Wednesday randoms

[rubytue]

We got back from Iceland yesterday, and I forgot to share this story.

The conversion rate from Icelandic krona to USD is something like $1 = 137isk. That is, not an easy thing to head math close to. The closest was divide by 100 and then take 75%. So I downloaded a currency converter that worked offline, and every thing I picked up, I punched in my converter. Didn’t want to pull a wildrice. 

But I still almost did. I was looking at a sweater, and it came out $36. This was an Icelandic wool sweater, and I was one layer short most of the trip. I knew this was an AMAZING price for an Icelandic wool sweater, which should be over $200. And we were in a tourist shop. Right before I took it to the counter, I realized I left out a zero. It was $360. 

But then, it worked the other way, too. The last night, we wanted to upgrade the room and I was hoping to just pay the difference between the included room and the large room. The guy was telling me the charge was 3500 (or did he say 35000). I didn’t care because the included room was too small to repack for flight, so I would have paid $200. And I didn’t get out the converter because of the line behind me and it was the last big room. I was so happy to check the credit card and see it was a $26 charge. 

[wildrice]

Those damn zeros will get you! 😂

[TR]

wildrice - that vase really was beautiful, I hope it has a prominent place in your home lol

[TR]

H is at a conference this week and the dogs are used to walking with him first thing in the morning. I make them wait until after my standup meeting (so we go at 9:30am) because it's still a little dark earlier and we have bobcats and coyotes in our neighborhood. They're so annoyed with me. Donny's just laying on the floor behind me, intermittently moaning.

[candreco]

I'm supposed to be doing annual employee appraisals but it's cold outside and I just want to snuggle under a blanket on the couch with the dog and read. Or maybe bake something with the million apples we picked this weekend.

Anyone have Room & Board Andre or Crate & Barrel Avondale sofas? I am hating sofa shopping- it seems impossible to tell what's going to be durable, and my dog does dig at the cushions sometimes so I need a fabric that's basically cat-friendly, not just dog/kid-friendly. I'm leaning toward the Andre in Sumner fabric, but uuugghhhh. I should post this on H&G too, I guess.

[meanie]

I hope I don't sound like an awful person... but I have cut my workout short 2 days in a row because of a woman who has terrible BO. A cloud of dank body odor wafted over me and I noped my way out of there.

Either she doesn't realize (how?!) or she isn't wearing deodorant for whatever reason, I promise I would never say anything to her but I know my face is probably saying it all.

[wildrice]

Oct 16, 2024 8:25:45 GMT -5 TR said:

wildrice - that vase really was beautiful, I hope it has a prominent place in your home lol

It is displayed in our living room! I do still love it.

[wildrice]

I saw a groundhog, deer, racoon, and a fox all in the same day yesterday! Plus a bunch of squirrels and rabbits and birds like usual. Deer are not uncommon but I don't usually see any of the others, especially not the groundhog! We have regular visits from racoons on our deck, but they are more like a couple of times a month. I felt like a Disney princess yesterday.

Something smells awful in my neighborhood and I'm not sure if I should report it to someone? It could be rotting trash but I think it might be a decomposing body. I am guessing it is animal (given the above!) but I don't know? There is a bunch of wild growth in that area. Is this a police thing or a MYOB thing?

[glw]

I really want to do something fun on Halloween and I'm striking out. We are going to an awesome party on the Saturday before, but the only options for actual Halloween are 1) kid-centric and over by like 8pm; 2) Bar events aimed at the college kids with a cover charge and a top-40 DJ. I was hoping for a costume contest, themed cocktails-- something! I found one thing that looks interesting but the cover is $40 and it's way downtown so I'd need to Uber which will be impossible and/or a million dollars.

[rubytue]

meanie, I get it. Yesterday, when I was tending to my nephew and his eye injury, I was like “ok,, brush your teeth, and I’ll take you.” He said he did brush his teeth.

