Coffee and...For Friday, Dec. 09, 2005

Elaine - You crack me up!!!

Sometimes when I'm reading your posts it doesn't hit me until I'm farther down the page.

Just got back from taking care of errands in town. Now I have to clean the guest room. DD will be home Sunday night, and her room still isn't painted. If only there were a couple more days in each week!

Jody

Edited to add...

Beautiful candle holders, Darius. They almost look like real roses dipped in porcelain.


This message was edited Dec 9, 2005 2:01 PM

Jody ;)

Darius, I was recently given a couple of things that belonged to my Grandma. Nothing of value, but things that were hers ... you know, things she held in *her* hands and things *she* thought were pretty. They are precious indeed. Am glad you have those. Sound gorgeous.

Maria, I'm *very* glad I don't live up there. I'd never survive. LOL Tell Samson to keep you warm, K?

Elaine, I also packed up 2 fancy cream pitchers that belonged to my grandmother's grandmother. No markings whatsoever so I cannot date them, just have to trust her word.

Okay ... I'm MAD. Sorry Julie ... the stars don't work right now. I need capitol letters. LOL Maybe some $$$. Now, have you *ever* tried to call a certain store that starts with an "S" (which had a fine catalog department a long time ago) to get service on an appliance? I've been given 3 numbers so far and STILL don't have an appointment. I'm suppose to get that dishwasher serviced every December or that warranty we purchased with the thing is out the door. Whew! I hate getting shuffled from person to person. Well, this day and age you don't even get to talk to a person! Okay, I'm done. Just needed to vent.
... Elaine

And you waited intil now to start scheduling it?

We got a foot of snow in less then two hours

Maria - Did the sun come out right after. It was really weird this morning. One minute snowing like crazy, then it was like someone turned off a switch and it immediately stopped. The sun was out within a half hour of the snow stopping. Hope you have someone to shovel you out. If you were closer, I would volunteer DS and his snowplow.

Darius, haven't had any problems in the past. This will be our third year to have it serviced. They told us to call the week before the sale date to set up the appointment. Always worked before.

Maria, that's too much snow for me. LOL Bet it's gorgeous, though. Hope you don't get snowed in. I'm sure that's no fun. If you have to go out ... bundle up and stay warm. Be careful, also! :)

no sun yet, Suzie, they did say it will come out soon, what a shocker this snow was was

Samson is having a ball, did not know Goldens love the snow that much, he is into it up to his belly .

I sympathize with you, Elaine, I go through that most of the time with trying to get in touch with a store or offices

Maria, how much snow was already on the ground before the new snow? Hope you don't have tunnels like last year.

Elaine, I just notice every year that things like that over the telephone take longer and longer...

I commiserate completely with Elaine and the hassle of getting anything done with SEARS. They just aren't the store they used to be, that's for sure. And since the take over with K-Mart, they've gone down even further. I remember when Sears would do anything to keep your business, would bend backwards over for the customer. They provided a good product, good service and wanted your return business. Never more. It's a sad thing, what we've come to in this country. No longer does corporate America care about you, it's customer. The bottom dollar is all they see and the attitude is, if you don't like it, go somewhere else. We know we have you by the short hairs :-(

And the biggest thing that bothers me about all this. My last name is Sears. Try growing up with that name and see what people say to you. Are you related???? Heheheh, isn't that original? Do they ask people who's name is Montgomery if they were related to Wards? And, if I was related, do you think I'd be slaving my tucchas off in an ER taking care of ill and injured people?!? Oh, heck no, I'd be sitting up in my penthouse suite counting all the dollars filtering into my personal banque account and travelling all over the world! LOL

I used to ask my Da, why we had no money since our name was Sears. He used to laugh and say, "Well, kiddo, you were born on the wrong side of the tracks. You are related the the poor Ohio Sears, not the rich Minnesota Sears." Oh, phooey. LOL

~Babs~ Hope you got a giggle out of this one :-)

I'm eating a huge handful of chocolate peanut butter Poppycock, and I don't even feel guilty. Thought I'd get my grocery shopping done today so tomorrow will be free.........So, my usual store was the first I stopped at, No fat free half and half for DH, (I weaned him off the sugary/fatty coffee creamer he used to use) and they had no marscapone, or lady fingers.

