Never mind. I will NEVER understand how to post pictures. It is an exercise in futility.
What I do:
- Upload photo to imgur.
- Right click on photo and choose “copy image address”
- Go to SDMB topic and type CTRL - V to a line with no other text in it. In other words, you can’t copy the photo to this sentence. It must be stand-alone.
Sticky_Buns, good going! If you don’t mind my asking, how long did it take to accomplish that?
Sensei, how sad. But again, you had your times together.
Cookie: Big welcome home to your grandson!
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Okay! Izzy arrived yesterday, and is currently having a very West Virginia experience. A while back, Mr. Rilch bought a pig to be slaughtered, and he and Izzy are at the slaughterhouse to collect all the “parts”.
She seems nice. Pleasant, friendly, doesn’t talk much, but I’m sure that will change. As for the first meeting…I thought we weren’t leaving enough time to get to the airport, and indeed, the tracking app showed that Izzy’s plane landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Musta had a tailwind. We didn’t even get to baggage claim when she came towards us, dragging her bags. We’ve seen each other on video calls, and I told her that Mr. Rilch was wearing a red shirt. (Her luggage is what I thought: one big suitcase, one rollie bag, and a big tote/purse.) We went to that artisan burger joint, where she had a milkshake, burger and fries. Then we went to Costco, and it was a “wow” moment for her. Then back to the house, where she had a shower and went to bed. (So I didn’t get to hold up the sign. Though we did take a photo with it, for her to send to her mom.)
And about that bag ‘o snax. At the last minute, I switched out the Fast Break for a Hammond’s Fudge Brownie bar. I wanted there to be at least one artisan thing, after what Mr. Rilch said. “Oh, a full array of junk food! Can you imagine, if we were going to her, the gift bag would probably be aged salami, goat cheese, marzipan…” And in fact, when we got back to the house, she pulled out her gift bag to us. An espresso pot, a bag of espresso powder, an assortment of chocolates (they may be as commonplace in her country as M&Ms are here, so I won’t reproach myself too much), a pack of spaghetti, and yes, a big wedge of Romano cheese. Also, a cookbook, which she hopes to use with us!
So it’s not quite 24 hours yet, and I’ll get right to the point. I feel self-conscious about coming off like a hick. Then I tell myself that she’s supposed to get the authentic American experience, and as long as we’re good people, we don’t have to be cittidy. Sigh.
I haz quite the “lazies” and an absolutely hot case of the “donwanna” but at least I don’t have the blurfs (and haven’t in days - go, me, eating solid meals daily!)
Unfortunately, SOMEone is expected to show up at work in about an hour, and has some household tasks to attend to first.
Donwanna. But gotta.
I bet that hit the spot for her, based on what you’ve posted earlier.
Give her a moment to get over her jet lag, and I’m sure you’re both a bit apprehensive about each other, but I bet within a week or so y’all will be good friends.
Yes. And I should clarify something. Worrying about being perceived as a hick – that’s not vanity! More like, I’m worried that country life is A Lot for her, and the combination of our remote house in a remote area, and her first excursion being to a slaughterhouse, might make her think, “What did I get myself into? Is this gonna be like one of those American horror movies, where someone goes to back of beyond and ends up in pieces?” Still, we’re good people; the program wouldn’t have approved us otherwise.
ETA: Like the line from Leningrad Cowboys Go America: “I wonder when the murder starts. You always get murdered when you go to New York. I’ve seen it on television.”
I think it almost falls in the category of “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”
And the older you get, the more you needs. I went from having a family doc that I saw once in a while to twice-yearly visits to her, plus a dermatologist, a neurologist, and a cardiologist. And the eye doc. And the dentist. And the podiatrist. I hate to ask what else might await me.
It’s been a fun day - we went to Daughter’s to try to snake out her drain, and we ended up installing a new garbage disposal. Luckily, it was the same brand that we just installed in our house a few months ago, so that helped. And by “we installed” I mean FCD lay with his head in the sink cabinet and I handed him stuff. Then I texted her and said “You have a new disposal. Happy Birthday!” To which she replied: “You know you’re turning 40 when you get a new disposal for your birthday and you’re genuinely grateful 
”
Once we got home, my poor sweetie took a shower and he’s in recliner mode for a while. I’m about to mosey down to the mailbox and (probably) drop the contents in the recycle can. I almost never have mail worth opening. Not that it’s a big deal.
We lunched at Olive Garden - soup and salad - and neither of us will want supper, so we’ll graze. Good times!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Seven Up candy bar. Learned something today.
