Harvest Festival in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
221

All the better reason to send most of the cookies elsewhere. :slight_smile:

Sometimes it’s because they have a tag with info that includes the name, allowing the finder to determine that this is the cat on the flyer.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. Other than doing a load of laundry today, nothing big scheduled.

For the last 8+ years, I’ve only flown anywhere for a vacation once because Nelson usually travels with me and, frankly, he wouldn’t be a happy camper in a crate under an airplane seat, nor would anyone else on the plane. For driving vacations, most of the time, I’m pretty flexible. These days, I’ll look for a room on the internet sometime in the afternoon and plan accordingly. Since the biggest criteria besides clean bed/shower are no stairs and accepts pets, I’m pretty flexible.

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

222

Good morning.

It’s 50°F, damp, dark, and cloudy outside. There will be some morning drizzle, but the afternoon will contain rain showers, clouds, and a high of 57°F.

It’s now day seven or eight of the crud. I want to wake up feeling normal, thankyewverymuch. I did venture out yesterday, but only to the mall to see if I could find a new scent for body lotion, and then back towards home, with a stop at the grocery store to pick up soup fixings. I will probably start soup preparation around 8:00 a.m., since I’m making it in the slow cooker.

I like planning trips, too. Believe me, flying by the seat of your pants only to find that hotel room availability is nil upon arrival is not fun. But I don’t plan down to the minute; it’s vacation, after all, and part of that (for me) is not being on someone’s clock —other than being on time for your flights, etc.

While I was out and about yesterday, the Messenger app on my phone started pinging like crazy. When I got home, I looked at it, and once again, the little twerp I had to talk to several times about his comments in the office was up to his old B.S. People were upset at what he had to say, but I knew it was crap, and stayed out of it. In the end, my other MPA figured it out and flat out asked him if he was pranking. He didn’t respond for a long time, not until last night, but yeah, he was trying to yank everyone’s chain. Once again, he failed to “read the room”, and some people were scared and very worried. I talked to one of my former peers who was very angry (as was I). What he had to say was really in poor taste, given the situation. Anyway, that was my drama for the day, although other than chatting with my former peer offline, I did not engage.

Pilot, I hope the GF group stays drama-free when discussing you. Better yet, hopefully you are not a topic du jour, unless it’s for good things.

FCM, when Polar was relatively young, I had to have him put under twilight sedation to have his nails trimmed. As he aged, he relaxed a bit, but I always had the vet do it. Which, of course, made nail trimming a bit more costly.

I had also noted Shoe’s absence. I hope all is good with her. I also haven’t seen Nellie in a bit, and she is well, too.

Boo Fae, I hope the concert goes off well, and the drama is over.

Other than making soup and the usual clean-up, I don’t think I have much on the agenda. I want to get over this crud so I can start feeling a little more energetic, too.

I hope you all have good day.

223

Started Typing: 10:31 AM ET
Clicked Reply: 11:33 AM ET

The very early dinner with HusbandBFF and his sister (“K”) was yummy, it was good to see them both, and the weather was nice enough for us to sit outside. The restaurant was in the middle of a big dining-and-retail area, and afterwards K wanted to wander into Pottery Barn. I hadn’t been inside one of those in ages! Then I had a nice surprise, because WifeBFF was up for me visiting for the last hour of her (nearby) dialysis session. I hadn’t seen her in 7 weeks, so we had a lot to catch up on. I’ll see her again sometime later this month, while her oldest friend is in town.

Ever since flyboy mentioned Calypso, I’ve had the John Denver song stuck in my head. There are worse earworms. :smiley:

No plans today other than continuing to prep for tomorrow afternoon’s audition. Oh, except that I might start putting together some of my holiday Lego sets: at this point I have eight of them – some on the large side – and the other day I was thinking it might not be a bad idea to start slowly assembling everything and figuring out a display plan. Christmas decorating happens in less than seven weeks (the day after Thanksgiving)! :joy:

On Thursday I went to the grocery store on the way home from work, and they had roast-beef-and-cheddar sliders in the “grab-n-go” case. I’ve had them before and they’re pretty yummy, so I grabbed a few. I wound up not eating any of them that night or yesterday, but the “use by” date is today so I’m looking forward to having roast beef for lunch…and, probably, dinner. :slight_smile:

Same. :frowning:

Indeed…and especially when we love our friends more than (most) family. :grin:

Musicians! Pft! :wink:

You should feel better any day now! :crossed_fingers: :people_hugging:

224

Just back from walking Otis. The route from our house to the other end of our street is .9 miles. If I add in the cul-de-sac, it’ll be a bit over a mile - that works. Next time.

It sorta started spitting while we were out, but it didn’t last. And as soon as we got back to the house, Otis wanted to go to the back yard - yay. He’s been too rambunctious inside, jumping on me and trying to chew my hands. I’ll be so glad when we start his training next week. Guess what my first question will be!

No word from FCD - no clue how long he’ll be at the boat. I want to call and be sure he’s OK, but I don’t want to make him stop whatever he’s doing to get the phone. I fret a bit when he’s there alone, especially on weekends when the marina crew is off. Yeah, I worry too much sometimes.

