(Old) Trip Planning in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Since some of you seem to enjoy the rattie updates (Motto: “All the news that’s fit to chew into shreds”) I wanted to share that they all - including the newly-mobile bebehs - got a buncha leftover cheese pizza that I’d torn into shreds.

Saw one of the littles investigate and then absolutely plow down, in the tiniest way imaginable, on a piece easily 100x bigger than its entire little body.

At that age, they can usually just barely manage breadcrumbs, millet seeds, instant potato flakes … teensy tiny stuff.

This little bugger is the furry embodiment of “Go big, or go home.” Props to you, lil’ fella.

For context: imagine it’s, like, your third day of “real” life, after being blind, wholly dependent on Mom’s milk, and stacked in a pile with endless other squirming blind things trying to muscle into your milk.
Hey, now you can see! And toddle unsteadily around!
You’re discovering solid food!
… when suddenly the most delicious food you’ve encountered in your brief existence the size of an eighteen wheeler descends before you!

What would YOU do?

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JtC, the note idea sounds like a winner. I’m sorry you have to go through this after 36 years, but I’ll second the idea that at least he’s showing love when he freaks out about you being gone.

FCM, that is one heck of a cute toddler! I’m having some serous grandma envy right now.

MetalMouse, I hope they can sort out the plumbing soon.

I know what you mean about the glasses, hippie. I got my first pair at 8 years old, and when I tried contacts out for a while in my mid-twenties, I felt like I looked weird without them. When I get my (inevitable) cataract surgery, maybe they’ll leave them blurry enough to need some correction.

shoe, I hope you’re able to keep the ice at bay! Shoveling’s the first thing I do after even a light snowfall, because I just know someone’s going to end up slipping and falling if I don’t.

My brother came by today and we had a nice visit. He got a letter from a major life insurance company yesterday addressed to “The Estate Of” our mother. They say they’ve just been informed of her death (in 2010!) and we can file a claim. He called them and it seems legit, but we didn’t find anything about a policy in her very well-maintained records, and we know she hasn’t been paying premiums. The only thing we can come up with is that it’s an old policy from the employer she was with in the 70’s.

It was an excuse to get together, anyway. My brother only lives about a half hour away, and we like each other, but we’re both hermits by nature, so we often end up not seeing each other for months if there’s no holiday to celebrate. And he lives alone, so I really feel like I need to step up the contact a bit, just so someone’s keeping an eye out for him.

Whew - it’s too late and I’m too woozy to keep up with everyone, but I hope you all had a very happy discount chocolate day!

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Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave.
And having had brief dealings with friends with frail elders with dementia and such, {{{{{JtC FCM RealFish}}}}} and never feel bad about venting about it here.

To be fair, it is a natural food of (NY)rodents

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They clearly work on Shoe timelines.

(Motto: “Hey, it’ll get done eventually, okay?”)

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Finally. A good dream! Was making spaghetti sauce with Mahomes.
Slept a good 5 hours.
Now I go back to sleep and hope to have a dream about rats and pizza.

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Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 49 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 65 and mostly cloudy. Later this mornin’ we shall head over to the church house so I can do stuff. Not much stuff needs doin’ as the only candles that need to be filled are the two Altar candles bein’ as it is Lent. I brought my cassock and surplice home Wednesday night and washed 'em yestiddy, as they were in sore need of that, so need to get ‘em back to where they stay. We shall have an early N.O.L. at the good local fish/seafood place for the main feed of the day. The afternoon/evenin’ shall be spent in sloth as is our wont.

wordy whenever I do that I say, “Call me Satan cause I’m smokin’ < snerk > butts! < snerk >”

shoe glad rattie jr. enjoyed his pizza.

Coppertone a dream about rats eatin’ pizza would be a good dream. A dream about pizza with a rat toppin’ would not be a good dream. Just sayin’.

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, bother of bothers, I suppose I must purtify and don attire acceptable for bein’ amongst the great unwashed. Oh, woe!

Happy Firday Y’all!

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Slothbear, mornin!
I am usually not notified when someone mentions me here as Coppertone doesn’t alert me. :innocent:

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Mornin’ everyone.

It’s 32 degrees Fahrenheit and clear outside. The expected high is around 54 degree Fahrenheit, with partly to mostly cloudy skies.

