Metatalktail Hour: A Plan Comes Together November 9, 2019 1:18 PM Subscribe
This week for Metatalktails, I want to hear about some little triumphs. Like when you finally got to use that thing you'd set up for just this occasion. What are your stories of a time when preparation really paid off, or a plan came together in a satisfying way?
As always, this is a conversation starter not limiter, so tell us everything that's up with you!
As always, this is a conversation starter not limiter, so tell us everything that's up with you!
Silly little example, but it's what brought this topic to mind: I carry around probably too much stuff in my bag. I debated whether dramamine was worth including in my little first-aid-stuff pouch, but finally included it. And then a few days ago, a friend had bad motion sickness and there it was. Just one of those little "good job, past me" kind of things.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 1:38 PM on November 9, 2019 [19 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 1:38 PM on November 9, 2019 [19 favorites]
omg that dog is so cute
posted by HotToddy at 1:55 PM on November 9, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by HotToddy at 1:55 PM on November 9, 2019 [7 favorites]
I have been out of work since we moved cross country this past spring. My aunt, who is VP for global human resources for a large company, has been pushing me to network rather than just applying to jobs based on ads. I've been working very, very hard at it and am 95% sure I'm going to get an offer next week on heels of two interviews this week. I hope to be able to come back next week and say that I have a job. This is the first time in my career that I have actively used networking AND had it pay off (I hope!).
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 2:46 PM on November 9, 2019 [18 favorites]
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 2:46 PM on November 9, 2019 [18 favorites]
Please share all your D&D/tabletop stories with this prompt.
posted by curious nu at 2:53 PM on November 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by curious nu at 2:53 PM on November 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
I did have to smuggle my girlfriend of the time out of the church belltower several winters ago. It was her idea ("that belltower is very big and strong-looking"), I had a key and we had gone up there for {redacted} but I did not realise there was a evening carol service that day (I thought we were in the clear).
We were, um, rudely interrupted by the sounds of many people singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" from beneath us, which was ... offputting. And realised we could get locked in overnight if the vicar put the additional overnight padlock on the porch gate.
Thankfully my girlfriend was fairly tall so I gave her my coat, hat and scarf to disguise and bulk out a bit, and we carried a small table between us down the last few steps and into the area at the back of the church. A few of the volunteers (there's a crew of between 6 and 10 for services) inevitably saw us, but I made some hand gestures to indicate that we were just helping out by quietly moving some furniture around for someone vague and we were done and leaving. Which we did, locking up the bell tower.
We dropped in at the pub. I was relieved. Until my girlfriend realised she had left her bra in the belltower.
FFS.
Cue me going back inside the church, making hand gestures to indicate that I just had one more thing to do, unlocking and going back into the belltower, finding the bra, then taking a chair downstairs with me as the excuse. I got to the bottom of the belltower and made more hand gestures to indicate I was *really* done now, and then back to the pub.
I got away with it. The vicar did puzzlingly comment a week or so later about me moving the furniture, but I said I was helping Geoff out. Geoff was a supremely forgetful church warden, and it wasn't the first time someone had used "Geoff" as an excuse for doing something not quite legit.
"Thanks; that was good of you", she said.
"That's okay. Did the carol service go well?" I asked as I wandered off.
"Yes. I was momentarily distracted at one point by your girlfriend's bra hanging out of your pocket but apart from that it went smoothly."
posted by Wordshore at 3:10 PM on November 9, 2019 [132 favorites]
We were, um, rudely interrupted by the sounds of many people singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" from beneath us, which was ... offputting. And realised we could get locked in overnight if the vicar put the additional overnight padlock on the porch gate.
Thankfully my girlfriend was fairly tall so I gave her my coat, hat and scarf to disguise and bulk out a bit, and we carried a small table between us down the last few steps and into the area at the back of the church. A few of the volunteers (there's a crew of between 6 and 10 for services) inevitably saw us, but I made some hand gestures to indicate that we were just helping out by quietly moving some furniture around for someone vague and we were done and leaving. Which we did, locking up the bell tower.
We dropped in at the pub. I was relieved. Until my girlfriend realised she had left her bra in the belltower.
FFS.
Cue me going back inside the church, making hand gestures to indicate that I just had one more thing to do, unlocking and going back into the belltower, finding the bra, then taking a chair downstairs with me as the excuse. I got to the bottom of the belltower and made more hand gestures to indicate I was *really* done now, and then back to the pub.
I got away with it. The vicar did puzzlingly comment a week or so later about me moving the furniture, but I said I was helping Geoff out. Geoff was a supremely forgetful church warden, and it wasn't the first time someone had used "Geoff" as an excuse for doing something not quite legit.
"Thanks; that was good of you", she said.
"That's okay. Did the carol service go well?" I asked as I wandered off.
"Yes. I was momentarily distracted at one point by your girlfriend's bra hanging out of your pocket but apart from that it went smoothly."
posted by Wordshore at 3:10 PM on November 9, 2019 [132 favorites]
I don't know if this counts as a plan per se, but many years ago a group of friends and I were leaving an afternoon movie when we ran into another good friend who was just going in to see the evening show. He was a fastidious sort and had recently purchased a new car which he doted on to some excess, like making you tap your feet in the air before bringing them into the car so as not to track in dirt or debris. He was at the movies on a first date and he seemed a bit tense or "tight" over it rather than in his usual good nature, where things like his fastidiousness was as much subject of shared fun than anything too serious.
Me and the rest of the pals I was with decided to try and loosen him up a bit and help break the tension, so we left a note on his car window saying "Sorry I hit your car backing out of my spot." Along with the phone number of one of us he didn't know.
When we met at the theater we'd all agreed to meet again later that night, which is when we heard the story of how it all played out. When the woman he was with recounted the events. His reaction was exactly as we imagined, obsessively circling and recircling his car over and over looking for the fictitious dent or ding that was supposed to have been made while being his amusing version of irate, which has sort of ridiculous charm to it rather than animosity, and just generally forgetting the date thing for the moment before going back into the movie theater to call the number where it was all revealed to be a hoax.
She found it all to be hilarious and his reaction was the expected mix of vexed about the hoax and amiable good humor about the success of it. Whether or not this all actually served to help their relationship get off the ground, I can't say, but they were a couple for many years, so I like to think we maybe helped a little bit.
posted by gusottertrout at 4:33 PM on November 9, 2019 [8 favorites]
Me and the rest of the pals I was with decided to try and loosen him up a bit and help break the tension, so we left a note on his car window saying "Sorry I hit your car backing out of my spot." Along with the phone number of one of us he didn't know.
When we met at the theater we'd all agreed to meet again later that night, which is when we heard the story of how it all played out. When the woman he was with recounted the events. His reaction was exactly as we imagined, obsessively circling and recircling his car over and over looking for the fictitious dent or ding that was supposed to have been made while being his amusing version of irate, which has sort of ridiculous charm to it rather than animosity, and just generally forgetting the date thing for the moment before going back into the movie theater to call the number where it was all revealed to be a hoax.
She found it all to be hilarious and his reaction was the expected mix of vexed about the hoax and amiable good humor about the success of it. Whether or not this all actually served to help their relationship get off the ground, I can't say, but they were a couple for many years, so I like to think we maybe helped a little bit.
posted by gusottertrout at 4:33 PM on November 9, 2019 [8 favorites]
I got to the word "belltower" and thought "hrm, that sounds like Wordshore." *gives self a high five*
The most recent example I can think of is when I went to the shift start meeting of one of the production departments (I like to pop into those, on a regular basis; I get really good info of what's going on out on the shop floor and it makes me available to the operators), and found out they had a systems issue and were about to start sending people home. Within 15 minutes, I had spun up training materials and a room to do it in, and got the OSHA-required annual training done that day. The leaders were thrilled because it was something to do with their people (and that darn safety training wasn't going to interrupt production, the way it always does *eyeroll*); I was super happy to get the training done for about 25% of the population. It was a happy coincidence that I had free time that day, and that I happened across the shift meeting at the right time. yay. small victories.
This only sorta fits into this - I carry a set of zills (finger cymbals) with me most of the time - I use them weekly at dance class, and if they don't live in my purse I tend to forget them. Anyway - they come in handy when you need to get the attention of a group of people, especially when they don't know you have them, because it's so random.
Life blahblah -- I have contractors working on a project at work, and I had to come in from 1-7 pm tonight, and will be here from 7 am -- 1 pm tomorrow, and then back to the grind on Monday. It hasn't been smooth-going, and blah. I'll be happy when it's over. I also did a stupid thing and booked myself Mon night, Tues night, and Thurs night next week, as if the 9 days in a row at work wasn't enough. Ah well.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 4:55 PM on November 9, 2019 [7 favorites]
The most recent example I can think of is when I went to the shift start meeting of one of the production departments (I like to pop into those, on a regular basis; I get really good info of what's going on out on the shop floor and it makes me available to the operators), and found out they had a systems issue and were about to start sending people home. Within 15 minutes, I had spun up training materials and a room to do it in, and got the OSHA-required annual training done that day. The leaders were thrilled because it was something to do with their people (and that darn safety training wasn't going to interrupt production, the way it always does *eyeroll*); I was super happy to get the training done for about 25% of the population. It was a happy coincidence that I had free time that day, and that I happened across the shift meeting at the right time. yay. small victories.
This only sorta fits into this - I carry a set of zills (finger cymbals) with me most of the time - I use them weekly at dance class, and if they don't live in my purse I tend to forget them. Anyway - they come in handy when you need to get the attention of a group of people, especially when they don't know you have them, because it's so random.
Life blahblah -- I have contractors working on a project at work, and I had to come in from 1-7 pm tonight, and will be here from 7 am -- 1 pm tomorrow, and then back to the grind on Monday. It hasn't been smooth-going, and blah. I'll be happy when it's over. I also did a stupid thing and booked myself Mon night, Tues night, and Thurs night next week, as if the 9 days in a row at work wasn't enough. Ah well.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 4:55 PM on November 9, 2019 [7 favorites]
[SPOILER ALERT FOR A 113 YEAR OLD BOOK] When I was around 16 years old, we were reading The Jungle in English class. The day's lesson involved going around the room and having each student read a page. I'd read the whole thing already and knew we were coming up on the famous scene in which a worker falls into the meat grinder at a sausage factory and becomes sausage. I had a plan. I'd been waiting for it for days.
