Having read the first 20-odd letters about this fun, toungue-in-cheek piece, I'm sure it will generate a great deal more controversy.

That said, I was relieved that I'm not alone. I spent three months pinching pennies so that my husband and I could take a week-long vacation to a hideously expensive Caribbean island. (It's the only vacation we're going to have this year, and possibly next.)

Could I afford it? Barely, but only because I planned for it, and didn't use a standard credit card--we used the MasterCard linked directly to our checking account (into which I'd already put the money I'd saved), used the Amex for the rental car only, and paid for our flights using Amex points.

But as I planned, I heard about various friends' job losses and felt really guilty. How could I be so selfish as to plan this vacation? (I justified it by telling myself that this was going to be the first vacation in four years where my husband I weren't participating in wedding, visited his family, or stayed on a friend's sofa.)

Maybe we didn't do the right thing. My husband is a chef and jobs have been scarce because no one is going out to dinner. I work for the government and my center's funding renewal is perilously close to being canceled. I might be out of a job in a few months. But we took the vacation because we made certain that it would be paid for ahead of time and not accrue additional debt.

To be honest, despite the guilt and concern, it was worth every cent and if I had it to do over again, I would.

I'm 45, and my Mom was a stay-at-home mom. She's a brilliant, creative woman with an RN degree, but like most women of her generation, she stopped working when she got married.

My Dad was an administrator at a well-known technical university on the East Coast, where my Mom frequently accompanied him to dinners and professional events. Typically, the engineers, PhDs, and Nobel laureates with whom they dined would ask her what she did for a living. When she responded that she was a mom, they'd either tune out, pity her, or completely disrespect it. She got so sick and tired of the responses that she finally decided to tell thim this:

"I'm a pediatric physical engineer. My main area of work is on neuronal evolution and development among newborn homo sapiens, with a specific focus on entropy as evidenced within bounded systems in suburbia."

It's really sad to see that things haven't changed much at all since I was a kid. Some day, I hope that we all figure out the basic issue: working or non-working, mother or not, we need to respect each other's choices, and keep working for society to respect those choices as well.

First, YIPEEE HH is back, and in fine form.

Second, I cannot wait to read her "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" series premiere review. (And there had better be one, too.) What could be better than two sisters, both of whose deceased father-in-law was found, wrapped in plastic, in the back of a Lincoln, with four bullet holes in his body? Can't wait!

I'm no fan of Bush's wars, or indeed, any war, but as the sister of two Gulf War veterans, and the Aunt of a new Air Force specialist, I can wholeheartedly appreciate this young man's dedication to duty.

Here's hoping that both he, and Afghanistan, are both soon left to peaceful futures.

Regardless of the growing technological options for personal expression, we still have choices. We can still opt not to Twitter, FaceSpaceBook, or YouTube our inner lives. No one is holding a gun to anyone's head to sign contracts with reality TV shows, publishers, or other communications congolomerates offering quick riches in exchange for a kiss and tell.

If you were raised believing that a public pillorying of your object of vengeance is appropriate, then you'll take maximum advantage of the technology available, be it a telegram or a Twitter. If you were raised to believe that discretion really is the better part of valor, then you'll suck up your socks and move past the event. It's really pretty simple: it's a choice.

(And it's great to see a piece by the fabulous Ms. Chocano!

I'm not a parent, but I did learn from my parents, who have been married for almost 50 years. They taught me that marriage has ups and downs and that the process of commitment is really a process of continual recommitment. The person you marry at 20 or even 30 is not the same person at 40 or 50, so you're constantly re-learning about your partner.

That said, it's also about priorities. My mother "picked her battles". She felt she could raise three happy, healthy kids, OR keep a spotless house but not both. Choosing the priorities of life and accepting that a lot of stuff will fall by the wayside is a critical part of marriage (and parenting). You want to have sex, or date night, or whatever? Great, you're going to have skip the play dates, or the laundry, or something, otherwise having it all becomes having nothing.

For completely unrelated reasons, I just had two abdominal surgeries less than four months apart. And, for some completely unfathomable reason, you must A) pee, and B) consume Jell-O to the satisfaction of your surgeon before you are considered healthy enough to discharge.

And people wonder why we need healthcare reform....