Sunday Stealing-From J. Durward

Hi! Our host is Bev Sykes of the blog "Funny the World". . Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Stolen from Durward Discussions

1.  What is the nearest book to you?  Your Kindle does not count. There are none. I am not home at the moment. If I were home it would be a cookbook because I use my Amazon Fire’s Kindle App for reading.

2.  When was the last time you took a "me" vacation? The only “me” vacation I get is when I lock myself in my room or the bathroom. Ok, once in awhile I am in my car alone, but that’s very rare and I have to be very stealth about it. 

3.  How many telephone numbers do you have? For myself, one.

4.  If you could fix one thing in the public school system, what is the one thing you would do immediately? Pay teachers better, fund the classrooms so teachers don’t have to buy school supplies, toilet paper, facial tissue, hand cleaner. Also, so parents don’t have to buy “non-education” related items. School supplies should be paid for by the school district for families that are low income and can’t afford school supplies. The schools my kids went to had the PTA or area businesses fund backpacks full of school supplies for low income families. They also provided clothing and shoes. 

5.  What's your favorite Olympic event? I like downhill skiing, or the swimming events.

6.  Do you watch the Olympics? Sometimes.

7.  Who is your favorite sports team player? I don’t really have a favorite now. Player’s are traded too often to really have a favorite, since I follow my team, not wherever the players go. Back in the day Greg Maddux, pitcher for the Chicago Cubs was my favorite. I named one of my cats Maddux.

8.  If you could travel in a spaceship to any planet, which planet would you like to visit and why? Pass. Do we even know now how habitable the other planets are now?

9.  When was the last time you sat in a church? Probably not since the last wedding I attended. It’s very difficult to find a church where I’m comfortable at, considering I’m a lesbian. When I lived in Chicago I attended the perfect church. Open and affirming, and the sermons were always relatable.

10.  Are there any aspects of blogging that annoy you? Yes. The fact that it’s impossible to get a following any more. Entrecard made it easy to get followers and comments. Now I think other than Sundays, I’m just talking to myself.

11. Have you ever gone to a party and snooped in the medicine cabinet? What kind of parties do you go to?

12.Do you watch reality TV? NEVAH! I don’t like them because they are so fake and scripted. I’d rather watch scripted tv, since their writers have actual talent, not like the writers for reality tv.

13.  How many people can you call who have known you since you were in school? Zero, other than my sister. I am Facebook friends with just about everyone from my childhood neighborhood, but I have the phone number for only one, called it once. I was coming to town and we agreed to get together. It turned out they went out of town that weekend.They knew I was coming that weekend.

14. Who, when, and where was your first kiss? Red Carpet Lanes Disco. Some teenage boy who definitely was not old enough to be in the bar, apparently was collecting kisses for a bet with his pals. I don’t know his name and in the end, it didn’t matter. First kiss with a woman was in my date’s pickup truck (of course!). It was my first date ever with a woman. 

15. You just got thrown out of your country.  Where do you want to become a citizen? Australia or New Zealand.

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

It’s Wednesday

The Blazer is back. Still no plate on the front even though I bought the screws. I guess my wife likes to live dangerously. I’m fairly certain she has an outstanding unpaid ticket. And she thinks I like to live dangerously seeing how far the Pilot or the Buick can go before it runs out of gas. I haven’t driven the Blazer enough to get a feel fit it. Lol! At least my living dangerously will not result in arrest. I think her younger sister got pulled over and arrested for the same thing when she first came back to town. 

My daughter is settled into her apartment, but we haven’t delivered the living room furniture, or the tv we are giving her. My brother-in-law has come over twice with the plan to bring the furniture, but he’s still recovering from pneumonia. He still looks wiped out. He’s going to try for Friday. I still need to find her a dark end table and a blonde sideboard/buffet. Thinking maybe I should take a trip to the thrift store that had the blonde sideboard. It could still be there. 

I just don’t have time. Today was a clusterfork. My son and I had blood work scheduled today but the orders weren’t faxed over so we had to wait an hour for them to be sent over. I had no food since 8pm the night before, and didn’t get the blood work until 12:30pm. Good times! I had PT today and I’m all achy. Tomorrow I have PT at 2pm. If I can get out of the house early enough I can drop off my daughter’s phone to get a new battery while I’m at PT. (It only took an hour and a half on the phone and online to file a claim with the protection plan I have through my cell phone service provider. It’s been worth it. I had 1 lost phone replaced and several batteries installed on the other phones.) I had her switch phones with her brother. Omg! My son complained sooo much about it. What’s my daughter to do? She has no landline and I really don’t like her borrowing other tenant’s cell phones. 

