I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[Haley R]

Since you are now trying to accumulate MRs, I’d use the much lower chase point cost and grab a breakfast burrito or muffin on the way (says the girl who only drinks coffee for breakfast lol)!!

I still don’t think we’ll use MRs for London but I want to keep them in our account just in case. I normally am good with a granola bar and a banana which I can bring from home lol

 

[elgerber]

.

 

[wendow]

@EACarlson you can use OLCI at the values as well. I’d have the TA look into that when your wife talks to her. Glad you got your ADRs back. Whew!!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Both say there is nothing left undone

Hmm. There’s a certain ceremony that would make part of a great plot.

HAHAHA because that was literally going to be what I tried next except a family member told me @orangecuse method of placing can in garbage is exactly how this one ends up

(Unfortunately said family member hasn’t found a good one yet either [can you tell cooking isn’t my family’s past time? ] )

You could check someplace like Whole Foods or Mariano’s where they sell turkey dinners. Maybe they’ll sell you a quart of gravy.

There's like a 51yo man and a 40-something yo woman that are on the FB group for the DCP kids for Spring 2020. My dd is a little weirded out by that lol. They are actually going to be in DCP housing and everything

Why is she weirded out? I mean they might not be the best roommates are far as having things in common but it wouldn’t weird me out to have a 20 yr old roommate. Lots of people going back to school in their 40’s and 50’s. We have a few older residents in our hospital’s program every year.

I like to think I’m open minded... Apparently I am not. They don’t have roommates in this program do they? Because omg that would suck.

I resemble that remark.

Mine are out for delivery today too and they posted as one charge so hopefully the $25 will credit in the next few days

Lucky you! Fingers crossed.

And edited to add: that giblet package goes straight into the trash. Except for the neck which I will roast with the turkey for seasoning the gravy. It's bony and bone = flavor.

At my house the giblets and neck go in a pan with water, herbs and veg to make broth to add to the drippings to make the gravy later.

Do you not sleep?

Wait isn’t that what we usually ask you?

Phoning in this week at school. Showing Hidden Figures (hey, it's got Engineering in it) and disgruntled for having to work Weds

That stinks. Our elementary school kids have the whole week off. Teachers have parent teacher conferences Monday and Tuesday though. High school has class Monday, 1/2 day Tuesday, then off.

See that’s the problem, I have no idea about dates. I feel like our summer will be wide open and we could go anytime may-August. I don’t actually have AA miles but was looking at that as an alternative to chase. I haven’t even looked on the chase portal yet. I also haven’t decided about getting the baby its own seat. It’s safer and would give me more room but it is another seat to pay for

Honestly I’d choose 3 seats in Economy Plus over 2 seats in biz. That said, I’ve never flown biz or first but having a kid sitting in your lap or on you while trying to eat or sleep for 8 hours sounds awful regardless of how big the seat is. A 1 yr old may or may not be walking. My DS wasn’t and managed to spend 8 hours of our 12 hour flight sleeping in his car seat.

 

[Judique]

Through the Chick Fil A app--I'm not sure. That's interesting. Need to investigate

Yes, I've had the app for quite some time but it wasn't working properly. So DD fixed it by deleting and reloading. She goes there quite often because it's close to her job and was racking up freebies. I really don't go very often but according to her they give earned freebies and also random ones, so I'm going to use it if I do go. And it won't hurt if it triggers the dining credit on my rose gold. I also got the 5 of 25 deal you mentioned, but $25 is much more then both of us spend at CFA.

 

[Judique]

I need to stop browsing at Costco. Bought Mrs. Prindables chocolate caramel dipped pretzel rods. Just ate two of them for dinner.

I've got a jar of the Sander's sea salt milk chocolate caramels that I can't keep my hand out of.

 

[Haley R]

Hmm. There’s a certain ceremony that would make part of a great plot.

You could check someplace like Whole Foods or Mariano’s where they sell turkey dinners. Maybe they’ll sell you a quart of gravy.

Why is she weirded out? I mean they might not be the best roommates are far as having things in common but it wouldn’t weird me out to have a 20 yr old roommate. Lots of people going back to school in their 40’s and 50’s. We have a few older residents in our hospital’s program every year.

I resemble that remark.

Lucky you! Fingers crossed.

At my house the giblets and neck go in a pan with water, herbs and veg to make broth to add to the drippings to make the gravy later.

Wait isn’t that what we usually ask you?

That stinks. Our elementary school kids have the whole week off. Teachers have parent teacher conferences Monday and Tuesday though. High school has class Monday, 1/2 day Tuesday, then off.

Honestly I’d choose 3 seats in Economy Plus over 2 seats in biz. That said, I’ve never flown biz or first but having a kid sitting in your lap or on you while trying to eat or sleep for 8 hours sounds awful regardless of how big the seat is. A 1 yr old may or may not be walking. My DS wasn’t and managed to spend 8 hours of our 12 hour flight sleeping in his car seat.

Thanks for your input! I think we are leaning towards that decision also. I'm thinking Premium Economy would make a lot more sense for us and I would really prefer the baby be in its own seat. I know I don't want the baby on me for 8-10 hours lol. Now to decide which airline and if we should do a positioning flight instead of going out of Orlando

 

[amalone1013]

Why is she weirded out? I mean they might not be the best roommates are far as having things in common but it wouldn’t weird me out to have a 20 yr old roommate. Lots of people going back to school in their 40’s and 50’s. We have a few older residents in our hospital’s program every year.

It's probably more an age thing overall. I think at college age I would have been a bit awkward if I had a significantly older roommate... but right now (though I'm younger than those people) it wouldnt seem weird to me. Other than I'm a grumpy old man already so wouldnt want one that is out/loud all hours of the night lol

 

[havaneselover]

I've got a jar of the Sander's sea salt milk chocolate caramels that I can't keep my hand out of.

Oh, gosh. I don't do well with those either. They are so good. Thankfully none in my house at the moment. I have to polish off the chocolate caramel dipped pretzel rods first!

 

[elgerber]

At my house the giblets and neck go in a pan with water, herbs and veg to make broth to add to the drippings to make the gravy later

Can you elaborate?

 

[Haley R]

We went ahead and booked the Hilton Garden Inn for 16k Chase points. I'm gonna try chatting with Hilton to see if they can add my number to the reservation. If not, I'm fine waiting until we arrive to let them know we're Hilton Honor members. I feel good about using Chase points instead of transferring the MRs and I appreciate everyone's help today.

ETA: They were able to add my honors number to the reservation through chat even though it was booked with URs

 

[Judique]

Can you elaborate?

I'm interested in this also. My experience has been seeing people cooking the giblets and then chopping them up into little pieces and making the gravy with them in it. I can't deal with that.

 

[Artygal90]

I don't know if this would help anyone here, but I wanted to share...I subscribe to a site that posts cheap fares out of Houston. They just posted the following deal to Tokyo that might be useful if you want to travel out of IAH, don't mind a connection/economy, and have some SkyMiles to burn:

"Delta is offering flights from Houston (IAH) to Tokyo (NRT/HND) for 40,000 SkyMiles + $61.25 in taxes, with a connection. Flights March to June. 8-day minimum stay required. Use the fare calendar (link) to pull up the deal on Delta’s site."

Website is escapehouston dot com if you are interested.

 

[Haley R]

Now that that's done I have some new questions after talking with Dh about flying to London.

1. Would you consider a positioning flight with a 1 year old? Something like flying in the night before and staying the night then flying out the next day. In an ideal world, I wouldn't choose this, but I know there are a lot better flight options compared to MCO.
2. Would a 1 stop flight be horrible with a 1 year old? I was aiming for nonstop, but booking with miles doesn't always allow that, especially since we're looking at going out of MCO.
3. What time frame should we be looking at for booking flights? A year in advance or something different?

We've shifted our thinking away from business and are pretty sure we will do premium economy. That way we can get 3 seats together easier and at a cheaper redemption rate.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

What about this?

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amazon-apple-macbook-air-13-inch-8gb-ram-128gb-ssd-storage-for-679/
Older model, but the price is good and still an upgrade over a 5-6 years old computer. Read the comments for more.

I know nothing about Macbook Air, but I noticed there was a deal of the day on Amazon today on them. Not sure if it is the one you are looking at or if it is even a good deal.

ETA - dang @Lain beat me to it. lol And changed his pic!!

I found the Costco deal.
https://slickdeals.net/f/13569829-m...co-999-99-200-00-799-99?src=SiteSearchV2Algo1
I’d probably go with the newest model too.

@WVMomof3 - I didn’t change my avatar? I hate change.

Costco didn't have the same models in-store as online and as we needed a new laptop for dd like last Saturday (she's got many projects to do over break and has only been able to work on the ones that use google docs), we went to the Apple Store. At least we could use the student discount AND my CIP MSR is just about done.

Some of you may recall that my dh travels a lot of business. He just texted me this morning that he was involved in a serious car accident on Saturday. A paralegal talking on his phone, driving in the far right lane (dh was in the far left lane going the same direction) decided to suddenly make a u-turn, cut across 3 lanes and dh drove into him (obviously couldn't avoid him). Dh said his car cut right through the unibody at the wheel well of the other vehicle (2019 Acura small sedan). Thankfully dh seems to be okay, but his car (he's in Toronto) doesn't look great. The road was closed for 4 hours because the paralegal who drove into him was unconscious and apparently there was blood all over his car. I wish dh had told me sooner and maybe by phone. He sent me a video of the scene with the firefighters and police cars everywhere. Thanks for listening -- it's weighing heavily on my mind because it could've been so much worse if dh wasn't driving such a safe, well-made vehicle. Trying to work but finding it hard to concentrate.

Oh my word! I'm so glad that your dh is ok, but holy cow, you must be a little frantic

Put an ice cube, 2 tablespoons of flour and 3/4 cup of water in a small container with lid. Shake vigorously until well mixed. Add to your pan drippings which have had most of the fat skimmed off. (A turkey breast won't have much to begin with so you may not even have to do this). You can also add the liquid from any vegetable you may have cooked or a small amount of vegetable stock (maybe 1 cup) to the drippings in the pan or if you have nothing on hand add some water. Heat on medium heat until it bubbles a bit for about a minute or two then turn the heat to low, while stirring with a whisk to keep it from being lumpy. You can season it with salt pepper, Seasonall salt mix, or whatever seasoning you like, just don't over do it as you don't need a whole lot.

One of my easy tricks is to add liquid to the pan right after I take the cooked turkey breast out of the oven, as this deglazes the flavor bits in the pan almost immediately. This also assumes you have some little brown bits in the roasting pan. I'm trying to cover all the bases here.

You can get fancy and add other things such as finely chopped onion or parsley or whatever gives a flavor you enjoy.

Gravy is not really rocket science and is really just a fat and a thickening agent (flour or corn starch) cooked together and then thinned out with a liquid and seasoned to taste. You can do it. Nothing tastes worse to me than canned or bottled gravy, and I also didn't really like Costco's gravy package that my older daughter purchased last year, but we had a lot of turkey so it helped out. As far as flour versus corn starch - corn starch doesn't lump as much and cooks quickly but flour tastes better.

And edited to add: that giblet package goes straight into the trash. Except for the neck which I will roast with the turkey for seasoning the gravy. It's bony and bone = flavor.

At my house the giblets and neck go in a pan with water, herbs and veg to make broth to add to the drippings to make the gravy later.

Can you elaborate?

I'm interested in this also. My experience has been seeing people cooking the giblets and then chopping them up into little pieces and making the gravy with them in it. I can't deal with that.

So this is what I do-----I take the guts and the neck out of the turkey. I brown them along with some chopped carrot, onion, and celery in a big pot. Then I add enough chicken stock to cover everything plus a cup of white wine, maybe some salt depending on the type of stock, 1-2 bay leaves, and whatever seasonings I feel like (sometimes just 1 tsp or two of Bell's poultry seasoning). Let that cook low and slow for an hour or two. Dh always pulls the liver sooner out to split with my sister ewwwwww After everything is yummy, I strain the liquid and use that when I make the gravy. Between the cooking liquid and the pan juices, I get some awesome tasting gravy!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

It's probably more an age thing overall. I think at college age I would have been a bit awkward if I had a significantly older roommate... but right now (though I'm younger than those people) it wouldnt seem weird to me. Other than I'm a grumpy old man already so wouldnt want one that is out/loud all hours of the night lol

As an old person, I can appreciate the partying and ignore or not participate. But I gotta think someone applying to DCP at 50 has gotta be at least a little fun.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Can you elaborate?

Not much to it. When I put the turkey in the oven I put about a quart of water in a big saucepan on top of the stove. I’ll usually add a few stalks of celery, couple carrots and half an onion, along with whatever comes inside the turkey. I use fresh herbs in the turkey, some sprigs of the same herbs go in the broth: sage, parsley, thyme. I let it simmer on top of the stove for an hour or 2, then strain and use to add to the turkey drippings (skimmed of fat) and thicken for gravy.

ETA I probably thrown in a cracked garlic clove and a bay leaf too. No science here. I usually don’t add salt in case the turkey drippings are too salty, I can balance it.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I'm interested in this also. My experience has been seeing people cooking the giblets and then chopping them up into little pieces and making the gravy with them in it. I can't deal with that.

Nope, I strain out the giblets. (See above) I can’t eat them either. My mom might add them to stuffing or something but hard nope for me.

 

[ten6mom]

I've got a jar of the Sander's sea salt milk chocolate caramels that I can't keep my hand out of.

**Runs off to find these online somewhere**

 

[EACarlson]

Since you all got me started on them. JCPenney has Packing cubes in their black friday ad. 5 piece set for $10.