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Post by stepper on Dec 21, 2019 11:23:32 GMT -6
I've been wrong before, but “Colly bird?” The four “calling” birds were originally “colly” birds, according to a blog post by Peter Armenti, the literature specialist for the Digital Reference Section at the Library of Congress. It’s essentially a black bird, Armenti said Wednesday. Although both “calling” and “colly” have appeared in versions of the song, “colly,” which is derived from the Old English word for coal, predates “calling” by more than a century, he wrote. And the reference is to the color of the bird, not its voice.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 22, 2019 10:14:00 GMT -6
Coolio! I love learning how stuff originates. I learned a lot about Christmas traditions and symbolism at the exhibit of trees from different countries that Crazy Cheryl and I visited; I took photos on my phone of the signs by each tree even, because I thought it was so interesting. Here's something I learned about how poinsettias came to be associated with Christmas.
Poinsettias natively grow in southern Mexico, where they "flower" in winter; the flowers are actually bracts (leaves) that turn red or white. In Mexican folklore a young child wanted to visit the Nativity, but was too poor to bring a gift. Sadly, on the way to the chapel, she picked a bouquet of weeds, and was embarrassed that was all she had to present to Jesus. But when she laid the bouquet at the base of the Nativity scene, miraculously, it turned into a bouquet of bright red flowers. In Mexico, they are called 'Flores de Noche Buena' which means 'Flowers of the Holy Night'.
They became a plant associated with Christmas here in the States in the early 1800s. The name "poinsettias" comes from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, who brought them back from Mexico to grow in his greenhouses in South Carolina in 1828. Since they bloomed during winter, he started giving them away as gifts at Christmas.
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 22, 2019 20:24:56 GMT -6
Interesting.
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 23, 2019 13:38:00 GMT -6
Mom’s dog went outside this morning and brought me back a dead squirrel. I refused to let her in and she whined. I don’t recall her ever whining at me when I stood at the front door. I guess she feared my niece’s dogs would show up and take it away.
I got a smallish plastic garbage bag, a small box, and a box tape dispenser, and went outside to take ‘my gift’ from her. She had a tight gripe, and accidentally got my finger. She didn’t put up much of a fight though, as that’s not her personality. I dumped the ‘present’ into the box, minus the plastic bag, taped it up and tossed it in my woods next to the box with a dead opossum. I figure the boxes will rot, but if they don’t, I’ll toss them into the trash bin once they’re past the odor stage.
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Post by moonglum on Dec 24, 2019 1:18:10 GMT -6
Merry Christmas everyone. (I know it's a day early, but we are going to be very busy later.)
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 24, 2019 2:26:16 GMT -6
Merry Christmas, everyone.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 24, 2019 9:16:42 GMT -6
OMG, it's Christmas Eve already??! Though everything is decorated, every present is wrapped, (even the wayward packages that went to the wrong town arrived in time), and things are all it place, it still seems like there are a million things left to do before everyone arrives. "Everyone" is really just us - the girls and their boyfriends, and Nikki, LX's friend since their high-school Dairy Queen days; she's spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning here for years since their family gets together for a big celebration after Christmas. The neighbors and their three "grown" kids (a couple years younger than LX) will come over for fun and games after dinner tonight. I met the woman yesterday who upholstered Hubs' grandmother's rocking chair; we did the exchange out of the trunks of our cars in the parking lot of a little corner store in a town about 15 minutes from here. I seem to be doing a lot of trunk-deals this season, and I swear if someone was keeping tabs on me, they'd think I was doing something illegal! The chair cushion turned out beautiful; Hubs is going to be so surprised! Crazy Cheryl, the Christmas Cookie Elf, has already been by this morning to bring the annual platter of cookies she makes....as if I need more cookies than I already have in the house. I actually made Christmas cookies yesterday! Homemade cookies, not from a tube or a container! It's all Crazy Cheryl's fault actually - a few weeks ago, she gave me a jar of her homemade raspberry chocolate sauce. I wondered what I was going to do with it, and remembered Mom's Split Second cookies; I remember making them with her often when I was a kid. She called them Split Seconds because they were so easy to make, they just took a split-second - and because, she always teased, once Dad got into them, they were gone in split-second. I went through Mom's recipe book, and found the Split Second recipe on a scrap of paper. But like all of Mom's recipes, all it was was a list of ingredients - I guess you're supposed to guess what to do with them, how long you're supposed to bake them, and at what temperature. For the heck of it, I drilled, and was very surprised to find gobs and gobs of sites that had a Split Second cookie recipe! Mom always sprinkled powdered sugar on her Split Seconds, which none of the recipes mentioned, but if you want a really quick, really easy - so easy that even Phalon can do it - recipe for delicious cookies not just for Christmas, try these: www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/split-second-cookies/Later, all my Whoosh Sweet Taters, and though I'll probably be back before it's all said and done, have a very, very Merry Christmas.
