I have never been so proud of my 9 year old son, as at his last birthday party. He received a gift of a board game (quite expensive) that we already have. He did exactly what I could have hoped for--he said thank you, he made a big deal about it, and he moved on. He didn't say a word about us already owning it, because he didn't want to hurt the other boy's feelings.

I told him after what a wonderful job he'd done.

It is a mark of maturity to know when to be silent, and when to tell a white lie. To tell Aunt Marge that the thanksgiving dinner was wonderful when you could barely choke it down. To thank your cousin for the lovely yellow tablecloth with duckies and sunflowers. You get the idea. Perhaps they didn't want to be your friend any more--perfectly fine. Friendships start and end for a thousand reasons. But there are ways to move on from a friendship, and what they did is unconscionable.

The kind of people who would post hurtful things about you all over an online forum do not have a shred of common decency. As much as it may hurt now, these are people you do not want as friends. They may have revealed hurtful things about you, but they have revealed even more about themselves--that they have not even begun to approach adult behavior, that they have no tact, no class, and still have the behavior of hormone-addled middle school kids.

I wish you joy in your next friendships, and that you will find people with sense, decency, and tact to spend your time with.

... in a generation of adults who never watched anyone breastfeed. We don't generally live in extended families, so we never watched an older sister or auntie breastfeed a young cousin or nephew. It wasn't done, so we never saw it done. We have a while until we get to where boob = lunch, (rather than boob = playboy centerfold) but I can assure you, to both the mom and the baby, it's lunch. Nothing more nor less. A very nutritious, naturally manufactured lunch, but lunch all the same. Food. Just like scrambled eggs, peanut butter and jelly, sushi, beans on toast, or lamb chops.

Get used to it, all of us... in the workplace (and the cafe, the bus stop, the park, the airport, the grocery store)... anywhere it's OK to eat a sandwich, it's ok to feed a baby.

And nope, that does NOT include a bathroom stall.

I'm a novice gardener. I'm pretty bad at it, just learning how to make things grow, and half the time I don't even know what I want. My local nurseries are more expensive (by a little), but the people there actually know something about plants. I can say "I want some kind of little ground cover plant with flowers that will grow in full blazing sun on the south side of the house and not die."

The Home Despot people look at me like I'm an alien. My local nursery has employees who know plants, and they know our local climate, and what to recommend. "Oh right over here. Flowers blue in the spring, and..."

Home Depot is probably fine if you are an amateur horticulturist and really know exactly which genus and species of what that you want. For the rest of us dabblers, I'll stick with people who actually employ knowledeable staff, and enough of them so I can find one and ask a question.

And yes, they help put the heavy bags of mulch and whatnot in the car (after they've recommended what I should buy).

My tomatoes are lovely this year. I'm even growing pumpkins. This is fun.

It's scary. It really is. I just developed this a couple of years ago, out of the blue, hazlenuts now send me into fits of hives, my lips started to swell... it was terrifying. I avoid them like the plague.

That said, as a fuel, maybe it's not so bad. My house is surrounded by farmland, much of it filbert orchards. There is always the trade-off between orchards and one more housing development. I'd like to see anything stack more ammo on the side of the orchards.

... being a cube dweller for 20 years, I found earplugs to be a lifesaver and sanity saver. I can't work to music, my brain just doesn't work that way. But earplugs are awesome for making the commotion around me disappear. Available at every pharmacy.

I haven't tried the noise canceling headphones, but those might be a good option too.

And, LW dear, you do sound a tad immature. Even if the cougher's reaction is psychiatric (though plenty of posters here think not), it's really none of your business. Distractions in the office are part of life. Get used to them. I've had the nail clipper, the "let me tell you about my kids", the guy who shouts at his wife on the phone in what he supposed was the privacy of a conference room, the guy arranging the details of his son's soccer league... all of it. Short of getting your own office with a door (which I've never managed), it will not go away. Unless you're being singled out and harrassed, there's not a thing you can do. Get some ear plugs or an iPod, and do your best to drown it out.

I found that eating carrots at my desk WHILE wearing earplugs was the best. Can't hear a single thing.