Jealous of your vacation, dotty. I cannot wait for April - will be my first vacation in almost a year. For some reason I’m convinced that if I go to Australia I’ll be attacked by a crocodile though. :smack:
My days as of late consist of nothing but work and hanging out with Irish Co-worker. Guess which part I’m enjoying more.
Thanks for the compliments folks - the trip was fantastic, and HRH does seem to get cuter (and naughtier) every day! I think the two characteristics are somehow linked!
Ray, your holiday pics look amazing! Getting small kids used to animals is no easy task, I know!
Congrats to stormy and light for the forthcoming permanent life disruption!
Rebo, to be perfectly honest, the worst part of the fish spa was working up the courage to actually put my feet in the water! I kept having visions of mini-piranhas chewing off my toes! But once I got my feet in and adjusted to the tickling sensation, it was faaaabulous!
LiLi, Nat is such a cutie-pie himself, in the real manly-man baby boy sense!
Cunctator, that holiday house looks AMAZING!
criminey, the resort where you stayed looks really nice - it’s a shame the weather didn’t cooperate!
Haze, if you’d been reading the news, you would know that you’re much more likely to get eaten by a shark in Australia these days!
Okay, off to sort out some dinner and relax (since the housework fairy has already cleaned the bathrooms and the kitchen, vacuumed and dusted and made the bed )!
ETA: {{{Nava}}} I hope you can find a good solution for your mother and the rest of your family!
Good morning everyone. I’m up and waiting for the coffee to brew.
It’s frosty and foggy outside. In other words, it’s cold.
That was a very nice OP, Dotty. I loved the pics.
I don’t have any real big plans for today other than hitting the grocery store and doing laundry. My sister who’s visiting from out of town plans to come by sometime today too. She was supposed to come over yesterday, but she and her husband went and visited my other sister who lives quite a distance from here and it would have been a bit much to spend all day there and then come here too.
My poor daughter broke down and cried last night. We were expecting a phone call from her to tell us when to pick her up from work. I tried calling her several times when we expected her to be off, but was sent to voice mail. About 9:45 she walked in the door and she was very upset.
It turns out she had dropped her phone and couldn’t get it to turn back on. We agreed we’d get it taken care of today. Then she has buttloads of homework to do (and already had done buttloads), and finally, she has to work most everyday this week. She’s just stressed out to the max. So, I let her cry on my shoulder, hugged her, and told her to hang in there and that things would get better.
We did manage to get her cell phone back on last night. That cheered her up immensely, but she’s still just sick of the whole school/work grind. Unfortunately for her, she’s got a minimum of three years left. I really hope she sticks it out.
Morning. Those of you with today off are very lucky! I want today off! ::pout::
Great pics, Dotty! It sounds like an amazing trip.
Also great pics, Ray! There are a lot of cute Mumper kids!
Congrats stormy and light! If you hang out with the Mumpers, you’re guaranteed cute kids. See pics above for evidence.
{{{Nava}}}
Spaz, I was in NC once when it snowed. It was hysterical. I even built a little snow man out of the 1/2" of snow that fell. While everyone else was running around going “OMG, snow!!! What do we dooooooooooooo???”
We went snowshoeing here over the weekend. It was a bit windy, but otherwise fun. And good for us because Saturday morning I decided we needed pancakes so that’s what we had for breakfast. Then for lunch I wanted soup so I tried Alton’s leek potato soup. Which is a cream soup. So very tasty… and very calorie-rich. So we worked all of that off by snowshoeing.
In an attempt to continue the healthfulness I tried a recipe for cauliflower curry but it wasn’t very good. I’m going to have to keep working on that.
Last night KT, who likes to make gumbo, took the start of gumbo - the well-browned roux - and turned it into a Southwestern-inspired chili like thing. It had tomatoes and celery and bell peppers and chili powder in the roux so it was thick and spicy. Then he added TVP (textured vegetable protein) because he wanted to try it. It really was very good. He served it over corn with corn bread. It was like chili but without beans ('cause I don’t like them). Nice and thick and hearty.
Nava, I hope you get things worked out with your mom. Eldercare issues are difficult when you’re nearby, never mind at a distance.
Rebo, hope your dad’s still feeling better. No news is good news?
Aww, taters. It was totally your soft shoulder and hugs that made your daughter feel better, not the phone.
I’m off to get cleaned up and out we’re out the door for groceries and mr.j’s usual case of beer and pack of pepperoni for his week at work. Dinner tonight will be chicken fried rice thanks to stormy! Might also do a quick beef and broccoli to get some veggies in.
