<p>Bubbe–LOL. DS has been sending us his reports to read from his study abroad in Panama–lots of biological names and lots of technical terms so it’s hard to decide if the sentence structure is correct when you really don’t know what they are saying! We do the best we can and try to ask questions that seem intelligent! ;)</p>
<p>Good afternoon. I seem to have missed the usual coffee time. Could anyone use an afternoon pick-me-up of the alcoholic variety?</p>
<p>G# - glad to hear that the thesis and the wedding are proceeding apace.</p>
<p>momannoyed - hope the keys and jacket have found their way home.</p>
<p>S is back at school, but not doing school. Seems he’s a little lonely. We may hear from him more often.</p>
<p>Checking in. Boys were home for Spring Break last week. Although they really were not around as much. As easy as they were during the teenage years, I am appreciating my daughter, who was not easy, more now because she still includes me so much in her life. Getting information out of them is close to impossible. Today is S2’s first day of his last quarter of school. He will have an easy schedule since he only has one required class. He took the GRE over break and scored 11 points over the minimum GRE score he needs in each section for a graduate program he is looking at. The application is due June 1st and he is such a procrastinator that I fear he will as usual wait until the last minute, but I am trying my best to stay out of it. The GRE is taken on a computer and I guess if you get the question right, the questions get harder and if you get it wrong they get easier, and so he freaked himself out by trying to figure out if the questions were harder or easier. </p>
<p>Good morning. It is bright and sunny here this morning (though still quite cold), and it feels great after several gray days. So I thought I’d stop in and offer coffee. Happy Tuesday to all.</p>
<p>Yikes. No one has stopped by and yesterday’s coffee is cold. I’ll put on a fresh pot.</p>
<p>S found his (second) stolen bicycle yesterday. It is a bit banged up, but he will see if he can fix it.</p>
<p>Happy Wednesday.</p>
<p>Happy Wednesday! No news. Thanks for the coffee. </p>
<p>Well, it’s almost Happy Thursday now. Just stopping by to announce S has won an Academic Achievement award (for his GPA, I presume, which is VERY close to 4.0) from the Electrical Engineering & Computing Systems dept., and it will include “a certificate, a gift, and a large financial contribution.” Woo-hoo! The award ceremony is in mid-April and parents are invited. Maybe he’ll take us out to dinner afterwards with his winnings. :D</p>
<p>Not Momannoyed tonight! Proud Mom! </p>
<p>Congratulations to Proud Mom - Wonderful achievement, so happy for you! :-* </p>
<p>Congratulations to Proud mom’s S!</p>
<p>Congratulations to Proud Mom!!</p>
<p>Way to go ProudMom’s DS!!!</p>
<p>Good morning! Happy Friday! Rainy here, but there’s fresh coffee.</p>
<p>And btw, don’t you think the person who finished the last pot should also empty the grounds? Please tell that to my DH, nicely. ;)</p>
<p>Signed, Mommusic</p>
<p>Edit: On second thought, he ground the coffee beans & made the coffee, so I suppose the least I can do is throw out the filter/grounds. <em>sheepish</em></p>
<p>Thanks for the coffee. I haven’t been here in a while. I wanted to stop by and add to my congratulations to Mommusic/Momannoyed/ProudMom’s DS for his award. Congratulations! Btw, those coffee grounds are good when spread around the base of roses; they also make excellent compost.</p>
<p>GSharp: that’s a very sweet & thoughtful dedication to your DW by your D2. I hope your D2 also included you in her dedication. If I recall, you have been her editor, the recipient of many crisis texts, and her biggest financial supporter. 
I also want to wish your D1 & future SIL, and the rest of your family all the best with the upcoming wedding. Good luck with those chandeliers!</p>
<p>As for my family, S1 continues to work FT and go to grad school at night. He has a 3.8 GPA and is on track to complete his Master’s in December 2015. S2 is on track to graduate on Mother’s Day next month. I think a diploma makes an excellent Mother’s Day gift. 
He has a job lined up after graduation but is now beginning to stress about entering the Real World. I think the transition from school - which is all he has known in life to this point - into the working world is particularly hard. </p>
<p>Where, oh where is my plane?!?!?</p>
<p>Hero of the Week – Annoyed, yet Proud, Mom’s S for being the smartest binturong in the bunch!!! As long as he’s treating, I hear that The Precinct is nice. ;)</p>
<p>
You forget… I’m a consultant, so lack of understanding never stops me from providing input. 
