Easter Monday

CharmedPam

Did everyone have a good Easter? 

My friend and I had a great time in Williamsburg. Hilton Grand Vacations put us up in a (pretty crappy) resort for $295/3 nights, $100 gift card and 50,000 points (roughly takes 60,000 or 65,000 for a free night somewhere) just for sitting through the timeshare speech. My sales rep was excellent. I think she was exhausted from an overkill day and really wasn’t pressuring me so it was an easy pass.

My friend and I booked a ghost tour on Friday and Saturday with ghost city tours, two different names and two different descriptions with the same tour company. The lady confessed too much on day 1, so we knew it was a start up city for them and they were still training a ton of guides. On the 2nd night, the guide started telling us the same stories and we’re like… ummm is this the same tour? It was. It was such a small group we stayed for less than 1/2 of it only to be polite. I called today to see if we could get a refund for one. She said policy was no refunds (although in our circumstance I don’t see why we weren’t an exception) but got vouchers for any of the 34 cities they were in. Fine. I wasn’t even going to call anyway, but I also felt that they should know Williamsburg was marketing the same tour as 2 different ones. I rebooked for my solo Salem trip.
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ei34

Glad you were able to get vouchers to another city at least! And I always wonder how I’d do at a timeshare speech. I mean, I wouldn’t sign up, but I wonder how it would go/how much pressure I’d feel. 

Easter was really nice. Cold and rainy but lovely despite the weather. 

Looking to fill the days off this week. The kids have let me know that “all” of their friends are away on nice vacations 😝 we have some local things planned, nothing wildly fun but it’s nice just to be off. 

levioosa

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!

That’s annoying @CharmedPam. If you hadn’t gotten a voucher I probably would have disputed with my CC. 

Weekend was good. Did a nice workout and walk on Saturday and then went to the mall. VS discontinued my favorite sports bra but luckily I was able to buy some of the last of them online for 50%+ off. Maybe by the time I need new ones they’ll bring them back again. I really liked these ones for the support plus they looked basically like a normal bra underneath thicker shirts so I didn’t have to change my bra in between work and the gym. I also signed up for Pilates last week (a flat rate through a large gym club system). I can justify the cost if I go twice a week (where else would reformer Pilates be $15 a class). 

Yesterday was a tad annoying. When the family was setting up plans I told them if we did an earlier day around 12-1 I could make it but too much later and it’s just a really long drive when I now work on Mondays. They said nope, a 4 pm dinner was non negotiable. Oh well too sad (mind you literally everyone is retired). Then yesterday an hour before they told me they moved it to 2 pm. So then we were scrambling to make it on time. I don’t know why they’re like this. But it was good to see my grandparents and I’m not sure when we would have had time to see them this month otherwise. 

Busy day today. Almost feels weird to be busy ha. But it’s good for us that it’s picking up. I hope everyone has a great week! 

CharmedPam

ei34 said:

Glad you were able to get vouchers to another city at least! And I always wonder how I’d do at a timeshare speech. I mean, I wouldn’t sign up, but I wonder how it would go/how much pressure I’d feel. 

Easter was really nice. Cold and rainy but lovely despite the weather. 

Looking to fill the days off this week. The kids have let me know that “all” of their friends are away on nice vacations 😝 we have some local things planned, nothing wildly fun but it’s nice just to be off. 

I thought she’d be a much more firm sell on me, @ei34. I also think that while I travel a lot - I‘m not really their target market. It works out great for families who want weekly condo living. And you pay for points, not nights (doesn’t have to be resorts, they have hotels too) and I have to say, the cost wasn’t that bad! However you pay annual maintenance fees like you would an HOA, and I know from hearsay that that’s what people hate about timeshares because those can go up. Anyway I told her I was uncertain about my job status, I was her last presentation of the day and she had a headache and just wanted to go so shrugged and said “Tom will come by and close you up for your gifts then”. And left lol

Your kids have different spring break from their friends @ei34?
annoying @levioosa but glad you made it! I’m kinda glad we don’t celebrate Easter in my family

ILoveBeachMusic

We had a nice Easter weekend. It was pretty chilly but Sunday was at least sunny. H and I attended a church we went to while we were staying in Chicago earlier this year. It was a wonderful service with awesome music. This church has a great music program - an awesome choir, a youth choir, a pipe organ and a brass group that has about 10 members. I could've sat in the sanctuary and just listened to the music for hours. If we move to Arlington Heights, this is definitely the church we would attend.

The boys had a good weekend even though there were times that they couldn't control themselves. It is exhausting. H and I babysat while DD and SIL attended a wedding Saturday night. There is a reason we have children when we are younger. At 65, I couldn't handle young kids on ta daily basis. I love them to pieces but I get tired out too easily. 

