(Old) Make Me Proud! In the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
261

Sorry I didn’t mean to put a damper on your enthusiasm. If it helps, I haven’t seen the handmaid costume at any of the recent government protests - they were making appearances at reproductive rights protests.

I just want to sit one day and listen to your stories! This sounds… so amazing!

While initially confusing, I actually think that’s brilliant because you know for sure what town you’re heading to.

That does not sound promising… that’s a lot of major issues in a short period of time. I agree moving sucks, but you’ve already been greatly inconvenienced, and if a pipe were to flood your apartment…

The more I’ve thought about my washing machine, the more I’m convinced there’s a clog instead of a frozen drain line. The last time I used the washer was before the freezing temps, so there shouldn’t have been anything in the line to freeze. And nothing else is backing up or draining slowly.

So I’ll sweep and do a few more things to keep putting it off. I’ll see if I can find a youtube video about it also - I don’t have any tools beyond the bare minimum/basic, so I might need to run to the hardware store if I think I can do it myself.

262

I agree 1000%!!! You or someone with some moxie needs to contact the correct governmental entity because the owners don’t seem to blanking care. As I’ve posted before, either the Mayor or the Building and Safety Department or whatever department is responsible for the codes for rental housing. At this point I would suggest going a step farther and contact the media. If one of your tv stations has a team that investigates resident complaints, kind of a Get Action Team, I’d contact them.

OMblankingGosh, and now this:

I truly don’t understand why none of you residents are escalating this to the proper, and perhaps improper, authorities.

Sixteen Mile here in metro Detroit is also called Big Beaver, Quarton and Metropolitan Parkway at various points.

Heck, heck, heck! Our daughter woke up early this morning with vomiting and diarrhea. I feel very bad for her. When she was 4, this happened to me on Holy Saturday so Hubs took her to the Easter egg hunt at my parents’ church and I stayed home using the porcelein throne over and over. I truly thought I was going to die that day. Makes me wonder where the heck she could have gotten the germs. Makes me a little mad that she wasn’t extremely careful. I had to contact my sister and let her know the meetup this afternoon is off. I hope it’s just the flu and not something more serious. Maybe it was something she ate. Gosh darn it, gosh darn it, gosh darn it.

I wouldn’t have said anything about this to my sister this afternoon if we had actually gotten together (all 3 of my siblings went to the Other School). The Michigan State Spartans went into Crisler arena and triumphed over the piss colored Wolverines 75-62! Yay! Green went and White went!!!

263

I can’t speak for other residents here, but I’m sure that some of the more vocal ones are letting their frustration be known. Also, see my references to state law, etc. above. We plan to beard the lion in her den on Monday and let her weigh the cost of replacing the heating system against the cost of losing $40-$50K in rent per unit each year.

264

Calling all sewing machine experts!! Hippie, this means you, especially!!

I’ve got a Singer HD6380M - HD as in Heavy Duty. It worked fine, but all of a sudden, it doesn’t. Not only does it seem to have issues with piercing some heavier fabrics (I was trying to sew velcro on a fleece sleeve hem) but the thread seems to jam and break, regardless of the tension setting. I’ve re-threaded it, I’ve changed the needle, I’ve checked to see that the thread isn’t catching on other parts of the machine, I’ve cussed and given it The Look. I took off the cover to see if there’s an obvious place it’s catching on. I’m at a loss.

I’d take it in for repair, but unless they can do it for under $100, I’m inclined to just replace it. Then the question comes, what to replace it with? I had a Viking for years that I loved, but when it died, I was told it wasn’t worth repairing. I’ve got a lot of sewing to do for the boat, so I need a machine that can handle canvas. But I’m not spending $1k+ either. Not at this stage of my life.

What to do, what to do…

265

Update: there is an HVAC contractor’s van in the parking lot, so perhaps we’re going to see something like progress. I’m still going to bell the cat and ask what the prognosis is.

I’m making scalloped potatoes with ham today. Actually, it’s technically potatoes au gratin, as I’m going to shred some 20-year-old cheddar into the mix. I haven’t used my mandolin (a Bron I bought in Paris about three decades ago), so let the slicing begin.

I think the most suicidal traffic I was in was in Cairo. Lane markers are a suggestion and everyone just drives as fast as they can, turning three lanes into six, and even going up on the sidewalks. Also, they don’t turn on their headlights, even at night and especially if it’s raining, and lean on the horn constantly. Lisbon was bad, but it never moved more than about 5mph, so it wasn’t frightening. It used to take us 30 minutes on a good day to get the five miles from the embassy to our apartment.

266

Nashville’s Peachtree is Old Hickory.

