Wednesday randoms

[jinkies]

Since I know you all love "Do you answer the door?" scenarios:

It's 8:30 am. I am puttering around still in jammies, no bra, glasses, haven't brushed teeth. My front door is open and we have a full glass storm door, so it's obvious I'm home. We have a "No Soliciting" sign. 

Someone both rings doorbell and bangs on the door. I went to see what was going on, and find a man there. He starts (like all salesmen do) with "Hi there! I'm X, from XYZ paving company." I immediately say "Oh, no thank you!" and close the door. As I start walking away, he yells after me "Excuse me young lady, there is no need to be rude! I need to talk to you." So I go back, and he says that he is paving a driveway of one of my neighbors and wanted to let me know that they would have equipment in front of my house and to let them know if they need to move it. 

I felt like an ass, but now I'm looking outside and: 1. The equipment was there for about 30 minutes, and was actually in front of my neighbor's house, not mine. 2. I don't own the road, and they were no where remotely close to blocking me in or affecting my life at all-- we are on an acre and our houses are set back from the road, so it's there is plenty of room.

The more I'm thinking about it, the more I think that he was going to try to sell me on "We are here paving your neighbor's driveway and can give you a deal if you are interested" but then got mad when I didn't hear him out. 

Great start to the day!

[followyourarrow]

My primary concern is for the people of Florida. I hope everyone stays safe and damage is minimal. I'm hoping people evacuate. My selfish concern is we supposed to get married in St Augustine in 45 days. Depending on how things go, I know that may not be possible. FI is freaking out about it and lost money. I'm trying to just wait and see what the next few days bring.

[candreco]

Yeah, he was probably hoping to sell you on paving.

Just went on a 30 min adulting spree and scheduled the kids' well checks, my flu/covid vaccines, and a haircut. What other fun and exciting things can I do today?

I use the "I'm not a regular mom, I'm a cool mom" line from Mean Girls on DD all the time, and the other night she admitted that her friends actually do think I'm a cool mom. So there!

[blondemoment123]

Its a beautiful day! 65 and cloudy is my ideal weather.

[ellipses84]

My great start to the day at 6:40 am…waking up to several political fundraising texts before my alarm went off! I replied with STOP because that is too damn early! I have a Pacific time zone area code and that’s where I live. I will vote for you but I have enough anxiety around the election. If I’ve actually managed to fall asleep, don’t wake me!

I try to avoid answering the door at all costs. Seems weird the guy felt the need to tell you but maybe he was worried they’d be in your way as you were trying to leave for work. Sometimes contractors I work with do it just to be nice so complaints come to them instead of the city, like if they are going to be noisy. Or you’re right and they had extra concrete he wanted to sell to you. Typically they have to dump whatever they can’t use in a cement truck within a few hours.

Yesterday DH told me a plumber was coming in a few minutes to measure a sink that needs replaced. I was wearing short shorts and a tank top so I shut my office door thinking he would handle it. Then I hear the doorbell ring and don’t hear DH go get it. It rings again. No DH. I call for him. Nowhere around. We have a small house. I answer the door. Take the guy to the bathroom. The counter is a mess with the kids’ stuff all over it. I was so embarrassed. I go search for DH. He’s laying on the garage floor with his headphones on doing god knows what. I was nice to the plumber but I snapped at DH. Also, he had the garage door wide open so how the guy didn’t see him or how he didn’t hear the guy walk up, IDK.

[cville]

My next door neighbors with the annoying tree always hire people who are at least 70 to do any handyperson work. They are also very pissed that we can't give them a definitive schedule for when exactly the workers who are building our laundry/mudroom and redoing our bathroom will be working outside v. inside of our house. Between 8am and 4pm M-F--so it's not as if they're swinging hammers at 5:30 am on a Saturday. Like, sorry? I wish I knew too? It's dictated by type of work and inspection schedules? They're polite, stay within our property boundary, and never even park in front of your house?

