Bixby is not amused to be included in the festivities. There is an actual update and lot of photos past and present at this link (plus bonus shots of my niece’s new puppy – an early Christmas gift).
I just wanted to stop by and say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Bah-Humbug if that’s your thing.
I’m putting the finishing touches on tonight’s Christmas Eve party menu. All the recipes have been posted here before and I’m short on time, so I’ve linked to the recipes because I just didn’t have time to write one for you. Apologies in advance.
The menu this year is very simple and as stress-free as I could make it. I like to spend time with my company, not hide out in the kitchen.
- Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Sauteed Zucchini
- Marinated Mushrooms
- Spinach-Raspberry-Walnut salad
- Garlic Bread
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundaes
The rest of the holiday weekend will be spent with fire dancers, lighting displays and Holiday Light Mini-Golf. We’ll be freezing our butts off for sure. I bought Star Wars tickets as gifts for a bunch of people and we’re seeing that on Tuesday (this is a spoiler free thread).
What’s on your menu for the next few days? What are you cooking for Christmas? Turkey, Roast Beef, or something off the traditional menu?
Consider this an open thread.
ETA: I know I’m big-footing John’s post, but face it, it’s about container houses. Besides if I leave it to auto-post it’s only 50-50 it would post. I’m sure he’ll forgive me.
redshirt
LOL on the big foot.
Happy Holidays TaMara. May your menu be exciting!
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
Weight Watchers here, so I’m not eating too festively. Off to the gym now, in fact.
Speaking of dogs and holidays, Iggy and Muppet opened their presents today.
SiubhanDuinne
Poooooor Bixby. He really doesn’t look happy.
redshirt
I finally hit 60 here in New Gondolin. This heat wave that swept New England stayed out of Maine for the most part, until a strange wind started blowing at sunset and the temps jumped 10 degrees in an hour.
I know it to be our doom, but up here, viva la Global Warming.
pat
Salmon chowder with fennel tonight, roast duck tomorrow with cranberries and roast sweet potatoes.
Got a little sprig of greens for a “tree.” Wondering why I bother. We ignore Hanukkah, why can’t we ignore Christmas. No family close by, no friends close enough to get together and besides all the friends have family. Nothing either of us wants or needs for a gift. And we are still dealing with the bronchitis from hell.
whine whine whine
bah humbug.
But the Johnny Walker is going down good right now.
ThresherK
Taking a crack at Bacon Maple Cupcakes for our travels tomorrow.
The secret to anything bacon for me is cooking it low and slow in a sheet pan, then after draining the fat into a ramekin, doing two things: Snipping the bacon into pieces as small as I can manage, and scraping the fond off the cooled pan with a plastic spatula.
Note: Minute mincing of bacon with kitchen shears does result in a high bacon loss rate!
NotMax
More than a half-hour qualifies as smallfooting.
SIA
What a noble looking boy! Started my fitness pal Sunday, seriously bad timing especially after seeing that beautiful meal. Gah.
Oh, and bah humbug.
redshirt
@efgoldman: Axial tilt is the reason for the season. And since it’s real and noticeable, I say, celebrate!
Elmo
Just made caipirinhas from my co-workers gift of Cachaca. Actually went out today to get the limes, and there was very little Christmas cheer at Safeway.
Christmas is always Honeybaked Ham, the biggest one in the store for me and my wife. It represents the finale of the cooking orgy that starts Thanksgiving, and then continues on her birthday (12/5 – prime rib) and mine (12/14 – homemade eggrolls and then roast lamb the next day). We cook like crazy for just the two of us, and we eat leftovers. So Christmas, we don’t cook – but we do get a crazy amount of food and eat it for a solid week.
pat
@efgoldman:
Scotch is a special occasion drink around here, mostly because it does go down so good. Ha.
SIA
And WTF with Atlanta weather. Been raining and storming like End Times.
pat
@Elmo:
I believe it was Erma Bombeck who said “Eternity is two people and a ham.”
Looks like you’re all set.
Phylllis
Spiral sliced ham with a bourbon & orange marmalade glaze, collards, mashed potatoes. I see a fortified eggnog in my immediate future.
