Frank Bielec and Carter Oosterman were there, Frankie is the one that I know. Forgot to tell you, they were giving away free tree starters, I got a Black Walnut and 2 Cypress trees to plant.

Barker_Tx, we are in Austin, Tx and if you have any suggestions, please email me at bevangel_72(at)yahoo.com. A big problem we're having is the cost of all the facilities in Austin. MIL gets about $1100/mo social security and about $900/mo investment income. All of her money is invested in CDs however and none of those mature until next March, so even though know she needs to start spending down the principal, we'd very much like to wait to cash one out to avoid the early withdrawal penalties. In the interim, DH and I are supplementing her living expenses. But, both our jobs are currently "shaky" so we really can't afford to supplement more than about $1000/mo and even that is a MAJOR stretch. If either of us actually loses our jobs, we're going to eat through our own financial cushion very very fast! In Amarillo, MIL's social security and investment income came really close to covering her expenses and she would cash out a CD about once a year to put enough in the bank to cover the rest of her expenses for the year. The only thing we were supplementing was her medication management at about $400/mo. Moving her down here and paying the $3000 non-refundable move-in fee to the Meridian ate thru pretty much all the extra cash she had on hand. So, until next March, we're going to have to supplement every penny above about $2000/mo that it costs her to live. As for the Meridian... I have talked to the administrators until I am blue in the face. They just keep shifting their stories to cover their a**es. First they claimed that they intended for another resident who attends almost all the activities in the main area to go and get MIL and befriend her... but that that resident moved out shortly after MIL moved in. When I pointed out that 1) they never TOLD us the volunteer resident had moved out and 2) THEY were the ones who made the promise and, if they couldn't find a volunteer to fulfill the promise, they should have assigned a staff member to do it, they changed their story. They NOW claim that the only activities they EVER promised to take MIL to were the ones in the Platinum Plus wing and that, if we understood anything else, it was just a misunderstanding on our part! They won't respond to the fact that we talked repeatedly about how much MIL enjoyed playing the dominoes game called Forty-two, which was shown on the MAIN schedule 3x per week and is NEVER shown on the Platinum Plus schedule, and which they very specifically stated they would make sure she got to play. They also ignore the fact that we talked very specifically about my concern that she would get lost trying to get all the way down to the main activity room by herself and discussed the need for her to have a scooter because it was too far for her to walk. The area where they hold their once daily platinum plus activity is right around the corner from MIL's apartment. She can find her own way there quite easily and doesn't need a scooter to go that far. But, "we only said we'd get her to the Platinum Plus activities" is now their story and they are sticking to it. As for the non-events on the health center calendar: According to the administrator, the "current events" activity on the health center calendar would have happened except that the volunteer that leads current events on the weekend was unexpectedly called out of town. The "worship services" on that calendar was a reference to the worship services happening in the Platinum Plus area (as if any one living in the Health Center could POSSIBLY have made it up there since it is at least a 5 minute walk by a healthy person!) The "social hour" was a reference to the fact that, about 3PM the nurse came around and gave each resident a cookie and some cranberry juice! As for the non-events on the Main Calendar: their story now is that "our independent residents lead most of the events that are scheduled and, if they decide not to hold them, we ask them to let us know so we can revise the calendar but, if they don't, that is nothing the Meridian can do." And, as for scheduled afternoon game time that didn't happen in the Platinum Plus wing: "our staff member was there at the scheduled time to lead the activity but none of the residents showed up, so after a few minutes, she left and went to take care of other duties." As I said, they're covering their a**es! As the situation now stands, MIL is back in her apartment and we have been told that they will "remind her of all activities, including those in the main building, when they go in to give her medications." They will also tell her where the activity is happening (as if she can possibly find it on her own) and that, IF a staff member "has time", one will walk her down to occasional activities in the main building. I would bet a million bucks that no staff member will ever have time!!!! Bottom line, she will be left to vegetate in her room until we can move her out. The only reason we even looked in Temple was that Austin seemed so expensive and, as one went further out from Austin the prices seemed to drop. We figured we could afford the time and gas to drive 50 miles to/from Temple once or twice a week more easily than the prices of similar places in Austin. BAD PLAN! Obviously the staff at these places need to know that family members can and will drop in at any time of the day or night! Otherwise some of them are going to take advantage of the fact that they can pretty much lie to you with impunity. I don't want to file a lawsuit or bring other legal action against the Meridian as long as MIL is still basically in their control. No telling how they might take it out on her! Further, a legal action would probably be unavailing because all the promises were made verbally --- nothing in the written contract about them. Once MIL is out though, I intend to sic the state on them for running an unlicensed assisted living facility and also to post bad reviews at every location I can find. Meantime, we're still looking for a good situation for MIL in or near Austin that is somewhere within reach of our budget.

Most rapid rise yeast has Ascorbic Acid added to make it rise faster, it is basically vitamin C. I'm fine with that. I don't know if the funky smell and too rapid rise (for active dry yeast ) was from the additive or the new process they are using. I don't think they are adding corn syrup, but from the article Robin quoted above, it sounds like they are actually using the corn syrup to make the yeast. "Yeasts are grown in the industry in big tanks with sugary water in the presence of oxygen. When the desired amount of yeast is reached the liquid is pumped out, and the yeast is then dried. Nothing else is added in the production of yeast." I found this after searching on the Internet. So I would guess instead of using a sugar/water solution, Red Star now uses corn syrup to grow their yeast. I just can't understand why they felt they needed to add an emulsifier. I can't say I have ever had a problem with my yeast staying solid. If it worked for so many years I can't see why they would change it. I'm guessing the funky smell is from the corn syrup base they are growing the yeast from, and the undesirably rapid rise is from the emulsifier.

flyleft, send me an email and I'll give you the whole ugly scoop - I don't want to totally derail this thread into something that I could easily see devolving into a political argument. oakleyok says: "I think we all would like a pat on the back every now and then. [...] It hurts when we do a topic asking a simple question or just to show something off, and all we get is criticism." So SAY what you want and don't want. Say something like "Hey, I finally finished such-and-such, and I wanted some pats on the back from my buddies because I worked really hard and my family just doesn't 'get it' how much this project meant to me. I'm not looking for critiques because I like it the way it is, I just want to share what I did." If you want people to critique something but you're feeling extra thin-skinned (not the best time to post, however), tell people to go easy on you. If you only want them to consider one thing, like a lamp, and not pay attention to the rug or the curtains, say so! "I do get my feelings hurt when I do a topic and the replies have nothing to do with what I ask." I'm sure you'll probably take this as "criticism", but you do need to become better acquainted with the concept of "topic drift". Side discussions do occur, especially in long threads, when person A finds something in a post by person B that s/he wants to address even though it isn't what the OP has asked, but it doesn't quite merit starting an entire new thread. And sometimes the whole thread does drift off into an unexpected direction and take on a life of its own... when that happens you either put on the big girl panties and go with it (because frequently when this happens it can be a LOT of fun) or you shrug and abandon the thread as a lost cause, but it's gotta sink in better that it is NOT about YOU personally when every single post in a thread you start isn't about you and your question from beginning to end. It's just the way forums work.