This morning, I'm flying out of the house with my kid, late, and trying to rush into my car and an old guy literally in suspenders and a newsboy cap introduces himself and launches into a whole we're doing work for tree neighbors blah blah can we use your driveway to access their side yard, etc. I'm like yes, yes, fine, I'm running super late I have to go bye. And Stuart is still talking to me. Take a hint, bro. I said OK.

As I'm driving away, I see my neighbor, who has both my and my husband's phone numbers, standing in her yard.

I am now certain that she didn't call/text in advance as "revenge" for us daring to improve our own home. And poor Stuart has no idea he was used as a pawn.

[deadwing]

Oct 9, 2024 9:18:53 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

My great start to the day at 6:40 am…waking up to several political fundraising texts before my alarm went off! I replied with STOP because that is too damn early! I have a Pacific time zone area code and that’s where I live. I will vote for you but I have enough anxiety around the election. If I’ve actually managed to fall asleep, don’t wake me!

Why don't you put your phone in Do Not Disturb overnight?  You can whitelist certain contacts to be able to ring through so you're not completely unavailable, but stupid shit like this doesn't wake you up.  I'm always surprised by how many people don't seem to use this. 

[midwestmama]

Praying for everyone in FL and praying that the hurricane downgrades.

I'm trying to decide if I want to spend the money to get a vacuum/mop combo during the Amazon Prime Days deals, or a robot vacuum... Or, if I wait until Black Friday deals to see if prices are better then.

[lavenderblue]

I'm going to see Ina Garten tonight. We've had these tickets for months and months and was supposed to be a fun night with my Mom, but she's stuck in Tampa. I'm worried for her safety and also so bummed that she's not home to go with us. She's inland at my Aunt's house which is built to sustain winds of 140mph, but it looks like they might be higher than that, so I'm trying not to freak out. 

[mpc]

Hurricane shutters are done. We still have some plants and chairs and stuff to move inside. I am trying to work but having trouble concentrating. The rain has started but we won't see the worst until middle of the night/early morning tomorrow probably. We live on the mainland but have invited friends who live on the barrier islands to come evacuate to our house. (I am east coast of florida, which is why we are still here. If we were west coast we would've left.)

[noodleoo]

Oct 9, 2024 9:37:48 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

Praying for everyone in FL and praying that the hurricane downgrades.

I'm trying to decide if I want to spend the money to get a vacuum/mop combo during the Amazon Prime Days deals, or a robot vacuum... Or, if I wait until Black Friday deals to see if prices are better then.

Our robot vacuum was one of our best BF purchases a few years ago.  Seriously, I love that thing!  We upgraded on Prime Day over the summer to one that vacuums and basically swiffers our wood floors.  LIFE CHANGING.

We put our old one upstairs so now we have 2.  I still have to run the good vacuum every once in a while but taking vacuuming off my weekly list has been so nice.

[ssmjlm]

Currently investigating feet pic options while hyperventilating over my kid's dance costume bill.

[jinkies]

Oct 9, 2024 9:42:24 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Oct 9, 2024 9:37:48 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

Praying for everyone in FL and praying that the hurricane downgrades.

I'm trying to decide if I want to spend the money to get a vacuum/mop combo during the Amazon Prime Days deals, or a robot vacuum... Or, if I wait until Black Friday deals to see if prices are better then.

Our robot vacuum was one of our best BF purchases a few years ago.  Seriously, I love that thing!  We upgraded on Prime Day over the summer to one that vacuums and basically swiffers our wood floors.  LIFE CHANGING.

We put our old one upstairs so now we have 2.  I still have to run the good vacuum every once in a while but taking vacuuming off my weekly list has been so nice.

Oh! Which one do you have? Our Eufy died last year and I thought I was "upgrading" to a Roomba, but it broke immediately. I was going to buy another Eufy but open to other life changing recommendations. I'm intrigued by the swiffering option.