TCM alert: The Bishop’s Wife at 8 p.m. eastern time.
NotMax
@pat
Cheers.
As it’s a recipe thread –
Loch Lomond
Ingredients:
2 oz Scotch whisky
1/2 oz Drambuie
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth
1 twist of Lemon peel
In a mixing glass half-filled with ice cubes, combine the Scotch, Drambuie, and vermouth. Stir well. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the twist of lemon peel.
Black Tartan
Ingredients:
1 part Johnnie Walker Black whisky
1 part Irish whiskey
1 part Drambuie
1 1/2 part Kahlua
Shake with ice and strain over ice.
Warm Woolly Sheep
Ingredients:
1 measure Scotch whisky
1 1/2 measure Drambuie
Mix Scotch and Drambuie, top with warm milk.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Yeah, it got to about 72° in metro Atlanta today. Lots of rain and lowering skies and so on, but people were doing last-minute shopping in t-shirts and shorts and flip-flops. The forecast says we’re not going to see a clear, sunny day until about Wednesday of next week. However you look at it, and even taking into account that this is the South, it is unseasonably warm and has contributed to my Grichscrooge attitude this year.
beltane
Our power went out today shortly after I put the genoise for the buche de Noel in the oven so I had to drive fifteen miles to buy more eggs to make another one. I need a drink.
beltane
Burlington, VT hit 68 degrees today. This is my 15th Christmas in Vermont and the first without any snow on the ground.
pat
@NotMax:
Uh, thanks. Think I’ll pass. The only things I mix are tonic water (with gin) and ice….
edit: Off now to make the salmon chowder. I’ve been saving salmon skin in the freezer for weeks and now I’m making a fish stock, which makes all the difference.
Merry whatever.
I think there was some awful concoction known as a Black Russian some decades back. Saw some people get awfully plastered on it and it was not pretty. Since I was still able to observe the plastering, I was obviously not partaking….
NotMax
@beltane
Well, there is all that hot air emanating from Jeb!, Christie, et al. wafting over from NH.
gogol's wife
I made an orange-flavored Kugelhupf (bundt cake) today. My husband’s job is to sit in the next room and listen to me curse. I’m a terribly impatient and unhappy cook. The sifter broke in the middle of sifting, a little yolk got into the whites, but it all seems to have turned out fine. Tomorrow there’ll be an array of Belgian cheeses from igourmet, smoked salmon, and smoked-trout spread, then brisket with cranberries, rice pilaf (out of a Middle East box), and brussel sprouts, followed by said Kugelhupf plus chocolate-covered espresso beans we got for Xmas. There are only two guests, everyone else has gone away. I’ll be the only woman, which is kind of sad but that’s the way it is.
ThresherK
@beltane: Cheesy Petes, that sucks. I haven’t worked up the ambition to make a buche de Noel, or any cake treat that gets rolled up; I figured I’d have to ruin one first. But not that way.
debbie
Turkey, wild rice, cranberries, roasted brussels sprouts. Yawn.
beltane
@NotMax: Yes. Jeb is now promising to save us all from that bully Trump.
geg6
We’re having pasta tonight, just rigatoni in a beef sauce made with h tomatoes, onions, garlic and mushrooms. A salad of arugula, green olives and yellow grape tomatoes on the side. A bottle of Spanish red and I’ll hit the bed fat and happy. Maybe some slices of my friend Sharon’s nut roll may also be on deck if I’m not too stuffed for dessert. Have “Scrooged” cued up for entertainment.
SiubhanDuinne
@pat:
Oh yes. I barfed up my guts into a potted palm in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center after way too many Black Russians. Nearly 50 years ago, but never forgotten.
NotMax
@pat
It always sounds dicey, but scotch mixes well with milk.
If one likes milk.
Quite a few drinks recipes using those two ingredients. Felt ought to include something warm for anyone in colder climes.
gogol's wife
@efgoldman:
If that means I listen to him curse when he needs to, then yes.
gogol's wife
Since it’s open thread, I just read in the Times that Rand Paul praised Carly Fiorina for always being able to get back on time from bathroom breaks, and she retweeted it.
