NightSG

You know that would get carried too far and eventually there would be a set of singlewide temples touring the continents. And, of course, the real failing point there would be having "temple gardens" consisting of a propane grill, TransCamaroBird with a tree growing through the engine compartment and six pitbulls.

I crochet occasionally, do a fair bit of my own tailoring, and enjoy certain types of cooking. Most unexpected fiber arts I've seen was a huge biker that looked like Mr Clean's mean brother wheeled up and pulled a knitting bag out of his saddlebag. Proceeded to crochet a nice shawl in between sparring matches. Turns out his wife got him into it as rehab when he dumped his previous bike and screwed up a couple of fingers pretty badly.

I know I've mentioned the book elsewhere on here, but if you want to have an idea of what Mason Wells will be going through over the next several months, read Brian Birdwell's book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HP3Q1S/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1 I had the opportunity to hear most of his story in person, and even as well as he tells it, it's hard to imagine the agony of that kind of burn recovery. On the other hand, he's an amazing example of what modern medicine can do with a burn victim, and how important faith is to the whole process.

So you'll be writing in Lucifer? These days, it's the only way to be sure you're not voting for the lesser evil.

It depends on the circumstances. Someone who is receiving assistance shouldn't be buying the latest game console, but I wouldn't begrudge them small luxuries. (I'm thinking the occasional soda, candy bar, etc. here, not custom rims for their car.) Now if someone wants me to help out with their groceries while wearing a $3500+ watch and driving a brand new Lexus, I'd have a problem with that...especially while I've got a used bicycle and a $30 Timex. Sometimes people point out that I have a nice collection of dress shirts and cufflinks, but for the most part, I paid less for my shirts (at Goodwill) than it would cost to buy t-shirts, and I have about a week's worth that fit properly. (Hard to throw the others away because I don't want to have to buy more if I gain or lose a few pounds.) My ties are almost all eBay or outlet store finds under $5, and my cufflinks are all from eBay at less than $3/set. Frankly, I'd be surprised if what I paid for my entire wardrobe (representing about five years of shopping) not counting work boots (definitely not a luxury item) would pay for three months of the cable package that most people seem to consider necessary...or one payment on the new-or-very-low-mileage car they just can't live without.

Definitely a type of multitasking that shouldn't be attempted. Heck, I once made the mistake of washing down a couple Percocet (at the high end of the "as needed" dose for the injury I was recovering from) with beer and thought the walls were going to crush me a half hour later. Killed the pain quite nicely, but the world looked like it was made of Jello and being shaken and squeezed constantly until that wore off.

That one used to happen to me all the time when I lived about 10 minutes out of town on the back way in from the nearest non-dry county. People just couldn't wait until they made the 20 minute drive home to start drinking heavily, so they'd take the back road, which had a few tricky spots. It got to where dispatch and the deputies had memorized all the names of the corners, curves and bridges out there, plus who lived at each house on that road. At one point, the county commissioners proposed putting up signs at each one so they could get the right locations when people unfamiliar with the area called in the wrecks, but it was mostly those of us who lived there that made the first call anyway. Didn't take me long after I started driving to start carrying rubber gloves in the car too. Usually, the wrecks fell into two categories, though; the ones where direct pressure and telling them not to move around was plenty until the ambulance showed up, and the ones where you don't even bother getting too close because the JP is the only one that needs to look at that for now.

Got a couple of offline contributors, but the ultimate plan is to get something in the $800-1500 range, (including any needed initial repairs) and if contributions pass $500, I'm still going to want to match them with my own money. (Obviously if they don't pass $500, I'll be matching them and then some.) Still getting a couple months' rent and bill money set aside, while keeping everything caught up so I won't end up right back in the same situation of having to take on additional short term (i.e. painful interest levels) debt to get by. A ramen and hot dog diet is manageable for a while, but there's not really a way to cut costs on the rent and basic bills.

Details? Or do you prefer to just pretend I'm telling you the same story and make a generous contribution to my functional car fund?

Have you considered the possibility that it's actually you they hate and the Church just gets dragged into that by association?

Well, if you broke all the atomic bonds in a 200 pound person simultaneously, it should release energy on the order of 2,000 megatons of TNT. That's pretty tremendous potential, IMO. Just think; if you could learn to control all your atoms at that level, you could turn yourself into an 8 mile diameter fireball, and level buildings over 40 miles away.