[wanderingback]

Someone posted on buy nothing a framed poster of the planets and I still can’t believe Pluto isn’t a planet anymore! Our whole childhood was a lie!

[candreco]

Oct 9, 2024 10:04:40 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Someone posted on buy nothing a framed poster of the planets and I still can’t believe Pluto isn’t a planet anymore! Our whole childhood was a lie!

Another way I like to drive my kids nuts is insisting that Pluto is a planet. It's right there in "dwarf planet" ok?!

[noodleoo]

Oct 9, 2024 9:49:10 GMT -5 jinkies said:

Oct 9, 2024 9:42:24 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Our robot vacuum was one of our best BF purchases a few years ago.  Seriously, I love that thing!  We upgraded on Prime Day over the summer to one that vacuums and basically swiffers our wood floors.  LIFE CHANGING.

We put our old one upstairs so now we have 2.  I still have to run the good vacuum every once in a while but taking vacuuming off my weekly list has been so nice.

Oh! Which one do you have? Our Eufy died last year and I thought I was "upgrading" to a Roomba, but it broke immediately. I was going to buy another Eufy but open to other life changing recommendations. I'm intrigued by the swiffering option.

Ours are Eufys too!  The new one is the Eufy Clean X8 Pro.  This one was a big upgrade over our other one and has room mapping, self emptying and the mopping function.  It is louder than our other one (probably because it is more powerful) and especially when it does the self emptying.  We run it in our downstairs kitchen/living room which is all wood floors 2x per week, but we had to turn off the auto emptying after it ran because it would wake us up.  So H runs the emptying manually when we wake up.  You also have to fill the water reservoir for the mop and wash the pad, it is really like a swiffer rather than actually mopping.  But still way easier than doing it all manually!  I just wish it could do the stairs LOL.

The one we moved upstairs is a simpler version but still works well.  We bought it on BF in 2020, still going strong almost 4 years later.

[lust2hart]

Well, well, well.

You all may remember we had an AITA thread this summer where I asked if DH and I AITA because we've decided we're no longer driving 7 hours north, to the upperish Midwest, for Christmas; instead, we'll visit family at Thanksgiving. And the reason I was asking AITA is because DH's oldest brother was claiming that, due to his wife's bigwig job, they *cannot* visit family at any time other than the week around Christmas; therefore, our deciding to not come at Christmas meant the family would never all be together again.

Well DH's youngest sister just had a baby and she's been lightly pressuring DH to change "just this year" so that we're all there at Christmas. However, I just got summoned for jury duty 12/2 - 1/3 so DH texted his whole family that we are definitely sticking to our plan to travel at Thanksgiving. A few hours after he sent that text, who should call him but his oldest brother, saying, "So wife and I have been talking, and we're thinking about coming out to Mom's at Thanksgiving..."

Bwah ha ha. Our evil plan to move "all of us getting together" from Christmas to literally any other time of the year is gaining momentum!

[noodleoo]

Oct 9, 2024 10:21:05 GMT -5 candreco said:

Oct 9, 2024 10:04:40 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Someone posted on buy nothing a framed poster of the planets and I still can’t believe Pluto isn’t a planet anymore! Our whole childhood was a lie!

Another way I like to drive my kids nuts is insisting that Pluto is a planet. It's right there in "dwarf planet" ok?!

Haha DD2 found the cutest book at the library about the planets.  It is narrated by Pluto introducing all the other planets and it talks about how science is always learning new things.  The sun cheers Pluto up about not being a planet anymore.  I wish I could remember the name, it was adorable!

