Mrs. L.A.'s late Christmas present just arrived; a tester of Chanel No. 5 Eau de Parfum. We saw a commercial on the 22nd, and she said she’d always wondered what it smells like. So I got her some.
She says it smells like soap. She likes it well enough, but she says it just smells like soap. She says she’ll wear it. She asked how much it cost. I tried not to tell her, but she insisted.
Anyway, now she knows.
Welp: our company cancelled (sick dog), so now I have to come up with something to do with the shellfish. I think some variation on moules Provençale may be best, perhaps served with pasta. Sigh.
Started Typing: 12:52 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 1:51 PM ET
I went to bed on the early side and woke up on the late side, and I think that compensated for the coughing fit I had in the middle of the night. I didn’t sleep well, but I think I managed to sleep enough. Today I’m definitely still sick, but I’d say that I’m better than yesterday: I’m congested and have mini coughing/sneezing fits, but I can actually breathe through my nose!
Unless I get worse this afternoon, I’ll be up driving to MD in a few hours and meeting some old friends for dinner (we only get together once a year; two of them live in HI). I thought about giving them all a heads up, in case anyone would prefer that I stay home, but (a) I know that none of them would say so, and (b) we’ve never warned each other about colds, etc., before. So I just won’t hug anyone, and I’ll sit at the end of the table instead of next to anyone. We’re meeting at 6pm, and I’ll probably leave around 4:30 even though it’s only 42 miles away. Going north on a Friday at rush hour is always bad: Google currently says 1 hr 5 min, and I know it will only get worse…my only hope is that maybe a lot of folks took today off. 
Yesterday I did most of my inside undecorating. The holiday crystals are all back in their boxes/behind their calendar doors, the knickknacks are put away, and the holiday Lego sets have been disassembled and bagged. There’s an empty ornament tree and storage boxes still hanging out in the living room: they’ll stay put until I take down the front door decor and outside lights sometime this weekend. With all of the crystals and knickknacks put away I was able to move The White House from the kitchen table to its intended display location, and I also built the tiny Lincoln Memorial (it took less than an hour):
I’ll start the Capitol Building tomorrow; it’ll go next to the WH. 
I have no plans this weekend, and am really hoping to kick the worst of this cold by Monday: I have things to do/places to go next week!!
Man, one downside to waking up late is that the day just flies by…I can’t believe it’s after 1:30 already! Time to get some replies done, then have lunch (leftover pizza) and maybe take a nap before I shower and head north.
Booo!
But hopefully you meant “dehumidifier”…? If not, there’s part of your problem. 
Yay!
Let us know if you ever figure out something to do with the set! I have my mom’s Wedgwood tea set and no idea what to do with it. I’d thought about Replacements until you mentioned your very meh experience with them. If I ever have a big dining room with a china cabinet I’d be happy to display the set, but I’d also be happy to get rid of it.
!
Now I’m also glad to just have a head cold! (Yay for perspective!!)
Speaking of odours, as I was, Mrs. L.A. checked the price of Fendi – her favourite perfume. Almost $600 for the same size I got her as a gift a decade or so ago. 
I paid about half that! (And she used to get it for a dollar at the Dollar Store when she lived in Tennessee!) She said ‘It wasn’t even perfume. It was the eau de toilette.’ (I don’t know what the difference is.) She’d bought me some Fendi Uomo a long time ago, and I’ve had the bottle sitting on a shelf so I might be reminded what it smelled like. I thought it was empty, but there are actually a couple of ml left in it. Looks like the only way to get it now is ‘pre-owned’.
In other news, I’ve had some REI rewards burning a hole in my virtual wallet, and I wanted to use it before they expired. I thought I had $100, and I was going to drive to town today to look for some new Keen hiking shoes. I ordered a pair for $155. When I checked out, the amount due was zero. Seems I had $175 in rewards. Score! (And I’ll earn $15.50 rewards for the purchase.) They should be here on the 9th.
