The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[donaldtoo]

And, in regards to drivin' to Houston tomorrow mornin', gas is as low as $1.58 a gallon 'round here now...!

 

[donaldtoo]

There's just a bit of tarnish showing on your halo...perhaps it's time for a polish?

 

[donaldtoo]

It's not tarnish! the cheap plating is starting to flake off

Oh my, I think you're right...
At The Halo Shop, they assured me that was the finest plastic plating available. Time for a refund. Where's my receipt...?

 

[donaldtoo]

Ok. Well gas here right now is 92.9 cents a litre, which is quite reasonable for us. So, I guess that's like $5 a gallon?

We really need a fainting smilie here...

 

[donaldtoo]

You know so much more than I do about the Imperial Gallon.

 

[Gabe1]

I need to marry someone foreign. I should get on that.

Happy Christmas.

Go visit some of the Big 10 Universities that have a chunk of admitted students from other countries or ones that have a large number of study over seas exchange program. Might work out, you want to imigrate elsewhere and many want to immigrate here. Win Win Just find one you really like.

 

[Gabe1]

We really need a fainting smilie here...

Indeed. I really miss that one.

 

[donaldtoo]

Indeed. I really miss that one.

Yep, there were some really cool animated smilies there, way back when.

 

[Gabe1]

We picked out names for our kids before we were even married, but it was kind of a big deal because so many names we liked weren't good either in the US or in the Netherlands. We liked the name Zachary for a boy, but it gets shortened to Zach, which when pronounced in Dutch means testicle. So no Zachary. My daughter's name is spelled differently in Dutch than it is in English, so we went with the Dutch spelling since we live here, and then picking a nickname for her was difficult. I didn't like the common one from her name, hubby hates the other one and it is considered VERY old fashioned here....like calling your daughter Bertha or Penelope. So we didn't know what to call her and then my MIL said her mother had been called this other name, which I misunderstood with the Dutch pronunciation, and that's how we came up with her name. But I'm the same...I didn't want to give them cause to hate their names.

We were all just chill'n in the family room. Poop'd from the 3 Days of Christmas. I got to the part of your post with Zach and read your post out loud. You brought some laughter to our evening.

 

[Gabe1]

Yep, Monster high and Violetta. We're big fans of the Disney Channel. We just got fiber optics internet and tv cables installed in the Summer and it would be cheaper to get everything from the same provider, but I refuse to give up Disney channel and our TV provider is the only one who offers Disney, and we had internet from them for a while and twice a week we were without telephone or internet or both, so we won't go back to them.

Oy. We have 3 choices. We stick with ATT Uverse. We've done Comcast and it was cheaper and the internet was actually faster but it is constantly down and with the bundles it took down everything. My Uverse bill monthly is over the top and then we have Hulu and Netflix.

 

[Gabe1]

Merry Christmas! I still have no singing voice so church was hard for me last year. It goes against my nature to not be able to sing in the Christmas services. But we had a lovely evening with the whole family and now we had a late brunch this morning, I've made brownies and stuffed mushrooms for our Christmas dinner tonight and the kids opened their presents and they are building a fire in the outdoor fireplace thingy....don't even know what it's called in English. Hope you are all snuggled warm in your homes with your families and having a great time.

Thanks. We had a wonderful day too. We had a simple breakfast of Monkey Bread, maple breakfast sausage and pounds of bacon. We then open presents and all did quite well. We woof'd down a veggie platter for lunch and I had pre-ordered a feast from Maggiano's Italian restaurant for dinner, but did also order up their Spinach Salad for some more green. Oink. 3 cheesecakes for dessert and cream puff balls. We had dinner out on Wednesday with my Mom and my Sis with her family and a full ham and all the fixings dinner at my Mom's last night. I could have just ate the whole bowl of potato salad if I thought I would have been able to sleep after doing that.

