Nightingale

How the heck are they supposed to go out and get grants and loans without any guidance at all as to how to to do that? The world of financial aid is not an easy world to navigate, and I've been dealing with it for ten years.

At build a bear, you can get a labcoat and medical kit for the bear to make a doctor bear, or they've got football and baseball uniforms, military uniforms, and firefighter and police uniforms.

Honestly, if the burn unit says it's ok, I'd go with a stuffed animal from build-a-bear. They're really good quality toys, and a soft, furry friend will give him something to hold on to. He's a little kid; something to hug when they're in a scary situation can really help. That's why organizations like Hugs Across America exist.

I think most of them do... we just hear about all the rotten apples on the news.

So does mine. I was talking with my dad about how school was going and about my summer plans. I'd figured out that since I want to go into criminal law, I'd have to do an internship this summer. Experience is a good thing. The down side: Interns don't get paid. At least, interns that work for the government don't get paid. I was stuck in a situation where I could choose between a criminal law internship that really interested me, or a paid position with an insurance law firm where I'd spend more time doing computer tech support than legal work. I mentioned in passing that if I took the criminal law internship, I could get class credit, and that one of my friends was doing an internship and had taken few evening summer school classes, and was graduating early. My dad asked why I didn't do that. I pointed out that student loans don't cover the summer and that I wasn't eligible for any more federal loans til fall. I'd already gone through all the financial aid stuff with the school, and there was really no practical way that I could finance taking a full load of classes over the summer. I told my dad that I was going to take the job with the insurance firm. My dad informed me that the following day, I was to go to school and find out exactly how much summer school would cost. I supplied him the number right there, (it was on the school website) figuring that would be the end of it, but he told me to come over the next day to pick up a check for tuition! We went around in circles about it for quite a while, because it was so much money! I was insisting that I wouldn't take the money as a gift; it was too much. We finally compromised and he grudgingly agreed that if I really wanted to, I could pay him back out of next year's loan money or after I finished school. So, thanks to my dad, I'm finishing law school a semester early, taking the bar exam in february instead of july, and hopefully passing the bar and getting on with my life a semester earlier than I'd planned. And he's getting his money back in september, so I guess it works out well for everyone, even though it was really hard for me to swallow my pride and let him deal with tuition for me, even for a short time. My dad rocks!

I enjoyed The Village. I thought it was a really interesting concept, although some of the script could have been improved.

Just ask her what her questions are, answer them honestly, and add in more information where you feel you need to.

Sounds like a more accessible catbox, or a ramp in and out of the catbox, might be appropriate. Also, confining the little one to a single room (especially since you have a big house) may be helpful, as, he may have just gotten lost. You can increase the area he's allowed into gradually over the next week or so, and let him get to know the place a little at a time. Also, your other cat will probably take to the new arrival better if you give the older cat more attention than you give the new one. I know that it's your instinct to want to play with a new pet, but your older cat is seeing the little one as an invader, and as someone who is stealing attention. My vet told me to pretty much ignore the little one for a few days and give my other cat tons of attention, and to try to present the little one as a gift to the older cat, somebody to be the older one's companion. He said to make sure that when one of us was playing with the little one, someone was also giving attention to the older one. It worked really well, and my cats were getting along wonderfully within a few days.

You can neuter when he weighs at least 3 pounds. While cats typically are neutered around 6 months, this can be done much earlier, as long as he weighs enough. There are a lot of reasons that a cat might pee outside their box. Have the vet check him for a UTI, because that's one of the most common causes. He may not like the litter in his box, have trouble getting in and out of his box, or think his box is too close to his food or doesn't give him enough privacy.

Is he neutered? If not, he may be just marking his new turf.

About all I can tell you is: 1. not venomous (round pupil) 2. getting ready to shed, STAY AWAY! even if a snake isn't venomous it's bite can HURT, and shedding puts snakes in a Very Bad Mood.

