For those that don't like them...we live in an area of the county where, without one, someone can by a lot next door and set up a pig farm. Or an auto repair shop. And it happens. Zoning restrictions are minimal, so we are happy to have an HOA (which sets lot use requirements). To the OP - have you asked to see their books? Our HOA provides us an annual expense report.

Same story here. DS earned - EARNED - a top merit scholarship in our state. He got into the Honors college. And he works his tail off in school, at piano, in sports, in everything he does. Sometimes self-motivated, sometimes with nudging, although the nudging became less and less. A friend commented how "lucky" DS was. Her son - who by Her Own Admission - is a really nice but unmotivated kid who doesn't do his schoolwork (they homeschool and she is sort of hands off in high school) - will be going to the tech college, although at one time he thought engineering would be great. No, not lucky.

The final one - a waitlist at Georgetown, second only to Penn in "the dream." Writing a "keep me on the waitlist, I would love to accept" letter now. Meanwhile, put down a deposit at U of South Carolina so he can secure an early registration slot tomorrow. I think it will be a good fit for him.

Nos from UPenn and Duke, waitlisted at Cornell. Crushed by the UPenn decision - the Wharton Business School has been his dream since 9th grade, and he kept hoping despite the #1 ranking and selectivity.

Thanks! DS talked to an associate dean at Darla Moore and she indicated this. Worth more discussion.

DS accepted to Wake Forest. Neither he nor I are sure the cost (we are full pay) would be worth it versus state school honors program with almost full tuition. However, his end goal is finance on Wall Street, where the college name can open doors. Fortunately, I know a couple of retirees in the area who came from that world. He is meeting with them to get their perspective. Four more decisions to go - one is an outside possibility, three are probably out of reach.

What a terrible start to the week! Hugs. Hopefully the check engine light is just one of those routine service things.

Plane ticket voucher to come visit?

I got this one from Target recently - $34, looks nice, not tacky. https://www.target.com/p/faux-seeded-eucalyptus-wreath-hearth-hand-153-with-magnolia/-/A-53735158?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tgtao&CPNG=PLA_Home%2BDecor%2BShopping_Brand&adgroup=SC_Home%2BDecor&LID=700000001170770pgs&network=g&device=c&location=9010693&ds_rl=1246978&ds_rl=1247068&ds_rl=1246978&gclid=CjwKCAjw1dzkBRBWEiwAROVDLHfPqdG0jingxzG1SeBEaeTcTEA5RL2npdqHIIXN5E-ZTPWDicLx5BoCEuYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

In an extreme lapse of judgment, I allowed DS to accept an invite for a 9-day trip with best friend over our spring break (Apr 6-13), and we already had tickets to visit my elderly mom Apr 19-21. DS has already done accepted student days at the three in-state colleges he got, but dreading the planning for others if they happen.

Note: These are just from DS's personal research and experience and are based in part on his specific application to a college's business school, which often had different stats/acceptance rates. All had acceptance rates in single digits, typically less than 5% when you exclude RD. UPenn (the Wharton School) Cornell (Business School acceptance 2-3%) I would assume all Ivies are considered selective. Georgetown Washington University Duke Wake Forest maybe? And Emory is becoming more selective - higher average stats, lower acceptance rates.

With you here. DS18 was well above the top 25% stats-wise for Emory, and great ECs. Thought it was a target school. Rejected. DS took it rather hard. Rather dreading this week with 5 letters. 4 of them for reach schools. Trying to get him excited about the (very good!) programs he has been accepted to. If they weren't in our own backyard, I think he would be. One in particular (U of South Carolina Honors College) is calling him every third day.

This. Managing a salaried worker takes more effort on the part of a manager. You need to decide what constitutes an appropriate workload, set clear expectations for that workload, and monitor whether the expectations are being met. Harder than looking at a timesheet of clock-in/clock-out (although I know that such systems are necessary for lots of jobs, a store clerk for example). However, when I managed a staff of 40 salaried workers (engineers), I found it "fairer" in the end. I had people who traveled a fair amount (how to "compensate" them for those after-hours time at airports?), who would stay until all hours when a client had a change that meant reworking an entire project, etc. They got the work done and felt good about the job.

My company had this policy - it was called the "touch desk" policy. It was up to the manager to decide. Remarkably, I only knew one person out of many (about 70 in our group) who abused it. Honestly, most of my colleagues worked their tails off.

Only during eclipses and when forced to play Nana in the school play...

A dear friend's son is a sophomore at Air Force. Plebe summer and the first part of Freshman year were brutal, but now he has settled in and he loves it!

Substantial boost. Not a financial option for us.

A "no" from Washington University here. They put a fair amount of emphasis on demonstrated interest - DS's friend made 2 visits (plane flights from SC to St Louis!), on one of which he interviewed, and went to three regional meet-and-greets. Same stats as DS (and less substantive ECs) and accepted. DS isn't that upset about Wash U per se, but he sees it as an indicator for his other reach schools:( He was sure that working hard, getting good scores, and having strong ECs would be enough.

Myself? No, because of a wide variety of illnesses. I had no problem taking my babies out in public as early as a week old, but I was with them to keep young children especially away. I also noticed that some moms had no problem dropping Sick Children off - at Sunday church nursery, at the gym childcare - with the comment, "Oh, they get exposed eventually." 😒

As another poster said, she can watermark them. However, a lesson from my DH (a professional photographer). Unless the watermark is placed towards the center of the image or over a key element of the image, it is really easy for someone to screenshot her image and crop out the watermark. For images that DH will be placing for sale, he now has a translucent watermark across the entire image for preview. When someone purchases the image, he creates a new version without the watermark.

A unique way to reduce mental load... We have been in our house for almost 10 years now, and our once brand-new home has developed the usual maintenance needs during that time (grout needs to be redone, painting needs touchup, etc). I have asked DH to help over the last couple of years - he is very much a handyman and retired 2 years ago. No dice, and the list of needs continued to be my "mental load." Then he invited dear friends of his to fly across the country and stay with us a week - they haven't been here since 9 years ago. The energy currently going into those projects is amazing!

If the sweat is a problem, have you considered thin panty liners?

Until the past 2 years, I would have voted North American, one meal together daily. Now with older DC and their activities, it is one meal together a few times a week.

So glad to hear that! We are just an hour drive away and have been to the campus many times for swim meets - enough that DS wasn't even thinking about college there (too much "my own backyard). But the Darla Moore School has an excellent rep, and we have loved every Honors college event.

Just 6 days for the "beginning-of-our-end." Emory announces March 20, and the other 4 roll through until Ivy Day March 28. I have zero expectation on DS's two Ivies, but Emory, Duke, and Georgetown are (very slim) possibilities. In my mind, I am already anticipating him signing at U of South Carolina, which would be an excellent choice given his major and the Honors program there. And for those with challenging little birds - oh, the senioritis here!!!! DS seriously puts more thought into soccer team strategy than his classes right now.