The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Goofyernmost]

My niece is like that...running off if you turn your back for 2 seconds. My brother and his husband were really grateful to my daughter for keeping an eye on her at Disney. More often than not, E was following N around like she was a moon orbiting its planet. My brother would be looking at something, and turn around and N would be gone, he'd turn a bit further and see my daughter, following the munchkin and keeping her from causing mayhem. I can imagine Disney would be a scary place to lose sight of your child, because it's SOOOO big, and they could be ANYWHERE and there are so many people. And E was really good about correcting N's behavior if she started climbing on things, or doing something that could be dangerous or be rude to other patrons. I think my brother enjoyed his trip a lot more than he might have had they traveled there alone with the kiddo. And E had fun playing "big sister" to her cousin. I suppose it's a bit harder when your sister is a grown adult. You can hardly scold her for wandering off as she has every right to do so. I doubt she'd let you tether her these days.

Didn't stop me from threatening though! You could see the fear in her eyes just before she uttered a few words that I can't repeat and as far as I know, is physically impossible.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Though I'm not a big fan of the Rock

Understandable. I usually use paper of scissors myself.

 

[King Racoon 77]

Understandable. I usually use paper of scissors myself.

I prefer lizard ,Spock.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I prefer lizard ,Spock.

Although you should probably stop choosing Spock...

Spoiler

After I posted that, I thought to myself, "Wonder how long it'll take the Ferret to post about Lizard Spock" and...not very long obviously.

 

[Rista1313]

Here a mini trip report. I met my bestie in Chicago today.


I taught her how to ride the Chicago buses!

And we went to a yarn store.


Then we went and had lunch at my favorite Chicago pizza chain.




We decided to walk the 25 minutes to her hotel to walk the food baby off and put the leftover slices in the fridge for her to eat after her marathon run tomorrow.

The walk wasn’t long enough... still got a food baby. So we’ll be heading to the magnificent mile, to walk it off. And I need to get some Garrett’s popcorn for my back pack for the ride home!

 

[MinnieM123]

Two things of note this mornin’, though...

It’s fifty-flippin’-five degrees here...!!!!!!!
And, we’ve been awake since about 4a because they kept makin’ announcements lookin’ for some passenger named Ashley V.
Ashley V. was apparently finally located around 6:30a.
Pretty sure all 4,000 passengers and 1,500 crew want to do this to Ashley V. before we disembark from the boat...

Here

Welcome ashore, matey!! And, I'm so glad you were greeted with cooler temperatures upon arrival today.

Very happy to hear that you and your family had another fun cruise together. Been enjoying your photos so far. I'm sure you'll also share more deets about the vacation, when you get a chance.

 

[Songbird76]

What a crappy day today.... DH woke up with horrible arm pain.... which is scary, because the first thing you think of is heart attack. He said it felt like contractions though. Took him to the ER, and they quickly diagnosed that it was NOT a heart attack, but it was getting worse and he was starting to have shooting pains in his legs. (this happens with his type of backpain, but I think it was worse because he was anxious, hadn't slept and was in pain. )

They took labs and decided one of the problems might be that his magnesium was low, so they put him on a magnesium drip for 2 hours... and they gave him a shot of muscle relaxer to help things calm down.

2 hours later he was finally falling asleep in between stupid alarms going off... and I knew his pain was lessening. We are home now... and he's sleeping.... we honestly think it was nerves in his back causing the pain... but the ER isn't there to diagnose, only get some pain relief and send you back to your own doc.

No pain relievers for Scott because he's already go to see a pain management doctor... so they don't ever want to mess with that.

Anyway... just venting a bit... Even though I slept all night these events always make me so tired.

That's so scary!! How is he now?

 

[Songbird76]

I was in high school in the mid-60's. I was a sophomore when Kennedy was assassinated. Man, I'm old. I had a great Grandfather that was killed in the Civil War, one Grandfather the was in the Spanish American War and another Grandfather was in WWI, my Father plus an Uncle served during WWII, another Uncle served in Korea and I managed to participate in the Vietnam War. I know that has nothing to do with the topic I am quoting but, it conjured up a pile of memories and my fingers just went crazy. Back to the regularly scheduled posting. Sorry!

I really am the baby of my family. I had a great great grandfather who fought in the civil war....so only one generation further back than your great grandfather. And I had a Grandfather who fought in WWI, and 2 uncles who fought in WWII, one of whom was apparently shot in the battle of the bulge, although he lived through it. He had PTSD when he came home though. And my dad served during the Korean war. And I'm not quite 43.

 

[donaldtoo]

And...........
Home...

 

[Songbird76]

I love Annie's, but mac n' cheese is a personal taste preference -- some people prefer it creamier. Annie's is a bit more "dry" so to speak, but i LOVE the white cheddar!

I would love to try the white cheddar. When I was in high school, there was a drive in movie theater in the next town over, only an hour from us. So we used to get a car load together on a weekend and go to the movies, and we'd go to Walmart first and load up on snacks, like popcorn and soda. We always got the White Cheddar popcorn, because it was SOOOO good. White Cheddar mac 'n'cheese sounds interesting enough to try! Next time we're in the States, I guess!

 

[Songbird76]

This was college for me. It was an interesting semester. I was the only senior in a group of mostly freshman. College freshmen don't differ that much from high school freshmen in some ways.

High school choir...ugh, hated it. I got stuck in the tenor section because they needed help. Turns out high school guys can be total jerks, especially when a girl is stuck in to help them.

High school choir...you know, I loved singing and I have a degree in music, but I really hated high school choir in general. Such pettiness and meanness. When I was in 7th grade, a girl in 8th grade threatened to beat me up if I didn't stop trying to outsing her friend. Her friend wasn't even on my radar...I was just singing. So if I was "outsinging" this girl, it was just that I was a better singer. That girl tried numerous times to mess me up. The choir director signed us up to sing the national anthem together at the homecoming game when I was a freshman, the girl was a sophomore. The girl was supposed to sing the melody, and I had come up with a harmony line to sing. She didn't show up, thinking it would screw me up and she didn't figure I would just go ahead and sing it myself, so it backfired on her. Then that girl dropped out of school. But my senior year, we did My Fair Lady as the school musical, which we really had no business doing...we really didn't have the people to cover all the parts. But when it came to auditions, the choir director had us making signs to advertise auditions. One of the girls made a sign that said "Audition fast before Susan has a chance to steal your part!" because I had had the lead in every play and musical since my Freshman year, after being the only one to make all-state in my whole school. (again, really really small school, so not that surprising that no one else made it..statisically, it was pretty amazing that even one of us did!) And then a girl who I thought was my friend got really mad that I got the part of Eliza over her....but she couldn't carry a tune in a bushel basket. There was always so much jealousy about who got the solos, or who got a better score at festivals, or who was selected for All-state and who wasn't. I hate doing solos now because I'm always afraid that it will cost me friendships, or that people will heckle me...I really don't need the spotlight that badly. It's not worth it. I'd rather sing background in the chorus.

 

[Songbird76]

Did you enjoy it?

I didn’t end up going. I’ll watch it at home.

I did enjoy it!! I will say it was a bit predictable, but it was fun seeing what all the people were up to and how things had resolved themselves. So I really liked it, and I want to watch the series again, but I can't find it anywhere unless I buy all the DVDs. I'm hoping it will eventually make it to Netflix here.

 

[Songbird76]

My neighbor for the longest time was a dentist. And yes, they DID indeed live out the cliche of dentists giving toothbrushes on Halloween. There was one lady on my block who put out an entire bowl of change with a sign saying "50 Cents Maximum" and left the bowl unguarded. Well the first kid who went there stole the entire bowl. That kid was a 7 year old me. There was about $50 in change in that bowl

I don't think toothbrushes would have bothered me....that was always my favorite part of going to the dentist. Getting a new toothbrush! I'm weird like that. But yeah...the nickel thing just seemed like a cop out. One nickel.

 

[Songbird76]

Definitely catch @Rista1313 s trip report!!

I will!! There are SOOOO many I need to read!

 

[Songbird76]

It is set up where teams are given a block of rooms. You are given the code of your team. Then you need to log into the tracel companies website and book directly through them. They know how many kids are on each team.

And what happens if someone doesn't come at the last minute? Does that get registered that there's one fewer competing, so the rooms even out?

 

[StarWarsGirl]

High school choir...you know, I loved singing and I have a degree in music, but I really hated high school choir in general. Such pettiness and meanness. When I was in 7th grade, a girl in 8th grade threatened to beat me up if I didn't stop trying to outsing her friend. Her friend wasn't even on my radar...I was just singing. So if I was "outsinging" this girl, it was just that I was a better singer. That girl tried numerous times to mess me up. The choir director signed us up to sing the national anthem together at the homecoming game when I was a freshman, the girl was a sophomore. The girl was supposed to sing the melody, and I had come up with a harmony line to sing. She didn't show up, thinking it would screw me up and she didn't figure I would just go ahead and sing it myself, so it backfired on her. Then that girl dropped out of school. But my senior year, we did My Fair Lady as the school musical, which we really had no business doing...we really didn't have the people to cover all the parts. But when it came to auditions, the choir director had us making signs to advertise auditions. One of the girls made a sign that said "Audition fast before Susan has a chance to steal your part!" because I had had the lead in every play and musical since my Freshman year, after being the only one to make all-state in my whole school. (again, really really small school, so not that surprising that no one else made it..statisically, it was pretty amazing that even one of us did!) And then a girl who I thought was my friend got really mad that I got the part of Eliza over her....but she couldn't carry a tune in a bushel basket. There was always so much jealousy about who got the solos, or who got a better score at festivals, or who was selected for All-state and who wasn't. I hate doing solos now because I'm always afraid that it will cost me friendships, or that people will heckle me...I really don't need the spotlight that badly. It's not worth it. I'd rather sing background in the chorus.

The pettiness is why I never went into music. Especially high school orchestra...ugh, such a mean girl vibe going on there.

College was interesting too. It was a small school without much of a music program, which was perfectly fine by me. I did have one instance where one of the two guys in the choir called me out because I was louder than the rest of the sopranos. I wasn't trying to be louder; we had the melody and you could barely hear because they were all following me trying to learn it after I spent several hours learning it. My director ignored him. I used to get death states from that guy. That was the same semester I had that high part you'll occasionally hear above the sopranos (I cannot remember what it's called at the moment...) and my director gave it to me. Well, what was he going to sing A6 or something? That's where it was and I was the only one who had that note. I also worked really hard to make sure I kept the privilege of that part. Meanwhile, you could barely hear that guy and the director stuck an alto in there with the guys to support them, so IDK what his problem was.

 

[Songbird76]

The pettiness is why I never went into music. Especially high school orchestra...ugh, such a mean girl vibe going on there.

College was interesting too. It was a small school without much of a music program, which was perfectly fine by me. I did have one instance where one of the two guys in the choir called me out because I was louder than the rest of the sopranos. I wasn't trying to be louder; we had the melody and you could barely hear because they were all following me trying to learn it after I spent several hours learning it. My director ignored him. I used to get death states from that guy. That was the same semester I had that high part you'll occasionally hear above the sopranos (I cannot remember what it's called at the moment...) and my director gave it to me. Well, what was he going to sing A6 or something? That's where it was and I was the only one who had that note. I also worked really hard to make sure I kept the privilege of that part. Meanwhile, you could barely hear that guy and the director stuck an alto in there with the guys to support them, so IDK what his problem was.

You mean a descant?

Yeah, that pettiness didn't exactly go away in college, but there were enough other people that I could just ignore the mean girl. And Sopranos always get a bad rep for being catty, but in my experience it was the altos who were the worst. It was an Alto who threatened to beat me up, for outsinging an Alto. It was an Alto who made the poster about me stealing the parts in the musical. And in college, there was this girl I couldn't stand because she was just so mean to everyone. There was a girl singing Alto, and she had a very similar voice to mine...I loved singing with her...but this girl told her she was just a lazy soprano, because she didn't have the deep timbre that Altos typically have. And the same gal, when I said that I didn't like singing solo, told me that I shouldn't be majoring in music if I didn't like singing solos. I said I was a music education major...I didn't need to sing solo. She said "What's the difference...you still have to stand up there by yourself! You shouldn't be here." And she commented about Jazz that she wasn't suited for Jazz music, because you have to blend and she insisted that her voice be heard above everyone else's. And when she was looking into grad schools, she chose the one that was a small program so there was no competition and she was sure to be the star and get all the solos. She didn't care about the education she'd be getting as long as everyone was telling her how amazing she was. She had a baby and she was a single mom...sometimes when she didn't have a sitter, she'd bring him to choir rehearsals. She was letting him crawl all over the place and I had my water bottle sitting on the floor and he crawled up to it and tried to put it in his mouth, so I took it away from him and he started to cry and she says to me "He can have it." Um, no he can't, as it's MINE and I don't want his slobber all over it. You can't let your baby have things that belong to other people. She was just so arrogant and a total diva...worse than any soprano I've ever met. But yeah, solo singing is just not worth it to me. I can do it if I have to, but it's not something I enjoy, and it's not something that I seek out. I avoid it if I can, because in my experience, nothing good ever comes from putting yourself forward for that kind of thing. I think you have to have really thick skin to be any sort of performer, and I just don't have that.


ETA: I'm caught up!!!

Spoiler

In this thread. Now for all the others.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I really am the baby of my family. I had a great great grandfather who fought in the civil war....so only one generation further back than your great grandfather. And I had a Grandfather who fought in WWI, and 2 uncles who fought in WWII, one of whom was apparently shot in the battle of the bulge, although he lived through it. He had PTSD when he came home though. And my dad served during the Korean war. And I'm not quite 43.

The uncle I listed was also a participant in the battle of the bulge. He was hospitalized briefly for what was then called shell shock (earlier version of PTSD), but had many problems that included alcohol addiction after he returned, couldn't hold a job because of his drinking and ended up being a disaster for his family. Both of his children became Alcoholics and died young from the results of drinking.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Here a mini trip report. I met my bestie in Chicago today.
View attachment 417841

I taught her how to ride the Chicago buses!

And we went to a yarn store.
View attachment 417842

Then we went and had lunch at my favorite Chicago pizza chain.
View attachment 417843

View attachment 417845

We decided to walk the 25 minutes to her hotel to walk the food baby off and put the leftover slices in the fridge for her to eat after her marathon run tomorrow.

The walk wasn’t long enough... still got a food baby. So we’ll be heading to the magnificent mile, to walk it off. And I need to get some Garrett’s popcorn for my back pack for the ride home!

I love her sweater. Did she make it?

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

And...........
Home...

That was a long drive from Galveston. Is it normally a long drive, or did you stop a lot?