Quin

I'm a midliner in all ways. My family, though, is all over the map. The only commonality any of us have to each other is integrity. Personal integrity is king in my family. So, in that way, the older I get the more in line with my family I become, as I become more sure and aware of myself as a person. As an example... I have a close branch of my family in rural Illinois. Blood red republican, über conservative, etc. (Even, over-stereotypically to my embarassment... More than just a touch racist) who all voted for Obama. Why??? Because he was a black man in office in their state, he was under constant scrutiny by them (and those like them) And he won their grudging respect, and eventually admiration, as an HONEST man. "Might not agree with his politics, but he does what he says. Gives a man a fair warning. And if he can't do what he says, he works hard for the next best thing. Politicians are all a bunch a liars. I'd rather have a man in office I can disagree with, but trust, than any of them other snakes who will lie to your face then go do the opposite while trying to convince you otherwise. Who are ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes, and all smarmy pants get people to agree with them." See? That's my family in a nutshell. Rather disagree with an honest man, than agree with a liar. When I was younger, I tended to believe people a heckuva lot more than I do now. Not bitter. Just been around the block a few times. And I've come more and more to agree with the import of honest dealing. In all areas of life. Not just what sounds good, or feels good, but what can be trusted & depended upon. Q

The rest of my answer hinges to a "Yes" answer from the following question. If the answer is no... You get a whole bother answer! 1) When you initiate, is he receptive? I'm both female & ex-military. Which is pertinent in that before enlisting I very much had an idea about men&mars, women&venus (aka men do this & women do that) concept in not just in my head, but in my gut, even bone deep. Boy did I learn how wrong I was! When you're one of 9 women around roughly 1500 men (they say the ratio is 4% women. That's only true lookin at the whole)... Eventually you lose your "girl" status. You're just one of the guys. (Until they remember you're a girl for this reason or that reason, usually meaning wearing civvies or their girlfriend has just dumped them, and then they forget again). Here are some things / hints I learned about men. - Men gossip. Horribly. To an unbelievable degree. Constantly. ((They give it manly names like 'shooting the breeze, BS'ing, catchin up' et cetera and then code of silence refuse to divulge any of it, so one literally has to "be there" but it is mind blowing how much personal info is bandied about. Keeeeeerazy levels of personal info.)) - A HUGE percentage of guys are total sweethearts. Puppies & babies & all things ooey-gooey. (Look like the Marlborough Man, with hearts on their camo sleeve... If you hurt them, sister, I will FIND you (clearly not you, you, but that's they kind of loyalty they engender from all the sisters, friends, etc. around them) ... Big bro, little bro, just GOOD people. That women tend to shred to bits thinking they're men&mars&moronic because they're tough looking, plain spoken, & pushovers. - Roughly about 1/3 of men prefer to be wooed. Yep. That's the one right there that is super-pertinant. Whether it's flirting, or honey moon, or 20 years deep in a marriage... They're head over heels, deeply & passionately in love... But they ARENT the initiators. Almost ever. Braggers? For darn sure. Most of them get this huge old grin and start talking about how their wife (or girlfriend) is the BEST... And then launch into a story about the wonderful XYZ thing said wife/girlfriend did (totally arranged childcare with gran & a weekend away, called them up during lunch, sent wuv letters, picked them up at work, met them at the door wearing a smile, planned their anniversary, snagged them out to a just because pic nic.... 10,000 different initiating behaviors. Personalities amongst these men ran from super-machismo to artsy. There was no personality "type", and I stopped being surprised early on when no racial or cultural background could give you a tell... The guys who like to be chased, like to be chased. Regardless of race, ethnicity, culture, personality (you catch those commonalities early when everyone is thrown together, like southern men tend to do this, New Yorkers tend to do that, Latin guys use a lot of flowery language, etc.). PERSONALLY, I'm the type that likes to be chased, as well, so I dated very very few of these guys... But was friends-acquaintances with dozens if not hundreds. They don't change their stripes. I knew 60+ year old Command Mstr.Guns who got all starry eyed at the latest thing their wife did for them, chatting it up right next to the 18yp private gushing about his girl. These are the kind of men who you come sit on their knee... They will never pull you on their lap. These are the kind of men you say "Baby, you're taking me out to dinner tonight." These are the kind of men who will treat you like a GODDESS, as long as you are self confident enough to assume the role. You have to be confidant, though. You have to KNOW how much, down to the GROUND, they adore you. Because they will never (very very very rarely) take the lead. You have to open the door for them to walk through it. And if you want to be carried through it, you have to jump into their arms. Which is EXACTLY what they want you to do. Q

