(Old) April Showers bringing May Flowers in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Son and DIL plus dogs arrived this morning. Brunch was scrumptious: the best strata I’ve ever had, salad, and Trader Joe’s little cakes. They gave me a mint plant and a box of See’s chocolates, too. I’m going to have to walk to Maine and back to burn all this off, especially as they adamantly refused to take leftovers.

I haven’t seen them since Thanksgiving because of the World’s Slowest Move from Seattle to Vancouver, so it was extra wonderful to see them. The dogs are so sweet and so much fun! They’re all very affectionate. The middle one spent most of her time staring at the window, on full alert for squirrels, cats, or suspicious-smelling people.

swampy, I am very impressed with your gazebo bar. I so admire your joie de vivre.

My BIL, who’s not a gourmand and never wanted to be a world traveler, was in France on business. (He’s an electrical engineer, not a suit, just so you get the picture.) He and a colleague order a seafood pizza at a local restaurant. It arrives: crust, sauce, seafood, no cheese.

BIL: Ou e la fromage? (His French is limited.)
Waiter: Pas de fromage.
BIL (incredulously): Non fromage, non pizza!

“If there’s no fromage, it’s not pizza,” is what I’d say to your cheeseless customers. Of course, then they’d yell, “No fromage and no cheese, dammit!”

Thanks for the keep-cool tips! I used to do the frozen bandana one when I went on hikes, but I never thought to do it in my apartment. I’ll definitely do those this summer.

FCM, sounds like your daughter is going to be very well prepped for her interview. She’s well-qualified and has a secret weapon in FCD that’ll keep her head and shoulders above the rest. And I know she’ll do great at the interview. My fingers will be crossed for her, even though she doesn’t need luck.

I, too, would be weirded out by that signature but also concerned about Mary.

I bet there are wealthy people who’d pay good money to go on a yak-yelling expedition.

Oh, how sweet! I bet you looked very colorful!

CatGlove, you’re such a good friend.

Aw, poor Annie! Does she have a sensitive stomach, or what do you think upset it? So glad she’s feeling better.

That sounds like it’s going to be a nuisance. What happens if you burn a piece of toast? Oops, just saw our resident expert answered that question.

That cracked me up!

Congrats on the fix! Just curious: how many lawn mowers do you have?

If you open the can first, you can make both of you happy. :slight_smile:

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Not normally an MMPer, but it seemed the appropriate place.

So, Tallahassee got seriously smacked by that front yesterday. As near as anybody can tell we got hit by 3 tornados (or one that hopped twice). Literally half the town was without power as of last night and the story today is it ain’t much better. We had people over tonight for dinner, device charging, and hot showers (something we will continue to do until life gets back to normal). We have another crew scheduled for tomorrow morning. Happy Mother’s Day! My gennie is already loaned out and I’ve reached out to friends to see if they have any to loan out.

The city is telling some folks it may be a week OR MORE before power is restored to their neighborhood. Last survey result I saw was 200+ poles down and miles of line to replace/repair (why we haven’t pushed harder on underground utilities still puzzles my, the ROI has to be there).

Our local school system caught some flack earlier in the year, so they didn’t cancel/delay school on Friday, then hell was unleashed. One school bus was caught between 2 downed trees and those poor children waited two hours to get off the bus.

LittleLadyZak got in her car to go to school with LittleDudeZak, got 2 miles from the house and called me to say “I can’t drive in this. I’m scared, what do I do?” My response was “Can you safely turn around and come home?” “Yes, I think so.” “Then do that.” So I got in the truck and watched her on Life360 until she got to the driveway. School was cancelled 15 minutes later (their high school didn’t have power (and still doesn’t FYI)).

The FSU baseball stadium was damaged and the FSU Circus tent was annihilated - as in doesn’t exist anymore. Many, many businesses and municipal buildings damaged.

In short, the end of this week fucking sucked. I’m glad swampbear got through okay, but Tally is hurting and will be for a while. I swear these damn spring storms are worse than the hurricanes!

Thanks for letting me vent!

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I have to remember to close the curtain between the kitchen and the laundry room when I cook.