Oh, I found it!  It is SOOOOO cute!

www.amazon.com/Pluto-Gets-Call-Adam-Rex/dp/1534414533/ref=asc_df_1534414533/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693324227737&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=269269352649312497&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001881&hvtargid=pla-868912719964&psc=1&mcid=55607e4a10b6374097296a65b3675c85

[starburst604]

Last night when I came home, the outside smelled like an army of skunks had attacked a T-Rex. Me and DD's eyes were watering and it felt like the smell followed us into the house, I think it was sneaking in through our old windows and slider. My downstairs bathroom has a window that doesn't close all the way, so we kept that door closed with a towel across the bottom of the door. But the smell was just awful! Later I took the dogs out to pee and the second we stepped out they went crazy like they wanted to attack something, so I guess they associated the smell with prey? The smell was in my nose alllll night. Then I started having dreams about Princess Diana, because I have a weird association between her and skunk spray. The night she died I was at a bar and remember seeing the news on the TVs, then I went home and my mom had our dog chained outside because he'd been sprayed. So when I think of one I think of the other. The smell was better this morning, but still lurking when we went outside.

Tomorrow AM I leave for my girl's trip to Napa, I can't wait! We planned this 6 months ago and finally it's here. I've been looking forward to this as a sort of celebration of my new freedom even though it won't be official until next month. It is SO nice to be going on a trip and not have to deal with snide comments and shade from STBX before, during and after my trip. He's already started being an ass because my trip is approaching, but if he starts anything while I'm there I'll just block him. DD has a phone now so we can keep in touch without him.

[deadwing]

Oct 9, 2024 9:37:48 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

Praying for everyone in FL and praying that the hurricane downgrades.

I'm trying to decide if I want to spend the money to get a vacuum/mop combo during the Amazon Prime Days deals, or a robot vacuum... Or, if I wait until Black Friday deals to see if prices are better then.

Oct 9, 2024 9:49:10 GMT -5 jinkies said:

Oct 9, 2024 9:42:24 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Our robot vacuum was one of our best BF purchases a few years ago.  Seriously, I love that thing!  We upgraded on Prime Day over the summer to one that vacuums and basically swiffers our wood floors.  LIFE CHANGING.

We put our old one upstairs so now we have 2.  I still have to run the good vacuum every once in a while but taking vacuuming off my weekly list has been so nice.

Oh! Which one do you have? Our Eufy died last year and I thought I was "upgrading" to a Roomba, but it broke immediately. I was going to buy another Eufy but open to other life changing recommendations. I'm intrigued by the swiffering option.

I have the Narwal Freo X Ultra (https://www.amazon.com/Self-Empty-Zero-Tangling-DirtSenseTM-Maintenance-Free-Self-Contained/dp/B0CPLP422K/)  and I love it.  I haven't brought out my real vacuum since March.  It vacuums 3x weekly and mops once on schedule.  I think I've had to detangle it from a cord once ever.  It just works.  I'm constantly surprised how much dirt it gets every run.  My floors look better than they have before.  This is the best price it's been offered for yet.

[mrsukyankee]

Oct 9, 2024 9:40:50 GMT -5 mpc said:

Hurricane shutters are done. We still have some plants and chairs and stuff to move inside. I am trying to work but having trouble concentrating. The rain has started but we won't see the worst until middle of the night/early morning tomorrow probably. We live on the mainland but have invited friends who live on the barrier islands to come evacuate to our house. (I am east coast of florida, which is why we are still here. If we were west coast we would've left.)

Glad your shutters are done. I can imagine that it's hard to work right now and hope you (and your job) give yourself grace at this time.

[expectantsteelerfan]

I decided to live on the edge today (without even posting a 'would you eat this' thread) when I opened my premade roast turkey breast slices that I bought from the grocery store to be my lunches this week, and realized they didn't include the little cup of gravy like they usually do, and I found a box of Trader Joe's premade turkey gravy in my pantry with a best buy date of 2017. I also had packets of the gravy powder I totally could have made, but my laziness and hungriness won out.

It tasted fine, but if I stop posting for multiple days because I'm dead, you know, send your condolences.

Also seems in bad taste to joke about being dead when so many are worried about themselves/loved ones in regards to Milton, but I'm going for levity here.

[jane6672]

In a different category of FILs being asses...

