The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Songbird76]

ALL sports teams here were either boys' teams or girls' teams. No exceptions.

Our sports teams were split, but our PE classes weren't. I wish we had done gymnastics or something cool like that...ours was pretty much all things where you need to be coordinated. Basketball, volleyball, badminton, football, pickle ball....kickball was what we did on a "free day" when the teacher didn't want to teach or we had just finished a unit. I am HOPELESS with anything that involves a ball or a racquet.

 

[Dead2009]

Went to Kings Dominion over the weekend, had a pretty good time and took a few pictures

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/media/albums/kings-dominion-2018.481/

 

[Wrangler-Rick]

For some unexplainable reason, a tv commercial jingle popped in my head this morning.
I don't think it was about selling a product but I feel like it was presenting a charity or something.
Maybe one of you can help me recall the specifics.
I recall the jingle went:
"O, that's the way it is! Truly, oolee, oo-lee-oo"
That' s the way it is! Truly, oolee, oo-lee-oo"
Spoken: "When someone shares with me, I feel glad!"
*
*
This is a weird flashback. Maybe very late 60s or early 70s?
Does this ring any bells with any of you?

 

[Songbird76]

I can't give you much advice about Universal, but in your post you mentioned Magical Express back to the airport without a flight? So are you thinking of doing this..... staying at WDW ====Magical Express to the airport====then renting a car and doing Universal? That would work, you tell Disney what your flight times and dates are so as long as it is real flight that you tell them it is fine. So just pick a flight (to wherever) that fits the time you would want to go to the airport and it is all okay. Renting a car at Disney isn't much of a hassle, we have rented from Alamo at the Dolphin and from Dollar at the Wydham in Disney Springs (totally walkable from the Springs). Alamo also runs the car care center and they will pick you up at your hotel, but if you don't plan on returning to Disney make sure you schedule the return to the airport.

As for the Poly.....isn't it your dream resort? And if I remember correctly wasn't this trip supposed to be from the money YOU inherited from your father's estate when he passed? If you are using that money from your father you deserve to splurge on the resort you want. Especially if you are only wanting one night there. It seems to me that he could be a little more flexible to you wants too. But that is just my opinion. I say book what you want and he is lucky to come along with you and the kids. (Sorry if that sounds harsh, but I feel for all the work you have done.)

Yes, that's the plan. We do magical express to Caribbean Beach where we have 2 weeks. Then we would take magical express to back to the airport so that we could rent a car, then have a few days of rest, pool time, etc, then 4 days at universal and then bring the car back to the airport and fly home. Originally, I wanted to rent the car from Disney so we wouldn't have to figure out how to get back to the airport when we have no flight, and then after universal, we'd just bring the car back to Disney and stay one night at the Poly so we could take ME back to the airport to fly out. He thinks the Poly is too expensive. We're already spending enough on this vacation.
Yes, it's from the money that I inherited from my dad's estate. We disagree on where to vacation. If it was up to him, we wouldn't be doing Disney at all. When I mentioned we could do a nice long Disney trip, he said he didn't want to spend all the money traveling to Disney. He'd like to travel in the Netherlands. We LIVE in the Netherlands....we've been most of the places we want to go. There is nowhere here that I want to spend 2 or 3 weeks. I told him of course we weren't going to spend ALL of it traveling to Disney, but there's enough there to do Disney AND travel other places every couple of years. And I don't want to pull the "It's MY inheritance" card, because we ARE married, so it's OUR inheritance, but I feel like I SHOULD get a say in it and not just only do what HE wants. He has a tendency to change my plans whenever he thinks his way is better, without really knowing why I planned it the way I did. Like the car rental...I planned it like I did because I knew we wouldn't have a flight number to give to ME, so it made more sense to rent the car from Disney, and if we were going to stay one night on property for the ME back to the airport, I thought that was the perfect opportunity to stay at the poly. He agreed to it at the time, and then last night when I was going through the itinerary with him, he insisted it would be so much better to rent from the airport so we didn't have to spend the money on the Poly.
He does this constantly. We'll plan to visit his parents in the weekend and I'll ask him Friday night "What's the plan for tomorrow?" and he'll say he doesn't have a plan. So I'll say "Ok, why don't we plan on leaving at this time so we can do such and such and be there at this time, etc" He'll say it sounds good, and then the next day, when we're supposed to be leaving according to our plan, he'll still be lying on the bed with his computer, not having showered or anything. And when I try to get him going, he says "Well, we don't really need to be there before lunch, right? I figured we'd just leave after lunch." Well why didn't you SAY that when I asked you and why did you agree with what I said when you had no intention of doing that?? I think he just doesn't even listen when I try to plan...he just says "Sure, that sounds good" but he has no idea what he just agreed to, and then when it comes time to do it, he just changes the plan. If he's not dressed, we can't leave, so it's not like I can force him to follow my plan. He knows he can control it. He agrees to whatever I said so he doesn't have to argue with me, but has no intention on following through with what I said...I don't even think he HEARS what I say...he just agrees so I'll shut up and then he does what he wants anyway. I love him, but this is my biggest pet peeve with him. I guess if this is the biggest problem in our marriage, we're doing pretty well.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

