I'm local. I'm also cheap. I love staying in DC hotels--you can usually find SUCH great deals when you play the hotels.com/hotwire/priceline game (I got a great hotel--you know it's "great" when they hand you warm chocolate chip cookies at check-in--with a Metro shuttle a few minutes from Reagan airport for $60, e.g.). Definitely watch out for the Cherry Blossom festival, which will be crowded. Otherwise, in the spring you're always going to have visiting school groups, both on the Mall and at the Zoo etc. If you're looking to avoid crowds, go in Jan/Feb when it's miserable out. Some of my favorite tour days have been when there's snow on the ground and all the smart people stayed home. :D But even crowded, DC's great. The cherry blossoms really are spectacular and worth seeing. There are often festivals going on on the Mall itself that are worth the trouble, too (though that's more in the summer). Check places like the Washingtonian and Washington Post to see what's going on during your visit.

I have two sensitive sleepers, and we've had both good & bad experiences at hotels, both Disney and other, as they've grown. We definitely travel with the noise machine and favorite stuffed "friends" and blankies. We've also rigged curtains/sheets up like you said, though we weren't clever enough to think of that in advance. Amazing what you can do with a bell cart. :D Sometimes depending on the configuration of the room, the bath area is separated by a half-wall and you can stick the pack & play there. Everyone else just has to remember not to flush during the night. :tongue_smilie: At the All Stars, we've sometimes just left the room (leaving the latch out so we could hear) and played games on the balcony just outside the door until they fell asleep. We're never lucky enough for that to be 15 minutes, though, LOL!!! So we just make it our after party and get our favorite snacks & drinks, movies, games, etc, and have fun with it. We also worked hard to keep overall sleep loss at a minimum, like scheduling some slow mornings (meaning they could wake up naturally instead of when Stitch calls), midday breaks back at the hotel for ds's nap while dd swam, etc. Doing that helped keep them fairly on track, which meant they usually slept better for me at night too. Best wishes!!!!

:iagree: Depends on the person, of course--but if she's "always" wanted to visit WDW, she's probably been thinking of Mickey for all these years, and that's totally where she should go. Plus, Mickey would expect her to drop by to see him. She should get her "First Visit!" pin and wear it all day, a really cool t-shirt (millions of choices right there on Main Street), eat a Mickey ice cream bar, watch the parade, see the fireworks, get her pic taken in front of the castle, the whole shebang. Epcot's fantastic, as are the other parks. But MK is Mickey's home. :001_wub:

I did, on all counts. MRI, followed by surgery (fine; couldn't drive for a while after), followed by PT (difficult). Unfortunately, I did not keep up my exercises, and I found a few years later that the muscle at the back of my shoulder has atrophied. I have to be careful now, as reaching in the wrong direction can be quite painful. Additional PT would no doubt remedy this, or maybe even YouTube videos, but I'm lazy. Wishing you well!

Originally Thomas a Kempis, says Google. Der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt.

We love 'em for a hearty Honduran breakfast ("breakfast" meaning "any time of day," of course)--fry up black beans with lots of carmelized onion; scrambled eggs; and good Mexican cheese. Then you scoop bits of each thing up with your corn tortilla and stuff it in your mouth as fast as possible (fast, so you can get more in before you feel full). :001_wub:

:iagree: Me too. And I have absolutely NO good reason to justify buying one. Sort of like the Keurig. (Why, oh WHY are those things so expensive and sparkly??)

What a gorgeous attitude! (Was Howie wearing a kilt with the top hat?)

That's awesome. How did/does it affect your French?

