If I Just Must, I'll Start The MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
201

I just finished my annual dance with SiriusXM to keep my rate from going up. This time last year, I called because our subscription was going to more than double. So they gave me a “promotional rate” that kept it around $10/month. And I put a reminder in Outlook to call before the rate expired, which it would next week.

Again I told them I’m OK with $10/month, but not over $27/month, and lo and behold, they found another “promotional rate” at $10.91 once all taxes were added in. So I said that would be acceptable and the nice agent fixed my account, and I put in a reminder in Outlook for this time next year to do it again.

Moral of the story - threaten to cancel SiriusXM and they’ll give you a deal. The end.

202

I just learned that we will be getting another Aldi market in town. There will be 2 I could stop at on my way from my shop to home, about 15 miles. This is a town of about 25k people, plus another 30k in students. These two Aldis…Aldii? are only 3 miles from each other.

203

Xfinity X1 has totally barfed. Posting from my phone.

204

This is weird. Walmart does this all the time, so I guess it works?

I think there’s another solar storm hitting today. Maybe it’s snarling things up.

205

Dunno. Xfinity says 2500 affected customers. I’d think a solar storm bad enough to cause this would affect more than that. My wild guess with no actual info would be some moron “driver” smacking into important equipment.

206

Happy Firday!

Although it feels like it should be Saturday.

It was a muggy 71 degrees at the park this morning.
We had a good group, but fewer people than I expected. The dogs didn’t do much playing, it was too hot for them.

Thank y’all for your condolences and support.

My son got his two days bereavement leave, and combined with his two days of vacation, and being exempt from overtime while he is on bereavement/vacation, he doesn’t go back to work until August 2. Unless he has overtime on the 1st. That day he won’t be exempt.

He needs to get some funeral clothes. I told him I thought black slacks with a button-down shirt would be fine, but he wants to get a suit. Now, he is needed as a pall bearer, so suit it is. For all his shyness, he is very concerned about dressing appropriately for an occasion and for doing the right thing.
It’s supposed to be miserably hot next week, and raining Monday and Tuesday.
I’ll have him get two shirts, one with long sleeves and one with short sleeves. He may as well get a new tie too, and some dress socks. I ordered dress shoes for him from da jungle.

Niece2 is a bit over the top sometimes. She wants all the pallbearers to have matching suits. I talked her out of black suits, not a versatile color, so she is supposed to let me know if we should get dark grey or navy.
She won’t even order the flowers until she knows what color dress my mother will be wearing, so she can coordinate the flowers with the dress.

The girls are meeting with the funeral home tomorrow morning. I don’t have to be there, but I think I might go. Somebody needs to be the voice of reason. When my father died my sister wanted the most expensive of everything, including a gold lined vault. If she gets her way it’ll be a $50,000 funeral. Niece1 is handling everything and she has a pretty level head, but she said she got taken in when planning their father’s funeral. You are emotional, the directors know it and push all kinds of extras. Somebody needs to be there shaking their head ‘no’.

If I do go, my son can go shopping with Niece2 and her boys. I detest shopping, so that would be nice. I don’t know if it is an hour and a half drive each way worth of nice.

Congrats on new job to FCDaughter!
If you heat canned food in the microwave for about 10 seconds before putting it in the trap, you could catch the kitties pretty quickly.
I did that when Adam got out and I was afraid of him getting lost. I set the plate out on the porch and a few minutes later I saw all kinds of cats heading for the food.

Good Luck Shoe
And irreverence is always a good thing to me.
I’m surprised that I haven’t had any lightning bolts frying my ass.

My mother had no sense of humor though.
Years ago I had a bumper sticker that said
No, I didn’t sell my soul to Satan
But we did work out a rent to own deal!

I wasn’t allowed to park in her driveway.

I think the ‘333 - only half evil’ went over her head because she never bitched about it.

It’s been a tired day and I irked.
I’m ready for bed.

207

Up from naptime, having a Wisconsin Old Fashioned before dinner.

They can make it a scary place, for people in the KKK:

Yes, and Gordie has reminded me to stop on the way home, and buy him some more bourbon. :wink:

It’s like the State Fair here in Raleigh, in October. Traffic in the west of the city is FUBAR for 10 days straight.

