Thanks, everyone! I had a great time visiting D. Lots of shopping and eating - wish I’d had a day off to recover, but unfortunately, it was right back to work for me.
CD - so sorry about the job not working out for your S2. About the temp agencies, I would recommend visiting them in person with a resume, or calling them directly to follow up on the resumes he’s already sent.
12rmh18 - glad the move went well! I hope your S2 is very happy there.
tx5athome - nice update! Oh, and happy 20th birthday to your S3!
alice - yay for having your D’s visit to look forward to!
GSharp - I hope the visit from your D2’s roommate’s mom and cousin wasn’t too traumatic for your D and the other roommate!
CountingDown: I’m really sorry to hear that the internship did not work out for your S2. It sounded so promising. LIMOM has good advice about the temp agencies - I have nothing to add except PVCs for your S2 & you.
artlover: congrats on the new cars (and on your D starting med school). What did you choose?
LIMOM: I’m glad you had a nice visit with your D. It sounds like it was all-too short.
tx5: thanks for a great update & congrats on surviving the teen years. It’s all downhill from here. Just kidding. Wishing you a fun family vacation at Lake Tahoe!
Yes, S2 has a job with a new company & is headed back to NoVA in August. He & a friend/W&M classmate signed a lease for an apartment in NoVA. This will be his 4th move in 13 months, and hopefully his last for a while.
G#: alas, I didn’t make it to the GWARbar, and it doesn’t look like I will. But we did visit a restaurant whose menu advertises “The War of Northern Ingestion” and has sandwiches so large that they cannot be called “submarines.” Instead, the behemoth sandwiches are called “battleships.” I will miss exploring RVA, which is a really cool, quirky city.
Heading home to an empty house for tonight while DW visits her sister. As DW put it, this is my night to “turn up the guitar as loud as I like, set the thermostat wherever I want, and forget to turn off every light in the house.” I can feel the love.
Aliceinw – Welcome Back! You are looking refreshed despite the lack of mushrooms. Enjoy your upcoming D-time, hopefully with ample amounts of spoil-time.
12rmh18 – So…. You decided to skip the GWARBar in lieu of someplace repectable? I’m sure that RVA will miss you. D2 must be trying to keep up with your S2. She is getting ready to move to her 4th place since last August (hopefully for more than 3 weeks)… read on.
Duh!
Tx5 – Congratulations on surviving the teen years!
CD – Sorry that things did not work out for S2. It definitely is a roller coaster! Sending my support too!
Artloversplus – Enjoy the new Lamborghinis. Try not to overdo it though and end up with a car with over 1000 miles in the first year like us.
LIMOMOF2 – Welcome back to you too. Hopefully you have recovered from your intense schedule of eating and shopping by now!
D2 seems to have solved her roommate issue. Her BFF (and roommate) from college has moved to NYC to continue her graduate work at Columbia. BFF’s roommate just took a job in California, so she has a slightly more expensive, but affordable option available for D2. Both of D2’s current roommates are OK with the sublet and approve of the person that D2 already found this week, whew! I am convinced that at any point in time 50% of the apartments in NYC are actually available. The new apartment will also be slightly closer to work for D2, but she will no longer be a hip Brooklynite. I was successful in convincing her to use the movers that she used last time, and not try to strap a mattress, box spring, and dresser to the roof of a friend’s car and drive it from Brooklyn to Manhattan (UWS)! It’s hard to believe, but D2 just had her 1-year performance review at work and came out in good standing.
Artloverplus - congrats on the new vehicles and wishing your D a successful move-in!
12rmh18 - congrats on making it through another move! Funny about those “battleships!”
Thanks - yes, my visit with D was way too short, but it was good that I chose that time to visit since she had some time off.
GSharp - yay for your D2 getting out of that bad roommate situation and moving in with her bff! I’m sure she’ll feel much happier without having to deal with roommate stress. Living on the UWS will be fun for her, even if she will no longer be a hip Brooklynite. Really happy to hear she went with hiring movers rather than strapping her furniture to the roof of a friend’s car. Not sure which floor she’s on in her new place, but it seems like all of my friends’ kids who move up there end up in 3rd or 4th floor walk-ups.
I am pretty much fully recovered from eating and shopping my way through my 4-day visit to my D and trying to figure out when I can take the time to visit her again.
Good morning. TGIF. I went to a wonderful concert last night - Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor at Fenway Park. Good fun, perfect weather, good music. Even if it wasn’t GWAR. I’m taking this afternoon off since my D is visiting.
Gsharp - so glad your D2 is extricating herself from the “difficult” roommate (see how polite I can be?).
Limomof2 - welcome back from visiting your D. Glad it was a good visit.
12rmh18 - Best of luck to your S in his new job. Here’s hoping he’s settled in his new digs (or learns to move without parental assistance).
Artloversplus - white coat ceremony?? Hope your D is starting off well. Congrats on her next step.
TGIF to everyone. I’m offering a mid-afternoon espresso to everyone & a slice of virtual birthday cake to aliceinw (a little birdie told me).
aliceinw: Happy visiting with your D! Celebrating a birthday with your entire family = best gift.
