What significant things have I done today?

[Bruder Cuzzen]

I finally went into the wine making establishment down the street and now I have five gallons of merlot and five gallons of something else ( I forgot what is was ) happily fermenting away .
I intend to give some out when they are done .
There are a few members that are a quick subway ride to my place , if ye be in my neighborhood in a months time , come on over a grab a bottle of each .

[Pachyderm]

Cleaned the bathroom

[Earthling]

I finally went into the wine making establishment down the street and now I have five gallons of merlot and five gallons of something else ( I forgot what is was ) happily fermenting away .

You are gonna LOVE that wine. We've been making wine that way for a year plus now, and have never been disappointed. Every batch has been delicious, inexpensive, and at least 17% alcohol, with a couple coming in well over 20%. No hangovers, either - I think it's because some kind of goop they put in at the big wineries gets left out. We've made merlot, barolo, chianti, cabernet/merlot, chocolate port (yum!), and a bunch of other stuff. Sooooooo goooood......

[Bruder Cuzzen]

CHOCOLATE PORT !?

Hmmmm I have a nefyu that will salivate at the sound of that .
What does it taste like ?
Could you describe the flavor of  it for me (are you about to say  " It tastes like chocolate and port " ) ?
Not too sweet is it ?

I just finished painting my house mate's room , well sort of , I ran out of paint and  it was a mixture of six different partial cans .
I seriously doubt I will finish all the projects I started this year , I loaned out a bit of cash ( that wasn't even mine ) to family and friends to bail them out of the messes they got themselves into .
They agreed to give me token amount in return as compensation but it appears doubtful that they will honour the agreements .
One is  already a month past our agreed upon date in returning $90,000 and the other group looks like they are going to leave me holding the bag on $22,500 .
I've been keeping up the payments for a year on the former and two years on the latter loan , at the moment I'm flying on one defeathered wing and I wonder how long I can keep  my head above water .
I do not doubt that they will pay me back , but I set my agenda upon them behaving as I would , that is , a deal is a deal and I'd do what I must to honor my word even if I had to sell my house .
It's galling me to hear them speak about the many vacations they took , and all the fun they had going to this or that place , of all the great restaurants they just went to , or the latest high tech toys they bought .
They don't even offer to lend a hand with all I must do here so I needn't live in such squalid conditions !


It is a shame they would do this to me , I do hope they realize never to ask me again to lend them a hand next time they are desperate .
This experience has been quite rough on my stress levels and I don't believe I could go through this again * sigh * .

[Earthling]

In the interest of accurate reporting, we've just opened a bottle. (It's OK, it's 2:39 in the PM, and the only activities on the list for the remainder of the day are cleaning the bathroom sink and perhaps changing some of the cardboard under the litterboxes.)
The wine has a strong chocolate flavor, but not a sweet chocolate - more like a dark chocolate. There is a lingering wine flavor, though I'm not sure lingering is the right term. After all, I'm not really a coniss commons concier I don't really know a whole lot about wines, except the drinking part. Boy is this stuff yummy. I think its flavor is enhanced by the high alcohol content - it's practically a brandy. I think the alcohol content came out around 24% in this batch if I remember correctly.

My significant accomplishment today: I rotorootered the shower drain. Yuck, but it runs smoothly now.

[Griffin NoName]

Installed my new wireless router modem. It's only been waiting to be installed for about 15 months.

Now I can try to install the piece of kit that came with it - although it is not clear that it would not have worked with my old existing modem but the instruction book was very fierce about it. Fierce instruction books are frightening; probably that is why most people don't read them.

In the process, I dismantled acres of cable that had generated under my desk for things I mainly no longer use.

I also now have a surfeit of modems and routers; I could possibly start a shop.

I am also now exhausted as it all involved lots of crawling.

[Pachyderm]

Just the usual. Saving the animals...

[Opsa]

BC and Earthling: is there a particular brand of winemaking equipment/ mixture you buy? That sounds like fun.

BC: Sorry to hear that your generosity has been abused. For the record, I think you were very nice to have tried to help. Too bad that they have not risen to your level of kindness by paying you back before enjoying themselves.

