Muddy Monday

ei34

It's supposed to be rainy here all week.  My new recipes came out phenomenal and the planting day was a success.  How was everyone's weekend?
Small rant but I'm peeved at most of my family.  My mother proposed we have a social distancing Cherry Blossom photo and gathering in my parents' yard.  Years ago my siblings and I bought her a a cherry blossom tree for Mother's Day which my dad planted, and it's a nice tree year-round, but the second half of April is really its time to shine.  A couple of years ago we took an impromptu family picture under it and to this day it remains my mom's favorite photo (it's her screen saver, etc.).  So yesterday she invited my siblings and me in the group text to take a photo/have a gathering. Two of my siblings immediately jumped on it, super eager.  My immediate family with spouses and kids is 16 people, and we live in a hotspot.  We didn't gather for Easter, we my niece's birthday last week was a drive-by car party, my parents have been have groceries delivered for weeks, etc.  We're not gathering for actual holidays, why would you propose a quasi-family tradition now of all times?  I mean I get why, I desperately miss everyone, but my "wtf are you serious?" sister and I got kind of shat on for saying "no way, not happening, do it without us".  So I'm annoyed that it was proposed in the first place and my pregnant sister and I are bad guys. 

MissKittyDanger

@ei34 sounds like unless you say yes, you'll be the bad guys Maybe just clarify that social distancing isn't doable with 16 people - including kids who have not seen their grandparents.
It's a rough spot though, and hopefully some clarity will help everything.


Saturday was nice out, so we did some quick errands - donation drop off, drive around to 2 places to see if they were open {they were not, we expected this - it's order online and curbside pick up}
No big deal, it was a nice day anyways  
We also got more bags set for donation, but those aren't going until later in the week likely.
Total of 7 bags of stuff have gone :O {plus 3 more in the basement}

Sunday was awful. It was rainy. I woke up with a headache. Then the chicken I had taken out didn't cook properly so we ended up just eating side kick noodles {I ended up making 2 of them}
BabyKitten loved them, she had 2 helpings lol

M did end up dealing with my back. He tried cracking it first, which made me laugh so hard because my back and his wrist cracked at the same time so it sounded like a water bottle lmao
It has helped my back a bit though, but he's going to have to do this somewhat regularly until I can see a professional.

MyNameIsNot

We had exactly the weekend I needed. Friday we went for a walk and played with the puppy in the yard. Then we just chilled and had a late dinner and caught up on Top Chef. Saturday we did groceries, yard work and set up my wine cellar. The rain ended up holding off until overnight Saturday, so we ate on the deck and had a bonfire. We've cleaned up so much yard debris in the last few weeks; we would need fires every night for a month to get rid of all of it. Sunday the storms rolled in, so we did a couple of little things around the house, but then had a marathon Star Wars. I hadn't seen episode 9, so we watched 8 and 9 back to back. It was storming pretty bad when we went to bed, so I let the dog get in the bed and sleep with us. (We had bad storms last weekend too, and she woke up crying in the middle off the night.) She slept great with us, but I'm afraid I've created a monster. 

charlotte989875

I would have done the same thing @ei34 and if I were tour sister would have appreciated not being the one to be like “umm I’m pregnant, no!”  

Weekend was pretty good, not much Friday night but we got a lot done this weekend. I ran Saturday and we took a hike with the dog yesterday! 

I also started cleaning the room that will become the nursery but is currently housing all of our books and some random boxes we didn’t unpack. I went through all of the boxes and got rid of a ton of stuff we don’t need! We’re going to have to redo all of the flooring so it needs to be emptied out. We were going to hire out to do the floors but given the state of everything H is probably going to have to do it again. It should be much easier than the last round of flooring we did, but I think he was looking forward to not doing more flooring this year! 

banana468

ei34 said:

