group lesson, the tutor will review any problems we bring. More importantly, he teaches complete prealg to - calc bc classes. For pre-, alg, alg and alg 2 he usies Ron Yang's workbooks. He has the kids do every problem in the workbook. So, in effect, my kid is taking an on-line class parallel to the tutor's class. Sometimes the on-line class is ahead, other times the tutor is ahead. At the end of the year, he has completed both. Once school starts, we will be starting Pre-cal (most llikely with TW or EdX), using this dual system. Both of the tutor's sons went to regular school, but entered college very early.

Also, check amazon and ebay over 2 or 3 days (from the same computer). For some reason, the best price never appears on the first day.

Now it is several days more and still waiting. will not take any classes with DO>

Keep it as business like as possible. AsSomebody posted above, the crappiest jobs we we've experienced hasbeen when the s.o. went overboard with the snacks, lunch, conversation. What I tell All trade prople is that I Have several frinds with the same problem who want to know how my guy worked out..

Plan on being inside the office no later than 10:45am.

I understand that this trial is about groping, but what was their to grip. More of a swipe to me. STILL OFFENSIVE..

My handwriting is atrocious. A random combination of cursive and print letters. Frequently both combined within a single word. Probably a result of poor schools, and many, many school changes through the 7th grade (12 y.o). i can force more legibility when I concentrate. Otherwise, it is a mess. Not a big deal for me. I have highly selective college and professional school degrees.

Maybe Mr. Owens is the alg2 grader, and somebody else handling the other classes. Because submitted work almost 2 weeks ago. After a couple of inquiries, received message from Mr. Owen yesterday stating that he was behind but will be sending back the work soon.

Not an option for us. It's after schooling for him, and after working for me. No, time or interest.

Thinkwell.com. the new 7th grader did pre-alg, alg., and geometry with TW. Video based instruction. online. homework, practice test, and practice retests. Thought I would give the kid a break and try a new class. Actually liked DO because the hand grading makes it easy to spot the errors. TW is instantly auto graded. TW pre-calc is interesting because it is their complete alg 2 class, followed by their complete trig class. 2 for 1 as they describe it. I'm leaning this way, because I am uncertain whether my allowing him to keep progressing without having reviewed his graded work caused gaps. another option we are considering is an EdX class that uses ALEX for practice and tests. We used AlEX whenever we need to review for standardized test. A lot of universities use ALEX for extra practice, and placement. EdX is free, ALEX something like $15/month TW is roughly $125/yr. But regularly on 1/2 price sale at Homeschoolbuyerscoop. Just missed the last sale. But it happens every couple of months. I' ve only purchased through the hsbc discount. Both TW and Alex have demos.

A couple of chapters to go to complete Alg.2. We will not take DO pre-calc for these reasons. Will probably return to TW.

X I don' t think this is something you should be worried about. If a missle gets you in the center of the country, the rocket is not North Korea. It is ww3. All we can do is kiss our _ss goodbye.

I showed my family this. They are already designing the entrance to a casino.

The people I know who have panic attacks always have attacks. The Er should be used for real emergencies. Anyway, the ER bill might put them back in panic.