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TechWife last won the day on August 8

TechWife had the most liked content!

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About TechWife

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    Beekeeping Professor
  • Birthday July 18

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    Sunny Southeastern US

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  1. Welcome Chip! He’s adorable, Katy!
  2. When we were at San Diego, one was eating and one was sleeping, we watched for about 30 minutes. That's pretty typical behavior for pandas, IIRC. They had them separated - there was a chain link fence down the middle of the enclosure. The sign said they weren't getting along with each other at the time. The pandas left San Diego earlier this year - returned to China because the conservation agreement ended. I don't even remember seeing the pandas at National - I have been there in several years, though. I'm sure we saw them, I just don't remember. I do remember the elephant in the cement yard, though. It was sad. Just found out that the pandas left San Diego earlier this year due to the end of their conservation agreement. The agreement for the pandas at National expires next year. I wonder if it will be renewed.
  3. I don't doubt your experience at all, but my observation of the San Diego Zoo doesn't match up. There is no way that the animals at the San Diego Zoo have room to exhibit their natural behaviors - I was there in Sept. 2018, so just under a year ago. Even the dogs that were companions for another animal (I don't remember which one) didn't have a large yard to play in - maybe the space of my back yard for multiple dogs. My yard is big enough for one dog, two if they are tiny dogs, and those dogs weren't tiny.
  4. I second the NC Zoo - it's really pretty cool - large (I mean multiple acre large) natural habitats; animals roam with other animals that they would also roam with in the wild; good conservation efforts. They do a good job with education as well. It's huge - lots of walking, although you can take a tram from one continent to the other if you want too. In comparison, the Smithsonian National Zoo and San Diego Zoo are prisons. I still can't believe the Panda's are at San Diego & I can't believe the National Zoo is even open - both are awful - they don't belong in cities and they certainly deserve more room to roam - or even move. Some of the animals at San Diego had less space than my back yard. At National, some of the animals live in cement enclosures. We were so bothered by National that we left after about 45 minutes. We stayed at San Diego about the same, but we were only targeting the pandas and the koalas - everything else we just happened to see along the way. Both National and San Diego are really small.
  5. Unicoi State Park is there - lots of hiking Babyland General - "birthplace" of Cabbage Patch Dolls - kinda hilariously unbelievable for adults, but fun for littles - it's in Cleveland, Ga. Are you going soon? They are doing Oktoberfest now through the end of October The N. Ga. map I'm holding in my head seems missing a few pieces now, but if you can get over to Dahlonega, Ga Consolidated Gold Mine is a great tour - you go right down into the mountain and can see the gold in the mountain. I'm thinking it's about 30 min from Helen, but I could be off on that.
  6. When my son was in college, I would usually include a small "toy" for him to fidget with - like a little LEGO set, or a tiny model he could put together. I also sent Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty - I chose one of the more unusual colors. He really liked having these small things to play with. Another thing he appreciated were toiletries, because that meant he didn't have to spend his own money on them - so a tube of toothpaste & a new toothbrush, or razor blades, for example. In the winter I sent him a travel mug and some really good hot chocolate mix. I sent his favorite snacks - Oreo's, Ritz Chips. At this time of year, a variety bag of Halloween candy might be good. At ds' uni, the children of uni employees did trick or treat in the dorms one day before Halloween.
  7. Just a few ideas: Keep in mind that it might be a few weeks before the death certificate is issued. The biggest delay comes in getting the person who did the declaration to sign the form. That could be a reason it isn't showing up in the record searches yet. The Red Cross often helps connect people. They helped my mother once. You could start calling funeral homes and ask them if they handled her arrangements. Death notices in newspapers are usually free, obituaries are not.
  8. I'm struck by the number of people who say that they don't want drop in visits because they are concerned about their homes not being presentable. This is not even on my radar. We live in our home and assume others live in theirs as well. We are relatively tidy people, but there is much everyday clutter in the living areas, because living can create clutter as items get moved around the house and abandoned for other endeavors. We have no laundry room, so there are often baskets of unfolded laundry in the living room, near the laundry closet. But, that's just life. I value the people that drop by more than I value an arbitrary idea of cleanliness, so this puzzles me. My bathrooms are clean, my kitchen is clean (the counters are sometimes cluttered, but they are clean), the litter box is taken care of. The house are dusted and vacuumed regularly. What standard of cleanliness do you hold yourselves to in order to be "company ready?" If that standard is higher than your regular standard, why? As I said, this puzzles me.
  9. If anyone wants to see what a hurricane looks like - CNN is doing a live feed of the camera at Frying Pan Tower, which is 34 miles off of the NC coast, IIRC. The camera is trained on the helipad and you can see a flag and the waves behind it.
  10. This! I wish I could like this ten times! I’m an introvert and I think in person visits build friendships and community. Like regentrude, I’ll tell you if it’s a bad time and suggest a better time. FWIW, I was born, raised and live in the south. The area where I live is fairly diverse and it’s interesting to see the habits of people from around the world here. In my experience, of the “transplants,” people from other countries and people from rural areas of other states in the US are very hospitable. I'm very much a "come as you are" person, so if I'm not dressed, I'll just run upstairs and throw something on, then we can get back to it. I also might wash dishes while we chat, or something else mindless if I'm in a pinch for time. But, I am at a point in my life where I have margin in my days, so that if I am interrupted, I don't suffer too much schedule wise if I take time to sit and talk. When dh travels for business, if he’s in another country for more than a day or two, he is often invited to for tea or dinner with at least one family. One of the many reasons we are excited about the house we are building is because the layout is more amenable to having open conversations. We will also have great outdoor spaces for neighborhood folks to share a glass of tea when it's hot, or to share a cup of tea inside when it's cold. But, I'm digressing now.
  11. But, what if a star gate is next? That might be cool.
  12. NC barrier islands are being evacuated. Currently Cat 2, which is so much better than it was.
  13. Having outside companies host sales on site and donate a portion of the proceeds to the organization has been a great fundraiser for our hospital volunteers. Some of them are specific to the hospital environment - a uniform company and a shoe sales company. Others that are popular are department store pop-up sales (Belk and Dillards). We are hosting Home Goods for the first time in October. The retailer usually has two or three of their own employees on site to help customers and to do checkouts. Our neighborhood swim team has food trucks come during swim meets and they donate a portion of the sales to the swim team. This replaced the swim team running it's own concession, which was labor intensive and raised less money.
  14. I have vague memories of dreaming about this monolith and it's accompanying child last night. I don't remember specifics, so I feel a little cheated!
  15. It’s been a few years for us, it I was in a similar situation with my son, needing something that would just get the job done without being overwhelming and requiring a ton of work. We ended up using Power Basics American Government. The publisher, Welch, had a homeschool pack that was the student text, quizzes, answer key, etc.. it was reasonably priced.
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