But would it be ok to put on your biodata?

{{Cass}}, {{Cindy and clan}}

{{P-C}} You know, this may be silly, but your story reminds me a bit of Bride and Prejudice.

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This may be siller, but I haven't seen it.

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There's a part where our heroine is meeting a fellow from America that wants to meet her, and he's pretty much exactly not her type.

She ends up with the dashing non-Indian fellow, so...

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Oh, Cindy, honey. What a horrible no good very bad cluster of yuck. Poor kiddo. Poor you.

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Tep! How do you make apple whatsis (crumble?) in the crock pot? Until my oven is fixed, we are sadly bakeless.

It's super-easy!

Apple Oat Crockpot Crumble

-- 6 apples peeled and cut into bite size pieces [NOTE: I didn't peel my apples, and it turned out just fine.]
-- 3 eggs, beaten
-- 1/2 c. oat bran or plain old flour
-- 1 1/2 c. oats
-- 1/2 to 1 c. sugar [or the equivalent amount of Splenda/Equal/etc., if you are so inclined; I actually made mine with Splenda, and it's yummy]
-- 2 tsp. baking powder
-- 1/4 tsp. salt
-- 1 tsp. vanilla
-- 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon or apple pie spice [or spice of your choice]
-- 1 1/2 c. milk [I only had skim in the fridge, and it turned out just fine]

Spray the crockpot with no-stick spray.

Put cut-up apples in crockpot.

Mix all other ingredients together and pour over apples.

Stir and cook for 4 hours on low. [Check occasionally to see if it's cooking faster than expected, b/c mine did. Plus it might need to be stirred once or twice while cooking.]

So. YUMMY.

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I think marshalling arguments in favor of running your biodata your way is the way to go. Maybe offering to do it your way for a year and if it doesn't work trying her way will do it--especially if you tell her the alternative is not to do it at all.

This is good advice, P-C.

Thanks, everyone.

Hey, I have a newbie parent kind of question. Okay, I'm not a newbie, but everything with the oldest one makes you feel like a newbie:

Is it unusual for an 11 year old to be unable to swallow pills?

I think I was older. My mother knows she was older. Scott thinks he was older, too, but the doctors almost acted like he was way old for this.

Inhaled steroids don't really affect the immune system, and they'll make him feel better.

The ER prescribed oral steroids -- Prednisone (it's probably Prednisolone -- I dunno, it's in the fridge, but I have had it for the other two). Tomorrow, I'll call the Pediatrician and see if I can give him the nebulizable steroid we already have in the house for Chris, who gets bronchial whenever he glances sideways at a head cold. Although come to think of it, they may have prescribed the oral steroid to combat the allergic reaction to the drug, as well as the chest congestion.

Cindy, I am sending all the love and ~ma I can spare toward you and yours. Having been the asthmatic/allergic child in that drama, I know it's no fun for anyone involved.

Thank you, Karl, you sweet thing. Ben was mostly bored, which I figure is good, as it means he's feeling well enough to be bored. I sent jokes and riddles via e-mail to Scott's Blackberry, but they could only use that at certain times/places in the hospital.

We're used to nebulizers and all that fun stuff, because Chris and Julia both had RSV as babies, and Chris still gets wheezy a couple of times a year. But this antibiotic shell game is for the birds.

On the other hand, if anyone's looking for some Biaxin, I think I just went into the wholesale business.

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There's a part where our heroine is meeting a fellow from America that wants to meet her, and he's pretty much exactly not her type.

She ends up with the dashing non-Indian fellow, so...

Hm. Perhaps not the best message. Same reason my parents didn't like Bend It Like Beckham.

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Well, the guy was a schmuck, and she was cool and had a nice singing voice.

Not sure if the singing voice thing applies...

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Is it unusual for an 11 year old to be unable to swallow pills?

I had the most horrible time learning to swallow pills when I was ten. What made it worse than it might have been is that I was having to learn with uncoated chloroquine phosphate -- had to take them for malaria prophylaxis in the weeks before we went to Pakistan in 1974, and then once a week for the next six years. They are about the most bitter thing imaginable, and I couldn't swallow them.

The method that finally worked for me was to take a big gulp of water and hold it in my mouth, then tip my head back so that the water stayed put when I opened my mouth again, drop the pill into the middle of the pool, then swallow the gulp of water before the pill hits the back of my mouth.

To this day, it is the only way I can swallow pills.

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I take pills the same way as dcp. If they get stuck on my tongue, I usually gag on them.

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