Weekend natter thread, anyone?

[crispini]

I'm just lying around putting off getting ready to go out to a show with some friends tonight. I'm so stiff, I spent most of the morning in the garden and had an afternoon nap and now I'd really rather hang around on the couch than go out -- but hey, that's what friends are for, to make you go out, right? :P

The friend who lost his house has rented an apartment -- I called and asked if he needed any help, but there's not a lot to do-- there's *nothing* left. Really makes you hug your cats and appreciate your own little peaceable kingdom! :)

Anyway, what's everyone else up to this weekend?

[Botany]

1. Just dreaming of my ......

.... Fav EDV of the KOEB. :bounce:

[crispini]

18. Ah, Botany....

would that mean ALL of them? :evilgrin:

[Botany]

31. Just you .....

...... please don't tell the others .... they can be soooo catty.

:hug:

BTW If you working around the house do you make lists?

New pink fur for cuffs
Mink oil for whips and horse crops
New toggle bolt in ceiling beam for s** swing
New crotchless t shirts
Work on book "Your Pain is my Pleasure" written under your
nome de guar (SP???) Texas Trollop

[crispini]

33. LOL

That's funny, I'm a total list-makin' fool.

No saying what's ON 'em though. :evilgrin:

[Botany]

36. If you can stomach it, watch * for his "air dog pats"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3951787

:rofl:

[RevCheesehead]

42. Botany - you are too damned funny.

Patting his air-dog, Rove-r. :rofl:

[gkhouston]

39. gonna tell us

WHO'S on 'em ? :evilgrin:

[Gogi]

2. I'm here crispi!

Spent a small fortune on Cardinal baseball pins this month, still have 4 more to purchase. I need Marquis, LaRussa, Pujols and the final pin features the soon to be imploded Busch Stadium. These pins are already being sold on ebay! You need a coupon from the daily issue of the Post-Dispatch to purchase them.

[RevCheesehead]

3. Now, that's an example right there

of something you and Keith have in common. :)

[Berry Cool]

13. Hah, I wouldn't be surprised...

...if she's bringing some to NYC to GIVE to Keith when she sees him!

Why not?

After all, he'll probably return her kindness by reaching into his shirt pocket and giving her...his subway and bus pass!

[Gogi]

40. Hey, I'll take whatever I can get!

KO:loveya:

[RevCheesehead]

4. I had great intentions of getting things cleaned up today.

But first, I had to do some on-line shopping, then I needed a break and watched TV, then it was time for lunch. Of course, after lunch is nap-time.

My major accomplishment of today - I have a huge box of magazines that will be recycled. I had to go through each one, to make sure I wasn't throwing out anything important.

Is there a Pack-rats Anonymous group somewhere? I am ready to admit that I have a problem, and am powerless to do anything about it. :(

[WolverineDG]

5. just start throwing

the crap away. i had the same problem, rev & the only way to beat it is to start throwing stuff away. i come from a long line of packrats & got the urge to clean out after helping my cousins clean out another cousin's house...omg junk, boxes, trash piled halfway up the walls & she had narrow paths cut through so she could move around the house.....i was scared straight right then & there.

it also helps if you have a trash can right by the front door so you can toss all the junk mail out BEFORE it gets into the house. :)

dg

[gkhouston]

8. yeah, moving regularly is a great solution :-)

Seriously, if you haven't looked at it in two or three years, how badly DO you need it? I tend to go in cycles: I accumulate, and then I purge. Hmm, I guess I'm bulimic with possessions? :shrug:

[RevCheesehead]

9. Hey, I've moved every two years since college.

The problem is (for me) wondering if I'm going to get that dreaded phone call telling me it's time to move again. I'm starting my 3rd year here, and am only now beginning to trust that I'll be here for a while. Maybe I'll get pictures up on the walls, and those dreaded boxes unpacked (or at least out of the garage).

You know what's annoying? This city doesn't have standard garbage pick-up. You have to buy garbage stickers, and everything has to be in garbage bags. (stickers are $1.25/ea) They're not so fussy with recycling, but I miss being able to just dump my garbage in the can, using old shopping bags. </whine>

[gkhouston]

11. stickers on bags is a pain in the ass

Here, you get a standard plastic can and what doesn't fit in the can has to be in plastic bags with the stickers, which are a buck a pop. The cans are big enough that we almost never need an extra bags, but it would be a nuisance if we didn't have the can.

