(Old, or maybe we mean Aulde) Happy Christmas MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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My turnip greens are now wrapped in a dishtowel in the fridge waiting for new years. I picked up a small turnip to dice up into the pot too.

Kroger was holiday weekend crazy today. Most of those folks would be killed inside of an hour if they worked in a warehouse, they’re that spatially unaware. Then when I went to put my buggy in the carrel, a guy came up to me wanting gas money for his mama, who was over at AutoZone (same shopping center as Kroger). When I told him no, he called me a rude b****. Oh, well. What does he expect when very few people carry cash?

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Howdy Y’all! Stuff got did and we were bears who brunch. Then it was back to da cave for the rest of the day. 'Tis chilly out, so it was good to be inside and warm.

Hippie glad things are goin’ relatively well for ya.

Cookie hope Mrs. Cookie is feelin’ better soonest.

BooFae yay for first class travel and gettin’ home sooner than planned.

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I think we’re good to go for our cruise. I’ve printed out everything, made a copy of our passports and took pics of the passports on my phone, booked 2 excursions, and downloaded the latest app on our phones and my tablet.

We’re going on a catamaran in the Beagle Channel and with luck, we’ll see penguins at their rookery, among other things - it’s a 5-hour trip. And I booked the bus tour at the end of the cruise so we’ll get to see Buenos Aires and we’ll be dumped at the airport at the end. It’ll still leave us sitting there for about 6 hours, but it beats 15 or 16 hours. I also ordered FCD’s beverage package and my internet package. We talked about the package upgrade, but it would have cost about $850 more and it included stuff that really didn’t interest us - like 2 free fitness classes, 2 dinners in the premium restaurants aboard, and the unlimited juice bar.

I also found out the cruise is sold out, so we won’t be getting a cabin upgrade, which is fine. We’ve still got our balcony on the 10th deck. We just have to survive the plane trip. Oh, and I need to confirm our rental car. We’re doing one-way rentals from here to BWI, then from DCA back home. I booked thru priceline - never used them before so I’ll be calling the place here about a week ahead of time to be sure we get wheels. Being a Thursday, there’s no one to give us a ride and UBER would be considerably more than the rental. I’m not as concerned about getting a car at the airport when we return - it’ll be a Tuesday unrelated to any holiday, so the demand shouldn’t be stoopit bad.

So it remains to figure out how to limit 16+ days of clothing to 50# and a carry-on. Luckily, the ship has coin washer on our deck.

And three weeks from today, we’ll be spending the night in Santiago, Chile.

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I had a Vegemite-and-cheddar sandwich for breakfast. I thought about thawing some shrimp before my walk for shrimp cocktails in the early-afternoon, but I decided to wait. When I got home I thought I might have some ‘crab’ salad. I got distracted though, and didn’t. I had to have a shower and a shave. Suddenly it was 16:00 and I had to give the cats their gooshy food. I realised I was rather hungry, not having eaten since the sanger. We decided to go to Speakeasy, but they were having a private party so we went upstairs to Gateway 1890. I had the chorizo-and-jalapeño cheeseburger that was their ‘special’ (with a salad instead of fries), and a Tom Collins. Mrs. L.A. had fish & chips and a Dark & Stormy. She surprised me by paying for dinner. :slight_smile: I’m sure she made the waitress’s night too, because she left a $20 tip on a $60 bill. She wasn’t going to take the ‘sidewinder fries’ and the half-piece of fish she didn’t eat, but the waitress had brought more tartar sauce. Wifey asked for a box and got one… then forgot to take the leftovers with her.

Houseboat (1958) with Cary Grant and Sophia Loren is playing on TCM now.

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Sounds like a picture of contented and comfortable domestic tranquility. As it should be.

I’ve had a lazy afternoon once home from lunch & groc-wars.

Dinner was more leftovers from the food we’d bought or made while we had visitors. So bagged salad, an Italian-style herbed dressing, and cold dry-rubbed pork ribs. Plus a bit of Christmas-themed chocolates for dessert. After dinner a good-sized helping of Yamazaki scotch was had.

As is typical of any party-hosting situation rather more was bought or made than was eaten first-run. So now the two of us are trying to kill leftovers and overboughts for about 5 adult-equivalent eaters. Helpfully we also left a bunch of the kid-friendly food with Daughter.

