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RTDNTOTO 🐻 Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 20 (2025)

michaelskis said:
When the wife and I got married, we registered at Bed Bath & Beyond with a decent list. There were a lot of people who just got us gift cards from there so we can get whatever we didn't get from the list. One of those items was a set of Calphalon Pots and Pans. I recalled the sales person from BB&B saying that they had a lifetime warranty. I even joked that if she throws a pan at me and misses but it dents the pan, is that covered, and he said yes.


Fast forward almost 2 decades, the large shallow sauce pan as warped over time from all the heating and cooling. I reached out to them a couple of months ago about it, sent in photos and details and they said to send it in and they would review it and send a new one if it was determined to be within their parameters. This was just about the same time that we were moving into the new house. Sending it in got away from us until last week when they sent me a follow up e-mail. By then I had lost the address of where to send it, so I asked for the correct address. Instead of sending the address, I get a notification that they are just sending me the new pan!

Normally, I use the cast iron, but I love this for anything with a sauce. The new one will be here tomorrow!
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We registered at a bunch of places including BB&B. I neither admit nor deny periodically looking at our online list to see what was no longer in there, meaning, we were getting it.

We started registering at a Target right after having lunch at their "Food Avenue." We were in there so long, by time we were done we had dinner there too!!

Jim
 
jumbach said:
We registered at a bunch of places including BB&B. I neither admit nor deny periodically looking at our online list to see what was no longer in there, meaning, we were getting it.

We started registering at a Target right after having lunch at their "Food Avenue." We were in there so long, by time we were done we had dinner there too!!

Jim
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I have never gotten food from the little concession areas at a Target. However, when I was a kid we would go to KMart and my sister and I would always beg our dad to let us get a big soft pretzel and a frozen Coke from the concession stand at the front of the store. We knew not to bother asking mom if she took us because the answer was almost always "No" but dad never said "No" to treats like that.

Our KMart also had a little cafeteria style restaurant in the back of the store that actually had really good food so that was always a treat to go to for lunch when I was little. My mom was one of the pharmacists at our local KMart so if she had to work until the pharmacy closed on a particular evening, our dad would take my sister and me up there to have dinner with her in the cafeteria. My go to order was a hot ham and cheese sandwich with french fries... and a Coke. We drank lots of pop as kids.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I have never gotten food from the little concession areas at a Target. However, when I was a kid we would go to KMart and my sister and I would always beg our dad to let us get a big soft pretzel and a frozen Coke from the concession stand at the front of the store. We knew not to bother asking mom if she took us because the answer was almost always "No" but dad never said "No" to treats like that.

Our KMart also had a little cafeteria style restaurant in the back of the store that actually had really good food so that was always a treat to go to for lunch when I was little. My mom was one of the pharmacists at our local KMart so if she had to work until the pharmacy closed on a particular evening, our dad would take my sister and me up there to have dinner with her in the cafeteria. My go to order was a hot ham and cheese sandwich with french fries... and a Coke. We drank lots of pop as kids.
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I always went for the churros at Kmart, but a frozen coke was nice too.
 
I guess Canadian Kmarts were boring, I don't recall food concessions; though I remember the lunch counter at the Kresge's / Kmart in our old neighbourhood.
 
I still use my calphanon but yeah it's warped and the insides sloughed off a little - prefer the cast iron

I remember when KMart had a diner-like counter

We registered at Crate & Barrel in Harvard Square - it was the 80's so that was the thing
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Last year somebody bought the building and now they're turning it into a fancy indoor pickleball and golf simulator place. I know a lot of the old guys at my club who play pickleball on our makeshift tennis courts are very psyched. I have no idea how successful the place will be and have been trying to figure out if they'll have a liquor license because that would make it a lot more likely for them to succeed.
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How ironic. I met this morning with our local indoor pickle ball place, that is in a former BB&B, because he would like an ordinance amendment because he wants to partner with local microbrewers to sell beer there. This weekend I am going to do some market research on that (online sources, not in person).

The Pickle Ball it self has been amazingly popular and they are looking to shift their approval from temporary occupancy to full occupancy.
 
I know we have pickleball courts that sell beer. They just need a liquor license from the state and we're good.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I have never gotten food from the little concession areas at a Target. However, when I was a kid we would go to KMart and my sister and I would always beg our dad to let us get a big soft pretzel and a frozen Coke from the concession stand at the front of the store. We knew not to bother asking mom if she took us because the answer was almost always "No" but dad never said "No" to treats like that.

Our KMart also had a little cafeteria style restaurant in the back of the store that actually had really good food so that was always a treat to go to for lunch when I was little. My mom was one of the pharmacists at our local KMart so if she had to work until the pharmacy closed on a particular evening, our dad would take my sister and me up there to have dinner with her in the cafeteria. My go to order was a hot ham and cheese sandwich with french fries... and a Coke. We drank lots of pop as kids.
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Target's concession area is a pale shadow of its former self, and most that I know of have been converted to a Starbucks. Some Targets still sell Icees and popcorn, but that's about it.

(This is a photo I found online of what the Target Food Avenues looked like circa 1995.)

