Our youngest daughter is all moved in at William & Mary, where classes begin on Wednesday.
Our youngest son is attending orientation and welcome week activities at George Mason University, where he has transferred to from The College of New Jersey.
Now that the college stuff is largely behind us for the moment, I'm off to do a little training in Fort Myers, Fla. for the news staff at Gannett's News-Press.
Before I go, a few thoughts....
Why does it seem President Obama is being held to the fire for not fixing in eight months what the previous administration took eight years to mess up? He's made some mistakes, no doubt. But I'd like to suggest he merits a little more time before he's so grilled from points left and right.
Speaking of the mistakes of the past eight years, I looked at my 401K for the first time in a while recently. It's actually up a bit -- but I'm pretty sure I'll never see it return to what it was a couple of years ago.
Speaking of my 401K, having two kids in college at the same time for the first time since 2006 is a real pain in the bank account.
Speaking of having two kids in college, its cool they are both now in the state of Virginia. Gotta love in-state tuition.
Speaking of the state of Virginia, it's amazing to me that pubic schools, by law, can't start before Labor Day here, unless they have a special exemption -- due to the power of the good folks in the tourism business, from what I understand.
And speaking of the good folks in the tourism business, I think I'd enjoy seeing a lot more of this beautiful state if the traffic wasn't awful just about everywhere you try to go. Coming back from Williamsburg on I-95 last weekend was a royal pain.
But not as much of a pain as writing those tuition checks.
Later.
8.24.2009
8.16.2009
Weekend at random
Great weekend -- a long one since Friday was a vacation day.
Helped son Dan move out of his New Jersey college off-campus housing to his new apartment in Fairfax, Va. on Friday. A very long driving day -- 7-plus hours behind the wheel of a rented cargo van out of 9 -- but it was worth it. He's transferred to George Mason University, and it's going to be nice to have him closer to home.
Did my training for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic in the District Saturday morning. Think I can be a real help here, reading and producing filed for college and high school textbooks for those in need. Plus it's cool to have a reason to get into D.C. more often. Learning this city is one of my goals this year.
Then Dan and I went to volunteer at "ReStore," in Purcellville, Va. Saturday afternoon. It's a store of used items, the sale of which raises money for Habitat for Humanity. Put in about 2 1/2 hours putting donated items together or on display and working to help customers load stuff into their cars. I'll definitely back. I love Habitat but don't have the greatest home repair skills in the world. This is a good way to get involved.
Biggest plus of the weekend has been the unexpected visit by daughter Katie and her husband Nick, who just finished a week at the beach in Delaware with members of Nick's family. They knew Megan was leaving for William & Mary on Thursday and took the opportunity to spend the night and say good luck. Very cool.
Sunday morning I was on to lector at 7:30 a.m. Mass -- ouch -- but everyone got out of bed and came to the early Mass. Rewarded them all by springing for breakfast at the Silver Diner in Reston.
Lots of stuff coming up...Megan to William & Mary...flying to Florida to do some writing training for the Fort Myers News-Press staff; seeing Billy Crystal at the National Theater. The nest may soon be empty, but I doubt the schedule will ever get dull.
Later.
Helped son Dan move out of his New Jersey college off-campus housing to his new apartment in Fairfax, Va. on Friday. A very long driving day -- 7-plus hours behind the wheel of a rented cargo van out of 9 -- but it was worth it. He's transferred to George Mason University, and it's going to be nice to have him closer to home.
Did my training for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic in the District Saturday morning. Think I can be a real help here, reading and producing filed for college and high school textbooks for those in need. Plus it's cool to have a reason to get into D.C. more often. Learning this city is one of my goals this year.
Then Dan and I went to volunteer at "ReStore," in Purcellville, Va. Saturday afternoon. It's a store of used items, the sale of which raises money for Habitat for Humanity. Put in about 2 1/2 hours putting donated items together or on display and working to help customers load stuff into their cars. I'll definitely back. I love Habitat but don't have the greatest home repair skills in the world. This is a good way to get involved.
Biggest plus of the weekend has been the unexpected visit by daughter Katie and her husband Nick, who just finished a week at the beach in Delaware with members of Nick's family. They knew Megan was leaving for William & Mary on Thursday and took the opportunity to spend the night and say good luck. Very cool.
Sunday morning I was on to lector at 7:30 a.m. Mass -- ouch -- but everyone got out of bed and came to the early Mass. Rewarded them all by springing for breakfast at the Silver Diner in Reston.
Lots of stuff coming up...Megan to William & Mary...flying to Florida to do some writing training for the Fort Myers News-Press staff; seeing Billy Crystal at the National Theater. The nest may soon be empty, but I doubt the schedule will ever get dull.
Later.
8.09.2009
I usually like to read about growth industries...but...
Here's a story from today's Washington Post that I'm sure will really hit home with a lot of people.
It's about a business that helps companies handle layoffs...and of course about how this small start up now has almost more clients than it can handle.
Though there are signs the economy is on the upswing, clearly a recession so many years in the making isn't going away quickly.
Here's the link.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/08/AR2009080802659.html?nav%3Dhcmodule&sub=AR
It's about a business that helps companies handle layoffs...and of course about how this small start up now has almost more clients than it can handle.
Though there are signs the economy is on the upswing, clearly a recession so many years in the making isn't going away quickly.
Here's the link.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/08/AR2009080802659.html?nav%3Dhcmodule&sub=AR
8.05.2009
After the glow
Well, the vacation afterglow is officially gone.
I'm not sure I can pin down precisely when its last glimmer faded, but I think it was near the end of my second day back to work as a variety of forces beyond my control made for a long, frustrating day.
Ah well..it is better to have glowed and lost than to have never glowed at all.
It was a great week..mostly terrific beach weather at Ocean City, Md., outside of a freakish storm that included hail on a 90-degree afternoon. Go figure.
I completed four books, finally making a dent in the stack of books I have been meaning to read. Three of our four kids were able to be with us -- Dave, Dan and Megan -- and Dan's friend Rob showed up for a few days. We really missed Katie and husband Nick, but such is the life of a high-powered retail executive when there is a new Target store to open.
The Mets won five straight games while we were gone -- perhaps we could convince them to pay us to stay on vacation and away from any ability to watch them. They started losing again just as we were readying our trip home. Coincidence? I think not.
It'll be off to college for Dan (transferred to George Mason) and Megan (starting at William & Mary) in a few weeks, and then the experience of a home without full-time resident kids for the first time since Dave was born in July, 1983. That ought to be interesting.
More to come.
Later.
I'm not sure I can pin down precisely when its last glimmer faded, but I think it was near the end of my second day back to work as a variety of forces beyond my control made for a long, frustrating day.
Ah well..it is better to have glowed and lost than to have never glowed at all.
It was a great week..mostly terrific beach weather at Ocean City, Md., outside of a freakish storm that included hail on a 90-degree afternoon. Go figure.
I completed four books, finally making a dent in the stack of books I have been meaning to read. Three of our four kids were able to be with us -- Dave, Dan and Megan -- and Dan's friend Rob showed up for a few days. We really missed Katie and husband Nick, but such is the life of a high-powered retail executive when there is a new Target store to open.
The Mets won five straight games while we were gone -- perhaps we could convince them to pay us to stay on vacation and away from any ability to watch them. They started losing again just as we were readying our trip home. Coincidence? I think not.
It'll be off to college for Dan (transferred to George Mason) and Megan (starting at William & Mary) in a few weeks, and then the experience of a home without full-time resident kids for the first time since Dave was born in July, 1983. That ought to be interesting.
More to come.
Later.
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