Halloween isn’t a big thing here so no excitement last night.
Things are getting colder here. No snow yet, but soon.
Hokkaido gets snow bugs, or wolly aphids, this time of year. They are horrible this year and annoying. There swarm this time of the year, so they are called snow bugs in Japanese.
The front of my car is black from running through clouds of them.
we had more kids this year at the new place than we had the last 5 or more years at the old
Only had one set of jackasses that broke one of our decorations… but they were sort of provoked by my wasted cousin-in-law love my nephew his parents not so much these days
other than that the usual annoyances I put up with
Now I’m wondering if 1) I can put a bookmark for 10 years in the future and 2) if Straight Dope will still be around.
No idea what we’re going to do when we retire, but we’ll probably end up back in the U.S.
Speaking of the U.S., my parents are arriving today. Then we finally get to do the trip that was originally planned for Fall 2020. Seems a bit unreal that it’s actually happening after all the time spent planning (once for Fall 2020, second time for the actual trip).
Today is one of those gorgeous fall days with bits of blue sky and wonderful fall color. Tomorrow’s forecast is for rain. Typical weather for November, so no surprise. Day after that is mixed clouds, etc. And they might get to see some snow on Saturday.
Just learned today that the local chocolatier has a Chili-Whisky truffle (Glenfarcas and dark chocolate), so I need to buy some of those for my Dad. Fortunately there’s a store at the airport, which will be open today, unlike here. As today is All Saints’ Day, everything’s closed AND I have a day off. Not too shabby.
Way behind on my mumping - I can barely keep up with the reading part.
And my mom just texted they’re in Amsterdam. Just another short flight, a train ride, a bus ride, and they’re HERE! Need to go get ready.
Happy cheap chocolate day, for all who celebrate!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 44 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 59 and N.O.S. for the day. TWPTB are predictin’ a freeze overnight tonight. Then temps get back to upper 70s to lower 80s for highs on the weekend. Weather in these parts be weird. We don’t need large provisions this week, so I think we’ll hit the 
Wally Jr. for the few things we need. Haircuts may or may not happen today. We both need to be shorn, but must find motivation to do so. Also, I still need to gas up twuck. Sup shall be chili 'n fixin’s with cornbread. YUM! We shall not indulge in cheap chawklit day as we do not need to have it in da cave. Plus, see above lack of motivation to actually go on a hunt.
Die yay for parental visit! Hope they have a great time.
Sounds like some of y’all had lots o’ candy beggars. Yay for that.
sensei snowbugs sound a like like our semi-annual love bug infestation. They show up in May and September and are especially bad in the Flahrduh panhandle. They’re called love bugs cause they mate whilst airborne.
Nellie glad you were able to get into your apartment. I am sure a lot of us have had to break in to our abodes at least once in our lives.
CupCakes hope Mauser feels better this mornin’, poor baby. Don’t beat yourself up too bad. Like Nellie said, he won’t blame you.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I suppose a decision should be made whether or not to purtify and don attire acceptable for bein’ amongst the great unwashed. How we retired drains on society suffer sometimes!
Happy Hump Day Y’all! Happy All Saints Day!
Morning, mumpers! It’s 11c/52f with a predicted high of 12c/54f and mostly cloudy. Weather app is unhappy and says “It’s fucking cloudy outside and I don’t fucking like it.” Well, that’s me told! Actually I am looking at a fairly cloudless sky out there and while it’s not sunny, it’s not too shabby either. Today we are expecting the arrival of Storm Ciarán which should be battering us through to the end of the week.
We had no chocolate-beggars last night although I did see a couple of groups of very small kids out with their parents while I was driving to the supermarket.
Fun times in our street though - the house three doors up from us had a board up outside advertising sale at auction. Out of curiosity, we checked it out on t’interwebz to see what the guide price was. 'im indoors contacted the owner (we’re on good terms with him, he has done a few odd jobs at home for us). Turns out he didn’t know anything about it! He is profoundly deaf and finds communication difficult so 'im indoors contacted the auctioneers and explained the problem, thinking they may have put the sign up at the wrong house.
