What is making you happy right now

Got woken up this morning by a phone call from the builders.

As a background as its a new house we get everything newly installed obviously, but much of it is basic as standard. So we get a new white oven and hob, we'd prefer a stainless steel one. Had the option of going for the stainless steel one as an "upgrade" but the upgrade cost was £600. :eek: Which would need paying up-front rather than being part of the mortgage, given we already have enough to be buying new we decided to stick with the default oven and upgrade later (a new one costs £600 from the shops too). We were going to pay for the upgrade and had told our contact in the builders a while ago, but then at the last minute when we had to commit (and pay) decided not to.

This morning's call from our contact in the builders started with her asking to confirm that we had 'ordered' the white oven and hob? Then she said that they had the wrong oven and hob delivered to them for us, they'd accidentally had the stainless steel one delivered to them instead. So would we mind a free upgrade? :D £600 upgrade given to us for free today because they've ordered what we wanted rather than what we could afford :D :eek:

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Went into town later and we bought our sofa suite. There's so much to get right now, kitting out an entire house in one go is not going to be easy. They said it'd take 6 weeks for them to make and deliver the sofa suite anyway so since we move in 3 weeks no reason not to order it now. Is really funky. Bought it from a national brand, DFS, that is always advertising on TV & radio. I've always laughed at the brand, mainly because their adverts are so OTT, but we've been 'shopping around' for months now. Saw this particular suite 3 months ago and we loved it, not seen another to top it since. Today went to a retail park that had 5 furniture brands in it, finishing in DFS last we saw the sofa we liked last time again and coincidentally the same salesperson who was quite warm and chatted with us a few months ago remembered us. We got our sofa suite ordered, she's got her commission :).

I've never bought anything on credit before, besides credit cards which I pay off in full, I hate the idea of paying interest. But with so many big purchases (we own no furniture basically) this is the first of two to be bought hopefully on interest free credit. Start paying in 12 months time, then repay it over 3 years, interest free. The bedroom furniture set should be the other really big bill and most companies seem to be offering interest-free credit on them too. Another advantage of the recession it seems :)

Haha..

I'm looking for a new sofa (or possibly a suitably funky used sofa - I'm a huge fan of eclectic furnishings). I'll be buying cheap, regardless - I grew up in a house filled with priceless antiques and I swore I would never force that on my kids. Much better not to have to "mind the furniture" (that's not a license to simply trash the house, you understand).

Meanwhile, I'm loving having double the space I did before, even though I'm nowhere near organized and together (or unpacked) yet.

What I came to post, though, was the contents of my produce basket:

eggplant
mango
onions
apples
plums
bananas
tomatoes
lettuce (romaine)
spinach
carrots
celery
sweet potatoes
zucchini

I think that's it. The carrots made me giggle, considering I voiced my dislike for them earlier today - but they'll be eaten by the midgets, anyway.

The eggplant made my day, I was considering going to the supermarket to buy one to make ratatouille.

Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun (Rand)--Christmas in September! :D Now we've seen your new car, later you can put pics of the new house and furniture!

lolli, you moved? I musta missed that one....

Yeah, last week. I didn't make some huge announcement about it or anything.

The opportunity to get my kids out of my rapidly degrading old neighborhood immediately (instead of having to wait for the house to be sold) presented itself, and I grabbed it.

And let me tell you, if I had realized how much better their new school was than the old one (and the old one wasn't a bad school, by any means) I would have had them in it ages ago.

:up: Schools were the top priority for where we lived, once we had kids. BTW it's making me happy the youngest started HS today. Freshmen had an "orientation day" yesterday with their mentors. So far so good. :D

Happy for you and your kids Lolli :). Do you have any piccies of your new place Lolli? Sure it'll be much bigger than mine :). Though schools were not remotely on our list of concerns. ;)

Been taking photo's for months Gee, not put any here yet. Amanda's got a huge Facebook album of each step of the way ;) - I'm just uploading a few now to post in the piccy thread. :)

I knew the current school was considered the best elementary school in the county, but the old one was quite favorably considered, too.

