I remember VegSource. Very active buy and sell board! I first heard about Well Trained Mind from the Five in a Row board. Very different approaches, but I loved both. My poor kids got a lot thrown at them in the early years while I figured things out.

I think I was here 2000-ish. The boards worked differently then. I also remember a WTM AOL message board

I’ve never had a drink in my life. It’s really a non-issue. I’ve never had anyone really even question me. I get water or soda or whatever. I don’t drink coffee either, which actually causes more questions than the alcohol. Neither is for religious reasons, or any reason really, other than it seems unappealing.

This woman used to post on AOL boards and I am amazed I found her recipe online. I printed out the mac and cheese years ago and it’s a go to: http://stephscountrykitchen.blogspot.com/2010/08/macaroni-and-cheese.html?m=1

I would be so stressed out if I was expected to wear pajamas someone else had bought for me for a photo that would presumably be posted publicly every year. I am kind of hard to fit as it is, and have a hard enough time shopping for myself.

We just moved to the Southwest (for very good, positive reasons) after a total 25 years in Alaska. I think I will grieve the loss of that beauty for a long time. I’ve been to all 50 states, and love them all in different ways, but that’s the one that has my heart.

I’ve been following your situation because we were selling at the same time. SO excited for you, and a full price CASH offer is just WOW

We deal with moose in the neighborhoods here, basically oversized deer. I have not found air horns to be effective with them. I do suggest giving an aggressive doe a wide berth, and contacting Fish and Wildlife (or whatever your local organization is called.) Specify that this is a problem doe. Probably not necessary to talk about the neighbors feeding the deer at this point. They will hopefully want to deal with the immediate safety issue.

FWIW, we are in the middle of selling our house, and our realtor said something abt a general temporary dip in interest around the time kids are going back to school. It did seem like around here houses started moving more slowly a couple weeks before school started. Maybe she’s thinking people will start looking again once school is solidly in session. I hope that turns out to be the case for you. I’ve been following your thread because our timing has been similar. Rooting for you! We are also in a quirky house. Currently under contract and really hoping everything goes through because winter in our area is NOT the time to be selling and we have already purchased the new home.

Guessing it’s on your list, but Mesa Verde is a must do for SW CO. Possibly Canyon de Chelly near Chinle, AZ on the Navajo reservation. I have not been there in a few years though, so not sure what conditions are currently. Tent Rocks near ABQ has not been open to hiking since Covid, but if that changes, it’s worth going.

I had it in April. Four days max, primarily a sore throat.

I was pro-legalization, and I guess I still am in theory. That said, once recreational marijuana was legalized in our state, pot shops sprung up on every corner. Like, there might be two on the same block. The volume was off-putting. I can’t say it’s done anything positive for the community, though the taxes were supposed to improve mental health services. Hard to say if it’s done anything negative, though it does appear that the use of cannabis gummies has increased pretty significantly at the high school. Alcohol use and cannabis use both annoy me, but I don’t think either should be illegal.

I suspect I know your daughter’s primary sport, as two of mine were in that sport, one through the senior level. Another directs a larger program for that sport. Ballet/dance training is useful for that sport, but it’s tough to find a program that really works with the demands of the primary activity. The typical dance program for youth demands increasing amounts of time as the kids grow older. Makes sense if dance is a primary focus for the child, but becomes problematic if it is a supplement. You might be able to find a program that trains at a higher level (though a good program is aware of physical development, so you do want to be cautious abt programs that start pointe early), but there will likely be increased demands for the child’s time in, say, a pre-pro program. Comp dance is going to be extremely time consuming as well, and will come with a significant financial burden. I will add that I don’t think pointe is very compatible with the sport I suspect your daughter is in. One of my daughters did advance into that level for a few years, but I’m not sure the benefit was there. My advice is to let her enjoy her current dance class (if she does enjoy it.) The group activity aspect is a benefit, as the other sport can be a little isolating. Ballet is useful, but certainly not “make or break” as far as the other sport. If you can find a good private instructor, or could arrange a class for others in the same sport that want the supplementation, that would be ideal. But sometimes those efforts are a lot of effort without much benefit.

I had a daughter who did precalc in 9th, followed by Calc AB (homeschooled), dual enrollment Calc 2 and 3, AP Stats (hs) and AP Comp Sci (hs). Her undergrad degree is elec engineering and is currently in a PhD BioMed engineering program (for background 🙂 ) Your son’s school seems to have a wonderful array of advanced options. We struggled here to find appropriate courses at the end, even at the local college, so that was a downside here. A potential downside (that did not materialize for my daughter) is finding a tutor capable of helping a high schooler with advanced coursework should trouble arise. I also advise that your son review lower level math prior to the SAT, and definitely do a soph year SAT to see how the math goes. They can get surprisingly weak on the skills tested in the SAT. All that said, I get the impression that getting ahead in math may be more about his innate competitive spirit than a real desire to know more math now? Which is fine, but there may be other things that could challenge him if that is the case.

Penn State. It did appear that many applicants with similar qualifications to my daughter (4.0+ GPA, AP classes, leadership, etc) who did not submit test scores were being admitted to the main campus. My daughter was admitted, but was being required to enroll at one of the satellite campuses for two years. There were others like my daughter, who submitted scores and found themselves with similar offers (satellite campus or summer start). These were anecdotes, so who knows in the big picture whether submitting scores mattered or not. But it was the one school (out of many she applied to), where it seemed test score submission *might* have negatively impacted her.