So fine, I'll go to my favorite italian market, they will at least have the cheese. Yes. They did. But no fat free half and half. Sigh. Another stop on the way home. Same chain -different store, plenty of egg nog, no fat free half and half. Ahhh, there's a Sentry across the intersection (two left turns, yikes!) and they had the fingers and the half and half plus a 55 cent coupon on the cream. So I bought four. I'm $140 poorer, my feet hurt and I don't have anything out for dinner!!! LOL Ah well, we're going to see Syriana and I'll let DH eat all the popcorn and then he won't be hungry for dinner.

Julie I had to LOL at your hiding your cup, I hide my good travel mug too. DH has about four other ones, but always want to pick mine so I tuck in the roundabout under the kitchen counter with the pots and pans!

Carol (DR) I would love some Dahlias but I'm known locally as the Dahlia Assassin. They are so beautiful and I love them, but I have no good location to overwinter them. Upper garage is too cold. lower is too warm. basement is too warm. It would be an exercise in futility. Seeds are rudbeckia, (rude beckys, they spread.) snap dragons short and tall, morning glories,and moon flowers which I took when the outer layer hadn't dried yet.) If you want some you can have them, but please don't let me kill any more dahlias.

DH home gotta run. finish later. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Left here at 11:30 and got home just before three. What a wasted day. All the bag boys put all the heavy stuff in one bag, two of them tore before I got them to the back seat of the car. Remember, my trunk does not open! Hauled everything in the house, warmed up some linguini for lunch and decided the Poppycock was well deserved!

Omly about an inch, Darius, if the rain had been snow it would have been as bad as the one last winter

Lol, Ms. Sears, I remember when first married we orderd tons of stuff from Sears & Roebuck Catalog, the first Christmas tree ornaments came from there, they had quite a few left from prewar Germany, they are very collectible now, I gave them to my daughters to carry on for their children, they just love them

Thanks Babs. And I'm sooo glad I didn't have that last name LOL

M5 what a day! I'm plumb tuckered out just reading your post. Go ahead and enjoy your poppicock. You deserve it. LOL

Darius, you're probably right. I'll probably regret putting off that phone call. Think I'll just go to the store when I'm at the mall and ask the guy I know to make the appointment for me. Maybe that would work.

The DH just called and is on his way home. Doing the "happy dance". ;)
... Elaine

First of all...
For Carol (The even one!) HOOOORAAAAAAYY!
I know you are so very excited...and I'm right in there with you. That's such SUPER news!!! (Give congrats from ALL of us to that son of yours! And Lots of pats on the back as well.)

Ok...now, I'm going to turn around. Tell me if you see my rear end has fallen off....welll? Hmmmm, still there. I don't understand. I was *sure* I'd worked it completely off during the past couple of days.

Yesterday I had to rearrange THREE rooms so DH could move cabinets, TV's and stereo equipment around so he could bring in his Christmas Present to the 'house'. We'd ordered a fairly normal sized Sony HD-LCD TV. Then we were told it was going to be a couple of weeks for delivery...then we were told it was shipped on Wednesday...then we were told that it was backordered until sometime in January. ERIC!!! Just get the BIG ONE, already!!! (So he did!)

OMG!! It's HUGE! Definitely TOO big...but man-o-man is it ever nice. And since we already had the theater surround sound system from a couple of years ago, it's like sitting in a private movie theater. Good thing we *don't* have company dropping in, they'd think we were totally crazy. About all I can really say about it is "You only live once..."

Sheila, LOL at the way you hide your 'car cup'. (I have to keep mine in the bottom of the china cabinet where he'd *never* look. hehehe

A denim spread is a great idea for houses with pets who think they're people. I think I need one! (Who knew CATS could carry *that* much dirt to the bed? LOL)

Darius, I see you're in a position to see the finish line from where you're standing. Though "standing" is probably not the right word. I know it wouldn't be if it were me.

Geez...Molly is going through a crappy time trying to get everything settled at her house. Tell her I'm thinking of her and hope that things get better before Christmas.

Dcat...don't let yourself slip too far into the 'balck hole'...if you go much farther you're going to bump into me. Oh well...maybe we can talk each other out of it. (If I stand still for more than a minute, I'm in tears...put that in the mix with forgetting everything - including my meds and insulin shot - I feel like I'm about ready to just dig a bigger hole in the "Black one" and stay there.)

Hi Elaine...your "all caps" emphasis are fine with me. I'd be pretty pee owed too. Hope all is going better at this hour.

Hey Kooger...been thinking about your situation at work while doing stuff around here. I get really aggrevated at companies that operate that way. But, from what I hear from friends and family, it's more the 'norm' these days than not. I'm not sure where the business world has their heads but I sure wish they'd remove it.

