Monday, October 28, 2024

Last Weekend of October

 I have been fighting a virus for the better part of two weeks. It is mostly a terrible cough, but there is some sinus congestion, even though I can easily breathe through my nose. Once the drugs kick in, I'm okay, but I don't have the energy to do anything.  

Boris got it before we went to Canada and Natasha got it afterwards.  They each missed a few days of school.  I caught it just as Natasha was getting better.  Nightingale has not caught it at all.



The Bears managed to lose a game in epic fashion.  They scored the go-ahead touchdown with less than a minute on the clock.  Somehow Washington managed to move close enough to throw a hail mary and a Bears defender Tyrique Stevenson tipped the ball into the hands of a Commander in the end zone and it was a touchdown.  And that's not even the first time the Bears have even done anything like that.

The in-laws are in Houston so we are dog-sitting again.  They had to put down one of their dogs earlier this year so now it is only one hospice dog, who is much more manageable.  She still shits and pisses everywhere but when she's done with that, she mostly sleeps.

The other in-law was over here on Saturday to watch the Michigan - Michigan State game.  She wanted to have a kid-free evening of watching the game and hanging with Nightingale but her husband refused to watch both kids so she could have a night off.  I get my info from Nightingale and I cannot speak for certain about their dynamic but Confederate Jethro apparently cannot handle two children at once.  Or he doesn't want to because misogyny.  

It's getting really tiresome dealing with him.  The first year down here, he gave me a lot of flack and Nightingale begged me to not respond.  And I did for a while.  But one day in September 2022, Confederate Jethro sent me this stupid meme about White Privilege and I responded that instead of sending me bullshit like this, he should be vetting babysitters. 

Confederate Jethro was so pissed!  He called his wife who called my wife who called me.  And I put my foot down and said IDGF he had it coming.  It was fortunate that I was working at the time because I had some leverage.   

He has essentially pouted ever since.  This makes the Christmas Holidays and Family dinners problematic because he doesn't' want to be in my presence (yes, I'm heartbroken).  But it does create some issues that could be avoided if the family would just stand up to him.  I guess him being over 300 lbs and heavy armed does make one pause.








Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Down to Five bucks a Day now

I thought it would be good to update the Cost per Day for the Drama Playset.  We have now owned the Drama Playset since January 14, 2022.  




Conservative Estimate:  I'm assuming that 4 kids using the playset most days equals one kid using it every day.  Also we have had an additional kid most of the year.


So using the time and date duration calculator to figure the time between January 14, 2022, when it finally arrived, and today this year, I get 1013 days.  


that works out to $6000/455 = $5.92 per use.



Slightly Optimistic Estimate:  If we get more optimistic, then we can assume 4 kids using the playset most days equals two kids using it every day.



that works out to $6000/455/2 = $2.96 per use.



And if we take the average of these two values, we get the more like CPU of $4.44.




So as we approach the 3 year anniveasry, it cost $5 to keep my kids entertained and off their iPads.

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Toronto Vacation Part 4

I'm breaking this trip post into smaller posts so the photos don't fill an entire page, or something like that.

MONDAY


The Butterfly Conservatory was a blast.  and we had lunch at a great local place called Corks where I had the best Lobster sandwich in my life (also my first Lobster sandwich in my life).  but honestly, Niagara on the Lake is not kid-friendly.  YES, there are stores where they can find cool stuff.  but otherwise, not kid-friendly.



and the rest of the day was spent getting back home.  For some god fucking reason, we had to fly past Memphis to Dallas and then come back.  our 2nd flight was delayed, and the AC couldn't be turned on until we lifted off, and we didn't land until after 11 pm (30 minutes delayed). By the time we got home, it was Tuesday.




we slept in and Tuesday was an easy day.  but now we are catching up.

As a reminder to Future Me, next time check your bags on the return trip.  On the way to our destination, having our bags with us in case of Lost Luggage made sense.  On the return trip, there was no reason to force ourselves and our kids to carry their suitcases when everything they needed was in their backpacks.  

One final note, the 7-11 pizza we ate at the airport was better than one-third of the meals we consumed on this trip.  



Toronto Vacation Part 3

I'm breaking this trip post into smaller posts so the photos don't fill an entire page, or something like that.

