(Old) Hello, Mr Sandman - Dreaming in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Started Typing: 11:46 AM ET
Clicked Reply: 1:20 PM ET

Belated happy birthday, Jack Batty! :birthday_cake: And big congrats on the sobriety anniversary!

Yesterday and Monday at work were busy: nonstop meetings both days, including giving both a presentation and some training on the same topic yesterday. Normally I work from home on Thursdays, but I’ll be in the office tomorrow to give the training again; so, I’m working from home today. This evening there’s a thank-you dinner for the people who worked on that proposal I supported last month, the restaurant is close to home, and there were no critical “should attend in person” meetings on my calendar today. In fact, I only had one meeting this morning and my schedule is wide open for the rest of the day. So I’ve had the time to read all 100 of the preceding posts and compose this one!

Add me to the list of Mumpers who hardly ever remember their dreams. I can’t recall the last one I remembered.

As for shopping malls, except for the time my family spent in England I feel like I’ve always lived near at least one. In college I worked at two different stores in the King of Prussia mall (which rocking chair just mentioned), while home one summer I worked at Miracle Ear – on the top floor of the Montgomery Ward at the Glen Burnie mall, and Northern Virginia likes its malls (both indoor and strip). For the past 11 years I’ve lived very close to Tysons Corner Center, which I believe is the largest mall in the Baltimore-Washington area. There are actually two unconnected malls: Tysons Corner Center (with a big movie theater, anchored by Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, and Nordstrom) and the way snootier Tysons Galleria (anchored by Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue). I can’t afford to even window shop at the Galleria…heh. My favorite clothes stores are at Tysons Corner Center, along with Lego and Swarovski stores. I’m not a big mall person, and usually only go with WifeBFF, but every now and then I’ll venture there on my own. Tonight’s thank-you dinner is actually at a restaurant in the Galleria: happily, it has an outside entrance so I won’t have to go into the mall itself and risk my credit card bursting into flames. :joy:

In other news, I finished building Wicket the Ewok (Lego) on Sunday:

https://i.ibb.co/zV2spv8j/Wicket-for-MMP.jpg

A larger image and a photo of him on display can be found in my Lego photo album. I’m really happy with how he turned out, and also how he looks with Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2. :slight_smile:

Right now, next up will be the Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage (from Hocus Pocus): I’ve had the box in my third bedroom for 1.5 months, but I consider it Halloween decor so I won’t start putting it together until late September/early October. I have three other small, still-boxed Halloween/Thanksgiving sets that I’ll also put together in October, and I have a few new Christmas sets that will be put together shortly before Thanksgiving (I start my holiday decorating on Black Friday).

Holy cow, has it been that long?! Wow.

:raised_hand: :blush: It got added to the MMP FAQ with assistance from the ever-helpful Aspenglow!

:people_hugging:

My great-grandparents on both sides arrived (from Ireland and Italy) in the 1910s; my parents were second-generation Americans. To my knowledge no Gaelic was ever spoken on the Irish side (though that grandmother did have a trace of a brogue), but there were smatterings of Italian on the other side. I still sometimes say “ashpet” (an Americanized version of “aspetta” [wait]) to the dog, and will mutter “Madonna mia” – or just “Madon[na]” – when I’m mildly annoyed.

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I’m sorry to hear that. :frowning:

Boil-The-Bag peanuts:

She put the peanuts in the fridge last night. She says she likes them cold as much as she likes them warm. She said that they were less salty than the ones in Alabama, and that the Alabama ones just seemed to use salt alone. (I found the ones I got her to be near the upper limit of salt tolerance for my taste.) This morning she said the unidentified spice is sage. Sounds about right.

Given the limited width of the driveway, getting the bike out is a chore. I haven’t been riding. :frowning: I edged the Jeep over a little bit, and Wifey, RN is going to help out at a nursing home (or whatever) with her church. I’m thinking I might ride it up to the self-wash after irk and clean it up. I pulled the bike out of the shelter, and fixed the dangling directional indicator that I couldn’t reach while it was in there.

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Does the Iverson Mall in Maryland still exist? I never went there, but their jingle from the old old times is still seared into my brain:

Iverson Mall,
Iverson Mall.
Hop in the buggy and drive her
to Iverson Mall,
Iverson Mall!

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Iverson Mall seems to be closed: no one owns the URL, and when you Google it the “website” link goes to Amazon.

It’s currently raining hard, with thunder and lightning that is likely to continue through 7:00, and I’m leaning toward skipping the work dinner that starts at 5:30. I’ve learned that three of the people most involved – who I also worked with on my previous program, and was looking forward to seeing – won’t be there, because they have to give their oral proposal presentations to senior leadership first thing in the morning and they’re still finalizing/memorizing their scripts. (Why would the PTB schedule a thank-you dinner now, you ask? I’d like to know, too. :roll_eyes: ) This means it would be me and a bunch of senior business development types, none of whom I’m that keen to socialize with. Between that and the storm, I’m simply not sure the ROI would be enough to justify going. I have ~35 minutes to decide – that’s when I’d need to start getting changed – but Fancy Work Dinner’s odds aren’t looking good. :wink:

EDIT/UPDATE: Yeah, I’m not going. :grin:

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[Album] imgur.com

Happy gotcha day! Her name from the spca is Peach, don’t know if that’ll stick. She’s also a ice cube lover. So far has cronched 3. Also busily exploring the house.

