<p>H is an IT consultant and D is a geek so they pretty much have the computer stuff covered. As I understand it, she is a bringing her existing computer and getting a new: NAS (some kind of storage), router and printer. They are going to upgrade her OS to Windows 7 because then it can be set do an auto upload of backup files to the NAS while she is sleeping. This is important as remembering and actually doing backups is problematic for even most adults so we did not want to leave our technology dependent D at risk (she agrees). There are also a spool of cable and tools coming to move in day so they can create an ultra perfect wired (and wireless) set up as the dorms do not have ubiquitous WiFi (I think). </p>
<p>I think it is unlikely that D will do any more than skim the assigned first year book- somehing about how technology is hurting personal relationships/community. :rolleyes: NOT her kind of thing.</p>
<p>Momofboston-Had the Z-pack at the beginning of summer for the same symptoms. One word of advice-Yogurt! Make sure she eats some every day or there can be some “uncomfortable” side effects.</p>
<p>We’ve had a roller coaster week at the dr. with getting school health for filled out. Turns out the pediatrician read the TB test wrong. So I have been anxious and upset since Friday wondering if DS needed drug therapy and awaiting blood test results and chest xrays. And then an appointment with a infectious disease specialist…boom! Best possible outcome. “Sorry the test was misread”. AARRGGGHH I guess all is well that ends well.</p>
<p>amandak: Want to share your refrigerator research? We’re in the market for one. I’d happily use your research and save myself time and energy if you want to share!</p>
<p>capenn15-congrats on the Eagle and have a great ceremony and celebration. My S is an Eagle scout and I remember preparing the court of honor script for his ceremony.
I filed Student Away for reduction of car insurance and don’t know how much the saving will be.
We have done shopping for bedding, school suppllies and personal hygiene items. The corner of our dining room is getting full. S did his visit to dentist, eye Dr. and ENT Dr. for allergy. I still have to order his contact lens and glasses and get ins for his laptop etc. With all these I feel like I am praparing a kid to go overseas or something while he is only going to be 3 1/2 hrs away.</p>
<p>MOB: I hope that the z-pack does the trick. My D has been coughing since mid-May, and the z-pack didn’t help. Asthma inhalers have helped. The pediatrician thinks it’s viral and need to run it’s course. She’s getting better, but I hope it’s gone before she leaves for college. </p>
<p>I’m jealous of those of you who are almost finished shopping. My D tends to live in the moment, and she wants to wait for most of the shopping until mid-August when most of her friends leave. We have tried to purchase most of the XL Twin items that will get picked over, and we do have some hand-me-downs from D1 that she can use. She just left for the beach again. I want her life!</p>
<p>kinderny, we have the same setup at my office but also use Mozy so we have cloud backup as well as the NAS (network-attached storage). [What happens if the NAS dies? But it is for more than one person]. </p>
<p>For most people, it easier to use cloud backup (always backing up incremental changes) because without it, kids either have to remember to plug in their hard drive when they get back at night (probably not going to happen) or they have to create an in-room network (the reason for the router) and have the backup drive set up on the in-room network (you can use Apple Time Machine if you have Macs).</p>
<p>OWM~Sorry about your mom, glad the kids are having fun though :)</p>
<p>Pepper~We love Hershey been there almost every summer. May be we should try to squeeze one more trip in before taking them to college.Good idea :)</p>
<p>Amanda~We bought the B&D at walmart, it was the best value last summer.I saw them over the week-end and still a deal. The box is huge so if you take it out you should be able to fit in your car. We actually picked it up in college town.</p>
<p>S2 finally got in touch with his roomie…this is all i know, and I am not asking :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the reminder about a discount for car insurance. We had that for my daughter who went to school in IL but couldn’t do it for our older son since he took a car with him. I just called our insurance company, State Farm, and she said she would put him in some away-at-college discount rate. All she asked me for was the name and location of the college. Nice and easy savings!</p>
