The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Cesar R M]

Man takes alligator on beer run https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/florida-man-alligator-beer-run/

good ol' florida man!

 

[MinnieM123]

Wisconsin has sales tax on clothes, so since I live close to the Minnesota border and MN doesn't have tax on clothes that is where I buy my clothes. Decent clothes stores are about 40-45 minutes from my house in both directions, so I choose the Minnesota direction.

One thing that drives me nuts about sales tax are the arbitrary guidelines about what they tax. For example, groceries are not taxed. A box of Russell Stover chocolates is not taxed. But a box of Godiva chocolates are--as they are considered a luxury item.

But the one that gets me mad is that they tax dog food!! WHY is my dog's food taxed?!!

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Right, I’ve seen as just as many adults messing with the screens, as kids.
Although there were no fewer than 10 hands at a time handling those gemstones as we walked by...don’t really know how that will keep the germs down.

I did try and avoid having my kids touching those screens. I have become a slight germaphobe though.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

I keep getting these wrong number texts from Georgia numbers. This happened yesterday...
View attachment 301039

I would need a translation. Not sure if that is English, aside from your replies.

 

[Cesar R M]

I keep getting these wrong number texts from Georgia numbers. This happened yesterday...
View attachment 301039

Thats not your photo, right?

 

[21stamps]

Sorry for the bad flashback. Here's wishing you "pleasant dreams"

2 for $1? What a ripoff! I did buy Target pencils one year though because they were cheaper than the Ticonderoga. Funny thing about those pencils, if you shook them you could hear the lead shaking inside. It was weird.

It was labeled as a “pencil fundraiser”, the kits are so overpriced (but are also fundraisers), that I guess they couldn’t let us non-kit ordering parents get off that easy.

Kindergarten was so stressful for me, starting with school supplies. Between the colored folders, special colored notebooks, the stupid white erasers, and the stupid 2 pencil bags- which apparently I bought the wrong dimensions at first (these were also sent home the first day), but most of all the insanely STUPID red lines that I had to draw on every single note book page.

Ugh. Can you tell I’m still scarred?

Probably would have been easier if I would have started shopping earlier than the week before school started. Can’t blame the teachers for that.

Lesson learned - ALWAYS BUY THE KIT.

 

[Cesar R M]

DH had booked a hotel online through Expedia or something like it and we had looked at the pictures and it looked pretty nice for one of the cheaper places. All the other places were way more expensive and didn't look as nice. When we got there, we discovered the picture they were using of the outside was actually an assisted living facility, not the hotel.

This is what they showed....that corner bit there.
View attachment 301034

This is the actual hotel.
View attachment 301036
I had to use the flashlight on my phone just to find the keyhole on the door because the hallway was soooooo dark.
When we went in, it was just gross....the sink and shower were chipped and cracked, the floor was chipped, the door to the balcony was broken, the walls were filthy, the light fixture didn't cover the hole in the ceiling, there were nails sticking out of the armoir, there were no nightstands or anything, there was mold on the shower tiles, no hooks on the bathroom door to hang up a towel....again, nails sticking out instead. And the booking site DH had used said wifi wasn't free, but he called to ask how much it cost per night, and THAT guy said there was no charge. So when we got there, we tried to connect, but it didn't work...the network wasn't even showing up in the list of networks. So DH went to the front desk and tried to explain that it wouldn't show up in the network list and she tried to give him a passcode that would work for 1 hour. When he tried to explain that that wouldn't help if we couldn't find the network, she snapped at him and told him to let her talk, and shoved the code at him again. Needless to say, we never got internet there.

Thats our door on the left there, in the dark.
View attachment 301037

Our beds:
View attachment 301038

View attachment 301040

View attachment 301041

It was bad, but we were tired, we had already paid, and it was only for one night and only to sleep. We were hungry and it was getting late, so we went to McDonald's for DS, and then went to KFC for us....I was happy, because KFC in Germany has mashed potatoes and gravy, which KFC in the Netherlands does not. They also had free drink refills, which the Netherlands doesn't. They weren't particularly organized and my German is practically non-existant since I had to kind of let it go in favor of learning to pronounce Dutch words correctly, since a lot of the words are similar. So when I asked for butter for my corn on the cobb, the guy was rude, told me it would be a minute, then got angry when another worker asked me what I was waiting for and I told her I just needed butter. The guy snapped "IT'S ON ITS WAY!" and the woman just turned around, grabbed a pat of butter and handed it to me in 2 seconds. He apparently thought I was asking for bread? It ended up being WAY too much food for us, and I felt bad throwing half of it away, but it tasted good, and it was stuff I can't get here, so I couldn't quite regret it.

