<p>Congrats on the vet school acceptance. That is very impressive.</p>
<p>S2 has a phone interview on Monday for the federal job he applied for back at Thanksgiving. I like this opportunity better than he does, so I’m not sure how well he will sell himself. There seems to be a pretty big anti-fed mentality at his college, which is unfortunate. I guess the upside is there is not a lot of downside risk if it doesn’t go any further. He also has interview requests in with a few firms who will decide in March who they want to see.</p>
<p>congrats to TeassaD.
Good luck to S2 TA!
In less than 28 hours my mother will be in her assisted living quarters. It looks like a palace. Waiting with breathe held…
NM and sab hope tomorrow is better.
I have my sleep study tomorrow night. Should be interesting. Naturally I am finishing my great book tonight. figures.</p>
<p>You know, I was thinking that Downton Abbey had “jumped the shark” last week – overdone drama. But sometimes I wonder if our thread doesn’t compete on that score! We certainly lead “colorful” lives (missypie sis et all, oregon101 mom, kids with interviews and acceptances) and an awful lot more.</p>
<p>Oh no,Zetesis, you’re feeling that this thread has “jumped the shark” ? According to the dictionary, that means “something that was once great has reached a point where it will now decline in quality and popularity.” Would hate to think that. I do enjoy this thread, drama and all!</p>
<p>oh, I was with Zetesis. I thought “jump the shark” meant the story has become so overdone as to not be believable anymore. I don’t think there is any chance of us declining in quality, but we do seem to be leading pretty colorful, sometimes unbelievable, lives (stripper clothes girlfriend, oregon’s mom firing dozens of helpers, etc).</p>
<p>not sure this counts as colorful, but I made a spur of the moment decision to go to Boston to spend 24 hours with D - she needs a hug and I’ve got the time. made plans about 4 days ago to fly in tomorrow and home on Friday morning. checked the weather before I booked it. nada. not a snowflake in the forecast. now? “historic storm predicted for Boston!” seriously?! </p>
<p>I’m still planning to go, but I’ll try to get out of Boston early Friday morning ahead of the storm. wish me luck.</p>
<p>Good morning! I have just the kind of (imaginary) jump-the-shark plot twist for our thread that would solve many problems and entertain us enormously:
Homeless MissySis moves in with Oregon mom so she can stay in her home (and sis can have a home). Now there’s some reality tv! ;)</p>
<p>Kudos to tas2 on the job interview, and storm fleeing mojo to PRJ!</p>
<p>PRJ, based upon the weather reports, you should be OK if you leave early on Friday.</p>
<p>When we had purchased our house and not yet moved into it (massive renovation was still to come), one of our neighbors organized a progressive dinner among parents who would have a kid the same age as ShawSon – entering kindergarten that fall. The next year, that neighbor and ShawWife transformed it into an event for lots of families and then over the years to the whole neighborhood (people w/o kids, people whose kids had flown the coop, etc.). That second year, we had the appetizer/cocktail party for the entire neighborhood – I think 150 people – in our house and then they went to various houses for dinner. Since then, we’ve gone to others’ houses. And it is now distributed – a couple of cocktail parties and then dinners of 10 at various people’s houses. This year – on Saturday in the midst of the expected blizzard – we’re going to host a dinner. I think we will have to put up a coat and boot rack in our entry way so that people can shake off all of the snow before coming into the house. [As good Canadians and honorary Canadians, we take our shoes off upon entering the house all year long, but that is apparently not the tradition among many Americans, who would tromp around the house in wet shoes].</p>
<p>shawbridge, hope the blizzard doesn’t derail your dinner! If they are all in the neighborhood, does that mean they are walking and not driving? Hope so!</p>
<p>When we have a ton of snow, since I have 2 dogs and need to walk them no matter the weather, I line our entry hall with our ratty old towels. I doubt ratty old towels will go with your decor, but it works well with wet dogs and snow covered boots!</p>
