<p>Congrats to your D2 and future SIL, NM!
c_Q , I hope your D hears good news soon.</p>
<p>KMC - at the end of our street is a farm – not a real clean farm – but a farm. I’m from farm country in Maine so I know what a farm is supposed to look like – well a well cared for farm 
What I will say though is that the town that I now live in has a ton of green space and although out lot is small (1/3 of an acre) it backs to a forever wild that separates us from our neighbors in the street behind us – who of course we know quite well – kids went to school together so out property FEELS bigger than it is. As far as beauty I miss the Mt. Washington and the coast. I’ve lived here longer than I lived in Maine but I still miss the coast and the mountains. What they call a mountain here I call a small hill. :)</p>
<p>CBB - I think I’ve previously mentioned on here that I used to write D1 long emails when I was worried about her. Years later she told me she printed and saved them all… and still reads them because mostly it was me telling her that I knew she could do anything she put her mind to and found her wonderful always, even when she didn’t or couldn’t see that herself. When she sent me the random note to say thank you for the support, I was honestly blown away. I didn’t think she was even reading, but like you, it had just made me feel better to say it. So keep writing… and being supportive. Those nuggets get through.</p>
<p>Popping in to say the wedding is July 19th. Invites are out and RSVPs are coming in. I still haven’t found a dress! D2 has her first fitting this afternoon! I can’t believe she is finishing her grad program! I still have to find a gift for her.</p>
<p>CBB…Sending prayers for your S. Hoping he finds his place/niche. </p>
<p>So much going on with everyone. </p>
<p>Kmc, I already loved you but now I love you even more for using the term “developable lots” … someone who speaks my language!</p>
<p>NM, you seem pretty cool for someone with a wedding less than two months away. Good for you!</p>
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<p>Been to north Texas much? Whenever I return from a trip to somewhere prettier (which is basically everywhere), I ask myself why I live in this flat brown place. Then I remind myself that I have a good job here.</p>
<p>The HS yearbook came out yesterday. They did a much better job than last year. Another “last.” (Which is good because those things take up a lot of room.)</p>
<p>NMN, your dress for D1 wedding was gorgeous, so I have complete faith you will knock it out of the park again… but ahem… how does the mother of the groom feel or is that now passé (where the bride’s mom get’s to find her dress first?). </p>
<p>I loved our neighborhood when the kids were growing up… we had a big yard, lots of families and well, we all got along famously. The problem, if it is one, is that several of my best friends were transferred away, made friends with some of the new folks but in the last 10 years, most moving in were much younger with much younger stage of life kids. Yes, I could count on my neighbors (and did) to check on things etc when we were out of town and the same for them for us. Heck, I probably still have keys to half the houses on the block! But I am ready for zero yard, closer to the city where H has come around to liking it as much as I do (except for our place where we have zero outdoor space of our own and that’s what truly bugs us most). We have this one bedroom and somehow H thought it was fine if D drove back from school with a friend to visit! - we don’t even have room for her, let alone a friend. And when I say room… I mean zero bed and certainly no “space” for her stuff! He seriously doesn’t think things through and of course, his answer is to just rent a nearby hotel suite like room! </p>
<p>Hope everyone has a great long weekend. My push at work is over for now (I hope). I can get back to normal hours and weekends off! I’m just too old to do this kind of thing anymore or just don’t want to – not sure which. Only have to work until 11 today and taking the rest of the day off. Looking forward to that! I have lots of things I’m planning to do – hopefully I’ll actually get some of them done!</p>
<p>Here’s a language/grammar question for you. Our summer interns were asked to list 3 interesting facts about themselves for our summer program website. A female intern wrote: “I am the youngest of five brothers.” Doesn’t that mean that she is also a brother? Do we have our first transexual intern? Or did she mean to say “I have five older brothers”? Or is she right and I’m wrong?</p>
<p>I am about to take one of the interns to lunch. These students hadn’t been born when I started work at the firm! I asked H how we got to be so old. His response: “We didn’t die.” True that. </p>
<p>missypie, that seems odd to me. “I am the youngest of six children” or “I am the youngest child in my family with five older brothers” would be how I would word that, except that I am the youngest of four children, and I have three older brothers. I have NEVER said “I am the youngest of three brothers.”</p>
<p>Received a text from D: company contacted the staffing agency, said they needed the weekend. Of course it’s a three-day weekend. She’d like to start working by the beginning of June; don’t know if she’s going to make it!</p>
<p>Bad grammatical choice more likely than gender issues, I’d say.</p>
<p>c_q, very disheartening. Let’s get this young woman a job!</p>
