Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 32: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

Here is a link to the prior thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5148913-come-and-tell-me-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-31-calmly-through-the-day

Welcome to all regulars, lurkers, and new contributors! Everyone is welcome to join.

Note there is one minor change to the thread title. "tell me your dull news" has been changed to "tell us...". I thought it was more in keeping with the spirit of the thread.

@DandyDandylion an exam to enter sixth form? That sounds very stressful.
I always cook for home games though I sometimes wish someone else would! The semis are held on neutral ground and that club keeps the gates and provides food for players so I will be spared for that.
The whole family were involved today - both DSs manned the gate and DH is chairman.
Just a few hot dogs to cook tomorrow for DS2's match.
Being on the front desk must mean you deal with all sorts of situations @Deathraystare.
@MissConductUS I must admit the different temperature scales confuse me. I assume @mathanxiety must be referring to very cold ones......

Havoc, are you sure it wasn't a meteor you saw? When I used to run before dawn, I saw them quite often, at least once a week. Comets are much rarer. A meteor will show as a quick streak, lasting no more than 10 seconds as it burns up the atmosphere. A comet is persistent as it travels outside of the atmosphere.

Sprouts, well done on feeding the hungry hordes. We can hardly feed ourselves with no functioning kitchen. I think Math was referring to the "feels like" temperatures, including the wind chill. I saw on the news last night that the Midwest is expecting wind chills in the range she mentioned, in Fahrenheit. We are expecting 4-9 inches of snow today, starting this afternoon, then very cold temps for the rest of the week. We got an extra large takeaway last night so that we'd have leftovers for dinner tonight.

I haven't posted any kitchen photos recently, but there has been great progress in the last few days. The carpenter has framed the windows and they've finished putting in the new flooring, which now runs into my laundry room, which is adjacent to the kitchen. There used to be a manky old carpet in there, which was impossible to keep clean, so having the laminate flooring in there is a vast improvement.

We went to the paint store yesterday and bought samples of three shades of off-white for the walls. Now, I need some help from the ladies of the thread on deciding what to paint the windows and window frames. The paint store was able to mix paint that is an exact match for the nickel gray of the cabinets. Should we paint the windows and window frames gray to match the cabinets or use the same off-white we select for the walls, just with a glossier finish? I'm leaning toward painting the windows gray, but I would love some other opinions.

Also, I asked MN to remove the prior post, as it included a photo of the laundry room DH sent me, which included his handsome face in the bathroom mirror at the end of the hall. 😁 I retook the photo with the bathroom door closed.

The kitchen is coming along nicely MissC I vote for the same colour as the cabinets as the window has them rather side. Not an interior design expert though.
The sixth form entrance is because he wants to go to a maths school. They did a quick maths challenge paper and then had pizza together. It is just basically to make sure you are the type of geeky nerd who will enjoy doing maths and further maths at A level. We are pretty confident that is who DS is!

@MissConductUS definitely do a contrasting colour for your windows, otherwise they will lool washed out. We painted all our woodwork and ceilings white with contrasting colours on the walls.

I agree it was probably meteors.

I saw my brother's profile on LinkedIn and asked for it to be removed as he died in 2024. They want a copy of the death certificate which I sent and Letters of Testamentory. I'm assuming that's a US thing. In the UK a death certificate is sufficient, so I've also attached his will which appoints me as an executor. He didn't leave enough money for probate but we have to go through it because he was estranged from some of his children and stated they shouldn't inherit (debts mostly!). I hope I don't have to wait for probate as it's taking some time.

DH has asked what I want for our second anniversary in a few weeks and we agreed to try a new restaurant that's opened up locally. Mainly because it has pie and he's from the North. He appreciates a good pie.

The chicken stew that smelled divine? Also tasted divine. We watched Gladiator II. It wasn't terrible.

Myrtle, when you mention pie do you mean savoury or sweet? That's a bit of an unexpected task for your brother's LinkedIn page, but I'm glad there's a protocol, I guess. I've been reading about comets and meteors. Yes, likely a meteor. It was very bright, clear and fairly close. It was quite an unexpected thrill. I haven't seen anythings online about the comets that passed by, or any meteor sightings. 🤷‍♀️

The kitchen's looking great, @MissConductUS. What’s going in the space between the windows and the kitchen worktops - are you tiling it and if so, what colour? Might that have a bearing on what colour you paint the windows?