It's supposed to be rainy here all week.  My new recipes came out phenomenal and the planting day was a success.  How was everyone's weekend?
Small rant but I'm peeved at most of my family.  My mother proposed we have a social distancing Cherry Blossom photo and gathering in my parents' yard.  Years ago my siblings and I bought her a a cherry blossom tree for Mother's Day which my dad planted, and it's a nice tree year-round, but the second half of April is really its time to shine.  A couple of years ago we took an impromptu family picture under it and to this day it remains my mom's favorite photo (it's her screen saver, etc.).  So yesterday she invited my siblings and me in the group text to take a photo/have a gathering. Two of my siblings immediately jumped on it, super eager.  My immediate family with spouses and kids is 16 people, and we live in a hotspot.  We didn't gather for Easter, we my niece's birthday last week was a drive-by car party, my parents have been have groceries delivered for weeks, etc.  We're not gathering for actual holidays, why would you propose a quasi-family tradition now of all times?  I mean I get why, I desperately miss everyone, but my "wtf are you serious?" sister and I got kind of shat on for saying "no way, not happening, do it without us".  So I'm annoyed that it was proposed in the first place and my pregnant sister and I are bad guys. 

I feel for you @ei34.

DH and I have had to essentially be noncommittal to the family members when they ask for stuff.   MIL said, "Well maybe we could socially distance and play in the yard with the kids?" And the kids don't know WTF 6 feet is.   So no, you can't do that especially when FIL keeps talking about how they are home the whole time 'except for those times he left.'  MIL also mentioned a possible socially distanced cocktail time on my aunt's deck.   Again - then don't talk to us about coming over if you'e doing that.   Because you CAN'T possibly socially distance over cocktails outside especially when my aunt is known for feeding people.   Last week the same aunt dropped off Easter baskets for my kids and I told her we'd wave from the window.   I didn't feel like lecturing so instead I reinforced that we aren't engaging.  

The weekend was nice.   Saturday I did more laundry and yesterday the weather was perfect enough for a family walk.   Our streets have no sidewalks and they are narrow so we navigated them with the kiddos and enjoyed fresh air for about 2.3 miles.   Hopefully we do it again or I take Chiquita.   It's what I need after this chocolate chip scone.

BTW, Ina Garten chocolate pecan scones are delish! 

Casadena

@ei34 I would have pushed back too - that's so silly.  
@banana468 our IL's sound very similar!

My IL's were pushing all weekend to come visit "because it's been so long since we've seen your faces". She wanted to come stand on one end of our driveway and just talk, or sit in the backyard 6+ feet away from each other.  NO.  Also, we facetime at least once a week, you've seen us.  (You really think she would have stayed 6 feet away from her grandson?!  No possible way)

I get that this is hard for people, it's hard for EVERYONE.  But you don't get to decide that rules don't apply to you, so they shouldn't have to apply to us either because you want to get out of the house.  

Otherwise the weekend was good. We went for a long walk yesterday and H got another round of cleaning done on the bedroom furniture.  I did a huge grocery haul and hopefully wont' have to shop again for at least 3 weeks. 

MNNEBride

Ugh - @ei34 when those who are sensible get made to look like the bad guys.  Use your brain folks!

Friday night after work, we did a bunch of errands.  We had a Target pick up and a pick up at Northern Tool for disposable gloves (who knew?).  Then we dropped a mask and gloves off for my mom, picked up some supper and came home.  

Saturday I didn't feel well.  I was just "off".  I had a headache and couldn't think.  I fell asleep in the recliner about 1 PM and then ended up in bed for a 2 hour nap.  I felt a little better but still not great.  Went to bed early.

Sunday I felt fine when I got up.  We did church from the recliner and then decided to go for a ride.  We dropped off a mask for a co-worker and talked with her for a bit (social distancing!).  We went for a long drive and stopped for a late lunch at a little drive-in that was still delivering to your car.  Along our drive we saw several eagles, so that was cool.  We got home about 4:30 and I started prep for Monday night dinner (calico beans in the crock pot) and made bacon wrapped pork loin with fresh green beans for dinner.  It was delish but I set off the smoke detector when baking bacon.  The house still smells of bacon this morning.

Today is wfh as usual.  It's sunny out now but supposed to rain this afternoon.  Maybe I'll take a short walk at lunch.  

short+sassy

I just got an e-mail back from Air France about my flight.  Apparently we will be going to battle, smh.   I need to call their customer service number over the next few days, but I should probably calm down first.  They told me they will only give me an airfare credit that is only good for one year.  That is NOT what their own website says.  I'm pretty sure that is against EU rules that have been put in place during the crisis.  And it is definitely against recent US rules put into place about flights.

