<p>Glad everyone made it to where they were going. ShawD asked ShawWife to drive back into the city during the snow so she could meet her friends and go to a house in the Cape for a few days. With ShawWife’s new Acura SUV and her Canadian driving skills, pas de problem.</p>
<p>I may be in arabrab’s vicinity at the end of the week. We’ll see. If not, at the end of the month. </p>
<p>Taxes. Too complex to think about even though I enjoy understanding the rules and figuring out how to use them to minimize taxes. But, things are just too complex to even figure out – foreign tax credits are wild, for example. We do have foreign bank accounts and file separate forms for them.</p>
<p>H does our taxes with quicken, but ours are simple. No foreign accts or income, no self employment or business expenses or rentals. Just the usual stuff. I spent part of this afternoon reviewing them.</p>
<p>S does not feel good about the SAT he took :(</p>
<p>It beautiful here, low 60’s and sunny. I took a long walk this AM with the dog (she turned 12 yesterday).</p>
<p>^^ shaw, I never thought of taking my dog out to eat on her birthday. Being a beagle, she would love it!</p>
<p>H, S and I finally saw Argo last night. We got it on Fios on demand. It thought it was very well done.</p>
<p>I am scheduled to speak at our local school board meeting on Tuesday night. There is an issue concerning the magnet school S attends. Of course it will not very likely effect him as he is a junior (I’m not even worried). I have no problem with public speaking but would love to have a speechwriter.</p>
<p>ShawSon was back for a couple of hours. He thinks that he has a choice between graduating magna cum laude with greater progress on his startup or summa cum laude with less progress on the startup. I’m inclined to suggest summa because it probably only slows them down for a month, but I might well lean the other way if I felt slower progress would hurt the overall success of the enterprise and not just delay it a month. I’m never sure how the honors matter – but I know that when people wanted to know if Sonia Sotamayor was smart, they pointed to summa from Princeton, which is quite difficult to get. If ShawSon were later applying for a Rhodes or something like that, it is the right kind of signal. If he does another startup after this one, honors probably would not matter.</p>
<p>Good choices to have, Shaw
Glad you got out to do some snowshoeing. In this neck of the woods I may be hanging mine up for the season. We’re having a melt, which means mud on the hill, so today I’m going to try out some micro spikes I just got instead.</p>
<p>It’s a good thing we’re having a melt too, because we’ve had ice-damming on the roof and I don’t think my nerves could stand another session of mch traipsing around up there;)</p>
<p>So, mcson appears to have made it back to Ann Arbor in tact. Hopefully the balance of this semester/entire college career thing will be smooth. Hard to believe it’s all winding down! Where does the time go!</p>
<p>I know a dog who gets spoiled on his birthday, and mch is one of the spoilers. This dog is his “dogson” of a bachelor friend. Said dog goes to doggie camp with his owner, painting cass and agility training, etc. Said dog made a painting for mch for Xmas if his friend would learn to treat women as well as he treats his dog…you get the idea ;)</p>
<p>Back from our cruise. Just skimmed the pages since we were gone. Cruise was wonderful – our first. We would do it again – not for every vacation but occassionally.</p>
<p>I saw something several pages back about Disney. H is already asking when we can take grandkids – not that we have any yet or are likely to for at a minimum 1 year from now. Too funny but H and I ARE Disney people. We just love it there. :)</p>
<p>Welcome back RM! Glad you had a great vacation.</p>
<p>shaw… I also struggled with the summa vs. magna decisions for D2. At her university you qualify based on GPA AND the completion of a thesis. In the end she decided her GPA would speak for itself along with her experience/good references from working within her career field and so she chose not to pursue the summa cum laude honor and complete the thesis. H wholeheartedly supported her decision and pointed out that when he hires people for his company he would be inclined to hire someone who has good work references/experience and as he said “smart is smart no matter what tiny degree of percentage point between GPAs or whether you wrote a paper.” I am sure this advice only applies in specific career fields.</p>
<p>I have heard Disney Cruises are really fun. We are going on a cruise in September.
I guess it depends on the field you are in, for Summa vs Magna</p>
<p>In ShawSon’s case, he’s writing the thesis already. He went over what he’d done with his committee in the first semester and they said, very strong, but you’ll probably need one more theoretical model to make it a summa plus you need to write it more formally. I think one look at his resume will, per your husband, say smart – 3.95 GPA at a prestigious school with a triple major including math and economics plus prizes for outstanding academic achievement. Not much he could do to move the meter on that. But for a very few tippy-top things summa might matter relative to magna. For most things not at all. He asked me for my advice. I’m thinking maybe it doesn’t matter. DTE, what fields are you thinking about where it might matter?</p>
<p>dont know Shaw, perhaps ones that are highly competative, where the jobs are decided closely. But gosh dont know how he could be any more perfect.
I am doing Oprah and Deepak Chopras 21 meditation Challenge. like Day 1 so far. It is free andyou can still join.</p>
<p>Drove over to Wisconsin to choose two gas fireplaces at the fireplace store our contractor uses. The regular sales rep who has their account wasn’t there and the young man working was useless. He was rude and told me they had nothing that I was interested in! Yikes! I left and stopped at a place here in the suburbs and found exactly what I want so I sent the info to our project manager and now she can figure out who to get it from at the best price as the first store does carry this brand and style.