I mostly use the AP for daily stuff. It\\\'s 1 line about a gazillion different things going on. If I\\\'m interested in something, then I search to see who has picked up the story. Usually it\\\'s been picked up by a couple of different papers. Most of whom publish online. I\\\'ve noticed I really prefer the BBC coverage of American events & politics over American media. Waaaaaaay less political bias / \\\"both\\\" sides of a story are presented in one place For international news I tend to split my time between the BBC & Al Jazeerah Using the AP & Google, though, has been super fun. Some of the writers I really like I\\\'ve watched \\\"come up\\\" from local Ohio paper, to Boston, to NYC... Or from Arizona to LA.... et cetera..., to freelance all over the durn place as they sell investigative pieces to the highest bidder. For REALLY local news... I tune into the police blotter pages. Always good for a laugh. Cops have stellar senses of humor. They also keep things in perspective. \\\"A bit wet under the XXX overpass this morning. Road closed. Flooding\\\" Right next to a picture of a floating truck in 8 feet of swirling water. LEOs rock. Q

Ummmm.... Mr.S.... You do know that marriages where physical intimacy is used as a reward... There tends to be a LOT of physicality going on, yes? Not the inverse. Sexless marriages with \\\"Thou must meet at least these minimum expectations before I\\\'ll even THINK of holding hands with you, much less anything more\\\" ... Aren\\\'t working on a reward scale. There\\\'s either a) something seriously wrong or b ) something minor wrong that\\\'s been wrong for a loooooooooong time or c) pathology. To use a banking analogy... Majorly wrong = trying to withdraw 100k from the bank when there\\\'s only 10k in it. Not gonna happen. Minority wrong for a long time = trying to withdraw $5 from the bank. Like you\\\'ve done thousands of times before. But this time, it causes an overdraft. So it\\\'s not going to happen. Nor the next time. Nor the time after that. Nor that. In either case, not until there\\\'s a minimum deposit in the bank, that meets or exceeds what you want to take out, can you pull out $5 or $100,000. AND... If you don\\\'t KEEP adding money to the account, then it will just go right back to being at zero and checks getting rejected left and right. Take my friends Matt & Sue. Sue has been going insane for months with rejection. During a girls night out we finally found out that Matt hasn\\\'t had a day off, much less a guys night out, for over a year. Girl! The man is stressed to the limit! Get him some time to sleep,,and unwind, and relax for a bit. So she did. She took over some of \\\"his\\\" responsibilities, and took the kids to her parents for a long weekend, scheduled a guys fishing trip for him, etc. after the man slept for almost 2 solid days, then went and played with his friends for a few days, and had a whole week of decreased responsibility... All was right in Sue\\\'s world again. Until a month later she\\\'s back at girls night complaining that Mat is \\\"back to his old ways\\\". Well... Did you keep giving him a break, or did you go back to your old schedule? Duh. Old schedule. Which had run him ragged before. Girl. What did you expect to change? The weekend of extra sleep & friend time was a BAND-AID. So she got ticked. At how much she ALREADY does, and why can\\\'t he blah blah blah. Girl. He CAN. He clearly can, because he has. But it means he\\\'s too tired to do this other thing you want him to be doing. It\\\'s not about making things fair on paper. It\\\'s about making things WORK. You want him to be doing this other thing, you\\\'re going to need to change how you do things. It made me crave alcohol for the first time in years when her response was that if SHE did all the other stuff, then