The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[ajrwdwgirl]

When I was 5, my father built a house on a lot in the city. We lived in it for two years before he got promoted and we moved into a huge company house. My elderly Aunt lives right next door to that first house so I see it whenever I visit (every two years now) It is exactly the same as when he built it, at least externally, and that was 64 years ago. The second house also looks the same outside and back a few years ago I saw that it was deserted so I stopped in to look around. I tried the door and it was open. I went in an looked around. It was like a time warp. Everything, including the stove was what was there when we lived there. It had a knotty pine wall in the huge living room and my dad had purchased this huge landscape picture centered in the middle of it. You could still see the difference in wall color where the picture was (everyone was a smoker back then). My room was exactly the same and because it was on a second floor with no dormer, there was storage behind the walls. I opened the door and there was a few bundles of hard wood flooring pieces that were, from what I remember, in exactly the same place that they were when we lived there. As a time frame we moved from there in 1963. This was probably around 2002. Even the wallpaper was the same. It was almost creepy. Even the basement wall was still the same color my Father had painted it when it was our entertainment room. It had been occupied most of the time after we left.

That is kind of cool and creepy at the same time. It is kind of strange that the people that occupied it after you never made any changes, perhaps they liked how your family had it decorated though.

 

[MouseDreaming]

In other happy news my older ds got awards for meeting all his goals this year and one for horse therapy

Awesome!

 

[MOXOMUMD]

1 day until Father's Day.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

 

[MouseDreaming]

I love report card day!! It's such a happy day! We DID have to have a talk with DS about remembering to study his Topography...that was the only low score he had and we know it's because he forgot to study for several tests. When he studies, even if he goes through it only once or twice, he usually gets at LEAST 80%. He passed, but just barely, and we know he can do better. We have a policy in our house that if you get a 60% because that's the best you can do, YAY!! 60% is great! If you get a 60% because you were lazy and didn't do the work, that's unacceptable. So that was the only disappointment. DD had straight A's with most of her scores being in the 95% to 100% range, so if she doesn't get the advice to do VWO (that's the highest level and the only one that has the dual immersion English/Dutch program she wants to do) then something is wrong with the system.
DS was also supposed to have his chess exam today and he was half-way through it when one of the teachers collapsed with a Diabetic blood-sugar dive and they had to abandon the test and get an ambulance there. I was the only parent on the premises, so I got to babysit the kids, who were naturally confused, scared, etc. while the staff was otherwise engaged in first aid. Poor guy hit his head on a cabinet on his way down. I didn't see it...I wasn't in the room and they ushered the kids into a side room and put up a divider to keep the kids from gawking. One of the teachers ran by where I was sitting and asked me to go sit with the kids and try to reassure them that everything was ok. So they will have to do their tests another time.

Hope the teacher is ok. But here is what jumped out at me. I would hear about it if a non staff member was left with a student, let alone a class. And Chess exam. Sounds like a class my kids would have liked.

 

[MouseDreaming]

Dont mind me, just made a pizza.
View attachment 210502

Looks good, except for those nasty mushrooms.

 

[MouseDreaming]

I made my own pizza tonight too. I had regular and mini pepperoni so I made Mickey heads on the top of the pizza. Hubby thought it was cool.

Must have been a pizza night. But I had DH pick up a Lou from Lou Malnati's on his way home. Tomatoes, spinach, Mushroom (only half), and a sprinkle of cheddar. Kinda like this:

 

[MouseDreaming]

We got one 1 hour storm around midnight. Ground still taking it. Its been real hot around here.

Note: mint tends to keep the mosquitoes away. Extract (cooking) or snip some off and put hanging out of a pocket etc.

I slept through that one, but not this morning's storm!

 

[donaldtoo]

Schlitterbahn has been featured on a few Travel Channel (type) shows of some of the best waterparks. It looks like a blast!!