Mrs. L.A. bought a Hawaiian pizza and a sweet salad (dried cranberries and candied walnuts) for dinner. I picked out most of the cranberries and gave them to her (she told me I should have some, because they’re good for my urinary tract), and used blue cheese dressing instead of the raspberry dressing that came with it. Still, a high-carb dinner.

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I keep scolding myself for not answering everyone but I just keep getting distracted. I am sorry about that but do know that things will settle down in a few months.

Last night I set my clock to get me up at 2300 to look at the sky and I must say that I was disappointed. I used to see the Northern Lights when I was a kid at grandma’s house and they danced and shimmered. This time it looked like the glow coming off the junction.

Hubs put his Harley up for sale and has been entertained by the scammers. The latest is for them to ask for some sort of vehicle report that you get by going to (their) website and paying 32 dollars. He knows it’s a scam, but he still likes to play along until he is actually giving up his CC number. He asked the last one if they had a script because he had heard the exact thing, almost word for word from the last three. Never heard back from that one as far as I know.

Holy cow, I am so sorry this happened. We had some horrible fires and then floods a decade ago and the recovery is still ongoing.

I’ve just put “check smoke detectors” on our list of things to do when we move, thanks for the reminder! Both of the homes we have owned in the last two decades have had hard wired detectors that only chirped when the back up batteries went off, our new place was built before smoke detectors were a thing. I went back to the listing pics and looked, but just because I didn’t see any doesn’t mean they weren’t there.

That was super considerate!

(BFF used to be a bank teller and one of her favorite stories was about a strip club owner who would come in every Friday morning to get thousands of dollars in used bills to put in the registers. He refused to accept new bills because he didn’t want his workers to get paper cuts.)

TC friend was supposed to come over today with a FriendWithTruck to get her chest freezer and adult trike, but stood us up. Again. I refuse to take any responsibility over this, she has less than a month to get her already paid for stuff out of our yard before GG and I leave. Hubs won’t be willing to take the time to nag her about it. If she has to beg the realtor or new owners for them, it won’t be our fault.

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For what it’s worth, I have the Nest detectors which are both smoke and carbon monoxide. They’re fantastic. The batteries are expensive but the detector will tell you when to replace them (about once a year). There an app to get alerts (and silence them if it’s just you being a dumbass - has happened in the Zak household) AND they give a gentle light when you walk under them - great in dark hallways.

Costco (if you have that) puts them on sale a couple of times a year down here. 2 for $100 was the price on the last batch I bought (we have 4).

ETA: They do have both wired and battery versions.

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It is really nice of you to be willing to look that up for a random internet stranger despite the disaster in your town. I really do appreciate it!

I am hoping that our new place has them, but who knows when they were last replaced.

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That must depend on the state and what year you did this in. I got 10 for my late wife in 2021 in FL. I still have 9. The court handling her will & estate wanted an original. Everybody else was happy with a color scan of it emailed to them.

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Smaller swankier. Been here 3 days now and loving it, despite mostly just schlepping boxes.


As to everyone else …
I tried to catch up with everyone but it at nearly 100 posts in 18 hours it was hopeless. Yaay, boos, and hugs all around to y’all as appropriate.


As to me …
It’s a few minutes before midnight on Sat about to be Sun. Happy impending Mother’s Day to the folks for whom it’s appropriate in some way!! BB is childless and is spending Sunday pampering her aged Mom. Other than BB, I’m female-less, so my square is completely empty.

Last I checked in w y’all it was Fri mid-morning. Since then has been a blur of activity. All day Fri & Sat. At the rate I’m going, I expect by COB on tomorrow = Sun the last box of [whatever] will be gone and I’ll be as put together as I can be given I have only about half my furniture.

When I selected a bedroom set exactly 3 weeks ago(!) it was chosen to be in stock. Last week I learned it’ll be a month, maybe two, before it showed up. Crap!

I’m now sleeping on my new mattress & box spring sitting on the floor. I’m using file boxes lined up on the floor as “dresser” drawers. Found out a couple days ago the whole bedroom set will be delivered on Wed upcoming. Yaay!

So once I get the file boxes off the floor, by late Wed eve I’ll be 95% moved in and meanwhile with a functional substitute for everything I’m lacking. Zero to Hero in one week flat. (Plus lots of prep).