I was in the back of the room. Just as we got to the start of the relevant sentence, I started singing the Oscar Mayer commercial jingle, "my hot dog has a first name. . ." It absolutely destroyed my teacher, who couldn't stop laughing for a full minute and entirely disrupted the class. It's almost certainly both the funniest and most well received joke I've ever told.
posted by eotvos at 4:59 PM on November 9, 2019 [43 favorites]
I was in the back of the room. Just as we got to the start of the relevant sentence, I started singing the Oscar Mayer commercial jingle, "my hot dog has a first name. . ." It absolutely destroyed my teacher, who couldn't stop laughing for a full minute and entirely disrupted the class. It's almost certainly both the funniest and most well received joke I've ever told.
posted by eotvos at 4:59 PM on November 9, 2019 [43 favorites]
little triumphs
paulo triumphis.
I stealing that, it's ™®© mine.
Chiropractic account for the mob, retired.
Smells of monks hood and oleander. Carries a .177 caliber hand-held Activator Adjusting Instrument...my little triumph was a 20x telescopic. After so long, oh look, a crater on the moon becomes, ya. Took astronomy in College, but getting back to basics was fun, fixing the damn thing was fun.
posted by clavdivs at 5:25 PM on November 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
paulo triumphis.
I stealing that, it's ™®© mine.
Chiropractic account for the mob, retired.
Smells of monks hood and oleander. Carries a .177 caliber hand-held Activator Adjusting Instrument...my little triumph was a 20x telescopic. After so long, oh look, a crater on the moon becomes, ya. Took astronomy in College, but getting back to basics was fun, fixing the damn thing was fun.
posted by clavdivs at 5:25 PM on November 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
Six years ago I asked about going back to school. This summer I finished my last few credits and in a little over a week I'll graduate "with great distinction."
I graduated from high school in 1999 so it's taken me 20 years, and a detour through circus school, to get to this point so I'm kinda stoked about that.
posted by Mister_Sleight_of_Hand at 5:30 PM on November 9, 2019 [55 favorites]
I graduated from high school in 1999 so it's taken me 20 years, and a detour through circus school, to get to this point so I'm kinda stoked about that.
posted by Mister_Sleight_of_Hand at 5:30 PM on November 9, 2019 [55 favorites]
I'm just popping in to promote Neanderthal Gardens. It's a good time, especially in winter! Got our real first snow yesterday.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:15 PM on November 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:15 PM on November 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
My husband had a little bit of one today when a pair of missionaries rang our doorbell looking for me. I was raised *very* Mormon and religious relatives told them where I live, but I won’t answer the door when they try to get me back and he still will, for some reason. The pair assigned to reactivation duties in our area are women and are extremely persistent and friendly.
They had a longish conversation with several attempts on their part to get him to let them inside and he was polite but said I was unavailable and dodged why and let them make small talk. Then, as their final feint one asked, “Hey, we keep wondering, what is this salmon on your doorframe?”
Well- it’s a mezuzah that my brother-in-law made for us when we moved into the house. They were raised Orthodox although neither believe in anything much anymore. But my husband said, “Well- how much of the Bible have you read?” and they answered “All of it! It is here in our hands,” and sounded excited to have worked their way into a conversation about religion.
He said, “Well it’s the mark on our door.”
They said: ????
And he said, “When you figure it out, come back and talk to me about it,” and that was the end of the conversation. I laughed and I laughed but the joke is on me because no matter what I think about their chosen religion they are pretty smart and dedicated, and I think they will do it. But they will have learned a thing, so that’s good, right?
posted by charmedimsure at 6:38 PM on November 9, 2019 [17 favorites]
They had a longish conversation with several attempts on their part to get him to let them inside and he was polite but said I was unavailable and dodged why and let them make small talk. Then, as their final feint one asked, “Hey, we keep wondering, what is this salmon on your doorframe?”
Well- it’s a mezuzah that my brother-in-law made for us when we moved into the house. They were raised Orthodox although neither believe in anything much anymore. But my husband said, “Well- how much of the Bible have you read?” and they answered “All of it! It is here in our hands,” and sounded excited to have worked their way into a conversation about religion.
He said, “Well it’s the mark on our door.”
They said: ????
And he said, “When you figure it out, come back and talk to me about it,” and that was the end of the conversation. I laughed and I laughed but the joke is on me because no matter what I think about their chosen religion they are pretty smart and dedicated, and I think they will do it. But they will have learned a thing, so that’s good, right?
posted by charmedimsure at 6:38 PM on November 9, 2019 [17 favorites]
Found out yesterday that I am still being considered for the apartment that I saw last week. It is a long shot because it is available as of December 1st and I can’t move until January, so I find myself coldly hoping that whoever the December 1st applicants are they all have worse credit scores than me, or something else vaguely unkind. The unit in question is half of the top floor of an old Victorian house on a cute leafy street in a quiet neighborhood. I would get a kitchen with a skylight and the cat would get a grassy yard. Send your positive thoughts.
posted by janepanic at 7:25 PM on November 9, 2019 [21 favorites]
posted by janepanic at 7:25 PM on November 9, 2019 [21 favorites]
I have been running on approximately a single brain cell all week and am feeling bad about my work. Like, I didn't do any, couldn't get a rhythm going to save my life despite putting in about 8 hrs/day in front of the screen.
It's to the point that I'm wondering if some kind of external problem is a factor, like do I have sleep apnea? Lead poisoning? I just feel stupid, it's unpleasant.
Anyway, this has nothing to do with the prompt and I can't think of any advance planning I've ever done in my life, like, ever.
I guess today I did manage the child's expectations well? So, telling her the plan and executing the plan, and then when there was a deviation from the plan I was able to explain so that no meltdown occurred. That's pretty good, yeah, I'll give myself credit for that.
Am looking forward to the end of my partner's fellowship so we can once again be a two parent household and someone else can decide about dinner several nights a week and run bedtime and occasionally scoop the thrice-damned catbox. Both cats are now on meds, that was another stupid thing about this week.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:32 PM on November 9, 2019 [8 favorites]
It's to the point that I'm wondering if some kind of external problem is a factor, like do I have sleep apnea? Lead poisoning? I just feel stupid, it's unpleasant.
Anyway, this has nothing to do with the prompt and I can't think of any advance planning I've ever done in my life, like, ever.
I guess today I did manage the child's expectations well? So, telling her the plan and executing the plan, and then when there was a deviation from the plan I was able to explain so that no meltdown occurred. That's pretty good, yeah, I'll give myself credit for that.
Am looking forward to the end of my partner's fellowship so we can once again be a two parent household and someone else can decide about dinner several nights a week and run bedtime and occasionally scoop the thrice-damned catbox. Both cats are now on meds, that was another stupid thing about this week.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:32 PM on November 9, 2019 [8 favorites]
Maybe I'm a little frustrated and sensitive on this point, but I feel like this question is mocking my complete failure t to design an articulated streetcar.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:33 PM on November 9, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:33 PM on November 9, 2019 [7 favorites]
mandolin conspiracy thank you! Your comment made me remember about a booboo I made. There's this fancy cilantro we get plants of in my store that I've been growing for about a year, and I'll grow no other cilantro after this. It's called "confetti" and it looks almost like dill- but it's coriander. It has a nicer stronger flavor, and it's hardier. My plant went to seed after our August heatwave, so I saved the seeds and sent some to a few mefites that I knew gardened. WELL. I got a lovely thank you from LaBellaStella (who has sent me seeds herself in the past) and a note that she'll try to grow them in spring after you know, the snow. I FORGOT SNOW WAS A THING! Out here winter is the best season for tender herbs like dill and cilantro and chervil but of course that's because it's chilly with no frost! I forgot about frost! D'OH!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:49 PM on November 9, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:49 PM on November 9, 2019 [5 favorites]
People mailing around cilantro! Now I KNOW this post is just to mock me!
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:56 PM on November 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:56 PM on November 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
...Would you... Like some fancy cilantro seeds?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:16 PM on November 9, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:16 PM on November 9, 2019 [9 favorites]
Herein lies a tale of woe and woo with a happy ending. Last Friday, I was shocked to learn I am being laid off. (Thursday was my 36th anniversary at the job.) I cried. I was so worried about health care coverage. (America!) I was terribly afraid I would not be able to afford insurance because I have health issues.
My sister calmed me down, reminding me that I am loved, and she wouldn't let anything dire happen to me. Then she helped me throw an I Ching reading and it said that endeavors taken in hand sooner, rather than later, would meet with great success, and of course, perseverance furthers. My changing line turned it into Heaven over Heaven which is as good as it gets. I don't really believe in woo but it made me focus my mind on a plan of action.
A few weeks ago, I had been invited to attend a Medicare Advantage fair but hadn't decided to go. I went today and I am so glad I did. I found out very promising options for affordable insurance and now I feel positive about retiring. I am very lucky that I'm old enough to start getting Social Security and although it is not a lot of money, I have always lived frugally and don't need that much.
All in all, the week started in sadness and panic but ended in a confidence that I can survive without having to get another job. One of the ladies at the fair said she saw me when I came in and I looked stressed and closed down. When I was leaving she told me she was amazed at the change in my mood, that I was looking "happy and glowing."
And to make it even better, a dear friend who is not quite old enough for Medicare, insisted on accompanying me. She learned a lot so she feels more confident about her future as well. Then she took me to lunch at an old fashioned Italian restaurant and we ate and talked and hugged. No matter what comes I feel enfolded in love and support. Hugs to all of you, my friends!
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:04 PM on November 9, 2019 [63 favorites]
My sister calmed me down, reminding me that I am loved, and she wouldn't let anything dire happen to me. Then she helped me throw an I Ching reading and it said that endeavors taken in hand sooner, rather than later, would meet with great success, and of course, perseverance furthers. My changing line turned it into Heaven over Heaven which is as good as it gets. I don't really believe in woo but it made me focus my mind on a plan of action.
A few weeks ago, I had been invited to attend a Medicare Advantage fair but hadn't decided to go. I went today and I am so glad I did. I found out very promising options for affordable insurance and now I feel positive about retiring. I am very lucky that I'm old enough to start getting Social Security and although it is not a lot of money, I have always lived frugally and don't need that much.
All in all, the week started in sadness and panic but ended in a confidence that I can survive without having to get another job. One of the ladies at the fair said she saw me when I came in and I looked stressed and closed down. When I was leaving she told me she was amazed at the change in my mood, that I was looking "happy and glowing."
And to make it even better, a dear friend who is not quite old enough for Medicare, insisted on accompanying me. She learned a lot so she feels more confident about her future as well. Then she took me to lunch at an old fashioned Italian restaurant and we ate and talked and hugged. No matter what comes I feel enfolded in love and support. Hugs to all of you, my friends!
