The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[donaldtoo]

Probably all true, but I wouldn’t trade any of mine. None of mine were actually sick this past winter come to think of it. Must be all the other kids causing illnesses.

Yep, wouldn’t trade our 3 kiddos for anything else in the universe...!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

Just snapped up a last minute reservation to Coral Reef for dinner❤Three parks today!

The best dish I ever had at Coral Reef was a shrimp fettuccini in a creamy sun dried tomato sauce...it was heavenly, and I saved a bunch of it for a late night snack later...sooooo delicious...!!!!!!!

 

[Gabe1]

And most of these reasons could probably be applied to a Disney world vacation. Don't let fears hold you back.

Meh. Yeah I know, still I have more control as an individual on land but not so at sea. Being a maritime surveyor I am jaded.

 

[Gabe1]

oh gods..

Good thing we're having a BBQ over here tomorrow XD

It has been a nice birthday for me. The actual day with yummy BBQ and then when we all could be together this weekend and a few others Uncle Julio's. It is not a norm for us as it is very pricey which made it a nice Birthday treat. While my Margarita was very good it was still not the same as my Mexico visits of the past or nearly as great as LaCava inside the Mexico pavilion at Epcot.

 

[donaldtoo]

My beautiful mom’s 80th birthday is on the 15th of this month, and my gorgeous DWifeys is on the 26th...!!!!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

Odd when people have a response to one of your posts after months and months but no response to your response...why even respond in the first place if you think you have the last word.
Oddness.

 

[donaldtoo]

Waiting..........

 

[Songbird76]

It was discussed at one point, but, clothing is a pretty dicey thing to sell online as it is, especially for a small business. Plus, he had a lot of “fitted” merch in both suits and sport shirts, so the potential of being overwhelmed by returns was a real possibility.
When I worked at the Disney Store, Guests would buy a lot of clothing merch, both in the store and online, in different sizes as gifts, and even the online customers could return merch to their local Disney Store instead of packing it up and sending it back in and waiting for their refund.
I remember one lady in particular buying 5 sets of 4 different sizes of Christmas pajamas online for her 5 grandchildren, and then returning the 3 of each that didn’t fit to our store. Not only did our store not get any money from the original sale, we also took the financial hit for the return. Particularly annoying when it occurred during your management numbers hours.

Personally, I think a major part of the problem with the clothing store was that he did absolutely no advertising. None. He had been existing on word of mouth bringing business in for so long he saw no need to change.
He should have put aside a small budget for even just a few short radio spots. We could have simply asked the customers that weren’t regulars (we had many of them) what brought them into the store and tracked it to see how effective it was. People used to come into the original store all the time saying they never even knew it was there, even though the store been there almost 6 years.
I believe another part of it was that he just wanted to keep it all as simple as possible, make a decent living, and just go home at the end of the day, kinda’ like we are led to believe the shopkeepers of old did.
He wasn’t interested in devoting a ton of time to it and building an empire.
He’s still a young man (around 40), and I just wonder why he didn’t try to work it hard for a coupla’ decades and then just flat out retire around 45 or 50.
But, ultimately, not my life and none of my business. It just seemed like it had the real potential to be one of those type of success stories.

There was an article over here about the carbon footprint of online shopping. It was really interesting, and apparently online shopping is really bad for the environment, because of the number of trucks needed to deliver packages, and returns, and the processing of the returns to be either put back on the shelf or returned again to the supplier. For example, where I work, on a normal day, we have something like 4 pick-ups with a big truck. One in the morning, one around 5pm, one around 9pm, and the last at closing. If it's busy, we have to call for extra pick ups because it won't all fit in the truck at the end of the night. So it's picked up and taken to a sorting center....so 4 trucks, then it gets sorted and sent to regional distribution centers using who knows how many trucks, and then delivered to the customers. That's a LOT of exhaust from a lot of big trucks. Then, people have to drive to a postal point to send back what they don't want to keep, and then the process reverses, but we only get one truck per day of returns....usually. If it's been really busy, we might get 2. But again, lots of exhaust. And then things with issues like broken zippers, stains, faulty stitching, have to go back to the supplier, and other items are resold, and the process starts over. Not to mention all the deliveries of the different brands in the first place, but that you would have with a physical store, too. But returns are a big carbon footprint for an online business because of the number of times they are potentially sent back and forth. At least with a physical store, you don't have that.

 

[MinnieM123]

Currently watching “Sinkholes: Swallowed Alive - The Thing That Ate Florida” on Discovery Channel.

They had a series of those shows. I saw a few minutes of one yesterday, but then had to go off and do something else. It wasn't the Florida one; it was in another state. The shows (from what I could see in the tv guide) looked very interesting.