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Hy-Vee once food poisoned me because their staff person didn't cook the chicken long enough at the bottom of the wok.

Good times
 
Tranplanner said:
I guess Canadian Kmarts were boring, I don't recall food concessions; though I remember the lunch counter at the Kresge's / Kmart in our old neighbourhood.
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The closest "general merchandise" store to our house was an SS Kresge's. It had that old general store feel, with hardwood floors. They had a surprisingly good toy section with a good variety of car models. It was close enough to walk or ride our bikes, with one kinda busy street to cross (Genesee Street for those familiar with Cheektowaga).

I vaguely remember when the KMart opened a few miles further away, and on a very busy road, a divided highway really (Walden Avenue). We couldn't go there ourselves when we were younger and I don't remember going there on our bikes ever. That KMart was there for a long time after the Kresge's closed (which was probably during high school for me- late 1970s).
 
michaelskis said:
I met this morning with our local indoor pickle ball place, that is in a former BB&B, because he would like an ordinance amendment because he wants to partner with local microbrewers to sell beer there. This weekend I am going to do some market research on that (online sources, not in person).
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We have one of those in Fort Worth (maybe more, but I'm aware of one): Courtside Kitchen. Similar to a golf clubhouse, but with courts instead of a golf course.
 
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I give myself 3 points for #8, 9, 13. Not sure / remember # 14. It was the parents for #19
 
It is officially "ugly" season on the trains. That time of year when the cold is bad enough that you give up trying to look cool, and just try to survive motherfracking nature as it tries to freeze you to the very ground which is too hard to bury you in. Ugly hats. Big ugly coats. People's nice suit pants tucked-in to ugly boots. Ugly bags, big enough to carry your office shoes in. Scarves. Not classy ones like in the movies. Big ugly ones that could double as blankets.

At 6:30 a.m. it is dark enough that I may as well be standing on a train platform on the dark side of the moon...the saving grace is - nah. No saving grace. I dislike the commute this time of year.
 
ursus said:
It is officially "ugly" season on the trains. That time of year when the cold is bad enough that you give up trying to look cool, and just try to survive motherfracking nature as it tries to freeze you to the very ground which is too hard to bury you in. Ugly hats. Big ugly coats. People's nice suit pants tucked-in to ugly boots. Ugly bags, big enough to carry your office shoes in. Scarves. Not classy ones like in the movies. Big ugly ones that could double as blankets.

At 6:30 a.m. it is dark enough that I may as well be standing on a train platform on the dark side of the moon...the saving grace is - nah. No saving grace. I dislike the commute this time of year.
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Do you get up every morning from the alarm clock warning to take the 8:15 into the city?
 
Maister said:
Do you get up every morning from the alarm clock warning to take the 8:15 into the city?
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You know it! I really soft-balled that one in for you, huh? Now you can sing it all - damn - day. :) I know I will be....
 
luckless pedestrian said:
If he's red, he's dead, so

Maybe I should post this in the football thread but I watched a lot of football this weekend and it's been fun, now that the Patriot's suck for a while now, I am enjoying just watching football

I think the Commanders were the right team and the Bills, my goodness - hope they don't choke
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I was not expecting my Commanders to win and, in fact, had congratulated Lions fans on their pending victory the Monday before the game.

I feel OK, but not great, about the Eagles. We beat them once this season already.

Jim
 
jumbach said:
I was not expecting my Commanders to win and, in fact, had congratulated Lions fans on their pending victory the Monday before the game.

I feel OK, but not great, about the Eagles. We beat them once this season already.

Jim
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I will root for any team to beat the Eagles - and, I wanted Detroit to win but they didn't have it
 
luckless pedestrian said:
I will root for any team to beat the Eagles - and, I wanted Detroit to win but they didn't have it
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The wife theoretically approved a flight to Philadelphia to watch that game, but I realized it would be ridiculously expensive.

But, since I shouldn't watch a game like that alone and I don't feel like going to a sports bar (she's at work), some of my cousins are coming up from Sacramento to watch the game with me, and we will have a small informal get-together. (Not a full-blown Super Bowl Party, which is already happening two weeks later regardless of teams. Our first such party since 2020.)

Jim
 
Things that happened in my life this weekend:

1. A friend was a guest on a local radio show, so I tuned in, even though it's a show I don't normally listen to.

2. An acquaintance passed away suddenly at age 55 (memorial service is Thursday).

3. Started our elderly cockatiel on a bunch of meds. He's not leaving us anytime soon like we thought, but is in some pain from normal aging and arthritis.

4. Did a DIY project: Installing shutters on six windows around the house. Yay me!

5. Saw the movie "Paper Towns." A bit different from the book, but not a bad movie. (Not a great one, either, but it's worth seeing once. I tend to like "coming of age road trip" stories.)

6. Oh yeah, my Commanders won, unexpectedly.

7. Got the rest of the brake work done on my car.

8. Tried out a new style of shoes: Sketchers Slip-Ons. So far, I love them.

9. Did NOT watch any of yesterday's regime change.
 
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I am in a women's group called Lagniappe - a little of this and a little of that - instead of book club, though a book could be a theme, you do something, learn something, craft something

so tonight I am hosting, and, because I have no personal hobbies, which is another thread entirely, I am having my daughter who works at an oyster farm come to talk about oyster farming, learn to shuck them, and what wine/beer to serve with them so I am skedaddling in a few to get ready!
 