Ummm…. The fact I made that comment was a hint

[glw]

Oct 16, 2024 8:41:02 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Is this a police thing or a MYOB thing?

I'd report it in a non-emergency way (here we have the BaltCoGo app-- not sure if there's a HoCo version-- where we can report things like downed trees, clogged storm drains, etc. and it gets routed to the correct county agency.)

[dcn]

The non profit I’m on the board of is hosting a big fundraiser this weekend. Someone donated a bottle of bourbon with a sticker of Trump on it. We operate on a military base where I can’t have any political signs or flags other than an American flag at my house.

The rest of the committee thought it was great and said we should auction it off. It apparently goes for $300 on the secondary market.
I said we can’t use it and the people kept pushing back. I got our senior advisor to back me up and her husband, a GO, agreed too. WTF people.

[mofongo]

We have our first cool weather! Everyone is in the best mood!!

[blondemoment123]

I want to cry happy tears. I always hosted the Halloween festivities for my mom friends in my neighborhood. It was my thing (cute treats for the kids, adult beverages for parents, etc) and I loved it.

Since I moved out, I was going to ToT in my parents neighborhood with DS and call it a night. My friend texted me that she planned everything and what time to come to over.

We still talk of course since I left, but these ladies were literally on my street and we have kids the same age so we we're hanging out a lot.

This is dumb, but brings some sense of normalcy back.

[emilyinchile]

meanie as a gym owner, I'd say to mention it to the owner or manager of your gym. It's a super awkward conversation but one that our head coach has had to have with people before.

[bbdoll]

Oct 16, 2024 9:10:12 GMT -5 dcn said:

The non profit I’m on the board of is hosting a big fundraiser this weekend. Someone donated a bottle of bourbon with a sticker of Trump on it. We operate on a military base where I can’t have any political signs or flags other than an American flag at my house.

The rest of the committee thought it was great and said we should auction it off. It apparently goes for $300 on the secondary market.
I said we can’t use it and the people kept pushing back. I got our senior advisor to back me up and her husband, a GO, agreed too. WTF people.

Is there any way to remove the sticker?

[egishere]

DH just pulled a wildrice, when we were in Croatia a couple of weeks ago! lol We went into this French Swimsuit store Vilebrequin. DH really liked their trunks and the saleslady said they were $45 and up. He bought two that were like $300 euros each and didn't realize until she was ringing him up! OMG! But they are really nice and he will hopefully wear them for a very long time!

[tiki]

I've been taking a break after my last company ran out of money this year and let the whole team go. It's time for me to start job hunting, though, and it's just... oof. So many fewer remote jobs. So many fewer job postings in general. Jobs that start at 8am, which doesn't work when school dropoff is 8:10. Jobs with long hours, travel expected. I'm getting angry all over again about how incompatible jobs are with the rest of life and I haven't even started interviewing yet.

[meanie]

tiki what industry are you in?

[expectantsteelerfan]

Oct 16, 2024 8:27:09 GMT -5 TR said:

H is at a conference this week and the dogs are used to walking with him first thing in the morning. I make them wait until after my standup meeting (so we go at 9:30am) because it's still a little dark earlier and we have bobcats and coyotes in our neighborhood. They're so annoyed with me. Donny's just laying on the floor behind me, intermittently moaning.

The worst part of having dogs is how much they insist on sticking to routines.  I usually feed my dogs at 5 PM, but if I'm home and dinner is 5 min. late, my one dog will come whine/groan at me, then run to her bowl, and repeat until I get up and feed them.  Makes daylight savings time worse than with little kids.


How do 'we' feel about pre-printed photo thank you postcards sent out after a wedding?  Even if there's a hand-written note on it? I felt weird getting one.  On one hand, I was happy to see a pro photo of the couple as I'm not likely to see them for this couple otherwise.  And I'm all for them saving money and paper by sending a post card instead of a thank you note in an envelope.  I think my issue was that the hand-written part was just as generic and non-personalized as the printed thank you statement, it didn't even have our names hand-written.  But then thinking more about it, I can't remember if we personalized our thank yous or just wrote the same thing on every card.  I think I'm ending up in the camp of any thank you is an appropriate thank you.  But now I feel weird throwing out the card since it is a picture, but I'm also not saving it.  

