NightSG

FWIW, the dollar store OxiClean powder, made into a paste with hydrogen peroxide and applied to any discolored spots seems to work well on a variety of fabrics. Not sure how it would work on any of the various garment fabrics, but it might be worth testing on any otherwise unsalvageable ones. The way I've used it on white shirts and a friend's grass-stained white cotton skirt was to take about a cup of dollar store peroxide, add most of a tub of OxiClean to get a thin paste, and treat all the spots, toss all the clothes into a plastic bucket, pour the rest of the mix over them, smoosh it all around to evenly dampen it all, then let it sit overnight and wash normally in the morning. Even if it fails, you're only out $2 and tax.

They don't complain about the "water" pitcher full of vodka?

Agreed; the worst gun injury I've seen was when I slammed a double barreled shotgun shut without getting my thumb clear of the latch first. It took hours to get all the blood off the gun, and I still missed the dove. I'd learned to be safe as concerns the muzzle, but I'd grown complacent about the dangers of the breech.

One could say the same thing about the mainstream public reaction to a lot of religious practices...

Gee, only 16 more years alone. That's encouraging.

I "dismissed out of hand" all of the ideas that would require a significant risk of impairing or even severing what relationship I still have with my children. I hardly think Elder Oaks intended to imply that the search for a spouse should take priority over spending time with one's children.

I wouldn't argue with that. I used to stock the freezer with rabbits and feral piglets on occasion, and IMO, the meat tastes better when you know exactly what happened to it from field to table.

Ginger Sekanjabin Recipe - Allrecipes.com Strawberry, Ginger and Mint Sekanjabin Recipe - Allrecipes.com I've been known to carry a liter of the concentrate to flavor up some well-chilled bottled water in the summer.

I only eat judgmental animals. If one should ever deign to speak to me politely, I will refrain from eating it.

Apparently, what I'm being shown is that the singles available to me aren't in the Church. Giving up what's left of my relationship with my children is not an option.

Travelling to the stake center requires a bit of advance planning on my part, thanks to child support eating my budget and having to make sure my ex won't suddenly decide to shuffle the visitation schedule to make that my "take it or wait until next month" visit weekend. The only reason I can do that is because I can change my plans right up until about 2 hours before something at the SC starts. Anything that would require me to be head out Friday night and be gone for the weekend is just too much of a risk. As an example, my ex emailed my mom around 7:30 last night to say she was going to have the girls in town today, then at 12:30 this afternoon to say that they're too busy for today, but I might get an hour or two tomorrow afternoon. That will probably change too, but I won't miss the chance if it is there. I can't believe she doesn't do it intentionally, (she's not the type to travel even an hour from home without at least a few days of planning) but the courts aren't yet willing to do more than tell her to be more considerate.

Granted I still mend socks on occasion so I may not be the best person to judge when to dispose of any article of clothing, but I would suspect that when you're left with nothing between the seams, it sort of defeats the purpose.

This, IMO is one of the most valuable things I have been able to offer, and I know other converts who feel the same; a lot of the lifelong members don't really know what a Methodist, Baptist, etc. service is like, and get just as confused by some of it as we converts were by some of the terms within the Church when we joined. Often, it can be explained fully in moments, but they just never thought it was appropriate to ask until they had a former one sitting among them.

Don't drink it. Seriously. I had an alcoholic roommate for the first seven months after my baptism, and the presence of the alcohol didn't bother me. The presence of the drunk did, but that certainly wasn't addictive. I will admit that the cold weather sometimes drives me to coffee in restaurants, since hot chocolate is usually 1.5-2x the price with no free refills.

There's not really a choice, then; the existing MSs have already been scared off, and most of them are completely inactive precisely because it's hard to sit and listen to a constant stream of "you would be so much happier if you were married," then sent to "singles" events apparently just to see how pathetic you can expect to be in 30-40 years, because there's certainly nothing to help you find a mate, and plenty to discourage you from looking outside the Church unless you're already planning to go inactive. Moving isn't an option for me, and most other divorced parents, since it would effectively end what relationship I have managed to maintain with my daughters, and long-distance online dating is a dead end.

The problem is that the closest major city is an hour away, in another stake. Even adding Dallas into that, judging by LDSPlanet, it still only opens up a fairly pitiful number of mids. I'm really not inclined to drive 70+ miles each way for an event if it's going to be like that every time, but what I've heard from is that even in Dallas/Fort Worth it's hit and miss for mids. Of course, the bishop is always enthusiastic and pointing out that there are supposedly several MS women in our ward, but most of them are so inactive that I have yet to find anyone other than the sister missionaries who has ever met them. I've seen more MS women in Gilbert AZ alone than in the entire state of Texas, and I'm pretty well stuck here since my ex would just love for me to move out of state so she would have the excuse to cut my visitation even more. Any thoughts for the Weatherford or Abilene stakes?

