A follow up to my post about not knowing the legality of homeschooling in England....

Last week I wrote a short little 'rambling over coffee' blog post that I had never thought about homeschooling being legal or illegal in England.  It just never came to mind.  But tonight while reading a story about education, a comment from someone in Germany said that because homeschooling was illegal in Germany, that many people who believe strongly in it are actually 'educational refugee's' who have traveled to the UK or Austria in order to educate their children out of the public school systems because they believe they are so poor.

That led me to look up some of the countries that allow (and don't allow) parents to homeschool.  Although there is a much longer list, the easiest to read and the one in a simple form was available on Wiki - and I just thought I'd put the European countries here as those were the ones I was wondering about in particular; 

Country or Region	Status	Statistics	Sources
Albania	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	WP[circular reference][35]
Andorra	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	[36][37]
Austria	Legal under restrictive conditions, homeschooling is allowed as long as the instruction is at least equal to that of the state school.	2100	WP[circular reference][38][permanent dead link][39]
Azerbaijan	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	WP[circular reference][27]
Belarus	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	WP[circular reference][40]
Belgium	Legal under restrictive conditions, Homeschooling is a constitutional right in Belgium.	500	WP[circular reference][41][42]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	[43][44]
Bulgaria	Illegal, public education is mandatory. Only children with special needs may be homeschooled under strict government control.	fewer than 100 families	WP[circular reference][45][46]
Croatia	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	WP[circular reference][47]
Cyprus	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	[48]
Czech Republic	Legal under restrictive conditions by law as alternative (for "serious reasons" ) for primary school. National curriculum examinations are mandatory twice a year.	2 500 families	[49][50][51][52]
Denmark	Legal under control of school, as alternative to the mandatory public school system. Inspections are mandatory every year unless special agreements are made. also the inspections are controlled by the local district public school and not a third part inspector.	349-375 children (2017)	WP[circular reference][53]
Estonia	Legal under control of school. Every homeschooled child must be supervised by an authorized school (can be a private school) and pass annual exams. Homeschooled children receive diploma from supervising school.	fewer than 100	WP[circular reference][54]
Finland	Legal as alternative to the mandatory public school system. Written and oral examinations to check on progress are mandatory.	400–600	[55][56]WP[circular reference][57]
France	Legal as alternative to the mandatory public school system. Inspections are mandatory every year.	5 063	WP[circular reference]
Germany	Illegal, public or approved private education is mandatory with the only exception being where continued school attendance would create undue hardship for an individual child.	400	[58][59]WP[circular reference]
Greece	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	[60]
Hungary	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions. From 2019 the law says that every child must be supervised by an authorized school and pass annual exams. [61]	7673 Children (2017)[62]	WP[circular reference][63] WP[circular reference][64]
Iceland	Legal only for holders of teaching certificates, in other cases public education is mandatory.	Unknown	WP[circular reference]
Ireland	Legal, homeschooling is allowed by the constitution.	1100	WP[circular reference]
Italy	Legal, homeschooling is allowed by the constitution.	Unknown	WP[circular reference][65][66]
Latvia	Legal under control of school. Every homeschooled child must be supervised by an authorized school (can be a private school) and pass annual exams. Homeschooled children receive diploma from supervising school.	fewer than 100.	[67][68]
Liechtenstein	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	[69][70]
Lithuania	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	[71][72]
Luxembourg	Legal, for primary school age.	Unknown	[73][74]
Malta	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	[75][76][77]
Moldova	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	[78]
Montenegro	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	WP[circular reference]
Netherlands	Illegal, public or private education is mandatory, with some exceptions.	931 children exempt* (2017-2018)	WP[circular reference]
North Macedonia	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	[79][80]
Norway	Legal under restrictive conditions, homeschooling is allowed as long as the instruction is at least equal to that of the state school.	400+	[81]WP[circular reference][82]
Poland	Legal under restrictive conditions. Every home schooled child must be supervised by an authorized school (can be a private school) and pass annual exams. Home schooled children received diplomas from supervising school.	About 14,000 children (2017)	[83][81]WP[circular reference][84]
Portugal	Legal. Children living longer than 4 months in Portugal must attend school by law. Home education under Portuguese national curriculum only. Mandatory annual exams in Portuguese.	Unknown	WP[circular reference][85][86][87][88]
Romania	Legal under restrictive conditions. Children with disabilities, special needs or whose condition does not allow them to be physically present in a school may be home-schooled, under the supervision of an accredited teacher. Foreign Curriculum can be studied, overseen by an umbrella school from abroad.	500	WP[circular reference][89][90][91][92]
Russia	Legal since 1992, law sometimes ignored. Every home schooled child must be enrolled into a state-licensed school (can be a private school), and does not have to pass annual exams. Home schooled children received diplomas from supervising school.	50,000-100,000	WP[circular reference][93][94]
San Marino	Illegal, public education is mandatory without known exceptions.	Virtually no homeschooling*	[95]
Serbia	Legal.	Unknown	[96][97]
Slovakia	Legal, under restrictive conditions (only ill children, or ages 6–10).	Unknown (Virtually no homeschooling)	WP[circular reference][98][99]
Slovenia	Legal.	Unknown	[100]
Spain	Unknown, as Constitution recognises freedom of education, but national education law stipulates that compulsory education must be met through school attendance.	About 2,000 families	WP[circular reference][101][102]
Sweden	Illegal, as of June 2010; supposedly allowed under special circumstances such as student health reasons or family travel, but virtually never approved.	200 families—half legally	WP[circular reference][103][104][105][106][107][108][109]
Switzerland	Legal in about three quarters of the cantons, with many being restrictive to very restrictive.	200–500 children	WP[circular reference][110]
Ukraine	Legal and expressly allowed for in Articles 59 and 60 of Ukraine's Education Law. From 20 August 2019 onwards, further liberalisation of the primary and secondary education comes in force.	100 families	WP[circular reference][111]
United Kingdom	Legal as alternative to the mandatory state school system.	20,000–100,000	WP[circular reference][112]
Vatican City	No indication for educational laws to exist were found.

