The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[MinnieM123]

It started snowing here about 6 am. The ground is all covered in snow now and it is coming down pretty heavy. All schools were closed last night. We are expecting freezing rain by 3. I think the schools closing is a safety issue.

And a lot of the decision is based upon whether the school buses can safely transport students. So calling off a school day the night before is done if they know that the forecast is for icy roads and sidewalks. School depts. don't want to get sued if something happens, as a direct result of dangerous weather conditions that were forecasted.

just as you thought as well, I think it's the right call they make many times. You can replace extra "snow days"by making them up at the end of the school year, but you can't replace a child, if seriously injured in a bad accident.

 

[MinnieM123]

I won’t even complain about high humidity or 100 degree days this summer.

I will. You can always count on me to do that!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I still haven't tried that yet. I had Sangria in Italy, a mojito at Teppan Edo, a margarita in Mexico, a margarita at Baseline Taphouse, and a margarita on the plane home.

There's a recurring theme here...

I like the Grand Marnier slush a little better in France since it is orange. Mmmm, I wish I had one now, but I guess I'll always have the memories....

 

[MinnieM123]

Dh isn't even going into work today. Closed the office. He takes small roads to work and if the highways will be closed by noon to all traffic, then he suspects that the local roads will not be too safe.

Good. Happy to hear that he'll stay home with you and be safe. Icy roads just aren't worth the risk.

 

[MinnieM123]

We have flowers blooming. View attachment 351156And the ice was just a smidge this morning. Schools are on two-hour delay. We dodged another big ice storm!!

Pretty flowers. (Do you mind if I ask what that box is? Is it a backyard tool storage box?)

 

[93boomer]

Pretty flowers. (Do you mind if I ask what that box is? Is it a backyard tool storage box?)

I don’t mind at all. It is our well. Unfortunately, the builder built it rather big for the pump. I hate it but we deal with it.

 

[MinnieM123]

I thought I was the only one that felt that way. The waste of fuel and the alleged social status of SUV's are starting to wear on me. They block everyone's vision on the highway. Sometimes it is important to be able to see far enough ahead to know what is happening. Not wait until the stop lights come on before knowing there is a problem ahead. Trying to get out of a diagonal parking spot when you cannot see if there is anyone coming until you are far enough out in the open to actually be hit. And even though I don't know every individual situation of every SUV owner, there cannot be that many people that really have a need for a vehicle that size.

The only thing good that ever came out of the gas embargo was the downsizing of cars for a few years until everyone got used to the cost of gas and went back to wasting it. Like Texas, here in North Carolina is wall to wall SUV;s and Gigantic Pickups. You can't see around them and you can't see over them it is like following a brick wall down the road. When I see some old redneck dude (about 85 years old) driving a six passenger, mega-dual wheel, rolling fortresses all I can do is laugh and wonder what specific age related problem he is compensating for.

Before I get spat upon, yes, I know that when you have a larger family and have a lot of sporting gear to cart around some things like mini-vans make life a lot easier. And don't get me wrong, I owned one myself back when everyone was home and had pretty much expanded to adult size. (And I loved it, best vehicle I ever owned) but, once they had left home there was no need, so I went back to a sedan. Now granted it was a big ole Cadillac, but, it wasn't 8 feet high and it could be seen around and through to help make it safer on the highway for other travelers.

Anyway, so much for my rant of the day. I do wish that every new vehicle didn't look like every other vehicle, where one SUV or sedan didn't look like every other vehicle on the highway... but, that is a different rant. You younger folks probably won't remember this, but, when I was a kid, it was common, in the fall, to go around to different car dealerships just to see the new cars, colors and body design. That was well before the internet or High Def. TV's. It was either that or go down to the court yard and watch the grass grow. Now they all look alike so if you see one you've seen them all. And they are white or grey with an occasional red color. As I look out my window to the parking lot in front, there are four dark grey, one silver, three white, two dark blue and one red. Boring!!! My car is a really attractive tan. I bought it because it wasn't grey, silver white or dark blue. If they had a red on the lot, that is the one I would have brought home. Wow, I guess I did manage to squeeze in another rant. Like the Reese's commercial.... Not Sorry.

