coquina

Regarding the "nines" - if you are trying to balance your check book and you are off, try dividing the amout you are off by 9. If it is an integer, you have probably transposed a number somewhere.

Unless you plan on making a career out of being a student, you are going to get to a point in your job that you are bored. I have done the same thing for 30 years - what do I do to challange myself? I find a science forum where I can talk to people all over the world about neat stuff. Also, things that you are learning now need to last you for the rest of your life. You can read something, understand it, and pass the test. However, if you don't do the same thing on a repetitive basis, chances are you won't remember it. On the other hand, all those practice problems help ingrain what you have learned into your long term memory, you may still need a little refresher later on, but it will come back to you easier.

Thanks.

The ER visit was due to too much dilantin. Her body couldn't handle the amount prescribed. My SIL called at 12:30 this morning and he was beat, so that's all I know for now.

Yeah, Martin - You're right. My mom and dad didn't have me until she was 42 and he was 40. Not for lack of trying, there were several still births. Aside from no siblings, I was never close to aunts and uncles and they have been dead for years. My "family" consists of my employees, my neighbors, and my church family. All of those people have been very supportive of me. I do regard my internet friends with great regard as well. Especially here, where some folks have pointed me to some links which have been very enlightening. My son-in-law just called - he's had to take her to the ER. She's having blinding headaches, nausea, and is totally disoriented. I'm waiting to hear what's to be done next, but unless they can do something to stabilize her, I expect to be taking my grandson to DC shortly. I'm crazy with worry, but find this interactive fellowship distracting if nothing else.

Thanks so much for that link. I haven't had time to read the whole thing yet, will read in depth at lunch.

How do you know how that tiny chunk of potassium was processed? Are you sure it is pure? If something is manufactured for human consumption there are all kind of stringent requirements... for example, the food processing machininery must be lubricated with vegetable oil. There's no telling what kind of trace of a deadly contaminant might be attached to it - I advise you strongly not to imbibe of that concoction.

Chromium picolinate is a component of several weight loss products including "Metabolife" http://pharma-help.com/metabolife-356 Aside from not working, studies show it is mutagenic and carcinogenic. http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/Com/chromium.htm

Yes, she is. Aside from one grandson, she is my only family. I have no siblings, my dad died in 97, my husband died in 2002, and my mom died 6 months later. It does make it tougher to deal with.

Alex's husband called this morning. The situation is getting worse - she has severe vertigo and can't walk without getting sick. She sees another specialist tomorrow.

From Pub Med, here... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=677299&dopt=Abstract At any rate, "pits, cavities and depressions" wouldn't indicate a bone had been broken. You have to remember that a person with a broken hip would not be able to walk.

The inside casket is lead according to what I saw on TV.

I'm going to give you an entirely different take on the subject. People have an idealized vision of what it is to kill something or someone, but relatively few people have seen it happen in real life, much less participated. I was exposed to guns at an early age, and my father taught me to hunt. I had this visualization of hunting I guess as "bringing home the bacon" or something like that. Side track - I know this isn't a hunting or animal rights thread - I'm trying to make a point. I shot a squirrel and didn't kill it the first time. It was struggling and flipping around on the ground and I had to shoot it again to put it out of it's misery. I remember watching the light go out of its eyes and I never killed anything again. While I don't condone hunting - you kill an animal and get a big lesson. You kill a person and go to jail.

That's not correct - the pelvis consists of several bones that are connected by ligaments. As the uterus enlarges, the ligaments stretch. http://www3.georgetown.edu/be/article.cfm?ObjectID=3487

My dad was, regretably, a physical abuser. But he also had unique methods of punishment that worked quite well. He kept horses and raised field corn to feed them. When we harvested the corn it was put in the corncrib, husk, cob and all. There was a manual corn grinder - it was made of iron, and had a disk with knobs on it. You husked the corn, which was hard and dry and hurt your hands, put the cob in the grinder, turned the wheel, and the grain when out the bottom and the cob shot out the side. When I misbehaved, my dad would tell me how many ears of corn I had to grind in atonement. I could do it slowly and take all day, or I could do it promptly and be done with it. Considering that the corn crib was either below freezing or above 90 degrees, one did not dally. I told this story to point out that if there is a particular chore a child despises, it is an effective means of punishment. My dad knew I hated to grind corn, and as long as I kept on the straight and narrow, either he or my mom would do it. But - infraction of rules inevitably earned me an appointment with the corn grinder.

I wonder if anyone else has experienced something like this.... I'm sitting at dinner with some friends, and two of us are discussing someone we both knew years ago. "What was that guy's name, it's right on the tip of my tongue?" "I can't think of it either. I remember he worked at thus and so place, he was big and bald, and wore the craziest ties." "You're right - that's him, same guy." So the conversation changes, and now I'm talking to someone else about something else. Suddenly, the name from before comes to me, I turn to my other friend, and say "That guy's name was Joe Schmoe". I have this picture of a little elf in my brain going back in the archives to the file cabinet marked 1975, blowing off the dust, knocking away the cobwebs, and rooting through the files even though I'm not aware of it. All of a sudden, he finds the right file, and shouts "Joe Smoe" in my ear. Am I nuts, or does anyone else have this happen?

Thanks for the info - it's much appreciated.

I'm betting the government would require employers to pay the matching funds to social security, whether the employee opted out or not. Now, the employer contributions are tracked through W2 funds, and are balanced against payroll deposits. If employers didn't pay the government, how would they know that the funds were dispersed at all? They couldn't audit every company 100% every year to make sure all funds were paid where and when they were supposed to be, unless they hired thousands of additional employees.

I have to match what my employees pay in. Am I off the hook for employees who opt out? Do I have to pay the equivalent amount into whatever retirement plan the employee wants? This would be a bookkeeping nightmare for companies with many employees. I have been wondering about this through all the talk of privatization - maybe I missed it, but I haven't heard it addressed.

That's what my daughter has. It is not immediately life-threatening, but it is slowly leaking tiny amounts of blood and causing her to have mini-seizures. It is not in an area of the brain that is operable. The treatment her doc recommended is gamma knife radiation, but for now she is being treated with dilantin to stop the seizures. Does anybody know anything about this problem? I'd like to know more about it and what kind of research is being conducted. Thanks for all the prayers, good vibes, and candles.

I think it is extremely difficult to find a compassionate way to question these children also. Several years back there was a man who was arrested for molesting children at a day care center. I believe he was the owner's son. At first, there was only one complaint, but it grew into dozens. When the tapes of the psychologists who interviewed the children were reviewed, it appeared that the asked "leading questions" over and over. After initial denials the children would change their story. It seemed they did it because they got vibes that saying the molestation had occurred would please the councilor. I'm sure it must be tough to get a child to admit s/he has been molested without inadvertantly "putting words in their mouths".

My daughter just called - she has a "1 centimeter lesion" in her head that appears to be a tangle of blood vessels. They don't think it's a tumor or an aneurysm but can't be sure. She has to see a neurosurgeon at 5:45 this afternoon.