I feel like running over to the Secret Santa thread and sharing this.
Yeah. The two saving graces were, as pilot pointed out, Black Friday sales and the fact the space for our TV only fits a 32" max. It ended up running around $130 which isn’t terrible.
That seems to be the standard anymore. Getting less for more and not even an attempt to make it look any different.
Thanks, hon. Both kids did successfully make it through the day, though CtE decided that a chewy is not the way they want to go. The wet plastic feel is gross, according to them. So we’re trying one braided out of t-shirt material.
Yeah, it should have been “biting” instead of “boring”. They made it through the day, though. And tomorrow will be a short day because they have a doctor’s appointment so will be going in late.
Happy-crazy is something I can usually do. I’ve been trying to work harder on the happy part, regardless of what life is throwing at me.
This sounds like a great way to end the night.
Hubby wouldn’t let me put the new TV up. Something about my hands and back not working… he’s just over cautious. 
I did help with the electronics part - setting up the wi-fi, failing to connect it to the wi-fi and Google Home, finally getting it to connect to the wi-fi and now, almost 2 hours later, the updates are almost done downloading. I’m planning on finishing the set up them heading to bed. Tomorrow is bringing CtE to school after their appointment, going to the library, and returning something I accidentally ordered 2 of to Amazon. It’s going to be a good day.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 41 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 60 and mostly N.O.S. for the day. Today is laundry day. The excitatement is almost overwhelmin’. Both of us have a gnawin’ and a cravin’ for Mexican comestibles, so we shall do an early sup at our favorite Mexican place. They make good margaritas. Other than that, there will be the usual sloth, general overall uselessness, nappage, and day drinkin’.
Nellie we have no recycle pick up out here in the boonies. Recyclin’ is taken to a local recycle center about once a month. Happy to do my part and all that.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah,
Happy Tuesday Y’all!
It’s 27° here. TWENTY-SEVEN-STOOPIT-BELOW-FREEZING-DEGREES!!! And not supposed to get out of the 30s today. Not at all amused!!
Needless to say, Tobias and I will stay indoors. In fact, before he gets here, I’ll have a roaring fire warming the basement. So I guess my day is planned. Oh yeah - laundry.
FCD has to go pick up a handicap hang tag for when he takes his mom places. It appears since COVID, motor vehicles does everything by appointment only, so it’s more efficient - with luck it’ll only take him 3 or 4 hours. 
Another exciting day at FairyChatEstates. Happy Tuesday!
Good morning!
It’s 28F and foggy outside with a high temp of 40F for the day. We’ll go from foggy to partly cloudy, to mostly sunny, and then back to partly cloudy skies by early evening.
I’ve been up and down all night with the pups, so I’m a bit tired. Right now they’re sleeping again, but I do hear one of them stirring. I’m trying to be quiet so they’ll sleep a little more and I can actually finish my coffee.
I had to commute to the office yesterday but got down there way too early, so I had to wait for Haggen to open before purchasing my usual yogurt and banana. One might wonder why I don’t just bring yogurt and a banana from home. Well, my silly Safeway no longer carries my favorite brand, of if they do have it, they only carry vanilla (yuck). I like Siggi Mixed Berry whole milk, so I pick up a bunch whenever I commute. Also, I buy treats for the office. Yesterday was Ghiradelli Chocolate bars Holiday mix.
Today the county inspector finally comes out to inspect the electrical panel for the furnace installation. A rep from the company that installed the furnace is also coming out this afternoon for a final inspection. I will be glad when I don’t have to have strangers tromping around my house.In this case, iti’s my garage, but you know what I mean.
Around mid-December, the pest company person will be here to do the usual inspection for unwanted visitors. I am hopeful none will be found. We still have traps under the house and bait stations at various intervals in the yard. Since the initial invasion last Christmas, only two have been found under the house, which was on the first visit after setting traps. Since then, none have been found, but since the people next door aren’t good about containing their trash, I keep the service going, especially since one or two of the bait stations are always empty. They take the bait and then go off elsewhere to die
Frankly, you’d think my neighbor’s many cats would be taking care of the rodent situation. They now have six or seven outside and in my yard ALL.THE.TIME. They killed a bird last weekend, and I’m tired of finding cat sh*t in my yard and garden. The neighbors literally dump a pile of kibble outside in the grass next to the driveway for those cats to eat. The females keep getting pregnant and having kittens, so we’ve gone from one cat to six or seven in the space of a year and a half/two years. I feel sorry for the cats, but at the same time, I am irritated by the mess they cause for me.
