Ours is happy—we have no floor, well, plywood, so don’t think of us dancing on the floor joists—but we have ample food, we’re baking cookies, and will exchange a couple of prezzies—we’ve both asked for new muffies (house slippers)—but most of all, we have a floor in one room and prep work done for other areas. And I am cleared to work on it until the 6th January, at which point I’m back in restriction, but with a new lens in the other eye.
It’s snowing up a storm–there’s now 10″ of accumulation out there, and more coming tomorrow, after which it will clear and be very, very cold.
Beautiful trees out there. I had to go out and whack snow off the bendable evergreens and the sapling dogwood to prevent the sheer weight of wet snow from deforming them—Jane’s laboring hard to get our kitchen into shape for epic baking.
we got rain last night…in fact, tornado warning in my county (so I spent a tense hour sitting in front of a radio transceiver and computer tracking the storms and sending out broadcasts to my county spotters). I feel bad for the people in Mississippi, we were fortunate in that all we got were rain and some wind gusts up to about 25MPH recorded at my house.
I went down to my father’s house Tuesday and changed the air filter and spark plug for his lawn mower prior to putting it up for the winter, also drained the oil and gas. Went to work on his snow thrower, and it won’t start – the gasoline in the tank is several years old and smells of varnish. I dumped as much as I could for that, but it also needs new motor oil and a spark plug. He had the plug, I just picked up the oil and will put it in either today or one day this week. No snow in the forecast, in fact, temperatures are in the high 50s or mid 60s, (Mid to high teens Celsius), with rain predicted tomorrow and several days after.
Good on the eyes. Take it slow on the floors, be near a take hold if the pilot has to jink the ship.
Festive Solstice, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Fruitful Kwanzaa, Glorious Festivus or whatever you salads celebrate. Our daughter is in town after several long business trips. Our son and his girlfriend are in from LA with their two puppies, and our house is a disaster area of puppy pads, dog toys, gifts by the fireplace, a welter of wrapping paper and ribbon with alternating lookouts to prevent untoward accidents, plus the beginnings of Mandalorian armor. The kitchen is strewn with coffee cups and food fixings and I am preparing to stuff and roast Cornish hens for our dinner tonight. Fortunately most of the side dishes were prepared earlier in the week.
Weather is mild (high 50s to low 60s) and sunny with a chance of precip over the weekend.
Current count: 5 adults, 3 canines, and 1 superior feline to supervise. Auspicious numbers each, with a most auspicious total.
We all know which way the manchi flows!
Not manchi, MANJU
http://www.homemaidbakery.com/manju.html
Don’t worry, the manju probably flow in the same direction…
Happy Christmas all
Yes indeed, Mele Kalikimaka e ka Hauoli Makahiki Hou! Tonight will be a Silent Night, with just myself and DH. Tomorrow the festivities will begin; Christmas Day we have a Bachelor Feast, for everyone without relatives in the area. Ham and accouterments. The following day we are hosting our gaming group, and I picked up inexpensive rib roasts for a larger herd. I also found a recipe for a not exactly holiday treat; someone came up with a cinnamon sweet roll version of a Arrakis sandworm which I am perversely motivated to try.
Gritty with the large crystalized on top? 😉
ARRRGGGHHH! SUGAR
http://kitchenoverlord.com/2015/12/03/dune-week-spice-filled-sandworm/
I thought that looked so cool when I saw it. I’d love to try it someday. DH does not read SF&F and would not be an appreciative audience though.
IMO unless one knew the book well, there were many parts of the movie that made no sense, e.g. what was the deal with the Shadout Mapes? In the book she held a high position among the Fremen, not a “housekeeper”, an important spy! Casting sucked. It paid no attention to the original illustrations for the book in Analog. And the Harkonnens role in the book was more shadowy–leaving things to the imagination is often better.
The movie was “once over lightly” or “hit the high spots”, entirely what the book was not. I was disappointed. 🙁
I’m with Paul, I hated the David Lynch version, and I wasn’t all that fond of the second version with William Hurt in the role of Leto. I guess I have that kind of personality that if you’re going to make a movie from a book, then either stick to the book, or else, title the movie something else with the caveat “loosely based on XXXXXX by XXX XX XXXXX”. Peter Jackson’s horrid treatment of “The Two Towers” springs to mind…but the way that David Lynch mangled “Dune”, even though Frank Herbert was a collaborator on the film, was atrocious. When they made “A Wizard of Earthsea” for TV, Ms. leGuin was adamant that she did NOT have anything to do with that production, either, and apologized to her readers.
I don’t know if an author is required to apologize for the way a director “interprets” their stories, but I’m pretty sure that Heinlein would have hated the way they filmed “Starship Troopers” (one of my favorite Heinlein books).
@Joe. The current “Sherlock” comes to mind as a very loose adaptation. It’s often hard to find anything coincident with the stories. In “The Sign of Three”, was there anything but the name Sholto? Holmes & Watson, of course, but anything else? Nevertheless the series is entertaining. 😉
Being an Aspie, well, “it takes one to know one.” I did appreciate at one point he claimed sociopathy, though I think that’s a term now well outdated. ASD is so imprecise! 🙁
I don’t have TV input so don’t watch anything…..right now, the DVD player is the only thing connected to the TV, and if I want to watch a VHS tape (yep, still have a bunch of them!), I have to finagle the setup a bit….so, easier to pick up a book…..thanks to Project Gutenberg, I have a bunch on the iPad.
A very Merry Christmas to you both!
PS. I’m envious of your snow, it’s almost 70 degrees here in Va. yuck
Yes, best wishes to all. Hoping next year will contain fewer of these flippin’ auras, such as struck again just yesterday afternoon.