Amen! I don't drive often, but when I do, it's a little car. It's frustrating for me to have to deal with these rolling "barricades" whether on the road or in parking lots. Can't see around them.

But whatever. I think for some families, the SUVs are the new "family car", similar to the family station wagons when I grew up. Hence, I guess they're just buying what is offered now on the showroom floor. That doesn't bother me so much. But what does, is when I often see 1 person driving around in these SUVs with no passengers or cargo, when they really don't need that big of a car (or should I say, a small truck--because that's what they are, right--small trucks)?

 

[MinnieM123]

Yep, same here, except we get 2 days for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So it sounds like they basically gave you about the same amount of holidays we get. (You don't get MLK or Presidents Day, but you get 2 extra days when they add on a day for both Thanksgiving & Christmas).

 

[donaldtoo]

Beef and chicken fajitas for din-din tonight...!!!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

Yikes...Minot, ND. One of my high school classmates moved there when her husband got transferred. It's definitely not her favorite kind of climate, and they were ready to move to Texas, had a house picked out and everything, and then her husband was offered a lot more money to stay where they were....so they did. Her daughter is doing the Disney College Program right now and is LOVING the nice weather.
Laramie/Cheyenne is a really nice area, if you like urban areas that don't have huge populations. Cheyenne and Casper are the 2 largest "cities" in Wyoming, with about 50,000 people each last I knew. Those are the 2 cities with things like a shopping mall, a lot of restaurants, etc. Casper is just in a different part of the state. Laramie and Cheyenne are close together (by Wyoming standards) and it's a really great area for outdoor activity...you're close to the snowy range if you want to go skiing, there are a lot of lakes for fishing, there's Veedauwoo for rock climbing, and hiking, there's medicine bow national forest....so a lot of NATURE. But you've still got all the amenities like a hospital, grocery stores, restaurants, movie theater, etc. A lot of the smaller towns don't have those things and have to go to one of the bigger towns for that. Where I come from, we had to go to Gillette if we wanted to go bowling, or to the movies, or roller skating, or just about any other recreational activity besides swimming. And Gillette was 40 miles away. If you wanted to go shopping, you had to go to Casper, which was 75 miles away.
So the Laramie Cheyenne area is kind of ideal in that regard because you don't have to go far to get out of the city and take in some nature, but you also didn't have to travel 40 miles to see a doctor, or 100 miles to get radiation treatment for cancer. I've been thinking a lot about this lately, because DD is thinking she'd love to do an exchange program when she gets older, and I've been thinking about where to send her. I could probably have a friend or family member host her, but I don't know where I'd rather have her be.....in a small town where she could be involved in numerous activities like drama, music, sports, etc, or in a slightly larger area that is more convenient, but where she wouldn't have as many opportunities. The nice thing about my small town was that there wasn't much competition....everyone who wanted to be on the basketball team, could be on the basketball team. You might not play as much, but you'd get the experience. So I was in basketball in junior high, I did cheerleading (that, you actually did have to try out for and only a few made it. But that and the plays were the only things that you didn't get into automatically), speech and debate, German Club, student council, choir, band...I got to do a ton of things that I wouldn't have gotten to do in a larger school. BUT, the trade off was that we didn't have the choices for classes that Gillette kids had, like psychology, Russian, engineering, etc. We only had the very basic stuff.
Anyway...that's a great place to live IF you can handle the weather.

Yep, we (especially DWifey) definitely wouldn’t wanna’ hafta’ put up with the weather.
Plus, there’s still tons of things to do here and pretty places to see, all over Texas, and we’re only 4-ish hours from the coast...!!! 🏝
And, of course, all our family lives here...!!!

 

[Gabe1]

Nice photo, Buddy! Hope your Valentine's Day was fun. (Last night after work, hubs and I went to our city hall and paid the (MA auto) excise tax bill, and paid the dog's 2019 tag bill, (because we can't rely on our dog to do that). (Note: our city hall is only open one night a week and we were getting near the cutoff date for the bills, so had no choice but to go last night.)

