The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Cesar R M]

On Hilton Head, there are community cats, cats that live outside, are neutered/spayed, eartipped, and taken care of by locals. We were at a restaurant tonight, and there were several outside. My mom was trying to pet some, and finally, a grey one allowed her to pet him. Meanwhile, I pet a grey one, and two other appeared from nowhere (the one my mom was paying attention to walked over to me). My mom started paying attention to some of them, so I walked over to a black one who was laying down to see if he would let me pet him. He did...and meanwhile, I was followed by the rest of the cats, some of whom were rubbing around my ankles. Also, said black cat would allow me to pet him, but not my mom.

I think they must sense crazy cat lady.

Or perhaps you're the snowwhite of cats?

 

[Cesar R M]

Bottom line: the whole northern US and Canada is frozen.

Think on the bright side: towns in PA near Lake Erie has had near 100 inches of snowin December alone.

How is that... on the bright side?

 

[Cesar R M]

Power is up and running again at Disneyland but the jokes keep flying, photo: Rich Moore

Wait a sec, disneyland had a power outage?

 

[Gabe1]

Unpacked my Christmas gifts today, found the 3 books I received.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Wait a sec, disneyland had a power outage?

Yup. Today. Apparently, Fantasyland and Toontown were out. Guests were being escorted off rides. Sounds like a nightmare.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I'm crying for you.

Well, I should hope so. I cannot stand this frigid weather another minute. I didn't move 1000 miles from home to shiver.

Go find Elsa.

Yoo Hoo, @MinnieM123, come out and take responsibility for this. I told you it was OK to be a crazy person as long as you kept the winter stuff close to you. You have let it venture south and you must fix this Elsa Minnie!

 

[Cesar R M]

Yup. Today. Apparently, Fantasyland and Toontown were out. Guests were being escorted off rides. Sounds like a nightmare.

oh wow, A bit weird that 2 big corporations got hit similarly.
Atlanta's airport and now Disney.. o_o

*edit*
I laughed way too much when I read the "not magical, atte katiebug" reply in the thread about the power outage here in wdwmagic.

 

[Gabe1]

Yup. Today. Apparently, Fantasyland and Toontown were out. Guests were being escorted off rides. Sounds like a nightmare.

My DS when he was doing his internship WDW had a power outage at the TTC. They stuck him up on the roof to take pictures of the nightmare below.

 

[Gabe1]

Well, I should hope so. I cannot stand this frigid weather another minute. I didn't move 1000 miles from home to shiver.

Yoo Hoo, @MinnieM123, come out and take responsibility for this. I told you it was OK to be a crazy person as long as you kept the winter stuff close to you. You have let it venture south and you must fix this Elsa Minnie!

We are currently at -1 and I feel worse for you.

 

[Gabe1]

Well, maybe we weren't quite as forgiven as I thought. Hubby and I made lunch (my MIL calls it "brunch" but doesn't want to eat "brunch" until 1pm, and she wants breakfast when she wakes up...I don't think she understands the concept of an actual brunch) and did the cleanup, and then my BIL came over around 4:30 or 5 for dinner, and my MIL announced that from now on she's done with doing the Christmas dinners. We're welcome to come to their house, but we'll have to do our OWN shopping and bring it all to her house and cook it ourselves because she's not doing it. Now, I can understand the speech in regards to my BIL because it's pretty much standard that he comes over just before dinner and sits on the couch until dinner is ready, he eats, and then leaves before dessert so he doesn't have to help with the clean up. OR, he'll stay, and go sit on the couch while the rest of us clean up and when my MIL asks him to help, he'll take a dish or 2 from the table, set it in the kitchen on the counter and then go back and sit down and play on his phone. My husband and I have helped her make dinner AND done the clean up every year, for both Easter AND Christmas, AND we go on their birthdays and spend the day serving their guests so that she can sit and enjoy the party. And while we are cooking and cleaning up, she tries to micromanage everything and snaps at us for asking where she wants us to put a dish or where something is, so to treat us like we don't do anything to help did NOT sit well with us. DH said if she continues on like that, we won't go at all next year. It's one thing to say "I'm getting to old and I'd really like you guys to take over" or to pull my BIL aside and tell him he needs to actually do his part. But considering we have done just as much as she has every year, if not more, because SHE doesn't generally help with the clean up "because she cooked", it was uncalled for to accuse us of making her do all the work every year. DH called her on it and she begrudgingly admitted that yes, he had handled lunch. Yeah...I was just kitchen decoration apparently. She did go to HIM later and tell him that the speech had been for my BIL's benefit (He actually set the table this year! Though he forgot half the stuff...perhaps if he actually helps from now on, he'll learn what all needs to go on the table). But I call shenanigans because if that was the case, she could have just talked to him, OR she could have let us know before he got there that she was going to say something and that it was not meant for us. I think she was feeling a bit upset that no one came to church and was venting and maybe realized later that she had been in the wrong. But she never said anything to ME. We'll see how Easter goes...if it doesn't go well, I think we'll just have our own Christmas at home next year.