<p>**I have taken the first and last move-in dates for this countdown from the list on this thread. To try and list all of them would be overkill to say the least.</p>
<p>First new student move-in is the University of Georgia on August 9th. (Excludes cadet training at West Point)
Move-in day in 12 days. Less than TWO weeks! :eek:</p>
<p>Last new student move-in is the University of Southern Oregon on September 22nd<br>
Move-in day in 56 days.**</p>
<p>If there are earlier or later move-in dates, please post them so that I can pick them up and adjust the countdown postings.</p>
<p>owm - sorry that your mom is being crabby, but glad to hear the kids are having fun. I am very particular about having things in the right places - hopefully, I won’t be known as the crabby elder a couple of decades from now :(</p>
<p>Pepper - enjoy your visit to Hershey. We were there a couple of years ago when D had a tournament at Penn State - kids loved the place. Nice to go on a “last” true family vacation. We are picking up S from Saratoga next week and decided we would spend the weekend at Lake George - sort of a last vacation for us before moving D to college.</p>
<p>Amanda - would love to hear your research about fridges. I looked one up at Walmart - that has been the extent of my research. I figure I"ll order it to be picked up at the store in Cleveland - do it a week or so ahead of time. Is that sufficient? Or can I order it now and ask it to be held till Aug 20th?</p>
<p>Backups - we are going to get an external hard drive. Have to educate D on backing up her laptop. She plans on sending herself email as a quick/easy backup for important files and might use dropbox for more permanent stuff.</p>
<p>Question about laptops and security. D is moving in on Sunday. Headed out Sun evening to a camp for two nights (an orientation program). Her roommate also moves in Sun, but is doing the traditional orientation on campus for the next couple of days. D won’t be taking her laptop and other electronics to camp with her, so I assume she will leave it in the room. I am a little concerned since there’s likely to be additional activity around the place with folks moving in. Should I be concerned? What could she do as an alternative?</p>
<p>Just saw this. 2ed - when did you order the fridge to be picked up at the college town? Can you do something similar to the BB&B order and hold at Walmart?</p>
<p>^^^“S2 finally got in touch with his roomie…this is all i know, and I am not asking”^^^
I am in the same boat here. What is up with the boys? Hard to get out of their comfort zone?</p>
<p>Slithey - so glad you have a local friend to rely on. Do they have somewhere to do summer storage for you? That can be priceless.</p>
<p>Getting real here … we get in the car in 1 month. D has 2 papers to write. She’s reading like crazy, but I’m not sure the right books (“required” vs. “recommended” lists). She’ll manage.</p>
<p>When I found out more than one of her new friends at school will have a car I got VERY relaxed about dorm stuff. We’ll have a couple of days there to pick up things she needs, and she can get more later if she needs it, even the fridge. I do wish they had rentals there. Maybe we’ll find out they do after all when we get there.</p>
<p>Finally a little bit of rain here. Everything is brown and the farmers have been worried.</p>
<p>Yup, I asked Bluejr to coordinate with his roommate… coordinate what mom? You’re living in a small space and some things you can share, but OMG you’d have to talk about it first…ewwww! :eek: I simply arranged the microfridge rental for them to share and gave up!</p>
<p>blue, I might have to do the same with the microfridge rental. D1 sent a message to her roomie, but hasn’t heard back. I’ve heard that the rental place can/does run out, so if D1 wants it, I’ll tell her to go ahead. </p>
<p>EmmyBet, I know, summer storage would be mighty appealing! We have other friends in the general area, but none so close. </p>
<p>Pleased to hear that so many of you are happy with the hard drive option for backup. I’ll chat with D1 about what she’d like to do. The D’s learned early on to email themselves copies of important papers as backup. For home and work I/we use the Macintosh Time Machine software and a hard drive. Odds are slim (but not zero!) that both home and workplace would be wiped out. </p>
<p>Along with the laptop on sale this morning, the store had an HP wifi printer for $20. It’s $70 on Amazon, so I grabbed one. At worst, I can sell it on craigslist. </p>
