<p>dig~</p>
<p>We already have ebola and HIV, which are both huge interests of his, along with a passel of others. He even gave an HIV one to the AIDS specialist who mentored him! Bet she never received one of THOSE before! ;)</p>
<p>~b.</p>
<p>My d already has an iPod, so I’m getting her some speakers to plug it into. She has most of her music loaded on it, and it might be nice to not wear headphones all the time to hear it.</p>
<p>berurah - tooooo cool! I just ordered ldgirl ‘The Black Death’ (and Ebola) for stocking stuffers. Her NHD project was on The Plague and she just thinks Ebola is fascinating. In fact, she just went to the doctor today and was diagnosed with severe bronchities…or in her words ‘I think I’ve got Ebola’. Nice timing for finals huh? :eek:</p>
<p>ldmom~</p>
<p><strong><em>ROFLMAO</em></strong> OMG, your D should meet my son!!! </p>
<p>I’m sorry to hear that your D is battling bronchitis at this point in the semester! :eek: Poor baby!!! I always worry about my son, too, 'cause if he gets too worn down, he becomes prone to the winter “crud” that seems to hang on and on…<em>sigh</em> I <em>really</em> hope that your D feels better and SOON!</p>
<p>Ebola was my first purchase at giantmicrobes, along with HIV, flesh eating strep (OMG, that one is <em>SO</em> cute…it has that little fork and knife embroidered on its belly! 
), black death, and sleeping sickness (another adorable one!). He’s got some others, but I’d have to go and look to see which ones. I’m definitely adding rabies—that was the one which catalyzed his interest in viruses back when he was SIX!! :eek: They’ve got a bunch of new ones this year, so I’ll have to go and look around!</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>B - The one that cracks me up is ‘the mange’…lol! And my hubby was looking over my shoulder and loved the malaria one…since he is always in West Africa and worrying about malaria…hehehe.</p>
<p>berurah - I know…we just smacked our heads…wouldn’t ya know she’d get sick at the worst time. If your son ever flies out of IAH, he may very well meet ldgirl. Her last flight was full of ‘Dukies’. She was the lone Tarheel ranger. ;)</p>
<p>My d asked for, of all things, Texas-shaped ice cube trays. I complied…lol! And I finally broke down and bought those uggs. She’s fashion forward and they are definitely a step backward… but for warm feet and walking hills, I think they can’t be beat.</p>
<p>Gosh, I hope she’s too busy studying to check this site out. :)</p>
<p>ld~</p>
<p>I’m wearin’ my lavendar UGGS right now!!! SOOOOOOOOOOOO comfy. My kids got 'em for me for my b-day two years ago! I love 'em, especially 'cause you don’t need to go and find socks. They’re best worn over naked feet. 
What color did you get for your D??</p>
<p>LOVE the Texas shaped ice cube tray idea! As a native Texan, I’d love some myself! </p>
<p>Just went and looked at the microbes again…lyme disease is <em>really</em> cute! Did you see that one?</p>
<p>~b.</p>
<p>Let’s see…if I can remember. I bought her the Ultimate Tall II in chestnut. And I bought her a couple pair more of the really skinny Abercrombie jeans…they are great for tucking into boots. Of course, she’s itty bitty and can wear that sort of thing. I’m a boot cut jean/high heel boot girl myself (slimming ya know…lol!)</p>
<p>I confess I did slip those uggs on (just to check the size…uh huh…) and they were ‘to die for’ comfortable. And you are right…bare feet is best. Heavenly!</p>
<p>b - here’s the link for those Texas ice cubes</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.guitars-cadillacs.com/products/Detail26.html[/url]”>http://www.guitars-cadillacs.com/products/Detail26.html</a></p>
<p>(wonder what they mean by ‘jello treats’…rofl)</p>
