Totally open thread.
Question related to last year’s Philadelphia meetup:
Last year on June 15 the Philadelphia BJ peeps had a meetup, and even won second place in a game of Trivia. The current keeper of the second place gift certificate – zmulls – is looking for guidance on the gift certificate.
If there’s going to be another Philly meetup soonish, then he would like to pass the gift certificate on to the group. If not, is there someone else that can take possession of the gift certificate? I don’t even recall how much the gift certificate is for.
Winning Trivia Team (second place)
Suzanne
brendancalling
zmulls
Ceci n est pas mon
gene108
Leto, Avalune (+ kid!)
rekoobMeetup on June 15, 2023 (Link to post)
Somebody let me know what you want to do?
Otherwise, open thread!
War for Ukraine Day 842: Pray I Do Not Alter It Any Further
Hoppie
Won a trivia in Monterey once knowing vinegar was the key ingredient of Bechamel sauce.
eclare
@Hoppie:
Are you sure about vinegar in Bechamel sauce? I thought it was a white sauce, butter, milk, and flour.
NotMax
@Hoppie
Methinks you mean bearnaise sauce.
Vinegar in bechamel? Merde!
Ben Cisco
Chaka Khan did a Tiny Desk Concert.
Wow!!
Kayla Rudbek
Somebody please come here and tell me that I don’t need to replace my vintage Corelle spring blossom set (even if I am getting tired of scrubbing it with Barkeeper’s Friend every few months and even if it’s a 70s avocado green trim).
Also somebody please tell me that I don’t need to order any more embroidery kits from here cozybluehandmade.com/collections/sale or here https://shop.stitchedstories.com as I have a stash of embroidery kits already…
Chet Murthy
@Kayla Rudbek: Is the enamel or paint lead-based? If not, why replace it?
eclare
@Kayla Rudbek:
Step away from the embroidery kits…
narya
@Kayla Rudbek: check out Badass Cross stitch on patreon…
Kayla Rudbek
@Chet Murthy: I don’t think that the trim is lead-paint based. However there are rusty spots and gray scratches on both prints of Corelle that I have, and I am getting tired of having to scrub them off with the abrasive cleaner every few months. The spring blossom set is a lot older as my parents were using it when I was a kid, and it is avocado green print on a white background.
Harrison Wesley
Hope all BJ and BJ-adjacent can party in Philly – and more generally in PA. Fantastic city and state. I left for the land of the white-booted pudding molester in 2016, but I still have friends and relatives in PA. Enjoy!
Hoppie
@NotMax: quite correct, I misremembered. Wet noodle time. They do both start with “b” is my excuse. And it was a long time ago.
laura
@Kayla Rudbek: All I can say is that’s what we ate off of “back in the day” and it stood up to sinks and dishwashers and I’m almost certain they were purchased from the Blue Chip Catalog Store. Replacement sets are not expensive.
I moved on to Fiesta Ware and those plates look like a stack of colorful buttons.
Kayla Rudbek
@laura: yes, it doesn’t break so I want to go with Corelle again if I replace the green set. I just realized that maybe why I want to replace that set is because I used it as a kid and it might break bad eating habits if I get new dishes that look different. Also the whole abrasive scrubbing thing is rough on my hands.
Kayla Rudbek
@narya: you are a total enabler 😁. Thanks for the suggestion!
RevRick
This past month, we’ve had tons of fun dealing with Verizon. And by ton of fun, I mean infuriating aggravation.
They had notified us back in April that they were upgrading their Fios system, and consequently we’d be getting a new router and cable boxes, which we could easily install. Middle of May we receive a package that included two new cable boxes and remotes. No router. Perhaps we didn’t need one. So, we enlisted the help of our personal tech support, aka the progeny. He began the attempt to install one of the cable boxes, but it said, “ no can do. Must install router.” So….
The next morning I contacted customer service through the website. Try figuring out where to go about the problem. Ha! Eventually, I spoke to a real person at the call center in India, who assured me that the router would soon arrive separately. A week later, still no router. Back to the website hellscape, and finally I get another call center person who says he will ensure delivery in six business days. Six business days pass, and no router. Now I am truly pissed.
Back to the @#%**$! website, and again finally manage to speak to Sumanth in India, who, hearing my unhappy voice, schedules a tech to come out first thing the next morning to resolve the problem.
Sure enough, eight o’clock, Rich, a mature black man with a glorious, bushy, salt-and-pepper beard, appears on our doorstep, says he understands I’m an unhappy camper, and asks to take a look/see at our present system. A few minutes later, he comes back to tell me he will upgrade our entire system, at no charge, but it will take a few hours.
A few hours later, we have a whole new system, wi-fi enabled, and he’s walking me through the final steps of me logging back into the system, hooking my phone and iPad back up via a QR, and showing me how to access everything on the Google Android TV.
The only problem is that since Google and Apple don’t play well together, we can’t access our Great Courses + subscription, but have to use our SofaBaton to get to it through our Apple TV. I can live with that.
Suzanne
Pass it on! Or use it with friends!
That was a fun evening.
WaterGirl
@Kayla Rudbek: I was hoping to catch you. I got a package from a name I didn’t recognize – was that you and the shawl?
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: I think he’s hoping to pass it along to either all the Philly folks or at least one of you.
SFAW
Are you sure they didn’t win 37th place?
Kayla Rudbek
@WaterGirl: yes, it is! Say hello to Betty Cracker for me when you forward it on to her. I hope she likes it and wears it for many years to come.
NotMax
@RevRick
Some libraries include access to Great Courses as a part of their services. No subscription on your part required, only your library card.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Suzanne: It was fun. As I recall the bar (and I assume the gift certificate) was in Northern Liberties, a neighborhood I don’t otherwise find myself in. I suppose it could be an excuse for another BJ meetup in NoLib.
WaterGirl
@Kayla Rudbek: Oh, good! I didn’t want to open it, so I just sent it along to Betty, hoping that was from you and not some thing I had ordered from Amazon Marketplace or something.
I was pretty sure it was the shawl, but then just as I was handing it off at the UPS Store, I felt something hard in the package, so I wavered but sent it anyway. :-)
I mailed it on Friday morning, so Betty should have it by mid-week or so.
Kayla Rudbek
@WaterGirl: the hard thing was a package of Soak wool wash samples so that Betty doesn’t have to worry about how to wash it until those packets run out. I say samples but I bought the unscented ones so she can choose what she wants later.
zmulls
Yes, it was for $50 and was in Northern Liberties — I also don’t get up there much . I feel guilty having it (or using it myself) since I am one of the least active posters here!
Would love to give it to a real Juicer in Philly.
FWIW, today is the one-year anniversary of the meetup!