Wow! Just Wow! That is my MIL wrapped up in a bow. The lady that would never miss church and be a mega twit to her family. She'd never be half prepared for a meal she insisted on doing at her place, bark orders at her DIL's (3) while her hubby and sons sat and watched sports in his den. Clean up, well she cooked so we girls needed to pitch in, clear, pack up food, wash all the pots and pan, she'd drag out China and Crystal along with silver, everything had to be immediately dried and put back in their quilted pouches so she could spend some time with her 'boys.'

Yep I gave up on all that a good 15 years ago. But my Mom was 'off' on Christmas and is more frequently these days and I had enough of her smart mouth (she use to reserve that for my Dad until he passed) so I took a deep angry breath and went out and shoveled her 120 foot double driveway. Exercise always centers me. At one point outside I got a text from my DD asking if I was OK and where was I? When I told her shoveling she understood it wasn't my love of snow.

Friends, God's apology for Family.

 

[Gabe1]

Now I'm scrolling looking for the outcome of @ajrwdwgirl outcome with her hubby's phone call down to his family...time for the rest of the story.

 

[Gabe1]

Wait a sec, disneyland had a power outage?

Best comment I saw today:
Damn, people are freaking out because #Disneyland had a power outage and yet Puerto Rico has been without power for almost 100 days now smh

 

[Gabe1]

Num nom nom This looks awesome, it has a cauliflower bread base, (not doing that) but I'm making the rest of this!

 

[Cesar R M]

Well, maybe we weren't quite as forgiven as I thought. Hubby and I made lunch (my MIL calls it "brunch" but doesn't want to eat "brunch" until 1pm, and she wants breakfast when she wakes up...I don't think she understands the concept of an actual brunch) and did the cleanup, and then my BIL came over around 4:30 or 5 for dinner, and my MIL announced that from now on she's done with doing the Christmas dinners. We're welcome to come to their house, but we'll have to do our OWN shopping and bring it all to her house and cook it ourselves because she's not doing it. Now, I can understand the speech in regards to my BIL because it's pretty much standard that he comes over just before dinner and sits on the couch until dinner is ready, he eats, and then leaves before dessert so he doesn't have to help with the clean up. OR, he'll stay, and go sit on the couch while the rest of us clean up and when my MIL asks him to help, he'll take a dish or 2 from the table, set it in the kitchen on the counter and then go back and sit down and play on his phone. My husband and I have helped her make dinner AND done the clean up every year, for both Easter AND Christmas, AND we go on their birthdays and spend the day serving their guests so that she can sit and enjoy the party. And while we are cooking and cleaning up, she tries to micromanage everything and snaps at us for asking where she wants us to put a dish or where something is, so to treat us like we don't do anything to help did NOT sit well with us. DH said if she continues on like that, we won't go at all next year. It's one thing to say "I'm getting to old and I'd really like you guys to take over" or to pull my BIL aside and tell him he needs to actually do his part. But considering we have done just as much as she has every year, if not more, because SHE doesn't generally help with the clean up "because she cooked", it was uncalled for to accuse us of making her do all the work every year. DH called her on it and she begrudgingly admitted that yes, he had handled lunch. Yeah...I was just kitchen decoration apparently. She did go to HIM later and tell him that the speech had been for my BIL's benefit (He actually set the table this year! Though he forgot half the stuff...perhaps if he actually helps from now on, he'll learn what all needs to go on the table). But I call shenanigans because if that was the case, she could have just talked to him, OR she could have let us know before he got there that she was going to say something and that it was not meant for us. I think she was feeling a bit upset that no one came to church and was venting and maybe realized later that she had been in the wrong. But she never said anything to ME. We'll see how Easter goes...if it doesn't go well, I think we'll just have our own Christmas at home next year.