I can't remember the others I wanted to mention here...but since I've got to get the chicken enchiladas in the oven, I guess you'll just have to consider yourselves acknowledged.

Oh! I remember one thing I wanted to say....Maria...as I was scrolling through the thread to get to the new posts, I noticed your pic of Samson...I could swear I saw his tail wagging. :-)

I *gotta* go!

~julie~

Hint: Do NOT decide to sauté the small grapefruit sized organic cabbage you just found in the bottom of the refrigerator when you have packed all the dishes and utensils, LOL.

McCool, you must have had tons of snow?

He wags his tail all the time, Julie, even chases it, ;-)

This message was edited Dec 9, 2005 6:05 PM

Hi Everyone,

dmcdevitt - what are you sewing?(DR just reminded me of your mention of the denim bedspread) I love to sew, but it's hard to find the time. Did a bit last summer (my grandduaghter's dress for my niece's wedding) but not much since then. Have had two lengths of fabric to make new laundry bags for the Food Cupboard (a square drawstring to collect the wet towels til a volunteer takes them home), but they are sitting in my basement. And I had one of the roman shades from the FC home for washing and came to the conclusion the fabric is rotting. Don't understand why, they are only 13 years old. LOL They were simple to make though because it was just a length of fabric hemmed to the appropriate size. Every few inches a pocket was sewn into which a dowel was inserted. Then rings are needed only at the sides and only two cords are necessary. I guess replacing them will be a retirement project when I hope to have more time to sew.

Re jeans, I've NEVER worn them. Never been able to buy them to fit huge hips and a small (until recently) waist. I have a uniform of pants from Northern Reflections (a Canadian company which has expanded to the US) and tops from Tabi (do you have those stores in the US?). Add a fleece top from NR for the FC or a regular sweater for home, and that's it most of the time. In the summer, the same pants most of the time and a T-shirt.

I'm only party way down the thread reading. got as far as the pic of Mary's CC, but I can't enlarge it as I'm off-line at the moment. DH is giving me static about being glued to the computer (I've only been home about 30 minutes and the phone has rung twice). Anyway, I shall connect, send this and continue on later - after dinner. At least with what appears to be beautiful pics, I'll be able to find where I stopped.

Ann

Ann ~ That's a great plan for a Roman Shade!! I have wanted to do some but shy away from tacking all the little rings, etc. since they have to be precise. Dowels - what a great idea!! ANd you could pop the dowels out for washing....and you could make different shades and just change the dowels...oh do you see the wheels turning? I wish I had know this last summer when I wanted sunshades for the sliding doors.

Note to anyone in the Central Time Zone who knows how to start a new thread.

If I'm not here by 10:30 P.M. tonight...someone please start tomorrow's daily.

I'm beat and afraid I'm going to fall asleep and not wake up until noon tomorrow. :-)

Thanks!

~julie~

Maria, I think that we got about a foot on top of the inch or two already on the ground. It was already terrible driving when we headed out this morning ---- thought we were going to end up as guardrail garnish a couple of times! We had white-out conditions during the afternoon. Only had one customer all day, but at least I almost got caught up on my paperwork! Now my big problem is that the guy I hired to plow us out and to shovel at my store has yet to show up at the house. The driveway is solid snow and so are all the walkways. Grrrrr! I wouldn't have hired him if we could handle it ourselves. I don't want my mother to even THINK about shoveling ---- told her I didn't want to come home and find her dead on the sidewalk, shovel in hand. She had a heart attack about 5 years ago and I just don't think that it would be a good idea for her to exert herself that way (of course she thoroughly disagrees with me). My own problem is carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands which makes shoveling difficult to say the least. Right now DH could do some of it, but I don't like the idea of him shoveling out the entire driveway ----that's just asking for trouble given his age and general not-so-fit physical shape. Sorry, that's my rant for the evening!

Just finished some re-heated beef stew. It hit the spot on this cold and snowy evening. There's more on the stove--- help yourselves.

GG, glad that you had some business anyway. Now if any of your customers have some extra money to spend (AND want to cross nearly the whole country to do it), please send them my way! Thanks for the well wishes for my back ---- they must have helped, I was fine today. Actually, I think it may have been caused by spending a good deal of the previous day hunched over the piece of gold that I'm trying to turn into a special ring that someone ordered at the last minute. It's coming along, but I can't say I care for the design she wanted. Hope she likes it at least!

D'cat, sympathy and empathy about the "black hole". Just do your best to skirt around it if you can.

Carol, congrats on son's acceptance to the school. I'm sure it's made him feel a lot better.

