oooh, paint colors! I always love blues personally. We have a super pale blue in the living room/main areas downstairs, and a kind of sea foam green in the dining room, with a dark green accent wall (like a teal-oceany green). Browns/tans/creams are good and you can do all kinds of accent colors that way. What colors do you wear a lot? For the dining room, what color are your dishes? And pick an accent color that works with any/all holiday decorating you might do in there (like, mine is pretty beachy, but my Christmas decor in there is also semi-beachy, so it works; if I went super traditional in there it wouldn't work). Choosing paint colors is the one fun part of moving for me.....

oh, man. Yes, moving is a huge pain. I really hope we don't have to do it again, ever.....(ha). One move I was pregnant, and there was some issue where the water couldn't get turned on until later, so we stayed in a motel for a weekend. Then the electric hand't been turned on as promised, so we had to wait a day. In Texas October, which is still summer (mostly). It was nuts. Then this last house purchase, they kept needing more and more and more documents......oof. I thought the paper chase would never end on that one. May you get a reasonable quote, be able to relax, and be able to destress.

That I do not know. I would blame the relative anonymity of social media, but this was actually a convo with people I "know" online, and have known online for years (decades?). So, that doesn't apply. IRL, I've only known one or two people who are this one-sided about things, and one of those only seems one-sided until you actually stop reacting to her in a defensive manner and start talking to her (I had to learn her method of conversation, but once I did, she's not nearly as one-sided as she seems). I think passionate topics bring out this sort of thing more than others, and likely those sorts of topics have always been this way. I think.

seems from the comment that yes, this person blames gov't interference for the current situation (both the fires and the electricity outages). Or rather, blames gov't mismanagement. And holds that is proof that the same mismanagement would further cripple our healthcare system. But I *really* did not post this convo to start discussing/debating either of those topics, at all. My mind was/is just boggled at the leaps in logic/reasoning taking place.

Yea, I really should know better..... Judging from the back & forth, I don't think the people involved will be open to a productive conversation, so.....:shrug: I'll chalk this one up to "agree to disagree"

yes! Someone else brought up the fires & electrical outages in CA as evidence the gov't should not be involved in health care.....???? :sigh: I bit my tongue/stilled my fingers on that one.......I think I'm going to turn off notifications for the post so I don't see any further replies, thus don't get sucked back in.

I made the mistake of chiming in on a FB thread about gov't health care. :sigh: It's devolved into a "Well, *my* friends experienced this, so clearly that refutes your experience of that....." I refuse to get dragged into a back & forth, back & forth, "my experience trumps your experience, so there" nonsense. I really am kicking myself for not stopping to think before posting....I should have realized it would end up there. :sigh: I simply stated, clearly & concisely, that both systems have their problems, and while xyz may not be the solution, you can't convince me there's not a problem. That is all. Yet people are still coming back (over and over), touting their experiences as supposed evidence that....what? that my experiences are invalid? That my opinion is invalid? That our system isn't broken? Because clearly whichever side can gather the most examples of their way being right, wins??? Somebody smack me, please......(and don't under any circumstances let me go back and keep replying, no matter how annoyed I get about it.....'kay???) Why do I let myself get dragged into these things????

They pretty well covered you up top. So sweet of you to do this! I'm sure he'll appreciate it.

praying for him.

I went to bed after, but Congrats, you guys! Y'all really played better than us this last game, and absolutely earned the win. Well done! What a crazy series this was!

It is on regular Fox TV station, not the special Fox Sports station. I don't know if they stream that one or not (I would check Fox dot com if you don't get regular network TV). But it's a normal network channel you should be able to watch.

ack! Yes, do come back.

Oh, you are right; that just changed in our state within the last few months, so I'd forgotten.

On the other hand, veering a little off topic, in some instances age of the kid(s) involved may come into play. Someone offering things to my minor children -- and said offer-er also being a minor -- definitely parental awareness is warranted. (Or also if the offer-er is 18+ but my kid is a minor). If it's being offered to my 18+ yr old, by another 18+ yr old.......and it's not illegal, just goes against my/our own personal morals......maybe I (probably) don't involve the parents, even if one/both kids still live at home.

Pretty much my first line is talk to the kid (if a close enough relationship), then the parent, and then (or instead, if it's a situation where I don't know the parents) the authority over whatever setting I see the kid. Example, if a kid at our co-op was doing something like this, I may or may not have any idea who the parents are, so I'd let the teachers &/or directors know and let them notify the parents. If I saw a kid in our neighborhood doing this, I'd talk with the kid & alert the parent (we actually had a discussion in our neighborhood FB group about stuff like this, and the overwhelming majority of parents are very much "it takes a village, if you see my kid doing something, talk to him, and to me" types). I'd also talk with my kid(s) about how to say no, who to alert if it persists/happens away from home, how to do so safely, etc.

feel free to change it up if you want, LOL!

That's a tough one, because normally, I'd say "talk to the parent" but in this case, the parent is aware and ignoring it, and that's part of the issue. Probably if I could figure out an anonymous way to report it, yes, I would. It's sticky, though.....what an uncomfortable situation.

