Congratulations, Tradd. Catherine, truly glad you are okay there--the photos out of Montpelier are so terrible.
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Congratulations, Tradd. Catherine, truly glad you are okay there--the photos out of Montpelier are so terrible.
Told landlord I wanted to renew a few months back. I’ll be here in this place 15 years come September.
Just renewed my lease (small 1 BR rented condo). Rent has been $975/month for at least a year. Increase to $1K. Rent started at $800 back in 2008. Landlord can be a jerk at times, but the cheap rent is worth it. I’m at least $300, probably more, below market for the area (nice NW burb of Chicago). Friends have had $200-300/month increases recently. I’m in my mid-50s and don’t really care if I never buy. I have the option to move at end of lease if I want. I don’t have to worry about repairs, etc. I have no desire for a yard. This works for me. Ground floor too.
Saw my first moose today. He was trotting down the road in front of our house and went off into the woods next door. At first I thought it was a loose skinny horse, then realized what it was. He looked to be an adolescent.
Wow! They are such odd creatures. I would like to see one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
That's exciting, Tybee! I've only seen one at the wildlife place in Gray, ME.
That is exciting, Tybee! I've seen them a couple of times just off the road when visiting in the New England area years ago. They can be massive!!
They can indeed be massive, Happy. Iris, he was odd looking to me because like Rosa, I've only seen them where she has seen them, at that Gray Wildlife park, where we have been with the grandchildren. This is my first in-the-wild sighting and I thought we would have to go way up north to see one, like Mt Desert or something. And he was right in front of my house. It was most interesting to see his gait--it was a fast, uncollected trot that covered a lot of ground.
My friend from now up in new Hampshire has had family up that way for decades. He tells a story which I think it’s a true story and might be about one of his relatives. She ran into a moose on the highway. He was so tall that, the top of her car scraped his torso and the top of her car came off, but she was fine although covered with blood and guts. The poor moose, of course was decimated.
We traveled over the Green Mountains one night to get to our rental house one summer and at one point on the very dark road we saw a car on the opposite side of the road stopped and flashing his headlights at us. We stopped and immediately realized that he was telling us that there was a moose in the road, who stood next to our Honda Fit and all we could see from our vantage point in the car were his legs--his torso was higher than the roof of our car. That's the only moose I've ever seen, but that week we bought a hand-made moose Christmas ornament with the year written on it, which reminds us of our encounter every Christmastime.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
Having living in Alaska we saw lots and lots of moose. They roamed around our house downtown and my brother still sees them. Used to have one that would arrive at the ammo storage area and ask to be let in. Then when ready to go out he would stand at the gate until the guard let him out.
You need to be very careful if any calves are around since a mother moose will even fight a bear if her calf is in danger.
They can crush a car or pickup if hit.
During the three years I was in Alaska during the 70's I must have seen hundreds of moose, mostly just meandering around and stopping traffic as they stepped out onto roadways.Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetana3
A fellow I worked with saw a calf on the side of the road one day and stopped to admire it, It's mother, who was on the other side of the road, didn't appreciate his attention and charged his truck and turned it over by striking it from the side.
Wow, the car stories are impressive.
Worked my butt off Friday night through Saturday night to deep clean my entire house as well as do all the laundry. I normally deep clean the house every other weekend but do it in small sections Friday night through Sunday afternoon. For some reason I decided to try to get it all done by Saturday so I could wake up on Sunday knowing that I had NOTHING on my to do list for the day. Got to tell you... it felt great!!!
That is SUCH a good feeling!! Enjoy the day!Quote:
Originally Posted by Klunick
a clean house is such a nice thing. My own house is under construction but a few rooms are newly done. I love having “ new” stuff because to get ready for guests all I have to do is sweep floors and clean toilets. Nothing is dirty or grungy but for the obviously “under construction” areas.Quote:
Originally Posted by Klunick
I lost a total of 9.4 lbs and K. lost a total of 12 lbs. on our month of July 29-day diet! We are breaking out of it today to go out to eat in Santa Fe at a Tapas place. My intention is to still somewhat follow the plan but not be such a tight-a** about it because it kind of was a real pain in the butt to follow all the rules. My intention is to maintain the three meals a day of home-cooking, a morning snack of fruit/veggies/or nuts, one afternoon snack of the same, very low sugar, much fewer carbs (and better-for-you carbs such as steel-cut oats, brown rice, wild rice, very little bread), no eating after dinner. One exception is that I am going to allow myself some ice cream on Friday nights - what's the point of anything if you can't have a few treats here and there?
It seemed like I was always grocery shopping for this diet plan and that we spent a LOT of money on it, but I ran the numbers and I think it all pretty much equaled out over the month. I was buying salmon/steak/pork chops/pork loin/roast beef/almond butter/etc which felt like it really added up but if you factor in all the soda pop, the ice cream runs, the taco truck lunches, occasional restaurant meals/cheese/booze which was NOT being purchased, we ended up spending around a total of $674 to feed two people, or $337 for each person, which seems pretty dang good considering the cost of groceries these days!
SQ, that’s great to hear!
I'm an ice cream fiend but I only eat it in the afternoon since I am retired now. Just had a bowl of vanilla bean with fresh peaches.
SQ, that’s great about the weight loss!! I spend 300/month feeding myself so perfectly reasonable what you are spending.
