The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Songbird76]

And this is why my career with a major airline was short lived. The above happens continuously and it wears on the employees too. I kinda heard blah blah blah as passengers vented. In a heartbeat I bumped a checked in passenger to seat an Unaccompanied Child or a special assistance passenger. That conversation with the bump'd rarely went well. Everything out of my control including the weather or broken planes but still the abuse we took. I heard it on the news last night from someone overnighted that the airline should figure it out and get planes in the air-it was the biggest sleet storm in 125 years. I took my transportation career over to commercial cargo. Nobody yelled at me because their steel coil fell off a flatbed.

I fly with 2 days of clothes in my backpack and jammies and toiletries and then say goodbye to my luggage as I check it. I never checked our car seats or strollers. They all went to the gate. They were taken at the door to the airplane and brought up to the jetway upon getting to destination gate, just like wheelchairs etc.

But see, it wouldn't have been bad if it had just been a flight delay. That happens, and I'd rather have a 7 hour delay than a crashed plane. It's inconvenient, but understandable and unavoidable. But it's HOW it's dealt with that is the problem. If I've paid for the service, then it's the airline's obligation to honor the agreement. You can't advertise a ribeye steak and then give the person a hamburger and expect that that's an acceptable substitution. That's not what the customer paid for. And if you can no longer provide the ribeye steak and have no other option than the burger, then the customer shouldn't have to pay the premium price for an inferior product. We didn't get what we paid for, and while we understood that what we paid for wasn't available anymore, it's then not fair to make us pay the same price. And we did everything they told us to do and were polite and didn't complain to the people helping us because it wasn't their fault and their hands were tied too. But according to the law, they were obligated to compensate us, and they didn't. That is unacceptable. If we've made an agreement and I've held up my end of the contract, then of COURSE I'm going to be upset when you don't hold up yours and still expect me to pay for a service I didn't get. That doesn't give customers an excuse to be rude, and we weren't, but even if we had been rude or abusive, it doesn't give the airline an excuse not to honor their contract either.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Ohare went the length of the concourse lobby this morning. Estimate 3 hours to get through. Most would miss their flights. Those that made it through and were looking for standby likely were happy cause they likely got on.

We were at ohare at 4:45 and it took us an hour to get through security yesterday. The ticketing agent offered us a disability pass so we could get through quicker, even though we aren't disabled, we didn't take it.

 

[betty rose]

Sympathy like. Hard to get things done when people are home. Though, my kids were at Oma and Opa's for a few days and I worked yesterday and DH is off this week. He got a bee in his bonnet and decided DS needs a big boy room, which in his mind involved moving the furniture around. DS's room is SMALL and there's not much you could do except move everything to the opposite wall it was on. So the bed was on one side, dresser and book case on the other. It is now reversed. DH picks me up from work and I asked him what he did all day with the house to himself, he says he started cleaning DS's room up because he wants to rearrange it. I ask him if there's even another way it will all FIT. He says yes, if we switch everything to the opposite side from now. And I ask him if there is any particular reason he wants to do this. He says yes, DS deserves a big boy room. And I said "And putting the bed against the other wall is going to make it a big boy room?" He says yes, if we get some posters for the wall. I assume this is man logic? So we spent the day taking everything out of the book case, and dresser, wiping everything down, taking apart the bed and putting the back on the other side. (It's kind of like a day bed...it has a head board, foot board, and back board, but the room is too narrow to just turn it around...we tried, and the bed is too wide to get it out the door and around the wall. So we had to take it apart and put it back together the other way). Then DH goes and picks the kids up and he gets his camera ready and tells DS to go put something in his room. DS walks to his room and turns around and asks "Where IS my room?" DH asks " Where's your room?" and he says "Here...but this doesn't LOOK like my room." He was so confused it was adorable. But he loves it and is super happy, so it was worth the effort.

That's a cute and funny story. I'm glad he like his "new" room.

 

[betty rose]

Yes, that was a very bad ending to our trip. Compounded by the fact that we were staying with my friend in Kissimmee and as we were packing up the car to go to the airport, DH left the door of the house open and my friend's beloved pet duck flew away...this was her BABY. She had had several miscarriages and just could not have kids of her own and her husband refused to adopt, so she got ducks and rabbits instead. This duck lived in the house and wore diapers. It was, for all intents and purposes, her child. So we didn't even get to say goodbye to her because she had to go out looking for Yerps. And Yerps flew into the swamp, so she was in alligator infested waters rescuing her duck because of us, instead of saying goodbye. I thought she'd never talk to me again after that. So we left on a very bad note, and then had the trip from purgatory home, which rather seemed like karma. I was miserable the whole way home. But the good news was that my friend got the duck back.

