August 2nd Dinner Post

[livetobake]

Good Morning!

There is a heavy smoke haze hanging in the sky but the sun is making a valiant effort to shine through. The high will be 82 and the low of 62.

I am making a taco pie with the toppings for adding on and a cantaloupe that is so sweet.

What will you be having tonight?

[Chayote]

I spent today entertaining Hannah and am going back tomorrow. Sadly, her nanny is very ill. I'm more than happy to help out. It will be a relief when we move into the new home... 10 minute drive as opposed to 40 minutes from Gawler. It's supposed to be a warm day tomorrow so we might spend some time on the trampoline, that's if Hannah agrees... She thinks she's the boss and I'm not going to disagree with her.

Today we played with the coloured rice. I try to keep it all on the play table but as you can see, a lot went on the floor. She said "oops" every time it spilled. Every time I started to move the rice from the bottom table to the top, I used a Tupperware scoop. Immediately she took the scoop away and gave me a ¼ teaspoon measure. It was a very long process.

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Dinner tonight was crunchy chicken cooked in the airfryer. John had potato, onion and peas with his; I had rice with snow peas and corn.

[Vera]

Chayote - I can tell from your postings that you really enjoy living closer to Hannah and Andrew. Living in Melbourne just gave you a snippet of time. I know you miss Immy too. Great picture of Miss Hannah. So sorry to hear about the nanny. I hope she can recover from what ails her. If not, then I guess there will be a search for someone else but in the meanwhile you are helping out tremendously.

[Chayote]

Chayote - I can tell from your postings that you really enjoy living closer to Hannah and Andrew. Living in Melbourne just gave you a snippet of time. I know you miss Immy too. Great picture of Miss Hannah. So sorry to hear about the nanny. I hope she can recover from what ails her. If not, then I guess there will be a search for someone else but in the meanwhile you are helping out tremendously.

g'day, Vera... I think the search has already started, at least for the time being. Hannah will only need a babysitter until the end of this year and then she will start school in ELC as she will be 3 by then. I do miss Immy a lot but we visit as often as we can. We are hopeful of another visit before Christmas. Hannah wouldn't have known us if we hadn't moved and Andrew loves having us around.

Hannah has had such a lot of fun with the coloured rice. It was just a $10 bag of ordinary rice and her mother coloured it with food dye.

[muzette7]

Got all my errands done erly. I had to go to the butcher shop and pick up bones for my spoiled dog. She is very happy today. Making shiskabobs for dinner with salad.

[CharleneG]

It’s such a beautiful day today! Clear blue skies and great views. I’ve been tidying and vacuuming today, it’s a good thing I love my fur babies because their hair is everywhere! How are they not bald? I also got all my bills paid for the month so I don’t have to think about them. Paying them online is just the best! When we moved up here I ordered 2 pads of checks and I still have about half of the first pad left. I use many times more check registers than I do checks.

I took 2 chile rellenos and the brothy sauce I use out of the freezer and I will heat those up and have a 90 second rice package that’s new to me, Mexican style rice with street corn.

[Vera]

Charlene - I had to chuckle because I refuse to pay bills online. I use checks and a double order is 200 and usually lasts me 1 year. My bank does not charge for the checks. I also refuse to text and use my cell only when I leave the house - if I remember to turn it on. To me, the IPhone is a phone only to me. That is just me though as technology really doesn't interest me. I guess I have seen too many people walking around staring at their phones and walking right out into a parking lot without looking. I also don't do self-checkout at the grocery. Life was so much simpler back in the day and that suits me just fine. But I do use a credit card once in a while but no debt card. Am I weird or what? - lol

[Sabine]

No, I don't think you are weird Vera, just set in your ways and as long as that works for you, that's fine.
I got my first cell phone in 1996 and I have it with me at all times , especially if I drive a long distance. The idea of being stranded and not having my cell phone drives me nuts. Yes, I pay bills online , have done that for many years. But it took me a while to get started, my kids kept after me , so I finally started it , and love it, it is so much easier and faster then writing out checks. Self check out in the grocery store, sure , but only if I have just a few items. At the self check out at my grocery store you can only do it if you have 25 items or less. My CVS store doesn't even have a regular check out anymore, it's self check or ring a bell if you need help.
Do I text , yes, that is how I communicate for the most part with my kids / grandkids/ friends. That is how I get reminder messages from doctor offices or any other message about items I ordered from Amazon or whatever business I deal with. Debit card to get cash, absolutely! It took me a while but I really got used to all the online things, and now I could not imagine to go back to the old ways. But that's just me, everybody is different and handles things a different way.
Question for you Vera, does your husband do things online for your household ? And that allows you not to have to deal with it ? Just wondering , not criticizing.