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Post by stepper on Dec 24, 2019 22:01:55 GMT -6
I see I'm a bit late coming to the game, but allow me to join in and wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
A friend called me from the local HEB - the main grocery store around here. Basically, the place was a mad-house. He told me that every checkout lane was open including 15 self checkout lines, and they were all seriously backed up due to the number of people trying to purchase last minute items. At one point the crush was so oppressive that he stepped into the restroom just to get a quick break from all the people. The traffic was so bad people had double parked in front of the store which means no one could drive past the front of the store because there wasn't enough room for double parked vehicles. There's parking for more than a 1000 vehicles at this place - and I'm very glad I'm here instead of there. As Phalon said - presents all purchased, wrapped, delivered, food has been purchased, it's simply a matter of time for the main event to take place. No one will be visiting us until the 27th and I contacted everyone today to wish them a Merry Christmas with the exception of my brothers - that'll wait for Christmas Day - so the next couple of days will be just us and the fireplace which just happens to have a nice little fire going. Hallmark is on the TV - the channel playing Christmas music all night - it feels much like the story. "And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap." Except there's no clatter on the roof and as warm as it has been recently, there won't be.
Both of the neighbors are fairing better than any of us expected and they hosted their big Christmas Eve gathering with even the great grandchildren showing up. I'm sure the grandparents genuinely appreciated having all the relatives there and celebrated with as much abandon as they could muster.
For now, all's right in the world. I wish it could stay this way for each of us throughout the year.
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 25, 2019 0:05:44 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on Dec 28, 2019 9:20:19 GMT -6
That's a lovely post, Stepper, with a lovely sentiment - that and Joxie's vintage Christmas music post is very "A Christmas Story" nostalgic.
We had a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas, complete with a lot of family traditions. I enjoyed the whole season - everything leading up to Christmas and the holiday itself was wonderful. Two things I missed though - seeing my brother, though we talked on the phone. And the classic Christmas movies on T.V. throughout the season.
There was an abundance of Christmas movies shown on T.V., of course - actually an over-abundance. I read that Hallmark was having a contest revolving around who could stomach...er, I mean watch and tweet (positively, I'm assuming) about all the new Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel; I didn't watch a single one. The classics though were missing, except on Turner Classic Movies, which is a channel we don't get. My all time favorite Christmas story is "A Christmas Carol", and every Christmas season, I catch as many versions of the story as I can, often staying up until 1 or 2am to do so, because they tend to play the older versions late at night. Not a single one aired though, at least, not to my knowledge. On Christmas day, the kids rented the Disney version with Jim Carey's voice as Scrooge, and even though it's not my favorite, except for that weird, extended chase scene in the middle, it does stay true to Dickens' story the most out of any of the movies, I think. I did watch the new version that FX did in conjunction with the BBC; I saw it one and a half times because the first time, I fell asleep about an hour and a half into it (it was a three-hour movie!), woke up to watch the last twenty minutes, and was like 'what the heck just happened?!!', so I had to catch the whole thing again just to see how the ending fit in with the story. I liked it, but it veered so far from Dickens' classic tale that it was almost like it wasn't "A Christmas Carol" at all. Did any of you guys watch it?
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Post by Mini Mia on Dec 28, 2019 15:20:18 GMT -6
I recorded the mini-series, but I haven’t watched it yet. My sister loved it. I mostly wanted to see it to see Taylor Swift’s boyfriend in action. And I only know that because I’m on YouTube, and the news seems to have become popular there. They themselves keep it on the down low.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 2, 2020 9:51:24 GMT -6
I had read after watching it that it aired on BBC as a 3-part miniseries, and had I known beforehand, I would have watched it that way - at least the first time. When you watch it, I'd be interested in knowing what you thought of it
Today, I begin the arduous task of taking down the Christmas tree and all the other decorations inside the house, and the lights and decorations on the porch. I had wanted to start Sunday, when it was warm, but Hubs said, "Oh, they're so pretty, leave them up at least until after New Year's Day". It didn't take much convincing because I like them too, and instead, I took advantage of the nice day by taking a long walk on the beach. Of course Sunday he was off work, and I would have had his help taking everything down!!!