Yes, there was a show on the Travel Channel for several years called Top 10 US Water Parks, or something like that. I think it ran for about a decade or so, and the Schlitterbahn just down the road in New Braunfels, Texas always came in first. I pretty much remember Blizzard Beach coming in second most of the time.
If the Travel Channel still aired that show, I'm sure Shlitterbahn in NB would still be in the top 10, but, probably not in the top 5. So many other cool water parks have been expanded, or new ones built, since. There are, also, 4 other S-bahn locations...Galveston Island, Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas, South Padre Island Texas, and Kansas City, Kansas.
The one in KC is where they built the worlds tallest water slide, Verrukt (crazy or insane in German). It is now due for demolition (as it should be) after the tragic death of that 10-year-old boy on it in '16.
I watched a special about the developement of that new slide on the Travel Channel before it opened. It started with initial scaled down prototypes here in Texas and went through the actual building of the ride in KC. They had to rework it entirely because test rafts filled with sand bags were flying off the camel back in the middle. If I remember correctly, they
determined the rework solved the problem as long as a certain total weight range for the rafts was maintained. I remember being really excited about it when I started watching, but, actually feeling very uneasy about it by the end, and remember thinking to myself "They better darn well have this thing dialed in, or someone's gonna' get hurt, or worse, and there will be hell to pay."
Sure enough, apparently, somehow, the weight range wasn't adhered to, and the raft became airborn and the boys head (he was riding in front) hit the "safety" netting...not pretty.
Schlitterbahn has always been known for pushing the limits in innovating water park technology that is now used around the world, and setting the bar for many years, but, they seriously messed that slide up in KC to the point where someone, tragically, lost their life. So sad.
Hopefully, and I'm betting, hard lesson learned for sure.

ETA...
We haven't been to Schlittetbahn in a few years, but, it looks like they've added at least 3 new attractions since we were last there.
We were at that one local water park, and the Wet 'N' Wild in Houston last summer though, and they were both really nice.

 

[donaldtoo]

He is awesome. Following him all these years now and seeing what your son has progressed is beyond awesome.

Eyes are so often an overlooked cause of cognitive development. If eyes don't work together its all out of whack. Eye charts have patients looking independent of each other. Cover left, cover right. Why oh why is that the standard school test? So many times it isn't the kid struggling to understand the material, it is struggling to see the material. A pair of specialty eye glasses a simple cure. Frustrating. I use to do student read to an a parent once a week in early elementary. Caught 3 kids with the same issues my kids had, as did I. I wish this was part of education of new teachers. So not their fault, but could help so many students.

Many years back my friend slowly died of cancer, her youngest I'd watch before he went to school. dad understandably overwhelmed went to work. I'd pack him a lunch and put him on the bus. One day he looked at me in the morning over breakfast and told me his teacher was always mad at him. But he could not read the white board. Broke my heart. Dad was already overwhelmed with 3 kids on his own basically. I called school. They said he passed eye test. I called his Grandma in Florida. She came up and took him to an ophthalmologist and he was fitted with glasses that fit his issues. He, in 4th grade was so happy to be able to see things he couldn't before. These generic eye tests don't do justice to all those issues out there.

Thank you!

Yep. Simple, traditional eye charts are definitely no substitute for more extensive testing, especially in the case of eyes. There are just too many variables, that affect people's vision in so many different ways, that a simple eye chart just won't detect or address.

And, good on you for helping your friends little boy and family with that issue during such a rough time for them.
Condolences to you on the loss of your friend.

 

[donaldtoo]

I can see that, he'd fit right in at your house

Hahaaa...!
I posted a few days ago, I got Pluto when I took it again. Seems like he'd fit in pretty well here with Ranger Danger and Belley Crazy Cakes, too...!

 

[donaldtoo]

I was confused by @donaldtoo 's driving time. It is 1127 miles from Austin to DW. There must be an awful lot of traffic down there or multiple stops are included in his drive estimate. Is there a giant ball of yarn off route 10, or a humongous plastic dinosaur that begs stopping and gawking?

Don't forget the Worlds Largest Fiberglass Longhorn Steer and The Smoked Brisket and Other Meats Museum, just in Texas alone, along the route...!

 

[BAChicagoGal]

Our 401K money went into the bank today. Now, I feel much better since we need to have our Equity Line of Credit paid off by November of next year, and that is a step in the right direction.

Father's Day has snuck up on me. I stocked up on burgers today at the store, just in case my kids come over tomorrow. The older one almost always make an appearance on Dad's day. The other one at least calls, but he lives a whole lot further away.

 

[BAChicagoGal]

I see that the Disneyland Railroad will be running again long before my September trip to Disneyland. My birthday is the 4th of September, and trip is from the 3rd until the 9th. Happy about the return of the Railroad, River, and Fantasmic.

 

[DryerLintFan]

I drove past my childhood home the other day, my dad sold it a couple years ago and usually I don't have to drive past it to go to my sister's house who lives near there. But I was taking my niece to the Dairy Queen so I had to drive past it twice, and I got a look. They have made a few changes but nothing super major, they cut down some trees and fixed some steps (steps that my mom begged my dad to fix for years). Anyway, it wasn't a huge change but it still made me feel a little sad.

