Grumpy

^its a conspiracy. Pampers is out to get us! (I've noticed the same thing.)

My daughter was about 2 when we started potty training her. But that's half because her little brother kept us too busy to spend time worrying about it. Size 6 isn't really that big. My 12 month old is in size 5's, but he's fat. (Getting thiner now that he's walking though.)

I think size 6 diapers says more about childhood obesity than about the age people are potty training.

You are aware that it takes around 2 years and $40K to adopt, right? Yep. I've been considering it for atleast 5 years. I think you would be great! I just hate that so many people act like you can just call up the baby hotline and be like hey, give me one of those, I want to adopt. It *should* be that easy, or at least not as difficult and expensive as it is. I know so many people who have gone through the whole process only to be very disappointed at the end when things go wrong or the mother backs out of the deal, it's way more complicated than it should be. For an infant, its crazy complicated. For a child a few years older, its not nearly as expensive or complicated. Though it does still take a couple years. I have friends that adopted an 8 year old, and were expecting more hassle than they got because they'd heard stories from people that'd adopted infants. Good luck with that, and that's all I'm saying... I've heard of more people that intend to use cloth diapers than that actually did. If you're able to keep using cloth, more power to you. We were mercifully spared from the back-crap phenomenon. I considered the back-crap phenomenon to be amusing. At least the kid's got talent. May not be able to sit up, or roll over but look what he/she CAN do! The projectile vomiting was far more amusing though. My daughter once spewed over 6 feet from a high chair in a restaurant onto a neighboring table when she was about 3 months old. Fortunately the other table was unoccupied. Without even following the link, I know what this is. I wish we could do this, but it requires being a full time SAHM or SAHD, there is no way to do this if you have to leave your kid with other people during the day as they would all have to be on board as well, and no day care provider is going to do this. Uh, I think Mrs. Grumpy read something about that and tried it when we were expecting the second surprise. She gave up after about 8 hours, and spent a few days trying to clean the carpet and catch up on laundry.

Ok, can someone tell me why a public library would need little panic buttons under the desks to call the police? I know that banks are running out of money, but are people really robbing libraries now? The last time I paid a late fee I think it added up to 35 cents, do they really have that much in the register? And even if they did have a need for panic buttons, why would they put them in the children's section? Are people coming in and holding up the children's section? "I need all your copies of The Cat in the Hat, Goodnight Moon, and Everybody Poops, in the bag now! And don't even think about stamping them so that I owe late fees!" And if there is a good reason for needing a panic button in the children's section, Why on earth would you put a shiny red button at a height that my 12 month old son can reach? If he finds something shiny round and red within his reach, and he can't get it into his mouth, you can be darn sure he's going to play with it, and I don't think thats unusual for a child his age. Yes, the police came. My wife has been informed that my son now must be held at all times while in the library, including during storytime when all the kids are usually allowed to crawl around and play with each other. I've been informed by my wife that this isn't funny and I need to stop laughing about it.

Well Mrs. Grumpy and I've got 2 little munchkins that we had in our late 20s. I'm happy they came when they did, because a few years from now I don't know if I'd have the energy for keeping up with them. And we purposely put off having kids till we had enjoyed a few years of marriage by ourselves first. Some days last summer I wished we'd only had one, but after the boy got over the colic we started liking him a bit. Plus now his sister can annoy him instead of us once in a while. There is, however, absolutely no chance in hell that the two offspring we have will get another sibling.

^I'm disapointed it'll take that long too, but considering all they'll have to get done for this project before construction can start, Spring of 2010 was what I was guessing. Consider that officially the site hasn't been selected, though I'm assuming that'll be done shortly. The property still has to be sold, which will take a few months. MMPI has to select an architect, which I assume they've already done, but if not could potentially take a few months. MMPI has to come up with some possible designs, which will take a few more months. The county has to select which design they'll go with. The city will have to review the design to ensure it meets code and then issue permits, Applications will have to be done for historic preservation credits, Contractors and subcontractors will have to be selected And a whole host of minor details

Medical mart contract details how Cuyahoga County taxpayers' millions will be spent Posted by Joe Guillen and Jim Nichols

^Jerry, does that mean that the fuel surcharge is going to be reduced next year?

No. For tax purposes your permanent address can be somewhere other than your school address, as long as you have a permanent address and pay state and local taxes there. As a college student you basically can pick your location. Voter registration is based on where you live, and you can basically pick whichever place you want as your residency and vote there. There's no requirement that you pick the same location for both taxes and voting. (I was a Texas resident for taxes from 2003-2006, lived in an apartment in Georgia, and voted absentee in Ohio. Its a long story.)

