Merry Christmas all. Will be leaving in about an hour for the Topeka area. Weather looks good. Hoping everyone has a good day.
Howdy Y’all! I am all shevelled and purtified for deheathenization. OYKW is futzin’ with the beast tenderloin. We are the very picture of domestic tranquility, we are! I shall head out soon to make sure stuff is all in place. Plus I have to wear an Alb and Cincture today, and even though it is an easy knot to tie, I always have trouble tyin’ the cincture around my waste. Alb and Cincture for those who may be curious. I do not look that good, however.
All who are travelin’ today be safe and have a good time. All who are not travelin’ also be safe and have a good time.
Good morning and Merry Christmas.
I hope you all have a most pleasant day.
You tie up your garbage??? 
We’re all showered and dressed and ready to head north. The temp has leapt to 14°.
Have a wonderful day, all! I’ll probably post when we get home.
Merry Christmess, y’all!
Holy socks, Batman, it STILL hasn’t stopped snowing. 
It is banana-pants out there.
Happy Sunday!
Merry Christmas!
It was 16 feels like 4 degrees this morning and we braved the dog park.
I planned to stay 15 minutes or so, but it wasn’t as cold as expected and we stayed 40 minutes.
Cerby didn’t limp at all there, and he ran around like an idiot chasing a laser light that somebody else brought. As soon as he walked in the door at home, he started limping again.
Ripple loves the cold, so he was more playful than usual. Echo always has a good time.
I always feel better when I go, I’ve had a hard time getting motivated lately.
Nothing planned at all for today.
I have stuff that needs to be done, but I might do nothing anyway.
It’ll mean more to do tomorrow.
Merry Christmas! I was awakened by an automated call from Amtrak saying my train is delayed due to “service disruption,” which seems like saying “We’ll be late because we’ll be late.” How late? Dunno. The call said I’d have to speak to an agent to find out.I’ve been on hold for [checks watch] 56 minutes and counting. I imagine they have one agent since it’s Christmas and a jillion calls because of weather elsewhere, so I may be spending Christmas listening to crummy Christmas music. The website says the train is on time and will arrive in Seattle early.
Whoa. I just got the “Please stay on the line for a brief survey” and then was disconnected. I instantly got the same automated call from Amtrak. Checking my email, I see I’ve had six identical emails from Amtrak since 6:50 a.m… I’m wondering is their system has–to use the technical term–gone phlooey. If I hang up, will I get nonstop automated calls all day?
I hope everyone is having a glorious day!
Merry Christmas! 
It’s sunny and cold again today (25°F at 11:12am), but there’s finally no more wind. That makes a really big difference! After today, we’ll gradually start warming up.
Last night with my BFFs was awesome. Dinner was yummy, and I ate way more cookies than I needed to…and then I brought a bunch home. 
I’m still really enjoying the fact that I can eat pretty much whatever I want for the first time in over a year. I will always have to be careful about what might make me feel sick (eating too fast or way too much at once, having too much sugar at once, etc.), but I’ve decided that for the rest of the year I’m not going to worry about limiting what I eat otherwise – including breaking my “rule” about not having baked goods/sweets in the house. I won’t go too crazy, but both my bariatric support group and my therapist encouraged enjoying food during the holidays and pausing any guilt. So, that’s my plan!
In addition to the wonderful food and incomparable company, I got two great presents last night: a sweater from one of my favorite stores, and this year’s Swarovski snowflake ornament.
I collect Swarovski crystal, and for the past 12-13 years my BFFs have given me the annual snowflake ornament. I’m looking forward to seeing them again on Thursday: I’ll go to my BFFs’ and we’ll all have lunch together, then the husband BFF will take me, his son, and his son’s girlfriend to the nearby Metro station. The “kids” and I will go to the Museum of Illusions, and meet up with the BFFs afterwards to see the National Tree and the Capitol Tree. Then we’ll all have dinner together.
I’ll drive to Baltimore and see my dad and bro tomorrow, but today will be just me and the doggy. No complaints at all. 
The holiday-related-movie marathon will begin at lunchtime: for some reason I’m not feeling Lethal Weapon today, so I think I’ll start with Die Hard and Trading Places and then see if I’m up for Scrooged.
This is how I feel about the MMP, too. 
That’s what the wife BFF made last night! Plus steamed broccoli and roasted potatoes. I went heavy on the potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. 
What’s your accumulation total looking like at this point?
Hopefully the calls/emails are a result of phlooey-ness and not an actual delay! 
A few years ago, I went out to Central Washington to visit some friends: instead of flying directly to Seattle, I briefly considered extending my trip by a day or two and flying into LA and taking the Coast Starlight up the western edge of the continental U.S…but the more I looked into that, the more I heard warnings about how unreliable Amtrak is. And, since my arrival in Seattle would have needed to be timed to allow for picking up a rental car, ultimately I decided that I couldn’t chance arriving at, say, 2am and being SOL. (This was before I was comfortable with ride-share services.) I’d still like to take that train route someday, but I think it should be a vacation dedicated to that trip instead of it being just the first part of a larger trip.
I got to talk to an agent! It’s like finding out Santa DOES exist! Briefly, the train TODAY is 5 hours late, and they’re anticipating delays tomorrow due to weather. He said he’d see what he can do about my getting inundated with notifications. I just now got another automated call, but fingers crossed!
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope your holidays are safe, happy and warm.
I hit the road in about 45 minutes. 3 hours to Vegas and then we can really get this party started! Weather and plague have massively disrupted what was going to be a birthday party for a buddy as well as a Christmas bash. Alas, 'twas not to be this year. Most people have had their flights cancelled and the birthday boy is the one with plague! Oh, well. Those who remain will just have to party for everybody!
Happy Whatever You Like today!
It’s 31f on our front porch, but supposed to get above freezing today and stay that way for at least a week.
Wifey and I are on our own today, but that’s okay. We’ve got a couple of nice steaks for dinner tonight and will prolly make Moscow Mules again.
We’ve been watching The Vicar of Dibley on Britbox (I think, it’s on Prime anyway). It’s pretty dumb in spots, but we’ve gotten any number of belly laughs from it, which is a good thing.
Anyway, hope everybody enjoys their day!
I just saw this on Nextdoor. It was posted 17 hours ago.
The guy who sat in his chair at the entry of the Market complex died yesterday. Sounds like he fell asleep & didn’t wake up.
I’d see him frequently, though I never gave him any money. He lived down the street from The Market, and sometimes I’d see him carrying his chair home.
Three-quarters of a metric fuckton, give or take some accumulated drifts, and it’s STILL coming down.
I thought maybe the wind was just blowing it around, but … nope, that stuff is falling from the sky.
Shoe, are you off work? Or is the pizza place closed due to the weather? I’m sure your area has lots of snow plows, so hopefully the streets will get cleared soon, or as soon as the snow stops falling.
I cracked myself up. My sister said her gift from Amazon wouldn’t be wrapped, so I haven’t opened any packages from Amazon for a week. In opening my gifts this morning, I kept finding stuff I’d ordered and exclaiming, “It’s just what I needed!”
(I also got some wonderful gifts from other people.)
Bumba, enjoy those Moscow Mules!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Hubs is not my best friend today. He bought the cats some freeze dried chicken and duck treats, but gave them to me instead. I gave each of them a couple of treats and now they will NOT leave me alone, the little jerks. He denies it, but I just know he planned it this way, LOL!
The yard flock got extra sunflower seeds and peanuts, so they have been busy which is fun to watch.
I’ve been hearing about the travel delays and am pretty happy we don’t have anywhere to be. Even local traffic is a mess and we don’t have weather issues.
Flyboy, there used to be a homeless guy who lived in the food stamp parking lot and spent most of his days in the lobby cooling down or warming up. One day the security guard went out to give him his morning cup of coffee and found him dead. It is just too sad to think about, they were someone’s children once and to end up dying alone and homeless. Sigh.
My mystery bird is becoming more of a mystery because someone on Nextdoor is reporting seeing a sapsucker and that pic looks like what I’m seeing too. I’m definitely going to have to get a game cam.
My Christmas morning and the presents my mom sent me:
I forgot mushrooms for the escargots tonight. When I got to the corner market, this was outside.
A subdued morning since my lovely wife and I exchanged most of our gifts at Solstice and made a holiday meal last night. She gave me
A pair of locally-made earrings with blue Czech glass.
I gave her
[A jigsaw puzzle.]
She still has a string rainbow and car mug coming from me, whenever we do family Christmas–she just tested positive again.
Wonderful gifts, I am full of jealousness over the fabulous bowl!
Last night I noticed car lights on at the LWT’s home and absently wondered what was going on. Looking outside today, I was able to tell that they followed the time-worn tradition of waiting until the kids were in bed before assembling their new swing-set.
I did a little late night gift giving as well, but that was just treats for the yard flock.