SHE was too tired for \\\"this other thing\\\". Face. Palm. Seriously. I love Sue to bits. But she drives me nuts. Anyhow... Point being... Was that\\\'s Matt\\\'s \\\"bank\\\" was overdrawn. Had been for a long time. Sue thought that one measly little deposit should make them totally flush again. Nope. That just pulled you out of the red, sweetheart. It would take a looooooong time for reserves to be in the black and staying there. They eventually went to counseling, sorted out \\\"lists\\\" they could live (happily) with. Sues problem was that she only had ONE problem (no nookie). Matts problems, though, could only be solved by \\\"giving\\\" some of them to Sue. Which solved Sues original problem, but gave her a few others. We didn\\\'t know if they\\\'d make it (Sue eventually decided it was worth the added problems to take care of the first problem. I love that girl, but she is wicked selfish.) My friends Aaron & Sarah had the opposite same problem. They sorted their issues out by trading lives. She went to work, and he stayed home with the kids. It was meant to be their last stab pre-divorce, and honestly, it was done with a lot of venom on both sides. But it worked out BRILLIANTLY. He became SuperDad and totally found his niche being a SAHD, even added in homeschooling (had been in white-collar $$$$ job) She went to work as a paralegal & to law school (she\\\'d been a part time cashier / mostly SAHM). There were broke for about 5 years (but crazy happy for the first time in ages) Now, they make more than they ever did... And are still crazy happy. Both of my friends had the same problem (using the bank analogy, both were overdrawn... Not surprisingly, each \\\"Bank Closed\\\" person was the one who was the primary parent of young children. Although it happens at all stages of love, primary parent of young kids = waving red flag for problems), and both couples sorted them out in radically different ways. To the same end. Each might have LOOKED like the whole \"reward\" thing... Because every time either Matt or Sarah got a little extra sleep,,alone time, etc... Physical intimacy resumed. For a bit. But then it stopped. Because what they NEEDED was a real,change in their lives. It wasn\'t that they didn\'t love their spouse... It was that they were exhausted. Sue & Aaron only had one problem (lack of physical intimacy) but their spouses had a LOT of problems. Until they sorted out their spouses problems (plural) their own problem (singular) couldn\'t be solved. Q

Ahem. That. Right there. Some people can have sex wih people they don\'t like or are angry with. Most can\'t. At least, not past a certain point. Step ONE would be to get back to where you enjoy each other\'s company as friends. Otherwise, she\'s just going to feel like a toilet. No one likes to feel used. So... Platonic intimacy, then physical intimacy. The other way around is putting the cart before the horse. Okay... That\'s actually good news. That means that she\'s ticked at you (which dovetails right into that she doesn\'t want to spend even platonic, much less romantic time with you). Which is something you can FIX. So often in life we don\'t want things to be our fault. But in cases like this, you get that it\'s AWESOME when it\'s our fault... Because we CAN FIX IT if it\'s our fault. If it\'s no ones fault, but is depression, hormonal imbalance, trauma response, etc.... Then there\\\'s jack squat that can be done ... by us. Instead it\'s a wait and hope game while they & their doctors work on the problem. But if it\'s OUR fault? Yeehah! Awesome! A problem to solve! Work to be done! Stellar! We can DO something! Sweet! LOL... So I think you just might have your attitude on backwards, here. It\'s GREAT news when we\\\'re the ones who have the problem to sort. Time to get crackin. Q