Oh so random: Rambling over coffee

It's about 4:30 pm now and boy am I grumpy.  The sun is not shining... that's a big part of it.  I also had plans in place this morning that got sidetracked with everything else I had to do this morning that wasn't in the plans... that was part of it.  

__________________

I brewed some of my favorite peppermint bark coffee and while waiting for the mug to fill, glanced at the container of little individual creamers.  One of them was 'vanilla' and I thought to myself, "Well, vanilla might be good in peppermint bark coffee.  It would be a vanilla peppermint bark, and I love the vanilla peppermint flavor of Ghirardelli peppermint bark and the little Hershey's peppermint kisses... this might be similar!"

And the other side of my brain said "No it won't. You hate creamer in your coffee.  You hate anything in your coffee.  It will change the flavor and you won't like it.  Plus, it will cool it down and it won't be the 192 degrees that comes out freshly brewed that you like so much."

But did I listen to myself?
Noooo.
I added one little vanilla creamer and blech! Blech, blah! Gag!

I was right.
I should have listened to myself.

But I refuse to waste coffee so I am drinking it, but in order to to do so, I had to brew a second k-cup of peppermint bark coffee to add to the first to drown out the yucky creamer.  But... it didn't really work.  But I'm still sipping it.  Because...  frugal.  Not wasteful.

Sigh.

_______________________

This morning I woke and came out to the kitchen, glancing into the family room, to see a used tissue in the middle of the floor.  My stupid dog got into the office trash last night.  Grrr.  I've been sick with a nasty cold for 3 days and she grabbed out used tissues to pick through and eat and lick... which makes me want to vomit.  Funny, I can handle blood, guts, broken bones.  I can change poopy diapers, not think twice about diarrhea, and can clean up vomit.  But hair in the shower or the thought of a dog eating gross things out of the trash turns my stomach.

So yay, I ended up cleaning up tissues in the family room AND the office.