After finding several ways to say “George is not selling his house”, they finally looked into it and are now investigating how an assets company has managed to convince them to auction a house that said assets company doesn’t own!
OMG - it’s 37° in our yard!!! And supposed to drop to freezing tonight!!! It was 66° in the house - I guess I didn’t have the thermostat set high enough on the pellet stove. Dammit. There will be some tweaking of settings today.
Daughter snapped a pic of the kids last night:
Roxy was Elsa from Frozen and Tobias was a turtle, tho everyone called him a Ninja Turtle. He didn’t care - he just wanted suckers!
Exactly what I was thinking. Yet another thing I don’t miss about Floriduh.
Boofae - that’s pretty scary about the “auction” - it’s great you were able to stop it before it happened. What a mess it could have been otherwise!
Coke products are on sale at Food Lion (4/$14 - not the best price evah, but one of the best lately.) I’ll take a look at the rest of the week’s specials and maybe take Tobias for a grocery outing this morning.
Oh yeah, and another in a series (after 2 sets of tires and a dead microwave) - my dryer started making a gawd-awful noise yesterday - like something grinding against the drum. It kept working, so I was able to finish my laundry, but this weekend, FCD and I will open it up and try to figure out what’s going on. I don’t want to have to buy a new one - we’ve already replaced 3 in the 19 years we’ve been here. Tho to be fair, the first one was avocado, so probably a relic from the 70s… Anyway, we’ve got that going for us. Dammit.
And so beginneth November. Happy Wednesday!
Speaking of T-or-T - I was surprised by the number of parents literally driving their kids from house to house. We were in a townhouse neighborhood of 60-ish homes. Compact - not spread out at all. The kind of place where one could be dropped off at the entrance and be back within 20 minutes if one didn’t dawdle. But, no, in and out of cars, creating potential danger for those who were walking.
Seriously???
Happy Wednesday everyone. After dire warnings of “HARD FREEZE” and wild gesticulations by the weather guy in front of pretty colored maps – it got down to 32F this morning. That’s it. I expected to see orange snow cats rescuing people on my street or something. At this point I won’t believe there’s a real threat unless the weatherman sets his hair on fire. Although I must admit it has been entertaining. His warnings about high winds snatching unsuspecting Chihuahuas was definitely a high point (Seriously, he warned Chihuahua owners to keep a tight grip on the leash to ensure their dogs weren’t blown away).
Anyway, it’s just barely freezing here, and s’posed to be sunny and mid-50s later.
Finally gather/patched enough parts and started the Hot Tub of Theseus* yesterday. It’s running, but I’ve got a few extra parts on overnight from da-Jungle to seal some pesky leaks. But Yaaay! Shocked it yesterday afternoon, and the chems should fall below Breaking Bad level today – and I can practice lounging with adult beverages this evening.
Since I was already in work clothes and boots, I decided to mow the lawn one last time. The rains had re-animated it and I didn’t want ToT-ers to use machetes (at least only as their costumes). As I was finishing the last few feet of curb, my weed-eater died and wouldn’t restart. I put it in the shed and pinky-swore I’d deal with it in March sometime.
Speaking of Halloween: We had over 30 trick-or-treaters last night. The last two years have been literally zero. Not sure what changed, but it seems the neighborhood may have passed some critical mass of younglings and they’re out again. Even in my retired curmudgeonly state I’m glad to see 'em.
On to the week: My plans are to achieve near-Swampy levels of sloth. After foraging for breakfast, I’ll make sure the couch is still comfortable. A guy’s gotta have goals, right?
*In two years it will be old enough to vote. This is its last year as a teenaged hot tub.
Good morning.