I don't know how significant this is, but I have been helping with our town  planning committee working on a celebration next month. I've been in charge of the arts and crafts fair, and it has been interesting trying to keep up with the details of the show, finding the vendors, creating application forms, parking passes, the mapping, insurance challenges, etc. It's all volunteer, but the money for vendor spaces goes to our local historical society to help run their library, so I feel good about it. (Still, I'll be glad when it's over- it takes a lot of time!)

[Aggie]

I loaned out a bit of cash ( that wasn't even mine ) to family and friends to bail them out of the messes they got themselves into .
They agreed to give me token amount in return as compensation but it appears doubtful that they will honour the agreements .
One is  already a month past our agreed upon date in returning $90,000 and the other group looks like they are going to leave me holding the bag on $22,500 .
I've been keeping up the payments for a year on the former and two years on the latter loan , at the moment I'm flying on one defeathered wing and I wonder how long I can keep  my head above water .
I do not doubt that they will pay me back , but I set my agenda upon them behaving as I would , that is , a deal is a deal and I'd do what I must to honor my word even if I had to sell my house .
It's galling me to hear them speak about the many vacations they took , and all the fun they had going to this or that place , of all the great restaurants they just went to , or the latest high tech toys they bought .
They don't even offer to lend a hand with all I must do here so I needn't live in such squalid conditions !


It is a shame they would do this to me , I do hope they realize never to ask me again to lend them a hand next time they are desperate .
This experience has been quite rough on my stress levels and I don't believe I could go through this again * sigh * .

Bah, that's hideously shameful - how can they be in personal debt and spend money on non-essentials?  I can barely bring myself to spend on luxuries when I have cash in the bank.

I hope they are aware that you're paying loans on these amounts; is it possible to at least prompt them to keep up with the interest payments monthly? Which may remind them that it's not FREE money, and that it keeps costing you! (and maybe motivate them to pay back some of it).  I've been burned by (certain) friends on small loans enough that I would personally never be able to lend out that kind of money unless said person had repaid me quickly and painlessly in the past for reasonable amounts, but I think you are a kinder person that I am, BC.

Maybe we could send a pirate goon squad to repossess some of the high-tech goodies.  Vacations might be tough, and I'm not sure you want what's left of the meals back.

[Earthling]

Just the usual. Saving the animals...

So today the missus went to get her oil changed, and had them do her air filter at the same time. Inside the old filter, they found two juvenile mice. Said mice (I have not yet been home to meet them) now reside in the terrarium that has been home to two previous mice. Cable TV for the cats. Saving the animals, as usual....

Opsa, I think we have used three or four different brands of winemaking kits. Vino del Vida is one that we have tried several different styles from - we go through Patty and John at Kennebec Home Brew in Farmington. They have loads of kits to choose from, and are two of the nicest, fun-est people I know. We have never been disappointed in a wine we have made, not even a little bit. I don't think it makes any difference what brand you choose, as long as you follow the directions and pay attention to what the wine is doing you can't go wrong. Patty and John always let us use their equipment - buckets, vents, siphon, etc. - we just supply the bottles and buy the corks. And do the drinking part, that's very important.

BC, I can't imagine being left holding the bag on that kind of $. I hope you are not put in a compromising position regarding your own day to day finances. That would be bad enough if it was due to your own poor habits, but if it happens as a result of family irresponsibility it's completely intolerable. I hope no burning bridges come from it, and your funds are restored promptly. I wish I could help.

[Darlica]

BC Those family members needs a good kick in the a**!

Do you have any papers that verifies that you did lend them the money?  If you have, you can go to court with it I think. You should not suffer because you where nice enough to try to help them when they where in trouble.


They need to pay those money back to you and if they can afford hi-tech toys and vacations they can sure start to pay you back on a monthly basis!

[nefyuBB]

heer unkl Bc
i wull len ya sum big buttins ! 

[Pachyderm]

Got a permanent contract! Continued employment! Huzzah!

[nefyuBB]

an i has sum noice pebbulls
ellybuddy kin has sum
thar is moor in me shup !
i has ta git dem owt cos etz ta heavey an sunkd et
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Darlica]

Got a permanent contract! Continued employment! Huzzah!

Congratulations!