208

red The fest here isn’t as big a Bonnaroo, it’s Grassroots. If I go outside I can vaguely hear the music, which is as close as I want to get. Now y’all will now where I live.

{{sari}} Best of luck dealing with family. Being the voice of reason in never easy.

209

I forgot to thank you BooFae for the info.

For whatever reason, harry and meg stuff keeps coming up in my feeds.
Which had me wondering.

210

Evening all. Repair guy was here about 4:15pm and I now have a functional walk-in closet, just have to move everything back into it. He finished about 5pm and I wanted to get out of the house, so ate out at the City Cafe, which is about 1/2 diner and 1/2 Greek/Italian restaurant, but the service was excellent and the food was good. Will try to get my swimmin’ done tomorrow.

Sari, concur a level head is needed for dealing with funeral homes, they can run up a big bill at times. I’ve put it in my will that I want to be cremated, so that should keep the costs down.

VanGo, wouldn’t be surprised if they closed the first store down; we went through some of this with Dollar stores popping up on every corner several years ago, most of them are closed and have some other business in them. But with groceries you never know…

FCM, when my next SiriusXM bill comes along, I’m going to have you negotiate it for me…and bet Roxy will be bugging her parents (and you) to go back to that place again.

It is and I will. Kind of a ‘hole in the wall’ as part of a strip mall (next to Publix), so we’ll see how they manage. Still waiting for the Whataburger to open.

flyboy, more vacation is never a bad thing. Enjoy.

OK, need to finish the Firday internettin’, so all y’all take care.

211

swampbearCharter Member

3h

red does the stoner supper come with an ensuin’ fartfest

So far, no. :stuck_out_tongue:

VanGo, two Aldii? I’m impressed. We only have one, although I’m with 6 miles of 2 Publix, 2 Kroger and 2 Wally Worlds. I’m envious of your festival. Bonnaroo was good the first few years before it became too commercial, but the last time that I didn’t actively avoid CMAFest / FanFair was before I actually lived in Tennessee and caught it when I came to see family.

Fixing to take Nelson out and hope that Jim, the neighbor Belgian doesn’t come out off leash again. He’s not a bad dog, but untrained and doesn’t know how to get along with little dogs (yet). There’s enough size difference that Nelson could be seriously injured.

212

And Xfinity finally got their wits about them. SO glad I don’t have ALL my connectivity in their basket. My cell provider is Boost Mobile, and I have no desire to switch. They’re reliable at competitive prices, I don’t want a contract carrier, and in my area they have stores everywhere should need arise.

213

DH and I saw an intersection in Las Vegas with 7-11s on three of the four corners. This was in 1995, so not sure how sustainable that wound up being.

I’ve heard good things about Aldi, but don’t have one anywhere near me.

214

Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave.

I have 2 Aldis in Raleigh. I shop the poor people’s one, since it’s a hair cheaper.

215

There’s an Aldi in California, just south of Hollywood, which is the one I patronize. The next nearest one is in Brandywine which is about 25 miles from us, so not really convenient, altho I’ve shopped there a couple of times when we passed it on our way home from Baltimore.

Mom-cat was in the trap this morning, and she was PISSED!!! No way was I going to try to handle her. When I opened the trap, she bolted past me, under the side gate, and into the woods in our back yard. No sign of any kittens. I’m thinking this evolution is way beyond my skill set - I’m not equipped to deal with feral felines, or angry felines. And the kittehs have been too skittish to be approached. I’ll try setting the trap again, but I’m not hopeful.

Another hot, humid day on tap. We’ll try to get some more things crossed off our nautical to-do list, but it all depends on FCD. I will try to encourage him to take a dip in the pool when we’re done.

The upcoming week will be dedicated to preparations for our trek south. I have a whole chicken that I’m going to smoke, cut up, and freeze to take with us. I want to bake some 'nanner bread, tho the thought of heating up the house with the oven is rather unpleasant. The recipe for the raisin bran muffins says you can keep the batter in the fridge for up to 6 weeks. It’s a huge batch, so I’ll bake some and take some batter with us so MIL can bake some herself. I’ve already made a meatloaf and some pulled poke. And I’ll probably mix up a batch of braunschweiger “pate” since FIL really likes it. So much cookage shall ensue.