[crispini]

16. Good gawd, what a horrible system BOTH of you have.

Extra $$ for extra trash? Jeez! I mean, not that I generate that much trash, but STILL, what a ripoff. Of course, since we went to curbside recycling I typically have more recycling than trash, and if everybody's being that good then maybe we don't need it. :shrug:

[gkhouston]

23. well, we have the recycling bin, too.

I think you can get a second recycling bin at no extra charge but an extra trash can does cost additional money every month whether it's used or not, or you can use the sticker system and pay per bag. And then there's yard trash, which MUST be bagged separately; no trash in the yard waste, no yard waste in the trash can. There's no limit on the number of bags of grass clippings, leaves, etc. they'll take away, and they'll take branches, etc. in bundles if the bundles are less than 4' in length and secured with twine (no knot type is specified :-)). Heavy trash pickup is once a month. And woe be unto you if your trash can is visible from the street or if you put your can out before 6pm or fail to retrieve it by 10pm the following day; the neighborhood trash police get medieval on your ass. :eyes: We've considered getting a second recycling bin but I can't imagine needing a second trash can; we almost never use any stickers for extra trash; usually only right after Christmas.

[crispini]

27. Ah, yard trash.

Ya know, a nice compost heap will solve THAT little problem. I've actually been known to steal the neighbor's yard trash. And clippings should be left on the lawn. Said the organic gardener. :P

[gkhouston]

29. mm, HOW many trees do you have? And what type?

We've got a tree crapping those long pine needles all over the front yard. If we just leave 'em there it'll kill even the St. Augustine. And if you let the clippings accumulate, you'll have to "thatch" the yard every now and then. I've done that. Back-breaking work.

[crispini]

34. Only seven, oak and pecan mostly.

Yeah, in the fall I get a little overwhelmed with leaf trash, but since I got that leaf vacuum that mashes 'em up, it's been better.

I've never had to thatch the yard, what does that mean? Of course, I've only lived here 4 years, but the St. Augustine doesn't mind the way I've been treating it so far. all the organic gardeners tell me, leave your clippings on the lawn ... so I do. :P

[gkhouston]

37. my parents had to do it once when we were living in Austin...

the grass was dying. Apparently there was so much dead grass crap down there it was choking the roots. You sort of had to rake the grass and get the dead stuff up. Talk about a backache -- that was over twenty years ago and I still remember it. I don't know if it was grass alone causing the problem or if there was some other plant pollen/detritus contributing to it. The grass did bounce back after we finished the job, though.

on edit: come to think of it, we had one or two pine trees in that yard, too, in addition to the obligatory live oaks. Perhaps it's the pine trees that cause the trouble? :shrug:

[crispini]

17. I'm like you, Gina.

Although I'm pretty good with "daily use" kind of stuff -- no problem getting rid of clothes, magazines, etc -- and I'm much more of a sucker as far as the sentimental stuff goes. But that doesn't bother me as much; I have a ton of storage space and once I get THAT reasonably organized, no worries!

[gkhouston]

24. I don't want to THINK about how much crap we've acquired

since we moved in, and almost all of it has been either clothes or toys for She Who Must Be Obeyed. We need to have a round-up and send some of it along to a friend with a baby and the rest to charity; sooner or later the attic will get full and someone should be getting some good use out the stuff.

[Catchawave]

49. I'm a pack-rat !

Did you see the DU poll this weekend Pack-rat or Neatnik....a huge majority of DUers keep everything!

My problem is with clothes, the full closet with nothing to wear!

Edit: I found the poll !

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=3524723

[gkhouston]

6. I'm cat-sitting

so I spent time cleaning litter-boxes, scritching ears, putting out food, and fixing the aerator on a faucet that needed it. (Hey, it'll be a nice surprise when Mary gets back.) Oh, and I went to the pool with the little one, of course. She lives at the pool in the summer-time. Did some "real" work today, but not much; me bad. Tried to figure out a polite way to tell a minister whose church we've been visiting regularly that we like what we've seen so far but we're not quite ready to join; I'm one of those "marry in haste; repent at leisure" persons and although they've got a wonderful program for kids, I'm still not convinced it's the place for us.

[RevCheesehead]

10. What you just wrote there is fine.

Or at least, it should be.

I always keep it casual, asking "do you think you might be interested in joining the church someday?" It gives them an out, or they can say "yeah, I'm thinking about that." I even have a few regular attenders who have chosen to keep their membership at another church (probably for graveyard rights), and that's OK with me, too.