How disgusting can these people get? Is there an answer to that?
NotMax
@gogol’s wife
Orange tree in the yard is fairly drooping with oranges. May work up the energy to make an orange upside-down cake.
What the hey, an oddball Bundt cake recipe:
Kake a la Kahlua
1 (2-layer-size) pkg. yellow cake mix
1 (4-serving-size) pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix.
1 cup vegetable oil
¾ cup water
¼ cup Kahlua
¼ cup vodka
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
4 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a Bundt pan.
Beat ingredients together for 2 minutes. Place in prepared pan.
.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
beltane
@ThresherK: It’s not as hard as it seems. A whipped-cream filled roll would probably be a good one to start with.
Tonight we’re having hallacas, a Venezuelan Christmas specialty which is kind of like a very fancy tamale wrapped in banana leaves. I can’t do the traditional Italian Christmas Eve seafood extravaganza because the seafood options near me are very limited and not all that fresh. Last night I was up until midnight making strufoli, little chick pea sized balls of dough that are fried and then immersed in a honey syrup. I go nuts the last couple of weeks of December, but everything seems to get eaten as soon as its made so I guess the kids like it.
NotMax
@efgoldman
For any attending a gathering with younger children, a corny Xmas oldie but goody.
Mrs. Claus glances out the window and sees Santa heading off toward the sleigh, toting his usual large bag – and an umbrella.
Puzzled, she opens the window and shouts, “Honey, why the umbrella?”
Santa turns and answers, “Because from here it looks like rain, dear.”
SiubhanDuinne
@gogol’s wife:
According to everything I’ve seen, the women’s bathrooms in the St Anselm’s College location are much farther away from the debate stage than the men’s rooms — like, nearly a 2-minute walk each way. (Typical.) I daresay Ms Fiorina would be hard-pressed to walk to the Ladies’, take a pee, wash and dry her hands, and get back to her podium at that location in the few minutes allotted for a break.
That said — given that so few people were on the stage in New Hampshire, I’m not sure why they couldn’t have allowed Hillary to use the (much closer) men’s room, with appropriate security at the door to keep things private, on this one occasion.
jeffreyw
Mrs J is helping out with open house at the shelter, she’ll be making sure visitors don’t steal any of those cute kittehs for last minute gifts. I am trying to rip a couple of blu-ray movies, so far with mixed success. I made a practice cornbread dressing for dinner. Need moar practice!
trollhattan
Tornado just reported east of Sacto. WTF…ISIS? Price we pay for the snow in the mountains I guess.
redshirt
Winter is coming.
I’m forecasted for 12 inches on Tuesday.
vtr
I’m a born Vermonter, but for 15 years exiled here in the Deep South – Fairfield County,CT, where the mercury rose to 66 today. A threatening forecast is for up to an inch of snow on Tuesday. Shudder. Christmas Eve menu is cheese and ham fondu, and Christmas, traditional corned beef. Because one turkey a year is at least enough. Merry Christmas, and a safe and sane 4th of July, too.
Pogonip
@efgoldman: I have a bunch of Christmas sweatshirts that mostly stayed in the drawer this year! Here in the Midwest we still have 4 distinct seasons but we’re shifting towards three. Spring is disappearing–in April it’s cold until, suddenly, one day, it’s hot. Also seasons are shifting forward. Wintry weather used to reliably start around Thanksgiving, now it’s more likely to start in late December. Although not this year; thank you, El Nino!
Duane
Germy
A bunch of old Beatles music videos have been released, remastered, cleaned up, with improved audio, etc.
Here Ringo (age 75) watches some of the old videos and talks about them; shares his memories (mostly strange and funny) of how they were made.
Pogonip
Poor Bixby.
I have been craving spaghetti for 6 months. I am the only one in the family who likes it so there’s no point in making a big pot for one person until we make some space in the freezer. Yours looks good!
Mnemosyne
I’ve finished 1/3rd of the knitted gifts I wanted to make. (1/5th if you count the ones I would have had to mail). If I can get one more done, I can slide by, but we need to clean shit up tonight to have family over tomorrow. Rib roast, roasted potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and a lot of snacks.
gene108
Why oh why are there “third party” IT “support” shops that are always first on a Google search?
