<p>mootmom - hope all is ok with your house and pool. </p>
<p>SBmom - couldn’t agree more with you about the expensive bags. Around here, even the girls in middle school expect designer bags. Thankfully, my D is a rebel that way…lol.</p>
<p>Alu - If your power goes out, that means you get to go home? I guess that would be nice, if you don’t have anything pressing to take care of…</p>
<p>I go away for 5 days, and the topic is still expensive bags!</p>
<p>And storms, floods, and other Acts of God. :eek:</p>
<p>New Year coming in like a lion? :D</p>
<p>My father chose to spend New Year’s in the hospital with pneumonia. OK, he didn’t choose to spend it in the hospital. And thankfully, he’s out!</p>
<p>The fact that they are expensive is an artifact, as we call it in the software business. The fact that they are beautiful is the root cause.</p>
<p>But let’s move on. I am still in the office…</p>
<p>Here in the Lower Left Coast, we are basking in the delusional and magical thinking which comes from sunny dry days instead of the promised monsoons. Sorry if they are hanging too long in your worlds, Alu and mootie. But if you would send them out to sea before they sweep down here, we’d kindly appreciate it.</p>
<p>Alu, I have two Gently Used Coach bags in my purse drawer. One is navy, so that is out, as it will give you zero “pop” of color. The other is a deep aubergine… not exactly a pop, but at least a blip of color? Would Deep Aubergine do anything for you? I don’t think they cost $700 or more, even if we inflate them forward from the 1980’s purchase prices.</p>
<p>Ok, just returned and BAGS!! I must go back now and see where this all started. I must admit I have been a handbag junkie, but trying to recover. Although i have not made as much progress with the shoe problem. I have even considered ebaying a particular bag as I think about college costs!!</p>
<p>Mootmom,
is all ok? I don’t come to SA often (though with the recent real estate mess maybe a few drinks would help my mood). Hope the house is ok.</p>
<p>Did any of you all ever read the kid’s book, A House is a House?</p>
<p>I think that these bags are houses for marmots…drink up all in hopes that Mootie doesn’t have a crunched house and Oaklandmom gets somewhere to live soon.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the kind thoughts!! I’m dropping by to reassure all that we’ve still got a house. (We do not currently have a <em>phone</em> but who needs a landline when you have cellphones, right?) The rain finally slowed down enough for me to get out into the flooded yard: there were some small trees down, and the big noise from earlier was the gate from the pool equipment enclosure flying off its hinges. Shouldn’t be too tough to repair; I lashed it back onto the frame and closed it up with some lengths of clothesline so it wasn’t going to fly off again.</p>
<p>Wanna hear the most totally hilarious fall-on-the-floor funny thing I’ve seen all day? At the height, and I do mean the HEIGHT of the driving rain with 50+mph winds, shortly after I lashed the pool equipment gate onto the enclosure, what should I see outside the window in the back yard but… THE WEEKLY POOL SERVICE GUY, ALL BUNDLED UP IN A RAIN SUIT AND SLOGGING THROUGH THE FLOODED YARD TO DO THE WEEKLY POOL MAINTENANCE! I fell off my chair laughing at that sight. I guess the guy only gets paid if he makes the home visits? What a trooper anyway. (And he’d better not have undone my hard work with the clothesline!)</p>
<p>oaklandmom, I have my housing optimism in high gear for you… (A house is a house for me… and soon for you! Thanks Alu, hadn’t thought about that one for many years.)</p>
<p>There’s a lull outside now, but we’re told it won’t last. I keep thinking of the Sierras and hoping no one you know is trying to travel there today; it would be a very dangerous trip indeed.</p>
<p>Bottoms up, all, it’s Friday night!</p>
<p>TGIF, all!</p>
<p>Pouring in So Cal today too.</p>
<p>Not yet in uber SoCal, but we are expecting it. Thinking we’ll be pulling out the Trivial Pursuit, Dominoes and, if DS and bff will cooperate, bridge cards for the duration. </p>
<p>Because, if it’s raining and the power takes me away from the Alley, gotta do <em>something.</em></p>