It’s 40F, dark and cloudy outside. The expected high is 57F, and the afternoon will contain periods of rain. It’s been freezing or below freezing in the mornings since before my return from Missouri, so it feels almost balmy outside.
FCM, I hope it’s an easy fix.
boofae, that is really scary about the auction. Good on you and 'im indoors for being good neighbors and asking questions. That doesn’t always happen.
die, yay for the parents visiting. I’m sure all will have a good time.
cupcakes, I hope Mauser is feeling better.
Well, yesterday was painful. Today, I will go down to the office of the HVAC company and put down half of the funds needed for the furnace replacement. I wouldn’t have had to do that if my husband hadn’t wanted to talk first, and we had made our decision while the owner of the company was there. He gave us four proposals that ranged in price from $6,900 to over $12,000. The most expensive option was very nice, but my husband didn’t want to spend that much. We went down one step, and I’m still gulping. Ugh, and I still have to see about getting the dishwasher repaired. Hopefully, that’s all it is, and I don’t have to replace that too.
Today would usually be an in-office day, but I want to get to the office of the HVAC company first thing this morning. I don’t want to go down to the office later in the morning, so I’ll go to the office tomorrow. Thursday traffic sucks, but whatever. I work a Maxiflex schedule for a reason.
I can’t say if there were any trick-or-treaters out and about. We haven’t given out candy in years. The last few years, there weren’t that many, and it was just a pain trying to keep the dogs away from the door, too.
Alrighty then, on with the day. Hope it’s a good one for all of you.
Mornin’ all. About 8am here. Awoke late, right at sunrise. Once semi-clothed, got caffinatin’ going as usual, and stepped outside to see the sun had already finished its condo eclipse and was blazing merrily away in a nearly clear blue sky. No balconatin’ for me today. Now 71/22 on the way to 84/29. The cooler weather has arrived for a few days at least.
Nellie: The Itty Bitty Kitty spray is priceless. You were / are a magician with littles. A sign of a youthful & mischievous mind. Which you evidently still all these mumble mumble years later.
I can remember some time around age 5 getting worried that getting into bed you stick your feet waaay down into the part of the bed that is dark & close and you can’t see. That’s exactly where moray eels, or bears, or scorpions, or other monsters would lurk: at the dark end of a cave just waiting to strike or pounce or sting or whatever attack they do. It never became a big deal for me, but I could see how someone with more imagination could really need some monster spray.
Someone from OH has got to post at least an explanation of what fresh eldritch horror is this. Don’t want a recipe, and frankly afraid to google. A simple description will do. But not too scary here on All Saint’s Day.
Baker Hope Mauser recovers soon.
Nellie: Having been a union leader I could go on about IBN / IBB for hours. It can be a useful way to examine needs & wants and uncover real value that can be newly created from seemingly nowhere.
As long as the union never forgets that once that happy win-win phase is over, the company will immediately switch to win / lose mode and try to take all the newly created cooperative IBN cookies from the plate, not just half. So the union needs to make the same switch and try to take them all too. Lotta non-professional union negotiators fail at step two and that gets ugly for the membership quickly.
Sensei Snow bugs sound really cool. If annoying.
When I was at USAF pilot training in rural OK they had a mass hatching of “wheat beetles” each Fall. Which was of course news to those of us (= everyone) who didn’t grow up there. Woke up one cool morning to find every vertical surface carpeted in walking lightly roasted coffee beans. Kinda cute if you didn’t think too much of the Swarm-of-Doom implications should they suddenly take a liking to human flesh. Or of the consequences of great numbers of them getting into every nook and cranny of every airplane we had. No flying for about 4 days until they all died off.
We don’t get explosive swarms of anything in this part of Floriduh, FCM’s reports notwithstanding. It’s a big state. I always liked the cicada explosions we got in MO though. Such great music. Needed more backbeat though. The June bug explosions were just kinda meh, all mess with no compensation. But they did signal the best weather of the year, so there’s that.
See PM.
Hooray for parental visit. Sounds fun.
Swampy: Chili & cornbread sound great. Very spicy I hope.
I too am at the point of needing shorn. I’ve just let my irk haircut grow out an extra 2 months and added the beard, so today would be a good day to decide what the new look should be. Can’t look all scraggly for fancy dinner tonight.
Boofae: There are scams in the US where conmen sell properties they don’t own. Typically they don’t get past just stealing the “earnest money” deposit from the buyers, but sometimes it gets a lot farther and the hapless property owner has a real problem to untangle. Your neighbor might be looking at an attempted scam, not an honest mistake. You might alert him to the possibility of him being identity thefted.
FCM the kids are, as always adorable.
Another of your awesome sentences. I said to myself “After putting two sets of tires and a dead microwave through your dryer, I’m not surprised it’s making noise.” 
There are some awesome videos of folks destroying mostly washers that way.
At least you don’t need to worry about winterizing the gas in its tank; there isn’t any.
Taters: Ouch on the furnace for sure. Hope morning traffic has mercy upon your soul.
As to me:
Had nice craft taco dinner at our usual Dia de los Muertos place. Most of the help was dolled up for the holiday. And a few of the customers and some dogs.
Her Ladyship has a hooded floor length red velour cape which she added to her standard clothes. So she could be either Countess Dracula with the dramatic sweep of her cape across her face or kinda-sorta Little Red Riding Hood. I went as ordinary me, but told everybody I was a 25yo with an awesome makeup job. Got a few laughs out of it.
Came home and Her Ladyship found something called Tales of Halloween on (I think) Prime TV. It’s basically a series of sketches where everybody is dressed silly then dies horribly. Lots of murderous 8yos & teens. Doesn’t seem to be any real connection between one sketch and the next; stuff just happens then the scene shifts. Very, very stupid / corny / over the top, but not really played for laughs. A very bad night in an ordinary town.
Last night also made hotel arrangements for Her Ladyship’s son’s wedding in Chicago in May upcoming. Today I’ll make travel arrangements. Gonna buy real tickets for this one.
Elsewise today has fancy dinner tonight & perhaps that haircut I mentioned. beyond that sloth shall rule, with perhaps a bout of beaching.
Happy humpday to those Mon-Fri Mumpers.
Cheers all!
Happy Toosday!
Happy Halloween!
It’s 37 degrees outside. No park today, I am not ready for the cold.
We have to go out later to get groceries, but it should be in the low 50s by then.
I’m feeling wiped out today.
There’s still a lot to do.
Happy Hump Day!
I didn’t get a chance to finish yesterday’s post.
It’s freakin’ cold. I forgot to sign the dogs up for daycare so we went to the park. I sat in the truck with the heat on and my son went into the park with the dogs. We didn’t stay long.
I was already cold because we are still figuring out the heating in this house. Each room has its own heater and my bedroom was not warm enough for me.
My son woke up to no electricity in his rooms. After flipping a bunch of circuits, he figured out it was just the lights that were out. It took a while but he finally figured out it was an outlet in the bathroom that needed to be reset.
I slept in my bed last night. The night before I fell asleep on the couch.
It was nice to be in bed again. The dogs were happy too as there is enough room for everybody.
It’s a longer walk to the bathroom though. In the old house it was a straight shot down the hall and I could do it half asleep. Now it is walking out of my bedroom into the family room, up three stairs, through the dining room, and down the hall. I was wide awake by the time I got back to bed.
There is still so much to do. I put a bunch of stuff away yesterday, but I know everything is going to be moved somewhere else.
We are heading over to the old house this morning. Richard is going to meet us there and we can talk about the repairs needed over there. I’m debating taking a long hot soak while there.
I checked out what the repairs should cost on the Homewyse site. I know it won’t be 100% accurate, but it gave me a rough idea.
I’m sorry about your furnace, Taters.
That truly sux.
I’m glad you were able to help your neighbor BooFae.
As Pilot said, there are all kinds of scammers out there.
OAOASO fell into one of the scams, he was going to rent a house from somebody who didn’t own the house. I kept telling him there is no way it is legit. He lost only a few hundred-dollar security deposit; it could have been worse. I told him the rent was too cheap for that area, and the stuff in the lease was outrageous. One clause being that the house could be inspected at any time and if there was so much as one dirty dish in the sink, the tenant could be evicted.
Dill pickle soup sounds right up there with sauerkraut soup. No thank you.
Poor Mauser
I hope you have a good time with the parents, Dicey.
I’m glad you didn’t have to break in Nellie
I have had to do that more times than I care to count. It’s also what makes me crack up at my son. He has no idea how easy it is to break into a house, and the stuff he worries about is not the easiest way.
Always good to have a nearby yard cleaned up JtC
My son told me the movers looked out the back window at the neighbor’s yard. First thing was, Is THAT a BOAT? Then it was, THEY HAVE A CRANE?! The other mover said yeah, and did you see the 18-wheeler parked in the front yard? They sure have a lot of stuff.
Yes, they do, and it all clutters my view of the mountains.
Five sheds, two mini-coopers, a few other cars, a pool, a crane, a backhoe, and some other kind of construction vehicle.
VanGo, as JtC said, Adam is A DAMN Cat. He actually is a pretty nice cat.
For only the third time in recorded history, we had measurable snow on Halloween. That limited the T or T. Nine came to my door. I bought little bags of pretzels so there wouldn’t be any leftover candy.
Some people are putting up Christmas decorations. Stop that!
I started Dupixent in August for nasal polyps. Not much as been written in the medical lit about side effects, but one reported effect is joint pain. My left knee is killing me. I see the ENT Friday and the ortho next week. I may discontinue Dupixent. My knee hurts!
Morning all. Slept until 8am again (guess I sleep good in cold weather). 36F right now, but supposed to be in the 20’s tonight then, like swampy, it’ll warm up into the 60’s and 70’s for the weekend, which bodes well for soccer. Making up my packing and ‘do before leaving’ lists, shouldn’t forget more than 3-4 essential things… Will try to get laundry started today and also work some swimming and sauna in to offset the Snicker/Kit Kat hangover. Other than that (and getting the garbage out), not much on the agenda.
Cupcakes, hope Mauser is feeling better this morning. And dogs forgive unconditionally; that’s one reason they are better than us.
FCM, great pictures as always. And hope the dryer is curable.
Not much on unions, was part of one when I worked for the DoD (AFGE) but never remember any contact or stuff from them.
Dicey, enjoy the family time and the travel.
Boo Fae, stay dry and out of the storm. And good on ya and 'Im Indoors for keeping a bad situation from happening.
yankers, enjoy the hot tub. Mowage for me will hopefully be Friday as it warms up a bit then; hopefully the last of the season.
Taters, my job cost about $8,400, so not surprised at the price. Hope they do a good job on it.
Can’t recall any bug invasions like those described, the woods get noisy in the early Fall as cicada’s (or something like them) hatch and start screeching, but they leave the neighborhood pretty much alone.
Sari, hope the home adjustment continues, it’ll take a bit before you really know your way around the place. I’m lucky, the main bathroom is connected right to the master bedroom. Hope the neighbors are nice since they sound like folks with a lot of stuff (as long as they take proper care of it). Nice pic of Adam.
OK, need to look for sustenance and keep writing my list. Take care all.
…….Tangy and rich dill pickle soup is a traditional Polish soup made with fermented cucumbers and potatoes. It’s one of my favorite Polish soups! It may sound weird to you – soup made with pickled cucumbers but trust me, you will love it, its taste is truly addicting!Mar 23, 2020
[image]
https://www.everyday-delicious.com › …
Dill pickle soup (Zupa ogórkowa / Polish cucumber soup)…
From a quick glance at recipes it has a chicken stock base…perhaps our beloved Polish soup maven shoe will meander by and enrich our understanding. My childhood cuisine expertise is Midwestern peasant Czech so ask me about kolaches and dumplings.