County releases Med Mart development agreement Posted by Joseph Guillen Click here for the actual agreement

You could always just ask your payroll office to withhold an extra $10 every week. This is exactly why there's always an "additional amount" block on tax withholding forms. Then again that tiny person you're carrying will probably be worth close to $500 to you at tax time next year, so you might not need to make any changes at all.

What effect does the horn have on Bob & Doug MacKenzie's type of idiocy? Apparently little to none, so what's the point?

If that's the case, than what good is the horn doing? That statistic is only really helpful if you're making the argument that all at grade crossings should be updated, which would be ridiculous. People are going to ignore the warnings regardless of what we do, so why punish people that live near the tracks, and discourage people from living near the tracks? Aren't RR tracks through the middle of a neighborhood bad enough for the area and property values? Wouldn't areas near railroads make nice locations for TOD?

^Yes, because a cookie with that message without little spots all over it would just be wrong.

My attitude on both of these situations is the same. Very simple. Your house was there before the railroad or freeway, you may have an argument. You built/bought the house after the railroad or freeway was already in place, too bad, shut up, you're either dumb or you were scheming. The taxpayers should not be raising these people's property value through sound barriers if they built/bought the house artificially cheap due to the sound at the time. They had the choice not to build/buy there. In general I agree with you (certainly in regard to the freeways), but if the railroad has increased the volume on their horns (which many have) or significantly increased the amount of traffic (which I'm pretty sure has happened with the line going through Hudson, if its the one I'm thinking of), then I think homeowners have a right to ask either the railroad or their community to do something about it. Personally, I think its ridiculous that gates, flashing lights, and bells with the addition of some extra signs aren't sufficient to warrant a quiet zone. I think the federal rules are overburdening communities on this, we shouldn't require our railroad crossings to be idiot proof. How stupid do you have to be to go around the gates? If you are going to go around them, why wouldn't you at least look first? And does the train's horn really prevent people from going around the gates more than if the train didn't sound its horn? And why should the community around the tracks have to suffer just because the Federal Government is scared some idiot will ignore the gates, lights and bells? I feel this is just as stupid as the beeping RTA busses in Cleveland, why does the community as a whole have to suffer because there's a handful of idiots that we have to be overly careful of? Sure some sprawl ends up around railroad tracks, but a lot of the communities that are near tracks have been there since the railroad was a major source of passenger transportation. So don't dismiss this as some new issue caused by sprawl; its an issue that's getting worse because railroads are turning up the volume on their horns to avoid getting sued, and retarded federal rules are financially preventing communities from allowing drivers to use common sense. It sure looks to me like our government saying "F You" to poor communities that can't afford to spend money on this. End rant

I accepted a job in Columbus once, but then got offered a job at only slightly lower salary in Cleveland. I guess you could say I work there, I'm just a couple years late for my first day on the job.

I'm not sure its coming down. Maybe I'm being delusionally optimistic, but the current owners paid $2.5 million for it just a couple years ago, (County Auditor's website) and as recently as November they were planning on trying to fix it up. (I knew there was a thread about this somewhere.) (Is delusionally a word?)

I think the current state of the building makes it more of an eyesore than plywood ever could. Plus when you consider the big sign for the company working on the building and construction dumpsters overflowing and its pretty obvious to anyone that's really looking closely that the building is undergoing some work.

Why? If they are redeveloping the property, I would do things to protect it from the elements. Or is this not the case? If they're doing asbestos abatement, I'm pretty sure they're required to seal off the openings.

Based on the size of the pile of junk on the side of the property they're obviously gutting the building. Not a big surprise considering the condition its been in. Also this morning it looked like they were putting up plywood over the windows.

Even cheaper, just grow out the beard, and use the same clippers you've got for your head on your face. (Also reduces the need for a scarf in the winter).

I thought it sounded like the police sirens in London. Maybe that was due to the echoing of all the beeping coming from several directions. I hope this is just a test, because it certainly seems to be a failure. Yes Jpop, it's that bad.

I don't see a thread specifically about this, but might have missed it. Does anyone know what's going on with the old HoJo off E 55th? I've seen cars parked around it for a few days and there's a big banner hanging on the North side of the building that I noticed this morning. I'm just curious if they're domo'ing it, or rehabbing. Regardless of what they do, they can't make it look much worse.

Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan rips Plain Dealer coverage of medical mart project Posted by Joe Guillen