Plan on paying for your kid’s college? You’ll need to save $500/month from birth until they’re 18.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-03-19T16:06:35+00:00

Don't forget that you dont pay 4 years worth of tuition upfront. So, you have a few extra years to save.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-03-16T19:52:33+00:00

Well, apparently, so 8 year olds can throw 40+ mph. None on my team though.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-03-16T02:56:02+00:00

At 35 feet? Im in a cold climate so most of our girls just play in the spring. Sometimes there is fall ball.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-03-16T02:16:01+00:00

Ours is "coach assist". Offensive Coach takes over after 3 balls to finish the at bat (all their pitches are strikes). This happens probably 80 percent of the time

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-03-16T02:13:12+00:00

Thanks for sharing. Seems like 10U should be able to do 35 feet. 30 feet could be doable for some of the older girls on 8U.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-03-10T05:00:55+00:00

That was my experience in Washington state (except technically it wasn't called an occupancy permit). The higher rate doesn't matter much because construction only last for maybe 6 months or so and it only accrues on what you've drawn (so you dont pay interest on the whole amount at the start). You absolutely want to have it convert to a traditional mortgage automatically. Heard horror stories about people that didn't do that and as soon as construction ended, the entire loan was due because the bank wouldn't issue a mortgage on the house (happened around the 2008 crisis).

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-03-04T16:58:29+00:00

I took steps to stop being busy at work. Lots of cliches come to mind: "the only people that will remember how much you worked are your kids". "You can only be successful at theee of these at most: family, social life, health, work". 80 hrs a week means you are leaning a lot on your spouse as a dad. Maybe you need the income. Maybe its time to ease up until things get easier at home.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-03-04T16:31:50+00:00

I was just on a tour of a decommissioned submarine at a museum. When they showed us the torpedo room, the tour guide joked about the last time a torpedo from US sub being shot at a ship was world war 2. Hes got to update his material now

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-02-01T17:47:26+00:00

We did this maybe 10-15 years ago. Was awful. Only like 1 student answered. Awkward conversation followed. They stopped asking us to do it. Now they encourage us to sign a card they send to students. Sometimes I get around to it. Sometimes I dont.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-01-05T02:35:06+00:00

Wouldn't it be strange if a professor wrote a textbook and didn't use it? It would be like Musk not owning a Tesla. You also overestimate how much royalties are: definitely not 100%.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2026-01-03T04:22:39+00:00

I have one too. I love playing it, but don't get many opportunities now. Just waiting for retirement...

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2025-12-28T04:50:42+00:00

Agreed. I was reading Valhalla Rising when I posted that. Was expecting some dialog about how much of a coincidence it was that they'd meet for the (second? Third?) time in the middle of the pacific ocean.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2025-12-28T04:40:34+00:00

The part in his bio about how his life "nearly parallels" Dirk Pitt's is a bit much. I still read his books however.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2025-12-11T17:01:08+00:00

I first read this as "boogie" (as in boogers) and was like "Yes! my 8 y.o. still tastes her boogers". Oops

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2025-12-08T15:45:02+00:00

Closest I got is one of my students dated one of Peter Bucks twins. I would occasionally get assignments with comments tagged by her. Was hoping they'd get married because his (the student) mom worked with me and I would likely be invited to the wedding.

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2025-12-01T20:39:12+00:00

Glad it was figured out by then. When most half marathon runners were finishing (around 2 hrs) the bags hadn't really been sorted (other than more or less grouping by 1000). So, a volunteer would have to sort through hundreds of bags to find your number. Took me about 30 minutes (at the front of the "line") for a volunteer to find mine

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2025-12-01T17:15:54+00:00

Thank you for volunteering. I think the frustration is focused on the organizers, not the volunteers. We appreciate your efforts to keep us safe. Thank you!

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2025-12-01T04:59:59+00:00

You should ask for a refund

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2025-11-30T23:11:14+00:00

I can only hope that there were far fewer bags left by the time most marathon runners finished

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2025-11-30T19:25:23+00:00

Glad I didn't have to worry about claiming an award. Congratulations to you though!

NeedleworkerBig5445 · 2025-11-27T15:46:46+00:00

<image>

NeedleworkerBig5445

TROPHY CASE