Much of the material was over my head, but I enjoyed reading it.</p>
<p>Aliceinw – D2 isn’t lonely, but she did mention that now that her thesis is done, for the first time in 3 ½ years, she can actually enjoy her time at school.</p>
<p>Tx5 – Congrats to your S2 for kickin’ some GRE posterior!</p>
<p>
We have a coffee ground fairy at our house We have laundry, replace the TP roll, and dirty dishes fairies too. ;)</p>
<p>12rmh18 – Best Mom’s Day gift ever! I remember when I left your S2’s college and had to enter the real world… he’ll be OK! Weather permitting, DW and I plan to go to Williamsburg/Busch Gardens tomorrow. And, you are right. Full disclosure, I’m also included…
</names></p>
<p>In wedding news, I think I mentioned that future SIL had some major surgery back in November. He finally got the OK from his doctor this week to walk down the aisle w/o crutches, so D1 is quite happy. I have volunteered to sit at the table with him while D1 and DW dance… oh, the sacrifices I have to make. I tried to save DW some $ and offered to do her “spray tan” myself… how hard can it be, right? Needless to say, that idea was shot down. I think that the wedding cannot come soon enough as the intensity level cranks up with only 2 weeks to go. DW and D1 made a deal last weekend that once the wedding is over, they are “emancipating” themselves from each other for a few weeks other than phone calls to ask how they are or discuss the weather. ;)</p>
<p>Lots of communication from the college world this week… picture of D2 holding the bound copy of her thesis right before she turned it in, picture of D2 with the other seniors in her department turning in their theses, pictures of her department’s faculty, and the ever-popular/general “Sorry, I need money” request. We talked about when she went to “Preview” (accepted students days) 4 years ago and how they had a panel session in an auditorium where a half-dozen or so seniors told their “story” and answered questions from prospective students and parents. Guess who is going to be on this year’s panel? Yep, D2 will be on the 2014 senior panel to tell her “story” and field questions from the audience… she’s really nervous about it and doesn’t want to “mess up.” I guess things have officially come full circle now.</p>
<p>G#, if you see the dinner fairy at your house, would you please send her my way? I don’t feel like cooking.</p>
<p>G#–great update & good newses all around! What exciting times at your house!</p>
<p>We also have a light bulb changing fairy. DH occasionally remarks on how we “never have to change” that hard-to get-at bulb in the stairwell. Ahem…</p>
<p>124mh12–we do compost the grounds and also every other vegetable scrap. 
</p>
<p>Oh, there’s coffee, but we finished the strawberry shortcake my DH made with buckwheat flour & butter. And real whipped cream. Om nom nom. </p>
<p>So glad to hear G#'s good-news updates. We want a blow-by-blow of the wedding.</p>
<p>Ds is slogging his way through his comps. Got five more pages done this weekend and has about 10 more to go. We had a nice, long talk this morning. This last term he is doing THREE radio shows. Think someone is going to miss his school? Also this week his team has sectionals in the run-up to nationals next month. In a burst of optimism, I have gotten a hotel room for nationals. Hoping that didn’t jinx it. Also, dh and I ordered some of the team swag, which made ds happy because the more people who order the cheaper it is for the kids and the more that goes into the kitty. alice, did you order anything?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, his school is hosting sectionals on the same day that the college is having the memorial service for the three players killed in the car accident six weeks ago. I’m not sure how they will handle it all.</p>
<p>ETA: Also, last night was something called March to the Rueb, an annual tradition where 100 days from graduation (but the math’s not right there so who knows???), seniors walk to a local bar and take over the top floor. I bet every week there’s a “tradition” to walk to a different bar! lol</p>
<p>Fresh coffee for all - from Caribou Coffee this AM, courtesy of D’s weekly allotment.</p>
<p>G# - Your D’s acknowledgement is priceless. Glad that she can now enjoy herself at school. I think my S is enjoying himself too. Also learning a lot about living on his own.</p>
<p>YDS - I did not order any swag since S called to ask me about sizes for his dad and sister (shh . . . don’t tell them). And he assures me that the schedule for sectionals will take the memorial service into account.</p>
<p>Happy Monday - and a Good Week to all.</p>
<p>Looking forward to hearing all about the G# wedding in less than 2 weeks!! No real news here. After spending the first two weeks at the bottom of the leaderboard, DogHenry is quickly rising and might just win the CC pool if the UConn Huskies win it all. The Albany Great Danes and the Wooster Terriers kind of killed his bracket in the beginning. S2 finished his first week of his last quarter. He is only taking one class that is required to graduate and the other two are for “fun”. S3 sent a picture from Fresno over the weekend. Evidently he was at some sort of fraternity leadership conference. It would have been nice if I had known he was going. D1 is on Spring Break. She is really enjoying being a math teacher, but it is a lot of work. She has 180 students, 3 preps (2 each of Algebra I, Algebra AB and Geometry), and quite a few behavioral and ESL challenges. She is coaching track and is an advisor for Youth and Government. In addition California requires Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment classes. So she is spending her Spring Break catching up on grading and sleep. Happy Monday! </p>
<p>Anybody else getting kicked off and having to log in every day? Sigh. They closed the “complaint” thread they had after the site overhaul, so I can’t complain there.</p>