Half a century ago I commissioned an artist girlfriend of a friend to do an oblique pen and ink sketch of Stonehenge, and sort of an archaic, slightly runish, “Merry Winter Solstice” script, with brush-like tails on the letters, which I had printed on brownish paper, and sent when the spirit moved. Still have some, of course.
OT: I just noticed the Morgaine Cycle is available on Kindle! I had some epic Christmas present mailing fails this season *1000yardstare* but nothing will stop the power of the internet from zapping that to its destination tomorrow morning. That’s one thing off my mind. Whew!
Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas to all! We’re hoping for snow here in the mountains of AZ. Been drizzly since Monday and last week was flat cold, down in the teens at night.
Happy Holidays to All and Sundry. — The weather here has slipped just a tick cooler, but still nowhere near freezing. We may have rain for a few days before we get sun again. This is OK; what we’ve had has been very light rain, mostly cloud cover.
It’s myself and the two cats. Most Assertive Junior Feline shall have his 5th anniversary of arrival next week. Most Non-Assertive Senior Feline had his 9th anniversary of arrival on Oct. 31st. They are both quite pleased with the state of their world.
I’ll be fixing the chicken curry CJC recommended tomorrow, with coconut milk rather than sour cream, thanks to my cabbie being irregular these days. I have homemade stuffing thawed from Thanksgiving, cranberry sauce, and I’ll have at least one vegetable. likely zucchini, and possibly another. There’s also pumpkin pie. So I’ll be quite well fed through New Year’s.
Things are OK despite my budget being tanked. No idea where my tax payments in January are coming from. In all likelihood, they’re not. But…for right now, I intend to enjoy this Christmas. I’ve put up with too much frantic stress over such things, earlier this year. Christmas is OK this year. It’s very light, but I’m OK with what I’ve got. For now, I still have my home, my utilities are paid through the next billing cycle, I have plenty of food until the next trip to the store. It’s about as good as one can expect, I guess. But it’s only myself and the cats. That part does get me. But I want to enjoy this holiday.
Meanwhile, I’m still working on font production, still hoping to have my first ones submitted for review in January.
I have a few lines of audio to record for a project for which I don’t know if their team will ever complete. But I owe them the lines, and hope to see the remaining two or more scripts at some point and record for those. I am also very frustrated with that situation and disappointed. I wish they’d get it in gear.
Next year is going to be very rough, but I’m hoping somehow things will happen to offset that. That is what I’m holding onto, if not always with an ideal grip.
I hope sincerely for good things to continue and for better things, progress, to happen for all. We are in the 21st century, yet so many basic human problems still are with us. I want to see better in the new year.
Yuletide Felicitations!
A Merry Christmas to you and Jane.
Enjoy the cookies and other goodies!
Murray Crimmers one and all. Your snow is heading our way, CJ. Predictions are of feet of snow on the border between NM and TX by Roswell, and we are supposed to get snow and COLD! From high of 66F on Xmas day, to high of 25F on Sunday with snow predicted.
Getting a new computer for the new year (well, a reconditioned one, actually, but new to me) and it will be delayed because the guy who’s putting it together for me is having cataract surgery the 5th. (Must be having a sale — A January sight sale, perhaps?)
Glad things are going well with the eye, CJ. LOL’ed at you getting all kendo on the trees to get the snow off. Jane is a jewel.
Merry Christmas to all. A white Christmas is lovely if you can watch it from the warmth of your house, through the windows, without getting out into it! And you can look forward to a new year with both eyes working correctly; that’s a great pleasure.
Mele Kalikimaka, indeed. It’s cool for SoCal, but by no means snowy, except in the snowy areas, such as San Jacinto Peak, over 10K’/3k m.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
…and the kitchen sink, dishwasher, and garbage disposal all backed up and refused to drain. What else is new? Tomorrow we pull the trap and try to figure what’s the matter.
OTOH, the meal was good.
I hear you. The garbage disposal in my apt. is kaput as well, and me hosting xmas dinner for three (me, mom and BFF who has no family in town anymore). I didn’t cook it, just heated what I bought, but it was still good, and we pigged out. I’m trying to ignore the leftovers that are already singing their siren song . . .
I’d be willing to bet the cause of your drain woes is related to that big tree-blowing-over storm you had a while ago. Knowing trees’ affinity for pipes, I wouldn’t be surprised if the uprooting of the trees disturbed some sewer lines.
Is anything else stuffed up? You just cleared the basement drain; one would think that should have taken care of the plumbing related woes for the rest of the year, at least! *would not be looking forward to clogged toilets and/or washing pots in the bathroom*
If the sink is backing up, but none of the other fixtures in the house are, probably is the trap. Hopefully, that’s an easy fix and will solve the problem, but it might not hurt to run a snake (if you have one) down the drain on the waste side of the trap, too, just to clear out any potential clogs further down.
While I don’t advocate doing this, sometimes, putting a bit of drain cleaner down the pipe on the side away from the sink/dishwasher/disposer might help, too. Those chemicals play hob with the disposer, though, so you don’t pour them down the drain from the sink.
The simple cup type plunger (not the ones with the extended flange – those are for toilets) might help, too. Not knowing what tools you have in the household, though, I can only suggest, I can’t get in there and get my hands dirty for you…..
hmmm….my post got eaten by the “cybermonsters” out there….
Possibly running a “snake” down the waste side of the trap will help clear out any potential clogs. I don’t normally use chemicals in my drains, either, they’re bad for the garbage disposer, but maybe if some were poured down the waste side of the trap after you’ve taken the trap off, it might help clear any potential clogs, or clogs further downstream further than the “snake” can reach.