Brilliant @Wrangler-Rick
Great job finding that old classic. Just a 30 second commercial.
When no one referred to my original post I wondered if it was all a dream.....but you saved the day!

 

[Wrangler-Rick]

Brilliant @Wrangler-Rick
Great job finding that old classic.
When no one referred to my post I wondered if it was all a dream.....but you saved the day!

I just got lucky in a search. Glad to be of service....

 

[Songbird76]

What about getting the rental as @ajrwdwgirl said and have the rental company P/U from POLY then DME to the airport for the flight home

That's what I had planned that he doesn't want to do now. That is why I'm so upset..that has been the plan for months, that he said "Sure, let's do that. That sounds great" and NOW he says no, that's ridiculous...the Poly is too expensive. He's not paying $500+ for one night in a hotel...Universal MUST have a shuttle service. And I reminded him that even if they do, we still have to take the rental car back to Disney, so we need to get from DISNEY back to the airport, and you can only get ME if you stay on property....so we needed to stay on property anyway. So then he asks "Then why are we renting the car from Disney? Why can't we just rent a car from the airport?" to which I replied that we CAN'T get to the airport without ME, and for ME, we need flight numbers, but we aren't flying out that day, so we won't HAVE flight numbers. The thing is, he hasn't done ANY of the research, so he doesn't know how any of it works. He wants me to do all the planning, but he wants me to do it his way, and he has no idea how any of it works, and then doesn't understand why we can't do it his way. But if you tell him "Because that's not how it works." he goes "Well, that's a really stupid system. Let's just do THIS instead." and then I have to go back and figure out if that's even possible. If it can't be done his way, he doesn't want to do it at all.

 

[Songbird76]

A little update on my weekend with my niece, who is 13 years old.

I picked her up on Thursday and we took her to dinner to the bar in our town. She loves their food and it was taco night and she loves tacos. After dinner we just hung out and had an early night.

Friday morning we all got up early and headed to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. We wanted to beat the heat and the crowds. She loves the Arboretum almost as much as we do. We even took her on the bog walk.

A few Arboretum pictures.
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My niece and I watch the swamp.
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Oh wow....it looks beautiful there! Nice pictures!

 

[Songbird76]

Thanks, Minnie...!!!
Yes, he very much loves nature, science, history, etc....hell, he just loves life, and is an inspiration...!!!!!

My son LOVES turtles. Not quite as much as he loves sheep, but turtles are his second favorite animal. He would have LOVED that Turtle place....not sure he'd have dared to hold one himself, but he'd have loved looking at them.

