May 10, 2008 Ship of Thieves! Stealing the Magic..AGAIN!!! Panama Canal FL to CA!!! Part 4

[Jhalkias]

I've never played paintball. I heard it hurts from getting belted by the balls.

Oh, belted BY the balls . . . I thought I read something else reading quickly . . .

Good job on the 15K!

 

[HollyTyler]

Oh, belted BY the balls . . . I thought I read something else reading quickly .

I can always count on you for some humor at the end of the evening!

 

[birkner]

Samantha's interviews have all gone very well. Now, all the companies are asking for writing samples based on summarizing articles.

Bad new came today for Samantha. She is still scrambling to make up the 3 units for the one class the professor told her she needed to withdraw from even though he had originally told her she could miss three classes. The first three classes conflicted with her intersession class so she was unable to attend.

Her professor now says by missing the three classes he will fail her even if she turns in the work. Of course, it is his word against hers as she does not have an email trail. Life lesson for her is make sure there is an email trail!!

Professor's email is as follows:

Hello Samantha,

I notice you are still on the class roster online. But you have missed
three classes, and now you must withdraw. If you remain, you will
flunk, no matter what you turn in. The class has not happened for you.

Fred

Her only options at this point according to the Chairman of the Department are as follows:

Dear Samantha,
After reading your letter and reviewing your DARS record, it seems to
me that you have three choices:

1) Change your English major to an English minor, which would allow
you to graduate this May and walk in commencement with no further
paperwork necessary beyond changing the major to a minor.

2) Find an upper-division English literature course in Northern
California, have it approved for transfer to USD; you would need to
file the Transfer of Credit, also a Waiver of Residency requirement
for your last 3 units, and then, if you wanted to walk in
commencement, you would have to make a further, special request to
be allowed to participate in commencement even though your last three
units were not taken at USD. (Under the circumstances, I would
support that request -- though the final decision would not be up to me.)

3) Or, since, as I see from your DARS, you have already taken the
two upper-division English courses being offered on campus this
summer, you could take one of the three USD upper-division English
courses being offered abroad this summer -- two are in June and one
is from late June to mid-July -- information is at the Study Abroad
Office. Because these are USD courses, they would count as
"on-campus" and you would graduate in August and you could walk in
the commencement.

These are your alternatives as I understand your situation. If you
would like to discuss them with me in person, I would be happy to
meet. My office hours are Mon 1-3, Wed 8-10, and Thurs 9:30-11.
with best wishes,
E Branch

Now, for the lack of three units and if I can't find an appropriate summer class for her, she will loose her second major.

Sigh.................

 

[HollyTyler]

Samantha's interviews have all gone very well. Now, all the companies are asking for writing samples based on summarizing articles.

Bad new came today for Samantha...

I'm glad Samantha's interviews all went well, but what a load of BS she has to deal with at school! I really hope it all works out for her. No fun for her to have to try to figure out what to do....poor kid.

 

[Jhalkias]

We're back!


AND -------------------- DH ROCKS!!!

4 days of "training" and a bike his dad bought him when he was 20.....(now 42)......he WON his age group....and it's a BIG age group....I am so proud!!!

Tell Johnny congrats V - how cool!

 

[ibouncetoo]

Are you calling me a baby????

I remember listening to my friends sisters' music (they were the "older" ones) and that IS where I was introduced to the Beatles.

I think for now I will take baby as a compliment.

Well, you are a young pup compared to me!

Little sis, TiggersPal (Jan '59), grew up listening to the Beatles. Big sis (March '47) and I (Nov '49) had posters all over the bedroom walls, so she was impacted by the British invasion at a very early age too. And we call he our 'baby' sister

 

[Jhalkias]

That explains while I feel that we are a lot alike!

December baby's must stick together!!

Karen

Amy is December 11th . . .

 

[Jhalkias]

Holly, LOVE LOVE LOVE the firefighter photos!!

How cute is that??

DFIL was a DC fireman. His station was first call to the White House. You would not believe how many fires are in the White House you never hear of....
He retired before my kids were of an age when they could go to work with him. The great thing for him is DC Fireman are FED employees, so he has an awesome retirement!!

Amy's Dad was assistant Fire Chief in our town . . .

 

[HollyTyler]

Yes, everyone, if you are on a prayer chain please share this story....the family wants it told world wide!! If you have friends you can e-mail it to, please do that....and ask them to forward.....

Here's one response I received from e-mailing the story:

HOLLY THAT'S A BEAUTIFUL STORY. I'M GOING TO FORWARD IT ON TO A FEW PEOPLE TOMORROW, IF THAT'S OK WITH YOU? YOU'RE RIGHT, THAT'S NOT A STORY THAT WOULD MAKE NATIONAL NEWS, BUT IT SHOULD. SOMEONE SOMEDAY SHOULD MAKE THE STORY KNOWN. IT IS VERY SPECIAL AND SO TRUE. ALL IT TAKES IS ONE WALK AND ONE WORD TO SEAL OUR SALVATION. GOD BLESS YOU AND THANKS FOR THE INSPIRING EMAIL. MUCH LOVE TO YOU.

 

[birkner]

I'm glad Samantha's interviews all went well, but what a load of BS she has to deal with at school! I really hope it all works out for her. No fun for her to have to try to figure out what to do....poor kid.

Thanks Holly. We are going to try to help her find one more English class but who knows??? Stay tuned...

 

[birkner]

Amy is December 11th . . .

When DH and I worked together, our co-workers had a "December" babies birthday party every year!!

