hi there, i live in canada where it is the law to use the tether strap, you get fined and they won't let you leave till you properly strap your kids in. the idea with the tether is that you hook it onto an anchor that is drilled into the frame of your car. toysrus sells the anchors with instructions we had to install these in one of our cars and you can buy the tethers as well and they come with instructions on how to install. i cant believe that it is still not the law down there for these things to be in. i was involved in a car accident last year that took the whole front end off my car and my then 2yo dd was in the car with me in her car seat. the tether strap is desighned to absorb the shock from an impact and also helps keep the car seat snug so there is no jolting for the child. the fire man at my accident told me my dd recieved not a scratch because my her seat was properly installed and she was strapped in it, so i say spend the extra money and time and put this thing in your car. nadine mommy to chelsea 3yo and dempsey 6mo

Don't walk around with a lot of valuable or hard to replace *stuff*. When I go to the grocery I put my drivers licence, my store customer card and my CC in an inside pocket. That's all I need for most errands. Never park and then 'hide' something in your trunk. You'll never see the person with binoculars and a cell phone who is ready to direct another person to punch out your trunk lock the minute you are out of sight. Our police sergeant friend says our citizens seem to believe there's a magic safety bubble over our town. They don't lock up their valuables, their cars, their houses, their bikes. "Oh, I was only going to be gone for a minute." The police blotter is constantly filled with thefts where residents left valuables in an unlocked car in a driveway or in an open garage overnight! We were burgled in five minutes when DH left the garage door open while he took the dog out. I was in the jet tub while the thief was lifting my jewelry. The sergeant says thieves 'Christmas shop' along our streets, knowing that they will easily find nice things. They are in and out in three minutes. Even if you have security (and USE it), they are long gone before anyone can be on the scene. These thieves aren't interested in anything but jewelry and cash. No getting caught trying to wrestle anything big. They can buy what they want with the fenced proceeds of the quick hit.

Until recently, we drove older vehicles. I had a 95 Chrysler Cirrus (bought in 95) and a 02 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder (bought in 05). The Chrysler had 107,000 miles on it when sold to 16 year old as her first car. I traded the Spyder in for a 14 Chrysler 300C. Hubby drove his 99 van until the frame rusted out and we replaced with a 12 Ram 1500 PU. My family has always driven older cars. My brother has my dad's 96 Chrysler Sebring convertible and recently ventured into the 2000s by picking up a 03 Jeep Liberty. He drives multiple cars every day (utility purposes), switching between a work van, his personal 00 Dodge van and a 73 Plymouth Gran Fury. He's got a bout 7 cars (never less; you'd understand if you knew our family). My all time favorite car to drive is now in a museum. A 27 Dodge Cabriolet that was in the family for 30+ years. I loved driving it. The heavy duty truck transmission requiring double clutching, the "grabber" brakes that required an oh so gentle touch on the pedal. I miss that car.....Here's a picture of the car being loaded up to take to the museum. The guy's head that you see is the guy who's in charge of the car. We've kept in touch and they haven't modified the car at all. Still looks like this and is driven very frequently. I've been fortunate to have driven cars from every decade starting with the 1920s and I've enjoyed the heck out of each one.

Yeah - I actually wound up buying 2 different brands of enzyme drain cleaners, used them several times in ALL the drains. I plan on using it again. At first I used the ammonia method, it didn't work either. And yes I did a LOT of online research and did read some statements that it's not good to do the caulking but we needed an immediate fix and will look into getting the toilet checked out by a professional. We did a lot of the things I mentioned previously several times, not just once, man what a nightmare. DH runs like a deer when anything is mentioned about DIY plumbing, very shocked that he even did these 2 things. He's a journeyman electrician and knows his way around that and a few other things but he has a bad phobia about anything plumbing-related. The gnats were either fruit flies or drain gnats (not drain flies) but they look similar, I tend to lean to the drain gnats though, but they do like vinegar, and they also like Kombucha and beer, too. I used them all 3 in the homemade traps.