So, no Valentines dinner celebration last night--I hate it when Valentines falls on a work night! At least we exchanged cards and small gifts, but we'll also go out this weekend instead.

Sorry about Valentines Day. But I have to ask? What is an Auto excise tax and dog tax? If you don’t mind what the heck do those cost?

Makes my head hurt.

 

[donaldtoo]

So it sounds like they basically gave you about the same amount of holidays we get. (You don't get MLK or Presidents Day, but you get 2 extra days when they add on a day for both Thanksgiving & Christmas).

Only if you also don’t get Columbus Day and Veterans Day off...?!!!
You work in the private sector as well, don’t you...?
The partners are very family centric and feel that both Thanksgiving and Christmas are special times for family to be together, thus the extra day for those 2 holidays...!!!

 

[Gabe1]

Yikes...Minot, ND. One of my high school classmates moved there when her husband got transferred. It's definitely not her favorite kind of climate, and they were ready to move to Texas, had a house picked out and everything, and then her husband was offered a lot more money to stay where they were....so they did. Her daughter is doing the Disney College Program right now and is LOVING the nice weather.
Laramie/Cheyenne is a really nice area, if you like urban areas that don't have huge populations. Cheyenne and Casper are the 2 largest "cities" in Wyoming, with about 50,000 people each last I knew. Those are the 2 cities with things like a shopping mall, a lot of restaurants, etc. Casper is just in a different part of the state. Laramie and Cheyenne are close together (by Wyoming standards) and it's a really great area for outdoor activity...you're close to the snowy range if you want to go skiing, there are a lot of lakes for fishing, there's Veedauwoo for rock climbing, and hiking, there's medicine bow national forest....so a lot of NATURE. But you've still got all the amenities like a hospital, grocery stores, restaurants, movie theater, etc. A lot of the smaller towns don't have those things and have to go to one of the bigger towns for that. Where I come from, we had to go to Gillette if we wanted to go bowling, or to the movies, or roller skating, or just about any other recreational activity besides swimming. And Gillette was 40 miles away. If you wanted to go shopping, you had to go to Casper, which was 75 miles away.
So the Laramie Cheyenne area is kind of ideal in that regard because you don't have to go far to get out of the city and take in some nature, but you also didn't have to travel 40 miles to see a doctor, or 100 miles to get radiation treatment for cancer. I've been thinking a lot about this lately, because DD is thinking she'd love to do an exchange program when she gets older, and I've been thinking about where to send her. I could probably have a friend or family member host her, but I don't know where I'd rather have her be.....in a small town where she could be involved in numerous activities like drama, music, sports, etc, or in a slightly larger area that is more convenient, but where she wouldn't have as many opportunities. The nice thing about my small town was that there wasn't much competition....everyone who wanted to be on the basketball team, could be on the basketball team. You might not play as much, but you'd get the experience. So I was in basketball in junior high, I did cheerleading (that, you actually did have to try out for and only a few made it. But that and the plays were the only things that you didn't get into automatically), speech and debate, German Club, student council, choir, band...I got to do a ton of things that I wouldn't have gotten to do in a larger school. BUT, the trade off was that we didn't have the choices for classes that Gillette kids had, like psychology, Russian, engineering, etc. We only had the very basic stuff.
Anyway...that's a great place to live IF you can handle the weather.

My son did both the Disney College Program half way between his bachelors degree. When he finished he did an internship for a full year ultimately when he graduated from his University.

It opened quite a few doors for him that would have not happened without Disney World on his resume. He has no regrets. As a Mom me either.

What is your friends kids
Role with Disney?

 

[Gabe1]

But whatever. I think for some families, the SUVs are the new "family car", similar to the family station wagons when I grew up. Hence, I guess they're just buying what is offered now on the showroom floor. That doesn't bother me so much. But what does, is when I often see 1 person driving around in these SUVs with no passengers or cargo, when they really don't need that big of a car (or should I say, a small truck--because that's what they are, right--small trucks)?