<p>We had a big ice storm a few nights ago, “unfortunately” on the evening D and her friends were going to venture out for their first clubbing adventure (all are legal age where we live). We have set no curfews or limits on activities since high school graduation, but we did insist that they postpone plans even though they were planning to cab home.</p>
<p>So they all came over here and played Life and Monopoly till after midnight, then went for a walk…I have a feeling there was some schnapps involved…and we ended up hosting our first co-ed slumber party. </p>
<p>D said the it was a bit scary out in the woods where the trail winds through the SS cemetery, and then gale force winds came up suddenly. She did blanch when I told her they were lucky the combination of ice and high winds didn’t start bringing trees down around them…they were too busy scaring each other with ghost stories to think of practical matters like that.</p>
<p>Good to hear all is well mootmom! The story of the pool man is hilarious. I too had forgotten all about A House is a House. Maybe that can be my new mantra. I must say my agent is back at work - potential buyers coming at 10:30 am thru 1 pm today (much to DS’'s dismay - get up before noon? you’ve got to be kidding!).</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you in CA with your weather and housing challenges. Put some Baileys in that coffee this morning…</p>
<p>Boo-hoo. My boys left tonight on the bus to visit their girlfriends who happen to live in the same city, then off to their respective colleges. It was so great having them around with their wit and smarts and silliness. Little brother enjoyed them too.</p>
<p>Bartender…pour me something to mope with, ok?</p>
<p>Hope someone came up with some good moping brew for you, mommusic…
We’ve still got 2 weeks before we take AstroD back to school, and then I’m going to hang out with her for a week in DC, before her dorm opens back up on Jan 26… She’ll be moping in a week, tho…bf heads back to school a week before she does… no more happy faces then, I think…</p>
<p>mm.</p>
<p>Come on down and have a drink with me. Chicky has gone back to her people. Her biggest complaint- the weather is getting warm and now she has to go back. We get to the airport 2 hours early and they start handing out oops notices because they have to downgrade her flight (get a smaller plain) so they kicked some people off and put them on a 2:30 flight (took some of the 2:30 people and bumped them to 5:30 pm).</p>
<p>Yes, the abrasive NYer in me came out and I began my rant. </p>
<p>"Let me see a manager now. If there was a problem and she was going to be bumped, why did you not send a e-mail, text message or phone call. There were no oops when you took my money and confirmed her a seat, so now I just want what I paid for a seat on the flight I originally booked. What genius decided to down grade the plane when every time I have been to JFK the flight to boston has been booked, like today would be no different. All of this sound like a personal issue, and I just want to know where is my kid’s seat, because she has a connecting bus to Hanover. It took about 20 minutes but chicky caught her correct flight and thanked be for knowing how to appropriately rant.</p>
<p>Oh before I forget, we must give a toast to one of our favorite underage drinkers on the alley-Yemaya, on her admission to Beliot.</p>
<p>So Yemaya, congrats. You’re still not legal but we’ll get someone to make you a milkshake or a shirley temple and then we’re going back to business as usual and we’re kicking you out.</p>
<p>Weep-No-More Cocktail</p>
<pre><code>* 3/4 oz Dubonnet Rouge
<p>Shake all ingredients with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and serve.</p>
<p>sybbie - thanks mucho for the heads-up on yemaya. At the top of my all-time favorite posters list. But hadn’t hear from her in forever!</p>
<p><em>off to find yemaya’s news first-hand and type colorful congratulations</em></p>
<p>okey-dokey. Looks like sybbie’s got Inside Scoop, as I don’t find any posts from yemaya. So tell her for me, Charter Member of the Parent Cafe Fan Club of yemaya13, that I love her to pieces and am thrilled at her news. I don’t think she even makes the legal tippling age down here in Mexico, but if she does, I’m treating. Otherwise, it’s back to the sybbie-proffered Shirley Temple or milkshake.</p>
<p>She got into Beloit’s party??? WOOOOOOW!!! </p>
<p>Yay Yemaya! But where did yemayo get in? 
</p>