ahsposo 

thefarside.com

02Giant 

You have a lot of catching up to do....

J/K,

no motor?

I did that once for my little sister when she was young enough to believe in Santa, but she knew it was from me.

genec

No, sadly... "there's nothing on..."

TRACKMAN

At least it wasn't a clip on. New York City subway map image.
1. I wear bowties ( yes I can tie one)
2. Too wide ( what are we back in the 70's?)

I love my grandson but he has gone too far, soin retaliation, hot pink 🧦 socks!

​​​

Kat12

Sounds like a personality test... which opener did she choose to use?


If she wanted one, it's valid! My former partner gave me a slow cooker once (actually, it was my birthday, not Christmas). He knew I'd been thinking of buying one. At that point I had done my research and decided which one I wanted, though I hadn't told him since I was planning on buying it for myself. I opened the box... he had chosen the same one I was planning to buy. "I did research and this seemed like the best one," he said. Must be if we both came to that conclusion! (Or, we read all the same reviews...)

Our fun Christmas-gift story was the one where he came home from work on Christmas eve and handed me a bottle of ginger ale, looking dejected. "I tried to get you scotch, but I went to a couple stores and they didn't have any." (I like scotch-and-ginger-ale.) I told him it was okay. "No, no, it's not, I really wanted to get you scotch." I told him again that it was fine. "No," he insisted, "I'll go out and try to find you a bottle." He started to put his coat back on because he clearly felt bad. "NO, wait, I'm telling you, it's all right," I said, and at this point I was laughing while I went to my closet where I had hidden the bottle of scotch I'd gotten him for Christmas...

Darth Lefty 

Bike related: I put an 11-speed setup on my wife's formerly 3x8 hybrid and she liked the idea and the fact the new chain set was all silver, but she hated the NX shifter. I swapped it out for an SLX without telling her and put the old one she hated in her stocking.

no motor?

She's got 2 of them now after managing to lock herself out of the house by locking the storm door shut and cutting off her access to both the house and the first opener. I put the second one on the detached garage to holds the secret extra key, we should be good as long as the power stays on.

Siu Blue Wind

Meh.. Having two full time jobs and a part time job doesnt' allow me much time.

Zedoo

My family doesn't have much practice with buying gifts. For my high school graduation, my father gave me a magazine subscription card. He may have been unemployed then. The card was an IOU for a subscription later. I made an attempt to be positive about that while other relatives gave me cash.

indyfabz

I have a Miele C-3 Cat & Dog Complete that I bought for myself several years ago. Best vacuum on the planet.

skijor

Do you have hard floors with area rugs too?

My Kirby could benefit from some sort of regulating valve or some such to prevent the thing from locking up and trying to burn out its motor.

indyfabz

I do. The Miele comes with separate attachments for bare floors and rugs. The one for the former has no brush. The latter does. If something gets caught in the brush and stops it for too long the power to the brush shuts off to protect the motor. A simple flick of a switch on the handle starts the brush again once it’s freed. The unit also has a heart detector that will automatically shut off the vacuum if the motor gets too hot, but that has never happened.

skijor

Thankyou. Sounds like my next vacuum.

Homebrew01

How's that possible ?

Homebrew01

We don't gift much these days, but I did crank out a bunch of pottery at a local studio to give to immediate family.
They seemed appreciated.

ahsposo 

She's a woman.

Duh.

ahsposo 

Gawd! Sometimes I am a shameless suck-up...

majmt

A few years ago, April Fools Day fell on the day following a Powerball lottery drawing for a few hundred million $. That morning, I bought a ticket with the winning numbers from the previous nights drawing and asked my wife to check the numbers for me in the morning paper. I wanted to let the joke play out for a while but that would’ve been way too cruel and I had to let her down within a few seconds. She was good sport about it though. As far as Christmas presents go, I got everything the Dalai Lama could desire - nothing. Maybe there’s a connection.

canklecat

I've never received a bad gift. There's no such thing. If someone even thought to give me something I was happy to receive it gratefully and graciously. There have been a few occasions when I re-gifted, but mostly because I already had more than one of the thing, not because I was dissatisfied with the gift.

We didn't have much money when I was a kid but I can't ever remember being dissatisfied with gifts from my mom. Sometimes they were just cheap toys that we'd lose interest in after a week or so, but that's fine. That's just how kids are. And I've kept other gifts from her for nearly a lifetime.

My favorite gifts have usually been clothing that turned out to be perfect. I seldom get really attached to apparel, but when I find something that's perfect I will literally wear it out. I have a 48 year old pair of Herman Survivor hiking boots I bought with my own money from washing dishes at a restaurant when I was 15. The soles are worn down, the heels are gone, and my sassy tabby cat used the tops for a scratching post before I realized what she was doing, so I have to slather on the mink oil and snopruf extra thick to cover the damaged leather tops. But I still wear 'em every winter. I should get them resoled but I'm afraid an incompetent cobbler would just ruin them.

The most recent is a Nike Dri-Fit zip up hoodie, which I received a few years ago. I plan to wear that thing out and be buried in it. The fabric would be perfect for fast road bike rides but not the design -- a bit too flappy -- so I mostly wear it walking, jogging and on occasional casual bike rides. I've probably worn it every day for a couple of months and it probably reeks by now, but I don't care.

Unfortunately I have had bad luck giving gifts. Some people can be kinda picky and weird about gifts. Especially women. I ended up asking in-laws to get gifts for my wives because I had no idea what they would like. Eventually I would give them gift cards or take them on a shopping spree and let them choose what they wanted.

And office Christmas parties were the worst, especially those so-called "Chinese Christmas" things where you could grab someone else's gift, etc. That seemed to create nothing but friction in the office. I remember my second wife coming home furious over that kind of office party. And she was impossible to buy gifts for. I can't ever remember her being happy with any gift I bought. But she enjoyed shopping for herself so that's what we did.

Needless to say, that marriage didn't last. Nor the first, for similar reasons. Before marrying anyone, go through at least one year of birthday and holiday gifts, and observe your prospective mate at work, with friends, family, and holidays. Because it won't get better over time. I ignored all those warning signs of lack of gratitude, being impossible to please, etc.

Recently I gave a nice errand bike to a neighbor who had no money and was looking after his mom. I'd been through that myself so I was sympathetic. His bike needed too much work and the one I gave him was comparable, just a bit heavier, but with a sturdy rear rack, lights, much better wheels and tires, and functional brakes and shifters.

A couple of weeks later I discovered the bike next to the dumpster, minus the rear rack, lights, saddle and seat post. I couldn't figure out why he didn't just bring it back and say "Hey, I appreciate it but I really only needed a few things off the bike. Maybe you can find someone else who really needs the bike."

So I rolled it back inside and figured I'd just buy another seat post and replace the saddle. A day or so later the original seat post was tossed onto the ground next to the dumpster. So I have a complete bike again that needs a new home.

I saw the guy riding and he didn't install the rear rack correctly. It's tipped way back rather than level, because he couldn't figure out how to adjust the angle. I thought about offering to adjust it, and maybe swap the functional components over so his shifters and brakes would work.

But frankly I'm kinda burned out on trying to help the guy. So I'll just keep the bike until I find someone who can actually use it.

genec

ahhh your "gift of the magi" story... Good.

Regarding the can openers... she used the electric one... which continued to function for a couple years before dying due to overcomplexity, and the need for counter space.

The good manual can opener has remained as a "kitchen backup..." while the "crappy" manual ended up in the camping box.

Now "kitchen backup" you say... well yes, after the electric died, and with the history of the three can openers... there have been other can openers... one so "high falutin" in design that when folks first see it, no one can figure out how to use it. It just does not look like a can opener...it looks like something is missing.

Over the years, we have also gotten "safety" can openers, which split the seam, vice cut out the top.

These seam splitters seem nice... but can seams are not universal... so they have "issues..." so a "backup" can opener is needed... and thus remains. It has big handles, it works, but it leaves sharp jagged tops. But it always works.

RubeRad

That's pretty impressive, I've never seen a naturally occurring rock that is like Charlie Brown. Somebody must have gone to a lot of trouble to shape those

no motor?

Years ago after my dad retired but before motels started offering coffee makers in rooms I got my folks a travel coffee maker that my dad just loved. They both liked to take their time getting ready in the morning while having a cup of coffee, and used it whenever they traveled until they didn't need it. The interesting thing about it was my dad wasn't very handy, and the travel coffee maker I got them was really hard to put away in it's case. I was worried it would be too complicated for him but he solved the problem by putting the pieces in a bag instead. The thrill of free coffee made without bringing more stuff eventually won out until they got too old to keep traveling.