The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[MinnieM123]

Sympathy like. If it's going to be a bad year mosquito wise maybe you should look into getting a few citronella plants. I have several on my deck and they work wonders

Plants? Once again, you have enlightened me about things that grow out of the ground! Don't laugh, but I always thought that citronella was the odd smell in "citronella candles". When the candles were lit, the smell repelled mosquitoes, for whatever reason. (Never gave a second thought to what citronella actually was, and that it originated from a plant. )

 

[Figgy1]

Plants? Once again, you have enlightened me about things that grow out of the ground! Don't laugh, but I always thought that citronella was the odd smell in "citronella candles". When the candles were lit, the smell repelled mosquitoes, for whatever reason. (Never gave a second thought to what citronella actually was, and that it originated from a plant. )

I'm so sorry but I did just giggle a bit. They're much better than candles, they stay out all summer so you don't have to remember to light them, almost completely black thumb proof and no fire danger

 

[MinnieM123]

I'm so sorry but I did just giggle a bit. They're much better than candles, they stay out all summer so you don't have to remember to light them, almost completely black thumb proof and no fire danger

Next stupid questions: where do you buy these--are they "common" plants around in the summer? Do you think places like Lowes would have them? How often do you water them?

 

[Figgy1]

Next stupid questions: where do you buy these--are they "common" plants around in the summer? Do you think places like Lowes would have them? How often do you water them?

I've found them at Lowe's. home depot, Walmart, my local garden center and such places, as for watering I only water them when they look really dry, like I said they can take lots of abuse.

 

[Songbird76]

Actually, thankfully, DWifey wasn't with us at the time. We were there with another family, and I and the other dad were heading to another attraction with the older kiddos while our wives were in a kiddie wet play area with the younger ones.
DWifey wouldn't have kept cautiously walking towards it, she would've been runnin' like that hot place in the other direction...!!!

I'm with DWifey! I'd be headed in the other direction. But then, I was stupid when I was about 9 and touched a copperhead that I thought was dead....it wasn't. We had pulled the car up and parked and I opened my door and there was a snake. So my mom moved the car but the snake didn't budge. I thought it must be dead, and I wanted to see what it felt like, so I went up and touched it and it rattled. I backed away and my mom ran to the shed and grabbed a shovel and cut its head off. Boy did I get a lecture and I've certainly never had a desire to go near one, ever again.

 

[Songbird76]

Poor DD. Lost isn't fun. Disney has a very good set-up. Cast Member stays with child in area found until parents surface and security is immediately notified and they scour the immediate area looking for lost parents. If parents are still missing the child is then taken to the Baby Care Center or First Aid if there isn't a Care Center and the kid is entertained by staff to distract them from being separated from parents.
I found a lost kid at Typhoon Lagoon (who was so scared but didn't want to go with me to get the help of the CM within sight. Get that. I pointed to the CM and said see he has a name tag, he works here. You go first and when you are safely there I will check to make sure you are safe and will look for your parents OK? I explained and they took him to First Aid and there was a door marked Lost Parents. The water parks I think is the easiest place to get separated from your family. By the nature of most of the attractions you can't stay together.

We always picked a meet up bench at each attraction in the water park to regroup.

Never needed it but I always took a picture of my kids before we left the room each morning. Had it been necessary I had an exact picture of kid and clothing being worn down to the shoes.

I saw a family not long ago in pure panic their kid was gone from pool area where the entire family was. They scattered and the panic kept ramping up screaming his name, cast trying to help but a boy in a bathing suit is really non descript when wet. Ultimately the boy was found coming out of the QS area he had gone to refill his mug. Never heard the calls for him in there. His Dad was so angry, Mom burst into tears. Grandma was surprisingly rational. Cast kinda comes out of the woodwork for 'lost parents.'

