It is so very sad, scary and frustrating to hear another shooting story.
In the thick of things with year end at work as well as wedding plans.
I was so saddened when I saw this on the news last night! Unbelievable. I don’t know what is wrong with the society that so many kids are killing kids.
Spent an interesting day yesterday (I am being sarcastic here). Dog was sprayed by a skunk Wed. night. We didn’t realize she had been sprayed and let her in the house at first. So yesterday was spent de-skunking her (again since we did try it Wed night), the house, H and I. Still seem to smell it but it’s better! I think at times it’s probably still there and I’m just used to it and other times I think yuck there is that smell again! Back at work today – hopefully I don’t smell!
Yuck, RM. Maybe it will make work seem a little better by comparison.
RM, smelled skunk in my car last week and spent the rest of the trip home worrying about whether I should put it in the garage. Once I had a car that a dead skunk got into the tire treads–it was awful.
When you get home try boiling a big pot of white vinegar and water for an hour. THAT smell goes away quickly and works quite well for many odors.
Did you wash the dog in tomato juice?
FallGirl, how are the final weeks looking? Colors? Happy bride and groom?
Oregon - tried the tomato juice - no go. Called the humane society and they suggested a mix of 1 qt. hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 tsp of dish soap. Several baths of that and then do a shampoo or a normal dog shampoo. The smell seems to be gone from her. We will be making sure that he keep those components on hand for any further encounters…
Thing are going well. D drove home today for her final dress fitting and meeting with the wedding planner on Sunday. The wedding weekend is predicted to be at peak fall color here should be a beautiful backdrop for the claret red dresses on the bridesmaids. I will post pix in the FB group as soon as I have them!
How exciting, FallGirl!
Sorry about the skunks!
Good luck with the wedding planning. Wedding planning hasn’t yet entered my consciousness.
But, last night I was thinking about marriages. I was reading an interview with the guy who wrote Dateonomics (http://www.vice.com/read/youre-single-because-there-arent-enough-men-253). He is looking at demographics, education and rules we make for ourselves. For example, the proportion of men going to college is much than of women (and graduation rates still lower, I think). If all college educated folks say that they are not going to marry those without college education, there will be a fair number of single women left over – and he predicts in locations with lower male/female ratios, more divorces. Interestingly the places where the male/female ratio is higher are tech places (Silicon Valley is the best, but in the East, Columbus, OH – who knew?). The marriage rate is higher and the divorce rate is lower in SV than NY, for example. (If there isn’t an abundance of females, men leave less frequently).
I read a really interesting segment from him earlier called something like “Mormon Boob Jobs and the $100K dowry.” (http://time.com/dateonomics/). More Mormon males leave the church than females. Since females apparently can only reach heaven or achieve spiritual fulfillment (or whatever it is there) by marrying and raising a Mormon family, there is a lot of desperation (and hence, a huge rate of plastic surgery). They changed the rules a bit on male ages to go on missions (they tend to lose fewer males with the new rules) and that has helped somewhat. He also looked at two Hasidic sects. In one, people of the same age have arranged marriages. In the other, males marry down a few years in age. In this case, really Orthodox Jews tend to have very high birth rates. So, in the second sect, the male female ratio is always favorable to males (younger cohorts are always bigger due to the birth rates) and women are now competing with large dowries. In the first sect, there is no imbalance (college education is not part of the consideration) in male/female ratio and there are no dowries. In all cases, he points out that women are often told to be less picky or that there is a problem with values when the problem is really numbers and the rules we put on mating (women marry up in age, college educated folks only marry each other, etc.). Fun and interesting.
We’re having a relaxed weekend. Instead of going to the downtown monthly opening night (it was raining) or another opening, we stayed home and cooked dinner (I chopped mushrooms, actually). Then some friends showed up unexpectedly. Today, ShawWife is in her studio with someone who wants to buy some of her work. Then massages and we’re having the yoga rabbi and wife over for dinner. Tomorrow, actual yoga, an Aperoll Spritz brunch with some Italian artists scheduled around us and then a neighborhood block party.
On the wedding theme, last night H and o attended the wedding of a college friend and his partner of 33 years. It was held in their backyard at sunset. The weather was great. Very eclectic group of guests. They seem to be (still) very much in love and I am so pleased they were able to make it official.
We were able to spend much of yesterday and this morning on the beach. Very relaxing
Just read the article shaw, and found it very interesting, but also rather depressing. Not that some of the women may never marry, but mostly because of the cultures these young women are in that pretty much dictate that they have little worth unless they marry and have families. Not that it is bad to do so, but I can’t help feeling sorry for these young women.