The slant of the e-mail was they were "sorry to hear my travel plans have changed".  See that?  The use of the word "MY"?  That was the attitude throughout the e-mail.  That I was choosing to cancel my flight.  No a**holes.  It's not MY travel plans that changed.  I need a refund because YOU have cancelled the flights!!!  And that actually is the key difference between being entitled to a flight voucher vs a refund from all the verbiage I've read.

((Shaking it off)).  Okay, on to happier news.  We picked up the new washer on Sat.  The clearance red front load apparently wasn't there anymore.  But, now that it's installed, I'm fine with the white top load we already bought at such an awesome clearance price.  It's a little funny looking having a black front load dryer and a white top load washer, lol.  But it doesn't "visually" bother me as much as I thought it would, so it's fine.  It works (knock on wood), that's the main thing!  It was thoroughly tested out over the weekend with backed-up laundry loads, lol.

Edited to add:  I also broke down and bought a big thing of toilet paper while I was at HD.  Paid a third more for their generic stuff than I do for my preferred Cottonelle.  So that was annoying, but expected.  But we were down to our last few rolls and at least now I don't have to worry about it for a long time.

I know I said I wasn't going back to Sam's Club until after the Stay At Home order was lifted.  But then I needed a number of things (sigh), so I relented and went to their website to check out the hours.  I discovered that Sam's has pick-up service available.  Yaasss!  Is that relatively new?  Or have I just been missing out, lol?

Of course, there were no slots available when I tried to place my order on Sat. afternoon.  Sun. and Mon. were totally booked up and it didn't go past that.  Then a light bulb went off.  I wonder if I try to check out right after midnight, if that's when Tues. slots will open up?  Apparently that's exactly how it works, lol.  I almost forgot and missed the first few minutes.  At 12:04AM, all the Tues. slots were available.  When I finished the checkout a few minutes later, only noon-1PM were left!.  Whoa!  Phew, I got it.    

short+sassy

@MNNEBride, I was able to order disposable gloves last week from Amazon.  $5.64 for a box of 50 on Prime.  Actually delivered in two days!  I was quite surprised, all around. 

No such luck on disposable face masks, lol.  There were a bunch of companies selling them.  But there was just something shady about it.  Almost all the companies selling looked like new vendors who either had no reviews or a handful of bad/so-so reviews.  None of them were Prime.  And the ones I checked didn't have delivery dates until May...some of them June...anyway.  I checked out Amazon and Etsy for re-usable face masks also, but most of those vendors were sold out and the ones that weren't also had long shipping times.

So I made 4 "no sew" re-useable masks with an old t-shirt (shrug).  They're hot and a little uncomfortable, so I'd rather have disposable ones that I just throw away when I'm done.  But since that is not possible, at least they're something.

MissKittyDanger

@short+sassy  Ohhh definitely call. I mean unless you consider a global pandemic you changing ... *sigh*

kerbohl

Weird, weird weekend here.  Hubby had a bit of a breakdown.  He's been fighting with a friend and it just hit him like a tonne of bricks.  And now he doesn't know it, but I'm "fighting" with this friend because I don't appreciate people treating hubby that way.  I basically told this guy to back off and not to contact my husband until I've given him the all clear.  It's been a whole thing.  Hubby is pretty easy-going and people think they can bully him, and that gets my hackles up.  So then I make them go through me, and suddenly they are up against someone they can't push around.  

Other than that which ended up taking most of my Saturday to deal with, I did some gardening and planted my lettuce.  I've got indoor seeds planted as well.  It is still pretty cold here, but nor horrible.  I'm just ready to not be wearing hats and mitts when I go outside.

kerbohl

@short+sassy Wow, anything to save a buck, eh?  Sure, it's YOU that changed the travel plans and nothing to do with a global pandemic ... sure.  I hope you get this sorted out without too many further headaches.

ei34

Thanks everyone.  I just needed to let off some steam. Nothing like being the "bad guy". 
Ugh @short+sassy the airline is being ridiculous!  It's always the airline.  My parents had a vacation to Puerto Rico planned a few years ago, but the resort they were staying at was destroyed during Hurricane Maria.  They'd booked it along with the flights before the hurricane and the resort canceled their lodging (they'd actually had a cool option where guests could donate a portion of their refund to relief effort on the island, which my parents did, but guests had the option of the full refund).  The airline wouldn't refund the flights though...even though the resort was gone...simply for the reason that they still had planes flying to PR.  The fact that Air France is making your change in plans like your idea is bizarre.
@banana468 how has Disney handled re-booking?

banana468

@ei34 Disney physically cancelled the reservations that were in place for while they were closed.   I worked with an agent who said I can either get all $ back or rebook.   I chose to re book for August.   I will evaluate what we do later. 

The deal w/ Disney is that if you book a package, you can cancel for a full refund up to 30 days ahead.   You can cancel up to a few days ahead and you're out $200.  

I did book plane tickets w/ Jet Blue and those were previously going to be only a voucher.   Two weeks ago they cancelled the flights.   Once that was done I qualified and received a full refund.   It was easier I think for me than for @short+sassy
because all of this was a domestic trip.  Pandemics are considered an act of God (which is bullshit.   A hurricane is an act of God.  A pandemic is the result of people spreading disease). So unfortunately the flight insurance I purchased didnt' work here and I'm grateful we got our $ back as pushed by other organizations. 

Things to note for Disney: some people pay for vacations on a gift card due to discounts or ways you can get the gift card (like 5% off if you buy through Target).  That is great - but at a time like this know that if you want your $ back from Disney, you're getting it back on a gift card and not in cash.  

Second note: if you sought booking your park tickets not through Disney and through a 3rd party then you need to pursue that through the 3rd party.  

Thus far this has been really easy but a lot has been because we used an agent and I think there's no international aspect. 

VarunaTT

I just got into it with a co-worker who flipped her shit over an offhand whine I made.  I'm trying not to laugh, honestly.  This co-worker is one I'm a little iffy on, b/c I think she likes to try and start fights in the office.

I'm really mad about going back to work full time next week.  I don't even understand that point of any of it anymore.  Also, at this point, I think it's just hunker down and hope I'm not in the wave of the virus.  America and MO are dumb and there's nothing I can do to stop it.

Nothing much going on here.  Just finished my lunch and I'm sleepy today.  I'm not having nightmares, but I am waking up a lot at night.

banana468

@VarunaTT is your state lifting restrictions? 

VarunaTT

banana468 said:

@VarunaTT is your state lifting restrictions? 

No, they were extended to May 5 statewide, I believe, though the 2 biggest cities in the state have said "indefinite" at this point.  My Midwest state also is the only midwest state not to join the other states in working out a plan for reopening slowly. 

My work has decided we are "essential", which is totally BS.  Then, they had split the office in 2 and had us coming in every other day.  They did that for 3 weeks and we're stopping that on April 24 and all coming in, regular hours.  Everyone just wants to WFH.

MNNEBride

short+sassy said:

@MNNEBride, I was able to order disposable gloves last week from Amazon.  $5.64 for a box of 50 on Prime.  Actually delivered in two days!  I was quite surprised, all around. 

No such luck on disposable face masks, lol.  There were a bunch of companies selling them.  But there was just something shady about it.  Almost all the companies selling looked like new vendors who either had no reviews or a handful of bad/so-so reviews.  None of them were Prime.  And the ones I checked didn't have delivery dates until May...some of them June...anyway.  I checked out Amazon and Etsy for re-usable face masks also, but most of those vendors were sold out and the ones that weren't also had long shipping times.

So I made 4 "no sew" re-useable masks with an old t-shirt (shrug).  They're hot and a little uncomfortable, so I'd rather have disposable ones that I just throw away when I'm done.  But since that is not possible, at least they're something.

::Stuck in this box::

We don't have any disposable masks and, like you, I thought the ones on Amazon looked shady.  I know a woman who is making cloth masks and they have a pocket for a filter (coffee filter, paper towel, etc).  We've gotten them for ourselves, my mom and a couple of co-workers.  She doesn't charge for them just asks for a donation to our church so that's cool.  

banana468

VarunaTT said:

banana468 said:

@VarunaTT is your state lifting restrictions? 

No, they were extended to May 5 statewide, I believe, though the 2 biggest cities in the state have said "indefinite" at this point.  My Midwest state also is the only midwest state not to join the other states in working out a plan for reopening slowly. 

My work has decided we are "essential", which is totally BS.  Then, they had split the office in 2 and had us coming in every other day.  They did that for 3 weeks and we're stopping that on April 24 and all coming in, regular hours.  Everyone just wants to WFH.

I'm so sorry.   It's so frustrating when people are refusing to understand how serious this is.  I hope you have masks. 

A local town FB forum is now filled with asshats who are just posting how much they support the President, how the country needs to reopen and how the restrictions are too much.   Some even think that the stats are a conspiracy by the Democrats. 

FFS.  

And then on a personal side of fuckery DH's uncle called to say that the parents of his best friend (uncle's property is behind theirs) have cut down some of his trees for at least the second time.   

MissKittyDanger

VarunaTT said:

banana468 said:

@VarunaTT is your state lifting restrictions? 

No, they were extended to May 5 statewide, I believe, though the 2 biggest cities in the state have said "indefinite" at this point.  My Midwest state also is the only midwest state not to join the other states in working out a plan for reopening slowly. 

My work has decided we are "essential", which is totally BS.  Then, they had split the office in 2 and had us coming in every other day.  They did that for 3 weeks and we're stopping that on April 24 and all coming in, regular hours.  Everyone just wants to WFH.

Can you push to WFH?

MissKittyDanger

Walmart order for groceries done. Pick up on Sunday!

Vacuumed the cheerio mess and some of my main level, but leaving rest for later as I didn't wanna move chairs, etc.
I cleaned up the kitchen, dealt with bags of donation stuff - BabyKitten's room and our closet - folded M's shirts, and hung the ones that needed to be.

I feel more productive than I have in awhile, so I just wanted to take advantage of it.

I also got a lot of work done.


Did I mention BabyKitten is back at daycare? Lol

banana468

Hey @mrsconn23, didn't see you check in today.   Thinking of you.

OliveOilsMom

Ei34 - I'm on your side!  Glad that you and other sister pushed back.  

S+S - We just cancelled our Ireland vacation.  Neither here nor there are accepting tourist, so we would be going to sit in a hotel room for 2 weeks. Not an ideal vacation with a 3 year old! LOL!  However!  AerLingus did not cancel our flights, so we took a voluntary credit.  Their credit gave us an extra 20% of value AND 5 years til expiration.  Air France is also being extra stingy! IMHO!

We had a pretty good weekend.  Saturday, I was back up in the attic above the garage to put some spray foam insulation around the electric box for the fan we did last month.  We are also going to hard wire our smart TVs for the internet to help with streaming as we are preparing to cut the cable cord.  Our cell phone for the land line arrived and we have a few days to get it set up since it is a landline.  We also got a better door hanging over the opening in the garage.

Sunday we finished planting the flowers and mulching the garden beds.  We had to be extra careful with the mulch as I should have bought more bags than I did, but it worked out in the end.

charlotte989875

Umm I just saw your Governor’s announcement @MyNameIsNot. Yikes. 

short+sassy

OliveOilsMom said:

Ei34 - I'm on your side!  Glad that you and other sister pushed back.  

S+S - We just cancelled our Ireland vacation.  Neither here nor there are accepting tourist, so we would be going to sit in a hotel room for 2 weeks. Not an ideal vacation with a 3 year old! LOL!  However!  AerLingus did not cancel our flights, so we took a voluntary credit.  Their credit gave us an extra 20% of value AND 5 years til expiration.  Air France is also being extra stingy! IMHO!

We had a pretty good weekend.  Saturday, I was back up in the attic above the garage to put some spray foam insulation around the electric box for the fan we did last month.  We are also going to hard wire our smart TVs for the internet to help with streaming as we are preparing to cut the cable cord.  Our cell phone for the land line arrived and we have a few days to get it set up since it is a landline.  We also got a better door hanging over the opening in the garage.

Sunday we finished planting the flowers and mulching the garden beds.  We had to be extra careful with the mulch as I should have bought more bags than I did, but it worked out in the end.