I will probably end up putting up the tree, and as for heirloom decorations, the only true heirlooms (for me) are the ornaments my kids made as children. They always hang on the tree along with the many really nice ornaments.
I think my tree is seven feet. It’s got programmable lights on it so I can vary the color and patterns if I choose. To be honest, I miss the smell of a real tree. I actually didn’t mind vacuuming the needles up because they are nature’s air freshener. But in the last ten years or so, trees have become stupidly expensive and are pretty much gone around here by the end of the 1st week of December, which is stupid. Trees dry out and in years past, I always waited until the second week of December. The tree usually stays up until January 6th, but in some years, it comes down sooner. It just depends on how energetic I am feeling. I also put up a village in the alcove above my fireplace. In the end, I like it when it’s all done, I like and enjoy the results, but the putting up and taking down on my own year after year has taken the rosy glow off for me.
I tried to skim a little at work yesterday, but couldn’t keep up.
Boo for shrinkflation! It’s real, it’s annoying, and as has been noted, they don’t even try.
nellie, I’m sorry the knee is hurting again today. I sure hope it’s better today.
Well, I should grab the second cup of coffee before the pups monopolize my time.
Sending hugs, yays, boos as needed.
Mornin’ all. About 2 hours post-dawn. Presently a sunny & chilly 63/17 on the way to a cloudless 75/24. I’m up, sheveled, out, and fed at the not-Denny’s. Next stop is doc’s office for checkup.
Well Taters, it looks like the puppies and puppy owners are settling into a routine; they keep you running ragged and you get to be run ragged. Such fun & sooo cute.
Best of luck to all. Try to stay as warm as possible.
The wife signed us up for an “outing” today to go to a “tea”, whatever the hell that is. Sounds like something women do and I’m not sure I want to sit around slurping tea from tiny cups and nibbling on tiny crackers, or whatever one does at this sort of thing.
Officially 7F this morning in MSP. We’re supposed to claw our way up to the 40s later in the week. The lack of snow on the ground makes it more bitter, it seems, and we’re not due for any sort of snowy weather for at least a couple of weeks.
Morning all. 29f heading to 47F today but no rain and few clouds, so ought to be comfortable. Paid off one credit card on-line, waiting for PNC to get their accounting right (I am close to the last straw with those folks, may see what my bank/credit union have available). Not much else on the agenda, will try to get to the gym and maybe do a little house straightening (picking things up and putting them in other places) and do need to get some saltine crackers and pens, so maybe a little shopping is required.
That word “chilly”…I don’t think it means what you think it means… 
And thanks for the reminder, I haven’t washed my car in months and have a free wash coupon sitting in the car that expires at the end of the year, so need to do that. And I like your weight theory, I have been losing about 14lbs every 6 months for the past 18 months, so slow and steady seems to be the way to go, no fad or ‘miracle’ diets here. Happy your sight is doing much better.
Taters, you might want to be thinking along the lines that if the neighbors went from one cat to six in two years, what will be the situation in two more years… 
FCM, I hope that FCD’s trip the the Motor Vehicles Office isn’t too painful.
Real fish, hope CtE has a useful appointment.
swampy, no mowage here either, been cold enough to put the grass to ‘sleep’ for the winter, hopefully that’ll get me to March/April before I start pushing the mowing machine around again.
nellie, think how long it took you to get better vision; the knee will come around, I’m sure of it.
Wheelie, practice for sure, but never forget to have fun; that’s the big thing.
OK, nearly 8am and need to break my fast. All y’all have a good 2sDay
Agreed. Way better than down and up and down and up all the time. BTDT way too many times.
And apparently MVA was easy - 10 minutes after his appointment time, FCD was done.
I’ve hauled laundry downstairs, brought in firewood, started a fire, and did a rollsuck, so the basement is ready for Tornado Tobias. I also hauled some pellets out to FCD’s shop to warm it a bit, lest our electric bill go thru the roof (his HVAC is electric and it’s a big volume.) I need to run out and check that before the kid gets here.