[midwestmama]

I have my annual eye checkup today. Looking forward to finding some cute new glasses frames.

Regarding currency conversion, I've definitely mathed wrong when I bought something in Poland while on a work trip. I don't remember how far I was off, but I calculated that a dress was less expensive than it actually was! But it was linen and super cute, so the 5 seconds of guilt I felt passed quickly. (I think the dress in the end was like $180, and somehow I thought it was more like $120. So not like it was $1000 and I thought it was $100.)

[tiki]

meanie , I'm a software product manager (with a biotech background that I can leverage or not as is useful) 

[midwestmama]

tiki, I'm sorry to hear your job search struggles. I agree that employers should be more flexible in terms of scheduling, travel, etc., and just more reasonable in terms of expectations. If employers realized how many potential employees they were losing just by inflexibility and unreasonable expectations, you would think they would adjust their approach and be more flexible and compatible with people's real lives. Most people in the workforce now need flexibility and also actually want a healthy work-life balance.

[mrsukyankee]

tiki, my H is looking for a job and there's little out there that he wants to take on. He said, based on his experience, that there are normally more jobs available in the quarter after the holidays as people tend to start looking to move after that or resign in order to have time to move in the summer.

[mrsukyankee]

I'm going to a book club tonight with people from the secondary school where I used to work - I'm good friends with one of the people and she invited me. It'll be interesting as I'm on the outside AND I will still know enough to figure out what they are talking about (when we're not talking about the book).

[scm1011]

tiki, I would def apply to jobs that have hours that don't quite fit. When I applied for my current job it said hours were 9:00 - 5:30 and there was no way I was able to make that end time work. When I got the offer, I proposed a different schedule and they were fine with it.

I hear you though on the lack of remote jobs. I've been casually looking myself and it seems like most employers have returned to office.

[jinkies]

Oct 16, 2024 9:35:17 GMT -5 egishere said:

DH just pulled a wildrice, when we were in Croatia a couple of weeks ago! lol We went into this French Swimsuit store Vilebrequin. DH really liked their trunks and the saleslady said they were $45 and up. He bought two that were like $300 euros each and didn't realize until she was ringing him up! OMG! But they are really nice and he will hopefully wear them for a very long time!

That "and up" was doing some heavy lifting LOL.

[jinkies]

I really liked the bridesmaid skit from SNL this week. But now the algorithms have caught on and it's literally all I am seeing on social media. It still makes me laugh, but maybe not enough for 40 suggested videos in row.

[jane6672]

Oct 16, 2024 9:14:47 GMT -5 mofongo said:

We have our first cool weather! Everyone is in the best mood!!

It’s been chilly and delightful here - went for a walk yesterday evening and EVERY dog we saw out walking was in such a good mood. Trotting along with so much pep.

[SusanBAnthony]

Oct 16, 2024 8:32:10 GMT -5 candreco said:

I'm supposed to be doing annual employee appraisals but it's cold outside and I just want to snuggle under a blanket on the couch with the dog and read. Or maybe bake something with the million apples we picked this weekend.

Anyone have Room & Board Andre or Crate & Barrel Avondale sofas? I am hating sofa shopping- it seems impossible to tell what's going to be durable, and my dog does dig at the cushions sometimes so I need a fabric that's basically cat-friendly, not just dog/kid-friendly. I'm leaning toward the Andre in Sumner fabric, but uuugghhhh. I should post this on H&G too, I guess.

We have had the R&B Andre in Sumner. 7 years old, kids and a dog that is theoretically not allowed on the couch but ignores that rule. It has held up really really well. I have no complaints, I love it. Its nice and firm, you don't sink into it.