Oh, and please, please eat some of this chocolate that's still hanging around!!! LX and the Boyfriend give me a huge basket of everything chocolate - all of it decadent! The only non-chocolate thing was Stroopwafels, and I'm sorry but those are gone - I left them with Crazy Cheryl yesterday when we had coffee because I know they are one of her favorites, and if I didn't get them out of here, I could have eaten them all at once. Again, I'm sorry, but the hand-dipped truffles are gone too! There's tons of other chocolate bliss though, so help yourselves!
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 3, 2020 3:20:06 GMT -6
Okay. I'll try and remember to mention when I've seen it. Maybe this weekend. (I keep forgetting about it. Been doing some writing.)
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Post by Phalon on Jan 4, 2020 6:25:01 GMT -6
Nice!
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 4, 2020 14:51:46 GMT -6
Been posting about it on Facebook. Don’t know how long I’ll keep that up.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 5, 2020 9:40:30 GMT -6
I hadn't checked Facebook in a long while - just logged in to see, and dang, you've been busy!
<extended pause in posting because LX called to chit-chat>
Like mother like daughter...we both have been stalling on taking down our Christmas trees. I got all the other decorations, except the live ones - which still look d@mned good! - down and boxed neatly until next year, but haven't touched the tree yet.
Maybe today? Phone call put me behind schedule though, and gotta run.
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Post by stepper on Jan 5, 2020 19:58:38 GMT -6
Like mother like daughter...we both have been stalling on taking down our Christmas trees. My activity today was weeding dandelions in the rosebed. Yes, it is a bit soon for this, especially with the ground completely dried out, but a few of those things have bloomed and sprouted fuzz. They need to go before all the exposed dirt becomes a source for dandelion tea. That's not the only thing that needed cleared out and there's still a front corner that needs done, but it just seems odd that you're talking about taking down Christmas decorations and I had to get busy digging weeds. Several years ago I mowed the yard on New Year's Day just because I could, and I wanted to tell bro in NJ about it because he'd been talking about shoveling snow. I'll start by taking down the inflatables in the yard after the 5th. Steppet likes Christmas and the 12 Days gives her an excuse to extend the celebration a bit. It still surprises me that it takes so long to get here and then goes by so quickly. Of course, when it gets close I always say that it seems like it was just last week when I was taking down the decorations for last Christmas. That's one of the reasons to start shopping early Phalon - make it last a bit longer.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 6, 2020 3:09:24 GMT -6
I write in a notebook, and a 'page' is one side of the page. So, 1 page = 2 pages. The game designing is mostly drawing out the placements to go on the board. Which means I didn't 'write' a whole lot. The writing on the fiction & nonfiction pieces was words on the page though.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 11, 2020 9:18:51 GMT -6
Oh! That's so mean - just the thing a devious sibling would do!
Of course, Moms can be devious too. An idea came to me when I was taking down the Christmas tree this week.
You know, of course, because I've mentioned it for years, that every Christmas I get the girls an ornament; LX's boyfriend is included in the ritual too for the past couple of years, the idea being that they'd have the ornaments as a start when they had a tree of their own.
This is the first Christmas that LX and the Boyfriend put up their own tree. Since his grandmother spends the winter in the south, she gave them her artificial tree, which is huge, and they scoured resale shops and thrift stores for ornaments to go with the collection of ornaments I gave LX over the years. They were so proud of it - when it was up, the Boyfriend sent Hubs and I a photo in a text that said "My Baby created a masterpiece!" Hubs and I went down there for dinner - and to see the tree - the weekend before Christmas. It was gorgeous. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it made my heart smile; she recreated the tree we've always had here - very, very traditional.
Here's where the devious Mom part comes in. Remember last year when I found the long-missing ornament LX made me when she was 3-years old, and in daycare? The toilet paper roll painted green, covered in glitter, with a loop of red yarn at the top to hang it on a tree branch - yes that one. As I gently wrapped the god-awful ornament in tissue paper earlier this week, to pack away with the rest of the ornaments until next Christmas, it occurred to me that LX's very traditional Christmas tree was missing one little thing...