Philosophical question: if GSharp plays his guitar at full volume in the house but his DW is not there to hear it, does it make a sound?
artloversplus: Is the plural of “Prius” = “Prii?” Congratulations to your D!!
S2 gave formal notice at his current job on Monday & was relieved that no bridges were burned in the process. He moves next Saturday & starts the new job on 8/17. Hours will likely be the same (80-100 hrs/wk), but the company is bigger & offers more opportunities.
BTW, med school is 10 times work and pressure compare to UG, at UG you take at the most 18 credits, at med school D’s class schedule is 8 to 5 with 1 hour lunch break, that is 45 credits per semester. “mid term” EVERY Week. We had lunch together on Sunday, she had to go back to study right after lunch.
Heading home for DW’s birthday weekend. I sure hope she remembers that I need a ride home from the airport this week. I’m not sure what we are doing to celebrate, but if the weather is nice, she will probably want to take out her SUP which she really likes.
12rmh18 – We survived another move! I hope that all goes well for S2 tomorrow!
LIMOMOF2 – D2 has escaped Brooklyn. She actually liked her neighborhood (Greenpoint) and was sorry to leave it. The new apartment is a 1st floor walkup, so that made the move easier. My job moving out of the 3rd Floor walkup was to stand next to the moving truck and make sure no one was taking stuff out while the movers were inside getting D2’s belongings.
Artloversplus – What, no Lamborghinis? Best of luck to your D as she attempts to survive med school! I have always heard it as, “The husband makes all the big decisions. The wife makes all the small decisions. There are no big decisions.”
AliceinW – I’m ½ way there. I have seen James Taylor, just not Bonnie Raitt yet. I’m sure that it was an excellent show even if you didn’t leave covered in various bodily fluids.
Out of the goodness of our hearts, DW and I made a last minute trip to NYC last weekend to help D2 with her move. She is soooo happppyyyy to be in the new apartment with her BFF. They were both happy to be fed by us a couple of times. She has much more room and made a point of holding her arms out and spinning while proclaiming, “I couldn’t do this in the other apartment. I can even do somersaults.” Decorating has begun. The “theme” is “Abolitionists and Supreme Court Justices.” Frederick Douglass and Ruth Bader Ginsberg are just a couple of those who figure prominently in the décor. No, they’re not a couple of History majors.
12rmh18 - good luck to your S2! Glad he’s leaving his last job on good terms.
GSharp - Happy Birthday to your DW! Hope you find something fun to do to celebrate.
Yay for your D2’s new and improved living situation! Funny that she was living in Greenpoint. Btw, I lived in a third floor walk-up in Greenpoint until I was 7. Very nice that she’s now in a first floor walk-up and I loved hearing about her new décor. I wish her and her BFF all the best in their new place.
My D and her roommate are boring in comparison - they’re still in their original apartment - and I don’t recall seeing any historic figures on display when I was there last month.
S is getting ready to go back to school next weekend. He doesn’t sound all that excited about it, but he said that’s just because he’s gotten really comfortable being home. I’m pretty comfortable having him here too - it’s going to be weird not having him around. Not that he’s around all that much, but he’s around enough for me to know that I’ll miss him when he’s gone.
Halfway through our 9 hour drive home from Lake Tahoe. Had a great trip with DH, S2, S3, DogHenry and 17 other family members. S1 missed the trip because she was off with friends in Puerto Rico. We had a fun week of boating, hiking, skating, kayaking, swimming, beaching, card-playing, whiffle ball, etc… The lake is still stunning but the drought is evident by the level of the lake and the lack of water in the Truckee river. Hoping the Godzilla El Niño they are predicting shows up.
TGIF to the iPeeps! Sorry we couldn’t send our CA peeps some much-needed rain. We East Coasters could use a bit more ourselves during the dog days of August. But we are not experiencing the same kind of drought as the West Coast, so I can’t really complain.
tx5: your family vacation sounds wonderful, even with the drought. It’s too bad that your D1 missed it. When do your boys head back to school?
LIMOM: wishing your S a good sophomore (?) year!
GSharp: We survived another move! S2 & his RM have a bachelor pad “penthouse apartment,” which actually means 1) someone didn’t want to call it the 13th floor; and 2) really expensive rent for very small rooms with a view of the Washington Monument. The decorating motif was initially mid-century modern kettle bells in the living room, but S2 & his RM subsequently bought some kind of spiny sea urchin wall decorations, of which they were quite proud. Oh, and how could I forget S2’s 70-inch flat screen TV?! I had flashbacks from freshman move-in day 5 years ago when we drove to W&M with the 250-lb TV.
Speaking of which, my back fence neighbor is dropping off her freshman D1 at W&M today. A new generation of the Tribe is launched! (Her D1 didn’t bring a 250-lb TV).
I guess I have been hiding out and haven’t been around here lately. But today, here I am.
12rmh18 - Glad you survived another move. Hope your S2 is enjoying his “penthouse bachelor pad” and his new job.
artloversplus - Nice that you were able to have lunch with your D in spite of the fact that med school is a job and a half.
