It's a Family Affair!

Dulcius_ex_asperis

My grandma's pretty awesome. When I was younger she would basically pick up on guys for me.

Now that I type that it sounds really creepy. It's not. She's awesome.

Actually several of my friends thinks she's hot. Is 23-70 too big of an age gap, or should I hook him up?

NotASenator

Lost Salient wrote: »

The lamp works really well! It's from a 75mm. It's interesting because it's got an AEF stamp on it, but generally shells weren't stamped like that at all, so it was a flourish added during/after to make it an attractive souvenir for soldiers on their way home.

Also NaS, I would give a kidney - not mine, but one from someone I was fond of - for that sort of aplomb. I stress out about things like that, for really no reason at all.

Look at it this way, I've already married his niece, he can't really affect that, so basically the worst he can do is not give me a job or run over me in a car, but really he's just like anyone else in that regard.

Usagi

Lost Salient wrote: »

Look on the bright side, TBH, after you move out you can spend seven glorious years living independently! ...and then move back in with your parents halfway across the world to save up money for grad school. D:

It's so interesting to me how different some of you folks' upbringings have been from mine. As a kid I lived all over the continental U.S. (and had one brief foray into Quebec), but by and large I grew up as a suburbanite with little to no knowledge of practical life in a rural setting. Neither of my parents consider camping, farming, hunting, or anything vaguely wilderness-related to be a reasonable pastime, barring road trips through national parks; my dad grew up on the south side of Chicago, terrorizing the neighborhood and building/dismantling cars, and my mom mainly grew up in Lake Forest and Winnetka, two Chicago suburbs.

The next generation back came from... three other areas of Chicago! And the generation before that came from slightly further away places around Chicago. Although around that time you start getting the renegades, like my grandpa, who was from Youngstown, Ohio, and moved to Chicago because 1) he met my grandmother in a canteen during the war and pestered her into a date, and 2) he got into "the best fist fight of his life" at a White Sox game when the war was over.

Basically the flat "a" is built into my speech on a genetic level.

Highest of fives for genetic "eh"

Let's go drink Faygo and play in the greatest lakes on earth

Sara Lynn

ASimPerson wrote: »

Janson wrote: »

So I'm being forced to take three vacation days over Christmas (and I only get 10 a year anyhow) so thinking I may go back to the UK then

I'd miss my first wedding anniversary and my first Christmas as a married person but then again if I don't go now I won't have enough vacation accrued to visit for a whole other year

Downside is that to get a cheap flight (i.e. half the cost of most flights) I'd have to arrive on Christmas Day and return on New Year's Day but oh well guess that's what I get for being 6,000 miles apart from family

e-mailing my dad and hoping he'll split the cost with me

Dude, 10 days is pretty low, even by American standards. You should ask about that!

Wait, people get vacations?

Butters

My family on my dad's side has tripled in size with both my dad and his older brother remarrying in the last 5 years.

Jigrah

My dad is a terrible gift giver, absolutely terrible. He found a pack of playing cards that had a Pokemon theme, held onto it and gave it to me for good grades, this was my junior year in high school when it was quite clear I had nothing to do with Pokemon anymore.

I think it was my senior year he gave me a really cool knife set (assorted pocket knives, they were cheap but functional) as a reward for something I did well. One of the knives though was missing, and he was saying how oh it probably didn't come with it. Months later I see him using the knife that was supposed to be missing. I am pretty confident in thinking he saw the knife set, saw the knife he liked and was like Hmm, I know how to get rid of the others.

One year my dad didn't have a Girlfriend so he did all the Christmas shopping. We didn't think this was a problem until my brother and I started getting the same items. My dad literally went to Sams, grabbed two of the most random things and put them in the cart. This was such a funny Christmas my brother and I are going to make it tradition, every couple of years we get duplicates of everything and just gift them all.

Butters

My dad buys very nice, thoughtful gifts that I have positively no use for.

Usagi

My dad has a habit of sending me NERF weaponry and LEGO kits for Christmas and my birthday

He's awesome

Muse Among Men

My family only ever gets me clothes that don't fit. When will they learn!?

My mom doesn't like cooking, but she's so good at it. I have inherited none of her talent. My dad isn't that bad either. Just that he can only make desserts. Every time it rains he makes us sweet rice soup; it tastes like sunshine and rainbows.

tastypastry

My little sister is the coolest. She has the best sense of humor in the world.

Muse Among Men

My sister ruins jokes by explaining them after she has heard them. Every single time.

tastypastry

Muse Among Men wrote: »

My sister ruins jokes by explaining them after she has heard them. Every single time.

My sister's favorite joke: what's brown and sticky?

Spoiler:

a stick!

