Canada's Thanksgiving begins the holiday season in the MMP!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Not to mention crowded in our little dining room. We’d have to put the leaf in the table and find 2 extra chairs, and with all those people, moving, passing food, etc, is a bit of a fiasco. This way, the breakfast bar will be loaded with food and people can either sit at the table or in the living room or walk around with a turkey leg in hand! And they can eat when hungry, not when I tell them they must.

And I start the day in an Irritation Mode. A month ago, I ordered a dress for Roxy’s Halloween costume. It was supposed to be delivered today. Instead I got an email telling me it was out of stock. They just figured this out?? So now Daughter has to pick out another. She’d originally asked me to make one, but with JoAnn’s going out of business, that can’t happen. Plus with the price of fabric, etc, it was cheaper to buy the dress. Anyway, I may go to the thrift store and see if there’s a gown I can modify. Dammit.

But I can’t do anything till the Smart Thermostat tech does his thing here. Our electric co-op offered free thermostats that can be controlled by an app, and I’m OK with that… assuming it will do one particular thing, and I’ll verify that before I let the install start. Our present one has a Circulate function - a couple of times an hour, the fan comes on for about 10 minutes or so to (duh) circulate the air in the house. It tends to keep the temp even thru the whole house, plus the air runs thru the filter regularly. I’m hoping the app will let me do this. Otherwise, I don’t want it.

FCD has to take his car in for service today - it gets its second oil change. He’ll be stuck there because it’s about the time the tech comes here. I hope his phone is charged.

Those are the two biggies for today. Maybe a little drizzly rain this morning, but mostly dreary. Tomorrow we may actually see big ball of fire in sky!! I may be able to futz in the yard! Woohoo!

Meanwhile, Happy Tuesday!!

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Good morning.

It’s 36°F, dark and clear outside. It’ll be sunny today, with a daytime high of 65°F. I still haven’t turned on the heat in the house, but with temps dropping into the 30s at night, I’m going to have to give in soon. I’ve turned on the fireplace in the great room, so hopefully that’ll help my husband feel more comfortable when he gets up. I’m fine, but he is always cold.

It was pretty dang breezy yesterday, and small pockets of my county lost power. Hopefully, the breeze will lighten up. I’ve got branches to pick up, and maybe, finally, I’ll get that lawn taken care of.

It turns out I’m taking my son to the airport on Thursday morning, as the flight is at 8:00 a.m., so we’ll be leaving here at 5:00, hoping an hour will be enough to get to the airport. Besides construction at departures, there is the shutdown to consider, so I might push to leave just a bit earlier. He could have taken the shuttle, but it’s much more expensive from his place, and it’s not like I’ve got anything important to do anyway. I’ll pick him up on Sunday night.

Nothing much else to report from these parts. Take care of yourselves.

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Went to the commissary Saturday and discovered that they have a big display of Xmas goodies (marzipan, lebkuchen, &c) out on the sales floor alongside the Hallowe’en stuff. Already?? Not as bad as Sears was, though – the Xmas trees always went out in September, and one year we had them out the day after Labour Day. :frowning:

We’ll be doing Thanksgiving dinner at SubVets again this year.

Got a call from our insurance agent yesterday morning to ask how we had made out with the storm. “Storm? What storm?” Apparently there’d been a big thorm a few miles north of us Sunday, with lots of wind. All we got was some light rain, without even a hint of distant thunder, though the neighbours did have a large branch come down in their front yard.

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This is the first time FCD has started wearing sweaters in the house and occasionally using a throw when in his recliner. I haven’t fired up the pellet stove yet, but the furnace has come on a couple of times at night. I expect in a couple of weeks, I’ll break out the electric blanket.

I’m also chilled, but that’s not unusual. Hence the little afghans and my ratty cardigan. I even had some hot tea yesterday!!

I de-fuzzed Ziva’s bed. It’s just a flannel pillow case over an old, old, folded up blanket. I suppose I could toss it in the washer, but then I’d have her hair on everything. Instead, I used the upholstery brush on the vacuum and got the worst of it sucked up. Then I gave our bedroom a good rollsuck. Usually it gets a quick swipe down the middle, because it’s not like there’s a major traffic pattern in there. Anyway, it’s all good now.