Sounds like a pretty good system, which I would expect in a place like Disney. I will have to do the picture thing every morning....good idea! DS got "lost" in a store once. He didn't see us and he started to walk out the door thinking maybe we already went outside and someone who worked there saw him and stopped him and brought him to us. We've now had several talks about what to do if you can't see mommy or daddy and we remind them whenever we go somewhere unfamiliar. DD remembered it, so last time we were at a park and she couldn't find us (we let them go where they wanted because you could see ALMOST everything from the central table area and they didn't need anyone to ride with them) and she went straight to a family with kids and asked for help. We always said either go to someone who works there, or find someone with kids...a mommy or a daddy will want to help. So she did that, and the family took her to the entrance and had us paged on the intercom and then they waited with her until we got there. For today, I gave her a lanyard with her name, her school's name and our home phone number and my cell phone number and she was going to ask her teacher to write her phone number too, so if she got lost, she can ask someone if they'll call her teacher.
I just found out this morning that DS's trip next week is the same....they aren't allowed to walk alone, but they will not have an adult with them. They are letting them loose in Kalkar....2nd and 3rd graders....who don't speak German. I kind of think this is a bad idea. Apparently they gave each kid a map yesterday so they can look up where they want to go. DS is still home sick, but we went this morning to wave goodbye to DD's group and some of the parents were talking about it...several of them have kids who are going to Kalkar. DD's best friend's mom said her other daughter has never been there...she's in 2nd grade...barely 8 (2 months younger than my son) and she's going to be let loose with nothing but a map and her best friend in a country where neither of them speak the language and can't ask for help if anything happens. DS can speak English, so he'd be ok....he could ask someone to call his teacher as most Germans can speak English. I also worry a bit because they get to choose who they go with and I remember vividly last year going to see them off for their trip and DS was sitting in the top section of the double-decker bus...a coveted spot, which he got because he was one of the first ones on the bus....and no one wanted to sit next to him. All the kids would rather sit downstairs than sit next to him. So who is he going to walk with? Are the teachers just going to stick him with a group and say they have to walk with him and then they dump him at the first opportunity? Or will he find someone else no one wants to be with? Or will he end up walking with a teacher? At least we've been there several times so he DOES know his way around a little bit. Maybe I worry too much, but some of these kids might only be 7 years old...I don't think they should be wandering around an unfamiliar park in a foreign country unsupervised.

 

[Songbird76]

Yeah I am not a fan of the evolving twists to internships and am happy some laws were tweaked to change the tide. I get the student teacher thing as my son pulled his teaching certificate all the while having no intentions of going that direction. A fall back if nothing else. It takes a special person to be a good teacher who thrives off educating children. Both of my kids had a first grade teacher with that passion and she remains their favorite teacher. They had many a dud inbetween and my son had a saint of an advisor. My DD had a horrific one that did things to deliberately get in her way. Fortunately the class grew and her senior year, critical with scholarships she had a new advisor who worked with her and did amazing things on behalf of my DD. Fortunately being a school board member I had the ability to thwart the first advisors behavior.

My DD bestie is now a Doctor and a Pharmacist to be. She has to do a years internship for free working at for profit pharmacies. To me that is just wrong. For the past two years she has been working at the same pharmacies as a tech and getting paid well. Now free labor doing the same things.

Makes one wonder why certain people ever got into education. If they are just going to do everything to derail students, why bother? My counselor was the only adviser for the whole school. He took a dislike to us pretty early on...we THINK because we didn't fit the stereotype and let him be the hero who "saved" us. We were children from divorce, and we were poor, so statistically, we should have been problem kids with bad grades. They started a big brother big sister program when I was in 6th grade and they chose me to participate because I was "underprivileged" . I chose not to participate. The "big sisters" they had asked were all kids who were horrible to my family. Yeah...please sign me up to spend 2 hours a week with someone who hates me and is mean to me. Um...no, thanks. And my brother and I both got good grades and had the reputation for being really good, responsible kids. So the counselor couldn't swoop in and make himself look good by providing resources to help us. He threatened to break my brother's nose once. We had gone in the week before school started to look up our schedules and my brother's wasn't done yet and he told my brother if he heard anyone complain that he said a certain class was offered at a certain time, he'd break his nose. He badmouthed me to someone who wanted to give me a scholarship because I had turned the application in directly to them, as it said to do on the paper. He had given me the wrong date...told me it was due in March when it was due in January. His secretary called me and told me to get my butt in to turn in the application..we drove an hour that afternoon to get it in on time. They called the school to ask for references and he told them I didn't deserve the scholarship because he had told all the students to turn their form in to him and I hadn't done that. But he had done the same thing to my brother with an application for a summer program 3 years earlier and did a "pre-screening" where he decided whose applications he wanted to send and whose he didn't, so we weren't going to put my application in his hands. Then someone else called about giving me a scholarship and he told them I wasn't allowed to have anymore...I had enough, and I would have to turn it down if they gave it to me. Fortunately they didn't listen and gave it to me anyway. That guy was a train wreck to education and our principal was even worse. I'm so glad you were able to help your daughter and that she had a different adviser her senior year. I don't know how many scholarships I lost out on because he lied. I'm lucky I got the ones I did! Sounds like your daughter escaped a bullet! Is she doing her internship now?

