Snow is a 4-letter word in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
201

Wifey bought an artificial tree from da jungle this year. They’ve gotten a lot better over the years, this’n looks almost real, and it came with little white lights already installed. We like it.
We used to buy lots of presents, but that’s pretty much tapered off the last few years. We’ll be spending Christmas alone this year, so no pomp and circumstance for us anyway. We are gonna have corned beef and veg for Xmas, just 'cause.

Boo, if you ever have the time and patience, you should try groats sometime. In truth, we don’t take the time to do them any more either, but they’re really good.

Rosie’s sig to you all.

Later.

202

nellie, count me among those who doesn’t bother with a tree. Most years, I’m not home for Xmas. Even when I am, it’s just me and I live small enough that I don’t entertain here much.

That commercial made me sniffle too metal mouse.

Yay for the temp (hopefully, permanent if you like it) job nut!

herald, I tend to borrow via kindle from my library. When the book is available, it’s sent to my device for three weeks before it disappears. If I want to, I can renew it for two more.

Post away hippy. If we don’t want to read it, we can scroll past.

Feel better soonest nettie.

Mooooooom, years ago, most of my family agreed to limit adult gift giving to hand made (by us) unless we spent the holiday together in person. Makes things easier, although, some of us sometimes send something anyway.

Speaking of Xmas gifts, when I came home with my arms loaded with groceries, there werefour packages, including one in a styrofoam cooler, on my stoop. I was expecting my new purse and maybe some blender pens and the yard shoes I ordered, but what I got was a nice assortment of Stash teas from SIL (she’s pretty much on quarantine until this whole thing is over, given her compromised immune system), the Crocs I ordered (yes, I’m THAT neighbor who walks the dog in her PJs and now, tie dye patterned crocs), the blender pens and, in the cooler, six pints of fancy ice cream Yum! from the Finance department (my parent department) at irk. :slight_smile: That’s going to have to be carefully rationed.

Could someone please remind me how to post a pic from my FB account without linking to my page that only friends can see? I would like to show off the goody bags to bumba, since he asked about them. :slight_smile:

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

203

The Episode Where dogbutler *Starts Swearing *

So first we heave the Smalls bags out of the truck, then heave them over a conveyor belt, then heave them onto another convertor, where they grab them, and dump them into a hopper for running through the SSLAW. Which is where the swearing starts. The picker guy kept coming down and telling me to slow down putting bags on the 2nd belt, which is OK, because we can put them on the belt faster than the smalls folk can SSLAW them. the swearing part comes in where 5 minutes after I’m told to slow down, the supervisor tells me to speed up, because they have no work. Bonus: they let 50+ bags go past to the other end of the building, because they couldn’t be assed to grab them off the belt. Told the super, “The keep telling me to slow down. they need to make up their fucking mind.” Then after they have been heaved, labeled and rebagged, they get sorted. Which is where the sailor level swearing come in. they didn’t just send the unmarked packages down the slide, they sent good packages, which gave me 300% more work to do.

Dunno, that sound s like the start of a Penthouse letter. :wink:

Congrats and good luck nut!

Wordy, no gift giving this year, we’re all socially distant. And poor.

[quote=“Alex Catt”]
< turns on Zoom >
I showed you my butthole. Plz respond.[/quote]

204

I’ll look for a small package to try. I like nutty and chewy. Sounds like I could set them up the night before and in the morning let them simmer while I sip coffee and read the Mumper news.

205

Open the picture.
Right-click on it.
Select “Open image in new tab”.
Change to the new tab.
Copy the URL to your SDMB post.
Post it.

I gave them a link to that.

206

Goody bags

If this works (thanks herald), these are the goody bags bumba was asking about.

207

That service has been so important to me during the past 9 or 10 months since I’m high risk and I really, really have to sequester at home. Being someone who often reads 20-25 books a month I so needed a way to keep myself in books safely. I use Libby for ebooks from the library but the collection and availability there has many limitations, through no fault of the library. They even kept me in books bundles to take over to my granddaughter’s so we could continue to be avid readers together. At least Covid didn’t take that away, thanks to the creativity and enthusiasm of a small city’s library. So they were really serving two library card-carrying readers.

208

Took me a full day to get this. I am reaallly slipping in my dotage. They are right, ‘use it or lose it’. Mine must be gone for good

Or a Nerf gun or pool noodle. Or maybe it’s time for you to take up darts.

