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It has been said by others, but let me repeat for emphasis: Layers. I know lots of people that bitch about the cold but only wear a coat over a T-shirt. Come winter, I'm wearing some kind of undershirt/thermal, a flannel/chamois/wool shirt, a vest and then a coat. Merino wool socks are awesome. Smartwool is the name brand, but you can find store brands that are much cheaper. I would suggest some kind of waterproof shoe or boot for the snow.

Get several pairs of gloves. You will lose them and going to the store with one glove sucks. I personally think glommits are the bee's knees. Warmth+dexterity when needed. Embrace the hat and have fun with it.

People have talked about a winter kit for your car, which is a good idea, but how about your house? If you have newer, quality windows (double pane Low E glass) you probably don't need to do anything, but if you live in an older house with old, drafty windows getting window film might be a good idea. If you have a drafty door, there are many adhesive-backed foam strip products to help seal those up.

Bundle up and try to enjoy winter. To me there are few things as beautiful as a crisp sunny day after a fresh snow, where everything sparkles and glimmers. So long as you're inside and drinking a cup of coffee that is.

EDIT: spaces after links.

I work in the mental health field in the twin cities, and there are a ton of factors into what you will be getting from a therapist.

Its really important to remember that therapists aren't like doctor's. There is no 'skill set' for working with a disorder in the way a doctor can specialize in orthopedics or something. Therapists who say otherwise are either evangelists for what they think is the only/best type, or they are trying to sell you something.

Research on the effectiveness of therapists shows that about 70-80% of whether or not you will make progress through the process is based on your relationship with the therapist. The techniques a therapist specifically use to help someone is very tangential to helping clients. While its a bit dated at this point, you can read all about this in The Heroic Client by Barry L Duncan, Scott Miller, and Jacqueline Sparks.

What I would recommend looking for is someone that feels right. If you meet with a therapist and they don't feel right, find someone else. Finding the right therapist isn't the same as finding a friend though. 'Feels right' can mean whatever it needs to for you and your situation. I personally find therapists with a Cognitive Behavioral style to be so ineffective with many of my clients that they might as well have not gone to see a therapist. On the same token, I have a friend whose client's would most likely consider the same of me. Any therapist worth their salt knows that they don't work well with everyone, so don't be afraid to advocate for yourself and find someone else.

If you are going with insurance based services, you will need to be diagnosed with something. If you don't want to be diagnosed with something, you need to find a therapist who works without diagnoses, and takes cash. Something that just occurred to me, is that many private therapists I know will still give a client a diagnosis, so you may have better luck looking for a life coach or something similar if you don't want a diagnosis.

If you are just looking for chemical abuse knowledge, Licensed Drug and Alcohol Counselor's (LADC) specialize in that. To throw my two cents in about LADC's however, you get a really mixed bag. Some of them are just hard core anti drug warriors, and treat drugs as dangerous chemicals that you need to be saved from. Some of them focus on harm reduction. A rare few actually understand that drug use is not a sign of horribleness out of principle, and just want to help you with having a better life.

Another issue is price. You could be throwing down anything from about $50 an hour to $300. If you are willing to pay cash, many clinics provide a sliding scale based on your income.

Feel free to ask any other questions if you think of any.

I have a 12 yr old cat that started doing the same thing. There can be many issues that are leading up to this. I'll post more after I'm done eating dinner. Just know that it's absolutely possible (and quite likely) to fix this situation!

Edit:
Ok, so given what you're saying, this sounds like it's stress based behavior. The first thing that any vet is going to say is:

• Have at least 1 more litter box than you have cats. If you have one cat, have 2 boxes. If you have 2 cats, have 3 boxes, etc.
  
• Try different litter in different boxes. Cats can just up and decide that they don't like a litter if they're stressed (little pricks). Plus, a different litter can be "interesting" to them and help encourage them to use it. It's expensive, but have her give Cat Attract a try.
  
• Have litter boxes in different locations in the house. If there's one spot in particular where the cat's going to the bathroom inappropriately, put a litter box there. On a side note, don't go out and purchase an expensive litter box for this test. Go to Target and pick up one of those wide and shallow Rubbermaid storage containers (like this, but a tad shorter) and use that as a litter box.
  
• Try both hooded and un-hooded litter boxes. Some cats can decide they want privacy for doing their business (so, hoods are a good thing) while others can feel like they're trapped (hoods = bad) because any animal is vulnerable while they're using the bathroom. Given that this cat is more stressed now, this might be part of the problem.
  
• If possible try to designate one spot in the house as "the cat's spot". This was the root of helping our cat get over part of her issues (the other was related to a medical condition). We have a spare bathroom in our apartment, so we made this her room. We put 2 baby gates up at night to confine her there, but give her free run of the house during the day. This helped her feel safe, and the other cat knows to stay away. In your friend's situation, she should keep the baby as far away from this "safe spot" as possible.
  
• She may consider looking into a Feliway product to help reduce stress. They haven't worked for us, but I've heard of plenty of people that this worked for.
  
  I know that she's already spent a lot of mental energy (and at least some money) on this situation, but it will take patience for her to figure out what can change to help her cat cope with this. Cats are very social creatures, and in your friend's case she has a 15 year bond with this cat. She has been this cats only friend and social companion for its entire life, so of course bringing a baby into the mix (who she now has to focus her attention on, and who all home routines now revolve around) stresses the cat out.
  
  If your friend would like to talk, or if she has any specific questions, shoot me a message. If she wants to talk over the phone, I'd be happy to help Q&A there too. I'm not a vet, I'm not even a crazy cat lady (for one, I'm a guy). I'm just an IT guy with 2 old cats who went through a lot to figure out what was wrong with them.

You will die in those jackets. Literally.

Here's my winter setup.....

1. Jeep cap. Keeps the sun out of your eyes and it keeps you warm. You can get them at Ragstock for 5$
   
2. A pair of good winter gloves, and a pair of those cheap stretchy winter gloves. Wear the stretchy winter gloves underneath the thick winter gloves. A good tip on whether a pair of gloves are going to be warm, is if you hold a McDonald's cup of ice water tightly against them. If you can feel the cold cup, then they're no good. If you can't, then stay with them.
   
3. Your legs will get cold too, so buy a pair of base layer pants. Maybe double up. Wear them underneath your regular pants.
   
4. Get a good pair of snowpants to go over your regular pants. Again, McDonald's cup of ice water trick.
   
5. Get a base layer shirt to go underneath your regular shirt.
   
6. Get a good, thick jacket. Do the ice water thing for the jacket too. My personal favorite kind of jacket is an ice fishing jacket.
   
7. Ski goggles. Sounds weird, but your eyes will get cold too.
   
8. [A neoprene mask] (https://www.amazon.com/ZANheadgear-WNFM114H-Black-Neoprene-Half/dp/B000LVZVNE/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=neoprene+mask&qid=1573108443&sr=8-1) . They keep your face warm.
   
9. 2 good pairs of wool socks. Yes, 2. It gets that cold.
   
10. A thick pair of high top skateboard shoes, if you're going to avoid getting winter boots. High top Osiris shoes are good alternatives to winter boots. But you're going to have to get them waterproofed. They're naturally thick.
    
11. Ice cleats.

They're super cheap these days. You can get this little sucker for like $30, and then just add an antenna and a USB hard disk. Whole package should cost less than $100. Or you can get a USB tuner and use your computer as the DVR for less than $40.

The biggest trick is that Jeopardy! is on KARE, which is still broadcasting in the VHF frequency range, so you can't use one of those super-flat "leaf" antennas because they're just a UHF loop. You'll need one with actual rabbit ears, but if you go to Good Will you can get those suckers for cheap.

If you're willing to spend a little more you can get nicer solutions, though.

Others have had great recommendations for clothing.

But, get yourself a winter survival kit (something along the lines of what I linked) for your car. Combine that with having a blanket or two and some very warm boots/gloves/hat in your back seat, It's something that you'll probably never use, but if your car breaks down and it's 20 below it could save your life.

What straw man? At no point am I redirecting from my point.
Here's a book of essays by social scientists. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0465031765?vs=1
Culture Matters is the title.
There's better outcome in those countries... and how do you suppose it got that way? Did the almighty FSM just wave his magical spaghetti arms and say, "You may have social progress." Or do you think that their social values might have had something to do with it? I shouldn't have to target a specific study for it. Being at the top of the HDI is prima facie evidence that their cultural values are better. How else do you get to that level of progress? Care to explain another alternative to them being at the top of t he HDI other than cultural values?
My conclusions are born out of realistic expectations. Not everyone is of equal ability or values... of so we'd all be millionaires... or equivalently poor.
Show me evidence or even a reasonable conclusion as to why African countries still linger at the bottom of development that doesn't involve cultural issues.
At no point have I mistreated anyone I'm the community but I'll definitely voice my frustration with a lack of integration.