Also stopped at the cabinet designer place and confirmed my stain color. I have it narrowed to two styles of door fronts so they will make sample doors with the stain and then I have to choose! One is very simple, Mission style almost and the other has just a bit more detail around the reveal. Next up is wood floor and wood ceiling stain colors and then counter tops. Hoping things keep moving!</p>
<p>Bought my appliances yesterday and they will be delivered in 30 days. Hopefully there will be a kitchen or they will need to be stored.</p>
<p>H left for an OOS meeting. I find these meetings pretty interesting as this is a national healthcare executive round table group. Past Sec of the Treasury Paul O’Neill lead round table discussions previously as the group discussed lean business practices. I believe he is also involved in this session. Since I am home alone I will have an enjoyable evening reading! Is it wrong to enjoy my alone time??? I don’t think so! ;)</p>
<p>Hi–D is home for 4 days so spending way to much on new clothes/shoes and since we are (hiding my face) way too much into food–spending too much! But she is such a calm and centered person that it is just fun. She also brought her dog back to stay for awhile and I just wish she was a better dog…</p>
<p>Shaw --congrats! Your S is doing great! D is on the cusp of high honors and while she talks about how it does not matter I know she is the type to care (where S really would not). So hope your S gets what he wants.</p>
<p>DT–sound interesting!</p>
<p>NM–ok just so envious! I love love love making these kind of decisions and know that some errors will happen and that they will make no difference in the big picture! Have fun!</p>
<p>Unexpected evening with a dear friend and two bottles of wine later I am awake and feeling better about remodeling decisions! ;)</p>
<p>Missing everyone…you all must be busy this past week…where the heck are you all???</p>
<p>Oregon…Like you I do enjoy the process. As sabaray knows I am an avid pinterest addict and have a huge board for the cabin. I like to keep moving and not have down time once decisions are made. Can hardly wait to see the finished product! :)</p>
<p>^maybe they’re off plotting a fine April meetup that I will sorely miss
It has occurred to me that mcson had better not have any last min. snags, like his Sr. Thesis, interfere with his graduation because if I miss the meetup to organize his grad party and he doesn’t graduate I might have to hex him!</p>
<p>His advisor tells him there’s no chance of this, but I have seen the kid snatch shenanigans from the jaws of victory before!</p>
<p>NM, I am jealous not only of the decorating fun, but also the wine and time! Worked late again last night due to human fallibility (client changing mind about scope) and must say it makes me cranky.</p>
<p>Oregon, nice to a) have kid for visit and b) enjoy it so you are doubly blessed. I haven’t seen mcson since Xmas, but he’s coming home for Easter so I’m looking forward. I am encouraging my peeps to work weekend now to meet our deadlines because I am NOT going to be burning month-end midnight oil at Easter and have gone on record as such!</p>
<p>D is home this week and today we are headed off to look at some post-grad apartments and do a few fun things. Oregon - I’m like you in that my spending increases exponentially when D is home. It is fun, though. NM, I would love to be redecorating and I like seeing all the neat ideas you have for the cabin. Pinterest can be a huge time drain! I hear your frustration on the poor customer service though - I’ve had two recent trips to Target that were just awful thanks to the cashiers - rude, indifferent, unpleasant. So when Target asked me to do a survey, I did one! I wonder if they listen. With all the people looking for work one would think they could find more pleasant workers. </p>
<p>S2 is home this week as well. Food bills do go up but I like stocking up on things he likes and making some of the things he likes for dinner. We may go to see the new Oz movie today or tomorrow. Yesterday we closed out his local credit union checking account and moved the money into his bank that has a national presence. He may go up to DC for a couple of days to see his brother before he heads back to school. Can’t get him to think about looking for an apartment yet. His backup plan will probably be staying with his brother for awhile after he starts work and then looking for an apartment. </p>
<p>Been MIA and in a whirlwind of activity. S flew home for his 2 week spring break Friday evening. Yesterday we flew to Florida and are visiting my parents until Saturday.</p>
<p>S judged a HS forensics tournament on Saturday, then got together with a friend. Sunday am H had him singing in church so no sleeping in. We celebrated MIL’s 75th birthday Sunday evening in grand style with a limo ride to a private room at a nice restaurant.</p>
<p>Monday am S had a follow-up dentist appointment, then we packed for our flight.</p>
<p>Looking forward to some rest and warm temperatures!</p>
<p>D called on Saturday requesting we send her the electrical outlet converter from her spring study abroad for her trip to the Middle East next week, so I got that mailed to her yesterday. She’s having a great final semester, although she is tiring of the picturesque snow.</p>
<p>Congrats to all with successful grad school applications, job interviews and offers, and honors - summa vs. magna, what a great choice to have! Was it really 4 years ago that we were celebrating high school honors and college acceptances?</p>
<p>We’ve got a redecorating project of our own. Started out with my desire to “refresh and repurpose” some rooms - seriously declutter, move the TV from an upstairs guest room, replace the kitchen table with something that fits the space better, etc. Basically, I want a do-over on some of the choices we made 12 years ago and I want to do it now, not in 5-10 years when we are ready to sell the house. Well, of course a change in furniture led to wanting to switch out wallpaper for paint in a couple of rooms, which led to the reminder of why we didn’t do that 12 years ago - the very old plaster is in terrible shape. So now I have big holes in my LR wall, all the way down to the lathe. :eek:</p>
<p>The girls will both be home soon, D2 this Friday and D1 the following week. Since we’ll have them together for only a couple of nights, we’ve decided to celebrate Passover a couple of nights early. I know, kinda strange to be having the Seder on a night when no one else is. We’ll just ask ourselves “why is this Seder different from all other Seders?” ;)</p>