209

Awake at 4… Better than 2, but not by much. We shall see if I can doze again.

210

No, I didn’t doze again - I decided to get up a bit after 5. Morning stuff is done except for caffeination, which continues.

Today’s plans include a run to Lowe’s to pick up a couple of things I ordered, followed by a drive-thru at the credit union to deposit a check. Then home to do laundry, I guess, since dirty clothes seem to pile up EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! :open_mouth: And it’s clean-the-critter-fountain day. Does it never end?!?!?

:rofl:

Just another day in paradise. Happy Saturday!!

211

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN I was a slugabed until just after seven a.m. :open_mouth: 'Tis 29 Amurrkin out and N.O.S. with a predicted high of 59 and mostly N.O.S. for the day. TWPTB say rain tomorrow. We shall see. Not a lot on the agenda for the day. I foresee much sloth. Sup shall be chikin enchiladas, rice, and refried beans. Fartfest to follow.

red nice goodie bags! You are creative. I am not.

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

Happy Sattidy Y’all!

212

The Oracles are predicting rain here, too, which always seems to drive up business. Saturdays are normally pretty busy, anyway, so I predict a steady stream of soggy stoners. :laughing:

I have acquired cushy and waterproof boots just yesterday, so we’re gonna test those suckers right out! :droplet: :cloud_with_rain: :hiking_boot: Plus I got a couple pairs of nice, new socks - verrrrry important!

Okay, enough with the emoji things. I gotta head out in 45 minutes. Luckily, I also got orange juice while I was at the Gettin’ Sto’ yesterday so I am pumping my immune system full of vitamin C at the moment.

Shoot, I can hear bored rattie gnawing at a water bottle hole, trying to chew their way out. Good thing I reinforce those (soda can pop tops fit perfectly) but ASFs are maniacal chewers.

Excuse me a moment while I give them a stick to gnaw. Then, alack & alas, I - too - must needs purtify sufficiently to sell legalized weed. Which really just means shower → clean clothes. Brush hair & teeth.

And pull on new boots! Over new socks!

213

Morning all . Phone rang at 6:15am and I immediately go adrenaline-alert, cause no go comes from a call that early. Pick up and here a cheery (recorded) voice say, “Congratulations, you have won…” Don’t know what I won since I slammed the phone down with several Very Bad Words. Trouble was, with the adrenaline flowing, I couldn’t get back to sleep. So soccer for 7 hours today is going to be hard.

shoe, hope the new boots live up to the hype.

BBBoo, a pool noodle is what I was thinking of, but couldn’t remember what it was called. Good call.

red, so the ice cream will last until Tuesday (careful rationing, after all…

wheelie, enjoy the new furniture.

OK, need to break fast and do a little browsing on the internet prior to soccer. All y’all take care.

214

Back from erranding. I picked up my stuff from Lowe’s, braved WalMart for a couple of items (early enough that it wasn’t crowded) then deposited the check. Before I left, I started a load of jeans, and now they’re in the dryer and a load of shirts is washing. I’m enjoying some 'nanner bread that I pulled from the freezer yesterday. Next chore is refilling the pellet stove hopper - them suckers can barely get us thru 24 hours. And maybe I’ll take some 'nanner bread to FCD - he’s having a tough morning.

MetalMouse - phone calls that wake me always cause dread: “Who died?” I’d leave my phone in the other room, but with 3 elderly parents/inlaws between us, we really need to be available. I’m sure whatever bad words you used were entirely appropriate.

Onward!

215

Thank you for the compliment swampy. You have talents that I don’t and that’s the kind of stuff that makes the world work.

metal mouse, actually, my limit is 1/2 cup per day, otherwise, my BG tends to start getting high. I sampled the salted caramel last night and it’s nice and creamy, if a tad sweet.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, a load of jeans in the wash and fixing to do KP. On the agenda today is dealing with the home/auto insurance folks, going to Kroger for vegetation and maybe a side trip to Lebanon for an estate sale with some hobby items.

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

216

Morning, all. Today makes it 4 months. Life goes on, even though I didn’t expect it to. But we survive and deal with things, because that is what they would expect of us. Even if we tear up while writing to anonymous people on the intrawebs.