TheStig

tastypastry wrote: »

Muse Among Men wrote: »

My sister ruins jokes by explaining them after she has heard them. Every single time.

My sister's favorite joke: what's brown and sticky?

Spoiler:

a stick!

that depends on where the stick has been..

AMP'd

I also love that joke

What's brown and rhymes with Snoop?

Spoiler:

Dr. Dre!

tastypastry

AMP'd wrote: »

I also love that joke

What's brown and rhymes with Snoop?

Spoiler:

Dr. Dre!

she will love that! whoa, i think you are the same age as Em.

AMP'd

I need to stop being the same age as people's sisters

BRB, leaving the internet, living in a cave, staring at shadows on the wall

Usagi

AMP'd how old are you really?

tastypastry

I know. Maybe you got to school with her. Maybe she will be your prom date.

AMP'd

I am of an age that "maybe she will be your prom date" is a valid concern

celandine

Some economist argued that the best marriages are between cheap people and spendthrifts, so they can balance each other out. This is absolutely true with my folks. My mom's an expert penny-pincher, especially when it comes to clothes, and then my dad will surprise us all with reservations at a restaurant or fancy dresses. Goddamn that man is good at shopping for women -- better than I've ever been.

Lost Salient

Usagi wrote: »

AMP'd how old are you really?

57.

My brother is awesome, but I know I've said that in this thread already. He's also handsome and funny, is getting his degree in something useful (unlike his sister), and is learning how to cook and how to dance.

On the downside, he (like my parents) is not interested remotely in politics or activism, and he has a sad tendency to like crappy music.

Celandine, my dad dresses himself beautifully and can't shop for me or my mother to save his life. I'm pretty jealous here.

Mister Longbaugh

i'm pretty sure my grandma may have killed a few germans during the war. she always talks about how she had two german rifles, a luger, and a couple hand grenades under the floorboard of her house and how she suddenly decided one day to leave occupied france for sicily after the americans had liberated the island. before i just accepted that, yeah, okay, she was heavily armed because her country was occupied. but now i wonder how she got all that hardware in the first place. also she hates eating bread and potatoes because that's all she had to eat during the war.

celandine

Lost Salient wrote: »

Usagi wrote: »

AMP'd how old are you really?

57.

My brother is awesome, but I know I've said that in this thread already. He's also handsome and funny, is getting his degree in something useful (unlike his sister), and is learning how to cook and how to dance.

On the downside, he (like my parents) is not interested remotely in politics or activism, and he has a sad tendency to like crappy music.

Celandine, my dad dresses himself beautifully and can't shop for me or my mother to save his life. I'm pretty jealous here.

Yeah, we're kind of lucky. I think he got it from being a ladies' man in his youth.

I get irritated at my sister because she doesn't read the newspaper. I get it, not everybody has strong political views, but you're not going to read the goddamn news? I asked her "So what do you talk about with your friends?" She just laughed and said that not everybody is a nerd like me.

celandine

Mister Longbaugh wrote: »

i'm pretty sure my grandma may have killed a few germans during the war. she always talks about how she had two german rifles, a luger, and a couple hand grenades under the floorboard of her house and how she suddenly decided one day to leave occupied france for sicily after the americans had liberated the island. before i just accepted that, yeah, okay, she was heavily armed because her country was occupied. but now i wonder how she got all that hardware in the first place. also she hates eating bread and potatoes because that's all she had to eat during the war.

Wow, that's awesome.
My grandfather died before I was born, but he was in the Resistance and blew up quite a few Nazis.

AMP'd

My grandfather survived the Holocaust

I am sad that I never got to meet him

VisionOfClarity

My family lived outside of Munich and when Hitler showed up they had some rich NY relatives who could vouch for them bring them over before shit got bad. My Italian side left Sicily after WWI.

Added: My grandfather met my grandmother because he was the block air raid warden. He was doing a drill and my grandmom opened a window and told him to shut up because my great-great-grandmother was trying to sleep. And then my grandpa asked her out and then they got married and had my dad.

Mister Longbaugh

celandine wrote: »

Mister Longbaugh wrote: »

i'm pretty sure my grandma may have killed a few germans during the war. she always talks about how she had two german rifles, a luger, and a couple hand grenades under the floorboard of her house and how she suddenly decided one day to leave occupied france for sicily after the americans had liberated the island. before i just accepted that, yeah, okay, she was heavily armed because her country was occupied. but now i wonder how she got all that hardware in the first place. also she hates eating bread and potatoes because that's all she had to eat during the war.

Wow, that's awesome.
My grandfather died before I was born, but he was in the Resistance and blew up quite a few Nazis.

my grandfather, her husband, was a road builder in tunisia when the germans took the country and spent the entire war in hiding trying to come up with a plan to escape. when him and his friend put the plan into action they found a british soldier just strolling down the street who told them that the germans had been pushed out of africa months ago.

Mister Longbaugh

that was before they were married, though. after that he went home to sicily and i guess met my grandma, who was working for the graves registration department of the US Army

tastypastry

You guys just reminded me of a story of a couple separated after war for many years and then reunited. There are lots of stories like that but they get me every time.

exist

VisionOfClarity wrote: »

My family lived outside of Munich and when Hitler showed up they had some rich NY relatives who could vouch for them bring them over before shit got bad. My Italian side left Sicily after WWI.

Added: My grandfather met my grandmother because he was the block air raid warden. He was doing a drill and my grandmom opened a window and told him to shut up because my great-great-grandmother was trying to sleep. And then my grandpa asked her out and then they got married and had my dad.

things were simpler then

Usagi

tastypastry wrote: »

You guys just reminded me of a story of a couple separated after war for many years and then reunited. There are lots of stories like that but they get me every time.

oh my goodness

tastypastry

I love that they took each other's names.

Janson

Silmaril wrote: »

Janson wrote: »

Also $222 to renew my passport

Now that fucking sucks. How the hell is it so much? Can't all be postage?

Well there is only a ten day turn-around, so it's pretty fast

Janson

ASimPerson wrote: »

Janson wrote: »

So I'm being forced to take three vacation days over Christmas (and I only get 10 a year anyhow) so thinking I may go back to the UK then

I'd miss my first wedding anniversary and my first Christmas as a married person but then again if I don't go now I won't have enough vacation accrued to visit for a whole other year

Downside is that to get a cheap flight (i.e. half the cost of most flights) I'd have to arrive on Christmas Day and return on New Year's Day but oh well guess that's what I get for being 6,000 miles apart from family

e-mailing my dad and hoping he'll split the cost with me

Dude, 10 days is pretty low, even by American standards. You should ask about that!

It is a start-up; many of the managers haven't even taken their vacation at all since they started working

and I'm bottom-rung

Dulcius_ex_asperis

Janson wrote: »

ASimPerson wrote: »

Janson wrote: »

So I'm being forced to take three vacation days over Christmas (and I only get 10 a year anyhow) so thinking I may go back to the UK then

I'd miss my first wedding anniversary and my first Christmas as a married person but then again if I don't go now I won't have enough vacation accrued to visit for a whole other year

Downside is that to get a cheap flight (i.e. half the cost of most flights) I'd have to arrive on Christmas Day and return on New Year's Day but oh well guess that's what I get for being 6,000 miles apart from family

e-mailing my dad and hoping he'll split the cost with me

Dude, 10 days is pretty low, even by American standards. You should ask about that!

It is a start-up; many of the managers haven't even taken their vacation at all since they started working

and I'm bottom-rung

I'd say go, and make it up to husband when you get back :winky:

BusterK

I hope no one's posted this
But if someone has I don't really care
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpb2rlmqjsA

Blake T

Well Janson, theoretically you will have another three days saved up by say april (and you can always take an extra day off) and the money you will save by not travelling in peak would be a lot.

tastypastry

Blaket wrote: »

Well Janson, theoretically you will have another three days saved up by say april (and you can always take an extra day off) and the money you will save by not travelling in peak would be a lot.

Maybe the days don't roll over. Our aunt loses her time off if she doesn't take it that year.

ASimPerson

tastypastry wrote: »

Blaket wrote: »

Well Janson, theoretically you will have another three days saved up by say april (and you can always take an extra day off) and the money you will save by not travelling in peak would be a lot.

Maybe the days don't roll over. Our aunt loses her time off if she doesn't take it that year.

That would really suck, and I'm not sure how that would work... at least where I work PTO represents money the company owes you, so you just can't lose it.

Though I should note we only get PTO, so there's no separate sick days, sabbaticals, etc.

Janson

Blaket wrote: »

Well Janson, theoretically you will have another three days saved up by say april (and you can always take an extra day off) and the money you will save by not travelling in peak would be a lot.

You're correct in that I would have another three days saved up by April, but only three days; however in December I have the 24th, 25th and 31st off anyway. So I can visit my family for eight days instead of just five (assuming three days + weekend).

And if I travel on the 24th and the 1st the ticket is about the same as I usually pay off-peak anyway, hurrah for unpopular travel days.

Plus, Christmas is a great time to visit because all my family is in one place. If I visit at another time of the year I won't get to see half my siblings.

So it looks like I am going! I'm having to work very hard, though, to assure Mori's parents that yes, I still like them, and no, I have not grown tired of California. His mother actually said 'we thought maybe you've begun to hate us'. She's far too paranoid!