 

[Songbird76]

View attachment 305038

This is an absolute lie. It took 6.5 years before my husband FINALLY got the light fixture in my laundry closet, and he only did it then because I mentioned it to my in-laws when they said something about the outlets in my kitchen that weren't finished, and I said it was his project and if it was anything like the light in the laundry closet, it would never get done. He made the light fixture that weekend.....that was 6 years ago and those 2 outlets in the kitchen are still not done.

 

[Songbird76]

You are welcome! And the meeting shouldn't be too bad, mostly boring. So I'll need the luck to stay awake! It is the day that we analyze data, state testing results and make school district goals. I know, sounds like fun right!?



See, I knew I liked you! Bingo, such a simple game but also exciting! Especially when I'm only a couple of numbers away from winning!



We had that yesterday and now again today. It is supposed to be 90 by the weekend but who knows.

Have you ever been to a Drag Queen Bingo event? It's hysterical. Quite dirty, but so funny, if you don't mind the naughty jokes. My brother and 2 friends of his do an event every year to raise money for Wyoming AIDS patients for things not covered by insurance. I went last year and had SO much fun. Most of what I won was wine, which I don't drink, but it was fun to win something. I gave it all to my brother. And since I'm not a huge drinker, and everyone around me was TRASHED, it was a lot easier for me to win. I'm normally kind of a Sandra Dee....I don't really swear, I don't drink very often, I dress more conservatively than a lot of women, I'm not promiscuous at all...but it was just kind of a fun experience to let loose for one night, even though I didn't drink at all.

 

[Goofyernmost]

This is an absolute lie. It took 6.5 years before my husband FINALLY got the light fixture in my laundry closet, and he only did it then because I mentioned it to my in-laws when they said something about the outlets in my kitchen that weren't finished, and I said it was his project and if it was anything like the light in the laundry closet, it would never get done. He made the light fixture that weekend.....that was 6 years ago and those 2 outlets in the kitchen are still not done.

Just curious, what is left to be done with the kitchen outlets?

 

[Songbird76]

It really was! We were sitting at Starbucks after T’s game.. discussing what we should do with our day. We had planned on a water park, then I remembered that the haunted covered bridge probably wasn’t too far from where we were.. we were already fairly far East. Asked him if he wanted to go.. he said “Yeah, let’s go explore the country!”

After the first stop, he named us the “Diamondback Explorers”..and I had to call him “Tristan the Adventurer” (he started calling himself that on our Red River Gorge trip in June).
I asked what my name was, he said “Well duh Mom, You’re ‘Mom the Leader’...who always goes the wrong way (pause)...actually, you’re name will be “Lost Mom”. Tristan the Adventurer and Lost Mom, we’re the Diamondback Explorers”

Well you certainly saw a lot!! I would love to do that kind of a trip with my kids in the US. There's so much to see! Thank you for sharing! That creepy cemetery...when you said that, it reminded me of where my g-g grandfather is buried. It's a tiny little cemetery and most of the graves are civil war era and you can hardly read the headstones anymore, they are so weathered. It would be a great backdrop for a horror movie.

 

[Songbird76]

{{HUGS}} Check and see if the new Endless Summer at UNI will be open on time for your "rest" days. It will be 79 for a regular room and 119 for a suite. It will have a pool wi-fi and be convenient to I-4, I Drive, metro Orlando and the surrounding area. If you can get the 79 rate for 3 or 4 nights that should save you enough to shut him up about your Poly splurge

That was the one that was $138. The 79 is for only one person. Once I plugged in our information, it was 138 per night. I don't see how marriot can be cheaper than a value at Universal, but DH says it is, so ok. I told him if he was going to insist on staying somewhere off property, he was going to have to do the research.

 

[Songbird76]

Sneaky end of meal cake for Mrs Ferret she wasn't expecting
View attachment 305194

Oh well done!! What kind of cake is it? Living vicariously here....I need details!

 

[Songbird76]

Just curious, what is left to be done with the kitchen outlets?