[Sabine]

well, just got a message that my response to Vera was not " approved " , no clue why ?? There was / is nothing offensive in my reply, but whatever .....

[CharleneG]

Sabine, I can’t even imagine going back to doing things the “old way” either. I started paying bills online years ago because I had outgoing mail stolen off our mailbox and bills didn’t get paid. I was also the person that said I’d never get a smartphone and I’d never text…what a laugh! I do texting for all kinds of things and it’s a great way to get info about payments being posted, confirming appointments etc. It’s also easy to keep up with kids and grandkids. Amazon and I are VERY good friends and I’ve never had an online order problem with them. I don’t even own an actual computer anymore and really don’t miss having one. I carry my phone with me everywhere, even in the house, because if I fall I can easily get help. It absolutely goes with me when I drive anywhere, just for safety.

I still intensely dislike self checkout though! I’ll use it if I absolutely have to but I refuse to use it at Walmart or Costco.

[Sabine]

I hear you Charlene, I feel the same way and I don't even have a ' smart phone " , I just have an Android phone, but it is pretty close to an I-phone. During Covid I ordered grocery for curb side pick pick up , my girlfriend even had her groceries delivered to her house. Pretty expensive I might add, but she didn't care and could afford it. As far as Amazon is concerned I have never had a problem with them either , I used Amazon already before Covid, but now more then ever , I just don't go to stores anymore, well , I don't go just to look around the way I used to. Covid changed a lot of things, not every thing for the better. But it is the way it is now.

[Chayote]

I also don't do self-checkout at the grocery. Life was so much simpler back in the day and that suits me just fine. But I do use a credit card once in a while but no debt card. Am I weird or what? - lol

You're not the only one, Vera... I've never used self-checkout because I'd rather have it done for me. I'll queue up at a manned checkout even if self-checkout is empty. We used to tease Gordon about still writing cheques. The week after he died, it was announced that the major banks in Australia were discontinuing the use of cheques. I have one of Gordon's cheques and I'm keeping it. He wrote it for $50 just before his stroke. It was to buy a tree as his Christmas gift to us. I never cashed it... intentionally.

I use credit card for everything and pay it out once a month. It doesn't cost me interest and I benefit from the Frequent Flyers reward program.

[Vera]

Sabine, Charlene and Chayote - Thanks for your input. To answer Sabine's question regarding my husband paying bills - he never sees a bill because I take care of all the household expenses. He does keep a spreadsheet though of medical expenses, insurance on cars, house, flood, umbrella insurance and power usage, so he sees that after I have paid with check number and date sent. I also NEVER put outgoing mail in my house mailbox. When I am out on errands, I always drive by the post office. Back in 2015, I had four outgoing cards in my mailbox and none of them reached their destinations and that is when I stopped. They weren't stolen as I have a mailbox alert that sends several beeps to the house when the mail is delivered. Because my mailbox is about 75 feet away and in a brick column you can't see if the red flag is up or down. In the winter it is nice to go out once instead of walking an icy driveway several times. Same goes with a vehicle coming onto our driveway. An annunciator announces "Driveway Traffic" so no one can sneak up on us without us knowing. Now that is the technology I can deal with - lol.

Yes, you ladies are keeping up with the times.

[Vera]

Follow-up on the other comments. I do get my emails on both my phone and home laptop. My laptop is connected to a large monitor on my office desk, and I control everything on the screen without ever touching the laptop.
Recently I was at a grocery store that I only stop at for a few things and I wanted to buy about 10 items. When I went to check out, there were no check-out lines except self-check-out. There were four employees just standing there talking to each other in an aisle and I asked if there was going to be a check out at a register and they said no. I then handed them my cart and said, 'then you can put this away, I'm going to another store."
I get all the Amazon alerts on my home computer and phone, so I know when items are delivered plus our driveway sensor goes off (see above comment).

My phone is always in my purse so when I go out it is with me, but I have to remember to turn it on - lol. We used to have On-Star in our vehicles, but they increased the yearly charge so much and with three vehicles registered with them, it was too much so I cancelled.

[Sabine]

I noticed that my post from yesterday is approved. I know Chayote is the only one , besides Stephanie, who can do that, so thank you Chayote!