The only thing I can get from reading this monstrous mess is..

Jesuchrist.. that MIL of yours either has an ego that rivals Trump's or she is definitively mentally ill with grandiose syndrome.

Definitively someone so toxic I would be happy to insult face front and hope never have to see her in my whole life...

 

[Gabe1]

The only thing I can get from reading this monstrous mess is..

Jesuchrist.. that MIL of yours either has an ego that rivals Trump's or she is definitively mentally ill with grandiose syndrome.

Definitively someone so toxic I would be happy to insult face front and hope never have to see her in my whole life...

Some people love the drama of making a mountain out of molehill topped off going for the nasty, jugular comments. Generally they have something else eating themselves up inside and just take it out on someone else. Me I wonder if son #2 had enough long ago and now just makes an appearance, short and sweet before the woman goes off the deep end again. Those Nasty personal jabs tend to repeat, even if the target varies. Holding onto those molehill grudges is a lifestyle. Can't pull up their shorts and move on 'cause they crave the drama and lack the self control to just move forward. Likely had nothing to do with Church or Food.

 

[Songbird76]

Wow! Just Wow! That is my MIL wrapped up in a bow. The lady that would never miss church and be a mega twit to her family. She'd never be half prepared for a meal she insisted on doing at her place, bark orders at her DIL's (3) while her hubby and sons sat and watched sports in his den. Clean up, well she cooked so we girls needed to pitch in, clear, pack up food, wash all the pots and pan, she'd drag out China and Crystal along with silver, everything had to be immediately dried and put back in their quilted pouches so she could spend some time with her 'boys.'

Yep I gave up on all that a good 15 years ago. But my Mom was 'off' on Christmas and is more frequently these days and I had enough of her smart mouth (she use to reserve that for my Dad until he passed) so I took a deep angry breath and went out and shoveled her 120 foot double driveway. Exercise always centers me. At one point outside I got a text from my DD asking if I was OK and where was I? When I told her shoveling she understood it wasn't my love of snow.

Friends, God's apology for Family.

My MIL is, in general, a lovely person. But she is pretty particular about her household...how things are cleaned, cooked, etc. We lived with them the first 3 years I lived here and it was very difficult for me. One the one hand, she wanted everything done her way and wouldn't even show me how to use the washing machine (all the settings were in Dutch, which I didn't speak yet) because I guess she thought it was too complicated for me to comprehend. On the other hand, she was getting angry at having to do all the laundry herself. The day she announced that I was going to have to start doing my own laundry because she couldn't keep up, I was like...THANK GOD. But she would go behind me and change the settings while my clothes were in. I always wash on cold so there's minimal shrinkage and color bleeding. She'd wait until I had the load going and went back to my room or downstairs and go turn it to hot. Same with the cooking...we offered to help cook, but no no..she couldn't let go of the reigns in the kitchen. Finally, she announced that weekends would be our responsibility to cook. Great! So we'd be cooking and she'd come through and turn up a burner when our backs were turned...suddenly my spaghetti sauce is burned to the bottom of the pan and I look at the burner and it's gone from the lowest setting to the highest...you ask her why she did that and it was "Because it wasn't boiling." It wasn't SUPPOSED to!!! She once burned the potatoes for one meal THREE times...didn't put enough water in and left them "boiling" for over an hour....came back and they were all black and stuck to the bottom of the pan. So she had to start over...and did the exact same thing. Started over again and was fixing to make the same mistake a 3rd time when DH smelled something and went and added water to it and dug out the bits that we no longer edible. I love her, but I can't work with her when it comes to cooking and cleaning. And holidays are just so stressful. Usually, when she gets on my nerves, I volunteer hubby and I to go get whatever she has inevitable forgotten at the grocery store, but on the holidays that doesn't work because the grocery store is closed. And there's no snow to shovel.

 

[Songbird76]

The only thing I can get from reading this monstrous mess is..

Jesuchrist.. that MIL of yours either has an ego that rivals Trump's or she is definitively mentally ill with grandiose syndrome.