Our house used to be owned by an old couple that passed away. Two days after we moved in we got a visit from their daughter who begged us to not get rid of the rock in our front yard because her father had painted a little drawing on it almost fifty years ago when she was a little girl. We hadn't even noticed a painting on the rock but sure enough it was there when we looked later. Since it was so faded, I painted it in again. We haven't seen the daughter since (thank goodness, because she was a little creepy) but I hope if she drives past the house again she'll see her father's rock.

 

[Gabe1]

I slept through that one, but not this morning's storm!

I'm surprised the ground is still taking the rain here. The upside is I have not had to water in 3 days. I normally find watering pretty relaxing. 95 degree watering not so much.

 

[Songbird76]

Hope the teacher is ok. But here is what jumped out at me. I would hear about it if a non staff member was left with a student, let alone a class. And Chess exam. Sounds like a class my kids would have liked.

Well, it's pretty informal. Basically, it's chess club and the exam was to see if they can move on to the next level after summer vacation. And the teachers were still there, but there was a divider up so the kids couldn't gawk at the teacher lying on the floor. My job was mostly just to keep them calm and keep them from running off. It's only an hour every week, and most parents just drop their kids off and leave, and the teacher collapsed about halfway through, so there was no point trying to get ahold of parents to come pick the kids up early, even if they had time to make the phone calls. But it's so much more relaxed over here. As long as there's an adult present, no one will bat an eye. And it's not like they had much choice. It was leave the kids completely alone, or ask me to keep an eye on them. And like I said, they were THERE, just otherwise occupied, so they couldn't really give all their attention to the kids. Dutch people are generally a lot more...hands off? in regards to parenting. I'm considered pretty extreme because I don't let my kids go to the grocery store by themselves, etc, and they have to check in regularly. There was a girl in our neighborhood who was allowed to go wherever she wanted....she was only about 7 and her mom gave her a cell phone so she could tell the girl when to be home. My rule was you don't come into my house without parental permission...your mom needs to know where you are. And I won't let my kids go anywhere where I don't know the parents personally and trust that it's safe...so my kids couldn't go to this girl's house. I had never met them and they let their daughter go places where they didn't know the people. I couldn't trust that my kids would be safe in their care. But I am definitely in the minority here and it's mostly due to me being American. Most people wouldn't be bothered by it. I think most parents here were just glad there was another adult available to jump in so the kids were supervised.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Our house used to be owned by an old couple that passed away. Two days after we moved in we got a visit from their daughter who begged us to not get rid of the rock in our front yard because her father had painted a little drawing on it almost fifty years ago when she was a little girl. We hadn't even noticed a painting on the rock but sure enough it was there when we looked later. Since it was so faded, I painted it in again. We haven't seen the daughter since (thank goodness, because she was a little creepy) but I hope if she drives past the house again she'll see her father's rock.

That is kind of sweet about the painting. I'm surprised she didn't ask you for the rock to be moved to her house (if she had a place to put it). When my sister moved into her house many years ago, they had bought it from an elderly woman who was moved to assisted living, and one day the lady showed up in my sisters house. She was looking to make herself a coffee, she was confused and thought she still lived in the house. My sister called the lady's son and he can and got her. My dad and my brother-in-law changed the locks that night.

 

[Gabe1]

Our house used to be owned by an old couple that passed away. Two days after we moved in we got a visit from their daughter who begged us to not get rid of the rock in our front yard because her father had painted a little drawing on it almost fifty years ago when she was a little girl. We hadn't even noticed a painting on the rock but sure enough it was there when we looked later. Since it was so faded, I painted it in again. We haven't seen the daughter since (thank goodness, because she was a little creepy) but I hope if she drives past the house again she'll see her father's rock.

I think I'd have given her the rock. People are funny in what they keep.
Your story reminds me of a 'Luke' moment. He shows the order his Dad took when the diner was still a hardware store. The order was written on the wall. So Luke never painted over it.

 

[DryerLintFan]

That is kind of sweet about the painting. I'm surprised she didn't ask you for the rock to be moved to her house (if she had a place to put it). When my sister moved into her house many years ago, they had bought it from an elderly woman who was moved to assisted living, and one day the lady showed up in my sisters house. She was looking to make herself a coffee, she was confused and thought she still lived in the house. My sister called the lady's son and he can and got her. My dad and my brother-in-law changed the locks that night.

I think I'd have given her the rock. People are funny in what they keep.
Your story reminds me of a 'Luke' moment. He shows the order his Dad took when the diner was still a hardware store. The order was written on the wall. So Luke never painted over it.

We were told by her brother after that spontaneous visit that she was a "ward of the state". We're unsure exactly what that means but I didn't get the impression she lived alone. I didn't even think to offer the rock to her though