My wife wants to take the Buick and the Blazer to the DIY car wash tomorrow, so if you live near me…bring an umbrella to work.

I caved and renewed the satellite radio on the Buick. I got a deal. No way would I pay $25/month. It was actually 5 bucks less than last year to pay for the year up front.

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Sunday Stealing-Fun and Unexpected Topics

 

Hi! Our host is Bev Sykes of the blog "Funny the World". . Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

 

Stolen frommantelligence

  

1. Have Your Ever Driven Drunk Or Even Slightly Buzzed? In my younger days. I have a designated driver, my wife, but even before the pandemic I don’t think I ever had more than 1 very weak Chili’s margarita. There really aren’t many bars around here and the only gay bar around here is frequented by mostly men. In Milwaukee there was a bar on just about every corner. 

2. What Was The Funniest Moment In Your Life? I can’t think of anything. If I do, I’ll come back and change this answer.

3. What Kind Of Things Really Makes You Laugh? Usually the dumbest things. When I was in high school and just after, I had a friend who could make me laugh by saying “shoehorn”. It wasn’t the word, it was the expression on her face when she said it that made me laugh. I knew one of her brothers and her younger sister. If they said “shoehorn” it had no affect on me whatsoever. And believe me, they did try!

4. If You Could Jump Into A Pool Full Of Something, What Would It Be? Water.

5. Which Habit Are You Proudest Of Breaking? Smoking. I quit April 2015 because I was having surgery to remove my gallbladder and my surgeon told me his anesthesiologist insisted I quit. I highly doubt that, I’ve had other surgeries while being a smoker and no other surgeon told me I had to quit. I’ve quit 4 or 5 times, so I’m pretty good at it. I’m thinking that’s the last time I’ll quit smoking. My allergies have gotten worse and smoking, even 2nd hand smoke bothers me.

6. Which Animal Do You Find The Sexiest Of All? If you mean actual animals, I don’t find any sexy. I am not into beastiality. Eww!     

7. What’s The Weirdest Nickname You’ve Ever Had? Can’t say.

8, What Do You Wish You Were Really Good At? I wish I could play guitar really well. It would be so cool to go camping and bring out a guitar and start playing. I went on a camping trip once where the tent near us did exactly that. There was also a banjo player and flute player. It was like a private concert. The woman who I was seeing at the time enjoyed it. I told her that I had arranged the whole thing just for her. Yeah…I’m kinda smooth like that. She almost believed me. When I started giggling I gave myself away.

9. If You Were A Dog, What Kind Of Dog Would You Be? Who wrote these questions? Barbara Walters? If you could be a tree….what kind would you be? She asked that one a lot, as I recall.

10. What’s The Most Spontaneous Thing You’ve Ever Done? I would call in sick to work, call my bff, go to her apartment to pick her up, convince her to call in sick and we’d do some of the scenes from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and make up our own Ferris Days. I lived in WI at the time, so we went to Brewer’s day games, got the cheap seats and walked down and sat in empty more expensive seats. We took brewery tours…Pabst, Miller. Sometimes I drove to Chicago. I drove to Chicago a lot. That’s how I ended up moving there.

11. If You Had A Time Machine, Would You Go Back In Time Or Visit The Future? Back in time.

12. What Was The Last Show You Binge-Watched? I’ve been reading more than watching tv, so the last show I binged was probably “The Flight Attendant”. I’m looking forward to “The Many Saints of Newark”. It’s the prequel to “The Sopranos”.

13. If You Had To Rename Yourself, What Name Would You Choose? Pass.

14. What Did You Do During The Summers When You Were Growing Up? We rode our bicycles a lot. Most days all day, except for taking a break to go home for lunch. Our parents had no idea where we went.

15. If You Go To A Restaurant And Have Terrible Service, Is It Ever OK Not To Tip? If I know for certain it’s the waitress’s fault, yes, no tip. If he/she were talking to someone for a long time while our food got cold, or if he/she were incredibly rude, yes, no tip. But, if the problem was in the kitchen, then they would still get a tip because that’s beyond their control.

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

And so it goes

The Blazer is still in the shop. Will it be another 3 month wait?

My brother-in-law gave me an Amazon 7 for my birthday. Friday I went to Best Buy with his receipt wanting to return it and get the the Amazon 10 and pay the difference. Seems simple right? Not so much. Apparently the store he bought it at rang it up as a Black Amazon 7, instead of the Denim Blue Amazon 7 that he actually purchased. I went to the Best Buy in Orland Park. They are a bunch of tools. They would not do the return/exchange/upgrade because it would mess up their inventory. Seriously? That’s not my problem. The store my brother-in-law bought it at, their inventory is messed up. Oh what will they do? It’s called making a simple journal entry to adjust the inventory. It’s not rocket science. Saturday my brother-in-law is taking me to the store he bought it at and he will make sure I get what I want.