That's awesome!  See?  If Air France had given me an offer like that, I might have taken them up on it.  Because then they'd be giving me an incentive to accept a flight credit.  As it stands now, it's nothing but negatives and no reason to accept that if I don't have to.  

Technically, since I already know the dates I rebooked my cruise, I could use the flight credit.  But there are a number of problems with that:

1)  I would BARELY be making their one-year expiration.  And when I say barely, I mean it would only be by 1-3 days!

2)  That is $900 of MY money that would be sitting held up as a flight credit for an entire year.  Money has a time value!  That's money I could be putting toward a loan or credit card balance and save on interest.  

3)  I originally booked this flight a bit earlier than I was planning to because Air France had a great deal going on.  But it's not like the credit entitles me to an "equal" r/t flight to Barcelona.  It's just a credit toward another flight and who knows what that cost would be.  There is no telling if they will be the best/cheapest option when I'm ready to rebook.

MyNameIsNot

charlotte989875 said:

Umm I just saw your Governor’s announcement @MyNameIsNot. Yikes. 

We've apparently decided that some people are disposable if it means we can save on unemployment. Meanwhile we have nearly 20k cases and 800 deaths, and continuing to rise.

The state has been broke because of our piece of shit governor for a minute. So the idea is open up salons, theaters and bowling alleys so that these employees are no longer eligible for unemployment. Now a bunch of the most marginal people can choose between putting their health (and the health of their families) at risk, or just not have any means of income. And yet the party line is that "if you're scared or at risk, you can stay home." Not if that means losing their home you (&#$$ morons.

I'm beyond pissed. Can you tell? 

charlotte989875

MyNameIsNot said:

charlotte989875 said:

Umm I just saw your Governor’s announcement @MyNameIsNot. Yikes. 

We've apparently decided that some people are disposable if it means we can save on unemployment. Meanwhile we have nearly 20k cases and 800 deaths, and continuing to rise.

The state has been broke because of our piece of shit governor for a minute. So the idea is open up salons, theaters and bowling alleys so that these employees are no longer eligible for unemployment. Now a bunch of the most marginal people can choose between putting their health (and the health of their families) at risk, or just not have any means of income. And yet the party line is that "if you're scared or at risk, you can stay home." Not if that means losing their home you (&#$$ morons.

I'm beyond pissed. Can you tell? 

It’s infruriating! It puts workers (and small businesses) in an impossible decision. If they don’t go back they risk losing their job or unemployment. If businesses don’t open even though they’re allowed to, commercial rents will likely not be suspended so they’ll still have to pay rent on buildings. It’s a disaster. 

I think I also read somewhere the university system is projecting a more than $340mm budget deficit already? There’s going to be a strong push to reopen colleges but particularly dorms and services that’s where they make most of their money. Terrifying. 

short+sassy

charlotte989875 said:

MyNameIsNot said:

charlotte989875 said:

Umm I just saw your Governor’s announcement @MyNameIsNot. Yikes. 

We've apparently decided that some people are disposable if it means we can save on unemployment. Meanwhile we have nearly 20k cases and 800 deaths, and continuing to rise.

The state has been broke because of our piece of shit governor for a minute. So the idea is open up salons, theaters and bowling alleys so that these employees are no longer eligible for unemployment. Now a bunch of the most marginal people can choose between putting their health (and the health of their families) at risk, or just not have any means of income. And yet the party line is that "if you're scared or at risk, you can stay home." Not if that means losing their home you (&#$$ morons.

I'm beyond pissed. Can you tell? 

It’s infruriating! It puts workers (and small businesses) in an impossible decision. If they don’t go back they risk losing their job or unemployment. If businesses don’t open even though they’re allowed to, commercial rents will likely not be suspended so they’ll still have to pay rent on buildings. It’s a disaster. 

I think I also read somewhere the university system is projecting a more than $340mm budget deficit already? There’s going to be a strong push to reopen colleges but particularly dorms and services that’s where they make most of their money. Terrifying.

SIB:
This is from the same governor who didn't know until the beginning of April that people can potentially be sick and contagious for days, before having any symptoms, smh.  It feels helpless to have leaders who are that out of touch, yet making decisions that affect the health of millions.