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:04 PM on November 9, 2019 [63 favorites]
We were, um, rudely interrupted by the sounds of many people singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" from beneath us, which was ... offputting.
What am I misunderstanding? It sounds like it ought to have been encouraging.
posted by aws17576 at 9:16 PM on November 9, 2019 [60 favorites]
What am I misunderstanding? It sounds like it ought to have been encouraging.
posted by aws17576 at 9:16 PM on November 9, 2019 [60 favorites]
I volunteered to fix some kids' chairs for my sister, and I actually did it! The seat had broken on one of them, so I replaced the 1/8 in MDF seats with 3/8 plywood. This involved routing out the frame to fit the wider seats, which I did with the Dremel I bought to remove stubborn grout in my mom's shower. You can tell which was the first chair I did, because that's the one with all the messy cuts; the second time around they were all clean and smooth! The seats are getting their final coat of polyurethane tomorrow, and then I just need to glue a broken piece on one of them before I deliver the completed goods to my nephews.
The shower is less encouraging. What I had initially thought was a simple regrouting and recaulking has turned out to be a nightmare of correcting ancient home DIY. There's a bizarre gap between the tile and the tub, which was filled with decaying caulk (in fact, there's a half inch gap between the backer board and the tub, so the caulk went all the way back to the studs and insulation). So instead I began removing the bottom row of tiles to put in an ornamental something-or-other and bring the tile at least flush with the top of the tub. So, I got a flat bar and started removing tiles. The Dremel has proven to be absolutely necessary, because it would be functionally impossible to remove the grout without it (I tried to hold out before buying it, and it was agonizing).
I had a moment this afternoon where I thought "oh wow, I am actually removing tiles, I am actually following through on this plan."
I'm now concerned that there has been water infiltration behind the tiles, due to a rust-colored stain on one of the studs. I guess at this point I'll try to remove all the tiles and see what it's looking like behind them. I am of course deathly terrified of asbestos, despite assurances from the HOA maintenance people that there is none, and the visual confirmation that it is indeed yellow fiberglass insulation. But I have a respirator, and I periodically test it by seeing if I can smell stuff as I'm cooking (I can't). It's good for the dust I kick up removing the grout anyway.
We're at the point where I want to bring in a professional to at least evaluate the situation. I'm pretty confident that I can redo the tile, grout, and caulk, so fingers crossed that's all that's needed.
Anyway, I messed up my antidepressant dosing around Halloween and only got about a third of my normal dose for three or four days. And wow, what a difference. Nothing highlights for me that something is helping like suddenly reverting to my old self. Like, oh wow, I didn't really think about the confidence needed to start fixing stuff until I had a few days of total depression and discouragement.
I have other plans for the coming week, but I'm reluctant to talk about them for fear that I'll start slacking off. I'll be housesitting for the next two weeks, and I'm very much looking forward to that.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:56 PM on November 9, 2019 [9 favorites]
The shower is less encouraging. What I had initially thought was a simple regrouting and recaulking has turned out to be a nightmare of correcting ancient home DIY. There's a bizarre gap between the tile and the tub, which was filled with decaying caulk (in fact, there's a half inch gap between the backer board and the tub, so the caulk went all the way back to the studs and insulation). So instead I began removing the bottom row of tiles to put in an ornamental something-or-other and bring the tile at least flush with the top of the tub. So, I got a flat bar and started removing tiles. The Dremel has proven to be absolutely necessary, because it would be functionally impossible to remove the grout without it (I tried to hold out before buying it, and it was agonizing).
I had a moment this afternoon where I thought "oh wow, I am actually removing tiles, I am actually following through on this plan."
I'm now concerned that there has been water infiltration behind the tiles, due to a rust-colored stain on one of the studs. I guess at this point I'll try to remove all the tiles and see what it's looking like behind them. I am of course deathly terrified of asbestos, despite assurances from the HOA maintenance people that there is none, and the visual confirmation that it is indeed yellow fiberglass insulation. But I have a respirator, and I periodically test it by seeing if I can smell stuff as I'm cooking (I can't). It's good for the dust I kick up removing the grout anyway.
We're at the point where I want to bring in a professional to at least evaluate the situation. I'm pretty confident that I can redo the tile, grout, and caulk, so fingers crossed that's all that's needed.
Anyway, I messed up my antidepressant dosing around Halloween and only got about a third of my normal dose for three or four days. And wow, what a difference. Nothing highlights for me that something is helping like suddenly reverting to my old self. Like, oh wow, I didn't really think about the confidence needed to start fixing stuff until I had a few days of total depression and discouragement.
I have other plans for the coming week, but I'm reluctant to talk about them for fear that I'll start slacking off. I'll be housesitting for the next two weeks, and I'm very much looking forward to that.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:56 PM on November 9, 2019 [9 favorites]
Oh yeah, I also decided that my room was too much of a mess, so I built some extra closet shelves. I think I may have mentioned these already, but anyway, I cut everything to size on Wednesday, and drilled them onto the studs in the closet yesterday. It's crazy to me that I decided to build shelves and then built them in less than a week. That's alongside the other projects I've been working on, too. Just getting things done is not how I'm used to operating.
Of course now I have to actually put things on the shelves. So far, I just put up an empty suitcase that's been sitting on the floor for like six months. But, you know, now it's sitting on one of the custom shelves I built by myself, so that's cool.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 10:00 PM on November 9, 2019 [10 favorites]
Of course now I have to actually put things on the shelves. So far, I just put up an empty suitcase that's been sitting on the floor for like six months. But, you know, now it's sitting on one of the custom shelves I built by myself, so that's cool.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 10:00 PM on November 9, 2019 [10 favorites]
I put interesting seeds in my Secret Quonsar request, and now I hope you draw me, Homo Neanderthalensis!
Anyway. There was a terrible tragedy I’m not going to talk about here in my extended family this week, and I’ve been really mentally out of commission. But I had a story for this right away:
Last month a friend and I went on a hike at Mt. Rainier. Just out of habit, we brought bear spray, even though we weren’t on a very remote or difficult trail and neither of had ever encountered bears there. It was a warm, sunny day and a lot of people who weren’t used to the area, many of whom were international tourists, were there. We had paused to sit on a rock and have a snack. And suddenly a little black bear climbed over the hill about 10 yards from us, strolled across the trail, and flopped down to chew on grasses like there wasn’t an entire stunned family standing right there. Fortunately the bear was remarkably chill, unaccompanied by bigger bears, and not interested in people (nor in the jerky, cheese, and dried fruit we were eating). But if it had decided to be aggressive, we would’ve been solely responsible for saving everyone there because we overprepared.
(If anyone happened to see the video circulating on social media of a little black bear at Mt. Rainier walking up to a teenager and sniffing him before galumphing away, I’m 99% sure it was the same bear.)
posted by centrifugal at 10:31 PM on November 9, 2019 [10 favorites]
Anyway. There was a terrible tragedy I’m not going to talk about here in my extended family this week, and I’ve been really mentally out of commission. But I had a story for this right away:
Last month a friend and I went on a hike at Mt. Rainier. Just out of habit, we brought bear spray, even though we weren’t on a very remote or difficult trail and neither of had ever encountered bears there. It was a warm, sunny day and a lot of people who weren’t used to the area, many of whom were international tourists, were there. We had paused to sit on a rock and have a snack. And suddenly a little black bear climbed over the hill about 10 yards from us, strolled across the trail, and flopped down to chew on grasses like there wasn’t an entire stunned family standing right there. Fortunately the bear was remarkably chill, unaccompanied by bigger bears, and not interested in people (nor in the jerky, cheese, and dried fruit we were eating). But if it had decided to be aggressive, we would’ve been solely responsible for saving everyone there because we overprepared.
(If anyone happened to see the video circulating on social media of a little black bear at Mt. Rainier walking up to a teenager and sniffing him before galumphing away, I’m 99% sure it was the same bear.)
posted by centrifugal at 10:31 PM on November 9, 2019 [10 favorites]
Being kind to homeless people who know where you live is not necessarily a good idea. Someone is outside my building and has had their finger on my door alarm for a couple of minutes now.
Just called 911.
Double-checking the time, it's been 10 minutes now.
As much as living in this entitled neighborhood bugs the shit out of me I’m pretty sure 911 is sending someone right away.
Not only did the officer call me beforehand she also called me after their visit and said he must have just left. I had gone down to the basement to switch out the laundry so I didn't know when he left.
She gently reminded me that I shouldn't let homeless people know where I live and it's true.
My urge is to help people and to trust them, but I tend to think of it as a reciprocal relationship. Protip: not everyone sees it as reciprocal!
I'm nothing if not naive.
posted by bendy at 1:16 AM on November 10, 2019 [10 favorites]
Just called 911.
Double-checking the time, it's been 10 minutes now.
As much as living in this entitled neighborhood bugs the shit out of me I’m pretty sure 911 is sending someone right away.
Not only did the officer call me beforehand she also called me after their visit and said he must have just left. I had gone down to the basement to switch out the laundry so I didn't know when he left.
She gently reminded me that I shouldn't let homeless people know where I live and it's true.
My urge is to help people and to trust them, but I tend to think of it as a reciprocal relationship. Protip: not everyone sees it as reciprocal!
I'm nothing if not naive.
posted by bendy at 1:16 AM on November 10, 2019 [10 favorites]
Ugh, not reciprocal as in I bought you a beer you get the next round. More like I'm doing my best to humanize you and give you hand warmers and some singles and a six-pack of PBR and sitting on the ground with you outside the nail salon and listening to your story. I'm respecting you.
So if you know that my boundary is that I don't like people coming to my house unannounced, then respect me and my boundaries and don't ring my door alarm for ten minutes straight.
Also, don't write me a message saying "I noticed your Mazda wasn't in the parking lot so I wasn't sure where you are." And then when you find my car, don't leave a note on my windshield asking for help setting up your tablet, a new sleeping bag and $20 to buy the prescription that will keep you from dying of pancreatitis.
I lost my job on Friday and I don't have any financial resources for you right now and I've no longer got any emotional resources for you either.
posted by bendy at 1:27 AM on November 10, 2019 [15 favorites]
So if you know that my boundary is that I don't like people coming to my house unannounced, then respect me and my boundaries and don't ring my door alarm for ten minutes straight.
Also, don't write me a message saying "I noticed your Mazda wasn't in the parking lot so I wasn't sure where you are." And then when you find my car, don't leave a note on my windshield asking for help setting up your tablet, a new sleeping bag and $20 to buy the prescription that will keep you from dying of pancreatitis.
