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Our Florida Weim organization merged with another organization called Big Dog Ranch. It’s a big place where the dogs have lots of space...but the Weims they try to foster. The older Weims (some are 13 or older) they keep there at the Ranch, I don’t imagine many people adopt 13 year old dogs and it gives the dogs a nice place to live out their days. The organization does a good job of getting the Weims from kill shelters and into their custody.

Check out their site if you’re interested, they have a link to all adoptable dogs and a link to adoptable Weims (bdrr.org). Wonder if they have any boxers, now I’ll have to go look :)

In "A Grief Observed" by C. S. Lewis, I believe he uses that phrase.

Our adoptions have been Weims. And quite frankly, knowing the breed, I can understand the home inspection, and info about lifestyle because I know the breed.

At the SPCA, we adopted an AKC Weim because he wasn’t what the family “expected” after he grew out of his cute puppy stage. The SPCA was very direct in asking questions about our home, our family situation, etc.

We love the breed, and their “characteristic” personalities, but evidently there are a lot of folks that don’t.

Our last 2 dogs have been rescues...same breed that we’ve always owned, and in our opinion the traits of the breed are so predictable you sort of know exactly what you’re getting.

But 1st rescue was from the SPCA, and this past time was from one of the breed specific rescue organizations.

If/when we adopt another dog, I’d use the breed specific rescue organization again, even though it is a bit of a hassle (as the writer says, there’s applications, home visits, a higher fee than the shelters.) But the advantage is the dog’s been vetted by being fostered and you know what issues the dog does or more importantly doesn’t have. An SPCA or county animal shelter can give you a little info, but not the same as getting the info from someone who has fostered the animal.

I was surprised at the cost of our local State U. Our son attended there, with a scholarship, so we never paid anything, except for books, and he lived at home and commuted.

Now my DIL is finishing up her degree at the same school, and the cost per hour has almost doubled, since our son attended 6 years ago.

Fortunately, they have the cash to pay her tuition, but I noticed on the financial page that the school has quit taking Visa, and if you pay with another credit card, you get a 2.5% fee tacked onto your bill.

It seems like they’re trying to drive the kids toward student loans.

Yeah, I was going to comment on that...does anyone proof read anymore?

When our son was in school, occasionally he’d have an online class (this was during his BA days, all Master’s classes were in person.)

I asked him was there anyway that the online classes inserted any safeguards into their online tests. As to someone taking it for you, no safeguard exists. But as to a student who was taking their own tests, the profs, knowing they could be open book tests, packed a lot of questions in a short time frame. He felt this was to ensure that the student knew the info, instead of spending time just looking it up at as the question was asked.

Other than that, there are no safeguards.

Problem with higher education, I saw, was the practice of “groups” and “group projects.” You always had one or two slouchers letting everyone else do their work (because it was needed to complete the project) then being rewarded for the work of the other members.

Of course, that seems to be a good preparation for a lot of workplaces these days :)

Cash doesn’t have to mean you have the money accumulating in your bank account.You’d have cash for a home if you sold yours and bought another. Investor’s are paying cash, as are those who are downsizing.

We paid cash on a foreclosure a few years ago, too good a deal on a foreclosure with huge posibilities, we couldn’t pass on it. Like you we owned our home, and made up the difference we had in cash, with an equity loan on our existing residence (which we owned free and clear) and then we paid that off (the interest rate on the home equity loan, while we were paying on it was 2.75%), so on paper we paid cash for the foreclosure.

I know when homes were rock bottom, several folks our age who did the same, and now in our area prices are starting to rebound, so if we wanted to sell (which we don’t) we’d see a hefty profit on our investment.

So even though you may not have the “cash” in your bank account, you have “cash” available to you.

Florida...West Coast, Tampa Bay area

Last night my son and DIL were here for dinner, and I posed the question to them again. They know of no one in their age group, 20-28 would be the range, who does not have a job. Like I said, some part time, but those are by choice as they’re going to school and working part time at Chick Fil A or Starbucks.

I, too, believe Obamacare is leading to a lot of part time jobs, etc.

However, when they give statistics for this age range, what they say is happening, isn’t happening to the young people I know through our son, and DIL.