Well, when we bought this house, we had to do a LOT of updating. It was built in something like 1960, so all the electrical wiring was outdated and not up to code. We had to redo it all. We hired an aquaintance, thinking he would do a good job for us because he knew us and we would recommend more clients. He ended up being hopeless and was so slow that it was costing a LOT more than we had anticipated. He spent an entire 8 hour day on the doorbell, which still doesn't work. He ordered the wrong outlet covers, etc...so DH finally just said we'd do the rest ourselves. He got the wires and put them in where they needed to go, but he hadn't gotten 2 of the outlets in the kitchen hooked up. So there are holes in the wall with the capped off wiring hanging there. I know nothing about wiring, so I can't do it myself...I know it's like a 5 minute job at most...you take the caps off the wires, attach the wires to the outlet thingy, and then screw the cover on the wall. But you have to get the right wires in the right place on the outlet, and I don't know where they go. The one in my laundry closet is also not attached to the wall. The outlet is usable, but it's not embedded in the wall. I have 2 sets of finished outlets in the kitchen, but the other two are just holes with the capped off wires. It has to be a fire hazard, I'm sure.

 

[MinnieM123]

Who turned off summer? 70, damp and breezy is not how I planned on spending today

But aren't you excited that it's not muggy and horrendously hot for a change??!! This August has been awful!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

DH is driving me nuts!! We have such different planning styles. The Harry Potter package JUST opened up for 2019 dates on the Universal site...I've been keeping an eye out, because that's the one we wanted to do. So I checked today, and it was up. So I price it out, send it to DH and tell him what it includes, and tell him we need to figure out what dates exactly we want. And now our whole plan is wonky again. He doesn't want to splurge on staying at the Poly, even for a night, and he thinks there's got to be a way to get Magical express to the airport without having a flight so we can rent a car there instead of at Disney, so we wouldn't need to go back to Disney after Universal Studios.
And he doesn't think the photo package is worth it for the HP package, so we're not doing the HP package. And he doesn't want to pay much for a hotel between our Disney and Universal stays...we're taking a few rest days. So now he's looking at cheap hotels. Last time he did this, we ended up in the carp hotel in Cologne. But this will be 4 nights instead of just one, and if the place he picks isn't decent, there won't be anything else available last minute, so we'll be stuck there.
The thing about hubby is that he has a really high IQ...he's very smart and logical. But he's also much more of an "efficiency" planner, where I'm more emotionally motivated...I choose things because they MEAN something to me, or because I want a certain experience. HE chooses things because of how inexpensive and convenient they are. So now my carefully researched and thought out plan to cover all the bases has been thrown into the wind in favor of saving some extra money. But at what emotional cost? We PROMISED the kids we were going to stay at the Poly for one night....now he's decided that staying at Universal's version of the Poly is an acceptable replacement. So now -I- get to tell the kids in the morning that we don't get to do that after all. I think I might actually make HIM break that promise himself. It's his decision, he can deal with the consequences.

Oh good grief.

I don't know too much about Uni, but do you actually need a rental car there? Because you could get a Lyft XL to take you from WDW to Uni, or between your hotels for cheaper than renting a car. Then you can get a Super Shuttle back to the airport. Might be worth looking into.

I personally only use my Memory Maker (I get it as part of my AP) for sharing a few photos on Instagram from rides, and then I take my own photos, but...if this is something you can only do once every few years, isn't it worth getting all the photos possible during your trip, especially if you're not really a photographer yourself?

Have you looked into renting points for Poly? You might still be far enough out to get some availability, and points at a studio tend to be cheaper than getting a hotel room.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

But aren't you excited that it's not muggy and horrendously hot for a change??!! This August has been awful!

It felt like 103 here today. Wonderful pool weather.

 

[MinnieM123]

The sub was messy but I used my fork. It was very tasty too!

Just had a flashback to my father. He had this thing about "messy" meals--those were his favorites. Even if he was presented with a nice dinner plate of meat and vegetables, he'd still smoosh it all together to make it all nice and messy! He was convinced it tasted better that way!