I lost my job on Friday and I don't have any financial resources for you right now and I've no longer got any emotional resources for you either.
posted by bendy at 1:27 AM on November 10, 2019 [15 favorites]
AHHHHH my avocado seedling is alive and sprouting tiny but rapidly growing leaves! And it's winter and not really avocado growing weather.
I almost gave up and threw it on the compost pile last week because I thought it was a goner after I accidentally broke off the stalk trying to bend it down to instigate more complex branches and leaves. Well, I managed to do that, if on accident. This is a small personal big deal that makes me happy.
So that was my well planned thing. Sheer laziness and momentum. If I had rearranged my little windowsill plant altar and purged the avocado last week it would be composting right now instead of sprouting leaves.
I'm also currently apparently successfully rescuing a nearly dead plant. It seems to be some kind of small ornamental palm? I gave it a bit of a hair cut to eliminate some dead/dying leaves. It also seems to ask for being misted and sprayed regularly, so I've been doing that and it seems to like it a lot. And on a wild intuition I gave it a couple of spoonfuls of used coffee grounds and gently stirred it in to the soil in the top of the pot.
It is now rapidly developing new shoots and the leaves have gone from a sickly grey olive drab to a healthy bright green.
My very small windowsill over the last year has gone from plantless to covered in several small succulents, a rapidly growing spider plant started from a baby, several transplanted baby aloes, a cute little trivet of live mosses, my sprouting avocado seed and the rescued palm-like houseplant.
Ok, so maybe I don't murder all of the house plants. Maybe there's some hope.
I'm not sure why this even really matters so much to me but it does and humans are weird. If I really want plants I can just walk outside and drown myself in ferns and moss, but these are my plants and look they're actually alive and not dead!
And to service the topic more - I almost always have on my person or in my bag any or all of the following, to the point that this kind of planning is now rather boring:
Multitool - large
Multitool - small (Look, sometimes you need two screwdrivers.)
Pocket knife
Camp spork
Spare lighter or matches
Flashlight + spare battery
Spare USB power block and cabl.
Pen/notebook + reference book or field guide choice of the day
Safety pins, needle/thread
Basic first aid supplies, ibuprofen, bandaids, alcohol pads, etc
Toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, sunscreen
Personal ear plugs.
Spare travel toothbrush, toothpaste and earplugs - individually wrapped. I keep these spares as give-aways or backups to my personal stash.
If it's winter I will also usually have a small stash of hand warmers, which I mainly seem to give out to other people. Which is less altruistic than it sounds, as I often use them to bribe or entice friends to stay outside longer because I'm chaotic neutral to evil like that.
I usually have a small bag of snacks, bags of tea, instant coffee, chocolate, nuts and so on. I also even usually have my Sawyer Mini water filter and roll up plastic canteen bag stashed somewhere since it's tiny and hardly weighs anything. I use it pretty regularly.
It's not even really that much stuff or planning or daily thought. The EDC purse/bag litter is nicely containerized. All of the toiletries go in a mini toiletry bag like a pencil case. The pencil case goes in a mesh packing cube about the size of a small burrito. Everything that doesn't go in my pockets goes in there, and it just gets moved from bag to bag if I change bags.
I now have nearly endless amounts of small organizer bags or packing cubes, which I also use for music production stuff and cable organizing. Usually if you open any given backpack or bag that I'm carrying, there's nothing really loose or haphazard in there. Even my rain jacket or scarf or whatever is usually folded and wrapped up in a velcro tie wrap to keep it from unfurling everywhere and getting in the way. Even my headphones fold up neatly. I even put my laptop power adapter in it's own small packing cube/bag to keep it from going haywire in my main bag.
Counterintuitively my desk and room is almost always a disaster area. I seem to only really care about being that organized while away or traveling, lest you get the wrong idea that I have my shit together or anything.
I've gone on campouts or music fest stuff where I have one rather large internal frame pack and not only does it have food, shelter, bedding, a camp kitchen and extra clothes all packed and sorted in there in appropriate sub-bags but it'll also have battery powered lights, a computer, a DJ controller and a set of thumping bookshelf/studio speakers running on a battery backed amplifier. There is a literal, non-figurative party ready to go in that backpack and enough shelter, lights and sound to throw my own mini-festival and chillout zone.
I fix almost all the things. I get annoyed when friends call expensive locksmiths to, say, extract broken keys. I will randomly fix things like loose door strike plates and doorknobs on the bathroom door of a bar just because it's bugging me and I want the door to work without being a pain in the ass. I even do minor car repairs and fiddly crap like replacing headlamps with no more than pocket tools.
I've had many incidents where I've had a pair of glasses come apart while I'm walking or hiking somewhere and I don't even really break stride or slow down to catch the falling screw or lens, swipe off my glasses, fish out the small multitool on my keychain and screw it all back together while moving.
More than once I've fixed my own local city bus, because to hell with everything about waiting 30-60 minutes for a mechanic to show up at the remote end of the route just to reseat the split cotter pin in the hinge bolt of an ADA lift. Nah, I want to go home. We all want to go home. I'll fix it and do it right, or at least good enough to get the bus safely home to the yard.
I've MacGyvered the heck out of so many things I'll never remember them all.
Anyway, yeah, I live for hearing "Does anyone have a band-aid/lotion/aspirin/safety pin?" because yep, I probably do.
posted by loquacious at 4:01 AM on November 10, 2019 [23 favorites]
I almost gave up and threw it on the compost pile last week because I thought it was a goner after I accidentally broke off the stalk trying to bend it down to instigate more complex branches and leaves. Well, I managed to do that, if on accident. This is a small personal big deal that makes me happy.
So that was my well planned thing. Sheer laziness and momentum. If I had rearranged my little windowsill plant altar and purged the avocado last week it would be composting right now instead of sprouting leaves.
I'm also currently apparently successfully rescuing a nearly dead plant. It seems to be some kind of small ornamental palm? I gave it a bit of a hair cut to eliminate some dead/dying leaves. It also seems to ask for being misted and sprayed regularly, so I've been doing that and it seems to like it a lot. And on a wild intuition I gave it a couple of spoonfuls of used coffee grounds and gently stirred it in to the soil in the top of the pot.
It is now rapidly developing new shoots and the leaves have gone from a sickly grey olive drab to a healthy bright green.
My very small windowsill over the last year has gone from plantless to covered in several small succulents, a rapidly growing spider plant started from a baby, several transplanted baby aloes, a cute little trivet of live mosses, my sprouting avocado seed and the rescued palm-like houseplant.
Ok, so maybe I don't murder all of the house plants. Maybe there's some hope.
I'm not sure why this even really matters so much to me but it does and humans are weird. If I really want plants I can just walk outside and drown myself in ferns and moss, but these are my plants and look they're actually alive and not dead!
And to service the topic more - I almost always have on my person or in my bag any or all of the following, to the point that this kind of planning is now rather boring:
Multitool - large
Multitool - small (Look, sometimes you need two screwdrivers.)
Pocket knife
Camp spork
Spare lighter or matches
Flashlight + spare battery
Spare USB power block and cabl.
Pen/notebook + reference book or field guide choice of the day
Safety pins, needle/thread
Basic first aid supplies, ibuprofen, bandaids, alcohol pads, etc
Toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, sunscreen
Personal ear plugs.
Spare travel toothbrush, toothpaste and earplugs - individually wrapped. I keep these spares as give-aways or backups to my personal stash.
If it's winter I will also usually have a small stash of hand warmers, which I mainly seem to give out to other people. Which is less altruistic than it sounds, as I often use them to bribe or entice friends to stay outside longer because I'm chaotic neutral to evil like that.
I usually have a small bag of snacks, bags of tea, instant coffee, chocolate, nuts and so on. I also even usually have my Sawyer Mini water filter and roll up plastic canteen bag stashed somewhere since it's tiny and hardly weighs anything. I use it pretty regularly.
It's not even really that much stuff or planning or daily thought. The EDC purse/bag litter is nicely containerized. All of the toiletries go in a mini toiletry bag like a pencil case. The pencil case goes in a mesh packing cube about the size of a small burrito. Everything that doesn't go in my pockets goes in there, and it just gets moved from bag to bag if I change bags.
I now have nearly endless amounts of small organizer bags or packing cubes, which I also use for music production stuff and cable organizing. Usually if you open any given backpack or bag that I'm carrying, there's nothing really loose or haphazard in there. Even my rain jacket or scarf or whatever is usually folded and wrapped up in a velcro tie wrap to keep it from unfurling everywhere and getting in the way. Even my headphones fold up neatly. I even put my laptop power adapter in it's own small packing cube/bag to keep it from going haywire in my main bag.
Counterintuitively my desk and room is almost always a disaster area. I seem to only really care about being that organized while away or traveling, lest you get the wrong idea that I have my shit together or anything.
I've gone on campouts or music fest stuff where I have one rather large internal frame pack and not only does it have food, shelter, bedding, a camp kitchen and extra clothes all packed and sorted in there in appropriate sub-bags but it'll also have battery powered lights, a computer, a DJ controller and a set of thumping bookshelf/studio speakers running on a battery backed amplifier. There is a literal, non-figurative party ready to go in that backpack and enough shelter, lights and sound to throw my own mini-festival and chillout zone.
I fix almost all the things. I get annoyed when friends call expensive locksmiths to, say, extract broken keys. I will randomly fix things like loose door strike plates and doorknobs on the bathroom door of a bar just because it's bugging me and I want the door to work without being a pain in the ass. I even do minor car repairs and fiddly crap like replacing headlamps with no more than pocket tools.
I've had many incidents where I've had a pair of glasses come apart while I'm walking or hiking somewhere and I don't even really break stride or slow down to catch the falling screw or lens, swipe off my glasses, fish out the small multitool on my keychain and screw it all back together while moving.
More than once I've fixed my own local city bus, because to hell with everything about waiting 30-60 minutes for a mechanic to show up at the remote end of the route just to reseat the split cotter pin in the hinge bolt of an ADA lift. Nah, I want to go home. We all want to go home. I'll fix it and do it right, or at least good enough to get the bus safely home to the yard.
I've MacGyvered the heck out of so many things I'll never remember them all.
Anyway, yeah, I live for hearing "Does anyone have a band-aid/lotion/aspirin/safety pin?" because yep, I probably do.
posted by loquacious at 4:01 AM on November 10, 2019 [23 favorites]
I am right now in the middle of running a test series for work that I’ve been planning for months. Just about everything that could have broken did (the ship still hasn’t sunk, thankfully), but I gave us three whole extra days of slop time because I knew we hadn’t touched a lot of this equipment in a long time and things were bound to go wrong. We used some of that slop time, but we’re in good shape now and the team gets a couple days to relax before we move on to the next round of testing.