You think it's bad inside the Church, sit around a cafe and look at the rest of the world. The other night I was reading an article about the decline of personal honor in society that made a similar point to yours while sitting in a restaurant, and there were three tables that pretty effectively illustrated the point; one of ~16-18 year olds, one of college seniors, and one of about my age. (mid 30s) After a bit, it became pretty obvious that there was no real maturity difference among them. The younger ones were actually the best behaved, since they presumably were still living at home with their parents' rules, not able to drink legally, and not having a whole lot of sexual experiences to discuss loudly enough for the entire place to hear. The other two tables basically acted like teenagers without such balancing limitations. IMO, there seem to be a lot of people who just never "put away childish things" and start living as adults.

Is it just me, or does the 30-through-dead range seem to have a negative impact on attendance by mid singles? At the last stake SA event, the only women there that weren't my mother's age were the ones old enough to be her mother. There was one other guy there about 40, and it was his first (and potentially last) time at one of those too, since he'd also driven quite a ways for what amounted to just another potluck and a bit of music. For myself, I know I'm not looking forward to burning $30 worth of gas to go to the next one, (I'm the ward SA rep, so I'm stuck with it anyway) and a couple of other mid singles in my ward told me they only didn't warn me off of it because they wanted somebody to go and see if it still looked like a night out at the nursing home instead of a chance to find a worthy mate. This has turned them off to the Church singles events so much that even attempts to put together a mid singles event are pretty much doomed. On some of the LDS singles boards, I've heard the same type of comments; that even when someone did find a few people their age at a SA event, they all felt so out of place among the mostly-over-60 crowd that they didn't keep going to events. This seems really counterproductive, since most of the mid crowd still has a few childbearing years left, and for the most part seems to be very motivated to marry (or remarry) while that's still the case. While some find and convert a spouse from outside the Church, it seems equally likely that someone who can't find a mate within the Church will marry outside, especially given the biological time constraints, and either fall away, or struggle with being "unequally yoked."

In defense of this, I have had several professional massages from women, and the only massage therapist who offered a "happy ending" was the one I was dating at the time. (Incidentally, that was also the first time I really felt old; I didn't want to interrupt the massage for sex.)

I know this feeling too well; I could never even really defend myself when my ex wife would slap me or throw things at me. On the other hand, I've put holes in walls and torn up my hands punching other inanimate objects, and yelled myself hoarse more times than I care to admit. I attribute it to a childhood friend being choked to death by her ex "accidentally." (Considering the time lapse between unconsciousness and death from choking, I have trouble calling that an accident.) I knew then that I can have a pretty hot temper, and I prayed that I would never become like that, and I believe He has answered that prayer a few times. AR can't hurt, and it's one more thing you can show as proof that you're doing everything you can to fix the problems.

This, and start a second one for your child. If all else fails, it will mean a lot to her someday to know that you tried, and how much she means to you. If you succeed, it will still be a treasured keepsake for her later in life. As for the rest, remember Oscar Wilde's words; "Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future." What separates a saint and a sinner is the same as what separates the past from the future; right now, and what you do with it. Set realistic goals and stick to them. View setbacks as signs you need to work harder, not give up. I'm not sure how much difference there is between PASG and regular AR, but you might consider AR as a supplement for the porn as well as for anger addiction. Rage can be a tougher addiction to kick than any other, since it doesn't require any supplies; you can't just stop buying materials that feed the addiction, and you can do it alone in an empty room with no preparation.

If you keep them tied up in the basement, you can check the tags whenever you want.

Once again, this raises the interesting hypothetical as to what happens if the Pope converts. Do we not have any Italian speaking missionaries that feel like a challenge?

There you have it; no more scratching anything that itches.

This, for any criteria. One of the biggest problems in my former marriage was that my ex wife wanted what she thought she could change me into, not what I am. From what I've seen, it's a pretty common problem. The solution is to look at the underlying person, not the surface traits. I was a Methodist, and not even very good at that. I drank heavily at times. I spent a lot of money on fast cars and fast women. All of those have changed, and yet deep inside, I'm still the same person. Knowing what I know now, I will only marry someone who loves that part of me, and who I feel the same about.