SUNDAY

We got wet.  our tour guide seems questionable in her bone fides.  I guess we had to choose between Behind the Falls or Mist Boat Ride, but honestly, I would have skipped Floral Clock and Welland Ship Canal.



for lunch we stopped at a tourist trap.



I liked the Old Fort Niagara but was still stuffed from lunch.  so while we tried, we couldn't take full advantage of the Mandarin Buffet.


then we get to see Ripley's Believe it or Not museum and a wax museum NO ONE was interested in seeing.


the fireworks were nice.




I've obviously lost steam on these posts so I'm just publishing what I have with some photos.  Sorry to my handful of readers.





Friday, October 11, 2024

Toronto Vacation Part 2

I'm breaking this trip post into smaller posts so the photos don't fill an entire page, or something like that.

SATURDAY

We had an amazing breakfast at the Delta Hotel (655 Dixon Road/Toronto) and the rooms were nice.  Then we were off to Casa Loma.  Because it was October, they were set up for Halloween with the basement and grounds decked out in scary display.  I could have stayed here all day, and I think Natasha could too.  Boris was tired but would have rallied.

The rest of the day sucked.  We went to city hall for a few minutes and managed to prove why Americans are assholes. We went to take a group photo in front of a fountain and most of our group failed to notice a queue of people lining up to take the same shot.

After the photo we went to a mall called the Eaton and hung out for an hour or two, having lunch at the food court.  We had Gyros and Greek salad. being Canada, they do it differently.  but it was still better than our dinner would turn out to be.

I had a decent Gyros pita and Nightingale got a Greek Salad with a side of Gyros.  I guess Gyros salads aren't a thing in Canada.  

The kids got McDonalds.  Our App wouldn't work so we had to use the kiosks.  No big deal, though we could have used what little savings the app might provide. 

After lunch we took walking tour of The Market Gallery and graffiti alley.  All this walking was too much for the children.  One kid had a massive breakdown and I think the parents had to signal an audiable and do something else until dinner time.  

The Market Gallery would have been a great spot to hang out under different conditions. It had a peminment Street Fest vibe.  For some reason, our tour guide dumped us off at the edge of an adjacent park that was filled with homeless tents.  That doesn't bother me and we were perfectly safe.  In fact, many of the kids played on the swingsets at the end.  

Still, it would have made more sense to drop us off at the other end of the park next to the Market.  And give us some suggestions and guidence like "the gallery goes a mile in this direction and a half mile in either direction at the cross street" or something like that.  

Because we didn't know the lay of the land and had been walking so much, we just wanted to sit down and have a drink.  The streets were very narrow and most places didn't have outdoor seating, so we went with a place called Amadeu's Restaurant.  Our waiter was fantastic.

Then the worst dinner of my life at Swiss Chalet.  I thought the meal at Canadian Denny's was bad, but this meal made that lunch look gourmet.  




WE get to the hotel sometime near 10 pm...but first..  Our tour guide makes the driver go to the liquor store across the street.  I'm okay with this but share with the group!  I spent 30 minutes earlier finding the same liquor chain when we where at the mall!

 I'm breaking this trip up into smaller posts so the photos don't fill an entire page, or something like that.


Toronto Vacation Part 1

I'm breaking this trip post into smaller posts so the photos don't fill an entire page, or something like that.


We have just returned from a 4-day trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls.  It was technically a school field trip but limited to a few select students...probably those who could afford it.

Details are sketchy but we got an email earlier this year when the kids were still in 3rd grade.  it occurred the weekend before Fall Break so they only had to miss one day of school.  There was not a lot of communication throughout the year and Nightingale was the contact because down here it is assumed only the Mom is in charge of the children.  We didn't get an itinerary until Sept 23rd.

I don't know why the trip wasn't planned better.  We left at the buttcrack of dawn on Friday (10/4) and returned just before midnight (10/7).  The trip was so expensive as it was that I cannot imagine that a more convenient flight would have added too much to the total.

FRIDAY

Our first day was such a clusterF.  We arrive in Toronto around 11 am local time.  We find our tour guide and she offers lunch at either Tim Horton's at the airport or a Denny's near our next destination.  They don't have Dennys' in the South so most of our crew didn't have an idea that we would be eating at the Love Child of IHOP and Waffle House.  We chose Denny's because we thought it would be cheaper than Airport Horton's.  Boy were we wrong.  




