The General Chat Thread (2023)

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It's that time of year... tarantula mating season. This one was on the wall next to my back door. Looks like a female. That's the second female I've seen lately. I haven't seen any males this year, so far.

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I'm thinking Peloquin would like to be in North Texas in August/September.

CD
 
TastyReuben said:
I love found money! MrsT was notified today of a commission check she’d lost track of, so that’ll come in handy as well.

We once received a reimbursement check from an insurance company, something about how we’d overpaid our bill. MrsT said, “Deposit this when you go into town - Eighty-one bucks…we can go out to dinner or something.”

Got to the bank, looked closer… eighty-one cents! 😒
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About a year ago hubby had paid for fuel at the petrol station and was walking back to the car when I saw him pick something up off the ground. When he got back to the car (we were the very far pump) he asked if anyone had looked around for anything? I hadn't seen anyone and there wasn't another vehicle either side of us, so had to conclude no...

He just found 2×$50 notes on the ground in sequential numbers
 
Good news, it’s Friday. Bad news, three of my five-person team are off today (holiday on Monday), including two over me, which means, if something goes haywire today with anything my group is responsible for, I’m the senior person working, and the one who would have to talk to the mucky-mucks way up the chain.

I did get my kitchen drain cleared yesterday, just a buildup of grease and gunk over the last 18 years. The plumber was quite nice in that he didn’t try and make me feel bad, like they usually do (“Don’t tell me you’re not pouring grease down the drain, because this says otherwise!”), but instead consoled me by telling me no matter how careful a person is, nothing can catch it all, and even the tiniest amount of grease barely coating a pan will build up over time, and I was actually to be commended for making it nearly 18 years before calling a plumber. I wanted to hug him on the way out the door. :laugh:

His considered advice after more than 30 years in plumbing? - “Once a week, run your hot water at the sink for about 20…30 minutes. Just let it run. It’ll do you more good than just about anything else.”
 
TastyReuben said:
I did get my kitchen drain cleared yesterday, just a buildup of grease and gunk over the last 18 years. The plumber was quite nice in that he didn’t try and make me feel bad, like they usually do (“Don’t tell me you’re not pouring grease down the drain, because this says otherwise!”), but instead consoled me by telling me no matter how careful a person is, nothing can catch it all, and even the tiniest amount of grease barely coating a pan will build up over time, and I was actually to be commended for making it nearly 18 years before calling a plumber. I wanted to hug him on the way out the door. :laugh:

His considered advice after more than 30 years in plumbing? - “Once a week, run your hot water at the sink for about 20…30 minutes. Just let it run. It’ll do you more good than just about anything else.”
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Mine gets blocked probably every six months or so. Its not only fat, its hair. Anyway, I clear it myself with the 'it will clear anything' product which is a bottle of 'spirits of salt'. It clears blocked toilets, drains and sinks and has saved me a fortune in plumbers bills. I'm sure its not eco friendly though.

I think its the stuff that some murderers have used to dissolve bodies. Also known as hydrochloric acid,
 
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Morning Glory said:
Mine gets blocked probably every six months or so. Its not only fat, its hair. Anyway, I clear it myself with the 'it will clear anything' product which is a bottle of 'spirits of salt'. It clears blocked toilets, drains and sinks and has saved me a fortune in plumbers bills. I'm sure its not eco friendly though.

I think its the stuff that some murderers have used to dissolve bodies. Also known as hydrochloric acid,
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Spirits of Salt is a British term not used here. It is sold as Muriatic Acid (Hydrochloric acid diluted with water) here, AKA Pool Acid. It is used to balance the PH of swimming pool water if it is too alkaline. My parent's last four homes had pools, so I bought a lot of it over the last 40 years. I never used it for cleaning drains. :eek:

In small amounts, pouring it down the drain is not a big eco problem. I'd be more worried about my sewer pipes, especial old cast iron pipes.

Most important, always pour acid into water... never pour water into acid.

CD
 
<rant mode on>

I love my husband, I love my husband,
I love my husband....

I MUST keep repeating this.

He's just home from doing the shopping by himself. The last twice I've been out in public, I've ended up with a chest infection a few days later, so I've spent the last month on antibiotics and steroids (2 different ones at the same time). So he decided I wasn't going shopping with him today.

So I'm unpacking the shopping bags and going through the shopping and he's come home with waaaaaay more than expected. Some stuff has been doubled/tripled/quadrupled up on. That's OK, it will keep but the fresh veg & fruit is another matter completely.

The shopping list system for in store shopping rather than delivery or "to boot" (they put it into your vehicle) doesn't use the same units. The delivery and to boot system uses a per item number for veg, so if you want 6 potatoes you choose 6. If you want 3, you choose 3. If they are smaller than usual you're up the creek for recipes. The shop in store option uses kg and only kilograms and you can only select whole numbers! So if I want 1 aubergine, I have to select 1kg aubergine. :o_o: .