I realize part of my impression of the new school comes from the kids absolutely brilliant placement. My son's 3rd grade special ed teacher took the time during her summer break to help make sure he was placed appropriately - and since her son is one of my daughter's friends and she knows her she also mentioned exactly what she needed in a teacher, too. The principal of the new school actually understands Asperger's, and had a couple of conversations with me about him - and then called me to ask me exactly what she needs.

What has surprised me, though, is the availability of after school activities. Yes, I'm having to pay for some of them, but it is well worth it. My son is in chess club, and my daughter is in a fine arts class. She also auditioned for the choir (she actually has a decent voice, although I am reasonably sure that the chorus is open for everyone). She's made lots of friends already, he hasn't, but he says the kids are nice enough and he might like them, and that his teacher is really great.

A painting she brought home - I'm really looking forward to the one she was working on last week, it looks great (and will match the way I am decorating in here).

(will be back in a minute, noticed her full name was quite visible)

Also, haven't really taken interior pictures yet, other than the ones I posted somewhere here of the bedroom paint-jobs, but here's the outside:

Oooh niiice :)

In an hour or two I'm leaving for the last summer music festival :) two days of listening to good bands, drinking, camping, partying, and having fun! :D

Nice house by the way!

The Wall Street Journal just announced that Duke Nukem Forever has a release schedule.


After 10 years of winning vaporware contests, the end is in sight!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlelolligagged

Also, haven't really taken interior pictures yet, other than the ones I posted somewhere here of the bedroom paint-jobs, but here's the outside:

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Ouch!

Nice goddamn house lolllsi!

Always envious of how much bigger you peeps over the pond can have your houses.

To have a house like that over here you need to be a multi-millionnaire.

There are advantages to smaller, too. Less to clean, anyway. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Timbuk2

Ouch!

Nice goddamn house lolllsi!

Always envious of how much bigger you peeps over the pond can have your houses.

To have a house like that over here you need to be a multi-millionnaire.

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Do not envy the American. They lead lives filled with deceit, worthlessness and platitudes. They have forsaken the Nordic race, indeed they are a nation lead by a negro. They have vast empty spaces to fill with their insipid population, but no direction or reason beyond pure greed.

There is also space to breathe here, in the beautiful North, where the people are better and the land cleaner. The politics easier. How much longer though, I do not know. The barbarians are invading, their putrid filth on the streets here daily. They disgust me. Hopefully the Right will rise here as it has done in Western Europe, and we get serious about the questions of race, religion and nationality. This nation, these nations, were built by a people, and by a cause. These cannot be served by those with ebon skin, and lax morals. This is a lesson America never learned, and look at the pitiable state they are in now. As a society.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer

The Wall Street Journal just announced that Duke Nukem Forever has a release schedule.

After 10 years of winning vaporware contests, the end is in sight!

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If it wasn't for the fact that 3D Realms was out of the picture then I wouldn't believe it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RandBlade

If it wasn't for the fact that 3D Realms was out of the picture then I wouldn't believe it.

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At least we'll still have HL Episode 3.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Timbuk2

Always envious of how much bigger you peeps over the pond can have your houses.

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In Capitalist America, everything is bigger.

Just got home from the footy, my team won and are through to the semi final next Friday night. Happy :D

They were doing something to the water at the top of the street, and opened up a fire hydrant to get sediment out of the lines. My kids (and I) had a total blast playing in the water.

Gorgeous day today!!

Took K out back, laid a blanket down under our tree for her to lay down and look up. She was all smiles and talking/squealing at the tree! She's so cute. :heart:

aw, baby coos are so cute :) Finally getting some cooler air, tail winds from Earl must have blown the stagnant heat out of the valley, finally! :D

The Three Stooges at 5am Sunday, half tanked! :D :haha:

I really think The Three Stooges are mostly under-rated. Somehow they slipped under the radar of a whole generation or two. Could be too many choices in cable or something. Even boys who like dumb and dumber humor, fart jokes, or Mel Brooks movies, have often never seen Three Stooges (let alone four of them). This is a real shame. When I watch them now, I realize half their humor was adult innuendo that never clicked as a kid. They're really raunchy.