I'm glad that she got her duck back. I hope she doesn't hold this against you, accidents happen. So sorry for the rough flight!

 

[Songbird76]

That has got to be great when they come to visit this side of the pond.

I'm curious to see how they do. There's no one here for them to practice their English on except me. We've warned them that in the US, they'll HAVE to speak English to everyone else because no one speaks Dutch and I think they are a bit nervous, but also excited. And they also know that if they get stuck, they can say it to us in Dutch and we'll translate. But this is really the first time they'll have tested their English skills. The last time we went, DS was only 2, so he was only making simple sentences even in Dutch and he wasn't much of a talker anyway. DD was 4 and could speak a bit in English, though not nearly fluently. We were in the US for 3 weeks that time and she picked up quite a bit, so now that she'll be 10 and she already speaks well and she learns quickly, I'm anxious to see how she speaks at the end of 4-5 weeks!! I think DS will pick up a lot in that time, but DD even more so just because she's older and has an affinity for languages.

 

[Songbird76]

Yes.

Through the years when things needed to rearranged and I am not a rearranger unless necessary I learned to do it when nobody was home. My DD had / has the smallest room. A youngest thing I guess. They spent their entire life in this home. When she needed new furniture it was amazing what I got to fit in there and make it cute and very functional. The best thing I bought was floor to ceiling Unit that went the entire length of one wall. 1/4 was 8 drawers, above sliding cabinet doors that held printer, computer, stereo and other stuff on shelves another 1/4. The other half had floor to ceiling (2) sliding doors, one side had slide in out 3x3 baskets that held everything from toys early on to clothing and sweats as years went on, the other door had a place to hand coats and all of her shoes and 2 shelves above that. She has an antique dresser that I painted white and pretty color flowers with colors from the rest of the room. She has an Ikea Classic Chair with an ottoman and a Twin DayBed with bumpers around the 3 sides and there is a trundle beneath, used for sleep overs when she was little. Later she put storage containers on it to hold out of season clothing. Her closet was small so we bought cloth cubes and she kept purses, backpacks, dress shoes, blankets, you name it in the closet. We put floor to ceiling shelves in there. Her room wound up being so much more functional than my DS larger room. We did move the floor to ceiling unit to her new apartment. We all agreed as amazing as it is we will never move it again. Even taken apart it is beyond heavy.

I remember you saying you had moved it to the new place and that it was STAYING there. We have a similar unit in our bedroom and it is a HEAVY . We can't really move much around because it's too heavy to move and would be too hard to take apart and put back together. But every room in our house has one wall to wall window and under the window is the radiator for the room, so you can't put furniture on that wall at all. As much as I love the natural light, it severely limits how much you can do with the room set up. If we put the bed on the wall opposite the window we have no space for night stands because the door and the closet are on that wall. So the only place to put the bed is on one of the side walls, with the unit on the wall opposite. Every room in the house is like that...can't put anything on the one wall because of the window and heater and the rest is limited by doors and closets. Sometimes I wish we could just win the lottery and find a house closer to my in-laws. Even if the house was slightly smaller, we'd have more space to play with as long as the windows weren't wall to wall.

 

[Figgy1]

@Songbird76 how's your hip doing with winter setting in

 

[Songbird76]

he could always rent DVC points or just get a room in the non disney branded hotels.

