michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 5, 2020 14:05:27 GMT
A friend of mine in Arizona posted this afternoon regarding the sharpie lie. A friend of his wrote it: This is 100% false, and I have personal experience working with ballot counting for this election IN Arizona and I have the personal experience to tell you why this is dangerously and 100% false. For the past 10 days, I have been working in Maricopa county as a ballot adjudicator. As a registered Democrat I am paired up with a registered Republican, and we view every ballot that is flagged by the scanner. This includes any time someone voted for more than one candidate, voted for a write in candidate, or left a candidate field blank. No changes are made to the ballot unless both the Democrat and the Republican agree. We are constantly observed by a registered independent as we review scanned ballots on a computer (while my partner is making handwritten notes of our changes, which at the end of the day we reconcile/audit to make sure everything was done properly and all our changes are the same), we are on camera all the time, and tremendous efforts are undertaken to make sure there can be no shenanigans. I also want to add that the scanner does not recognize red ink on ballots, so no one in the office is allowed to bring in any blue or black pen. I did not handle physical ballots (mine were all scanned) , but there is tremendous security there as well: everyone is on camera, counted ballots get put in sealed and categorized in boxes and locked in a secure vault just in case there would be a need for a recount of the physical ballots. I mentioned the red ink and the ban on blue/black pens in the office to say that they take sincere care to make sure that nobody can do anything to mess with a ballot Yes, some voters were using sharpies. But none of those ovals that bled through to the other side were being picked up by any of the scanners. I know this because I personally reviewed at least 4000 ballots. I saw with my own eyes that using a sharpie did not invalidate any vote by bleeding through. To the extent a stray sharpie may have bled through to the other side for other people reviewing ballots, we are all trained to spot voter intent and by using common sense we are able to rescue ballots from being invalidated due to a large variety of human errors (to the extent that anybody fails to give us enough clear evidence of voter intent— sometimes we had to throw our hands up because the voter failed to crossout an over vote, or just didn’t fill in the bubble enough for it to be clear what they were trying to do.) This sucks, but if the voter doesn’t give us enough evidence of what they wanted to do, we can’t do anything about it under Arizona law. Also under Arizona law, it is illegal to look at the partisan nature of the ballot to determine whether someone intended to vote for a Democrat or Republican for a different office. That means that if somebody was not clear if they voted for Trump or Biden, we could not look at the partisan leans of the ballot to decide that the person meant to vote for Trump or Biden if the voter intent was ambiguous. It was heartbreaking no matter whose vote it was, but that’s the law. Voters are complicated. I saw a decent number of Biden presidential votes followed by straight ticket Republican voting, and I saw my share of trump votes with a straight ticket democratic voting. So to the extent that we worked on ballots, we have very strict rules for how to count every vote that was valid, and the ones that were missed by the machine we rescued a lot of votes that without humans would not have counted. People are instructed to completely fill in a circle, but lots of voters would simply do checkmarks in the boxes. All of those votes counted because we personally reviewed them, and determined that was the clear voter intent. We also rescued votes if somebody was using a pen and accidentally made the oval so big it bled in to the oval below it. It is not up to a machine to reject a vote, it is up to human judgment and consensus between two people of different political affiliations. And here’s the thing, during my entire work, the Republican I worked with and I only disagreed perhaps two or three times out of thousands of ballots (thereby needing an independent tie breaker), which means we were very good at agreeing on how to rescue votes, or which votes had to be thrown out because voter intent could not be determined. And none of the situations where the independent broke the tie I feel like they were wrong, I was persuaded that they were correct. And when it comes to sharpies, even if somehow somebody made a mark that was a little bit too big and bled into the box below, we were able to rescue those votes because we with our own human eyes can see what the voter wanted to do, and we would grant them their intent when they left us enough evidence of intent. I am so grateful for this job, because you can see that your vote will count because there are dedicated individuals who are rescuing lots of votes that would be thrown out if you only had a machine read it But here’s something I can tell you: my work more often than not rescued Trump supporter votes than Biden supporter votes, because based on the samples I was seeing, Trump voters were more likely to make curable errors than Biden voters, but Biden votes were more likely to cause their presidential vote to be thrown out. For example, there were many people who voted for Donald Trump and then wrote in Donald Trump in the same ballot. Under Arizona law, that requires special action for the vote to count because otherwise under Arizona law that counts as an over vote. More often than not, my efforts rescued Trump supporter votes for this area. There were Democrats who did this as well, but we follow the law precisely whenever these issues came up. Also: I threw out a small but not insubstantial number of Biden votes when they voted for Biden and the Libertarian candidate, likely by accident, but because there was no clear intent those votes were thrown out. I also had to throw out votes where somebody voted for Trump and Biden, or Trump and the Libertarian candidate. But I would say Biden Jorgensen invalid votes (since the two were above/below each other) were the ballots I was throwing out by about a 3 to 1 margin. Now to be fair, people who voted for two presidential candidates were a minority of the minority of ballots, but I can assure you that people getting confused with their ballots were more often likely Biden voters than Trump voters. So if anything, my work probably gave Trump more votes than my work re the possibility of correcting possible Biden overvotes (when the law showed clear intent, like by crossing out an overvote). Anyhow, very soon I plan to put all of my thoughts down about this very enriching experience. But I am here to tell you from personal experience: the Trump campaign is lying about sharpies Edit: I also wanna add something that the majority of people I told about my job were questioning me about: what happens if somebody makes a mistake on their ballot, does that invalidate the entire ballot? No. Every vote of which there is clear intent is a valid vote. Even if somebody overvotes an office for school board that does not invalidate your votes for President Senate Congress etc. For those asking about the sharpie issue in AZ, here's a good explanation from a pea that knows! Thanks for the details Jen in NCal!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 5, 2020 10:13:09 GMT
I am just curious, if your spouse is a Trump supporter, how do you feel when other Peas refer to Trump supporters as: clueless under-informed, gullible, fearful, superstitious, backwards-looking fools ugly so underdeveloped and the ever popular - deplorable Does this describe your spouse or SO? Is this what you think of all other Trump supporters, but not your spouse or SO. I know this sounds bratty, but DH and I do not agree on some politics, and this presidency has highlighted those ways, but I would never think of my DH in those terms or the other people I know that are Trump supporters. Just like I don't think all Biden supporters are precious little snowflakes that want nothing more than to get everything for free from the government. So how do you feel when you read this from either side and know they are talking about someone you love? I'll answer that one. I'm not one of those heads in the clouds, lala in love women. clueless-yes, sometimes he is that. He works hard. He isn't always up to date on what's going on in the world. He doesn't have time to sit down and read a newspaper or a book. He gets his news and info from tv and radio. He tries though. under-informed-yes, see above gullible-Yes!! he answers the phone at home and talks to telemarketers. He says he does it just to play with them though. fearful-No, he is definetly not that. superstitious-Nope..never heard that one before?? backwards-looking fools-well, we do live in the northern backwoods of MN...and he IS a logger. ugly-? so underdeveloped-no and the ever popular - deplorable-no
So there ya go. I can love my dh for the kind of man he is. Hard working. loves his family, and knows what he knows. When he knows better, or learns better, he does better. I've been called plenty of names by his republican friends-libtard, baby killer, sheeple, etc.
I think we married the same man I wish DH were more interested in educating himself about the issues, but that's not the world he was brought up in and while I do my best to encourage it, it's not natural to him. He is good and kind and will stop to help you on the side of the road to change your tire. I try to focus on that.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 5, 2020 10:11:13 GMT
We are complete opposites. We can't talk politics. He's too rigid in his voting. Even if he can see the other side, nope, he votes straight down the party line. I cannot understand this line of thinking at all. I know people like that and I am just confuzzled by the strict party line dedication. I generally vote more red than blue, but I vote based on platforms and plans. And the last several elections have definitely been more blue than red. I don't vote for extremism and authority platforms.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 5, 2020 10:08:34 GMT
I love Scott Brick - one of my favorite narrators! I just cried through that video and watched it a few times to remind myself that there are politicians that are kind and decent and possess more than a little compassion.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 5, 2020 10:04:55 GMT
My thanks to all of you who've been educating people like me on this thread. I've been so bogged down with work that I barely leave the computer. I took a few hours off tonight but am back at it now. I've been checking in periodically for a few minutes here and there, and have been getting a solid education reading along here. I haven't posted, but I've been 'liking' a lot of posts. Again, I bow down to all of you who haven't gotten any sleep in the past two days in order to keep us informed. You are the best. I have learned so much from the Peas during this election season and especially in the past few days! I try appreciate all that effort that is put in to educate us. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 5, 2020 9:41:28 GMT
Happy Birthday! I hope you have a lovely day! A special shout out for Belle! The cakes today are just lovely LisaDV!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 5, 2020 9:36:58 GMT
What a good update! So happy for you! Love the pictures
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 4, 2020 9:35:28 GMT
“Republican David Andahl, who died from COVID-19 in October, has been elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives” This is happening in the USA. In 2020. It's really sinking in that we are a nation of idiots. We are doomed and it will be of our own making.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 4, 2020 9:27:50 GMT
That's awesome! I needed to hear about good people. TFS!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 4, 2020 9:26:30 GMT
It’s not looking like we turned enough in the Senate. 😭😭😭 Biden winning, but GOP Senate is not something anyone prepared the country for. It may be even worse then if Trump won. I say that because I think a GOP Senate under Trump would eventually vote for some kind of additional COVID stimulus, but McConnell will never give Biden that victory. Because there's nothing McConnell loves more than game playing and screwing the very people who voted for him. F*** him.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 4, 2020 9:25:04 GMT
I am sitting here in the dark and trying not to cry and throw up at the same time. I am horrified that it's this close. I am scared. I am anxious. I am so very sad and disappointed. I do not know how we as a country have come to this and I don't think we'll ever recover from it. I fully expect that if he wins again we will see a dramatic rise in domestic terrorism and I think we will see more international terrorism make its way here too. He incites rage and hate and then feeds it. We should be ashamed of ourselves as a nation.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 4, 2020 0:17:54 GMT
I’m in a politically divided house for the first time in our marriage and I am struggling with it a lot. He is former LEO and for some reason is convinced that the jerk in office is truly the law and order man. I have spent the last few months since he let that info be known alternatively biting my tongue and trying not to cry. He is a good man but this is really making me question his beliefs. We have avoided talking about the election but things are still tense between us. He’s fine. It’s me that isn’t. I don’t know how to resolve this and I’m seriously considering seeing someone to help me with my disappointment and frustration because I want to find a way to get past this. Hugs to all in the same boat. So, so hard. Tonight and this week may be extra hard. Do you have some like-minded friends you can talk to?
One thing I would suggest having been through this - be careful about trash talking spouse to friends, it will just make you madder at him and then they'll think he's a jerk too. I regret how I did that in the past, though I. could. not. help. myself. Choose friends in a similar situation if you can, because they will understand you can hate the man's politics and still love the man. Unsolicited advice, but it helped me. Hugs if you want them. I understand!
Thank you for getting it. I do have a friend who knows both of us and she’s been helpful to talk to. No real trash talk just real confusion and disappointment that he can’t see the bigger picture. He really is a good man who is trying to support law enforcement and feels that one issue is more important than anything else and that the jerk and his administration really want to make things better. Sigh.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 3, 2020 23:13:31 GMT
What the actual f***. Infuriating and outrageous.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 3, 2020 23:08:44 GMT
I’m in a politically divided house for the first time in our marriage and I am struggling with it a lot. He is former LEO and for some reason is convinced that the jerk in office is truly the law and order man. I have spent the last few months since he let that info be known alternatively biting my tongue and trying not to cry. He is a good man but this is really making me question his beliefs. We have avoided talking about the election but things are still tense between us. He’s fine. It’s me that isn’t. I don’t know how to resolve this and I’m seriously considering seeing someone to help me with my disappointment and frustration because I want to find a way to get past this.
Hugs to all in the same boat.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 3, 2020 9:35:16 GMT
I'm reading about it for Worcester and Boston in MA. It's positively frightening to me that this is even a thing and I can't understand how EVERYONE isn't horrified by this. I hope that none of these precautions being taken will be needed and that somehow tis country manages to get through the election without triggering something major and awful.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 3, 2020 9:14:17 GMT
What a fun package to receive (so many yummy possibilities!)! What a very thoughtful thing to do jeremysgirl! Now I want to make some cookies!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 3, 2020 8:59:33 GMT
Happy Birthday! I hope you have a lovely day!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 2, 2020 9:17:02 GMT
Happy Birthday! I hope you have a lovely day!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 1, 2020 23:51:36 GMT
That’s a lot. I’m sorry and I hope that you get a break soon.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 1, 2020 20:25:09 GMT
I want to scream all the time that all the things being predicted will happen if the socialist is elected ARE HAPPENING RIGHT NOW AND AS A DIRECT RESULT OF THIS ADMINISTRATION! How the hell do his acolytes not see this? I can't stand it.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 1, 2020 13:43:03 GMT
I forgot to mention that Don Jr. actually encouraged this nonsense! I don't know how to embed things, but here's a link to one of the articles: Have fun in TexasI cannot imagine how few active brain cells you actually have to have to encourage this and for others to not see it for what it is.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 1, 2020 13:13:53 GMT
Thugs and lunatics are trying to take over the country. And there are so many fools trying to help and encourage them. This disgusts me. It should disgust everyone.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 1, 2020 13:12:43 GMT
Oh FFS. What a drama llama move. Call it what it really is...a battle against the orange one!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 1, 2020 10:58:44 GMT
Happy Birthday! I hope you have a lovely day!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 1, 2020 10:14:07 GMT
I haven't been to SC for ages but I was looking for a 6 x 8 album and I saw their $5 color blocked recipe binder. Upon closer inspection, I see that the description says that it includes only 6 page protectors (WTF?) and 12 "coloring pages". Does anyone know what the coloring pages are? One of the reasons that I stopped buying at SC was their lame (lazy) descriptions but I kinda want this album and am just curious what I'll be coloring if I buy it, lol. I got two of these at some point in time and their really quite nice albums. The coloring pages are very lightly textured cardstock pages (remind me of watercolor paper) that are a decent thickness. They'd make nice base pages for layouts.
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 1, 2020 10:06:07 GMT
I'm going to try and make time for this. DH is going camping for the weekend and it's a perfect time to make a creative mess!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 1, 2020 9:35:33 GMT
I don’t think I’m allowed to sign up anymore. You saw what happened last time I did. What did you do? Inquiring minds would like to know! Thanks for the invite grammadee! I might try to make time for this one!
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Nov 1, 2020 9:30:43 GMT
I am so sorry. Sending big hugs...
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Oct 31, 2020 21:06:35 GMT
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! Honestly we are completely f'ing doomed if we let manly men like this run the world. We'll be back in the dark ages before 2025. That's all I got in response to this stupidity. I also read this to DH and asked him if he fully understood how strongly I would tell him to f*** off if he tried to pull this nonsense on me. He laughed and agrees with me. ( edited to fix my stupid typos because I was so fired up while typing my initial response. )
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michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
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Post by michellegb on Oct 31, 2020 16:26:54 GMT
I would pay to watch that man mow the lawn. He was one of my favorite actors...and that accent was everything. I hate this year so much.
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