Random Thoughts IV

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I wonder why it was inconceivable for the person who just asked me for change to learn I didn't have any. I mean, he didn't either. I thought we were bonding.
 
I need some opinions on gift-giving.

I know a lot of this depends on where you are at financially in life, but what's a good dollar amount for gifts? I feel like I tend to be on the high side, but I'm kinda okay with that.

I don't really give gifts for birthdays anymore (outside of my daughter,wife and parents). For Christmas, my sibs have a white elephant gift exchange and we usually hover around $50.

I'm at the age where my close friends are all married and most of them are done having kids. Now it's mostly nieces and nephews starting to go through marriages and births. Is $100 for a wedding present about right? How about for a newborn of a good friend or niece/nephew? What say thee?

It depends on how close we are to the birthday person or new parent or bridal couple. I'm not talking about close to parents. We have an extended family on both sides, and giving gifts for every occasion would break us financially. Then there's the implied competition with other grandparents to give the best (read: most expensive) gifts. Problem is, most of them have 5-6 grandkids. We have 16.

I lean toward the practical.

In the immediate family: for the gkids, a savings bond on their birthday...which can get pricey as most of them were born between September & December! For the kids, we tell them to spend their money on the gkids at Christmas, and don't buy anything for us. Lord knows we don't NEED more stuff. And most of the time, we don't know what stuff the gkids already have or want, and several of our kids have told us they (the parents) actually prefer the bonds over cash or gifts because their kids already have too much stuff. When we go to visit or they come to see us, we take them to games or zoos or things like that.

For new babies, you practically can't go wrong with a set of onesies and a big bag of newborn diapers. Babies go through soooooo many of those, you just about can't go wrong. :)

For wedding gifts, again, for us it depends on how well we know the nieces/nephews. When you have 9 brothers and sisters, and all of them have been married more than once and have 3-5 kids each...well, let's just say they wouldn't recognize us if we passed them on the street. We've been much closer to one set of nieces/nephews than the others, and we attended their weddings and bought gifts that we selected with them in mind. The ones that we haven't seen in the 20 years we've been married, who invite us to their weddings? We send a card with a gift card inside. Maybe that's cheap of me, but if they don't bother to know us the rest of the time, why should we get them lavish gifts?

Yeah...I'm a crotchety old broad.
 
At what point did he actually HAVE one?

I always thought he was know. As a respected poster, but maybe I'm wrong and was thinking of someone else. This whole site is to Twilight Zone right now anyway. Even freaking FBCurt is talking about how it's ok to cheat in sports and such. That dude was that last person I would expect to hear that from.
 
I always felt that gift registries were the work of the devil, especially for newlyweds. Most stores give each person a scanner to ensure that they both scan a bunch of overpriced crap on impulse while the other isn't watching. Then when the couple gets together and opens their gifts, the bride wonders why they now own 60 pint glasses and three shot-glass sets and the groom gets to wonder what the hell a duvet cover is and why they own one when they don't own decent sheets or a duvet.
 
I always thought he was know. As a respected poster, but maybe I'm wrong and was thinking of someone else. This whole site is to Twilight Zone right now anyway. Even freaking FBCurt is talking about how it's ok to cheat in sports and such. That dude was that last person I would expect to hear that from.

I'm sure to most of you this is common knowledge, but there are some former players on here, aren't there? FBCurt is one, isn't he? The Captain is another, right? Are their actual names a secret or is it just kind of old news and not that big of a deal?
 
I always thought he was know. As a respected poster, but maybe I'm wrong and was thinking of someone else. This whole site is to Twilight Zone right now anyway. Even freaking FBCurt is talking about how it's ok to cheat in sports and such. That dude was that last person I would expect to hear that from.

I am intrigued, tell me more about this respected poster thingy! :unsure:
 
I'm sure to most of you this is common knowledge, but there are some former players on here, aren't there? FBCurt is one, isn't he? The Captain is another, right? Are their actual names a secret or is it just kind of old news and not that big of a deal?

I think Curt was just a walk on that saw very limited time as a senior. I believe during Dmac years. The Captain I don't know as much about, but wasn't he pre-Mac?

Obviously there were some "celeb" athletes that would post very limited amounts here, like Austin Flynn and Ejim, more recently.
 
I think Curt was just a walk on that saw very limited time as a senior. I believe during Dmac years. The Captain I don't know as much about, but wasn't he pre-Mac?

Obviously there were some "celeb" athletes that would post very limited amounts here, like Austin Flynn and Ejim, more recently.


Yeah, the captain is quite a bit older, I know he played in the NFL...I've looked up both Curt and the Captain's names before, but it wasn't that big of a deal, so I don't remember.

Curt does have an edge to him at times, the cheating thing doesn't surprise me that much, although I don't know the specific comment you're referring to. Plus, he's a racer...cheating is a way of life in racing.

I kind of respect his input on football stuff, but I don't put him on a pedestal. But yah, I think Jamby's always been kind of a flake. I think he's a little more loveable than clones21, and a little more knowledgeable, but not too far different.

(oh, cg, just noticed the 'loveable' line...that's not a backhanded jab at your post....:wink:)
 
I always felt that gift registries were the work of the devil, especially for newlyweds. Most stores give each person a scanner to ensure that they both scan a bunch of overpriced crap on impulse while the other isn't watching. Then when the couple gets together and opens their gifts, the bride wonders why they now own 60 pint glasses and three shot-glass sets and the groom gets to wonder what the hell a duvet cover is and why they own one when they don't own decent sheets or a duvet.


I love registries. I always buy off of those.
 
Yeah, the captain is quite a bit older, I know he played in the NFL...I've looked up both Curt and the Captain's names before, but it wasn't that big of a deal, so I don't remember.

Curt does have an edge to him at times, the cheating thing doesn't surprise me that much, although I don't know the specific comment you're referring to. Plus, he's a racer...cheating is a way of life in racing.

I kind of respect his input on football stuff, but I don't put him on a pedestal. But yah, I think Jamby's always been kind of a flake. I think he's a little more loveable than clones21, and a little more knowledgeable, but not too far different.

(oh, cg, just noticed the 'loveable' line...that's not a backhanded jab at your post....:wink:)


I refrained from posting in there telling you how rude you were being to Jamby. :jimlad:
 
There's another one who mostly lurks...not a starter but I think he did have a scholly. He's maybe mid to late 20s. We sat next to him & his wife at the miserable game vs KU last year - the CF bus trip. Nice guy, friend of Adam's. I learned a lot about football from him that day. Specifically what NOT to do... ;)

He knew my avatar - not sure if that's good or bad...
 
I think Curt was just a walk on that saw very limited time as a senior. I believe during Dmac years. The Captain I don't know as much about, but wasn't he pre-Mac?

Obviously there were some "celeb" athletes that would post very limited amounts here, like Austin Flynn and Ejim, more recently.
I think The Captain is Dennis Gibson. If so, he was a very good NFL player and made a pretty famous play by batting down a pass against the Steelers in 1994 sending the Chargers to the Super Bowl.
 
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