Anyone ever try melatonin to help with sleep? My son (the same 14 year old) does not fall asleep and never has. He routinely doesn’t sleep until midnight and is exhausted the next day. Our doc suggested a very low dose (0.25 mg dose) of melatonin, over teh next few weeks, to see if it helps.
Any experiences?
I’m back. (dammit!)
With much wailing, sobbing and stamping of feet, we reluctantly left the ship on Saturday. Not all of the wailing and sobbing was ours - the ship’s crew seemed genuinely sad that the all-gay charter was leaving and that later that afternoon, they’d be taking on another load of *those *kind of people. The worst kind of people. *Boring *people.
I believe it. I’ve got pictures of bartenders dancing, plus there were the times that I saw the pizza restaurant staff having far more fun than you’d expect, and the ship’s hotel manager was particularly, ahh, visible. (He’s one of us! And furry!) 
The ship’s doctor was also something of a Daddy bear. I should have faked some sort of illness… I’ve got pictures of people on other ships that we’d docked alongside, and beyond the horrifying pea soup green carpet on that P&O ship, there was just no sign of life over there.
The Captain was surprisingly approachable - I had a couple of conversations with him, and I got the impression that he’s going to try to jigger his schedule to be with this group again next year.
I’m just SOOO glad that we weren’t on the cruise that had to turn back a couple of days ago because of an outbreak of norovirus.
We’ve already reserved the same cabin for next year’s trip. It was an exceptionally pleasant “rape” and we do have seven months to cancel without penalty. Same ship, but a different set of islands. We already know a few things that we’ll do different next year to help limit the costs - this year, we spent close to $1,000 on a side trip to visit DH’s mother. Next year, we’ll just fly to the port on the day of sailing. If we want to visit her again, it can be done for just airfare, and not needing hotel stays and rental cars. We just didn’t think it was advisable to be in the same state and not visit her, even if she does live nearly 500 miles away from the cruise terminal.
I’m also amassing a list of things to do that don’t affect the cost, but will make things nicer like bringing a small clock for the stateroom (there’s not even a clock-radio provided) and a night light for the bathroom, saving us from having to turn on the one and only BRIGHT light. We’ll bring the Bubba Keg to fill up with iced tea so we can have a nearly bottomless supply, rather than having to go to the Lido buffet ten times, and we’ll give some serious pondering to whether or not to bring the tuxes even though we looked absolutely smashing in tails. (And whoever that was wearing the “tuxedo” t-shirt looked absolutely silly.)
Yes, a ninja librarian; I’ve got the “sneaking up on people” part down. 
That’s a bad exam. Good exams can be passed by the students, not just by the person teaching the class.
I don’t wanna be at work tonight. It’s going to be 19 Amurrikin tonight! :mad:
I dunno… that sounds pretty normal for a core engineering subject to me. The philosophy of core engineering professors seems to be “We’re going to show you just how much you DON’T know! HAH!” After the shock of the first few exams like that that you get back, you get used to it and start to think “Hey, I got better than a 60. All right!”
I finished the rainbow scarf this afternoon. The last bit of yarn was spun incorrectly, making the color changes off, so the scarf is shorter than I’d like. I started a Shoulder shawl in Syrian pattern from Victorian Knitting Today. I’m just going to do the central panel and leave off the border. It should be quite striking, since I’m using Noro Kureyon Sock in a pink/purple/gray/black.
It’s been very damp lately but on the bright side, I have seen a lot of rainbows.
In order to compensate rampant mediocrity, the teacher increased everyone’s grade by 12 points (on a 100 point exam) and the exam now counts as 15% of our final grade instead of 20%. So, the teacher seems to concur with Spaz.
More random updates from the hallowed halls of academia: Calc III lecture was cancelled tonight. Teacher’s sick. Go figure - tonight was supposed to be “let’s spend two hours doing the homework that’s due Thursday!” night, where if you have any questions about any of the HW problems you can ask the professor and he’ll do the problem on the chalkboard. Go figure that’d be the day he can’t come. Ah well, more time to do HW.
Went to Qdoba with roommate Chris and two of his friends; half-price burritos AND free drinks for UMBC students! I got a chicken queso burrito and a drink for $3.35, but wasnt hungry, so the untouched burrito is now in the fridge.
back to Calc homework
Soapy and Moonie cause I was gonna mention it to him. Melatonin is a nice nondrug for sleep. I take it about an hour before I wanna be sleepy bye and find it usually starts to work within half an hour. MOOOOOOM takes it too on occasion. I don’t take it every night just when I’ve had a not so good night’s sleep the night before. Like tonight. At about eight I’ll take one. I do sleep all night when I take melatonin.
gotti glad the cruise was a blast. I want to do a gay cruise. <snerk> Gay cruise <snerk> Any pics of DH and you in the tuxes?
Moonie pics just for me! How thoughtful. I’ll be on pins and needles awaitin’.
In other news, today was my hump day. YAY! Two more days to go! I’m with dotty… c’mon Thursday!
Hi all
Yesterday was a snow day so I slugged all day
Today my “stomach flu” was back so I slugged all day
in other words: Blurf with a capital “Bl”
Ice Hockey is my least favorite sport, even ranking below field hockey, which is saying something. Sorry, fans.
blurf
Back from library work. Am tired, but feel good. Learned some new stuff today. Ate lunch with a psychologist (she works for the hospital). I was on my best behavior, so I wasn’t taken away in a straight jacket. Yay me!
