The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Figgy1]

I thought I was the only weirdo who was up and functioning at this hour! Glad to see I'm not alone. Have a great weekend. I may get back on! Most of the snow banks are gone so time to start cleaning outside. Not to mention getting my youngest to the library, and food shopping!

 

[MinnieM123]

Never knew them to do that in a regular oven. Microwave, absolutely. I never had one explode otherwise.

P.S. It has been years since I baked a potato, so maybe it did poke holes in it and just don't remember. I do remember doing it for the microwave though.

My grandmother grew up in Ireland. They did a lot of their cooking the old fashioned way--they'd often use their fireplaces for cooking. She said they'd take the potatoes and put a nail in them, and then put them in the hot coals to cook. She said the nail made them cook faster inside.

 

[MinnieM123]

Hahaaa...!!!!!!!
Sooooo classic...!!!!!

I used to love that show! Lots of laughs!

 

[MinnieM123]

My daughter is planning our next cruise already. Haven't even been home a week!

Atta girl! She's got her priorities straight!!

 

[MinnieM123]

Yep, that would have been nice. Several hurt, last I heard one death loss of many horses and farm animals. Two towns gone, one with no houses left standing. And yet two silos out in the field the tornado hopped right over them and left them be.

That's heartbreaking about the two towns of devastation, and also about the animals lost.

On a brighter note, your pictures of the ducks swimming was uplifting. Life somehow goes on . . .

 

[MinnieM123]

Cabela's reminds me of our Bass Pro Shop, love that store. It is massive inside.

Both you and @MOXOMUMD are lucky to have Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops near by. I don't think we have any of those stores around here (except maybe up in Maine). I've seen their online sites and they look like fun stores to poke around.

 

[MinnieM123]

Ugh. School.

Spanish professor has been horrible about getting grades back to us. We've done lots and lots, and lots of assignments. She has given us two grades back, yet the assignments keep coming. Today was the last day to withdraw from a class. Oh, your grades should definitely be on Blackboard by then, she says.

Just checked. No grades.

I doubt I would have to drop the class because I think my abilities are good enough (and one of the grades she gave back was a 95, so I assume the other assignments are similarly graded). Just annoyed. And remembering why I turned down the free ride from this school two years ago and went to my school.

I'm not a teacher, but being objective here, I'd say it sounds like your Spanish teacher is lazy and disrespectful of her students. You're all paying her salary; she needs to do her job better than that. I'd be ticked off at her, too.

 

[MinnieM123]

@Eric1955 , I agree with you! Gone With the Wind is a classic masterpiece.

 

[MinnieM123]

I had issues with the children's classics for elementary schools. Something horrible was always happening to the kid or their family in the books. They were depressing. If you want to encourage the young to read you shouldn't make them unhappy.

Not being in education or having any children, I'm probably the least qualified here to comment on this. But, I am, anyway!

I thought back to some books I read as a kid, and some were tear-jerkers, for sure. However, I think that perhaps a combination of happy books and intense books would be find for kids. The reason is that life isn't always pretty, and by shielding kids from all the less-than-happy aspects of life, doesn't really contribute to their emotional growth. So, my vote would be for a "balance" of both type of books for kids to read.

 

[MinnieM123]

When they crack up it makes me laugh harder. The same with SNL.

Tim Conway was often ad-libbing (while on camera!) and would completely crack up the others!

 

[MinnieM123]

I thought I was the only weirdo who was up and functioning at this hour! Glad to see I'm not alone. Have a great weekend. I may get back on! Most of the snow banks are gone so time to start cleaning outside. Not to mention getting my youngest to the library, and food shopping!

No, we're not early-morning wierdos, we're unique and special.

 

[MinnieM123]

@MOXOMUMD , I'm really enjoying your cruise recap! One of my favorite things you mentioned is about the 24-hour ice cream and yogurt machines! Wow!!! (Actually, ALL of the food you mentioned sounded delish!)

 

[Goofyernmost]

My grandmother grew up in Ireland. They did a lot of their cooking the old fashioned way--they'd often use their fireplaces for cooking. She said they'd take the potatoes and put a nail in them, and then put them in the hot coals to cook. She said the nail made them cook faster inside.

Terrific way to get your iron requirement as well. Even back then there was multi-tasking!

 

[Goofyernmost]

When they crack up it makes me laugh harder. The same with SNL.

