Small Talk: Chili's

[possibilities]

Happy Birthday Kalliste!

 

And Happy Birthday to me! I'm 50. And yes, sometimes I watch MTV.

[Babalu]

Happy birthday, possibilities! And Kalliste!

[Kalliste]

Happy Birthday!

 

Maybe we're all just kids at heart.. except KoB :P

[sacrebleu]

Happy B-day to possibilities and Kalliste 

[frenchtoast]

Happy Birthday, possibilites!! Hope it's an awesome day!

[possibilities]

A friend came over (it was yesterday) and we had cake. I put crystallized ginger in the chocolate cake batter-- it was an experiment but it worked out and I highly recommend it. We used raspberry jam instead of frosting. I've decided I don't have to follow any rules this year. I used ground up almonds to dust the pan, instead of dusting it with flour. It was thoroughly decadent.

[King of Birds]

Happy Birthday possibilities!  Ginger? Jam? Almonds? It's like you deliberately sabotaged the chocolate cake!  Kalliste, what was your favorite of "all the cakes" you partook in?

 

Has everyone who has a FB page been following along with the new Bloom County and the zaniness?

[Kalliste]

Hmm, KOB tough question.

 

There was a

Sacher torte,

Caramel Macadamia amazingness! - belgian caramel mousse, vanilla bean brulee, vanilla cake & macadamia nut crunch

Chocolate Ganache Cake

Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding (which I was also given a pan of to take home)

Chocolate Mousse Profiterole cake thing - 1cm thick cake base, rich chocolate mousse, profiterole on top

And also waffles on my actual birthday if that counts

And some chocolate chip muffins

 

So... I think it was the caramel one, even though I obviously have a chocolate theme.. that Caramel cake was sooo good! If the place weren't so difficult to get to, with stupid opening hours (Mon - Fri 8 - 3) and took card I'd go buy more! The profiterole one would have been second..

They were also the most expensive ones so you'd want them to be the best.

[Too Late Kev]

Happy (now belated, I guess) birthdays, Kalliste and possibilities.

 

We were watching America's Got Talent tonight, and it suddenly just stopped coming in...we missed the last 40 minutes. Sometimes certain channels don't come in well, especially things like the CW, and especially if there's bad weather (any kind of a rainstorm, with or without lightning), but it was NBC and a clear night. It's so annoying. I miss the old days before digital TV when channels would just get very fuzzy, but if you were willing to watch it fuzzy, you could at least figure out what was going on.

 

Someone asked about fall tv shows. There are a number of them I'll check out, but I'm not sure there's anything I JUST!CAN'T!WAIT! for, you know? But I do love the checking them out, and the possibility that there'll be something that's my favorite new show.

 

People with kids (or people who work at schools), has school started yet? I have one kid who starts next week, and the others start late, after Labor Day.

[possibilities]

I don't feel inspired by any of the new show descriptions for this fall, either. Part of me is disappointed and another part of me is thinking it's good, because it's easier to resist watching excessive amounts of TV when there isn't as much stuff on that I'm interested in anyway.

 

I had weird pixellations on my satellite TV feed tonight, also, despite no evident weather issues. There must have been something going on, but I don't know what. Sunspots? Cosmic nipslip?

[King of Birds]

I vote for Cosmic Nipslip - it almost sounds like a Hateball team name!

 

Now, what can YOU vote for?  MULTIPLE TIMES??!?!?  That's right Chilis, it's time for a summer treat! Vote for your favorite cool treat!

 

You get 5, count 'em, 5 things to vote for! This is CRAZY!   Have fun!

[Kalliste]

Voted! One thing we don't have here but I decided to vote for it and claim it as our equivalent over here (DQ Blizzard --- > Goodberrys Concrete).

 

Minus points for Chevy Chase though :P

[Glory]

Mmm... Baskin Robbins Gold Medal Ribbon.

 

[sacrebleu]

Okay-- favorite summer treat related.

 

Monday was my dad's birthday. Like most dads, when asked what he wanted for his birthday he typically says, "Don't get me anything." This year, he asked for one thing: rum raisin ice cream. He's still recovering from his fall a few weeks ago. He was on blood thinners so when he fell and hit his head, it caused some significant bleeding in his brain which seriously impacted his speech and  mobility. He's still in rehab, learning to walk with a walker but definitely on the mend.