<p>We got college soph. S one of those big silver lock box things to go in the back of his truck. His wallet was stolen at school last week so now he needs a new wallet. He moved off-campus this year. I have yet to see his apartment but aparrantly there has been very little cleaning going on because he called last night and said a great Christmas gift for him would be that new thing called a “shower squirter”!</p>
<p>LOVE your germs b!!! My MIL is a bit of a germaphobe (ok, more than a bit; she sanitizes her hands in the middle of church after shaking hands, drinks everything from a straw - dirty edges, has learned to balance on stairs with never touching a handrail, etc). LOL! This gave me the idea to make her a basket of her favorite things, Purcell, germ killing tissues, alcohol wipes, face masks along with two of her arch enemies, the Cold and Flu viruses. Hopefully they arrive before Christmas, but if they don’t her birthday is right around the corner. She’ll love it!!!</p>
<p>corona~</p>
<p><strong>ROFLMAO</strong> about your MIL!!! I’m laughing because I’ve got my fair share of kids who are kind of like this, and I just HAVE to wonder if it’s from growing up with a big brother who LOVED to regale them with stories of ebola, marburg, and various other hemorrhagic fevers! :eek: Not to mention HIV, hantavirus, etc. etc. etc…<em>sigh</em> Your gift idea is AMAZING!!! Don’t forget the disposable gloves!! They have some cool purple ones at Wal-Mart that are latex-free, I think! As a little extra, you might want to add in a paperback copy of THE HOT ZONE. Or…maybe not… :eek:</p>
<p>BTW, the little critters don’t take long to arrive. You should have them well before Christmas. Meanwhile, I’m off to giantmicrobes to try to convince them that I should get a small cut of the profits (or at least 1 or 2 free ones) for all of the free advertising I’ve given them! ;)</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>I got my nursing student a Palm Pilot with a whole bunch of nursing and medical software. Expensive, but it will be a really great help, and be useful when she is working, too. I also got her and her BF tix to Avenue Q on Bdwy. I just saw it, and it’s hysterical. My younger one, the hs junior, I got a Lacoste tote bag for school, and some clothes. I’m not sure what else to get her, because she’s so hard to shop for. (I know she’d love a Pontiac G6, but dream on!!)</p>
<p>oh yes…get the purple latex free gloves! Safe and very cool. We go through boxes of them…for d’s anatomy/physiology class last year and for house-cleaning and jalapeno-handling…lol! (I have one kid with a latex allergy…found out the hard way the first time the orthodontist examined him. Had red blisters in the shape of fingers on the side of his face for two weeks. We are lucky he didn’t have a much worse reaction.)</p>
<p>Btw…I swear - my d has every book every written about exotic diseases! “Hot Zone”, “Level 4 - Virus Hunters of the CDC…”, “The Plague Tales”, etc… She is gonna love her new critters…can’t wait for them to come in…lol!</p>
<p>tanya - that is a great idea for your nursing student daughter. If mine sticks this pre-med thing out, I’ll be borrowing that idea next year!</p>
<p>Another really cool present I bought for ldgirl were the clog-styled Crocs in UNC colors with UNC logo. She will be volunteering at the UNC med center (hoping for the grunt labwork on the breast cancer study I spoke of previously), but I thought these might be nifty hospital wear. And if not, good for the beach! They come in MANY school colors…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.journeys.com/catalog_listing.aspx?c=vendors&s=girls/Crocs[/url]”>http://www.journeys.com/catalog_listing.aspx?c=vendors&s=girls/Crocs</a></p>
<p>ld~</p>
<p>No Duke blue Crocs for your D??? 
