So I Guess We Need A MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Well, crap on a cracker. We grossly underestimated our estimated taxes last year and between the feds and the state, we have to shell out an additional 5-figure pile of money, not including decimals. Dammit. Fortunately, we have savings and FCD just found out a project he’d promised to do is coming on line, so it will replenish the coffers in a few months.

The problem is his business did better than expected last year, and there were hardly any expenses, so too much profit. First world problems, right? Of course, it further pisses me off when a certain ex-Prez doesn’t pay his share of taxes because… But we’ll smile and send the money on April 15 and life goes on.

Dammit.

42

Pedantically, baked means cooked in an oven and roasted means cooked over or in front of an open fire, preferably on a spit turned by a ‘spit dog’.

43

I would be happy to take many three martini lunches for you to deduct. But seriously, that sucks.

44

Not sure of the lamb’s ethnic identity. :stuck_out_tongue:

Yay for RoxStar’s interest in toilet training Moooooom!

The only candles that I have in my home are the emergency candles in the bugout bag. I have allergies to the fixatives in most candle (and air freshener and perfume) fragrances, so, no candles for me. The ones that are gifted to me are regifted or donated.

Irked, already taking care of a clusterf**k this month, came home, took Nelson out and at supper. Chillage shall soon ensue.

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

45

Dad’s (Lipton’s) meatloaf was muy sabroooooooso. Tonka liked ‘Grandpa’s’ meatloaf too. I’m glad I made three pounds and froze half. It’s just the thing.

46

I survived a two hour Vestry meetin’. I know y’all were worried. I shall betake myself to dreamland shortly.

Nitey Nite Y’all!

47

Well, first soccer practice for the week is in the books. Had it “under the lights” at one of our lighted fields and the girls seem to enjoy it. Most of them have played before, and I think we’ll be an OK team, once I can teach them that defense is not standing still right in front of our goal. Early days. Have a set of twins on the team, last Fall I had a 12U girls team with twins, guess I’m lucky?

12U boys tomorrow. Oh joy.

swampy, I trust the minutes were kept and the hours were lost…

FCM, guess the man needs to value his work more highly (I thought he’s retired again, but another project coming?).

One? :wink: :grin:

Dinner was from The King but the rest of the week is eating in. Need to run a couple of loads of laundry tomorrow. Ah, spring…

All y’all have a good night (or for our Brit folks, a good morning).

48

My favourites!

What’s the difference between homemade street tacos and homemade other tacos? Do the street tacos involve roadkill?

Ah, but which one? The third one? Fourth one?

49

Good evening, nighttime Mumpers.

I let Taco Hell make dinner, because I’z taaahhhred. But I got a lot cleaned up around here this morning - so that’s good - and have nearly completed one care package I’m putting together & started another for a friend’s upcoming anniversary - so that’s fun.

I also started posting my soft furs to the umpteen zillion various Facebook groups relevant to …{ deep breath } ball python owners/breeders, miscellaneous reptile owners/breeders, exotic critter o/b of more general types, and rodent breeders specifically. There’s dozens and dozens just that I’ve joined already.
I am starting with the local or state-specific groups, but will move on to nationwide groups if I don’t drum up enough business. (No matter how carefully worded, those posts always wind up wasting my time with someone who turns out to me 1,000s of miles away.)

It takes forever to make a post, partially because I like to include multiple pictures and that involves scrolling endlessly through my phone gallery.

Anyways, I got a post onto about a dozen groups tonight, which is a decent start.

Thank goodness I picked up dinner, this ad posting took up what little post-work time & energy I had! A yogurt, then off to bed with me.

50

It was phone day–sister, nephew, sister again. I spent all afternoon doing that. Love my family and am grateful when I can help. I finished reorganizing in the kitchen while I talked. You’d think I’d run out of places to reorganize, but I never seem to. I swear, I keep things tidy.

When you were a kid, did you keep your school desk tidy? I’d start every year vowing my desk would be pristine all year. It never held, but I did organize it once in awhile. My daughter had a teacher who got angry at her messy desk, yelled at her and knocked the desk over, then made her stay after school to clean it up. I came in while daughter was on the floor, sobbing and sorting. I was not happy.