I have a question for Catholic knotties. The twins and their nanny share friend are receiving first communion this spring. Their friend has celiac disease. They were told that communion bread has to have gluten in it in order for it to be consecrated as the host. Her parents are trying to figure out what to do. She literally throws up and has gastrointestinal distress if she eats gluten. Is this a local archdiocese thing or is this for the entire Catholic church? DD said she had never heard about this until now. Our church (ELCA Lutheran) always has gluten free wafers to offer those who can't have gluten so this was a surprise to me when DD told me.

MobKaz

ILoveBeachMusic said:

We had a nice Easter weekend. It was pretty chilly but Sunday was at least sunny. H and I attended a church we went to while we were staying in Chicago earlier this year. It was a wonderful service with awesome music. This church has a great music program - an awesome choir, a youth choir, a pipe organ and a brass group that has about 10 members. I could've sat in the sanctuary and just listened to the music for hours. If we move to Arlington Heights, this is definitely the church we would attend.

The boys had a good weekend even though there were times that they couldn't control themselves. It is exhausting. H and I babysat while DD and SIL attended a wedding Saturday night. There is a reason we have children when we are younger. At 65, I couldn't handle young kids on ta daily basis. I love them to pieces but I get tired out too easily. 

I have a question for Catholic knotties. The twins and their nanny share friend are receiving first communion this spring. Their friend has celiac disease. They were told that communion bread has to have gluten in it in order for it to be consecrated as the host. Her parents are trying to figure out what to do. She literally throws up and has gastrointestinal distress if she eats gluten. Is this a local archdiocese thing or is this for the entire Catholic church? DD said she had never heard about this until now. Our church (ELCA Lutheran) always has gluten free wafers to offer those who can't have gluten so this was a surprise to me when DD told me.

My SIL has celiac.  Although she is a Eucharistic Minister, she herself cannot take Communion.  The Host must contain wheat to be considered valid for consecration, because it must be considered "bread".  My SIL only receives the Blood of Christ. 

CharmedPam

MobKaz said:

My SIL has celiac.  Although she is a Eucharistic Minister, she herself cannot take Communion.  The Host must contain wheat to be considered valid for consecration, because it must be considered "bread".  My SIL only receives the Blood of Christ. 

You literally learn something new every day.
wish I could retain some of it. 

ei34

@CharmedPam we have the same spring break.  Just that they claim all of their friends are away on nice vacations, while we're home doing local things.  (The reality is probably around 50% of their friends are away.  Plenty are also at home having staycations like us).
@ILoveBeachMusic my kids all had kids at their Communions (2022, 2023) who needed gluten-free host.  Probably parish dependent but our pastor was able to have host on hand that they could receive that day.  Officially the Vatican states there has to be wheat, but apparently there's a host that contained the tiniest trace of gluten that didn't bother her daughter but also satisfied the requirement for the sacrament.  

MobKaz

ei34 said:

@CharmedPam we have the same spring break.  Just that they claim all of their friends are away on nice vacations, while we're home doing local things.  (The reality is probably around 50% of their friends are away.  Plenty are also at home having staycations like us).
@ILoveBeachMusic my kids all had kids at their Communions (2022, 2023) who needed gluten-free host.  Probably parish dependent but our pastor was able to have host on hand that they could receive that day.  Officially the Vatican states there has to be wheat, but apparently there's a host that contained the tiniest trace of gluten that didn't bother her daughter but also satisfied the requirement for the sacrament.  

Even the "tiniest" amount of gluten renders something NOT gluten free.  Nothing should be passed off as GF if it isn't.  It's great for those who can ignore a "trace" amount, but there are many with celiac disease that can be thrown into a tailspin with even a trace amount.  Hopefully for those churches that do use these hosts, they are incredibly transparent regarding the fact they do contain gluten. 

ei34

MobKaz said:

ei34 said:

@CharmedPam we have the same spring break.  Just that they claim all of their friends are away on nice vacations, while we're home doing local things.  (The reality is probably around 50% of their friends are away.  Plenty are also at home having staycations like us).
@ILoveBeachMusic my kids all had kids at their Communions (2022, 2023) who needed gluten-free host.  Probably parish dependent but our pastor was able to have host on hand that they could receive that day.  Officially the Vatican states there has to be wheat, but apparently there's a host that contained the tiniest trace of gluten that didn't bother her daughter but also satisfied the requirement for the sacrament.  

Even the "tiniest" amount of gluten renders something NOT gluten free.  Nothing should be passed off as GF if it isn't.  It's great for those who can ignore a "trace" amount, but there are many with celiac disease that can be thrown into a tailspin with even a trace amount.  Hopefully for those churches that do use these hosts, they are incredibly transparent regarding the fact they do contain gluten. 

The mom friend whose daughter was among those who received it said the church was extremely transparent about what they could offer that would still satisfy the sacramental requirement. Her daughter can handle trace amounts so it was the perfect solution.