Well, it poured here in Troy this afternoon for a while, like 20 minutes. It helps. But, in watching the NWS radar, it doesn't look like I got nearly as much at home out in the Bloomfields. Alas, I'm always among the last to get rain. It's going to be cool Saturday. Much of the garden is going bye bye for the year. I'm sick of it, too, and it looks bad between the heat, drought, and the deer and woodchuck that have rendered a lot of things like sunflowers and amaranth into leafless sticks.

Olychick: I'm pretty sure Washington state's law (and Maryland's and maybe a couple of other states') refers to deceptive practices, not places that mistakenly send the wrong merchandise. Somebody at O clearly pulled the wrong item (reading- or vision-impaired?). Most times, at least regarding Amazon customer service, the merchant just tells the customer to keep the wrong item -- because the processing efforts aren't worth the money to the merchant -- but the OP would be hard-pressed to claim anything deceptive went on here. (Even if the item sold out before she could get it.) It's not a "gift." A gift is those personalized mailing labels that arrive in your mailbox with a letter saying "Won't you please donate to our cause in exchange for us sending you these lovely address stickers?" with the undertone of harassment. (And then some people do, feeling guilty.) Here's something from the Fla. atty gen's office: "If you believe that the unordered merchandise is the result of an honest shipping error, contact the seller and offer to return the merchandise provided the seller pays for postage and handling." (It goes on to say you should tell the seller -- in writing -- that after 30 days of no action, you will have no further responsibility for it.)

--" my nephew is kind of over the anger, he is doing great in school, he is managing his mental health with medication but with behavior modification he is doing excellent. I'm so proud of him."-- Good for him! It sounds like that no matter the chaos and mess around him, he at least is doing 'ok' and working hard at overcoming his own issues. It is strange though that your sister assures he get help and therapy yet does nothing to deal with her own issues. Ever watch that tv series on hoarding? OMG is right. I won't even begin to think I understand hoarding behavior, cause I don't, but I wonder if the moving/partner to partner lifestyle of your sister has somehow helped create the hoarding tendency? Perhaps she views the total mess and junk in her house as the one consistancy that belongs to her and the one thing she can control with thinking 'my possessions'. IDK. Such inconsistancies. Poor son has no shoes yet the lady has a housefull of them. No clothing, yet the house is littered with clothing. No food yet hands her money to others for food. Makes one wonder why she did not hand her friend the address for the foodbank instead of the cash. Is the 'stuff' all over her home the reason she is always broke? Meaning she spends her money on all this junk and therefore has none for the things she really needs? I'm not sure there is anything you personally could do to 'help', it seems like professionals with training to deal with people with these issues would be the only hope of breaking what is going on. Has your nephew talked to his therapist about his living conditions? Is there a school counselor that might be able to assist him? A sink full of dishes would not give CPS much room to work with, but a housefull as in unsafe, unsantitary ect might. If you 'rat' her out, be prepared that your sister will be angry with you and perhaps try and shut you out from interfering with what obviously she sees as 'no problem'. I have not a bit of advice, but wanted to say from your 'vent' I think you have real reason to feel concern. I'm just not sure what it is you could do to 'help' all on your own...this sounds like it may be a bigger issue than you yourself could take on without some outside assistance. In the meantime, perhaps you could include your nephew in a bit of your weekend activities (minus Mom) just so he knows Aunt Myfam is there for him and give him a wee bit of a chance to have some normalcy in his life, a decent meal ect. And continue to help out a bit with the little things you have been doing (like the facewash).

Whew, necropost on fire! Hehehe. And years later, yeah, there for sure is some design things that seem to take over functional things. I grew up with some open concepts. Sort of, lol. Houses with the kitchen table as the center or kitchen had an island and the area was also open to include the kitchen table. It has seen a lot, and now that table is in my kitchen (built in the 50's) that is open to host it. So for me, it is sort of odd that people rely so heavily on islands to the point where the kitchen table seems almost alien as a workspace. For the most part, kitchen is seperate from the rest of the house- cept the house my folks built. That had the kitchen, table area, and living room open running across the back of the house. The family room, foyer, and dining room along the front of the house were walled and had doors. So I think a more open concept can work if it's with good purpose. I also think many people just blow out walls or built without them just cuz and the results can be not great. Another one growing up is that if there was wall space in the kitchen, it was usually filled with useful things rather than decor. Hang up your pots, lids, molds, sheets and so on in a pretty way. My gma had a tiny kitchen, and her wall space including the basement stairwell was an amazing display of useful things. That kind of functional space is now given over almost entirely to decor- and build in more storage to hide those things is now the norm. A sort of odd one I had growing up was walking to your food storage space. The walk in pantry outside the kitchen, cellar down the stairs. Now its more common to build a bigger kitchen and keep it all in that space. I have a pantry in my kitchen, but I also like to walk down the hall to my larder.