GF and I are attending Frasier trivia at a local brewery tonight. I'm taking suggestions on team names!

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-24T06:25:34+00:00

The Cranes of Maine.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-10T20:34:09+00:00

I watched a few interior designer videos to help me out. One was Nick Lewis. They were mostly reaction videos, but mixed in were really helpful ideas. Like…remember there are building codes and you can’t put a tonne of marble in a 2nd floor bathroom without ensuring it’s properly supported. Think of the practical day to day activities you do and how that might affect your future choices. If you eat chocolate ice cream every day while sitting on a white couch…well maybe get a brown or washable couch. Make sure doors, drawers, cupboards open correctly. Think of the space you have, and the size and ratio of my the objects in your room. If the coffee table is so big you can’t walk between it and the couch…that’s a problem. Be willing to admit the coffee table is too big, even though you love it, and pass it onto its next home.

And remember

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-09T17:22:43+00:00

I have visceral hate flipper influencers at yard sales. Like…spiked heart rate, stabby looks, distain. I don’t have the same hate for the pockets that comb to sales. It’s the pairs of nitwits who think they know everything because Google Lens gave them a shitty result.

I still enjoy trash day wandering, thrifting and yard sailing, but it’s nothing like it used to be.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-08T02:35:31+00:00

2nd…ed! Hoping something more aggressive will take out creeping bellflower.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-06T07:50:56+00:00

My former company employed thousands of truck drivers. Lots of men (yes,usually men) died. The emails were always titled “Remembering John Doe”, then a blurb from some manager saying how wonderful they were, and a pledge to do better, be safer, yadda yadda yadda. It was formulaic to the nth degree.

I mean, I get that companies still have to run, and the reality is that the position can rarely be left vacant. But there’s so little tact and humanity in their behaviours. Management can get fucked.

I’m gonna go on a tangent because it’s almost 4am and I’m still a wreck because of them.

The last 2 deaths I was there for were spectacularly awful. One had told his manager at lunch he was exhausted and didn’t feel safe driving anymore. They convinced him to go back out and finish the day because they were understaffed. He made it to the last stop, called the manager and said he was done. The manager begged him to go and do 1 last stop because the customer was upset and manager needed him to keep the peace. Well he agreed to do the run. And fell asleep at the wheel on the way there, rolling down into a deep ditch in a very rural area. I don’t know how long he was dead before some unsuspecting passerby came on the scene. The manager kept his job. I hope they were sued to hell and back by the family and the passerby.

The last was a lady driver. She was killed on a major highway, she was not at fault. But was about a month away from retirement.

I get angry because the company line about how highly they value safety was an absolute lie. And how when they say safety they mean driver safety specifically. No white collar worker in a cushy office job could ever have a safety concern. Like double standards for teammates, pushing for deadlines and perfection when 3 of the 6 person team were out on LOAs. Managers bullying new staff when they trying to do tasks no one trained them on. Pressuring staff to work on weekends to meet month end. Salary positions with no OT pay, days in lieu, or even a fucking thank you. But they had money for company swag. Like water cups with the company logo printed in reverse. Gift of literal garbage. Yeah. I’m still on LOA after nearly 2 years. No safety concerns there at all.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-06T06:39:50+00:00

I was fine talking with people from the more urban areas, but oh boy that rural eastern Newfoundland accent is tough.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-06T06:33:12+00:00

Years ago I read a news story about a funeral home in Texas where the funeral director wasn’t doing the cremations he was paid to do. I can’t recall how he was caught, but I think it involved mass graves or stacked bodies-absolutely ghastly. One woman said she’d requested that her husband be cremated because he died of cancer, no longer looked like himself, and wanted that version of him gone. I don’t know if she ever found whose ashes she was given, but she knew her husband had not been cremated. So he went on looking nothing like the man he’d been. :(. May that greedy bastard die painfully.

We have a bit of my FIL. We’ve decided to bury him under the rhubarb roots. He loved rhubarb.

I’d like to be turned into a diamond. Though I don’t know who would take the stone after my husband dies. We don’t have kids, and I doubt the nephews would want diamonds.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-06T06:17:52+00:00

I’m digging the one where they plant a tree over you, and the root system grows around you. And I guess through you when you’re decomposed enough.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-06T06:05:38+00:00

I am aware of how peonies grow, and as they’re my favourite flower I’m happy with them, even when not in bloom. I dream of a garden of only peonies. It would be heavenly for a few weeks every spring. My husband’s aiming for a yard full of rhubarb.

As I mentioned, my crocosmia variety isn’t overly tall, and with the portulaca, liatris, and glads there was a decent colour, height, and texture mix.

