We were in a similar situation except Covid made the decision for us. Dd took the ACT cold after already having been accepted to the school she is now attending. Due to Covid ACT cancellations, she was not able to take the ACT before applying so was forced to apply under the temporary "test-optional" option that the university had in place at that time. But she (as a homeschooler) was not eligible for any merit aid unless she had a test score of some sort (ACT or SAT). So, I kept registering her for the tests and they kept getting cancelled. Because we did not know if she would ever be able to take either test, she (against the advice of many on this forum) did no prep. I was not interested in wasting time prepping for two tests when there was no guarantee that she would be able to take either or when. Up until the minute she arrived at the test location, we did not know that she would be able to take it as the tests had been cancelled on the day of more than once before that. There were still a few more months for her to retake with prep if we were not happy with the results. Luckily, she got the score needed for the highest possible merit aid and she was done! I am quite sure she could have improved her score significantly with prep but there was no point. As stressful as the constant test limbo was, I am at least very glad we did not spend any time on prep. In your case, I would not bother if it will make no difference in aid or acceptance.

Tell that to the one million mosquitoes I donated blood to last summer in northern Finland.......

Adding to this..... The winter solstice is especially a welcome time where I live. Our winters are very long, cold, and dark. By that date many people come to and leave work/school in the dark. So knowing that each day will be a little bit longer is a relief and something worth celebrating. I think that is something my region shares with the countries that tend to celebrate.

Our best friends are Estonian and we generally celebrate both with them annually.....once actually in Estonia. They are considered very important milestones in their extended family. The winter solstice is a bigger deal to them than Christmas. I never knew much about the solctices before but what's not to love about another excuse to celebrate?

To whom? Who is being disrespected? I have a lot of complicated feelings about funerals and I am in the soup with some pre-planning decisions for people other than myself. I aim to do what I can to honor their wishes within the available logistics (money, location, etc.....). But, I personally absolutely do not want a service or funeral of any kind when I pass. Nor do I want to be buried or any of the things that go along with that. I realize that your opinion is that dead people don't care so it is really just about what the living want. And I guess you are technically correct. But I also know that *most* of the people who would be expected to attend my funeral, should I die tomorrow, hate going to them and find no value in the experience. I would be mortified to know that someone overruled my wishes, thereby forcing many of my polite friends and family to attend. I would probably haunt the responsible parties. I find it far more disrespectful to disregard the wishes of the deceased. I find the whole discussion a bit baffling. Do people really need a dedicated event to honor and remember people who have passed?

I am perfectly fine with living with it if it won't hurt the tree. The tree is huge and would literally flatten my house were it to die and fall. Or be very expensive to have removed should it die. The tree is at least 100 years old (evidence from historical photos), likely much older. The house is 130 years old. And the driveway? Don't know, but well before we moved in 20+ years ago. We have several trees over our driveway and things falling from them is not a concern. That is just reality. I just wanted to know why the squirrel was doing it and if I should be concerned....for the squirrel and/or the tree.

This is a new one for me...... We were gone on a short vacation last weekend and when we returned we noticed a whole bunch of tiny pine branches in our driveway. We have a large pine tree next to the driveway and will often find (much bigger) branches down due to wind so assumed that was the case. We swept it all up and went about life. The next day, the driveway was littered with them again and it had not been windy overnight. After a few days of keeping an eye on it, it became apparent that a single red squirrel is hanging out in the tree snipping off tiny new branches. Anyone know why? Is he getting some sort of food out of it. And will it hurt the tree?

I have similar issues with a not-great kitchen layout. I do have to work over the dishwasher as that is the most useful counter space area. I had to train myself to run the dishwasher in the evenings after I am done using the room. Our dishwasher is LOUD so I really don't like to be in the kitchen at all when it is running. One thing I like about working over it is that I can crack the door a few inches when I am cleaning the counter top and any crumbs that don't make it into my hand at least do not end up on the floor. I also would consider making the island outlet situation better for you. Would it be impossible to install a sink in the island? That would be a great solution but might be cost prohibitive.