Then we went back to the hotel to try to sleep. It was so stuffy...it was in the 80s-90s all week and there was no air-conditioning in the hotel. There was a little Juliet balcony and the door is one that you turn the handle up, and it opens in from the top like a window, and if you turn it to the side, it opens like a door, and if you turn it down, it locks. Only, the mechanism was broken so it only opened like a door....so we had to leave the door open the whole night to get some air and cool it down. We had to toss everything from our bed area to our suitcases so no one could see us in the open doorway without our clothes on.

The park hotel in Cologne will not get a very glowing review from us. I have pictures of the mold, the dirty walls, unsafe looking outlets, etc, to accompany said review.

Up next: day 1....again....because Cologne doesn't count. REDO!

Cant like that.. the hotel looks more like an hostel than a real hotel o_o
and I've seen hostels in better shape!

 

[MinnieM123]

I would assume even more so dangerous. At least with the oceans the waves come from steady directions and you can see rip tides pretty clearly. The few times I've been to the Great Lakes, the waves were unpredictable and often came from multiple directions all at once. And the sand drop off seemed steeper than the ocean as well. Like you would be walking and then you wouldn't, where as the ocean is a steady decline.

Very interesting. I never knew that. Good to know, even though I've never been to that part of the country.

 

[Cesar R M]

I did try and avoid having my kids touching those screens. I have become a slight germaphobe though.

You're smart, and its not even the germs.
I've seen snot, food rests and other crap staining the screens.. nope nope nope.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Thats not your photo, right?

It is, but I'm wearing oversized sunglasses and a particularly sour expression, so they'd be hard pressed to recognize me.

I've had these people text/call multiple times and I tell them they have the wrong number, and then they do it again...and again...finally got fed up and had to show them I'm definitely not the Droid they're looking for.

 

[21stamps]

You mean you buy erasers that are separate? Like those meaty rectangular-ish shaped erasers

We’re required to get them.. but white only. I’m not sure why we can’t use the pink ones.

 

[Cesar R M]

One thing that drives me nuts about sales tax are the arbitrary guidelines about what they tax. For example, groceries are not taxed. A box of Russell Stover chocolates is not taxed. But a box of Godiva chocolates are--as they are considered a luxury item.

But the one that gets me mad is that they tax dog food!! WHY is my dog's food taxed?!!

Something similar started to happen a few years ago in my country. Food, books and medicines are not taxed. But some chains found a way to leech money for taxes by charging even when they shouldn't be.
Aka they count the food sold as "packaged imported food".
Our tax is 16% country wide for everything.
Except when importing chinese junk like clothes. Which have a markup of 300% because of dumping and bad quality/chemicals.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

DH had booked a hotel online through Expedia or something like it and we had looked at the pictures and it looked pretty nice for one of the cheaper places. All the other places were way more expensive and didn't look as nice. When we got there, we discovered the picture they were using of the outside was actually an assisted living facility, not the hotel.

This is what they showed....that corner bit there.
View attachment 301034

This is the actual hotel.
View attachment 301036
I had to use the flashlight on my phone just to find the keyhole on the door because the hallway was soooooo dark.
When we went in, it was just gross....the sink and shower were chipped and cracked, the floor was chipped, the door to the balcony was broken, the walls were filthy, the light fixture didn't cover the hole in the ceiling, there were nails sticking out of the armoir, there were no nightstands or anything, there was mold on the shower tiles, no hooks on the bathroom door to hang up a towel....again, nails sticking out instead. And the booking site DH had used said wifi wasn't free, but he called to ask how much it cost per night, and THAT guy said there was no charge. So when we got there, we tried to connect, but it didn't work...the network wasn't even showing up in the list of networks. So DH went to the front desk and tried to explain that it wouldn't show up in the network list and she tried to give him a passcode that would work for 1 hour. When he tried to explain that that wouldn't help if we couldn't find the network, she snapped at him and told him to let her talk, and shoved the code at him again. Needless to say, we never got internet there.