Not me! I\\\'m not even select, much less choice. Red headed stepchild, perhaps. But that might be too much, even. More likely a passing irritant, or mildly annoying. You know, though,,i do go rounds. In my own life I\\\'ve found that periods of Boredom, or peace, are the times I should most cling to. As they are my time to rest up between now & the next catastrophe. So the rounds I bounce back and forth between are wondering how much of the present peace is the calm before the storm, the time that I should spend resting up... And how much of the present peace is merely my being sheltered from said storm. All,over the world, wars rage on. I was looking up the stat for the Congo rape-baby population (I\\\'ve read in some years over 70% of babies born are rape babies! and wanted the current numbers... And found this horrifying article instead : (warning, it\\\'s nauseating as it gets http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/17/us-war-rape-un-idUSBRE93G13U20130417 ). Many, if not most people in the US are still irked at France for not joining in the Iraq war, yet France couldn\\\'t, as they were already fighting a DIFFERENT war in Africa. (Actually, a couple different ones if we include the FFL, but if I\'m recalling right, in 2002 most of their forces were on the Ivory Coast). In both Africa & Eastern Europe, genocides are still happening. The Middle East is still simmering away, with periodic roils. South & MesoAmerica are bleeding (literally) disasters. Eastern Europe is a powder keg, Asia is seriously scary no matter if you\\\'re looking north & northwest to Russia & former Soviet States squaring off, SE Asia, or west toward I&P. Global news is grey hair inducing, State Dept notices, other cables & releases gutting, & if media and govt isn\\\'t enough Human Rights Watch & other NGOs will cheerfully inform anyone they can beg to listen about thousands of atrocities both global and local. And that\\s just violence. Famines still sweep the globe. Immunologists are constantly in tango with a zillion plagues, trying to keep us all from dying from the flu & worse 24/7/365 Poverty is claiming countless lives. I used to work in the violence sphere until I had kids... And wanted to raise them HERE, where it\\\'s (comparatively ) safe. Some of my nearest & dearest still work in those spheres. Their unified mantra is that \\\"If you\\\'re not angry, you\\\'re not paying attention\\\". One of the things I love about this Church is how much we DO... But whether we\\\'re in a lull or a backwater... There\\\'s a series of storms buffeting the world. Nothing has quieted down. It\\\'s just comparatively quiet, here. For now. Don\'t get me wrong... In many many many ways life -even globally- is better than it was wih advances in medicine, transport, communication, assistance, etc, But it\'s not quiet out there. Not at all. Q

Before converting I usually guessed someone was LDS if they ever used the phrases Heavenly Father or Eagle Scout. And if they say them both, it was a done deal. Oh my heck & Shut the front door ran as close seconds. Q

I wonder if you know this limerick? There once was a farmer from Leeds Who swallowed six packets of seeds It soon came to pass He was covered with grass And couldn't sit down for the weeds! Q

I think it can be a great benchmark... But it can also be totally meaningless. If that was the standard, then I had the best. marriage. ever. Instead of the totally abusive, awful, no good, very bad marriage I actually had. - A couple with a high libido can be expressing physical intimacy daily for years... In the middle of a wreck of a marriage. - While a couple with a lower normal can be expressing physical intimacy on a monthly, quarterly basis, even semi annually... And have a phenom marriage. Sex just isn\\t love. Q

