What did you do today? 2017 version

[38Chevy454]

Been a busy past four days for me, the weather is pretty decent 60-70's so time to get busy with projects.

Thurs: installed new P/S pump and flushed P/S system in my F-250 diesel pickup; rotated and checked balance (have an old bubble balancer) for my beater Ranger tires which had a slight vibration; helped DW with general yard and house cleaning.
Fri: Climbed on motorhome roof and fixed satellite dish with a dent in the cover preventing required motion; installed new power step controller and fixed a wiring issue related to the steps; helped DW do some transplants and new plant planting.
Sat: disconnected rear blade (not needed anymore for snow removal) and hooked up bush hog mower to tractor and then mowed front part of property about 1/2 acre; used string trimmer to do a lot around areas tractor won't fit; changed motorhome generator oil and filter.
Sun: went to church and grocery store; mowed front and back lawn around the house with std lawnmower; finished up taxes and e-filed.

Phew, I almost need to go back to work to recover! Have one more day before that, Mon should be a little less working. Just need to run some errands in town and mail those pesky tax checks since I owe for 2016. Actually not surprised, seems every year I end up paying.

 

[rodi]

Spent the afternoon at my stepmom's 90'th birthday party. It was quite an eclectic group - she's had 3 husbands (my dad was #3 so I was middle aged when she entered my life.). Her kids (all from husband #1) were there, and their kids, and their grandkids... The grandaughter of husband #2 was there with her son (who hangs with my younger son when they're in town). And my sister, BIL, and my family represented the 3rd contingent. Fortunately, we all get along. 40 of us altogether.

Nice lunch on the patio outside the dining room of her assisted/independent living community. The kids all disappeared to the pool adjacent as soon as food was over. Temps were warm enough that it was very pleasant both on the patio and in the pool.

4 hours later, I'm full, tired, but had a great time.

 

[Just_Steve]

Spent the afternoon at my stepmom's 90'th birthday party. It was quite an eclectic group - she's had 3 husbands (my dad was #3 so I was middle aged when she entered my life.). Her kids (all from husband #1) were there, and their kids, and their grandkids... The grandaughter of husband #2 was there with her son (who hangs with my younger son when they're in town). And my sister, BIL, and my family represented the 3rd contingent. Fortunately, we all get along. 40 of us altogether.

Nice lunch on the patio outside the dining room of her assisted/independent living community. The kids all disappeared to the pool adjacent as soon as food was over. Temps were warm enough that it was very pleasant both on the patio and in the pool.

4 hours later, I'm full, tired, but had a great time.

Truly the meaning of extended family.

 

[brewer12345]

Spent the morning doing a minor construction project in the backyard and cleaning the quail coop. Mad a run to Tractor Supply after lunch and then had dinner a my sister and BIL's house.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We went into the city to see the American Conservatory Theater's production of the play Needles and Opium. The whole play takes place in a big rotating and transforming cube over the stage that becomes all different kinds of sets through the use of trap doors, fold out furniture, holographics and actors (on wires) floating in and out and balancing on the moving set. I really enjoyed the play. The set was quite memorable.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

While making dinner Thursday night, I was using a mandoline to slice sweet potatoes. Got distracted.. and, cut a big chunk off the side of my right hand thumb...

Made a helluva mess. Wrapped it up and went to lie down. After a few hours the bleeding stopped and I think I had lost about a half a pint of blood. Not a lot of fun. So, been taking it easy the last couple of days.. lol

Moral of the story. Mandolines are dangerous and should be outlawed..
Ohh. The sweet potatoes were good though..

I hope your thumb is better. I have a friend who ended up in ER from a veggie peeler, so that prompted me to buy the metal, mesh safety gloves form Amazon to use with my mandoline.

 

[MichaelB]

Well, I just had a blast from the past. Some friends just returned from Venezuela and brought back a few things for the expats. They gave me a can of Underwood deviled ham, which I just had for lunch with some cheese and an arepa. When we first moved to Venezuela we lived on bread, cheese and deviled ham for about a month, while we looked for work. I still remember my first payday, 'cause the first thing we did was go get some Italian takeout.

 

[braumeister]

a can of Underwood deviled ham

Don't you have that where you live? It's in every supermarket here.

It was a major part of my diet in college.

 

[MichaelB]

Don't you have that where you live? It's in every supermarket here.