Not completely better. Cough still, fever and too weak to go anywhere
I don’t know how you folks can keep track of all the things to comment on. After forgetting several, I pulled out a note pad to write things down.
Sticks and Scones–If you get a tattoo of an urn, maybe the tat artist can get an urn income credit.
Well, it’s about 46 degrees F here, and I’m listening to Science Friday on the radio.I went to the doc-in-a-box again for my ear. It doesn’t hurt, but I can’t hear at all on that side. He gave me a different antibiotic in pills and ear drops.
Well, I’m back.
Started out early and only made one stop along the way so a fairly quick, if exhausting trip. Rain in Illinois when I left and rain in Ali-bama when I arrived but Kentucky and Tennessee were mostly clear (even saw the sun for a little bit), but traffic around Nashville was slow and crowded, so took a bit longer to get home.
See I’ve missed 52 messages plus others I haven’t responded to, so need to read and react to those…or not, pretty tired right now. But the house is still standing, it is getting warmer as I type, and my bladder made it home (barely) without embarrassment.
Flygirl figured out how to operate her new drone. It took a bit of setup and watching videos, plus a couple of inputs from me; but she can take off, maneuver, and make it auto-land. She said she can use the auto-return too, but she didn’t show me. (I was in the bathroom urinating when she took it out.) She’s decided that’s enough for right now. She was certainly more successful than the cheapest drone she could find a couple of years ago. She was never able to fly that one. In looking for instructions, she found the MSRP, so I had to tell her what I paid for it. While the MSRP was $50 more than Amazon, apparently they have a 30% discount. I should have bought it there. Anyway, she seems happy.
I’m not sure if I felt weak when I went out ( to get cough suppressant, its been all day) because I’m not well or that I only had a slice of bread with cream cheese.
Just had a small can of beans, I swear they soaked them in sugar but it says 3 grams.
OK, for that, you go sit in Time Out. You should be ashamed!!! 
Laundry is done. And the meds/linen closet has been purged and organized. There were 7 bottles of shampoo and/or conditioner that belonged to MIL - all mostly full. All have scents, so all have been tossed. I hated to do it, but I don’t like the scents and Daughter didn’t want any. There are now 5 bins full of mostly related items - three of them are band aids/bandages/tapes. I didn’t have the motivation to sort and toss, so that’s a chore for another day. We had 3 BP machines, but Daughter wanted one, so that’s a 33.33% reduction on that shelf 
FCD wanted Cracker Barrel catfish for lunch, so we won’t be needed supper. And I think I can finally sit down and read for a while - holy crap - it’s after 4!!! Where did my day go??
Remember how I said yesterday was so slow? Apparently everyone miscalculated their last minute Christmas shopping(including a tree) by 2 days. We were slammed all day, both slides were full, and the loaders were still heaving stuff onto the package cars as the drivers were starting them up. Plus a hella lot of torn up packages. I got home after 2:30(I did stop at Teeter and got some frozen tuna steaks for dinner). Spot gave me an earfull and a half. The at least fixed the latest leak while I was out, so I got that going for me. Which is nice.
But I’ve had 2 Mondays
: crosses fingers 
I thought that said patella*. I’d knee-d the recipe if it was.
Maybe I want to pretend I’m Cajun. 
If she criticized a tiny flaw, would that mean she was being tiki-tack?
Laughed out loud when I first read this and laughed again as I just read it again (starting about 170 posts back). Glad your present was perfect.
Bob-B, lovely country and no water to drive into… 
Sounds like a weird planet in a Sci-Fi story… But glad the trip and visit went well.
Coppertone, hope you are feeling better.
Cookie, glad you had a good Xmas day and avoid the sweetness overdose.
More to the South near O’Fallon, but the Alton area is very pretty, I agree. And I had either a basset hound or a bloodhound on my lap most of the last 3 days, so I know how you feel…
rocky, get well soon. You too, Oopsie.
Oopsie*. hope family dinner went well–and I see that it did. Thursday night I took my family out to eat, they picked Oliver Garden and I picked up the bill…at least the menu wasn’t a surprise.
