I so agree...mother of 3 healthy kids

• I'm better than you attitude from - obnoxious relatives.
  • Yeah, my DH is like that, granted I don't go looking - sm - Laura E.
  • My opinion on germs with - Four healthy kids
    • My daughter was a very social butterfly - and still had allergies and eczema.
    • I so agree...mother of 3 healthy kids - PAMT~MDM

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Things have changed a lot and obviously it is easier now than it was when I did it (dated someone from a different race)- but there are sometimes huge cultural differences, not only in different races but in same race from very different parts of the country.  A lot of traditions that you find important - someone very culturally different (same for religion for that matter) may not.  You have to be thick skinned and very committed.  A good partner is hard to find. 

how we lived without computers and cell phones. 

I did just fine. 

I remember knowing who lived in every single house in our little neighborhood.  In summer, all of us neighborhood kids would ride our bikes down the street and all the adults would be out on their porches or leaning on fences talking to one another and the baseball game would be on everyone's radio. 

We would roll down to the neighborhood pharmacy, sit at the soda fountain and order chocolate Cokes and sometimes cherry Cokes.  Then you HAD to go to the neighborhood mom and pop grocery store, stand 4-deep at the penny candy counter and all shout and point at the same time.  I LOVED Mary Janes and those little foil covered chocolate "Ice Cubes."  Anyone remember them?  Then of course, you had to grab a bottle of coke out of the ice-filled Coca-Cola cooler, and little bits of ice would stick to the bottle and that Coke tasted soo icy cold and bubbly.  

I remember thinking as a kid, boy how can anything get better than all this. 

I was so right. 

As a side note -- my sister found my old wicker basket from my bike in her basement.  I repainted it white and have it on my bedroom wall, and fill it with silk seasonal flowers.  Right beside it I have a picture on the wall of me and my best old friend in our Girl Scout uniforms, smiling and hugging.  She died from leukemia a couple years ago.  We were friends for 40 years.  A piece of heart will always be gone now.  But when I look at that picture and that basket I think of happier times, at least for me as a kid. 

??

Healthy?  What?  For Superbowl?  I know.  I must be kidding, right?

How about a bunch of carrot sticks, or pre-peeled baby carrots, celery sticks, bell peppers cut into strips and some hummus.  You can find good hummus at Whole Foods, and surprisingly, the Sam's near me has a really good one.  Not everyone likes it, but it's one of my favorite snacks.  You can also get pita chips and some baguette bread cut up into small slices to serve it with as well.  Add some calamata olives and some bruschetta topping, which is roasted peppers in olive oil, and I think you'll have a hit that is not just the same old same old.

   Maximizing the life of your hard drive                                          

The following is a list of important maintenance and monitoring techniques you can use to maximize the life of your hard drive and prevent data loss.

Hard drives are physically fragile – handle with care
Statistics show that 25% of lost data is due to a failure of a portable drive. (Source: 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results)
Contrary to its seemingly rugged appearance, your hard disk is a very delicate device that writes and reads data using microscopic magnetic particles. Any vibration, shock, and other careless operation may damage your drive and cause or contribute to the possibility of a failure. This is especially relevant for notebook users, as they are most at risk of drive failure due to physical damage, theft, and other causes beyond their control. That’s why we recommend regular backup of notebook hard drives, as often as possible.
Possible solutions include external USB or Firewire drives (although these are prone to the same risks), desktop synchronization, or backup at a data center through the web.

Hard drives write data in a non-linear way forcing it to become fragmented.
When files accumulate on your hard drive, they do not just get written in a linear fashion. A hard drive writes files in small pieces and scatters them over the surface. The fuller your hard drive becomes and the more files you save and delete the worse file fragmentation can be. Hard drive access times increase with fragmentation since your drive must work harder to find all the pieces of the files. The more fragmented your data is, the harder the actuator arm has to work to find each piece of a file.
A case in point: Disk fragmentation is a common problem for users of Outlook Express and database software. Each time outlook saves new mail, it does so in a different physical location from the previous time. This results in extreme fragmentation, causing longer access times and forcing more strain on the actuator arm.
Finally, in the event of a total crash, a fragmented drive is much more difficult to recover then a healthy defragged drive.
Luckily, Windows makes it remarkably easy to defrag your hard drive, simply launch the Disk Defragmenter utility (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools), choose which disk or partition you’d like to defragment and set it to work overnight or while you are not actively using your computer. Defragmentation will speed up your computer and ensure a longer life for your hard drive.

A very small power surge can fry a hard drive – use a UPS and turn off your computer
Another little-known fact about the fragility of your hard drive is its susceptibility to electrical failure. An electrical failure can be caused by a power surge, lightening strikes, power brown-outs, incorrect wiring, a faulty or old power supply, and many other factors. If a power surge enters your computer, it may do an unpredictable amount of damage, including destroying your hard drive’s electronics or crashing the heads and possibly resulting in total data loss.
The best way to protect your computer from such dangers is to use a highly rated protected power bar or an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Although these devices won’t eliminate the chances of a crash, they will serve as effective protection in most cases. Also, you can minimize the danger of an electrical problem and reduce wear of your hard drive by turning off your computer or using power-save modes whenever possible. It’s a known fact that 100% of drives fail, the question is when will it happen and will you be prepared?

*Be SMART, monitor the health of your drive to prevent unexpected crashes
All modern hard drives have a self-monitoring technology called SMART (Self Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology). What most people don’t realize is that the majority of hard drive failures do not have to be unexpected. Most failures occur as a result of long-term problems which can be predicted. By regularly monitoring disk health and performance, you can know about potential hard drive problems before you lose any of your data.
Several excellent utilities are available, including DiskView and Stellar SMART for standard IDE and SATA desktop drives. Also available are tools that monitor the health of SCSI drives and full RAID Array systems. Ariolic Software offers a great utility called ActiveSMART.

*The only fool-proof way to prevent data loss is... Backup!
If you only take one of the suggestions here to heart, let it be this one: always back up your important data. After all the monitoring and all the prevention measures are in place, one fact still remains: all hard drives fail. Backing up regularly will ensure that you’re never caught without your critical data. For individuals, the simplest solutions include external portable hard drives, dvd’s, and online storage.

I would think that some of the $12,000 A YEAR he paid in support for over 9 years should have been enough to save some for college. He paid his dues so to speak, always paid the support on time, had insurance for them, etc. He told them straight up to pay for their own college. Is there something wrong with that?