Approaching bedtime here. G’night all.

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Happy Friday!

It was nice out today, but I overslept this morning. No dog park, and actually never went outside.
I went to bed shortly after 8 last night and slept through until almost 730. I only got up then because my dogs heard the neighbor’s dogs outside and wanted to go out.

Closing went well yesterday. It was just us, the buyer closed today. Which also went well.
I cancelled my home owners’ insurance and the service plan on the furnace and a/c. Updated my address with the mortgage company. Got the electric out of my name. Other than being on hold for half an hour with the electric company, everything went smoothly.
Then I had to deal with the gas company. Phone calls wouldn’t go through, and I got halfway through updating the info online and that wouldn’t go through. Several hours later I tried again and everything went through. They told me the buyer had already updated the info, so I wonder if I was trying to update at the same time she was.
I have a $500+ credit with the gas company, so I should get a nice refund from them.

I should get the check tomorrow. If so, I hope in time to go to the bank. I need to go for some other things, like ordering a new debit card since mine was compromised.

We never took the armoire out of the basement. If the buyer complains, we’ll figure out something, if we have to take a saw to it. My son remembered today that he forgot to grab the towel out of the bathroom. I really like the set it belongs to, but whatever. It matches the bathroom over there and not the one here.

Richard was up from TN yesterday. He stopped by the house to drop off the key to the old house, but nobody was home. He asked me why the garage door was open and I said it was because it was raining. It’s like he totally forgot he was supposed to look at it while he is up here. He was supposed to do some other stuff too, but they were just here to pick up furniture and head back down to TN. I guess he and V made up, because he is staying down there with her now.
Now I don’t have to feel bad about replacing the stairs in the house. He is so proud of the job he did, but I don’t like them and want them replaced. They fan out as they go down and take up too much floor space, and everybody trips on the LR stairs. Even when we tell them to be careful.
There is something deceptive about them, they need to go.

My son needs to clear out the garage so I can park on either side. The other door doesn’t get stuck when it rains.
We have a lot to do, but the pressure is off now.
Now I can focus on me for a bit.
The doctor suggested meditation and/or yoga. I have got to get my stress under control.
I usually fall asleep if I meditate, and my balance is way too bad for yoga.
We’ll see what works.

I hope everybody feeling poorly feels better soon. There is some nasty stuff going around.

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Hooray for the sale completing. Your burdens get lighter by the day!

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We’re watching Father Goose (1964) now. Mrs. L.A. doesn’t like it, but it’s one of my favourite movies. If I were to schedule a double-feature, it would be Father Goose with Operation Petticoat. The latter was one of my father’s favourite films (especially the scene where the guy rides the motorcycle off the pier). But I still prefer Father Goose.

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HA!

You’re adorable. Bless your heart.

I have the email address for who I hope is still my landlady. She is (was? I truly hope still is) both the property owner AND an employee of the management company.

I think my next step is to write an email to her that I hope comes across as stern but polite, cuz I am through with this bullshit.

Guessing, “Yo, bitch, like seriously, what the FUCK is going on?!” probably doesn’t strike the right tone.

Anyone else feel like giving it a whirl?

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Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave. Then it’s a 2 day weekend! Spot is currently doing the 0230 Screaming Tuxedo Zoomies.

I actually have that one.

They do a quick one here at my place.

It does have a certain charm, though.

Looks like me with a potato chip bag.

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If it was possible to race cats, the way you can train greyhounds and Thoroughbred horses to run a race … can you imagine?

Your handsome tuxie, vs. my golden-eyed demon …

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Okay, that was funny. Thanks.

However, if you take out “bitch,” (since it was a dude) you pretty much have exactly what I said to Inspector The First. In my bathrobe. In my driveway. At 9 a.m. (Which I get to most of y’all is practically lunchtime, but is the middle of the night as far as my sleep is concerned).

I’m so beyond done being angry about this stoopit tree. And this stoopit inspection.

But there’s still this stoopit tree, just, yanno, hangin’ round.

And I guess I gotta get a hold of someone competent at management, to find out what’s up with inspection.

