Yasmina, I wish you'd stop being so immature about this thread and our responses. Your age is showing and you haven't even told us. If nothing else, consider the source. Consider how many respondents think you have made a big mistake. Count them if you will. Did we all imagine it? Do we all have the exact same imaginations that brought us to the exact same conclusions? Is everybody wrong but you? That last question is one for life. Ask it of yourself often for the next 50 or 60 years. Any prudent, self-reflecting person would. Now consider the information and the source of the information on which we based our opinions. We had only that which you conveyed - the background of factors for us to examine and scrutinize. If there was more to the story; if the story wasn't nearly so bad as you initially expressed, then the failure this time was completely yours. You come back in anger to explain things a little better, but you surely cannot blame us for what we understood of your first and subsequent posts. One or two people might not catch something, might read it wrong, or might misconstrue, but surely not all of us and not most of us. You are again transferring aggression and blame, just like you did with the 5 year old. doesn't require lashing out. We can be angry and not lash out because what holds us back is gratitude of no regret. Everyone on this earth has experienced something like what happened with you, the kid, and the medicine. In every case, there is someone to answer to, someone who exclaims "Woo! Thank goodness nothing bad happened!" but without lashing out about it. Why? Because nothing bad happened. So, why did he lash out in anger? What was there to be angry about and call stupid? I disagree with BF and those here who say you should have known to ask the parent. I believe we do not know things until we learn of them. It didn't occur to you to check with dad about the medicine. It wouldn't occur to anyone without pre-disposure to the concept, whatever it might be in their history and experience that made them aware that this is something you have to ask about. There was nothing in your past, but now you know. Sorry, I stick with my original opinion and previous two posts. Your last ones did not change my mind although they did shed some more light and probably offered a different perspective. However, they didn't change scenario or the logical, analytical review. For the record though, I did not say or intend your relationship was a mistake. I think it was a mistake to leave everything you knew to be with a man it doesn't sound like you knew so well and to be entirely dependent on him. Perhaps you have plans to find work in order to gain independence so that if you ever have to pick up and go, you can do just that. For all I know, you have considerable savings to fall back on. I hope one of those two possibilities is the case with you. Incidentally, my age comment wasn't to offend you, just stating a fact that you are acting just like I did and practically every woman here when we were young(er) and inexperienced. A mature woman (someone older/more experienced) would not have written your posts, not the way you wrote them. Most of us are of an age and been through enough to have some wisdom to offer......to those younger ones who will listen so we can spare them some regret.

yep, I over heard several master gardeners talking about this same thing. worthless.

Thank you all! You make me feel much better about spending so much on something "frivolous." She is home now, but it is dark and dreary so I won't try to take any pictures. Definitely an original painted on a piece of hardboard (not canvas) and framed in gold-painted wood, not metal as described (I actually like the wood frame better). It is very well done. In person, it seems less whimsical and more "mid-century" than I expected from the pic (but then again, I was assessing it in horrible lighting -- standing in the rain in a mall parking lot looking at the painting in the back of her van). I will post some pics and closeups once I get it hung. It is signed S. Cerra '59 on the front and on the back under the paper (which ripped while I was loading it in the car) there is a piece of masking tape that says "Sebastian Cerra 1960". I tried a brief googling and came up with nothing....maybe one of the expert sleuthers here can give it a shot! The seller said she bought it along with 3 other paintings out of a very high-end estate sale and doesn't know anything about it other than that the house it came out of was filled with extremely nice art and furniture. (Sadly, I think her new home will be a serious downgrade, LOL!)

"Just wait until you have to pack up all that crap and move it." My SIL just bought a retirement home so they are decluttering their current house as a preparation for selling it--she keeps telling me she can't believe how much STUFF she's got to get rid of. When I go to their house I always admire how it looks nicely organized and without extraneous things all over. However, I also admire her tons of closets and storage space which she says leads to keeping, you guessed it, all that stuff LOL. I've decided I will play a mental game this summer and pretend we have to move; maybe that will be my motivation to get rid of much unnecessary and unused stuff in our house! I use the holidays and shopping for gifts to satisfy any yen I may have to be a retail hunter/gatherer. The past few years I increasingly feel as if I am gorging myself after staying on a careful and healthy diet; by the time January comes I feel so psychically bloated from all the shopping /buying that I need another year to rest up and recover! It's interesting to me to watch my young adult daughter who is setting up her first home. She loveslovesloves Home Goods, Marshalls, Pier 1 etc. And when I go with her I usually find stuff I could easily buy. I have a rule that I can't take anything from those places home the day I see it. That usually short circuits the purchase, I'm rarely motivated enough to fight the traffic and crowds to go back a second time!