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GreenePony

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Everything posted by GreenePony

  1. We got a ~10 mo sheltie when I graduated undergrad, despite being a street rescue she was already potty trained by the time we got her from the fosters' and is too smart for her own good so things like crate training and basic leash manners were settled before the move. I'm not convinced the only reason it really works for us right now isn't that DH works from home and can give her the attention she needs. On weeks he's out of town I need a dog walker 1-2 times a day since I can be gone for a work day plus and evening class. HOWEVER, A friend got a 8 wo corgi right before she moved and it's been a nightmare for her. She didn't have support in potty training and without the proper timing (remember they can only hold their bladder for as months as they are old- so a 2 month old can hold it two hours) the dog is more or less trained two years later. I would advise getting a young adult or older so you don't have the 2 hour concern. Also, crate train, it's not cruel at all if it's properly size (not greyhound sized crate for a chi and not chi sized for anything bigger, they only need to be able to stand up and turn around) and it's in general safer for you and them. Remember if you're gone for more than 8 hours you need a dog walker (my dog can hold it for 10 hours but I don't like her to for fear of a UTI or accident.) And the expense - we've talked about it the Lobby thread about pets, I think we spend 1500-2000 a year on our dog, and that's without spoiling her too badly and not counting pet rent or deposit.
  2. Try eliminating snack-able foods from your shopping list. DH loves to get granola and protein bars but I can't eat them so instead we freeze bananas (peeled, stored in a bag) and blend them with maybe 1 T of crunchy peanut butter for a faux-soft serve if we really want to eat between meals. The extra effort (we're both incredibly lazy) means snacking less.. I've been put a restricted diet to identify some health issues and it cut out pretty much anything I would normally snack on; between the diet and adding 45 mn of medium to high-intensity cardio (doctor's orders) a day, I lost ~13% of my body weight since starting grad school. I now weigh what I did in middle school when I was juggling a couple of sports and working at a barn. (note so no one worries, it's not unhealthy weight loss, I'm still at the top end of the ideal range for my height and frame and my doctor is carefully monitoring me )
  3. I would also visit that store or ask people's opinion about it. Some of my cohort live near a DC Harris Teeter that only has produce one day a week (that food desert people talk about? It can be very real)
  4. Exactly. GWU doesn't *require* experience, per se but 90% of my cohort have had several internships, jobs, and volunteer positions even coming directly out of undergrad because they treat it as a professional program, not academic. I wanted to apply for a job at a state-level institution I interned with in the past and their definition of experience is at 6 months in a position. Until 2nd year of grad school, I had one position where that counted, and not all federal positions will even count part-time or unpaid positions as experience. My best experience has been with a historic house. I am not a historic house person - I don't have the personality for it - but I had more opportunities to get really good resume builders (full environmental analysis, inventories, entire collections cataloged, exhibits designed and installed, etc) there than at my ideal (size and subject matter-wise) federal internship. Also, they will remember you and will give fantastic recommendations if you do a good job.
  5. When you say "work in a museum" what exactly do you want to do? Curate, Education (educational program development), Collections Management, Conservation, Prepator, Exhibit Design/Development, Administration, Development/Fundraising? Most of these have specific education points, especially conservation (you need a good number of science credits and experience to even get into a conservation program and then you need certified.) You rarely see someone in the development or administration silos who have museum backgrounds. Education is a different matter. There are specific Museum Education programs (ie GWU) which are completely separate from the rest of the MSTD program and then there are all around MSTD programs that have an education track which are more integrated. Like m-ttl said, there are different ways of getting into museum education, however, I'm seeing more education job postings that require some museum background. My first director had an art education BA, museum sciences MA, and then education PhD because her first love is education, not administration (you're not going see many administrators with a MSTD degree these days, more business unfortunately.) I hate to be a negative Nancy but there are *very* few museum jobs (except education, administration, and development) and those with years of experience and training are having trouble even getting entry level jobs (if they even find those, many are requiring at minimum 5 years experience now)
  6. I asked my DH and here's what he said- His insurance company cannot process international DL numbers because it's an issue of translating the applicable information (accident codes, length of license, validity, etc.) Contact your university since they will have experience walking international students through the process, as you will need an international driver's permit from your home country to even drive here (though some states don't even accept those.)
