I went to bed during a rainstorm, with falling temps and have no idea what today will be like. It could continue to storm, or it could blow through. I’m hoping for “blow through”. Yesterday was fairly nice until late, so if the storm doesn’t sit on us, and it blew in on strong winds, it should blow through.
We had a nice Christmas Eve. I braved the mall for something on my wife’s list. Took D1 with me, then went and dropped off cookies for my buddy and his wife at his store. Got our greasy mitts all over the goods, and had a nice chat. D1 thought a chrome revolver with an 8″ barrel, chambered in .454 Casull might make a good carry piece. Only if there are more bears than humans around… thing must have weighed 7 pounds. The other thing her eye caught on was an IWI Tavor – kid’s got expensive tastes. And maybe there is a place for a small wheelgun or two in my safe.
I spent the afternoon doing a little cleanup, and then wrapping presents. We had dinner (pork ribs frozen in 2021) with fresh veg sides, then opened some of the pile o stuff. We’ll open the rest today. Facetimed with the grandparents back east for their presents. We do live in an age of wonders.
We had a nice day, and should have another today. I’ve got a lamb roast in the fridge, and plans for that later in the day. There is eggnog and french meat pie, and a pantry full of food. We are warm and dry. Our physical safety is pretty good, and our fiscal safety is ok. Change and disruption are coming but for the moment, we’re good. And that is the sort of everyday miracle we don’t think about often enough.
I hope you all are in similar situations, but if not, you can get there. I know some of you are alone right now for the first time in decades, and it sucks. Hang in there. You have friends who care about you. It’s a cliche’ but “this too shall pass”. I know I preach that bad times are coming, but I also think we can get through them, and get to the good times that will follow. Good times always follow bad. I don’t know what the timeline will look like, but I don’t think history will end.
I stack to help make the transition. And to survive all the cr@p between now and then. I hope you will too.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas.
nick
Big Papi is muy stinko.
When we went to my wife’s nephew’s after Thanksgiving dinner for the obligatory family visit, my ex-brother-in-law was fulfilling the Big Papi stereotype, muy stinko and kvetching about his Doberman back in Orlando.
Fortunately, no celebratory gunplay, but he was not at home.
Again, for the record, lest anyone think I’m being racist, my ex-brother-in-law is the whitest person I know. He even has a trust fund, but, as usual, being third generation, most of the family wealth generated by the patriarch grandfather is gone.
Actually, I would not even care. It’s your life, your personality. If I don’t like it, that is my problem.
My father was racist, well sort of, he did not like anyone that was different. Black people though were his favorite target. I grew up until I was 11 with that around me.
When I went to his funeral the chap that gave the eulogy was a black man. Imagine my shock. After the funeral I approach they man and explained that my father was a big racist, especially against black people. The man said yes, my father was racist to the end. But so was he. But they liked each other for their common interests and enjoyed making racist jokes about each other. He said being a racist did not mean they could not be friends as they both acknowledged their racism as just a part of who they were because of their past and that was not going to change. Just deal with it and move on.
Merry Christmas to all y’all…
Merry Christmas to you all
Happy Belated Festivus.
And, to those of you dealing with in-law grief, Merry Ludicrousmas.
Thank you Tina Fey.
To the torrents!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/articles/2024/wallace-and-gromit-vengeance-most-fowl
Merry Christmas to all!
Merry Christmas to all.
Merry Christmas from Vegas!
Sunny after all… with wet everywhere.
Stockings were full to overflowing. Presents have been opened, with some hits and a miss or two. Time for some poached eggs with hollandaise sauce (W does a blender version, it’s 98% of real, and much easier).
I got a dewalt battery circular saw, so I don’t have to bring it back and forth to the BOL, some sort of souvide cooker that will require experimentation, and a LaCrosse wifi weather station for the BOL. No media or gift cards this year, and no snack food.
Kids are doing “haul” videos for their friends. I don’t approve, but it’s a cultural thing for the young ones.
Perhaps I should join my spouse in the kitchen…
n
Merry Christmas to all. I almost never comment here, but I come here at least once a day to read and catch up with you all. Thanks, Nick, Rick and Barbara for keeping this place going. Thanks to all the people who comment here that make this such an interesting place to visit.
Merry Christmas to all.
The conversations here give me hope for the future.
Our Christmas tradition is to spend Christmas Eve at church, and snack well on charcuterie and such before and after.