Immediately upcoming Fri, ~6 days from now, BB is coming up for 4 days to christen the bed, the couch, the balcony, the yoga mat, the exercise ball, the … :grin: :leer: :rabbit: :rabbit2: . I can hardly wait.


Cheers all. If anyone has something substantive to direct to me or ask me, please use @LSLGuy , not Pilot. That way Discourse will help me find your comments. That’s how / why @Misnomer got a personalized answer and everyone else did not…

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Ah, so now we know how talk about you behind your back!

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Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 19c/66f with a predicted high of 24c/75f and cloudy. Weather app says “I wonder who stole your fucking sunshine. Wasn’t me.” I’d be happy for anyone else to have whatever sunshine we get today. I was roasting hot yesterday and would not like to feel the same today.

I really feel there should be a pictorial tour of your outside space :slight_smile:

If you’ve got a Will and a death certificate, you’re well on the way to sorting stuff out. Hopefully the laptop will give you most of the other information you need to deal with things. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, nobody’s every really prepared for this and it’s not hard to start feeling that it’s all too much. Small to-do lists are good, trying to accomplish one or two things each day give you both a sense of having done something, and the feeling that the list is getting shorter.

Same here - I ditched my previous favourite 8.15am class for a 9.15am class so I didn’t have to get up so early at the weekend!

That does sound like a tricky one - hopefully you can get someone else to do the removing and work out how to get the behemoth out of the house. I lived in a house where we had to take the front window out to get the bedroom furniture in!

Awww…I hope Annie has a happier tummy today, and you have less to worry about.

Yay! Two fixed, and two definitely consigned for scrap. That’s a good win!

Saturday turned out to be a busy-ish day for me. Got up and tended to the mogs, then went to the gym for Death by Kettlebells, then had an hour to kill before Death by Dumbbells so I did most of one of the pre-set programmes on the cross-trainer. After that, I’d almost exceeded my 3hrs free parking so it was time to leave. I’d planned to go home via the Romanian car wash guys but they were shut so I carried on home.

Had a shower, fed the mogs again, had a restorative cuppa and then went into town for lunch at the Good Chinese Place, did my errands and came home. It would have been a perfect afternoon for a quiet pint in a pub beer garden, but everywhere was crawling with football fans as we had a home match, so I opted for the safety of my own sofa instead. Had a slothful afternoon, bestirred myself to feed me and the mogs, then settled down with a book until bedtime.

Today I’ve been up to tend to the mogs and their litter trays, had some breakfast, had a bath, and now I need to fetch another big bag of cat litter in (they live in the porch until they’re needed) and haul that upstairs. I also need to empty a couple of bins while I’ve got the housekeys to hand, and empty the recycling box as well.

No big plans for today, if I stay at home I can have some windows open to hopefully keep the place cool. I’ve got something out of the freezer for dinner tonight, and I have easily prepared things I can have for lunch. Back to the sofa and that book, slothage awaits!

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She was an abused puppy mill breeder in her first life, so she is generally overly nervous and sensitive. But also she’s been on the new meds so they might have made her nauseous as well. She’s happily sitting on my lap this morning.

Exactly. You have done all you can.

1 still have the one that I got. So far photocopies have been ok.

Yay!

I am up for some reason and my throat is sore. I think it’s got something to do with my cpap and the way I was sleeping. Hopefully it shapes up soon today. And fortunately I do have a sleep study scheduled for June. Ok, off to forage for breakfast.

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Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 57 Amurrkin out and mostly cloudy with a predicted high of 80 and mostly N.O.S. for the day. The big item on today’s agenda is deheathenization wherein I get to plop in a pew. Then it will be home for a sammich N.O.L., nappage, and day drinkin’. Sup shall be cheeseburgers 'n fixin’s with fries.

MetalMouse I think Rainbow Puppies is a most excellent team name.

Nellie and Doggio yak yellin’ sounds like a good Mumper activity. Also, Nellie glad you had a good visit with son, dil, and the doggies. The poolside bar is an essential. One must have somewhere to put one’s snacks after all.

Zakalwe glad LittleLadyZak, LittleDudeZak, and you are safe. Also, y’all are aces for helpin’ others out. Here’s hopin’ life gets back to normal soonest. When Hurricane Michael hit us in 2018, the worse we had was to be without power for about sixteen hours. For others it was a lot worse with it bein’ weeks before power was restored. Always feel free to come in and vent.

