Halloween, Wallace & Grommit, and a Joke! ....Guest MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Forgot to set the clocks back yesterday until Mrs B called the Bookgirl to mump about her being late in coming over to carve the pumpkin, and found out it wasn’t that late at all, then she blamed me. Mrs B wanted to get a plug-in pumpkin, but Bookgirl talked her into a real one on the condition that Bookgirl did the carving. B’girl wasn’t doing one for her apartment, so was feeling Hallowe’en deprived and needed a fix. Turned out looking like an evil Chinese dragon.

She stayed for supper and I fed them pork tenderloin slow-cooked in apple cider and served over noodles (Googling pork+cider turns up an amazing number of recipes). Some yummy - I’ll be keeping that recipe. I’ll probably be doing more pork dishes over the next few weeks, as Mrs B has been busy turning a couple of bushels of apples into applesauce.

42

<sits back in rocker and picks at teeth with toothpick>

Lemme tell ya a thing or two, sonny (missy?).

Look. You go to church, you put something in the collection plate, right?

I figure that $60 is just the surcharge to shop at Target. It doesn’t matter what I go in for (last week it was black pants for son’s vampire costume)–and it came to $74 and change. But see, I consider that to really be $14 and change, 'cause the $60 is a given… :smiley:
It is a wee freaky, but you adjust after awhile. It’s a shopping charge–sort of like a poll tax, I imagine. I want to shop at Target–it’ll cost me $60.
<snaps suspenders against chest–screams ow!>

Strangely enough, the same principle does not apply to Kohl’s or TJ Maxx or Field’s…only Target. (I don’t do Walmart).

43

Gee, sorry it was such a boring weekend. Didn’t do a lot, did you?

I just now realized that I have yet to run an ad in the newspaper for the gar(b)age sale we’re supposed to have on Saturday. OOps. But from what I hear, most of them Saturday morning gar(b)agers can smell stuff out on the sidewalks.

And I meant to pass on my compliments to eleanor for the OP too, but forgot that also.

44

We’re having a heatwave. So it will be dark, but warm for our trick-or-treaters. I won’t get home from work until about 8:30, so I don’t have to work very hard at my curmudgeonness. If I were at home, I would turn out all the lights and not answer the door. This way, I have an “excuse” why I don’t give out candy.

45

I’ll be there in 9 hours. :wink:

Some of them do. I’ve always loved it.

That’s only true if you have 60 dollars. I’ve noticed that no matter what I come out over budget, but I rarely have 60 dollars.

On a side note, I’M NOW EMPLOYED! (well, I was employed at McD’s before, and I still am, but I only work there one weekend a month, and then on breaks…)

I got sucked in by the Waffle House, and my orientation is Wednesday, and I probably start Thursday. Starting wage is 2.20 an hour, but 25 cents/hr is deducted for meals. So my checks will be a net of 1.95 an hour. :cool:

46

$2.20 an hour? Wow, we really are on opposite ends of the country. Around here, the minimum wage is $8.62. But, at 25¢ an hour, how much do they let you eat? As long as Waffle House food is good, you’ll probably be OK at it. (I’ve never been there - I’m assuming they sell a lot of waffles, and are a generic family place like Dennys.) Here, a cheap lunch is anything under seven bucks.

It’s weird how wages and housing costs are wildly different, but some things like a bag of chips can be 85¢ in a vending machine here and 85¢ in a vending machine in Atlanta and 85¢ in Chicago. Or the lawnmower that I got for $160 will be $160 nationwide.

47

Waiting tables pays less than minimum wage - they make it up in tips. Supposedly.

48

If this is disjointed, it’s because I’ll be interrupted by multiple trick-or-treaters. It started at 5:30, but it wasn’t really dark yet, so I didn’t get my first beggars till almost 6:00 (it’s 6:13 as I’m writing this). I’ve had about 20 kids stop by so far, mostly in groups of 3 or 4.

I suspect that some of these kids are starting in my subdivision and then continuing in Columbus proper where it started at 6:00.

Does anyone else get annoyed when a parent comes to the door and tells you they’re getting candy for their little one (who is only old enough to choke on the stuff)? I had one lady stop by a little while ago and show off her little girl’s pumpkin bag. There was no little girl in sight. :mad:

Great OP, eleanor! You shouldn’t be surprised at the reaction. I’m pretty sure that it looked like the following to most readers:

Halloween.
Wallace and Grommit.
Sex retreat.
HMO joke (which was not one I’d heard, by the way, and rather clever, I thought).

Yay for cb being employed!

Sorry for your loss, Puggy. I know that you were expecting to lose him soon, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy.

I am another non-Walmart shopper who regularly pays the minimum Target shopping fee. Although that’s apparently a price that also varies geographically; I managed to escape with a $.41 bill on Sunday because our shopping fee is apparently $40. That got me an ultra-deluxe filter for the furnace (which rang up at $1 less than expected), lots of trick-or-treat candy (leftovers will re-stock the office candy jars), and a $5 video (While You Were Sleeping).

We’re up to 25 kids now. At least the last 3 were ones I recognized from across the street.

Make that 27.

