Thanks to the Book of Faces, I've seen the fancy shmancy Moon. Last night though - not so much. Clouds, rain, fog...we had all of those, but no moon. I'll just have to get a night pass from the lovely senior village I'll be living in when it comes around again. :)
AW: Hubby's favourite cousin arrives in town tomorrow for a visit. We haven't seen her for several years, so we have lots to catch up on. We're both really looking forward to a few family dinners this week!
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Yay, for favorite cousins!
My husband drove to the top of the hill behind us, where the ridge overlooks a canyon to the east, so we could get a better view of the eclipsing moon. And it was delightful -- families had their excited kids out on sidewalks all over the place, dogs and their humans walked and waited.
We're going for a week in Hawaii in October, which is a big deal because we don't much do vacations. Obviously, cultivating a "beach body" was totally out of the question, but I'm considering the extreme measure of getting my first ever pedicure. And I have no idea how to go about this!
Hahaha! I've never had a pedicure either, kathy a.
No moon here either, Sue. Too many clouds, too much sleepy.
AW: Birthday weekend is over, grandparents have returned home safely.
AW: eye doctor gets me. Explained why I can't see, offered (gulp) bifocals. So I ordered them.
W: ouchie on the price. When you have terrible vision and get the thin lenses PLUS progressive bifocals, yikes it gets pricey.
kathy a, pedicures are lovely. I would crowd-source a good spa/salon in your area. Personal recommendations are the best way to go. Your trip sounds heavenly!!!!
Sorry about the glasses esperanza. Ouch on the price, but I'm glad you have a good eye doc.
Ack, I should have gotten new glasses already! Oh, well. I went overboard last time and also got these movie-star sunglasses, which I usually forget to wear, so maybe I'll finally get my money's worth on them.
The bifocal prescription [trifocal for me] is jarring the first time, but it is ever so worth it to see. :)
My cousin wants to know if we'll be wearing matching aloha outfits. Bwaaaa ha ha ha!
There is a couple here, I shit you not (and that's the only way to say that), that wears matching outfits all the time. Every day. Like every single day. They are square dancers, and apparently they've forgotten that not everything is a square dance!
I love that you know square dancers who always dress alike, esperanza. This pleases me greatly.
Kathy: the only pedicure I've ever had was in Hawaii. Check around for recommendations, for sure.
Esperanza: oh man, I'm dreading the eventual day when I get bifocals (it's inevitable, with my eyes and family). So expensive!
AW: I think E is finally recovering from the triple whammy of injured ankle/head cold/eczema flare up (P. S. Mr. Q put powerful dish detergent in her bath, because he thought it would make fun bubbles. Our kid who flares up if we don't use the gentlest of special laundry detergents on her clothes.). And she actually napped today.
Old Skool: I spent the whole day waiting got a YouPeeEss delivery that was "out for delivery" and never arrived. And needs a signature, and so someone needs to be around to receive it. I skipped a nap for no good reason!
QWP - I"m glad E is feeling better. Um, dish soap? :)
Grrr...delivery frustration is definitely whine-worthy!
QWP, Mr E has done that EXACT SAME THING with our eczema kid, Mini. Also, a cold/upper respiratory thing will sometimes make hers flare up anyway, without the bubble bath.
Delivery whines and repair-people whines are award-winning. I anticipate waiting on the plumber at some point this week.... because (W) I couldn't fix the toilet. (AW) Neither could my dad, which makes me feel less inadequate.
Oh, I HATE when the delivery doesn't come when advertised! They will deliver the next day, but at an uncertain time. Makes a person cranky.
Sending healing oatmeal bath stuff for the itchy.
Oy, Esperanza, about the toilet repair! (But hear ya about consulting the family expert, and even he couldn't do it.)
AW: my pretty new SAD lamp arrived!
W: five minutes after we put E down for the night, and the courier rang both doorbells, which made Upstairs Dog go berserk. It was pandemonium.
Odd that this would start off my day so nicely, but: I just had some blood work done for my yearly checkup. And the sweet phlebotomist used a butterfly needle without me even asking for it.
35 days until the election, my lovelies. The NAACP awards dinner the other night was supposed to end at 10:30 and went to midnight. The Northern Virginia Aging Network breakfast yesterday was at 7:30 AM and 40 minutes to the east of me (in the direction of rush hour), and this morning's event was at 8:00 AM, and I nearly overslept. I am just a wee bit tired.