  7. Ugh, I'm sorry. My mom's school district just had to deal with this.The parents claimed the daughter wasn't being properly assisted in her IEP and the school should pay for the girl to go to an independent school for the next 5 years, and maybe even college (it's happened before.) Too bad her scores went up to proficient in the three months she saw the specialist (before the trial, thankfully.) Crazy parents are why I never followed in my mom's footsteps (teaching girl scouts and their mothers were enough to make me scream.)
  8. USAA, my husband works for another insurance company and we still go with them. They are incredibly helpful in the case of incidents and we do our banking, etc with them (DH's family has all been officers so we're grandfathered in, literally.) Also, we get discounts on other services (rentals, trips, flowers of all things.) I think we pay $450/6 months for a 2005 Civic Hybrid parked in a condo garage structure.
  9. I used vistaprint business cards for "we're moving" last time. I think I upgraded to the nicer weight (and without the logo on the back). It's lighter than a full card and people had put it in their rolodex or where ever they store contact information. The only problem is their smallest order is way more than I needed so I still have a couple dozen sitting in a box.
  10. I don't think I've ever heard anyone use Penn to refer to Penn State, however an annoying number do mix up the full names - "No, University of Pennsylvania is not in the middle of no where. Pennsylvania State University is." For some reason, I never think of Bucknell as a BU- probably because there was a big marketing hubub 3-5 years ago about Boston and Baylor. A former university president was soooo concerned he tried to eliminate "BU" as a logo, and instead only use "BAYLOR". Too bad he forgot the universities have different colors and BU is too engrained in the sports culture (iconic set for the Golden Wave and a couple very popular cheers, also it would have messed up my face painting schedule. BU fits much nicer on a cheek than Baylor)
  11. Are you planning on just dropping a note/newsletter or actually sending announcement cards? I am only sending mine out because its nice to let the non-facebook savvy members of the family know that we will be moving (I also am having "we're moving! here's our new address" cards made up to be sent with.) When I got my bachelors, I did get a couple small graduation gifts from my in-laws and god parents (my parents bought me the sewing machine of my choice, probably not everyone's idea of a great graduation gift) but I'm not expecting anything for my masters. My brother (going from bachelors to masters) and my announcement cards are going to read along the lines of, "Announcing the graduation of [Full Name] from [university] with a [Degree] in [Program] [Date] [Location] / [First Name] will be pursuing a [degree] in [program] at [university] in the Fall" Newsletters are popular with DH's family but my family finds them annoying *shrug*
  12. My last internship supervisor and the other intern both lived near the Roosevelt Center (downtown Greenbelt) and loved it. They took me to lunch at New Deal Cafe, it's a neat area. It was built as a model town during the depression (thus New Deal) and the houses in the area at built on 3/4 scale. They kept talking about the fantastic community center classes too. I'm not sure what rental prices are like now- my supervisor moved out towards National Harbor for cheaper houses maybe 6-8 years ago (buying, not renting.) http://www.greenbeltdirectory.com/roosevelt.html
  13. Tried explaining cosplay to friends yesterday (because they saw Heroes of Cosplay and that that was the entirety of the culture), it was surprisingly difficult. I think understanding it requires a real vested interest in some sort of fandom, and they grew up in households where that wasn't okay. Whereas I grew up in one where I started watching Stargate (and SG-1, then SG-A, never got into SG-U) in elementary school with my dad and DH got me an Earth POO/Glyph necklace for Christmas. I think being in museums, I'm encouraged to have a diversity of interests. Knowing about animal husbandry got me a volunteer position that could lead to a contract with a very well known conservator. That being said, even DH - the self-proclaimed King of Random Knowledge - says my interests are a bit wide spread: historic textiles and costuming, animal husbandry and physiology, military history, history of the Christian church, jazz history... think that's it for the major interests
  14. There are very convenient lofts near campus - LL Sams but it's a mix of undergrad and grad and I've heard complaints of echoes. There's Waco Loft Living that has 3-4 different properties. If you want no undergrads and just "adults" I would look to the suburbs: Hewitt, Woodway, Lacy-Lakeview, Robinson, etc. I've had friends in all of those areas- though the farther out you go, the more likely you'll get a house instead of an apt/condo for what you'd pay but they're usually older homes or country (though there are some rental home developments in Lacy-Lakeview that are Texas-modern, stained concrete floors and Texas star in the porch flooring).