Gardening seems to be my best possibility for the current apartment. Since I have the non-climate-controlled ground floor area (that still stays impressively cool in the summer) and a 180x80 vacant lot that...well...the landlord says I can do whatever I want with as long as he doesn't have to mow it himself or deal with the city complaining about it, I'm looking into root cellar storage methods and trying to decide the best ways to grow things that will keep well that way. As a bonus, they say playing in fresh dirt is a good antidepressant.

I would agree partially; the key is open and honest communication. I've continued "dating" women well beyond three dates when it wasn't progressing, but that was after a real DTR talk, so we both knew exactly where we stood. Frankly, it was a simple situation; we enjoyed dating each other a lot more than just hanging out together or doing things alone, but that was pretty much it. The most recent, yes, we always at least kissed good night. We also continued with the full understanding that "we" would be low priority; neither of us would allow dating each other to interfere with dating others that might progress effectively. She's now remarried, (and in spite of being Baptist, I think she has most Mormon girls beat on the "meet and marry quickly" thing this time) so no more making out, but we're still good friends. Her husband knows the full story, and isn't concerned in the least, because we're about as aware as two people who still enjoy each other's company can be that nothing romantic would work out between us.

Some people really should buy lottery tickets.

Might as well get the Zoloft started now; it takes time to get your levels up to the "coastal city" norm.

So now the younger pair will be shipped over to Jerusalem for a special three-and-a-half year mission? (Let's see if the rumors get going ) No need for a clothing budget or a return ticket if that's the case, though.

When I try to quote another post in a thread where I've already quoted one, instead of quoting the post I clicked on quote for, it fills in the same as the previous one I quoted. I have to clear cache and restart the browser to get it to quote the right one.

This is something I really wish Church leadership would address. Several of my non-single-singles (people who keep ending up on the single adults list because their spouse is a nonmember) find it insulting that the Church records effectively refuse to recognize the existence of their family, and frankly, I agree with them. It's not that hard to have a checkbox in the record to indicate that someone is married, has children, etc., without needing any further information about a nonmember spouse, parent or child. Honestly, it seems like it would be handy for missionary efforts anyway.

Bet you remember not to wear a gray shirt to Church again. But really, I see way too much of the same, except that mine is in regard to things that happened (and some that never happened, but rumors have a way of getting downright weird) before my baptism. I've been flat out told by some of the "fine, upstanding members" that it doesn't matter that I was a Methodist who had never so much as touched a BoM or spoken to LDS missionaries more than to give them directions when I was hanging out in bars and keeping score on how many women I could pick up. That the Lord forgetting all those things didn't amount to anything in this life, so I had no business associating with those raised in the Church as if I were somehow worthy to be a part of their group. Honestly, I don't know what to tell you other than you're not alone. Maybe we need "unclean" wards for those of us who admit we've sinned, and aren't good enough to sit at the "perfect Mormons" table with they hypocrites and liars.

Who's handling the betting pool on how long it takes before they enter Church legends as having been resurrected shortly after the first news report?

Fixed it for you. When I worked in a medical office, it used to drive the drug companies crazy that all our MDs were female, so sending in female reps that looked like they were hired from a modeling agency, showing as much leg and cleavage as they could possibly get away with in "professional" clothes didn't have any effect.

Background checks wouldn't have helped here. http://heavy.com/news/2016/03/jared-anderson-san-antonio-texas-judson-teacher-sex-parties-boys-mormon-youth-pastor-photos-wife-children/

If you've got questions, you'd better be bringing sandwiches too.

I did backing vocals for "Holding Out For A Hero" at a Church karaoke night. Does that count?

I'm in Weatherford Stake. There have been rumors of some rearrangement since we've got at least two wards that are an hour from the stake center, and a couple others that are 30 minutes away, but everything east of us is the DFW area with stakes geographically smaller than our wards. Currently, we've got from Antelope in the north almost to Hamilton in the south, then a southeast extension that covers Cleburne, Alvarado and Grandview that really seem like they'd be more logical to include with Mansfield, Burleson, etc. instead of their best route to the stake center crossing another stake.