JtC scammers can be fun. Glad hubs is enjoyin’ messin’ with ‘em. Great story about the strip club owner. Good for him for lookin’ after his employees, I guess?

Pilot glad the move is almost complete. When da cave was almost done bein’ built, I ordered new livin’ room furniture. It was at the store to be held until I moved in, but got sold cause some not real bright person at the store thought they could sell what was there and order it again before I needed it. They knew the date I wanted the furniture, btw. I was livid. I went all gay man without his furniture on them and somehow, the very next day, I had my furniture. Don’t mess with a gay man and his furniture!

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, purtification for deheathenization must commence.

Happy Sunday Y’all! Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mumper Moms of both humans and critters!

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Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off today. I shall do the usual morning cleaning, and afternoon sloth. Spot shall do morning and afternoon sloth.

If the ground water level is high enough, it’s more of a bother than poles. that’s how I know I’m close to the coast around here. Hopefully the new week will be better for you.
But welcome!

I can imagine what a FABULOUS live Pitting might look like. :smiley:

< whispers > Pilot flies with his landing gear extended. < whispers >

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I don’t know if it’s old age or selective memory, but in the 18-ish years I lived in Jacksonville, I don’t remember much in the way of tornadoes in FL, and definitely nothing like what you experienced - YOIKS!!!

I didn’t even bother, as it rained overnight. Dammit.

BTW, I think of you every time a campaign ad for governor of WV come on TV. Apparently the big issue is the radical transgender agenda that the woke Left is pushing and the righteous right will defeat, keeping boys out of girls’ locker rooms. Are you sure you want to move??

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Eons ago some friends rented a colonial-era house in Newport, RI where it was physically impossible to get their bedroom furniture upstairs, so the living room became their bedroom. Fortunately, is was just a short-term rental while there for military training. Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.

Someone needs to embroider this on a throw pillow!

Worrisome morning already. MIL set her alarm for 7 and it went off and went off and went off and she didn’t get up. FCD went to her room, finally woke her, and the first thing she asked was if they were going to Indianapolis today. He was going to take her to church, but now I wonder… I admit, I didn’t want to go back because I didn’t want to be the one to find her… well, you know…

I’ve gone to a couple of sites reading about signs of impending death and she has quite a few of them - like always being cold, sleeping a lot, reduced appetite, confusion - yet she has moments when she seems to rally. Yeah, it’s just a bit stressful.

She’s determined to go see her sister, so we’re tentatively taking her around the first of June. Unless, of course, UncleJ gets worse again, which is entirely possible with his Parkinson’s. We’ll know when we know.

Enough of that. Happy Mother’s Day and/or Happy Sunday as appropriate. Be wise and avoid going out to eat today! :wink:

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Took one of my grandsons and his mother to a John Pizzarelli concert last night. It was the first jazz concert he’s attended, and we were lucky that Pizzarelli was being backed by a substantial jazz orchestra. Nothing like a swing band to get your feet tapping. He said he really enjoyed it, so now I’m a hero. Only problem was that the place is a dinner club, so the seating was brutal. I ache all over this morning, and we’re supposed to go to a play this afternoon.

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When FCD went in to wake his mom, she was barely responsive and slurring. But an hour or so later, she was up and getting dressed. He’s taking her to church now because he’s a good son.

I built a meatloaf for tomorrow when Daughter’s crew comes over for supper. Shortly, I need to run to Food Lion for some spuds to be mashed tomorrow. Forecast is for rain and t-boomers today, so I have no plans to be out and about, even tho the sun is shining now. Weather is weird.

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Good morning, and Happy Mother’s Day!

It’s 56 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny outside. The expected high is 78 degrees Fahrenheit and it’ll be bright and sunny all day.

It sounds like it’ll be a tad cooler than yesterday. Yesterday, the high temperature went north of 85F, and it was somewhat uncomfortable, especially for Maisie. Poor baby, she kept trying to find a cool spot to lie down. We did drag out the plastic pool and filled it up. Buster got in, but only to walk around in the water and snatch toys out of the pool. Maisie was much more tentative about it and didn’t want to get in. I gently lifted her in, but she was having none of it. Eventually, they would get in the pool, erupt out of the pool, and go straight for the area of the yard that has bark for mulch and tear around in that, then run back to the pool to find another toy, walk around in the water and dirty it up. When I couldn’t see through the water anymore, I dumped the pool and rinsed the pups off with the hose. They LOVE being sprayed by the hose.