Thats our door on the left there, in the dark.
View attachment 301037

Our beds:
View attachment 301038

View attachment 301040

View attachment 301041

It was bad, but we were tired, we had already paid, and it was only for one night and only to sleep. We were hungry and it was getting late, so we went to McDonald's for DS, and then went to KFC for us....I was happy, because KFC in Germany has mashed potatoes and gravy, which KFC in the Netherlands does not. They also had free drink refills, which the Netherlands doesn't. They weren't particularly organized and my German is practically non-existant since I had to kind of let it go in favor of learning to pronounce Dutch words correctly, since a lot of the words are similar. So when I asked for butter for my corn on the cobb, the guy was rude, told me it would be a minute, then got angry when another worker asked me what I was waiting for and I told her I just needed butter. The guy snapped "IT'S ON ITS WAY!" and the woman just turned around, grabbed a pat of butter and handed it to me in 2 seconds. He apparently thought I was asking for bread? It ended up being WAY too much food for us, and I felt bad throwing half of it away, but it tasted good, and it was stuff I can't get here, so I couldn't quite regret it.

Then we went back to the hotel to try to sleep. It was so stuffy...it was in the 80s-90s all week and there was no air-conditioning in the hotel. There was a little Juliet balcony and the door is one that you turn the handle up, and it opens in from the top like a window, and if you turn it to the side, it opens like a door, and if you turn it down, it locks. Only, the mechanism was broken so it only opened like a door....so we had to leave the door open the whole night to get some air and cool it down. We had to toss everything from our bed area to our suitcases so no one could see us in the open doorway without our clothes on.

The park hotel in Cologne will not get a very glowing review from us. I have pictures of the mold, the dirty walls, unsafe looking outlets, etc, to accompany said review.

Up next: day 1....again....because Cologne doesn't count. REDO!

Were there no hotel reviews already on the travel site? I never book without reading. reviews. Looks absolutely horrible. My mom was a travel agent and Europe was her specialty. We generally stayed at Sofitel hotels. Of course quite often we weren’t charged or got a large discount. Wish I could still get some of those nice discounts.

 

[Cesar R M]

NAAAAP TIMEEEE!

 

[MinnieM123]

and now the yogurt is in the yogurt maker

It's even more relaxing if you just buy it. Here's a house brand from a supermarket in my area--

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

That’s kinda creepy...
I got one around Christmastime once (from an unknown number) that said something to the effect of,” I don’t know whether I slept with you or was in jail with you, but I found this number on my phone, so Merry Christmas.”
I immediately blocked it.

I can only block a certain amount of numbers with Verizon. Once I reach the limit then other blocked numbers get unblocked.

 

[MinnieM123]

Random post for the day.....I hate FAKE erasers. Why do companies make pencils that have something that appears to be an eraser, but it's not? They just trick you so you will buy it. Then when you remove it from the packaging and try to use it...it just smears! View attachment 300979

I like the bigger, stand-alone erasers, not the ones on top of pencils. The big one will last me close to a lifetime, as I so rarely make a mistake that I need to erase . . .

 

[21stamps]

Ok, time for a mini TR for the V.I.Passholder night at Magic Kingdom! (NOTE: I apologize in advance for the size of this post–I didn’t really want to break it up into sections)

My family (dad, mom, younger sister) and I left the house around 6:30pm, and got to the park entrance to MK around 7:15. There were very long lines at the entrance for the event check-in, so it took us about 15 minutes just to get into the park and get our wristbands. Once that was taken care of, we started walking to Adventureland to ride Pirates (with FP). On the way, we passed another check-in location (Tortuga Tavern); the line for that was backed up past the Tiki Room!
After Pirates, we decided to wait in line for Big Thunder; I got some photos while in line.
View attachment 300976View attachment 300977
We waited for around 30 minutes...not too bad.
Next, we headed over to Peter Pan for our other FP. By the time we were done with that, HEA had started, so we jumped in line for SDMT. The wait time said 60 min, but we waited maybe 25 min.
There was only a 5 min wait on the Mad Tea Party, so we rode that afterwards. My sis and I rode together, since we like to spin the cup fast (and my dad doesn’t like to spin at all).
My younger sis on the teacups:
View attachment 300978
At that point, it was 10pm, and the event had started, so we decided to go get something to snack on at Cosmic Ray’s (one of two restaurants still open). My mom and I shared the Mrs. Incredible Stretchy burger (beef patty, American cheese, bacon, mozzarella sticks, and garlic ranch sauce), and my dad and sis shared a regular burger.
After we finished eating, we wanted to go ride the Astro Orbiter; it’s always a fun ride to do at night!
Space Mountain had been closed the whole time we were there, until we got in line for Astro Orbiter. Dad didn’t want to ride SM after Orbiter, so my mom and sister and I got to ride it (on the Alpha side–we had been going on the Omega side for the longest time). We waited maybe 15 minutes.
My mom got this picture of the Space Mountain logo at the entrance:
View attachment 300984
It was around 11:25pm at this point, so we walked over to Space Ranger Spin (15 min wait). Apparently the ride was having problems, because the line was moving really slowly. And after we got on the ride, it stopped twice.
Fortunately, we still had enough time to go get in line for another ride on SDMT before closing. The line was out in the stroller area, but it moved very quickly–only about a 25 min wait.
It’s been so long since I’ve waited in the stand-by queue for SDMT, so I hadn’t seen that the touch screens in the queue had been replaced with these gemstones:
View attachment 300987View attachment 300988

