Hi Beth and everyone, Beth...thank you for your wishes. I too thought having my first-born go off to college 4+ hrs away was difficult but you are right...small potatoes compared to the long distance he has chosen to follow his career path. It is most important that he is happy wherever he may be. I have never seen the book but I am sure to be looking for it now. It sounds wonderful! Mickey is a most unusual blend. His mother was Chinese Sharpei and father Golden Retriever. Hard to believe, huh? He does have the wrinkly trait underneath all that fur and was the only black puppy in the litter so my daughter chose him! Julie...my daughter arrived home for Thanksgiving break tonight and she wants me to pass along her thank-you for thinking of her as well! She loves the angel and will be taking it with her when she goes back. :) To everyone...have a most wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!! Blessings, Dee

I dunno, I think if someone is too loud for you at a sports game, it's your responsibility to move, not theirs. I don't think it's at all like a movie theater where it's both common courtesy and within the rules to be quiet. I think it was generous of her to try to be quieter but ultimately I think it's your problem, not hers. She's cheering her child on at a kid's soccer game, not watching a chess tournament in a library. If it were loud heckling or something, that's entirely different. As for the goalie thing - I don't think anything should be said. Perhaps if they made her permanent goalie, but comparing her to other players is a little unfair as it sounds like no one likes to be goalie. And you can't expect a coach to put in a bad goalie just to be fair, because life isn't fair and sports are competitive. I used to play softball for years as a kid and I was AWFUL. I wanted nothing more than to be a pitcher but I was always stuck in right field because it took the least talent! But I respected that decision because I also wanted to win, and part of being a team is participating where you're needed, not necessarily what you want to do. That is a very important skill that will help your niece dearly when she has to enter the real world and work for a living. When you work, you often get assigned things you don't necessarily want to do but you still have to do them if you want to keep your job. It's pointless to compare yourself to someone else because there will always be other circumstances. Going to your boss and complaining that you have to do something that someone else doesn't have to do, or saying that you don't want to work as much as they ask you to, is a good way to be let go. I realize it's a kid's game but it's never too early to learn how to cope with situations like that because life seldom goes the way you want.

I ran into a friend yesterday that was picking up the wrist corsages for her twin sons' dates, and getting supplies for the pre-prom party that was to be held at her place. She said the plan was for people to get dressed at her place, to go for pictures, then go for dinner, then skip the prom altogether because "it's lame" and then go to the after-prom-party somewhere else. I'm not sure I get the point of getting dressed for prom, and then not going to prom. Or whether you can call something a pre-prom party or an after-prom party if you don't attend the prom. The complaint about the prom being "lame" seemed to be focused on the "Gestapo-llike chaperones" who wouldn't let the attendees get too close to each other on the dance floor or illegally drink alcohol at the prom. I silently thought sarcastically "How dare those chaperones actually do their jobs? That's so 'lame'." I hope your daughter had a fantastic time.

One thing I wondered about is the sometimes lack of a common language. How did the team members communicate and share ideas, concerns and knowledge about how to get the boys out. Maybe there were translators. Just heard this morning that the last rescuers escaped just in time as the pumps failed and the tunnel began to fill up quickly. That seems very odd to me that it would fail at the last minute, and there should have been backups. There is always misinformation during these events, so in time we will get a more accurate story, maybe.