frenchtoast

We watched the last season of Star Wars: Clone Wars this spring and this sentiment holds true. We knew how it was going to end, but it didn't make the ending any less gutting. Great, but so sad. In some ways, I think knowing how it's going to end allows for creators to explore character and relationships instead of plotting.

Attending live theater. I am so looking forward to seeing a musical on Broadway again. Even a movie in a theater. But sitting in the dark with a group of people as we're transported by the people on stage. God, I miss it. Watching it on TV is not the same at all. The magic is lost.

We never used our fireplace in the old house in MA and actually put an electric fireplace in front of it and then put an entertainment center with a fireplace in front of it. Because we had a mantle, we didn't purchase the one @ginger90 linked but I saw that at Ocean State Job Lot as well as Home Depot. And thought about getting it for my mom but she wasn't interested. I checked Home Depot online and a few on the first page are fireplaces that aren't entertainment centers in many different styles. FWIW, I loved the electric fireplace because I could have the ambiance of a fire without the heat if I chose. And if it was cold and rainy but I didn't want to change the thermostat I could put on the heater. Even though we have a fireplace in the new house and installed gas logs, we kept the electric fireplaces and I still love them.

Oh, @SunnyBeBe, we had a soundbar and it was so great. My husband is a sound snob and in the new house he set up his huge 6 ft tall Martin Logan electrostatic speakers which also sound awesome. (They are over 20 years old and still sound great, but they look similar to the pics, but not exactly the same) But we got just as good sound from the soundbar and if I had my druthers I'd use the sound bar--the sound quality is so good and they don't take up much room and very easy to use. So much better than the tv speakers. So much better.

Echoing @emma675 a big huge thank you to all the poll workers and local election officials. They have done an marvelous and thankless job. I can't imagine those folk in the states still counting how nerve wracking it must be. Despite the small hiccup for me and large hiccup for my son, those poll volunteers were doing their damnedest to make sure we were able to vote.

I like to decorate for Christmas but I don't do it until December. We have had artificial trees so I could do it earlier but I prefer to enjoy November and Thanksgiving before Christmas. My daughter's birthday is Dec 21, so I also would carve out some special time for her, too. I like the lights of Christmas--the spinning angel candles, the tree lights, lighted garlands. It's such a literal dark time of year to have the house cozily lit with warm lighting is something I look forward to. I do a lot of stuff decorating and cooking but I like to do it and it puts me in good cheer so it's not something I resent. I really do it for myself and enjoy it for the 3 weeks that it's up. Mr. Toast is Jewish, though not really practicing and we're more atheists as it is anyway. But, he likes Christmas because he can put his huge-ass model trains around the tree. That and the prime rib and the home made chocolate truffles and rainbow cookies. But the trains need a lot of space to turn and it was always a challenge to fit it in the living room and some years we did without. One of them he got a few years ago that is replica of the Canadian Pacific lighted train. Our living room doesn't really have room and we can't really rearrange. We do have a narrow tree that we should be able to fit in the living room but we are probably going to get another taller perhaps fuller tree and put it in the dining room. The dining room is HUGE in the new house and there is definitely a place where it will fit without having to move anything but a dog bed. And there will be plenty of room still for the table and chairs. *Side note: Mr. Toast has so many trains to store that we asked for some extra flooring in the "attic" above the garage in the home that we chose so he could store his trains. The floorplan we chose had a choice of laundry up or down and we chose down and the builder added shelves to the space where the upstairs laundry would be which was a huge help but he still took up most of the "attic" storage space. It's a lot of trains.

I was/still am a picky eater and having a parent that insists on not only cleaning the plate but a good size helping makes childhood hell. I know I vomited at the table at least once. More often it was dry heaves which made the situation worse because obviously I can control my gag reflex and of course I'm just being ridiculous. Needless to say, it's something that I still resent and I don't have a very good relationship with that parent. And he used to tell me that when I have my own kids and my own house I can do what want. Well guess what asshole, I do. It is the hill I would die on for my son who also has that issue and I would point out all the the time that if Mr. Toast wants to have a relationship with his kid to drop the control of what our son eats. He's 18 now, still doesn't eat much and I don't fucking care. And all those parent judgers out there can't fucking bite me. Yes, it is still very much a sore point and it still really pisses me off. I just don't understand the amount of cruelty it takes to watch a child visibly ill and still force them to eat. And then get angry when they vomit it up at the table. I couldn't say it when I was 8 but I can say it now. Fuck you asshole. Fuck you. *ahem* sorry. It's just...yeah...haven't gotten over it. Dreading dinner every single night leaves a mark. Beets taste like dirt and smell awful while cooking. Strangely, I can handle cilantro but both my husband and daughter cannot. Spinach I can handle but kale is a step too far. Why do sweet pickles need to exist when there are dill pickles, I do not understand. Sweet potatoes skeeve me out. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows are nightmare fuel. I have finally gotten to the point where I can handle very teeny tiny onions cooked until they are very, very soft. But crunchy onions? Nope. I can handle leeks though. My husband loves most food (including beets) but the one thing he can't stand that I do enjoy is fish. He will eat sushi, though. I do like most fish. Many times when we were eating at restaurants I would get the fish just because I don't make it at home. Sadly Mr. Toast has celiac disease, so some foods are off the table. Two years ago he had a kidney stone and has to avoid purines which means no meat (chicken, beef, pork, turkey, lamb, fish--no flesh), no spinach, no cauliflower, no mushrooms, no asparagus, no peas and a list of other foods. Well, it's not that he can't eat them, he can eat small amounts of them. But he tries to avoid them as much as possible because kidney stones suck. And as much as it seems that it really limits what one can cook I liken it to writing a sonnet. I can't just free style it but I can still make something amazing.

