A friend's parents lived at an assisted living place we called The Ritz. It had a concierge who got tickets to shows and arranged for transportation. It took residents to the grocery store in a limo every few days. It had a library, restaurant and gym. We were ready to move in, except for the price.

My aunt lived in subsidized assisted living in Nashville, and while not as grand, it did have a library, gym and all kinds of activities.

Ginger, your comparison is not quite valid. Radiation from stuff you breathe or eat, radiation inside you, had greater effect that external exposure. It is great to answer people who exaggerated the danger. But don't understate them either.

My one grandmother had a pretty good set up where she lived for the last 15 or so years of her life. She had her own house with a garden and a garage, but it was on the grounds of the assisted living community and if she had needed it she would have been moved to an environment with round-the-clock care in the same community. She didn't end up making use of that, but I always thought the progressive care aspect was well thought out. She could afford that on her own, though, and chose it for herself, which makes a big difference.

My other grandmother lived with my parents for the last year of her life, which was actually a really good experience for my dad as he had not been able to spend a lot of time with her prior to that because of issues with her second husband. But all her problems were physical and those were not especially care intensive.

I rather live with Buffistas in my dotage than my siblings. But I'm not giving up my healthcare to do it!

So I ordered a dress from ASOS last week. [link] It was supposed to be free shipping, but I spent the last 10 days living in dread of having to pay additional taxes, duties and probably some kind of ransom fee (they call it an administrative charge) from a courier. But it arrived today via regular mail! Excuse me, via Royal Mail. But no duties or having to go to the boonies to get it out of courier hock! I'm very excited. I just wish the dress was more flattering to the chest.

I've just spent the last 10 minutes looking for a pair of basic black pants, no spandex or tummy control, just simple twill or cotton pants, preferably with some elastic in the waist. I was looking at a specific store's website, because that's the one I have a coupon, discount card, and gift cards for, but that's the one that has nothing like what I'm looking for in the size I need! Grrr. I guess I'll head over to the actual store tonight and see if they have anything in stock.

My great uncle Jim and aunt Margaret were in a community like t's grandmother. The place is like its own town. When Margaret needed more care than Jim could give her anymore he stayed in the apartment and she moved to the care section about 200 yards away. He was able to spend most of every day with her until she passed. He was in the apartment until he died this past year. It was as perfect as such a thing can be.

Of course, they had decent pensions. That's why they could do it. Remember decent pensions? SUCH a good idea that was...

Remember decent pensions? SUCH a good idea that was...

EM's father was a lifeline member of the printer's union. Which has a retirement community for its members in Colorado - everything taken care of. Yeah, socialism!

I don't mind instructional videos if it has accompanying text. What drives me batshit are the videos like "here's a video of this guy's favorite 3 iphone apps."

Okay, look here fucker, you could actually list the iphone apps in the text so I don't have to watch a video to learn what they are.

Radiation from stuff you breathe or eat, radiation inside you, had greater effect that external exposure.

If you think in terms of cumulative exposure, that's true. In this case, though, the comparison, albeit crude, is looking at the spinach that someone might eat in the next few weeks at most, since contaminated spinach and the like is easy to detect with simple radiation monitoring equipment. Therefore, it's reasonable to say that people would only be exposed to dangerous amounts of radiation from the contaminated food currently found in the markets if they ate hundreds of pounds of spinach in a short period of time.

Over the long term, if they kept eating contaminated food, a lot of the radioactive elements would leave the body, but some would be taken into the body and continue to emit small amounts of radiation. Epidemiological studies from Chernobyl and atom bomb workers have not shown much effect on mortality this type of low-level internal radiation.

I've gotta go see this. A Chicago theatre is bringing back the original R-rated version of Grease. The show opens on May 2nd.

Before there was "Grease," the 1972 Broadway hit, or "Grease," the 1978 movie, there was the musical first performed in 1971 in the former Kingston Mines Theatre on Lincoln Avenue. That R-rated "Grease" was much rougher and tougher than the popular versions that followed, for example with the sultry song “Kiss It” in place of “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “Foster Beach” instead of the Hollywood confection “Summer Nights.”