The dog keeps a low on-line profile, as he works for an unnamed government agency. Sorry, I have to refer to him as 'the dog', due to his sensitive job. Tried to figure out his current assignment without success. I attempted to put his discarded paper back together after he shreds it; but unfortunately he likes to pee on it first. My two piles aren't shrinking fast enough, there is still stuff to use up. Shall I start a pile in the garage or on the roof? Maybe I can move the fence line ten feet back, the neighbors never come out in the back yard anyway. Late Update- Found out that the dog works for the National Weather Service. It seems that in addition to being service animals, herding animals, and sniffing out various forms of cancer; dogs are able to predict the weather accurately for five days in advance. The Weather Service is only accurate two days in advance. Anyway, his job is to figure out how to make compost piles smell more and knock out the dog ability to predict the weather. And I was guessing he worked for the CIA. Nope, just a government branch looking to protect itself.

Only you can know the answer, as only you know both of them. You could ask yourself what SS would have to gain from 'playing you' and then what would BM have to gain? Based only on what you've said above (and reading all your previous postings) I think it's possible it could be BM. For example, SS knows there is no party. He knows family dinners are what your family does for ALL the children. Another example is her saying that 'he needs attention from Dad'. You know in reality that if Dad is not working Dad is spending time with you and the kids. The one who does not KNOW what is happening in your house and/or how things like parties are done is BM. You know what she claimed to DH is silly, but she does not know that. The knowledge/lack of knowledge might be your key to your answer as to who is 'playing'. SS might be whining about a big wonderful birthday party for your son to his BM in an attempt to play her guilt so she will buy or do something for him. She did not deliver when she had promised him for his birthday, perhaps kid is trying to make her think no one at your house does anything for him but just the other kids 'boo-hoo, BM, feel sorry for me and buy me something'. 'Boo-hoo, BM, Dad does everything with the other kids but not ME'. Maybe he's 'playing' her ! Another thought is could she be trying to put off bringing him home on a drinking day (Sunday) vs a working day for her (I'll assume she works Monday)...in other words, she can't drink all day with her husband and drive SS around drunk or merely having to drive SS around interfers with her plans of wanting to spend the day drinking. Perhaps SS spending staying over an extra day has nothing to do with SS's desires but rather trying to rearrange her weekend to suit her own agenda of selfishly drinking her Sunday away? DH needs to make clear to BM that he will not tolerate her drinking and driving son. If she wants to drink herself to death, that's her problem, but if her drinking is involved at any time during transport of SS it puts SS at danger.

I'm with you on the sugar, Debby. The stuff is wicked. Dr. David Servan-Schreiber's solidly researched book, Anti-Cancer, devotes a whole chapter to sugar. Among other things, cancer cells thrive on it. But the fats are much more of a grey area because again, everyone is different. Dr. Robert Atkins was my MD in NYC. I lost weight on his low-carb, high saturated fat diet, but it raised my cholesterol. Years later I tried low-carb again, but this time eliminated the animal fats. Much better! Lost weight, lowered my cholesterol and blood pressure, and my dangerous triglycerides plummeted. I always say some bodies can tolerate anything, and that includes sugar. My dad couldn't walk up a subway ramp in his forties without taking nitroglycerin. Back then no one ever heard of cholesterol, but he heard of a doctor who did. This guy was ahead of his time. He had my father give up all saturated fats. No more cheese, ice cream, sausage, fatty steaks, etc. He gave them up all at once and never looked back, setting an example that served me well later in life. It wasn't long before he didn't need the nitroglycerin anymore. He bought a bicyle, started playing tennis again, and lived to be 90. But he didn't give up sugar. He and my mother had dessert every night, and cakes were often made from mixes. He loved candy, and Halloween was a favorite time of year. :-) Sugar didn't clog his arteries, and it didn't give him diabetes. However, I can't say the same for me. I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic in my twenties, with wide swings in blood sugar, plus there were those awful triglyceride levels I mentioned earlier (547 at one point). I suspect I inherited some difficult genes from my maternal grandmother (who died at 43 from a heart attack) in addition to some genes from the diabetic side of the family. So I stay away from sugar--and feel much better for it. When a doctor's office asks what pills I take, and I tell them I take none, they're likely to say, "Aren't you lucky!" Then I say, "No, it's not luck."

Colleen, I know just what you are talking about. Elery's son visited last weekend from California, we hadn't seen he or his wife in 2 years, or their boys since last summer. I will also add that I don't have television other than those channels available via antenna, I think we get 7 channels. So, no one watched television but the first thing the boys asked about was the wifi password! Their parents didn't actually ask until a couple of hours later, LOL. Between touring the farm, driving the Mule, fishing in the ponds, paddling the boat, looking for frogs and generally visiting, the devices were used mostly in the evening. The adults visited while the boys did something with phones/tablets that did not involve the adults. However, the two oldest (16 and 14) were not happy to be dragged away from their electronic whatever to converse with adults. The result was that the only information we got about school, interests, camps, friends or life in general came from the parents, and we won't see the boys again for at least a year. The only thing that interested them more than electronics was the Mule, driving was a far greater attraction than anything provided via the internet, thank goodness. (that's a Kawasaki Mule, BTW, not a living creature, LOL) And my pet peeve is someone who needs to check their phone, their Facebook, their Twitter/Tweet/Insta-gratification/selfie page continuously while the other person sits there virtually alone. How in the world did we ever live before all this constant bombardment of social media was available to us and we had to wait to get home before we could use the phone? Annie