All kidding aside, if you eat armadillo meat, always make sure it is well-cooked. There have been cases in which people contracted leprosy from undercooked meat. (Well-cooked meat isn't a problem.) And, yes, I suppose only a Texas girl would know armadillo meat must be 'well done' for safety reasons. During the Dust Bowl days, people in desperate situations often resorted to eating armadillo meat. They called armadillos "Hoover hogs" after President Hoover's campaign promise of "a chicken in every pot" failed to actually put a chicken in every pot. Some people in Mexico, Central America and South America still eat them. See there....y'all thought gardening was my only area of knowledge....but I know a little bit about dillos too. Dawn

Maureen I sure hope you and your dh are feeling better soon and that your trip will clear up any remaining cold symptoms. I drove back and forth across southern Spain twelve times when I was working for a Spanish company years ago, and at the time I was familiar with every little bend in the road. But things will have changed since then. But here are some tips and must sees. If you need a hotel, there is nothing better than the Spanish National Paradores......the government chain of inns located in old castles and modern buildings, in some of the most beautiful and historic places in the country. The menus in their dining rooms reflect the local cuisine and I can't praise them highly enough. Here's another site with info and photos of the Paradores. Places not to miss: - the white village in the province of Almeria.....a beautiful Moorish town perched on a hill, and looking down over the Parador of Mojacar. NERJA - another charming town......albeit somewhat touristy now. The focal points are the caves and the Balcón de Europa, a magnificent viewpoint. ANTEQUERA - a beautiful medieval town. MIJAS - another lovely white village on the Costa del Sol. RONDA - another must place to visit, having one of the oldest bullrings in Spain, now a museum. A historic and beautiful place with lots to see. GRANADA - of course The famous is a MUST see. Keep your camera batteries charged and have lots of memory cards when you go! I'm sure the southern coast is now somewhat overdeveloped with holiday apartments and mass tourism, but once you get out into the villages you will still find much of that Andalucian charm. Food.....try places where the local folks are eating and avoid the eateries populated by tourists. Ask a local person....taxi or bus driver, news agent etc. where they would recommend trying the typical dishes of that area. PS....Oh and if by unfortunate chance you are stricken by "travellers tummy" (hope not)...one of the best Spanish products to help you out are tablets of "Salvacolina" available at all pharmacists. And if your cold symptoms persist, a very good remedy is a medicated hot lemon drink which comes in a box of little pouches of powder which you dissolve in hot water called Frenadol which is what I use to stop cold symptoms. No prescription needed. Good Trip....¡Buen Viaje! SharonCb

I found this post by accident and couldn't stop laughing. What a relief to know that I am not the only member of the "wrong car club". I'm not even the only member of the "loading groceries in the wrong car" club, LOL. My husband is always pleading with me to please be more aware of my surroundings. My daughter and I loaded a weeks worth of groceries in someone else's car one time. I got into the drivers side and she got into the passenger seat and buckled up. We were both into our conversation so much we didn't notice someone elses fast food bags and jumper cables in "our" car. It hit us both at the same time ...mid sentence. We grabbed our groceries as quick as possible and ran.Unfortunately, in our hurry, we left our toilet paper in the back seat of the car. I've always wondered what the real owner of the car must have thought when he found an unopened package of toilet paper in his back seat.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond and give me good advice. You pretty much confirmed that what we are doing is right--just "being there," keeping things light, not making a big deal out of this to DSS. KKNY, you don't know me, yet you read the worst into what I said, in the meantime, ignoring all of the clearly positive aspects of it. Perhaps I should read the worst into your post to point out that you did nothing more than take an opportunity to further what appears to be your "mission" to attack the SMs here. If you really wanted to help, as a BM, you could offer some constructive advice. But if you did that, you might actually help IMPROVE a step situation, which would REALLY run counter to your "mission," now wouldn't it?? For your information, and for anyone else who is wondering, I made the point that they are not "good enough" to make their middle school team (yes, they had try-outs and DID NOT make it) to show that this "team" they are on is just a step above "pick-up basketball" in the neighborhood. It is something they do for fun and exercise, but b-ball is not a sport that either of them particularly excel at, nor is this league something that is that important to them vs. time with their father, which they need, NOW MORE THAN EVER, IMO. It would be like DH telling them he can't do visitation one weekend b/c he has a church league b-ball game. If DH has to miss visitation for work (which almost never happens, as even though DH is a lawyer and works MANY hours a week, he puts in extra hours during the week so he can take off the weekends and be with DSSs), or if DSSs have to miss for school, church or some other activity that is really important to them, that is another matter. And this is not MY original sentiment--I am actually parroting what DH says, and HE certainly is allowed to make statements w/o having bad motives ascribed, ISN"T HE, KKNY??? The point I was trying to make is, there are some activities that really "justify" missing visitation, and others do not and are an "excuse" which is a symptom of a problem. If we suddenly agree to skip visitation everytime there is something going on that one of them could possibly do, we might as well tell them to "have a nice life" as I suggested above. I probably should have mentioned that DSSs have played in this league for years and have NEVER had a problem missing Sat. games for visitation, so it seems obvious it was an "excuse" this year. Also, they both are VERY VERY good at other things, and we support them. DSS 14's soccer team went to the state championships last year. DSS 12 has only lost a few wrestling matches IN HIS LIFE! So, when it comes to soccer and wrestling, we understand that they can't miss and work around those things. Someone mentioned "walking on eggshells" around SKs. That is the real irony of KKNY ascribing bad motives to me. For 9 years, I have gone out of my way to try not to say anything that would be upsetting to DSSs. When they do things that I would correct my son on in a minute (like eat chocolate chip cookies, brownies, etc. dropping crumbs all over the kitchen instead of over the counter, pouring a large glass of the last milk we have in the house so that there is none for anyone else) I do not say ONE WORD. I remind myself that I am glad they like my cookies, and I'm glad their drink of choice is MILK over soda. Of course, I would think nothing of telling DS 6 not to do that or anything else. But I don't want to do anything to make them feel "picked on" at our house. So it is almost LAUGHABLE to me that someone here would say I made a "dig" at DSS 14 over not being good enough to make the middle school team. Also, I feel badly for DH b/c he is truly one of the best dads one could imagine. Someone asked that recently on another thread. My DH is a wonderful DH and an amazing dad. When DSSs were little guys, he bathed them, dressed them, complete care. (He bathes our 2, does diaper changes, etc.) DSS 14 plays guitar and when his band played for his school recently, DH took the morning off work to be there. (4+ hours round trip for a 15 minute assembly, but again, he loved every minute of it.) He also takes DSSs INDIVIDUALLY on father-son weekends each summer. (For past 3 years, DSS 12 and he have gone to father-son wrestling camp; DSS 14 and he have been to father-son baseball camp and pro football Hall of fame.) DH loves to laugh and has a very witty sense of humor and always keeps things light. I just read this response to DH in its entirety and he agrees with everything I've said. I think I'm going to end this with the sentiment that the fact that DH and I are on the same page and have a STRONG, HEALTHY, HAPPY marriage will get us through this. Thanks again for all who posted on this. Have a good day.