My jr high French teachers were English and Scottish; in high school she was Texan (I LOVE Texas, but that sweet, dear woman should NOT have been teaching French); in college they were from all over, though the main one I think of was (I think) from Lebanon. I think the variety of professors (and lots of hours watching French in Action) helped tremendously with my own accent. Generally I stink at accents (when my dh wants a belly laugh, he asks me to attempt an Italian/Irish/you name it accent), but I THINK my French may be passable. At least no one in France has ever accused me of being American. :D My Russian teacher was Russian (and had us all cowering in our seats), and my Arabic teacher Persian--that was interesting, as she told us regularly that standard Arabic (and her own accent, of course) were the most beautiful, but others were barbaric. She had colorful opinions on everything. :001_wub:

I wanted to thank you all so much for your awesome suggestions. What an encouragement to know I'm not alone! Thank you, thank you. These past few days have been the worst yet--the humidity, I'm guessing. I just can't take it anymore! So yesterday I got myself a bottle of the Systane Balance and am giving it a go. The bottle itself says 1-2 drops at a time "as needed." Since I'm trying to be preventive, does anybody know how often I should do them? Does three times a day sound right? And (if you don't mind another question), how soon until I should expect results?

NOR, might I add, did we spend an HOUR trying to upload the pic. No; we're FAR too tech savvy for that.

Ok this is nance on ccm's acct. I don't know if it's the alcohol (I mean skim milk and water) or our phones but we can't get the pic uploaded. So either I can upload it when I get home or you can go into ccm's profile and view her albums to see our pic! :D

Technical probs with the photo. Stand by, kids....

This is what happens when members of the Weight Loss Challenge group meet IRL. Ice water and skim milk, kids. :D

Same situation here recently with ds(2). He was in great pain, screamed when peeing etc. Dr said it's common in boys of this age, esp with unsharpened pencils. I put on tons of neosporin, and he too was better by the next day. HTH--just another possibility. Poor sweet baby!

Today we're watching History of the Holidays: Independence Day (July 4). Only $1.99 at Amazon. We might do Liberty Kids later too. Maybe. And Will Smith's Independence Day, after the kids are in bed, heh. :D

OK, thanks for the encouragement! Trying not to be paranoid, as I know NOTHING about Latin, and it took me forever just to decide on PL.

We'll be starting Latin this fall, and I'm planning to use Prima Latina. Looks like there's a set that comes with a CD, and another set with DVDs. FWIW, I have no Latin background myself, so we'll be learning together. Is it worth getting the DVDs? are they substantially different from what's offered on the CD? Are they instructional or supplemental? Thanks!

Morning, Dr. Hive! Dr. Google says I've got dry eye syndrome. I never know when it's going to attack, but then OH MY WORD my eyes burn like someone's rubbing sand and onion juice in them. It takes several minutes to go away, and in the meantime is brutal. Nothing I've found helps (e.g. eye drops), even though tears flow like mad. It hasn't happened yet while driving, but has happened at the grocery store where I was temporarily blinded from the pain and had to call out for someone to lead me to the bathroom. Yeah. Proud moment. Anybody else have this? what on earth can be done?!

I haven't tried Enell, but I'm a HUGE SUPPORTER of Freya. Oh wait. Reverse that. Freya is a HUGE SUPPORTER of me. :D My first non-brand sports bOOkcase was a miserable 42 Triple D (which didn't fit) a year and a half ago. After 30 Day Shred and a couple months of ChaLean Extreme, I got demoted to a 36H Freya and fell in love. Now I'm in a 34H Freya, baby, and there's no going back!!! Freya for sports (I'm an avid runner, and I can vouch for their holding things in place) and Chantelle for daily wear. I got both of mine from Nordstrom because of their fabulous, um, personalized bOOkcaseseller? And yes, they had these sizes in stock.

Roux. I was determined to make "real" gumbo for my fiance, and the recipe said roux should be the color of a penny. Doggone it, no matter how long I cooked that thing, it would NOT turn the color of a penny. All kinds of pretty shades of black, though, until my kitchen billowed with smoke. I might've gotten away with it if I didn't have a cat who smelled like burnt roux for the next month.

You are toooooooooo cute! :001_wub:

Hey, while you're up taking pictures, how 'bout a quick walk around the block? :D

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