We weren't going to do anything for Thanksgiving this year because having moved away from family, traveling back for holidays a few months later seems a bit much. Add COVID on top of that and we're good staying home. Friends that are family are still planning to visit for Christmas (so they can avoid a mother, hahaha) but we'll see how bad the "numbers" are. They're in MA where things aren't great but we're in TX where things are really not great. The benefit of moving to a place where we know practically no-one is that we have no temptation to go out anywhere. My son never liked going out to restaurants and now my daughter is really liking just doing take-out and Mr. Toast is bummed about this development. It has made following the recommendation to stay home and avoid gatherings very, very easy.

You get to watch how the Chancellor grooms Anakin. It is horrifying but truly shows how and why Anakin would turn so easily. It's weird, after watching Clone Wars, it's really hard to see the Storm Troopers as bad. That being said, by the time A New Hope rolls around, I have a feeling there aren't many Clones still serving. The only time it feels like a bumbling cop show is when the C3P0 and R2D2 get their own episodes which happens every dang season. And when Jar Jar Binks shows up which happens more than once, too. I will also note that the show is an anthology and not told in a linear fashion. So there is an episode in season 1 (I think) Rookies, about Clones. Later on in the series you'll go back and see their training. When we did a rewatch before the 7th season, we did the chronological order. We did watch when it was on TV, so we also saw the anthology order. They are both good ways to watch the show. The anthology style does not make it hard to follow nor does the chronological make it easier. We started watching this when my son was younger and we feel it is one of the best version of Star Wars. It's not a perfect show, but I don't think Mandalorian would have happened without Clone Wars.

It's misty, cloudy and cool and I am so very thankful. Moving from MA to TX is a change and it's just such a nice return to what feels like fall weather.

We have a balcony in our new house that we have some Halloween lights strung up on. I was joking with Mr. Toast that we should get some PVC pipe and have a chute for candy. I bet the kids would love it. Trick or treating seems ok to me--with masks and it's a quick toss of candy in a bag it seems like the holiday celebration most suited to this pandemic. The parties, haunted houses etc, that's not doable. But trick or treating seems ok. It's a new neighborhood for us but I've seen a few kids and it's a development well-suited for trick or treating, so I'm guessing we'll get quite a few. It's TX in one of the many new neighborhoods built north of Plano/Dallas so homes close together, well-lit and sidewalks.

I hope bargaining with Dormamu was not an added side effect.

Hahaha, that was my first thought, too. If only there wasn't a pandemic to be able to experience P-town fully.

I finally got some booze to replenish what we had to finish before moving. It wasn't a ton, but a big thing of honey whiskey, some Gosling's Black Seal rum and some Baileys. And then we went to a different store and picked up some Aviator gin which is actually decent. I was pretty happy last night sipping my nightcap of honey whiskey.

When we were going through my daughters stuffies before the big move, she wanted to keep this small Halloween pumpkin, so we tossed it in the keep but put up when we get there bag. And then, randomly, there was and evil cackle...and then Happy Halloween! A few minutes later, it happened again. After about 5 times we dug it out and tried to figure out how to stop it from randomly laughing evilly and saying Happy Halloween.

Firstly, it's not a lifestyle and phrasing it that way diminishes a person's humanity. Secondly, I find the whole love the sinner hate the sin incredibly degrading and toxic. It erases a person and makes the relationship conditional on denying their true selves. I find it cruel and damaging not accepting and loving. If Jill D is like that and hides the bigotry and hatred, then I prefer the out and loud bigotry of Jill R. Don't hide that light, let everyone see you for who you are. The soft bigotry of Jill D just encourages and gives permission for the obnoxious bigotry of Jill R.

@GeeGolly I think that's just the text for the flag (report) icon that's at the bottom of posts and it got copied/pasted over into the quote box that can't format it to the icon...maybe? That would be my assumption. The box was copied, not the text inside the box...I think... perhaps? And when it was pasted in a quote box, the flag was converted to text? Maybe? Why the other stuff didn't, I don't know, but this site does strange shit often.

