The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Gabe1]

@Gabe1 , I bought a bag of jelly beans today at the grocery store. They're Brachs, and the bag said they're made in Illinois. Are you familiar with this candy? The jelly beans are really delicious!! (I only wish they put more red and orange ones in the bag though.)

Oh, yes! A well known family. Candy always sold in places like grocery stores, Walgreen's etc. Their sugar candies like the Jelly Beans, Lemon Drops and Circus Peanuts were better than most candies in the same category. But here is the rest of the story.......

Known as "The Candy Lady", Helen Brach was one of Chicago's richest widowers after inheriting the Brach Company fortune when her husband Frank died in 1970.

When Mrs. Brach went missing 41 years ago in a murder plot aimed at stealing her fortune, swindlers didn't know that her money was untouchable. It had been hidden away in a foundation bearing her name- an organization that continues to pay out decades after her death.

Mrs. Brach's body was never found. Some investigators believe her remains were buried in a South Side forest preserve.

 

[Songbird76]

It's past mid-day isn't it ??

I think maybe she's referring to your use of the singular, rather than plural?

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

I am jealous of the people who can still afford to make regular trips to Disney World and/or Disneyland. I like hearing about their trips, of course. I wish I had the time/patience to read every post in this thread. It moves far too quickly for that. My house has been crazy lately. First the mouse invasion, and now People's Gas is putting in new gas meters into every house on our block. Yesterday they were here, and today they are coming back to finish up. My neighbor/tenant is all worried about an endoscopy that she has agreed to have soon. Not sure why she felt the need to ask my husband and I if we could take care of her after the procedure. She has gotten it into her head that it is a debilitating surgery. Not sure what doctors have told her, but I think she's getting ahead of herself somehow. She has suffered from acid reflux as long as I have known her. Not sure why it has gotten so bad lately. She is 71. I got the results from wearing my heart monitor, and the doctor reported nothing to be concerned about. I guess my cataract surgery made my heart rate a bit weird, and someone over reacted. Anyhow, good to know my heart is fine for someone my age. Now I'll probably end up having my 2nd surgery sometime in May or June. Tonite we spring ahead, and I am ready. Happy Saturday to everyone.

Excellent news!!

 

[MinnieM123]

Oh, yes! A well known family. Candy always sold in places like grocery stores, Walgreen's etc. Their sugar candies like the Jelly Beans, Lemon Drops and Circus Peanuts were better than most candies in the same category. But here is the rest of the story.......

Known as "The Candy Lady", Helen Brach was one of Chicago's richest widowers after inheriting the Brach Company fortune when her husband Frank died in 1970.

When Mrs. Brach went missing 41 years ago in a murder plot aimed at stealing her fortune, swindlers didn't know that her money was untouchable. It had been hidden away in a foundation bearing her name- an organization that continues to pay out decades after her death.

Mrs. Brach's body was never found. Some investigators believe her remains were buried in a South Side forest preserve.

OMG!!! What a story!!

 

[Songbird76]

Spoiler: LoL

View attachment 269337

Ok @donaldtoo , where's your tutu picture? We know you have one!!

 

[Songbird76]

Ha! My son his freshman year of college dropped his going down a stone staircase. About what that looked like.
Dell had a very good repair/replacement fortunately they just sent him a new one. Amen. Laptops were still real pricey back then.

Ah, well...it likely bounced a few times on the way down, so then does that count as being dropped multiple times? If I were the person sending out the new one, I'd be really tempted to wrap it in several layers of bubblewrap, just as a joke. I wouldn't....but I'd be tempted.

 

[Songbird76]

And Walmart has often been blamed for the Original Department Store Failures.

Me my sadness is in Brick and Mortar bookstores. I loved taking my kids book shopping. Them finding books that they 'wanted' to read was exciting.

I love love love bookstores!! I could spend HOURS in bookstores. I love the smell of the paper, and that excitement you feel when a cover catches your eye and you HAVE to read the back cover. And sales!!! Nothing beats the excitement of finding a book on my "to read" list in the discount rack. I got Slammerkin in the US in 2016 for $1!!! I also bought 52 books at the library booksale in 2013...I was very good and limited myself to 11 in 2016.
Ok...now I sound like a real weirdo. I promise, I'm not a kook....I just really love books.

 

[Gabe1]

OMG!!! What a story!!

Yep. Good candy and a very well known story here still surfaces in the news almost every year.

 

[Gabe1]

Ah, well...it likely bounced a few times on the way down, so then does that count as being dropped multiple times? If I were the person sending out the new one, I'd be really tempted to wrap it in several layers of bubblewrap, just as a joke. I wouldn't....but I'd be tempted.

Yep. About a year ago my DD laptop for work had an untimely death, it was a very high end laptop and about a year old. She delivered it to the tech morgue and gave her a new one after they deemed its MotherBoard passed away the night before 'cause' unknown was the official cause of death. Ahem,

 

[Songbird76]

Thank you! Good morning to you and @MinnieM123 . I got up at 3:30. One of those sit up right out of bed mornings. Had to be up at 5, so of course I get up at 3:30. Working on a pot of soup so someone has something to eat while I am in Baltimore for at least a little more than half the day.

