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Post by tod2 on May 6, 2022 16:27:23 GMT
Not really, If your pots are heavy bottomed. So much is made of heavy copper-bottom pots but they are hellish expensive and now know why. I find each pot has a merit, and then a certain element where is lets the chef down. Take the small pot in my pic. I used it tonight to fry up some chunks of cooked potato in peanut oil. In no time there was spattering and each time I went to flip the pieces they had stuck to the bottom. This was a previous BnB pot slightly scorched. I now know it was because the bottom is too thin and they had the flame of the gas too high.. I will mark it now for boiling eggs at breakfast in my kitchen!!
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Post by kerouac2 on May 6, 2022 16:41:36 GMT
I know that many models have been adapted to work with induction cooktops, but I am kind of happy that there are fewer items from which to choose when that is one's equipment. There is really no reason to have 500 different models when the world is trying to reduce waste.
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Post by htmb on May 7, 2022 17:55:29 GMT
Last night my neighbors decided to have a birthday party. It would have been fine except the partying - blaring music, loud cackling voices, and clinking bottles - didn’t really get cranked up until close to midnight. At 2:00 they serenaded the birthday person with a round of Happy Birthday, and then continued to party until 3:00, when every single guest slammed both doors as they each exited the building. I hope they all have terrible hangovers that match my sleepy, cranky disposition.
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Post by questa on May 7, 2022 23:09:11 GMT
It is times like that when I have a habit of playing music quite loudly. Currently I like the "O Fortuna" piece from "Carmina Burana" LOUD. You know it...starts off with orchestra crashing and clashing, goes quiet for a while, then sufficiently loud to almost drown out the noise of my neighbour's rant. Of course the speakers are turned so they face outside. Good one, composer, Mr Carl Orff.
You'all learning of my musical tastes this week,yes?
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2022 10:34:53 GMT
htmb - I find your neighbors guilty of bad manners! It is normal for close neighbors to drop a note or phone to tell you of their late night intentions and apologise for the noise in advance. Secondly, if this is not done we have a law which does not allow loud music beyond 10pm unless previously arranged, and the police can be summoned to quiet things down. Obviously nobody wants to be a party-pooper but there could be a sickly person that does not need excessive music thumping. Our latest new neighbors dropped pamphlets in all surrounding letter boxes a week before they intended slaughtering a cow for a religious ceremony/party of dearly departed. We dreaded the agonising yelling of the cow as its throat was cut but were pleasantly surprised that we heard nothing like that, but what was a bit worrying, was people drinking liquor from their car boots and sitting on chairs in the road. This is also breaking the law in a public place, but these days seems quite normal.
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Post by htmb on May 8, 2022 11:20:35 GMT
No doubt they were breaking the law, but there are so many other pressing matters that making loud noises until 3:00 AM is way down the list of legal infractions. If it happened more regularly then I’m sure the building committee would express their displeasure and exert their influence. I only wish I’d had my ear plugs handy, but they were buried in a drawer somewhere.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 8, 2022 14:11:52 GMT
I live quite close to the city's open-air auditorium, so am all too aware when there is a concert.
My solution is to close the bedroom door and window & turn the fan on. This muffles everything so I can get to sleep.
I don't know how effective it would be in a shared building, though, as slamming doors would still be jarring.
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Post by htmb on May 8, 2022 14:21:23 GMT
Because their apartment has the only open terrace in the building, two floors below me, the noise reverberated both within the walls and in through the windows. During those moments of half sleep I plotted revenge by lobbing water balloons down on their happy little heads.
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2022 14:23:37 GMT
I can feel what you go through at concert time Bixa. We have the Agricultural Show Grounds just a km down the hill from us. As you know sound travels upwards so all the loudspeaker announcing and loud music is very audible. With doors shut and curtains drawn its not too bad. What is absolutely awful is the school taxi buses passing along our road at 7am or before, playing their music full volume on the base so that the vibration comes right into the house and reverberates the windows and doors. I can actually feel it on my body. Does this happen anywhere where you live?
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Post by kerouac2 on May 8, 2022 14:58:26 GMT
What is absolutely awful is the school taxi buses passing along our road at 7am or before, It would be worse if the children were not going to school.
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Post by whatagain on May 8, 2022 20:35:07 GMT
There are double glazing windows with acoustic pvb.
Pvb is the plastic inside laminated glass, usually used for safety glass, but you can add a layer of acoustic Pvb, that really dampens the noise.
In cas you want to change your glass panels...
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Post by htmb on May 8, 2022 21:03:37 GMT
I suppose I should mention I’m in Paris, staying in an apartment rented from a friend. There are single pane windows and, unfortunately, my friend isn’t motivated to make a change. Perhaps if she lived here new windows would be the first thing she’d add. Besides being located in a noisy area, the apartment is also freezing cold. There are perks, though, so I’m willing to put up with an occasional noisy party and the need for extra layers of clothing for warmth.
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Post by whatagain on May 8, 2022 21:52:10 GMT
Owners of buildings with single pane glass should be beheaded place Concorde, like in good old times 🤪
We were in Paris this sunday. 30 min from home now.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 8, 2022 22:18:56 GMT
It is mothers' day in many parts of the world today, including the US.
My sweet son posted a very nice & appropriate mothers' day remembrance on my facebook page.
It appears immediately above a pro-choice poster I'd put up earlier.
We had a good laugh about it, anyway.
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Post by bjd on May 9, 2022 7:16:20 GMT
There are single pane windows and, unfortunately, my friend isn’t motivated to make a change Tell your friend that she can get quite a lot, if not all, of the cost of double windows back on her taxes. It's part of the government policy to save energy.
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Post by htmb on May 9, 2022 7:25:03 GMT
That’s a good point, Bjd, and I will certainly mention it to her. There are only two windows in the apartment, but I imagine changing them out would make a big difference in both heating costs and noise pollution.
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Post by tod2 on May 9, 2022 10:40:12 GMT
What is absolutely awful is the school taxi buses passing along our road at 7am or before, It would be worse if the children were not going to school. Don't mind the twice a day taxis - It is that they have no regard for the ears of the students or the other road users and houses along the road. I don't think any motorist or taxi cab in Paris would allow this incredible vibrating music! I have been standing on the sidewalk in Paris when that Music Festival came slowly driving past but that was just loud. The taxi music has a strange thumping vibration to it that enters ones whole body. Let alone ears!
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Post by fumobici on May 9, 2022 17:22:31 GMT
Tell your friend that she can get quite a lot, if not all, of the cost of double windows back on her taxes. It's part of the government policy to save energy. In Italy they currently have a program whereby they pay 110% of approved energy efficiency upgrade costs to the homeowner. I don't qualify unfortunately. I stayed in a hotel in central Florence on a busy street with a lot of noisy nightlife just below a couple of years back and had to get a taxi to the airport at 4:00AM. With the window even slightly ajar, the noise was enough to make sleeping difficult but closing the window resulted in instant and near-total silence. It was such a dramatic difference that I was shocked, I'd never seen/experienced a window so soundproof before.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 9, 2022 18:16:30 GMT
This time we can't blame Putin because the villain is Trudeau. Mustard has disappeared from the stores because he did not prevent the huge heat wave in Canada last year, and the mustard seed crop declined by about 70%. Most of the mustard in France is made from Canadian mustard seeds. I'm wondering if miiitary action would be appropriate to protect French mustard supplies.
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Post by bjd on May 9, 2022 18:39:07 GMT
When we bought this house we had all the windows replaced. They were already double windows but with wooden frames and our new windows qualified as improvements. I think the maximum you could claim for all energy-saving things, like windows, new heating, etc was 16,000€.
When our daughter was a student in Paris we bought a small apartment on a busy street. First thing we did was change the single paned windows for double and the difference in noise and temperature were amazing. That was over 20 years ago, so windows now are even more efficient.
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Post by lugg on May 15, 2022 17:36:06 GMT
suppose I should mention I’m in Paris, Wow lucky you, hope you have a fab time despite the windows.
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Post by lugg on May 15, 2022 17:39:27 GMT
Third dress bought for my son's wedding and sent back. I absolutely hate dressing formallyand live in jeans / shorts depending on the weather and rarely wear a dress now I am mostly working from home. It looks like I will be re-wearing an old dress that I bought for my nieces wedding a few years ago.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 15, 2022 18:05:11 GMT
I have two lovely things I could lend you. Wish I had a fancy occasion for them. Congratulations on your son's wedding -- that's exciting.
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Post by htmb on May 15, 2022 19:30:17 GMT
Thanks, Lugg! I’ve actually moved to a different apartment. A planned move. This one has different benefits and is certainly much quieter.
I could have written the same paragraph about dressing formally. I also am in need of a dress for a wedding. I don’t think I’ve worn a dress since 2010. I’ve threatened to wear jeans and cowboy boots, but my daughter knows I’m not serious. Congratulations on your sons wedding plans.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 15, 2022 20:14:22 GMT
Do people still need to dress up for weddings in the 21st century when they don't feel like it? Has society made no progress at all?
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Post by Kimby on May 15, 2022 23:03:29 GMT
I’m also in the I hate weddings crowd.
My sister is getting married this coming Saturday. Third marriage but first real wedding. (Divorced one, outlived the second, third time’s the charm.) There will be a photographer and as family Mr. Kimby and I will be in some of the photos. So I kinda have to try to look nice, but I don’t wear dresses anymore, other than an occasional sundress.
I haven’t bought a real dress in decades. The things in my closet still fit, but nothing looks right. (Maybe it’s the 1980’s shoulder pads?)
I do have a dress my sister gave me (in 1986, I believe) that might work. I also have a black stretch tank dress that might look okay with a jacket over it. Is black okay to wear for a wedding? The wedding will be in Wisconsin, so it will be warm and humid. Don’t want to overdress, but don’t want to be too bare, either.
And shoes! I’ll need to be on my feet to greet people as they arrive and take down chairs as we depart, so my Barbie Doll shoes won’t cut it. (I got a serious calf cramp just pulling them on!) I can try to grind down my callouses and paint my toenails, as the more comfortable pair are open-toe slingbacks. (But I can’t do anything about my bunions or my crooked toes.)
And my legs are all scratched and bit up from being in Florida the past 3 weeks, but no one wears pantyhose anymore, do they? (They would probably be too warm anyway, and might make my shoes too tight.)
And what to do with my hair? It’s getting long and it’s straight as a stick, which is fine with shorts or jeans, but just seems wrong with a dress. I don’t have enough hair to wear a chignon or French twist, if I even knew how to create those “dos”, and am not sure I can improve it much with a curling iron. But I guess I should try. I’ll paint my fingernails, too. Another way to make it look like I’m putting some effort into it.
Our last dress up occasion might have been our OWN wedding, 38 years ago! Mr. Kimby will be wearing the same navy blue blazer he wore that day.
As Henry David Thoreau said, “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.”
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Post by bixaorellana on May 16, 2022 2:08:57 GMT
I don't get you ladies who don't like dresses. Dresses are pretty and generally more comfortable than anything else. Really, I don't get why men don't wear dresses except for the fact that no dresses are specifically made for men.
Kimby -- it's your sister's wedding! I believe this is the first happy big event since you all lost your other sister. Get dressed up! It will be fun and everyone will tell you how nice you look.
If you don't have time to find a new dress, use what you've got. You can accessorize with jewelry if you decide on the black one -- it will automatically make it look festive.
Also, hose don't make your shoes tighter, they make them fit better. But pantyhose are an abomination. Go buy a garter belt & a couple of pairs of stockings.
You have a little time to practice before the wedding. Buy some mousse for fine hair and try some up-dos. They'll look pulled together & will keep the hair off the back of your neck so you'll be cooler. If you just can't hack it, you have pretty hair that will look nice hanging naturally.
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Post by bjd on May 16, 2022 6:07:21 GMT
Interesting about dresses. I wear dresses in summer when it's hot -- more comfortable than anything else. But I do get upset about having to buy something to be worn once -- like a dress to wear to a wedding. When our daughter got married in 2015, I looked for a dress in Paris but got annoyed at the high prices for anything I considered nice but not too fancy to be worn again if necessary. I had sort of given up findng anything and we were walking towards downtown Paris near Nation. There was a neighbourhood yard sale (vide grenier) and a woman was selling really nice stuff. I never buy second-hand clothes, but she had a black silk dress with a pattern in it with lots of pleats. It fit me and cost 15€.
The dry cleaner wouldn't touch it because the label had been removed, so I basted all the pleats, washed and ironed it. It hasn't been worn since, of course.
All other weddings I have been too I've worn a skirt or black pants with a nice silk top.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 16, 2022 6:38:16 GMT
At least the price was not a trauma.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 16, 2022 15:12:56 GMT
Huckle, you say "gave up" but was it really a sacrifice or a new form of freedom? My grandmother, who died in 1992 at the age of 93, was thrilled to be able to wear trousers every day starting around 1975 and did not care what the other villagers thought. But it ran in the family because my mother had already scandalised the village by 1937 by wearing shorts in public.
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