Our summer vacation - A Dutch MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Morning all.

Called in sick this morning. Blech. Nasty, terrible things happening this monring.

I meant to address Taters and** LiLi ** in last week’s MMP about the soaps: Taters: right now it’s still just a few farmer’s markets (Mukilteo, mostly), but when my just-graduated top of his class graphic designer co-worker creating my packaging for free gets back to me with our first run, I’ll start taking it into local businesses and shopping it around. It’s had a really awesome response that overwhelmed me. I finally found something I could make with my hands, enjoy doing it, and people want to give me money for it. Sweet! I love America!

Lissla Lissar: Price-wise, they are usually around $3-3.50, depending on size/what’s been added. But for Mumpers the first one is free. :slight_smile:

Taters, you had mentioned you liked lighter scents, and I loved the idea of the lemongrass/sage combo. So a couple nights ago, after I got home from work, I hopped online and purchased several new lighter scents. A lot of the ones I currently use are kind of playful, almost Body Shop strength scents. For some people that is too much (I like fairly strong soap scents, but I rarely use perfume, so it comes across as just right - can’t smell it until you’re thisclose to me). Last night I formulated a new light scent - funny enough, I think there’s a Doper with this name, and it’s ultimately the inspiration for it: Lavender Lemon. I made a couple of experimental bars with different designs, and a couple failed - didn’t look good enough to sell. I showed my husband and he agreed that while the failures didn’t look so great, “put them in the shower! They smell awesome!” Yay! New scent! Lavender Lemon!

I can’t wait to try out the new scents I bought! Olive Blossom, Honey, Sage (I already have lemondgrass), Ginger Lime, Amber, Osmanthus, Plumeria, and a sweet one (I like sweet) called Buttercream & Snickerdoodle. Hopefully they will be in this week. For now I should stop rambling about soap. Just talking about soap cheers me up. :smack:

Nooner, nice pics! Looks like you had a great mime.

Now I gotta try to go hit the hay again, if I can stay away from the Dope. I didn’t get much sleep and I feel a little disconnected.

ETA: I see other Mumpers not well either this fine Monday morn. Get well, all.

42

That’s right. NO ONE can complain unless they have been physically injured in some way. Please make a note of it.

:stuck_out_tongue:

Bobbio–better you than me to play in that sand… also, re the knocking. Sue is "wrong’ because even if she stripped the pt, the people in the room don’t know who is entering the room (because the door is shut). She may have been in and out of there 100 times. Doesn’t matter. Sue knows this. Hope the lady is ok.

I am not as stiff as I could be (Flexeril is a friend), but I cannot put any pressure on my left elbow. It’s not broken, but it sure is bruised. Off to UPS this morning to ship boxes for Daughter.

43

Bobbio, I’m amazed as usual by what you do. For free. Actually, at the cost of lots of sleep. It sounds like a really tough job, but the rest of us who are too squeamish to do it really appreciate what you do!

Hope the skinned hands and elbow are getting better, rigs. The move to college is a huge change for your daughter, even if she doesn’t realize it yet. It’s tough enough just to GO to college but to move so far from home and family is really stressful. Just remember what she’s going through and that she doesn’t mean to be bitchy. Says someone who’s BTDT.

Great pics, Special1. Sounds like a great trip.

We had a good weekend. Saturday we went to lunch with some friends and then met up with a friend of theirs and went out on his friend’s boat. Beautiful scenery along the river and we stopped on a nice little sandy section and got out and played in the water. The minnows kept trying to nibble on our feet, which actually felt kinda cool. We saw a couple eagles and, I think, an osprey. And a bunch of blue herons and a little green heron and, as it started to get dark, lots of bats. Really neat.

Yesterday I baked zucchini bread and chocolate chip cookies. This morning I made blueberry muffins and brought most of them in to work. A coworker/friend who’s leaving at the end of the week always leaves comments on my blog about how jealous she is when I make fresh muffins in the morning before work. So I had to make some for her and bring them in. I’m going to miss having her around. :frowning: (They’re moving away, not just getting a new job.) I used this blueberry muffin recipe, but since I don’t like fruit in baked goods At All, I didn’t try them so I don’t know how they turned out. Coworkers said they’re good, but they just like me bringing in baked goods so they’re hardly impartial testers.

