Happy New Year! Back home briefly (flying to California tomorrow) but full of wonderful memories from New Year’s Eve. The wedding was pretty much perfect. The ceremony was personal and meaningful, the music was sublime, the food delicious, and the DJ they hired did a great job mixing up songs and the dance floor was filled. S and DIL are on their honeymoon now and sharing photos - looks like they’re having a blast and the resort is amazing.
Happy New Year!
Congratulation CQ I saw your pictures you looked beautiful and the couple seemed so happy.
CBB I wonder if I ever pass your daughter at work, Cafeteria or Starbucks.
I am nearing retirement too. These old bones dont want to work 12 hours. Still dealing with the tendonitis ,We will need to get past the next wedding in May though.
Just crazy dealing with two weddings 7 months apart. The second one will be a hard act to follow, Many people said it was the best wedding they had been to. I think it was because it had all the right touches but wasn’t over the top . Everyone had a blast together. Hard to do with over 200 people. Praying the next one is just as fun.
Shaw seeing your daughters travels. looks like so much fun
RM so exciting. I hope she has had the baby.
No baby yet. We are still waiting. She has an ultrasound tonight / later to see size. She seems 'stuck". 
@CBBBlinker, how nice that your son is at home and will be in the US rather than some potentially scary places and that your D has a promotion.
@downtoearth, a second wedding? Yow. ShawD is traveling a fair bit prior to her real new job starting – she is just doing a temp NP job (though they would keep her as long as she were willing).
Trying to close on a new house tomorrow. We failed at downsizing (we upsized). It does seem like amateur hour getting the deal done. We gave the seller a list of problems and they insisted on doing the repairs instead of just giving us a credit. Almost all done, but two or three are unclear. Until we get the OK, the bank won’t give a final number and only then can I wire money. So, the closing might have to be put off.
Congrats on the new house Shaw although maybe early since it seems it’s still in progress.
D gave birth to a lovely baby girl on Sat evening. 10 pounds 1 ounce and 22 inches long. My D is SMALL although she was 9 pounds at birth. Did the labor but finally had a section after 24 hours of labor. Baby is a cutie with really nice chubby cheeks.
Glad the baby is here, @RochesterMom ! Congratulations; what a large baby!
Hope you have closed on the house, @shawbridge , or if not, will close soon.
Forecast is rain most of this week - I’ve been taking the puppy for walks 2x a day when I’m home; this constant rain is messing up my routine. The backyard is very soggy, and the frogs outside are so noisy - seems they have populated all the new puddles created by the downpours.
Closing done. We know own three houses, one art studio and two rental properties. We will put to the studio and one of the houses on the market this spring. We have got a developer offer for the studio already, though he would knock down the studio and build a house.
Congratulations @RochesterMom.
Congrats on the house Shaw.
Yup big baby! My biggest was 10 pounds on the dot. She just had to top me.
Checking in - how is everyone doing? Strange times we’re living in!
I was traveling through this past week, but now with everything in higher education going online, will be doing remote software trainings for the time being.
I’ve been healthy so far, but I’ve been on a lot of airplanes in the past couple of months, so who knows.
We had church on Facebook Live yesterday. H is lucky he has a tech savvy wife to help him get everything set up.
We added a second puppy to our family 2 weeks ago. Not my decision. She’s lovely and sweet, but we had the first one house broken and I really didn’t want to go through it all again so quickly. She is doing better - asks to go out now, and fewer accidents, which typically happen because we weren’t paying attention.
We are doing well. ShawWife has had respiratory issues for the last few years so she is in the at risk population. We are hunkering down in our two houses and have at least two weeks of supplies. Our kids keep calling to tell her not to go out or socialize etc. I did a shopping yesterday and we have meals for at least two weeks.
ShawSon called to say that San Francisco is asking people to shelter in place. Hasn’t happened here. ShawSon and his roomies are all working at home except for ShawD who is working as a nurse practitioner at a clinic about a 5 minutes walk from home.
If we have to shelter in place, I want to be on the river talking with “our” ducks. I’m currently on the hold with Comcast seeing if I can get them to connect internet service in the new house so I can do my calls from there. They will install service in two days. Interesting. On the other hand, our town’s building department, which issues construction permits, is currently closed. Could slow down our construction.
I don’t know how fast people will be buying houses. We may be floating two houses for longer than we planned (six months) or renting one. We’ll see.
Not sure if we have duck food for two weeks.
I hope all of you are well situated are healthy, have food, people that you live with or people that you can talk to, shelter. I don’t think we’ll be riding out the storm, but we can shelter in place for a while.
hello, checking in. hope you are all well. CQ your pup is so cute. I am still working. lots of anxiety there. but people are doing what we need to do. I leave my support hours very tired.
D2 got married by a judge in a park. It was so sweet. Sad I could only see it by FB video. Her shower was supposed to be last week and her wedding in May. Not real confident about that. They wanted to be able to be there legally for each other.
I am just praying everyone gets through this well. Lots of praying
@downtoearth - glad they could get married. My H performed a small wedding ceremony last week the day before the area’s Stay at Home order began.
My S and his wife came here two weeks ago today from Boston. Her graduate courses are now online and he was let go from his job. Thank goodness he is here - he is taking care of the dogs while the rest of us work, plus he’s a really good cook and we’re eating well.
Our puppies are definitely enjoying all the extra attention.
@downtoearth, glad to hear you are well and that your D was able to get married.
@college_query, what was your D’s job? How many kids have lost their jobs. Some of our friends’ kids who are doing art-related work (film industry, standup comedy, etc.) and the side-jobs they do to support themselves have lost both jobs. I have the feeling lots of Brooklyn is not doing well.
@shawbridge - my D still has her finance job in London. My S, who moved from Brooklyn to Boston, had just started a legal research job (he has a law degree). They let the newest hires go. He hadn’t even worked there long enough to qualify for unemployment.
Right before this all happened he had an interview with a different entity and they offered him a position, but then put it on hold.
But since he didn’t need to be in Boston any longer, that freed him up to come here. His wife’s graduate classes are online so she is continuing from here.
Hello to all. Hope everyone is doing okay. Congratulations on your daughter’s wedding @downtoearth . Older son got engaged on February 28th but any wedding plans have had to be put on “pause.” We are still very excited about the engagement though.
Both sons are able to work from home. The older one just called this morning and mentioned he has been talking to colleagues in the UK, Netherlands, and Australia. Everyone he’s been talking to is in the same boat in terms of this virus and having to make adjustments. We are on lockdown in Virginia until June 10th!
Stay safe!
Good Morning! We are also in Virginia and on lockdown. I’m working from home full time which keeps me busy. I also have to go into our office 1x/week for an hour or 2 (something I can’t do from home), but there are so few people there it’s probably low risk. H has an office job, but due to the nature of his work, he cannot WFH. He is doing a lot of projects, but is very bored.
D is finishing her MBA on virtual learning. SIL is a clinic manager so he has to work full time. S is still in London, working from home and living alone as his flatmate is at her family’s home. He keeps busy with work, studying for the GRE, cooking and getting out each day for a run. We connect with the kids on Sunday afternoons to play euchre on line and face tine conversation.
Congrats to your D @dte.
Hope everyone here is safe and well.
HI all - haven’t checked in in a while. I hope everyone is well and staying close to home. This is week 4 maybe of working at home. I actually like it and am good about walking away after 9-10 hours. We have been busy.
My kids are sort of still working. My D is still on maternity leave. This COVID-19 mess has me visiting by looking in the window with the baby looking out the window. SIL, and my S are working from home. DIL is finding it difficult to keep the 3 grandkids busy 5, 4,and 2 year olds are used to going. 5 year old was in pre-K but I think that is done with. I"m in NY (not the city) but yesterday they extended the “pause” through April. Not sure when this is really going to end.
Congrats to your D DTE
LOVE LOVE LOVE the new puppy CQ.
Hope everyone stays healthy and all the families of all also.
So great to hear these updates!
We are really feeling fortunate. We moved to our new house on a river 2.5 miles away from our old house in the same town and are sheltering in place there. I posted views from the new house on the CC Facebook site. Despite its setting, it is actually closer to downtown than our old house, which went on the market this weekend. We get food delivered and are really taking social distancing seriously. Not everyone understands. So, we aren’t having people over. We are going to start having people over for no food or drink (so that they can keep their masks on) and talk while watching the river. (And, saying hello to the ducks that frequent our yard). Yesterday a guinea hen came in an open door, laid an egg and left. But, it is a good think ShawWife and I get along and have fun together. Yesterday we set up and installed the alarm system (required by the insurance company) and then went for a bike ride. Today, kayaking in the river.
Our kids are both in SF working and sharing a 4 BR condo that ShawSon found for them and two of his friends… ShawSon is working especially hard. He works at home except on days when ShawD isn’t working. She is doing primary care, mostly telemedicine, but occasionally seeing patients in person and spending some weeks doing COVID testing. He is the only one using his office, so he will work there when ShawD is off – she is a generator of excitement and fun so he heads off.
We have been trying to help communities nearby where no one delivers and lots of folks have lost jobs. This is a sad world we live in. Staggering fact. The US has 4.25% of the world’s population. Yet we have 32% of the world’s COVID cases, and 28% of the world’s deaths. Canada total deaths in three months is about 600. US 2 day total is approaching 6000, I believe.