@nelliebly, I didn’t see a single snowflake up my way. I looked up the traffic cameras on WSDOT yesterday morning and was glad I didn’t commute there. The I-5/101 interchange was quite a mess. I head down there super early in the morning, so it probably would have an extra crappy commute. My son lost power and water down there. His power was restored late afternoon/early evening, but I’m unsure when the water was restored. He was going to come up, so I assume the water was restored shortly after the power restoration.

FCM, that is one cute kiddo!

JtC, I’m sorry to read about the memory issues with your dear hubby and your mother’s fall! How scary!

Metal Mouse, damn, just damn on the water issue. It seems so much of your floor has been torn up and put back together. I hope they don’t recommend the whole system be replaced. Or, if there is a leak it’s from the street to the house and is the city’s responsibility.

You might remember I mentioned I had to find controllers for my husband’s VR headset. I found some, they arrived, and one didn’t work correctly. He became frustrated and threw out all the controllers. Now I don’t know which one I ordered and can’t get my money back. The problem with this VR headset and accessories is that HP has stopped making them. Yes, there is a site where I could order them and MIGHT get them in two to four months. It’s not a given. So, I had to cave and order a whole new system. These are becoming super rare, and I hope the system I ordered after showing my husband is the correct version. At any rate, it’s not cheap, and if I’m honest, I’m pissed about the whole thing. I told my husband to set up the perimeter view so people wouldn’t crash the controllers into anything, but he refused. He was trying to blame it on our friend being drunk, and I told him he should have set up the view and quit blaming people for something that could have been prevented.

In good news, it’s Friday, my short day, and I’m hopeful I won’t work late tonight. I’ve been working long hours that last few weeks, and I’m just worn out.

I too, have been wondering about Bumba and sari. Also, Misnomer.

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Purely curiosity here, but are pellet stoves and pellets a thing where you live?

Theoretically, our primary heat source is an oil-fired forced-air furnace, but it’s actually more of a backup, because we keep the pellet stove going. I figure $600 in pellets (including the price of delivery) will keep us comfy for a season, and that includes a few bags for FCD’s shop. It would probably be at least twice that to heat with oil full time. Instead, we get oil every 2-3 years.

OMG - this sounds like FIL when they were still in FL - he refused to use his walker and I’m pretty sure all the falls hastened his death. At least MIL is using her walker, mostly. Does your mom use a cane or walker?

Caring for elderly parents is harder than dealing with kids.

sari has stopped by my FB within the last week, but no bumba. Crap, time to start fretting.

I didn’t know Lasik could fix this. I’ve got an appt with my eye doc next week - we will discuss. My eyes have been crap of late. Tho I can’t get used to myself without glasses - they’ve been a part of my face for so long!

MIL’s apartment complex gives them wearable alarms so they can contact the office immediately if they fall. Of course, if you forget to put it on…

But your comment reminded me of a coworker a gazillion years ago - he’s a type 1 diabetic and he was single and living alone at the time. When he didn’t show up for work, the boss drove to his house and found him ok, but disoriented. He’d miscalculated his insulin the night before. Needless to say, we were all very happy when he got married and had someone right there. So there’s your choice - get married or get a fallen-and-can’t-get-up button! :wink:

Are we talking chocolate here?? 'Cause I’d think I’d died and gone to heaven!!! :rofl:

One if the truest t-shirts I ever saw read “If I’d known grandkids were so much fun, I’d have had them first!” It does help that they are good kids - I have limited patience with brats.

Ziva musta been confused last night. At one point after FCD had come to bed, and just after I visited the throne room, she came in and got up on our bed. But when she realized there was someone other than yours truly under the covers, she decided she didn’t want to be there. But not before waking FCD - he was sleepily confused. We’re agreed that she’s a weird cat. Or is that redundant?

What are my Firday plans, you ask? Well, lessee - laundry, procurement and bakeage of a sack of spuds, scooping and repacking said spuds for twice-baked yummies, and, I dunno, more knittage? I’m past the halfway point of the babby afghan. It’s really pretty - I’ll post pics before I mail it off.

Daughter is coming over to work on her resume with her dad. We’ll see what else happens.