On Christmas morning we sometimes go to the early service (missed it this year), and then we have an elaborate stocking ritual where all of the “stocking” gifts are opened. This year, each of us got a large reusable shopping bag as our stocking, filled with chocolates and specialty food items. We also fill them with small things like a neat little tool or a goofy phone stand that we find during the year. USB cables of all kinds were also part of that mix this year.
We spend the rest of the day together.
We open gifts on the first day of Christmas, Boxing Day. (When we had a little tyke, we spread out his relatively inexpensive gifts over all twelve days. We would even shop the after-Christmas sales for some of it.)
Nothing says Merry Christmas like Deadpool.
We’ll run “Stop Making Sense” later. Priorities.
Merry Christmas to all ! I am full of coffee, turkey, mashed sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmellows, lime salad, rolls, etc. Probably 2,000 calories. And I was 8 lbs down from before turkey day.
Wife and I alone this year for Christmas. I guess it is one of the phases of empty next syndrome. A couple of gifts each. A shirt for me and a new briefcase style bag for the laptop. I got her an electric box cutter and a projector. She will use both of those for her church work. The projector can display from the iPhone, iPad, or a thumb drive along with the usual HDMI. I got it for half price as it was last years model but is more than good enough. Amazing device for $109.00.
I think next year at Christmas I will make a trip to Texas and visit Mr. Lynn’s house and beg.
We’ll run “Stop Making Sense” later.
What is that ?
Nothing says Merry Christmas like Deadpool.
Wait, is there a Deadpool Christmas Special ? Where ?
We have similar food planned for this evening. Plus we did the Chicago deep dish pizza experiments last night.
This year’s change to the pizzas was longer proofing time in the refrigerator for the dough balls.
Giordano’s type crust. No Uno this year.
No. “Deadpool & Wolverine” on BluRay was one of my Christmas gifts.
A Deadpool Christmas special would be too clever for Disney.
Happy Christmas to you all.
I think next year at Christmas I will make a trip to Texas and visit Mr. Lynn’s house and beg.
It was a forced feeding. I was asleep and got woken up to eat Christmas lunch.
>>I got her an electric box cutter
@Ray, cutting electrical boxes??
Currently watching KC dismantle Detroit on Netflix (29-10). No Tay Tay sighting so far.
Merry Xmas to all!
Merry Christmas to all!
I hope you all have good things to to appreciate, friends and family to enjoy, and time to do both.
@lynn, Talking Heads concert film…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-rjMwSTeVe
No, that would have been an electrical box cutter. This is an electric knife specifically for cutting cardboard.
I went to bed during a rainstorm, with falling temps and have no idea what today will be like. It could continue to storm, or it could blow through. I’m hoping for “blow through”. Yesterday was fairly nice until late, so if the storm doesn’t sit on us, and it blew in on strong winds, it should blow through.
We got six to eight inches of rain with the thunderboomers last night . It was still booming when I went to bed at 330 am.
We have six inches of water on the ground between the east neighbor and us. We have a couple of inches of standing water in the back. Water retention is the best way to keep downstream flooding from happening.
I have been napping in my chair. I had a stool collapse under me last night while opening presents and it dumped me on my @ss on the concrete floor. It sent a jolt thru my whole spine.
Despite taking some stuff for it last night, I hurt today and am moving slowly.
Sat down to read emails and the full belly combined with a supportive chair and a restless night took their toll.
Napping has an appeal all its own.
n
“Stop Making Sense”
“The Greatest Concert Film Of All Time”
?
Maybe.
The A24 BluRay of the restored print is awesome. The movie does not feel 40 years old at all.
A Merry Christmas to you all!
I hope everyone is having a great day.
The weather forecast was wrong. 58f and so overcast there is no sign of the sun. Bleh. It looks like it might rain. Could be worse at 35f with the wind howling. The weather is fine for all the kids with new bicycles and footballs and that’s good.
The fajitas are still mostly frozen. Tomorrow or Friday but no rush.
Other than a few text messages I haven’t heard from anyone. Pretty much a normal day. I’m not complaining.
I have done Christmas and other holidays alone before. This year is different. It’s not alone because someone is working out of town or dealing with old parents ( ←- a good thing ) and just a phone call away. But I’m not the first and I’ll not be the last person to deal with it.
Moping and whining “poor pitiful me” is not useful and therefore is forbidden. Life, whatcha gonna do?