Then as I picked up the tissue, I saw a dark smear on the carpet from the corner of my eye.
DAMNIT.  That same fucking dog was wiping her butt on the carpet again.
So after I threw out the tissues I had to drag out the carpet cleaner and clean a 12 inch smear of crap and oils from the carpet.
During this time I let the dogs out to go potty and feed them.
One of my dogs is ADHD and an idiot, so if they are both on leashes they criss cross and she runs in circles and around trees, shrubs, the deck... and tangles her leash with her sister's into knots.  She ruins a $20 leash every month.  But she isn't prone for running off so we found if she is ON the leash but it's not ATTACHED to anything, she still THINKS it is.  So she does her business and comes back to the deck door.
But this morning, since I was busy carpeting cleaning her poop smear from my family room carpet, I took 5 minutes longer and so... she ran off.  Into the creek and through the woods.  Came back filthy, muddy and wet.  Again... damnit!  Stupid fucking dog.
I log onto computer and do some work, check emails and then...  my phone alerts me to a couple middle eastern named companies/dudes trying to charge my debit card for crap I didn't authorize.
Yep.
Debit card hacked.
So I stop those, log into my bank account and see 9 pending transactions by middle eastern assholes.
I deal with that (calling and talking to the fraud department) and then have to go to my local bank branch to fill out paperwork and get a new debit card.  (Because it was quicker than having them email me the forms and waiting for a new card in the mail.)
So I get dressed, throw on some makeup and shoes.  Out the door I go.
Find out from the bank that at least 2 charges went through already, 7 more pending and they can't actually submit fraud claims for the remaining 7 until they hit the account. 
What?
No.
I'm not going to come back again tomorrow and maybe even again the day after that if and when new charges hit the account. 
I told her (and by 'her' I mean the 20 year old working the special customer service desk FOR THIS SORT OF THING) that I didn't think that was correct.  I had called and talked to the main customer service for the banks fraud department before I came and they told me to fill out the forms today.  She even offered to email them to me.
Little desk girl says she'll 'ask her manager'.
Later, she comes back and says "yes" she is filling out the form today.  That they fill out the form and will hold it for a couple days to see how many of the charges hit the account first, then will send it in with the amounts filled in.
So she types it up and hands it to me to look over and sign.
I count her lines... 1, 2, 3.... 8.
She only typed up 8 of the 9.
I point this out to her.
Ooops!  Hee hee...  good thing I had you look it over!
Um, yeah.
So she types it up again.
9 this time.
So I sign.  And now it's a waiting game to wait for them to post to the account.
I leave to come home.

When I walk through our garage I always open the storage room door just to look and make sure everything is as I've left it.  We caught a flying squirrel in our attic this week - and it's pretty normal this time of year for them to come in from the cold and try to find ways into our attic to stay warm this winter.

I was expecting to see... nothing.
But what I saw was this.

Dang it!
BUT luckily, I had just happened to see a trap on our garage shelf last weekend and on a whim I just set it and placed it in the storage room.
I've never used one like this in there before but I did.  AND... I'm glad I did.

So I deal with THAT and then come into the house only to see.. that frickin' dog got into the used tissues again while I was at the bank.

And that my friends... is how I spent this morning, and how I did not actually do any of the things I THOUGHT I would be doing or how I planned my morning tasks.

______________________

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  HERSHEY'S KISSES Christmas Candy Cane Chocolate Mint Candy with Peppermint Stripes, 33 oz. Bag

  Ghirardelli Limited Edition Peppermint Bark XXL Bag, 20.99 oz.


  The Original Donut Shop Peppermint Bark Flavored Coffee (72 K-cups)

Rambling Over Coffee: Stupid f-ing debit card hackers

I've been sick for a couple days with a cold that was kicking my butt so I haven't gone anywhere, or even done much on computer... which I was planning to do a bunch of Christmas 'looking' and perhaps ordering online yesterday but instead, ended up sleeping and reading and trying to recover.  I haven't used my debit card since November 16th or 17th, yet this morning it sure got active!

9 transactions were trying to hit my account.

They started with 2 3 from Netflix just to see if the card was active... and then they started in with the bigger false charges;



Luckily my bank started to send me some alerts asking me to approve the purchases and I was able to text back NO and they deactivated my card.  But now it's  a waiting game to see how many actually made it through before it was deactivated.

I already got a new card and filled out the fraud paperwork but I won't know until tomorrow or the next day which made through.  Then it takes 7-10 days for them to finish their "investigation' before they decide to return the funds to my bank account.  So I'm out about $450 until they investigate...

Now SOME OF YOU that read Coffee Talking might be saying to yourself, "But wait... didn't she just blog about this a couple weeks ago?"

Ah, yes.  And no.

That was a DIFFERENT hack.

Yep.

So in August and again in October, our other bank account (different bank even) debit card was hacked.  The interesting thing about that one is that when my debit card was used in Colorado (I was not in Colorado and had my card with me)  I had only had this particular card and card number for barely 2 months and had only used it TWICE myself in those two months.

So hacked and used in North Korea in August.
New card.
Only used 2 times in 2 months (because it's not an account I use much) and then hacked and fake card made and used in Denver, CO in October.
And then this account (different bank/account) hacked in November.

So yay.

Stupid fucking thieves.
Is it especially mean of me to hope they get cancer and die a painful death?
Yes?
Ok, then can I hope they are crossing a busy highway and get smacked and smooshed by a semi-truck?
Yeah?  Still too mean?
How about...

NOPE.  They are world-class thieves and know what they are doing is wrong and hurting thousands and thousands of people.

I hope they get cancer AND get hit by a truck.




.... meh, it's just the coffee talking again.