Happy Firday!!

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Temps in the teens today, with wind chill in single digits. Gotta go out to get eggs, unfortunately, but we usually snag a parking place close to the door. But first: fried egg & bacon sandwich for breakfast, then exercise. Priorities, people! In an ironic twist, the exercise instructor, who is a physical therapist, is going in for knee replacement.

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Morning all (it is Firday, isn’t it? Somehow it feels like a Saturday to me). 53F heading to 67F with rain showing up this evening to cool things back down. Need to do a little Krogering and then my last swimming of the week, otherwise sloth and water management will dominate the day.

shoe, don’t know about age 2 days, but in my youth I was pretty much a “Seafood” eater…as in 'I see food, I eat it". Been doing better lately, but I don’t keep cookies, potato chips, or bacon in the house because I am still susceptible with those items.

IL, I have a small insurance policy from the US Government, never hear a thing from them about it, so probably my heirs will be getting a letter like that someday after I pass on (which will be many years ahead I trust). And hermit isn’t a bad description for me, either.

Coppertone, sweet dreams and

Which is why we quote each other a lot and it’s also a way to have Mumpers read everything (“did I get mentioned?”). :wink: Oh, and if swampy didn’t have his name already, Slothbear would be a wonderful backup.

Taters, glad Son at least has water… And I got a lot of the problem area replaced this time, I worry that something went wrong there and they’ll have to come in and replace their work (on their dollar, of course…). Such is life. And Husband ought to be paying for the new controllers, the dummy…

FCM, never heard of wearable alarms, will have to look more into this…sometime… As for getting married, probably not in the cards.

OK, need to go ahead and get the shopping out of the way (it also lets me use their restroom and saves my toilet water–conservation folks… Take care all.

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Oh, that’s awful. Poor thing. My mom fell in her independent living apartment and lay on the bathroom floor for four hours before she used the Life Alert device to summon help. She said she didn’t want to bother anyone. But lying in the hot sun like your late MIL must have been even worse. I hope she didn’t get heatstroke in additioon to her injuries.

That’s such a thoughtful and clever thing to do! In the Era of Blur, I saw someone in a salmon pink shirt with white hair and knew it was my sister, so I went over and said, “Hey, good looking! Ready to go?” It was some random guy. His wife was not happy. Hey, at least the bright color narrowed down the number of marriages I wrecked.

On a more serious note, I’m sorrier than I can say about your husband and your mom, JtC. That’s a lot of grief and worry for one person to handle. I hope you’ll turn to your friends here on the MMP when needed. :people_hugging:

Because they love you and don’t want you to fret. My siblings and I are the same way. We got it from Mom. The massive downside is that then people worry MORE because they can’t trust that “just a little discomfort” isn’t appendicitis.

If it’s not too much trouble, would you care to share? I’ve got a pork loin taking up precious freezer space.

This is so sweet t! And I love those names!

That’s wonderful! I’m so happy for her!

MetalMouse, again with the plumbers? I thought there was nothing left to fix, you poor guy.

Well, we love you anyway.

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{ Pretzel has entered the chat. }

I would be, too.

Concur heartily!

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A habit I built up back when we first switched from landline to mobiles, and further honed by years of being on immediate call was that I simply always have my phone on my person.

I firrst sit up in bed, then immediately unplug the phone and carry it into the bathroom where it sits while I do whatever wakeup process. As soon as I have some sort of pants on, the phone goes into a pocket and stays there. At bedtime it goes back on the nightstand. Even at the beach it’s right to hand, just in a waterproof carrier.

You might try that idea for awhile and see if it can work for you. It’s main virtues are that a) it’s free, and b) it feels youthful, not fogeyish.

That is totally adorable! Pix?

My Dad had a similar thing happen after his passing. But they didn’t wait 14 years to notice he was gone. It was a surprise to us. Not a large surprise, but a nice one.

That was my own mother. And no, no heatstroke. She was quite a desert rat and nearly as indestructible as humans can be built.

