Small Talk: We'll Be Right Back

[Prevailing Wind]

6 hours ago, Leeds said:

I once read that solo women travelers leave their rooms much messier than their male counterparts.  Hmm, I wonder why that would be???  😄

I'm a solo-travelling woman. I had a close-to-retirement-age maid tell me once that I was the easiest guest she ever had.

[cynicat]

20 hours ago, susannah said:

What's your source for that? I disagree that illiteracy in general isn't one of the most pressing social problems we have. People have to have solid bases of knowledge to be able to have knowledge about other things. I wouldn't put a grade level on that, since general literacy would vary widely depending on location and other factors. I do know that in the lower level English and writing classes I took in college, the profs would have to explain where commas and periods go, and that words that sound the same aren't the same, etc.

• Eltorai AE, et al, Readability of patient education materials on the american association for surgery of trauma website. Arch Trauma Res. 2014;3(2):e18161.
• Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)
• What is readability and why should content editors care about it?
• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
• Wikipedia (Literacy in the United States).  There are tons of great references at the bottom.

I can find more if you're interested ☺️

[bankerchick]

On 1/7/2022 at 7:00 AM, Haleth said:

I learned to fold fitted sheets from Martha Stewart.  She used a dedicated sheet folding table in her laundry room

Of course she did.

[peacheslatour]

22 minutes ago, bankerchick said:

Of course she did.

In her dedicated sheet folding room, right next to her dedicated ribbon curling room.

[Prevailing Wind]

46 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

In her dedicated sheet folding room, right next to her dedicated ribbon curling room.

Is that separate from the gift-wrapping room?

[peacheslatour]

Just now, Prevailing Wind said:

Is that separate from the gift-wrapping room?

It's an adjacent room with a dedicated scotch tape closet.

[Haleth]

Martha really does have a gift wrapping room. I almost choked on my coffee when she made some reference to it, clearly thinking everyone has one. My gift wrapping room is also known as the kitchen. 

[Bastet]

2 minutes ago, Haleth said:

Martha really does have a gift wrapping room.

Candy Spelling had three when she lived in their mansion.  I don't know how many she has in her penthouse condo.

But, hey, in a house that huge, why not?  And she - being a compulsive shopper, but also someone who took the time to know the people who worked for them and for Aaron's production company - personally selected gifts and wrapped them herself, so that's nice.

[chessiegal]

2 minutes ago, Haleth said:

Martha really does have a gift wrapping room. I almost choked on my coffee when she made some reference to it, clearly thinking everyone has one. My gift wrapping room is also known as the kitchen. 

I'm assuming most folks who don't have a net worth of $400 million have a gift-wrapping room. I couldn't abide pre-prison Martha. Her time in the pokey seems to have given her some self-awareness. She's said to have been a model prisoner, giving classes to her fellow inmates to give them new skills. And I still chuckle at her saying the thing she missed most about being in prison was no fresh lemons. ☺️

[Bruinsfan]

She'd have probably found a way to use those for making her cell sparkling clean as well as having a refreshing citrus aroma.

[janie jones]

I would most definitely have a gift wrapping room if I had the space for one. I enjoy wrapping gifts, and it would be nice to have my materials spread out rather than stuffed in bins. I also often get Christmas and birthday presents when I find something someone would like, rather than waiting for the event, so it would give me a place to store that stuff, rather than all crammed in a shopping bag in my closet.

My dad has no respect for Martha Stewart because one time about 25 years ago I was watching her show, and he didn't like the way she was instructing people to stack firewood.

Edited January 10, 2022 by janie jones

[susannah]

6 hours ago, janie jones said:

I would most definitely have a gift wrapping room if I had the space for one. I enjoy wrapping gifts, and it would be nice to have my materials spread out rather than stuffed in bins. I also often get Christmas and birthday presents when I find something someone would like, rather than waiting for the event, so it would give me a place to store that stuff, rather than all crammed in a shopping bag in my closet.

My dad has no respect for Martha Stewart because one time about 25 years ago I was watching her show, and he didn't like the way she was instructing people to stack firewood.