Hee hee…I bought my son a pair of Duke sandals to go back and forth to the shower with.</p>
<p>Speaking of Duke and UNC stuff, when I was in Wal-Mart in Durham it was like HEAVEN!! It’s hard to believe that there is a store that regularly stocks Duke and UNC items…here, it’s all KU, KState, Wichita State, and Oklahoma! What a difference 1250 miles makes! :D</p>
<p>OMG, your poor son!! That must have been really painful in the mouth area. Was that his first exposure to latex, or can you develop a latex allergy later in life??</p>
<p>My son, too, owns all of those books! In fact, the first time I gave some of these little microbes, it was in conjunction with several new texts on the various corresponding diseases! I still say that your D and my S would make an interesting and rather compatible couple, 'cept for the obvious rivalry <em>lol</em>!</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>taking the family to las vegas to see “love”</p>
<p>we have not been on a family trip over the holidays since organized sports became such a big part of my kids’ lives. this will be a special trip for all of us.</p>
<p>tanya~</p>
<p>My girls haven’t seen Avenue Q, but they love the music. My three girls are all into musical theatre, but on a strictly amateur basis! :)</p>
<p>Just wonderin’…have you or anyone you know seen this:
<a href=“http://www.jewtopiaplay.com/[/url]”>http://www.jewtopiaplay.com/</a></p>
<p>My D’s friend just got back from NYC, and she brought her a flyer about this show ('cause my D is the only Jewish kid she knows! <em>lol</em>). It sounds like it could be pretty hilarious! :D</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>^ This is exactly what I’m thinking B. You’ve got the boy version of my d and I’ve got the girl version of your son. </p>
<p>I remember that Walmart btw…lol! Kept expecting to see UT/A&M stuff, but it was all UNC/Duke/State gear. Was weird little Walmart though…we have all the huge super Wallyworlds and super Targets here in Houston…and I was getting frustrated at the selection. Btw…did you check out the Target and BBB there in Durham? They also had tons of Duke/UNC stuff. The BBB checkout ladies are rabid Duke fans though…hehehe…did a bit of nose turning at some of the UNC things I bought.</p>
<p>I have one question though…is there some sort of zoning thing going on there? All of the major stores on the other side of I-40 in Durham…barely anything in Chapel Hill that isn’t mom and pop. My d lives on that Triangle Transit bus headed to Durham for supplies.</p>
<p>re: the latex thing…we can’t recall him ever having a reaction to latex. But many, many doctors/dentists/hospital strictly use latex-free now; so it is possible that this was the first time he had actually been exposed to latex.</p>
<p>ld~</p>
<p>Is your D a bio/chem major like my S? </p>
<p>We have the “supers” here too, though not when we first got here…OMG, there wasn’t even a <em>deli</em> in our grocery store in this little town!! <em>lol</em> Needless to say, I went to the “big city” to shop. Speaking of big cities, have you ever been in one of those HUMONGO H.E.B.'s in TX?? OMG, the one near us had a tortillaria, a sushi counter, about 15 different kinds of grapes and melons (didn’t know there WERE so many kinds!), etc. AMAZING…when it opened, they handed out maps to the inside layout of it!</p>
<p>Not sure about the zoning dealio…last time I was in Durham I stayed in a hotel right near that HUGE nice center with the BBB and about a bajillion other things. I didn’t even go in there–I didn’t even think about them having Duke stuff! :eek: I’ll definitely have to do that next time! It’s hard to keep my 13-year-old in enough Duke attire. He loves to razz his KS-fan teachers! <em>lololol</em> He did, though, lose a bet last week with one of them and we had to cough up a huge container of Arizona green tea for her…hope he doesn’t lose too often. This could get costly!</p>
<p>~b.</p>
<p>B - All of our nearby HEBs are either closed or are Pantrys. My fave (little tear) was Randalls. A brand new gorgeous Randalls Flagship was built near our home (the store had an Austin limestone/Hill Country look) and then closed within two years after Randalls was bought out. We have a Krogers nearby (we call it the Gucci Krogers), but I don’t really care for it. (My husband saw roaches running around in the big piles of dog food bags at that Krogers and made me swear on my little chihuahua’s life I would never buy groceries there…chuckle.) My mom has the big HEBs in her town…don’t know what the deal is here. I did notice some new ‘gutting’ work being done on that fancy Randalls building…maybe we are getting a new big HEB??? Would be nice. </p>
<p>About my d’s major…looks like it’s evolving into a biochemistry thing. She did want a BS in Psychology, which nearly gave my engineer husband a heart attack. But she has since said she really likes the coursework she sees in the Biochem degree. My husband was pumping his fist “yes!” for the hard core science degree. If he can’t get her to consider business at Kenan Flagler, he’ll settle for a science degree.</p>
<p>We stayed at the most horrendous hotel that had a Carolina Parent’s package. Ugh. Holiday Inn…don’t go near it. It wasn’t cheaper than any other hotel and the package wasn’t worth it. Next time, we’ll stay at the Carolina Inn. Convenient and beautiful.</p>