<p>Last night was a local reception for parents and freshmen. There is a world of difference between an info session for potential applicants, and this kind of “casual” shindig. Good food and drink, spectacular location, charming deans, small-world connections galore. The nicest thing was seeing the young people interact, both with each other and with the adults. They were all self-confident, well-spoken, well-mannered, and good looking. Especially when compared to their middle-aged chauffeurs. A fly on the wall of their dorm rooms in a few months might see something different ;), but for now they made a parent’s heart burst with pride.</p>
<p>Well, not to disappoint, but the extent of the research was to find out what compares to the rental option. We can rent (combo micro+fridge) for $200/yr and share with roomie I suppose or buy a GE or Igloo 2-door fridge from Walmart for $124-136 and a micro (school recommends small 800W or less) for around $36-50. So, for the cost of renting for 8 mos. we can buy one. Since I have many dds in the wings, I figure buying one now, will generally not be a waste. His dorm room has a space below a cabinet to nest the unit but needs to be around 37" or shorter. The two door options allow for more true freezer room for a pint of icecream or something, as opposed to just being space for a cube tray.</p>
<p>Now, my problem is buy now and will it fit in the car or try to buy there and risk it not being in stock. I checked all over (Target, Lowes, HomeDept, local appliance store) and basically Walmart was it. Looked at two local Walmarts - and there are 2 units in each store - banged up boxes, maybe they all look like this but…then I measured the boxes and balked. I really don’t know IF I can fit in my car with dh, ds and say a few more rubbermaid tubs or clothes and such. Really don’t want to travel with 2 cars for move-in but I hate taking that risk that the Walmart in Pittsburgh won’t have it. They did have other small ones, and ds certainly doesn’t need fridge to survive…but…I like being planned out and not leaving it to last minute.</p>
<p>I will prob go buy it tonight and freak out dh. But he’s golfing for the second day in a row after work so he OWES ME.</p>
<p>Walmart has a ship-to-store option from their website. You could buy and have it shipped to a store near school. But I don’t know how long after it ships you have before you have to pick it up. You could call and ask.</p>
<p>I came to the same conclusion as AK on buying a fridge versus renting the microfridge. I think we can probably fit it in the car (Subaru Outback) with S’s other stuff, none of which is particularly bulky, which I guess is the simplest option. I was also thinking of buying on Amazon and getting free Prime shipping directly to school, but then he will need to move it from the mail building to his dorm, which is a bit of a hassle.</p>
<p>I knew the rental on the microfridge would end up being a wash…$120 for his share for the year vs purchasing a set up. Next year if he stays on grounds he will probably have an apt style dorm where he has a fridge and won’t need one. If he does need something, by then he’ll be connected and will have a chance to buy one off someone who doesn’t need theirs at the end of the year. Either way we’re all bleeding $$$! :eek: btw, I now say this out loud every time the credit card comes out. Bluejr is less and less amused…</p>
<p>D met her RM & 4 suitemates over the weekend. Sounds like they divided up who would bring the the common area items like TV, wireless router, coffee maker, etc. I’m sure there are things they overlooked, but it will work out fine. D is coming home Labor Day wknd for a family wedding, so she can pick up what she’s missing at that time.</p>
<p>I have to share my “deal of the century” with you - bought a reversible “Style & Co.” comforter set for D at Macy’s- originally priced at $120, rang up for $9.59 after all discounts/coupons! Love it when that happens!</p>
<p>I’m still looking for a cushy Twin XL mattress pad or topper b/c D’s mattress at dorm is like sleeping on a plastic-encased brick. Anyone with any good finds-please share.</p>
</p>
Good food and drink, spectacular location, charming deans, small-world connections galore. The nicest thing was seeing the young people interact, both with each other and with the adults. They were all self-confident, well-spoken, well-mannered, and good looking. Especially when compared to their middle-aged chauffeurs. 
I share your victory dance!!</p>