It would be nice to have a place for that also but what I would store in such a room is all my art and crafts stuff. It would be wonderful to have an organized, dedicated space for everything.

[Browncoat]

1 hour ago, susannah said:

It would be nice to have a place for that also but what I would store in such a room is all my art and crafts stuff. It would be wonderful to have an organized, dedicated space for everything.

If you are Martha Stewart, you have another room for crafting, separate from your gift wrapping and ribbon rooms.

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, Browncoat said:

If you are Martha Stewart, you have another room for crafting, separate from your gift wrapping and ribbon rooms.

Her cat stroking room is really nice!

[Browncoat]

8 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Her cat stroking room is really nice!

She does a fine job shilling kitty litter.

[susannah]

37 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

If you are Martha Stewart, you have another room for crafting, separate from your gift wrapping and ribbon rooms.

I see! We mustn't mix our materials!

 

[peacheslatour]

I love that scene. It made me think of that seen in Back to the Future III with Mad Dog trying to set up when he wants to fight Marty tomorrow but his pals remind him their robbing something that day and he asks if they have anything on Monday. They don't so he decides to fight Marty on Monday.

It reminded me of this scene from Scary Movie.

 

Cindy: Hello?

Tabitha's Voice : [indistinct]  Seven days.

Cindy : What? Willie Mays?

Tabitha's Voice : [indistinct]  Seven days.

Cindy : Who's gay? Hello?

Tabitha's Voice : [indistinct]  Seven days.

Cindy : What?

Tabitha's Voice : Can you hear me now?

Cindy : Kind of.

Tabitha's Voice : Can you hear me now?

Cindy : Yes. Perfect.

Tabitha's Voice : Seven days.

Cindy : Seven days. Oh, my God. I'm gonna die next Monday?

Tabitha's Voice : Yes. No. Wait. Monday. That would be seven business days. This is seven days starting now.

Cindy : So seven days to this very hour? My watch broke. How am I gonna know the exact hour?

Tabitha's Voice : Forget hours. This day seven days from now.

Cindy : But there's a holiday coming up. Do you count the holiday?

Tabitha's Voice : Well, that depends. What holiday?

Cindy : Martin Luther King Day.

Tabitha's Voice : Then no.

Cindy : Why not? Everybody at work is taking it off.

Tabitha's Voice : Jesus Christ, lady. I'm giving you seven friggin' days. I can come over now and kill the shit out of you if you'd rather have that.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 1/7/2022 at 12:38 AM, susannah said:

Right, and in the same vein, whenever my family and I have stayed in hotels, we always leave it as tidy as possible on checkout, making sure all of our trash is disposed of, not leaving sheets or towels on the floor, etc. As you said, those who have to clean the rooms are held to high expectations for low pay, and those that make more work for them are beyond jerks.

You are not nuts. I think that getting into clean sheets is one of the best feelings in the world. Not ironed though. My grandmother used to iron her sheets, do people still do that?

Back to this topic again. I wanted to say we always leave a tip for the cleaners too. 
FWIW, not changing the sheets probably allows the hotel to turn over more rooms per housekeeper. Another saving for management. But somewhat easier workload for the housekeeper. I hate changing sheets. It’s pretty time consuming and physically strenuous. 

Edited January 12, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[susannah]

On 1/10/2022 at 4:55 PM, Browncoat said:

If you are Martha Stewart, you have another room for crafting, separate from your gift wrapping and ribbon rooms.

If I had a gift wrapping room, I would have one of those roll cutters like they have in wrapping services in stores. How much time that would save to quickly tear off what you need, and save your hand from falling off too!

[peacheslatour]

5 hours ago, susannah said:

If I had a gift wrapping room, I would have one of those roll cutters like they have in wrapping services in stores. How much time that would save to quickly tear off what you need, and save your hand from falling off too!

I had one of those for cellophane in my flower shop. Oh, how I miss it.

[EtheltoTillie]

I always enjoyed watching the professional wrappers in the department stores.  They had such economy of movement and materials. 

[susannah]

30 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I had one of those for cellophane in my flower shop. Oh, how I miss it.