I always tip around 23-25%.
Sticky Buns, thanks for that tale about Music Man; he is a special guy and you obviously love each other a lot. And if they can’t fix it, let me know…
If you were going Chinese, you should have gotten Duck (from the movie A Christmas Story…
nellie, I hope the food they bribed you with was at least tasty… Maybe your Xmas present needs to be noise-cancelling earphones…
JtC, not exactly how you planned to spend Christmas, eh? I remember one Thanksgiving about a week after my niece was born, got a call from Brother and before I could say a word, he said “My baby’s got a hole in her heart and needs surgery.” So he was gone (they were re-locating out of Columbus, OH.) and I had to get Phred the Basset into a kennel on the Eve of Thanksgiving (did it) before following them So Thanksgiving dinner was not much that year. The baby is now a 30 year old woman working in Texas and doing well.
That’s a Mace, IIRC, and will leave a dent if you hit him with it…
VanGo, when I was working in Abu Dhabi I had Christmas alone…albeit it helped that everything was open and it was 80F…
And that just covered Xmas day. Think I’ll make another message for Thorsday.
Well, the paella turned into a fairly lame spaghetti ala vongole. The niece’s dog (one of her five doxies) apparently ate the stuffing out of a chew toy and it clogged up his tubes, so he had to be roto-rooted or something. The wife and I will kill off the king crab leg tomorrow and the shrimp are in the freezer, so no harm done.
See doggio’s quote below. I thought the same thing.
HA!
I’ve been thinking of other ideas. Nothing definite yet.
:snerk:
I went to pick up the disability papers from the psychiatrist today. It’s a good news/bad news scenario. He has found me to have a disabling condition. Unfortunately it’s the same one that the other guy said I didn’t have. I can no longer appeal the old claim, but the thing that I have going for me is that the date that he listed was different than the other doctor had specified. It’s all very confusing and the bottom line is that I am going to have to find a lawyer to see if anything good can come out of it because I was expecting to file for something other than the original claim.
TLDR: UGH!!!
On the bright side, we got my favorite pizza and brought it home with us.
I grew up in Belleville. Any closer?
T
FCM, I really don’t want to step on the scale myself, all the hard exercising I did to get my weight below 200lbs is probably ruined, as I stuffed myself shamelessly. Will try to do better come the New Year. And Tobias and his bodily function discussion must have been..interesting.
{{Coppertone}}. Hope the Docs find nothing too bad.
{{Sticky Buns}}, hope PT can do something for the ankle. And rant away; I don’t need a CPAP but I know people who do and they can be a life-changer.
Oopsie, did the music from the TV show Cops start playing in your head (“bad boys, bad boys, watchya gonna do when they come for you…”). And hope later messages I haven’t read yet will find you feeling better.
nellie, exactly WTF is going on with that upstairs apartment!!! Does you town/city have some sort of housing office you can complain too? And you meet the most interesting people at the bus stop…
Coppertone, hope it isn’t that bird flu that is supposed to be the next crisis disease.
Let them watch Virtual Railfan on You Tube if they like trains…
Sticky Buns, sounds like you’re going to PT one way or another…and for what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing.
I always remember them by this little ditty;
Divorced, beheaded, died;
Divorced, beheaded, survived.
flyboy, hope that wood stack cover stays put this time.
{{{{JtC}}}}, haven’t read the next 50 messages yet, but hope he has come to his senses. But the Doordash thing was nice!
doggio, the water problems never seem to end for us MMP’ers…
And I think I’ve made it to today. Just one more message…
And I’ve made it to today! Only 50 more messages to read…
I’m in a sweatshirt and sweatpants and will be for most of the winter-time I spend at home.
lily, good news on the negative tests! Live it up!
shoe, hope that the back stops twinging.
Coppertone, yay! on the job, hope this works out well for you. Keep getting better.
Sticky Buns, that would be a pretty unique tattoo.
Cupcakes, sounds like a good day.
