Luckygal, where in the world are you? Somewhere near a beach obviously--but which one. Sorry no good luck on the TS shopping, do keep trying! Jeanne, I have two baker's racks outside, one is a corner unit--but neither look nearly as cute as yours with your collections and vignettes. I need to work on mine I think. That is so neat that you do the Farmer's market too. Candy, I'm another one who does tablescapes for my "imaginary" friends. DH will only eat at the table when we have company--rest of the time he prefers to eat in front of the tv. Karen, I didn't do a table, but I did glue a little cheese tray and glass dome on a pedestal and decorate it--can I get any points for that? ;o) Kathleen, the rooster napkins like in your photo that you shared with me are some of my favs. We don't do sit down breakfast often, but I like to just sit the table and display them on the plates because they look so cute.

This is a great thread - although it seems to have strayed a little bit from the original question - there are still many interesting ideas and opinions being given. Personally, I don't deer hunt because I don't particulary like venison. In Wisconsin, where I live, the fall deer hunting season is about as close to being a religion as it is to being a sport. Rifle season typically runs from the Saturday before Thanksgiving to the Sunday following the holiday. Schools close the entire week because they realize that a good many (most?) of the students and a good many teachers have other ideas for that week and there is really no benefit to keeping the schools open at that time. I own 56 acres and I allow my neighbors to hunt on my land. I KNOW that my neighbors are safe hunters and that they are respectful of my property. Also, if they happen to shoot an animal on their own land, and not kill it immediately, I certainly want them to have the oportunity to track the wounded animal if it happens to lead them on to my property. Knowing that there is the potential for hunters to be on the "wooded back 40" anytime during the season means that I don't go into the woods without wearing orange. While I don't have a particular worry about our dogs or horses, I do keep them close to the house (dogs) or in smaller pasture (horses) during the rifle season. Ultimately, my family does not change our basic lifestyle to any great degree during hunting season. Although I understand your initial hesitation, fifidanon, I also think that you did the right thing by overcoming your concern and living your life. As other folks have already suggested, the car ride to the mall is MUCH more of a risk than is the potential stray bullet. As for deer roadkill, it is also legal here to recover a deer that has been hit by a car. Seems to me like a much better option than letting it lay on the side of the road to rot. Last year I hit two deer with my truck - in almost the same location - about 5 days apart. The first deer survived the impact, but it had a broken back and was in obvious pain, so I drove to a neighbor's house and brought him to the wounded deer where he finished it. We loaded it up and took it back to his house so he could butcher the carcass. The second deer was hit right on the head (I almost missed that one) and was killed outright. Again, I loaded it up in the truck and took it to the same neighbor so the meat could be used - rather than leaving it to rot and to be wasted. BTW, that particular neighbor works as a seasonal DNR warden so he took care of the "official" report on both accidents. Anyway, although we may see deer-as-roadkill-food differently, I certainly echo labmomma's sentiments when I say that the story of the deer that she hit being allowed to die a slow death - in pain - as being preferable to a quick bullet putting it out of its misery - because the cops were concerned that people would see them shoot it (!?!?!?!) was disturbing at several levels. Sad.

Yes, I had new clothes for the start of school every year. Some were hand-me-downs from the girl next door, who was three years older. I was just thinking the other day that Marilyn's clothes would suit me better today because my hair color is more red-brown now. She had brown hair and eyes. I was 'black and blue'. I remember trying on dresses that my mother had brought home as she decided which ones to keep and which to return to the store. Until she decided, they were all 'property of Marshall Field's'. That certainly sounded odd. I'll always remember my first day at Kindergarten because within the first minute in the door a classmate punched me in the stomach. I was staring at him, and he didn't like it. I'd never seen a Japanese boy before! WWII had recently ended, and I expect he had suffered because of his race. (His mother was mortified!) A dozen years later Mike and I graduated from HS together.

I'm not sure it was my first day of school but it was definitely one of the first days of kindergarten. My cousin has just moved to my town and we were fast friends. We ruled the kindergarten classroom because we were the only ones that knew someone. Our mom's had to have the teachers put us in different classrooms after kindergarten because we wouldn't let anyone else play with us and we were very bossy. I'm not sure my mom did the right thing on that one. Both of us were very shy after that and didn't make friends easily until much later in school. My DH remembers his first days vividly. His mom walked him and his twin brother to school and they both followed her back home. They didn't want to stay there. This went on for several days and she'd walk them both back to school only to get home and find them back at home. Finally one day when they showed up yet again at home, she put them outside (it was a cold day) and wouldn't let them back in. They finally got cold and walked to school and stayed the rest of the time. I think that is the funniest thing ever. I can just imagine getting home after taking the little rascals to school only to find that they'd beat her home. Today they'd probably call social services or something.