Leg Pants.
I think the meme above was from when it was once again becoming more common to wear leggings out in public for no reason (see --> "are they yoga pants? are you doing yoga?") and it was not always appreciated! These days it is more accepted, but there is still the "leg pants" phenomena, where I wonder if a woman (or man I guess) knows that her pants are the exact same color as her legs. Sometimes I nearly have a heart attack as I pass or come up behind her, thinking she is walking around naked. People, perhaps get a shade a few shades darker or lighter than you? Or maybe you like seeing how many people you can get to do a double take.
As a kind of related side note, the other morning I was getting off the train and a lady was getting on the opposite train and I saw that she was wearing leg pants that really hugged her butt tightly and were the perfect color for her complexion. She had a nice fur coat on top and had her hair done up really fancy. Then I realized at the last minute that she was NOT wearing pants, or underwear and that was actually her butt I had been seeing. Good morning to you too!
Mean Dad.
Two weekends ago I went to A's soccer game. If you come to spectate, you must sit on the same side of the centerline that your kids are sitting on on the opposite side. We arrived a few seconds after the game had already started and so the only place to sit was basically just left of the centerline (by mere inches) meaning that we were sitting right next to the spectators from the other team. There was a girl on the opposite team who was playing on our side of the field and her Dad was sitting a couple of chairs down from us. He kept yelling at her, berating her, telling her all of the things that she wasn't doing etc. (these girls are around 13 by the way). The ironic thing was that he was pretty supportive of the other players, but very critical of his own daughter, who I thought was doing quite well.
As Broski and I were sitting there, we chatted about this cool camera that was sitting right on the centerline, filming the game. We even Googled it to find out how much it cost and surmised that one of the parents must really be into sports. My friend K (A's Mom) arrived around halftime and after she arrived, the mean Dad walked away and went to sit further down the field. I was telling her how this Dad was being so mean to his daughter and she was really doing well and K told me that the last time they played this team, the parents got into a huge fight because the parents of the other team were all being rude, mean and unsportsmanlike (i.e. telling their daughters to "take them out!" and encouraging them to hurt the other girls and things like that). Anyway, the game ended, our team won in the last three minutes (boo yeah!) and as we were packing up to go, we noticed mean Dad packing up the camera. We kind of shook our heads at ourselves, imagining him sitting at home with his poor daughter, making her relive everything she had done wrong in the game.
Later that week I was having dinner with K and the kids and she told me that she had received a video from a parent using that same camera for L's last game and as she had watched it, she had remembered how good the audio is on these cameras. They sit up off the field about 15 or 20 feet, but she could hear the parents chatting underneath the camera. I asked her what they do with these videos and she said that often the team will review them all together and they will talk about what needs to be improved. So basically, the team that A's team played is going to do the same thing. And if they do, they are going to get an earful about how I felt about mean Dad!! Oops. However, nothing I said was not true, AND they are also going to be able to hear him berating her, so perhaps he will take note. People, we are being watched and listened to no matter where we are! I guess the moral of the story is don't say anything that you wouldn't want a bunch of thirteen year old girls (and their mean Dads) hearing!
Expiration dates.
Last week Nicole touched on suggested expirations and I just want to say that I pretty much ignore most expiration dates. This may make me gross in some people's minds, but I am fairly sure that most of them are just a ploy to get you to buy more of their product. Now, I know that if they are old they can be less effective or not as tasty in the case of food, but I don't think I am going to die if I use a 2 year old mascara or eat an expired can of corn. I take them as a suggestion and if it is food, I definitely give it a good sniff before eating it. But I am going to use up that two year old bottle of Jergens and that Costco coconut oil even if it kills me.
Having said that, in the past year, I have bought new tires for both my car and Bertha (the road bike) and they are fabulous! I have been using the same tires on Bertha for about 10 years and I was starting to have trouble stopping due to the lack of tread. I even splurged for the fancy brand, and man are they nice. Same thing goes with the car; I have replaced a tire here and there but finally decided to get four new ones at the same time and I feel like a new woman. I also do replace the little things that I can fix myself, like my car cabin air filter (did you know you were supposed to do that? I just learned about it a few years ago), wipers and the engine air filter regularly.
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| Old girl, new tires |
Fall.
It is perpetual leaf raking season again. I think I have mentioned before that my seasons are based on the status of the maple tree in my front yard. September: clean the leaves out of the gutter season. October to December: leaf raking season. January to March: ankle breaking ball pick up season, also coincides with rainy season. April to June: spring break. July to August: removing branches from electrical wire season. I pretty much fill up the compost bin and/or the green trash bin with leaves each week and I still can't really keep up with all of the leaves on the ground. Usually at some point in December there is a huge wind and rain and it knocks many of the remaining leaves off the tree, but I would prefer that just happen early so I can rake them all and be done with it. It is supposed to rain this week so maybe this will be the week it happens? I doubt it, as the tree still has about 87% of its leaves left right now but one can hope.
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| Gutter cleaning season |
How was your weekend? Do parents use fancy cameras to film stuff at your kid's sports events? Do you follow the suggested expiration dates on your products and/or foods?
Eek. If I'm going to a kid's event where there's a lot of sitting and a lot of downtime, I need the freedom to say whatever I want to say without having to worry about it being recorded. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteI'm very loosey goosey with expiration dates. There was a time when I was having a moment with using baking soda for cleaning and then moved on to something else, so we had quite a stash of baking soda that expired in 2018. My husband teased me about it and I was just like "hey if you want to waste 50 cents to buy non-expired baking soda, go for it". I think we're on the last of those boxes.
I would definitely be using that baking soda, and maybe even for cooking, although I know it sometimes does lose some of its power. But if my cookies were still rising and nothing tasted funny, I would probably keep using it! However, I think as a cleaning supply it really could be used for another ten years or so.
DeleteThe cameras are everywhere! The last time I went skiing I noticed that it seems like everyone has a GoPro on their head now. You really have to watch what you say and do, not that I would do anything crazy, but I may say a curse word or two while accidentally skiing next to a camera!
My husband is very strict on expiration dates. Very. We even toss out old spices and there's nothing wrong with them, they're just less potent. But he's had some very bad experiences with food poisoning, so we don't take any chances on food.
ReplyDeleteI'm also pretty good about following expiration dates on makeup, especially eye makeup or anything I stick my finger into. Bacterial infections are a THING and I don't want one in my EYE. (I buy travel size mascaras because there's no way I'll finish an entire giant tube of mascara in six months.)
This is making me sound like a real rule follower. Hey, sometimes I let my dog offleash at a place that has a sign that specifically says NO DOGS.
Haha! I am actually a pretty strict rule follower, believe it or not! However, I don't use any makeup that I stick my finger into and I did not even know that travel sized mascara was a thing! I am going to get that next time I buy some, as I cannot use an entire tube either, which is why I am using expired mascara!
DeleteAs long as you pick up your dog poop; that is a rule I agree with and have actually had discussions with dog owners about. I saw a guy in Crissy field in San Francisco (beautiful location, right next to the GG bridge and the ocean) "pretend" to not see his dog poop, so I called to him and let him know about it and he WALKED AWAY!! I wanted to go over there and smack him.
I am NOT careful with expiration dates. If it smells okay, I will generally use it.
ReplyDeleteThat sporting story is awful. Thankfully neither of my kids are in highly competitive things so I've never seen things of this ilk, but of course I've heard lots of stories about it. Ugh. I rarely take videos of anything, but DID capture my daughter at volleyball. Wouldn't you know I missed her two greatest shots, but oh well. I meant to text them to my parents, but forgot. Oops.
My Dad used to run back and forth along the soccer pitch with a big 1980s camera when we were kids and maybe he got some good conversations of the sideline parents too; who knows! I guess it's inevitable no matter where you are, as people DO have cameras, but this one was a continuous one for the entire game, so you really have no chance. I mean, I can't behave myself the ENTIRE time! :)
DeleteThe leg colored pants are definitely a thing! I see that and it always takes me by surprise. LOL to the woman with NO PANTS. Hilarious. Much less hilarious is the awful father berating his kid. I hope he does hear you and takes a good look at himself. Jerk
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I don't know if you have any experience with the club soccer in the East Bay, but they are in the Mustang league and apparently it is quite competitive. It is almost like Greek to me with all of the different levels and leagues and ages and acronyms, as when I was a kid (a wee lassie) we only had HS soccer and we were not even very good! Re the leg pants, do the people do it on purpose, like, OH these are a perfect match, I love them, or is it completely on accident (in which case, do they not look in the mirror ever!?)
DeleteLeg-colored pants are a HORRIBLE idea! No. Way. I used to have some pink leggings that I wore as pajama pants and I got rid of them because they were still a bit too adjacent to flesh colored pants!
ReplyDeleteParents are sporting events can be AWFUL. We haven't been exposed to that yet luckily. Paul did soccer last summer but it was more of an instructional program so they did some 3-on-3 games but there were no really games played which was just right for him.
It's even worse when they are young as far as the parents bossing the kids around from the sidelines. Then as they get older, the parents get meaner but don't boss quite as often. However, when L was 6, I would go to the games and feel bad for the kids, as they must be confused with the coach yelling at them from one side and their parents yelling at them from the other, and it does not always jive!
DeleteA's coach from last year was also very critical, like he would say things like, Emma, are you blind? or whatnot and I felt so bad for poor Emma, as everyone could hear him being mean. He is not their coach this year, but it turns out that A actually liked him a lot, which surprised me! Maybe the kids are used to being yelled at?
When it comes to things like dairy or meat or eggs (essentially, things I never eat) I use the expiration date as gospel word. However, for everything else I'm pretty loose. Like, I just recently threw out a blusher that I use every day but somehow bought before my FIL died in 2016. I am not sure how it's lasted this long but I feel like even though there was some left in it, I had got my money's worth.
ReplyDeleteI agree, sometimes it is just time to do away with the old, for sure. I did milk one of my favorite mascaras for all it was worth though, as I could not find a replacement that worked quite the same. So in that case, it finally dried out and I threw it away. But dang, that was a good mascara.
DeleteI give dairy the sniff test, and I think the egg date is very conservative. I mean, we eat eggs from chickens that have been sitting outside and now all of a sudden they need to be refrigerated or they will go bad..? I think we can go past the expiration date on those. Also, I listened to a very interesting podcast about milk -- did you know that each state has a different term? It is not the same across the nation (I cannot speak for Canada). For example, I think Montana has to put the date as 12 days after pasteurization, whereas some states are 24. Also, this date is the "sell by" not the "use by" date, so technically it does not need to be thrown away on that date. Anyway, this is great fodder for your random grocery store conversations. Here is the podcast: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/15/1111850221/best-by-sell-by-use-by
Ugh, that man at the soccer field sounds like my dad. He was always so harsh on my brother when he played football. And he used to take us to play tennis - my brother and I just wanted to have fun and spend time with my dad, but my dad acted like he was training us to become the next Williams sister. (He even once told my brother that maybe it should just be the two of them, since I was so bad at tennis. Great guy, my dad. You can see why we're estranged.)
ReplyDeleteI am somewhat strict about expirations? I like to go through my spices and condiments about once a year to throw away anything that has expired... but maybe I don't really need to do that. Sometimes I'll google how long certain food can be used past the expiration date and go by that. I would like to be stricter about makeup since I think it can affect my skin/eyes, but I never remember exactly when I open something. I'm probably using two-year-old mascara and I don't even realize it!
My Dad has a thing that he does with batteries; he writes the date with a sharpie on the battery when he installs it. Maybe we should do that with our makeup! It would make it a lot easier to figure out, as I don't know if my mascara even has a date on it, or, like you said, when I opened it!
DeleteUg, your Dad does sound like the guy at the field. I was really just amazed that he could cheer the girls on, but just not his own daughter. Why are parents so hard on their kids sometimes? I know you have to instill certain things, but the expectations seem unnaturally high in some cases.
Oh my gosh -- the leg pants that were actually legs! What a shock that must have been!
ReplyDeleteI agree with expiration dates, and approach them as more of a suggestion. If it smells okay, and looks okay, it's probably okay.
Your last line makes me think of the duck test -- if it looks like a duck and swims like a duck, it must be a duck! Or the Monte Python version, which is a bit convoluted, but hilarious. There are a lot of suggestions when it comes to expirations and I will take them into consideration, but then make the decision myself!
DeleteHa ha, that meme is hilarious. As is the story of the woman ACTUALLY NOT WEARING ANY PANTS. I mean... what??? Why.
ReplyDeleteOh, it must have been so hard to hear that dad berating his daughter. That poor girl. The things our parents said to us growing up are especially important- I think a comment or criticism you could brush off from a stranger will really get to you if it came from a parent. Yes, I hope he heard your comments about how mean he was being!
I pretty much ignore expiration dates. I recently read an article about how those dates are more like "suggestions" about when the food will be at the very best. Like, they can't guarantee all the nutrients will still be in there after a certain date. But that doesn't mean it's not safe to eat (with some exceptions of course- I think we can all tell when something is not safe to eat.)
Have fun with your raking!
I must have read the same article as you did, or a similar one, because I heard the same thing. The other thing they do is that all the dates are not expiration dates, some are "sell by" dates and some are "packaged on" dates etc. so you may actually have weeks or months after the date. Also I think the company wants you to eat it when it tastes the freshest but that doesn't mean it is bad if it is not as fresh! We are so wasteful nowadays; people used to eat things like hard bread and salted cod all the time!
DeleteI literally laughed out loud when I saw your reflection on expiration dates. My husband always jokes how I have that "iron" Russian stomach that can pretty much digest anything. I, too, have gone past expiration dates and so far, so good.
ReplyDeleteI am fully convinced that many of those dates are just freshness suggestions. I wouldn't eat grey meat or stinky milk, but many other things are just fine!
DeleteLeg pants should NOT exist... but I had to laugh that you actually encountered someone who was NOT wearing pants at all LOL
ReplyDeleteThe mean dad situation is funny, because my Dad was my tennis coach for a while and he'd definitely be more "strict" with me and my sister than with the other girls on the team (comes with the territory I guess) but he was never berating or mean. I guess he just thought he could talk more "straight" with us, haha. I never took it as offense. What that mean dad did - and then taping the whole thing to possibly show to his daughter later, is a bit extreme.
I actually thought that the mean Dad was taping the game for the coach to show the whole team, but maybe you are right and he is just doing it for the daughter. I don't know! Yes, it would be extreme if it were the latter!
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