Aw.....sorry you woke up so early. I felt so bad this morning. DS woke up at 5:30 and he came and knocked on the door, he said he couldn't sleep anymore, and I said OK. But he didn't ask or say anything else, so I went back to sleep, and 15 minutes later, I hear him crying in his room, because he couldn't sleep, but he was so bored. He didn't understand from my "Ok" that it was alright if he went downstairs. We used to have a rule when he was little that he couldn't get out of bed until 6 because he woke up SOOOOO early, and I guess he thought that still applied, though he hasn't woken up so early for a long time. So he thought he had to stay in his room with nothing to do. So we had a talk about how, if it's the middle of the night, I will tell him specifically if he needs to try again to go back to sleep. That if I say "ok" and don't tell him otherwise, he can get up and go downstairs.

 

[DryerLintFan]

Congratulations on getting her in something other than a princess dress! How long did it take you to convince her to take it off? Or HAVE you convinced her?

No, no. She's a ballerina princess...

 

[donaldtoo]

Good for you!! Lord knows, I need to also drop 13.5 pounds, too!

Thanks, Minnie!
It really isn't all that hard, actually, and Dwifey and myself have a grandchild on the way, so that is even more motivation...!!!

 

[Songbird76]

My husband is the reader in our family, and he used to visit Barnes & Noble a lot. Now he buys books online, and at Target. I have a lot of books in my house. My husband buys a book, and then wants to keep it forever. We are running out of ideas/places on where to put all these books.

You can never have too many books, only inadequate shelf space. I have the same issue. I have a few bookcases and I double row my books and then fill the gap above with more books lying horizontally across the top of the ones standing up. I had one big shelf in our bedroom, but it got too heavy and fell.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

 

[Songbird76]

Good for you!! Lord knows, I need to also drop 13.5 pounds, too!

And by "drop 13.5 pounds", you mean drop that much weight in candy into your shopping cart for Easter?

 

[donaldtoo]

Wow....huge...I'd be happy with 1/3 of that!! I have a question....are those both garages on the right side there? Why do garages need windows? Or is it something else entirely?

Yes, those are 2 two car garages. They don't need windows of course, but, clients generally like to walk into them in the daytime without turning on a light. Some also have workshops in them, so they might just have a small lamp over that. Plus this home, like so many others we design, is in a gated community, so they're not really worried about breakins' and theft and such.
Simply put, most of our clients have money coming out of their money...!!!!!

 

[Songbird76]

Oh, yes! A well known family. Candy always sold in places like grocery stores, Walgreen's etc. Their sugar candies like the Jelly Beans, Lemon Drops and Circus Peanuts were better than most candies in the same category. But here is the rest of the story.......

Known as "The Candy Lady", Helen Brach was one of Chicago's richest widowers after inheriting the Brach Company fortune when her husband Frank died in 1970.

When Mrs. Brach went missing 41 years ago in a murder plot aimed at stealing her fortune, swindlers didn't know that her money was untouchable. It had been hidden away in a foundation bearing her name- an organization that continues to pay out decades after her death.

Mrs. Brach's body was never found. Some investigators believe her remains were buried in a South Side forest preserve.

I never knew Brachs was an Illinois thing! We always got Brachs caramels at Christmas, and I want to say that's also the brand of chocolate covered cherries we got...but, my mom having grown up in Chicago area, she DID have connections...I never really payed attention to where it came from!

 

[donaldtoo]

Ok @donaldtoo , where's your tutu picture? We know you have one!!

Yes!!!
And here I am in all my proud manly glory...!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

 

[Songbird76]

No, no. She's a ballerina princess...

My daughter was the GIRLIEST of girls at that age...wouldn't wear anything but pink. My brother got married and I was a bridesmaid, DD was flower girl, and DS was ring bearer. So their colors were purple and peach, and I got the cutest little dress....white, with a tulle skirt that had "diamonds" on it, and a purple sash. And I got her white sandals to wear with it, as it was an outdoor wedding in July and no way was I going to make her wear tights. I made a hair appointment with my high school friend who is a hair dresser and had done my hair for my wedding...my brother got her a tiara and we had the florist put some flowers on it. We tried to get DD to put all this on, and she was NOT having ANY of it...it wasn't pink and she wasn't going to wear it, nope!!


She was a little upset. LOL Fastforward to about an hour or 2 before the ceremony, and 50 people had told her how she looked like a real princess!!!



And then she wouldn't take the dress off. She insisted on sleeping in it, and then when we went to Disney a few days later, she insisted on wearing it to the park....it was August!!! She WAS however, smart enough to express that she needed to take the dress off because it was too hot, and me, being the prepared mommy I am, I had packed a little sundress in my backpack for her to change into when she inevitable got overheated in layers of tulle. So we DID eventually get her out of it, which was why I asked you how long it took you to convince your princess to change clothes.