I take my four 11 to 14 year old nieces to Hollister the day after Thanksgiving to buy their Christmas presents.  This way they will fit and I know they will like them.  

Me too, Kath.  That would save me the trouble of taking her to Hollister, Aeropostale, Target, Old Navy and Abercrombie the day after Christmas to spend her gift cards and cash, and also throw in the amount it exceeds her resources.

LOL! I've found that most times the "hand wash/lay flat to dry and/or dry clean only" are just suggestions. I buy things that say this, toss it in with the rest and they come out fine. The only exception would be something like mohair etc., which I just don't buy. Hubby just bought a shirt that said "wash gentle cycle/do not tumble dry. Ha ha, I forgot and it came out fine too. Sometimes I think the garment industry is in cahoots with the dry cleaning industry because most people don't have time even for the hand wash stuff, so they just take it to a dry cleaner.

I worked with one woman who sent everything to the dry cleaner. I must say, she did look very "pressed" all the time, but still.........very expensive proposition.

I used to wash and press my ex's white dress shirts (the undertaker, lol) until I got fed up with the pressing part. He generously suggested that I take them in to be pressed.  Funny enough, the first time I took them in the woman asked "You're his wife?" with a funny look. Turns out it was his mistress who he later married, got beaten around the head by her with the butt of a gun and divorced.  

They're catering to the younger set who are already fantasizing about lolling in the beaches in March. Who gives a flying rat's ass about the older set stuck up in the north?

Ok, I've long held that the modern "war on bacteria" is part of the reason (with the overuse of antibiotics) so many drug resistant bugs are around. Not only do they resist drugs, but our own bodies can't resist them like they could in times past.

Now comes the newest money-making fad. Hands free soap dispenser. Am I wrong here, but don't you wash your hands AFTER you touch a soap dispenser anyway?  I can see hands free faucets, paper towel dispensers and toilet flushers, but come on! You don't touch the dispenser and then put your hands in your mouth. 

I always made sure my kids played in the dirt, when they probably got a lot in their mouths and generally let them get dirty. I didn't obsess over hand washing, face washing etc. They had numerous colds and the flu, but managed to ride them out with no ill effects and no doctors visits. As adults they rarely ever get sick now. I credit their exposure to things early on in their lives to training, or building, their own immune systems.

The only benefit I can see to a hands-free soap gadget is that they only dispense a set amount of soap. So for kids who tend to use enough to wash 1000 hands, it might save a penny or two- after they get over the novelty of the thing. lol In a situation like at the shop where my hubby works where there's a lot of grease and grime, might not be the worst idea. Or a medical setting.

Doctors are wary of using antibiotics because of the new "super bugs" that are showing up in hospitals. To me, it's too little too late. They should have known this was a possibility way back in the 70's.

Hmm Chaos, the old adage "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger?"  I'd never thought about it that way. I admit that I was guilty of that a lot when I was younger. Antibiotics always made me feel drained (and with women, the yeast infection that could ensue) so I would stop taking them once I felt better. You may be right!

I don't think the school is concerned for your kid's safety so much as they're concerned about potential lawsuits if your kid gets hurt.

Thankfully, no antibiotics (or growth hormones) in our milk and certain brands of chicken here. By extension, none in any of the cheeses which are made here, like Kraft Canada. It tastes MUCH better, imo.

Canadian beef has very little, but unfortunately most of the beef we buy here comes from elsewhere. We export most of our own beef.

You can avoid those things by buying organic. But who can afford that? I've found some locally grown beef, but dang it's so expensive. When more small farms start marketing their products in our local organic food stores, maybe the price will come down.
  

I'll second that! The assistant principal was too busy with the start of school crap to notice, probably. OR another student ratted her out. lol
  

Diesel vehicles. We had a truck this morning right outside the office warming up for about 15 minutes, belching stinky smoke. When they ban diesel anything, then they can talk to me about banning smoking in public places dammnit. You can't tell me that it's good to breathe that crap. Between the transit buses and school buses that run each and every day, it's nauseating if you are in a high traffic area. Luckily, it's not as bad here as it was when we lived near downtown. Only one city bus on our street and a couple of school buses.

The truck has been gone about 15 minutes now and I can STILL smell it.  It permeates through walls and door cracks. Yuck.

I wish we had that here Chaos.

Another rant: Freaking people who think they are the center of the universe!

Had a resident who has water dripping onto the tarp covering her $800 bike (so she informed me today, lol) in her locker. She called a couple of days ago and I even called her back yesterday to explain that we would look at it but that it was month end  AND we've had a lot of heating problems to deal with in this cold spell for the last week. She was all sweetness and understanding yesterday. Not today. OMG, I could just see her stamping her feet like a 2 year old. Sheesh.

A Snowfall warning is in effect for Calgary, Kananaskis, and the surrounding areas.

From sun...to snow

Our sunny Fri. will give way to a snowy Sat., as snow develops around mid-day, and continues into Sun.  Total amounts, before spring arrives officially Sun. eve., could be in the 10 to 20 cm. range, with the higher amounts toward the foothills. It will continue unsettled into next week, with more flurries Mon., before conditions gradually improve later in the week. 

'nuff said.

Didn't know where to put this but had to vent:  new definition of "letdown":  My federal tax refund was deposited nicely in the bank account...no problems...after waiting weeks to hear about the state income tax refund, in which the site would just say "processing", I received a check in the mail from the Arkansas treasury for $15...problem is, according to my filing, I was entitled to a refund of $1200...no letter of explanation accompanied the check, nothing...last year i paid Arkansas over $2000 and I was looking forward to the 1200 refund (kind of like poetic justice?) Arkansas has got to be the most expensive state for income tax I have ever lived in!!!!

Can't even buy a case of beer to cry in with that...