Dunno why the image is scrunched, if you click through it looks better…well the dog look better, but then you can see I need to clean my woodwork.

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As for the immigration question, My father’s side of the family is from County Mayo in Ireland The first to come here was my great uncle . The minute he got off the boat he ended up as a mercenary in the Civil War. If you were wealthy and your son was drafted to the army it was possible to hire someone to fight it your son’s place. He went on to work on building the cross country rail road. My grandfather came here at the turn of the century.

On my mother’s side my grandmother was German and Swiss. My grandfather was Amish. I don’t really know much about that side of the family. My mother converted to Catholicism when she married my father (in 1937) and the relationship between my mom and her mom was strained after that.

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(((@TokyoBayer )))

A belated congrats to Jack for all three achievements, good job!

The only reason I noticed was because you said something, I was too overcome by her cuteness! Congratulations, I hope you have many happy years together.

I am jealous, we got no rain at all. A big storm like that wouldn’t be safe for driving, I’m glad you choose to stay home.

I’m also on that list. Sometimes I’ll remember fragments but they all vanish before I’ve finished making my first cup of coffee.

Are you not able to leave the windows open while you are gone, or is that unsafe? I’m sure your fuzzbutts will be fine, they were desert cats first.

Dang about missing the top secret stuff, do you have someone who might share the high points with you?

Seeing as how we didn’t get to see any magic sky water fall, we thought we should go out to a lake and look at water there. I had seen a barn with a hex sign last time we were out that way, but it was late and both of us needed to pee so we didn’t stop. I looked for it today but couldn’t find it.

Hubs turned around and went back so I could look again, but he’s learned better than to listen to me when I’m giving directions. I think I couldn’t see it because its summer, I’ll go back after the leaves drop and I can see more than five feet in either direction.

We saw some deer, a few turkeys, a turkey buzzard - that was a surprise, I thought they were desert birds - a weasel of some sort, a box turtle, squirrels, a fancy white egret and a couple of big (at least 4 ft tall) cranes. No ducks or geese in the lake which surprised me.

We looped around the back way and did come across a couple of hex signs.

Imgur

This one wasn’t on a barn, but there was an old barn behind it. This looked like a feed shed, but was closer to the road.

Imgur

Its interesting, the buildings are always falling down and the hex signs look like they get painted twice a year.

We had a late lunch at Dairy Delight and bought home sundaes to have for dinner. What? Dairy, vegetables, fruit and grain (I got a strawberry shortcake), can’t get much healthier than that.

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Howdy Y’all! We procured and stowed provisions. The sun was out so we had about a hour and a half of quality cee-mint pond time before we heard thunder. First time in a couple of weeks we got to do that. A storm went around us. Now it sounds like another could be brewin’. We also accomplished nappage, day drinkin’ and sup. Chillax time now commences.

VanGo what a sweetie! Love those ears!

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Cutie!

Only one grandparent born here. English wasn’t a first language for any of them. My maternal grandparents were the only ones who married in the same language group, so my mother and her siblings learned English when they got to school. I’m the only one who is literate or somewhat conversational in an ancestral language.

In the us, they say first the language is lost, then religion, then customs, food lasts the longest.

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And a good late afternoon to all. Dishes have completed washing and will get put away in a little bit, exercised the morning calories away and have already started adding new ones (two White Castles and a Little Debbie mini-apple pie). In a couple hours I’ll fix myself a genuine Chee-burger for dinner. Rain stopped about 1pm and while it remains cloudy it has not resumed. Back to working on soccer stuff, I have all the coaches i need, now I have to make up the soccer teams and try to balance them out.

Fascinating. That’s about as far back as you can get. And hope the dog park looks nice.

Dicey, glad you made it to wherever you are, I’ve had those 18+ hour days…

FCM, Poland in the 18th-19th century was not a great place to live…it had gotten divided up between Prussia (Germany), Austria-Hungary, and Russia and didn’t become an independent state again until 1918. So yeah, America had to be looking pretty good…

Oopsie, great Ewok, will go well with your other Star wars works. And concur with skipping the dinner, since the people you would like to see the most won’t apparentlybe there.

flyboy, happy biking…all mine is at the gym and while I cover many miles I don’t go anywhere…

VanGo, yeah, thought that picture looked odd…but it was fine when clicked and I hope you and Peach (or whatever name you choose) give each other much pleasure and happiness over many years…

JtC, lovely photos, never noticed them much when I was young, may have to get out rambling and see if I can find some in Ali-bama…

And that’s all for now.