Meanwhile my 24 year old feminist D who was raised in a liberal household will be married in less than 3 weeks.
Fallgirl, is your D calm? Are you?
We are doing pretty well. Right now I am in the midst of year end at work which leaves me with little time to panic. D is fairly calm, she was somewhat stressed one day last week but we had our final meeting with the planner yesterday and things are pretty much ready to go. Thankfully D is organized, H has been very helpful and the planner is great. It is really a team effort.
Happy Monday to all! After almost a week of running around (driving, actually), we’re back at the beach. We’ll be here for about 2 more weeks, and then back to MA to get ready for Spain. We have good friends coming for the long weekend, so that will be fun.
In spite of a couple near SNAFUs, S got off to Europe on Thursday night. I was a blubbering mess at the airport, realizing it will be months, at best, before I see him (in person) again. Our family dinner Wednesday night almost didn’t happen – S texted that morning that he couldn’t leave NJ as scheduled since “someone in out processing messed up” and he couldn’t leave until it was straightened out. (Gotta love the military!) But, he did finally make it to MA, and we had a great dinner at our favorite restaurant around the corner. The next day we were almost at the International Terminal when my father (long story about how he happened to be with us) asked if military personnel needed to use a passport. Total silence from S … then he said, “I don’t know where my passport is.” H started to freak, which is the worst possible way to handle things with S, but reined it in a lot since my father was in the car. Thank goodness S found his passport – crisis averted!
Saturday morning D and I drove to Fairfield County, CT to her HS for the memorial service for one of her classmates. There were at least 250 people there; it was heartbreaking and uplifting all at the same time. There were only 52 girls in D’s class – at least half of them were there. I hadn’t set foot on school grounds since graduation (we moved to the Hartford area soon after) so there was also the whole time-warp aspect of it. All in all, an emotional day.
We finally saw the sun yesterday – although we did need the rain. Fortunately Joaquin turned out to sea, though. Our insurance here at the beach specifies that we have to put up the hurricane window/door covers if a named hurricane is going to hit, in order to be covered for damage. We haven’t had to do it yet – it’s quite a large undertaking.
Well I think the skunk smell is basically out or my house. I still smell it on occasion but I think it blows in from outside because it STILL stinks outside. Garage still smells some as well. Kept the garage opened as much as possible over the course of the weekend to “air” it out. 
Fall girl - enjoy the wedding planning. It’s almost here!
Son came over yesterday to do laundry. The latest campus shooting was heavy on his mind. So many of these guys have an Aspergers diagnoses or sound like they should.
This was supposed to be older D’s start date at her “Big 4” job. Only their Recruiting department messed up and didn’t send some of the paperwork…when she called last week, the Recruiter’s voice mailbox was full; when she emailed, it bounced back. The recruiter in charge of her had left her job without handing D over to someone else. Her start date will be delayed by a week…or 2…or 3. There is rent to be paid.
Missy - how terrible for your D!
Took the kids and spouses Sat night out to dinner and to see spamalot at our local theater – wonderful performance and a great night!
@FallGirl, I agree. Misery in some of those cases comes from a strange definition of fulfillment in life. The other thing is that misery comes, even with that strange definition, from adopting one or more arbitrary rules (I only date college grads, I only date men older than me, …).
Hope your son has fun in Europe, CBBBlinker.
Sorry to hear about the delay in your daughter’s start date, missy.
I will be so glad when all the tidal flooding goes away where I am (eastern Virginia). We live around the corner from water and this is the first it has been this bad since 2012 and it has gone on for many days straight . Have had to park our cars blocks away so they don’t get flooded. Lots of streets impassable during high tide . We have water in the crawlspace again which we have to deal with. Luckily, we took the ductwork out after Sandy so don’t have that to deal with that this time. But, luckily, nothing like what is going on in places like South Carolina. The scenes from Charleston and other communities have been terrible. So sad.
Sevmom, sorry for all the water inconvenience!
Thanks, missypie. What is different with this is how long it has been going on, many days in a row . Unlike a hurricane which can move through fairly quickly, this has been a weather pattern that has just been lingering for days and causing heavy rains and flooding,. The kids have been loving it (no school today) and the street in front of us is full of water during high tide and lots of people have gotten their kayaks out and kayaked past our house! So, once every 3 years or so , I have waterfront property! But, it has been nothing here compared to what’s going on in South Carolina.