Congrats to your son. That is amazing to line up a solid job offer this early. Even if he accepts, he should keep his eyes and ears open for other opportunities. It isn't unknown for an offer to be rescinded if business drops off, etc.

Wow! That is great. What a nice way to relieve the anxiety of the last year. Good for him! Definitely worthy of a mom brag. I sincerely enjoy hearing these mom brags. We often lean on this board for advice to problems/issues or just to vent, the positive posts help provide balance.

Thanks everyone. It is reassuring to hear confirmation as to my sanity. Yes to the comments about cost. It isn't cheap but not too bad compared to many hobbies. I figured if it was nutty to "water the insects" that it must be hereditary. I have fond memories of my grandmother's very large yard with mature trees. Every summer, she would set a can of water at the base of every tree to ensure that any squirrels or other wildlife would have a place to drink. I can envision her making the rounds, dumping and refilling each can. Mosquitoes need still water and several days to breed. So, the strategies include using circulating water (a fountain) or changing the water frequently. I dump and replace my dishes of water twice a week.

and now I'm worried that I may have toppled off the cliff of sanity. Younger DD and I really enjoy watching birds (older DD and DH could not care less). We started with one feeder and added others over time. We now have four types of feeders and set out four types of food. We get a nice variety of birds. We also are visited often by squirrels and chipmunks, both of which are very amusing to watch. A couple years ago, we had a bad drought and I started putting out dishes of water. I've kept it up as it is fun to watch birds and other critters drink or bathe. I was outside one day recently, refreshing the water, putting out more seed, sweeping up the debris, when I saw an insect flying around the water dish but unable to reach the water from the edge of the dish. So, now I'm placing a few rocks in one dish so that insects have a place to land and creep down to the water. Too far? DH noticed the rocks and asked about them. When I explained, he only said "makes sense". However, he loves me and I'm not sure if he'd tell me if he thought I was nuts.

Very good points. I've advised DH to ask about new/refurbished and to be sure he sees the unit delivered and unpackaged. The quotes did vary a bit on warranties, etc. which I didn't include in the above but we considered. One set of the higher costs also bundled in maintenance servicing twice a year for 5 years. Both sets of higher costs included "free" financing, which I'm sure increased the cost. Never trust "free" financing. Also of note, the two companies with higher quotes sent out salespeople and pretty brochures. The lower cost place sent out an estimating technician. He didn't try any sales talk at all.

Honestly, it annoys me even more when a parent is right there, and isn't parenting their child. I've definitely spoken up to stop a child from causing damage. . .with a parent nearby doing nothing. Once, a parent was ordering at a deli counter while their child was punching and pummeling the loaves of fresh baked bread. I spoke up. Another time, a child was grabbing and tearing at the large leaves of a decorative plant with a parent saying nothing. I spoke up. I'm not even sorry if the parent was annoyed. Children need to be told when they are out of line, by someone.

Here's the quotes we ended up with, just in case it helps anyone else . This is for a gas/electric package, installed, in the southeast. Company 1: 3-ton Lennox, 16 SEER, two stage - $9,529 3-ton Lennox, 14 SEER, single stage - $7500 Company 2: 4-ton Amana, 16 SEER, single stage - $9,951 (wouldn't quote a 3-ton. 4-ton is WAY oversized for our house) 4-ton Amana, 14 SEER, single stage - $8,576 Company 3: 3-ton Trane, 14 SEER, single stage - $4,601 3-ton Trane, 15 SEER, single stage - $5,088 3-ton Trane, 16 SEER, two stage - $6,378 Company 3 has been in business locally for over 50 years and has an A+ rating at BBB. We are going with them. They can't get us scheduled until Friday at the earliest. Fortunately, we are supposed to have a cooling trend this week.

Josh at Easy WDW stopped doing the calendars because Disney stopped publishing their actual park hours and events early enough to allow the calendars to be accurate. He decided he would rather not provide them than to offer inaccurate information. Like most Disney experts, he emphasizes that having a good touring plan is more important than choose the "right" park.

LOTS of changes in the last six years. I hope you have an awesome time. Consider skipping Hollywood Studios and spending 2 days at any of the other three parks. Magic Kingdom and Epcot always need at least 2 days to do thoroughly and AK now has the new Pandora land and rides. I've always found HS a half-day park and now several of their attractions are closed. Be sure to download the My Disney Experience app to your mobile phone. You can use it to change or look for new Fastpasses while you are in the parks. Having a portable phone charger is very helpful as you can really run through your phone battery while at the parks. Also, several of the quick service restaurants now allow you to order your food via the mobile app. This can be a HUGE timesaver over waiting in line to order and pay. You have to have a credit card on file. Order anytime and then once you go to that restaurant, just click on the "I'm Here. Prepare my order" button. The app will let you know when your food is ready and you just pick it up at the counter. Here's the ones that currently offer it: ABC Commissary Backlot Express Columbia Harbour House Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café D-Luxe Burger Electric Umbrella Flame Tree Barbecue Liberty Inn Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe Pinocchio Village Haus Pizzafari PizzeRizzo Restaurantosaurus Satu’li Canteen

I completely sympathize. I've given up buying or selling. The last time I tried, I was offering FREE homeschool materials just to clear my shelves. As people requested specific items, I set them aside with their name on them. They could come by ANYTIME to get them, even if I wasn't home. Several people never even showed up to claim their FREE stuff they had asked for. Forget it. I'll recycle it or pack it off to a charity before I deal with the flaky public again. Edited to add: Oh, the best part, I had a couple people ask me to ship the FREE materials to them at my expense. bwa-ha-ha

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your experiences. We will have two more quotes on Monday and DH just got another referral from one of our neighbors. He was able to get one person to give a "ballpark" amount for a specific unit over the phone and it was for closer to $5250 for a well-known brand. That would be much more in line with what we were expecting. I'll update later in the week once we have all the quotes.