Hubby and I have a system whereby we've arranged that whatever the number is that's how many items we want, not kg for each. But some stuff in store, like leeks are sold per item, so they show as per item on the shopping list for in-store shopping.

So my (some of my) list was
  • 1kg aubergines
  • 1kg courgettes
  • 1 leek (sold individually)
  • 7kg bananas
I was expecting
  • 1 aubergine,
  • 1 courgette,
  • 1 leek and
  • 7 bananas.
I've ended up with
  • 4 aubergines,
  • 1 courgette (small),
  • 4 leeks and
  • 7 bananas.
Go figure!

And he wonders why I prefer to do the shopping with him! :banghead:

This week's meals are going to have to be adjusted. I now need to deal with aubergines that will survive to mid week but not too much longer, leeks that will survive longer but I have no idea how to use all 4 up with the current recipes planned. (Leek and aubergine soup anyone? )....
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
And he wonders why I prefer to do the shopping with him! :banghead:
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I guess what puzzles me the most is how he got the bananas right. I would have expected either all of them to be by weight or by number, but he seemed to mix and match a bit there.

BTW, that’s one of my peeves about the otherwise stellar Kroger app - things like bananas are priced per pound in the store, but listed by item in the app, and when I’m building my list in the app, if I want seven bananas, it’ll show that as seven separate items, where I prefer to think of it as one collective item.

I end up just selecting one banana, just to keep my list manageable, but then that throws my projected total cost off.
 
caseydog said:
Spirits of Salt is a British term not used here
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First time I've never heard it, too. Muriatic acid is how I know it here.
There's a product here called "Diablo Rojo" (Red Devil) which is basically sodium hydroxide. That stuff dissolves anything in the drain in minutes.
 
TastyReuben said:
I guess what puzzles me the most is how he got the bananas right. I would have expected either all of them to be by weight or by number, but he seemed to mix and match a bit there.

BTW, that’s one of my peeves about the otherwise stellar Kroger app - things like bananas are priced per pound in the store, but listed by item in the app, and when I’m building my list in the app, if I want seven bananas, it’ll show that as seven separate items, where I prefer to think of it as one collective item.

I end up just selecting one banana, just to keep my list manageable, but then that throws my projected total cost off.
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I think I'm just confused!

1kg aubergine and I get 4 aubergines not 1.
1kg courgettes and I get 1 courgette (correct)
1 leek and I get 4 (priced and sold individually aubergines or courgettes)

These are the screenshots of the app.
Screenshot_20230902_143110_Woolworths.jpg
Screenshot_20230902_143119_Woolworths.jpg

So the first 2 are how I see it for us doing our shopping!

Screenshot_20230902_143253_Woolworths.jpg

But this is what you get when you change to pick up in store (I can't select delivery because they don't deliver to my address so it just errors and tells me to pick something else! )

Why they think mushrooms (not shown) should be bought individually by someone picking your veg for you, but by the whole kg of you're doing your own shopping is beyond me. Now I need to go and see how grapes are sold! :roflmao:
 
I've only used the Curbside Pickup option once. I didn't buy any fresh meats or produce -- I don't trust anyone to pick that stuff out for me. I have no way of knowing if it is different online than in store.

In the store, fresh produce is either priced by the pound, or per item. I don't know about eggplant (since I despise it), but zucchini are sold per zucchini, IIRC. It is kind of weird how they chose what gets sold by weight and what gets sold by quantity. Onions are sold by weight, unless you buy a 3 or 5 pound bag, in which case there is a barcode on the bag, so you pay per bag. Peppers are sold by quantity.

It seems really weird to have kg be a quantity, if that's what SatNav meant -- one kg of eggplant = 1 eggplant? That would confuse me, too. :scratchhead:

CD
 
I had one simple project to do outside last evening. I needed to build a new wooden fence to hide my trash carts (wheelie carts to some of you?). Murphy's law was in full effect for this project.

Lumber is expensive these days, and the quality is sketchy. It was hard to build a perfectly square frame. Plus, all the long screws I had at home were crappy Chinese screws with Phillips heads. They strip out like they are made of butter. Putting together the frame for the fence took way too long, and I was working in near darkness by the end... or almost the end. I had shorter screws that were high quality Torx-head screws. They went in easily, like the wood was made of butter.

I was five minutes away from having it done, when the battery on my cordless drill/driver died. I use screws instead of nails for building most things. :facepalm: I had to stop, put the battery on the charger, and will have to finish in the morning.

EDIT: This is what I built. I just finished it. My trash carts are hidden from view from the street.

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BTW, I built the fence that it is attached to about 15 years ago. It is looking pretty shabby, but it is still rock solid. I really should stain it to make it look better.

CD
 
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