Sheets get change approximately once a week. Sometimes a day or so more, if there’s something going on.
I read everything, but my energy is fading. Probably should go to bed. One more day of work and then it’s vacation time.
Yep. PCP 4x/year, dermo ~6x/year, dentist / hygienist 3x/year, eye doc 2x/ yr, podiatrist 1x/yr, urologist 1x/yr. Probably ought to add a neurologist & endocrinologist to the mix. I’m already over 1 appt/month on average and heading towards 1 appt per two weeks! And I think I’m healthy. :zany
When your children start doing the “You know you’re old when …” about themselves, well, better make sure your final arrangements are all settled.
Home from the gym and have eaten a couple of cheese dogs for my mid-day intake. Soccer is still on this evening so I’m trying to get organized for that, and then a fair amount of administrative work as the ‘coordinator’ for the U8 boys (83 boys and counting). It’s 90F outside so not much running tonight. Just hope more of the coaches make it because handling 30 or more 7 year olds… 
Pilot,
I’m sure she raised yours…spirits, that is… Glad the spots were all treatable. And yeah, body maintenance is something I’ve started taking seriously these past several years. As Doctor Jones said, it ain’t the years, it’s the mileage…
Fruminous, glad Izzy is here and settling in. Will take a little while for both sides to adjust, give it time and be patient (as she will be with you).
Shoe, I have a lot of the donwannas but with the youth soccer season starting soon I don’t have many chances to exercise it.
FCM, yay on the garbage disposal installation.
And getting close to 4pm and still have lots to do before heading to the soccer fields, so catch y’all later.
Different package, but looks like the same stuff.
We had another excellent day of kiddos coming through the museum wood shop and playing with prototypes. I’m very excited to get on to the next step of the exhibits. If I can get about 60 ping pong balls scrambling on the wind that isn’t too loud over an area of like 3’x6’, I’ll be very happy. Picture a giant lotto machine. Plus, I’m gonna build my “stone piano” one of those things where you drop pebbles down and they plink off of steel rods. And “clever” me decided to make it in the shape of half of a 6 sided cone. Some funky angles.
Fruminous It sounds like Izzy is going to work out just fine. And enjoy the espresso.
shoe Glad to hear you are eating. I got some serious donwannas, also. They mostly involve fixing the house where squirrels are bastards. 
Fixing a hole where the squirrels get in.
FCM Good job replacing the disposal. Well, I should say good job FCD, cuz that working upside down thing is no fun.
VanGo - like he’d have let me under the sink. But since I’d helped when he replaced our disposal, I knew to remind him about the knock out for the dishwasher connection. So I contributed.
I foraged for leftovers, and now it’s chillage time.
Now I NEED a Seven Up candy bar.
It’s hot again. I was supposed to have a lesson but 94 is TFH for me and Ariel. Riley rode her out and let her gallop. Better her than me. Then Ariel got a bath, hay, and her nightly feed. I went home and showered. I’m not doing anything productive the rest of the day/evening.
I often tell random folks I’m yakking with at some watering hole that "I’m only 30; I’m just really high mileage. 
" Usually gets a laugh.
That sounds like a glorious idea. I totally want one too!!
Off top of head a 3x6 foot base plus 3-4 feet high needs a heck of a lot more than 60 balls for decent seething. 72 cu ft needs 300 balls for a 6" average spacing.
But I still want one. 
What, no muzzle boop?
Today I saw a license plate with our state’s equestrian booster theme that read HRSLV and instantly thought of you and Ariel, the cutest chestnut mare of all. :boop:
Your job sounds like a lot of fun and creativity!
I got about half the kitchen packed today, plus, I took the old desktop and all of the phones in the desk drawer (doesn’t everybody have a drawer full of them?) after taking the sim cards out. Then I swung through Kroger to get just enough milk, yogurt, fruit and tortillas to last until I’m loaded up.
Now for chillage.
It rained. I went and did my Senior Day shopping. It rained some more. I napped. the rain continues. I shall have a margarita.
My favorite childhood candy bar was the Hersey’s Dark Chocolate.
“It was till you woke me up!” - Ralphie.
The cable ties were scattered to the 4 winds by my “supervisor”.
Pulling a Lig Lury Jr.
Nelson!
< skritches >
You’re doing good.
I do a quarterly dump of ultra obsolete/dead electronics. I still have my Blackberry and charger, though.
Howdy Y’all! Mowage was achieved and not much else. Gotta say though that as far as mowage in August goes, this one felt more like late Spring. The temp was mid seventies Amurrkin and there was a little breeze even. Beerverage, showerage, and nappage soon followed.