Also, I’m not a big Nutella fan. I’ll eat it if it’s all that’s available, but it’s too sweet for my taste. Although maybe having it with peanut butter would help. Also, for those of you who may not like candy corn: try it mixed with peanuts. Tastes much better.

Oh - and yay for Bobbio’s WOW moments! Must be great to have the VunderKind notice immediately.

31

See, I told you it would be disjointed.

32 (Last one was a kid I ordered gift wrap from recently; I’m guessing he lives nearby.)

GT

P.S. 33 (Little kid from about 5 houses up the street)…

49

Wowzers… In CA, minimum wage is just that. Minimum. There’s nothing that can be below it, whether or not you work at a restaurant.

Meanwhile, I’m throwing mental daggers at the company that hosts our Faire messageboard. Without any warning, they turned on a “CAPTCHA” image verification thing that was driving some of our members nuts. Took me a few minutes of digging in the admin tools to find it and turn it off so people can stop emailing me about this annoyance.

50

8 Tnters total.

Kidlet and I went out IN THE RAIN and bagged 95 piece of candy that he now has to tally, categorize and bar graph.

Ain’t Halloween fun?
:slight_smile:
gardentraveler --your big red sex retreat made me laugh! and I think you are correct.
Sorry I didn’t say sorry about the dog earlier, Puggy --my mental state was clouded by an overdose of dextrose.

And Woot! on the weight loss!Bobbio. Doubt I lost any weight today…

cleverest costume I saw was a teen boy in a white kitchen garbage bag–he was “white trash”. At least he made an attempt at a costume!

Work tomorrow-ugh and blech and ick. Much rather play with you guys. No SDMB at work–boo, hiss.

51

With the lights out and no decorations, we’ve had nary a kid at the door. Yay.

I’m really not that much of a grouch - I just wasn’t in the mood this year. So this is good.

Plus I’m ready for bed. I’m pooped…

52

I was a snot tonight. I put up a couple of glue-on hooks onto the siding, ran some fishing line, and put a toy spider on the other end. The little kids would come up to knock on the door, and I’d drop the spider down onto them. Great fun…

I was disappointed by the turnout, but then this was the first Halloween since we moved out of Indy where the kids went trick or treating. In the old 'hood, it was like the scene in ET where the street was overrun. I bet we had 2 dozen altogether…

53

Yes, that’s the plan is to make up for the rest of it with tips. Shouldn’t be too bad as I’m only available for the tip-heaviest shifts. (At least, 3rd shift is best according to the friends that I have that work there.) If no tips come to exist, then I could probably live off of my 2.20/hr, as my monthly bills total less than 100 dollars.

I had hundreds of trick-and-treaters, but that’s because I was in the student union giving out candy to hundreds of little chilluns as part of some big university-driven event.

54

We had a huge turnout - I had to run to the store for extra candy. I got the kind I like, so if there are leftovers…

55

The final tally was about 45 (you wanted to know, right?). Last few were kind of questionable. Two different groups including parents who assisted in plundering. Can you tell I’m feeling kind of scroogey tonight? But I still have leftovers to take in to work tomorrow.

I like your spider idea, Bob. Maybe I’ll try something like that next year… On the other hand, I might not be home. (If I’m as grouchy as I was today, it might be time to become a Meanie.)

I was just wondering why I was tired; I think my brain is still on daylight savings time. Either that or I got really used to frequent naps over the weekend, since that’s just about all I did.

GT

56

The cheque hasn’t arrived yet, Bumba? I mailed it a while ago. I hope the Postal Service hasn’t eaten it. They get munchy sometimes.

Sleepy. Lots of chocolate and sleepy. I have TONNES of housework to do, but most of it should keep till tomorrow. I’ll maybe do a little tidying and some yoga and then eat dinner and go to bed. I may have chocolate milk instead of dinner. That would be healthful.

57

Ken Davis talking about his daughter with a cold.

I’ll have a choc chip fudge cookie please :slight_smile:

58

Well, the downtown Halloween thingie was pretty successful. We had, by our count, 1100 pieces of candy (skittels, starbursts, etc) and we ran out of candy at 6:40. If you allow for the 10 or 15 pieces we ate ourselves that means we handed out, ummm… a lot of candy!
Then we went out to eat, 'cause we were tired.

Sorry about your doggie, Puggy.

Not sorry about your weight loss Bobbio. (good on ya!)

Nope, haven’t seen it yet Lissla, I’ll let you know if I do.

When we got home tonight I noticed the truck has a flat tire. Bummer. I wanted to go to Bi-Mart tomorrow before opening the shop 'cause they had these 4-foot wide inflatable spiders and I was hoping to get one on sale.

Later.

59

Off to work on little sleep. Ugh.

Cold and dark here-I love fall and winter, but this year, the dark is bothering me. Maybe I have SAD?

60

I’m awake, home, and hungry. Fasting for my blood test this morning. I’ve got a load of jeans in the washer, and a load of clean dishes to put away. And yet I post - go figure!

After I get my blood drawn and have something to eat, we’ll take our trash and recycling to the convenience center. Then I’ll finish planting the last of my bulbs. And then I think FCD and I will get both of our blowers going and try to clear most of the leaves off the front lawn. If that doesn’t tire me out enough for a good night’s sleep, nothing will!

Happy November, one and all! Where has the year gone?!?