I stopped counting after realizing that I’d taken over 400 pictures. We do have a pic of tuxedoed selves, but it was one that the ship’s photo studio sold to us. I don’t have a scanner, so for now, it’s visible only to people that are in the same room with it.
If you want to do the cruise to Aruba next February, don’t dawdle - last I’d heard, about half of the ship has already been reserved for next year.
Melatonin, huh? I’ll have to look into it. Insomnia is getting old; where do I buy the stuff? Pharmacy counter? Next to the Advil? Grocery store impulse-buy rack next to the checkout?
Swampy - I figured you were just messing with me earlier so I played along and said I’d send pics. You were just joking, right? I honestly can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not… Stupid lack of inflection in forum posts.
Gotti - I’m bi, is that enough to get me a room on the next cruise? It sounds like fun! Oh, and when you said the ship’s hotel manager was “furry”… You mean, like, lots of body hair, or do you mean he’s a member of the furry fandom? My curiosity has been piqued.
Seconding or thirding or whatever-ing the request for pics.
Calc HW is on the verge of actually happening. God I’m terrible. Why do y’all want it to be Thursday? Saturday, dammit, I actually have something to look foreward to on Saturday! As opposed to Thursday, when all my work is due!
So far this week sucks! Yesterday the tooth extraction, today swollen face and I had to drive an hour to take my Mom to get her eyes checked. While we were there a storm hit, 6 freaken inches of snow, ice, whiteouts, just a nightmare drive home. There was nothing but big trucks, hoping that I was in my damn lane, and that I wouldn’t fall off the road. I stopped counting vehicles in the ditch after a dozen. I couldn’t even pull over, because there was no where to pull over, too much snow. What a mess. Then I got stuck in the damn driveway. And the Dad of the lady that sold me the horse called again to see if I changed my mind yet and would sell Willow back.
Everybody needs to fuck off now. Where’s my smokes and beer?
I’m too tired to catch up with today’s news. I will catch up tomorrow.
Over the counter. You can find really high doses (like 30 mg) but my son was recommended 0.25-0.3 mg.
Glad you’re safe** FC**!
Hi. Crappy day. My foot is better, I guess, but it takes more toe power than you’d think to push in a clutch so I couldn’t drive my car today. I hope I can drive it tomorrow.
That sounds scary, FarmBabe. I haven’t seen the horse video yet, but I’m a big fan of your other videos.
I’m eating pretzels and Vernors, but still feel lousy. Sounds like rosie and Lunch and I all have the same thing. May I recommend Lysol in the MMP?
Guess I’ll crawl back under the covers…
Disinfected hugs to all who need them.
GT
Hope the foot’s better tomorrow, Pie.
I’ve taken melatonin for sleep problems and it’s helped. Now I don’t have a sleep problem. I have a baby. Wait, I guess that is a type of sleep problem, huh? 
Got out of Costco (second trip) with only buying grape tomatoes, ground beef, and chips. That’s pretty good. I’m going to do a mammoth batch of spaghetti sauce, possibly sort-of authentic beef ragu, and vegetarian chili in the next few days.
They were out of celery. Out of celery? I’ll have to pick some up tomorrow.
Muppet, have you ever had Skotidakis yogurt? If you haven’t, they have it at Summerhill Market, and maybe The Big Carrot (snerk!). It’s pressed Greek yogurt and it’s even better than Liberte. Seriously. It’s like cheesecake.
Not caught up - just got back from class and I’m pooped, but before I turn this computer off, I thought I’d say Hi!
Hi!
Went to work today - the roads were mostly fine. Daughter is off again tomorrow - apparently her school district is wussy. Class was fun tonight. I’m exhausted. Off to beddy bye!
*
MWAH!!*
Oh my… yogurt better than Liberte? Is such a thing possible?
Hopefully the Carrot sells it. I can’t walk out of the Summerhill Market without spending an unholy amount of money for a small bag of groceries, which is bad (but then again, having it at the Carrot might be bad also, seeing as it’s just down the street and all).
Speaking of food, I ate waaaaay too much for dinner. A couple of my girlfriends and I went uptown for some proper Chinese food, and we totally pigged out. We had steamed sea bass, braised chicken with chestnuts and mushrooms, and a spicy eggplant hot pot with minced pork. At the end of the meal, they even brought out complimentary bowls of red bean soup for dessert, but I was much too full to eat more than a couple bites.
grooooooan
Welcome back, gotti! I’m glad you and DH had a good time… it sounds like it was a total blast.
Sending lots of feel-better vibes to the sick and/or sore Mumpers.
Hello my sweetses! Another looooong day of work, but I’m home and that’s all that counts, right?
My son is excited because he has an opportunity to interview at the Sonic that’s currently being built right near our home. He’s been very proactive about getting the job. He e-mailed his resume in and received a response. He then followed up with another e-mail which garnered another response from the hiring manager who let my son know that he would like to interview him around the week of of the 16th of March.
This would be my son’s first job. He’s only sixteen, but dying to get a job so he can earn his own money and start saving towards a car.
We’re going to watch a movie now. I’m tired.