Better to concentrate my efforts on figuring out supper for tonight. There aren’t enough leftovers to feed both of us, so I should probably do something from scratch. Or make him wings and have the leftovers myself…

225

We shared a can-o-hash, and two cackleberries each for breakfast this morning. Breakfast pans are hand-washed. (They’re my pans, and I hand-wash them!) All of the other dishes are washing in the dishwasher.

226

Acchhh, damn. I’m so sorry to hear this. Your proposed solution is a good one, and permanent. Costly, perhaps. But maybe much less so in the long run, plus think of your peace of mind! That’s worth more than anything.

Boneheaded about this stuff as I may be – and I readily admit that I am! – even I understand that the phone must be connected to my internal WiFi network in order to make calls. :wink: I’ve done it for friends’ cell phones many times.

The problem my phone is having is that it searches for networks and doesn’t find mine. I don’t know if it matters, but it receives zero cell tower signal from here. I had hoped for better, but I’m not surprised at all. Still, I don’t think this is necessary in order to connect to a WiFi network. In fact, the whole point of using WiFi for calling is because you don’t have a cell tower signal, right?

What’s weird is, I seem to recall the broadband installation tech logging onto the new network with his phone once I gave him the credentials to do so. He may have done that before the actual switchover occurred, but I don’t think so. The point is, his phone found the network without issues. My phone doesn’t. It’s got the little WiFi symbol in a corner (looks like a lady’s fan, sort of) with a question mark adjacent, and when I ask it to search for networks, it does. But all it yields is the message I shared earlier in the thread, that it is unable to activate WiFi calling at this time. So frustrating! And sorry, I’m just nattering aloud.

I’ll be calling people on Monday.

I relate completely. :smiley:

Going for a walk in a couple hours with a friend and to give Ollie a good romp with her dog, who mostly ignores him but this has little effect on his attempted interaction. I’m taking over some cinnamon rolls. There’s a good Ducks game on this afternoon we can watch after we finish our walk. Her husband is sure to have it on. A nice, relaxing day today! I’m ready for one.

227

Not much happening this weekend, although we have Ibsen’s “Doll House” tomorrow, which will kill a couple of hours watching other people’s misery.

Dinner will be another heapin’ helpin’ of the giant chicken alfredo that the wife impulse-bought at Costco the other day.

Got the card cancelled without issue and should have the new one in a week. Meanwhile we have The Card That Must Not Be Used if we need it. I really need to go to our local bank and apply for a card with them for a backup. It’s a bit of a PITA because I’ll have to unlock our credit agencies for them to check. I think the only way not to get scammed these days is to pay for everything in cash, except that’s not really possible. And a lot of companies won’t let you pay via PayPal.

The new building director will be starting full time on Monday. She’s been pretty invisible up 'til now. I’m guessing there will be a meet-the-new-boss session at some point.

228

It was a light volume day(Federal shutdown, Federal holiday on Monday, plus tarrif chaos). I was mostly loading, with forays to the Slides. The RFID system continues to be irksome. But I’m clean and dry, my clothes are clean and in the process of drying, and Spot is somewhere being cat and mysterious.

I guess even weasels have mid-week blahs.

Jazz-ercise? :stuck_out_tongue:

Yay!

It took 5-8 days to do Gordie’s nails, because I could only do them when he was asleep, and he’d wake after one or two.

Just because he’s stubborn, and would likely finish the job before calling for help if he had an infarction or compound fracture?

229

Tired, donwanna. I have clean undies and socks somewhere, but MAN am I worn the frig out.

230

So my loan was not sold. It’s just being given to another servicer on the 21st. Anyway, I’m going to call the current servicer and get a payoff amount, and just pay it off. I wonder if my escrow money (for property taxes and insurance) will go to the balance, or if they’ll refund it to me?

231

Afternoon all. Back from the soccer day, my U8 team won 3-2 and the two games I refereed ended 2-1 and 3-2, so burned a full load of calories keeping up. I think I got the important calls right, with 9-year olds you’re never quite sure, but the coaches and parents didn’t yell so guess I did OK. Just ate two bacon sammiches and will probably rest the balance of the afternoon. At least the temperature never got above 75F, so it was a good day to be outside.

Pilot, are you going out of Ushuaia or Punta Arenas? If Ushuaia try to leave yourself a day or even two there, they have a narrow gauge rail tour that’s pretty neat, you can drive to the very end of the road in South America and there is a museum worth visiting in an old prison. Enjoy the trip…it is something special. Enjoy the reunion.

I tend to plan my travel and hotels as far in advance as I can (most of my trips these days are with groups/cruises) but let the day-to-day activities happen when they happen.

Dicey, nice walk and a deserved reward at the end.

Taters, hope the normal-feeling days return soon.

Oopsie, so glad you could get together with Wife BFF.

FCM, you have every right to worry at least a little, maybe you could setup an agreed contact time to touch base with each other.

Cookie, I have two credit cards and use both, without any pattern, along with a debit card and I check them on-line 1-2 times a week.

shoe, thanks for stopping by, take it easy and come back when you get your second wind.