I know I haven't responded to everyone, just as usual, I'm afraid. Have to go. Thinking of you all anyway and wishing everyone a good night.

Well, Just got done working and too Gran home,,,she was my last appointment and had to perm her,,,just checking in quick while making dinner,,,,Julie, N Problem,,,well, better go check dinner,,,,although the dinner bell hasn't gone off yet so I guess I;m safe,,,Will check in after dinner and after the OC goes to bed.

Elaine,,,figure I beyyet start stockpiling those carbs now,,,,won't be having any for awhile come Jan. 2nd,,,LOL

Darius,,,,Gorgeous Candle Holders,,,,,Very Lovely

Kelly

McCool, it sounds wonderful but I'm full of poppycock and popcorn and haven't an inch of space left. DH bought the BIG bucket of popcorn at the movie. You really got dumped on, didn't you. We only got about 3" overnight but the roads were a mess today. My car looks like it got painted white.

Elaine, Sears used to have reliable products and services but I think they have slipped badly. I finally bought a service contract that is useful when I bought my range. The oven needed a temperature adjustment, so I called and a guy came out and took only about a half hour to adjust it. Then he told me I should buy a thermometer like his (a mighty expensive one I might add) and do it myself. I just looked at him and said slowly "No, I shouldn't. That's why I have a service contract" .

Darius when I was in Italy with my sister she bought a beautiful piece that had 8 horses and a chariot in that white marble composite, it was the last one they had in the shop, I was sooo jealous!! She still has it, from 1976. Your candle holders are lovely. They must look beautiful with a fully set table.

Ann, we used to have a Northern Reflections store here, but they pulled out a couple years ago. I have a half dozen wonderful cotton knit sweaters I got from them, plus a couple pair of casual pants that have just lasted and lasted. I look on ebay occasionally for items and sometimes get lucky. Their clothing is very well made. I am hard pressed to find dressy clothing in my closet, mostly it's jeans and various shirts for me. I do have dress tennies, they are the ones I haven't worn in the garden yet.. The embassy gig must be done by now, how did it go?? I'll bet you made beautiful music!

Julie I hardly ever put a bedspread on. I use a lightweight quilt in warmer weather, and a big down comforter with a duvet cover in winter. Last year I made a cover, using two king sheets, and I'm never doing that again! Too much fabric to deal with plus sheets are heavier than the fabric the manufacturer's use, thought my arms would fall right off by the time I was done. LOL hiding your cup!! I hide munchies too or he'd have them all gone before I got a handful.

Got a blue willow cake plate and two cereal bowls tonight on ebay. This is getting expensive!!!

Hello to everyone I haven"t mentioned. Black hole dwellers, arise and greet tomorrow with the thought that you have the best bunch of friends in the world, as do I.

Got to say.... Goodnight, Gracie....need to go put my sore feet up and maybe get a foot massage from my starving (not) DH. He's full of popcorn too. See you tomorrow.

I'm back. Will try to catch up on my reading.

Mary - nice CC's. Kudos to you for keeping a Jade plant for 20 years. All mine got top heavy and toppled over when my kids were small. I gave up on them. You've been rewarded with the blooms. I don't think I've ever seen one in bloom.

What fascinating candlesticks, Darius. Probably a good idea to take treasures with you rather than storing them.

Maria, maybe the same storm that went through here and NYS earlier today. But we must have been on the northern edge of it. There were quite a few accidents this am, but traffic cleared shortly after 9 am and by mid-day the snow had pretty well finished. It did, however, prove to be a convenient excuse for the company which provides eggs to the Food Cupboard. We've had a standing order every Wednesday for 7 cases of eggs (15 dozen each case, packed in bulk) and a case of marjarine for more than 10 years. It's supposed to arrive any time between 8:30 am and 11:00 am which should give them a good window, wouldn't you think? Every now and then, they FORGET to enter us in the system. That happened on Wednesday. Our contact apologized, but there wasn't much that could be done on Wednesday. There are no volunteers around on Thursday; so she agreed that they would be at our back door before we opened this morning. No eggs. We waited a bit and called. they said they would check on it and get back to us. No call back. We called again. The truck was "stuck in traffic" and they couldn't reach it. BULL S***T! We had a volunteer who drove out to the same company to pick up day-old produce and he was back to the FC before 8:30 with no problem. (He would not have space in his vehicle for the eggs too and we pay a bit extra for delivery). The eggs were still not there, when I left to the bell gig (more about that later). I understand that they arrived at Noon - AFTER we were closed for the day and after about 170 people went without eggs today. The driver, when he arrived, indicated that the weather and traffic was not an issue. They just used it as an excuse when we phoned. Am I steamed? I've written a letter asking them for a free weekly delivery. I'm not holding my breath.