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Except, oddly enough only my paternal grandfather and one brother emigrated. Two other brothers and five sisters stayed in Poland. (I’m not sure about my mom’s ancestors - no one on that side of the family did any research.) My cousin Dottie found out all about our mutual grandfather’s family and has been back to Poland twice to visit our distant cousins.

We got a little bit of rain and heard some distant rumbles. Mostly today was overcast and mega-humid. The landscape guy took some measurements and some photos and he said he’d email some proposals in a few days. It’ll be interesting to see what he suggests and what it’ll cost us if we go with them. I’m not too optimistic…

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LOL! Grossi wouldn’t have said shit in English if she’d had a mouthful of it, but she used to call us kids shitepokes (shit bag) when were little turds or dummerassle (dumb ass) (sp?) when we pulled a bonehead move. The words made sense once a German coworker translated them for me as an adult. :stuck_out_tongue:

Cute!

The roadside stands around here usually have a Cajun spice offering that’s good.

Happy gotcha day! She may have to begin training to challenge Nelson and Spot in ice cube hockey.(Goals are the ones that go under the fridge or baker’s rack).

Where my granddad and his parents emigrated from was, at times, in Poland, Ukraine or Russia, depending on who was the last invader. My BIL’s parents and older sibs emigrated from Ukraine, but were ethnically Polish. My other BIL’s father emigrated from Mexico as a guest worker during the second world war.

We got some rain here early this morning and again around noon.

The neighbors across the fence picked up the washer, dryer, vacuum, air mattress and ironing board. Yay! The lady doesn’t speak much English, so between that and my limited Spanish, I know that she was very happy to get them. :slight_smile: It works for me too since I would have been charged had I left them for the apartment complex to dispose of. I also found out where some of those socks that struck out on their own went. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I made (and ate) blondies for the first time in my life. Never even heard of them. My wife expressed a yearning for them, so I looked up a recipe. Very simple to make and dang, if they ain’t mighty tasty.

The road project is now up to grade, and the they’ve started laying down the curbing. Paving can’t be far behind! It was interesting to watch a surveyor doing his thing. I used to work on a surveying crew in the mid 60s during summer break from college and things sure have changed.

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I have discovered, or perhaps Peach did, that she can get through the fence in the back yard. Will need to fix that. I’m not used to having a dog this smol.

She’s mostly just leaning on my leg, the big outdoors is a lot.

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I didn’t ride down to the self-wash. I ran the dishwasher today, and the slow-cooker crock and lid were in it. I decided I’d try to get the burnt-on residue off of/out of the base unit. It’s… better than it was. But Dawn, Barkeeper’s Friend, vinegar, and 409 all failed to get it all off.

The Spousal Unit can no longer tolerate spicy food. I can’t remember the last time I made Cajun salmon. :frowning:

I’ve never heard of them either. White brownies. I won’t eat them, but maybe I’ll make some for The Missus sometime.

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Cute smol doggo! More pix, plz.

I’m daring to drain the hot water heater. Online instructions aren’t more than generally useful. I did manage to shut off the gas, cool the hot, open a hot faucet to release the air, and run a hose out. At first it gave me little more thsn a trickle; now it’s flowing okay (after I fiddled with the cold intake and the valve at the hose some more). I guess my next step after it runs out is to give it a couple of punctuated glugs from the cold valve to stir up and flush sediment, close the valve, detach the hose, mumble mumble the cold water and the open faucet, see if the pilot is still on or whether my DIY has borked it and I need to remove a panel to relight it. This is a 19-year old water heater, so I mighta done better to pay $1800 and replace it.

ETA: The sour smell of agri-slurry fertilizer out in the county is complicating sniffing for natural gas.

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I hope you’ll don’t kick me out of here for not keeping up.

This has been much harder to watch my friend than when my aunt died.

My friend is younger than me, two of his kids are the same age as mine and he has one two years younger.

I’m helping on the project turning on old house into a store so his wife can sell wagashi Japanese sweets, but what if it doesn’t go well?

I know that’s I can’t do anything about it and I’m swamped with my own stuff, but dammit, life sucks sometimes.

It’s Obon , the Japanese holiday when ghosts can return. My friend’s project is on hold until next Tuesday or Wednesday or I’ve got more time for my project.

Yesterday I went and attacked the old bathroom. It looks like there is a 1/2 inch concrete shell in the wall that they used to attach the panels and tiles.

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So we have determined that fetch squeeky tennis ball and ice cubes are some of the best things for young miss dog. Also, my house is one of these where you can run a circle around the stairs…way fun for a young pup. Except she can’t make the corner on the area rug in the kitchen-it slides.

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…which is way fun for you? :grin:

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Sort of, but the brown sugar and the heavy dose of butter gives it a caramelized flavor.