And need to get back to relaxing,. More later y’all.

232

Howdy Y’all! Apparently I have forgotten how to tell time. My DAWGS don’t play until seven-thirty p.m., not three-thirty.:roll_eyes: Oh, well. I won’t make it through the whole game as my max time to stay up is ten p.m. We had burgers, fries and beerverages at the little bar for lunch. That was nice. We also went to Aldi’s cause I have a gnawin’ and a cravin’ for cinnamon and raisin bagels.

233

I defrosted the mini-freezer today. Right about now, it should be cold enough for ice cream. Mrs. Nott is at the supermarket, so I guess she’ll buy some.

234

As it happened, he pulled into the garage just as I was about to call. So wasted worry.

I called my mom - she’s still hurting a lot and PT is especially painful. But she’s 91 - can’t expect to bounce back like she did at 41, or even 61. It’ll be another 2 or 3 weeks till she’ll be able to go home, probably.

Our former house sitter and her husband will be coming here for Thanksgiving, so it’ll be 8 of us. As I was starting to think about the menu, I remembered that SIL isn’t much of a fan of turkey. So maybe I’ll do some ribs, too. Or a small ham. It’s not too early to start thinking, right?

We just finished an early supper. I cleaned the ice maker earlier today, so I did accomplish something. Surely I earned my hours and hours of chillage. :grin:

235

IME they refund it to you down to the penny. You may be able to ask them to take the loan payoff amount out and send you the balance. But they wouldn’t just do that automatically. IME YMMV.

Neither. We fly into Puerto Natales which is about 150 miles north of Punta Arenas but similarly situated like Punta Arenas in Chile’s southern fjords. Then we take a chartered jet from there to Antarctica and meet the ship in Antarctica. No time wasted sailing the Drake passage. Probably less sea sickness too. So overall it’s fly non-stop ~9 hours from Miami to Santiago Chile, then a 3-hour A320 hop to Puerto Natales, spend the night, then fly on to Antarctica the next day & meet the ship there. Same drill in reverse for the return.

A lot of my aversion to travel planning is the nature of having done most of it as a standby non-revenue pax. I don’t even know if I’m going on the vacation at all until after the airplane is airborne and I notice I’m on it. All of the hoped-for dates, times, and destinations come together a day or two before. And are uncertain until the day of.

More than once I’ve gone to the airport intending to spend a week in Caribbean destination #1 and instead found myself on an airplane for Caribbean destination #2. Good thing I hadn’t reserved a hotel and a bunch of non-refundable excursions in a place I won’t be going to.

It’s a very topsy turvy way to operate. Preplanning is much smarter; it’s just not been my experience, so it’s not my habit. But it’s becoming more that way with each preplanned trip I do.

236

Shopping trip was a bit wild today. The “tweek” did not go well. There was a near uprising.

At one point I came around a corner and bam! 2 geese. I gave them as wide a berth as possible.

While waiting for the shuttle there were 3 flyovers for the festivities. 2 jets, then 2 helicopters, then a bit later 2 helicopters.

Rain is off and on mostly misty, with bits of downpours every now and again.

237

We met Calypso.

The woman said he got his name because he was tiny (the runt of the litter) has had bulgy eyes that took a while to grow into. I assume she was thinking of the Cyclops. Anyway, he’s about four and a half months old, and tiny. She picked him up, which he didn’t like with strangers in the house, and gave him to CatMom. He didn’t like that either, so Mi Esposa put him on the floor. I put out my fingers, palm-down, and he sniffed them longer than I thought he would before he wandered off.

I repositioned myself to the other side of the tiny dining room so that I could be A) Near the cat tree and hidey-holes; and B) So that I could take some pressure off of my knee by putting my hand on the table. Calypso eventually came out again, and plunked down on the stool next to me. I pet him and he let me. So I picked him up and he settled into my chest. That made the foster mom happy. She said he likes men. I held him and pet him, and I’m told he did the slow blink. When it felt like he might want down, I put him gently down on the stool. He snuggled into a big, shaggy cat bed on the back of the couch, and I told Catmom she could probably pet him. Seeing how she got up off the floor, I’m glad I remained standing. Anyway, Calypso let her pet him. As we were about to leave, I gave him more pets. Foster mom said, ‘You have a fan.’

We’ll pick him up on the 29th, after our vacation.

238

Calypso has spoken: you two have been adopted.

239

Im on the schedule 2 days a week. At 15 and 4 hours each thats 120$ a week.
I have 2 interviews Monday to try for a second p/t job.
Though honestly I could survive on 480 a month. Im probably the only Doper who could. Ive survived on 0 for a long time.
Looking forward to church tomorrow.
Eating meatballs and reading a Kathy Griffin book.

240

Just meatballs? Italian, or Swedish? Any sauce/gravy? How big? A couple of Italian meatballs the size of a billiard ball, with some sauce sounds really good to me right now. Mrs. L.A. is putting the other half of last night’s pizza in the oven. In ten minutes it will be four o’clock, and I’ll give the cats their gooshy food.