I can put 5 people in mine. Sometimes do.
But I am not going to purchase a second car for the days I am alone in a vehicle.

Yes according to Illinois and Allstate car insurance SUVs are classified as a truck. My original Blazer was certainly a big strong truck and 8 cylinders. My current truck is 6 cylinders. The gas mileage is pretty darn good.

It is hard be the judge of what other people need or want in cars, houses, timeshares. Some huge houses take up a large environmental footprint. Those homes use more energy than a tiny home or apartment. I can’t judge people who can afford a huge footprint home. I could state they don’t need that much space. I could say what impact do these massive home have on wildlife? Do we have to sell a larger home when we are empty nesters. My fence threw shade on my neighbors property. They had a difficult time growing plants and grass there. Did I need that fence? Me, did they need Walter on their property?

What people need according to others is subjective. I want a heavier truck for our winter weather. I have to be able to get through the snow storms to get to my Moms. There isn’t a bus or train. We do not have Mass Transit options others do. It is 15 miles to reach a bus to my Moms home. So one can see me at times without a passenger but bypass need the weight of the vehicle to stay on the road and the 4x4 to keep it going straight. My fear is theses little light weight cars out on the road slip sliding away in the snow are going to slip and hit me. Like me so many of us here don’t have public transportation within a reasonable walking distance. Me 15 miles is 3.5 hours to just get to a bus and those just run sporadically. The look at the stats of getting into a nasty wreck. The Subaru my DD intends on buying has some of the very best survival rates. That means a lot to me.

 

[Gabe1]

I don’t mind at all. It is our well. Unfortunately, the builder built it rather big for the pump. I hate it but we deal with it.

For a pump house you have done a nice job trying to blend it in to mask what it is. Well done!

 

[donaldtoo]

I've wondered that, myself. Maybe the trend is shifting to lighter cooking (I think some of the family restaurant chains had a reputation for perhaps more fat and sodium in the cooking). But I still think there is room for a variety of reasonably-priced family restaurants (serving traditional dinner meals).

Some people may be more health conscious while at home. But when they go out, they might want some comfort food like a pot roast or turkey dinner, with mashed potatoes, vegetables. gravy. rolls and butter. I like places that give you generous portions, so that you end up taking home the equivalent of a 2nd meal to heat up in the microwave, the next day!

Yep, same here...!!!
Although, back in the day, I used to devour the entire meal in one sitting without blinking...!!!
Hardly ever do that anymore...but, I posted about finishing off this entire Elvis Presley Memorial Combo in one siting, plus chips and salsa, a while back...last time I remember doin’ that with a meal that crazy-huge...!!!!!

 

[Gabe1]

I'm still wondering why they do not use biodegradable plastics.
The paper straws might degrade faster, but they taste awful and their texture gives me the jeebez.

It is boasting rights for environmentalists. Just look at the plastic silverware and soda, juice and water bottles used every day. These straws are not leaving the property for the ocean. You are hard pressed to even get a straw near an animal anywhere at AK and can’t bring cups on the Safari.

I am happy to see lids and straws return to children’s cups in many venues and for people with disabilities.

Disney is adding more self serve beverages to park quick service. Too many drinks sloshing into or dumping on food. At Columbia House I had a cup of water on my tray on a crowded time. Someone bumped into me water tipped over but ran onto floor just missing woman in chair. Lids were created long ago with a purpose.

Note the nice disposable trays for Arts Festival our desserts came on.

 

[Gabe1]

Nestle and others have suspended YouTube ads over news of a pedophile network on the site

The move is a familiar black eye for Google-owned YouTube, which frequently battles content moderation challenges.

www.google.com

 

[Tony the Tigger]

@Tony the Tigger Dickie Dees, Jimmy Buffs or Rutt's Hut?

Jimmy Buffs for sure! I am not a hot dog fan, but the potatoes and quality bread hide it nicely.