See... This is where we go super complex. In ONE example of a sexless marriage: WHY is PartnerA choosing to disengage? There are hundreds of possibilities. 1-100 can be things that their spouse has done which are creating a cause & effect relationship 100-200 can be PartnerA physical problems 200-300 can be PartnerB physical problems 300-400 can be PartnerA mental, or emotional, or spiritual, or logistic problems Et cetera. And that\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s STILL only one example. Because the prerequisite is PartnerA CHOOSING to disengage. There are a gazillion other examples where PartnerA isn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t choosing to disengage, but instead is _______ (a ton of other possibilities... From loss of libido to decreased situational awareness to time management to prioritizing to, to to, to... But just to pick one of dozens of causes...the most common causes of loss of libido are - sleep dep - depression - medication - stress / illness) So if partner A is undergoing chemo, and as such has suffered a loss of libido are they obligated to fulfill their spouses sexual needs? If partnerB has been deployed, If partnerA has been raped If partnerB hasn\'t slept in 3 days If partnerA is suicidal If partnerB is working 4 jobs If partnerA is suffering for dental pain Gazillions of Long term issues just like the group where they\'re choosing to disengage But there are even more groups than choosing to disengage vs suffered a loss of libido or logistical improbability. ____________________ Yes. No. Maybe. Depends ENTIRELY on the individual couple in question, and the individuals within the couple. I really don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t think that there is a blanket answer that should even generally apply. If you were asking about LITERALLY one couple,mans their specific circumstance, then yah sure. We can come up with a very good answer for THEM. But that answer doesn\\\'t translate to every (or even most) other couples and their marriages. Because there are too many variables at play that change the \\\"right & best\\\" answer. Yes, no, yes, maybe, in time perhaps, never, absolutely... It really all depends on the couple in question and their exact circumstance. Q

Duplicate Post! Sorry!

Divorce totally off the table/not even part of the discussion... I believe it\\\'s still impossible to classify the cognitive, emotional, physical, & spiritual well being of a marriage based on a single activity within the marriage that is a joint endeavor between the spouses.Replace \\\"sex\\\" with laughing, going to church, cleaning, raising children, talking... Literally \\\"whatever\\\"... And you\\\'re going to find hundreds, if no thousands of different answers. When only one person is making a choice, it\\\'s a simple thing. When 2 people are making a choice together? Then it becomes complex. Let\\\'s take \\\"cleaning\\\" to be the activity. Because cleaning is a fairly mundane & simple thing, right? But... - Some people will be pathological about it (addiction, OCD, ADHD, GAD, Hoarding) - Others prioritize that EXTREMELY high (medical needs...like blindness, immunodeficiency, wheelchair access, and umpteen others) - Others prioritize that very high (necessary to their gainful employment, necessary for their cog/emo health, necessary for...) - Others prioritize that high (not necessary for their needs... But necessary for their wants) - Others prioritize it med (they enjoy either cleaning OR a clean house, but it\\\'s not necessary for their needs or wants) - Others prioritize it low (they don\\\'t care, but could care less) - Others prioritize it very low (they couldn\\\'t care less) - Others prioritize it extremely low (completely oblivious... For a whole variety of reasons). You take 2 people married and they\\\'re going to be in two different places on that spectrum above. And that spectrum is ONLY about the priority of cleaning in their lives! Those 2 different places on the spectrum will cause either friction or ease or both. Those 2 different places on the spectrum can move around (like if one partner becomes blind, or if there\\\'s an earthquake, or death in the fam, or, or, or, or). How those 2 people relate to each other, and their positions on the spectrum can change a great deal. And all of he above is something like 2% of the factors involved! Be it sex or cleaning... One can\\\'t simply say \\\"If you respect your partner you will do XYZ.\\\" You can say what you WONT do very simply. But saying what one SHOULD do is an almost impossible proposition. There are too many variables in play. Coercive Sex = Bad That\\\'s easy. But the reverse logic doesn\\\'t work.