You have or had a flower shop? What a lovely business. Flowers add beauty to our lives in so many ways.

[peacheslatour]

Just now, susannah said:

You have or had a flower shop? What a lovely business. Flowers add beauty to our lives in so many ways.

Thank you for saying that. I believe it is true. Flowers make people happy. Yes, I managed two flower shops for absentee owners. I loved every minute of it. I had been an interior designer but in my late thirties I found that I had meandered into such a high end market, there was so much emphasis on things that I had no control over. Like the hundreds of thousands of dollars of Tuscan marble finally arriving and not matching the fucking Kohler fixtures and people losing their minds over not being able to force wallcovering manufacturers  make wallpaper that exactly matched their imported rosewood etageres, I realized it just wasn't worth the stress and I went to floral design school.

[susannah]

19 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Thank you for saying that. I believe it is true. Flowers make people happy. Yes, I managed two flower shops for absentee owners. I loved every minute of it. I had been an interior designer but in my late thirties I found that I had meandered into such a high end market, there was so much emphasis on things that I had no control over. Like the hundreds of thousands of dollars of Tuscan marble finally arriving and not matching the fucking Kohler fixtures and people losing their minds over not being able to force wallcovering manufacturers  make wallpaper that exactly matched their imported rosewood etageres, I realized it just wasn't worth the stress and I went to floral design school.

I personally think that murder by reason of insanity should be an allowable defense for interior decorators/remodelers, etc! 😃 I know how difficult and thankless that kind of work can be and I don't know how people do it. So the room is half done and then the client wants something completely different, or losing the plot because this doesn't match that, or insisting on something that is not doable, and then blaming the decorator/contractor... like I said, just a wee push off a cliff is just the ticket!

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, susannah said:

I personally think that murder by reason of insanity should be an allowable defense for interior decorators/remodelers, etc! 😃 I know how difficult and thankless that kind of work can be and I don't know how people do it. So the room is half done and then the client wants something completely different, or losing the plot because this doesn't match that, or insisting on something that is not doable, and then blaming the decorator/contractor... like I said, just a wee push off a cliff is just the ticket!

Lol. That's why even though I was a florist, I was a corporate florist. Never weddings, although I did help some of my friends that did them. My god, the whining! "Why can't I have tulips in July? I want orange roses! No! I want purple peonies! No! Now I want orchids! What do you mean your wholesaler won't return your calls?" Even when I was a vet tech, people didn't freak out and become abusive when their beloved pets had challenges or even died after spending thousands to keep them alive. I don't know what it is about the conspicuous consumption industries but the type of people who use them are a breed apart.

[susannah]

22 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Lol. That's why even though I was a florist, I was a corporate florist. Never weddings, although I did help some of my friends that did them. My god, the whining! "Why can't I have tulips in July? I want orange roses! No! I want purple peonies! No! Now I want orchids! What do you mean your wholesaler won't return your calls?" Even when I was a vet tech, people didn't freak out and become abusive when their beloved pets had challenges or even died after spending thousands to keep them alive. I don't know what it is about the conspicuous consumption industries but the type of people who use them are a breed apart.

I worked in call center customer service for a few years, and talk about abuse. It boggled the mind.

[Bruinsfan]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

Even when I was a vet tech, people didn't freak out and become abusive when their beloved pets had challenges or even died after spending thousands to keep them alive.

I think seeking veterinary care for a pet puts you in a mindset where you're just concerned with the pet's wellbeing while bracing yourself for the worst. A little over a year ago my indoor cats caught a respiratory illness and my girl cat had to be hospitalized for an extended time. I didn't blink at the $1400 price tag, when in contrast I've felt like clutching my chest and dropping into a chair over smaller bills for my own medical care.

[EtheltoTillie]

Related to interior design, don't ever build a house from scratch.  I have two sets of friends attempting to do this right now, and they're both five years in with nothing even close to finished.  Both had foundations poured with mistakes and have to start over.  They are also missing approvals from recalcitrant town boards.  Both tore down existing houses that could have been renovated without this heartache.

Of course, the architects and builders always say, "We'll have you in by next summer." 