 

[Cesar R M]

Trip Report Part 8:

Sea Day and Aqua Theater mishaps.


Had to note before I start that my sister decided to pay the full internet service for 1 device. And she kept switching between the phones of both her sons and her phone. So they all had opportunity to get internet and updates. and of course.. communicate to synchronize and decide what we are supposed to do on the day.
And As usual, I had to throw the recommendations because I was the current "guide".

Anyway, On the first day, it was the Dreamworks party AND the Mama Mia show.
Today was the AquaTheater show. Interestingly, another dreamworks show was also canceled in the aquatheater today. They seem to have problems with the elevator that rises from the pool and one of the trampolines.

Anyway, the day started with us waking up fairly eairly and going straight to the Central Park cafe.
Where I got a bagel, my mom and sister had a juice and some water, as well some cereal.
Sister got a sandwich and some basic fruit.

After that, We decided to check out the different sports areas, including to check out the "surf" area.
I did another "tour" for my sister and kids so they could see most of the stuff.
They were particularly interested in the climbing wall.

View attachment 351239

While my nephew was trying to get the hang on of climbing the wall (and getting beaten by 10 year old kids lol ).. I managed to check King Julien..
View attachment 351240

King Julien was causing havok in the areas where they were practicing a "dance party" and practice for the "flashmob" dances.
As soon the kids were finished meeting him, he decided to lead the dance before more kids came to meet him.



One thing that surprised me was.. EVERY. SINGLE.. STAFF.. MEMBER.. was either dancing or singing to some of the songs. Waiters, Barmen.. It seems they enjoy these imprompu flashmob practice.

Also caught the staff repairing the Aquatheater stuff while some divers were practicing and teaching another one (who was awful at diving) to improve.

View attachment 351238


Most of the day was not as eventful as you would imagine. As we were mostly checking the ship and its features.
Including going back and forth from the promenade, to the central park then to the Boardwalk and then to the highest floor on the sports area..
View attachment 351241

So apart from checking the place, There was also a show of the musicians of Mama Mia singing a bit in Blazes bar.
Unfortunately a lot of people bailed because the music volume was outrageously high.



View attachment 351234
Then was Dinner (which we were assigned different waiters, way better waiters this time) and a different seat.

The food was pretty similar to the OASIS of the Seas menus, the basic menu was the same (the non rotation).
Most of the time I had the seafood or the meats. But also loved the French snails.

View attachment 351242
After eating, it was time to get to the show, we had reservations so had no problem getting seated in a preferred place.
There was also an area exclusive for Diamond and higher and Platinum credit cards.

The show was.. good.. but extremely weird.
It was something related to god of the Sea and something rising down there..

It had similar movements, costumes as the Oasis ones, but with less story and more "Art" leaning.
View attachment 351236



View attachment 351243

View attachment 351275

The Next Part will be PART 9, SEA DAY 2

Expanding from this.. I'm checking websites and see what was in the menu as I do not remember much. I've had so many trips all cobbled together I do not remember what I did eat lol.

But things I do remember eating (not in order) from the main dinning room.

1. Grilled NY Strip Steak with Peppercorn Sauce (love the sauce so much! I ate this 2 times)
2. Escargots a la Bourguignonne (Also ate this 3 times, very flavorful!)
3. French Onion (one of my favorites as well)
4. Classic Cesar Salad.
5. Roasted Beef Strip Loin with Madeira sauce.
6. Seafood Lenguini
7. The Duck was absolutely fantastic ( Duck A L' Orange )
8. Creamy Wild Mushroom Soup
9. Chicken Marsala (not so good, mine was a bit dry)
10. Aged prime Rib of Beef
11. Lasagna al Forno (Tasty, but ask extra cheese)
12. Tender Braised Beef Short Rib
13. Roasted Poblano Pepper Soup (was good, but would have loved to taste it as a cream and not watery soup)
14. Roasted Beef Tenderloin in Mushroom Sauce (had to ask for extra sauce )
15. Lobster Bisque (not bad, but still tasted of shrimp brains).