What’s this? Praise and congratulations? For me? Woo! Thanks everyone. If the Muse of Cooking whacks me upside the head with a frying pan again, I shall post the recipe here.
Just wanted to tell Muppet that Nat’s shacking the toy she brought him with the potato masher. That’s a sign of toy-approval.
Speaking of toys, we’re going up to Toy’s R’ in a few minutes to spend a damn gift card that Nat got for Christmas. I hope they have Robeez, otherwise he’s getting something frivolous.
Now he’s pulling kleenex out of a package and redecorating with it.
I’m here! Finally caught up and too frazzled to comment individually, but, great OP Dotty! Great pics, great recipes, great stuff all around.
Daughter and I did groceries and stuff this morning. And I got a replacement DVD player, since our old Sanyo died. We just popped Mamma Mia in, so this is a quick post.
We saw flurries this morning, but now the sun’s out.
Dotty - those pics were absolutely wonderful! And may I say, I do know where I’ll be next Christmas. Don’t forget to set an extra place for me and the kids. It was so beautiful!
I can come back and go over my Xmas and NYE later. Last week was my first week of school and we are out for MLK day but tomorrow I start all over again so I am studying today.
**Dotty **-- **HRH **is almost as cute as my own kids!
We’ve traveled with toddlers as well – it’s manageable if you don’t try to get too much done, and plan well ahead for accommodations and such…
{{{Kai}}} – I never got back on last week to say how sorry I was to hear about Lucy. We’re all here for you, if and when you need us.
{{{Nava}}} too – hope you can get things sorted out. As for enthusiasm for work, I have some but right now I need it all for myself… What with my current workload (which is partly responsible for my relative silence lately.)
It’s better than the alternative, though, given the current state of the global economy.
Hope everything goes well with your mother, Nava. I know it’s really difficult to handle things as she gets older. Hugs.
Leek and potato soup sounds yum, taxi. Leeks are my favorites in the onion family.
I’ve been alternely knitting and putting away Christmas. Went to JoAnn’s, Michael’s, Staples and World Market. Got a bit more yarn (decided I needed one more skein for the scarf and found something pretty at Michaels). Happily, I was able to find a skein from the same dye lot. Yay! Scarf is currently about 18" long, I think. Also watched 3 episodes of Angel on hulu.
Nava here’s hopin’ you get things figured out about your mother.
Congrats on the impending poop machine Stormy!
Howdy Y’all! Two down and three to go. Yay! Home. Supper et. It is so nice to yank out sump’n like beef stew out of the freezer and heat it up. Microwaves. What a wonder! Thaw and nuke. Truly a marvel of our times.
Hope everybody’s day went well. Personally I’s tahred. I monitored a bunch of folks today for skill certification. So far, so good. That’s what a lot of the rest of the week will be about. Next week a new training class hits the floor. Good times ahead.
Well, so much for my long weekend. I am almost finished my second helmet liner. I did a load of jeans. I cut up a pork loin into 3 roasts and 8 chops for the freezer. I am ticked, tho. When we were at WalMart, I got **FCD **a hoodie, but I trusted the size tag on the hanger and didn’t check the hoodie. Naturally, it’s too small. Then I opened the sack of socks I bought myself - there were only 5 pairs - there were supposed to be 6. GRRRRR! Plus they were really icky quality, so I’d probably have taken them back anyway.
Class starts tomorrow. I need to come home and make up my tool box. I’m looking forward to it, but my Weds and Fri are going to be tiring… Oh well. At least this is a short week.
OK I am now officially jealous of Death Ray’s pics as well. I really want to move to Australia, but every time they do one of those “world’s most dangerous anything and everything” the #1 lives in Australia. Along with #3, #4, #6, #8 - 10. It’s like life there would be a constant checking and rechecking to make sure the scary bug of death isn’t lurking behind every corner!
I made chicken cacciatore tonight. It was awesome. One day, I’ll learn to spell it.
What the hell is wrong with me? I smile all the way home. I LIKE my job. I like taking the train. I like taking the bus and people watching (people are weird–I love it!). TH is out of a job come Feb 1, and I can’t stop smiling (not because of that, but because I’m happy, dammit!).
Given all that is going on in my life, I must be crazy. Too bad the fun stops on Thursday and I go back to being a nurse…
Hope you all had wonderful days and look forward to a good day on the morrow!
Winter storm warning (tomorrow) for the VunderLair, with the official forecast calling for 3-5 inches of snow; we’re dead center of the belt that could get even more. The commute tomorrow will be fun, 'cuz these rednecks have 0 clue about driving in this stuff.
Just about any smilie will do right now.
Oh, and VWife is recovering from her fall Thursday. Still feels run over, though.