Meow to the kitty! (and bless you for helping a friend)

[gkhouston]

12. actually, it's three kitties, and I've known them almost all

their lives (I actually helped deliver two of them) so it's really no chore to look after them. I'm not exactly a stranger to cat-boxes. :-) As for the church thing, I'm not ready and if they press too hard that's just a hint to me to think harder about whether it really is the right place. Amy loves it and my husband seems content enough but I happened to visit at a UCC church early in the spring and that's still in my mind. The sermon wasn't much to speak of but they had a wonderful hymnal, and I must say the Chalice Hymnal (the church we're at now is a Disciples church) has been a disappointment to me ever since they adopted it. I understand the desire to update the language and make the hymns more inclusive, but it seems like in the the effort to include everyone and offend no one, they ended up with a lot of hymns which inspire no one. So many of the attempts to modernize seem clumsy and pallid. That was my general impression of a lot of the attempts to "update" hymns, until I visited at this little foursquare church, and the hymns we sang that morning were undeniably modern, yet as rich in poetry and conceit as the Anglican and Wesleyan hymns that have largely fallen out of favor. It's a long way from the house and I don't know what sort of program they have for children, but the more I think about it, the less inclined I am to join the church we're at now until I've been back to visit that foursquare church with the family. If we end up joining the Disciples church, I may get a copy of the UCC hymnal and see if we can occasionally do some of the better hymns out of it. They don't always sing hymns out of the hymnal at church (which drives me batty); sometimes they simply project the words on a large screen and the congregation just follows the choir and the organ and guesses at the tune, I suppose.

[WolverineDG]

7. well, besides giving advice

;)

i finally got my grocery shopping done, watched one of my netflix dvds that's been sitting on the tv since before i went on vacation, surfed the net, and got a massage..... :)

tomorrow? read the papers & bum around the house, maybe go catch a movie in the afternoon....

dg

[Berry Cool]

14. For me, the Sunday agenda is...

(and there is a cool story behind part of this)

1. Attempt to clean apartment for when one of my sisters comes over to surf Web (she has no computer but loves the Internets) before taking me to dinner with other sisters to celebrate said sister's birthday. (I too am a packrat, and moving DOES NOT HELP--I just throw most of the stuff into boxes and continue to move it.)

2. Go to dinner with sisters. Many drinks, much food, much fun.

3. Give said sisters something wonderful I just got from a wonderful man this week. Here's the story, and it's right out of the Izzy Povich Book of Amazing Tales...

Some years ago my mother passed away. My sisters and I all miss her a great deal. Being without her has been hard on us all. Well, a while ago it occurred to me that it would be nice if we could somehow get hold of a little piece of her past that we knew only a little about, but which seemed to be a happy time in her life. It goes back to when she lived in a different part of the country. She actually graduated from high school there. But we didn't have her yearbook (she claimed to have lost it before we were born) and very few pictures of her from that time.

I decided to try to use the Internets to see if I could find someone who remembered her from that era. Checked out her high school's Web site...to no avail. Then I found an Internet forum dedicated to her high school...and one of the posts on it turned out to be from a man who graduated IN HER CLASS. He even was from her neighborhood, which was unusual, because from what he said, most of the kids from that neighborhood went to a different high school. I emailed him and explained the situation...and he emailed me back and said that although he didn't really know her well--they had different circles of friends despite living in the same town--he did remember her, and she had signed his yearbook, and he would send us photocopies of the yearbook pages that carried her picture. He doesn't even live in that area anymore...he moved right after high school...so by going back there alone, I would not have found him. But I found him on the Internets.

He delivered all right. Photocopies of the yearbook pages for all of us, which I will distribute at dinner today. We now have a precious little piece of my mother's past back.

And you know what the weird, Izzy Povich thing is about this?

The senior pictures in that yearbook were all laid down in columns on the pages, two students' pictures running side by side down each page.

Guess whose picture this guy's picture was paired up with.

My mother's.

I am not kidding.

And the weird thing about it is that I wouldn't have expected it, given that his last name starts with F and her maiden name began with J. But...for whatever reason (I haven't asked him), back then, he had a different last name. He was a K. They lined up the Ks right next to the Js. And the J he was paired with was my mother.

[WolverineDG]

15. Ok, Berry, do this

Go to a box of junk. (if it's boxed, it's junk. if you have to move it, it's crap.) Look inside. I'll make it easy for ya: If it's broken, chipped, torn, dirty, etc, THROW IT AWAY. If you haven't looked at it in years, THROW IT AWAY. If you don't need it/can't use it, THROW IT AWAY. Don't think about how much you could get for it on Ebay. THROW IT AWAY.