30-40 below freezing is roughly 0 to -10 Fahrenheit so about -17C afaik. There are rumblings about local schools closing for the day on Tuesday because of the extreme cold. Monday is off anyway because of MLK day, but it will be the coldest day of the week. I've had the humidifier blowing all day as the air is very dry.

MissC your kitchen floors look lovely.

It's 1c here and the site I use for conversion says that's 33.8F.
Math, you're def in a cold snap - yikes! 🥶
Which units are used in the UK, btw? (I should google...)

Despite the cold I took dc out tonight to look at the stars out by the airport. We bundled up and wandered around the park, a few planes descended right overhead which was exciting for the kids, had a snack in the car and warmed up a bit then came home and had our baths and got into pj's. It looks like it will be chilly all week, but, still no snow for us here. 😢

Thank you, @Mumtobabyhavoc. It came up with an update on my feed saying he'd been working at a company for 11 years. That wasn't true as he'd left some time ago. And it was poignant because I'm on LinkedIn every day and he obviously hadn't updated his profile in years. I would have texted him and ribbed him about it if he'd still been alive. I realised that I was actually the person who could do something about it, so I did. Just another piece of sadmin.

Pie is usually savoury, with meat. Steak and kidney, steak and ale, chicken and something. I am not a connoisseur of pie, having had a traumatic experience as a child. I was forced to sit all afternoon with a Fray Bentos excuse for a pie one Sunday because I refused to eat it and wasn't allowed to get down until I had finished it. It was miserable. The pie, the sitting, the disappointment of my mother, my emotional state.

It's also associated with Northernness in England - possibly not Scotland as my father was Scottish and I don't recall him liking a pie. There's a town in the north west called Wigan, where they have a pie-eating contest and the locals are called "pies". My DH is not from that town but fits the stereotype and jokingly embraces it.

We have two anniversaries. One for the legal ceremony and a later one for the Humanist ceremony with the guests, the cake and the dancing, so he is responsible for marking the first one and I'm responsible for the second.

@MyrtleStrumpet

Sorry you had a reminder re your Brother's death. There are two people on my face book who are no longer with us

I can certainly sympathise about sitting at a table with something disgusting you are forced to eat. Why didn't we just get it over with while it was still hot?! Every bloody Saturday my parents would bring back a sub-standard Cantonese - pork balls and sweet and sour. I loathed it (still do). My father told me he couldn't stand looking at my face so go in the garage with the meal and eat it!.. I longed to throw it in the chest freezer!. Eventually they let me have a chicken curry which was alright-ish. I still hate Cantonese to this day! Interestingly there were a number of meals we never had because guess what -my fussy dad didn't like them!!!!!

Thank you @Deathraystare. It was a shock but I was pleased because I had the authority to sort it out.

Fortunately after this incident, where said brother was also sat with me, my mother instigated a new policy which I think is useful even today.

You don't have to eat something if you don't like it, but you are not allowed to make faces and say 'yuck, that's disgusting', (or similar) and there is no other food if you don't eat it.

We were very poor, so couldn't afford to cater for picky eating.

I still don't enjoy pie, but I will eat it if there is nothing else!

Well... accommodation is booked !! Eeek !!

Well, reserved I suppose as payment is not due till 3 weeks before our dates ...but still a bit of trepidation that we have made the right decision!!

I am terrible when I book accommodation and stuff ,,,as I still keep going back to the website and check it out to see if there were/are better deals or prices 🤣🤣.

But I think we have got lucky this time !

All criterias are met ...with an added bonus of a lift/elevator 😜.

One of the other choices has already gone up in price since yesterday!

Going with a very small bag/backpack 🤦‍♀️.

Need to make sure I have have the bestest packing cubes there are ...that can basically make my clothes disappear 🤣🤣!

We were not overly poor but money was an issue. I even begged that I had just toast! My brother hated green and tomatoes and he would be sick afterwards. He now eats them but had a very fussy daughter who hated vegetables who then went vegetarian when she met a veggie boyfriend (I know!) but has another one now and has gone back to meat!!!

I will have to ask the technical wizard porter how to delete thoes posters who are no longer here.

Repair man tells me my Mac Air hard drive is goosed. He’s recovered some stuff, but not sure what. Yes, I backed it up, but that was a year ago. I know…

Tis all part of life’s rich tapestry. I’ve told him to go ahead and order the replacement drive.

I’m not deliberately ignoring comments. Finding reading Mumsnet on my wee phone a bit challenging.

Should have seen me attempting my language lesson on Skype on Friday…was a hoot.