Elaine, maybe if we vented together we could create a lot of energy. Hope you finally got through to that S store. BTW, if you lived up north, you'd get used to the weather. Really! I can hardly wait to have enough snow to do things in it. Weather permitting, there are three of us who tramp around on snowshoes every Monday afternoon in winter. And we live quite near the Ottawa River. In a good winter (read cold), it will be safe to showshoe on the river, though it never gets frozen all the way across to the Quebec side. but we can go out and explore the islands which are near where we live. And we've seen red fox out there. It's a good outing.

babs, you wrote

OK, fill me in. I know that the K-Marts in Canada has disappeared but I don't know what happened in the US. since my Mom passed away almost 8 years ago, I don't get to Rochester so much and am not as up on shopping there. (You can D-mail me if that's such common knowledge that everyone would be bored).

julie, enjoy that big TV.

dmcdevitt - yes, the roman shade with dowels works quite well. Not original with me. I copied some I found in the building when the FC took it over. I think the originals may have come from IKEA in the late 80's. I thought proper dowel was rather pricy; so I got some long, thin bamboo garden stakes and cut them to the right length. With some of our windows, we have a bit of a problem with the cords breaking, but I think it is because the volunteers jam stuff against the window. The building has 4 tall windows in it . The pic below shows the blinds fairly well. Note, I've found that on this particular blind anyway, I need to sew the ends of the dowel pockets shut because they tended to slip out and get jammed. But they definitely are a lot easier than sewing on many, many rings.

Now - about our trip to the Embassy. We all gathered at the church by 11 am or slightly later. Had the bells packed up and were on the road by 11:30. Pulled up to the Embassy exactly at the appointed 11:45 time. Good thing I decided to go WITH the bells rather that with the other ringers who were to arrive a bit later, because the first thing they asked was the name of our contact. But we passed. They let us into the parking garage after poking all over the van and looking underneath with a mirror and into the engine compartment. Also swab tests (for explosives, I think, like most airport security does on your luggage now). Reminded me of going through Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. (Another story there for later. We decided half way through the process to reverse our decision and go back to West Berlin).

Anyway, they helped us unload the bells onto a cart and got them up to the second floor atrium location where we were to play. The van had to be parked elsewhere. We parked vehicles at the national Gallery which is just down the road from the Embassy - a 5 minute walk if you get green lights crossing the intersections in between.

My group pulled together and did a good job. It's quite a lot different playing for a full 20-25 minutes than it is playing one or two pieces in church. I'm very proud of them. We had one ringer, ringer from another church as my strongest ringer had to write an exam in Toronto today. But there is good co-operation between a few of the east end church who have bell choirs, and a fair bit of subbing for each other when needed. But everyone else was up for the occasion. And we can all now say we've been inside that building. Not many can do that. LOL

We play in church on Sunday again. Three pieces! Have asked to organist to direct us for one of them because one ringer singes in the choir of another church and they have their big Christmas presentation on Sunday. I can play her bells if Theresa directs us. There is only one of the pieces which we just played for which there is an Internet sound clip, but if anyone is interested, here it is:
http://www.jhsbell.com/Music/MusicPiece.cfm?piece=10939
(click on the bell to hear it)

Hope you all have a good night.

Ann

Ann, thank you ever so much to give us this wonderful music, sounds just like New England to me, simply wonderful can't think of a better word to describe it

Oh Ann, how perfectly beautiful! My how I enjoyed that. Made me wish I could have heard the entire concert.

Kelly, you are soooo funny. Hey, I need my bangs trimmed. Will you please do that for me? LOL

The corn chowder was a big success. There's still some left if anyone wants a late night snack. Was glad when the DH made it home tonight. We went to WM, and he's now parked in front of the TV. :) Hope everyone has a good night. Will check tomorrow.
Nightnight ... Elaine

Tomorrow's DAILY is UP in the Parking Lot!
Here's a link if you need it:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/561623/
~julie~

Elaine,
sure will,,,,,so, where did you and Kota end up going today with the wheels????? LOL

Well, was going to comment more but just got a call from the drunken OC,,,have to go pick him up,,,,LOL,,,I am *SO* glad he called and didn't drive,,,,maybe he's staring to grow up????? LOL

Talk Later

Kelly