heartlandcanuck

One of the central characters with Elsie (or Elise?) an overweight classmate who was stealing lunch money. Her mother had placed her on a strict diet and she stole the money to buy candy after school. The main character's mother ends up hiring the girl as a math tutor to help pay back the stolen lunch money.

When it is hot, Jello pudding really hits the spot... unless I read the ingredients. It is basically sugar, cornstarch, flavours and colours.

Does anyone have a recipe to make the mix so I can use natural flavours and skip the food colouring? Cooked pudding is really easy from scratch, but I am trying to avoid using the stove during this heat wave.

We had a strange experience at the border on Sunday, crossing in from Canada.

My folks are Canadian citizens who live in Canada, and I am a Canadian who lives in the United States. My husband is a US citizen, and our baby, though born in the US would be dual because of my citizenship. We were all in a car crossing into the US at Port Huron Michigan.

We handed our collection of passports and birth certificates to the agent, he looked them over, asked the usual questions, handed our stuff back and we went on through. We had pulled past the inspection station when we realized that he had kept my parents' passports.

To retrieve them, we had to cross back over the bridge, pay another toll, clear Canadian customs, pay the bridge toll again, cross over to the US and get into line. (We were not permitted to park on the US side and get the passports because we had left the customs area. The agent with the gun said so.) So we go through all this, answer the usual questions plus a few more, and pull away. Before leaving the customs area we checked all of our paperwork. This time, the agent had kept my husband's birth certificate. We parked in the inspection area and an agent fetched the certificate for us.

Is this common? I have crossed back and forth for years without problems. Twice in the same day the agents kept some of our paperwork!

When I click on "edit content" for the converter on the new and improved myYahoo, it goes straight to "email content" instead. Has anyone figured out how to change it yet?

I kept refusing to switch to the Beta because of this, but now my original page is not accessible. There does not seem to be a way to contact Yahoo directly with help any more.

Years ago, I entered into a debt settlement program and have not missed a payment. One of the credit card companies refused to work with this company, and sent the debt to collections, who refused to deal with the debt settlement company even though they have the money in an account to settle for what the collection agency offered.

Today I had a judgement against me in court. (The "hearing" took about a minute, and the judge was not interested in hearing about my attempts to settle the debt.)

Now that there is a settlement, I understand that my wages can be garnished.

I accrued the debt and entered into the debt settlement program before I was married. Can the creditor take the judgement and seize money from our joint bank account? (We have a baby due in a few weeks and had put aside money for the co-pay of our hospital tab.)

Can they garnish my husband's wages?

(We live in Missouri.)

This gal I know, "Spongie", has been leaching social security for years. To make a long story short, I am pregnant and so is Spongie. She's no one I have ever hung around with and I have been dodging her phone calls for months. I did explain to her that my free time is limited since I will have to work right up until our son is born and that sleeping is my new favorite hobby.

This week she has left me a couple phone messages about a baby shower she is throwing herself. My first instinct was to sent a card saying, "I already gave at the office, as did my husband and every other taxpayer. We're pitching in to cover your medical bills, provide you with cheap rent, WIC, and cable TV. The seniors have agreed to share their social security cheques with you until you or your mate feel like working again." I just don't want to get her anything else.

I know that is not very nice. Does anyone have an idea for how I could politely tell Spongie that I am not coming to her baby shower?

I work in a truck stop along an interstate. Last week, a bus full oif seniors on a tour came in and sat in every avaliable seat. They all wanted a cup of coffee, and they only had twenty minutes. So two servers got a whole busload of people a cup of coffee within their timeframe, and of course each wanted a separate bill. The tour hostess even demanded free coffee. Then they all got up and left. The supper crowd was coming in, the dining room needed to be reset, and not one nickle was left as a tip. Not one.

(For those of who whom are not waiters.... the federal minimum wage for servers is just over two bucks and hour. We have to declare our tips as income, and our sales are tracked for that purpose. If you don't leave someone a server a tip, you have actually cost them money because they will have to pay tax on a tip you did not leave.)

I understand the concept of a fixed income.... but is it common for busloads of tourists to leave no tip?

We inhertied an adorable, lovable resucue puppy last week. We're quite attached to her, as is the family Coonhound. To me, she looks like a boxer. One the way to the vet this morning, I was stopped by animal control, who said we can't keep her because she's a bitbull. I asked the vet, and he didn't think she was a pitbull, that she looked like a brindle boxer mix. The animal control officer stopped us on the way home and I told him that the vet didn't think she was a pitbull, but that she was mixed. Since the vet could not specifically say she is not part pitbull, but only that he didn't think she is, that was not good enough for animal control. I called city hall, and the cheif of police came down (one of two officers in a one-horse town) and he took one look and said, "She's a Pit."

Is there any reliable resource out there to help figure out what kind of puppy she is? We don't want to lose her if we don't have to. If she is part pitbull we need to find the right kind of home for her

A couple days ago, we adopted a (pitbull?) puppy that has had a rather rough week... thrown out of a car onto a freeway in Miami, rescued by a truck driver who had her in the cab for six days, to the home of a cook at the local truck stop for two days, to our house in Missouri with four cats and a grown dog. Of course we showered her with too many treats and her food is new. Anyone surprised she started having diarreha?

I have read many excellent posts on this topic, and one theme seems to be to feed her rice. I don't happen to have any rice in the house because of my own allergies, and was wondering if I could substitute oatmeal, cream of wheat, malt-o-meal, pasta, or grits without making the situation worse?

I'll get her to the vet this week. Due to the nature of the rescue and adoption, we simply weren't ready for a puppy.

I have been to the Bohemian Cafe time and time again. I'll agree that it is truly great.

What I am hoping to find are Indian, Greek, Vietnamese or Eastern European.

I lost my job today. (The circumstances were fishy and no valid reason was given, but we won't go into that.) I am here in the United States under a TN Visa. How long do I have to leave the country? I have a few weeks' severence pay and would like to stick around for a while to either pack my s**t or find another job.

On his radio show, the guy makes derogatory statements towards others for what he calls "acting white," and a few weeks ago launched into a monologue about "where to find white people." As I listened I laughed for a while then asked myself if a paler comedian could get away with making similar remarks about African Americans on a nationally-syndicated show. Is this fair?

It was my understanding that as a routine childhood illness, getting mumps meant lifetime immunity. In first grade I came down with mumps, but now, 27 years later, I have the classic symptoms and perhaps a touch of hypochondria. It will be next week some time before I can see my doctor to get it looked at, and by then it should hopefully pass through.