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Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 35 Amurrkin out and partly cloudy with a predicted high of 55 and mostly N.O.S. for the day. A typical Winter’s day for here. I was a slugabed until seven a.m.! No plans to leave da cave today. Nuttin’ we need or want to do, so sloth, general overall uselessness, nappage, day drinkin’ and other non-productive things shall fill the day. Sup shall be leftover prime rib soup with that good crunchy bread we bought from the Pubic sto’. My DAWGS play Flarhduh State in the Orange Bowl at four p.m., so that will be watched.

sari yay for closin’ on the old house. One more thing out of the way for you!

shoe hope you can get an answer re what’s goin’ on soonest.

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.

Happy Sattidy Y’all!

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FCD still has Teh Sick - I closed the east-facing curtains in our room when I got up, hoping it’ll stay dark and he’ll stay in bed. For some unknown reason, he won’t get into retired mode, thinking if he sleeps in, he’s wasting time. Not sure what time he thinks he’s wasting, but he can’t let go. Same thing during the day - he might be tired, but he won’t go nap. I keep reminding him we’re retired but it doesn’t seem to work. The man needs slothing lessons. Maybe our time on the ship will help him chill.

Our little warm-ish spell is over. The next week promises highs in the 40s and sub-freezing nights. but if the looooooong range forecast to Jan 18th is to be believed, we’ll have good weather both here and in Dallas to start the trip to the southern hemisphere. That (and plague) should be the last thing I have to worry about regarding our trip. Well, that and packing.

As for today, I think I’ll spend some time messing with my house plants and finally getting the coleus cuttings into dirt. I want to run the carpet shampooer, but I don’t - that is, the carpets need a good cleaning and without the kidlets around, I should be able to deal with it easily, but the thought of moving furniture and living in disarray for several days in a row as I clean my way from room to room… not appealing! Something will distract me today.

Maybe I’ll clean the fridge - I’m sure there are surprises lurking in the back!

Happy Saturday!

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Afternoon, mumpers! I’m back in my correct location and time zone :slight_smile: It’s currently 10c/50f with a predicted high of 11c/51f and cloudy. Weather app sees “Loitering fucking clouds.” It may have rained a bit too, the road outside looks wet but there’s no skywater coming down just now.

We got home safely last night, fed the cats and cleaned litter trays, then 'im indoors decided he needed to faff with his computer while I was unpacking and putting stuff away. He can unpack his own stuff when he feels like it, it usually takes him a few days to do that. I’ll put some laundry on later, and the carpets need to be roll-sucked as the cats do manage to track bits of litter around on their furry feet.

Watched a film, had a glass of wine, and went to bed around 2am. I didn’t sleep too badly and was awake at a sensible time. There were cats on the bed demanding fuss so they got what they wanted, and then I got up to have a shower and get my hair washed. So far this morning, I’ve done feline bums and tums, sheveled, had several cups of tea, updated my accounts so my 2024 spreadsheet is ready, paid my credit card bill (delightfully low, although due to a couple of cancelled events that got refunded), added a gift card to my amazon account, and sent a balance payment to the cat sitter for her visits.

We are heading off to the supermarket although we’re going to our usual one which is the opposite direction to the big fancy one closest to town. Hopefully ours will be quieter and we can pick up the essentials. Our usual grocery day is Tuesday so we’re slightly off the schedule. Plans are to stock up for a couple of days, and do the usual stuff on Tuesday again so really we’re just buying stuff to tide us over. I have bread, milk, eggs and a ton of cat food but no proper “people food”.

shoe I used to get annual inspections on my rental flat, have to say that the agency was pretty crap too. The boiler broke and despite three reports to them, they failed to do anything. Luckily I had a number for the flat owners, rang them and asked if they could hassle the agency for me instead. The husband was mortified that I’d been without hot water for days, came over straight away, diagnosed and fixed it. I’m hoping he also had stern words with the agents. Mostly they wanted to see that I wasn’t running a cannabis farm and hadn’t trashed the place.

hippie so glad to hear that the surgery went so well, and recovery is successful too. Long may it contine!

Mooooom sorry to hear that FCD has Teh Sick and will not give in to retirement mode. Does he need lessons from Swampy on how to be a proper retired drain on society? I hope the cruise gives him a chance to take advantage of some slothage.

flyboy hope the ankle injury gets better soon, perhaps it just means you need to take a bit more rest. Sign up for Swampy’s sloth academy!