Thirty-five days.
GO, LIZ! But the schedule sounds really exhausting, not even counting the doorbell ringing.
esperanza, I totally get the butterfly needle thing! That's a good way to start the day, for sure. The alternative, as you know, is the phlebotomist trying a regular needle a few times, THEN going to the butterfly.
Go Liz!! Sending energy your way...you're almost there!!
W: Our secretary has stopped wearing her teeth again. She was doing well for awhile, but alas, toothless again.
Yikes, Liz, you're making me tired just reading about it. Sending as much energy as I can muster your way. Wait! I have an idea. *Mini* will send energy your way. She's got it to spare!
Is it bad that I laughed at your whine, Sue?
Me, too.
Me three.
Esperanza, I will gladly pay you Tuesday for some energy today.
No, it's not bad to laugh. But really, wt heck?? Who does that????
AW: Best news story of the day in Canada - a goat who wouldn't leave a Timmy's coffee shop. The gendarmes were called. Dang, I love this country.
Er, Liz. Today is Tuesday. You're going to pay me on Election Tuesday? Or when? Oh never mind, just take it. It's free.
Liz was making a reference to a Popeye character! (Who sez I'm not cultured?)
Must! Stop! I keep buying things for the trip. Hair clips. Unders. Dress. New walking sneakers. Bathing suit. Today I got a small travel purse, a small wallet to fit in it, and a bathing suit coverup. Keep thinking of more -- a hat! (I don't wear hats.) Little low-cut sock things that won't show inside shoes, for the airport shoes-off ordeal. Stop me!!!
Um, too late on the sox and hat. But I swear, the only other thing to buy is sunscreen.
oh. I lived a deprived childhood, I guess :)
WWWWW: Something I mailed to the Big Beans on Sept. 18 did not arrive, and I got admonished. Replacement copy going. For those keeping score, we have not trusted our block's mailperson for years, so I always (except one time recently, when an outgoing bill ended up in the gutter beside my car, so that taught me) go to one of the official mail boxes. And -- I guess this stuff happens sometimes, but if a person cannot trust the big blue mailbox, what can a person trust?
Yeah, rerun therapy. That's the ticket. (No more retail therapy.)
Oh no! I hate mail mishaps.
Hilarious mail-related story to perk you up. A friend of mine lost her husband 5 years ago. They are both from Honduras, and he wanted his ashes scattered in what remains of his ancestral village (Hurricane Mitch destroyed it). So she finally saved up enough money for tickets, decided she was emotionally ready, etc. You can't carry ashes internationally without a bunch of hoopla, expense, and delay at customs. Ditto if you send them F3d3x or YouPeeEss (thanks for that one, QWP). She is a hospital chaplain and happened to be visiting with the spouse of a dying patient. Spouse and patient are both from Germany. Spouse talks about sending her ashes back to Germany, so my friend asks him how he's going to accomplish that. He says, "Oh, don't mess with F3d3x or YouPeeEss, just send them regular mail!" So, she puts some of her husband's ashes in a box, heads to her local Post Office, answers their questions (perishable? Nope! Already perished! Liquids? Nope!). She MAILS her husband's ashes to her sister's house in Tegucigalpa, and he arrives there before she does! It was a bit expensive, because ashes are heavy, and the international postage, but no Customs issues! She was telling us this, and I was CRACKING up, especially at the thought of her at the post office counter.
That might be my favorite postal story!
Also, happy to report that a copy of the lost thing (mailed same place, same time) arrived on time to somebody else. So the big blue mailbox itself is still trustworthy.
Today was free coffee day at dunkin donuts!!! And boy did I need it. COFFEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
Mwaahahahahaaa!
Ugh, sorry about the Big Blue Mailbox kathy. I agree, if you can't trust BBM, who can you trust? Also, everything you bought for the trip is entirely necessary, especially the hat. Even if you don't think you need it, you do. That sunburned scalp look is not in this year. :)
Hilarious about the ashes esperanza!! Lol!!
Mmmm...coffee.
AW: Lovely dinner with hubby's fave cousin and aunt last evening. It was fun hearing stories about family trips and the trouble cousins can get into.
W: My MIL was totally overwhelmed. She sort of checked out half way through dinner and sat there with a tired, flat look on her face. Poor thing.
W: Mr E is in workaholic mode.
Sue, that sounds like a fabulous dinner! Except, sorry that it wasn't for your MIL. Do you think it was just too much going on?