My sister says that she knew she was a true Houstonian when she could tell you where every street changed names. :slight_smile:

The main drag that my street empties out onto is Almaville Road when entered from Exit 70 from I24. Should you turn right there, it keeps that name until its terminus. If you turn left, in about .75 miles, Almaville Road turns left to continue and the street becomes Nissan Drive for ~5.5 miles. After that, it becomes Sam Ridley Parkway for ~6 miles until it ends just past I24 Exit 66. Yeah, the math doesn’t add up from the street to the freeway, but the street has quite a dogleg.

Plus, it’s likely locally owned.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and just finishing my morning surf. Today’s plans are to make some veggie broth and sloth.

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

267

Girl Scout cookies for sale in da home! $48 later and we’re cookied up. They have one I haven’t seen before called a Lemonade. Basically shortbread with a mildly lemony frosting. Not bad, but my heart belongs to Samoas, or whatever they call them now.

268

Careful with those things. I once lost the tip of my pinkie finger. I’m now much more cautious about keeping my fingies inside of the slider guard thing.

I installed the protect the horses thing at the museum this am. There’s an exhibition about Leonardo and his art/science. One of the exhibits has a human figurine and a horse figurine. The problem was, the horses are very delicate, and they would get broken every, oh let’s say, third day. So the guy I’m working with ordered some glass, glass, not good in a kid’s museum bell jars to go over them. I came up with a way to fix them to the table. Time consuming stain match to the existing fixtures, but got that solved. Still not convinced that this is the solution, but I’m just starting with these folks. I’d have found polycarbonate globes.

Then went to the temp shop to try to do some boat work, but my back is killing me today. I really can’t be slinging around sheets of plywood when I feel like this. Rest and a heating pad are in order.

269

Afternoon all. Have put gas in my car and cookies in my belly so all is right with the world. Will head out in a little bit to spend 6 hours monitoring soccer at the gym and then locking up behind me. Need to remember to bring everything I need with me early for the whole time there (stuff for the kids mostly–it’s our last game). About 40f outside, so just warm enough to not be freezing but still cold enough to not want to be outside that much.

cookie, hope the HVAC folks can get things working, or at least tell management what is wrong and get it fixed fast.

Cat Glove, hope daughter is doing better, when it’s running at both ends you need to put yourself in bed and stay there, IMHO.

I am reminded of the Michael Panin quote from his Around the Wold in 80 Days travelogue, which as I recall "…it seems the horn is connected to the steering wheel of every car and a hotel request for a quite room is met with an incredulous ‘In Cairo!’…

And time to gather things together for my 6 hour soccer odyssey. Catch y’all tonight.

270

A tune up for my Bernina 335 at the Bernina shop costs about $75.00. I get it done once a year.

Your issue sounds like it would clear up with a routine tune up. They will clear all out the linty fuzzy stuff, adjust and lube the mechanism which will likely resolve your issue.

I am sure you can talk to them about major repairs if needed.

My 335 was $2200.00. There was a refurbished one at the shop Thursday for $700.00.

271

In Memphis TN there are short chunks of streets called “Old Millington Road” all over town. They do not go to MIllington and after a few blocks the name changes

272

That pretty much says it. At one point I asked the Regional Security Officer if it would be okay if I got a bumper sticker that said “Honk if you love Jesus” in Arabic for the back of our truck. He wasn’t amused.

Oh, and the heat is back on. For how long is anybody’s guess.

273

A shot in the dark here….

Is the thread that you’re using new or is it thread that was bought years ago? Old thread can look fine but be prone to breaking, tangling and snagging. New, modern thread can work better than thread that’s been hanging out in our sewing supplies for years.

Thread has improved in quality in recent years. Old thread gets brittle, especially cotton-it may look ok but it’s too old. Some synthetic threads were cheaply made and crappy to begin with. It is also another product where you get what you pay for. You wouldn’t put old, crappy gas into your new high performance car and expect to have good results, right? Same goes for thread. Take your project to a good fabric store, ask what is the best thread for this fabric and this job, than bite the bullet and buy the best $5 spool of the new, fresh, right thread for the job.

Mettler brand thread is what was recommended to me when I got trained on my new Babylock machine last year. It is made in ‘Czech’, according to the spool. It is sold in only a few shops in my town. I got a stater set of 20 colors, 20 spools for about $25 on Amazon. Gutermann is the other brand that was suggested as the next best choice for good results with machine sewing.

It’s hard for an old poor kid like me to discard all the old spools of thread I’ve been hoarding all my adult life but once I started using new, fresh, Mettler thread in my machine it did go better. I actually didn’t throw out my old thread collection-I still use it occasionally to sew on a button or to do a short bit of hand mending if the old thread is a much better color match, but I only use the new, good stuff with my machine.

