It's not really an "expiration" date as much as it is a "sell by" date.

I usually throw out the milk jug when the milk smells sour after being poured into a glass (there is always a bit around the jug mouth that makes it impossible to smell just by sniffing the top). I keep eggs for over a month, the older they are the easier they are to cook with. I usually buy them in bulk (waaay cheaper that way) and so they sit on the bottom shelf of the fridge, which in my case is right above the freezer.

I moved from Puyallup, WA (a fairly well-populated city, even for that time) to a small town in TX (pop. 4000) about 14 years ago. It was a complete culture shock and it took YEARS before people in town started to accept us. Of course, it helped that my grandmother already lived there (we moved in with her after her husband's death) and her late husband was a county sheriff's deputy.

This town has had some growth up until the last year or so: it used to have only one stoplight. Now it has 4.

Although I (as a former WA resident) understand that the East Coast snowstorm is pretty nasty, I must say that y'all aren't the only ones snowed in. Here in North Texas it only takes about a foot to snow us in because no native Texan knows how to drive in the snow. I do, but since nobody else does I'm not going anywhere near a car or road today or tomorrow.

Did I say a foot of snow? In Texas?

Yes, here in Grand Prairie, TX (DFW) there is about 10 inches of snow on the ground and it's not supposed to stop falling (according to the clueless weathermen) for another five hours. I think it's wonderful and reminds me of my childhood winters, but everyone else down here is going nuts. And it's the great stuff that sticks together well for snowmen, too!

Because clowns are evil and creepy.

One day I was taking a shower and my husband came home early from work. He claims he called out when he opened the front door but I didn't hear a thing. All I knew was that a finger began pushing the shower curtain towards me and I screamed. He still thinks it was funny, I don't. Not quite a mirror scare, but it WAS in the bathroom ;)

My city has the same thing Alison's does. If you don't press the button, even when the light turns green the walk sign doesn't light up. Also, I'd say about half of the signal lights here are timer based. The rest are sensor based, meaning if you don't press the button, you'll be stuck for a while. Now, downtown Dallas is a bit different. As I recall, the crosswalks don't have buttons at all because the lights are timed.

As for the elevator buttons, I'd guess that the "open door" button is a dummy, too. It never seems to work ;)

CE: Congrats to your son! 14 is young to earn one's Eagle, and requires hard work and a lot of dedication.

Ooo, I forgot to add that my brother-in-law is also an Eagle, as are many of my husband's and my friends. Most of my priest friends are Scouts as well.

larryv -

I know what you mean. When I was in high school (even back then), my tiny school district had a zero-tolerance policy for fighting. Another girl tried to beat me up on the school bus so to protect myself I covered my head with my hands, dropped to the floor, and screamed (knowing that if I did anything else I'd get suspended).

Yet I still got called out of class an hour later, taken to the city police station (gotta love small towns), my mother was called, and I was suspended. After an investigation my suspension eventually got recorded as three excused absences, though. My mother was upset at me at first when she got a call to come down to the police station, but after hearing what REALLY happened (and it's common knowledge that this girl was a bully) and how the chief of police himself felt bad for me, she got soooo pissed off at the vice-principle for insisting that I be taken to the police station too.

The bully got sent to alternative school for 3 years and I got a 3 day mini-vacation. But it still never should have happened in the first place.

As the wife of an OA Eagle Scout and mother of a scout-to-be (his dad and I hope), all I can say is Happy Birthday, BSA!

That was rather amusing! I think the two car scenes were probably the funniest. The one who stopped and honked at them had me almost on the floor laughing, and I can imagine how stupid the driver must have felt when the truck just went right past in the other direction, and I loved the other car speeding up after "breaking" the rope.

With the mall it seems most of the shoppers were amused and played along. Looks like these guys had fun!

The only times I have worn pjs in "public" are as follows: the college cafeteria that was on the first floor of my dorm when I was a freshman, a set of pjs that is really more like loungewear, or the first couple of weeks after the birth of my son because they were cheap, comfortable, I was in pain, and didn't care if they got ruined (any woman who has given birth knows what I mean).

Any other time is crazy tacky and shows laziness imo.

I agree with Katthe7th about the restraints. If a toddler is able to move THAT much in the car seat, he is not properly restrained. Also, it looks like he's wearing a thick jacket. I find it much easier to put my son's jacket on when I get him out of the seat than deal with the bulkiness of buckling him in with a winter coat. It's also safer.

Safety concerns aside, that is adorable. I play "mullet-rock" in my car and my son taps his toes and shakes his hands with the beat. And if it's a song he doesn't like, he starts whining. Such a critic! PS, he's going to be 2 in late January.

My mother replaced her 8 year old Compaq with a Dell a few years back. She used to sit at the computer for a few hours a day smoking the whole time, my grandmother would do the same at a different time of day.

When the new computer arrived, my husband and I offered to set it up for her and transfer her old files to the new hard drive.

When we opened up the Compaq, I had to leave the room to keep from vomiting. There was at least 3/4 inch of tar lumped on top of everything plus another inch of dust.

We weren't able to salvage much. And my mom wondered why the Compaq quit working.

I don't get this insistence on eating super-fresh eggs...

I purchase eggs about once a month/two months in bulk (like, 2 1/2 dozen or 5 dozen at a time, it's cheaper than by a single dozen). Never once have I encountered a "bad" egg and they're all super easy to peel when hard-boiled.