 

[Jhalkias]

Here is how I got the firemen to pay a call to our house: my child got stuck in the laundry chute. This was two years ago, and DS4 (at the time) decided for some unknown reason to go down the laundry chute. DS7 comes racing downstairs to tell me Nicky is stuck in the laundry chute, and I took the stairs about 3 at a time to reach him. Luckily, he was still halfway out of the chute, and not all the way down inside it. But he was definitely stuck. He had bent his leg, and it was all that was keeping him from sliding down into the chute or going all the way down two floors to the basement. I couldn't pull him out for fear of breaking that leg that was most definitely wedged in there at the time. We are only 5 blocks from the firestation and those guys were there in less than 3 minutes. Bless them. Still took them 20 minutes to get my little guy out. They ended up cutting thru the metal laundry chute with a power saw mere inches from my little guy. DS was screaming and crying the whole time, and I was just holding him so tight by his little arms I was sure I would leave big bruises. Fifteen minutes later, DS is running around playing like nothing at all had happened. Kids.

The firefighters invited us to visit the station. We went a couple of days later with homemade pie and a big thank-you poster. The kids got to ride around the block in the fire engine with the siren and everything. They were so excited.

So we love the firefighters from Station #1. I don't recommend this technique for getting cute firefighters to come to your house, however, Holly.

WOW!

That sounds like something my friends and I would have tried as kids . . .

 

[Jhalkias]

Well, I have an iBook G4--about 2 years old. I think this is what was replaced by the MacBook. I've made music CDs, created DVDs (though not burned them as it doesn't have a combo drive, but I have an external DVD burner), taken it on a couple of cruises, a couple of diving trips and several other trips. I download my photos into it and created several slide shows. It's great at picking up WIFI signals in hotels, etc. so no problems surfing the internet. I purposely got the model with the smallest screen because I wanted it to be as portable as possible and I've been very satisfied with it.

I got extra RAM--512 MB--to make 768 total. Today I'd probably get at least one GB total.

The only regret I have with mine is that I wish I had a bigger hard drive. It came with 30 GB--I wish I had at least twice that. I didn't realize how quickly music, photos and movies would fill it up.

So I'd say the Macbook should be plenty for you, but I'm sure PJ and/or John have probably already advised you.

My Macbook has 120gb, and I have already had to offload photos and video to an external HD. You can NEVER have enough HD!

 

[HollyTyler]

Amy's Dad was assistant Fire Chief in our town . . .

Very cool!

 

[Jhalkias]

Lisa/DisneyLover5....what do I do? Please help! It's mom again...she has now been out of the hospital for about a month and she's feeling well again...so she cut me off...she won't take my help anymore with the followup doctors appoinments. From going to all the specialists we figured out that the low blood count is caused by the kidneys, the renal failure is caused by dehydration, the dehydration is caused by dysentery. She is seeing all the doctors except the gastroenterologist. This is the key to all the other problems. She must see this doctor or else she will end up back in the hospital again. She won't let me help anymore and she's procrastinating taking care of it herself. In the meantime, she's loosing too much weight. She went from 115 to 103 in one week and that was a week ago. She's probably under 100 lbs. now. Also, every time she goes into renal failure it's taxing on her heart. Last time she had a heart attack too.

I have two choices, make the appointment myself and drag her there and let her be mad at me or leave her alone and let her end up back in the hospital again.

I know you're in a similar situation with your mom. What would you do?

If anyone has any suggestions to help, I'm eager to listen.

Without going into detail, my mom died because of her stubborness about things like this. She did not like or trust doctors, and in the end, because of her not wanting to see doctors, she died of a very invasive infection. When I finally got her to the hospital (when I saw what shape she was in I called 911) she passed away two days later in the hospital.

I don't know what to tell you - my Greek mother was extremely stubborn, and to this day I know that stuborness cost her her life, and I miss her every day.

 

[Jhalkias]

Oh, so many things I wished that I had kept to sell now! My DH still has a Million Dollar Man doll somewhere in our attic (the one that does all these tricks). He is sure it will be worth a fortune

The only thing I wish I still had . . .

I had a 1963 Red Mustang Convertible pedal car. I loved that car as a kid, and boy do I wish I had it now. It was my favorite toy of all time, and started my love affair with all the cars that I would love to have, but cannot afford . . .

 

[Jhalkias]

Good night everyone . . .

Wanted to watch Heroes tonight, but had to DVR it . . . not a good show for Sophia . . .

It was fun catching up.

Great stories, and great comments from everyone.

 

[tlb2864]

Jarrett is home now. He's home. Thank God almighty He's home.
---------------

Praise God!

 

[amesmom]

Well, I'm glad your son was OK! But was it mean that it made me laugh?! I can imagine how worried you must have been at the time this was happening, but what a great story it makes!

I learned that getting the firemen to come to our house is easy! Just invite them to the birthday party! But he wants a camoflage party this year, so no hunky firemen for mom to drool over.

We all laugh about it...now. I was actually in better shape at the time than my neighbor. She's severly claustrophobic and seeing my son stuck halfway in the laundry chute was making her crazy. She was just standing in the corner hyper-ventilating. I thought we'd need the paramedics for her. Maybe you can find some hunky soldiers for this year's party.

 

[HollyTyler]

We all laugh about it...now. I was actually in better shape at the time than my neighbor. She's severly claustrophobic and seeing my son stuck halfway in the laundry chute was making her crazy. She was just standing in the corner hyper-ventilating. I thought we'd need the paramedics for her. Maybe you can find some hunky soldiers for this year's party.

Ooooooohhh......Now there's an idea! ME LIKEY!