Maister said:
Yes, and I also remember they had similar lunch counter-diner setups at Woolworth. They were largely used by employees during their lunch breaks, as I recall.
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Unless you were a dishwasher. Then you ate in back by your sink, if you know what I mean . . .
 
Faust_Motel said:
I took a sales call from Placer. Too rich for my blood but man the data is impressive.
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michaelskis said:
We use multiple funding sources to pay for it and it is a collaboration between ED and Tourism.
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We have an account here and I have one of the licenses for our office, but haven't used it in a long time but was really impressed with the breadth of the data when we first got it and I did toy around with it quite a bit.

We are a county so we use the data internally for our own parks and ED and tourism efforts but also work with our local communities when they want data. Internally, we've found it to be really useful for our Main Street™ communities and a lot of their marketing and research activities.
 
While a lot of people recognize Thomas Paine as the father of the American Revolution, I say it was Sam Adams. Paine didn't get here until well after Adams was rallying up people in Boston after the British Government tried to take his father's land to pay for the French - Indian war.

arcplans said:
I have thought about this. I started an account with blue sky.
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Same here... Although I am not quitting FB or any of the other platforms.
 
michaelskis said:
While a lot of people recognize Thomas Paine as the father of the American Revolution, I say it was Sam Adams. Paine didn't get here until well after Adams was rallying up people in Boston after the British Government tried to take his father's land to pay for the French - Indian war.



Same here... Although I am not quitting FB or any of the other platforms.
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I agree.

The Samuel Adams Book by Stacy Schiff is a must-read: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/stacy-schiff/the-revolutionary-samuel-adams/9780316441100/?lens=little-brown (The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams) and reinforces his role as prime instigator.
 
Probably the most fun toy/thing I did as a kid was the summer I got a pair of walkie talkies in 4th grade. My classmate/friend lived across the street. I gave him one of the walkie talkies and we would carry on conversations (okay, not much to talk about as a 9 year old boy, as I recall - it was more the idea of the thing) over walkie talkie after our parents had sent us to bed. My parents busted me one night for being up after bedtime and took the walkie talkie away. So the next day my friend and I rigged up a 'cable' (really just a 200' piece of twine) that extended from my bedroom on the side of the house across the street to his bedroom which, coincidently was on the same side. The 'cable' was supported over the street by a telephone line. We figured out that if you tied the twine to a baseball you could throw it over the telephone line to get the twine over - that's how we got it up there. We fashioned a little 'cable car' by cutting out of the bottom of a cardboard milk carton, and transferred notes (i.e. Secret Messages!) and I recall a plastic army man between our bedrooms using the 'cable car' and reeling it back and forth across the street so our parents wouldn't hear us talking after bedtime like they did with the walkie talkies. We probably sent the cable car back and forth maybe three or four times before it ended up getting caught up somehow on the telephone wire. The next day my dad rudely woke me up demanding to know "what the hell is THAT?" pointing to the cable car system we had rigged up. My protestations of ignorance were especially unconvincing as the twine was secured on one end by my window screen. Good times.
 
Maister said:
Probably the most fun toy/thing I did as a kid was the summer I got a pair of walkie talkies in 4th grade. My classmate/friend lived across the street. I gave him one of the walkie talkies and we would carry on conversations (okay, not much to talk about as a 9 year old boy, as I recall - it was more the idea of the thing) over walkie talkie after our parents had sent us to bed. My parents busted me one night for being up after bedtime and took the walkie talkie away. So the next day my friend and I rigged up a 'cable' (really just a 200' piece of twine) that extended from my bedroom on the side of the house across the street to his bedroom which, coincidently was on the same side. The 'cable' was supported over the street by a telephone line. We figured out that if you tied the twine to a baseball you could throw it over the telephone line to get the twine over - that's how we got it up there. We fashioned a little 'cable car' by cutting out of the bottom of a cardboard milk carton, and transferred notes (i.e. Secret Messages!) and I recall a plastic army man between our bedrooms using the 'cable car' and reeling it back and forth across the street so our parents wouldn't hear us talking after bedtime like they did with the walkie talkies. We probably sent the cable car back and forth maybe three or four times before it ended up getting caught up somehow on the telephone wire. The next day my dad rudely woke me up demanding to know "what the hell is THAT?" pointing to the cable car system we had rigged up. My protestations of ignorance were especially unconvincing as the twine was secured on one end by my window screen. Good times.
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Ironically, I got Junior a walkie talkie set when he was the same age. He was so unimpressed with the gift, that he never even took it out of the box! Guess Santa should have gotten him a smart phone instead. Santa had a nasty tendency to judge what was 'fun' based on what happened to be fun for a free range kid in the 1970s, I suppose.
 
I really doubt the current administration will ban dual citizenship. Though I am American first and foremost (born in California, grew up in California), having a second passport in my pocket comes in handy sometimes. (eh.)
 
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