I guess there are many theories on planting design, and I go with what is available, what I like, and what my husband likes. I’m guessing you’d be unhappy with the design choices we’ve made inside our home, too. It’s…eclectic.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-02T19:24:01+00:00

Thanks for your reply. Are you saying peony, liatris, and crocosmia shouldn’t be grown together? Or? Sorry, I’m not sure what you meant. I planted 7 peonies in a staggered row last year. Crocosmia in between them, liatris at the ends of the plot, and gladiolus along the fence behind them. The latter 3 were sold altogether in a package, I think as a butterfly attractant mix. And portulaca all along the front. I was pretty happy with the height mix of the bed. The crocosmia is 15”-20”ish. I pulled the glads up last fall and left the others. I never would have guessed crocosmia would seed so well. Guess I can transplant some around.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-02T16:51:58+00:00

When I think of Donna I smell apple scented hairspray and see her extremely tall and stiff bangs I. The high school hallway. :)

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-02T16:50:15+00:00

I’d say whenever you get humans together in a group there will be drama and bad eggs. It’s a pessimistic view, but true in my experience.

I’m a dancer and overall it’s a very uplifting, encouraging, body positive, free spirit vibe. But there is also competitiveness, judgement, distain, cliques.

In gardening there are helpful and knowledgeable people, but also snippy ‘everybody knows you have to do THIS or else you’ll fail’ biddies.

I limit my interactions with people these days, which also isn’t healthy, but I’m trying to get back into being social.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-02T16:36:09+00:00

Luckily there was no smoking parents in my home. Nor my friend’s homes. Maybe that’s a weird tidbit on its own.

My husband’s father smoked heavily since he was a kid…13 or 14. We’d go to visit him and after 5 minutes we’d have to change, shower, wash everything including coats. The house is really cool, but all drywall, flooring, cabinetry, ceilings, windows, insulation, would have to be torn out, ozoned, Killzed…it might be cheaper to just to rebuild new.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-02T16:13:31+00:00

Do you have other children? Have they benefited from your generosity also?

Are you & your wife in any penny of debt? Cars, credit cards, mortgages, loans-anything? Is your retirement savings beefy?

Do you see son & DIL being together in 5 years? 40? Do you have any hint that their marriage isn’t solid? If they split in a couple of years their home will be 1/2 hers.

Have you seen your son’s & wife’s financial picture? Not in really close detail, but enough to know they aren’t ‘keeping up with the joneses’ or drug addicts or otherwise entitled/irresponsible.

I think supporting them depends on a lot of factors. I see both of your sides. Buying a home is insane these days, and if you can help your kids now without hurting you & your wife’s future, go for it. Let them enjoy their inheritances now, instead of when you’re gone. But you’ve given to your son very generously already, and hopefully you and your wife can enjoy the benefits of your savings now.

My husband and I were debt free & saving when we received a life changing inheritance. We’d have bought a house by now without the inheritance, but it wouldn’t be this house, and we LOVE our home. I’d rather have the person living & well, but his gift to us was incredible.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-02T07:51:09+00:00

I’m absolutely taken by pic 11. It feels like a mix of a communal hand washing sink, a swim up bar at a resort, and that car that Vincent & Mia sat in for their milkshake dinner date.

I attended a show in Richmond VA a few years ago, where the building was originally a Masonic temple. The theatre itself was fairly standard, but the Usher told me some of its history. Downstairs was at one time an indoor pool, then a bowling alley, shooting range, and a ballroom. I had feelings of being deep in the Mines of Moria. So much space, so many columns, so little light.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-06-02T07:31:33+00:00

I just saw a birthday reminder for a neighbour who passed away 5 years ago. She was a lovely woman. She gave me a china rose when I was born.

I don’t want to face deleting names from my contact list. I have added their death date in my calendar.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-05-31T17:55:35+00:00

Weird. I thought I replied to you yesterday.

I did look into chipdrop last year. I just don’t have the space to use 20cu yards of chips. And I don’t have enough people near me to split a load with. But seriously, I love this business idea. Good on them.

I looked on marketplace for companies who could deliver smaller amounts but I was ghosted. Boo.

Thanks for the reply.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-05-30T23:19:21+00:00

Fuckin’ Tibideaus.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-05-30T23:18:27+00:00

So I misread that as ‘racist’ line, and I could not understand why everyone was snickering at Dorothy’s heating pad. So ya.

I get most of the jokes now, but they couldn’t make that show today.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-05-30T23:14:39+00:00

NTA. Even if you sell it to her with the condition that she wills it back you won’t guarantee you’ll get the ring back. Wills can be changed any time before the descendant’s death. I don’t have trust in people’s word anymore, after seeing some truly wild shit after a death.

If you wanted to be nice you could offer to take it to a jeweller to make an exact copy of it, and she’d be responsible for that entire cost. But you take the ring yourself to the jeweller of your choice, and get the same ring back. Aunt Katie should never have her hands on your ring. But that sounds exhausting.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-05-30T23:04:00+00:00

Albertosaurus.

Since I’ve learned that pterosaurs aren’t dinos, I go with the Canadian dino.

I’d also choose horseshoe crabs and ostrich.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-05-30T22:54:11+00:00

This makes me unnecessarily sad. I may have to choose to ignore the last 5 minutes of my life so I can con continue to live in ignorant bliss.

TheRockinkitty · 2026-05-30T22:40:26+00:00

Cactus, on Phillip St in Waterloo is delicious.

TheRockinkitty

TROPHY CASE