Oh, I remember that old tradition of lighting candles and blowing them out before company coming, but only candles on the dining room table. I always thought the idea was that you dined refined all the time.

Moooom, yay for Roxie. I think the kid has to be ready for potty training to work. I knew a mom who bragged that her six-month-old was potty trained. Of course, it meant the MOM was trained, not the baby. Anyway, Roxie strikes me as a person who knows her own mind and does things on her own terms. Hmm, where would she get those admirable qualities? :thinking: :slight_smile:

I think the main difference is that street tacos are smaller and always made with soft (not crunchy) tortillas. I’ve never had a bad street taco.

MetalMouse, glad the first practice went well. Those girls are lucky to have you. I once had a class with three–yes, three–sets of twins. Fortunately, only one set was identical, and I could tell them apart. Are the twins on your team identical?

Swampy, glad you survived vestry.

Time for a bath and then bed. G’night!

51

Wow, I had forgotten about that. My mom would do that with the tapers on the dining table. Often they would get moved once the food came out because we needed the space.

Except for last Thanksgiving, when my mom decided she had to have a candelabra for Thanksgiving dinner in the garage, they usually use tea lights. Less mess.

Miss Manners would probably not be happy I have my laptop at the breakfast table, but that’s our rules. Some people have newspapers and books at the table, but we have laptops at the breakfast table. Other meals are without books, laptops, etc. Unless someone is eating alone. Then they do what they want.

And at the moment I’m not doing well on keeping my current desk tidy. I have my work papers, my school papers and then my personal papers sharing space. Once I get certain things done (application for building permit, passport renewal and taxes), the current paper pile should improve by quite a bit. Just need to get motivated.

Speaking of which, I should get organized to start the day.

Happy Tuesday!

52

Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to sort.

53

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN Bladder woke me up and I felt rested, so took care of bidness and now here I am. ‘Tis 37 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 73 and N.O.S. for the day. Bug man comes this mornin’ at eight. I shall also fill up one gas can this mornin’ as well as feed twuck. Like MetalMouse said, mowin’ season is among us. I may mow at least the front yahd this afternoon. Or not. We shall see if the motivation to do so strikes. Sup shall be the beastloaf, mac 'n cheese, cabbage, and cornbread that didn’t get made yestiddy.

Nellie you are a good sis/aunt/friend to spend time on the phone needed to help out. Fifteen minutes max is my limit for talkin’ on the phone. After that I tend to zone out.

I never have understood the desire to dine by candlelight. I mean, we have 'lectricity and all that stuff, so why bother. I do not own a candelabra. I have some candle holder but they ain’t fancy.

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

Happy Tuesday Y’all!

54

I think this is one of those cross-pond differences; we didn’t have ‘a desk’ at school. We brought the stuff to be used that day in a bag, and left nothing at school. At my primary school, we didn’t really even sit in the same place all the time, as they liked to make us mix more.

By secondary school (age 11+) we’d be in different rooms for different classes anyway, but we still carried everything around- no lockers or desk to store anything in. We did have a space to keep PE kit and coats, but it was all open, and just pegs to hang things. Plus, even into the 2000s, there was an unlocked street entrance to the cloakroom, so people could -and parents occasionally did- just wander into there straight off the street.

It’s lovely, sunny and springlike outside today, so of course I’m stuck in having a thoroughly boring irk day. I was planning on going to the shops in lunch break, as I get a long one today, but I kind of want to just go out to the park instead. I’m out of nice things to drink though…

55

I found out that cats, sometimes, self-extinguish rather quickly! It may have just been luck, though. I don’t know. I never let it happen, again. I stopped burning candles, that day!
You see, I had one of those big, fat. short, three-wick candles on the coffee table. I lit it, because it smelled so nice. Lilac, if I recall. Anyway, one of our cats, Arlene, decided to walk over it. It lit the underside of her belly, but she must have snuffed herself out, when she realized what was going on, and ran off. We saw it happen, and immediately went after her. We SAW her belly on fire. You could smell burnt hair in the air. We checked her out really well, expecting to haul her off to the vet, but, you wouldn’t even have known she had been on fire. We couldn’t even find any singed fur.
Cats.
Weird.