Yes, he could, and I mentioned those options. But his husband still thinks it's not worth the money...they could still get more vacation somewhere else for the same amount of money. To me, it's worth the price because the kids will have a BLAST and it will be something they remember forever. But those are MY priorities, and I can't decide what's worth it to my brother-in-law. And their daughter will only be 3..she won't remember the trip. So the amount of money they would spend might be better spent on a vacation for themselves until she's a bit older and will really be able to enjoy it and remember it. My son was 2 and a half last time we went and he remembers nothing of it and really he didn't get any more out of being at Disney than he would have gotten on any other vacation. He refused to wear the 3D glasses in Philharmagic, he wouldn't get in photos with characters, even Jasmine who was his FAVORITE, without daddy holding him, and he wouldn't eat any of the food ANYWHERE, quick or table service. We brought in doritos from a grocery store and left the park for Mc Donalds every night for him because that was the only thing he would eat. DD was 4 and remembers taking the picture with Jasmine, remembers an interactive floor in Epcot where she danced and it lit up and made noise (which she only remembers because we have a picture of it) and she remembers holding up her minnie doll during a parade when Minnie went by and she remembers finding 3 pieces of silver confetti during that same parade. That's the extent of what she remembers from 4 days in the parks. She had a great time and experienced a lot more than her brother did, but the memories are MINE and I remember how happy she was and how much fun she was having. That was worth it to me. But I can't make that decision for my brother and his husband...whether it's worth it to them for those memories. And apparently my brother-in-law has decided that it's not. I have to respect that. It's their money, so they have to decide what they are willing to spend it on, and Disney is not it. So instead, we'll go to Disney for 2 weeks and have a BLAST and make memories of our own and we'll spend a couple of days in South Dakota site seeing with them instead. We'll still have fun memories together and get to spend time together...it just won't be in Disney. And -I- still get to do Disney with my kids, that doesn't change. I'd love to share it with my niece, but that's not in the cards for now. Maybe in 5 years it will be different...or maybe if they don't want to spend the money to go, we could just take my niece along with US by that time.

 

[Figgy1]

O carp i just fell and cut my knee, it was bleeding like crazy. It's not bad just OUCH and yucky. Should be fine by tomorrow. Glad I already got my workout in.

 

[Figgy1]

Yes, he could, and I mentioned those options. But his husband still thinks it's not worth the money...they could still get more vacation somewhere else for the same amount of money. To me, it's worth the price because the kids will have a BLAST and it will be something they remember forever. But those are MY priorities, and I can't decide what's worth it to my brother-in-law. And their daughter will only be 3..she won't remember the trip. So the amount of money they would spend might be better spent on a vacation for themselves until she's a bit older and will really be able to enjoy it and remember it. My son was 2 and a half last time we went and he remembers nothing of it and really he didn't get any more out of being at Disney than he would have gotten on any other vacation. He refused to wear the 3D glasses in Philharmagic, he wouldn't get in photos with characters, even Jasmine who was his FAVORITE, without daddy holding him, and he wouldn't eat any of the food ANYWHERE, quick or table service. We brought in doritos from a grocery store and left the park for Mc Donalds every night for him because that was the only thing he would eat. DD was 4 and remembers taking the picture with Jasmine, remembers an interactive floor in Epcot where she danced and it lit up and made noise (which she only remembers because we have a picture of it) and she remembers holding up her minnie doll during a parade when Minnie went by and she remembers finding 3 pieces of silver confetti during that same parade. That's the extent of what she remembers from 4 days in the parks. She had a great time and experienced a lot more than her brother did, but the memories are MINE and I remember how happy she was and how much fun she was having. That was worth it to me. But I can't make that decision for my brother and his husband...whether it's worth it to them for those memories. And apparently my brother-in-law has decided that it's not. I have to respect that. It's their money, so they have to decide what they are willing to spend it on, and Disney is not it. So instead, we'll go to Disney for 2 weeks and have a BLAST and make memories of our own and we'll spend a couple of days in South Dakota site seeing with them instead. We'll still have fun memories together and get to spend time together...it just won't be in Disney. And -I- still get to do Disney with my kids, that doesn't change. I'd love to share it with my niece, but that's not in the cards for now. Maybe in 5 years it will be different...or maybe if they don't want to spend the money to go, we could just take my niece along with US by that time.

That would be wonderful by 8 she'll be old enough to ride everything and still young enough to truly believe in all the Disney magic. BTW I did get a deathly hollows necklace for Christmas, it's already packed.

 

[Songbird76]

I can go to 3 airports within an hour. Milwaukee in about 2, making 4 choices. Ohare is the best for choices. Midway a good hour in the wee hours of the night, best prices but I have to be up at 2am. I'm usually in WDW by 930. I'll stop whining about the hour drive.

The first time I did that I texted my DS I was at the resort, left luggage with bellhop and he was like-I'm not off for another 4 1/4 hours, which I knew. I went to DTD and told him to text me when he was heading to resort and I'd head back. We both arrived at same time though the cast busing was elsewhere. The discounts are nice but I need him to check me in and he has to swipe me into the park with his pass so it takes some juggling.