My son had his first visit since the pandemic. Anastasia is at it again badmouthing me to my son. The nerve of her lying, cheating ash! My wife is furious and will be having words with her.

My daughter is settling in nicely at her apartment. We still have the living room furniture to bring over and probably 2 pieces that still need to be bought. She is making friends and been having bbq’s with other tenants. Everyone is very friendly.

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Seriously?

I’m gonna work backwards here. Today, the Blazer, took it back to the mechanic because it was super hard to steer and my wife couldn’t do it, so guess who had to drive it to the mechanic? And the magic number for repairs is…

🥁 

🥁 

🥁 

About $365. The hoses were new, but not tight enough, so it leaked slowly, until the pump went and then it came out like water from a faucet. So it’s back in the shop. 😠 The lose hoses were the fault of the guy who sold it to me.

My daughter is moved in enough to sleep at her apartment tonight. She got her Link card and a check to buy furniture and non food items. Bed is assembled, new mattress and box spring, dining room table assembled, I’m still working on the top dresser drawer that fell to the cement while both my kids moved it on a cart. I only have 1 C clamp (I actually had several, but my toolboxes have been gone through and clamps and screwdrivers are gone.) Since I have only 1 🗜 the repairs will be slow because I can only Gorilla Glue and clamp 1 spot at a time.

We had quite the entertaining afternoon, watching my daughter make her new bed. My brother-in-law was over and assembled the dining room table because apparently I don’t know what I’m doing having assembled it, disassembled it at my previous home, then assembled at my now home, then disassembled when I got a round oak table to replace it. I saved it, knowing my daughter would need it. Considering she was provided no furniture, and has very limited funds, it was a good idea. Anyway, my daughter making the bed…I do have video, but she’ll kill me if I post it ANYWHERE! Omg! We had fun watching her make her bed. My brother-in-law flipped the fitted sheet 3 times, I did once. Then he flipped the top sheet off about 5 times, I did it twice. Gurl has got to learn how to properly make a bed. I told her next time I come back I’m bouncing a quarter off it, if it don’t bounce, the sheets get stripped off the bed. Bwah hahahaha! It wasn’t like I left her to do it on her own, I did show her what to fix, she just wanted to rush to finish.

After that I went to get her a shower curtain liner and shower curtain hooks, and a bath mat. (I ordered a cloth shower curtain from Overstock) I can’t wait to see what she does with the shower curtain hooks! 

                                    Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

A very busy long weekend

My daughter signs her apartment list today. Everything remains to be a clusterfork. No one at the agency knows where her Link card is, and no one will release her SS money to her. How is she supposed to buy food and furnish her apartment? After I picked up my daughter we went to public aid and at least got the card balance. They claim we’d have to call the 800 number to get a new card. The SS money in my daughter’s account should be given to her and the agency should change the payee to my daughter. Yet here we sit with no way to pay the rent and deposit. The agency claims they will cut the checks. Whateves! I’ll be so happy when she is moved in and she is given control of her finances. If she doesn’t get the link card, how is she supposed to buy food? If we order a new card it will take weeks.

Good news! Got the Blazer back last night! It cost 1/3 what we thought it was gonna be! The Blazer was in the shop since we bought it May 19th. Our mechanic has been super busy. I think we got the "I've made them wait a ridonkulously long time discount." People who work and have only 1 car got moved to the front of the line, which is fine. Still needs another repair, but it's not expensive. Have to go transfer title and registration and get plates today. That should be fun.

Maria signs the lease at 2pm, so plenty of time.

It appears there is a “SURPRISE” birthday party for me on Saturday, so no moving will get done Saturday because it’s at my father-in-law’s house. I don’t know why I was told, and frankly, I don’t understand it. I have no friends in the “real world”, my sister is recovering from surgery (but her husband wouldn’t let her drive this far if she were 100% healed.). I don’t see any of my wife’s friends attending because the are out of town. And I’ll tell you what! Anastasia better not be invited because I’m tired of her telling me what to do regarding my son. Not only that, my father-in-law thinks she’s wonderful. That must be why she cheated and left me, right? So tomorrow I will put on my best game face and deal with it. At least they are probably serving Atomic Cake. In WI it was just called cake with strawberry and banana between the layers and whipped cream frosting.