G# - Glad that you too survived another move. With movers, no less. Moving up in the world?
Limom - I hope that your S is getting back into the swing of things at school and enjoys his sophomore year.
tx5athome - Sounds like you had a great trip to Lake Tahoe, even if the drive home was 9 hours long.
I have enjoyed my summer so far. Clearly D’s visit was the highlight. Work has gotten a bit weird because so much of my work has been shifted to the people who will take over when I retire that I am twiddling my thumbs. It’s tempting to leave now, but the paycheck for the next month or so will be much appreciated. We have finally reached an agreement with the insurance company and the contractor about the repairs we need on account of the delightful ice dams we had over the winter - but we’ve delayed work till January because they gave us a sizable discount for that - since everyone else wants everything NOW. Looking forward to beautiful weather this weekend and visiting my niece who is holding an open house at her (not so) new home overlooking a cove. It will be nice to be out there, and to see family members.
Dropped S3 off at the airport on Saturday for his junior year. Time really flies. School started yesterday and he seems to be enjoying it so far. He is living in the frat house again this year. On the plus side it saves me a lot of money, and the negative side, he is living in a frat house. This year he has a double on the supposedly quieter third floor.
I am going to NYC with my mom and sister again for the US Open next week. I am very excited! We will spend 2 days at the Open and then see a Broadway play (Something Rotten) the third day. We likely will take on walk on the Highline again because we really enjoyed it last year.
S2 is working hard on his masters. He will be done in January. Fingers and toes crossed that he lands a job.
Flying home is much better than 10 years ago when I was flying into Memphis as Katrina was passing through after devastating New Orleans. It seemed like everyone who could get out of LA headed to Memphis. I rolled in about midnight and the hotel had almost given away my room… I got the last one.
Catching up. It has been a busy couple of weeks explaining to DW how I thought that I was on the DOLLY Madison website and that “Little Debbie” was a snack cake with which I was attempting to hook up thus explaining my preference for “Frosted.” I bet it was spell-check that changed Dolly to Ashley and caused all these problems.
12rmh18 – Just wanted to let you know that since I stayed in-town last weekend I finally went to the USAF museum… impressive! Will you be returning for the marathon next month? That is also Cincinnati Oktoberfest weekend. Glad that you survived yet another move! You may have to give your neighbor some pointers lest her D not meet W&M’s TV LBS per Freshman requirement.
This cracked me up.
I trust that you made it home from vacation so that you can get some rest? Enjoy your time in NYC. I was just asking D2 about the Highline this week. It is still on my to-do list.
Aliceinw – Enjoy your weekend on the cove not thinking about insurance claims. Re: “With movers, no less. Moving up in the world?”… that would be a stretch. The “movers” are a couple of guys with a rented truck who only accept cash (I’m sure that makes accounting more accurate and ensures proper payment of all applicable taxes), but we have used them twice now and they did a great job. My primary role was to stand by the back of the truck to be sure that no one was taking stuff off of the truck faster than the movers could put D2’s stuff on the truck. My secondary role was to say things like, “I don’t remember seeing that in D2’s room. Are you sure that is hers? (which is wasn’t)” Let me know if you ever need to move a few things around NYC, I’ll send you a recommendation.
LIMOMOF2 – I meant to ask you if the local NYC newspaper had a headline, “Uppity-a** Southern Woman Cusses Out Unsuspecting Penn Station MTA Agent for Not Being Helpful” and did it have a picture of DW? Best of luck to your S in the upcoming year!
Not much news from D2 other than she is learning her way around her new neighborhood and the “house warming” party resulting in having more food leftover than she and her roommate purchased, so it was a net gain. She has been to Columbia’s campus and it makes her miss college.
Not much activity around here this week. I am heading home a little early so that I can start my week of vacation. I did not take one last year, so I am ready. I am bringing DW a present… D2. I am meeting her at the airport and she will be joining us at the beach for a few days before she has to fly back to NYC. D1/DH will be joining us later in the week.
The word from D2 is that she moved out of the old apartment just in time. Construction has started nearby that has displaced some mice who have decided that D2’s old apartment is a nice replacement residence.
Eek on the mice! I don’t like them (especially when I find them dead in a trap in front of my oven at 6 AM, when I didn’t know we’d even set a trap.
My kids seem to be doing fine. S is embarking on another solo bike tour - this one is the “6 gaps” ride in Vermont. The trip is usually done in one day (138 miles), but he is not into pushing quite that hard. So he has planned his ride as 2 days from home to the start, 2 days on the mountains/gaps, and 2 days ride home. He has promised to reinstate his “mom can find me by GPS” app on his phone. He’s excited. I’m much calmer than I was for his first trip. We are planning a visit to D in MN in October, and I think we have just decided to rent a lake cabin rather than a hotel or city apt.
My biggest news is that 6 weeks from today will be my first day as a retired person! But who’s counting?? I plan to head to RI in the morning that day to join my sister-in-law at her yoga class. And maybe lunch. With wine?
I will miss exploring RVA, which is a really cool, quirky city.
I’m not sure what we are doing to celebrate, but if the weather is nice, she will probably want to take out her SUP which she really likes.