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Pfft. It was a JOKE. Steve88 pulled your leg. Don't be stodgy about it.

At my local community college I expected, and got, an excellent retirement planning seminar provided by representatives of my public employees union and private financial advisors for about the same price that OFO paid for a lousy one. In addition, for free, one of the financial advisors...

Lamb chops, grass fed local lamb only. Marinated lightly in olive oil, with lots of chopped garlic, a splash of soy sauce and a splash of whiskey. Each chop topped with a sprig of rosemary. Grilled over charcoal. Served with grilled flatbread, rice, and assorted grilled vegetables. That's my...

The last time I drove on campus, I witnessed two cars race to a parking spot and crash. Then I watched the drivers get out and start a screaming match. Before it got to fisticuffs, I split. Now I take the bus (free!) and relax on my way to work. I don't have to yell at anyone. I recommend it!

The four of us would be: Wait a minute, Oops!, Damnit, and the baby, Oh no! Not again!

Mmmmm ... salt. I love it on everything. I found a recipe for brined pork roast that I am going to try this week. High blood pressure? Me? Not yet ...

Firedreamer, that's an amazing harvest for a filtered light location! Way to go! We're in the Willamette Valley(Or.), and my peppers and tomatoes have fruit, but they are not ready yet (maybe a couple of weeks out from first harvest.) We've been picking lettuce since the end of May. I chopped...

I prefer deadfall traps and packs of savage hounds to guns. In a doomsday scenario, which this is not, we could fall back on our family farm and grow everything, including wheat and winegrapes. Lamb is the specialty meat in grown on farms around here, and I prefer it to eating rats or even...

I'm growing my vegetables in containers this year. It makes everything sooo much easier. No weeding and just a little watering once a day. I use a light application of fertilizer in water once a week. I am using self-watering containers. The results are great. My in-the-ground gardens were...

We're on the west coast, our son goes to school on the east coast. We pay for two round trip tickets home (Christmas break and a trip home after school is out). No spring break in Mexico, no car, but I pay for his phone on my family plan. DS pays one quarter for his education (a little more...

Stuart Little, a tale of the value of friendship. At the end, Stuard drives off looking for his bird friend ... forever.

"El codo" means a cheapskate in Mexican slang. Why elbow? Quien sabe. I second the People's Guide to Mexico, which has a lot of advice for driving in Mexico. I envy you! Have fun!

Lots of people don't use a crib at all. They dislike keeping children in "cages". They put a mattress on the floor so the baby won't get hurt if it rolls out, and they childproof their house. Not me, I used all the handmedown equipment I could find from my sisters and the goodwill. Why pay a...

This is exactly what happened to a friend of mine. She quit at 62 assuming that her modest pension (cola=2% per annum) and social security (this year's cola=2.4%), augmented by modest savings (she's a simgle woman who did clerical work) combined with a frugal lifestyle, would be sufficient to...

Luckily for the human race, there is more than one way to raise a child. I worked full time when my kids were little, and I have two great kids. Our family life is fantastic. I wanted to keep my job when the children were babies and there was no option for half-time work at that time. We...

I always worried about my dad's financial situation. He was super paranoid about discussing his finances and suspicious of any effort on our part to assess his financial situation. I didn't want to kill him and take his money, I just wanted to make sure that he had enough to buy groceries and...

No sales tax in Oregon, but check out the property taxes. Also check out how many counties are in trouble due to lack of funds. Lane County is closing their animal control agency. Other cuts to follow. I LOVE Oregon, but Shabber2 is NOT exaggerating. If you are not used to miserable weather...

Once I flew from Oregon to Arizona in November. When I left the airport in Phoenix I could not keep my eyes open--the sun was too bright. It took a couple of days to get used to the bright light ... then it was time to fly home.

Sounds like everyone is acting like a grownup ... how unusual. My dad and mom had all their assets in a revocable trust. It took about 1 year from beginning to end, including selling the house. I was the executor. I thought it went pretty smoothly, except we were not all grownups about it.

Eugene is great but if you live near the university, houses are expensive, old, and highly taxed. Lane County is in trouble: the federal government is cutting off federal timber land subsidies. Cops, jail space, public transit and other county funded services are on the chopping block. At the...

< What she doesn't say is the average (not median) house increase from 1400 sq feet in the 70s to over 2300 sq feet now days. So we are getting bigger houses to hold the more stuff we have. > Wait a sec, I thought the average middle class house was 25 years old. How big was the average house...

One of my relatives took the Death with Dignity route in Oregon. Choose the time and place, died peacefully surrounded by family.

And speaking of grog: I found a good recipe for it on allrecipes.com, which I modified slightly: boil a cup of water*, add the juice of a lemon or lime, one lemon zinger tea bag and sugar to taste. Rum it up to your preference. Cane syrup is also good instead of sugar. Grog is my drink on...

I loved the movie Master and Commander, except for one detail which drives me crazy: at the beginning they get the bells wrong! First they strike 7 bells. It's obviously the morning watch so it's 7:30 am. A little later --7 bells again!! Ding-ding ... ding-ding ... ding-ding ...ding...

We can make it on $40,000 but I hope to have an income $44,000 in 3.5 years when my husband turns 55. His pension plus 457k plan plus investment income will sustain us for two years, when my pension (substantial) kicks in. Two adults, one kid still in high school, the other kid out of college...