And all I have to do is get some green paint, glitter, and red yarn to make it complete! And remember to do it before next Christmas.
Every little bit is a step closer to reaching your goals!
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 11, 2020 23:53:46 GMT -6
This is true. It all adds up to a lot eventually.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 27, 2020 8:24:02 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on Nov 30, 2020 10:39:25 GMT -6
I got the front porch decorated this weekend. Lights and greenery garland (real looking, but artificial - I don't like the fake looking stuff, and live garland is too tedious for me to make) securely attached to bare interestingly shaped branches - kinda twisted and gnarled (I use them for Halloween too) line the front porch railings with natural colored bows on the pillars and in the center. Live greens and berries fill a wall basket above the mailbox at the front door, a large urn to the side of the foot of the stairs, and another on the porch with a few wooden festive-looking pieces at its base - a star, Christmas tree, and rocking horse. I'm thinking I need some "fake" presents out there too to complete the look. I got it done just in time, it seems. Yesterday was cold but sunny; today it's cold, dreary, and very windy, though it doesn't seem we're getting the snow they predicted.
I didn't cut nearly as many boughs, greenery, or berries as I normally do because, of course, the holiday market is not happening this year; did just enough for the porch and a few bouquets for inside the house. I did have one special request for good number berry bundles though, from a woman who buys them from me every year at the market - this year we did the exchange out of the back of my trunk in a parking lot. It felt a bit weird texting her - although we were meeting outside - to please wear a mask when we met, but she agreed without hesitation that we've got to do everything we can to stay healthy.
I don't know what Christmas is going to be like this year. There is one thing I must do though, and bringing up this thread reminded me of it -
I'd completely forgotten of course between last year and this, but LX is definitely getting a toilet paper roll ornament from me this Christmas.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 4, 2020 7:28:21 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on Dec 5, 2020 10:00:58 GMT -6
The furniture has all been rearranged to make room, and the tree goes up today, minus the ornaments for now. We're going to give it a couple of days with just the lights and star on top to see how the Little Beastie does with it.
Little Beastie is the cat we started out fostering for BP's boyfriend. Little Hellfire B!tch is actually what she should be called; her actual name though is Gypsy, appropriately named because as the boyfriend couch-surfed from home to home, the beastie moved with him, until LX and the Boyfriend agreed to take her in last January. That proved to be a disaster - all Beastie did was beat-up their cats, quite viciously. So she ended up here after just a couple of weeks - which was supposed to be temporary thing. She was still the boyfriend's cat; we were just providing her a place to stay until the boyfriend could get on his feet and find permanent living arrangements. It became apparent though, that all she needed was stability - she blossomed here, and though she's still a weird little beastie, she is not the complete and total hellfire b!tch she was when she came to us....and she is our Little Beastie now. The boyfriend saw the positive change in her, and to take her away from a place and the people she's been with for nearly a year, would not have been good for her. He asked us a few months ago if we would like to keep her - we readily agreed.
Little Beastie, although we're all guessing is about 3-years old, has only been around a Christmas tree once that any of us knows - which she promptly completely destroyed. So our tree will go up today...and hopefully it won't come right back down at the hands...er...paws...of one tiny little cat with an attitude of a wild beast.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 9, 2020 7:48:19 GMT -6
The tree is up....decorated...and two days later, is still completely intact! Little Beastie appeared waaaaay too interested in it when we first put it up, perched on top of a small writing table next to it, watching our every move, cat-chirping the entire time. They were inquisitive cat-chirps though; the inflection in her voice sounded exactly like a human would ask a question - "what are you doing", "what is this?", "is it for me?", "what am I supposed to do with it?". No "Mmwah-ha-ha-ha! Just wait until you guys go to bed!!!" sounds from her.
Only a few nonbreakable ornaments went on the lower branches at first, just to see if she messed with them, but she left everything alone, so the tree is now decorated in all its Christmas glory.
We have a running family group text with Hubs, me, the girls, and both their boyfriends - a way to share good stuff daily in what seems like a world gone crazy. The girls sent photos of their Christmas trees, and because at the time we only had a few ornaments up, I responded by sending a close-up photo of the infamous toilet paper roll ornament, which after 22 years (she made it when she was three), has seen its better days (if a toilet paper roll ever had good days!). "What a beaut - my girl was creative even as a baby!" "Where's my macaroni ornament?!" (don't worry, BP, it'll be there too, after we see what the cat does.) "She's a legend!" (I don't know when LX decided it's a "she".) And from BP's boyfriend, "Hey, I remember that from last year!!", which cracked me up because it was his first Christmas with us, and with the hundreds of ornaments on the tree, he remembers a toilet paper roll glittered and painted green? Yes, I guess it is that weird.
I've got all the supplies ready. Today, I get creative.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 10, 2020 7:29:25 GMT -6
It's beautiful! (tee-hee)
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Post by Phalon on Dec 11, 2020 7:04:04 GMT -6
Urgh. I just knew something would get messed up with all the on-line Christmas shopping this year, and sure enough, I got notification that a package was delivered yesterday by Fed-Ex, and yet, there is no package to be found.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 12, 2020 7:34:43 GMT -6
Whew! Found the missing package - it had been delivered to the neighbor's house by mistake.
I walked down to the post office yesterday, and mailed the package to my niece and nephew - all proud of myself for getting it in the mail early enough this year, to not have to wonder if it'll make it there by Christmas.
While I was downtown, thought I'd stop in a nearby little odds-and-ends shop to look for stocking stuffers, and left with a song stuck in my head that's still stuck - not the pretty Christmas music that was playing in the store, but one of Hub's often-sung "Irritating Songs of the Day": Eddie Money's "Two Tickets to Paradise".
The lyrics that are stuck in my head though, aren't quite the same as what Eddie Money sang back in our high-school days.
"I've got two chickens to paralyze."
There was a rack of coasters with 50's style advertising photos, each with a line of twisted lyrics on it to fit the photos. I stood there, cracking up reading them - apparently quite loudly; the woman behind the counter couldn't see me from where I was standing, but called out "You're reading the coasters, aren't you?"
I had to get a few of them for Hubs - all with twisted lyrics of some of his most often used "Irritating Songs of the Day". Not that he has any need for coasters, but what the heck - I just couldn't resist.
Now only if I could resist the paralyzed chickens stuck in my head.
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Post by stepper on Dec 12, 2020 22:03:55 GMT -6
"Little Hellfire B!tch"Phalon I like her already. With such an endearing name, how could I not? Little Beastie And demoted already!? Okay, yeah, it's been a couple days since the last time I logged on so it could have been a reasonable amount of time between your posts. And, she's demoted for failing to life up to your Christmas Tree destruction expectations? Maybe there's more of the Imp in you than we/I suspected. It sounds to me like THB was purring sweet nothings to the tree to reasure it that all was well and you misunderstood her affections. It's not Christmas without some kind of complication. Steppet is in the habit of sending her relatives a book or two of the current year's stamps for Christmas. Of course, it's my job to get the stamps. You wouldn't think this is much of a chore but I had a list of specific stamps and how many of them I'm supposed to find. I had no idea this was going to translate into a scavenger hunt. First, it's at least a week or two early for the Post Office to be overly crowded but nope - they're already crowded to overflowing! I've been visiting three of them that were within a reasonable distance and for the first couple days I didn't even try to go inside. The parking lots were full to the point that cars were in the street waiting for a slot to open so they could get off the public road. When I was finally able to get inside they were all a) out of holiday stamps and b) it would be "next week" before they re-order more stamps. Eventually I did get stamps for her, but not exactly what she wanted. I bought extra of what was available so she had enough. And now that I've purchased a couple hundred dollars worth of stamps and don't need more, they have the ones she wanted on display as available. Oh cool! I've been planning on the same thing - provided a trail cam is the same thing. It sounds like it. Mostly I want to capture a couple pictures of the deer in my front yard. (One buck, two does, and one fawn.) My next door neighbor is interested in seeing them since he can't get out anymore and this seemed the easiest solution. Maybe I'll get myself one for Christmas - which would mean I'm not really done shopping yet.
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Post by Phalon on Dec 13, 2020 10:59:45 GMT -6
Merry Christmas, Stepper! I'll respond to your post later...when I'm not up to my elbows in paper and glue.
Just taking (another) much needed break from a project I started at the crack of dawn - one of those craft projects that seemed so easy at the time. Of course, I had to tweak the plans to make it better, which, of course, made the whole thing much more time consuming and difficult.
And of course, it's one of those kinds of projects that have to be completed once it's started...mainly because I decided to do it on the kitchen table, and no one is going to eat there until I get the d@mned thing done!
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