Just another day in paradise.
Today Mr. brown is taking an old air compressor to the dump, and then going to the gym to work out. We have a “Silver Sneakers” membership (which is a free gym membership for old folks) at a local gym, and he’s trying to be regular about going there. However, the gym is popular with huge young muscle-bound men who hog the equipment, and he’s intimidated. Early yesterday morning, he gave up trying to find free equipment to use. He’s going to try going later in the morning today when all the young guys have buggered off to work, leaving the equipment free for the retirees.
I need to shop for Christmas cards and for some vegies for dinner, so I’ll do that while he’s doing his errands.
That’s what I found too, best times are between 10am-3pm IMHO, early times and from 4-8pm are when the gyms are the most jammed. Hope he can become a ‘regular’ there.
G’mornin’, kiddos. Thirteen degrees out this morning, should be ticking up into the 20s and 30s for the rest of the week. Work is dreadfully slow, even less stimulating than usual as we all count time till the holiday break. Oh, that’s something else good - I get to fly home to CA to see my family for Christmas! I burst into tears typing that - I’m so happy. Last year was the first year in my life I wasn’t at home with my folks and sibs for Christmas and it was, uh… I didn’t handle it well, especially with everything else that was going in.
You might try reaching out to the local shelters and see if any do a TNR program - trap, neuter, release. Assuming these cats don’t wear collars and aren’t microchipped, they’re effectively strays.
i enjoy girl with the dogs. enough dog hair there to knit items for everyone in the world.
some of the dogs are just lovely.
I tried that on the entryway ceiling but the adhesive wasn’t strong enough, and staples didn’t have enough grip. The walls are stucco so nothing will stick there, and I don’t want to nail into that. Not a big deal; I didn’t care much about having lights out there anyway.
It’s even worse than you could imagine.
That was quite an indictment of that industry, I must say. Oliver’s staff does some good reporting.
Started Typing: 10:23 AM ET
Clicked Reply: 12:21 PM ET
Morning, all!
I have a couple of work things to do that require some heads-down time: one is due by the end of this week (my year-end performance self-evaluation [meh]), and the other is something I’m drafting voluntarily and that has no deadline – but I’ve been working on it for several months, and should really get it to the next step before the end of the year. Both yesterday and today when I logged in I was motivated to work on those things during my downtime instead of posting here, but both yesterday and today that motivation disappeared by the time my daily 9:30 meetings ended… 
Today’s personal training session will be at 5pm, to allow me to get home and let the dog out and grab some dinner and try to be as presentable as possible sans shower for a 7pm Zoom meeting. It’s my volunteer organization’s last general membership meeting of the year: all of the committee chairs are to present their 2023 accomplishments, and I’m the Membership chair so it’s kinda important for me to attend/be on time for this one. Work + gym + meeting is going to make for a long day, even though all of it should be good.
I did my part on Cyber Monday, with a healthy Amazon order that included two small humidifiers (for the bedroom and home office), a wagon (for use at next year’s volunteer-related events), two 2024 calendars (one for my home office and one to take to the actual office at some point), and a replacement handheld shower head (the selector on my current one has become super finicky). And on Sunday I ordered a new coat: I’ve been wanting a dress coat for a while, and I found one I like on the London Fog site for just $100 (on sale). I fully expected to pay at least $500 for a nice coat! UPS is supposed to deliver it today. I paid for expedited shipping: work’s annual awards ceremony is next week, and I wanted to be sure to have the new coat by then (I plan to dress up a little).
Now I just need to start ordering things for other people… Several years ago, my dad and brother and I agreed to stop exchanging gifts at Christmas: they’re allowed, but not expected. We kind of sucked at buying for each other, so they were both relieved when I suggested it. Anyway, these days I only give presents to my BFFs and their son (my “nephew”). They’re hard to buy for, too, but with them I enjoy the challenge!
Time to figure out what I want for lunch. I think an apple will be involved, but I won’t know what else until I look in the fridge/pantry. Maybe some Dinty Moore beef stew…?
Ha! 
That’s so great! Our nativity scene didn’t include magi, otherwise I bet my folks would have done that.