There weren’t very many people left in the park, so I stopped to get some pictures on the way out:
View attachment 300989View attachment 300990View attachment 300991View attachment 300993
12:30 am by the Main Street clock!
We finally got home around 1:30 am and got in bed at 2am...
I’m still recuperating.
Hope you like the mini TR...it’s my first on this forum!

Sounds like a great time!!

The teacups are still one of my faves, probably always will be.

 

[MinnieM123]

Ok, time for a mini TR for the V.I.Passholder night at Magic Kingdom! (NOTE: I apologize in advance for the size of this post–I didn’t really want to break it up into sections)

My family (dad, mom, younger sister) and I left the house around 6:30pm, and got to the park entrance to MK around 7:15. There were very long lines at the entrance for the event check-in, so it took us about 15 minutes just to get into the park and get our wristbands. Once that was taken care of, we started walking to Adventureland to ride Pirates (with FP). On the way, we passed another check-in location (Tortuga Tavern); the line for that was backed up past the Tiki Room!
After Pirates, we decided to wait in line for Big Thunder; I got some photos while in line.
View attachment 300976View attachment 300977
We waited for around 30 minutes...not too bad.
Next, we headed over to Peter Pan for our other FP. By the time we were done with that, HEA had started, so we jumped in line for SDMT. The wait time said 60 min, but we waited maybe 25 min.
There was only a 5 min wait on the Mad Tea Party, so we rode that afterwards. My sis and I rode together, since we like to spin the cup fast (and my dad doesn’t like to spin at all).
My younger sis on the teacups:
View attachment 300978
At that point, it was 10pm, and the event had started, so we decided to go get something to snack on at Cosmic Ray’s (one of two restaurants still open). My mom and I shared the Mrs. Incredible Stretchy burger (beef patty, American cheese, bacon, mozzarella sticks, and garlic ranch sauce), and my dad and sis shared a regular burger.
After we finished eating, we wanted to go ride the Astro Orbiter; it’s always a fun ride to do at night!
Space Mountain had been closed the whole time we were there, until we got in line for Astro Orbiter. Dad didn’t want to ride SM after Orbiter, so my mom and sister and I got to ride it (on the Alpha side–we had been going on the Omega side for the longest time). We waited maybe 15 minutes.
My mom got this picture of the Space Mountain logo at the entrance:
View attachment 300984
It was around 11:25pm at this point, so we walked over to Space Ranger Spin (15 min wait). Apparently the ride was having problems, because the line was moving really slowly. And after we got on the ride, it stopped twice.
Fortunately, we still had enough time to go get in line for another ride on SDMT before closing. The line was out in the stroller area, but it moved very quickly–only about a 25 min wait.
It’s been so long since I’ve waited in the stand-by queue for SDMT, so I hadn’t seen that the touch screens in the queue had been replaced with these gemstones:
View attachment 300987View attachment 300988

There weren’t very many people left in the park, so I stopped to get some pictures on the way out:
View attachment 300989View attachment 300990View attachment 300991View attachment 300993
12:30 am by the Main Street clock!
We finally got home around 1:30 am and got in bed at 2am...
I’m still recuperating.
Hope you like the mini TR...it’s my first on this forum!

Wow. Those are some awesome photos you took!!

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

We’re required to get them.. but white only. I’m not sure why we can’t use the pink ones.

As an elementary school staff member I can take an "educated guess" ( pun intended ) Your child's school possibly thinks the pink meaty erasers leave some faint pink smudge and the white ones don't???? Maybe???I never use the separate ones. I just find pencils with working erasers and stick with that.