56

I’ve always told him he didn’t charge enough - when he started the business, he wanted his rate to be $40/hr and he thought that was too high. :open_mouth: Fortunately, his former boss set him straight, and proposed a more reasonable rate, which I still think is low… Anyway, before he closed the business and when he told his customer what was going on, he promised to be available for this particular project if they needed him. He really didn’t expect it to happen, but all of a sudden it’s hot. I think it’s a 2-month analysis thing - lots of $$$ to set up and run a couple of analysis simulations. It’ll help cover these damned taxes. We just need to make sure to withhold enough for next year.

Good morning. Terrible night where it took for-freekin’-ever to fall asleep, followed by weird dreaming and multiple wakings. Then I was ultimately awakened but the text signal on my phone - Netflix was just paid. rah.

I ran the oven on self-clean last night and I need to finish cleaning it this morning, plus the dishwasher needs to be emptied. After all that’s done, it should be warm enough for me to start on moving plants that are in the way of my proposed raised bed.

We shall see how all of that goes. Happy Tuesday!

57

Morning all. Stayed in bed until almost 8, a bit sore but not as bad as I anticipated. Have sweatshirts and sweatpants and other athletic stuff in the washer, to be followed by my entire underwear collection (yes, I know, TMI…). Also need to set the dishwasher to washing dishes. So a moderately busy morning here at Casa Rat.

Supposed to get to 70F today and 75F tomorrow without the slightest chance of rain, so Spring may have sprung–but being an old skeptic, I’ll wait and see. Newspaper says this could be a bad year for tornadoes in Ali-bama…like there is a good year for them.

As for desks, can’t remember what school was like, but my current desk is…well, not tidy, but I know what pile everything is in.

shoe, hope the rat business does well for you.

OK, Instant Break has been consumed, so need to check on the laundry and be about the day. All y’all take care.

58

Sometimes clean enough is clean enough. Let me 'splain.

While the self-clean cycle of the oven reduced most spilled gunk to ashy dust, there was still some spattered gunk on the inside of the door on the glass and in a few crevices. I wiped up the ash and took a scouring pad to the remaining spatter, getting most of it removed. But not all.

Let me 'splain further - the stove was installed in Oct 2004. It’s been used almost daily since then (I suppose it could be daily if someone sneaked in and baked while we were on vacation… :open_mouth: ) But as I worked to remove all the spots, it occurred to me that the next time I bake, it’s likely that there will be spatter and mess, because it happens. So it’s clean enough. The worst of the gunk is gone. 'nuff said.

I’ve also emptied and refilled the dishwasher and scooped the cat box. The temp is rising and I figure after lunch, it’ll be comfortable enough to work outside sans jacket. That’s the plan. FCD brought me the price list from the local rock-and-dirt business. Topsoil is 2¢ per pound, so I’ll have him take the trailer and get a couple of front-end-loader-scoops to use in my various gardens. Fill dirt is cheaper, but ick. Then I’ll go to Lowe’s or Tractor Supply and get a few sacks of composted manure to mix in with the topsoil.

But first, I need to dig up and move all the stuff that’s going to be in the way. There’s one huge liriope and a lot of iris and day lilies. I think I know where I want to put them. So I shall begin in a couple of hours. Till then, chillage.

59

I remember starting out every school year with the best of intentions: clean desk, neat, perfect notes, etc. Then reality set in. Anyway, my current desk has two large monitors, two laptops, piles of notebooks and scattered pencils and planners (I actually use my planners from previous years) plus a snowglobe belonging to a kid and a jar full of paper slips with various overly specific things written on them that we use when we feel like playing charades. Oh, yeah - I also have a lamp.

It’s bright and gorgeous outside. I’ve managed to swingle overlyhusband into walking most evenings; I’m hoping I’ll get a waddle in during the day, then a solid walk with him this evening after seeing my mom. It’s only 9:15-ish here in the am and already I’m tired of meetings.

60

WOOHOO!! Just got FCD signed up for his Covid shot on Thurs! He’s under 65, but the county just added people 40-64 with certain medical conditions, and he meets at least one of them, so Huzzah!! How odd to celebrate something like that, no?

So first shot on Weds, second 2 weeks later, and by the time we have to go to FL for his mom’s surgery, he should be fully immunized. WOOHOO!!!

:boom: :boom: :boom: