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Post by Phalon on Nov 23, 2021 5:36:30 GMT -6
Cold. Brrrr. Work has been hard, FMAO every day; the knee I injured early this fall has been acting up in the cold weather - I'll probably always have problems with it, I guess. I so wanted to be done at the end of this week, but it doesn't look as if it's going to happen.
Been dealing with a bad breakup - BP and her boyfriend, and of course, it had to be right before the holidays. Everyone in the family knew it'd eventually happen, but watching your kid go through it is devastating. Not to mention there's the car, the apartment, their cats, and all that other stuff couples who live together have to deal with when they split. He is, always has been, and always will be a selfish ass.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 23, 2021 14:29:04 GMT -6
We’re having nice days. The sun is cooking my house, and if not for the breeze, it would be a nice warm day. It’s in the high 40s. Tomorrow is supposed to be 60F. I’m sure that in a few weeks the day temps will be cooler, and the night temps even colder.
Sorry to hear BP is having to deal with a breakup. But if he’s as you say, I’m glad she’ll soon be rid of him, and hope she finds a nice guy in the future.
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Post by stepper on Nov 23, 2021 17:41:24 GMT -6
Working until December? Won't that make the Christmas wreath projects easier? Or is it still way too soon? (sorry for use of the "C" word)
Sympathies to BP - and congratulations on being sufficiently cognizant of the situation to recognize that the current BF didn't really measure up. He'll know he messed up in the very near future I'm sure. And I hope she's not going to allow him to come back when he tries.
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Post by stepper on Nov 23, 2021 17:48:00 GMT -6
We got down to that one morning. The weather guessers were telling everyone to wear a jacket because it was so cold. Of course for here, 40's is cold except for people coming here from anywhere north of us. Lights and yard decorations are all up. I read somewhere recently that the day after T-Day is the most popular day in the US for putting up Christmas decorations. Speaking of T-Day - I'm getting pretty hungry for my turkey legs!
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 23, 2021 21:56:16 GMT -6
The 40s isn't so bad because of the night temps. We've had a few nights in the 20s. The rest of the nights in the mid- to low-30s. Plus, the sun helps the high 40s feel warmer, when the frigid breeze isn't blowing.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 25, 2021 6:42:46 GMT -6
Some of the food prep is done - to include the most godawful-looking deviled eggs I ever made. I don't know what the problem was, but they wouldn't peel cleanly; they look all raggedy and ugly, and I thought about scrapping the whole batch and starting over. It's just the family for dinner though, and they taste good, which is most important.
Still lots to do before they arrive.
Later Sweet Taters. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
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Post by stepper on Nov 26, 2021 10:27:58 GMT -6
A belated Happy Thanksgiving to us all. I spent most of the day cooking, and/or cleaning, and/or making deliveries. One of my neighbors sent a text. His wife died a few weeks ago and yesterday he was feeling sorry for himself so he begged off on joining family (which is cumbersome for him because he's on oxygen and has to travel with tanks), and then he sent me an email saying he was having a T-Day peanut butter and jelly sandwich as that's what he had available. Of course I couldn't let that one go. Then another person who started hinting a couple months ago that he liked my cooking called from previous years - just to say hi and by the way, he's in the neighborhood. Plus I'm puppy sitting for another neighbor. And then it felt (and looked) like I'd used half of the pans in the house to make the T-Day stuff. One good thing, besides the fact that I did get a long enough break to eat, was that I slept really well last night. Dinner was surprisingly expensive - I knew prices were going up but all by itself the turkey was just shy of $28. But here's the especially good part - I'm going to be gnawing on that bird and all the extra fixin's for days! Dessert was Cheesecake instead of pumpkin pie. The deviled eggs came out perfect this time but usually I have one or even two that don't peel cleanly. I keep right on trucking - they taste just as good as the rest although I've been known to taste test one of two of them - just to be sure they are all okay you understand. I've read about different tricks to make sure they all peel okay such as adding baking soda to the water when you boil the eggs. The only thing that works consistently for me is to cool the eggs off and peel them right away. Hope you all have a great Black Friday. I'm done shopping except for a few things I can get at the grocery store (candy and chocolate covered nuts - and two MRE's for my brother who hunts), and one brother appreciates Texas Roadhouse gift cards. I can be done before the weekend is over!
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 26, 2021 14:13:31 GMT -6
Right now, its 40F, but feels like 36F. Supposed to warm up into the 50s & 60s the next few days, and then back down into the 40s again.
Happy Belated Thanksgiving!
Soon it will be Christmas, and then the New Year. Hopefully the new year will be a much healthier year than the last two. That is my Christmas wish.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 26, 2021 14:27:00 GMT -6
Phalon: There’s no reason to get rid of perfectly good Deviled Eggs because of the way they look. Unless it’s an excuse to make more, and hide away the messed up ones all for yourself later on. Yum.
Stepper: I’ve no doubt these people appreciate your kindness. It’s always lovely to hear stories of good tidings. I wish the news would do a fair share of the goodness in the world.
Phalon/Stepper: I’m not sure I’ve ever said this before, but: Thank you for your service. I’m grateful to live in a free country, with people who were/are willing to fight/die for that freedom. Thank you, both.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 1, 2021 8:20:08 GMT -6
Actually, it would have made the Christmas projects impossible - I can't do them while I'm working, and even to cut the greenery after work is impossible because it gets dark so early. I didn't even check into the bazaar this year though, deciding early-on I wasn't going to do it. Honestly, I'm done dealing with people for a while. When someone comes into the store, refuses to let you wait on them, and demands to talk to someone not wearing a face mask, it kinda sours your opinion of the general public (I guess that "freedom of choice" they're always screaming about only works one way). Or how about this one: a customer follows you around the store while you're showing him options of what he asked for, and while you're providing customer service tailored to his needs, he's got his hands up in the air because he's "afraid you're going to rob him because you're wearing a face mask" (though eventually he put them down, probably because he got tired holding them up, or realized I wasn't intimidated, and not because he realized he looked like an ass).
Yep, I need a break from people. Finished work on Friday, and grateful to be done for a while.
Unfortunately, and I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think this is the end.
I didn't notice the price of turkeys to be expensive here; maybe it's different in different parts of the country? I paid $.99 a pound for a Honeysuckle White brand; Butterball was $1.09 per pound, and the store-brand was $.89 per pound. Any of those, I thought was reasonable and pretty on par with past years. What was weird though was the size of them - they were all gigantic! I usually get a 12-14 pound turkey, which is the perfect size for Thanksgiving dinner with all the other food, some for the kids to take home, and a couple days leftovers for Hubs and I. I looked through dozens and dozens of turkeys, and the majority of them were over 20 pounds! I finally found a 16-pounder, and it was plenty for dinner and lots of leftovers. Dang, how I love a cold turkey sandwich!
Though the turkey wasn't expensive, I bought ground beef this week, and was somewhat shocked at the price. I don't buy beef all that often, so I don't know if it was a gradual increase in price, or a sudden thing.
Stepper, it is so very sweet of you to do Thanksgiving dinner deliveries for your neighbors and friends who would otherwise not have a traditional Thanksgiving meal! I'm sure you made their day!
You're welcome, Joxie. In my case though, my active duty was served during peace time. I always feel like "thank yous" for my service are undeserved. I was young when I was in the military, and had a blast living overseas and traveling places I would otherwise not have been able to visit.
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 3, 2021 14:44:44 GMT -6
Anything could have happened at any point to start up a war, and you were willing to fight if it was called for. So, thank you.
It’s 72F, and feels like 72F, and it’s 74F inside the house. I’m wearing summer clothes to keep from turning on the a/c. I want to hold the heat for tonight, when the temperature drops into the mid-forties.
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 4, 2021 14:52:21 GMT -6
It’s 61F outside, and 74F inside. And I have on summer clothes. The south facing front porch is warmed by the sun, and the north facing back porch is chilled by the shade and cool breeze. I’ll probably need to add a layer to walk to the mailbox. Or I’ll forget and trek there and back in shorts.
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Post by stepper on Dec 5, 2021 7:23:46 GMT -6
80's today and tomorrow, tomorrow night a cold front drops us to the 60's and brings a slight chance of rain, then the rest of the week is upper 80's. Not exactly Christmas weather. About the only thing we can count on is the sun coming up and Christmas will arrive no matter what the weather might be.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 5, 2021 9:21:06 GMT -6
Sigh.
Heavenly.
Highs have been in the 30s and 40s here this past week - some snow that stuck around for a day, one evening of mesmerizingly sublime frozen fog, and lots of biting wind.
Bit the bullet and bundled up for two days of raking heavy, wet, snowy leaves out of the ravine, all the while hearing the loud noise of the leaf sucker truck further out in the neighborhood signaling there was no time to rest. Twenty heavy cumbersome tarps full of leaves I raked and hauled up the ravine hill, across the yard, and out to the curb, creating a huge snake-like pile of them lining our street frontage. We'd raked and blown leaves just a couple of times prior this fall, but the cold and snow brought on a major leave dump all at once. I got them up just in time - the leaf-sucker truck came by and in minutes cleaned up my two-days worth of back-breaking work. Watching it do it's thing - and the guy inside controlling the sucker arm - renewed my weird desire to operate that leaf-sucking machinery just once.
There are about twenty more tarpfuls of leaves in the ravine gardens - they can stay there until spring, because I think my window of opportunity has passed; snow is in the forecast, and the plows will take the place of the leaf-sucker truck.
Pots and urns are all emptied and put away in the shed - neatly, I might add. I counted my potted things this year as I cleaned up the gardens - there are four pots I brought inside to keep as houseplants as long as they'll live inside this houseplant deathtrap; there are 10 pots of perennials I keep from year to year, now neatly bunched together and mulched alongside the shed so their roots stay toasty up out of the ground in winter. And there are twenty-three pots in the shed that I emptied of annuals. Thirty-seven pots each year, placed on the porch, in the gardens, and around the yard! That's a heck-of-a-lotta pots! But I love the way it looks in summer and fall.
So much more I could do to prepare the gardens for winter, but I completed my last "must-do" task yesterday - planting 3 dozen daffodil bulbs that my boss gave me something like three weeks ago; daffodils are one of my all-time favorite flowers. With that done, going to call my gardening chores done for the season....
...unless we, on the odd chance, get one of those 60 degree days you guys are having that I am envying!
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 6, 2021 12:48:23 GMT -6
It is 43F, but feels like 35F, outside. It is 71F inside, as the sun is warming up my house. The warmth should end soon, as we’re to have a couple of nights in the 20s, so that should cool off the inside, unfortunately.
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 7, 2021 15:23:31 GMT -6
It’s 39F, but feels like 35F, outside. It’s 63F in the house. I put the thermostat on 62F at night, so I can sleep under the covers. I’ve been out most of the day, so hadn’t turned up the heat until just now. Supposed to get in the 70s on Friday, with thunderstorms. It’s hard to know what to put on when I wake up sometimes.
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Post by moonglum on Dec 8, 2021 14:35:13 GMT -6
It's been cold here for the last few weeks, most mornings it's 1 or 2 degrees either side of zero. It warms up to anywhere between 4 and 8 degrees during the day. The house is a tip at the moment. We are having a new kitchen fitted. The old kitchen was completely stripped out to a bare shell. We are doing everything in the living room and under the stairs. The work is approaching completion, decorating finished today and new flooring going down tomorrow. Then appliances going in and hopefully we'll be done in time for xmas.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 13, 2021 7:08:20 GMT -6
Hope everything is going according to schedule, Moonglum. A new kitchen - what a lovely Christmas gift to yourselves that would be! I'm hoping the same for Scrappy - her house suffered storm damage in late summer, the kitchen got the worst of it, and the demolition crew tore out the damaged walls and flooring soon after. I talked to her just before Thanksgiving, and the reconstruction still hadn't been completed! They are expecting their new floor before Christmas. Fingers crossed for both of you.
Speaking of storm damage...Joxie, are you okay? Been reading all weekend of the tornado devastation in your state. Check in, please.
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 13, 2021 14:01:44 GMT -6
I’m fine. My county is good. My lights flickered a lot that night, but never went out.
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 13, 2021 14:27:09 GMT -6
It’s 56F [feels like 55F] outside, and 71F inside. The sun is warming my house, saving me on electricity. Unfortunately, the sun raises my electric bill in the hotter seasons, when it fights against my a/c. So, it owes me.
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Post by moonglum on Dec 14, 2021 1:07:57 GMT -6
The weather warmed up over the weekend, highs of 14C, The work on the kitchen was completed on Friday, on Saturday we bought a welsh dresser, and now it's finished and Vox is in seventh heaven. Sorry to hear about Scrappy, send her our best wishes and hope everything is sorted soon.
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 14, 2021 21:52:13 GMT -6
MG: Nice to hear your kitchen is completed.
Phalon: Sorry to hear about Scrappy's home. I hope it is repaired soon.
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Post by Mini Mia on Sept 16, 2022 21:15:04 GMT -6
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