Harvey Korman and Tim Conway were the best at that. Tim could usually keep a straight face, but Harvey never could.

 

[Wrangler-Rick]

We have one of those too. The Cabela's we go to is huge with an upstairs and restaurant. We go once a year for new camo, ammo and jerky.

Camo, ammo, and jerky. You definately would fit in up here in Wisconsin!!!! I can drive over to Green Bay and they have Cabela's, Gander Mountain, 's, and Fleet Farm. Everything you need for outdoors fun. Oh, and jerky too!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I find that some teachers start off great and then they hit tenure and don't care anymore. I had two teachers in their last year. One was terrible and one was brilliant. English was my least favorite. All you did was read "classics". If I want to read, I'll have better books at home.

I agree that some teachers start off great and may wane later in their careers. There isn't tenure anymore in my state thanks to our "wonderful" governor so all our teachers should be on top of their game.

Anyway, English was one of my favorite subjects and some books we had to read I didn't care for but many of my high school teachers picked books that I enjoyed. One that particularly stands out was O Pioneers by Willa Cather, it was a good book (and trilogy). I tend to stick to books of one type of genre so I appreciate (maybe not at the time) being forced to read books outside my typical genre. I have a friend now who sends me names of books to read that I wouldn't normally pick myself but usually enjoy.

 

[Wrangler-Rick]

Camo, ammo, and jerky. You definately would fit in up here in Wisconsin!!!! I can drive over to Green Bay and they have Cabela's, Gander Mountain, ****'s, and Fleet Farm. Everything you need for outdoors fun. Oh, and jerky too!

I tried to fool the auto filter by subsituting a 1 but that wasn't enough! That was D i ck's sporting goods....

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I'm talking more like award books like Stone Fox. Grandpa owes $500 in back taxes. Will (young kid) enters dog sled contest with his best friend Pup to save Grandpa. 10 feet from finish like the overly tired Pup heart bursts and the dog drops and dies. Picks up dog and carries dead dog over finish line.

The entire classroom of 4th graders crying and they are dismissed for Lunch. What the heck is the matter with novels like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?

I remember that book but I forgot about the ending, that is terrible! Another depressing book was Where the Red Fern Grows. I agree happy books are much more enjoyable, especially for developing readers. I tend to stick with only happy books now too. And Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was a great book, it made me hungry as I read it though!

 

[Eric1955]

I find that some teachers start off great and then they hit tenure and don't care anymore. I had two teachers in their last year. One was terrible and one was brilliant. English was my least favorite. All you did was read "classics". If I want to read, I'll have better books at home.

The worst class I ever took was a World Literature class. The professor was an atheist and almost the only thing he did every class was bash Christianity. The professor can believe anything he wants but he shouldn't have tried to indoctrinate the class with his beliefs when it had absolutely nothing to do with what we were reading. Rather than lecture on what we were supposed to be learning about he would just go on these long rants about how stupid Christians are. We even had to watch a Christopher Hitchens video that was completely irrelevant to the class. I would often speak up in class and disagree with him and thankfully that didn't affect my grade. I have to at least give the professor credit for that.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Elementary school was better than middle and high school and college. Elementary school we got to read books that had a serious tone but still ended well, like Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, and others. The one I remember most was the True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. By fifth grade, we were split into four different reading classes. I was in the second highest group. Originally, we were reading what the lower level classes were reading, Caddie Woodlawn (a book I read anyway), but then the teacher decided that the book was too easy for our group, and she switched us over to what the highest level class was reading, Charlotte Doyle. I loved that book and read it several times after the class was finished.

Eventually it got to the point, though, even back then, that I figured if the book had a medal on it, I probably did not want to read it. There were exceptions (Because of Winn Dixie, Ella Enchanted, which I've probably read around five times or so, and a few others). In fourth grade, my teacher tried to get me to read Bridge to Terrebithia because she thought I wasn't reading enough. In actuality, I was reading a lot, but I just wasn't reading anything from her dumb book box. I had been reading Anne of Green Gables at home, and I was going to the library and getting Nancy Drew and nonfiction books about cats (no, some things never change) and stuff I actually WANTED to read. I got about halfway through it before I couldn't stand it anymore and put it back in her book box, never telling her that I never actually read it.

Sounds like we have similar tastes in books. Anne of Green Gables was one of my favorite series, and Nancy Drew! I read everyone of those books.