Esperanza -- uh, oh.
He has two extremes: stay home too much and get in my business, interfere with homework, and disturb my peace and quiet. Or, work all the time and never come home for supper. Where is the happy middle, Mr. E?
Pathetic little marital W: As hubby left for work this morning, he whined in an irritiable voice about not being able to make seat selections for the flight, because "I don't know where you keep that stuff." [a] He has the confirmation on his own laptop, in his own email. [b] He could maybe ask me for a printout when he isn't headed out the door, huh? [c] I do not know why he thinks he can't call about the seats during a break at work, but this he firmly believes. [d] Should I go missing and anybody need the travel info, it is very cleverly hidden in a colorful folder on my desk, in plain view, marked ALOHA on a contrasting sticky-note.
He's just mad at himself for losing track of this. I'm not his secretary or his mom. He normally remembers that. ;)
I am laughing so hard over "very cleverly hidden..."
Liz
As we say down here, Mr E couldn't find his a** with both hands. Mini, unfortunately, takes after him.
Esperanza, sometimes I forget you are from Texas. Not today! xoxo
ha! I've got more! (Really, that's a Texas thing? I never know if it's regional or universal).
Well, also this week, you said, "I shit you not." Which is probably more Texan than the other thing, and that gave me a good grin, too.
Really? Huh. Don't forget the matching square dancers :)
Those expressions are pretty common out east, too
Today was a very good day. A really very good day
Y'all are cracking me up. "Y'all" is not a typical Middle Earth Canada thing to say, btw. :)
Glad you had a great day Liz!!
Careful, Sue! We're rubbing off on you!
Hooray for a great day, Liz!
Yay, Liz!
I picked up "y'all" when we lived in the South for a few years. My clients thought I had a speech impediment because I talked funny (true!).
In case I have not said this before, I.Hate.Guns.
One of my daughter's best college friends just began her career as a school counselor in Oregon. This shooting happened maybe 2 hours south, and at a college -- but it is the big freakin' story nationally, and I bet S will have a lot on her plate tomorrow with her school's students. She has been in this job less than a month, but S really listens and cares, is thoughtful. This was probably not something she expected less than a month in, though.
Wow. Yes, I'm sure she'll be busy in the days to come.
I am so sad and angry.
I'm right there with you Liz.
We do not allow personal hand grenades, personal armored tanks, personal rocket launchers. We do not let people just run out and buy quantities of lethal substances. We have health and safety codes, so that one person's neglect or quirky idea does not cause harm to others. We put up with all these anti-terrorism measures, because lives might be saved.
But guns cause upwards of 30,000 deaths per year, every year. Why is it that nothing ever gets done to curb the availability of guns, to check the stability of those who seek guns?
I'm so disappointed that I can't even process.
W: there is some kind of mix up at my place of employment which means I can't access any work and I'm out of things to do.
AW: I'm rage cleaning. All the rage cleaning.
Michigan culture is a mix of Dutch Reformed and southern culture and a lot ethnic Catholics. "I shit you not" is common. "Y'all" is not.
Kathy, I'm so excited to hear about your big trip!! Esperanza, I can't believe Sweet is 8!! Liz, keep on campaigning. I'm rooting for you!!!
Sue, I never fully appreciated how remote your village is until my son's troop started talking about their big trip up near you. And it is quite a hike. Your province is HUGE!!
I'm going to do some rage folding. I made some rage bread for soup. I did some rage pot scrubbing too. I will start rage closet cleaning soon if they don't fix stuff.
Kathy, what part of "well-regulated" did they miss in the 2nd Amendment???
Miranda, I'm impressed with your rage productivity. Mine is usually less positively directed.
Me, too -- rage cleaning is not in my repertoire. But hat off to those who can!
Miranda, sorry things are so fubar today. Hope that gets straightened out pronto.
I am so beyond disgusted with this Oregon shooting. Turns out that said fuckknuckle (sorry for the language, but it certainly applies here)of a shooter was online in a forum before the shooting, of which my husband is a participant, and he FREAKING BRAGGED for everyone to "watch the news" and "if you live in the Pacific Northwest, don't go to school tomorrow".
Assholes of the highest caliber in the forum egged him on, and congratulated him when he actually went through with it. The owners of the forum scrubbed the thread right away, but nothing online ever really disappears. So, my husband (and several other individuals) all sent screen shots and transcriptions of the thread to every media outlet and anti-crime organization they could think of -- CNN, MSNBC, HuffPo, the FBI, ATF, etc.