I posted pics of the pups and the pool on the book of faces.

Zakalwe, I’m glad you and your family are alright.

Nellie I’m happy that you had such a nice visit with your family and the pups.

I could do with the yak yelling activity. Mmmmm. Maybe not. What I really crave is quiet and hearing only the sounds of nature, with nothing to do but enjoy them, and not feeling like I need to get some chore done.

Swampy,, I would have stood there with a bag of popcorn to watch that dressing down happen.

Metal Mouse, I’ll bet the girls had fun. I hope you’re able to share some pictures.

My daughter sent me a huge gift basket filled with all kinds of goodies for Mother’s Day. It was totally unexpected! I’m trying to work with a nursery here to get a tree shipped out there. It’s really odd, but there aren’t really that many plant nurseries out my daughter’s way. I looked, and the pickin’s are slim. None were open yesterday.

I will finish my coffee, shower, drive to a couple of my favorite nurseries, and treat myself to some plants and a hanging plant basket. I wanted to do it yesterday, but my husband slept in too long, so I warned him that today, I plan to be out of the house early and that he’ll need to get up with the pups. When I go plant shopping, I really prefer to do it early in the morning because there are far fewer people up and about, less traffic, and it’s cooler outside.

FCM, sending you hugs.

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Good morning to all. Up early and did the Sunday (used to be Monday) shopping, had to make 3 stops but it’s all good. Did have to laugh at all the guys at Kroger buying flowers early on Mother’s Day… Two years of exercising seems to have helped, even with all the running and moving yesterday with soccer, I feel good and am moving without pain; three years ago I would be happy to make it to the bathroom. Should be a quiet day, getting to 81F and no rain in the forecast. Will eat out early to beat the Mother’s Day rush and then probably hibernate with maybe a trip to the gym.

Zak, that sounds a lot of bad weather; about 12 or so years ago we had a tornado take down some high-tension lines and I was without power for about a week, not a lot of fun and much food spoiled. Glad you’re OK and kudos to you for looking out for others. Be well, and maybe consider sticking around the MMP.

nellie, stuffing oneself now and then is not a bad thing, you know… Very happy you got time with the family and the dogs.

I wouldn’t yell at Yaks as I might bruise their feelings. And since they weight a ton and have horns, they then might bruise me…

JtC, you have done what you promised to do, it TC Friend wants to mess it up, that’s opn her. And Hubs scammer story is great and the hidden story was rather sweet, in a kinda mixed-up way.

Pilot, happy the move went so smoothy and that you’re getting settled in what seems to be world-record time. Glad the bedroom furniture is getting there earlier than expected, two months and then having to change things up is not cool at all.

swampy, haven’t had a furniture delivery in years, mine were pretty straight-forward, but I’ll remember to ask you to go gay man on the next folks that mess with my schedules…

FCM, take care, I suspect that MIL won’t make the trip to Indiana in June, or if she does she won’t be coming home. Best hope is that she can just sleep away some evening. Still going to be hard on FCD whenever it happens, be strong (know you will).

Cookie, hope the aches and pains don’t stop you from having a day out with the family.

Taters, saw the pics, look like the pups were having fun.

OK, have a Happy Mother’s Day all and I’ll catch up later.

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Off to church to get happy.
Its cloudy and 50+, but still having to use my space heater.
Tomorrow its to be 80 so maybe I can sit in my apt. And not have to wear a hoodie. The heat is shut off in our building from May to Nov.

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That’s what we’d both want, but you know what Mick says - you can’t always get what you want…

Back from Food Lion. Red-skinned spuds were on sale, so I got a bag, plus some blueberries and some yogurts (I like mixing the two for a snack) and ice cream sammiches plus a lemon creme cake for MIL. Waiting just a bit before I make my lunch - I’m really hungry, but I don’t want to eat too early, lest I not make it to supper time without eating again.

Speaking of supper, I need to look in the freezer. I think I saw some turkey in there the other day - that may come out and thaw for tonight. Quick and easy, methinks.