Hi. I got nuthin'.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

You ever have one of those weeks where nothing really good happens, but then again nothing really bad happens, so even though it was pretty blah, you’re ahead on points so you figure you’ll take it anyway? Yeah, that’s the way it’s been at Rancho DeDay. No (fairly) interesting stories, no made up stuff (Creative juices? No thank you, not this week.), Bettie is still waiting parts (mostly valves) but she says “hi”. All in all, not much happening.

I could bore you with the tale of extra shelving in the boys’ closets. OK, here it goes: I put an extra shelf in both the boys’ closets. One each, they don’t have to share one between the two closets. They went right in without a hitch. The end.

It’s supposed to rain here today. The end.

I got my new library card Saturday. Then I checked out a bunch of books and started reading them. Consecutively, not all at once. (Serially?) The end.

Guess what I have in my garage? My car! Cool huh? We finally got enough junk pulled out of the garage, the car fits in now. A car in a two-car garage. From what I can see of the neighborhood, this is about average. We still plan to have both cars in by first frost. I also have a mattock in my garage, but that is neither here nor there. The end.

I’m burying this way down here just as a reward to those of you with the fortitude to keep plowing through the rest of the junk up there. Yesterday Soupo rode his bike without his training wheels for the first time! He’s been practicing since we moved, but he just needed to build up his confidence and have me take off the training wheels. So Saturday evening I took off his training wheels and gave him a kickstand. Yesterday, after the Little Woman swathed him in protective gear (helmet, wrist pads, elbow pads, and knee pads) (he wiped out once and banged up his knee pads instead of his knees, so it all worked out nicely, having all that padding), he stomped on his pedals and rode around the dead end. (It’s not a “cull de sac” because the road just ends, it doesn’t have the circle at the end. When the farmer dies back there, they’ll probably build more houses, so they just stopped the road so they can continue it on later.) The end.

No pie this week. The end.

The boys have a little wading pool in the back yard. It’s about a foot and a half deep. Just deep enough to splash around in. They also have a bucket of toys to play with in the pool. One of these toys is a little spiny pink dinosaur. It doesn’t float, it sinks to the bottom of the pool. Lucy likes the spiny pink dinosaur. She likes to chew on it. When it sinks to the bottom of the pool, she jumps in and wanders around until she finds when the spiny pink dinosaur is. Then she sticks her head under water and gets it. Sometimes she gets water in her ears and that makes her shake her head. Sometimes when she shakes her head, the pink spiny dinosaur goes flying right out of her mouth, than she has to look around for it some more before she can chew on it. Now she brings us the pink spiny dinosaur she picks out of the pool so we can throw it back in so she can get it again. Lucy is a silly dog. The end.

The end.
-Rue.

2

This item alone deserves a banner headline!! We’ve owned 4 houses with 2-car garages and one with a 1-car garage. The only time we had any vehicle parked inside was the place with the 1-car garage. And that’s just because it was my husband’s Corvette which had a seal problem and it leaked when it rained.

My goal for the new house (groundbreaking within the year, by golly) is for both of our vehicles to occupy the garage from the start. We’re going to have a huge basement with lots of space for storing stuff, so there’s no reason for anything but cars, and maybe a snowshovel, to be in the garage.

The boys’ pool sounds like fun, but I gotta say that swampbear seems to have a better pool setup. But I don’t think he’d allow pink dinosaurs and dogs in his. Then again, who knows?

3

No fair, Rue.

Whining and crying about not having anything to contribute to the MMP thread is my schtick. We’re only allowed one pathetic loser per go, so I now have to come up with something.

Swimming pools, maybe?

I know we beat swampbear’s into the ground, but the subject might still have some milage. For instance, I could go on at length about a friend of mine and the trials he went through putting up one of those free-standing-vinyl-sack soft pools to replace the ancient sheet metal thing that ate itself over the winter.

Maybe not.

4

Well, down in this part of Florida I gots LOTS of deadfish stinkin’ up the beach. I even started a thread to ask about it over in GQ, if there are any marine biologist types out there. Whenever I have a lot of stuff going on I hardly ever have time to talk about it. That’s why I envy you, Rue.

5

If all goes well the construction on our shed will start today. This means that most of the stuff in our 1 car garage (and a bunch of stuff in the basement as well) can be moved to the shed so one of our cars can fit in the garage again! =)

6

What’s this ‘one of our cars’ thing Parallax?! My car will be in the garage :slight_smile: You know the big white behemoth that will have 2 car seats by first frost?