Let me see what I can find... Here's one where several players are "auditioning" to be the ice cream spokesman for the H.E.B. brand of ice cream -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boJ_tQQCX2Y Here's one about their meat dept/products -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGFZe_tqSp8 And this is one from last year, with them tasting HEB brand specialty coffees -- https://www.facebook.com/HEB/videos/10156796414242439/?v=10156796414242439 There are tons with the various TX sports teams -- he uses the Texans in a bunch, as well as the Spurs (not sure the Rockets have been in any.....). They are cheesy, but great fun! (the random dude in the ice cream one and the dream one is the HEB guy).

Oh, Mattress Mack is a local legend, and truly fantastic guy, actually. He's been a staple of the Houston landscape for decades. (and, ummm, if the Nats win, he wins his bet.....). He does a lot for charity, for the community, and is deeply loved here. He made this same bet in 2017 (and lost, so refunded everyone their purchases from the time period), then again in 2018, and again now. ETA: Oh!! Ha! Just looked more closely at the article you linked......I didn't realize he's placing sports bets to cover the losses of his mattress promotion! Hilarious!

I read up on the Baby Shark thing after you guys mentioned it; the first time I saw Soto clap that way (game one? after a HR) it seemed SOOO braggy & rude. Then read the story and realized what it was. OH! How fun! LOL! DH loves Cabrera so much because he seems/looks so tough and all, and then he's one of the most visible in doing the Baby Shark claps at each instance. So hilarious! DH calls him "baby shark" even though I keep explaining it was Parra who started it. No worries on the comment about Bregman; he is a little braggy. But agreed on Altuve; we just love him. You guys are missing out on his humor, there's a local/regional grocery chain (HEB) that uses the players in their commercials. Hilarious to watch! Altuve is in a lot of them. We feel about Rendon how you feel about Verlander (Rendon is from here). And your pitcher did a phenomenal job (Strasburg? did I spell it right?) Man, that guy is good. Tonight's game is going to be so stressful. I repeat my toast -- may all the calls be fair.

Just came to say, we didn't have our orange sunset tonight, so you guys may get your wish/hopes today after all..... Either way, thank you for being a fun group of people to chat baseball with, and showing what good fans are like, and just being all around FUN to hang out with, even though I'm rooting for the "wrong" team. I must say, I can see why you all love the Nationals so much; I can see us cheering for them from now on, when they aren't playing against us (no matter which way this thing goes....). May all the calls be fair & accurate, may every player be at his best, and (sincerely) may the best team win. Whichever way tonight (and tomorrow, if it comes to that) goes.

Thank you for all of this! Makes sense that they're rotating guys in & out; DH really likes watching Cabrera, as he seems so devoted to the whole "baby shark" hand signals and stuff, no matter what hit he gets. We do like Rendon a lot (well, and he's from here so that helps), and DH has asked if we can plan our "one day" D.C. trip for the spring so we can go to a Nats game (but I guess soon, while Parra is still there, as his whole point is to be there for the Baby Shark craze that takes over the stands when he comes out......). Seems like such a fun team. Believe me, we're just as surprised at the turn in the Series (although of course, our side is happy). Well, our favorite weather guy has been predicting "Astros in 6" since it started, LOL! There was a rainbow ending at our ballpark the start of the Series (day before or something....) and he posted it claiming it was "proof" of the trophy coming our way, LOL! There was also an "Astros Orange" sunset the first night in D.C. and he of course posted that as further evidence we'd win that game,.....it's hilarious to watch his FB page. As far as how things started, a lot of the theory around here is that you guys had so much time off between sweeping St Louis and waiting on us (to rest), whereas we'd just finished w/NY right before.....no idea the validity of that or not, but that's of course the chatter here. Normally we are great at home, not so great away, so it was stunning to us to lose those 2 games, especially with Cole up and then Verlander....ooof, that game was awful for us/great for y'all. I do agree with the home plate calls.....there've been a *few* that seemed slanted in favor of the Nats, but definitely questionable on both sides. The flashers.....ugh. That was pretty ridiculous (luckily it was so fast we didn't see it when it happened, but of course it's making the rounds of the internet...). I'm glad the MLB organization came down hard on them. I hope tonight's game is a good game, either way; so much more fun (although nerve wracking) when it's more competitive/close of a game.

Can I ask the Nats fans an honest question, pretty please? Why aren't they playing Cabrera anymore?? We were genuinely liking watching him play. Can't find anything online about this, either....I noticed they didn't really use him yesterday, either......??? He seemed to be doing pretty good, I thought.......?

We are watching with much more excitement here.....😁

re: how he makes money, I would assume first, the YouTube channel. I'm sure he is sufficiently sponsored, advertisers, etc. and making money off that. He must be making enough to not only keep running it, paying the employees, etc, but earning a living. I also wonder if there are legal aspects that can get to him, because it moved out of CA where it was first held. Perhaps the laws there were stricter? He also mentioned accomplishing a lot via hypnotism, so I wonder how much of the stuff mentioned actually happens, or are suggestions planted? For ex, one of the articles quoted him saying he could put you in a kiddy pool with a few inches of water, tell you there was a great white shark, and you'd fully believe you were in a large tank with a great white. So I wonder how much of the "buried with spiders" type stuff is, actually, spiders. (I've not, and won't, watched the videos to check....). I also wonder if he works separately as a hypnotist to fund things....but I imagine he probably makes $$ from the ads, etc. on his youtube channel, website, etc.