 

He'd been on an awful diet of pureed foods for weeks, but the weekend before his birthday his therapist upgraded his diet- which meant he could have cake and ice cream if he wanted. So, being a good daughter, I went to the one place I knew sold rum raisin ice cream: Haagen Dazs and holy crap! Has  anyone been to one of their stores recently? A single serving of ice cream cost more than 6 bucks! 6 bucks! You can buy a pint at the grocery store for 4 bucks (but not, sadly, rum raisin). 

[frenchtoast]

Holy cow!! I always tell daughter to not buy from the ice cream truck because we can buy the same item in a box of 4 for the same price as one. But 6 bucks for a single scoop??!! Whoa!!

 

As for school, shockingly my kids school district agreed to start before Labor Day. So the first day of school is September 1. Which...yeah, real early guys. If we get a lot of snow storms again, we won't be getting out until the 4th of July probably. Also, September 1st is the son's 13th birthday. Happy birthday to you, dude!

[King of Birds]

Voted! One thing we don't have here but I decided to vote for it and claim it as our equivalent over here (DQ Blizzard --- > Goodberrys Concrete).

 

Minus points for Chevy Chase though :P

When I wrote this up, I was thinking Kalliste and/or someone else will invariably say "you didn't post MY favorite treat"  - as if I know what Goodberry's concrete is!

 

MINUS points for Chevy?!? But, "this is crazy" is a classic.

 

Most all the kids around here in SoCal went back to school either last week or this week. There are about 3 schools further south down on a major street I take my dog on the morning walk, and the street is completely backed up in the mornings again. And when they're backed up so much that means more people are looking out the car windows at the guy walking the dog / picking up the dog's gift to the world.  Just lovely having an audience for that.   Oh but hey! I haven't seen her post lately, but LiberryLady got a teaching job! I'm gonna go prod her to come by and tell y'all about it.

 

ETA: Good news for the ladies!  Now you can be ~ in the mood~ just like the dudes.  WHAT will the disclaimer be on the tv ads (ya know like the whole "if your erection that lasts for more than 4 hours..." thing)

Edited August 19, 2015 by King of Birds

[possibilities]

When I was a kid, no one ever went back to school til after Labor Day. I find it somehow scandalous that this is no longer the case.

 

Congratulations to LL on her job!

 

$6/scoop sounds like too much, but if it's your dad's one request in hospital, I think you might have to do it.

 

I don't know what cement is, in the dessert realm. But I trust it's amazing, after that list of birthday cake options Kalliste showed us before.

 

When I was in 2nd grade, I wrote a story I titled "The Girl Lost In The Dessert"-- I meant "desert" but I remember my teacher teasing me about the spelling, and I no longer remember anything else about the story, except that it had a camel, and that the teacher tried to hold me to the idea of a giant dessert big enough to get lost in. She was either funny or mean; at the time, I thought she was mean, but now I think maybe she was funny.

[LiberryLady]

Hellooo, everybody!  Life keeps getting in the way of posting, but here I am!

 

Happy belated birthday, possibilities and Kalliste!

 

I wanted "choose your own flavor of Baskin-Robbins ice cream" as a choice.  Because I looove their Jamoca Almond Fudge.

 

I do indeed have a job.  It's (drum roll, please) a PE TEACHER job!  In elementary!  My credential actually had an extra "authorization" to teach PE because of all of the PE classes I took back in the eighties.  HA!  

 

It's not what I planned, but I'm going with it.  Hopefully, it will work into having my own classroom.  Until then, tweeet!

 

 

 

ETA:  KoB helped me with the image shrinkage. Feel free to make your own shrinkage jokes.

Edited August 19, 2015 by LiberryLady

[King of Birds]

My favorite thing was the super thick, dense vanilla ice cream on a stick that was dipped in hot milk chocolate then dipped in almonds.

Until you got to almonds, that almost describes the Dairy Queen Dilly bar! Sure it may not be "dense" but ... vanilla on a stick with chocolate covering!

 

Since I helped out LiberryLady with that photo, I'm just cracking up over here about that "three strikes and you're out Jimmy!" I amuse myself so easily.

[possibilities]

Honestly, the weather has been so hot this week, any kind of ice cream sounds great to me. I'm burning up.

 

LL, do you have PE classes in an air conditioned gym? We never did, but we never went back to school in the hot weather, either.

[Kalliste]

Speaking of Costco foods.. they used to do a chocolate flavoured frozen yoghurt here which was awesome. I don't have Costco membership but I used to tag along with people just so I could get that frozen yoghurt... and maybe some churros.. but then they stopped selling it :'(

 

And KoB, while they didn't have the same thing it was similar :D so I chose anyway :) and goodberrys I think is a thing (or was) over there and for some reason the only other place of it in existence is 2 shopfronts in my city.