<p>You will all be happy to hear an update that our Christmas decor, which I single handedly packed up in boxes and has been sitting in our living room for a long time, found its way to the basement on Saturday while I was out doing errands. On Monday night I cleared the gift wrapping station from the ping pong table. We’re making some progress here!</p>
<p>This thread is a little like a soap opera, which is fun. PRJ and Shawbridge, good luck with negotiating the blizzard this week-end. We used to enjoying doing progressive dinners, but haven’t participated recently. I have a neighborhood ladies night out tonight. We just go to a restaurant where everybody catches up. We only do an in-house neighborhood party once a year now. </p>
<p>Oregon, I hope your mom settles in OK. My dad had a similar problem with caregivers in his home but wouldnt stay in assisted living either. He actually escaped from two places, which of course creates a liability problem for them so there was no bringing him back. He clearly liked the attention he got by being difficult. I dont deal with unreasonable demands sympathetically so was ready to just let social services deal with him. However, my sister never gave up trying to make him happy. Im thankful my mother voluntarily moved into a retirement community and loves it there.</p>
<p>Congrats on the vet school acceptance and the interviews that are going on.</p>
<p>D’s boyfriend is supposed to fly up to see her tomorrow. Not sure if the weather will be an impact or not. My concern is that he not try to go and get stranded in NYC or that there isn’t an issue with her driving from Lewiston to Portland at 11:30 at night to go pick him up. Thinking positive thoughts that the weather won’t be as bad as they are predicting.</p>
<p>Shawbridge – hope the dinner party is successful. As I’m originally from Maine we always took our shoes off. My kids do but for some reason I have never been able to train my H to do that. Not something his family did – they just walk on through with wet/muddy shoes. Most all of my neighborhood (most of them are not from Rochester area) do take theirs off when they come in and so do their kids. Must just be pockets around that do that. It does make cleaning easier.</p>
<p>Congrats to TessaD on vet school!
Best of luck to TA S2!</p>
<p>Funny, kids’ friends have always taken shoes off in all kinds of weather when coming into our house, I have never asked them to, they just do it.</p>
<p>We are in the 16-24" range, S’s school in the 30" range, I expect his classes will be canceled on Friday. I do not get naming snow storms, it seems silly to me, “Nemo” they are calling this one.</p>
<p>Minnesotans always take off their shoes… year-round. When the kids would have friends over the front hall would be a land mind of shoes. Adults do it too, and I spend a lot of money on socks for that very reason. Down side: One year my oldest got new boots for Christmas (this was before the Ugg craze) and when she went to leave the party hers were gone and some pair from target were left in her boot’s place! </p>
<p>Carpet guy came to measure yesterday and while we’ll do the family room, he figured out that if we took the carpet from the closet under the stairs combined with some of the scrap from laying the basement currently in the storage room, we could redo the stairs to the basement (which are destroyed) without having to replace the entirety of the lower level (which overall is perfectly fine) saving me about $5K. We’ll replace the closet with something in a remnant. The other option down there of course was to do nothing. </p>
<p>The dinner party sounds fun, although a ton of work for sure for that many people. Do they mix up the groups as the evening unfolds. Is there any point where everyone gets together?</p>
<p>I like the idea of a reality show starring Missy’s sister and Oregon’s mom. I am sure there are a few other characters mentioned here that would round out the cast well.</p>
<p>Hadn’t really read the news yet, but my cousin who lives in Boston made some mention on FB of 3" an hour with over 2ft expected and it was probably likely to cancel his flight for winter vacation this Saturday. What usually bites in these situations is even if you’re just delayed, you’re still paying for your accommodations at the other end unless you bought some kind of trip insurance. Bummer for sure.</p>
<p>PRJ have fun with D but good luck getting back. And Shaw, I really don’t know what to wish for you. I 'm assuming guests are all walking within the neighborhood, right?
H is scheduled to fly to NYC from Chicago tomorrow. I’m beginning to think he should just stay put.</p>
<p>Fingers crossed for S2, TA. Sounds nice Sabaray!</p>