 

[Songbird76]

Depends. If you are taking AP classes it is not a cake walk.

Amen! And also if you are involved in a lot of extra-curriculars, which look great on college applications. Schools and scholarship committees want to see well-rounded students...students who have hobbies outside of school and know how to manage time effectively. But the more activities you're involved in, the harder it is to "coast".

 

[Songbird76]

Interesting theme park....site of a never operational power plant. I would love to go to Europa Park one day..

Yep, there's a ride inside that tower, too. Here's a video.
https://www.facebook.com/mark.gerritsen/videos/vb.744254670/10153171113084671/?type=3&theater

 

[Songbird76]

Plants? Once again, you have enlightened me about things that grow out of the ground! Don't laugh, but I always thought that citronella was the odd smell in "citronella candles". When the candles were lit, the smell repelled mosquitoes, for whatever reason. (Never gave a second thought to what citronella actually was, and that it originated from a plant. )

Me too!! I didn't know they were plants! But then, I am a well-known plant killer. I'm banned from having live plants because I name them and they die and I feel guilty and cry over their lifeless b

 

[Figgy1]

Me too!! I didn't know they were plants! But then, I am a well-known plant killer. I'm banned from having live plants because I name them and they die and I feel guilty and cry over their lifeless b

Citronella are pretty black thumb proof even one of my neighbors has a few out every year and she puts plastic flowers in her deck planters. They're also very easy to root from cuttings so every fall I take some cuttings and bring them in for the winter so I don't have to buy new every year.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

17 days until Father's Day.

 

[MouseDreaming]

And for those non peanut butter folk-Trader Joe's

Looking for these, came out today.

Reminds me, I need to stop by TJ's.
Not sure about those Oreos, though.

 

[MouseDreaming]

Good morning! Well, DD had her last day of school yesterday. The sky is blue and the sun is shining, so DS should be able to have a lovely outdoor senior picnic.

Last night, we went to a schools out bon fire, that was more like a camp fire. We got to roast marshmallows, and enjoy a wagon ride.

 

[Figgy1]

Good morning! Well, DD had her last day of school yesterday. The sky is blue and the sun is shining, so DS should be able to have a lovely outdoor senior picnic.

Last night, we went to a schools out bon fire, that was more like a camp fire. We got to roast marshmallows, and enjoy a wagon ride.

Yea! for no rain!

 

[MonorailRed]

Here's where I've been the last 2 days

@MonorailRed and I decided to duel each other for our imagineering comp, The House Cup. We gave each other 48 hours to re-design the Caribbean Beach Resort.

If wanna check it out, here is the link
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-house-cup-an-imagineering-competition.910068/page-27

She did an awesome job with logos and theme ...and I went for my favorite franchise

Thanks Space!

I need to hang out with @MonorailRed sometime. He must be one of the better users on here when it comes to concept art and ideas and even logo design.

Thanks @brb1006 ! We should totally work on the 1966 thread sometime! It'd be pretty fun!

 

[spacemt354]

Thanks Space!



Thanks @brb1006 ! We should totally work on the 1966 thread sometime! It'd be pretty fun!

Absolutely!

Actually we are on Year 4 of The House Cup Imagineering Comp which is the "Goblet of Fire" year. That's the book/movie where other schools visit Hogwarts for the year.

If anyone is interested, it would be fun if "visitors" from areas of the forum stopped by the main competition thread to just to say "hi" to the contestants as a visitor like in the books/movies.

 

[Cesar R M]

So glad our High School had done away with this. Volunteering is that, volunteering. My family is very civic minded and we volunteered throughout the years from coaching to mentoring etc. Once it is a requirement or mandated it is no longer civic it is a requirement to be fulfilled and frankly it was abused by many organisations requesting volunteers from the high school. It was discontinued by the time my kids hit high school as it became labor in many instances. I taught my kids from preschool how to volunteer to help others. My kids helped me volunteer as toddlers with Market Day, they'd move a box to the proper table. Hand a lady her change. They'd help me sort kids sweatshirts for fundraisers. They both went onto becoming mentors and school tutor volunteers. My DD volunteered as a buddy for Special Olympics.
Volunteering comes from the heart not from a school mandate IMO.

I actually hate how some schools FORCE you to do "volunteer" job.
Its like they use the "volunteer job" as a pride token that all students MUST do.
Its "volunteer" because the school forces and offers YOUR work to someone else (even when its witouth asking you)

 

[Tiger Lily]

Just over 1 hour left for school today. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

 

[spacemt354]

Just over 1 hour left for school today. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Congrats!