He got in: Against me, The Descendants, Refused, Life of Agony, Sick of it All, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Bad Brains, Misfits, Black Flag, Anti-Flag, Converge, Youth of Today, Blink-182, The Exploited, Rise Against, Fallout Boy, Real Big Fish, Rancid, Newfound Glory.
Love and support to everybody posting here. And I am so sorry Captain Catnip
Things with grand came to a head last night, no thanks in small part to her mother butting in, stirring stuff up. It's not pretty but I'm hoping we can come to some sort of detente for Christmas, or before then.
I have zero hope that someone even slightly better will be voted in to replace him given the part of CA he represents.
My brother and sister voted for him and were happy with their votes because guns and babies and God and Demoncrats and libtards. They'll vote to replace him with anyone that has an (R) after his/her name for the very same reason. Sad days.
My daughter loves hers. She got it at 40% off and it was still pushing $6K, and she's purchased additional pieces since. (She's also found a site where you can buy pieces at a discount that she got her last couple pieces from.) I love the portability and the fact that you can form it how you want. Hers is basically 2x4 now, or pretty much a queen size bedx2 or some such.
I'd like one because of the convertability but the cost just kind of kills it for me a little bit. I'm cheap.
I’d love to know what the discount website is!
Ours is L-shaped (5 seats + 8 sides) and we have a storage ottoman. It was a little over $2k on 40% off sale, which seems reasonable for a large sofa. I couldn’t imagine paying full price!! And the biggest sale I’ve seen since then is 30% off.
A lot of military families love these because they can be reconfigured when we move to a new house, or even split into multiple pieces to fit into a new space.
Precisely why she got hers. Two houses so far and each configured differently. I'll ask her where she got the last couple pieces. It was frames but not covers. Covers she has to get from LoveSac. I believe she found it on FB, on one of her home decorating pages. But that's just me thinking I know her.
My daughter loves hers. She got it at 40% off and it was still pushing $6K, and she's purchased additional pieces since. (She's also found a site where you can buy pieces at a discount that she got her last couple pieces from.) I love the portability and the fact that you can form it how you want. Hers is basically 2x4 now, or pretty much a queen size bedx2 or some such.
I'd like one because of the convertability but the cost just kind of kills it for me a little bit. I'm cheap.
A friend's husband is battling pancreatic cancer A friend's husband is in ICU with COVID. Thankfully he was removed from the ventilator today and is on a cannula but the recovery will be long and difficult. GD1 is having difficulties I am hoping we can work through with time.
Yup. I was at the store yesterday and there was a sign "limit 3 per customer of toilet paper and paper towels." I generally get paper towels at Costco and last time I checked they were fine so I didn't get any. I'd just purchased TP not long ago and had one of those "equals 96 rolls of TP" that we just opened so I felt safe. Not feeling so safe now. I might have to grab another 96 and start hoarding just in case.
I read that about Orlando last week. I'm supposed to be in Tampa at the end of next month. I am NOT looking forward to it. The *only* positive I can think is that the airline prices are low enough that we're traveling first class so my husband and I will be sitting beside each other and know our health status. Plus we're renting a house instead of going to a hotel, and we'll be huddling there except for the two times we absolutely *have* to be in public. And at that point, we'll be in KN95 masks and staying as far away from as many people as possible. This is one trip I'm not really looking forward to, but I'm gritting my teeth, will be hugging (from as far away as possible) as little as possible and getting out as fast as I can.
Thank you for the reminder. My sister just had her "sexy mole" checked last month/earlier this month. Fifty stitches later, we think they got it all. (Test results came back last Monday.)
This PNWer thinks it's cute and a pretty good price too! LOL
This PNWer, too. DH and I have been talking about getting a place somewhere like Ocean Shores or similar. A nice lot on the lake or one of the canals or bay and that would be a perfect weekend/summers/retirement place.
GD2 has been sedated a couple times. Once for a medical procedure when she was about six and twice for dental work when she was about 3 and again at 5 for the same issue (she needed her front four teeth capped. With the second procedure, she had to have the initial caps removed and replaced and it was some major traumatic work for all of us. If he's dental traumatized, I'd recommend it regardless. She was loopy as heck coming out of it, but has no fear of dentists (or doctors, just a reluctance because "again? I hate not being healthy and having these medical issues. Thanks Grandma.") or memory of going through any major work.
I'm a Costco fan for a lot of things. They have backpacks for $20 that will last several years that are suitable for late elementary/middle school (and even high school.) They will hold books, supplies, and laptops. I don't know the current brand but they've had Jansport there in the past. We still have my granddaughter's purple one from middle school, now that I think about it. (We've upgraded to "this Vans one with the skulls is so cool!" from her boring berry Jansport, lol.) In fifth they don't really need fancy or heavy duty, at least not in our district. The kids don't do travel between classes until middle school, which is when they'll need the backpack that can hold stuff and is balanced.
Ditto Costco for the water bottles, or discounters like TJ Maxx/Marshall's/Burlington/Ross. Mine lose theirs and leave them places so I won't go Hydroflask but Costco sells Thermos, Coleman, ThermoFlask, Contigo and other brands that are suitable and less expensive (and plenty of kids have them because hey, it's Costco.) I've used their lunch bags/boxes in the past as well. I like their current ones with the plastic container inserts.