Our kid has a little pool too. But while my dog likes to bite the water that the munchkin spashes out the sides she hates to actually be IN the water. She is a stupid stupid dog but she allows the munchkin to do almost anything to her so we’re ok with all of that.

I’m not ready for training wheels. She’s not yet mastered the mighty tricycle my SIL got her when she was 7 months old (the munchkin was 7 months not the SIL) I don’t want to think about her growing up this morning. La La La La not listening!

No pie here either unless you count the strawberry cheesecake thing my MIL made since she put it in a pie plate.

I did scrapbook this weekend though and that was fun. I did a bunch of pages of my miscellaneous monopoly stuff! Yay me :slight_smile:

7

I never had a bike with training wheels. Never needed 'em. I learned to ride a bike by being pissed off. There’s more to the story, but this is a Rue thread, not a welby thread.

I had pie. I made a fresh peach pie for welbywife’s birthday.

8

I’m so pleased to have finally picked up on the fact that Lucy was your dog. This is why I’m not a Detective.

By the way, I’d like to hear more about the shelves.

9

When we moved into our house we didn’t have a car, but the house came with a two car garage. The previous owners had been renting one space out to someone who lived down the block, and we agreed to continue the arrangement. (They’re still renting the space, and we haven’t even bothered raising their rent in 16 years.) At first the rest of the space was filled with junk that I gradually moved into the house, a process that was accelerated after we got a car.

Later, we ended up buying a large van that was too high to fit through the garage door, and started using the garage for storage again. Although technically you could say we’ve got something parked in the garage: my wife’s two motorized scooters are kept there since it’s easier than building a ramp to get them in and out of the house. At one time I was considering building a scooter garage in the back yard, but it’s not that big a yard and I could never decide on the best place to put it.

Never even considered a pool for the yard (that lack of space thing) but I did talk about putting a hot tub in the basement. Never followed up on it, which is probably just as well since my wife can no longer get down the stairs, and having a hot tub in the house that she couldn’t use would kill her. Or me, if she found out I was using it without her.

10

I admit it: I have Garage Envy. Ooo how badly do I have Garage Envy?! Just reading about those of you with garages, whether you actually use them or not, is making my teeth clench and small beads of jealousy-inspired persiration break out on my furrowed brow. Garage. I long for one. The idea of my minivan snug and warm and/or protected from the unmerciful Kentucky sun … well, it burns within me like the fire of a thousand unmerciful Kentucky suns. Meanwhile, I do have a storage shed, and within it is a tiller. Yes, a tiller! I love my tiller. I can till with it. Yummy, crumbly garden dirt, mixed with my extra-special supremo compost, decomposing lo these past five years in my compost bin at the far end of the lot. There are also Lawn Care Implements in there, which I never touch but do pay a pair of brothers from the parish to use them to mow and trim with once a week.

This weekend was a remarkably good one, all things considered. Certain things were discussed and resolved and well, my friends … things are on their way to my becoming a divorced person, which is something I desire very much. The Rue Threads™ have kept my chin up through some pretty bleak months. Now you all know what’s going on with me.

11

Well, Ellen, you may envy my garage but I envy the fact that you have those brothers who come and use your lawn care implements every week! I’ve lamented more than once since we moved here that I would love it if there was a teenager in the neighborhood looking to make some money mowing my lawn!

Not sure how exactly to congratulate one on becoming a divorced person. I’m sure it has been very painful and if it is something you desire so much then I am happy you are closer to your goal but I am still sorry you had to suffer at all.

12

Not that I mind mowing the lawn - but I’d be willing for fork some cash over to a teenager to save me the time. I’ll probably have to do it myself for the next 12 years or so before I can force it on one of our kids. :wink:

13

Sure. I finally get a chance to jump into a Rue thread at the start, and what do I find? Nothin. Absofreakinglutely nothin. I’m so bummed.

I, on the other hand, had half a wonderful weekend. Oddly, the half that was wonderful ran from approximately 7 pm Saturday until about 7 pm Sunday. The other parts weren’t so good. But, as Rue said, I’m still ahead on points, because the parts that were wonderful were really wonderful, while the other parts didn’t suck too badly. Well, up until last night, anyway. And, I’ve built up a fairly high tolerance for suckage, of necessity.