And there just happens to be a rocket launch scheduled for tomorrow, so as long as the weather cooperates we will all get front row seats to watch that. We can access areas that very few other people can, so we should be able to get as close as possible without busting the safety zone.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:34 AM on November 10, 2019 [12 favorites]
And there just happens to be a rocket launch scheduled for tomorrow, so as long as the weather cooperates we will all get front row seats to watch that. We can access areas that very few other people can, so we should be able to get as close as possible without busting the safety zone.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:34 AM on November 10, 2019 [12 favorites]
Plus, I got turned down for a booty-call.
WHO IS A LADY SUPPOSED TO CUDDLE??
posted by bendy at 4:45 AM on November 10, 2019 [10 favorites]
WHO IS A LADY SUPPOSED TO CUDDLE??
posted by bendy at 4:45 AM on November 10, 2019 [10 favorites]
I made my first ever custard tart. Turned out pretty well, although Paul Hollywood would definitely have issues with the crust. No soggy bottom though, so I'm calling it a win!
posted by Kris10_b at 5:39 AM on November 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Kris10_b at 5:39 AM on November 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
I found out this week that I passed my master’s comprehensive exams! I’d been anxious about it for a month. Now I just have to finish out this semester and I’ll be a MASTER!
posted by obfuscation at 5:45 AM on November 10, 2019 [17 favorites]
posted by obfuscation at 5:45 AM on November 10, 2019 [17 favorites]
Would you... Like some fancy cilantro seeds?
NOOOO!!! That stuff is the plague. My parents, who love cilantro, used to grow it in the garden when I was a kid/teenager. It would self-seed and take over the whole garden and the whole yard stank. They used to ask me to go get some for cooking (they'd remove my portion of the food first, at least), until I flat out refused to ever touch the stuff again because even after I'd shower my hands would still stink.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:08 AM on November 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
NOOOO!!! That stuff is the plague. My parents, who love cilantro, used to grow it in the garden when I was a kid/teenager. It would self-seed and take over the whole garden and the whole yard stank. They used to ask me to go get some for cooking (they'd remove my portion of the food first, at least), until I flat out refused to ever touch the stuff again because even after I'd shower my hands would still stink.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:08 AM on November 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
Mmm. Cilantro.
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:12 AM on November 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:12 AM on November 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
Ugh. Cilantro, but if you let it go to seed you have coriander which is quite nice. i do this at the farm which I think counts as planning. It could also be a failure to clear the beds in a timely manner but the result is the same.
posted by Botanizer at 8:23 AM on November 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Botanizer at 8:23 AM on November 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I found out this week that I passed my master’s comprehensive exams! I’d been anxious about it for a month. Now I just have to finish out this semester and I’ll be a MASTER!
Congratulations, obfuscation! When I got my MA, I walked home and dramatically said to the cat (the only one home): "I am a MASTER now! You are the cat of a MASTER!" She was decidedly unimpressed. So choose your master-news recipients wisely, is all I'm saying.
posted by lazuli at 8:26 AM on November 10, 2019 [21 favorites]
Congratulations, obfuscation! When I got my MA, I walked home and dramatically said to the cat (the only one home): "I am a MASTER now! You are the cat of a MASTER!" She was decidedly unimpressed. So choose your master-news recipients wisely, is all I'm saying.
posted by lazuli at 8:26 AM on November 10, 2019 [21 favorites]
In middle school, we could either choose to study French starting in 6th grade, or Spanish starting in 7th grade. I decided I wanted to study French. People kept trying to convince me that Spanish would be much more useful for life, when would I ever interact with French-speaking people when I live in the US, it'd be so much better to study Spanish, but I stuck with French through the end of high school much to the chagrin of my great grandparents, grandparents, teachers, random acquaintances, etc.
I ended up doing my dissertation research in Cote d'Ivoire.
posted by ChuraChura at 8:43 AM on November 10, 2019 [32 favorites]
I ended up doing my dissertation research in Cote d'Ivoire.
posted by ChuraChura at 8:43 AM on November 10, 2019 [32 favorites]
Can’t really think of a specific example for this prompt, but it reminds me of something I heard/read awhile back—“Do something TODAY that you’ll be thankful for TOMORROW.” I try to do a thing that fits this each day. Sometimes it’s big, sometimes it’s small. Yesterday it was making a phone call that I now don’t have to think about at all today!
In other lazy Sunday news—I’ve got beef stew going in my crockpot and a very sleepy, warm cat curled up on my feet. Things are good right now.
posted by bookmammal at 9:17 AM on November 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
In other lazy Sunday news—I’ve got beef stew going in my crockpot and a very sleepy, warm cat curled up on my feet. Things are good right now.
posted by bookmammal at 9:17 AM on November 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
I can’t believe I started a cilantro fight. I’m loving it though- so that’s a triumph?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 9:21 AM on November 10, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 9:21 AM on November 10, 2019 [7 favorites]
“Do something TODAY that you’ll be thankful for TOMORROW.”
Nap time.
posted by pracowity at 9:26 AM on November 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
Nap time.
posted by pracowity at 9:26 AM on November 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
lazuli, fortunately my guy is a bit more enthusiastic!
posted by obfuscation at 9:32 AM on November 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by obfuscation at 9:32 AM on November 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
(though he was not always super helpful)
posted by obfuscation at 9:34 AM on November 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by obfuscation at 9:34 AM on November 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
Nap time.
I'm struggling to recall a nap I regret taking. I mean there's naps that are upsetting because they didn't have enough nap-like qualities that one usually seeks in a nap, or perhaps one's nap was unsatisfactory because you slept on your neck funny and got a crick in it.
But to be honest I'm having a really hard time remembering regretting taking a nap.
posted by loquacious at 11:38 AM on November 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
I'm struggling to recall a nap I regret taking. I mean there's naps that are upsetting because they didn't have enough nap-like qualities that one usually seeks in a nap, or perhaps one's nap was unsatisfactory because you slept on your neck funny and got a crick in it.
But to be honest I'm having a really hard time remembering regretting taking a nap.
posted by loquacious at 11:38 AM on November 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
But to be honest I'm having a really hard time remembering regretting taking a nap.
The time I was piloting a crop sprayer was somewhat regretful.
posted by Wordshore at 11:41 AM on November 10, 2019 [11 favorites]
The time I was piloting a crop sprayer was somewhat regretful.
posted by Wordshore at 11:41 AM on November 10, 2019 [11 favorites]
Well there are the times that you fall asleep on the bus coming home from work at 1am and you are woken by the bus driver at the end of the line, and you have to wait half an hour for the bus going the other way, while drunk people are pouring out of dive bars and screaming at each other in Polish
other than that, agreed, naps are always good
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:45 AM on November 10, 2019 [7 favorites]
other than that, agreed, naps are always good
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:45 AM on November 10, 2019 [7 favorites]
As per our local newspaper, only a month or so ago, there are also those times that you fall asleep on the bus coming home from work and you are not woken by the bus driver at the end of the line.
And so you wake up two hours or so later because the bus is getting colder and colder, and you find that your phone battery is dead and then you have to wiggle your way out of the bus and out of the fenced-in bus depot and walk half an hour through the night before you're home. Naps can be evil.
posted by Namlit at 12:11 PM on November 10, 2019 [7 favorites]
And so you wake up two hours or so later because the bus is getting colder and colder, and you find that your phone battery is dead and then you have to wiggle your way out of the bus and out of the fenced-in bus depot and walk half an hour through the night before you're home. Naps can be evil.
posted by Namlit at 12:11 PM on November 10, 2019 [7 favorites]
I'm happily bemused, and gratified, that our Metafilter campouts (generally) turn out so well. The months-in-advance planning needed to reserve sites in popular campgrounds is tricky; it's hard for people to commit that far ahead of time. The luckiest we ever got was on the very first one: When I called the BLM about one of their campgrounds they said they didn't take reservations but that (and here I imagine they were waving their non-phone hand dismissively) there would surely be plenty of spaces available on the weekend in question. I was new to the west coast and wasn't aware of how untrustworthy assurances from the BLM could be.
I got to the campground the weekend of to find that it was absolutely full, and panicked. I started calling around - amazingly I had cell service - and found a local privately-owned campground nearby that had spots available. I left a prominent explanatory note (with a great big "MF" that took up half the page) on the full campground's bulletin board at the entrance, went to the other campground, and hoped for the best. Amazingly everyone saw my redirection note and made it to the new campground. We ended up having a fine time, the campground had great views (and showers!), and being up on a hill we mostly avoided the clouds of mosquitoes that no doubt would have been a huge annoyance at the original campground, which was down in a hollow next to a stream.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:16 PM on November 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
I got to the campground the weekend of to find that it was absolutely full, and panicked. I started calling around - amazingly I had cell service - and found a local privately-owned campground nearby that had spots available. I left a prominent explanatory note (with a great big "MF" that took up half the page) on the full campground's bulletin board at the entrance, went to the other campground, and hoped for the best. Amazingly everyone saw my redirection note and made it to the new campground. We ended up having a fine time, the campground had great views (and showers!), and being up on a hill we mostly avoided the clouds of mosquitoes that no doubt would have been a huge annoyance at the original campground, which was down in a hollow next to a stream.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:16 PM on November 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
Ok, yes, there are some naps I regret now that I think of it and some of them involve buses or travel and missing stops or otherwise waking up somewhere and being bewildered about it.
I'm also not counting any of those naps you'd rather not take in the first place, like an unplanned layover in an airport or bus station, the sort of uncomfortable thing you do just to stay sane on some travel detour. I've had more than a few of those and they suck.
I'm also not counting medically required naps, even as rewarding as such a medically-prescribed or even drug assisted nap can be bedrest isn't really a proper nap.
I really do regret one nap in particular but it's so bad and truly horrible I don't know if it really counts because I was effectively homeless and basically just a kid. I accidentally fell asleep reading a book on a beach. I woke up and my bike, walkman, wallet and fucking shoes were gone and they effectively left me with an empty knapsack and my one library book. I think they even stole a couple of library books from the backpack.
What kind of asshole steals someone's fucking shoes!? I had to walk around in my socks and beg dimes to make a phone call for help and ended up walking like 3+ miles of crappy road. The experience made me paranoid about falling asleep in public ever since and to this day I always lock my bike and bags if I'm camping or wandering.
More humorously there are a number of naps I regret because family and friends historically seem to enjoy messing with me when I take naps.