@@
I'm due the 4th week of October. Yesterday, FIL texts H "let me know when you have 2 min for a chat" so H calls him, and FIL says "oh, so I needed to use these flights credits and I booked tickets to NYC on November 1st."

H is like, "no, as discussed, we will let you know when we're ready for you to visit and coordinate dates that work for all of us."
FIL is all "no, no, no, we'll just come, and it's *okay* if you don't want to host us, we can stay in a hotel *if we have to*, and if you don't want to see us, you can tell us, and then it will just be a little NYC visit!"
(spoiler, never, ever, have they planned a trip for "just a little NYC visit").

H says "no, I established a clear boundary on this, and you're crossing that line, if you show up uninvited, you're putting me in the position of being the 'bad guy' and saying we can't see you."

Then FIL blows up and starts yelling about how H is being unreasonable, and can't tell him what to do, and hangs up on him.


Like what?? I could conceivably STILL BE PREGNANT (lolsob please no) at that date. What the what???


A couple of months ago, FIL was "joking" about how they don't need an invitation to visit, they can book tickets any time, and H clearly told him that if they did that, they would not be seeing us or the baby, we would invite them to visit when we are ready and ARRANGE DATES THAT WORK FOR US ALL. Like SANE human beings.

[mrsukyankee]

Luckily, my H hasn't tested positive for Covid (he's done it twice today). I tested positive again today, so I'm isolating to our bedroom and he's staying in our guest bedroom and using our main bathroom (which is far nicer than our ensuite). I'm' trying to drink a ton of water, rest, stretch every so often and I'm going through a ton of tissues. He's going to his 'leaving do' tonight with his work friends, so I'll order some takeaway (they are happy to drop it off on the stoop and I'll wear a mask, just in case. I'm leaning toward Korean fried chicken but there are so many things I could get...suggestions?

[spindle92]

I am ready to lose my shit on a high school "friend".
I put friend in quotes because we went to school together but weren't really friends but we are both on the reunion planning committee.

So there is a group chat and somehow we got talking about hurricane Milton.
She fucking believes Helene and now Milton were manufactured by the government to prevent people from voting next month.

[mrsukyankee]

jane6672, sending hugs and hopes that your H doesn't have to be the bad guy but glad he's willing to be the bad guy. Your in-laws have some serious audacity.

[starburst604]

Oct 9, 2024 10:44:28 GMT -5 spindle92 said:

I am ready to lose my shit on a high school "friend".
I put friend in quotes because we went to school together but weren't really friends but we are both on the reunion planning committee.

So there is a group chat and somehow we got talking about hurricane Milton.
She fucking believes Helene and now Milton were manufactured by the government to prevent people from voting next month.

Can you PLEASE indulge me and and have her explain how the government creates hurricanes? 

[noodleoo]

jane6672 , OMG I'd be so mad. Good for your H for holding the boundary. How do people who have had children forget what it is like? It blows my mind! FIL sucks.

ETA: Congrats and I hope you have a quick and easy delivery!

[1confused1]

jinkies if a person won’t leave my porch, I’ll open the door a crack and just say “I’m not interested, thanks”. Imagine my surprise when I did that and the guy served me with legal papers. Really wished I hadn’t opened the door! 😂

My son and I have his first official college baseball visit this week and I am so excited for him. It isn’t necessarily the division he wants to play in but the whole recruiting landscape for the class of 2025 is crazy right now.

[shauni27]

Oct 9, 2024 10:44:28 GMT -5 spindle92 said:

I am ready to lose my shit on a high school "friend".
I put friend in quotes because we went to school together but weren't really friends but we are both on the reunion planning committee.

So there is a group chat and somehow we got talking about hurricane Milton.
She fucking believes Helene and now Milton were manufactured by the government to prevent people from voting next month.

my god. I do not know how I would respond in that situation other than a loud "wait, are you kidding??" and then roll my eyes in disgust.