Also Stay-At-Home-Dads!!! Q

I don't think this discussion is simple enough as to have an answer. Adultery is a simple discussion... As it involves the choices of one person. Specifically, the choice not to divorce one's spouse, not to be honest or come to an understanding with one's spouse (open marriage), & to break one's vows. These are all fairly simple things, simple choices. The person is choosing adultery, and it in no way reflects on anyone but themselves, as they could have chosen divorce, honesty, or fidelity and are choosing not to do any of the honorable things available to them. Fidelity is a simple discussion... As again, it involves the choice of a single person. To be or not to be. Marriage, though? THATS a complex discussion. Interpersonal cognitive, emotional, & physical interactions, reactions, desires, needs, priorities, cause & effect, history, et cetera? Wicked complex. There are quite literally HUNDREDS of variables in play, and possibly thousands as one opens up the sphere across millions of different couples from hundreds of different backgrounds & histories. It's like parenting. There are THOUSANDS of "right" ways to parent, and only 3 wrong ways (abuse, neglect, absence). It's easy to talk about the wrong ways. Just like its easy to say "rape is bad" or "adultery/ infidelity is bad". But classifying the cognitive, emotional, physical, & spiritual well-being in a marriage as defined ONLY by washing dishes, or laughter, or sex, or ANY SINGLE VARIABLE is an impossible discussion. There is no simple answer, and no single variable can provide an answer. Q

All of the above, and the above, and... I'm not a witch! I'm your wife! To the pain. Inconceivable! Rodents of unusual size. MOSTLY dead. ____________ The priest at my wedding I bribed to start the service (without telling anyone else ahead of time), just a moment before walking down the aisle on sudden impulse. I didn't know if he'd actually do, it, though. He did! "Wuv. Twue wuv....." Before his real beginning. There was this thunderclap of laughter, followed by hundreds of hands slapped over mouths. It. Was. Beautiful. Everyone knew instantly it was me who'd done it. Oy. It took me until this very moment, though, to realize I really DID marry Humperdink! Whoops. Now I have TWO promptings from the Spirit that day that I totally ignored that day. Le sigh. Never been a smart one, over here. Q

The ones I haven't made, yet. Because no matter how hard anything I've already changed may have been... I've actually done it. Which makes them easier than the ones I have yet to change. Q

If you\\\'re ever interested in growin tomatoes again... I get about 40-50lbs per plant. I also smoked 2-4 packs a day during most of those years. Both in my house (where I started the seeds and root toned clones), and outdoors (where the babies & clones all got planted) Since nicotine is an insecticide, treating the plants with nicotine would make them not wholly organic... But it won\\\'t keep them from vigorous vegetative & fruiting. Tomatoes are \\\"easy\\\" in that they grow just like marijuana. And there are a gazillion and one helpful tips and tricks about growing marijuana both free & paid articles. And they do AWESOME in 5gal buckets (drilled for drainage) in apartment style living. Starting from seeds w peat pods indoors, or cloned off your best plants... Total outlay (including buckets, black gold, pearlyte, vermiculite, worm casting, blood meal, bone meal, insecticidal soap, and your own pee) is about $25. The most difficult thing about toms is the light (for vegetative & fruiting cycles). If he ratio is off, it doesn\\\'t matter how many tops you pinch, your vegetative period will be crummy, and no matter how long the fruit is on the vine... It just won\\\'t swell & ripen properly. Which is why if you\\\'re growing quantity it\\\'s worth it to buy a sodium or halide light off eBay, and set your own cycles and / or time VERY carefully with your daylight hours / seasons if you\\\'re up north. Equatorial / southwest = no worries! but the contracted & extended daylight up north can ruin whole crops if you time your cycles wrong. : P Been there, and done that. 500lbs of green tomatoes was vexing. Gah. Leeching the soil is a pain on the ground, but in buckets it\\\'s super easy... Just put them in your bathtub, fill, and wait until the water runs clear to clean out all the toxins the plants are putting back into the soil. You\\\'ll end up with burned tips for a week or so from the excess water, but that self corrects. I usually do this right before the fruiting cycle, although sometimes mid vegetative cycle. Basically, whenever growth stalls out. Tomatoes are a lot like goldfish, in that regard; they\\\'re \\\"dirty\\\" plants pumping all their wastes into the ground. Leech it all out, refertalize with work castings, blood, bone, and urine, and shazaam. Crazy growth cycles returneth. Anyhow... I grow tomatoes in the ground fairly rarely. On my boat, in my apartment, even in my house when O had ground to put the, in... All mean lots and lots of hauling water for container / deck growing (thirsty plants... They need 2 water cycles to totally saturate, then dry to bone dry before doing again... Which in heat can be twice a day, or 80s only twice a week). But I really prefer to grow them in buckets. Upside: quitting smoking when I converted affected them not at all! ((I jar pasta sauce & tomato jam out of most of the crop.)) Q