It was a major part of my diet in college.

My college diet was mostly peanut butter, cheese and eggs. Pure health.

First time eating "Diablitos Underwood" since back then. The taste is different, and it's not make by the same company. I'm sure your experience is like ours, around the world many global branded food products are made to local taste, with different ingredients. My BiL is a food scientist and worked in that industry and said many packaged food products have a core recipe but add local seasonings.

 

[braumeister]

Thanks, that's very interesting; I had no idea.

From a customer comment on Amazon:

It is more spicy than the product made in Venezuela.. And the flavor in Venezuela is much better.

 

[Walt34]

Went for a two-mile walk. That's it.

 

[Fedup]

I spent this morning work out a tax spreadsheet of diiferent conversion amount from traditional IRA to Roth IRA. It's something I've been meaning to do after my current tax year. It's good to see the big picture. How much I will have to pay vs how much of the lump sum I will get. This amount will be tax free forever.

 

[iloveyoga]

Today I recovered from a very busy weekend. We celebrated my Dad's 80th birthday, all six kids and my parents spent a lot of great time together this weekend. I also went bowling with some of my old work friends. It is great to stay in touch with them and keep up on some of the office gossip.

 

[Moemg]

We needed some electric work done so we got an estimate from one company for $3700. Today we had another company do the work for $392 . Rip off much !

 

[Music Lover]

I just finished hosting the annual hockey playoff draft with the gang...it started at w*rk 35 years ago and I joined it about 6 years later to replace someone who moved. 7 of the 10 people in the draft have been in it for 20 or more years and 1 original member still remains. Half of us are retired and the other half have 5 or less years to go.

I fired up the barbeque and we had a couple beers, cracked jokes, and did the usual trash talk and reminiscing.

 

[brewer12345]

My left knee is banged up, so I tried to stay off my feet. Painted yesterday's construction and mooched around the house. Got tired of waiting for DW to be done in her office so I could use the printer to finalize and file taxes, so I went to look at elk rifles for the fall. I really liked the Browning, but it is significantly more expensive than the Tikka which was nice as well.


Lifted weights and made dinner. Maybe try taxes again tomorrow...

 

[traineeinvestor]

Presented the first annual report to faculty and other post-grads for my PhD. The fact that I had not done an undergrad degree in English was exposed (not surprising - I'm still playing catch up on a lot of the relevant theory) but the feedback was, on the whole, positive.

 

[MRG]

Went to the gym for the third time. First time was painful for 4 days. We both backed off a little. After lunch a nice two mile walk.

Today's $8.00 hot springs day for locals. Looks like an awesome sunny day. Spring break is over so it should be pretty private. Sounds like a great idea for sore muscles.

 

[Marita40]

We needed some electric work done so we got an estimate from one company for $3700. Today we had another company do the work for $392 . Rip off much !

I'll say!! I'm currently getting estimates on some landscaping and they are varying widely. Sure pays to get a handful of estimates.

Today we had a lovely blanket of snow in the morning, but it should be melted by this afternoon.

 

[moneyviking]

I just cut a check for $45k and paid of the last of my wife's student loans.

 

[MichaelB]

I just cut a check for $45k and paid of the last of my wife's student loans.

Bet that felt good. Congratulations.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Bet that felt good. Congratulations.

+1!

 

[iloveyoga]

After posting in this thread I decided I do a lot of the same things daily . No alarm, have coffee, walk outside, do family and friend stuff. So I am going to try posting when I do something new or different.

 

[braumeister]

I've never cooked a full packer brisket until today -- just thought it was kind of intimidating. But the other day I was wandering around Costco and saw a USDA Prime packer at 13.5 pounds that just called out my name.

It went on the Big Green Egg half an hour ago so it will do its thing overnight and be lunch tomorrow. Looking forward to some serious beef. Should be at least eight pounds of cooked brisket so that will last a while. Next door neighbor saw me putting it on the Egg and made lots of nice noises so they'll get a nice chunk.

I've watched Aaron Franklin's videos several times and I'm doing things as much as possible along his lines.

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, I saw the Costco prime brisket at $2.99/lb, but could not buy as I would not know how to use that much.

A local BBQ place buys prime brisket, and turns it into $10/lb BBQ meat. And they require a minimum order of 10 lbs. With some work and know-how, one can get a lot of added-value by smoking at home. But, but, but that's still a lot of meat...