I rarely have the same thing two days in a row, but I had enchiladas for dinner last night and the night before…mind you they were frozen, but I’ve been in a Mexican frame of mind, myself!
Seconded! Except we’re supposed to nudge 40°F.
When I turn off my cell phone alarm, I have it set so Google announces the day, date, time, and weather: this morning it said something like “it’s currently 29 degrees with a forecasted high of 39,” and I thought to myself “that’s a football score, not a forecast!”
There might be small yummy biscuits and cakes and pastries and things… 
Yep, this – the 10am-3pm timeframe is exactly what I was going to suggest. I am so very glad that my gym has a dedicated space for personal trainers and their clients; the main area gets slammed in the evenings.
It’s twenny something here in no. Illinois. This afternoon is my semi annual dental cleaning. Then I will go visit Miss Ariel, keeping my time down to an hour. I spent 3 hours with her on Saturday and paid for it Sunday. I need to remember that my leg has a fractured bone.
Speaking of Christmas cards, who wants a hand made card from me? I make cards all year and need sendees. PM me your name and mailing address. You are under no obligation to send me one in return. And I won’t use your address for pizza delivery or drop in visits.
Evening, mumpers! It’s currently 3c/38f with a predicted high of 6c/42f, and partly cloudy. I think Weather App is a bit confused since it was all of 2c when we left Largs this morning, and got up to 9c during the drive home. Now we are back in our normal location so the 6c or below should be right. I am told that “This weather is probably fine, but there’s fucking someone somewhere with two middle fucking fingers pointed towards the sky.”
Moooom yes, of course we want to stand and marvel at the humble abode that gave us FCD 
nellie 'im indoors tells me there’s a thread somewhere that he’s been following about what to do with 4 days in Chicago so no doubt we’ll get some ideas there. We met a lovely couple in Vegas who come from Detroit, messaged them for a few touristy ideas and they’ve very excitedly offered to put us up for a while and play tour guide for us too. I think our other stop might be Milwaukee but we haven’t decided on that yet. I’m bound to be back asking questions later though, we don’t go until March so plenty of time to work out what we want to do.
As for me, my day has not involved much apart from driving us home, which took about 7hrs, allowing for a stop on the way for food and petrol. It was cold and frosty to start with, then bright and sunny for most of the drive, and we made it home before dark so that’s always a bonus. I have unpacked, made a cup of tea and sorted out my accounts after a mix of cash and card spending while we were away. Also downloaded my payslip and sent it over to the union office along with my strike pay claim form.
My poorly tooth is still sensitive so my next job will be to message one of the dental practices near us and see if I can get an appointment to see what needs to be done. I had decided to wait until the swelling and bruising had gone down in the naive hopes it would all sort itself out, but it hasn’t improved all that much so I will have to consult a professional.
I’m not back at work until Thursday, and 'im indoors has something in the fridge he can use to concoct dinner tonight so I’m off to lay on the sofa, cuddle a cat and drink tea.
So my first iPhone was an iPhone 8 I bought three years ago. Now that I know that it will no longer be updated by Apple, I’ve been looking into getting a newer (not nearly necessarily the newest) model,
I took the plunge with a 12 Pro Max that a coworker was selling for $175, which is less than I paid for the 8. It has scratches, but mostly not on actual screen real estate. It seems to fit reasonably well in my current set of jeans pockets (and I have at least two other pairs that are identical), so I don’t think that’ll be an issue, but I never would have ended up with a jumbo phone if it hadn’t been for the price.
We’ll see how I like it; I generally don’t make huge demands of my phone, so it may mostly be quality of life, which isn’t everything, but isn’t nothing either.
Okayokayokay: the tea was fine. I didn’t realize where it was going to be, and I also thought it was one of the “outings” that are organized by the activities director. But it was just the Ms and me slurping a nice masala chai tea and eating dainties. A mimosa didn’t hurt, either. The restaurant is one of our favorites here - The Nicolette Island Inn - so the quality was right up there.
Stopped at the grocery on the way home and got the fixin’s for Chex mix. It’s that time of year, y’know? I just make the standard recipe, but leave out the pretzels and bagel chips.
The box of Harry & David truffles arrived today, so I surprised the wife with those.