I bough a Ninja Creami with the idea that I could create varieties of ice cream (sweet cream!) tailored to my own preferences, but now I'm thinking I'll put it away until I move to my final resting place, whenever or wherever that is. :~)
Happy to see the large turnout in Ohio where they wanted to change the majority vote hoping to later get the ban on abortion in the history books.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wire...lot-102134946/
It's interesting that 78% of the money spent to defeat the issue came from out of state, and nearly 85% off the money coming in to support the November abortion initiative has come from out of state as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by frugal-one
I had no idea the rest of the country were so interested in influencing our fly-over state's governance.
Making sure it does not set a precedent??
it kind of makes a mockery of states rights.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
I am finally seeing some hummingbird action in my front pollinator garden! Ironically, they started showing up the day I took down my hummingbird feeder in defeat. I've been putting out the feeder for 3 years, and I am diligent about cleaning it and changing the nectar, etc. It's supposedly a good feeder from the wild bird store, but I've never had a single customer, so it's a bit of effort for nothing. Fortunately, I am also growing plants they are supposed to like, and the Cuphea 'Vermillionaire' really seems to attract them the most, although they also visit the zinnias and the Salvia 'Skyscraper.'
I should also mention that we hosted a family of cardinals this year, and it was so much fun watching the babies grow up. I think it is hilarious how the male feeds the female so sweetly during courtship, but at this point in the season he will hip-check her to get the safflower feeder to himself, lol.
I believe it's important for every citizen of every state to have access to ballot initiatives separate from state legislative control; that's completely in line with states' rights, in my mind.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
Even citizens from without the state where the ballot initiative takes place? Nope, disagree.Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneV2.0
But there’s no law against money coming into influence it, so be it.
It’s like public libraries who have recently adopted as part of their “ book challenge “policy that the library will act only on challenges that are submitted by taxpayers or people who live within the jurisdiction.
My library one’s got a “challenge” of sorts from a national organization, a blanket letter clearly sent to many libraries across the country, about how chiropractic medicine was represented in our collection, and they wanted changes made to it. I didn’t pay attention to that. Local control, local standing.
Totally agree with Jane, but would not mind if out of state money were barred. I don't see how that can happen, though, as transparency in political funding is completely lacking.Quote:
I believe it's important for every citizen of every state to have access to ballot initiatives separate from state legislative control; that's completely in line with states' rights, in my mind.
Oh, and Alan - you forgot to include the fact that about 85% percent of the money raised to attempt to PASS this issue came from out of state, as well. So plenty of outside support on BOTH sides. I guess Ohio doesn't have enough mega-donors, eh?
Closing was today! Love the place we bought. Now on to planning and making it our own. Goal is to get a few things changed (ceiling fans) and fixed (fix and screen in porch) before the year end holidays. Looking forward to being settled….. the past 5 months have been a whirlwind!
Great news!
Congratulations Frugal! Buying ceiling fans sounds so fun.
Glad everything went well with the closing!!
Apple Music now has a separate app for classical music. I have an Apple Music subscription so I can access it. I love Bach and found an album of his complete lute works on guitar. 90 min of soothing music to listen to at work.
Congrats, Frugal!!!!
Thank you for the kind words. Yea, I am not looking forward to shopping but there are things that will be replaced. Not necessarily that they are worn out but because they are either ugly or do not match what we want. The plan is to have this be our last home so we want everything to be the way we want it.... cost is not a variable. Unlike IL... I do not relish the shopping or continual looking on line. I never understood how anyone could enjoy shopping??? I find it tedious and a waste of time... especially now... after Covid and the disruption of supply chains. It is one of the few things DH and I argue about. Neither wants to go. I have refused to make it my job alone. We sold almost everything so there are also things that will need to be replaced. Some things that are not immediate needs will be put on a list for Black Friday or other sale days. Hopefully, it will go smoothly???
if you’re shopping only for utilitarian things then yes that is boring and I don’t like it. I spend a lot of time shopping for things that “spark joy” as Marie Kondo would say and price has little to do with it. But shopping can go very quickly —I ordered a car over the phone in about 2 1/2 minutes by saying. “Hey, Ed, I want a Ford bronco sport in that weird blue color, and I don’t want a lot of junk on it “ and the deal was done. I had no interest shopping around dealers to see who can get me the better deal, we just ordered it from our friend who sells cars.Quote:
Originally Posted by frugal-one
on the other hand, it took two years of looking at Chinaware to decide on dishes I want, and they were obviously much much cheaper than the car. But the car was utilitarian and simply has to get me from point A to point B and have a hatch that opens to 36 inches like my previous car. It was easy ro identify.
The dishes are different. They need to fit in with the historic vibe of my historic house, be a pleasing color and pattern (spark joy) be easy to get piecemeal on eBay, and hold up to microwave and dishwasher use.
I don't enjoy even for things I really want.... to spark joy as you say. Interesting on how we all find pleasure in different things. I could care less about dishes. I use corelle and am totally happy. I do want our place decorated to reflect us so I am picky too. Hopefully the process will be quicker than I think!!!
I have a little Corelle that I shopped for very carefully, taking time you wouldn’t like! I wanted cereal bowls to coordinate with Lenox China at my condo but I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for Lenox so I found some simple Corelle that is an excellent color match.Quote:
Originally Posted by frugal-one
I can understand matching ... the Corelle I have is very pretty. I had a set and found the same at a garage sale for 10 cents a piece. So I mainly took the plates and bowls so we have many.
The dishes conversation makes me smile, as I still use the Corelle dishes we got as wedding gifts over 30 years ago.