I am SO ANGRY that we are seeing this again. People dying because someone else thinks that they have a right to take lives. I am not a fan of suicide, by any means, but if you're that miserable, why take other, innocent people along with you?
These people in this forum, who egged him on, they should also be prosecuted. Put them UNDER the jail, and then see how cool this is.
Oh, man, KLee. Sorry you and your husband are so close to this. I agree, the people who encouraged him should be charged with something. Who would do that?
KLee, am speechless at random online people egging someone -- someone obviously and seriously damaged -- on to such a horror. If someone is talking guns and slaughter, I don't think there is a corner where anybody else can hide and say, "Oh, didn't think he was serious." More so when the crowd is saying kill kill kill (or equivalent).
Another bad week. Sending the love all around. xoxo
Typed a long post, and blogger ate it. If you are interested, g00gle "4chan Oregon shooter". You all will also be sick.
What an awful couple of days. I'm just at my limit with people who think that regulation don't work, or encourage these massacres.
I had an eventful evening: I took my goddaughters to help their dad settle into his new apartment. (Things went well, and the place is good, both of which are big AWs.) I'm trying to keep neutral and focus on what is best for the kids. But the whole situation makes my heart and my head hurt.
KLee, that is sickening.
My daughter's friend said there wasn't much talk about it at her school. "I think it's just become so routine now."
Which the president said, and he said that is a horrible thing to call this routine, and I agree.
Miranda, I'm impressed with the rage productivity! And yes, we're a huge province. It's beautiful too, but after 12 or 14 hours of driving the TransCanada, even along the lake, it becomes less impressive. Mostly it's just rocks and trees, rocks and trees, rocks and trees... :)
(((KLee))) I'm sorry this is so close to you. I was so disappointed when CNN chose to name the shooter, even after the Sheriff clearly stated that he didn't want the name to be released. The whole thing is just so horrifying.
I understand the urge to not glorify the person who did this hideous thing. But don't we need to find out why he -- and all the others -- broke in this way? Don't we need to look for an answer that is more complex than "he's just evil"? Because some things definitely went very wrong here, and those explanations are complex; they are not sound bites.
The sheriff in Oregon opposes gun control. The perpetrator would have been just as crazy or filled with rage or steeped in psychotic thinking if he had not had all those guns, but he would not have killed and wounded so many people, or terrorized so many, or tossed the entire nation one more time into the state of anxiety and hopelessness in which we -- one more time -- find ourselves.
You can't just keep saying "lone wolf" when we have had upwards of 40 mass shootings so far THIS YEAR; when we have upwards of 30,000 gun deaths every single year. At some point, rational people need to find ways to stop the carnage. Because it is unacceptable. Intolerable.
I didn't realize the sheriff was against gun control. Hmmm...
I worry about the "press" these shooters get in terms of others perched on the edge of horror who see it and think "I'll be famous if I shoot up a school." I have the same problem with annual ceremonies which name the shooter at Ecole Polytechnique (1989) along with the names of the women he killed. The women need to be remembered, he does not. It's notable that all these years later, most university campuses still hold a memorial on Dec 6 to remember those 14 women.
On the other hand, you're quite correct - these can't all be "lone wolf" situations, explained by individuals with mental health issues. As long as that happens, no one needs to deal with the actual problem - guns.
Fireplacing guns.
AW: Baboos and I managed to have fun at our town's big festival.
W: we are all totally exhausted after 3 hours there. And I have to go back tonight and help close out the church food booths.
W: worse than that, our town's motto ("Come and Take It," a bit of history that began the Texas revolution against Mexico) has become a rallying cry for gun rights. So there were several groups, in the short bit of the parade that we watched, marching for *more* gun rights, Texas independence from the U.S. and other nutty ideas. For real. More gun rights, because things are going so well now. Sigh.
Yeah, and they wonder why there is so much gun violence, when their only solution is, hey, More Guns. This is not the freakin' wild west -- not even in Texas, where I know there are many reasonable people.
Don't get me started on the secession people.
Glad it was otherwise a good town festival!
How about some cluesticks sent in the direction of friends who, in the immediate aftermath of a massacre, "liked" a bunch of EnnArrrrEh anti-gun-control articles on Book of Faces (ones the argued the the situation needed MORE guns)? You think you know a person, and then they move to the US and go full-on gun nut.