If it's stuff that belonged to your mom, realize that holding on to her stuff, while it seems comforting, is actually weighing you down & making it that much harder for you to move on. (I am speaking from personal experience here in having to deal with all the stuff I got from my mom after she died.) You have to make room in your life for your own life.

dg

[Berry Cool]

22. If only it were that easy.

I have a tendency to save papers. Papers can't be "broken, chipped or dirty." And torn hardly matters. And of course, I do look at it. I'm convinced I will need it all someday. And all of it is mine, just mine...*sigh*

[WolverineDG]

26. ok

so what papers are you hoarding? (i have this problem too, hence the trash can at the front door.) if it's junk mail & you haven't read it, toss it. if it's bank acct info, burn it if it's more than a year old. same for credit card statements. old magazines? donate to goodwill or salvation army or a shelter. again, if you haven't read it, used it, looked at it in a long time, toss it. don't fall into the old trap of "i'm going to need this" because most times (unless it's your birth certificate or other legal document) you don't.

dg

[Berry Cool]

46. If ONLY it had to do with records!

The papers I save aren't junk mail, bank account info, credit card statements or old magazines. They're articles and stuff I've collected on things that interest me. And THAT is the problem.

You might as well tell Keith to throw out his baseball clippings.

[WolverineDG]

51. same criteria

if you haven't looked at it, used it, etc in a year, toss it. yup, been there, done that.

dg

[Berry Cool]

56. That's the problem...

I DO look at it within the year...

[crispini]

19. Well, that's a cool story.

Very neat! :thumbsup:

[crispini]

20. Well, the show was great,

and I'm glad I went. Items of note:

1) Rock 'n roll really is all about sex, even when it isn't actually about sex.
2) I can't drink as much as I used to.
3) Local bands are the COOLEST.
4) I am NEVER, EVER again checking my mailbox when I come home in the middle of the night.

See, so I'm staggering walking up the front steps at like 2 AM. Now, I haven't fixed the light in front of my house, so it's dark. And I reach in and get the mail and I continue up the steps and I feel this THING on my arm (skitter skitter skitter) and I'm like, huh? (Not the fastest reaction time in the world at this point.) And I look at the porch and there are all of these moving black dots and I realize that the palmetto bugs (aka GIANT ROACHES) are back and then I REALIZE WHAT'S CRAWLING ON MY ARM and I drop everything and let out this shriek and start flailing around brushing my arm and about three of them zoom off and I'm just like OOOOOOH GROSS because I hate these things more than ANY BUG EVER because, JEEZ, they really are GIANT ROACHES and they even FLY(!!!!).

Anyway. So apparently my stoner neighbor was still up because he came over and invited me for a beer, but I just wanted to get inside the house. There will be boric acid tea and cookies laid on for the little buggers under the porch later today. :evilgrin:

[Berry Cool]

21. Glad you had fun, Crispi.

Now you need help with those roaches. Better call Faux News and ask for some help from their exterminators.

No, wait, bad idea. All the roaches over at that network are still alive...

[gkhouston]

25. for Pete's sake, Crispi

how shitfaced were you, that your instinctive reaction to feeling something on your arm wasn't to fling it immediately? Many years ago, when I was living in Austin, I befriended a woman who had newly come to Texas from upstate New York. The look on her face when I told her that tree roaches can fly was simply priceless... it was as if her worst nightmares had come true. We had trouble with 'em here when we first moved in until we realized that we needed to be putting roach traps up in the attic. We do that on a regular basis now, and I haven't seen one in the house in a couple of years.

[crispini]

28. Well, I had just picked up the mail and had a bag over my arm,

so the first reaction was, Eh, what's that? I mean, I wasn't expecting the Nasty Palmetto Bugs from Hell to be on the MAIL, fer pete's sakes!

You know, I really like spiders, have no problems squashing squash bugs *with my bare hands,* wasps don't bother me in the least, I'm totally Live and Let Live with most of the invertebrate kingdom, especially the beneficial bugs, but JEEZ, those palmetto bugs? Aaaaaaaaaah! I mean, Giant Flying Roaches, who thought THAT up? :scared:

[gkhouston]

30. I always move to dislodge whatever it is. Fling first,

ask questions later. Then again, the tree-roach-to-less-objectionable-insect ratio is probably higher in Houston. ;-)

[WolverineDG]

50. well, at least they weren't hissing roaches

there is a species out there that hisses.....great...it's bad enough dealing with roaches the size of Kansas that fly at you, some of them can talk back at you too!!!

:scared:

dg

[gkhouston]

52. isn't the proper biological name for those...

"press secretary roaches"? :7

(Couldn't resist. Okay, I didn't try very hard, either.)