We need to get Higgs to the groomer before we go, or at a minimum, I need to give her a bath. I need to get out the timers for the lamps so the house looks occupied. And we’ll need to take the trash the day before we go so the garage isn’t too stinky gross when we get home. Plus FCD promised his mom some local veggies - we should be able to get those the day before we leave. I should probably make a list… It’s barely 6:30 and I’m already exhausted!!!

Happy Saturday!

216

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 72 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 92 and mostly N.O.S. for the day, so, Summer but not as unogly hot as it could be. The big item on today’s agenda is the funeralizin’ of Gary. OYKW is goin’ to skip this one since he really didn’t know Gary and I don’t blame him one bit. I, on the other hand, did know him plus also I get to be Verger/Whatever so there I shall be. I need to be there by around twelve-thirty. The family is receivin’ folks frome one until two o’clock, the time of the funeral. Gary’s cremains will be plopped down in the memorial garden next to his wife, which means they will need to be transferred from the container they are delivered in to one of the containers we have that fit the Columbarium. ICK! I’ve done it a lot of times but it’s still ICK! A plastic bag full of one’s earthly remains is just creepy to look at. Howzzat for waaaaaay more info than one needs on the subject!

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I suppose I must needs purtify and look presentable for funeralizin’. The most important thing is black slacks, black socks, and black shoes. Since I shall vest in the usual little black dress cassock and Verger vest (a lovely article of clothin’ , again black, that reaches down to about two inches above the hem of the little black dress cassock. No one has any idea what I am wearin’ up top. For all they know it could be a bedazzled chartreuse wife beater.

Happy Sattidy Y’all!

217

You know it’d be inappropriate to wear wedding garb under funeralizing garb!!
:rofl:

218

Afternoon, mumpers! It’s 18c/65f with a predicted high of 20c/68f and cloudy and we have a 20% chance of rain. Weather app says “Stratus clouds are known for producing light rain or snow. They are also fucking knobjockey twatfaces”. Well, who knew?

Been busy this morning - I was up early to feed the cats, do morning medications and clean the litter trays before a quick breakfast and cup of tea. Then out to the gym for three consecutive classes - bootcamp, spin and dumbell hustle. Got home not long after 11am and have had a cool shower to restore my equilibrium.

We have to go into town for errands and lunch at the Good Chinese Place, then home to see a friend who’s coming round to borrow a USB full of films.

Better get another cuppa before we go out again then!

219

Did you bedazzle the wife beater yourself swampy? :d&r:

seanette, Aldi made an appearance about 30 miles away from my childhood home when I was a teen. My mom made a monthly trip to buy staples there for our large family, but they had a reputation for cheap quality on other stuff at the time. They’ve come a long way since then and expanded a lot east of the Mississippi. My Aldi tends to carry the basic feed a buncha folks for less money stuff, but if I go to MJ (higher income suburb a few miles north of me), there’s a bigger variety of European specialty foods. The one in my old town was a mix. I shop there for a good share of my groceries because it saves me enough for a meal (or 2) out a week.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, dog parked and fixing to do KP.

Last night, after walking Nelson before bed, I picked up the watering jug to water the outdoor plants. Somehow or another, I lost my balance and fell. The garden cart broke my fall and I rolled from there to the stoop. I scraped both knees (superficially) and took a hunk of skin off the palm side base of the bird finger on my right hand (I didn’t even notice that until I saw the blood). I also let go of Nelson’s retractable leash, which allowed it to snap back toward his body, scaring him a bit. Then he got concerned. This morning, my right wrist and shoulder are stiff. That made using a cast iron skillet and pepper grinder a bit of a challenge fixing breakfast this morning. I’ll put some Icy Hot on the stiff joints in a few and do some gentle stretches so’s I don’t get too stoved up. Oy!

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

220

Ouch, red!! Hope you get feeling better, falls are never fun.

boofae, your exercise routine would wreck me. Still need to do my swimmin’ sometime today, due to reach 95F so inside activity is a good thing.

swampy, cremains shouldn’t be difficult…now, if there is still an eyeball in there…

OK, onward into the day. All y’all have a good one.