The dishwasher is emptied, the ratty sponges in the bathrooms have been replaced with new ones. Daughter found a replacement costume that will arrive tomorrow - since the charge cleared right away, I take that as a sign that they have it in stock. FCD has headed to the marina (big surprise there) and he’ll head to the Hyundai dealer afterwards.

I forgot to mention, a few weeks back, the other boatyard where we’d had some work done contacted him to see if he wanted to manage their repair and maintenance crew. He thought about it for all of 20 or 30 minutes before declining. Too deep in his version of RDOS to take on regular work again.

Otis is consigned to the yard - he’s so rambunctious in the morning and I’m in no mood to play with him. Let him get tired out, then come in to snooze a bit. Yeah, right. At least another year of this puppy energy… :dog_face:

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Would they be required to be in renaissance costume for that? :stuck_out_tongue:

All y’all are talking about the furnace coming on and sweaters and it’s still hitting the high eighties here during the day. Better you than me.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, a pot of pintos on and fixing to do KP. Other than putting the greens on later and making some corn muffins, it will be another RDOS day.

Nelson has been a little clingy of late. I’m not sure if there is something unsettling going on in his little doggy brain or whether he’s just soaking up me being around most of the time.

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

46

Well, good morning all. Went to the gym late yesterday, ate dinner during the tackleball games and also went through some old files looking for my car title. Could not find it, so have applied for a replacement with the State of Ali-bama, we’ll see how long it take them. By the time I had done that (along with several puzzles) it was to late to MMP so will try and catch up now. Should be a quieter day, no shopping planned and just a quick trip to the bank with maybe some more (or less) exercising (weight dropped below 200lbs according to the scale at the gym yesterday-don’t want it to drop further).

Another great day outside, 60F heading to 81F and not a drop of rain expected. Feeling better too, not sure what malaise affected me yesterday, but it seems to be gone now.

Time to try and catch up since Mump scrollin’ is painless…

FCM , think an Otis best is a good idea. And would write a bad review of that company if I were you. That’s inexcusable. But glad an alternative was found (hopefully).

Ducky, sounds like the Canadian Thanksgiving feasting was just as good as ours.

Flyboy, happy home loan ending!! It was a great feeling when I finally paid mine off.

Maybe so, but some activity later in the day didn’t hurt. Bodies is weird.

Coppertone, glad the job prospects are finally looking up for you.

Fruminous (at least I think that was your MMP nickname), I can feel for Izzy, I do have a phobia about spiders and a surprise one will give one a shock. Glad Izzy is Ok.

boo fae, know the feeling of being tired to start the day, you may find some reserves in there later on.

Taters, those early flights are always so much fun…I live only a 12-15 minute drive from my local airport, so not so bad, but the 6:15am departures I used to have to catch…

Herald, haven’t seen the Xmas stuff yet, still being besieged by tons of Halloween candy. And nice of your insurance folks to call, never hear from mine no matter what the weather.

And that’s all for now, will try to be more consistent in my posting. Y’all have a good 2sDay.

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Hi folks - the crack of noon as I check in.

Watched baseball last night at the German hofbrau / sportsbar nearby. Good times. Slept enough, then lazed through the morning and will need to shevel & feed soon. Have run 2 loads of laundry, so today’s RDOSing has been slightly tainted.

That’s a neat feature. I’ve never had, or heard of, a thermostat with that. Which makes me skeptical towards your chances with this new one.

But now I want one too, or at least would if I could replace the one my building supplies. Which I really shouldn’t / can’t. So I run the HVAC fan 24/7 & put up with the slight breeze and slight noise. If I don’t, the amount the HVAC runs isn’t enough to distribute the humidity properly and I end with comfy rooms but walk-in closets that’re running some risk of starting a mold farm. Eww!

Yep. It’s finally (slightly) cooler at midnight than my AC is set to: 77/25. The ~2 months of no HVAC either way is almost upon us. Then 2 months of heat, 2 more of none, then 6 months of constant AC to round out the year.

