Of course, spirits. Sorry, makes sense.
I have an actual cold. Pretty sure not covid. Test negative, old one and freshly bought one. No fever, no feeling sick, just running nose and subsequent coughing keeping me from sleeping. It sucks but it sucks less than the alternative. Lost 2 days of work. Yay, for freelancer life.
Also yesterday, I managed a new achievement
“Pay an invoice before it has been sent.”
I very much confused some poor person at that company’s money department. (I’ve tried to write up the details twice now and failed, so no details, just the feat)
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It was actually a canning jar filled with frozen brown stuff. I put it back in the main part of the freezer, in case it is something alien that needs to be kept frozen.
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I need to take a minute to shout out to my Honda Odyssey.
We took the plunge this summer and became a minivan family, what with three kids in various forms of car seats.
It’s got lights and cupholders, everyone has their place (and their stuff.)
It’s got sunshades. They’re just there. So nice.
It has handles everywhere and high clearance. My daughter who can’t walk CAN walk to her chair. She has a chant of “and onto THIS and onto THIS and onto THIS” as she moves from handhold to handhold.
With the spouse and baby going to New Jersey to care for her father, we’ve turned it into a mobile lounge. Take out a middle seat, you’ve got a play floor that keeps the baby out of the hospital. You’ve got a nap/nursing station in the back row. You’ve got a bed (car seat) in the middle. Generator and heater.
What a provident purchase; it’s been just what we need. God bless Honda.
Oh, and it’s red. We call it Red October. The kids have no idea how funny they are being when they tell people they are going to school in Red October.
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Oh my gosh I have to imagine this is German Kryptonite. Based on the Germans I have known.
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I got a somewhat panicky phone call … but all in all I found out dealing with crafts people and their small to midsize companies… the money stuff has a lot of handwavium in it. Due dates on invoices are not in the same category as due dates on taxes by several orders of magnitude. Woe to anyone who forgets to pay 15€ to the tax office late.
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Migraines can do one. That is all 
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We love ours. I always thought I’d get a station wagon as a family car… but they don’t even make good station wagons any more.
Odyssey does so many things better than anything else and I can’t imagine having 3 kids in car seats without, specifically, an Odyssey.
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This would drive American accountants nuts, too. Without an invoice, it’s unearned revenue, and creates tax nightmares. Or can, at least. Depending on the accounting practices of the company, they might have awkward problems with reporting it to tax people. Or have no idea how to record it, so when they do whatever you paid them for, they can properly recognize they already have the money.
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i got the invoice half an hour after the panicky phonecall. I had mistaken a draft for the finished thing.
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we have a “Kombi” as station wagons are called here. i like it. well as much as i like cars at all. most of our friends have one too. classic family car here
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I once received a late fee because my payment processed before the charge was posted to my account.
The fee was a negative amount.
I was amused.
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A former isp sent me a series of threatening letters demanding that I pay them $(0.07), on a invoice form that noted that numbers in (parenthesis) represented a credit. It was not actually my ISP that did that, it was the telco that acquired them, years after I’d been a customer. after the second or third letter, which threatened to send me to collection, I called. the person I talked to was confused, because they couldn’t find the account by my name, my former email address, or the account number on the invoice. They assured me they’d get it taken care of, but the next month i got another letter. This one, though, contained a check, for some other small amount of money. I deposited it, and never heard from them again.
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related to this, I once had a small balance on one of my Amex accounts, because a return credit got processed at a different exchange rate than the purchase. After several months, Amex took the money, noting it on the account as a ‘small balance write on’.
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We have a Honda as well, but a Pilot. When we got our camper trailer back in 2020, we needed a vehicle to haul it, and the Pilot was super comfortable and (relatively, it’s still a car) affordable. Then, when Maryse’s back problems began, the full level of comfort became apparent, as she could sit in it comfortably for hours despite having a vertebra that was being eaten away.
We love it, but parking is an annoyance. Most parking spots are not built for it. They are quite narrow.
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In case it’s useful information for anyone else - I saw a headache specialist today who told me that migraine sufferers should never take codeine because it can make the migraines more frequent/severe. I have been being prescribed codeine for my back for nearly 20 years, and at no point did anyone think to mention this. In fact, my GP recently prescribed me some codeine for my migraines 
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It’s been ages but I used to get codeine against coughing. Thanks for the information. I could currently use something against the persistent coughing… best I can do right now is sage drops and thyme tea.
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My brain is a complete git - I woke convinced my alarm had gone off and that Id turned it off. Got up, dressed, went to wake the kids up only to be told “Why, daddy?? Its 5.30am!!” Sigh.
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Something similar happened to me once. I got up, dressed, ate breakfast, went outside to catch my bus to go to work, only to then think “Man, it’s DARK outside”
It was 3 AM. I still had over 2 hours of blissful sleep allowed me.
I was mad.
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Despite having absolutely no reason to, I tend to snap awake at 5ish every morning, unless I’m overwhelmed by fatigue. It’s not ideal.
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