44

Yeah, you’re right. But you gotta know Sue. She’s the person that inspired the t-shirt that reads, '49% Bitch, 51% Angel"…

I would have announced myself even if I was directed to run an errand for them and they were expecting me to be back. I try to be as courteous as possible, even if it’s out of character for me.

45

Morning (well, at least for fifteen more minutes)!

nooney, your children are beautiful.

We are all just sitting here waiting to see what Fay is going to do. Right now we’re pretty sure we’ll get something out of it…at least lost power. Le Sigh! :rolleyes:

Tupug

46

Evening all! Nice OP Nooner, if a little short on the pics! :wink: It sounds like you had a nice time!

I have been giving some thought to where we should go next summer on vacation, but have got no further than somewhere in Europe - maybe south of France, maybe Spain? I have been to France before, but never to the south, and my husband has never been at all. So maybe we fly into Paris, see the sights there then drive down to the Cote d’Azur for a week’s beach holiday? Will that be too much for a 2-year old to handle? Oh well, plenty of time to sort that out - for now I am still trying to finalise this year’s Christmas vacation - hotel bookings in Kuala Lumpur and Sydney, pay the balance on the holiday apartment on the Gold Coast, arrange travel insurance and make sure we have enough spending money!

Smartie, your eulogies for SpaceDawg were all beautiful - the happy and the not so happy!

rigs, owwwwwwww!

VBob, your rescue stories never cease to amaze me!!!

Okay, off to fry the sausages and make some mashed NOTs and onion gravy to go with for din-dins!

47

OK- this made me giggle…

Rigs- hope you’re feeling better!

48

Gah! i can’t get caught up!

Nice pics, Noonie! I’m glad you had a good trip.

Thanks for the link to your blog, Smartie. SpaceDawg was a fine animal. I enjoy reading stories about him, and you’re a great writer!

I’ll try to check back in later - I’m busy this morning!

49

Ooh, can I pack myself in your bag for your Christmas trip, Dotty? I’ll even put on a Mrs. Santa suit if that would help! :smiley:

I’ve definitely got a case of the Mondays today. I got started working SO well, but then about half an hour into it I ran out of steam. Totally and completely. I need to go run a couple of errands, but I can’t even be arsed to do that much. Grr. Oh well, at least I have Firday to really look forward to – Great Big Sea concert at Wolf Trap! Yay, vertical motion!**

Okay, back to work. Of course there’s more rush crap happening as we speak. Gotta love the anthrax investigation; they want everything done 3 minutes after it’s done. (It’s all quite public, so it’s not like I’m giving away state secrets by talking about it.) I’m still trying to figure out why they let Ivins stay at work in that lab with access to the nasty anthrax strain when even his shrink said he was off his rocker. Gotta love our gummint. :rolleyes:

**For those of you who don’t understand, don’t worry about it. It’s really not worth the lengthy explanation for what is basically just having fun seeing a band!

50

G’mornin’ y’all–kinda! This is what’s happening around my house today! We got thunder rumbles going on but so far they’re not too close so I’m keeping the lappie plugged in for now. The weather change is making my knee act up something fierce, ow!

I want blueberry muffins and I have some awesome fresh blueberries in the fridge, but I’ve been strictly enjoined from baking with them because Himself is on a smoothie kick and fresh blueberry season isn’t very long. Phooey. I think I’m gonna go get MORE blueberries so I can do whatever I want with 'em! I tried to get more over the weekend but the blueberry farm near my friend’s house was inexplicably closed. They suck!

Stasia, if you ever need some fresh rosemary or sage for your soaps let me know because I have some ten year old, very well established plants that are hardy to the point of needing to be cut back with a weedwhacker! I dry sage and make smudges sometimes but it barely makes a dent in the thing–the plant is about six feet square and waist high and I suspect it’s trying to take over the world…

Bobbio, you da MAN! Crazy as a bedbug, but it’s a good kind of crazy… :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks, all, for your appreciation of my stories. I’ve been blessed with a good many great dogs in my life and I appreciate every one of them. My dogs have kept me safe, kept me sane, kept me alive and kept me amused and if they’re all waiting for me in the Summerland I’m going to have quite a menagerie as well as an ear to ear shit eatin’ grin! Since I’m on a roll I might tackle the stories of some of my other memorable critters–I’ll keep y’all posted.