  15. DH lived at Rivercrest at the corner of Daughtrey and U Parks for 6 years (I was there for the last year.) It was louder that I was used to coming from a rural town but late at night it was still pretty quiet. I will say, I heard awful things about the on campus grad student housing (the ones next to the Chamber building) so maybe stay away from those. If you want to live outside of town, I've had friends (professionals and students) rent houses out in Lacy-Lakeview and Belmead and they were very happy. I think if you stay away from the far side of 35 and that congested area* you'll be okay. I would feel comfortable in most of the suburbs. *No complaints about the apartments themselves but friends at Abbey Glenn did not always feel safe with the area
  16. I ride dressage (yes, the "dancing horses"). Started out in hunters but in college I banged up my knees enough (not riding, marching band and swing dancing) there's no way I could ride a full course today, and definitely couldn't go out with the hounds. I also sew, dote on our Sheltie (hopefully starting rally-o training in the summer since she washed out of herding), and started Pilates. A first year in my program actually does taxidermy- she is incredibly helpful in conservation projects
  17. I talked to a friend who is a social worker focusing on getting people from disability back to the work force and she said my cohort should start applying now for state or federal level because of background checks, etc but can wait a month or two for independent museums. Caveat, I already have a SI ID and that background check was within the last cycle (last fall everyone got new checks) so some federal checks are easier for me, she said I could also delay that a little because of that. Most of the applications I have been looking at didn't ask for letters of rec? However these are for registrar/collections management positions, not curator so those may be different.
  18. 1. Collections Manager for a medium-sized history museum. To match size and role I need a couple more years experience, but for a smaller museum I should be okay 2. Run a small farm (alpaca and long wool sheep). I'm okay with general farm management (the years of FFA and 4H can actually pay off) but I need more breed-specific experience. 3. Run a small dressage training facility. As long as I don't have to be the trainer, I'm just fine. 4. Animal Costume Company. I'm embarrassingly well qualified but it's surprising how good they can be with the pony clubbers and 4Hers.
  19. Carpet Rake. Perfect for a carpet with a double coated breed. Though you feel disgusted when you see the softballs of fur.
  20. I trust mine. DH's best friend is a 3yr vet student- he is certainly not the type to make stuff up. Neither of the two vets my dog has seen have been that type either. The "closest" was a slightly luxating LH patella that resolved itself (which is perfectly normal and she only said to keep an eye on it). But I am an informed pet owner. I know what issues our breed often has, I know that if my dog were responsibly bred she would have been tested for these genetic issues but because we don't have her history we need to keep an eye on x,y,z, some lines that she could be part of are prone to this, this, and this and so on. When we go into the vet, more often than not we already know what the diagnoses is going to be and what meds she will be put on, we just need someone with a different degree to confirm it and write the scrip. Additionally, I competed nationally in large animal husbandry, it doesn't translate 100% to dogs but it certainly helps. I also vetted both of my vets. One was recognized as one of the best in town (but had a serious attitude) and our current vet office is run by a former army vet who saw to the caisson horses at ANC, the USMC mascot and presidential pets- the vet we see there most often taught at the school DH's friend is at. I expect a bill that is experience + overhead + staffing + cost of actual time/tools/medication. All told an annual visit (including HW/flea pills and vaccines) + a new allergy/health issue (so new medication) runs us around 400 (this is without pet health insurance.) Considering we spent more in a month for my own health concerns, I don't consider that a ridiculous bill. DH's friend posted this recently - http://hstdvm.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/the-thing-i-hate-about-being-a-veterinarian/
  21. How much DH takes care of depends on my work load- but then he works from home so he's around a lot too. While I have my internship and class DH takes care of almost everything. When it's an easier work load I try to take care of her more- but it's grad school so that's not as often as I would like.