So does he get you into the park for free because he's a CM?
Wow...3 airports in an hour?? Are those all major airports? Where I lived, we had one airport about an hour away, but it was in a town of about 15,000....one of the largest in Wyoming, but still, the airport was one of those where they only had the little commuter planes that flew out 2 or 3 times a day to get you to either Rapid City, South Dakota or Denver, Colorado. That was it. The next closest airport was a similar one, about an hour and a half away. There are no major airports in Wyoming at all. We drove everywhere. We flew to Orlando once when I think I was about 9...I remember we drove the hour and a half to get to the slightly larger airport and flew from there to Denver, and from Denver to Orlando. I don't remember the airport in Orlando, but I remember the one in Denver was terrifyingly huge to me and that was before they built DIA, which is bigger. It was just so much cheaper and easier to drive everywhere. If you were going to spend an hour and a half in the car, then 5 hours in planes, with several hours in airports waiting to fly, you might as well just spend that time all in the car and get to see a bit of the country. So we just drove and made stops along the way to see historical landmarks and whatnot. Instead of paying airfare, we paid for cheap hotels and gas. We packed a cooler with drinks and brought bread and sandwich fixings and munchies for throughout the day, and we ate our big meal at lunch when restaurants were cheaper and ate sandwiches for dinner when we stopped for the night and we'd find a grocery store and replenish our stock for the next day. We loved it. I wish my husband would agree to do that, but he and the kids didn't grow up in Wyoming where it takes at LEAST an hour in the car to even get to the grocery store...so he can't stand to be in the car for long trips. 3 hours in a car for him is a LONG trip. He won't agree to a 2 or 3 day ordeal.

 

[betty rose]

Oh yuck! Were there maybe a bunch of TSA agents that couldn't get there because of weather, so they were understaffed? Last time we flew in, they didn't have enough customs lines open, so it was taking FOREVER to get through. We were in line for an hour and a half before they opened some more lines...and then instead of getting the people from the front of the line through, they took the BACK half of the line, just behind us, and let them start the new lines. So all the people BEHIND us got to go ahead while we waited another hour in line. I was so angry.

Our roads are clear, they had people standing around but not working the lines. The airport personnel they interviewed was clearly angry, as they were getting all the flack!

 

[betty rose]

That would be wonderful by 8 she'll be old enough to ride everything and still young enough to truly believe in all the Disney magic. BTW I did get a deathly hollows necklace for Christmas, it's already packed.

What fun for you. I hope you enjoy UNI.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

In a word maybe. Some companies have downsized package sizes to increase profits. For example try to find a 1/2 gallon carton of ice cream.

Blue Bell here still makes a half.

 

[Songbird76]

Once I kick everybody back out next week I'm going to try and get some sewing done.

Good luck!!!

 

[betty rose]

Oh she was the rebel. I actually had her come to live with me while she was in law school 'cause she ticked our folks off (though I did agree with Sis, but there house, their rule thing.)

Been covering her tushie started when she was in 8th grade when she got tossed out of school on the last day for participating in a pre-planned shaving cream event. I picked her up on bike and brought her home. In high school my Mom almost sent her to boarding school. No real trouble, just silly stupid things. Me I was the good girl. (I'm borrowing @MR FERRET halo)

You should apply for your own halo @Gabe1. @MR FERRET has a chipped and tarnished halo!

 

[Songbird76]

We thought about flying last trip but the cost of tickets plus checked bags plus rental car

If I could convince my husband to drive between Orlando and Wyoming, that's what I'd do for exactly that reason!!! Plus, when you drive, you get to SEE so much more...you make that part of the vacation. It's more than just the road time, it's part of the activity....stop and see a cave here, or a fort there, or a landmark, etc. So much fun and so much cheaper than flying. But hubby won't go for it, at least not with the kids.

 

[betty rose]

View attachment 124636

Thank you, another great scene!

 

[MOXOMUMD]

My older ds liked Ahhh Real Monsters and Angry Beavers when he was little I miss them.

Both of those were Nickelodeon originals.

 

[betty rose]

Actually the 70's are my favorite temperatures. Shorts, short sleeves, no jackets but no sweat either. Yesterday was one of those horrid storms though and I want out again. Say this every year....kinda like Cubs, maybe next year.

I say that too. Our winter has been pretty extreme, the temperature this morning was 1 degree.