Once it was my siblings and/or mom and I woke up with pencils between every gap of my fingers, behind my ears, sticking out of my mouth and tucked into my hair - like every permutation or trope of where people might hold or carry a pencil. That one was really confusing and I remember sitting there thinking I must have had something really important to write down and spent a few seconds wondering what it might be before I finished waking up properly.
Sometimes I'd fall asleep reading a book and wake up to a completely different book. I might be reading science fiction and wake up to a cook book, or a dictionary or something confounding like that.
I once conked out at a friend's dorm room for some reason, and they woke me up giggling and asking for tech support help with a printer - "A printer!? Blaargh fuck printers let's go..." - and they were acting like it was an emergency and they zombie-walked me down to a different dorm room where I dutifully poked and prodded at a printer and computer and drivers and everything half asleep for a few minutes until I saw in a mirror that someone had put makeup on like half my face.
Which wasn't the only time that had happened. My sister and/or siblings put makeup on me more than once and then would wake me up to get me to do stuff like answer the door. Which, yeah, in hindsight awkward but aaaanway.
Even today if I pass out for an after dinner nap at a friends house their kids will mess with me and play nap jenga and bury me in pillows or stacks of toys.
Just recently I had an excellent after-party nap. Some friends had put on a pretty involved music show/gig kind of thing and had rented some decent hotel rooms for home base and after-show care and decompression.
They all wanted to party but I was exhausted and eventually they were foolish enough to leave me alone in one of the rooms while they all crammed into another room for the party part of the afterparty.
What did I do? I took a 30+ minute shower in the hottest water I could stand, put on PJs, clean socks and underwear I had packed for just this opportunity, made a cup of lovely green tea, smoked a joint on the balcony and then sprawled out in their king sized bed where they found me several hours later.
One of the wildest places I've taken naps is in the oversized bassbins at a rave. Back when a proper rave lasted 12+ hours and bassbins were generally much larger things, I used to put in my earplugs and curl up in the scoop of a Cerwin-Vega Earthquake or right in front of a big W-bin and take a disco nap. I'd wake up feeling like a liquid from the constant bass massage, like a cat in a good patch of sun.
posted by loquacious at 3:17 PM on November 10, 2019 [8 favorites]
I'm also not counting any of those naps you'd rather not take in the first place, like an unplanned layover in an airport or bus station, the sort of uncomfortable thing you do just to stay sane on some travel detour. I've had more than a few of those and they suck.
I'm also not counting medically required naps, even as rewarding as such a medically-prescribed or even drug assisted nap can be bedrest isn't really a proper nap.
I really do regret one nap in particular but it's so bad and truly horrible I don't know if it really counts because I was effectively homeless and basically just a kid. I accidentally fell asleep reading a book on a beach. I woke up and my bike, walkman, wallet and fucking shoes were gone and they effectively left me with an empty knapsack and my one library book. I think they even stole a couple of library books from the backpack.
What kind of asshole steals someone's fucking shoes!? I had to walk around in my socks and beg dimes to make a phone call for help and ended up walking like 3+ miles of crappy road. The experience made me paranoid about falling asleep in public ever since and to this day I always lock my bike and bags if I'm camping or wandering.
More humorously there are a number of naps I regret because family and friends historically seem to enjoy messing with me when I take naps.
Once it was my siblings and/or mom and I woke up with pencils between every gap of my fingers, behind my ears, sticking out of my mouth and tucked into my hair - like every permutation or trope of where people might hold or carry a pencil. That one was really confusing and I remember sitting there thinking I must have had something really important to write down and spent a few seconds wondering what it might be before I finished waking up properly.
Sometimes I'd fall asleep reading a book and wake up to a completely different book. I might be reading science fiction and wake up to a cook book, or a dictionary or something confounding like that.
I once conked out at a friend's dorm room for some reason, and they woke me up giggling and asking for tech support help with a printer - "A printer!? Blaargh fuck printers let's go..." - and they were acting like it was an emergency and they zombie-walked me down to a different dorm room where I dutifully poked and prodded at a printer and computer and drivers and everything half asleep for a few minutes until I saw in a mirror that someone had put makeup on like half my face.
Which wasn't the only time that had happened. My sister and/or siblings put makeup on me more than once and then would wake me up to get me to do stuff like answer the door. Which, yeah, in hindsight awkward but aaaanway.
Even today if I pass out for an after dinner nap at a friends house their kids will mess with me and play nap jenga and bury me in pillows or stacks of toys.
Just recently I had an excellent after-party nap. Some friends had put on a pretty involved music show/gig kind of thing and had rented some decent hotel rooms for home base and after-show care and decompression.
They all wanted to party but I was exhausted and eventually they were foolish enough to leave me alone in one of the rooms while they all crammed into another room for the party part of the afterparty.
What did I do? I took a 30+ minute shower in the hottest water I could stand, put on PJs, clean socks and underwear I had packed for just this opportunity, made a cup of lovely green tea, smoked a joint on the balcony and then sprawled out in their king sized bed where they found me several hours later.
One of the wildest places I've taken naps is in the oversized bassbins at a rave. Back when a proper rave lasted 12+ hours and bassbins were generally much larger things, I used to put in my earplugs and curl up in the scoop of a Cerwin-Vega Earthquake or right in front of a big W-bin and take a disco nap. I'd wake up feeling like a liquid from the constant bass massage, like a cat in a good patch of sun.
posted by loquacious at 3:17 PM on November 10, 2019 [8 favorites]
I finally hung a three-tier queen-ann shelf unit that's been kicking around my family for generations but has been in my garage about ten years. I grabbed it when we closed down my mother's house because it matched the étagère in the hallway but then didn't do anything with it. It's made from mahogany but had been painted white, probably by my grandmother, and given how ornate it is, there's no way that I could have stripped the paint off it. So I dropped it off at a dip-and-strip place that only takes cash and you don't ask what horrible chemicals they use or where they dispose of the old paint.
I got it back from there but then let it sit in the garage for a few years but finally finished it with danish oil and wax over the summer and then found some brass L brackets at one of the only independent hardware stores left around here. It's now hung on the wall right inside the front door over the radiator bolted to the wall with 8 5/8 inch anchors in the plaster and lathe wall.
Hanging things from interior walls here is just a matter of drilling into the plaster and lathe and using anchors but the exterior walls are plaster right over brick so you have to use a heavy duty drill with a masonry bit to get into the brick. It's a long and narrow townhouse so most of the walls are exterior since the back two rooms on each floor span the whole width of the house. My favorite technique for hanging things on an exterior wall is to drill holes in the plaster/brick, blow out the dust with compressed air, spray some water into the holes and then mix up some plaster-of-paris and shove that into the holes. Plaster-of-paris sets about two minutes so you have to rush and push the anchors into the wet plaster in the holes and then wait for it to set. Now you've got anchors that are literally part of the wall and can hold a shit-ton of weight.
posted by octothorpe at 3:26 PM on November 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
I got it back from there but then let it sit in the garage for a few years but finally finished it with danish oil and wax over the summer and then found some brass L brackets at one of the only independent hardware stores left around here. It's now hung on the wall right inside the front door over the radiator bolted to the wall with 8 5/8 inch anchors in the plaster and lathe wall.
Hanging things from interior walls here is just a matter of drilling into the plaster and lathe and using anchors but the exterior walls are plaster right over brick so you have to use a heavy duty drill with a masonry bit to get into the brick. It's a long and narrow townhouse so most of the walls are exterior since the back two rooms on each floor span the whole width of the house. My favorite technique for hanging things on an exterior wall is to drill holes in the plaster/brick, blow out the dust with compressed air, spray some water into the holes and then mix up some plaster-of-paris and shove that into the holes. Plaster-of-paris sets about two minutes so you have to rush and push the anchors into the wet plaster in the holes and then wait for it to set. Now you've got anchors that are literally part of the wall and can hold a shit-ton of weight.
posted by octothorpe at 3:26 PM on November 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
Ok. So this is gross but perfect. One of the kitties just had an obviously over large snack. Her feeding station is up on a cabinet. She barfed. It landed on trouble-causing kitty who loves to beat her up. Karma.
Plus, self cleaning cat barf. Ewww.... nice.
posted by mightshould at 3:45 PM on November 10, 2019 [7 favorites]
Plus, self cleaning cat barf. Ewww.... nice.
posted by mightshould at 3:45 PM on November 10, 2019 [7 favorites]
My 'plan' is always carry a leatherman supertool in my right pocket, and practice opening it with one hand, as if it where a switchblade, except it's pliers. The other day we were trying to turn on a space heater, and the knob was missing, so I grabbed the tube with one hand, pulled the leatherman out of my pocket and flicked it open in one move with the other hand and twisted the knobless twisty thing. People were impressed.
posted by signal at 3:47 PM on November 10, 2019 [16 favorites]
posted by signal at 3:47 PM on November 10, 2019 [16 favorites]
put on PJs, clean socks and underwear
Hopefully not in that order.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:03 PM on November 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
Hopefully not in that order.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:03 PM on November 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
Hopefully not in that order.
Superman would beg to differ.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:31 PM on November 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
Superman would beg to differ.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:31 PM on November 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I doubt Superman has to beg for much.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:48 PM on November 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:48 PM on November 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
This past week has been a bit fraught for me, emotionally. My Mom died on November 7, 2011, two days before her birthday, which was November 9th. My own birthday is November 11th. As is my husband's (he is 11 years older than me, in years, not maturity, ha-ha).
Normally, we will go out to eat and celebrate that way. However, we bought a new car earlier this year, and the payment happens to come up right after our rent is paid, and we also had to pay our electric bill, which the landlord helpfully presented to me a week after we paid rent.
So no dinner out for us. I've had to put off my monthly pedicure, which also made me crabby. I'll get one in a couple of weeks. It's my *one* treat for myself, and I am loathe to give it up!
My poor husband can't reach his feet, due to his hip implants, and so I do his for him, and I've been putting it off, because the time change and impending darkness, etc., has made me put off a lot of things. Like cleaning the bathroom. I mean, it only takes a few minutes, so I don't know what my problem is! But it was time.
So this morning, after some emotional stuff on my part, I cleaned the bathroom, and then I gave my husband a real pedicure: soaked his feet in hot water with oatmeal/borax foot soap powder, used the pumice stone, clipped and filed, then rubbed his tootsies with lotion.
Then I made decadent chocolate mousse, from this Bon Appetit recipe (thank you, Carla, you are my very favorite chef!). Finally, I have found a use for the Oneida 10 cup tea set that I got for $5 at the thrift store a few years ago (well, sometimes we use them for hot sake, as they are small and can go in the microwave).
