Oh, how did I miss making THAT joke?!?
The kids and dogs are gone, and the house is awfully quiet. It’s amazing how quickly I get in the habit of stepping over canines. We had a wonderful time. Son and wife arrived over an hour EARLY, as traffic was light. I didn’t even have the Welcome sign up yet. All the food was good. Son and DIL brought wonderful cookies and pumpkin bread. Daughter and SIL brought Cheddar Bay biscuits and cranberry orange bars. My son lost weight and is sooo thin now. He’s been working with a nutritionist so he could lose weight without triggering migraines from low blood sugar.
I don’t know if I’ll put a tree up this year. I’ll be spending Christmas alone, which is fine, but I don’t know if I want to bother when it’s just me.
JtC, my son-in-law wants to get a Maine coon cat. This came up when daughter and I were talking about Gormless George and his many adventures. They already have 2 cats and 5 chickens, so we’ll see. Daughter thinks a Nebelung is close enough.
Your sister’s story is disturbing. I can see why you cut off contact.
My Dad’s cousin was adopted. She was born a Hatfield. She was also one of my favorite people on the planet. Many years later, she went to meet bio family members. I don’t know what happened, but it was not a good experience.
FCM, I can only imagine the strain FCD is under. I really, really hope BIL won’t be coming to stay with you. As my mother used to say, “Too much is enough!”
Coppertone, glad the power is back on!
During part of my wide history I was the office girl in a collision center. I enjoyed it at the time until the dealership’s warranty admin left and I got recruited for that position.
Wow. Very interesting!
Annie and I are up this morning and sitting in our usual chair hanging out. Despite a long workday yesterday, MusicMan really enjoyed having his older son hang out some in the evening.
Not sure what’s in store for today. Just going to try to enjoy it as it comes.
Today started at 29° - I need to bring in a buttload of firewood to get the basement warmed up for The Invasion of the Grandspawn and Trevor. As soon as there’s some light, I’ll get to it. (It got light as I wrote this.) Unfortunately, the outdoor spotlights that we installed outside the basement door quit working ages ago, and since we almost never need them, we never repaired/replaced them. (No, it’s not just the bulbs - it’s cheap fixtures.) I have a bucket for kindling and small stuff and a bigger bin for logs. I’ll get a load of both and I can replenish the logs as needed.
The plan is to keep them all downstairs as much as possible, then head to their house around 4. I’ve got a freebie pizza coming to me from Domino’s and I thought I’d order their mac-n-cheese for the kids. There’s a store less than half a mile from Daughter’s house, which is really convenient whether I do pickup or delivery. And after I feed them, I’ll get them bathed and ready for bed. The only part I don’t like is having to drive home in the dark, but I know the route well, so I’m not worried - just not happy.
I’m hoping for a brief bit of time, the kids will play alone so I can finish stripping the turkey carcass. I should have done it yesterday but, frankly, I forgot. Anyway, they’ll be here within an hour or so.
Last night’s soup was good - I used russets and amazingly, I made a small enough batch that there were no leftovers! Which means I actually followed the recipe rather than doubling it and then some. MIL ate less than a quarter of a cup - part of the time she seemed confused about what to do with the spoon. It was difficult to see.
Speaking of whom, when FCD was coming to bed around midnight, he checked on her. She was sitting on the side of the bed, ready to get up and go mow the lawn. He had a tough time convincing her that it was the middle of the night and she needed to go to sleep. I guess she was dreaming about yardwork.
And thus beginneth my day. And the month.
Happy Sunday!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 28 Amurrkin out and N.O.S. with a predicted high of 59 and N.O.S. The big item on today’s agenda is deheathenization in which I have Chalice duty. It’s also first Sunday brunch day but we will skip that this month. TBH I didn’t feel like makin’ food to take. Instead we will swing through Cook Out for stoner food to take to da cave and eat. Then nappage will be accomplished. I shall head back to the church house around four this afternoon for a service of Advent Lessons and Carols. The other two Whiskypal churches will also be involved and this year is our turn to host. I like the service and will get to plop in a pew and enjoy. BTW, today is the first Sunday of Advent.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then purtification for deheathenization must commence.
Happy Sunday Y’all!
Basement fire is going (in the fireplace - duh!!) So I’m gonna hop in the shower while I have a few minutes. ONWARD!
Up, caffeinated, and sheveld. Off today. I shall clean and sloth today.It’s currently 29 degrees Ferret Height(-1.67 centipedes).
< cranks up Gregorian Chant CDs >
I read that as Grandspawn and Terror. I must have been thinking of Gordie. 
Many moons ago I was born on the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday. And the world rejoiced! 