My son’s new psychiatrist wants him to take a very expensive ADHD test (not covered by insurance). It’s 2 part. The first part no medication. After that he will be given Adderal. Not comfortable with that. I know he has many of the symptoms of ADHD, but I am not on board with the adderal. I wish I knew someone who went through this who could advise me, let me know of better alternatives. My mechanic suggested CBD. He has friends who have used it with great results. Sure, let’s have my son blaze up with me. Wtf? Last night I checked the dispensary and found all of the CBD extracts and tinctures are all also very high in THC. Nope, that’s not a solution. A tobacco store my wife frequents has quality CBD products, but I’ve only ever seen Flower/Bud. That stuff works great for pain. Going to need an appointment with my son’s PCP and ask him his thoughts on whether my son has ADHD, and if so, what’s the best treatment plan. I think the ADHD diagnosis is accurate, I’m just not comfortable with adderal.

My wife thinks we should be moving all the “smalls” today (boxes, bags, hampers). We have my brother-in-law and their Dad’s pickup truck. I say move the big stuff with the truck and put the smalls in the Blazer and Buick. Makes sense, right? We have no idea when he and the truck will be available again.

Ugh! Calgon take me away!

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Good News + Catfishing

The good news: After I had to get involved emailing  the Director and cc the Asst Director of the group home agency Sunday night, I suddenly received an email Monday morning containing  the income information for my daughter’s lease, and they emailed it to the apartment property manager. I coached my daughter to call the appropriate people at the office when the property manager called her to ask for this information July 2nd. Today is July 19th. That’s entirely too long to respond to a simple task. I named names of who my daughter spoke with and mentioned my daughter followed up with them early last week. This literally took them minutes to print a copy of my daughter’s benefit letter they had on file.

My daughter has an appointment Friday afternoon to sign the lease, get the rules, and get the keys!!! Woot! Woot! As luck would have it, I found a twin sleigh bed today and will be picking it up tomorrow. It’s used but looks like new from the photo. The price is good too. We will be buying a new mattress and box spring.

My son and I went thrifting to look for some things she needs. Got a copy of the Better Homes And Gardens Cookbook (staff threw away the previous copy I got my daughter during the bed bug debacle, my daughter’s room had no bed bugs but they threw away all her cookbooks). We also got her 2 painted canvases that will go perfectly above her loveseat and they fit with her MCM theme. We almost got a buffet to use as a flat screen tv stand and for storage of movies and players, but it was too heavy and for some reason they will unload your car of donations, but they won’t help you load purchases. Had to pass on it. If my brother-in-law comes over tomorrow as planned, maybe we can stop by and see if it’s still there. It was the perfect color, blonde, to match her MCM coffee and end tables. The tv stands in stores and online are poorly made and expensive, and not as stable as an old piece. I used an extra set of upper kitchen cabinets, and a piece of pine for my 65” because I couldn’t find anything reasonably priced to accommodate that size at the time I got the tv. If we can’t get back for this one, the search will continue.

My daughter is positively giddy! Between moving into the apartments and my birthday being Saturday, she is over the moon! She makes a HUGE deal about birthdays and turns them into month long celebrations. It’s cute.

The bad news:  My son’s former friend, Nathan, the one who dared to sit in my living room playing video games and used gay slurs and commenting on the other guys game play as being gay. He knows I’m a lesbian, but he kept it up so much that my son picked him up and body slammed him, the other guys held him down and explained why what he said was so wrong. I then escorted the turd out my front door and told him to call his mommy to come pick him up because he’s not welcome in my home. The other boys (all of them about 15) were pleasant and very respectful. Well good old Nathan is a major douche bag after attaining the age of 26. He catfished my son. Nathan was setting him up to go on a double date to go see that new Space Jam movie at the theater. I asked my son to bring up the girl’s Facebook page and examined it. (I am automatically suspicious of anything Nathan tries to involve my son in. She had 805 friends, nearly all were older men, mostly from Sweden! I didn’t go through all of them, but I scrolled through a lot and found only 1 woman. ONE! So I had to explain to my son what Nathan did, suggest he block him and not speak to him. My son was bummed about not seeing the movie, so I looked for it on the streaming services and found it on HBO Max, which we get for free. I took my son to the store, got movie candy, sodas, and snacks and I watched it with him.

I pick up my daughter Thursday. If staff doesn’t give her the link card that belongs to her, we will stop at public aid, get a new card and determine what needs to be done so my daughter has link for food. These staff really have to be despicable low life’s to be stealing food money from disabled people.

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021