I get a lot of school supplies at Staples. They have really good sales as school is starting. For the accordion file folders, I've found them at our local Fred Meyer (a Kroger store) and at Staples in plastic in colors or clear with a colored flap that are more "cool" than the brown fiberboard type things.
Scissors you can go up a size with the Fiskars. There's a mid-range for older kids.
In fifth grade, any calculator will work; we went for looks over function. They started using Casio and TI-30 in sixth and in 7/8 they moved up to a graphing TI-83 or TI-84 for algebra and beyond. The type of calculator was mandated by the teacher by middle school, so they would be able to teach functions and equations unilaterally to all students without having to learn different styles of calculator. It was a lot easier to just "the button is located here..." when all the calculators are the same.
I always buy Ticonderoga pencils. I like them better than the store brands. (Although I just bought some fancy $25 for a pack of 12 at Anthropologie for younger granddaughter because they had special erasers or some such.) But if you're going communal (our elementary school did) nobody is going to know if you bought the cheapies. I always buy the huge pack of Ticonderogas at Costco because some parents can't afford to bring in the full list.
(Mine are currently grandkids that are a senior and sophomore in high school so I've got a few years past fifth grade of doing this. I've also done the same/similar for my kids and they survived. lol.)
I have TMJ and clench my teeth horribly. Have for most of my life. My teeth *look* straight so I never got braces, but they weren't properly aligned and the molars in back were a bit high so my bite was off and cracks are a given as I've gotten older. I've had fillings with small chips, crowns with larger cavities/chips and part of the tooth giving way, and now in a couple places have implants. And yes, these are molars. I've had the "take a bite out of a bagel" cracked molar and the "something just felt weird a minute ago, and now there's something between my tooth and gum and crap, it's not food, it's a part of my tooth!" molar incident. They've resulted in crowns in my apparently small and difficult-to-work-in mouth. I've basically got the equivalent of a sports car, a very nice vacation or my (former) dentist's kid's first year of college in my mouth.
I just had a front tooth chip and the dentist did a simple build-up rather than capping them. Visually, you can't even see the repairs. My bite's a little different but that can't be helped.
I've had a couple WTF times in the dental chair (with my prior dentist) but I psych myself up, fake I'm asleep/zoning out and pretend-nap while I'm meditating or concentrating on my breathing instead, or deal with stress by joking to get through it. If your dentist is good, he'll be able to work wonders, with the tooth and with your anxiety and fears.
I was a military wife, and now my daughter is a military wife. There is a big difference between then-parenting and now-parenting, thanks in a huge part to technology.
When my daughter was born, my ex was on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean and there was no contact outside of snail-mail. He *almost* didn't even receive notification of her birth (the hospital notifies deployed parents on ship-to-shore. They almost missed us for some reason, but someone from staff popped her head in accidentally so he got the message, rather than a letter from me with a photo or two of her a month or so later.)
In contrast, my son-in-law was deployed to Italy when COVID first hit. He was actually in the room with the first known COVID patient in his branch, first known in US forces in Europe and second known in the military branches, so he was quarantined from the very beginning back in January 2020, when we were getting word of our very first cases (actually where I live.) All trips to visit were cancelled, so they weren't even able to see each other for a year. They have a daughter who was in first grade and her son was a freshman in high school.
They were able to remain in contact using social media and accessing programs and apps. Facebook, Facetime, Alexa, Zoom, and family time apps that let them play games with each other and have group get-togethers (I believe we used House Party), etc. They would schedule Family Game Night weekly with parents and siblings for fun times and around-the-table-without-being-around-the-table interaction. (There are apps for that; we used House Party iirc.) They would schedule family time talk and spouse time talk. His daughter was able to call him, drop in on Alexa, or FaceTime him any time she was feeling like she missed him and wanted to talk. (Fortunately his job description at the time allowed him to take calls while at work as often as not.) My daughter was able to post on Facebook (etc.) so he could see into their daily lives and there was a journal of a sort of them growing up. He's currently deployed overseas again, and they're using the same means to remain in touch.
The hardest part is the lack of physical interaction. Not being able to hug daddy or kiss him, not being able to cuddle with your husband or just sit by each other on the sofa watching tv, but technology today allows for so much communication beyond what once was. In many ways it's actually advantageous, as my granddaughter has learned how to communicate effectively by multiple means, an is extremely social and well-adjusted because of this. My granddaughter and daughter remain extremely close with my son-in-law despite separations, and talk to him frequently - probably more than most couples/families who live together and see each other daily. (note: the grandson is a teenager and pretty much just grunts at everyone. lol.)
That you have support in IL is huge as well. My daughter lived across the country from both us and her in-laws. There were a couple times she had to go to the hospital, and didn't really have a support network in place other than a couple wonderful, amazing neighbors who stepped in at all hours when we weren't able to get there. Knocking on a neighbor's door at 3:00 a.m. to get to the hospital isn't something for the faint-of-heart.
