When DW and I attended UTD, our electric bill by itself was over $200/month in summer. :leaving: ETA: summer is like 6 months out of the year there. Oh, and it still managed to get 86F inside some days, despite the insane A/C-related electric bill. ETA2: our utilities (gas, water, electric, internet) were probably about $400/month for the two of us combined, so, that'd bring you to $200/month without even paying for housing. Also, that was over a decade ago. ETA3: and laundry... laundromats are crazy expensive.

(((Spuds)))

Also, I'm 33, Jean.

Btw, in case anyone's wondering, it's been days since I've had a drink.

Is post padding a language? Because I'm fluent in that after drinking.

My Chinese sucks either way. Bu hao, or something.

My English is also pretty decent after drinking.

My maiden name is in Dutch. That counts, right? Especially after drinking some jenever (Dutch gin - the origin of that Dutch courage thing). My Dutch is very good after that. Oh, wait. It's actually pretty good before that too.

Btw, that's a joke about the lyrics of that song, in which the guy wants a 13 tattooed but they drew a 31. I thought it was funny when the song first came out, but I'm not about to actually go get a tattoo - I probably would've by now if I was going to.

Presumably my birthday will still be on the 31st.

My birthday is actually on the 31st (not of this month). My brother's birthday is on the 13th (also not of this month).

I kind of want to get a 31 tattooed.

I was going to say Pretty Fly for a White Guy by The Offspring, but I googled it and that's not where it's originally from. I still get a squillion points though, right? https://genius.com/The-offspring-pretty-fly-for-a-white-guy-lyrics

S/O. Do your kids play with toys and how old are they? Yes, and they vary in age - some toys are really new, and others are 30-something years old.

Edpo: Dutch courage will help you speak Dutch. If you learned some Dutch first, that is: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171018113538.htm (I also started a thread about this on Gen Ed, but, I thought it was funny anyway, and this way you don't have to go swimming in the sea - if anyone wants resources for learning Dutch, I can give pointers for that too)

If you needed an excuse to have a drink, here's a study: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171018113538.htm (obviously, not advocating giving kids alcohol)

Back-to-back posts: What is in your purse? Dandruff? Eww. No.

I had to parallel park on both the car and the big rig tests. At least on the big rig test, the cones were further apart, lol. Parallel parking a big rig wasn't as bad as you'd think - I think I had more trouble learning to parallel park the car. Requirements vary by state, but it looks like pretty much every state now requires a minimum of 120 hours, and many 150 hours. That said, afaict, not all states require a bachelor's degree or higher - but by the time you have 120 or 150 hours, you'd probably qualify for some sort of bachelor's degree anyway... At the moment, in NY, you can sit for the CPA exam without meeting those requirements if you have 15 years of accounting experience. I haven't looked into all states. Either way, the exam is not easy, and afaik the failure rate is very high for first timers. My dad is more or less the Dutch equivalent of a CPA, and the pass rate was less than 20% for the exam - afaik, it's pretty similar in the US. The main thing is that you can do bookkeeping with an associate's in accounting, and take some classes on the side here and there and gradually move up, and eventually sit for the CPA exam if you want to go that far. Or not. Either way, there's progress you can make along the way... even if you never sit for the CPA exam, or even if you never complete a bachelor's, with more experience and knowledge, you can get some increase in responsibilities (and presumably pay) though you obviously can't do audits without a CPA exam.

I don't know how old your parents are and what kind of health they're in, but if one of them falls and breaks a hip or w/e, they could become a drain on her time rather than a support, kwim? Of course, if they're young and very healthy, that's not likely to be a concern. Just wanted to mention it as something to think about.

Sick kids can go to the stores in pjs. Well, and a coat and shoes of course. (((Gymnast)))

All parking lots I have encountered have some entrance/exit that you'd use to get onto the road. #felpful MILs are the worst. For driving at least. Mine is lucky she didn't die either, though I think she didn't get me onto a fast road until the second day. At which point she started yelling at me to roll up one of the rear windows which she'd forgotten to roll up before, and I didn't have a clue about automatic windows (never had to deal with them before), so I tried to tell her to forget the window but she freaked and insisted I roll it up. And then on the way home she told me to "turn here", and I didn't slow down fast enough, and she was like "HERE", so I turned onto a residential road going 30 (the speed limit was 40 on the road I was on, and 30 on the residential road, but, that turn should not have been done going 30 - I think I gave a guy on that road a good scare, as well as MIL). After that, I was done with her trying to teach me to drive. And then when we hired a driving instructor he was okay at first, but then halfway during the first lesson he had me back up to a gas pump, and I was all like "I can't really see what I'm doing", and he pressured me, so I fired him, because I didn't feel like backing into a gas pump. When DW finally got her driver's license reinstated years later, she taught me how to drive. We spent several evenings in a parking lot (now, this was a pickup truck with stick shift, so, that explains the extra time). Then, after that, quiet residential roads after midnight, when there aren't kids running around playing and all that kind of nonsense, and when other moving vehicles are supposed to have headlights/taillights on, making it more obvious whether they're parked or moving. Btw, I think it varies by state whether you're allowed to let minors with learning permits (or minors in general, or people with learner's permits in general) drive that late at night, but, if you're used to going to bed at 4 or 5am anyway, after midnight is a great time to practice because the roads are so quiet. I think we then moved on to busier roads and the highway, and then finally to daytime driving, and then parallel parking before the test. Somewhere in there I also took a motorcycle driving course, so, as soon as I got my car license I handed them my certificate for that and got my motorcycle license as well. And then a month after that I signed up for truck driving school, so, I got my car & motorcycle licenses in Oct 2007, and my CDL in Dec 2007. FWIW, I probably would've gotten my car license in Jan 2007 or so, if I hadn't gotten pregnant in Dec 2006 - I was just too nauseous to try to figure out parallel parking and to deal with a test, but I did a lot of driving back and forth between our house and college (which were 55 or so miles apart), so, that CDL isn't as crazy soon after getting my license as it sounds... but it was still crazy soon. In truck driving school we started in a parking lot, and then did back roads, before moving on to other roads. Anyway, long story short - it's okay to spend hours in parking lots if that's what it takes. Baby steps. There's no advantage in trying to rush it.

$10k before taxes is not $10k after taxes. Especially after you add in additional transportation costs etc, if you have those.

I thought you were taking these classes for fun, mostly? Either way, if the prof takes revenge in a future class, then you make an even bigger stink. To be clear, I'm not suggesting that you go be mean and petty over the slow return of tests. Just factual etc. Like I said, if she was good in other ways, mention that. I mean, you can complain anonymously if you want... it's just that if nobody ever says anything "just in case they might get this prof again" or w/e, nothing is ever going to change.

This. Go to the prof's office hours and ask to see your work, find out if there are regulations, and whether or not there are regulations, complain to the dean (and if there aren't regulations, make part of the complaint that there should be). IIRC, 2 weeks was the usual time limit profs had, which can definitely be annoyingly long, but sometimes stuff happens, so I don't think it necessarily should be shorter. Oh, and leave a bad review on Rate My Prof or w/e that site is called, making sure to mention the lack of returning work. (bad meaning not 5 stars... if they were an awesome teacher other than the not returning work, I might still give them 3 out of 5 stars)

For clarification: NL doesn't have juries, and if I were to ever become a US citizen then I could be called to jury duty, but atm being a dual citizen would be a pain, and permanent residents don't get called to jury duty.