Closest lil Corner Sto’ was open. Crisis averted; day drinking commenceth.
I’ve wondered, but it’s not in my nature to pry.
Hoo, boy, do I sympathize with that feeling! It’s very shitty.
As our British friends can attest, a hot cuppa reliably cures/solves many problems.
(Except for late 1700s international relations … )
Afternoon all. Watched Braveheart and now have Crocodile Dundee on, so the movies have been entertaining at least. Been raining all day so good day to be inside. Dinner will be later tonight. Hope everyone is having a great Christmas Day.
Glad you procured. If you were here, I’d have poured you a generous tipple, though pretty much all I have is lotsa Scotch.
I especially miss cats at the holidays. I caught my lovely wife looking at local shelter photos (but we’ve agreed to wait to see how 2025 starts to shape up).
Since we have COVID and have postponed the holiday, we’ll have Chinese food tonight, homemade–I’ve never actually gone out for Chinese on Christmas, and since I married into my lovely wife’s family, we’re always with them doing Christmas on Christmas. It’ll be char siu with sticky rice and a lettuce salad plus condiments. The tree is up and a balsam candle burning. We exchanged one present last night, and will light the first Hanukkah candle tonight.
ETA: like this:
My stomach felt awful, like if I were to eat something I might lose it.
At least I will lose those few lbs I wanted.
Always look on the bright side.
I took a nap to escape it, had a weird dream about something I actually did.
How boring am I?
This board made me feel better ( mind wise) today.
Dinner with my dad and brother went well! Phew! They each found something edible on the menu: bro and I had chicken marsala, and dad ordered chicken with fresh tomatoes and cheese and scraped off said tomatoes and cheese. He seemed happy enough, and even said he’d be willing to go there again sometime! 
New restaurants can be quite iffy, so it was a relief when he picked something and then actually liked it. I had to laugh to myself, though, when the time came to pay the check and he asked me to do the math on the tip. Turns out that JtC was prescient and I was able to make sure the tip was good! 
It was a pleasant enough 90 minutes, and I was able to avoid any coughing or sneezing. I stopped at CVS on the way home for more tissues (these Cheetos puffs jumped into my bag!), and now I’m quite happily back home in my jammies. I recently started re-watching Elementary, and decided that I feel like watching an episode or two before starting Lethal Weapon.
Oh…oh no! 
I’m a musician, and can completely empathize. I never play in public — I sing on stage; the piano is just for me— but if anything ever happened to my instrument I’d be quite upset. Are you guys able to replace his setup if needed?
I do not think my pictures really did justice to the scenery. Think of the most bneautiful images you have seen, of “winter wonderland” type scenes. Once I got to where there was significant snow, that’s pretty much what the rest of the drive looked like, until the Sun went down and it was too dark to see any of it any more.
Tonight’s dinner was latkes with sour cream. I cooked some bacon, chopped it up and added it to the shredded taters and caramelized onions.
Took some fancy candies down to the poor soul(s) who have to work the night desk tonight. I’m guessing they must compensate them well, but it must be deadly dull on even a good night.
Tomorrow I shop for the seafood for the paella on Thursday.
Sticks_and_Scones, I’m past the edit window but feel the need to clarify my question: I don’t mean financially, just in terms of whether the gear is still available!
Generally, late shift reception is great for reading many novels, but I’m sure the candy was also appreciated!
I watched elementary last month. Entertaining.
I’m in the movie part of tonight’s entertainment. Started with Christmas Story Christmas, now onto a Christmas story. Die hard with round out the night.
Once upon a time about 40 years ago, I was visiting my uncle and aunt somewhere near the gulf coast of FL. We went out for breakfast and I was saying something about people who don’t tip, and I got the feeling that Uncle Joe was one of those people. I wasn’t trying to shame him - really! But I noticed he left a rather hefty tip for a small tab.
We did 295 instead of 95 - I prefer the parkway any day! Going there wasn’t bad, coming home, both beltways were full of crazies acting like they were on the NASCAR circuit. And we almost saw an accident when one idiot tried to merge without looking. eeeesh!
Home, reveling in the silence. Just a coiupla pics - my mom with her brood:
We’re lined up by age left to right. I’m 70, youngest sis is 59. Mom is 90.
And mom with two of her grands and 4 of her great-grands:
One of my nephews died a few years back of some sort of coronary issue, and the other nephew didn’t come because his girlfriend was feeling ick. And his daughter is in Canada with her mother and probably won’t visit till she turns 18 (Bad words about the mom /ex-wife withheld) Anyway, my niece and her 2 boys on the left, as if you hadn’t guessed.
It was a nice, if noisy, time. Too much food, as usual. FCD had a really rough time - his mom loved Christmas and he was really missing her today.
I get my grandspawn tomorrow, so I need max chillage tonight. I’s tahred!
Lovely family photos!
Merry Christmas!
My frustration level is high
I think a new laptop is imminent
Mrs. L.A. offered to pick up a bottle of white wine and some mushrooms for the escargots. Unfortunately, I did not specify a dry white wine. I just said to get whatever’s cheapest. She brought home a Riesling. Being Christmas Day with no place open, I used it. The escargots turned out fine. But…
You know my rule: I’ll only drink white wine if we’re out of red. And we’re never out of red. But there’s this bottle of Riesling, of which I used only ⅓ cup. Why not? Yeah… no. Entirely too sweet for me. The Missus likes it.
Merry Christmas, my faraway friends!
I’ve had a, well, a lovely Christmas, though not as serene as I planned. I had a wonderful conference call with my kids and their spouses, which was definitely the highlight of my day, even better than opening the thoughtful gifts I received.
I have a Christmas tale for you. I was awakened at 5:30 a.m. by loud rap music from upstairs. Grmpf. It took me an hour and a pillow over my head to get back to sleep. Then a few hours ago, the people next door started playing VERY loud music. I pounded on the wall a few times, but the music was so loud, they didn’t hear me, so I went over and knocked on the door. They couldn’t hear that either. I finally pounded.
A nice young woman holding a cocktail eventually came to the door, her gramma behind her. I smiled and asked them to please turn down the music, as it’s pretty loud. The young woman apologized. I said I understand how it is when you have family over, and I appreciated them turning it down. I went home, and a few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Uh-oh. When I opened it, a smiling young man and the gramma stood there. The guy said, “Merry Christmas!” and handed me a plate of food! He kept blowing me kisses and saying, “I love you!” in broken English. (Alcohol seemed to be involved.) The gramma gave me a hug. I thanked them. They went back and turned up the music. I give up.
Not the peaceful Christmas I was envisioning, but what are you gonna do?
I’ve been re-re-re-re-watching It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s got ne thinking about the people whose lives I may have saved or improved, but even more about the people who have saved or improved mine. All of you belong in that second category, maybe more than you know. I may not reply to every post, but I read them all, and I’m very grateful you’re in my life and wish all of you the happiness and ease that you deserve.
Flyboy, Taters, and other PNW chums, are you getting deluged, too? And we have two more days of this atmospheric river!
{{{{FCD and FCM}}}} Christmas right after such a huge loss is so difficult. My mom died on December 10, 2010, and I recall how hard that first Christmas was. I hope the little joys of the grandkids helped. Speaking of which, they both look so much older in this photo! Is that your mom? She looks so warm and happy that I wish I knew her. She looks great for 90!
Cookie, you’re a good guy.
As our Italian friends can attest, a glass of wine reliably makes you forget many problems. 
Sticky, I’m sorry about MusicMan’s keyboard. I hope he doesn’t blame himself too much.
We had a massive power outage here after a rare blizzard 5 years ago. Even the traffic signals were out. I trudged to the supermarket (which had no power), and on the way there I saw one, lone store open: Total Wines, and people were lumbering out of there with entire cases of hooch. Apparently they had an emergency generator, and in our state, liquor stores were considered essential businesses and were open during the pandemic.
Taters, Buster is a handsome fellow. He looks almost regal in that photo.
JTC, please keep us posted. All my fingers and toes and both earlobes are crossed.
No deluge, but the wind’s been up.
The prime rib is out of the oven. I’ll let it rest for about 20 minutes before carving.
Drinking red.
A bright spot in my sick day-Ravens gonna win.
Howdy Y’all! We ate. We drank. We made merry. The prime rib was perfection if’n I do say so myself. Everyone one left with a slice, some N. O. T. and a slice of cheesecake. There’s just enough left for us to eat tomorrow, which is what I wanted to happen. After everyone left, dishwasher was loaded and nappage was accomplished. Dishwasher is now swishin’ away. OYKW is upon the bed watchin’ teevee. I think I shall join him shortly.
My daughters wanted Brunch instead of a dinner. I made biscuits and gravy, sausage patties, hash browns, scrambled eggs and pancakes. We had a nice morning and it was all cleaned up by 11.30. My younger daughter was not felling well from the beginning and has gone down to bedroom. My older daughter was going to bring the boyfriend, whom we have yet to meet, but he didn’t make it. I can’t imagine that I am that intimidating.
I grilled some burgers for our dinner and once that was all cleaned up I am sitting here sipping the 12 year old Macallan single malt that the lovely Sunflower gave me.
Awwwww…
I hope that your hubs is feeling a bit better today, JtC.
That sucks. I hope that a pro diagnosis finds it either repairable or can be traded as salvage for a replacement.
Looks yum!
Christmas dinner was good. Penny’s dad brought Nelson a Santa toy and some homemade deer jerky (dog safe with no sugar and less salt). Penny got a new winter coat and some peanut butter treats from me. I also got Nelson a new light jacket and a new Wubba. He also brought a nice spinach - mandarin salad for dinner.
Now he’s gone and I’m chilling before going to bed to go to irk tomorrow.