I just wanted to put out there that it *is* possible to live separately but still be able to take advantage of ways to remain close. There will be hard times, but they can be managed - and better and more easily than in the Good Old Days.
Contact the company and work to have the credit reduced. Going from $6K to $13K sounds rather usurious, imo. You should be able to bring it down, especially if you can pay a negotiated balance. With your parents being in assisted care, it should hopefully give *some* leverage to negotiations. They haven't been up-to-date because *dementia* might get them to take a step back. If they persist, see if you can talk to an elder-care attorney.
Also, life insurance policies are generally not part of the estate, iirc. Don't let creditor talk you out of money that is not part of the estate. Bank accounts in their name, personal property (cars, real property, etc.) are part of the estate and proceeds go to pay creditors. Life insurance and other POD proceeds are generally not.
(Not legal advice because I'm not an attorney but that's my understanding from dealing with it in the past.)
My husband's office is working some sort of hybrid opening right now. As the boss, he's not really doing the hybrid thing. He's been there pretty full time the past couple weeks. One of his co-workers went on a vacation (vaccinated) and still got a breakthrough infection. Fortunately, he was not feeling well before the initial opening and stayed home so there was no intra-office transmission from him.
We went to Moscow, ID (just across the WA border) last weekend for a birthday (beerthday?) party. Came back and immediately felt like we needed to COVID test. Fortunately it came back negative yesterday.
I'm hoping that we'll be able to fly to FL in September for a wedding that was already postponed a year. As I'm the MOG, I probably should do my best to be there this time. But with friends back east who came back COVID positive after a visit to Hilton Head and then a quick jaunt to FL just a couple weeks ago, and with the numbers climbing, I'm really worried that we'll be landing in the middle of a COVID maelstrom, no matter how cautious we and family might be. (Other family might not be as cautious so that's a worry too.)
My mailman checks the mail before he delivers it. If it does not have my name on it, and/or it doesn’t say “or current resident” he will not deliver it to my house. He puts it in his mailbag and I have no idea what happens to it.
I’m gathering from this post that is not typical?
My postman, years ago, delivered birthday cards but returned Christmas cards from my mother-in-law to my house because the names for others that were not me were not on our mailbox. He then added a sticker with all the relevant last names of anyone we wanted to have mail delivered to our house. If it wasn't one of those (four, I think?) last names he didn't return it.
On a "hero" note - in one of our local FB pages someone wrote she had ordered a (very personal and important) item that the tracking said was delivered. Went to the community page to ask whether anyone at the (incorrect) address received it and could they contact her to get it. The mail carrier was actually on the page and responded with "I realized the address didn't exist so I returned it to the main post office in town and you can pick it up there." Not all heroes wear capes. lol.
I spent the weekend at my kid's (and his GF's) new apartment. It's in a college complex. They literally rent apartments there by the bedroom. He was having a birthday ("beerthday?") party at the complex pool. (I can't believe my kids are as old as some of you. Man I was young and stupid and probably should have had a conservatorship based on the Britney criteria.) Every girl there was showing more in their bikinis than Britney was showing in those pictures. I spent the afternoon mourning the loss of my eighteen year old ass.
It irks me to hell and back that those pictures could be held against her as showing a "defective mental state" or some such ridiculousness.
Britney Spears new attorney files for new conservator, an experienced CPA who is apparently a forensic accountant with experience handling portfolios over $35M.
ETA: I just read that her lawyer got the hearing moved from December to September to have her father removed and a new conservator appointed. He's doing his job well. Good for her for picking him to represent her.
Have you seen this? I'm sure you have. Someone just posted it on a political group page on FB. capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/871/billtext/pdf/SB00003I.pdf (When I first looked for SB3 to confirm the photo posted, I was coming up with weather emergency legislation on legiscan, but then this popped up so I assume it's valid.)
And with TX being the leading conservative education state, this will likely be (not) taught in about 30 other states as well.
Yes, where TX texbooks go, largely there goes the nation. Also, I learned recently, maybe from here, that UDC had to approve of history books in the South, so they've long been whitewashed, pun intended.
"Africans immigrated to the United States to work..."
I am super pissed that Abbot refused to put Ercot on the Special Session and said the power failure was due to a lack paperwork error.
Also as a teacher I’m not happy with the bill that is wanting to require every book, passage, text book, instructional material, etc and the corresponding authors and sources be given to parents via the district. It would be due to parents on the 5th of the month prior.
Have you seen this? I'm sure you have. Someone just posted it on a political group page on FB. capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/871/billtext/pdf/SB00003I.pdf (When I first looked for SB3 to confirm the photo posted, I was coming up with weather emergency legislation on legiscan, but then this popped up so I assume it's valid.)
And with TX being the leading conservative education state, this will likely be (not) taught in about 30 other states as well.
DH went back to the office today. While it's nice that I can do noisy cleaning stuff without worrying if it will interfere with work calls/zoom meetings for the first time in almost a year and a half, I already rather miss being able to just hop in the car with him to do lunch or whatever. It's only 10:15 a.m. It's been three whole hours.