(Humming) .... It's 5 o'clock somewhere. Q

Canada it all depends on where. There's still some great skiing/snowboarding to be had in May ... But that would be fly in & out. As far as cities go... There's just not a lot of difference between anything in CA & the big cities Northern US (Seattle, Chicago, Boston, NYC). EXCEPT in Quebec. Montreal is pure awesomeness. But there are still great travel deals, and lots of things to do. I would still look into flying in & out, though, as the airfare specials would make it cheaper than driving. I've driven from Victoria/Vancouver across the TransCanada Hwy & I-90 "loop" (dropping into Chicago), and driven straight across to Niagra and dropped down into the US in less than a week... and both are just wicked long drives. Check out www.travelzoo.com for travel specials to Canada to minimize travel expense. LOVE that site. $250 RT plus 3 days hotel in London from NYC (&Jet blue had a $50 any city in the US to NYC special at the same time), $50 RT San Diego to Seattle, $180 to Montreal... I've used travelzoo dozens and dozens of times for work & play. It's really hit or miss, but when you hit, it's killer. Q

Wyoming! There was a buffalo (bison) ranch outside of Cheyenne that I stumbled on the last time I was there with zeh kids that was super fun (also great steaks... Trying to remember if you're vegetarian and failing miserably). Yellowstone CFD Rodeo (mmmm...that's in a couple months. July awesomeness) Rafting (Jackson Hole is one of my fam favs. http://www.jacksonholenet.com/summer_recreation/whitewater_rafting.php Both for scenic -little kid friendly- and whitewater. But there are loads of other places for rafting). Charlie Russell in mid may! http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/02/prweb11572155.htm Not to mention tons of other museums But I'm totally in wuv with Charlie Russel Oregon Trail & Train (if you can wait until July for CFD, Union Pacific Steam - never retired, like one of only two or three working steam locomotives in the country) has excursions.

Mine is in almost direct correlation to the amt of money I save. $8 on toothpaste? Not gonna do it. $7500 on building my own fence? Yep. Sho nuff. $500 on culturing antibiotics? Or $750 in labs? Ditto. $100,000 & change in tuition over 5 years via homeschooling? Check. Clothes I'm borderline with. I have a reeeeeally long inseam. Which makes things like jeans cost over $100, and everything else is worse. To have jeans & other pants tailor made from scratch is $80 (where I live). So most of the time I just spend $100 on off the rack clothes, even though they're more expensive. Because it's easier to click "add to cart" than to go in for fittings. Q

I wonder how much earlier I would go to bed if I weren't falling down Internet rabbit holes? I mean, seriously, who needs to be looking up modest swimwear (Muslim modest, think wetsuit not one piece) at 3am? In winter. Not me. That's who not. Yet here I surfed along (in underarmor base layer against the snow that's nearly identical to the suits I'm flipping through). Reading about 700-1300AD Nordic Art styles, state compliant weapons via sig sauer, bodykinis (Muslim swimwear), 9yo opera singers (Amira Willighagen really IS Maria Callas caught in a time vortex, no lie, Wowza), the Pink Panther's Mancini musical scoring, John Corvino, Marvel Comics belts -why no WW & SM, Marvel? Why?), eleventy other sparkly things on thinkGeek, child exploitation stats in King Co. Washington compared to NewOrleans 20 years ago, facial recognition software, a totally sweet commercial from Oz, tattoo artists in Amsterdam vs demonstrations in Sweden, the way LL sounds in Welsh (and 20 minutes spent practicing before figuring out how), who WAS the actor that played..... Shoot me now. Stop. Quin. Go. To. Bed. That flat place you won't want to leave in the morning, since you're now still awake when you were planning on getting up. Of course, without the InterWebz I'd probably be sucked into a really good book right now and not look up for another 3 hours. It's like a tootsie pop. The licks are immaterial. Just crunch the sucker and move on! Sleeeeeeeeeep.

