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mchookem

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by mchookem

  1. k i was moved to actually find some pics. these are mostly the last few years before we moved, but some are obviously older. i really got into hiking local parks during covid lol. i think this was a ksu game? not sure... but obviously we won 🤘 my backyard: my back: obviously: view out my office window last five years before i retired: shoal creek: Hoover's...before Mack lost the plot lol: and this is a 3-D printed map of Austin. friends got us one of Denver as a housewarming gift and i loved it so much i got one of Austin. they hang directly opposite each other in my dining room...
  2. haven't gotten through the whole thread yet, but wanted to say... i lived there for exactly 34 years (to the month). the vast majority of my life. i loved life there, i knew the city like the back of my hand, i never got sick of it, i had a front row seat watching it grow into a big, messy, crowded city around me and was still happy to live there, and i was very sad to leave it. if Austin wasn't in Texas, i would have stayed put forever. i tell everybody here that asks, "i broke up with Texas...but Austin is still my heart!" this thread almost made me cry lol 🧡🤘
  3. update... we're about 2 1/2 weeks out from departure, really getting excited now 😊, just working on final touches, reservations, etc. some changes...dad suddenly realized there's not much to see at the Eagle's Nest😑 which i had already tried to convince him of, and @rage-a-holic had confirmed, but he had it set in his head (until he didn't🙄)... but i'd figured out how to make it work and had adjusted our schedule/lodging...and this week he calls and is like 'nah, let's skip it, it's in the opposite direction we need to go anyway' which...DUH, I TOLD YOU THAT A MONTH AGO! lol anyway...so now instead of Berchtsgaden we're heading to Garmisch-Partenkirchen for a few days. unfortunately the cogwheel train/cable cars to Zugspitze are closed for spring maintenance, but scheduled to reopen our last day...but that actually gives us a plenty of time then to visit Neuschwanstein Castle/ Hohenschwangau Castle and/or Linderhoff Palace, which is awesome. it also knocks over an hour off our drivetime to Strasbourg, also awesome. and hopefully we'll be able to ride to the top the morning before we leave, assuming Germany keeps the 'trains running on time', which is probably a bad pun re: Germany haha regarding Rome, i think we are going to take a slower-paced day trip to the coast, probably Ostia as @texasdago suggested. i've been reading up and i guess you can get a good look at the Colosseum without having to go inside - lots of areas to actually look into it, overlook it, etc., there don't seem to be any big barriers surrounding it, and there's just SO MANY other ancient ruins, piazzas, etc...plenty to see! we definitely have the Vatican/Sistine Chapel tickets already, which was what i really didn't want to miss, so the rest we're just going to play by ear. it seems the tourist crowds are already NOLA/LV levels, so i think we'll just end up getting out of the city a bit. family hasn't decided if they are going to stay a second night with us in Paris or go on to Luxembourg...but i'm trying to encourage them to also just play it by ear and call an audible once we get to the apartment in Paris. we'll have been traveling for almost two weeks at that point, so i'm hoping my sister will be a bit more relaxed by the time we get there and will want to hang out a bit 😊 finally...i've been the crazy lady riding her bike around Denver talking to herself in French for a few weeks now 😆but it's been a good way to practice, i.e., imaginary 'realistic' conversations lol. took a test today, figured i was A1, maybe A2 at the most...damn if i'm not B1! 😀 i've actually been practicing 'thinking in French' which really helps it be more natural/fluid. i know it's not really going to be necessary in Paris as i imagine they'll get one dose of my Tex-french accent and start talking in english😋but we're going to be spending over a week traveling around the countryside and other places - Strasbourg, Normandie, Brittany - and it will come in handy there. the trick really is just being confident, i think it's okay to make slight gender or conjugation errors if you master the flow and accent (which in all seriousness, my accent is really pretty good). brushing up my language skills has actually been one of the more fun things in all this. i'll need to plan a trip to Montreal next 😄
  4. we're right at a month out from Paris! i'll be updating my thread shortly... man, your London pics are fantastic...and the food looks incredible, which is something i never thought i'd say about British food lol. looks like some different cuisines though. back to Paris...is it really horrible, or more just inconvenient, scaffolding, etc. around some big attractions (the tower, etc...Notre Dame i know is still undergoing repairs - i bet they are really trying to rush to finish before the start). made reservations at Lafayette's today, woohoo 😁
  5. i really like the part about her kids getting off the school bus right after
  6. i've decided it's quite possible that i might hate this motherfucker more than Trump. and i really, really, really hate Trump.
  7. i feel like you could see Bill Murray's fledgling legitimately good acting chops way back on SNL. i love 'staaar waaars, nothing but STAAAAR waaars' lol watching these vintage sketches, one thing that stands out is how good ALL of the cast was with not having to read cue cards. nowadays even the pros you can tell are pretty constantly looking offstage to read their lines. this one still cracks me up
  8. well...Denver area schools getting in on the action. 40 arrested today on Auraria campus (that's a combo campus of CU-Denver, Denver CC, and MSU Denver)
  9. i guess at least Thetexashammer's five rich friends can donate now 🤬
  10. gah. this makes me so fucking angry! pointless, impotent rage 😡
  11. i really fucking hate this 💔
  12. we had two small areas after we installed our pool that were troublesome, bc of too much shade, no grass would grow, would get muddy, etc. we also had dogs, mostly big, sometimes two at once... turf was a great alternative. poop picked up easily and yeah, we'd just hose it down, usually once a week. dogs tended to go in the same spot regardless lol. I don't know about how hot it gets, but for our purposes around a pool it was a great option, no regrets.
  13. so is Emma>Yorgos is gonna be like Leo/Deniro>Scorsese. or rather...Depp>Burton is closer lol.
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