Edited January 12, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[SoMuchTV]

11 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Related to interior design, don't ever build a house from scratch.  I have two sets of friends attempting to do this right now, and they're both five years in…

I was really expecting the rest of that sentence to be “and they’re all separated/divorced”. At least that’s what I’ve been hearing. 

[peacheslatour]

7 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

I was really expecting the rest of that sentence to be “and they’re all separated/divorced”. At least that’s what I’ve been hearing. 

We had like the mother of all stressors on our marriage in 1986. We had a baby, we put an addition on our house and my DH started a new business. Somehow we got through it relatively unscathed.

[EtheltoTillie]

9 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

We had like the mother of all stressors on our marriage in 1986. We had a baby, we put an addition on our house and my DH started a new business. Somehow we got through it relatively unscathed.

That shows you have a solid relationship.  The people I'm talking about also will get through this, but what a waste of mental energy and money. 

[Bastet]

12 hours ago, susannah said:

If I had a gift wrapping room, I would have one of those roll cutters like they have in wrapping services in stores.

So would I.  I don't think I'd ever love wrapping gifts, like I did when I was a kid, but if I had a tricked-out gift wrapping room, I wouldn't hate it like I do now.

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

So would I.  I don't think I'd ever love wrapping gifts, like I did when I was a kid, but if I had a tricked-out gift wrapping room, I wouldn't hate it like I do now.

I hate it so much, I'm down to tissue and gift bags. But I too, loved it as a kid.

[chessiegal]

14 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I hate it so much, I'm down to tissue and gift bags. But I too, loved it as a kid.

That's the best! No work for you. Givee gets 2 gifts - the gift and the wrapping they can use again.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

I hate it so much, I'm down to tissue and gift bags.

I'm at about 70% gift bags and 30% wrapping.  I think gift bags, being reusable, are a more responsible choice, but I think wrapping - incorporating some decorative items in place of bows we've been re-using in my family most of my life - shows an effort I don't want to eliminate entirely.  So where something is by its natural shape or included packaging something that easily lends itself to wrapping, I make the presentation special, and the rest I toss in a gift bag with some color-coordinated tissue paper.

[cynicat]

15 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Even when I was a vet tech, people didn't freak out and become abusive when their beloved pets had challenges or even died after spending thousands to keep them alive. 

Perhaps that was awhile ago because many clients are doing that now.  It's one of many reasons that veterinarians have a very high suicide rate.

[susannah]

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

I'm at about 70% gift bags and 30% wrapping.  I think gift bags, being reusable, are a more responsible choice, but I think wrapping - incorporating some decorative items in place of bows we've been re-using in my family most of my life - shows an effort I don't want to eliminate entirely.  So where something is by its natural shape or included packaging something that easily lends itself to wrapping, I make the presentation special, and the rest I toss in a gift bag with some color-coordinated tissue paper.

Plus, gift bags can have special things added, like hanging candy canes or an ornament or some other thing the recipient might like from the handles.

[peacheslatour]

4 hours ago, cynicat said:

Perhaps that was awhile ago because many clients are doing that now.  It's one of many reasons that veterinarians have a very high suicide rate.

They had a high suicide rate when I was working at the clinic as well. Part of it is compassion fatigue and part is the fact that it's often seven days a week, nights, weekends and all. Animals get sick when they get sick, holidays, vacation schedules and burn out be damned. 

[EtheltoTillie]

51 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

They had a high suicide rate when I was working at the clinic as well. Part of it is compassion fatigue and part is the fact that it's often seven days a week, nights, weekends and all. Animals get sick when they get sick, holidays, vacation schedules and burn out be damned. 

Also, they are depressed by having to euthanize animals.  I just read an article about this a few days ago.  Many cannot abide the cognitive dissonance.  Very sad. 

[peacheslatour]

29 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Also, they are depressed by having to euthanize animals.  I just read an article about this a few days ago.  Many cannot abide the cognitive dissonance.  Very sad. 