Definitively someone so toxic I would be happy to insult face front and hope never have to see her in my whole life...

Oh she's not usually like this at all. She's usually great. But the stress of the holidays, plus my FIL's health is not good, so I think she's just overly stressed and not handling it well. Plus, I think she's hurt because it was our year to have BIL's son with us for Boxing Day and his mom's turn to have him for Christmas day. But then my nephew's other grandparents decided they wanted to go to the Canary Islands for Christmas, only his mom refused to go, and as it was her year to have him Christmas Day, if they wanted him to go with them, they had to wait to leave until Boxing Day, which was my BIL's day...so they invited him to go with them. So my BIL came over on Christmas day just for dinner and then left because his son wasn't there anyway. And then instead of having our family celebration on Boxing day with him and my nephew, they took off for the Islands. So my in-laws didn't get to see their grandson at all for the holiday. So I think she was hurt by that and maybe she thought we would make up for that by going to church with them, only we didn't, so she was probably feeling abandoned. I get it, but I hate the passive aggressive pouting and guilt trips. When I've done something wrong, I'll apologize and try to correct it, but don't accuse me of things I didn't do because you are ticked off about some perceived slight, you know? And I have no problem with helping out if you need it, but don't try to make it sound like I don't do it usually do anything, especially when I've spent the whole day doing stuff in YOUR house so YOU could sit down and relax. So, she really isn't usually like this, but I think she was ticked at my BIL and took it out on us.

 

[Songbird76]

Some people love the drama of making a mountain out of molehill topped off going for the nasty, jugular comments. Generally they have something else eating themselves up inside and just take it out on someone else. Me I wonder if son #2 had enough long ago and now just makes an appearance, short and sweet before the woman goes off the deep end again. Those Nasty personal jabs tend to repeat, even if the target varies. Holding onto those molehill grudges is a lifestyle. Can't pull up their shorts and move on 'cause they crave the drama and lack the self control to just move forward. Likely had nothing to do with Church or Food.

Nah...BIL has NEVER helped. My dh used to get really angry as a teen because he could be upstairs in his room reading or doing homework or whatever and his brother could be sitting with them on the couch watching TV and they would call up to him to go down into the cellar to get something for them. When BIL was 9 or 10, he picked up a strep strain that damaged his kidneys. They don't function well, and he gets infections in his joints and such. They never made him help with anything because he was "sick" even if he was fine at the time. He's USUALLY fine, but gets the infections once in a while. So it was always my husband who picked up the slack and did everything for them. BIL has just gotten used to being allowed to sit while everyone else pitches in. He's lazy because he was allowed to be. So now that my MIL is getting older and isn't up to doing as much, she's trying to change that and get him to help, but it's too late. You can't wait until he's 40 and then try to change the behavior he grew up with...and she can't ground him for not doing his chores now, so she has no leverage to make him pitch in. We'd invite everyone to our house for the holiday, but we live farther away, we don't have anywhere for them to sleep, so they'd have to drive back and forth, PLUS if it was at our house my BIL would REALLY not do anything. At least at the in-laws' house she can get him to set the table, or get chairs from the attic. At our house, he'd feel like a guest and wouldn't do diddly, but he'd never take a turn hosting at his house. And he lives less than a block away from his parents, so it's more convenient for everyone to go there. We know that BIL is never going to be an active part of the work, and DH and I discussed it..we're more than happy to take the reigns next year, but then WE get to decide what to cook and how to cook it..she will be banned from the kitchen.

 

[MinnieM123]

Well, I should hope so. I cannot stand this frigid weather another minute. I didn't move 1000 miles from home to shiver.

Yoo Hoo, @MinnieM123, come out and take responsibility for this. I told you it was OK to be a crazy person as long as you kept the winter stuff close to you. You have let it venture south and you must fix this Elsa Minnie!

Ha ha ha!!! You and my brother (living in NC) both sounds the same--he and I were chatting on the phone the other day, and he was complaining about the temperature down there. Said it wasn't supposed to be that cold. Meanwhile, I had to remind him that he grew up here in New England--I told him he had lost his "edge" . . .

 

[MinnieM123]

Num nom nom This looks awesome, it has a cauliflower bread base, (not doing that) but I'm making the rest of this!

I just can't "like" this--too many veggies and too many colors. It almost looks like a Mardi Gras pizza!