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I was originally on the 100 Sort Table, but the loader for 100 Middle Green didn’t show up, so I got sent there after an hour. Which put me behind. Then because 80% of the loaders on that side were either Blueberries or Nails, I kept having to do the irregs, which put me further behind. The the Richmond loads and the Air hit(where 30% of my set comes from and the Sort Table went to 100%, so they sent me there to get it down. So my cages bricked up, and they had to send help to get it down. This sort of thing used to make me frustrated and angry, until I remembered it’s not my responsibility. Now when management causes a big dumpster fire by moving me to put out a small dumpster fire, I just smile and remember the Brown motto, “Work as directed.” :smiley:

Spot requires fresh attention every time I go to another room. Even if he had just wandered off because he was bored with my attention.

You hung out with friends, and didn’t lose your shirt? Sounds like a good Thanksgiving.

“She’s not leaving the house, it must mean that The Invisible Mole People have us under siege!” - Nelson

49

Stopped at the bank this morning to see about applying for another credit card. Apparently you can just do it online now, so I’m wrestling with that website and had to unfreeze one of my credit agencies.

Went grocery shopping for (mostly) necessities.

There is a residents’ meeting this afternoon where we’ll finally be able to lay eyes on the new director.

Sadie is driving me crazy with her finicky food habits. She’s now back on the chicken/gravy, mainly because I just bought two cases of the chicken pate.

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Better thee than me! Adding layers is lots easier than getting more than nekkid! :wink:

Some of the Honeywell controls have it - INCLUDING the one that was just installed! In fact, apart from its size, the big difference between the old one and the new one is the app. Oh, and I get $50/yr off my bill because I have it. One especially nice feature is setting up the schedule for day/night/heat/cool. It was a pain in the patoot with the old one, but lots easier on the app. I may actually do that this year!

Near as I can figure, morning is crazy time for Otis, afternoon is chill time. He’s crashed out now, not trying to eat my feet or my hands. And with the fence finally all patched, I can leave him out and he can run around all he wants. FCD mentioned he needs a friend, and while he does, I’m not going to consent to a second canine. Nope. He’ll get periodic visits from Trevor, and I may even look into occasional doggy daycare, depending on the cost. Or I’ll take him on longer walks once it stops being all wet and ick. Like tomorrow.

Tortilla pizzas for supper - easy and lots lower calories than pizza on crusts. So that’s decided.

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Hooray!!

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Cancellations again today making for a weird scattered schedule. Half hour of teaching, two and a half hours of break, half hour of teaching, hour and a half of break, hour and a half of teaching.

I do not know how to deal with unexpected breaks.

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My habit was always “post something to the Dope, preferably the MMP”. :wink: BTW, I’m taking an unexpected break right now.

54

Today’s been a little busy. I started at six, as I do, and then I had a Teams meeting at ten. Back to the data until 11:30, when I clocked out for lunch. I called the credit union and was on hold for 20 or 25 minutes. Finally got through to a person, but I also got a reminder from Outlook that I had a webinar coming up at noon. Clocked in, and logged into that. The woman at the credit union said I needed to talk to someone else, and the other person would call me. She called during the webinar, of course. Anyway, she emailed me a link to a DocuSign document. I thought I’d fill it out and pay attention to the webinar, but I didn’t know what information they were asking for. I had to leave the webinar early to talk to someone at the credit union who helped me fill out the document. It seems like it took half an hour, what with verifying my entries and his calling the woman I originally spoke with to get clarification and instruction. Anyway, a wire transfer is in the works to pay off my mortgage. Since I missed the 12:30 deadline (primarily because I was on hold for so long), I added 9¢ to the quoted payoff amount for an extra day’s interest.

Vegemite toasties for breakfast, turkey/provolone/Romaine sandwich for lunch. Back to the data…

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Big day at the museum. We had the concrete poured for the new water feature.
Imgur
Water will come out of the round rock at the top continuously, that little kettle looking thing is a kid activated pump, a water wheel goes between the two swoopy wings that kids turn to make the water flow, at the bottom is a see-saw pump that’ll make the three millstones shoot out water. Eventually I’ll be making a series of dams/locks that fit between the stones. We’re going to cobble the stream bed with local stones and fossils.

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And whoever it was who said Ms Peach would be soon occupying the heater vents. Ding ding ding.