Sunny and crisp, so a quick trip to the grocery store is in order before the weekend maintenance schedule kicks in. Moooom, I hear you about the laundry. And it’s just me! How do I go through so many pieces of clothing when I teach from home in sweats? But there are litter boxes to be changed, floors to be mopped and walkways to be swept.

Happy Caturday!

217

Speaking of laundry, the jeans are in their respective closets and the shirts are in the dryer. I have assembled and tested my new shop vac. It comes with a filter bag, which will be exactly what I need when I have to vacuum out the two inserts. It’s a wet/dry vac - handy if we have one of our occasional basement floods.

I also installed a new terlit seat in the basement - one of the soft-close types. The seat down there was in sad shape and a new one was in order. I even scrubbed the terlit when the old seat was off - it’s nice an clean now… well, except for the rust stains which don’t seem to want to go away. But it works, and that’s what matters.

There’s a fire going in the basement fireplace - I’ll do something down there today. Not sure what, but surely something needs to be tidied. Plus I’ll need to walk eventually. None of that will happen till after the shirts come out of the dryer and are returned to their respective hangers or drawers.

Meanwhile, what to do for lunch?

218

Ok, time for us yankee Mumpers to start worrying about our Brit friends. London and southeast England just this morning got locked down into a whole new level: essentially nobody can get together with anybody and most shops, all pubs closed. Travel sharply restricted to other tiers, etc. Shared Christmas pudding? Not this year.

How will nuttie and fae be able to be merry and bright? We over here just have to crank it up a couple of notches, be more entertaining and outgoing, reach out with virtual companionship and gaiety, frivolousness even. Sounds like there’s a job here for us all. swampy and FCM**, you’re team captains of Make It Merry Old England. There’s a job here for each of us. shoe and OW, salacious stories please. nellie stories of wisdom and grace in perilous times please. silenus, rattie and miss red, comforting and amusing tales of life with our pets, work, friends and families in spite of it all. We’re going for distraction and ‘we’re all in this together’ here. Make it so Mumpers, amp it up.

219

New socks are some of my favorite things! I would mainline them if I could. I have a reputation for sock excess among my family and friends. When I was working and had $$ I haunted the sock sale racks at Von Maur, sending off sock packages to faraway friends and kids. I especially loved themed socks (read cat or dog, food or over 21 drinks) and tongue-in-cheek socks. Warm, comfy ones are a boon to weary feet and souls (get it? Soles?). Enjoy, make sure the laundromat machines don’t steal any. Few things worse than a lonely, sad, single sock. I would know, over the years I have collected a full laundry basket of socks divorced from their mates-there must be something useful and clever to be done with them, I just have’t figured out what it is. Bedding for DSH ratties? Pellet stove fuel? Mulch for the flower beds at swampy’s church? Y’all let me know, I’ve run out of ideas.

Yep. Those are scary phone rings. With a kid working in San Antonio, Texas where the virus and idiocy is running amok and another dear child doctoring in hospitals in hard hit Michigan, I do not want my phone ringing after dark. The pregnant daughter and granddaughter in preschool? Happy FaceTime phone calls only please. If the caller ID isn’t a kid ‘o mine I don’t want to see it outside of daylight business hours. Do Not Disturb is a wonderful phone setting. I’ve been known to use some nasty words on marketing and phishing calls since I can no longer slam down a handset to hang up. Our phones really need a setting for that kind of hanging up.

Off to work on my SDMB secret holiday exchange package. Must get it in the mail today to have any hope of saving face. It has to get all the way to the coast, a thousand miles from me. Nope, I didn’t get matched with shoe, much to my regret, that would have been extra fun.

220

I’m not in the area affected- neither is Boofae unless I’m more mistaken than usual- the area I’m moving to is, though, which may make it even more complicated.

My bro’s in London, and he was planning on going to visit the parents for Christmas, so I’m guessing that’s off (hoping, if I’m honest- I wasn’t sure about it anyway given that my 83-year-old Great Uncle with lung issues is also coming). The only tiny silver lining of that is that I missed the post this morning, so I didn’t just send his present to the other end of the country, if he’s not going to be there. I was doing a box of stuff for them to open on the day- everyone there’ll be an adult, just childish, which is fine by me.

In fact, Bristol, which is where I am now planning on taking a trip up to, has actually just gone down a tier. I’m going there sometime over the break to store some beekeeping and gardening stuff in a friend’s shed, because I’m not going to need it for a while.