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their little rat brains must have exploded.

internet legend, that happened to me. out of the blue i got a call from an insurance company regarding a policy my mother had. i’m betting she forgot all about it. she must have gotten it in the late forties, early fiftys. i’m betting it happened after a bumpy flight she had.

she said after that flight, she did not want to fly while her mother was alive. then when she bought a house she put the house in her mother’s name. i reckoning this policy happened at the same time. my grandmother was the beneficiary

ya know painting a room even when you live alone is tough. sooooo many choices. painting a building hallway with a committee, a big old paint can of worms!

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I wish. Little buggers do not sit nicely for their portrait.

I have lotsa blurry photos of shredded paper if you care to see those? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

ISWYDT

May I suggest presenting the committee with a pared-down menu of just a few choices? All curated by you to feature sales/cost savings, of course …
It’s easier to get a group of people to pick between “this red, or this blue” rather than getting a horde to come to consensus over a bazillion options.

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I fell behind on my project 4 quilt and have not posted any images for a while. I have probably two or three weeks of solid work to finish it. This is project 5 and my first class for this starts in about half an hour. (note: this is not my work. This is the example quilt hanging on the classroom wall)

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the problem came in when an option 2 was given in a suprize move by the building.

the building is somewhat historic, a streamline moderne apartment building that opened in 1940. it has a mural in the lobby. that mural is used for all colour choices. given that guideline it does narrow things quite a bit.

now instead of 1 colour ( a lovely green called norway spruce Norway Spruce 452 | Benjamin Moore ), we are looking at 3, ( a greyish white Eider White SW 7014 | White Paint Colors | Sherwin-Williams ) and a light greenish beige ( Natural Choice SW 7011 | White Paint Colors | Sherwin-Williams ) in addition to the lovely green. thankfully the trim colour is decided.

good times.

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Morning. It’s a slow morning for me because I’m waiting on some data I need (which may never come) and then I’ll be working into the afternoon and hopefully not the evening to finish up an application that is due today. I really, really, really need to learn to pull reports by myself. This would have been done Wednesday if I could do that.

Spouse Weasel is hosting a D&D Campaign tonight and will be out of the house until midnight, so I have the entire day to myself and then the kiddo until bedtime, and then more time to myself after that. Alone time makes me euphoric, and I don’t get a lot.

I’ll probably spend it cross stitching. I screwed up my project but I think I corrected the problem.

I got up five minutes early this morning to tack on more time to my meditation. I’m up to 25 minutes now. I’ll stop at 30 because I think there is a point of diminishing returns. I wanted to get a head start on things this morning, but our pilot light was out, and I had to sit around in my bathrobe waiting for the water to heat up again. I guess I could have worked in my bathrobe but my brain is very sequential.

In other news, anyone know how to get blue playdoh out of the carpet? I’m hoping soap and water does it. Honestly I’m just proud of the kid for finally making a mess. It means he was willing to hold playdoh in his hands and squish it, and a year ago he wouldn’t touch anything squishy.

I had domesticated rats in college. They are in many ways an ideal pet - very smart, cleaner than you’d think, incredibly cuddly and friendly. They get a bad rap.

Whoa, that looks like quite the undertaking. Can’t wait to see the finished product.

This brings me back. I used to take three trips a summer to Cedar Point as a kid. I have so many memories there. My first grown-up coaster, the Magnum, which sent me running to Millennial Force. My Aunt spent hours persuading me to ride the Magnum, and once we got over the slow, tortuous ascension, I loved it and only wanted more. That time in junior high there were three water spouts and two funnel clouds - I was there with my crush, who was my pastor’s son, but I thought he was nuts because he wanted to take pictures of the funnel clouds and I was like, “We’re all gonna die!” The trip with my husband at the verrry start of our relationship, where I accidentally said something really embarrassing in public (I’ll spare you.) I remember in the car on the way there, he leaned over and smelled my hair, and immediately went into coughing spasms. Ah, young love. It’s been decades.

I’m really sorry, I can only imagine what you must struggle with day to day.

The colored clothes reminds me of a kind of funny thing, my Aunt S was blind, and whenever she would ask about the color of something she wanted to wear, her husband would tell her it was pink. Everything was pink. It was a lighthearted inside joke they shared. (She once crocheted me a baby blanket - pretty impressive what she could do without vision. It was not pink.)

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Meant to mention …

If this one is male Romeo’s days in charge of the harem are definitely numbered. :grin: :leer: