Small Talk: I Like Them All, I Just Can't Choose!

[SentimentalLady]

6 hours ago, TexasTiffany said:

I googled him. John is 65. He and Connie have been married since 1992. I'll have what she's having. 

I loved that show Hotel.  She looks the same.

[walnutqueen]

7 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

This is why I couldn't watch Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights when I was a kid.  Always some creature in trouble.

I've gone through 4 remotes, each time wearing out the FF button.  Because any time I sense an animal is in danger or pain, I hit that button SO hard.  I rewind & watch ONLY if the outcome is good. 

Yup, I can tolerate all kinds of bloody murder on my true crime shows without batting an eyelash,  but if the victim has a kitty that may not get fed?  Blubbering ugly cry is sure to ensue.  ;-)

[SuprSuprElevated]

43 minutes ago, walnutqueen said:

I've gone through 4 remotes, each time wearing out the FF button.  Because any time I sense an animal is in danger or pain, I hit that button SO hard.  I rewind & watch ONLY if the outcome is good. 

Yup, I can tolerate all kinds of bloody murder on my true crime shows without batting an eyelash,  but if the victim has a kitty that may not get fed?  Blubbering ugly cry is sure to ensue.  ;-)

I know.  My dad used to tell me that he loved that I had a sensitive heart.  It has calloused some, but not about the critters.  Some find that off putting I know.

p.s.:  I'm a grown ass woman, and I still haven't watched Bambi, and I don't intend to.

Edited October 12, 2017 by SuprSuprElevated

[crazycatlady58]

I listen  to Forensic   Files to put me to sleep.SPCA   commercial  comes on?,I will hurt  my self  getting away from the T.V.

[walnutqueen]

22 minutes ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

I know.  My dad used to tell me that he loved that I had a sensitive heart.  It has calloused some, but not about the critters.  Some find that off putting I know.

p.s.:  I'm a grown ass woman, and I still haven't watched Bambi, and I don't intend to.

I am not alone, then!  I've never watched Bambi either (and I'm a senior citizen).  ;-)

 

9 minutes ago, crazycatlady58 said:

I listen  to Forensic   Files to put me to sleep.SPCA   commercial  comes on?,I will hurt  my self  getting away from the T.V.

Oooh, the dreaded SPCA ads.  I just can't.  I FF through all commercials (yet another reason for numerous remote replacements).  Whenever I feel myself getting the least bit sleepy, I switch to a DVR'd show that doesn't have any ads - PBS or pay through the nose movie channels.

This crazy cat lady knows how to sleep, day or night!  ;-)

 

ETA - I sometimes enjoy a catnap to the dulcet tones of creepy Keith Morrison narrating a rerun of Dateline, because I can listen to him with my eyes closed.  His voice can lull me into a pleasant stupor long before an obnoxious ad ever airs.

Edited October 12, 2017 by walnutqueen

[Fishy]

22 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

I stumbled across this today, never knew it existed.  Apparently been around for at least a couple of years.  Here's why I'm annoyed by it:  1) John and Connie haven't aged in the 20 yrs. since I last saw them  2) They're jammed together on that desk, making me uncomfortable  3) She is as annoying as fu*k

 

I've been watching this on PBS for a while.  I was more surprised that the guy on the left is her SON!!  Who knew....

[SuprSuprElevated]

I actually wondered if that was their son, until I saw his last name, so I assumed not.  Didn't think that she could have been married before JT.

[Jaded]

She was married to Gil Gerard who starred in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century from 79' to 87'. He's 74 now and is 12 yrs older than Connie.

[Fishy]

TT - thought you would appreciate today's puzzle on Jigsaw Explorer.

Napping Kitten Jigsaw Puzzle

[TexasTiffany]

13 minutes ago, Fishy said:

TT - thought you would appreciate today's puzzle on Jigsaw Explorer.

Napping Kitten Jigsaw Puzzle

That's sweet. Thanks Fishy!

[Denver Hoosier]

We just got back from pumpkin picking.  Much fun had by all.  The farm we visited didn't have you go out to the field to find your pumpkin.  They had them harvested snd placed in little groupings throughout the farm, so no muddy shoes!

Like any female, Bsby Girl took her time picking out her pumpkin.  She finally settled on the one in the picture.  Little Man chose one of the first ones he saw and then was impatient while Baby Girl was 'shopping' for hers.  Typical male and female even at this young age.  lol

[Thumper]

Cute story and photo, DH!  

[Denver Hoosier]

Thank you, friend.  I just love spending time with my little ones.  This grandparenting thing is pretty great.  :-)

[Thumper]

19 minutes ago, Denver Hoosier said:

Thank you, friend.  I just love spending time with my little ones.  This grandparenting thing is pretty great.  :-)

That's what my friends who are gparents say!  Last spring one of my college friends who has always worked, CPA, MBA, was ambivalent about becoming a grandma.  Recently heard from her and she is all over that grandbaby!  She even said "it's the best, and you know I don't really like babies."  ???.  So cute.

[Booney]

Hi from beautiful Amsterdam! Mr. Booney and I arrived around 9:00 a.m. local time this morning after an overnight flight (we’re working on pretty much no sleep for the last 24 hours!) It’s 6 hours later here than east coast time so we’re trying to stay awake to get ourselves on the local schedule.

We walked a bit around the city today. I’m amazed at the number of bicycles here. It’s definitely the preferred way to get around the narrow streets. Bicyclers have the right of way, and the bike parking areas are insanely full:

Amsterdam is a city of canals which are just beautiful:

We plan on taking a canal boat cruise tomorrow. There are many people living on houseboats on the canals, which looks really cool. Also on the schedule tomorrow is a visit to the Van Gogh museum.

And for the more risque side of Amsterdam...We saw a couple of mini red light districts today. The buildings have either a red street light outside, or red neon lights in the windows. The “working girls” sit in the front window in skimpy bras and undies - beckoning customers in, I guess! There are lots of specialty coffee shops that sell marijuana - you can see patrons sitting by the windows, drinking their coffee and smoking their joints. Plus plenty of what we called “head shops” back in the day, selling bongs, rolling papers and the like. You’ll find them alongside upscale boutiques selling Dolce & Gabbana and Stella McCartney. There’s a little bit of everything in Amsterdam!

More pics to come during our travels.

[Thumper]

Love the pics, Booney!

I haven't watched Days of Our Lives in ages.  Does Marlena's face even move?   John/Roman still looking good, now with gray hair!  

[Denver Hoosier]

Love love love the amazing amazing Amsterdam pictures, Booney.  So nice of you to take the time to share.  I am so looking forward to your 'travelogue' and appreciate that you aren't sharing pics of half-eaten food. ha ha.

Continue to enjoy!

[DownTheShore]

Great pictures, Booney! Thanks for posting them!

@DH: I showed Baby Girl's picture to ?Sparkle Niece?, and she said, "Aww, she's sooo cute!" ?

[Denver Hoosier]

Awwwwww, thanks, DTS, I think so, too.  She looks so serious in that picture but is even cuter when she smiles.  She does often have that serious look because she considers things carefully, weighing all the pros and cons.  But when she lets loose, she has a zany sense of humor.  She is very much like her daddy and grandma in personality.  Little Man, conversely is his mother's little mini me.

[MichelleAK]

Great pictures, Booney!  You'll enjoy the canal cruise. When my mom and I went on our British Isles cruise, it was round trip out of Amsterdam. We only had one full day in Amsterdam, so we did a hop on/hop off bus/canal cruise combo, that gave us a chance to see a lot of the city, and get off and walk around in various areas as well. Have a fun vacation!

[TexasTiffany]

Booney, your photos are beautiful! What fun! Thanks for thinking of us!

[CarpeDiem54]

@Booney - Great pictures!

[Booney]

Mr. Booney and I had another fun day in Amsterdam. We rode the tram to Museum Square but dropped our plan to visit the Van Gogh museum when we saw the line waiting for tickets (they weren’t selling Saturday tix online on Friday night when we tried to get them ahead of time). Not a problem as there are a number of other museums in the vicinity. We went to the Moco Museum instead which had exhibits for street and grafitti artist Banksy and for Salvador Dali - both exhibits were terrific.

We did the canal boat cruise in the afternoon, and it was such a great way to see the city. The architecture here is so beautiful, and the house boats are very unique. There are 2,500 houseboats on the various canals throughout the city.

This was a view down one of the canals with seven bridges in close proximity to each other crossing it:

Another view of the city across one of the canals:

We’ll board our river cruise boat tomorrow afternoon, which will be our floating hotel for the next seven nights as we cruise the Rhine. Can’t wait!

[WaitForMe]

@Booney  thank you so much for sharing your trip!  Love the pictures and your descriptions are great!!  Have fun!!!

[Denver Hoosier]

Put me down as another one who is enjoying the virtual European trip.  Booney, you have quite a talent for composing a picture!  Not everyone can do good composition when taking photos.

[CarpeDiem54]

@Booney - Fabulous!  

[Fishy]

@BOONEY - loving your photos - thanks for sharing  - it's so fun to travel with you!

[TexasTiffany]

@Booney I agree with everyone! I'm enjoying your pictures and stories. You do a much better travelogue than most! Great job!

[DownTheShore]

6 hours ago, Denver Hoosier said:

Put me down as another one who is enjoying the virtual European trip.  Booney, you have quite a talent for composing a picture!  Not everyone can do good composition when taking photos.

That's exactly what it is - a virtual European trip that we are all enjoying! And I second the compliment on the picture composition. It is so well done that each picture is a pleasure to study and really gives us a sense of the place. ?

[CarpeDiem54]

Hey, Mike Rowe fans, Mike has joined the cast of This Old House for season 38 - A House for a New Generation.  He's one of the guys and they're using apprentices to renovate the house to help highlight his Works Foundation for skilled craftsmen.  He's delightful as ever.

[DownTheShore]

I tried Meredith Lawrence's pressure cooker recipe "Rigatoni, Roasted Red Peppers and Feta", and it was very tasty. I would make it again. 

A chopped leek, 3 fresh tomatoes chopped (I used plum tomatoes), a 15oz jar of roasted red peppers chopped, about 3 cups uncooked rigatoni, dried basil, a garlic clove sliced, 2 cups of chicken stock, 1 tsp of dried basil, salt  & pepper. The leek, garlic, basil, and salt are sauteed in the cooker in a tablespoon of olive oil for about 3 min, then the rest of the ingredients are added. Cook for 7 minutes  under pressure, quick release, then add in a cup of crumbled feta cheese and a half cup of heavy cream and stir to blend. Very easy; no need to pre-cook the pasta. Top serving with chopped parsley or basil if desired, but I didn't bother.

I've been coming to appreciate leeks and shallots this summer; never really cooked with them much before.

------------

A PSA:

Head's up to NJ owners of ash trees: the emerald ash borer is now present in NJ and will likely wipe out most of the ash trees in the state. One of my sisters is a horticulturalist and said that the county systems are trying to take steps to limit the spread by taking down some trees in advance to create sort of a firebreak to preserve some young and old specimens for future generations.  But they think that most of the trees in the state will be lost, because by the time the infestation is noticed in an ash tree - it starts from the top down - it's too late for that tree. ? It's basically an extinction event.

More info: 

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/07/24_million_nj_trees_might_be_killed_this_year_and_we_cant_stop_it.html

And

http://www.emeraldashborer.info/index.php

How to identify an ash tree:

 

???????? damn merge?????

 

20 minutes ago, CarpeDiem54 said:

Hey, Mike Rowe fans, Mike has joined the cast of This Old House for season 38 - A House for a New Generation.  He's one of the guys and they're using apprentices to renovate the house to help highlight his Works Foundation for skilled craftsmen.  He's delightful as ever.

Oh, that's cool. I'll have to tell the kidlets. They adore him in Dirty Jobs.

Edited October 15, 2017 by DownTheShore
Kept losing the image

[Booney]

Hi everyone! A quiet day today - not much to report. We checked out of the hotel and boarded the river boat, which will be our home for the next 7 days. These boats have much fewer passengers than an ocean liner - only 146 vs. 2,000 to 3,000 on some of the big ocean cruise ships.  

The room is lovely and the service and food are fabulous. We left the dock at 4:00 pm and will sail tonight and tomorrow morning, arriving at Cologne, Germany at 1:30 pm. We went through a lock tonight, which was very cool. The water levels are different in the canal that we took out of Amsterdam and the Rhine - therefore, the need to pass through a lock.

Leaving the dock in Amsterdam:

Relaxing on the outdoor deck waiting for our room to be ready:

Edited October 15, 2017 by Booney

[WaitForMe]

17 minutes ago, Booney said:

Hi everyone! A quiet day today - not much to report. We checked out of the hotel and boarded the river boat, which will be our home for the next 7 days. These boats have much fewer passengers than an ocean liner - only 146 vs. 2,000 to 3,000 on some of the big ocean cruise ships.  

The room is lovely and the service and food are fabulous. We left the dock at 4:00 pm and will sail tonight and tomorrow morning, arriving at Cologne, Germany at 1:30 pm. We went through a lock tonight, which was very cool. The water levels are different in the canal that we took out of Amsterdam and the Rhine - therefore, the need to pass through a lock.

Leaving the dock in Amsterdam:

Relaxing on the outdoor deck waiting for our room to be ready:

Beautiful!! 

[CarpeDiem54]

@Booney - My inner tween is so jelly!  I'm enjoying your pictures so much.  Any chance of a picture of your room?

[Thumper]

Booney, would love to know how dressed up people get for dinner on those ships.  (For our trip next year.)

[CarpeDiem54]

Speaking of trips, my poor put upon niece (age 22) was forced, forced I tell you, to go to London this weekend for work.  She's going back to London in December to see Hamilton in the West End.  She currently lives in Germany.

[SuprSuprElevated]

I'm going to need everyone to root for my Cubbies tonight.  Pleeeze!

Thanks in advance.

[Thumper]

I am cheering them on, SSE!

[SuprSuprElevated]

5 minutes ago, Thumper said:

I am cheering them on, SSE!

Thank you!

[TexasTiffany]

18 hours ago, CarpeDiem54 said:

Hey, Mike Rowe fans, Mike has joined the cast of This Old House for season 38 - A House for a New Generation.  He's one of the guys and they're using apprentices to renovate the house to help highlight his Works Foundation for skilled craftsmen.  He's delightful as ever.

Oh, good! I used to watch that show. I'd have to look it up to find out when it's on. I don't even know anymore. It's a great idea adding Mike to the show. It's a bonus that it promotes his Works Foundation. A perfect match. I'd like to see Mike on a more regular basis. He had a show on CNN that was like his Dirty Jobs show, but I don't remember the name. After spending a lot of time researching when it would be on it sometimes was preempted for a different show. Two weeks of that and I gave up trying to find it. I do follow him on Facebook. 

[SuprSuprElevated]

19 minutes ago, TexasTiffany said:

I'd like to see Mike on a more regular basis. . .

. . . working on my honey-do list.  ? 

With my husband's permission of course. 

[TexasTiffany]

19 hours ago, DownTheShore said:

Head's up to NJ owners of ash trees: the emerald ash borer is now present in NJ and will likely wipe out most of the ash trees in the state. One of my sisters is a horticulturalist and said that the county systems are trying to take steps to limit the spread by taking down some trees in advance to create sort of a firebreak to preserve some young and old specimens for future generations.  But they think that most of the trees in the state will be lost, because by the time the infestation is noticed in an ash tree - it starts from the top down - it's too late for that tree. ? It's basically an extinction event.

That's really sad. I'm sorry they can't stop it from happening. It's awful that so many trees will be lost. In several years maybe they can plant more seedlings. They've probably saved seeds. 

[CarpeDiem54]

2 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

I'm going to need everyone to root for my Cubbies tonight.  Pleeeze!

Thanks in advance.

Go Cubbies!

Meanwhile, my Broncos are looking terrible...

[TexasTiffany]

5 hours ago, Booney said:

Hi everyone! A quiet day today - not much to report. We checked out of the hotel and boarded the river boat, which will be our home for the next 7 days. These boats have much fewer passengers than an ocean liner - only 146 vs. 2,000 to 3,000 on some of the big ocean cruise ships.

@Booney, when you first told us about the cruise I pictured the big huge cruise ship. I'm glad you mentioned only 146 passengers. Not so crowded makes it sound more relaxing, less noisy, less hurried. The deck looks lovely with the plants. Clean. Pretty. Certainly picturesque!

[Thumper]

20 minutes ago, CarpeDiem54 said:

Go Cubbies!

Meanwhile, my Broncos are looking terrible...

My Packers lost QB Aaron Rodgers for the season (probably), at the hands of arch-rival Vikings.  And I live in MN.  ?. ?. ?

[CarpeDiem54]

13 minutes ago, Thumper said:

My Packers lost QB Aaron Rodgers for the season (probably), at the hands of arch-rival Vikings.  And I live in MN.  ?. ?. ?

I saw that.  My Dad was a huge Packers fan.  My mother used this giant Green Bay mug of his to hold small kitchen utensils after he died.  One day an errant cat knocked it off the counter and broke it.  We both cried.

[StaceyNotStacie]

3 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

I'm going to need everyone to root for my Cubbies tonight.  Pleeeze!

Thanks in advance.

As a Nats fan, I really don't want to, but I will because I don't like the Dodgers. In reality, I'm for anyone except the Yankees.  

[Thumper]

13 minutes ago, Stacey1014 said:

As a Nats fan, I really don't want to, but I will because I don't like the Dodgers. In reality, I'm for anyone except the Yankees.  

My husband is a huge Cubs fan ( I jumped on the bandwagon last year) but even he said the Nats were the better team.

Always fun to see a team who hasn't been there in a long time advance.

Husband says the networks probably want a Dodgers vs. Yankees World Series.  It's always about the coasts, ya know.  ?

[SuprSuprElevated]

4 hours ago, Thumper said:

My Packers lost QB Aaron Rodgers for the season (probably), at the hands of arch-rival Vikings.  And I live in MN.  ?. ?. ?

Yeah, I saw that.  So sorry.

3 hours ago, Stacey1014 said:

As a Nats fan, I really don't want to, but I will because I don't like the Dodgers. In reality, I'm for anyone except the Yankees.  

I'll take what I can get Stacey, lol.  

[Booney]

7 hours ago, Thumper said:

Booney, would love to know how dressed up people get for dinner on those ships.  (For our trip next year.)

For our first dinner last night, no one was dressed up. Tonight is our welcome dinner and we’re supposed to dress up a little. Men don’t have to wear ties though - a sports jacket and nice shirt are fine. I brought a maxi dress and a Chico’s Travelers jacket to wear over it, which I think will be fine. I’ll let you know though after tonight! The rest of the week is supposed to be casual except for the last night which is the Captain’s dinner. But the same thing we’ll wear tonight is supposed to be fine for that dinner too.