I'd say that it's the government's responsibility (and indirectly, ours as taxpayers and contributing members of society) to ensure that there is a place where children can learn. How they ensure that can be to provide it directly, contract it out or whatever. However, it is the job of the parents and the children to make sure that learning is actually taking place. My dad's got a little desk sign somewhere that says "you can lead a mind to knowledge, but you can't make it think!"

Well, if Clownburner doesn't chime in, I'll have to post it for him...

Depends... Where's "here"?

My cat, Indiana, has got to be one of the strangest cats on the planet... or just not very bright. I'm not sure which. Weirdest: fall into the fish tank while chasing plastic fish Cutest: fall asleep in the lap of a teddy bear ten times his size He's also managed to: get drunk run into a closed window trying to get a bird on the other side...three times in a row knocked the other cat out of the window gotten his face stuck in a water glass...twice fallen in the toilet and closed the lid oh... forgot about these: shreds entire bins of newspapers til my entire living room is covered in grey fuzz lines up every single toy fur mouse with noses in a perfect straight line outside my bedroom door when he knows I'm annoyed with him

I have two cats, Anakin and Indiana two chinchillas, Guinness and Tribble one nameless fish and, since Clownburner claims that his dog has adopted me, I guess I can add a boston terrier named Packet to the list.

Ernie. He's a Hemingway cat! Course, I've always been partial to Velcro as a name for a cat. Accurate description for when you want to pick them up off the carpet and they don't wanna go.

I think it's a nice thing to do, but if I were vacationing in Fiji and a tsunami hit, I wouldn't expect the US to rescue me. The mentality that the government ought to bail you out of a rotten situation that you have gotten into (whether or not it's your fault) is really dangerous. It encourages an attitude of abandoning personal responsibility because Uncle Sam is going to take care of you.

A friend of mine found an old grand piano for $50 at a garage sale... the thing had been painted purple on the outside and lime green on the inside for a production of Alice in Wonderland (someone decided it would be a good idea to have the pianist on the stage and decided the piano ought to match the set!). After working with a piano repair/refinisher, they finally got all the paint off and saw the original finish and insides of the piano. The name on the piano... Steinway.

mmmmm.... catfish.... I wouldn't mix catfish and chocolate chip granola bars tho.

The action was already very low and the neck was straight as a ruler. The frets were too high and you had to apply too much pressure to fret the note clean. Hands got tired in no time flat. That could have been fixed but it would have cost me hundreds of dollars to have a professional luthier get that guitar playing well. Not a great bargain. I have a yamaha guitar like that. It was my first guitar, and I got so frustrated, because I couldn't understand why I could only play for ten minutes or so before my hands would be killing me. I've done as much tinkering with it as I'm willing to do, and it is still painful to play. I can play the ovation and the new martin for hours, but the yamaha...fifteen minutes, tops.

Well, I play piano, and my guitar teacher said I picked up the guitar basics amazingly quickly compared to some of his other students, but he said that it seems to be hinged on your piano style. Do you play chords with your left hand, reading the guitar chords above the melody line plus the melody, or the actual bass notes? If you play chords and understand how chords are constructed, guitar basics come very quickly. If not, you still know how to read music, which is half the battle, but you have to learn chord theory, which can take a while.

Most martins have adjustible saddles. You can replace the saddle to lower the action. The Little Martin sounded a lot better than the Baby Taylor, and the Yamaha that size sounded like a ukelele.

The round back of the ovation is engineered to allow you to amplify the acoustic guitar without all the issues that you can run into when trying to amplify a wood-backed flat chambered instrument. The round, rigid plastic backing reduces the sympathetic resonance that causes feedback when you amplify accoustic instruments. The ovation is designed for a pretty specific purpose, and it does its job extremely well.

LOL. I've only had lessons for about a year, which translates to "I suck" and you don't want to listen to me. I just can't jump at LP, so I figured I should bring something else to do, and the Little Martin fits in an overhead compartment on an airplane.