I have a garage, now, too. It came with the apartment, but my ex-gf’s car was always in there, previously. Is that one of them “understood” things, that I just never understood, before? That it’s always the woman’s car that gets the garage? Leaky corvettes being an exception, of course. This is actually the first time I’ve ever had a garage. It’ll be especially nice if I’m still here when the snow falls, since I’m about to stop commuting by bus and start driving to work. Where I will also have a space in a garage! That’s costing me extra, but it’s worth it. Oh, and there’s nothing in the garage but my car, the neighbor’s humungous SUV (which she obviously needs, in order to drive her one toddler and one baby to the supermarket), a mini-drum (I’m guessing it’s about 25 gallons) that used to, and may still, hold some sort of automotive petroleum product called Marfak, and a whole bunch of spiders. I don’t like spiders, that much. And, I really don’t like it when there are bunches of them.

14

First off, {{{Ellen Cherry}}}. I figure she needs the hug. Even though being a divorced persons is something ya want, a break up is still kinda bad to go through.

I have a two car garage. The garage door is acting up. I think it got hit by lightning. The clicker (what I call the automatic garage door opener thingy) won’t work to close the door, but will work to open it. Go figure. Anyways, it either needs a new part that costs around $65.00 or replacing. Garage door man is coming to check it out and let me know for sure. Stupid garage door!

A pink dinosaur for the pool, hmmm… Ya know that might be even jakier than lit up pink flamingos. A big pink dinosaur sitting out beside the pool. Maybe hovering over the pump like he’s gonna eat it. Sigh, and I thought I was done landscaping. Yes, it’s landscaped. I have sod on the grassy sides of the pool and river rock around the two sides that are three feet from the fence. Both look good. I think I’m gonna plant a couple palm trees and maybe a pineapple plant (kinda looks like a pineapple tree but it’s not a pineapple tree). Thanks for the landscaping tip FCM. :smiley:

I had a Mrs. Smith’s [sup]TM[/sup] chocolate pie this weekend. welby’s peach pie sounds a whole lot better than that.

Ex I wanna here more about the pool that ate itself. I think we got the beginnings of a really jake “B” horror movie with that.

I know all about extra closet shelves Rue. I put some in my closet last year. They’re good to have.

I have three storage sheds. Just so y’all will know since storage sheds seem to be important this week.

Oh, and I cleaned my back porch on Saturday. I pressure washed it. I also pressure washed the concrete around the pool. Then it rained. After that, me and the neighbors laid around the pool for the rest of the afternoon and again all Sunday afternoon. It was fun.

And, I’m still not smoking! Better yet, I’m still not smoking and nobody is dead [sub]yet[/sub].

-swampbear (rambling on)

15

We’re not only gonna have a fully park-able 2 car garage - we’re going to have 2 separate garage doors! His and hers garages! So if he wants to pile crap on his side and leave his car out, that works fine. But my vehicle will be garaged. First time since I bought my first house in 1980 (and I didn’t use that garage all that often because I had to open both the gate and the door and it wasn’t worth the annoyance…) No scraping of ice. No brusing of snow. No running for the door through raindrops. Ah, bliss!

My weekend was a mixed bag and it ended way too soon. I got some stuff planted and transplanted, and I tossed some grass seed on a couple of bare spots in the yard. Oh yeah, and we decided to get the house on the market right away. Best case is someone buys it and lets me rent it back until June. Less best case is I find a house to rent until June. Worst case is living in my van till June.

16

A bad case of Garage Envy here, too. Granted, this house had a garage, but some previous owner decided it would make a better den and laundry room. I can’t complain, they did a great job of making it look like a room, not a converted garage, both inside and out – even bricked the wall out front so that it looks like a wall, not a sealed-up garage door – but there is nowhere to protect any of our cars from the unmerciful Louisiana sun. Or the unmerciful Caribbean tropical storms/hurricanes that blow through. Stupid storms. Why can’t they go visit Texas or Florida or something and leave us alone just once?

But we do have a shed. It’s full of all kinds of Lawn Care Implements, as well as anything we think we can dare store away from the Mandatory Air Conditioning that Removes Humidity and Prevents Rabid Black Mold from Taking Over the World[sup]TM[/sup]. Just because we live in what was a swamp not all that long ago doesn’t mean it has to act like it’s still a swamp. It should act like nice, well-behaved, self-respecting suburbia. But nooo, it’s a constant battle against kudzu and mold.