 

it's the weirdest, awesomest thing.

[Glory]

So, I asked Guts if he wanted to go to Baskin Robbins last night (to get some Gold Medal Ribbon, natch) and he TURNED ME DOWN.

 

I'm filing for divorce today. 

[possibilities]

So, I asked Guts if he wanted to go to Baskin Robbins last night (to get some Gold Medal Ribbon, natch) and he TURNED ME DOWN.

The only way this is acceptable is if he was sick, your home is air conditioned, and he wanted to have it delivered so he wouldn't have to go out in the heat to get it.

 

http://www.goodberrys.com/

Oh wow... I want to go to there.... Or maybe open a franchise here.....

[Kalliste]

Is this what you are talking about? http://www.goodberrys.com/

 

Because I just found out there is one about an hour away and the flavor of the day is blueberry so I am throwing on some clothes and headed out. How did I not know this was around here? The only place I have had frozen custard at is Andy's burger place and they sell it in pints, chocolate or vanilla. 

Yes! I'm really not sure how it ended up out here as a franchise but am glad it did: http://goodberrys.com.au/is ours. Only 2 locations in Australia and both are in my city.. The Belconnen one is about a 2min walk from my work.

[Pixel]

Holy cow!! I always tell daughter to not buy from the ice cream truck because we can buy the same item in a box of 4 for the same price as one. But 6 bucks for a single scoop??!! Whoa!!

 

As for school, shockingly my kids school district agreed to start before Labor Day. So the first day of school is September 1. Which...yeah, real early guys. If we get a lot of snow storms again, we won't be getting out until the 4th of July probably. Also, September 1st is the son's 13th birthday. Happy birthday to you, dude!

Is this really early for you guys? Or are you being sarcastic? My kids started back on August 20, and I think we were among the latest starts in Illinois.

[Babalu]

Hawai'i public schools started July 27th, and I think some started even earlier, depending on what track a student is in. I think there are long breaks throughout the school year. I don't even pretend to understand how the school schedule operates here. I only know that when school's not in session, the horrendous traffic is marginally better.

[frenchtoast]

Is this really early for you guys? Or are you being sarcastic? My kids started back on August 20, and I think we were among the latest starts in Illinois.

That is early for us because it's before Labor Day. We have always started after Labor Day since I moved here, and I remember doing that in NY as a kid, too. This year Labor Day is pretty late, so they "moved it up" to September 1. I still haven't gotten the homeroom teacher assignment with the actual start dated, but I did get the generic email from the middle school principal.

 

My niece and nephew, who go to a different school district in MA, start next week.

[Kalliste]

I don't understand why it fluctuates so much from school to school? Over here it might be one weeks difference between states (some states start/finish their holidays a week earlier/later) but we generally don't have to worry about snow days calculation.

 

We have 4 terms of roughly 8 - 10 weeks each, 3 sets of 2 week holidays and 1 set of 6 weeks over christmas/new years/summer and generally this information is available 12 months in advance.. e.g. I could look up when the school year in February 2016 starts now online if I wanted. Sounds much less complicated than over there.

[King of Birds]

Haven't you ever heard of the brilliance of States' Rights here in the good ole USA of 'Merica?  I, like frenchtoast, grew up in New York State and they required more days/ hours in school - back in the days of yore. (All my knowledge/ information of school is behind the times due to the fact I don't have children and things have changed.) I think No Child Left Behind and whatever it's now called under President Obama regulated the standards about days/ requirements. But as possibilities asked to LL about PE classes inside air conditioned gyms - it was crazy when classes started last week and it was over 100* most of last week in parts of SoCal. That's worse in some ways then attending classes when it's snowing and 15*.

 

In other words here Kalliste, la dee frickin' dah about your so called Australian "we don't get snow" stuff!  Next you'll try to convince us that Vegemite is yummy AND that you use it to make alcoholic beverages!

[Kalliste]

I also have no children but the terms seem to be somewhat the same, we used to have PE in summer too. Most schools go back in the first week of Feb which is quite hot here.. I remember the gross days of catching the bus home and sticking (and sweating) to the cheap vinyl seats.

 

PE was always outside for us other than a few weeks in winter where we had to do dancing which everyone really loved.

 

I can't stand vegemite :P So no I won't be saying that :D Most of the so called Australian things I don't particularly like.. with the exception of beetroot and egg on burgers :D

[Pixel]

I don't understand why it fluctuates so much from school to school? Over here it might be one weeks difference between states (some states start/finish their holidays a week earlier/later) but we generally don't have to worry about snow days calculation.