That's why I quit, finally. We had a patient, she was a young West Highland White terrier. Everyone loved her because she was the dearest, sweetest little dog in the world. I had a three day weekend (rare as hell) and when I came back I found out she had developed a condition which would require her owners to give her a pill every day. They had her euthanized. I quit on the spot. I would have taken that little girl in a heartbeat. 

[Prevailing Wind]

Instead of liking to watch the pro gift-wrappers, when I was a little kid, I loved to watch the meat wrappers at the A&P. They had their workstations not "in the back" where the butcher stuff happened, but out in the open, behind the meat counters. There were the cardboard trays of ground beef, waiting for their Saran wrap. She'd put a tray in front of her, tear off the proper amount of wrap, cover the meat & tuck in the wrap underneath and then run it over a hot plate just behind her work area that would melt the wrap and seal it tight. Then it was stacked on the other side for labelling.  For some reason, I thought that was fascinating - especially the hot melty part.  My mom was so distressed when I told her I wanted to be a meat-wrapper when I grew up.

[susannah]

2 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Instead of liking to watch the pro gift-wrappers, when I was a little kid, I loved to watch the meat wrappers at the A&P. They had their workstations not "in the back" where the butcher stuff happened, but out in the open, behind the meat counters. There were the cardboard trays of ground beef, waiting for their Saran wrap. She'd put a tray in front of her, tear off the proper amount of wrap, cover the meat & tuck in the wrap underneath and then run it over a hot plate just behind her work area that would melt the wrap and seal it tight. Then it was stacked on the other side for labelling.  For some reason, I thought that was fascinating - especially the hot melty part.  My mom was so distressed when I told her I wanted to be a meat-wrapper when I grew up.

It's always nice to have goals!

3 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Also, they are depressed by having to euthanize animals.  I just read an article about this a few days ago.  Many cannot abide the cognitive dissonance.  Very sad. 

What do you mean by cognitive dissonance? It doesn't make sense in this reference.

[EtheltoTillie]

5 minutes ago, susannah said:

It's always nice to have goals!

What do you mean by cognitive dissonance? It doesn't make sense in this reference.

Maybe that wasn't the best choice of terminology.  Not sure.  They struggle with knowing they are legally allowed to do something, but they don't want to do it.  And they don't see a way to refuse.

[peacheslatour]

6 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Maybe that wasn't the best choice of terminology.  Not sure.  They struggle with knowing they are legally allowed to do something, but they don't want to do it.  And they don't see a way to refuse.

One of my buddies who worked at a different vet's office came in one morning to find her boss hooked up to an IV bag filled with Euthasol. He was deceased.

[EtheltoTillie]

This discussion is too awful.  May I ask that we abandon it further.  Thank you all. 

[susannah]

32 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

One of my buddies who worked at a different vet's office came in one morning to find her boss hooked up to an IV bag filled with Euthasol. He was deceased.

Speaking of flowers, as we were earlier, and not dead bodies, since you had a flower shop, I wonder if you know this. Are there any green flowers occurring naturally?

[peacheslatour]

Yes, plenty. Bells

of Ireland are probably the best known.

 

 

Also hellebores, although not widely used in arrangements. And there are tons of green mums.

 

 

[susannah]

48 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Yes, plenty. Bells

of Ireland are probably the best known.

 

 

Also hellebores, although not widely used in arrangements. And there are tons of green mums.

 

 

 I have never seen these before. I don't know why I thought of that question, it just got into my head recently! Thanks for the info.

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, susannah said:

 I have never seen these before. I don't know why I thought of that question, it just got into my head recently! Thanks for the info.

We used them a lot for line material. In floral design you have four main components. Line like delphinium, snap daragons, etc. to give the arrangement height and scale. Then major focals like lilies, peonies and large gerbera daisies, theses anchor the arrangement and center the focus. Then miner focals like roses, iris, lisianthus, ranunculus and so on. Then you have filler flowers like babies breath, statice and other lacy things.

[Prevailing Wind]

When my brother got married and the bride tossed the bouquet, it skimmed over my fingers. Someone else "caught" the bouquet, but I snagged a wee bit of Baby's Breath. I was worried about that until my doc prescribed "The Pill" for me.