After all of that, we had to go up to town and do the dreaded laundry, and it was later than usual, due to my early morning grousing and then rallying myself to actually do things that needed to be done. We ran over to the grocery store so I could get my appetizer things, because I'd decided Birthday Dinner needed some fancy appetizers.
I also made some Hidden Valley Ranch oyster crackers, not sure why, except my anxiety and need to make all of the food came into play. I gave some to my husband with his Cosmopolitan, because I was busy trying to thaw out the puff pastry and get the potatoes onto the boil, and I figure some snack is better than no snack.
Hearing the voice of my mother, laughing at me. "You're too ambitious!" she'd say. And maybe she was right. Supper was a lot later than I'd planned, and my husband is an easy-going guy, and he loves anything I do. Still, I carried on.
Better late than never, I got the birthday meal made, and my husband said, "Wow!" when he tasted the chocolate mousse. As Jacques Pepin says, you are cooking for the people you love, and I know he loves chocolate. He gets up in the middle of the night and eats it, bar chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, Klondike bars, you name it, he will eat any form of chocolate, my man.
I'm achy as heck, my whole body hurts, but in a good way. I'll sip a little wine, and think about my Mom, and feel good that I took care of my husband today, because he puts up with a lot of my baggage and shrugs it off, and I cooked the salmon properly, just like they do on TV, and I accomplished a lot today. I made someone happy, and that makes me happy. I did a good job, and didn't mess up the meal, so that is my idea of a plan coming together.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 6:02 PM on November 10, 2019 [25 favorites]
Normally, we will go out to eat and celebrate that way. However, we bought a new car earlier this year, and the payment happens to come up right after our rent is paid, and we also had to pay our electric bill, which the landlord helpfully presented to me a week after we paid rent.
So no dinner out for us. I've had to put off my monthly pedicure, which also made me crabby. I'll get one in a couple of weeks. It's my *one* treat for myself, and I am loathe to give it up!
My poor husband can't reach his feet, due to his hip implants, and so I do his for him, and I've been putting it off, because the time change and impending darkness, etc., has made me put off a lot of things. Like cleaning the bathroom. I mean, it only takes a few minutes, so I don't know what my problem is! But it was time.
So this morning, after some emotional stuff on my part, I cleaned the bathroom, and then I gave my husband a real pedicure: soaked his feet in hot water with oatmeal/borax foot soap powder, used the pumice stone, clipped and filed, then rubbed his tootsies with lotion.
Then I made decadent chocolate mousse, from this Bon Appetit recipe (thank you, Carla, you are my very favorite chef!). Finally, I have found a use for the Oneida 10 cup tea set that I got for $5 at the thrift store a few years ago (well, sometimes we use them for hot sake, as they are small and can go in the microwave).
After all of that, we had to go up to town and do the dreaded laundry, and it was later than usual, due to my early morning grousing and then rallying myself to actually do things that needed to be done. We ran over to the grocery store so I could get my appetizer things, because I'd decided Birthday Dinner needed some fancy appetizers.
I also made some Hidden Valley Ranch oyster crackers, not sure why, except my anxiety and need to make all of the food came into play. I gave some to my husband with his Cosmopolitan, because I was busy trying to thaw out the puff pastry and get the potatoes onto the boil, and I figure some snack is better than no snack.
Hearing the voice of my mother, laughing at me. "You're too ambitious!" she'd say. And maybe she was right. Supper was a lot later than I'd planned, and my husband is an easy-going guy, and he loves anything I do. Still, I carried on.
Better late than never, I got the birthday meal made, and my husband said, "Wow!" when he tasted the chocolate mousse. As Jacques Pepin says, you are cooking for the people you love, and I know he loves chocolate. He gets up in the middle of the night and eats it, bar chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, Klondike bars, you name it, he will eat any form of chocolate, my man.
I'm achy as heck, my whole body hurts, but in a good way. I'll sip a little wine, and think about my Mom, and feel good that I took care of my husband today, because he puts up with a lot of my baggage and shrugs it off, and I cooked the salmon properly, just like they do on TV, and I accomplished a lot today. I made someone happy, and that makes me happy. I did a good job, and didn't mess up the meal, so that is my idea of a plan coming together.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 6:02 PM on November 10, 2019 [25 favorites]
I feel like I could take half my theater career and just say "insert here".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:35 PM on November 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:35 PM on November 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
Marie Mon Dieu, that dinner looks FABULOUS.
lazuli, fortunately my guy is a bit more enthusiastic!
Oh, yes, dogs! Dogs are the perfect master-news recipients!
posted by lazuli at 8:36 PM on November 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
lazuli, fortunately my guy is a bit more enthusiastic!
Oh, yes, dogs! Dogs are the perfect master-news recipients!
posted by lazuli at 8:36 PM on November 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
I had this idea that if I would just make a quiche or two every week, I could use up my leftover veggies AND have a good lunch to bring to work every day. Actually, quiche has a ton of good qualities: cheap, easy to portion out into single servings, vegetarian, hot, filling, tasty, freezes well. And I’ve been doing it! I make the pastry from scratch and everything, which is pretty cool. (So far, I’ve been doing the crust with butter, because that’s what I’m used to, but I’m going to start doing one with oil because that seems even cheaper and easier). So lunch tomorrow is homemade caramelized onion and cheddar quiche and an apple, despite me skipping out on grocery shopping today.
I also have introduced my dog to my grandmother and to the dog park, and we’re slowly getting into a routine of going to both on Sundays. Of course, that’s what I did today instead of the grocery store, so you win some, you lose some!
posted by rue72 at 9:29 PM on November 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
I also have introduced my dog to my grandmother and to the dog park, and we’re slowly getting into a routine of going to both on Sundays. Of course, that’s what I did today instead of the grocery store, so you win some, you lose some!
posted by rue72 at 9:29 PM on November 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
I timed things just right to have all the rest of my sheets back on the bed and have the duvet cover come out of the dryer just before bed tonight. When I manage to get this right in chilly weather, I feel like a genius. Right now it's like 20F out, yesterday afternoon it was in the 60s. My head has felt like murder all day. I am so looking forward to this.
posted by Sequence at 10:18 PM on November 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by Sequence at 10:18 PM on November 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
Sequence: I love me my heated mattress pad with six independently-controlled zones. Enjoy the warm!
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 3:50 AM on November 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 3:50 AM on November 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
We tackled the hideous curtains on our landing yesterday and replaced them with a nice ochre blackout blind. The curtains came with the house and were on a wonky "easy glide" rail that required active force to shut, which is was never great when right at the top of the stairs. We were a little worried abut the process of replacing it all as our internal walls have turned out to be made of hay (stramit) so who knew what the external walls were. See also: balancing at the top of the stairs.
But we survived, we have a blind and the cats can continue to survey the neighbourhood from what we've termed their widow's walk. And we've achieved one more thing off the DIY list. The outdoor light fixture continues to mock us though as all the fixings are lumps of rust. Probably going to have to resort to drilling them out, which does not fill me with joy.
posted by halcyonday at 4:51 AM on November 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
But we survived, we have a blind and the cats can continue to survey the neighbourhood from what we've termed their widow's walk. And we've achieved one more thing off the DIY list. The outdoor light fixture continues to mock us though as all the fixings are lumps of rust. Probably going to have to resort to drilling them out, which does not fill me with joy.
posted by halcyonday at 4:51 AM on November 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
This past weekend I went on weekend away with folks who are veteran burners (burning man attendees)... and while they are mostly music industry types, there's enough type A about them that we had a marvelous shared google spreadsheet where people claimed what they wanted to do.
But the magical thing about it was that... but then they actually did everything. PEOPLE JUST TOOK CARE OF STUFF. no one dithered around going "oh do you need help? just tell me what to do". Folks who claimed breakfast, lunch and dinner... actually showed up with enough food to feed everyone and plans to execute the design. Folks who claimed no ability to cook managed the fire, or cleaning or entertainment. One guy was just "mr. dishwasher" and just kept load/unloading it after every meal (no mean feat with 12 people).
It was beautiful. Folks, it IS possible to go on a trip with folks you barely know, with people who have serious food restrictions (Celiac and shellfish allergies and half of them were vegetarian) and have a spectacular weekend away.
posted by larthegreat at 6:52 AM on November 11, 2019 [15 favorites]
But the magical thing about it was that... but then they actually did everything. PEOPLE JUST TOOK CARE OF STUFF. no one dithered around going "oh do you need help? just tell me what to do". Folks who claimed breakfast, lunch and dinner... actually showed up with enough food to feed everyone and plans to execute the design. Folks who claimed no ability to cook managed the fire, or cleaning or entertainment. One guy was just "mr. dishwasher" and just kept load/unloading it after every meal (no mean feat with 12 people).
It was beautiful. Folks, it IS possible to go on a trip with folks you barely know, with people who have serious food restrictions (Celiac and shellfish allergies and half of them were vegetarian) and have a spectacular weekend away.
posted by larthegreat at 6:52 AM on November 11, 2019 [15 favorites]
So I just had a phone conversation with a recruitment person. Usually I cut them off or don't even answer, but this job sounded pretty interesting. (Computational natural language processing for a chatbot-type thing, which is very much my bag, baby.) It was for a bank, which wouldn't be my first choice, but eh...couldn't hurt to talk, right? Then the weird thing happened:
Guys, I think...I think I may have tricked someone into taking me and my CV seriously. Hold me. I'm scared.
I'm not going to pursue it for various reasons, not least that this particular job doesn't actually pay anywhere near that figure, but still. I'm a little weirded out that my potentially being paid stupid money like that isn't inherently laughable.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:06 AM on November 11, 2019 [21 favorites]
Her: "So what are your salary expectations?"She didn't blink. Didn't hesitate. Didn't object. Didn't hire a group of temps to come over and point and laugh at my hubris and hit me with sticks. Just took it completely in stride and moved on to the next thing.
Me, feeling whimsical because this is just for practice: "In the neighborhood of [a ridiculous figure somewhere around 2.5 times my current salary]."
Her, not missing a beat: "Okay, and what's your notice period?"
Guys, I think...I think I may have tricked someone into taking me and my CV seriously. Hold me. I'm scared.