Me? It’s time to feed the dogs.
Life, whatcha gonna do?
– Petting dogs and giving belly rubs will almost always pay dividends….
n
(for some reason, D1’s dog is at my feet in my office. He almost never does that, and certainly not when everyone else is home. A little ear scritching is clearly in order.)
It is a beautiful winters day here, some clouds and blue sky and maybe 60 Fahrenheit temperatures.
I was over at the neighbors midday, and over to my brothers in a few minutes.
I gifted someone a Netflix subscription, but it turns out that their Apple TV in their iPad are so out of date that they can’t download the Netflix app. their TV is standard HD, and I think I may have an old Roku laying around that I upgraded from when I got the 4K TV.
A merry Christmas to all!
@Nick, don’t take a bruised tailbone too lightly, I had a relative break one and it took months to recover. Don’t stint on the ibuprofen.
@lynn, Talking Heads concert film…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-rjMwSTeVe
That URL does not work here.
That sounds almost like a Zen koan.
The Zen master says: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
Feed the dogs.
Lamb roast is in the oven, along with a couple of baking potatoes. W made some baked brie and preserves thing to spread on bread as an appetizer- and it was good.
Kids are cleaning rooms and building the kits they got for Christmas. D1 likes Metal Earth ™ kits, D2 prefers the ones made from laser cut plywood.
n
“You know that commerce means that you could exchange money for that and take it home.”
–Julia Savage Ward (Mrs. Adam Savage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8LqMv416mw
How Adam Savage got the leather club chair in his cave.
Tonight’s movie was The Last Picture Show. Was. I made about 20 minutes and decided “not tonight”.
I shopped a little more on Big River and spent some money. Call it saved beer money. All on DVD.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Complete Series – 175 episodes – B09DMXRCYL
Star Trek: Voyager: The Complete Series – 172 episodes – B08DC3ZCCV
Star Trek: Enterprise: The Complete Series – 98 episodes – B099C5NC5G
and today,
Star Trek: Picard: The Complete Series – 30 episodes – B0C7P7NRYJ
$260 plus tax seems like a lot. But there are 131 discs with 475 episodes if I added correctly. Best, I can watch when I want. 55¢ plus per episode.
Star Trek: Discovery doesn’t look too interesting. More like “cash in on the name” but I could be wrong.
Merry Christmas to all of you.
I like my iPhone still have to import some pictures and documents but overall its fine. The hearing aid feature is not all I hoped would be. It doen’t seem to help with the TV; I get clearer sounds when I cup my hands behind my ears both with and without the AirPods, which I can not explain. Cupping my hands behond my ears while listening to Youtube music at my computer with a surround sound 5.1 setup again makes a noticeable difference.
I never got into Star Trek or any of the other SF TV shows. I do read a lot of SF. Currently I don’t watch any TV except football and when its over the NCAA basketball tournament.
Bits of “Discovery” are entertaining until Michelle Yeoh leaves.
We gave up and didn’t even watch the last two seasons.
The studio just looked the other way while “Lower Decks” last episode effectively declared “Discovery” and most of “Strange New Worlds” to be write-offs.
Really sneaky to do it with the cartoon show.
“The Y Factor (Cresperian)” by Darrell Bain and Stephanie Osborn
https://www.amazon.com/Y-Factor-Cresperian-Darrell-Bain/dp/160619089X?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number two of a three book space opera first contact series. I reread the well formatted and bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback. I have the third book in the series and am going read it also.
The series started with an alien starliner FTL drive exploding in the Solar System around 2030. A couple hundred of the aliens survived in individual lifeboats, some of which crashed on the planet Earth. The first book covered several of the survivors across the planet and their conversion to human forms through innate abilities.
In the second book, several of the Earth’s nations build FTL starships capable of holding up to 400 people and head out looking for the alien’s home world. This is their story.
BTW, the first book was by Travis S. Taylor and Darrell Bain whereas this book is by Darrell Bain and Stephanie Osborn. The third book is also by Darrell Bain and Stephanie Osborn.
Like I said for the first book, wow, this is pulp science fiction at its best ! I loved it ! I gave the first book 6 stars, my highest rating.
My rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (123 reviews)
Lynn
Pearls Before Swine: Talking Technical with Young People
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2024/12/25
The technology changes are so great in just a couple of decades that people do not understand how old technology worked.