Fruminous glad Izzy is here. It could have been worse. Hubs could have taken her to an actual pig butcherin’ and asked her to join in. BTDT, would not recommend. OYKW and I have that in common. We were traumatized with hawg killin’ durin’ our childhoods.
We went to Mishawaka today to get my allergy shot and ice cream. I had the Cookie Cookie Dough thing with standard and golden Oreos. Mrs. Nott had the latest special, some sort of root beer sundae. She said it was good, ‘cause it was ice cream and choc chips, but didn’t taste much like root beer. I paid my voluntary lotto tax, and was rewarded with a couple of free tickets, one of which came from a previous free ticket.
If I had posted this earlier in the day, I could have said “Good Morning, Thumpers!” Thempers doesn’t have the same ring, though.
30 dolphins, Loach? Sounds like a good day. Around here, we get the occasional turkey, or a family of ducks.
Mrs. Nott went to Chicago’s Wrigley Field on Wednesday with her niece, nephew, and nephew’s wife. They had a grand time, except for very long waits for Uber after the train ride to Chicago.
I understand the need for a monthly test of tornado/tsunami warning signals, but I I’ve always wondered what would happen if a natural disaster happened at the designated test time.
Trivial fact for Metal Mouse & FCMoom, Barq’s is the only root beer I know of that has caffeine, if that matters for you.
Yeah. OTOH, a lot of folks in other countries also live close to the land and the essential verities of critter harvestin’. So Izzy might not be too put out. Might.
And as Doggio says, don’t build up a drawerful of obsolete electronics. They age so fast that the best time to usefully repurpose them, or sell them, is the very week you buy their replacement. By 2 weeks later, may as well throw it away unexamined; it’s valueless.
I went back to the Mexican birthday party joint for dinner. Birthday girl was tending bar in her more typical jeans & t-shirt. But she still had the amazing gold nails and her Farrah Fawcett hairdo was still relaxing; it’d been teased (and blown) until it cried. She and her fellow bartendress had spent the weekend slamming tequila by the pool along w respective hubbies and now everyone was moving slowly as they recovered. The cooks though were in fine shape and my meal was yummy as always.
As to childhood sweets … I did not enjoy chocolate at all as a kid. Nasty crap it was, whether good quality Swiss or Brach’s Easter trash. It all sucked.
Sometime in my 20s I began to enjoy chocolate. Pre-diabetic I could enjoy nearly any form of chocolate and often did. Now, it’s pretty well limited to the darker sorts on special occasions.
With that background …
My by far favorite childhood mass market candy was Payday. Nearly the only thing with zero chocolate. There was something else from one of the second tier candy companies whose name escapes me but it was a wide flat bar of white caramel / taffy substance with embedded nuts, probably peanuts. (Google suggests Abba-zabba and I’ve definitely had those, but the packaging I’m remembering is dark brown. ETA: Google sez that’s Big Hunk & I concur.) Both are g-g-g-Great for gluing up your teeth and are gloriously, deliciously, wonderfully chocolate-free.
I had eaten a sample almost all of what folks upthread were extolling, but in each case my reaction was: First off, remove all the chocolate and then we’ll try again. This might be yummy; but I can’t tell through all the chocolate nastiness.
I’ve not lived in tsunami country but while I lived in tornados-ville the official sources all said the monthly test (1st Monday or whatever) would only be held on sunny days. If it was rainy / stormy, they’d skip the test and you should treat any warnings as real.
Harder to make that distinction w tsunamis, but all they’d need to do is launch the alarm a couple minutes early or late and folks would be wondering why it wasn’t on time or whay it kept going off.
IOW, not a realistic concern once you think about it.
If you (any of youse, not just FCM) message me your snail mail particulars, I’ll send you a postcard sometime later this year when you’ve forgotten about it.
Yeah, there will be some cultural adjustments needed, but she should be fine.
That’s the point of the program. People have all sorts of lives and she can get used to yours.
The German girl who stayed with us had a horror story about a previous homestay experiece in France. There is not much you can do that would be worse than what they did.
Can’t you just have that person do that while you stay in bed?
We had to actually mail a letter yesterday. This was the first one in the three months we’ve been in this apartment. As a joke, I was explaining what stamps are to my kids. (They actually know, but it was funny to pretend this is the first time to see this. "No, it actually takes a couple of days to get to the other person. No, the other person has to actually be in that physical location to receive it. We grew up in a different world.
OK, off to go drive some nails.