My older daughter has gotten accepted into the Drexel University REU program for this summer!  That means guarenteed housing (paid for by the program), transportation money, a nice sized stipend and actual research lab work, in a airconditioned laboratory! 

I hate the College Board and their website!  4 years of applications for financial aid (which, btw, you have to pay to apply for) and 4 years of dealing with their broken links and oops!.  4 years of giving them my tax returns, so they can collate the information and send it along to Columbia.  4 years of wondering how much of that info they hold ( Read more... )

So, last night DH comes home from work seriously unhappy.  His union contract is up April 1st, and unlike previous years, there has been no early settlement, or even early talks.  The only word from the company is that it wants the right to have layoffs regardless of seniority.  DH is 4 years from (non) early retirement.  (he had applied for early ( Read more... )

And, as I poke my head up after one of the darker end of winter seasons (2 deaths, a brand new health concern, general and society wide financial anxiety, etc, etc, etc), I look in on some of the internet magic discussion groups that I participate in and wonder:  have those people lost their minds, or have I changed?   I think that I am going to ( Read more... )

The snow is all gone, and I am hoping that we are done with it for the season.  I cleaned out the rhubarb bed today, just raked all the leaves and twigs and rabbit and deer poop off to the side.  The fallen branches went onto the "one of these days we will get all of this chipped and shredded" pile.  (also known as the place where the rabbits live ( Read more... )

Little by little, life is returning to what passes for normal.  I've pretty much stuck to Facebook for the last couple of weeks; throwing out a random sentence every now and then was far easier than actually stringing them together coherently.  DH and I attended another funeral 2 days after my Grandmothers-that didn't help issues!  But here, I've ( Read more... )

My Grandmother died this morning.  There is a lot that needs to be dealt with both emotionally and practically (the phone is ringing off the hook) .  If I owe you email or attention, please understand that I'm not ignoring you. 

I am such a softy of a furmom. I had to take Clio to the vet this morning. It was the first time she has left the house in 11 years, when we got her as a kitten from the local rescue. The claws on one paw weren't growing right, and had curved back into the pads of the paw, piercing them. Poor baby, she couldn't put any weight on that paw. She didn' ( Read more... )

Just shoot me.

Now.

Please.

Doing inventory.  So I have one child who is 21 and (excepting the tuition and dorm bills) more or less independant.  I've got a 17 year old child who is starting the serious college and moving out research.  I've got a husband who, although ill at the moment, doesn't look like he will be dying on me, or needing the hospital anytime in the ( Read more... )