Our AC is out. We had two repair companies out and it would cost thousands to make repairs and both recommend replacement. We've only had one person come out to give a replacement quote so far and DH and I are both stunned. We will definitely get two more quotes but is this anywhere close to reasonable? 3 ton unit, packaged unit for gas heat and electric AC: Option 1: one-stage, 14 SEER, $7500 installed Option 2: two-stage, 16 SEER, $9,529 installed Gulp. We live in a low cost area of the country. Hoping for some experienced or knowledgeable hive members to pipe in.

I have only a few memories of when I was 3 or younger but lots of memories from about 4 and onward. I certainly don't remember everything. I do remember once mentioning to my mother that memories were weird - what we remembered and what we forgot. I was probably about 7 or 8 at the time. :laugh: Edited to add: I'm wondering if having clear time delineations during your life helps you remember. I know which memories were when I was 3 or younger and which ones were between ages 3 and 6, etc. because of when my family moved. If you lived your whole life in the same place, I wonder if it would be tough to differentiate your memories. . .they would just tend to blur together.

highly trained medical specialists bring up evolution at your initial visit and make their personal beliefs be known. This actually happened to me twice in the last year. Unprompted by me, I promise you.

I definitely shop the men's department for certain items. Even cheap clothes tend to be thicker and better made for the men.

I've noticed the same thing. I have to try on EVERY item, even when buying duplicates, to be sure they fit correctly. One day I was shopping very early and the fitting room wasn't open yet. I picked up 4 pairs of shorts, all the same size. At home, 2 pair fit and 2 would just fall off of me. Admittedly, I'm buying inexpensive clothing. I wonder if higher end clothing would be more consistent.

I'm so glad to hear that Amazon is stepping up like this. This is a serious safety risk for the people that purchased the eclipse glasses from questionable vendors. I also noticed that they are removing the questionable vendors from the website.

You need to find a way of eating that works for you that you can stick with. I'm LCHF but that doesn't mean that you should be. If you settle on a way of eating and want/need additional strategies to lose weight, I recommend that you read up on fasting. Dr. Jason Fung is my favorite resource for fasting.

Both rental textbooks we received from Amazon last semester were in poor condition, not meeting Amazon's standards/criteria. DD didn't mind using them but I didn't want to be charged when we returned them. I sent Amazon an email with a description of the damage and offered photographs. While I wasn't offered a discount on the rental, they did reply that they noted the damage on my account and that I wouldn't be charged. They did not request the photos. When we returned the books at the end of the semester, I included a print-out of my email exchange with Amazon. One was processed immediately (no charge for damage). The second one took a LONG time to process but eventually went through (no charge for damage).

I really enjoy the MMM blog and forums. It offers a non-consumerism perspective on how to live life. I find it interesting, if sometimes extreme.

How many other orthopedist offices have you called to ask about their next available appt? If you need a referral, then contact your primary and ask for a referral to the one with the soonest available appt.

The only way to be sure is to run the numbers and evaluate the differences between the high deductible plan with an HSA and the low deductible plan. I recommend running three scenarios: 1. Low healthcare cost year with preventive care and maybe a couple office visits. A couple scripts. 2. Average healthcare cost year. Throw in an emergency room visit and several more office visits and a couple more scripts. 3. High healthcare cost year. Hospital stay, surgery, expensive scripts, etc. Once I ran all these scenarios for my own choice, the "better" plan was obvious. I saved with the high deductible plan every time. Be sure to include: a. Difference in premiums. b. Any HSA contributions by the plan/employer. c. Any tax savings for your own HSA contributions. d. Difference in deductible. e. Difference in co-insurance. f. Difference in out-of-pocket max. No one can advise you without having all this information at their disposal.

You should not have to deal with this but I will be blunt. Since you have already tried the nice approach with the neighbors and have not gotten anywhere, your choices are: 1. Keep the peace with the neighbors and put up with it. Either clean it up yourself or deal with the mess. 2. Don't put up with it and tick off the neighbors. Less than this has caused escalating hostilities between neighbors. 3. Sell the house and move. Our choice is to clean our yard ourselves. It's not "fair" but it's the option we choose. I've had experience living beside a neighbor who had it out for us. I don't wish that on anyone.

Sorry - I tried to find one of the old threads talking about the solar eclipse but was unsuccessful. After trying to order from Amazon solar eclipse glasses listed as being made by one of the trusted manufacturers, per the NASA recommendations, I ended up receiving knockoffs made in China. I immediately sent these back and tried again, ordering online from Lowe's. Just received these today and they appear to be the genuine article, from the labeling on the product to the shape of the cardboard ear piece (knockoffs are shaped differently). Just wanted to pass this along as I was starting to get worried about finding a product I felt good about using in time for the event. I'm on the edge of totality and all the local stores, the public library, etc. are out of stock. Good luck and stay safe.

Yep. This. For one cup, regular 2% cow milk has about 12 grams of carbs while unsweetened almond milk has about 2 grams. Heavy cream is just under 7 grams for a full cup. It is often labeled as 0 g carbs but that is because a serving size is listed as 2 tablespoons.