http://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=view_other_articles&story_id=483&cat_id=30However... In Saudi Arabia, the public practice of any religion other than Islam is prohibited, and the government enforced restrictions on religious freedom. The government reportedly deported foreigners for worshipping privately. Shias continued to face discrimination, and authorities restricted public Shia celebrations, even in some areas with large Shia populations. At least one individual was beheaded for engaging in “sorcery.” In Syria, the government increased its targeting and surveillance of members of faith groups it deemed a “threat,” including members of the country’s Sunni majority. Such targeting included killing, detention, and harassment. There were credible reports that the regime targeted citizens based on religious affiliation in mixed neighborhoods in Homs and rural Aleppo. Violent extremist activity intensified as the civil conflict escalated, including the targeting of religious minorities by groups such as the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra. In Iran, the arrest and harassment of members of religious minorities, including Sunni Muslims, increased significantly. There continued to be reports that the government imprisoned, harassed, intimidated, and discriminated against people because of their religious beliefs. Authorities placed U.S.-Iranian citizen and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini under house arrest in July to investigate previous charges of undermining national security by leading a network of house churches. In September Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials raided his residence and took him to Evin prison, where he remained in detention at year’s end. Seven Bahai leaders remained in detention at the end of 2012, serving sentences extended by the authorities in 2011 to 20 years. The government charged them in 2011 with “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities, and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” - See more at: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm?dlid#wrapper & In 2010, the U.S. State Department stated that in Saudi Arabia \\\\\\\"freedom of religion is neither recognized nor protected under the law and is severely restricted in practice\\\\\\\" and that \\\\\\\"government policies continued to place severe restrictions on religious freedom\\\\\\\".[6] No faith other than Islam is permitted to be practiced, although there are nearly a million Christians – nearly all foreign workers – in Saudi Arabia.[227] There are no churches or other non-Muslim houses of worship permitted in the country.[6] Even private prayer services are forbidden in practice and the Saudi religious police reportedly regularly search the homes of Christians.[227] Foreign workers have to observe Ramadan but are not allowed to celebrate Christmas or Easter.[227] Conversion by Muslims to another religion (apostasy) carries the death penalty, although there have been no confirmed reports of executions for apostasy in recent years.[6] Proselytizing by non-Muslims is illegal,[6] and the last Christian priest was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1985.[227] There are some Hindus and Buddhists in Saudi Arabia. Compensation in court cases discriminates against non-Muslims: once fault is determined, a Muslim receives all of the amount of compensation determined, a Jew or Christian half, and all others a sixteenth.[227] Saudi Arabia has officially identified atheists as terrorists. [228] The regulations place secular citizens who commit thought crimes in the same category as violent terrorist groups[229] Wiki So unless you\\\'re working in an embassy or on a military base / living in a similarly protected compound... I would be very careful. The Wahhabi & Religious Police do NOT play. I love Saudi Arabia for many reasons / have lived there twice. But I was lucky to be on base my first go, and a woman (aka easy to disappear in a sea of black) my second go. I was a woman the first time, but on American soil. 2nd go I was mostly on private compounds. Men, especially western men, have targets on them. BLENDING is really, really, really key. You don\'t want to stand out. Q

Empire. Go big or go home. Q

It has nothing to do with advertising. It has to do with the populations that AA/NA is unable to serve well or at all. Its an incredible program for those who meet certain criteria, but not for those that don't. Meaning it's not one size fits all. For some, their best option is elsewhere. For others their best option is a combination of AA/NA & elsewhere. Q