You guys, I'm a Canadian, and I'm continually surprised by how big Sue's province is. I have a friend who lives in the same city as her, and I'm always confused about how far away she is from the Big Cities. I also just looked it up, and I live further to the north?!
Tentative AW: I think E is starting to adjust to life without an afternoon nap, to the point that she has slept in many days in a row.
W: life without naps. And, even with my continuing to enforce quiet time, she spends a lot of the day (and especially late morning and late afternoon) being TIRED and grouchy.
Oy QWP - adding cluesticks to those who "like" the EnnArrEh. I remember well the AW/W status of the Giving Up of the Naps. It's complicated.
Some fun facts re: my home province! Thank you intarwebs!
approximately 1,076,395 sq. km / 415,598 sq mi.
larger than France and Spain , combined.
almost 1/3 the size of India.
more than 3 times the size of Germany.
more than 3.5 times the size of Italy.
more than 1/10th the size of Canada.
more than 4 times the size of the UK.
more than 8.25 times the size of England.
more than 15 times the size of Ireland.
about the same size of the US states Texas & Montana, combined.
All this, and I think Quebec is even bigger, right QWP? They have more Northern geography I think.
uh, that's big, Sue.
Very very big.
So big! Like, my province is almost as big as Texas, and I think Sue's province is astronomically big.
QWP, E might just be experimenting. Great to do quiet times, anyway, even if they don't quite work immediately! Like so many other transitions, naps can be on and off for a while.
AW of the vacation: We'll be there a week, and this place has a kitchen! So naturally we are taking the good coffee and filters, because hotel room coffee is always sub-prime. And, now I'm deciding what spices and yadda to take in my cute tiny little set of spice containers, because -- even in paradise, an entire week of restaurant eating can get to be a bit much, no?
Kathy: a kitchen! I always try to get a kitchen on vacation, so that we don't have to spend a billion dollars on restaurant food (and because it can be tiring to only have restaurant food).
AW: so, after all that whining about E today (and a lot of her whiny behaviour), she was absolutely charming at supper (and decided the she loves raw spinach), and then went to bed really easily. Today, I started an experiment that I read online, for preventing battles of wills at the table, and it made a really big difference today. We'll see if it lasts, of course. But I kept the portions small at first, and told her, "You don't have to eat it. You can have more of any of this, if you would like, but I'm not going to make you anything different. Let me know if you need help." And then I left her alone to feed herself, and thoroughly enjoyed my own meal, while talking about how nice the different elements of it are. While she only ate a few nibbles at lunch, she ate amazingly at supper, and tried new things. (Yellow tomatoes? They are interesting instead of new and strange!)
We'll see if this continues (and I really had to get over my tendencies to be in charge of her food), but it was neat.
Kathy, do NOT bring coffee with you to Hawaii. That is where Kona coffee comes FROM.
Right. No coffee! (I was thinking of Kona as only medium roast, but they have dark roast varieties, too.)
QWP -- yay on the new approach to food! Backing off from food-based power struggles is really a good thing. (And yeah, some days will not be as successful; but kids will generally arrive at enough of a healthy balance.) Plus, yay! She's getting more adventurous!
Sweet is finally getting more adventurous. Finally. Now it's Mini's turn to be uber picky. It's taxing my brain to keep up with everyone's likes and dislikes. I've pretty much stopped fixing separate meals for them, but will often add something I know they like to their plates (usually fruit) along with whatever evil concoction I've made for supper. Breakfast and lunch are not family meals and therefore I'm a bit more willing to tailor make them to suit preferences.
The little something extra yummy per person sounds like a decent fix, Esperanza.
The coffee is back on the packing list, because my beloved says, "Kona? Uck."
Oh, this is funny! I have a portrait of my husband as a HS senior (something his mom saved), wearing the absolute ugliest plaid dress jacket you can even imagine -- so, last night my daughter was laughing at the jacket, and then I showed her the actual jacket that he wore over 40 years ago, which of course I cannot offload because he still likes it. At least the tie went back to whichever grandfather lent it, and is lost to history.
check on the allowed items to bring to Hawaii, they have strict rules on foods and fruits and things.
Thanks, Liz. It's OK to bring processed foods and spices. Not OK to bring fruits, plants with soil attached, and suchlike. Strict quarantines for pets. Think we're safe.
XLNT.
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