We're late, we're late! A Monday Afternoon MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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{{Haze}}

Mothers can be funny that way. Mine seems to be relatively happy with my current situation, mostly because she likes The Boy and she has no freakin’ clue what I do for a living but it sounds half-decent and pays well. :slight_smile:

So now she just reminds me I’m getting too fat and need to lose some weight.

Forgot to say 'grats on Seville, Nava. I’m jealous. Seville is one of my favouritest places (not as favourite as Barcelona, but that sounds inconveniently close to your family, so you probably feel otherwise :slight_smile: )

Also, none of the post formatting buttons are working for me today. I click, but nothing happens. Grrrrrr. Forgive the lack of smilies, I am limited to what I can code by hand. :stuck_out_tongue:

This must be my punishment for cheating on my diet and having a donut for breakfast (which will be the least of my sins, when you consider I have a seder to go to later tonight, where I will stuff my face silly)

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{{Rigs, Taters, Haze}}

Yay for The Boy and hopefully he’ll have a more normal work schedule! Yay for the job in Seville, Nava!

Unfortunately, sad news on the homefront here. My godmother died on Sunday. She was 88 and had been in declining health so it’s not a big surprise, but I’m still sad. I managed to find a not-too-expensive flight home so I’m taking Friday off, zipping home, funeral on Saturday, then a morning flight back on Sunday. Not exactly how I wanted to spend Easter, but it’s important to me to be there. Aunt Dot lived across the street from my family for my whole life and was like a grandmother to me - closer than my real grandmothers really. Lots and lots of memories. She made me two quilts, one when I was a little kid and one when I graduated from college that I have on a quilt rack in the guest bedroom (it’s too small for the queen-sized beds we have now). And a beautiful lace tablecloth. And she helped me make a quilted wall hanging for Mom one year. She was just there to talk to so many times. Their yard was filled with daffodils every spring so when I got my Cancer Society daffodils this spring I thought of her, and I’m sure I’ll think of her every spring when the daffodils bloom.

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LIke Rigs, I have some of the same kinds of parental issues. My dad, was an incredible guy. Community activist, school board member, worked up to be an Assistant VP in a major company with only a trade school certificate, even has a school named for him in our home town.

The whole time he was doing this, he managed to be my grade school basketball coach, he made 90% of the baseball games I ever played, up until and after I was playing in adult club leagues, he’d even drop by my high school track practices. You think track meets are sleepy? Go watch a practice.

Nowadays, to hear my mom tell it, he was always too busy to help raise my sister and I and everything we’ve ever done right is because of her. I can count on one hand the number of times I heard her tell me she loved me - I’m sure she does, but I until a few years ago when she started adding to the end of every phone conversation we have, it was practically never.

Two baseball games of the hundreds I played, ONE track meet, and I went to the state meet three times. The only football game she ever went to was the one where I was carted off with a torn Achilles.

To hear her, the best thing I ever did was produce a flawless grandchild.

I quit trying, it got so frustrating.

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Back to car shopping…

My vote is for the Kia as well. It was originally sold with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. If I buy it, what transfers is a 60,000 mile warranty. Still pretty darned good, and it doesn’t change that they built it with the intent of never needing to fix it for 100,000 miles.

Some years ago, we had a Jeep Liberty. It was a decent cute-ute. Despite the “Jeep” name, it’s not a JEEP. Keep this thing away from the Rubicon Trail - its off-road capabilities are pretty well limited to parking in grass fields. It’s not even 4-wheel drive. Same goes for the one DH eyeballed over the weekend. The one he really eyeballed the hell out of is a el-strippo Wrangler X. I think the “X” means they X out all possible options. It comes with the engine, wheels, doors and an AM-FM radio. Think there’s one airbag in the steering wheel, and reviews say it’s a lousy daily driver. Great for climbing rocks, but can be absolute terror on the freeway. Something about a resonance in the suspension - hit a bump at highway speed, and the thing starts bucking and yawing. Oh yeah, that’s exactly what I want for a daily commuter.

At the moment, we have the Liberty in our possession. On the way home, we notice that the driver window rattles as it goes down, and it idles like a Harley. I’ve found that this model has a known issue with windows falling out, and it’s a $500-700 fix per window for the upgraded mechanism. Yee-ow! No idea about the idle - feels like it may be as simple as one spark plug wire is bad as the engine runs fine otherwise. So, it’s going back to Carmax. (Gotta love that 5-day return policy!)

I just have to keep DH away from that darned Wrangler…

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{{taxi}} Sorry to hear that. Sounds like she was an absolutely wonderful lady, and a top-notch godmother.

Lunchtime. Off I go to find some form of pavlova transport device, so that I can somehow manage to cart tonight’s dessert to the depths of suburbia without completely destroying it. Urk.

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I like pavolova. If it gets destroyed, I volunteer to eat the fragments. The pork empanadas were delicious, by the way. Haven’t thawed to chili yet. :slight_smile: Thank you.

Thomas got his Social Insurance Number today. I think this means he can get a job. I suggest he does. He can support his parents and brother.

(((Haze)))

MBG, I have a similar problem with my MiL- according to her, Mr. Lissar’s father never helped, never displayed any interest in his kids, was never even a little bit invested in their marriage and family. She paints him so blackly- and I think he’s a pretty nice guy- that I wonder often what his side of the story is. He doesn’t complain about her.

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Sorry about your godmother, taxi.