It was 3 days of yummy food, presents and family and now I'm just in wind down chill mode. And hope Walt will survive all the stuff he ate over the last 3 days that isn't part of his routine.

 

[Gabe1]

That sounds like a great tradition. I miss chex mix. My mom always made it at Christmas, too...that and her poppyseed bread, and 3 types of cookies: Cutouts, spritz, and sandies. I miss all that stuff. No one in my house likes sandies but me, so I haven't made them most years, and chex don't exist here and there's nothing remotely like it.

I'd think that has to be hard not being able to get certain things for the holidays especially. When my Sis lived in Germany I use to ship her care packages. When my Dad was working years ago on creating a new Krakus Ham plant in Poland we tried to ship him stuff but it was hard. 'Customs' opened everything and without fail half the stuff was always 'missing' by the time it got to him. Do you have family that could send you the more obscure things on this side of the pond?

 

[donaldtoo]

Beaver Creek. Been going there since I was 3!

DWifey and I have skied Beaver Creek, Avon before...hope y'all had a blast...!!!

 

[ShoalFox]

DWifey and I have skied Beaver Creek, Avon before...hope y'all had a blast...!!!

I ' m s t i l l h e r e.

 

[donaldtoo]

I ' m s t i l l h e r e.

Awesome...!!!!!

 

[Gabe1]

There's always so much noise in my house that when I'm finally by myself, I like to unplug. I used to always have music going, but since I had kids, I enjoy the quiet, though I do like to have music while I'm working out or while I'm baking.

Oh to have a housekeeper!!! That would be heaven!

Yes I dream of a Housekeeper. It won't likely ever happen but a great daydream and no laundry. She had her own lawfirm and merged with another guy. He has now retired and she is now the principal partner. She has worked hard for that housekeeper. Until my niece went off to school she had a nanny too. Niece started college this year but her private K-12 tuition would have paid for both of my kids to college and get a masters each and still have money left over. They have left Illinois now and are in Rio then Key West. Nice life.

 

[Gabe1]

Yep...not just sports, either. When I was in high school, my brother and I were doing an excerpt from Phantom of the Opera for Duet interpretation (speech and debate). We had been doing really well the whole season, breaking into at least Semi-finals at pretty much every meet if not placing. So we get to State, thinking this was our year. And every round we were in, it was people we had beat at other meets or they were obviously not as polished as we were. We thought we had it locked...and then we didn't break. We got our jury sheets back and we hadn't placed higher than 4th place in a single round, though we KNEW we should have had straight 1sts, maybe one 2nd. Turned out that one or 2 of the other teams didn't want their kids having to compete against us because we were doing too well and they knew they didn't stand a chance, so they told the person in charge that our piece was illegal, and rather than following the rules and challenging it so we could show them our source and prove it was fine, they just told the judges not to rank us higher than 4th place so we wouldn't go through. We were devastated. And it's so sad that people in a high school competition will do that to get ahead. But no one wanted their teams to go up against the people who are slated to win, so they all went with it because they all benefited from it.

How do these people live with themselves?

 

[donaldtoo]

No. I bought an Atari system in either 1980 or 81. Still have it.

I still remember when my best friend in junior high got Pong at his house in about '74-ish. At that time anyway, it was the most awesomest thing on the planet...!!!
Much better than setting up the little green plastic soldiers on opposite sides of our garages, and taking them out with rubber bands to see who could win the battle first.
No. Actually, that was probably more fun...!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

OK gang, time to be headin' for Houston's comin' early, so I'm out...
Hope you all had the very merriest of Christmases...!
See ya' reeeeeaaaaaalllll sooooooonnnnnn...!!!!!!!

 

[Gabe1]

Depends on how interested she is in Walt Disney. I remember there were interactive displays that were fun for adults and kids but I could see you a kids that wasn't into history, learning or reading might be a bit bored. So it depends on the kid I say.

At 7 years old my DD would have loved the Disney Muesum. My DS would have been bored to death.