We are in complete accord.
Just checked my card accounts on-line since I was fairly busy spending money this week, all is as should be.
FCM, that’s way to much work for the day after Xmas!
Herald, hope you had a nice day in the City of Brotherly Love (HA!) even if the visit to her Dad’s was melancholy at best…
Which reminds me, got my brother’s Xmas gift in the mail today; he’s a hidebound Lutheran so I got him a T-shirt with a portrait of Martin Luther on it and the words “Nailed It” (and you can google if you don’t get the double meaning…). So I need to package and mail that to him.
Oopsie, glad you are doing better. Hope dinner goes well. And not bad on the D.C. Legos…wonder if they would do a Smithsonian collection…
It’s in French, hence three times more pricey because…French. Enjoy the free shoes.
For me, lots and lots of scrolling… Hope your ear clears up, I think ne of my hearing aids isn’t working, need to see the ENT office on Monday.
flyboy, given this day and age, hope her drone doesn’t get shot down…
Cookie,
Couldn’t help it, laughed out loud at that…
Sticky Buns, hope something can be done with the new paperwork.
Close enough but they are private folks and would have a fit if they found out I’ve said this much.
AND BY DAMN I"VE CAUGHT UP! See how long that lasts… Now need to forage for the evening sustenance. Take care all.
You must’ve just missed the rain then. We had it on and off all day. Glad you made it back, even considering Nashville traffic.
flyboy, concentration-wise, it goes from strongest to lightest, perfume, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, cologne, body spray.
The apartment is clean, laundry done and groceries bought. I’m fixing to mess around in the studio some, then surf some more.
I had coughed all day. So I went and got otc cough suppressant and sleep overtook me like an overcoat.
It worked but I no like being groggy.
It is to be 60 and nice tomorrow.
Ohio! Late December!
Who knew.
The saga continues. Yesterday evening, the TV next door was on loud. Then that stopped, but a man was yelling (not angrily). Just before 11 PM, the music started up again. At least it was a different song this time. I was so frustrated, I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about the poor guy upstairs from them.
This morning, I went to the office. The manage, Rebecca, r was in this time. She said the secretary called her yesterday, and she told the secretary to use Google translate to text the tenant and have them come to the office. Rebecca said she never heard back, so she doubts the tenants showed up. She got several emails complaining, so I guess it’s me and the tenants upstairs and downstairs from Party Central. She sent them a text. And she said if it happens again, call the cops again.
R. also said she texted my upstairs neighbors, but of course, the phone number is for the company renting the apartment, not the people staying there, so I dunno. Maybe the “guests” will leave soon.
OK, rant over.
Today’s agenda includes laundry and phone calls. Such excitement! The washer does a slow cha-cha during the agitator cycle. Maybe I’ll have my own little party.
Question: Does Asknott have a Mumper name yet?
Oh, thank heavens. I thought it was just me.
Cupcake, that’s a lot more than three things.
I’m with you. I don’t like bitter greens. My mom did. She used to cook dandelions and such. (Grew up poor, that was their only food for some meals.) I’ve never understood it.
It’s a disease, BPS (Bad Pun Spasms). It primarily affects men who are fathers, but I’m an outlier. Also an outliar. Help. I can’t stop.
For back pain, the stretch that helps me the most is this one: stand with legs shoulder-width apart, bend over, and just let your upper body hang, totally relaxed. You should feel a light stretching sensation in your lower back. Once your back twinge is gone, you might want to do exercises to strengthen your core. That’s what the PT’s told me, anyway.
MetalMouse, love the Martin Luther shirt! I’m glad you’re back in your own home and can sleep in your own bed again.
I take it you won’t be doing the Washington Monument. That seems like it’d be pretty boring. Does Lego make a Lincoln Memorial kit?
Coppertone, congrats on the job, and my fingers are crossed! I salute your resilience. It’s a great quality to have.
Eau de toilette is made with water from a French toilet. At least, that was my theory when I was a child. I thought France must have some fancy potties.