  22. We did the trip (~22 hours, not including stops or getting stuck in traffic) with our small dog last summer. Some thoughts: - Read up on what pet-friendly food can be calming (special treats, parsley, etc) or they especially like and prepare special treats to give at rest stops (if your cats aren't the sort to throw up, I made up peanut butter and dried liver kongs) - Screw on "coop cups" are a great idea for water/ice cubs. This is the one we use http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GDVUE6 - Take a bottle of your home water to slowly introduce pets to new water - I *highly* recommend a solid vari kennel/plastic shell crate over a soft crate, and especially loose or harnesses. If you are in an accident, your pets will be contained and are more likely to be protected than a soft or non-existent crate. They're just good to have around if you are in area where you could potentially have to evacuate because of weather as some rescues/shelters will only take pets if - Pack more food in accessible than you need for the trip by at least 2 days (I think I packed for 3 because I wasn't sure how fast we would unpack). Travel food cups are nice too if you normally use larger bowls. - Make an ICE packet to attach to the kennel with the following information- names, physical descriptions, and photos of all animals, DOB, important medical information (allergies, current vet contact info, etc), emergency contact info, permission to treat up to X amount if you are unable to give verbal permission, etc. Because of the contract we signed to adopt our dog I also have a statement saying if we are unable to provide future care (ie dead) she is to be returned to such-and-such rescue and the following phone numbers. This one sounds like overkill but I'm paranoid that we'll be in an accident and she'll be in limbo since we haven't drafted a will yet. - Towels and potty training pads are excellent to line crates with, wouldn't hurt to put one near the opener sides of/underneath the crate.
  23. TakeruK gave great advice! DH and I have been doing similar. We have a ~3 credit cards that we rotate on-off months/quarters depending on where we get the most money/points back. The two cards we use the most are the American Airlines card (DH has to fly a lot for work) and USAA (civilians can now do their banking with them, which is fantastic- I think you still need to be military/descendant for retirement planning though, not sure about insurance.) Re: Credit Unions. I love mine. The closest branch is over an hour and a half away right now (and were 23 hours away in undergrad) but I got the best interest rate on student loans through them. However, we did find that having an account with did make life easier because of ATM fees and that sort of thing (also my CU's default image for cards was a barn).
  24. I have a long-ish commute on the metro so I prefer my Kindle Fire for text books so I have less to carry. Not all books expire after a certain time, only if you rent a book instead of buying, at least through the Amazon format. I liked the Fire because I would also load powerpoints and articles on it instead of spending so much on printing 30+ page articles for each class (the cost ended up being cheaper in the long run for the kindle). Depending on how the pdfs were written you can mark those up but you cannot do any real word processing with the Fire (that's I've found anyway). I'm pretty happy with it. But like others have said, not all textbook are available on the e-format so for that I would say do the Amazon Prime route.
  25. Um, I did go off campus regularly. DH and I both spent part of our undergrad time without a car (04-07, 08-11), went to church in woodway, dancing in Fort Worth and Austin, friends all over the area... Like I said, you make friends, you use the bus, etc. Is it as predestination friendly as say, DC? No, but it's not inaccessible. katieliz456, make sure you go to the Mayborn Museum and the Armstrong-Browning Library. Both are free to Baylor students (bring your ID card) and are must-sees (I'm a little biased about the Mayborn). The Mayborn reopened the historic village last year and has demos during the summer, also has free movie nights. If you don't go on a Saturday you can play with the water table without little kids butting in. A-B has the largest collection of secular stained glass (must cooler than it sounds). I also had a friend at the Dr Pepper Museum who recommends it (I never made it, and wish I had). The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame is a little dated in exhibit style but still kind of fun for all the TEXAS-ness, but it is within walking distance of campus. Some other food rec's: Bangkok Royal on Franklin and U Parks (Thai, closed on Sundays), Cafe Cappuccino, the Olive Branch (both have good brunch, Olive Branch is usually kind of slow and Cafe Cap is the gathering place for religion/Biblical language majors), Baris/Mama Baris (Italian, Valley Mills and Belmead/Woodway), Taqueria #9 (DH's coworkers go there all the time), and I've heard good things about eating up at whatever is at Homestead Heritage (I think Cafe Homestead?) but I've never been. We're considering moving back next year (DH's company really wants him on site instead of commuting in every few weeks). We joke with friends who have already moved back that it's kind of a black hole so fair warning
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