What's everyone up to right now?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Almost wrapped up prepping the house.  Tomorrow everything not staying for staging or going with us in our travel trailer is going into storage.  We're leaving Friday - there is a lot of other work to be done, but not by us.

We're really really hoping to be in a position to make offers on a new place in a couple of weeks so we can close by the end of May.

Moving sucks, bites and blows.  My sympathies.

Boru

[Angrboda]

Well, I totally succeeded in blowing off the afternoon and buying a bunch of crap I probably didn't need. It started out overcast but dry. That soon went to shit, and by the time I was headed home, it was a mix of sleet and rain. I'm not a fan of the wet. I have holes in the heels of my boots and so my socks can end up rather moist after tromping around in it for a while. On the plus side, I did manage to get tartar sauce, though not the sale item I was hoping for. And I picked up a nice 12" skillet at T.J. Maxx for $12.99. I'm in the process of assembling a set of cookware, and while I didn't need to spend the money this month, the quality of this skillet beats the crap out of the cheap shit you can find at Walmart and Target. If I buy a multi-piece set, there may be some duplication of function, but I think this was a good buy. It adds substantially to my meager stock of an iron skillet and a 2 quart sauce pan. (The sauce pan, in particular, was a steal. $3 for an Emeril brand hard-anodized sauce pan at a thrift store. I've read where the anodization on a lot of this type of cookware can scratch easily, but not this stuff. It's combat tested. If the quality has remained the same, I just might pop for a set, even though it's rather pricey.) And once all was said and done, I forgot one of the few things that I had actually intended to buy, namely a red pepper for making chili. I may run down to the store in the morning. I may not. I'm sure the chili will be just fine without it.

[Jackalope]

Almost wrapped up prepping the house.  Tomorrow everything not staying for staging or going with us in our travel trailer is going into storage.  We're leaving Friday - there is a lot of other work to be done, but not by us.

We're really really hoping to be in a position to make offers on a new place in a couple of weeks so we can close by the end of May.

Moving sucks, bites and blows.  My sympathies.

Boru

The moving itself hasn't been that bad, it's selling the damn house and all the damn improvement projects being done to that end, even with hiring as much out as possible.

[Angrboda]

Whoah. Cub Foods has Killian on sale for $10 for a 12 pack. I decided to go beer rather than tequila with my spending on alcohol this month, and I lucked into finding a Cub grocery store that carries liquor when I went to a philosophy event last month. It's not incredibly convenient, but neither is it an interminable slog. That might be just the ticket. I don't have a lot going on next week anyway. I do need a red pepper for chili, but I don't think I can combine the two purposes sufficiently well to justify going tomorrow. (Ooh, and Harp is on sale as well, for $13. Not exactly high brow stuff, but that suits me just fine. Given what's left in the kitty for March, I could actually get both!)

[Rev. Rye]

Still sick, but I managed to do my normal Every-Other-Saturday outing, going to Superdawg for lunch, getting some stuff at the library, and managed to go to Half Price Books to get a couple books (a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, the LoA edition of Dos Passos' first few novels, The Marriage Plot, Ron Miscaviage's autobiography where he detailed the path that led his son to completely fuck up the lives and wallets of thousands of people, and also a DVD of Drums Along the Mohawk). Thank Jah I managed to buy a pack of surgical masks at the American Science and Surplus warehouse sale a few months ago, so I could do it without spreading whatever germs I have.

And now, this week's entry in the Deep Hurting Project: Getaway (no relation to the Steve McQueen movie). It's one of those horrible movies where TVTropes doesn't explain exactly why it's bad, so I look forward to figuring out where a movie where Selena Gomez plays an absurdly profane carjacker goes so horribly wrong.

[Cod]

Can't sleep.

[Rev. Rye]

When I woke up, Microsoft decided to make the login screen for my laptop a picture of the covered bridge in West Montrose, Ontario, the last of its kind in the province.

I was reminded of the times my parents would drive me to Long Grove and we’d spend an afternoon or so in this approximation of the 19th century, and we’d walk around the area between the Village Tavern, the “Oldest Restaurant And Tavern in Illinois,” and go through the shops and then, we’d reach the covered bridge and we’d go back to the cars. And then I looked it up and discovered that this happened:




Some jackass drove his truck into it and destroyed it. And just to rub salt on the wound, this was days after it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. And here’s what it looks like at the moment:



You know, I know it takes time to make a covering for a bridge, but given that it’s pretty iconic (to the extent that the town’s logo features it prominently), but it’s really strange to imagine that it’s not covered anymore.

[Cod]

Watching Crufts. There are some weird little dogs in the toy section.

[fredd bear]

We don't get Crufts on TV here. Would like to see it.

There have always been dogs in my life. The last one was a Pit Bull; dumb as bag of hammers, but the best natured dog I've ever had. Currently a 2 year old Jack Russell; VERY smart, distressingly energetic, and destructive. I'm hoping he may calm down a bit in the next couple of years.

---

I forgot to mention:

Melbourne has a public holiday for the Melbourne Cup, the biggest horse race in  Australia., it's in November.   I've always thought having  a public holiday for a horse race excessive, even in Oz, where sports are the national religion.

Today, it's Monday 11 March. Here in South Australia, it's a public holiday------for the Adelaide Cup. A fairly recent holiday. I have no idea why the politicians thought that was a good idea, and how on earth they justified it.


New Zealand is called "The land of the long white cloud"

Australia is called "the land of the long week end'

 My American uncle was stunned when he found out how much holiday time we have in Australia; 4 weeks annual holiday is the benchmark. 

Then of course there is also 'long service leave' ; 13 weeks holiday on full pay after 10 years service.  It continues to accrue a 9 days a year. BY law, long service leave may be taken at the discretion of the employee.

In the last 5 years of my employment, I was able to take 3 months off a year; 1 month annual  leave, 2 months long service leave at half pay.

Not for nothing is Australia called "the lucky country" 

[Rev. Rye]

Well, as an update for my condition at the moment: have you ever sneezed and expelled a thing of mucus so big it covered the palm of your left hand? Because that's what happened a minute or two after I woke up this morning. Also, I'm watching The Front Runner. Remember when we actually gave a shit about the morals of our presidential candidates? The day when a presidential candidate having an affair was enough to tank his campaign and we could generally assume that bragging about sexual assault would be right out? Those must have been good times.