 

We have 4 terms of roughly 8 - 10 weeks each, 3 sets of 2 week holidays and 1 set of 6 weeks over christmas/new years/summer and generally this information is available 12 months in advance.. e.g. I could look up when the school year in February 2016 starts now online if I wanted. Sounds much less complicated than over there.

Some schools here go on a year round schedule and some don't. It's crazy. Plus, among the schools that don't go year round, different districts in the same state have different schedules. When my son went to a preschool in a different district than my daughter's kindergarten, they had spring break week two different weeks. And the other district was just the next town over!

[LiberryLady]

LL, do you have PE classes in an air conditioned gym?

 

 

Nope!  It's going to be out on the grass! Since we're supposed to have the El Nino-est of El Ninos this year, though, there's a couple of empty classrooms we'll probably use when it rains.

 

Weighing in on the school schedule thingy:  when I was an aide a few years ago, I heard all the inside scoop about the start-date changes.  The big reason our district wanted to scooch back the start day was so the high schoolers would have more time before the AP tests at the end of the year.  Which, of course, made the middle school and elementary school teachers grumpy.  This year, school started on August 17th for my city, and August 19th for the nearby district I'm going to be working in.

 

 

Stewedsquash, your sunflowers are beauuutiful!

[Kalliste]

wow, that all makes me head spin. I have to say I don't envy you as parents having to work all that out.

 

The sunflowers are amazing! Do you use them for anything?

 

I planted some sunflower seeds last year and only 1 survived.. I didn't realise I'd bought giant sunflowers and my one flower got to taller than 2metres and had a massive flower.

[Pixel]

And...just narrowly missed accidentally meeting Glory today, as we were both at the same Renaissance Faire and didn't know it. Huzzah.

[possibilities]

That field of sunflowers is amazing!

[King of Birds]

Those sunflowers are beautiful - looks photoshopped almost, right? 5 acres of sunflowers must be a fantastic sight. I imagine you should have more people driving by to take photos.

 

I already told my worser half....

THIS is how you refer to a "significant other"? LOL

[possibilities]

I like the TaskRabbit idea-- had not heard of it before. If you have enough space to seed 5 acres to sunflowers, you can't be in a big city, so I'm wondering if you found people from one of the hubs who travels, or do the city sites actually have people from outlying areas? It's hard to find people to do small jobs around here. My landlords are always saying they want to do X Y or Z for the house (it's a 200 year old house divided into 3 house-sized apartments), but can't find anyone. They aren't DIY types, so this includes stuff I'd do myself if I owned the place and wasn't banned from changing a faucet washer, but it also includes somewhat more complicated things. I think most people out here DIY, but some of them could probably be hired to do for others, if there was a way to organize and connect them to people like my landlords who need it.

 

I had no idea there was an Online Dating forum here. And since We Know You're Married....

 

However, I fully endorse the freezer concept. I love my freezer. Get one with an indicator light, though. It trips the circuit and don't notice? The light will warn you before everything defrosts. I was shocked by how little electricity a chest freezer will use. Also, the new ones are amazingly more efficient than the old ones (for refrigerators, too) and if you replace an old refrig with a new freezer, it will probably pay for itself in saved electricity, in a surprisingly short time. And that doesn't even take into account the convenience factor.

 

Photographing small kids probably requires a superfast shutter speed, like photographing wildlife. I imagine they don't sit still.

[MichelleAK]

I'm back!  Had a mostly great trip.  Someone brought Norovirus onboard the ship, unfortunately, and even with my scrupulous hand washing/use of hand sanitizer, I managed to get sick one night, causing me (and my mom, who didn't want to go off and leave me) to miss the Waterford stop and tour.  Ugh.  Fortunately, it was done and over within 24 hours, so I was released by the medical staff and was able to make the next tour in Wales. Other than that, though, it was a great trip, with pretty good weather.  My favorite stops were the Wales tours (one out of Holyhead, one out of Liverpool).  They both covered northern Wales, which is really beautiful. It's like the best of both parts of Washington state, the green western part and the rolling hills/meadows of the eastern part, but without the eastern desert areas. I'd love to go back and see more, just renting a car and driving all over.

 

Giverny (Monet's garden) was beautiful, and we had perfect weather.  Also had beautiful weather for the Cork stop (Blarney Castle/Kinsale).

 

I did enjoy the Ireland tours we were able to go on.  We didn't get a chance to see any of the museums, etc., in Dublin, just an overview of the city and some walking around in the Temple Bar area.  I'd like to spend time there as well, and also get out to the west coast.