Senior year of HS I worked several coop jobs. The first semester was for Prudential Insurance but the agents didn’t sell enough insurance that year so they couldn’t have a coop student after New Years. Then I was placed in a furniture store and worked in the late afternoons/early evenings. The owner’s Dad was the salesperson at that time of day and he was old and very crotchety. I couldn’t do anything right for him so they told the HS Coop Coordinator that they wanted someone different which worked out for me because I didn’t like the way the old man treated me. So, then I was sent to a Pontiac dealership. Upstairs in the office. GM, instead of having the repair tickets mailed to their headquarters, was just starting to use newfangled methods of getting the warranty information in to wherever the warranty information had to go to be input into their mainframe computer. So, my job was to type the info needed from each repair ticket; as I did so it was ‘punched’ onto an inch wide paper tape. It kind of looked like one of those player piano sheets or maybe braille. Then I had to set it up so that when the GM headquarters computer or phone or whatever called around midnight, the tape would feed through a device that sent the data over the phone line. So that’s my warranty story.
I put “A Peaceful Piano Christmas” on the TV.
Had wanted to go to early mass but I woke up 21 minutes before it started so that was out. Instead took down, folded and put away yesterday’s laundry and put in a new load of sheets and a blanket. Just heard the washing machine clanking which means the load is no longer evenly distributed; heck, hope the cycle finishes so I don’t find a drenched load of sheets and blanket. A lot of cleaning to do today since my daughter and her friend will be here tomorrow night before they have to be to their new abode Tuesday morning by 9am.
A Blessed day to all.
Mornin’ everyone.
It’s 31F and cloudy outside. Our daytime high temperature will be around 49F, with sunshine and clouds in the afternoon.
FCM, I hope all goes smoothly with the grandkids and Trevor.
We all (including the pups) had a great time with my son. He went home late yesterday afternoon, and the house felt super quiet. He arrived on Thanksgiving, so it was a pleasant visit.
I need to catch up on laundry today, run some errands, and run the rollsuck. I’d much rather have a day of sloth, but I put off the laundry so my son could wash his, so it’s my fault for waiting. He doesn’t have a washer/dryer in his unit, and the machines in the laundry room leave his clothes dingy. I told him he could always wash his clothes here whenever he visited. He brought four loads this time, lol!
I used to love holiday decorations, but honestly, I only put them up these last many years to make Christmas nice for the kids. I do it all on my own; it’s a lot of work putting it up and taking it down, and it just doesn’t give me the spark of joy I used to receive. I broached not putting up some of the decorations this year, and my son seemed disappointed, so I guess I’ll have to drag everything out.
I don’t think I’d feel this way if my husband had participated more over the years. He doesn’t seem interested but never has, although he likes the end results. But I can’t help but feel like it’s just taken for granted, and I’m pretty tired of it. Bah, just a minor whine; ignore it.
JtC, I can see why you feel this way about your sister. I would have done the same.
I think today is a three-cup coffee day. You all take care.
Happy Sunday!
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. After, I’ll get sheveled and pick up a couple of prescriptions and some groceries. After, I’ll do breakfast / lunch prep for the week.
Stay safe and healthy y’all!
Soccer, albeit I may have been the worst player in the school’s history.
Morning all. Have picked up my Sunday NY Times and started laundry, load two of many is working now, may have to do half of it today and the rest tomorrow, we’ll see how it goes. Usually have Sunday dinner around 11-11:30am but may move it to the afternoon depending how things go. 40F currently so not too bad outside.
JtC, glad you stood up and did some responsible things for her kids.
nellie, sounds like it was a nice T-giving for all.
FCM, hope the kids-dog-MIL are not too nerve-wracking today.
So managed not to close the door on the dryer so my first load of the day (u-wear) is behind schedule so I think meatloaf at Metro Diner will be this evening’s repast. Will forage for an early meal (already been snackin’). Have a good Sunday all.
Started Typing: 9:37 AM ET
Clicked Reply: 10:42 AM ET
Happy start of meteorological winter! The best part about it being December 1 is that I got to open the first door on my Swarovski advent calendar: a tiny train engine! 
(I know that a car and a caboose are behind other doors, but I don’t know which ones.) The calendar was quite an indulgent splurge, but I’ve been collecting Swarovski for 35 years and have daydreamed about getting one ever since I learned about them a few years ago. It’s gonna make me smile every day between now and Christmas. 
I wound up working for 3 hours yesterday, but now I actually feel (mostly) ready for the work week. Tomorrow it will be so nice to not deal with that !@#$%^& proposal on a weekday for the first time in almost 4 months! Anyway, yesterday I also made progress on Lego Chewbacca and managed to get in a decent amount of slothing, including ordering magikal intertubez pizza for dinner…leftovers of which shall also be tonight’s dinner. 
