A panicky MMP!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Merry Chrismahanukwanzakah, everybody! And a Happy Festivus, and assorted other greetings of the season.

We have had a very quiet day thus far. I slept late – it’s so nice no longer having to stay up till the wee hours to get the last things wrapped/stowed under the tree, and then be roused early by over-excited children! – and have been doing not very darn much since then. Except talk on the phone with snowbunny and my mother. I swear, my mother is freaking more over her two inches of snow than snowbunny is over her two feet! Of course, the Seattle area and snow don’t mix too well, for some strange reason.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a lovely day and that Santa brought you what you most wanted. Don’t drink too much of that eggnog, now!

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This one is for BioRosie, since I told the 10th reindeer joke before she could.

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grooooooooooooooooooooooooans

Bad Vundie! Bad! No cookie for you.

Not that we’re having cookies… but you get my drift. Meringues and sorbet for dessert are prepped and standing by, stuffing is prepped and ready to stuff, and the dinner rolls are baking as we speak. All that is left to do is latkes, salad and goose… which means I am right on schedule to start the show at 7pm sharp. Woot!

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I managed to dig out and get to work (on my second try). I was going to stay home but I felt horrible about not coming in after having been four hours late the other morning due to car problems. I do not want them thinking I’m suddenly unreliable! But I’m leaving before it gets dark. The roads in town were bad, and out of town it gets insanely dark. At least I’ll get a half day in.

Our maintenance guy also does the plowing, or today, the bulldozing. He does not screw around with teeny tiny snow moving equipment. He said he’d come back and really clear out the front of my house for me once I got my car out of the way so I hope he has time to before I get home.

Have I mentioned that it’s really beautiful, even if it’s a huge PITA?

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I’m glad you finally made it to work, snowbunny. If only for appearance, it at least makes it clear you really were trying. Oh, and your brother actually called me! Although I’d left him a voicemail, so I’m not entirely sure it counts. :rolleyes:

I finished Papa Tigs’ scarf yesterday, so am working on his hat now. I had to give up and show him the scarf because I wanted to confirm just what style of hat he wanted and measure his [del]fat[/del]big head, but fortunately the scarf was a big success. And as I’d hoped, he finds the yarn colors to be absolutely perfect for him. Plus he agreed with my hair-splitting about not getting him anything – which I didn’t, I made it. I was rather proud of myself for coming up with that excuse, and then persuading him of its validity. :smiley:

Back to knitting.

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Considering that my boss left several hours early because of the roads herself, I think she understood that I had genuine problems going on. But if she can get home she can then play with her black lab, and this is perfect weather to play with a lab. Not too cold and lots of snow makes for happy idiot labs!

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Home and relaxing. It was a nice day, if noisy, with my family. And the Yankee gift swap was a hit - the party poopers who didn’t play this year are already talking about next year.

My youngest sis got a vibrating massager thingie - a furry blue weird critter that she absolutely loved… till **FCD **stole it from her. She kept saying “You’re *DEAD *to me!!” But he gave it to her before we left - he just took it to mess with her. The plush sperm and egg that we took were a big hit, as was the Black Knight with the removable arms and legs.

My mom, classy lady that she is, gave everyone a bag of assorted mini candies. By bag, I mean brown paper bag tied with a purple ribbon with our names written in magic marker! :smiley: My goofy niece gave us a can of Bush’s baked beans. :confused: We’ve decided she’s getting it back when she graduates from college in May. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

The food was good and plentiful. My deviled eggs were a hit - I think they were all ingested. There was sushi, sausage and peppers, salad, ham, Jello jigglers, shrimp, crab dip, antipasto, chicken nuggets, carrot cake, trifle, cookies, and I have no idea what else. I just know I was stuffed when I left.

We got home just a little after 5, and the doggies immediately charged outside to pee. They’ve been fed and they’re happily crashed. Kittehs have been fed, too, and I’ve unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Mythbusters is on TV, and we’re winding down. It’s been a good day, but a 90-mile drive is just not my idea of a good time. Glad to be home.

**snowbunny **- dang! That’s all I’m gonna say.

Mistletoe smoochies for everyone!!
MWAH!!!

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Well, it is over. We went over to the in-laws about noonish, gathered round and engaged in the orgy of gift opening. The wife and I played Santa this year – our first time – and all were cool with their gifts.

Then the feast was served; Roast Beast (turkey, natch), potatoes (made with sour cream & chives cream cheese – dear Og, more cream cheese!), peas, carrots (I avoided the carrots; I hate cooked carrots unless they’ve been simmering in a stew for 8 hours and have pretty much become one with the mix), stuffing, and Waikiki balls, one of my favourites. (I absolutely adore turkey – I’m like Dad from A Christmas Story in that regard – but Waikiki balls have become tradition around that household. Yum!) We noshed until stuffed and then rested our distended bellies for a while.

Then came time for dessert. There were two home-baked Apple pies, plus the two cheesecakes I made - one simple 9" plain raspberry affair made without sour cream, and then The Beast. The Beast turned out to be a big hit – far more tucked into that than I expected. I cut into very small slices (24 slices to be exact) because it’s just yuuuuuuge so even little half-inch slices were plenty enough. And it was awesome. I didn’t use enough booze though; the flavours weren’t really pronounced. I’ll have to double it to a full cup each next time I do this sort of thing up. Even so, it was most excellent; almost half the cake was gone after everyone had their share, and everyone liked it. The cream cheese frosting really made it.

After a while we all packed up and went home.

Our haul this year:

  • 4 HBC gift cards totally $160, 3 of which were of the electronic kind Zellers were carrying that have the button you press and the “naughty/nice” meter where it’d oscillate LEDs from one to the other until it eventually stopped on one to either a group groan or “Yay!”

  • A $50 Superstore gift card

  • A $20 Tim Horton’s card

  • A big-ass pack of socks

  • A fleece bedding set (the wife loves fleece)

I was also the recipient of two instant regifts:

  • A rather nice fleece housecoat. I never really bought myself a housecoat, but this one is rather nice and would be good to wear after showers or whatever. Turns out this was one of two of the exact same gifts given to the same person in a rather astonishing coincidence given that neither of the communicated with the other about what they were going to buy.

  • A very nice leather bomber jacket with sheepskin trim, bought for someone for whom Size XL was woefully inadequate, especially since this is the smallest damn XL I’ve ever seen. This must have been size XL in kids or something. Fits me well enough though, if a bit long in the arms, but I can live with it. This thing has tons of pockets, inner and outer, and I like pockets.

Pretty good this year. Not that I pay much attention to The Haul – truth be known I prefer giving to getting – but it’s always nice to go home with some yuletide swag. :slight_smile:

Now I’m going to chill for a while and let all this food settle.

Hope everyone else had a merry yule!

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Ok, if we’re listing [del]our haul which is all any of us cares about[/del] the presents some were kind and generous enough to give to us:

1 set of 12 monogrammed (with my married name, natch) white linen table napkins
1 paperback book Eleanor of Aquitaine
1 “chrome” wall phone with mock dial to go in kitchen (long story)
1 book about the life of Emily Post (from my oldest sister–not sure if there’s a passive/aggressive message there)
DVD of High Fidelity from #1 son (cannot wait to watch this tomorrow night after a long day at work)
DVD of Mamma Mia from Daughter (yes, cheesy as hell, but we had fun watching it last night)
Lobster shaped cookie cutter from Daughter
MiCook from inlaws–a cookbook that talks to you and shows you how to cook (?), however, it says on the package that it can also be used as a digital picture frame, which is what I’ll use it for. (I’ve been cooking for over 20 years, so ?)
sea salt and pepper from inlaws (?)
spaghetti fork from inlaws–something tells me MIL did her shopping at a cooking supply store. :slight_smile:
And that’s about it. #2 son bought for his sibs, which was enough for me (his idea, his allowance money).

I am on the couch in the living room, sorta of drifting and vegging out. Work tomorrow (ugh). Overall, it was a nice Xmas, one of the nicest I’ve had in awhile.

The cousins are much improved. The boy (the one whom SIL says she never wanted–she wanted all girls) must be in speech therapy, because he is really trying to say his beginning sounds with much success. SIL is good with him with this, yay! We gave him a HUGE floor puzzle of the solar system. The oldest (7) is reading well and wears glasses now. We gave her Little House in the Big Woods (hardbound) to start her collection. The other twin (girl–twin of boy) got a cupcake set of silicone cupcake molds and recipes. It was nice to see them say their pleases and thank yous etc. There is hope in the world, no? :wink:

FIL looks about the same. Not too bad, and I think he had a good Xmas. In fact, it was probably one of the nicest times I’ve ever spent over there. MIL went a bit ballistic re the group photo–man, older women’s voices sure are shrill. :eek:

But I am glad I had a nice time. It was cold and Daughter struggled a bit with missing her friend (the one who died) and feeling bad for enjoying herself etc, but we talked and she cried a bit, so I think she’s coping ok.

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Sooooo full.

Dinner was a hit, which I’m rather proud of given that this happens to be the first time we’ve tried doing a full-blown holiday feast. Mumsy Dearest and the in-laws were both most impressed with our culinary prowess.

I don’t really have any prezzies to brag about… the ones from family are usually in monetary format (my favourite!), and The Boy and I always pick a big ticket communal purchase as our gift to each other (last year was a Le Creuset dutch oven, and this year looks like it’ll be a proper espresso maker once the Boxing Day sales come along).

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A very happy holidays to one and all, of all kinds of holidays, whatever you choose to celebrate. I do hope that just about covers it, now. :slight_smile:

We’ll be gifting in the coming days, as we had to cover the plane fare for my son to come home from AR but also I got a nice little bit of extra change in this week’s pay from the annual appraisal so at least there is a bit extra to go around with. I’m also making some gifts; I’m currently working on a scarf and will start another large afghan sometime next week. I’m still working to find yarn that I’m comfortable working with that also feels soft enough. I had been using the boucle yarn, which is nice and soft, but can easily get tangled up, unfortunately. And sometimes I’ve gotten skeins that have been scratchy! I’ve got a couple of projects that are currently on hold until I get the time (and -patience-) to untangle the yarns which have gotten all bunged up together. Turns out there are some pitfalls to crocheting!

I’m hoping to get out early tomorrow; I fear it will be a beast of a day in the stores. I do have to get groceries, and that’s what I’m going to do first–another turkey, of course, and hopefully a beef roast and maybe even a pork loin for NY eve. I’m actually thinking of doing the pork loin in the crock pot with sauerkraut and apples. Yeah, I don’t know what’s come over me, I really do not like sauerkraut, but am willing to try it with apples, I guess. Herm… maybe I’ll just go with cabbage? :wink:

We did have a nice dinner of spiral sliced ham, baked sweet and regular potatoes, carrots and crescent rolls. Then we had a Mrs. Smith’s orchard apple pie for dessert. Let me tell you, that orchard apple pie is pretty darn good! Heh, it beat my own apple pie, I’m sorry to say! LOL I’ll probably make some cookies over the weekend and maybe a pecan pie for my son, as that is his favorite.

I’m just chilling right now, drinking some hot tea and surfing. Hope everyone is enjoying themselves. Heh, don’t think I’ve missed that you’re (almost) home alone, SpecialOne–enjoy your freedom though. :slight_smile: Hey wonder why BooFae is? Hope all is okay with her–maybe she’s on holiday? Happy holidays!

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Yesterday Mom, She Who Uses Independent As An Insult, proclaimed that “one of the things SiL’s Mom and me have in common is our love of independence” and said it seriously. These are two women who went from their fathers’ power to the aegis of their husbands, who have spent their marriages folding themselves into pretzels and who hadn’t taken a single large economic decision by themselves before widowhood.

Today she had the martyred sniffles.

I almost killed Lilbro when I caught him manipulating my antivirus.

Middlebro got all emotional yesterday and started “if Dad was here…” If Dad was here we wouldn’t be able to have a conversation.

Someone stop this family, I want out!

Oh, and Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanucka (or whatever the right spelling and wish are) for those who celebrate them. Will read how other people are doing later.

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Holy cow - I slept in till after 7 - as did Scruffy! Cool beans! :smiley:

The only plan for today that I’m sure of is the move of firewood from the pile down the hill to a pile in or near the garage. I may take **FCD **out to breakfast, too. He’s showering now, and I’m up next.

I was up late last night, for me. My doggone sister gave everyone disks of jigsaw puzzles. Damned things are addictive!! So I was up late - just one more puzzle, I promise!!!

One nice thing about not putting up a tree - I don’t have to worry about taking down a tree. :smiley:

Happy Last Firday of the Year to all!

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Blurf.

tarra, I don’t know if you’re OK with synthetics, but if you are, I really like the feel of Red Heart TLC Amore… it’s incredibly soft for an acrylic and quite easy to crochet. Plus it’s quite cheap, which is nice when you’re making a giant afghan.

Kittehs woke me up to demand breakfast, but now I’m going to crawl back into bed and snuggle some more. yaaawn Smell ya later.

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Well, Christmas is over, thank Og. I spent most of the day in bed nursing bronchitis. I called the doctor on Christmas Eve, asking them to please see me. They were nice enough to do that. He put me on a z-pack and two inhalers, one of which is a two hundred dollar affair with a steroid and rescue medicine. Hawkeyeop and I ended up having Chinese food for dinner. So, nothing too exciting there.

Every year, my mom gets so excited about the stuff she gets for me, and every year she bombs big time. This has been going on since the begining of time. When I still lived in the same state, I dragged my butt out of bed at a way too frickin’ early time the day after Thanksgiving in order to pick out my own presents. This was a good system. Now, I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but we’ve been through all of this before. I don’t wear purple. I have never worn purple. (At least since I’ve been old enough to dress myself.) We have been through this before, but she still got me a purple dressy jacket. IMO, it’s ugly. She also got Hawkeyeop AND I “charging stations.” Ugh. I have no space or desire for this, much less for TWO of them. Even better, the stupid thing fell apart when Hawkeyeop took it out of the box. Mine did not venture out of its box. She also sent a pink cosmetic case that holds more make-up than I will ever own at any one time, an apron which I would never wear–(polka dots, really?) and a cook-book, which wouldn’t be bad, except I already have it in last year’s edition.

How do I stop this madness? I don’t want her to waste any more money… Oh, and what the H3ll should I do with this…stuff*?

So, now I’m at work. Yeah, that’s fun.

Terra, I like Caron Simply Soft. It’s super soft and cheap. It’s acrylic and not fancy or anything, but it’s my favorite yarn to work with.

I’m sure that there was more I wanted to say, but I forget now. And I really should get to work. So, more later all.

*It’s CRAP to me, OK, CRAP. (oooo next year’s White Elephant is a possibility.)

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Oooh, thanks Muppet and Mousie both - great suggestions; acrylic is probably best for me as the woolen ones can be scratchy/itchy for me some times. What I’m gonna do right now, I think, is try to find some variegated yarn, soft, and make a couple of afghan-like throws with them. The one I made for my daughter turned out fairly well, although I do need some help in finishing things up. LOL I tell ya, I really am not very crafty. At all. So needless to say, when the finished product looks halfway decent, I’m happy!

Thanks again. :slight_smile:

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Up caffeinated, back to work.

Hope you feel better mousie.

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Howdy, all. Papa Tigs saw a new endocrinologist this morning for his diabetes, who’s also an internal medicine person, and she discovered nodules on his thyroid. So he has an ultrasound Tuesday to find out if they’re benign (90% chance) or malignant (10% chance). Needless to say, the odds are in his favor, but all we can do is wait and see. :frowning:

And right now I’m off to get my [del]head[/del]eyes[/del] examined, and I just noticed the time, so must run. Comments on other folks’ posts later. Ta!

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Back from breakfast and a few errands. We got a “mailbox” for the kids - one of those thingies that hangs on the wall in offices. We’ll install it in the stairwell leading to their apartment, so we don’t have to worry about their mail sitting on our counter and possibly getting lost. We also got some anti-flea carpet spray which I’ll be applying in a little bit.

FCD will be futzing in his shop today, and I’ve got to take my computer to my friend who will replace my CD drive. I think I can survive without a computer for a few hours… maybe… if I don’t think about it…

:smiley:

Good thoughts heading to **PapaTigs **- I’m sure things will be just fine!

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Good morning everyone.

Mama Tigs, sending good thoughts to Papa Tigs. I took the same attitude when they discovered nodules on my throat last early spring. Results turned out non-conclusive and last month’s ultrasound showed some actual shrinkage.

I must have been tired, because I went to bed last night a little after 10:30 and pretty much slept through the night. In fact, I slept so hard, I didn’t even hear my daughter get up and leave for work. She was supposed to be there at 8:30 this morning.

I feel badly, though, because she obviously walked and there is still a big mess of snow, slush and ice on the ground.

The kids loved their Christmas presents, the dog loved his Christmas presents, and hubby already knew what he was getting.

Christmas Day dinner was fine. Well, my mother pissed my husband off within 5 minutes of arriving here, but other than that it was fine. The meal was delicious and we have enough of the roast left over to have some tonight with the leftover mashed potatoes and gravy. The remainder of the roast will be used for the soup I plan to make.

I plan to spend today doing nothing other than sitting on my butt and relaxing. Frankly, I’m still tired, but once I bolted upright because I was concerned my daughter hadn’t gone to work, I was up, so I came down, let the dog out, and made coffee.

Speaking of coffee, time to get a cup.