<p>ShawSon called as his new active board Chairman (does not the CEO title) worked out a very clever plan. ShawSon does not give up his unvested shares but vests more slowly as he works part-time. The board will be the venture capitalist, ShawSon, me (or another guy who I brought in as an investor), the Chairman, and and one of two investors he brought in. Clever solution as he is keeping ShawSon engaged, rather than having him forfeit the next slug of stock. They have come up with a second product to sell to walk-in clinics, restaurants, and other organizations that have waiting rooms/queues. ShawSon is very excited about the potential. They’ll need to raise $$, which ShawSon can help with, as the company is likely to start adding staff pretty soon.</p>
<p>ShawD called absolutely thrilled about her clinical courses/assignments – OB in a public hospital with crack babies etc., a clinic for the homeless, and DTE’s hospital. As always, her enthusiasm is infectious. Everyone around her loves being around her. She absolutely thinks that working with mothers and infants is the greatest (though she has loved everything except spinal cord injury patients – veterans, psych patients, brain-injured, med/surg step-down unit, med/surg generally). She is slowly getting the idea of using her parents’ connections to help her get a post-degree job. Hiring at hospitals is so bureaucratic (submit your application job by job through our online system). The trick is to meet the folks who could help you months before you are applying for advice. Then later, when you are looking an apply through their system, you let them know and they let the hiring manager know you are great (and she is – 3.94 GPA in an accelerated program, social skills out the wazoo, and genuine excitement about the work). I’d like to help her get a job at one of the many hospitals in walking distance so she doesn’t have to take a long subway ride or bus or Uber at 6 AM.</p>
<p>Back at the beach – the pup and I beat it out of Boston early yesterday morning to be sure we missed the traffic exodus for the long weekend. So-so weather forecasted for today, but better tomorrow and Monday, I think. So, we’re back to the “on” season – which has its pluses and minuses.</p>
<p>shaw – your talking about D’s thinking about post-degree jobs reminds me of a good friend whose D got her RN, graduated with honors, passed her boards, etc. etc – but couldn’t get a job. The young lady was insistent that she didn’t want to work at a nursing home, only wanted a hospital job. She applied for hundreds of RN positions all over MA, NH, etc. Every single answer came back the same – you need experience. Meanwhile she was working for not much over minimum wage at CVS for over a year. Finally she bit the bullet and took a job at a nursing home. Turns out she loved the job, got great experience, and recently took a job in the cardio unit at a hospital in NH. So basically she wasted a year …</p>
<p>mp – yes, you are correct; the intern is not. Poorly worded description of her place in her family.</p>
<p>Moda – yes, I do recall your talking about sending your D emails. I can only hope S is reading mine and thinking at least a little about what I’m saying. If this situation was with my D, I’d be more sure the emails were being read. (OTOH, with D we’d actually be talking!)</p>
<p>Hope everyone enjoys the long weekend.</p>
<p>Shaw, I think I may have mentioned this before. A friend’s daughter is doing this. She’s sounds like your daughter… brilliant, very personable, insanely hardworking and enthusiastic. She is simply loving this program specifically designed for new grads to give them the experience that is paradoxically required for that first job.
<a href=“http://baystatehealth.org/AcademicAffairs/Main+Nav/Education/Nurse+Residency/ch.FAQs.Print”>http://baystatehealth.org/AcademicAffairs/Main+Nav/Education/Nurse+Residency/ch.FAQs.Print</a></p>
<p>thanks @woody, I’ve passed it on. </p>
<p>Good morning! Hope you’re all enjoying a fab memorial weekend.
I’ve been pretty focused on “float therapy.” I bought myself a new closed-cell foam raft that is just AWESOME to float on.</p>
<p>However, I do think yesterday I was possessed by the spirit of North Minnesota…to whom I once said on this thread that i only planted perennials because annuals were a pain in the butt…</p>
<p>NM, I don’t know how it got this out of hand, but i planted no less than SIX large poolside planters yesterday 
I also put in a climbing rose and added one, yes, just one, perennial to the terrace! </p>
<p>Of course, I stand by my initial assessment that annuals are a pain in the butt but I seem to have caught NM’s habit of planting patio containers!</p>
<p>Had a few folks over for a casual swim-n-dine night on Saturday, after a Friday girls night at a bistro and seeing a local rendition of Jesus Christ Superstar so I’ve had an adequate amount of socializing and plan to cozy up to a power washer today for a spell and spend rest of the “bonus” day afloat, so to speak. After the week I had, and the week I will have, I need the down time :)</p>
<p>Shaw when does Shaw D graduate? the key in my hospital is to get a job as a CA. My D2 loves school as well, except her current clinical psyche. She says it makes her feel too sad. She doesnt understand why someone would want to commit suidicde. she is a very deep insightful kid and I think “you are 20”???
Went to a quilt exhibition at MFA in Boston i really enjoyed it.