My friend is coming here at 11:30, and we’ll go to lunch at a nearby Thai place before heading to The Nutcracker (which starts at 1:00). Having Thai food before a show is kind of a tradition with us, because a venue we frequent near her place has a Thai restaurant directly across the street. Today’s restaurant and venue are each within 2 miles of my house, so she’ll leave her car here and I’ll drive us to lunch and the show. I purchased premium parking, which cost more than I’d usually be willing to pay but will let us park in the attached garage vs the “general” garage that’s 1.5 blocks from the venue (and not free). I’m sure the place counts on cold/bad weather – and people like my friend and me – to increase the premium parking sales. 
I’ve never been able to get into it. The closest I came was starting to appreciate college football when I dated an Ohio State fan from 2007-2009, but I haven’t watched any kind of football since we broke up.
Sounds like me! Decorating always happens on Black Friday: I used to wait until New Year’s Day to undecorate, but a while back I stopped being able to make it to the end of December.
In recent years, undecorating has happened on my first day off after Christmas. This year, though, I think the undecorating will wait until the following weekend so I can appreciate all of the advent calendar crystals – and the annual snowflake ornament my BFFs will give me – a while longer. I will also retain use of my kitchen table this year (new/rearranged furniture means I don’t need to use it for decor), which I think will help me tolerate the decorations a little longer.
I donate through the local hospital/medical network (which I use for all of my doctors): the downside is the incessant emails, but the upside is that – when I’m ready – finding a convenient time/location to donate is easy peasy. For the appointment I just made, once I picked a date the hardest part was deciding between a place 1.5 miles away that only had an opening at 9:15am and a place 6 miles away that had a lot of later options (I picked a Sunday; I generally like to start my weekend days quite slowly!). Ultimately I went with the earlier, closer option.
Yes, Target is a great place to find Lego!
It’s not my thing, either, but it’s my friend’s thing: she’s been willing to go to shows with me that she’s never heard of/that I’m not sure will be any good, so I figure the least I can do is go to one Nutcracker with her each year. If there are fewer chatty/noisy teens in today’s audience, it will automatically be better than the production I went to last year.
(I know that a Sunday matinee is likely to mean there will be children in the audience: kids are totally fine, but the disruptive teens who were only there to yell for their friend who was on stage for all of 10 minutes were not appreciated.)
OMG I WOULD PAY HER TO SEE THAT.
When has common sense been a watch word when it comes to manufacturing?
I agree whole- heartedly, by the way. I just hate that manufacturers are making life harder and more expensive by making so many things with shoddy materials or needing a degree/to buy specialized tools/to go to an expert in order to repair it when it breaks. We’re left either having to pay for a new item while letting the old one clutter the landfill, or pay lots of money to get a few more months of use before the next thing breaks.
True. We are actually getting the kids AMC gift cards as stocking stuffers. And with them, a lot of times, we just give permission as our gifts. But there’s nothing quite like seeing the look in someone’s eyes when you know you’ve gotten them the perfect gift.
You never do! I still remember back in 2010, we had a horrible snow storm. At the time, we lived in an apartment complex on the top of a hill. We’d had to go out that day and when we came back, we saw a long line of cars struggling to get up the hill. Our complex hadn’t salted and didn’t give a damn, so it was up to a bunch of residents to be good Samaritans. We drove back to Ace, picked up a shovel (sadly not a snow shovel but we figured anything was better than nothing!) and headed back. Hubby got out and helped the clearing/pushing group while I maneuvered the van, the kids and I up and around the gentlest route through the complex after they got us most of the way up the hill. The complex never did come by and i found out later they had people ticketed that had to park on the (very wide) shoulder because they couldn’t make it up the hill. That was our last straw for living in that complex and we moved out that May.
Thanks! They are far and away my favorite frames ever. I’ve been told that wearing them makes me look more artsy. 
She’s probably thinking that since this was the latest possible Thanksgiving, she doesn’t have a much time as usual.
JtC, for the spoilery stuff, I’m seeing red. Even my crazyinsanegarbagehuman family members took more care than that.
True, though it’s gotten so NashVegas over the last decade plus that I rarely, if ever, go downtown. Maybe I’m just getting old.
Speaking of Boba tea (which autocorrect wanted to change to Boobs tea), I’ve been a fan for over 20 years. Back when we were still in Philly, for kids from Wharton opened a place called Bubble House. At first, they served a small variety of tea, then expanded, then added a food menu and dining in. It was my favorite place to go out with Hubby. Back then, I was a big taro drinker, but as I’ve gotten older I prefer the fruit teas with mango being my favorite.
Same here! And I hate to be picky, but beer that is real beer but not glorified water (aka most commercial American beers).
Isn’t it though? I’m really hoping we get some decent snow this year so I can enjoy it first hand rather than having to live vicariously through friends and family!
It’s a balmy 38° with a “feels like” of 33° in Nashville at the moment. I think today (and tomorrow, when the high is supposed to be 35° and the low 29°) are perfect “stay at home” days.
I’d originally planned on going out to do deliveries today. I went out last evening for 4 or 5 hours and made decent money, though I’m currently sorting at $99.53 for the week, which is bugging my sense of accomplishment. But I’m trying to remember that self-care is important and the fact that my left hip is disagreeing with me when I put weight on that leg means that taking the day on the heating pad isa far better use of my time.
Hubby, CtE and I went to do big shopping yesterday. Lots of money was spent and lots of goodies gotten so we should be OK for awhile. We were in a rush to put everything away though, because Hubby is the fridge Jenga master and he had a tutoring gig at noon. But we were able to get everything put away and get him out the door in time. His tutee ended up needing him for 3 hours, which meant a nice chunk of change, but got my delivery started later than planned. It all worked out though.
Former Partner kept me amused yesterday sending pictures of the snowfall up there. They look like their cars were all replaced by snow banks and they can walk out their windows for getting out of the house.
Today, Hubby is planning to take some books and Pokémon cards to our local media seller to get some stuff out of the house. I’m going to try to work on a schedule for fitting all the things I want and need to do in place. I’ve been feeling like I’m drowning and letting things slip lately so i need to have some kind of plan to fall back on.
Tonight I accidentally double-booked myself. I’ve been doing a study with CtE about LGBTQ+ teens and their caregivers. Tonight is the last night, along with “graduation” (whatever that is). At the same time, I scheduled an online get together with friends to play Jackbox games. I don’t want to deprive them of fun, some I’m setting Hubby up on my computer for the get together and I’ll join them after my meeting is done. Making money from the study and spending time with friends is a win/win situation.
Now I’m off to start being productive while watching Bones. Hopefully. Have a great Sunday, all!
TIL that tank slippers are a thing
taters - can you just decorate a little but not everything? Pick a few favorites and call it done.
3 more hours and I’ll be taking the kids to their house. And their parents should be home by 7. Long day still ahead. At least they’re mostly getting along.
At least 10 inches have come down today. Its lightweight snow. Roads are not even plowed yet!
It wasn’t their fault.
If he sleeps hot, he doesn’t want a Maine Coon! According to breed standards and online forums, Maine Coons are supposed to be very smart cats. VBC used to dribble his head against the floor when she thought he was getting out of line and probably knocked all of his brains out his ears in the process.
I woke up to three inches of snow on the ground so I put some cat kibble on a plate and put it outside the french doors for the crows to find. It didn’t take them long and while they kept a close eye on me through the glass, they didn’t mind that Jolene was right at the glass watching them eat. Her tail was lashing and she was chittering and was just positive that if I would only open the door, she could catch her own dinner tonight.
GG went over and sat next to Jolene to see what she was getting so excited about and the crows took one look at him and took off. I tried to tell them that they didn’t need to worry about the big one, but the kibble has sat out there untouched ever since.
I’m glad you had such a good time and that your dinner turned out so well.
Only a bus load? Scoffs! I got them by the destroyer full! Hell, when the USS Constitution came into harbor, all the sailors put on their dress whites and lined up on deck to salute me!
Actually, they were saluting the USS Arizona but I was there so it counted!!!
I agree, I WANT to see! I’ll bet you were just too cute for words.
I never did that, but only because of lack of opportunity!
Blood feuds like that don’t usually just happen overnight. They are usually caused by a bunch of ongoing petty shit until it takes on a life of its own.
And kids nowadays think that us old folks don’t know what computers are when we are the ones who grew up alongside the digital age.
I’m really looking forward to seeing pics! I’m glad you are enjoying it already.
They didn’t have cool stuff like that when I was a kid 
Today we learned that Jolene is a fair weather cat. Hubs closes the bedroom door after he gets up and the fuzzbutts go with him because they want their breakfast. He turned the up to 70 and did h is things. When I opened the bedroom door, Jolene cam flying across the house to the bedroom. “Awww” says me “she loves me” just in time for her to dodge my leg and leap into my pillow and then squirm under the blankets to my warm spot.
I turned the heat up and she finally came out and has been curled up mostly under GG ever since.
I’m looking to see if one of us can dig it up.
Off to pre-warm my car, scoop up the OTHER carless coworker, again, and hopefully make it through a full open->close shift without crying or throwing up.
I have a signature-required letter from the IRS waiting for me at the Post Office, and while I am aware I owe them some serious $$ I am dreading finding out what fresh hell of my own making awaits me next.
Kinda (HA!) stressed. Very blurf-y. Have caught myself holding my breath and having to consciously remind myself to breathe, dammit which doesn’t make me feel any better about not being all that functioning.
… and let’s not talk about the amount or quality of sleep I’ve (not) been getting since finding the post office notice Saturday afternoon.
Odddly enough I prefer heavy wet snow. It’s good for building snow things. I once did a Dalek. I’ve also done a guy sunning himself, and the best of all was a snow goon.