He does tend to use the laptop bag for pads, folders w/notes, pencils, his eReader and other work paraphenalia so the slim cases won't work. I loved that Tumi you linked to dlm2000 but it only has the shoulder strap and no handle so the only way to carry it is over the shoulder. I think there are times when he's going to want a handle on top. I did see that they have a Tumi store in Center City Philly so I may go down and look to see what else if available. Thanks natal for reminding me of Wilson Leather! I'd forgotten them, it seems now that in my area they are in the outlet malls. Don't know if they're outlet stores or just in the outlet mall as regular retailer. There is one near enough for me to go look so I'll probably do that too. So far, all I've done for his birthday is make a dinner reservation and buy a bottle of bubbly. It's less than 2 weeks away! Must chip away at this very quickly or I'll be empty handed.

This one is from my own sweet mom, who is mother to 9 of us. To save on bathroom storage space ~ which, let me tell you, was at a premium with 9 kids! ~ she gave us each a simple, inexpensive, plastic tool-type caddy to keep our own personal bathroom necessities (toothbrush, comb, brush, etc. ) in. They were stored on a shelf in our bedroom closets, to be carried in and then back again, as we needed them. This helped a lot to keep our bathrooms uncluttered and organized. Mom also bought one of this type of plastic baskets for each kid to catch of our dirty laundry. She wrote our names on each of them. The plastic made it easy to keep clean and the holes kept our dirty clothes somewhat aerated . . . which really helped with our brothers' stinky things (LOL). The handles made them easy to carry back and forth to our laundry room. Lynn

cynic, We have factory installed built-in GPS in both of our cars. Both units allow the user to choose the type of route they desire. Ours allow for 'Maximize Freeway'; 'Minimize Freeway'; 'Direct Route'; or 'Easy Route'. The four different routes will all take you to the same place. Since you mention "exit", is it possible your friend had a route programed that did not maximize freeways? Mary, We love our GPS units & would never voluntarily purchase another vehicle without them. We've been using marine GPS since the government released it (2001, I think?) with WAAS. IMO, there's no better company than Garmin for GPS. We've got their marine flagship model on our boat & it's wonderful. It's got radar, GPS, weather imaging, 3-D, sonar, & ties into our auto-pilot & VHF radio. We still chart our course the old-fashioned way as a precaution but truthfully it's more just an exercise to keep our navagation skills sharp. The GPS pilots our boat much more accurately than we could ever accomplish with charts. Garmin, IMO, makes the best GPS navigational equipment available & they've been at it for a long time. Best Buy is having a sale on Garmin today. The sale was just for yesterday (Friday) & today (Saturday). /tricia

There are all kinds of people everywhere, it's very true. Of course lots of people enjoy visiting and vacationing, even retiring, to less congested wide open spaces. I was just saying that we decided it wasn't a good starting point for us, both from an occupational opportunity standpoint and from an educational standpoint for our kids. Our options wouldn't have included rural or farming communities just as a matter of personal preference and background, but rather more likely a smaller beach town instead of where we wound up. I can see where my limited and abbreviated comments might have brought you to your conclusion but I don't think any of what you're suggesting is the case. About them or me. On the other hand, it wasn't me who first described the existence of and a term for "country bumpkins". My kids are young adults now, very open-minded (perhaps more than I) and all have what I might describe as a compassionate world view. I think the experiences they had living in a diverse and more cosmopolitan place played a role in the development of their views. In the US, it's sometimes difficult (for many reasons, not infrequently economic ones) to be able to live in areas that give familes access to higher rated school districts. Unfortunately, many of the higher rated ones are in areas where housing and the costs of living are higher. What reasons brought you to want to home school your kids? I ask because that too can rob kids of the learning experiences gained when having to interact with lots of other kids. Does any of it matter? Nah, just chit-chat.