<p>marite,</p>
<p>I only wish my Japanese was a tad bit more natural… I would’ve gone on a John Cleese-style tirade in honor of its death.</p>
<p>I was waiting for the kids one to be pulled out. That’d be what my mom would say in a heartbeat. Sure, she didn’t buy us. That would be weird. But she does pay for us now.</p>
<p>Two dumb purchases in our family. The infamous George Foreman grill that is more trouble than it is worth. And putting a swimming pool in. No one uses the dang pool, it constantly gets mustard algae (or pool vd as my husband likes to call it), and it is just a ton of work. I’d rather mow grass. I’m seriously wondering how much it would cost to fill in a 35,000 gallon hole in our backyard.</p>
<p>LOL idmom, my neighbors filled in their pool and use it now as a vegetable garden.</p>
<p>idmom:
My husband always wanted a pool and I consistently vetoed it. I don’t do that often either (he rarely wants stuff). But I knew darn well I’d end up taking care of it – and I have enough to clean now! </p>
<p>I’m having some large perennial beds ripped out in a couple of weeks because I’m tired of working on them too – I just want to mow and sit outside with a beer and not feel like I should be weeding.</p>
<p>Camping gear. </p>
<p>DH managed to cruise through the “prime” camping years of DS’ life without ever orchestrating a major camping trip. Then, when S was about 13 he spearheaded a major two-family camping trip, I guess in a fit of “Now or Never” realization that S was aging out of family camping mode. (DH couldn’t understand why neither I nor the other parents nor the two 13 year olds were enthused by the notion of a full week of camping; and begrudingly settled for a 3 day/2 night excursion to the camping ground of his own youth).</p>
<p>For this escapade, he bought a 2-room 2-color tent; a 3-foot long 2 burner, full counter height portable gas stove; numerous coolers and accessories. He found all available tarps for setting up “kitchen” space lacking. Bought extensive #'s of PVC pipe pieces, metal somethings, fittings, rope, plastic tarp material, grommets etc. and engineered his own. Set the whole she-bang up in our backyard for a test run. Then repeated the process on our <em>one</em> camping trip.</p>
<p>Stuff now takes up at least 30 square feet in our cellar. But he will not part with it. Pray for grandkids with a penchant for outdoor experiences.</p>
<p>OMG, jmmom!!! I can so totally picture your cellar with all that camping stuff! That’s a pretty big stove! lol </p>
<p>ld, I was actually thinking of getting a George Foreman grill, but you’ve saved me from it, thanks!</p>
<p>DR, inflatable room bouncer??? What the heck…</p>
<p>lol pool vd…that kept me chuckling for a few</p>
<p>I love my George Foreman!! </p>
<p>but I do have a treadmill and stationary bike that are collecting serious dust…I was going to do all my workouts at home…it was boring so I joined the local gym instead.</p>
<p>jmmom:
Yup. The camping stuff is all in the garage, just waiting for my sister to borrow it…</p>
<p>Ours are: NordicTrak (H required this), battery operated eyeglass cleaner (H wasted $20, what is wrong with just water), breadmaker (another H purchase), cedar shoe rack that fell apart within weeks (another H purchase, but this was $100), George Foreman was given to us and we use it 2x/year, but it is a pain. Years ago we also had a pasta maker that we used once.</p>
<p>I am too cheap for these stupid purchases, but my DH more than makes up for me! It is a joke within our family and whenever the kids want something and we say no, they always bring up the shoe rack, breadmaker, and battery operated eyeglass cleaner.</p>
<p>The eyeglass cleaner is very amusing.</p>
<p>LOL, northeastmom - a battery-operated eyeglass cleaner. I can’t even imagine it. Great ammunition for the kids and you for years to come, though.</p>
<p>btw, did I mention that we had to take two cars (just for our family, the other family managed in their one pick-up truck) on the camping trip because we couldn’t fit ourselves and the gear in our SUV? Sheesh.</p>
<p>jmmom:
You probably could have stayed at the a 5 star hotel for the same price! Ha.</p>
<p>weenie, LOL. This is what my mother told my father when we were growing up. My father thought that it would be great fun to rent a trailer/camper and drive across the country. My father was not the “roughing it” type. My mother refused b/c she said that she would be receiving orders from my father to go out and fetch water, etc. She said that for what it would cost we could stay in luxury hotels and have a nice vacation.</p>
<p>This reminds me of a good friend of mine who came from a family of TEN kids. For vacation, her dad would take five of them camping for a few days and then bring them home and get the other five and take them for a few days. CAN YOU IMAGINE? It would be bad enough camping alone with 5 kids…But to have to do it twice?</p>
<p>No, I cannot imagine going twice, back- to- back. I have taken a couple of short camping trips. I enjoy it for a night or two every few years, and then I am done. I require showers, and flush toilets.</p>
<p>Just to add, my family enjoys camping. I am the only noncamper.</p>
<p>mkm…see that’s what I’m thinking… filling in the pool thing is a definite possibility! It can be done!</p>
<p>and weenie … you hit the nail on the head. DH doesn’t even know how to backwash the pool, much less balance the chemicals. It is all me. Imagine me outside in the middle of Tropical Storm Allison (the one that flooded Houston bigtime), lightning crashing around me, drenched to the bone wasting that #@!* pool to the street every 3 hours to keep it from overflowing toward the house. A veggie garden actually sounds kinda nice.</p>
<p>And about that George Foreman. We do have two of them I hate to admit. The newer ones have the heating elements that pop off and can be put in the dishwasher, so the cleaning part is a little better. But the hamburgers, and everything else, come out like hockey pucks. In Texas, we pride ourselves on our meat cooking skills…and the George Foreman just does not cut it.</p>
<p>BTW! My d just called…she made the women’s crew team at UNC-CH!! She tried out for coxswain cuz she’s too little to row…and she made it! I guess all that loudmouth, cheerleading experience paid off. :-)</p>
<p>battery-powered eyeglass cleaner LOL</p>
<p>northeastmom, how on earth does one of those work</p>
<p>Decorating our first apt in Nashville during grad school and very low paying job years. I ordered custom curtains at JC Penny as a testament to our getting jobs. Brown with Orange flowers which were Bee-You-Ti- Ful in the era of Brown Earth Color Rules. However, they were all three inches too short for every window because of my idiocy. We had no choice but to hang them anyway. This was after all the apt which my law school husband found on his bicycle because car payments were not possible. He didn’t notice there were NO kitchen cabinets whatsoever and signed a one year lease.</p>