The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[StarWarsGirl]

My dad has a work-related thing down in Ocean City, so my mom and B went with him; they're staying overnight.

I'm working from home. Got the entire house to myself. And then tonight I can turn off as many lights as I want without getting yelled at that it's too dark...

My dreams are very small.

 

[MouseDreaming]

I am the "Cheer Mom" , lady! Get that right. @MouseDreaming is the Dance Mom. But we are not like those crazy moms on tv.

No, but I have run into some that are, and they are pretty entertaining at times.

 

[MouseDreaming]

Mini Trip Report just because:

Went to Mexico city mid-illness.
Why? Circle du Soleil Crystal was on its way to Russia, last 3 days in Mexico.
Had to be stubborn as hell to get the tickets.
Got tickets pretty close to the rink. This show is not that vertical so the closer the better., specially in on the first elevated areas.

We traveled PVR -> Mexico via cheap airflight using VIVAaerobus. (less than 250 USD with hotel included ).
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The planes were pretty new, spartan but new.
Very little turbulence. As usual only near Mexico city you get turbulence.


We arrived fairly at Okeish hours..the trip to the airport to downtown in the middle of the week was the issue. SO much traffic!

The hotel was perfectly placed in one of the busiest closed to traffic streets. We had restaurants, places to shops and tons of banks right next to us.
Only issue was.. the hotel was under renovation, most rooms were renovated already but the entire thing was a maze.
You see. This hotel appears to be a single building from outside, but its obvious that they bought multiple different 4 to 6 floor builders on the entire block. And traversing between these is pretty weird...
We somehow ended with a room facing the opposite street.
Another problem? it was pretty spartan building wise as well.
The bathroom for example. Was of that dreaded "express modern" style. Which instead of having a REAL door, it had a swinging opaque glass door. The shower area only had a long curtain which ended being pretty problematic in the end(water would easily sweep towards the rest of the bathroom.

After setting up, changing up we headed out to walk a bit.. and check out the street (which had a few very old churches from the 1600's onward.) as well as finding a place to eat.

One of the nearby Churches's "capilla".

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The wood work and statues when entering the main church body.
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Note. No, my photo is not "wrong" or skewed. The Church is severely deformed by the sinking of Mexico City. There are some of the pillars nearly 1 meter lower than the others. And yet.. still standing.
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Here is a fine example. I'm sitting CENTERED upright.
The pews slowly leaned to the sides.. with the biggest sinking on the far left side.
This area is pretty big and contained like 3 churches and a older convent.
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Detail of the main area of the church. They do put a LOT OF DETAIL on these wood, stone and gold frames in the churches of Mexico and Puebla.


And of course.. the famous Palacio de Bellas artes.
View attachment 418881

After walking around. We returned to eat to a local very famous chain of "breakfast, lunch and dinner" called Bisquets de Obregon. Its ALWAYS packed because they do have tasty food at very decent prices. But the best part of them is their bisquets and fresh bread. They are constantly producing bread in every store/restaurant.

This is beautiful! Scary that it leans so much, but just beautiful.

 

[Rista1313]

I am.

Picard hasn't been released yet. I do like Discovery. I'm really, really excited for Picard.

I like it because you can live stream CBS on your device. I watch a lot of CBS and don't have cable in my room, so this works well for me. It's also nice because I pay for the commercial free plan, so of I miss shows, I can catch up on them without commercials.

But yeah, I pay for it mostly for Star Trek.

CBS we let slide with commercials because we only watch 2-3 shows on it... but we pay for commercial free on hulu.

 

[Rista1313]

What I missed the most about no cable. Food Network and/or the cooking channel. I haven't really found a good way to watch those without paying an arm and a leg for hulu live.

 

[MouseDreaming]

ugh. You just reminded me, I do still have ESPN+ right now... but no Netflix or Amazon or Hulu.

I wish I could cancel cable.. I’m scared lol. Don’t know why.

I have been scared, too. But Comcast is helping me overcome my fear. I love TCM, but I am not paying extra for it, now. It makes no sense that they threw it in with a bunch of sports channels I will never watch. And what I pay already is highway robbery.

 

[Songbird76]

Amazing. Some people are ok with just getting by. Guess college is not in her future? Sad for you because then what is the point of your job but to teach and to help a student improve?

When I was teaching music, I called one boy's parents because he was constantly distracting everyone and I had to keep sending him out of the room or make him stay after school, etc. When stepdad answered the phone and I explained that he was doing very poorly in my class, didn't participate and was disruptive, he said "Oh.....I thought he was doing alright....he has mostly D's!" THAT is what you consider "alright"?
I also had a parent come in and tell me that she was not going to allow her daughter to do the assignment I gave, because it was "too fun". The girl was a 3rd grader, and one of the requirements was that students be able to "perform" in front of their peers, so I had assigned them all to prepare a song or dance, by themselves or in groups. The alternative was to write a report to present to the class about a composer of their choice. It could be fun, yes, but it was a district requirement...I just thought that was a fun way to meet it. Mom didn't think learning should be fun, I guess.

And I also had a mother tell me that her son should be able to call another student a derogatory name because she was raising him in a "Christian environment" and she was teaching him that he was allowed to call people names because he had to be able to express his feelings. I had made him move to the back of the line when he called another student an offensive name and I referred him to the rule poster where it clearly stated the rule that we respect EVERYONE in my classroom. And I also told the kid that you don't know who you hurt when you say things like he did. I told him that he hurt my feelings because what he said affected me because of someone I cared about. His mom was mad at me for telling him I cared about someone like that, and that I wouldn't "let him express his feelings". Of course, she WOULDN'T have been ok with someone else calling her son the same name.

Some parents just don't like their darlings having to follow the rules and be respectful. Fortunately, they are usually the minority.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Amazing. Some people are ok with just getting by. Guess college is not in her future? Sad for you because then what is the point of your job but to teach and to help a student improve?

Even if she isn’t college bound I don’t know why he wouldn’t want her to learn to try to improve. What employer wants an employee that strives for 50-60% effort?

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

ugh. You just reminded me, I do still have ESPN+ right now... but no Netflix or Amazon or Hulu.

I wish I could cancel cable.. I’m scared lol. Don’t know why.

We really only watch sport channels, The Weather Channel( when it actually discusses weather). We watch the Potter marathons but we have them all on video anyway. The bundle will give us everything we need for much, much less.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

When I was teaching music, I called one boy's parents because he was constantly distracting everyone and I had to keep sending him out of the room or make him stay after school, etc. When stepdad answered the phone and I explained that he was doing very poorly in my class, didn't participate and was disruptive, he said "Oh.....I thought he was doing alright....he has mostly D's!" THAT is what you consider "alright"?
I also had a parent come in and tell me that she was not going to allow her daughter to do the assignment I gave, because it was "too fun". The girl was a 3rd grader, and one of the requirements was that students be able to "perform" in front of their peers, so I had assigned them all to prepare a song or dance, by themselves or in groups. The alternative was to write a report to present to the class about a composer of their choice. It could be fun, yes, but it was a district requirement...I just thought that was a fun way to meet it. Mom didn't think learning should be fun, I guess.

And I also had a mother tell me that her son should be able to call another student a derogatory name because she was raising him in a "Christian environment" and she was teaching him that he was allowed to call people names because he had to be able to express his feelings. I had made him move to the back of the line when he called another student an offensive name and I referred him to the rule poster where it clearly stated the rule that we respect EVERYONE in my classroom. And I also told the kid that you don't know who you hurt when you say things like he did. I told him that he hurt my feelings because what he said affected me because of someone I cared about. His mom was mad at me for telling him I cared about someone like that, and that I wouldn't "let him express his feelings". Of course, she WOULDN'T have been ok with someone else calling her son the same name.

Some parents just don't like their darlings having to follow the rules and be respectful. Fortunately, they are usually the minority.

Calling someone a derogatory name is Christian? Maybe she needs to go back to Sunday School.

 

[21stamps]

It's understandable. It's a totally different way of thinking about how you watch TV. No DVR to record your shows, to remind you. No TV guide, for the first year we were a little lost and forgot about shows that we watched the season before. I finally made a list for awhile. Hulu is a good one to help with that though, you can add shows to a personal favorites and it will show you when there's a new episode on. We pay for Hulu without commercials which is $11.99. It's cheaper if you don't mind commercials, but we decided it was worth the extra $3-4 bucks to negate them from our lives! Hulu Live is much more expensive, in the $40 range. I figure by the time you pay for that, internet, and netflix, you might as well be paying for cable.

We pay for Hulu $11.99, CBS (with commercials) $5.99 and Netflix ($8.99) = 26.97 and $79.99 for internet = $106.96 ... At one point we were paying $150+ for internet and cable... and at the time we decided to cut the cord, we had to cut expenses anywhere we could.

Every once in awhile I think about going back to cable, when they dangle that $99.99 a month special in my face, that includes cable and internet but then I realized that it's only guaranteed for 2 years, and I'll be back to the same old high price later.

That being said... cutting the cord is not for everyone.

If you have an questions, just ask.

thank you for sharing this. The only things ever on in my house-
American Ninja Warrior.
The Voice (occasionally, but all episodes are on the DVR if we ever find the time),
Cable news channels.
MTV The Challenge (occasionally)
Below Deck (occasionally)
Big Ten Network
ESPN
Various Sports - (but almost all soccer is via FuboTV)
PBS

I do feel like it’s a waste of a cable bill for those. I may look into what the Disney+ will include.

FuboTV does have regular programming channels outside of sports, but it looks confusing and doesn’t look like everything is up to date... I’ve never watched anything other than sports with the service.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Even if she isn’t college bound I don’t know why he wouldn’t want her to learn to try to improve. What employer wants an employee that strives for 50-60% effort?

That would have been a great reply to that parent.

 

[Songbird76]

All very valid points. Although I relate more to @Goofyernmost's analysis, I have to say that both @dryerlintfan and @21stamps pointed out that not every kid is the same. There definitely are kids that love a packed schedule, and lots of competitive challenges. Even if I (personally) can't relate to that, it was appropriate for them to share that observation.

My only complaint is if "some" parents think that they have to keep up with the Joneses and push their kids into too many organized activities, when their kid really might prefer a more laid back childhood, focusing on one sport or skill (music, science club, etc.). And the rest of their time could be used to develop other interests, at their leisure.

In my case, I was in the 2nd (less pressured) group (above). I think back to walking to school in first grade, and my friend and I stopped to watch water flow over rocks in a stream, and a turtle close by. This chance delay in our commute lent me to explore a book on turtles in the children's library at school. Hence, I guess we all learn and develop at our own pace -- whether slower for some, or accelerated for others. Perhaps it's good that we're all individuals.

I relate to that as well...and I think it's not exclusive to sports. My mom was overbearing when it came to grades. I got in trouble for bringing home an A- once. And when I won my school speech competition, I moved on to districts, where I placed 2nd, and my mom said "Well, it's not first." People push their kids in all sorts of ways, usually trying to look good themselves. "Look at what my kid is achieving...I must be such a great parent!" They don't stop to think about the pressure they are putting on the kid, and what it does when they can't live up to that. I was always terrified on report card day, because even though I knew I was doing my best, one mistake could mean me getting grounded, or having to give up an activity I loved. I'm very very grateful that my kids do really well in school and don't seem to have the problems I did with reading, but I've been very careful not to praise the result so much as the effort. E used to put SO much pressure on herself. In 2nd grade, she came out of school in tears because she had gotten "above average" instead of "outsanding" in spelling on the national testing they had to do each year. She had outstanding in everything else, but she was upset about the lower score in spelling. And when her teacher said she wanted to give her a bit more challenging work for Math, she drew a cartoon of Sponge Bob saying he wasn't ready, he didn't think he could do it. She was so scared of failing. The teacher showed her the work she wanted her to do, and when she realized she really COULD do it, it wasn't that hard, she was fine and really enjoyed it. But we always told her the only thing we expected from her was her best, whether that was an A or a D. She still gets straight As and she's at the top of her class, but she's much more relaxed about it. She was bummed last year when she got all 9s and 10s on her report card, but was 0.1 point away from a 9 in history...she had an 8.4 and they round up to the nearest number, so an 8.5 would have rounded up to a 9. Most of her classmates averaged a 6 or 7. So she did REALLY well, and at least she wasn't in tears this time...it was more an annoyance to her than that she felt like she had failed. But he had to work SO hard to get her to see that she doesn't have to be perfect. And I think the problem a lot of kids face is that their parents don't necessarily feel how hard they are pushing...they may not mean to be so harsh and just want their kid to have opportunities, which is great. But some kids are very sensitive to the criticism and internalize it in a way that they feel like a failure if they make a mistake. It's so harmful to their self esteem. I think you have to be very careful to encourage without sending the message that you EXPECT top results. I hope that makes sense.

 

[Rista1313]

thank you for sharing this. The only things ever on in my house-
American Ninja Warrior.
The Voice (occasionally, but all episodes are on the DVR if we ever find the time),
Cable news channels.
MTV The Challenge (occasionally)
Below Deck (occasionally)
Big Ten Network
ESPN
Various Sports - (but almost all soccer is via FuboTV)
PBS

I do feel like it’s a waste of a cable bill for those. I may look into what the Disney+ will include.

FuboTV does have regular programming channels outside of sports, but it looks confusing and doesn’t look like everything is up to date... I’ve never watched anything other than sports with the service.