[WolverineDG]

54. careful

you shouldn't slander cockroaches. ;)

dg

[Catchawave]

32. Hi kids !

Col. Catch is in Las Vegas this weekend enjoying a reunion with his old Vietnam company. Being a good boy and winning enough money to cover all his expenses....so far.

I've been playing with my new carpet cleaner, which is *hard work* but my 8 year old carpets look brand new! Amazing machine, a Hoover Steam Vac Dual-V....I highly recommend it. Got up all the dog pee stains and other signs real slobs live here!!! Then went mall ratting with some friends and saw Star Wars today <---WOWSA

Fun weekend ! Doesn't take much to entertain me :) Gonna catch up with my DU reading now :hi: :loveya: :hi:

[crispini]

35. Sounds like fun!

:hi:

[gkhouston]

38. wow, if I used that in the family room

there would be nothing left but the concrete slab. :rofl:

[Catchawave]

48. I wish I had a concrete slab !

Have seen on home improvement shows where they paint and seal them, and the floors look fabulous. I've even seen some faux-stone designs, and really liked when they did a solid black with some fun area rugs.

I swear, my next house is going to have cement floors with drains so I can just hose the place down once in awhile :)

[Gogi]

41. Wanna bring your new toy to my house?

I've got an area rug that hasn't been cleaned since I bought it over a decade ago. It will cost $45.00 to have someone clean it plus I have to lug it to the cleaners. Perhaps I'll suggest eating at this good restaraunt near the cleaners and have good ol' Dad help me! Well, it is my birthday this week.

[RevCheesehead]

43. Which day?

We have to plan the KOEB party, Gogi. :party:

[Gogi]

44. Any day's fine with me! On the other hand,

I have relatives in the Muscoda area, perhaps I could express the rug to them and you could clean it there!

[CC]

45. Well I spent

Saturday checking cameras and equipment a few hundred times. Then packed it up and checked to make sure I had everything, down to a small flash light and lots of extra batteries. Rechecked it all this morning and packed up the car. I was getting to work with a real professional photographer and actually getting paid so did not want to forget anything and feel like the amateur I am (specially weddings) I don't want to know how much she was getting paid if the back up photographer(me) was getting just on a grand. (I want to work for her more often.) Went and shot the wedding with her in 90 degree heat with 90 percent humidity and the wedding was out doors. They couldn't bring the cake out because it would melt so it stayed inside. The wedding planner did not direct the wedding party at all (photographer informed that is suppose to be part of her job.) The groom ask me was he and the groomsmen suppose to walk back up after walking people to their seats. Told him I never saw anyone do it that way before. :shrug: Things went well and the bride was very happy even if the groom wore his sunglasses throughout the whole ceremony. At least he did turn his cell phone off. :rofl: Was there at 1 pm and left at 9 pm. Around 8:40 I finally ask the bride if she was going to throw her bouquet. She forgot about that. Was again inform that the wedding planner should of done that but was thanked for doing so since they would of forgotten. The place throws everyone out at 9 pm so no staying late for anything. No getting there early either. It ended up pretty good and since I am digital I just went through my pictures and am happy with them. I am also glad I don't have to do any adjustments since with a harsh sun etc they are going to need a bit of work here and there. The pro said not to worry about it there was only so much you could ask your camera to do. So have to burn them to a DVD tomorrow and send them to the pro and I am finished. Yippie I think I like this wedding photography stuff even if it is a bit stressful. Even the pro admits to being stressed before hand until she saw the pics. She is still film and has to stress for another week.

[Berry Cool]

47. Glad the wedding worked out.

I had a great dinner with my sisters--lots of fun, lots of laughs.

[gkhouston]

53. sounds like it went off well

I'm guessing that weddings are probably the most stressful gigs a photographer can do (ask the pro) because the participants are so wound up and scatter-brained and sometimes liquored up and there's a lot of folk there who don't necessary like each other picking at old scabs. You done good, kid. Congrats!

[CC]

55. It is and I never really

wanted to do weddings. But not for the reasons above though sure they play into things too. The main stress is "What if the pictures don't turn out?" Digital is not so bad though people have lost digital files. I was advised to use smaller flash cards and more of them. That way if one goes bad you haven't lost everything. Now with film I have been told about nightmare times when it went bad, developers screwed it up etc. :scared: They photographer had to get everyone back to re-shoot or have no pictures the give. Want to see a breakdown, tell a bride she has no wedding pictures. There is actually liability insurance for weddings and a good idea to have. Specially if you are still using film.