Insurance sucks when you don't use it, sucks when you do use it, but provided they don't try (and succeed) to fuck with you (even though the try often is _very_ painful), glad you have it.
Went to get some flowers today and took Zoe. The Flower Lady has a huge field of flowers that is awesome to visit. It smells SOOOO good.
I am impressed you can take Zoe to the flowers. Oskar would have wanted to run through them all looking for a nonexistant rabbit or something. He is almost too strong to hold back anymore.
I have a couple of Herm Sprenger collars for her. They are awesome, and make all the difference. She does not pull at all when wearing them. https://gorilladogbeds.com/product/...Xlg_jsbsBSnUcFiKJBXf_8TkHWZmElcBoCQF0QAvD_BwE
Done. Yesterday was a day, and today was a wedding. I'm crunk on Wedding Wine. Had a blast but kiddo was crashing so we are home for the usual bedtime routine.
Our neighbors down the road moved here a little over two years ago. I’ve rarely talked to the husband, other than the first week they lived here, and I took them some eggs and welcomed them. I’ve never met the wife, though my wife has. A few weeks back they invited us down “for tea”, which was a new one. I hate social functions for the most part and grumbled. And what the fuck do I wear for “tea”? Anyway I figured we’d go, have tea chat for an hour and leave. Turns out, while he said “tea”, to folks from Zimbabwe, their home country, that means a meal and you’re there for a while. ( Their son joked it they had fresh towels for us for the morning. ) But here’s the thing: From the minute we arrived I don’t know that I’ve ever been welcomed so warmly and felt so immediately at ease. We were there almost five hours and it felt like two. I had an amazing time, telling them about the history of our town and surrounding area and them about Africa and the culture. And l was were lots of laughter. Of course I had to check out their garden, which is amazing. We’ll be having them up for dinner sometime soon, and I’m looking forward to it.
some of the best times I've had in life have been with people from completely different cultures. At the end of the day, as long as you're both respectful, the learning is what makes it so enjoyable. I DON'T want to be surrounded with people I have a lot in common with. Sure, not having language barriers is nice, but beyond that it's just wildly interesting to hear different perspectives, learn about different ways of living. Good on you for finding someone cool. I've heard Zimbabwean food is supposed to be incredible, yet to have an opportunity to try it though.
I felt the same way when I went to Kenya. Such insanely genuinely nice people... no pretense, no judgment, just shared happiness. It's such a nice change from the norm.
They lived in New England for several years before coming here to NY, but they still eat a lot of the food from Zimbabwe, growing what they can and having family bring it when they come to visit. We had quite a laugh about it, because they weren’t sure what we would or wouldn’t like. So we didn’t get to try any African food. I told them I was raised to eat whatever your host served. The husband asked, “What if you don’t like it?” I told him, “I’d still eat it, so you’d never know.” He thought that was hysterical. YES! That is the perfect description! The husband told me something that really hit home and I’ve been thinking about all evening: He said of all the people who stopped by to welcome them when they arrived, I was the only one who didn’t also have something to ask of them ( ask to hunt, ask if they were gonna use the manure pile by the barn, etc. ). I brought them eggs, welcomed them, and gave him my number in case they needed anything. He said that stood out to him and he’s never forgotten it. His wife said their friends and family asked if there were sure I wasn’t African, because that’s how they are. I have some arguably old-fashioned beliefs, what I consider being “country” means, so I was just being me. It absolutely warms my heart that it meant something to someone. I hope I’ve passed that on to our sons. Anyway, an absolutely awesome day out of something I complained about leading up to it. Lesson learned.
This is why I want to go there at some point. I've been fortunate to meet a number of people from the Central African countries now through running (not them specifically traveling to marathons and such, but more that these events bring out those within the community -- like this is the sport we play back home). Show an ounce of interest in their culture and they light up and are just some of the most genuine people ever. I don't think people at large appreciate how historically repressed that part of the world has been. Like we get it in the intellectual sense, but to speak with them and hear it from their mouths, their stories are just something else entirely. Obviously what I've heard is apples and oranges to what you've seen. I would love to experience that part of the world myself. If I could ever convince my wife to leave the AC behind.
That boggles my mind. I can't imagine welcoming someone to the neighborhood and immediately thinking they might want to do something for me. I've found it so interesting to interact with other cultures and see just how open many of them are to, essentially, strangers. And how generous. My partner and I used to volunteer at Habitat builds, and a family from Afghanistan asked us to have - I am quoting here - "a small lunch" with them after their home was complete. We showed up to a table laden with enough food to feed the neighborhood. We had lunch, and then talked, and then had second lunch, and talked, and then the family took turns rotating into the kitchen to make more food, and we had pre-dinner (these could not be called appetizers), and dinner, and finally we dragged ourselves out of there at like 10pm, both feeling like we would never eat again. This was a family that was poor enough to qualify for a Habitat build. Not just the cost of ingredients, but they burned an entire day cooking for us.
When my wife and I were in London for the marathon, I have never felt so welcomed ever. Our Texan accents stuck out like a sore thumb and instead of treating us like people in the US treat foreigners, everyone was so curious and sought us out and asked us questions, if we were at a restaurant they immediately found us a table and just went out of their way to make us feel comfortable. We stopped at a local winery and they made sure I always had a cold na beer in front of me and it quickly became a game of "let's get the American woman hammered." And these were people from all walks of life and nationalities, not just your standard British cunt. We could learn a lot from them.
That's just because they were hoping you'd say, "hold my beer and watch this ya'll," and they'd get to see you do something stupid.
I know, and to be honest I'm a little embarrassed at how some of my neighbors have conducted themselves. I shouldn't be surprised in some instances, but still... When I first met the husband, I mentioned how hard it must be to pick up and start over not once but twice, and not know anyone in the new area. He compared it to drifiting alone out on the ocean. And then you have people who, hearing that thick African accent, assume they're stupid. They're anything but. Yesterday went both ways, and he texted me last night to say they enjoyed the visit as much as we did.
Once or twice a week, I click over into my spam folder to see if anything legit ended up there. Every now and then, something that wasn't actually spam ends up there. It's usually pretty quick to click-click-click or click all and delete. But, like, seriously, who is opening this email? Like, is it special needs adult men, and then they open themselves up to being scammed, or somebody gets their State benefit money? Who opens this email?
allow me to introduce you to my inlaws. My FIL is always complaining that he's getting porn sent to his email. I tried to explain to him that's because he's looking in his spam folder and that's what it's for, and his defense is that they shouldn't be sending things to him regardless and this is the dems fault
Did you remind him (and RoM, for that matter) that what you get in spam is usually because of sites you've visited and/or OTHER things you've already signed up for? So, maybe tell him he shouldn't be googling 'GILF's in my area' all the time.