We are back from the Shedd Aquarium. Every time I go there, I vow to never return. It is always so effing crowded. Gah. I hate crowds. I am now decompressing at home. And it cost us $50+ to get in! :eek: But the sharks are cool and #2 son likes to look at fish.

I am very tired now. But I want chocolate. Do I make pan cookies or suffer? Hmm.

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Haze, I had years of “You got a 97? Why didn’t you get 100??” Plus I got to hear how she got straight As in high school. When I got older, I got to thinking how sad it was that she made it a competition… What ya gonna do??

The new branch heads have been named at work, and from what I gather, they get to request their own branch members. I thought at first I was getting my old boss back, but now I’m not sure. But I’m feeling like a geeky middleschooler standing on the sidelines waiting to be picked for kickball… :rolleyes: That could be upsetting if I was looking to build a career rather than biding my time till retirement.

It’s supposed to get sunny and nice starting tomorrow. Here’s hoping we get our gutters soon!!

So, is it Firday yet??

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Pavlova transport has been acquired. Sort of. I’ll have to cobble something together out of various bits and pieces from the dollar store, and hope for the best.

Glad you liked the empanadas, LiLi. And I will bring pavlova when we get around to coming over for a visit and to meet little Thomas. Fresh, un-broken pavlova, no less. :slight_smile:

(these particular pavs are making it uptown in one goddamn piece or else I’m having a nervous breakdown… and that’s THAT)

They’re giving out SINs awful early nowadays, aren’t they? I remember getting mine at 15, when it felt like a rite of passage into responsible adulthood (or some semblance thereof… it’s been almost 17 years since then, and I still don’t feel like a responsible adult most days)

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Nah, me neither. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I was a teenager when I got mine, but now we can’t apply for thew baby bonus or tax credits without his Social Insurance Number, which seems weird. I guess it’s proof he was born, and is a person, or something?

(((taxi)))). I’m sorry about your godmum. She sounds fantastic.

Sending Mr. Lissar off to retrieve Gnat from my parents, sticking dinner in the oven, and waking the baby to feed him and hoping he sleeps instead of staring off into space tonight.

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Nah, me neither. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I was a teenager when I got mine, but now we can’t apply for thew baby bonus or tax credits without his Social Insurance Number, which seems weird. I guess it’s proof he was born, and is a person, or something?

(((taxi)))). I’m sorry about your godmum. She sounds fantastic.

Sending Mr. Lissar off to retrieve Gnat from my parents, sticking dinner in the oven, and waking the baby to feed him and hoping he sleeps instead of staring off into space tonight.

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I washed my hair (so that I can flatiron it tonight–I don’t blow dry my hair) and went into a 2 hour coma. I must have needed it, because I now feel great. TH went out to get dinner.

About this parent criticism thing: it does go both ways. I have never said “what happened–why not 100%?” etc to Daughter and yet last June she went off on me, big time, for not being “excited” that she passed all her finals and maintained her A average. Um, I said that’s great and I’m proud of you… Oy. Sometimes you can’t win as a mom.

(I know this is not quite the same as always facing criticism or not being good enough or do well enough, but I thought I’d throw in another perspective).

And now I am faced with what to do with my evening. I should plan our family trip this August, but I have a strange reluctance to do so.

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חג שמח

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Easy for you to say!

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Funny - VBob said the same thing on facebook.

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To you too, rosie! (And to everyone celebrating Passover.)

Forgot to congratulate you on Sevilla, Nava. Sounds like fun.

So sorry about your godmother, taxi. I’m glad to see that you can go home for the funeral.

Very cool new ride, Shadow.

I think Thomas should plan to support all of us. No?

Still no phone; I’m thinking I’ll order a replacement tonight. Have already picked it out. Not a smartphone, but appears to have really good call quality. Really didn’t want to have to buy a phone…

Allergies slowly diminishing, but still rather annoying. I’m sure there was more I was going to say, but I’ve forgotten.

Back later.

GT

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Also: Peeeeeeeeeeeps!

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Congrats to **The Boy **and Nava. It’s nice to see things are going right for some people.

I’m sorry about your godmother, taxi.

Work was suckage to the nth degree. I feel like I’m ready to go off on some people, so I’m doing my damndest to keep to myself while I’m at the office. Two days of rage to the point of tear is wearing on a body. While I didn’t break down and cry (go me), I think it best if I don’t communicate with those who are pissing me off for a few days.

I’m tired of going at full-tilt a hundred miles an hour from the time I walk in the door until I leave. I’m tired of unreasonable suspenses and I’m tired of an unreasonable workload. Yes, I’ve tried talking to my division chief about shifting priorities, but it doesn’t help. I get the same damn speech every time.

Hubby had to spend money I wasn’t expecting to spend. $214 and change for a new battery and installation today. BMW batteries can’t be simple, oh noooooo…they’re in the trunk and they’re freakin’ expensive. Dammit.

Something’s got to go right for me some time…right? RIGHT?!

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Wonderful! I love them all.

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:: hugs for taxi ::

Looks like all of us had perfectionist parents. Makes me feel a bit better. :stuck_out_tongue:

Easter is awfully early this year. A couple we know invited us over for … something related to Passover, some kind of evening ceremony thing you do at home and then you eat a lot … ?(sorry I am very ignorant of Jewish customs :smack: ). I was looking forward to going (because of my aforesaid ignorance) but I think Passover ends before the boyfriend gets back, boo.