Before I had to leave my last house, I would find poison ivy battling to invade my lawn whenever I mowed.
I was winning that battle.
—Patrick
Whine like a baby, now with 500% more drama!
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
I was winning that battle.
—Patrick
Killer and babies will be taken care of tomorrow. Dun dun dun.
Lucky. It's a battle we've been fighting for 11 years, but I know we'll never win. And even though we pull and/or spray ever sprout we find, take precautions and never do yardwork without long sleeves, long pants, knee socks and gloves, even in 90+F heat, that bastard plant still manages to get into the laundry or my towels somehow.
One of those days:
While pre-tripping my school bus, I got my left middle finger caught in one of the student windows. Nice little chunk of skin torn off the fingertip. This put me way down for my first school, where the DD+Autistic kid I drive across the city on the freeway did not like it that I was late, which threw him off, made him bounce all over in his seat (despite seatbelts). I had to stop the bus at the park-and-ride by the mall, calm him down, then drive the rest of the way to his stop. This put me about 15 minutes down for the rest of my route. Of course, I then had to go fill up my gas tank when I got back to base, too.
So yeah, primo whine of the day.
While pre-tripping my school bus, I got my left middle finger caught in one of the student windows. Nice little chunk of skin torn off the fingertip. This put me way down for my first school, where the DD+Autistic kid I drive across the city on the freeway did not like it that I was late, which threw him off, made him bounce all over in his seat (despite seatbelts). I had to stop the bus at the park-and-ride by the mall, calm him down, then drive the rest of the way to his stop. This put me about 15 minutes down for the rest of my route. Of course, I then had to go fill up my gas tank when I got back to base, too.
So yeah, primo whine of the day.
We need to put the house hunt on pause.
The place we thought we were getting is secretly much more than we thought, and is apparently the best we're going to be able to do in this town. If we buy, we'll be both out of savings and living paycheck to paycheck.
So we're going to save hard for a couple years and maybe look outside the area. It's crazy we got so focused about this over an unrelated condo back in April. We weren't ready, but we will be.
The place we thought we were getting is secretly much more than we thought, and is apparently the best we're going to be able to do in this town. If we buy, we'll be both out of savings and living paycheck to paycheck.
So we're going to save hard for a couple years and maybe look outside the area. It's crazy we got so focused about this over an unrelated condo back in April. We weren't ready, but we will be.
I'm kind of torn between heartbroken and relieved right now.
Man, looking for new work...I'm now looking in some other sectors as well, and some are just appalling. With all due respect, if your wage is so low you don't have to pay any income tax in Belgium, that means it's not, as you describe it yourself, "competitive in the market and a good reward". Especially if this is for a full-time job which includes weekends, and you're looking for people with a university degree! Compared to my last job - where there was no education requirement and had more extra benefits - I'd lose literally half my gross paycheck! Really, social sector, don't act surprised when you can't find anyone to work for you - I'm interested and willing and I really don't need to get rich, but a gross pay that is less than my net was 15 years ago in a temp student job is insulting.
I dodged a bullet there. I was wearing gloves and I always wash my hands before taking out my contacts. As long as I am using my anti-itch lotion, I feel fine.
Like Dave, I camped tons and ran through tons of tree lines as a kid, but never got it.
I ran into this once. They wanted 10 years experience with Windows 2000. It was 2002.
Does it require speaking multiple languages as well?
Well, yes, but only two, which isn't exactly rare in Belgium.
So what you're saying is the job requires you to have a Delorean.
I have seen my millenial friends do psy-ops levels bullshit with their resumes just to get an interview. My take has always been that such tactics are completely justified because management is always trying to exploit workers anyway. You owe your future employer nothing; you are just a number to them.
That alone should be worth a significant salary.
Eh, it's hard to compare that, I think. Waiter or bartender aren't minimum wage jobs in Belgium (far from it, in fact), but will usually ask at least three languages if it's in the greater Brussels/Antwerp area.
Most Belgians speak at least two. It's not like the USA or most of Canada where a second language really means going out of your way to learn it. I imagine retail positions in Quebec will often ask two languages too, and they won't be compensated as much as someone in LA speaking English and Spanish or such.
So, I bought a new car. Brought it home, parked it in the garage. When my wife came home, she asked me if I bought a used car. I went "uh no, why?" There was a ding in the rear bumper that must've happened when they took it to wash it and prepare it for delivery.