I was in Smalls all day, since yesterday was a disaster without me(People in other departments were glad I was back). But SSLW #2 was down, so they had people with hand scanners there and on the bag slide. Then they stopped on those, because they had about fixed #2, and SSLAW #1 crapped. out. So with nothing being processed, the belt overloaded. Bags were flopping onto other belts, they had to pile stuff on the floor, and The Gangster of Love(the Preload Manager’s name is Maurice) came up to (micro)manage things, and stare at Shaggy’s slack ass work(?) ethic. He and the Smalls PT Sup were having a discussion at the end, with staring up at the dumping station. But things got done. I hit the Rich People’s Aldi after work, there was a line of people there at opening(in the 31 degree wind chill!), to hit The Aisle Of Shame for the Christmas stuff. But I’m clean, defrosted, oatmeal has been ingested, and Spot has had his attention. Naptime!
She should Let It Go.
The are cute rugrats, though.
Looks like it.
I enjoy those.
Hope Muaser is feeling better today, Cupcakes.
And just a year ago, my no-warning in the middle of a cold snap furnace replacement was a smidge over $6,000 in a lower cost of living market. That’s for a natural gas forced air unit for a 1,200 sq foot house. I added a spiffy air cleaner to help with my asthma or it would have been $5,000.
Fortuanately, it rained a lot today, so it washed all the black masses of bugs off the car.
Back in Taiwan, we got so much more rain, 3340 mm, or 131 inches Merikin. Here it gets only 1154 mm, which is 45 inches per year. And a lot of that is snow.
It’s no much nicer here! Today’s rain reminded me of how much I hated that part of living there!
Here in Nebraska about 22 years ago our mayor postponed Halloween for a few days because of an unusually heavy snowfall that made it unsafe to be out on streets and sidewalks.
Last night was one of our 5 coldest Halloweens ever but no snow. With the wind chill it was about 20 degrees by dark, but clear skies and a beautiful full moon. My grands had snowsuits and coats under their Star Wars costumes, including gloves/mittens. Harriet’s Princess Leia wig with the coiled braids over her ears made for swell, comfy ear muffs. Her mom, my daughter, a mere wisp of a thing, wore her battery powered warming shirt (like a wearable electric blanket in the shape of a long sleeved running jersey) under her coat and had rechargeable hand warmers in her pockets. Those two stayed out much longer than the 2 year old BB 8 Sorenson and his poopy head dad (SIL) who didn’t wear a costume at all. I stayed at their house and had candy dispensing duty for the huge horde of kids we had, 3 or 4 times the numbers of last year-go figure. I ran out of candy and had to use the food allergy safe pencils and tattoos until I could get all the lights outs. It was fun to be a part of but I wished I’d remembered to turn off my own automatic porch light, I hope that didn’t end up disappointing too many kids-my neighborhood doesn’t tend to get many kids but I meant to do better. I left my house at 1 in the afternoon for a long list of errands and just forgot. Should help me remember to turn it off next year!
I didn’t dress up, but if I did it now I might come as St. Honorius, patron saint of bakers and pastry makers. He carries a baker’s peel with three loaves of bread.
When we replaced our HVAC, it was just under $10K, but we got 18-month no interest financing, so we didn’t need a big chunk at once. And it was both the oil furnace and a new a/c unit. When we replaced it all in 2006, it was around $6K…
The fire in the basement was almost too much, so I opened the doors to the stairs and the laundry room and the bathroom. It’s all warming nicely.
Tobias and I were playing with a couple of balls, kicking, playing catch, and bouncing them off the stairs. We’re taking a break because I can only handle so much frolic.
I need to decide what we’ll have for supper. There’s a ham steak in the fridge - that might be the start. With pineapple perhaps? Or not.