:D

Had a great big long lunch http://www.fremantlefishingboatharbour.com/ at Char Char Bull, perfect sunny day sitting out on the pier eating, drinking and taking in the sights. Wished it could have lasted longer, it was too good for words.

Ready for a lie down in front of the telly. :o

wagamama? So when did web sites stop using caps for London and Australia?

Stan the man won against Murray :)

At the same time as starting my new job I got my new iPhone4 - and with it a new contract. I was paying £35 a month for 600 minutes* with my last iPhone. In part because the iPhone4 would be a virtually free upgrade if I paid £45 a month and in part because I knew I'd be using more minutes I took the £45/mo 1200 minutes* contract.

Just got my first statement. Because it was proratered from when I switched contracts I was eligible for 1079 minutes over the past month - and I used 1024! Close thing indeed! Calls outside the plan cost 20p/minute so had I not upgraded the extra 424 minutes would have cost me £84.80 ... or my bill would have been £119.80 instead of just under £45 (proratered too), a difference of over £75!! May need to keep an eye on things to make sure I don't go over my 1200 minute limit now too.

* We don't have the absurd notion of paying for incoming calls so that's outgoing calls, incoming are of course and sensibly free - being paid for by the person who initiated the call.

EDIT: Just realised the iPhone4's Facetime calls don't come out of your minutes allowance (being similar to Skype they're actually transferred from the phone to wi-fi so are essentially free since we have unlimited internet on wifi), since my girlfriend got hers at a similar time we've often been using that when we call each other, I'd have likely gone over my new higher allowance otherwise.

Ooops. My video didn't work on this one!

It rained sometime in the night! :) It's been sooo dry lately. There have been numerous prairie fires and one got into the timber north of town yesterday, so http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VKy69sE4VY&ob=av3e

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RandBlade

At the same time as starting my new job I got my new iPhone4 - and with it a new contract. I was paying £35 a month for 600 minutes* with my last iPhone. In part because the iPhone4 would be a virtually free upgrade if I paid £45 a month and in part because I knew I'd be using more minutes I took the £45/mo 1200 minutes* contract.

Just got my first statement. Because it was proratered from when I switched contracts I was eligible for 1079 minutes over the past month - and I used 1024! Close thing indeed! Calls outside the plan cost 20p/minute so had I not upgraded the extra 424 minutes would have cost me £84.80 ... or my bill would have been £119.80 instead of just under £45 (proratered too), a difference of over £75!! May need to keep an eye on things to make sure I don't go over my 1200 minute limit now too.

* We don't have the absurd notion of paying for incoming calls so that's outgoing calls, incoming are of course and sensibly free - being paid for by the person who initiated the call.

EDIT: Just realised the iPhone4's Facetime calls don't come out of your minutes allowance (being similar to Skype they're actually transferred from the phone to wi-fi so are essentially free since we have unlimited internet on wifi), since my girlfriend got hers at a similar time we've often been using that when we call each other, I'd have likely gone over my new higher allowance otherwise.

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That's really weird. I've got two contracts: 15€ per month for a completely unlocked and not-carrier-branded Motorola Milestone for 2 years. And another 25€ for unlimited calls within Germany and to mobile numbers within the same carrier, 150 free SMS, and 200MiB per month at UMTS speed, slowed to GPRS if I go beyond that limit but no additional costs, calls to other mobile carriers cost 25cents if at home, 29 cents anywhere else.

So, I'm wondering: Why are your plans more expensive? ^^

So am I understanding this right? You're spending in total €50/month for your phone, unlimited landline calls within Germany are you? And unlimited calls to mobile numbers within the same network only, 150 SMS and 200Mb web (but unlimited GPRS)
I spend £45 (€53.70) for my phone, 1200 minutes a month to landlines or mobiles of any network (regardless of network/carrier), 500 texts and 750Mb web (again unlimited GPRS)

For me, calls to other networks are completely and 100% free of charge so long as they fall within my monthly allowance - given I virtually always do and would want to call other networks, my plan is probably cheaper actually. 23.9p extra for extra minutes again regardless of network.

Err, those sound very similar actually, just a different set of priorities. 200Mb would be nothing to me - or any iPhone owner probably. I could have chosen a different contract with different priorities had I wanted to.