Forking out $5 for a spool of good thread is much better for me than causing myself $50 worth of frustration and aggravation trying to save some pennies using thread so old it is still on a wooden spool.

274

It was one of those days. It started out with the usual doing 2 slides plus being bounced around between the 100 and 200 tables. But then they started bringing be an ungodly amount of wrecked packages from the Delayed Deliver and No Saturday Service trailers, plus Pink Belt ate a bunch. I had to duck out at 12:30, so I could bring back Dora the (1996 ford)Explorer back so roommie could go to work. Short nap, then hockey watching time.

Needs to be.

One road in Raleigh goes Hardimont-New Hope Church-Buffaloe(not to be confused with Old Buffaloe Rd.), in a 3 mile stretch.

275

I’m not using the decades old threads - those are in my 100+ y/o treadle machine drawers and they’re definitely reserved (and preserved?) for hand stitching. But I’m pretty sure the thread I’m using is no more than a couple-three years old.

Once it’s operational, I hope I’m up to the sewing that needs to be done. None of it is fancy - essentially a bunch of hems, but it’s sunbrella, which is substantial when folded 3 layers thick. We’ll see what the shop in Waldorf says in response to my email.

Potato-ham scallop for supper - haven’t made it in ages - it’ll be a nice change. Yesterday, SIL mentioned he wanted another family dinner, so they’re all coming here on Mar 3 - I’m trying to decide between sketties and meatloaf. Sketties will be easier…

276

Great minds and all that. I’m also making scalloped potatoes and ham, topped with cheddar.

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cookie and FCM Good choice on the scalloped N.O.T. and ham. I did that last weekend.

I’m having cheater jambalaya. Zatarains.

278

You mentioned it upthread, hence my inspiration! :wink: And it was quite good. I use the Better Homes and Gardens recipe as a starting point, but I slice my onions instead of dicing them and I add peas because yum! And their recipe calls for breadcrumbs with butter on top - I used Panko crumbs mixed with shredded cheddar. Very yum!

I ordered a fabric sample for the boat awning - it’s like half the cost of Sunbrella. So for 3 bucks, I can see if I like it or not. But for tonight, chillage. Much chillage.

279

The veggie broth is ready to be strained, cooled and put into the freezer. Other than that, not a whole lot shakin’ today. I did take Nelson out for a ride and to pick a burger up for supper. Now for more sloth.

280

Hey everyone! I’ve been reading today, but mostly it has been a day of high sloth.

I’m still not sure if we are under the boil water advisory but considering what is happening with the flooding (and a mine flood on top of that), I am still boiling our drinking water. Harry came by with a case of bottled water (he went to the fire station and loaded up to hand out to the neighborhood) but we sent him away (with cookies) to deliver it to other folks.

We bought a case a couple of weeks ago and really only use it when we have workers in. No need to take what someone else might need.

There have been many emergency vehicles heading towards Harts, including a couple of trucks with cherry pickers. The snow is melting and the river is rising again.

It is warming up a little, currently its 31F at 1900. All of the snow is out of our yard but I can see some in the forest.

How about the needle?

How long until Carmen is repaired? Hubs finally got around to ordering the switch his car needs (column issue as well) on Monday and it has arrived and will be installed this Monday. I was kinda surprised, he’s in a 2017Sentra, we both thought the part would take much longer to get here.

Does the building management have windows that a hoodlum might be able to hit with a rock (not you, this is something you pay a teenager to do)? If they start getting cold, they might take the issue a little more seriously.

J/k, you aren’t me, you wouldn’t do such a thing and you don’t know any hoodlums.

I know that you are doing as much as you can and I really do hope you don’t have to move. Moving is such a pain and you chose this place because it not only had what you need now, but it also has what you might need later. I really do hope things work out in your favor.

By this time next year, they will be asking you for this sort of advice.

I’m glad you are listening to your body and hope you feel less ouchy tomorrow.

Those are my fav too. I haven’t seen any Girl Scouts around here, but if/when I do, I’ll be stocking up on the Samoas too!

That was key about driving in Asia. Traffic was so bad that you never got moving fast enough to really hurt someone.

NOOOOO!!! Stay far away from that woman!!! I hope she recovers quickly and that she didn’t share it with anyone.

WWII submarines weren’t made for floozying! I left that tour with bruises in strange places, LOL!!!

No damper, I’m kicking up my fuss over reproductive rights as well. I was a floozy for a decade before AIDS happened. Those were some of the best years of my life and the women before me fought to make it possible. I am child-free by choice, I don’t have daughters or granddaughters to worry about, but I still want women to have the freedom I enjoyed.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/8373/text The Right to Contraception was killed before it even got started, but the Federal Abortion Ban is moving right along https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/722

Checking Zillow out is one of my favorite pastimes. I am not a very nice person, LOL!!!