You know your kid better than anyone else. If he needs the money and might benefit from the extra social opportunity, I say go for it. He can always quit if it's too much. My dd is an engineering student and had a campus job right off the bat. In her case, she badly needed the money and a campus job was going to be far more flexible than something off campus. She struggles with time management to boot. But she reports that 10 hours she worked each week was tucked between classes during time that likely would have been wasted anyway. She has since moved to a different campus job that is actually much more than 10 hours a week. Both jobs have opened interesting opportunities and the chance to work directly with faculty. The one she currently holds is as an undergraduate research assistant that has been a great experience, excellent for her resume, and an opportunity to publish within her field before she even gets her degree. Not all campus jobs will be that way but even having the chance to engage more within departments and/or with faculty could lead to all sorts of good things. (also) Some schools have priority scheduling for student workers. That alone is worth the effort. Ours used to, but no longer does, sadly.

My short week is almost over and so are my goals. I have done my run and Pliability today. I am heading to CF in 30 minutes. That technically completes my goals before I leave town tomorrow. I am signed up for early morning CF, before my flight. That is more than my goals for the week but if I can swing it, I will. If I go, it leaves me 45 minutes to drive home, shower, and cram breakfast in my face before we need to leave for the airport so we shall see how confident I am feeling about that in the morning. I'll be off until Tuesday when I will set my new goals for next week.....which is also a short week.

Our's too. That is what we opted to do when we learned that traditional LTCI was out of reach for us.

It could also be a disability. I don't know what it is and never have had it checked out but both dd and I cannot translate verbal numbers into written numbers. I remember my first job as a teen involved answering phones and having to take down information like phone numbers and addresses. I really struggled to hear a number on the phone and write it down. I would have to ask people to slow down and repeat and even then would often mix up the order of the numbers or miss some. I don't have that problem with letters and neither does dd. It is such an odd thing. We have no problem if the number is in written form, like on a board during a class lecture, for instance. And we both can hear a number with meaning and translate, such as someone verbalizing that we have 312 chickens (or whatever). But purely verbal number with no meaning (like a PIN)? Nope. It is actually a real problem in my current job and I have hacks in place to assist.

I have experience with this. I care for a person who is now living in assisted living who THANK GOODNESS has good LTCI. When I first started poking into helping this person, their financial advisor warned me that even though they had LTCI, it likely had a lot of restrictions and limits. (He was not the one that sold them the insurance). But it was a happy surprise to find that was not true and it has been covering 100% of the AL facility for 4+ years now. It will run out (soon) but it was a huge help. However, as others have said, the level of insurance they have is no longer available to the individual. I have spoken with our own financial advisor and he said they are pretty difficult to find and have very high premiums. If you have something available via your employer, I would for sure check it out. Just keep the following questions in mind: 1. How much is the OOP premium for you while are are actively employed? 2. Will you still be eligible once you are no longer employed there and if so, are there limits to how much the premium can be raised? 3. What is the total benefit limit? 4. Is there a monthly cap to payout and if so, can you make up the difference with other income? 5. What exactly does it cover? Assisted living? In-home care? Etc..... 6. Take #1-5 into consideration to see how it would fit into your retirement plans. Keep in mind that most LTCI policies cover assisted living whereas Medicaid does not. Most people don't know that. My person is almost out of LTCI and will need to rely on Medicaid, which means moving to a nursing home. They do not really need that level of care at this time but there really are no other options. The LTCI meant 5-6 years of being able to live in AL rather than a nursing home. In their case, it might very well be that they paid out more in premiums than they ultimately got in payout. I don't think that is true, but it is possible. But even then, it was still a good move because this person would never have saved that premium. It was like a forced savings plan.

Poor air quality here again today. I have wiggle room with only one run left before I leave town on Friday. I am saving that for tomorrow in hopes that the air will be clearer. I went to yoga today and will attend CF this evening. I did finish up my CF/run/Pliability yesterday. All on track!

We are in a similar boat and have been for about a week now. It has been HOT here and most people, including us, don't have AC. We cannot just shut the windows when it is 85 degrees. When they say "stay indoors," I always wonder what difference it makes when all the windows are open and there is no HVAC system anyway. Most businesses don't have AC, let alone businesses. Dh's car has no AC. There is no driving around with no windows open in 85+ degrees. It's confusing.

I also do my stretching outside of other activity. I find long, calm, passive stretching to be most effective for me and that usually does not mesh well with my environment and/or schedule when I try to do it pre/post workout. I find the gym setting to be too distracting to fully release and relax into stretching. So, I do mine at home at random times each day. It is a nice diversion from my work-from-home desk time.