If you end up remaining outside (which, unless you've got the money, doesn't sound like a bad idea) you might want to snag a brass-bladed ice scraper like so. The brass is harder than ice and softer than glass and speeds up the cleaning of the windows pretty well.

Doesn't help you now but next time get a trailer coupler lock.

Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Towpower-72783-Universal-Adjustable-Heavy-Duty/dp/B0008FUH46?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_2

I would see if this kind of lock would fit and use it. I'd like to see someone cleanly cut that. I may actually switch my lock to this.
http://www.amazon.com/Master-Lock-40DPF-Shielded-Stainless/dp/B00004SQKX/ref=sr_1_8?s=hardware&ie=UTF8&qid=1454177043&sr=1-8&keywords=padlock

If you want to be fancy with your car scraping, get a regular scraper w/ brush AND one of these units. Nothing clears ice on glass like bronze.

You'll get less of the stereotypical Minnesota culture in the Twin Cities proper, but if you're not from the area, it might be worth a read.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Minnesotan-Revised-Century/dp/014312269X

I have this digital TV box here:
Mediasonic Homeworx HW180STB 3 / 4 Channel HDTV Digital Converter Box with Recording and Media Player

And a simple antenna like this.

I get around 30 channels, maybe even more (most I do not watch). The digital TV box can record like a DVR to a USB hard drive and I use that frequently. The digital signals all carry a 'guide' for each channel that goes about 2-3 days out so you can pick stuff to record in the future.

AntennaWeb.org can tell you which channels should be available in your area.

I really shouldn't have read The Great Influenza right before flu season. Now I'm just going to be paranoid.

Here is the desktop version of your link

There is this book... Maybe they have it at the library?

https://www.amazon.com/Street-Where-You-Live-Guide/dp/0816647291

This scraper is how I survive winter. It makes butter out of frost and ice. The brass blade is magic.

There are literally entire books on the subject.

I was going off memory from the national center of women and policing which talks about this but is a bit dated on it's information. I suggest reading the book as it's the most up to date version.

Finally while link digging I found this article.

Which is chock full of links to various news organizations and associated articles.

Highly suggest the book btw. It's previous version was a chilling read. I can only imagine the 2017 with updated information would be more so.

I managed to get a DVD off of Amazon for 8 bucks. A new DVD is 40 or so, but it's a cult hit so I'm not surprised at the price jump.

join and start attending IIBA.org local chapter meetings. Fortunately this September there will be an entry level exam for people with no BA experience, just not the competency certification.

http://www.amazon.com/Certified-Business-Analysis-Study-Guide/dp/0470932902?ie=UTF8&qid=&ref_=tmm_pap_title_0&sr=

Google play has a few testing apps that are somewhat okay but need improvement, you really need to read the BABOK to be able to pass these tests in the CBAP apps.

BA is a profession most people get lumped into during a layoff and just stick with it because they get to address all the corporate organization crap that has annoyed them for some time. Most BAs are baby boomers nearing retirement...

Absolutely. When I studied and worked in urban planning, I was shocked by the gossamer-veiled racism coming out of people's mouths in the name of "preserving property values," "not wanting outsiders to come into the community," "preserving Minnesota tradition," "our kind of people," etc...

There's a great book on the experiences of People of Color in the Twin Cities: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Time-Truth-Race-Minnesota/dp/168134002X


https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2018/11/19/minneapolis-ranked-among-nations-worst-cities-for-black-residents/

https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2015/03/why-are-twin-cities-so-segregated-new-report-blames-housing-policies-and-edu/

http://www.citypages.com/news/minnesota-still-has-some-of-the-worst-racial-disparities-in-the-nation/504390741

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/twin-cities-segregation/490970/

Make sure you purchase one of these mace pepper spray to keep these criminals out of your hair

If it's towards the plug, you can buy a replacement plug at a hardware store (like this) and simply cut the cord / wire up the replacement. (They open and have a screw terminal for each wire.)

Otherwise if the cord would be too short, the proper way is to replace the whole works.

I worry about splicing / using electrical tape because one tug and the cord could separate. But if you tape the hell out of it, it would probably hold up.