This would have been fine had it not taken so long to get everyone together.  By the time we got to Denny's, it was mid-afternoon and we would be eating our free* dinner 3 hours later.  I don't expect a lot from Denny's.  It's the cheap place to goto after a night of drinking and you just need to soak up last night's sins.  But this Denny's failed to achieve even that much.  The food was expensive, terrible and expensive.

And because we ate lunch so late in the day, even with walking around the ROM, most of us were not hungry when we got to Hot House.

Hot House has a great menu but for a tour group, it is understandable that they would limit the menu to quick, easy, and cheap items because they aren't getting much profit off us.  Still, they failed to meet this minimal standard.  


BTW, ignore the estimated time stamps on the itinerary.  Even Island Time is more accurate than this.  We did get to our next destination, the Observatory Deck of the C.N. Building in time to see the skyline at dusk.  For some reason, in my old age, I no longer like heights.  

We got to our hotel late and all we want to do is sleep. We are next to the airport but we are so exhausted it doesn't matter.  also the planes stopped around 11 pm.


Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Cashing it out

I've been carrying this box of coins and bills around for as long as I can remember from apartment to apartment, to condo, to house, to house.  The best I've managed to do was combine them all into one container.  

Well, today I finally took them to a local coin collector and he confirmed what I always suspected.  99% of them are just worth the currency as printed.  I sold twelve $2 bills for $3 a piece and a silver half dollar for $7.50, bringing my grand total to $43.50.  

People hold onto coins and other collectibles way longer than they should, believing that there might be that one item that will fetch a high price.  It doesn't help that a story comes out every few months where someone found a rare piece of art worth money.


The coin collector told me I might want to hold on to some of my silver certificate dollar bills (he didn't specify which ones).  He agreed that I'm just as well off either taking everything to my bank and depositing it or reintroducing everything back into circulation.  And that's what I will do.  There is no point in passing these coins on to Moose and Squirrel, hoping they will be worth something more one day.  If they only increased 1% in 30+ years, there is no need to keep them around.  Is it possible they could become more valuable in a Twilight Zone screenplay sort of way?  Perhaps, but that would be such a strange set of circumstances that it isn't even worth entertaining.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

2024 Bears Predication Update: First Quarter Results

The NFL season is 1/4 over and the Chicago Bears are 2-2.  This is where I predicted them but not how.  They managed to lose games they should have won and win games they should have lost.  That's the NFL and the Bears in a nutshell.

For their next four games, I predicted the following:


Panthers W

Jaguars W

Bye Week

at Commanders W

at Cardinals L


I'm sticking with it but the Commanders are playing well and the other three teams aren't as bad as their record indicates.  And any team with a losing record is dangerous because they really want that next win.

For instance, the Bears play the 1-3 Panthers next week.  We will be in Ontario so I likely won't get to watch that game until we get back (and I'll only watch if we win).  

The Jaguars are looking for their first win and I hope they get it against Indianapolis so that when we play them in London, we aren't playing a desperate 0--5 team looking for their first win of the season.  While this counts as a home game, it's on the road.  Far, far away.  But they do have the Bye week next so it resets.

Then the next two games are on the road where we have lost all season.  My prediction had them going 3-1, making them 5 - 3 overall.  I'm worried this might have been too optimistic.  Anything less than 2-2 makes their playoff hopes a little tougher.

Slow Cooker Basil Chicken Coconut Curry Recipe

Whenever I try a new recipe, I do my best to use all the ingredients and follow directions to the letter.  For this Slow Cooker Basil Chicken Coconut Curry Recipe, I found that I had most of the ingredients at home already.  I was out of Chile powder, so I used this Mexican Adobe seasoning we got from Fresh Farms in Grosse Pointe.  I also didn't brown the chicken thighs first as I read a comment that it works fine either way and the point of Slow Cooker/Crockpot recipes is less work.


Nighingale stocks up on sales and we had a ton of chicken thighs in our deep freeze.  The boneless/skinless package I used was just under 3 lbs so I tinkered with the spice ratios a little.  also, Natasha loves mixing ingredients so it was easier to round up on some of them.


Finally, I didn't understand that seeded meant taking the seeds out.  Luckily, this recipe has enough Coconut Milk that it wasn't too hot to handle.