So how high are the closet shelves, Rue? We could use more closet shelves. Actually, we could use more closets. No basement here, either – well, we could have one, but it would be a swimming pool, since the water table, when it’s at its lowest level, is about 2" below the surface of the ground. Not a good kind of swimming pool, either, that the dogs could play in – it would probably have lovely things in it like snakes and other assorted reptiles, not to mention kudzu and mold. (Kudzu can find its way in anywhere).

So that’s what’s going on here in the swamp. Now we’re just waiting to see if T.S. Emily wants to come play. She’s that bully that comes into the sandbox whether you want her to or not. We don’t want her. But she may come anyway. We’ll just have to see if she gets madder at someone else first and goes and trahes their sandbox.

17

I had a great big (actually it was just big, it wasn’t all that great or even exceptional) post going. It was in the form of a letter. (Wonder Twin powers activate! Shape of an ice cube! Form of a letter!) Actually it was a series of letters. But then, remember how I said it was supposed to rain today? Well, it did. And the power blipped and that made the computer shut down and that ate my post. Which, while big, wasn’t great enough to try to recreate.

But I will re-code this. It’s mostly for Swampy. I saw it in the paper Friday and thought of him. So, I’m thinking of you now and again, buddy!

I also thought of tanookie. A couple of weeks ago she mentioned she has an industrial eye bolt in the bedroom above her bed. I’ve been worried about that since I read it. I mean, come on! You’re a mom for crying out loud! Think safety! You should have two eye bolts up there. One to hook the planter to and another one in case the first eye bolt fails. That way it won’t come crashing down and squash you while you sleep.

(That is why you have an eye bolt up there? For the planter. Right? Yeah, I thought so.)

Sorry to hear about your woe Ellen. (And that’s the way we do it around here. Emboldinated Elle and a non-emboldenated “n”. It shows you’re one of the cool kids to do it that way.) Hope everything works out for you soon.
-Rue. (not great, but big)

18

I have a one-car garage and my one car fits into it nicely. My Lawn Care Implements fit in it as well. I won’t be needing my own Lawn Care Implements as much any more because my neighbor is going to be doing my Lawn Care (for a modest price, and he’s a landscaper by trade, but giving me a deal because we’re neighbors, so it really is a geat deal).

Technically, I wasn’t going to have someone do my Lawn Care because it’s really a very small yard and I should be able to do it myself. However, this was before I realized that I know nothing about Lawn Care (just how do you get rid of crabgrass (and what exactly does crabgrass look like)) and before I came to terms over just how lazy I really am. Yes, I really am too lazy to want to spend 45 minutes a week pushing a lawn mower around my yard let alone to do any weeding or, Gods forbid, trimming. There, I said it. I’m lazy and I don’t know what I’m doing–welcome to the self-esteem thread.

Really, my ego is not damaged by my ignorance of proper Lawn Care techniques, because it is ignorance, not incompetence–I’m sure I could learn how to have a perfect lawn and yard, but I haven’t. It’s not like drilling or cutting straight (things I should be able to do but just can’t). My big problem is that I want a nice yard, but I don’t know how to get there. And I want it now. Hence, my neighbor. Although he won’t be able to work major miracles all at once (for instance, it must be cooler before we try to kill the crabgrass and re-seed patches), he’ll still do minor miracles (like getting everything trimmed within an inch of its life–this guy is a very precise and stringent trimmer, he does not allow one blade of grass, not a single blade, to stretch out beyond the established border area).

All this will leave me more time on the weekends to convince my lazy self to take 10 minutes out of my busy schedule of sitting on the couch reading and watching old movies to vacuum the rug. I live such a full life.

19

All this talk of cars in garages. You’d think that some of you people don’t realize that the cars-in-garages thing is a myth. A fabrication. Garages are for stuff like lawn mowers, power tools, and things your spouse won’t let you bring into the house.

Cars. Hmph.

20

I have a friend - no, really, I do - who had a car in his dining room. He was building a Cobra and he hadn’t built his garage yet (he’s now got a 4-car masterpiece that I helped him build - no, really!) so he started working on it in his dining room. Luckily, he didn’t have dining room furniture. Or a wife. Not sure if there was a connection there or not.

Anyway, after we (he and I and a whole bunch of other people) built the garage, he moved his partially assembled Cobra to the garage. He has since finished the car, and it’s a beauty! A real chick magnet! But he’s still not married. Very sad - he really is a nice guy, apart from the car in the dining room thing.