Yeah, if you are sports watchers, or news watchers, cutting the cord isn't really conducive to that. Neither is watching MTV. PBS you can usually get with an over the air antenna. But with as much sports as you watch, I wouldn't recommend cutting the cord, unless your ready to cut the sports too.

 

[21stamps]

T has been grounded from his tablet and Nintendo Switch since the 2nd week of school.

He does not earn them back until his report card comes home next month, and only if he has an A in science.
The teachers do not remind them what to bring home this year, he had a science test scheduled, did not bring his book or notebook over the weekend before the test.
Failed it. Of course, because he couldn’t study.

That 1 test was so bad that even all of the A range tests since then have not been enough to bring his grade above an 83 in the class.


It’s so frustrating because if he would have studied then he would have done fine! I keep checking his grade online and will talk to the teacher next week to see if we have any options to earn extra credit. I would be extremely grateful if she would have offered what @ajrwdwgirl offered to a parent.

 

[21stamps]

Yeah, if you are sports watchers, or news watchers, cutting the cord isn't really conducive to that. Neither is watching MTV. PBS you can usually get with an over the air antenna. But with as much sports as you watch, I wouldn't recommend cutting the cord, unless your ready to cut the sports too.

PBS is easy for me, I’m a monthly supporter of both Masterpiece and our local PBS station, so I get a lot of additional access for it via the website.

The news thing would be really tough though.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Yeah, if you are sports watchers, or news watchers, cutting the cord isn't really conducive to that. Neither is watching MTV. PBS you can usually get with an over the air antenna. But with as much sports as you watch, I wouldn't recommend cutting the cord, unless your ready to cut the sports too.

The Disney plus will offer ESPN plus and Hulu. Hulu has sports channels as well. I will have to double check if we can watch sports live. If we cannot, that would be a problem for us.

 

[Rista1313]

The Disney plus will offer ESPN plus and Hulu. Hulu has sports channels as well. I will have to double check if we can watch sports live. If we cannot, that would be a problem for us.

Hulu Live offers sports.. regular hulu does not.. which is what I understand is offered with Disney Plus.... I was excited because I thought I would be able to get disney plus and hulu... but they are not offering hulu without commercials with it.. and that's a deal breaker for me!

 

[Songbird76]

Calling someone a derogatory name is Christian? Maybe she needs to go back to Sunday School.

Well, the particular name he used applies to a group of people that her church views as disgusting and pretty much the worst thing you can be...and her son should be allowed to express his beliefs about it. I told her he has every right to believe what he wants, privately, but he doesn't have the right to call people names in my classroom. Everyone in my class had a right to a safe learning environment and that calling people names damaged that environment and I wouldn't tolerate it. She said she was bringing him up in a Christian environment and the church taught that it was wrong, and she didn't want me teaching him it was ok. I told her that I never told him it was ok, I told him he wasn't allowed to disrespect other people in my classroom. She said that my saying it hurt me because of someone I loved implied that it was ok. I said we would have to agree to disagree...the rule in my classroom was respect for everyone, and I wouldn't be making an exception for her son. It started because we were watching Mr. Holland's Opus to fulfill the requirement of learning about genres of music, and I had no voice at the time, having been sick. So I used the movie, fast forwarding through anything I thought was inappropriate, and a loud "EEEUUUUUUWWWW" resounded in the classroom when it progressed to a new decade. If you've seen the movie, it shows the passage of time by vignettes from that decade....the 60s are represented by things like woodstock, etc. And each decade shows flashes of things pertaining to that decade. The mother was angry I had showed the movie without permission, which I admit was my mistake...I should have. But it wasn't something I planned ahead of time, it was something that met my needs and rescued me from having to speak for hours per day with no voice. I assured her that I was sorry to have forgotten to get permission, and I would not do that again, and that I had tried to edit out inappropriate things. But her main beef was that I told them to be respectful, that they didn't know who they were hurting with their reactions, and then when the kid called another kid that name, I sent him to the back of the line for breaking the rules. She thought that he should be allowed to say whatever he wanted about people who were different because he was just expressing his Christian views. I disagreed. She left disappointed and pretty angry with me, but she didn't get me in trouble for showing the movie.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Ugh! I hope all that gets straightened out for you. Perhaps something got entered twice, by mistake, from the company. Glad you kept all your invoice information.

And I'm sure your walk with Kylie was helpful.

They refunded yesterday, woo hoo!

Turns out they added two months of bills together.

First they tried, “Hey, you’re ahead of the game for next month!”