So my plan for today is doing battle with the old dears at the supermarket. Then laundry and roll-suckage when we return. Lunch, followed by slothage. Not sure who’s cooking tonight, we have a couple of plans but we’ll see what happens when we have shopped. And at some point, we have xmas presents to open :slight_smile:

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FCM: I’m sorry FCD is feeling crap. I gotta say there’s a certain pot-kettle-black humor in you of all people beefing about somebody else needing slothing lessons. You do more in an afternoon than I do in 2 weeks. And I’m a rank beginner at this retired drain gig.

Shoe I’m sorry this is all so damned hard. Stay healthy and stay unworried about the stoopit landlord / management company. They’ll solve their problems when they become a problem for them. Not your job to be on tenterhooks the whole time.

And a belated shout-out to Hippie for being home, recovering well, and mostly no pain. It’s the trifecta of success!


As to me:
Slept in to sunrise and now ~90 minutes later I’m mostly caffeinated. A dry, gray, and cold by our standards day: presently 56/13 allegedly on the way up to 68/20 but I have my doubts. They’re advertising clear and similarly cool on Sun / Mon so at least we’ll have light, if not actual warmth.

My ambition-o-meter for today is real close to zero. I need a mini-groc run, a car wash, and that’s about it. Considered morning golf but wasn’t up and moving quite early enough to have it make sense plus just a bit too cool to be fun. Besides I haz teh Lazee.

Ooh, ooh, I just remembered. Must share!

Unexpectedly Her Ladyship came up with actual physical Xmas gifts for Son, Fiancée, Herself, and me. Fuzzy lap blankets for couch or recliner use. Son and Fiancée live in snow country, so fairly sensible for them. At first I thought that was sorta silly for around here, but damn does a thick fake fleece blanket make living more pleasant in this over-airconditioned icebox she demands. Hooray for a gift that’s actually gonna get used daily! Which of course contains an extra duty too: it must be refolded neatly when not in use, not merely piled into the seat of my chair. And especially not draped over the ottoman and dragging the floor. Especially not that. Sigh.

Cheers all!

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Mornin’ everyone.

It’s 47F, dark and cloudy outside. The high temp will be 53F, and we’ll have occasional rain this afternoon. In other words, a continuation of soggyness. Even though it hasn’t rained a lot in the last couple of days, everything is constantly wet, and my back lawn squishes when you walk on it.

In climate-related news, they are now saying we’re probably going to have a Super El Nino through January, which means warmer and drier weather overall here in the PNW. That’s not good for our snowpack, and it seems the ski resorts are struggling a bit. We get the occasional mad storm through the passes and whatnot, but it’s not enough to ensure a good base layer for skiing and snowboarding. Also, we just need a good snowpack so we don’t have a drought this year. The state’s eastern side never got out of drought status last year, so this is worrisome. We have a lot of agriculture on the east side of the state. Also, if the drier and warmer temps continue through the spring and summer, the wildfire season will also worsen.

Yesterday was mainly devoted to the pups. There was much cuddling, playing, and outside time. Geeze, those two poop A LOT, so I’m constantly picking up poo in the yard too. I also made the stock for my prime rib soup and a batch of soup. I’ll need to make up a separate batch of soup for my son and stick it in the freezer for him. He loves this soup and I think he looks forward to it more than I do, lol!

FCM, I’m sorry FCD has the crud. I hope he starts feeling better soonest.

boofae, I’m glad you made it home and in style! I’ve never been upgraded to first-class anything. The best upgrade I ever got was a seat on the emergency exit row which had more leg room.

shoe, I am all :rage: for you. The management company is completely unprofessional and incompetent.

flyboy, I’m sorry about your ankle. I hope it heals soon. I did something to my knee on the stairs a few weeks ago and it’s still screwed up, although it’s a little better.

sari, one more thing off the list! Yay!

hippie, I’m so glad the surgery went well, and you’re home. I hope the recovery is smooth.

I think I’ll work on taking down Christmas today. Maybe some laundry too. That’s about it.

Take care everyone.

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That’s only because I don’t bother posting about the hours I spend planted in my recliner with my tablet in hand! Trust me, I can sloth with the best of 'em. But not with a sink full of dirty dishes!

It’s closing in on 9AM and FCD is still abed! Huzzah!! I’m going to mosey over to the aforementioned recliner and read for a while.Dirty dishes be damned!!! :rofl:

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That’s the spirit! :rofl:

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Damned dishes be dirty! :angry: