Our dinner went very well. Hardly any leftovers! Y’all gotta try this corn/zucchini with bacon saute - It was fantastic.! I’ll post the recipe later.
We got gift cards for everyone, but Mr Rebo got creative with the wrapping of the cards for the twin teenagers. He placed a brick in one box, and a bag of rocks in another. He also taped gift cards to large boxes of Mike and Ike’s candies. So when the shook them they were confused. Hee! It was pretty funny to us, but I think the kids thought Uncle Tommy was crazy.
I’m sitting here noshing on crudite. I gave Ernie an olive, and he keeps nosing it around like he doesn;t know what it is! Heh. I need to remember to throw it away before I step on it.
Posting from an alternate computer. My machine is in the hands of my good friend Mark who’s going to replace the CD drive with one that works. Yay for friends!
Other than that, I haven’t done anything useful today. I really should. Maybe I will. Maybe not.
I’m on vacation, dagnabbit. I can be a bum if I want!
Hi again. Got my [del]head[/del] eyes examined, and my eye pressure has gone up just enough to start having to check every six months for glaucoma, which runs in the family. Thus far I’m right on the borderline, but it’s gone up from the 15-18 range to 22 and 23, which is Not Good.
But because we had lots of MSA money left for this year, I was able to buy top of the line glasses – extra-thin UV-protected scratch-proof no-line bifocal lenses that darken automatically. Plus top of the line lenses for my computer glasses. Plus lovely comfy and expensive frames for both. And we still have $500 of MSA money left to use up! But at least we have the first 3 months of next year to use it so we don’t lose it.
Anyway, so now I’m typing basically blind because my eyes are still dilated, so I should probably shut up and wait till I can see again so I don’t make any stupid mistakes that you’ll laugh at me for. Not that you would do such an awful thing, of course.
My computer is in the capable hands of a coworker who’s going to replace my dead CD drive, and I’ve been putting my bookmarks on this machine, which is the one my daughter uses. I don’t know how long I’ll be without my other machine, so I may as well make myself at home on here.
All my intentions of doing something constructive today have gone by the board. I’m a bum - what can I say??
My eyes are finally starting to go back to normal. But I am blessing the little “zoom” key on my keyboard, that has allowed me to blow the print on the screen up to about 48 points; it’s sure made passing the time till I could actually see again much less painful than usual.
I finished up Papa Tigs’ hat to match that nice scarf last night, too, and I must say I’m extremely proud of myself. I’m going to play around with the pattern a bit and make a similar set for my son, and try something different with the hat; and if it works out well enough, I may contact the person who wrote the scarf pattern and offer the hat pattern to match. What the heck, it’s a free pattern anyway!
Oh, herbs, I second the vote for the Caron Simply Soft acrylic yarn. It feels soooo soft and nice, and comes in about a million different colors. Do be warned, however, that the extra-bright colors come in smaller skeins and cost more for some reason. But I’ve knit about a million soldier hats out of the black Simply Soft, and it’s a very nice yarn. Oh, and if you order it online from someplace like Joann? You’ll also get a smaller skein than if you buy it at Wal-Mart or Michaels. Go figure.
Time to go actually try to get some work done, now that I can see again.
Howdy all! I’ve spent the morning packing and moving my desk one cube back. They haven’t switched my phone yet, so I’m still sitting in my old cube. I’m not sure if I’ll bother to unpack or not. Why unpack if someone else will have to pack it all up again in a couple of weeks?
I had a nice Christmas day. It started with pouring rain but the sun came out by the afternoon. I hung out in my jammies all day. It was nice. My haul was a $20 bill, $50 Amazon gift certificate and a Starbucks giftcard of indeterminate amount.
My local yarn store, the one on the way home from work, is closing. They’ll be open through Sunday and then they’re out of business. In a completely selfish way, I’m really, really glad I used up all my discount cards in November. They weren’t my favorite store but they were the most convenient. And, they were the only local store that still stocked KFI (Noro, Debbie Bliss, etc.)
I’ve got a working CD drive now - yay! My friend, Mark, just added a CD-R under our CD-R/W. He’s a good guy and now I’m able to install the stuff **FCD **needs to do his project.
FIL just called - he’s happy with the computer we got for them. SIL set it all up and they’re in business. So we done good there.
I had some leftover BBQ a little bit ago and it’s not sitting well on my tummy. Not pukey ick - just ick. Maybe I need some medicinal chocolate??
Been a busy past few days and nights. Tuesday night we had dindin with friends and then went to look at assorted Christmas tackiness. Then, as per tradition, we had to go to DQ and get a choco dipped cone.
Ol’ y’all know who left Wednesday mornin’ to go see his family. He’ll be back sometime Sunday afternoon. I had dindin at some other friends’ house then went to Christmas Eve service and came home and crashed.
Yesteday, well, I worked but I was tahred and sleepy all day from stayin’ up til almost one am Christmas Eve, so I crashed early.
Now it’s today.
Tomorrow Ima go see my family and spend the night. I’ll be back sometime Sunday afternoon as well.
Hope everybody had a good Christmas/Hannukah/Solstice/Festivus/Whatever.
I read through the posts but comprehended pretty much nuttin’ so, yay, boo, hug, trout slap etc.
Well, braved the Boxing Day crowds over at the mall today. It wasn’t as busy as I was expecting it to be, but it was still a zoo. We mainly went to Zellers because we had to buy a new lamp for the night table, as the wee halogen one we had burned out. The thing was so cheap its base fell apart early on, so we decided to scrap it and get a new, better one. (The new one is a rather nice Oriental-style square affair with a 13w CFL bulb, which should last longer, and it’s of much better quality.)
We ended up spending some $80 (including $25 for lunch) on stuff, which we used a couple of our gift cards to pay for. Then the thought struck that we had a crapload of HBC Rewards points, so why don’t we trade 'em in for another gift card? Worked out nicely, as we ended up getting $60 (from 480,000 points) in what amounts to free money from years of idly collecting points. (Sure, it can only be used in the store, but we shop there anyway, if not that often, so it’s all good.)
Hell, we were never going to use the points to buy stuff out of their points catalog anyway. There’s never anything we really want in it.
Gonna make steak 'n scalloped potatoes with a couple of veggies for dinner later tonight.
Hey everyone, now that Christmas is over I’ll be back. It was a difficult time and I was not willing to dump my emotional crap on y’all.
Anyway, we are in the midst of a huge windstorm, it’s blowing a steady 50 mph with sustained gusts of 90+ mph. Trees are down, power is out in many areas, and I have a bad draft in the bathroom and around the back door, I need to get those covered. If the power goes out here we will go down to skiffman’s and hunker down in the living room around the wood stove. We have plenty of food, books to read, games to play.
I’m gonna go back and catch up on everything since yesterday now.
I’ve been watching House reruns for two days and fighting a losing battle against a killer sinus headache that for all intents and purposes (or all intense porpoises as a friend used to say) may as well be a migraine.
blurf
Home. My leg still hurts. I got good news last night, my mom was in the hospital for a lung biopsy. There was cancer, but it was the smallest detectable sized tumor, and no spreading anywhere else. I’m glad, she’s the only (non-Fairy Chat) Mom I got.
Stay safe, kai!
{{{{Mama and PapaTigs}}}}. (How do two tigers make a bunny, anyway?:dubious:)
Top o’ the mornin’ to you! It’s 0520 here and I’m off to work soon. I was awoken earlier (much) by the thunder and lightning–yes, we have gone from below zero temps to 53 degrees outside and rain. The snow is almost gone (except where it was heaped up) and the flooding has begun. The fog last night was beautiful (to look at, not drive in). Ah, December in Illinois.
Good morning! Ernie had been trying to wake me up since about 3:30 - I finally gave in at 5:15. He ran outside lickety-split! Poor baby.
So I’m up. Yesterday I took the dogs to the park. It was a little muddy, but not bad. It was really warm - about 75°. We’re supposed to get a cold front tonight with more rain. Lucy got lots of compliments on her Christmas present - a bright pink collar! She is stylin’!
Here’s the link to the corn/zucchini medley recipe. I added salt, but that was the only change. It was a huge hit!
Take care, {{{Kai}}}. And please don’t feel like you can’t vent here if need be. We’ve got big shoulders!
I have hugs, chocolate and wet trout - take what you need, Mumpers…
Mornin’ Y’all! Caffiene is coursin’ through my body so soon I shall go purtify and head northwards to visit family. We’re gatherin’ at sis’s place this afternoon for an after Christmas get together all because of me. Awwwww… I won’t get to see the nephew, the nieces and the great nephews and nieces it’ll be mom, sis, the bros, the assorted in-laws and me. Still that’ll be good. I go bearing gifts so there is that.
**Baldwin **- it’s Monday Morning Post - a series of mundane threads within MPSIMS that goes back 7 years or so - it’s explained in ATMB somewhere.
At the most basic level, it’s a place to post stuff you want to share but don’t need to start a whole thread about. We have volunteers to start every Monday and we may or may not stay on topic and no one cares whether we do or not. There are really no rules, altho if you feel inclined to start one, it’s nice if you claim a Monday because **gardentraveler **tries to keep us orderly that way. Welcome.
I’m up at a reasonable hour after a night of bizarre dreams involving Johnny Depp, the senior civilian at my work, a bridge, a loooooooooong piece of paper or fabric, scientists testing bathrooms, and some sort of training class I was supposed to attend. No, I didn’t drink last night. Today I intend to begin making order of my studio. I’ll check in from time to tome when I need a break, but you peoples better behave yourselves and not distract me!
G’morning all - I’m up and caffeinating. Heh, didn’t have the dreams that FCM (I’m with you on Johnny Depp though rowr!) although I did wake up around 3 AM but was able to go back to sleep.
Hugs to kai; been wondering where you were! Thoughts are with you and your family (and the goggies!).
I’ve been laying a bit low; I’ve got a touch of a bug, I think. I hope it’s not the one that PapaTigs had :eek:. I don’t think so, I haven’t been violently ill just a very queasy stomach and general feeling of malaise. I don’t want to go too far from home. LOL
Have a safe trip, Swampy and enjoy your time with family; yes, I missed you the past few days.
There is a yarn store local to me! I am hoping to get over there today, I haven’t made it there yet. We’ll see how I feel. If not today, next weekend for certain. They have sit and stitch things every week or so, and I’d really like to make one of those. I am finally (knock on wood) starting to feel comfortable working the crochet hook and getting a feeling for the tension in the yarn, although I do suspect that I have stumbled onto my own peculiar way of doing things. Unconventional. The sit and stitch would indeed be interesting!
Hope everyone has a good Saturday and stays well or gets better. Hugs to you all.
Thus far I’m right on the borderline, but it’s gone up from the 15-18 range to 22 and 23, which is Not Good. 