@Scarlett45 my daughter is 14 and a freshman in high school. She'll be 15 in December. She wants to start decorating for Halloween in a big bad way. Last year we went to Universal Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights and she loved it. She was part of the National Jr Honor Society at the time and for a fundraiser they did their version of Horror Nights where classrooms were themed and the NJHS members were actors trying to frighten people. It was a lot of fun. She'd love to do a party here, but she doesn't know anybody and even if she did she wouldn't know them long enough to trust that they're being careful about COVID. Next year, hopefully. (We were thinking of going to Horror Nights this year because there was a turns out to be true rumor that there was going to a Beetlejuice house. She loved the musical that was on Broadway last year. It was supposed to close to make may for the Music Man in June, but everything shut down before they got their last show. It's been a tough year for Beetlejuice.)

In some pleasant, good, positive news---thus far in the school year there has been only one COVID positive student. I am very, very thankful that this school district (in Texas, it should be noted) offered a choice between in person and virtual/remote. The first week all the students were virtual to make sure that every student had access to the correct classes and work out some bumps. My daughter chose to do virtual and it was a bit difficult for her. It's asynchronous, so she's not joining Zoom or Google classrooms. It's a program that provides video lessons, classwork and tests. The math was kicking her butt. We figured out a better way to absorb it and she's improved. The school has communicated very well, it has worked on finding solutions and while not perfect it has been an all around good experience. (The downside is not getting to meet new kids and make new friends but there's time.) Doing all this school work has nudged my daughter to start reading for fun and again and she just binged the Percy Jackson series. She's seeing a counselor and has her second appointment today. And son has his first interview for a job tomorrow.

It's afternoon. Sending many positive interview vibes your way!! @MargeGunderson

I thought your niece was your husband's niece? When the whole car thing was going down, I seem to remember it was your husband's niece. I don't know if it was mentioned during the Disney trip debacle, but I remember thinking you were doing a lot for someone your husband had washed his hands of. This may seem harsh, but I remember when this forum had someone come on whose story about a baby and eventually cheating husband kept getting worse and worse.

My kids used a Water Pik when they had braces since flossing was more difficult. It worked pretty well, they did not get cavities with the braces. I find it better than floss because even the hygienist rams my gums with regular floss because my teeth are so tight. According to the same hygienist it doesn't do as good a job as flossing but it's way better than not flossing. I don't floss with a water flosser or floss. I use a sonic toothbrush and that seems to do fine. I will note, the Water Pik is loud. And you have to lean of the sink as water dribbles out of your mouth. It's a process, that's for sure.

The new school district my high school freshman will be attending announced their plans/details on Jul 30. There is a choice of in person and virtual. In person students will be spend the first week as virtual and can take virtual if they need to stay home. Virtual students are allowed to join extra and co curriculars. The reason in person students will do virtual is because they need everyone set up if/when they need to close down. Personally, it's a difficult choice. We are here in a hot spot. We are torn because it's hard moving to a new place, hoping to make friends in theater and choir but knowing that there is a pandemic and it might be better to do it virtually. She struggled learning online. There are plans for Fridays to be small meeting/meeting in person with virtual students who need help, so that's a good thing. I have to make an appointment to finalize the enrollment and registration since we are new to the district and A-girl will join me because she has some questions. It's sent her anxiety through the roof. We had a virtual doctors appointment before we left and the doc recommended her seeing a psychiatrist so she could get some relief with medication. It's just...how does one do that in a new state in the middle of a pandemic? Which is what is causing the anxiety to skyrocket as it is? First day of school as a freshman in a new school is so hard anyway and it's the one thing I wish I could fix and help and I just can't. Sorry, sort of just unloaded there but yeah. Thankfully, that's been the only real difficulty with the move. And we will figure it out eventually.

That shit pisses me off. We traveled to TX to close on the new house at the end of June. The movers were coming July 6. We self quarantined whe we returned to MA. We didn't get to say goodbye to friends and family before we moved. And this nurse couldn't be arsed about it? We did see people before we headed to TX because we knew we'd be quarantining. But it was hard when friends spontaneously invited us for lunch and we had to say no. They knew why but it still stung that we couldn't see them one last time before we left. Especially because we hadn't seen them prior save for the one time before our trip. It makes me so resentful and bitter and angry. That I sacrificed and put in the effort and so many people are fucking it up for the rest of us. And my 14 yo daughter will be starting high school in a new school. Here in TX where they don't seem to really be able to get a handle on it. She would prefer to do in-person school so she can actually meet people and make some friends and I can't blame her. But I hope they go virtual for the first semester at least.

It's a hybrid mattress. We had actually bought a queen size hybrid about 2 years ago and loved so we knew we were going to do another hybrid.