@mathanxiety. good luck with the cold. It got down to 13F overnight last night here, and we're expecting a low of 6F tonight here (-14c). I'm glad you like the floor. We're really pleased with it too, and it's so nice to have the old carpet out of the laundry room.

@MyrtleStrumpet, when you say I should paint the windows a contrasting color, you mean contrasting with the walls, correct? So paint them gray to match the cabinets. That's what I'm thinking.

@HildaTablet, I have pictures of the worktop quartz slabs I took last fall when we picked them out. They are white with a bit of gray (which is just good luck; we hadn't even looked at cabinets at that point), with gold streaks. We're going to use the same quartz (cut thinner than the worktops) as the backsplash between the worktops and the window and the bottom of the cabinets. We saw a couple of model kitchens that had been done that way and really liked the look. It's also a lot less work for the builder than installing a tile backsplash. I think it will go well with the white I'm leaning towards, which has a touch of gray:

https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-colors/color/oc-149/decorators-white

Please keep the decorating advice coming. I'm rather hopeless with these things and have trouble making up my mind about all of the choices.

We had six inches of snow overnight, so DH was out early to clear the driveway for the electricians, who are here today installing the under cabinet LED lights. Last night DH showed me that my corner cabinet has two shelves that swing out into the room. I had no idea these were coming, but It will be much easier getting things out of that cabinet with them. I think my mixing bowls and other baking items will go in there.

Myrtle, Havoc tells me, I don't want this, but thank you for making it. 😂😂😂 There's not much I can say in reply! So, my usual response is, Thank you for using your manners. 😵‍💫

I listened to a hilarious radio play last might on CBC while driving us home from the park. It was two babies, a boy and a girl, with the boy a detective trying to solve the disappearance of the girls's toy unicorn. It was done in 1930's Chicago gumshoe detective style. If I can find a link i'll post it.

Temp is -3c here and sunny/high overcast. I've got some errands to do, but am watching the coverage of the swearing in of the president down south. I won't comment further so as not to derail our lovely thread, though.

Breakfast is steelcut oats with cinnamon, brown sugar and banana. I've also had a piece of sprouted grain bread, toasted, with butter, pb&j and a delicious latte.

Loving the kitchen updates @MissConductUS !

My tuppence worth is ....(And I have no decorative eye at all !! 🤣)

If your worktops are of the "white" shade ..have the same white for the window frames .

Plus ...if they are white and you don't like them ...easier to paint another colour...rather than going from dark to a lighter colour.

Love the floor ...looks so warm and cosy .
Was it Lino ?

Havoc, that is an extremely polite toddler you have. 😁

Bizzey, the flooring is LVP - Luxury Vinyl Plank, this one specifically:

LifeProof Trail Oak

I think it's sold as LVT (luxury vinyl tile) in the UK. This brand has a dense foam cushion affixed to the bottom to make it softer to walk on. It's much more comfortable on the feet than the ceramic tile we had before.

I'll think about the color of the windows. We're going to have a lot of white in the room as is, between the walls and the worktops.

when you say I should paint the windows a contrasting color, you mean contrasting with the walls, correct? So paint them gray to match the cabinets. That's what I'm thinking.

Yes, it will look lovely.

@Mumtobabyhavoc
Havoc tells me, I don't want this, but thank you for making it. 😂😂😂 There's not much I can say in reply! So, my usual response is, Thank you for using your manners. 😵‍💫

I think this is brilliant!

Havoc is setting out her boundaries and being polite. It's so lovely to see a child state what they want politely but firmly. I wish I had been taught this. I think your response is also great. I think you should congratulate yourself on excellent parenting skills.

@Mumtobabyhavoc

Havoc is being very clever there!

It's great for children to be allowed to state their preference around food. Well done havoc. I personally would eat every single thing you dish up all the same :-)

It's really cold today, and tomorrow morning will be horrible. I'm heading out to dinner tonight all the same. I think it will be good to start the car up and drive around a bit. DD and I will be wrapped up really well.

MissC the counters look great. I hope they won't be affected by the cold. The swinging out shelf is amazing.

I still get notifications of birthdays for people no longer with us, and it's always a bit of a jolt. I know it's a comfort for at least one family to see friends sending good wishes on those occasions and they always respond. Not sure about the others.

Miss your kitchen is coming on a treat. I'm particularly interested in the flooring, as we're planning on redecorating out dining room, which has original floorboards (but they're knackered) and I don't want carpet, as we have a lot of small people dropping food.

Also, no suggestions re. window colour - I ask my daughters these days. Once upon a time I loved home decor, now I just want to be comfy