I've never heard of this school before but looked at their website, and now I wanna go there. It looks so--happy!

I am glad you mentioned this option. We did look at this, but barring automatic merit aid, we are full-pay, and adding an extra year to an already-expensive four (fingers crossed!) just did not seem prudent. Plus, I know it's first love and all of that, but his girlfriend is already a year ahead of him (she is a college freshman), and adding yet another year to their separation would be a hard sell.

I am perplexed that you are perplexed. This is our only kitchen trash can. We just access it through the cut-out. Everything goes in there. We probably fill it up every day-and-a-half.

Oh I meant overhang on trash bags! I use a 30 or 33 gallon bag in a 23 gallon can so it hangs over even when people stuff to-go containers through the hole in the island and into the trashcan underneath. The skimpy trash bag shown on the can I linked would never work with my set-up. But overhang on the island is also key so you get as much depth as possible.

I have black cabinets on the perimeter and island, but a walnut countertop on my island. I love it more than I love my children. Well, maybe not more. . . Anyway, the one thing I always always always recommend for an island is a cutout for a giant trashcan underneath. My trashcan is in a full-height narrow (maybe 10") cabinet on one end of my island, and the cutout is about 5x7. I love that I do not have to open the door to throw stuff away. When I cook, I can just sweep things in there. I also love not having a trash can visible. I think this is the trashcan I use, but I use 30 gallon bags in it--overhang is key, as is having a can as tall as your base cabinet. Also--drawers. You want all the drawers in your island. I have bookshelves on the back side of mine, the side that faces the living area, but the kitchen side is deep drawers and trash.

I bought one for my house full of teen boys to use. Bought them a rice cooker for the same reason. They use both on a near-daily basis. They eat frozen chicken nuggets and the like and rice for Second Dinner (they're pretty much hobbits) after evening workouts or for lunch on weekends. I like that I can keep them on the counter in my breakfast room and out of my kitchen, as I am super stingy re. permanent-resident status on my actual kitchen counter. (No application for permanent residence has ever been approved.) I never use it, but it wasn't for me. It does not make a mess, and that is key. I also hated the IP if that gives my opinion any credibility.

I knew of a Novalee. She is probably 3 now; Swedish dad, Knoxville-native mom. I think it's pretty.

I've never had surgery (or stitches, for that matter), but my daughters have, between them, had 6 or 7 orthopedic surgeries, and the post-surgical itching is not fun. I think cortisone can thin skin and cause worse scarring, but I could be 100% remembering that wrong. Benadryl cream, maybe? One of them had hives from, we think, the surgical glue, and she used topical Benadryl. I also want to say ice might have helped. It's been a while, so my suggestions are not really helpful; I mostly want to commiserate.

Update: Grove City is now definitely on the list, and we're working on scheduling a visit.

This was an early contender, but it fell off of the list for some reason I never understood. Location, maybe? It gets rave reviews on College Confidential, though.

That's good to hear, as it is attractive for other reasons. He visited once when campus was closed but is visiting again in a couple of weeks.

Thanks. I will have him take a look at both.

On the table: Rose-Hulman Calvin Missouri S&T UAH Mines Letourneau Rejected: Bucknell; Kettering; Olin; CalTech (etc., likely not competitive for tippy-tops due to XCs), probably some others I'm not thinking of. He is probably not applying to all of these, but we all feel like we need one or two more to consider. Assume money is not an object. It IS, of course, but not at this stage. UPDATE: It is looking like Calvin. Assuming the coach comes through with a roster spot, as seems likely pending conversations with my son's HS coach (who will give him a glowing recommendation), Calvin is a 90% sure thing. He bought the t-shirt and drank the Kool-Aid. It was down to Calvin and R-H. He loved Grove City, but their coach made offers to guys who play both of my son's positions the day before my son got there. He could try out for a spot, but there would be no guaranteed roster spot, and he did not like it better than Calvin. He is probably pulling out of the recruiting pipeline at R-H, although he liked it very much despite the terrible tour guide. Mines was super-intense; he liked Letourneau but did not love it; he desperately disliked UAH. Looks like he will, like his two sisters before him, be one-and-done on the application process (although I may ask him to hit "submit" on his non-athletic safety just in case.) Go Knights!

Because the teachers make him. I presume so they will be ready for pre-calc? I dunno. But I do not disagree with you at all.

There is literally a GC for Dummies book? Ha--I did not know that. I'll look for it.

That is what they all have; I just don't know how to anything on it. I need a graphic calculator tutor, which is just the dumbest thing.

I have a student doing Algebra 2 in high school this year, and he is going to struggle. I am reviewing Algebra 2 using my old ChalkDust books so I can help him, but because I am jumping into 2 and skipping 1, I've missed all of the "here's how to operate a graphing calculator" lessons. I mostly remember Algebra 1 but, of course, there was no GC when I did it--you know, back when we wrote equations out on the walls of the cave by the the light of the fire. And I never learned as my kids did. So--I am looking for a quick and dirty intro to graphing calculators. Any recommendations?

If crowded planes and airports terrify you, this is not the time to fly. I have flown multiple times since December, including yesterday, and every plane and every airport were the busiest I have ever seen them. I am 0% afraid of covid (I had it; NBD, which I knew it would not be for me; I caught it in an ER), obviously, and cannot imagine not flying to such an important event. But if airport crowds are a concern for you, just know that they're packed right now.

But she can hide it NOW. She has to disclose it when a settlement is being negotiated, but she can hide it now.

Open a bank account, assuming the poster is a U.S. citizen and has a SSN. It takes no time at all.

This reminds me of a big international gymnastics meet a couple of years that the U.S. did not enter as a team, but it sent gymnasts who were all on the national team. One particular gym in Texas, Texas Dreams I think, would have won if it had been a country. A single American gym could have beaten all of the other participating countries, who were not slouches in international gymnastics.

One of my sons mentioned that he'd heard that Japan was not going to let athletes bring Ritalin, etc., into the country with them because those meds are banned in Japan. Does anyone know if this is true? A quick google search (I really have to work today--no time for a deep dive here) says that it is true generally but that the restriction may have been lifted for the Olympics. Simone is on one of the ADD meds or at least "was" five years ago; if she were forced to go off of it for the Olympics, it would seem like that could have contributed.

Thank you so much for saying this out loud.

Can he lie around outside in the sun instead of inside a dark room? It sounds like he could use some Vitamin D. I had the mildest possible case of covid, and I think Vitamin D supplements and regular sun exposure (it was during spring baseball season, so I was at a lot of games) contributed.

I'm not sure why an airline, especially an American airline, should have to subsidize Australia's lockdown. If it could operate the route profitably, I am sure it would.