1 hour ago, Dusty Chalk said:

Surely an ebony finger extension would be more appropriate?

Continued work setting up my new apartment

Got the essentials!

Priorities:  check!

I met with Tyler Abi today, we went to brunch. Was really funny day. He is a great, funny guy. I'm glad again, I joined HC.

Edited December 11, 20169 yr by Sechtdamon

Tyler is definitely a great guy!

Very cool!  Glad you two had brunchy fun.  Brunch is mah favourite.

Me:  mah skillet started flaking, so I re-seasoned it.  I scoured it first, of course.  I then set the oven for 500 degrees Fahrenheit, and wiped excess first, so this time there is no stickiness, but now my apartment smells like burnt chemicals.  I'm actually not sure that was the flaxseed oil, but maybe the cookie tray?  Anyway, since I only did the inside of the pan, I'll do it without the cookie tray next time.  But I still consider it a success.

And then -- because I have something sinusoidal going on again (nose won't stop running), I had canned chicken soup.  So my perfectly seasoned pan sits there, remaining perfect and untouched, which is fine by me.

53 minutes ago, Dusty Chalk said:

And then -- because I have something sinusoidal going on again (nose won't stop running), ...

You mean it comes in waves?

Andrew got his second college acceptance the other day.  And another near-$20k merit grant!  And his first acceptance, which was mistakenly Early Decision with $22k, is now a non-binding acceptance with $27k!  It REALLY is too bad these are his #3 or #4 choices!

Still waiting on #1 and #2 choices to come in.  Think he'll get in to both no problem, hoping for decent merit $ from them, too; would be very pleasantly surprised if near the above.

Edited December 12, 20169 yr by skullguise

Congrats to Andrew.  Fingers and toes crossed for #1 or #2 to come through with an awesome merit grant as well.

Being 6 years removed from school and all too aware of how much longer I'll be paying off loans, I'd recommend going to whichever school makes it cheapest for him ;).

Good luck Andrew! 

2 hours ago, Aura said:

Being 6 years removed from school and all too aware of how much longer I'll be paying off loans, I'd recommend going to whichever school makes it cheapest for him ;).

Good luck Andrew! 

Seriously, this cannot be understated.  I'm the only of my siblings to not go to an ivy but I'm also the most financially stable, thanks largely to the fact that I graduated debt free.  My older brother and younger sister both graduated with mid-level debt (for the time, some 20yrs ago) and while they both do well for themselves I've had a whole lot less financial stress in my life.

Good luck Andrew!

Edited December 13, 20169 yr by Augsburger

Because I'm a grumpy old git, I got my university education entirely free of charge. In fact the UK government *paid* you a (means tested) grant, in today's money about £6-10k per year for living expenses, books and hedonism, and tuition was free. And that was both degrees. But in those days back in the mid 70's (pass the walking frame...) only 6% of school leavers went to university in the UK.

Fast forward. John Major introduced the concept of tuition fees in 1997 at a low, £1k per annum, and means tested level. Then Tony Blair set a target that 50% of all school leavers should go to university. Why 50%? Who knows. But it had two effects.

First the government could not possibly fund that level of university places, and upped the fees. When my kids went through 10-13 years ago it was £3000 per year for tuition fees plus a "student loan" for all other exenses. But under Cameron's government it was increased to £9000 a year for tuition fees, plus an annual student loan of £3575. 

Second effect is that in order to cope with the massive influx of students, universities went into a huge building programme, and generated all sorts of strange courses like Ethical Hacking (University of Abertay Dundee), Brewing & distilling (Heriot-Watt University), Applied golf management (University of Birmingham) and International Spa Management (University of Derby). There are endless examples.

And those who currently emerge from a UK University owe around £40k + compound interest, and a payback time of typically 25 years. So you could be pushing 50 before you're free of the University financial yoke.

Didn't need a pain pill last night, though because of that I think I needed a deeper toilet this morning.  TMI?

I'm starting to see some healing happening too. Less blood on the gauze every time I change dressings. The part with no skin seems to be filling in and scabbing over, so that's good news.

BTW, Back in 80' when I started college the US had a nice grant called the BEOG (Basic Educational Opportunity Grant). As my parents had no money to help with college, and I had no money myself, I qualified for full tuition and extra for books and such. I never had to take out a loan. Oh, the good ol' days.

Today I came home to find our screen door lock broken. The part that engages to the frame lying on the stoop (white and silver in the picture below)

It was held in by this broken pin.

I managed to MacGyver the hell out of it and replace it with a bolt and nut and some other stuff. The first picture was post repair. Works perfect.

My DIY for the day.

Um...yay?

Nothing stolen, was it?

Oops I should have explained that the inner main security door was fine.

Still not a good sign though, right?  Dodging a bullet still means you got shot at.

Thanks for the concern. It wasn't locked or anything. It's a glass screen door. We never lock it

I think it was a visitor we had last night just pushing on the screen door too much when opening. It even could have been the mailman opening it to put mail through the door.

Ahh, gotcha.  Glad to hear there were no signs of a sinister motive.  There's been a decent amount of petty crime in NH recently.  Nothing really close to us but more than you like to hear about.

Chores of a mechanical nature reinforce the Wife's notion that you're needed. Bravo! 

Shhh!!! Let this be our little secret...
 

 

8 hours ago, swt61 said:

Chores of a mechanical nature reinforce the Wife's notion that you're needed. Bravo! 

Hmmm.  I have no mechanical skills.  I'm in trouble

Well Al, as long as you've been married you must have some pretty impressive skills in "other" areas.