Gnarf, I needs mah cawfee, l8r g8rs! :smiley:

51

Dang it! I knew she was a she, and I typed he. Sorry, SmartiePants.

And I forgot to say OUCH! to Rigs.

Sounds like a busy weekend, VBob. I don’t know how you do it! Thanks for being there.

ETA: First without even trying!!!

52

Hey MamaT, I would love to have you along (and I’m sure your puppies would have a great romp with my Dad’s puppy Belle, who is a dalmatian/Australian cattle-dog cross) but I’m afraid our bags will be overloaded with Toddler Stuff! This will be our first real holiday since May 2006 (we went to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt for a week), as the “holiday” last year involved going home to Australia to give birth! So, we are making a big deal of it - 4 weeks total, with 3 days in KL each way, and about 3 weeks in Australia - 3 days in Sydney, then a week with my parents over Christmas, followed by 10 days in a resort apartment near the beach, the casino and the mall!!! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

53

I’m jealous of all the vacations too. My family was one to take big vacations every year, but KT’s was a long-weekend-up-north kind of family. So we’re having some trouble coming to an agreement on vacations. That and with everyone we know getting married, we’re spending our vacation time traveling to weddings. But next year I’ve already said we’re taking a big vaca somewhere. I Want To Take A Big Trip!

54

Caught up, FINALLY. That’s what I get for having actual work to do on a Monday morning.

Noonie, cute family. Now I’m curious about what a red light district looks like. I can’t quite imagine it.

Smartie, I’m working on reading the Space Dawg stories. They are quite special.

Taxi the muffins sound good. Will you send one through the CD drive for me?

I hope you’re feeling better Rigs. Moving across the county is hard on an 18 yo. Give her a bit of slack. If she wants to meet people who live in Boston, she can always join the Dope. We’re an active crowd; we love to 'fest.

VBob I could never do the things you do. Thanks.

Stasia the soaps and lotions sound lurvely. You should set it up so people could order online and have the products mailed. I might know where you can get a few customers…

Back to work for me. Have a good afternoon all!

55

Aw, foo. Told you I was feeling all discomboborientated.

Unless Nooner and family took the bones of Marcel Marceau with them? Maybe? Then I’d still be in the game.

ETA: mmouse9799 - there’s a website in the works. I will be set up for mail order hopefully before the end of the year!

56

I’m having an Oldtimer’s moment: who is the keeper of the MMP OP schedule? I had an eye-d-er for a topic I want to bounce privately before I volunteer formally.

57

Yep BBBobbio there is this big brick place I go to for work purposes a few times a week. :stuck_out_tongue: Of course I’m not there right now. I brought some stuff home to do because I can get more done faster here than there. I’ll spend all day tomorrow there probably.

Howdy Y’all! Hope everybody is havin’ or had a tolerable Monday.

To the work pile!

58

Love the pictures, Noone!

Stasia, your lotions and soaps sound yummy. I love “clean” scents and yours sound especially good.

I had a nice 3 day weekend. I got a mani & a pedi at a new place whose claim to fame is “No Tipping!” Eh, it wasn’t that great. This morning, my cuticles are a wreck again. Next time, I’m going to the nicer place down the street, even if I do have to tip.

59

I’m sick. It’s hot. I’m thirsty, right? I poured myself a nice tall glass of water, and added ice cubes. I drink it down, pour another glass, add more cubes.

I sit here, I read the Dope. The cubes at the bottom kind of fused together. I was almost to the bottom of the cup. I give it a shake as I raise the glass to my lips.

I just dumped ice cubes and the rest of the cold water down the front of my nightgown.

I’M AWAKE! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

YeeeeeeeeeeeeEEOOOOWWWWWWAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAA!

60

Here, I have a clean towel… let me help you with that…

:cool: