And now SIL is sick… I’m starting to wonder if we’ll be going to my brother’s for Christmas or not.
Stoopit sick.
It was a ton of food, enough for four. The restaurant serves food that is generally Middle Eastern in character. This was lamb kofte (12 meatballs), fatoush salad with yogurt dressing, charred zucchini with lemon vinaigrette, dukka, and tzaziki, hummus, a half-dozen pitas, some olives and pickled eggplant, and for dessert an orange curd and berries.
We were watching a Christmas movie last night and I realized we had not figured out what to have for dinner on the 25th. So I think it’s going to be spaghetti carbonara and a glass of wine since we have no dinner invite. We do have people coming over on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, however.
Time to make the donuts. Breakfast, that is.
Morning all. Another solid 8 hours of sleep, I guess the mental and physical exercise yesterday did their job, so I’ll repeat it today with a library trip to do the mega crossword and then time for swimming and sauna. Need to get the garbage and recyclables out to the curb sometime this afternoon/evening, never know what time the collection is going to be. 33F heading for 57F and another clear day in N. Ali-bama.
Cookie, sounds like you were pretty well stuffed from dinner; enjoy the leftovers!
FCM, hope you and FCD stay well. Tis’ the season, after all…
Y’all haven’t lived until you’ve had a English Mastiff fart in a room…clears it out in no time…
Taters, hope you get through to HR and get the person the increase–a within-grade is virtually automatic as I recall it, you are right, the paperwork should have been done much earlier but bureaucrats going to bureacrat…go get’em!!
boo fae, may your day be quiet and your travels on-time.
JtC, maybe hubs knows you have a fantastic abiility to plan things at the last moment…
OK, need to turn the water on for a bit to do the morning cleanup/cleanout and then break fast. Take care all.
Last time I checked (post-tylenol) Roxy didn’t have a fever. Daughter said Tobias was just fine this morning. SIL, on the other hand… 
So, we wait to see if there’s an incubation period that will take us to Moanday. Meanwhile, Roxy and I will bake chocolate chip cookies today. FCD is taking the trash and recycling on his way to talk to several marinas - trying to decide if we’re going to move our boat in the spring. Nice as our current marina is, it’s $$$! There are 2 others that we wouldn’t mind (one has sucky parking, but both have floating docks, which are a big plus!) So we’ll see what’s what.
For the moment, Roxy is playing in the basement and I’m prepping the kitchen for cookie making. I’ll have everything ready to measure out before she comes up, and the cooling racks will be lined up and there will be parchment paper on the cookie sheets. Planning is everything when cooking with a kindergartner.
Bah, my Food Saver gave up the ghost and died. Well, it still runs, but it won’t vacuum thoroughly enough to get to seal. I can’t complain, I guess. I’ve had this thing for many years, and I noted the last few times I used it that I had to really play around with it to get it to vacuum and seal. Still, it’s just…annoying.
So, my planned sloth day is now interrupted by a dash to the store for a new Food Saver.
I wouldn’t have had to worry about it, but my husband went grocery shopping yesterday, bought big meat packs, and asked me to divide them. So, this morning, I tried to do that and was unsuccessful. Dang it.
FCM, I hope you all avoid the plague and your holiday plans can go on as scheduled.
Today is garbage day. I scooped the litter box into a small trash can. I still go downstairs on my butt. While moving the trash can as I bumped down the stairs, it fell over. I had to pick up clumps of litter. Now I have to vacuum the stairs. I am not amused.
I neglected to send my parents a Christmas card (I know …) so imma get that to the P.O. today. As soon as I write out the damn thing.
Maybe I’ll quill a flower or some shit like that onto it.
I thawed some ground beef and need to decide what in hell to do with it. I’ll have a short shift today (late start, early out) so I’ll have time - if not inclination - to cook.
Thanks - I think it’s just your run-of-the-mill crud that schoolkids pass around. Roxy seems lots better - we just finished making and packing cookies. She’s in the basement watching Spidey and Friends and I’m taking a chill break.
We’ll be moving marinas in the spring. Apart from the floating docks, this one is cheaper and our slip is right next to the bathhouse, so very sheltered. FCD is doing the paperwork today, and they don’t even require a deposit - we just pay on Apr 1. So yay for that.
Tahred - something to do with being awakened at 2:30 of the AM. I need to find out when Daughter will come fetch her firstborn. And, of course, the kitchen needs to be cleaned. Dammit.
On the domestic front, Monkey has received a breakfast of gooshy-food (a whole entire can! One of the big ones, too!) and I have a slice of frozen garlic toast in the oven.
My Sweet Manager shared some food with me the other day, and it was in her mom’s Tupperware (and thus, is sacred) so I gotta wash that so I can return it.
There’s a buncha trash that I need to toss, too. The fun never ends.
Poked around what I’ve already quilled earlier just to play around with the stuff, and I can use what I already have to very quickly glue together two flowers (one red, one blue) to decorate the card.
Good 'nuff. Hopefully it’ll get there on time, and not the day after Christmas, which is what I already sorta suspect will happen.
I just came back from picking up my produce box and our housekeeper was still here. Usually she’s here on Tuesday because I don’t like dragging a box or two of produce through the living room while she’s trying to polish our floors. That’s just rude.
She was here on a different day because she had just taken a cruise to Hawaii…where she bought me some Hawaiian chili pepper seeds and some Bird of Paradise seeds. I am seriously touched that she would do that for me, even after I brought home a long haired kitten to shed all over the place.
Ventured out to Costco this morning. I don’t advise it for anyone with anger issues. Luckily, I was just picking up bacon, eggs, and a pecan pie for the dinner we’re hosting, so was able to go to self-checkout. The line was halfway to the back of the store, but moved quickly. I’m always impressed by how Costco makes sure they have enough cashiers working to keep the traffic moving. In today’s case, they ALL were doing a brisk business.
That reminds me that I’ll have to pick up a pie for The Missus, for dessert after Christmas dinner.
I’ll make the (small) ‘prime rib’, (small) baked potatoes, and creamed spinach w/feta for dinner. Traditionally, I make escargots as an appetiser; but there are always timing issues (cook, eat, cook some more, then eat dinner). So this year I’ll make the snails on Christmas Eve.
As for Costco, I don’t have ‘anger issues’. I have ‘slow-ass-people-who-are-slow-and-blocking-the-aisles-while-they’re-shopping-instead-of-buying’ issues.
You left out -while-talking-on-their-cellphones. Be mindless somewhere else instead of inside a store that is always busy as hell.
I don’t see many people on their phones. Mostly they’re just meandering and look lost.
Here’s how I ‘shop’:
- Identify need.
- Locate source.
- Buy the thing(s) I need.
Same here. My wife, regardless of the brevity of the shopping list, insists on walking up and down every single aisle “just in case”, by the end of which I’m ready to slit my wrists and our cart is full of stuff we never intended to buy. At the risk of being yelled at, is this a woman/man thing?
I have to go in a minute but had to share the dream I had last night. For some reason, I was at shoe’s house, which I’m sure was nothing like her real house because there’s no way she’d install magenta fake fur carpeting. Anyway, who should come over but a youngish Ted Danson, an unmarried Ted Danson who immediately fell for Ms. Shoe, who was much more equivocal about the whole thing. Meanwhile, I discovered we were not in Michigan like we’d thought but in mountainous Florida. (My subconscious makes up its own geography. Also, I’m sorry it put you back in the South, shoe. I’ll have a stern talk with it.) A raging wildfire was heading our way, so we had to get out fast, yet Danson wouldn’t stop canoodling with shoe. I couldn’t find my sandals, but I did get leashes on shoe’s pet mink and her dog, which I’m pretty sure was part coyote. Shoe was rounding up the rats when I awoke.
I think Doggio was in there somewhere, but that part is a blur.
I’m headed for a rubber room, aren’t I?
Oh that dream sounds great. The only thing that could make it better was, instead of Ted, to have a young, unmarried Tom Selleck.
Card is off. Good thing I went to the P.O. the envelope was a bit thick due to the quilling, so had to get a “hand sort” sticker.
Technically, I sent flowers for the holiday:
Lily is my mom’s cat. 
(My dad loathes her very existence. She’s sweet and incredibly well behaved. But, well, cat.)
Crossed out “favorite” as a joke (let’s see if they have a sense of humor that particular day) since I am, in fact, their only daughter.
Yup, yup.
I hate the color magenta almost as much as I loathe installed wall-to-wall carpets.
{ fans self, bats eyelashes }
I used to have three ferrets - mink are, uhm, a bit more aggressive rambunctious, from what I’ve heard, but I guess I could handle one.
If not, there’s always the easy threat. (“Do you wanna be a coat?”)
Part coyote dog. 
Pfft. If I can handle drunken idiots who forgot their own name (“Uhh, I’m here for a pizza… ?” “Dude, you shouldn’t be driving.”) … then I can handle a coy-dog.
… and yes, that is the term.
Nah. That mustache always weirded me out. Can’t do it.
But when Ted D. went full-on silver fox, a few years ago? Okay, okay. Works for him. 
(Works for me.)
Coupla potato skins for lunch, dolled up with extra Provolone on top of the cheddar, plus some sour cream dollops, and green onions.
Off to get sheveled slap on makeup put on pants.
Started Typing: 2:36 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 3:54 PM ET
I just finished lunch, and am basking in the food coma…except that I’m not sure what made me think I could eat 21g of sugar at once (an oversized Rice Krispies treat) with impunity. Blergh. I went to the grocery store before lunch and the checkout display got to me. I hadn’t had a Rice Krispies treat in forever…it was almost worth it!
Last night’s time with Dad went well. He hit a huge delay on the way here and didn’t arrive until 5pm, then I made a huge mistake with the rush-hour traffic (instead of taking Route A, on a whim I chose Route B – which is easier and faster any time other than rush hour) and it took twice as long to get to dinner as it should have. But he liked the restaurant, which was a relief (he’s super picky), and the timing all worked out perfectly. The sing-along itself was a blast; I’d forgotten how much fun they can be. The ~80 minutes went by quickly.
OMG the weirdest thing just happened while I was typing that last sentence: I was just about to say that the sing-along made it painfully clear that my vocal technique has slipped a bit, and I got an email completely out of the blue from someone I’ve been trying to take voice lessons from forever! She was replying to an email of mine from August 2022!! (She’s also a friend, notoriously terrible at responding to emails, and had a baby last year; I’m actually not annoyed by the delay, but am quite happy to hear from her.) Such a wonderful coincidence!
I’m looking forward to having no plans after work today, and also nothing after work tomorrow except for going to the gym. I have Friday off work, and late that afternoon I’ll drive up to MD to meet the aforementioned three old friends for dinner. On Saturday I’ll be getting together with my BFFs and their son (and his gf), on Christmas Eve I’ll (happily) just hang out with Bailey, and on Christmas Day I’ll drive up to MD again to meet my dad and brother for lunch (funnily, that restaurant is actually in the same shopping center I’ll be going to on Friday evening). We’ll go back to Dad’s afterwards and hang out for a while, then I get to come home and recover. 
OK, time for a few replies and then I should really get some more work done today…
*dramatically raises the back of my hand to my forehead and collapses on the sofa*
Whatever shall I do?!
This, in turn, makes me think of a great Rodgers & Hart tune called “To Keep My Love Alive,” which starts:
I’ve been married…and married…and often I’ve sighed,
“I’m never a bridesmaid; I’m always the bride”
I never divorced them; I hadn’t the heart
Yet, remember these sweet words: “'Til death do us part”…
I married many men, a ton of them
And yet I was untrue to none of them
Because I bumped off every one of them
To keep my love alive
Subsequent verses describe how each groom was done in as the singer tired of him (for various reasons). If anyone’s interested, here is Ella Fitzgerald’s version.
It’s so wonderful how you always look on the bright side of things… 
UGH. I hope a response was waiting for you when you logged in.
That’s quite lovely!