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On hold with Health Equity. In yet another episode of If It Works, Break It!, they stopped letting people log into the site with a username and password. You have to set up a ‘passkey’ – which is a giant pain in the ass. But I did it four days ago. I get an email saying they’ve received a new claim. I click ‘Sign in with passkey’ and it asks me for my password. I enter it, and the box shakes, ‘Nuh-uh!’ I tried to sign in on my phone (which, as you may recall, I hate using phones) and it took my to Settings Touch ID and Passcode. OK… What do you want me to do? I called Customer Support, and we went through the whole rigmarole again. He said I needed to make a new passcode for my phone, and the phone has to be locked. I put the same one in, that it’s had since I got the phone years ago. Didn’t get logged in on either the phone or the computer.

After hanging up, I decided to try the phone app again. This time it asks for my passcode, and I get logged in on my phone. Then I was able to get to a login point on the computer. It had to send a message to my phone. I had to enter the passcode on my phone. Then I had to go back to the computer and do something else.

Yes, it pisses me off. Yes, I like things that work to not be changed. No, I do not like having to use a phone to log into my computer and enter a passcode multiple times. ‘Cause I’m old an’ shite. :enraged_face:

Guard: [checking his clipboard] We did get a message, yes… “Beep beep beep, oh no heavy, the coins keep coming out, beep beep beep, even the telephone hates me, beep beep beep, I wish there were no machines, and everyone led a pastoral existence, trees and flowers don’t deliberately cool you out and go beep in your ear.”

Neil: Yeah, that’s the message, didn’t you get it?

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And a good early evening to all y’all. Did my banking and spent some time sweating at the gym, stopped by Kroger to pick up a couple things I forgot yesterday then went through another large pile of paper that has been sitting around my house and sorted it out, so will shortly have the usual 2sDay Mac-n-Cheese. The night activity will be filing a lot of the paperwork I went through in the proper places.

cookie, hope the new director passed the eyeball test at least.

I endorse this suggestion.

VanGO, looking forward to seeing the finished product. ANd Ms. Peach is a pretty smart pooch.

Flyboy, I have a couple sites wanting me to add a ‘passkey’ to my login procedure, so far it hasn’t been mandatory but from your descriptions it sounds like the system you are on has more bugs that a locust swarm.

ANd probably time for dinner, so back later tonight. Take care all.

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Howdy Y’all! Laundry got laundered and put where it stays until it gets dirty again. The intartoobz cable was finally buried this afternoon. Guess that means mowage will happen soon as I don’t have an excuse anymore. There’s a big storage shed in the yahd of the house behind da cave. The previous owner of the house built it and it looked kinda ratty. Apparently the now owner is puttin’ aluminum sidin’ on the shed. Rather he is havin’ it done based on the amount of Spanish cuss words I’ve heard. We day drank out on the back porch and I pointed out the cuss words I heard to OYKW. I don’t speak fluent Spanish, but I do know a lot of the dirty words. OYKW said he didn’t know whether to be impressed or appalled by this. I told him impressively appalled would work.

red I am envious of your sup. I would love a big pot of pinto beans with a ham hock or pieces of ham. However, even though he will eat canned refried beans, OYKW won’t eat pintos. Nelson probably is happy he has his mommy all to himself most of the time now.

MetalMouse glad you’re feelin’ better today.

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It’s cumulative frustration. It started with two-factor authentication. I’d open a browser at irk, and it would say I needed to sign in (to Windows 365 or whatever it’s called) and it would send a code to my phone. So I’d have to put my computer down, get up, remember the (admittedly) two-digit code, go to the kitchen, open Authenticator, enter the code, and then go back to the couch and get my computer again. Then ‘we’ decided to get rid of our FTP server. It’s nothing for me; I just get the FTP files from ShareFile instead of the FTP folder. But it’s still a chore trying to reach IT at big banks who outsource their stuff to another large company. Then there’s the cloud migration; getting rid of our server, and moving to the cloud. So now I have to re-code addresses in my programs. Oh, and there was an interim change before fully completing the move, so there’s more coding. And now the HealthEquity thing.

It would really be easier to just submit to Skynet. I know I’m abnormal for not liking to talk on a phone; let alone being controlled by one. I prefer simplicity. (Heck, most of my watches are automatic, so I never have to replace a battery!)