I'm not going to pursue it for various reasons, not least that this particular job doesn't actually pay anywhere near that figure, but still. I'm a little weirded out that my potentially being paid stupid money like that isn't inherently laughable.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:06 AM on November 11, 2019 [21 favorites]
Why are you so sure it doesn't pay that amount potentially...? You are self-limiting. Might want to look into that because it sounds like you have a very valuable skill set.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:16 PM on November 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:16 PM on November 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
Do you actually know it doesn’t pay that much? Because it sounds like it could. It’s amazing what you can get just by asking.
posted by HotToddy at 2:44 PM on November 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by HotToddy at 2:44 PM on November 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
banks got money yo
posted by some loser at 4:33 PM on November 11, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by some loser at 4:33 PM on November 11, 2019 [9 favorites]
I do know it doesn't pay that much, sadly. She quoted me the salary range for the job, and it's "up to"--very crucial phrase there--around 0.75 x [ridiculous figure]. It's not worth it at the moment for a bunch of other factors, but it's nice to know I can make in the ballpark.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:39 AM on November 12, 2019
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:39 AM on November 12, 2019
For years, I've had the habit of concealing emergency keys near the flats I've lived in. I bury a key in an old-school film canister in a nearby park, far enough away that it would be impractical if found to just try it on every door. I've never had to use it but once, while I was out of town, my flatmate did and it was profoundly satisfying.
posted by atrazine at 2:29 AM on November 12, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by atrazine at 2:29 AM on November 12, 2019 [7 favorites]
I'm heading towards having received 8888 favorites. A plan comes together, 8 to go.
posted by Namlit at 11:22 AM on November 12, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by Namlit at 11:22 AM on November 12, 2019 [10 favorites]
I don't know if this counts, but I planned to run my first half marathon in under 2 hours and actually trained for it, albeit using my own thumb-in-the-air methodology. My training pace was at or below what I'd need to finish at my goal time, so I felt confident. I ran it this past weekend and came in at 1:57:29, despite encountering a lot of toe pain around mile 9. Huzzah!
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:00 PM on November 12, 2019 [15 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:00 PM on November 12, 2019 [15 favorites]
Congrats, grumpybear!! That's awesome!
posted by Sparky Buttons at 1:39 PM on November 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Sparky Buttons at 1:39 PM on November 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
A few years ago I was hosting Thanksgiving at my house and decided to finally make some leaves for my dinner table - I found it on the sidewalk with the purpose-made leaves missing. I'm reasonably handy but had never attempted anything like this before.
I did some googling, and then I bought a circular saw, a doweling kit to make the holes, and a couple of Ikea shelving boards, and I just figured it out. Put drop cloths over my furniture and did the sawing right in the dining room. When I put the first leaf in, and it lined up perfectly with the dowels and slid into place, it was one of the proudest moments of my entire life, no joke.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:54 PM on November 12, 2019 [13 favorites]
I did some googling, and then I bought a circular saw, a doweling kit to make the holes, and a couple of Ikea shelving boards, and I just figured it out. Put drop cloths over my furniture and did the sawing right in the dining room. When I put the first leaf in, and it lined up perfectly with the dowels and slid into place, it was one of the proudest moments of my entire life, no joke.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:54 PM on November 12, 2019 [13 favorites]
I am finally cooking again!
It took a lot of iterations of "the plan" to make this happen.
Somewhat longish story:
When we moved in to our house a little over a decade ago, there was a grocery store three blocks away. Also, at the time the job I was working at had both a lot of downtime and a whole bunch of work that I had mastered to the point where it was pretty rote.
Spouse does not like to cook at all. I love to cook. This all worked out pretty well, in that I could plan a meal in my head each day at work and swing by the grocery store and get the ingredients on the way home.
We had home cooked meals almost every night and very rarely wasted food!
Then, a couple of years ago, the grocery store moved across town.
And then, I got a new (and much better) job. But, the new job had far less downtime and far more "gotta think about this" time.
So.... cooking pretty much stopped. At first, I was just burnt out adjusting to the new job and grocery store not being RIGHT FRICKIN' THERE! Since then, we have been doing a slow iteration of making cooking work again, but.... there has been a lot of demoralizing stuff. Trying to figure out food for the week or whatever. Trying not to let food go to waste.... The typical "well, we are gone from home 10 hours a day, are we just doomed to fast food, frozen food from the grocery store, etc.?"
It is looking like we finally have a plan that works for us! One of our grocery stores (FINALLY!) has curbside pickup. And we found plantoeat.com to plan meals, but not in a way that I had struggled with the idea of meal planning in the past, which always seemed to be using a lot of the same ingredients each week but in slight variations. That always seemed like having the same meal 3 or 4 times a week, and heaven forbid you want to order a pizza or go out to eat.
Then, spouse and I had some talks about how this would work (spouse and kiddo need to choose, on average a meal or two per week so I am making sure to cook food they enjoy. I can say "not cooking tonight. I don't have the energy." so I don't burn out and just quit cooking altogether again.)
We are going on about 6 weeks and things are going awesome. There is a lot of refinement I have to do with plan to cook and how I am used to cooking. For example, they show prep time and cook time, but not inactive time. So.... If I am supposed to marinate something overnight? Oops.... Should have read the recipe better.
That will all come with time, and this change to our lives is going way better than I expected. Our "cookbook" on plan to eat is a little over 400 recipes. Of those, I had previously done about 75% and (obviously) forgot about many of them. The mix and match from the three of us choosing recipes, side dishes, etc. has been a wonderful experience. I am also getting back into the swing of "pro-tips" for cooking (have a freezer bag to put your vegetable scraps in for stock instead of trashing them).
We are also getting into dishes I would generally not make (pre-made breakfasts, desserts soon-ish) as they are just things I would not usually cook.
So, yeah. After 3 years of trying to plan to cook, after having it so easy for so long.... it finally seems like we have the new, improved plan implemented!
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 7:31 PM on November 12, 2019 [7 favorites]
It took a lot of iterations of "the plan" to make this happen.
Somewhat longish story:
When we moved in to our house a little over a decade ago, there was a grocery store three blocks away. Also, at the time the job I was working at had both a lot of downtime and a whole bunch of work that I had mastered to the point where it was pretty rote.
Spouse does not like to cook at all. I love to cook. This all worked out pretty well, in that I could plan a meal in my head each day at work and swing by the grocery store and get the ingredients on the way home.
We had home cooked meals almost every night and very rarely wasted food!
Then, a couple of years ago, the grocery store moved across town.
And then, I got a new (and much better) job. But, the new job had far less downtime and far more "gotta think about this" time.
So.... cooking pretty much stopped. At first, I was just burnt out adjusting to the new job and grocery store not being RIGHT FRICKIN' THERE! Since then, we have been doing a slow iteration of making cooking work again, but.... there has been a lot of demoralizing stuff. Trying to figure out food for the week or whatever. Trying not to let food go to waste.... The typical "well, we are gone from home 10 hours a day, are we just doomed to fast food, frozen food from the grocery store, etc.?"
It is looking like we finally have a plan that works for us! One of our grocery stores (FINALLY!) has curbside pickup. And we found plantoeat.com to plan meals, but not in a way that I had struggled with the idea of meal planning in the past, which always seemed to be using a lot of the same ingredients each week but in slight variations. That always seemed like having the same meal 3 or 4 times a week, and heaven forbid you want to order a pizza or go out to eat.
Then, spouse and I had some talks about how this would work (spouse and kiddo need to choose, on average a meal or two per week so I am making sure to cook food they enjoy. I can say "not cooking tonight. I don't have the energy." so I don't burn out and just quit cooking altogether again.)
We are going on about 6 weeks and things are going awesome. There is a lot of refinement I have to do with plan to cook and how I am used to cooking. For example, they show prep time and cook time, but not inactive time. So.... If I am supposed to marinate something overnight? Oops.... Should have read the recipe better.
That will all come with time, and this change to our lives is going way better than I expected. Our "cookbook" on plan to eat is a little over 400 recipes. Of those, I had previously done about 75% and (obviously) forgot about many of them. The mix and match from the three of us choosing recipes, side dishes, etc. has been a wonderful experience. I am also getting back into the swing of "pro-tips" for cooking (have a freezer bag to put your vegetable scraps in for stock instead of trashing them).
We are also getting into dishes I would generally not make (pre-made breakfasts, desserts soon-ish) as they are just things I would not usually cook.
So, yeah. After 3 years of trying to plan to cook, after having it so easy for so long.... it finally seems like we have the new, improved plan implemented!
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 7:31 PM on November 12, 2019 [7 favorites]
A co-worker is getting divorced, and was having a bout of inability to cope with having had a new bed delivered and not knowing how to get it up the stairs of her third-floor walkup and then get it assembled. Two other co-workers and I showed up, hauled it up her stairs, and got it and another storage unit put together for her. A pleasantly social evening, and I feel all glowing with neighborly virtue.
posted by LizardBreath at 8:08 AM on November 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by LizardBreath at 8:08 AM on November 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
I got sick with a cold this week (did you know fibromyalgia makes it worse!) and last week when I was in England I stocked up on Sudafed as I can’t find it here, I was not sick at that point, thanks past me! I was planning on going speed dating tomorrow, bummed.
posted by ellieBOA at 8:50 AM on November 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by ellieBOA at 8:50 AM on November 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
This dude
Dammit I was expecting a cat video.
posted by Namlit at 1:49 PM on November 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
Dammit I was expecting a cat video.
posted by Namlit at 1:49 PM on November 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
I love my woodstove and it is the only heat in the living room. Coldest day in Maine so far the other morning, when I went to add a log to the fire, the door broke and came off. Fortunately, the stove was not very hot, so I was able to get the door off safely, and I could burn it inefficiently with a jury-rigged screen. I called several wood stove shops. "Nope, we don't service your old stove from a brand no longer sold here. Also, we are scheduling repairs into January." I was able to get a replacement bit of hardware - a roll pin- in the correct size, but unable to install it because it's at an odd angle and I am not very strong. Also, it requires 3 arms and 5 hands. But, I did pound the old one back in, and right now, it's holding. I don't think of myself as mechanically inclined, so I am super-pleased to have diagnosed and fixed it. Victory dance.
posted by theora55 at 11:50 AM on November 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 11:50 AM on November 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
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I got a new green! Tatsoi/Koji! I’m excited because I’ve eaten it but never grown it. It has the savoy leaves though which usually means more crevasses for bugs to hide so ill have to be careful. I got the start of my bush beans harvested- god I love haricot vert. I’d reseed but I think at this point it’s too cold at night for them to germinate. And finally I think my dad played a trick on me. Or I played a trick on him. The point is there is a redwood in my garden and I don’t know who to blame.
I leave you with this perfect pooch- who gave me a high ten and danced around for treats.
He was a really good boy
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 1:33 PM on November 9, 2019 [17 favorites]