CQ my D1 was pretty sure she had her current job but it took a while because of HR slowness, hopefully this will be your case. </p>
<p>I’ve been reading but not posting…</p>
<p>Busy weekend. My sister in law and her husband came to spend the long weekend with us here in DC. We did a lot of walking, and a lot of eating.</p>
<p>They are very frugal midwesterners and I don’t think they quite understand the differences in real estate prices. They were able to find what we paid for our new condo on line and they are quite disapproving! (not that it is their business anyway). They also could not understand how we could get so “little” for our money.</p>
<p>We showed them a lot of listings for similar properties, and larger and smaller ones, other neighborhoods, etc…they really just don’t get that DC is not the far northwest suburbs of Chicago…</p>
<p>They also don’t approve of the rents in DC…</p>
<p>Otherwise a wonderful weekend with them.</p>
<p>My sons had a fab weekend. A few years ago my sons and their cousins started a tradition called “Cousins’ Weekend” which they try to do annually. They all get together and go somewhere for a long weekend, sans all parental units. This year they all rented a house on Cape Cod. Everyone was able to go! S1, his wife and my grandson (14 months already!), S2 and his serious girlfriend, S3, my niece and her husband and baby, and my nephew. Apparently a great time was had by all. Everyone got along really well. We received a flood of great pictures.</p>
<p>I think it’s wonderful that all of them are so close, and without any prodding from their parents.</p>
<p>Cq, this is the longest saga…
and NM, I can’t believe you are in wedding mode again …</p>
<p>DTE, ShawD graduates in January. She’s been working at another hospital but is probably applying to switch to several others now as she’s liking her job less and feels she’s learned what she can there. I’ll pass that on to her.</p>
<p>boysx3, ShawWife’s family does a cousin’s camp every five years (this summer is the third). People come in form Western Canada and the UK.</p>
<p>CQ – I hope that the saga comes to a happy conclusion tomorrow.</p>
<p>Lol, boysx3 on the “they don’t approve of the rents in DC.” Too cute. Like y’all colluded to make those rents so high ;)</p>
<p>That said, it IS difficult for most Midwesterners to grasp comparative housing costs in large cities/coastal areas, the same way it is difficult for coasters and city folk to grasp comparatively inexpensive housing costs here ;)</p>
<p>One of my clients does a fairly steady volume of relocation placement and for many of her clients it’s like winning a real estate lottery! More problematic if you’re going the other direction!</p>
<p>This is an aspect mcson is very conscious of at the moment. Last night he was discussing the logistics of his move home for the year and noted that while he loves his furniture, it was highly unlikely once in SF he’d ever have the space for it, so did I want to keep it for the poolhouse, etc.</p>
<p>Likewise, his gf’s parents from SF pretty much gasped when they heard we were converting our SECOND garage, at 1300 s.f., into a studio/office. They were kind of blown away that someone would have built a 1300 SF “extra” garage on a house, and that someone else (us) had it to spare We quite literally paid a mere fraction of the value of their house in a very nice SF neighborhood for this place complete with a few acres of woods, a pool, poolhouse, and two garages.</p>
<p>At the same time, our clients likely pay us a fraction of what it costs in major metro areas to produce work of similar quality, so it’s all relative to a degree ;)</p>
<p>I do think it must be difficult for kids to adjust to cost of living differentials going from someplace like here to SF. It’s very easy to become addicted to space, and its something mcson struggles with. On one hand, SF is very vibrant, cosmopolitan, not to mention gorgeous. He loves the city. On the other, you can enjoy a nice lifestyle in our city, which for its size, has been touted a lot in the press lately for its micro cosmopolitan amenities, microbrewery scene and easy access to the gold coast.</p>
<p>When I was young Toronto was the first large city I lived in. My parents couldn’t understand the high rent, housing cost, etc. But I loved it, right up until I started to realize I might never on my own have the means to buy the kind of property I’d had a notion to, given my upbringing. About 15 years later, as a single parent. I had a very good job opportunity that would have required I move back to Toronto. In the final analysis, I just couldn’t rationalize the move given the cost-of-living differential and the phenom of singe-income-plus-child.</p>
<p>Another of my clients is a successful realtor who deals in high-end luxury homes. We were talking recently about our kids, and she was discussing her goal of ensuring there was enough to leave to her grandkids, since they were being raised in NYC and San Francisco respectively. She marveled that each if her sons had moved to such high cost-of-living areas when to her mind, its far less expensive to live here and simply fly to NYC or SF a few times a month…which she does on a regular basis :)</p>
<p>kmc- “float therapy” sounds just right.
boysx3 - Having lived in DC area (and with D in NYC) I get a chuckle out of my rural Ill family when they talk about rent/house prices in Chicago area being high. To H and me the prices look low!
Love the idea of cousins camp! Not just for my kids either, I have several cousins close to my age that I would love to get together with.
Sending the good vibes, c_q.</p>