So, here I sit in a crappy loaner while the dealership fixes it. At least they took responsibility and didn't try to accuse me of doing it myself.
So, here I sit in a crappy loaner while the dealership fixes it. At least they took responsibility and didn't try to accuse me of doing it myself.
*sigh*. Yesterday I got my bike back from the shop, to replace the crank. 5 minutes later, and I'm thinking "huh, my bike isn't as stable as it used to be".
This morning I got a better look, turns out the front fork has split in two. This isn't an exceedingly expensive part to fix or anything, but with work hours included, it's at least €80 to replace...and I just spent €30 for the crank. For a bike I bought for €140. Just not worth sinking more money o.k. this, but I don't have the money to buy a new one, either. Blegh. Guess it's using my girlfriend's bike for the foreseeable future
This morning I got a better look, turns out the front fork has split in two. This isn't an exceedingly expensive part to fix or anything, but with work hours included, it's at least €80 to replace...and I just spent €30 for the crank. For a bike I bought for €140. Just not worth sinking more money o.k. this, but I don't have the money to buy a new one, either. Blegh. Guess it's using my girlfriend's bike for the foreseeable future
I had to wait quite a while at the doctor’s office today. The waiting rate room was not packed though and a little old lady came in and sat right next to me and pretty much on top of me. With many chairs between her and the next person.
Why? I have immune issues and I don’t want strangers sitting on me in general.
I could feel her breath. Ew.
Why? I have immune issues and I don’t want strangers sitting on me in general.
I could feel her breath. Ew.
I had to go to town and get a TDAP shot today - just over a year after we had to do the same thing for @Aislynn. Apparently it was the yearly tithe of blood to the house. Ripped my hand up on a nail that was sticking out of the top of the door that I took down this afternoon, and it'd been 17 years since my last Tetanus shot. Stupid fucking nail.
Oh, I almost forgot the whine part... insurance has decided they don't want to cover vaccinations done at pharmacies, so my choices were to pay the $71 out of pocket, or go to the fucking ER for a tetanus shot. Fucking United Healthcare.
It was because of crap like this that I was so happy to see my wife's employer drop United and move back to Blue Cross. That has been such a huge blessing on us this year.
We were awakened at something like 4:00am to a gawd-awful caterwauling outside, sounded like a cat in extreme distress, or perhaps like a very large cat hunting (we do have cougars in the area). The sounds died down after a bit, then were followed by a single gunshot - which set Luca off something fierce. Then everything quieted down. At around seven I got up to go to the bathroom, let the dogs out, took my time about my business, let them back in 15ish minutes later and... Luca's whole front is streaked with blood, the bottoms of his paws are wet with blood, and his little pink chin is all bloody. It's not his blood, since he seems to be very happily wagging about, and it's not Cody's blood, because he's not bleeding from anywhere. So @Aislynn and I got dressed, went outside with the dogs, and sure enough - something went down out there this morning. There's no body, no feathers, no big patches of fur or bones, but there's a decent puddle of blood and evidence that something was attempting to dig under the fence.
I wouldn't be surprised, I'm just hoping that our neighbor didn't have to shoot his cat or something like that.
I left for work at 9am this morning (start @10, hour commute, etc).
I've finally arrived back home from my day today, at about 10:45p.
I have to be back @8a tomorrow, which means I need to leave by 7, and I still have to do a load of laundry tonight.
And today was our wedding anniversary.
--Patrick
I've finally arrived back home from my day today, at about 10:45p.
I have to be back @8a tomorrow, which means I need to leave by 7, and I still have to do a load of laundry tonight.
And today was our wedding anniversary.
--Patrick
fade
Staff member
My wife joined an adult soccer league for the first time in about 10 years, now that our kids are older and we're starting to get our time back. Keep in mind my wife is in great shape. She exercises a lot, doing bootcamp and running. First game: complete rupture of the ACL, and a torn meniscus. She had surgery 2 weeks ago, and was completely immobile for a couple of days, and she'll be on crutches for a while. Says she's never playing soccer again, which is kind of sad, since before this break, she played since she was old enough to walk.
Our kids are clearly plotting to scare me to death. They creep out of their rooms at random times all quietly and just pop their face in mine.
I’m all jumpy now tonight.
I’m all jumpy now tonight.
Taking after their father?