DP

This is how we ate them growing up. The nearest Wendy's to me now is 2+ hours away but once in a blue moon, I get fries and frosty when traveling. I have spent WAY too much time thinking about this, but I have a theory as to why this is a thing. That mini-frosty that came with the kid meal melted FAST and if your parents were anything like mine, I was required to eat the "actual food" before eating the frosty. Setting aside the very real debate of which is more "actual food," the frosty, the fries, or the burger, that frosty sat melting while we tried to cram the burger and fries down. Soon melted frosty was oozing down the side of the cup, which is a TRAGEDY. So, we'd frantically (and stealthily) scoop up the melting frosty top with our fries to save it from the puddly fate growing around the base of the cup. Then developed a nostalgic taste for the combo. I feel like this is a dissertation-worthy question that someone, somewhere, should resolve!

I completed CF and Pliability yesterday, as planned. We have air quality alerts and outdoor exercise was not recommended yesterday. CF is quasi-outdoors as one whole wall is open garage doors. So I was nervous about the cardio aspect. I took it easier than normal for that reason. Today is CF, a run, and Pliability. I have not done any of them yet:) But I have a plan!

We had a very active annual curriculum swap in my community so I tried to stay on top of it over time, selling anything we were done with as we went. Most things did actually sell that way. For what was left at the very end, I took photos and posted on our local FB sale site in lots. I priced everything very low with some being free. I really didn't expect many bites, but much of it went the first day. The last 30% that did not go, I made into a new bundled free-to-good-home post and that went too. I did recycle anything consumable, in poor condition, or outdated first.

The state in question has an encroachment law that applies if a structure was there for 15 years or more. however, all of the "fixes" I see involve actually changing the property line via purchase or easement. As in, some sort of legal action that I assume will cost money and require cooperation between the two parties.....both of which are in short supply.

Let's say someone buys a house in a small-town neighborhood. All of the housing in the area is very old, 100+ years. The house has a not-attached garage on the property that was built in the 1980s, well before the current owners bought the house. The owner of a neighboring home had a survey done to establish the property lines of their lot and discovers that the garage actually sits partially on that property. What happens?

I finished up last week's goals over the weekend. We did yard work all day on Saturday. It was 90 degrees and this was our first big work day this summer and the first time since I started Crossfit almost a year ago. Lots of strain on the body that normally has me very sore for days afterwards. I was very pleased to note how much more I was able to do and I am not even sore at all. I would say that is the biggest "marker" of my progress in fitness diversity. I did my planned long run on Sunday. I had wanted to get in 10 miles. I settled for 9. It was very hot and I did not want to push it. I also did my last Pliability on Sunday. This week will be lesser goals as I am leaving town on Friday with no good way to get any workouts in over the weekend. So, I plan to attend CF 4 times, run 2 times, and 4 Pliability/yoga sessions. That is a bit conservative. I might be able to get a 5th CF in before my flight leaves on Friday and also might get a third run in somewhere, but I don't want to set the bar that high yet. The CF focus this month is cardio so I don't want to stack a cardio-heavy CF on the same day as a run, but I don't know the workout details until the day of so cannot say if or how much that might happen. Today's CF is all cardio so between that and the long run yesterday, I am not going to run today.

As the week winds down, my 4 CF / 4 Run / 5 Pliability goals are on track. All I have left for the weekend is one Pliability today, another one some time this weekend, and one run, which I intend to go long on. We are doing a ton of yard/house work tomorrow so I will save up the long run for Sunday and take a running break tomorrow. Next week is short again due to the follow weekend's travel, so activity will be heavy on the early end of the week with overall reduced goals. The travel is not at all compatible with any activity so those 4 days will be 100% off.

I did my Pliability and CF yesterday, as planned, and have done my one hour run very early today with Pliability and CF later. I don't anticipate any issue finishing it up aside from the HEAT. It was 88 degrees when I arrived as last night's CF. The gym has giant garage doors that open to the outdoors so there is no AC. Luckily, the workout was very scalable so I was able to keep my activity within the bounds of what my heart rate will allow at 88 degrees. What I had not considered a possibility is that every mosquito and black (biting) fly within the entire county was inside that gym. It was even a game. We got to add points to the workout "score" for each bug we killed. There is no reason to assume they will not still be there waiting for me tonight so I need to decide if I should cover up, even though it is still upper 80s, put on deet, or just suffer again. I probably got 20 bites last night! (and 15 more on my run this morning) It's always something......