37 thoughts on “Saturday Open Thread”

  1. Preparing for a hurricane, apparently. Stop and shop was crazy…..totally sold out of the ultimate survival tool…..D batteries!

    Also prepping for Halloween. DS wants to beard Who, so as soon as he can get moving, we’re off to look for a bow tie!

    Sending hugs and positive vibes to all our MT families who are facing stressful health issues this week.

  2. Good luck to our northeastern MTers in dealing with the storm! I read yesterday that Richmond was the southernmost projected edge so my family in VA should be ok, but DH has family in NJ and NYC so they must be getting ready as well. We haven’t seen NJmom around in a while but I hope she will do ok too.

    • Well, this morning it looks like it may be more southerly. The Navy sent all ships in Norfolk out to sea, and that’s where my dad lives, 3 blocks from the water. Hmm.

      • My DH is on his way INTO the storm, lol. He was supposed to fly to NY/JFK on Monday but changed to tomorrow to make sure he gets there. The plan was to spend time in DC, Ohio, and Chicago (election-related stuff) but I think they’ll skip DC, if they can even get out of NY. Maybe they’ll drive.

        We were just contemplating him being in NYC without Internet if things get really bad. Lots of hyperventilating going on! Meanwhile, it’s plain gorgeous here today.

      • My family too. My son’s BFF is living alone on the Lower East Side and may be in the mandatory evacuation zone so I’m hoping we can get him to Times Square to ride out the storm with DH.

        I’m totally hands-on trying to get DH squared away since he was busy prepping to leave yesterday and couldn’t obsessively watch forecasts like me :-) I made sure DS got out yesterday to buy some shelf-stable food and bottled, get his laundry done and everything charged, etc. I’m sure the dining commons will be open but I’m not sure he’ll want to be out in hurricane-force winds to walk there. This will probably be one of those bonding things he and his dorm-mates will remember.

          • NY, near Kingston. I’ve heard a couple scare stories about storm surges 100 miles up the Hudson — which is where he is — but the likelihood of that seems low. The school has lots of trees, and they still have most of their leaves. The worst will probably be a power outage. I can’t imagine him surviving for long without Internet.

        • Oh and PS. I still remember hurricane Gloria 1985 and my college roomie and i braving the winds on the hills of Holy cross to get to the dining hall.. great memories of a drunken weekend with no classes!

        • Most likely it will be an awesome bonding experience. I remember going through a massive blizzard and several days of being iced in with no power in my first year of college. We had a great time. I’m sure our parents were frantic. :)

          Hope you can be calm and that he has the sense to let you know that he’s okay.

          • Yeah, I’m calm. They’ve lost power a couple times already where he is so it seems likely they’ll lose it again in the next couple of days.

            He went out and got his batteries and snacks. I am imagining a dorm full of horny 20 year olds in the dark without their electronics…. I’ve done everything but staple condoms to his forehead the past few years so I think he’s ready ;-)

  3. Good luck to anyone in the path of the frankenstorm! Make sure you have water, bread and wine.

    We finished up cross country season this morning with the regional meet. Now dd has four whole days off before swim season starts. Sigh.

    And thinking of mom of twins this morning as she goes to check on her parents. And music teacher on her journey tomorrow (tomorrow, right?)

  4. I’m oscillating between concern over Sandy, and loving all the “get out the vote” stories I’m reading from all the battleground states. I am still hella nervous about this election, but nothing gives me the warm and fuzzies than hearing about strong, motivated ground-game get-out-the-vote. Sweart to Jebus, there is nothing better than working on Election Day to get people to the polls.

  5. We had Clara’s 1st birthday, take 2 (Sans Vomit version). Just 5 adults and 1 kid (in addition to our family of 4), which was really nice. It was a lot more like just having friends over for brunch than a kids birthday party, given that we already had the cute giraffe cake last week. I was going to skip cake altogether, since it was brunch, but Lucy was pretty adamant about having it. Didn’t take much arm twisting, though. I made pumpkin spice cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream frosting. I wish there were more left!! Fruit salad, butterscotch rolls, and egg/sausage dish. So easy, because we could do it all Friday night (and I didn’t even stay up that late or get up very early). DH and I realized that we really do enjoy having people over and miss doing it more since kids (especially since kid #2). We need to make it more of a priority, and maybe we should abandon the idea of doing dinner and just do brunch instead. If we invite different people all the time, we can even have the same easy menu.

    Good day!

  6. We went out to dinner and Argo with friends. Argo was good! Definitely worth seeing. It was quite tense.

    I also saw a documentary this week called “Coast Modern” about modern architecture from Vancouver to LA. Lovely eye candy. Then I went home to my boring ranch house.

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