Son is 25, DIL 23, they hang out with a bunch of young married couples, and the core group have been friends since they were teens, spouses got added in later :)

They all have jobs, good jobs. If it didn’t start out as a great job, they’ve taken entry level jobs and worked their way up through the ranks to higher positions.

All have college education of some sort...some AAs, some BAs, and some Graduate degrees. Many own homes, bought when prices were low and interest rates ridiculously low, most don’t have children yet, but a few do.

Of all my son and DIL’s friends, I don’t know any who don’t have full time jobs, unless they’re still finishing college, and are working part time because of that.

I believe the stats, but maybe that’s from another area of the country or something...I just can’t figure it out.

The one common factor is they became friends in their early teens through our youth ministry at church, and most were homeschooled and used the Dual Credit program at our local Community College. So maybe it’s a work ethic thing, or just a regional phenomenon.

Actually Annette Funicello had MS, not Parkinson’s, but both can cause an awful downward spiral. That last documentary they made of her struggle was heartbreaking, but they were trying to raise money for support of a controversial treatment, CCSVI. I’ve have MS, and most people aren’t aware of what end stage progressive MS can look like. Her husband is a saint.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/annette-funicello-her-life-with-multiple-sclerosis-1.984202

Alzheimer’s has been around for years, they just called it “hardening of the arteries” or “senile dementia.”

My grandmother had it, early onset in fact, she was completely bed bound and unable to recognize any of us when she was 63...that was in 1964.

My grandfather (opposite side of the family) also had it, but his was later onset.

Years later when they started talking about Alzheimer’s and the symptoms of Alzheimer’s did we realize that this was what had afflicted them.

Well, these are just the first that are publicly speaking out. Last year my son's company enacted this policy. Large company with close to 90,000 employees. It wasn't presented as being due to Obamacare, however during open enrollment they were informed that if the spouse has coverage through work, then they will need to sign up for it.

Me too...I stick with Amazon because when you weigh time to go to a brick and mortar, gas to get you there, etc. the lack of frustration by ordering on Amazon is worth a little extra money. Customer service on returns is astounding.

I’ve taken to buying more and more things online, not just at Amazon. I use Walmarts free ship for an order over $45 to reduce our trips to Walmart.

If time is money, or it costs a little more to eliminate stress and hassle of going to a store, I’ll stay with online shopping.

One other thing that’s left out of this story, go to the mall and you’re more likely to impulse shop With online shopping, I don’t browse, I know what I want, and go in and buy it, so online I don’t buy that extra something that I probably don’t really need.

True story :)

My husband had a green card for years (Canada.) And then in 2001 decided to become a Naturalized American Citizen.

Once he was a citizen, he was glad he could vote...not just try to tell me who to vote for :)

But he really was excited to be able to be eligible for jury duty (maybe one too many John Grisham novels.) He was “hankering” to be on a jury. He’s actually been called 3, or 4 times, for jury duty and each times he “flunks” out. While a lot of folks are trying to get out of jury duty, it’s something he wants to do, but can’t seem to make the cut.

LOL, I thought of the exact same answer.

I thought Ritalin was a stimulant. In the MS community (I have MS) people who are taking it are those having problems with fatigue. As a side effect, it can cause anxiety type issues, or edginess. I wasn’t aware that it was ever used for anxiety...but that’s what this article implies. I’ll have to do some more reading on the med.

We spent a couple months in China when my husband had a job assignment there. We were visiting the Guangzhou zoo, and saw the cage with a wolf in it, and right besisde the wolf cage was another cage, labeled “canine”...it was a German Shepherd. We were amazed. But after visiting the open air food market (Qing Ping) we understood why the dog was in a cage...to keep him from being eaten. In the market there were dogs and cats being sold by the food vendors.

found a photo on one guy’s blog...not for the squeamish
http://owenfranken.photoshelter.com/image/I0000Jjk258Gw9B4

Sure there’s a difference. It’s responsibility. If you build a life, you are the one who “constructs” it, if you live a life, then you’re just rolling with the punches, living whatever comes along, and probably acting the victim because of it.

Building versus just living puts the individual in the driver’s seat and not just the happenstance of fate.

I didn’t realize Festus didn’t join the cast till Season 8. So was Chester (Dennis Weaver) the side kick up until that time?

I read a Wikipedia entry that said they had considered Denver Pyle for the part of Dillon...he was a good bad guy in this episode, can’t have imagined him as Dillon.