 

Once I go through my pictures, I'll pick the best ones and put them up on my Flickr, and link to them.  I took over 1,000, but only a fraction of those will be used.  The beauty of digital photography!

[possibilities]

I use Thunderbird for my email. I was just making some changes to my account settings, and I saw that there's a checkbox for "attach my vCard to messages"-- I think this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

 

Michelle-- sounds like a great trip (minus the virus)! Welcome back!

[Glory]

If you are my facebook friend, please be going to my page and answering my "Important Poll" question. This is serious stuff, guys! 

 

Also here: https://www.quicksurveys.com/s/Ar53Fz

[King of Birds]

Imagine how I feel, someone else FINALLY posts a poll ... and the link says "this survey is not active."  Psssssssh  on Glory!  And you used Toluna? Never heard of 'em.

[Glory]

OH MAN! It's active now. 

 

I am not as good at polls as Kob, apparently. 

[possibilities]

I voted. This may be worse than the ice cream issue.

 

Also, I may have become too inflexible for marriage.

[Babalu]

I voted, too, but I have a nagging feeling I may have contributed to a marital dispute. Probably on Glory's side, though, so I feel okay about it.

[sacrebleu]

 

I voted, too, but I have a nagging feeling I may have contributed to a marital dispute. Probably on Glory's side, though, so I feel okay about it.

Heh. I had the exact same thought. Between the air conditioning poll and the ice cream contretemps earlier this month... 

[Pixel]

Renaissance Faire, isn't that where they fight dragons? Dressed in appropriate period gear? Not mocking, I am serious. I would like to be involved in stuff like that but there aren't any festivals and such around here.

Pretty much, yeah. There's jousting and pub crawls and lots of street performers and shops and food. I bought two corsets. Super excited about that. People dress up any way they want. I saw pirates, steampunk cosplayers, and even a Joker and Harley Quinn duo. Edited August 26, 2015 by Pixel

[Too Late Kev]

There should have been an option for "Sadly, I don't have air conditioning, so it's a moot point." But there wasn't, so I chose "turn it off." I think that's what I'd do.

 

I have two different schools to deal with, because my kids go to "alternate" schools at the moment, rather than our town schools. But basically, at some point in the spring (or occasionally early summer), they put out a schedule and I update my calendar with all the various school starts, ends, breaks, and holidays. It doesn't matter what my town does, or all the towns around me do. I just have to focus on two schools...it's not that big a deal, although this year, their start dates are 2 weeks apart. That's partially in response to last year's snow. One school had more than twice the snow days of the other school, so they're starting early to avoid having to go too late in the year.

 

What's more difficult is if you're trying to make plans with family in different parts of the country. Some places have one Spring Vacation. Some places have a February week and an April week. In Massachusetts, we have February and April, but our April week is always scheduled during the week of Patriot's Day and Marathon Monday. However, other states might plan the April break around Easter/Good Friday...which sometimes is the same week as Patriot's Day falls, but not always.

 

I do remember many years ago when I was in school (in the Midwest) that we started after Labor Day and ended before Memorial Day. Summer vacation was always the full June, July, and August, plus perhaps a few days of May and September. I assume we didn't have a rule back then that 180 days of school was the correct amount of days.

 

Christmas/New Year's break is at the very most 2 weeks here. This year it will be 6 school days -- 12/24 - 1/1, inclusive. The Australian method of vacation sounds pretty awesome.

[Kalliste]

I'm not a facebook friend either but I voted, hah! I went with turn it off, I'm not sure why you would keep it on if you have the windows open?

[Glory]

If you voted to turn it off then you are on the right side of history, my friends! That is, my side.

 

Guts is... not happy about losing this particular debate. 

 

The Ren Faire is amazing. Costumes and performers and food and shopping. I love it. We go almost every year. This year I ate mac & cheese bites, corn on the cob, fresh peach sorbet (inside a peach!), and we stopped at a bakery for fresh baked bread (baked on site!). 

[Pixel]

If you voted to turn it off then you are on the right side of history, my friends! That is, my side.

 

Guts is... not happy about losing this particular debate. 

 

The Ren Faire is amazing. Costumes and performers and food and shopping. I love it. We go almost every year. This year I ate mac & cheese bites, corn on the cob, fresh peach sorbet (inside a peach!), and we stopped at a bakery for fresh baked bread (baked on site!).

We always get the sorbets. I like the lemon inside a lemon. My daughter gets strawberry inside an orange. The ribs and garlic mushrooms are awesome as well.