We’ve done the kids’ gifts. I’m ready to go but FCD isn’t. Soon, I hope…
Laterz…
Reasonable loading and heaving today. I was on 100 Middle Red, because the dude called out. I stopped at Aldi for salmon for Friday’s dinner.
You need more of a miracle worker.
Man, did I get in trouble earlier.
I am “house-sitting” a small farm, and one of the chores is to feed the animals before sunset.
It is 19:56 here, in the summery Southern hemisphere, and still light, but when I showed my face… I was late home after last minute Xmas meal shopping for me; this is a solo Xmas.
The chickens had given up and gone to roost. When I fed them they just gave me blank stares like I was no good to them.
The ducks were ok, though.
But the horses! I thought they were noisy… until I got spotted by the sheep.
I got cursed in several animal dialects, though the cat just gave me one of those “I’m not mad, I’m just very disappointed” faces.
Our brunch with the wife’s relatives went well, other than an incident with the butter in one pan getting too hot and setting off the smoke detector.
Happy holidays to anyone celebrating. We’ve always done a secular Christmas, but it’s going to be a hard one this year - it’s been a few months since my uncle passed, but he’s been increasingly on my mind these last few days. It’s going to be so strange without him and I’m already struggling. Sorry, didn’t mean to start things off so maudlin…
We’ll get together for a bit tomorrow. And I need to start packing. I think I’ll schedule movers for around the 23rd next month in case I want to do some painting or whatever at the new place. But that makes it seem so far away that I keep putting things off. My sister did get a bunch of boxes from her neighbor that just moved in so at least I shouldn’t need to buy any of those!
red Yay for getting sprung to your sister’s place! You have really been through the wringer, I hope things get easier for you soon.
Metal Mouse glad to see you made it to St Louis and are enjoying family. Van Gogh it sounds like you made the right decision to stay home though, that would have been a terrible drive.
Sensai random question - what language does your family speak when they’re home? Since you’ve bounced around a little bit over the years I’m just curious what the default is that everyone settled on!
scudsucker farm animals take their feeding times very seriously. Hope they don’t murder you in your sleep 
Cookie you wait until after the new director has started before you try to burn the place down!
Home at last! I’m finding spending lots of time with the grands takes a lot out of me. And I’ll have them Sunday morning till Tuesday afternoon, then Weds and Thurs all day. It’s gonna be a rough week.
We ran by the marina and I saw all the work done on the boat (and all that remains to be done…) I just finished totaling up some expenditures to see how much FCD has left of his inheritance. This little job had sucked a lot out of the bank. Not a surprise, it’s just the way it is.
There were several boxes awaiting us when we returned, including one that wasn’t due till Moanday. FCD sold his plasma cutter and he’s replacing that work table with a mitre saw station. The 3-D printer and the Harley are supposed to be sold also to add to the boat account. Not sure when those will be claimed.
Otis is with the critter sitter - we’ll pick him back up on Firday morning, so 2 relatively quiet days here. And, frankly, I don’t want to go to my brother’s tomorrow. But I will and I’ll smile and I hope we’ll be able to duck out early.
Ho ho ho…
Left the office at noon. The other person left before me. I headed over to a frou frou restaurant for lunch before heading home. It is a frenchish restaurant, but has really good ravioli. Which i had. They have amazing cranberry nut bread, and my waiter got me slices recently removed from the oven. The butter melted wonderfully. I had it instead of dessert.
Back home in the chair, lager just got up to go to his favourite spot for now.
I’m happy for your reunion, missred.
Happy Christmas to all celebrating.
It’s this new(ish) pan that I don’t use very often, so I’m not used to how thin it is. It heats up very quickly, whereas the other pan I was using is thicker and gets a lot of use. Also, the burners on this stupid (as opposed to “smart”) stove don’t heat the same, with one burner getting much hotter at the same setting as the other one. Anyhow, no harm done. I just had to clean the pan and start over. And everyone loved the cornmeal cakes.
I had a nice chat with the niece’s grown son about learning to play guitar. I encouraged him to get a teacher rather than fumble his way through things and then have to correct bad habits.
Oy!
I’m walking OK considering, but getting up from chairs/ the commode is making my thighs sore. Buns of steel!
Sigh, kids today. They don’t know who’s on my new tee shirt (Cthulhu). Even Crazy Shirts, which makes it, calls it “Tribal Octopus,” which is a grave misunderstanding.
They have no idea who Dejah Thoris is.
When I said that Grandpa Simpson used to wear an onion on his belt because that was the style at the time, they nodded politely.
When they do the assessment at the Home, I’ll need you fine people to tell the nurse that I was always like this and it’s not evidence of dementia.
The French onion soups are in the toaster oven, and the escargots are in the oven. Should be done in half an hour.
Finished my spaghetti ( cold) from yesterday.
Enjoying an iced Dunkin.
May the log poop you many presents tomorrow!
I used to be SO cool…back in the day.
That’s a very nice shirt, but you might be surprised by the number of people who do know but think you don’t so will call it an octopus. I’ve met fellow cultists almost everywhere I go.
Are you doing any PT or are you on your own now? I was going to make a comment about how nice it must be to be able to pee in private, but then wondered if dog owners get to go to the bathroom alone?
You are very wise and very correct.
I’ve had more than one shooting instructor say that they like teaching nooby gun owners best because they haven’t got any bad habits to break.
Good ravioli is good no matter where its served. Bad ravioli…shudders.
You don’t need to worry about the yelling ones, its the quiet ones that’ll hairball in your shoe in the middle of the night.
I’ll bet that feels great! Sometimes its hard to find the spoons to deal with something but once you have there is like a big sense of relief.
What a great time of year for something like that to happen, dang 
So today we told the oven to clean itself (the door is super easy to take off so we can reach the back) and I started another loaf of sourdough. I’ve tried the crock pot recipe three times and gave up. I’m sure it works, but I need to watch someone else do it because I’m obviously missing something.
I made a nice loaf in the oven though. The crust was perfect but I need to work on the crumb. I have some ideas…
Hubs thought it was good and he doesn’t even like bread so I probably don’t want to change it much.
Hubs also thought I was going to be making too much food tomorrow (he knows me pretty well) so James will be coming over to eat with us. I’ll send some leftovers home with him, they feed them at the old farts home, but of course that gets old fast and outside food is always appreciated.
It looks like the fuzzbutts aren’t staying up for Santa but that’s OK. They will get their presents in the morning anyhow.
Howdy Y’all! Been home for a little while from the two church services. The pageant was incredibly keeeyooote! red Gracie is way old enough but has zero interest in such things. I was never much for such things myself and only did it when forced, so I get her lack of interest. The second service was the traditional one with incense, which I like. The choir did a prelude of Christmas music and performed a glorious anthem at the offertory. Priest, other verger, the choir and I had champagne after the second service over in the parish hall. Now I am ready to go beddy bye.
That’s actually an interesting question.
SenWife and I speak exclusively Japanese unless we are in a group conversation in English.
I speak English to the kids almost exclusively, unless we are having a family discussion in Japanese. They answer either in English or Japanese.
The kids speak Chinese to each other and their mother, but sometimes in Japanese.
My wife is native Chinese and fluent Japanese, with reasonable English. I’m native English and “business fluent” Japanese, with limited Chinese.
The kids are native Chinese, fluent Chinese and not bad English. We just have to work more on their vocabulary.
And I’m sorry about your uncle. It puts a downer on your holidays.
Metal Mouse good that you got to St Louis. How long was the drive? Enjoy your family!
Van Gogh, wise call on staying home. Too many people try to force things.
scudsucker, that was an interesting story!
Now I don’t get invited to parties. And were I invited to parties, they wouldn’t be the kind of parties I’d like.
Yeah, if their standards are low enough to let me in, I don’t think I’d want to be there anyhow.
I napped. I had a martini. Dinner tonight was 3 cheese tortellini with meatballs, an broccoli with olives and rosemary.
You’re not. The thing worse than shared sorrow is trying to bear it alone. {{{{liirougue}}}}
Same.
Off-and-on stormy weather here. Good time to stay in and impersonate house plants.
Kasya had the orange brain cell briefly today. She finally figured out pushing open a not-quite-closed bathroom door to come keep me company. 
If you can’t accomplish it, it can’t be done. I wish you success!
Relax and enjoy yourself.
Happy slothing, dicey!
red, despite challenges, it must feel so good to be back in a familiar place with loving family around. Sending healing vibes your way.
Glad the brunch went well, cookie. Not surprised with you at the helm.
52, I’m sorry you’re struggling over the loss of your uncle. Grieving just happens as it must. I’m glad you have the new house to look forward to soon.
rocker, your lunch sounds really yum! Can’t beat good ravioli. (Well, you can, but then it turns into pasta mush. Yeech.)
You’re still cool. And so is lily.
No.
Have fun with James tomorrow! He will love those leftovers, for sure.
Sourdough bread was the toughest one for me to master – so many variables! – but I have confidence that you’ll prevail with practice.
And thank you for posting a holiday GG and Jolene photo. Those two are like ham and eggs and they always make me smile. 
swampy, glad your day was joyful and gave you good feels.
Nettie, I’ll join you in house plant impersonations.
The dreaded windstorm did not materialize here, thankfully! Barely a whisper of wind movement in the trees. Several hours after the danger had passed, I heard a big THUMP! outside. I would have sworn it was a big tree falling, but I couldn’t see anything during a reconnoiter around the house. Hopefully it’s not laying across my driveway where I can’t see it. Will take a walk up there tomorrow and see.
It’s a quiet evening much like any other. I did open a nice Pinot Noir to mostly have with my London Broil dinner tomorrow, but I needed some of it for the meat marinade tonight. Since I’d opened it, I sampled a little glass. Really nice from a local winery. It is a 2018 vintage and it is pretty much perfect right now. It isn’t a wine to drink with the dinner I made tonight – white chicken chili – so I had the wine as an aperitif. The chili was good, too, but it’s more of a beer meal. Which I chose not to have.
Is all of the above mundane and pointless enough?
'Night, all.