 

[Figgy1]

 

[MinnieM123]

Back home!! Will catch up later

Yea!!! Glad to hear you both made it home safe and sound. So today, you can start planning for your next vacation, right?

 

[Figgy1]

My dh can sew and he loooves cats!

Speaking of sewing Butterick 6626 and all other Butterick patterns are on sale today so I think I'm going to break down and buy it while running some errands today because I'll be in the neighborhood. I could draft the key hole and bow but for 1.99 I'll let them do the work

 

[Figgy1]

And we made it back before the snow. Woot.



My plan is Soups being made. My coping mechanism. Unfortunately my kid has to travel to Downtown Chicago tomorrow morning. If we get what we have been told I will be nervous. I hope the trucks heeded the warnings and put their plows back on their trucks. Noted the salt spinners and plows were off for a few weeks now. As the weather got nice the last few weeks (except for the wind) we have had major water and sewer collapses. We had that polar vortex in January. Things crack but because they are frozen in place the ice holds the ground stable. Now that there was a thaw things starting blowing up. In front of my DD place in a disability parking spot a sewer slightly sunk but the curb and pavers above it on the sidewalk just sunk, totally hallow beneath. Getting worse by the day. Too many things like this for Public Works to keep up with so they are in Priority mode. She has a construction horse and cone in the middle of her sidewalk. Disability spot a horse. So the department broke down their winterised vehicles for repair modes. Oops

View attachment 364333

Stay inside and safe today my friend and good luck to your kid.

 

[MinnieM123]

What the person the comment section didn't get is if everyone gets 4 years of college, there would not be electricians, plummers, and some other professionals.

This. ^^^

The only way to enter that high school was you needed to have at least a 3.0 GPA and my dad was a straight a student in middle school before that school lowered their standard sometime after my dad graduated. My dad took an online test and his results were so good that it was though my dad had a masters degree, but he didn't.

Thanks for sharing that story about your dad. He sounds like a very intelligent man, knew what career he wanted in life, and took the necessary technical training to reach his goal. God bless him. (He also succeeded in raising a very nice son, too!!)

The arcade rooms were packed. The biggest of the two rooms had pinball games. One of side seemed to be a little bit more packed than the other, but I think it due to the nature of the pinball games. There were big licensed pinball games there Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: the pinball was revealed and people were busy playing it. I seem a lot of pinball games being played such as the NASCAR pinball game, Deal Pool Pinball game, Star Wars Pinball game, and bunch of others. It seemed to have over 200 pinball games.

That's interesting about the Midwest Gaming Classic. I found it fascinating that the arcade rooms were so packed. Those types of fun locations are basically gone from the landscape, having been replaced with computer games for many years now. But there was just something so much fun about those old pinball games, and I think they were more enjoyable than the updated games.

 

[MinnieM123]

Speaking of sewing View attachment 364409Butterick 6626 and all other Butterick patterns are on sale today so I think I'm going to break down and buy it while running some errands today because I'll be in the neighborhood. I could draft the key hole and bow but for 1.99 I'll let them do the work

I also like the shoes, too. But I could never balance myself in heels so high!

 

[Figgy1]

I also like the shoes, too. But I could never balance myself in heels so high!

I can but if it's cool enough for long sleeves I would want to keep my toes warm

 

[Rista1313]

And we made it back before the snow. Woot.



My plan is Soups being made. My coping mechanism. Unfortunately my kid has to travel to Downtown Chicago tomorrow morning. If we get what we have been told I will be nervous. I hope the trucks heeded the warnings and put their plows back on their trucks. Noted the salt spinners and plows were off for a few weeks now. As the weather got nice the last few weeks (except for the wind) we have had major water and sewer collapses. We had that polar vortex in January. Things crack but because they are frozen in place the ice holds the ground stable. Now that there was a thaw things starting blowing up. In front of my DD place in a disability parking spot a sewer slightly sunk but the curb and pavers above it on the sidewalk just sunk, totally hallow beneath. Getting worse by the day. Too many things like this for Public Works to keep up with so they are in Priority mode. She has a construction horse and cone in the middle of her sidewalk. Disability spot a horse. So the department broke down their winterised vehicles for repair modes. Oops

View attachment 364333

Did you end up getting snow? It looks like we only got rain on this side of the lake so far.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

My beautiful mom’s 80th birthday is on the 15th of this month, and my gorgeous DWifeys is on the 26th...!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to them!

 

[Rista1313]

It's been snowing since this morning... wet nastiness... what month is this anyway. I'm literally starting to get angry, because I'm so tired of the cruddy weather.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

It's been snowing since this morning... wet nastiness... what month is this anyway. I'm literally starting to get angry, because I'm so tired of the cruddy weather.

I'm sorry, I went through these feelings on Thursday with our storm. Luckily it is mid-April and the snow will melt fast. Ours is melting away as I speak (type).