Had an issue with Quickbooks at work today. Told a co-worker to calll Intuit customer support, as he was having a problem and I’m tired of hand holding people for IT issues, as I have no real IT experience. He did a Google search. There was another website that popped up first on his Google search, Saneaccountants,com, but their banner said Intuit customer support.
After a few minutes, I asked how he was doing, he put the call on speaker. The guy on the phone, “Ryan”, sounded like IT tech support but something was off. My red-flags were going off. He was not using any Intuit tools to diagnose the problem. Then he said we need to go to Level 3 tech support and it’d cost us 299.99$ for a one time fix or 499.99$ for a one-year subscription (and yes he put the $ sign after the amount, which I’ve seen by non-American types, as this is how we pronounce “$ 1.00” as “one dollar” and they just go with the phonetic method of notation, I don’t expect it from an American based company dealing with American based customers), then my bullshit detectors went off for real.
Asked him if he worked for Intuit. He said he was a licensed (??? can’t remember exactly what he said) Intuit support provider. Asked again, if he worked for Intuit. Smoothly gave the same line. Asked a third time, if he was an Intuit employee and he couldn’t answer and then I hung up.
I’ve pulled up these sort of scammers, when tryin to get in touch with Microsoft. There are a fuck ton of them on a Google search for Microsoft customer support.
I wonder, if there’s a way for Google to weed these scammers out or does Google just not care as long as the ad revenue payments don’t bounce?
Seems like it is something Google could filter for, especially with regards to proprietary products.
Schlemazel
@redshirt:
I caught a little hell for posting a diagram of the earth’s axial tilt with the banner, “The Reason For The Season” a couple years back.
I pointed out that Shepherds are not in the fields in December but move there in spring & summer. This did not endear me to the complainants.
jeffreyw
Miss Emily? About that clogged chimney…
PurpleGirl
Your plans for food sound good; yes, it’s important to be simple so you can spend time with friends/relatives.
Bixby looks adorable with the antlers. He should realize that just antlers is better than a full costume :)
Now to read the thread.
ETA: When I used to get a group together for PDQ Bach and a dinner before hand, I kept to spaghetti and meatballs too. Easy to do while people were arriving before we left for the concert hall.
BruceFromOhio
Merry Christmas to all! Thank you for the Bixby pic, Tamara, may he recover and be merry as well. Here’s tonight’s recipe:
1 oz Dalwhinnie single malt scotch
Shard of ice
Combine ingredients in a glass or cup. Enjoy!
Schlemazel
@beltane:
Oh man, that sucks. I have wanted to make one of those but just never have. Please post pictures if you can. I think I’ll make a point of it next year. That will give me a chance to practice some of the fancy bits (like mushrooms). I hate to go to all that trouble & then have it messed up beyond my control. I made a croquembouche for a few Christmases. I always waited until Eve evening so it would be fresh. One night I discovered the cream for the pastry cream had soured; I was driving all over town at midnight trying to find a place I could buy heavy cream. I finally finished the thing about 3 AM and, of course the kids were up by 5.
mclaren
Tuna noodle casserole. My own recipe.
Take 5 cups of water, add 6 oz flat noodles in a casserole dish. Microwave for 7 minutes.
Add 1.5 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules, stir until dissolved. Add 3/4 pint of heavy whipping cream and three drained small cans of tuna, plus roughly half an 8 oz package of shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Add in a small can (8 oz) of non-condensed cream of mushroom soup. Mix in roughly 4 teaspoons of Zest or Mrs. Dash or any other non-salt pepper-based seasoning. This will seem like too much, but blends after the casserole cools.
Mix everything thoroughly so that there are no clumps of tuna.
Layer the remaining shredded sharp cheddar cheese on top of the liquid. Now take 3/4 of a large package of regular potato chips and crush ’em and layer them on top of the shredded cheddar cheese.
Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F for about 25 minutes, or until the Maillard reaction turns the potato chip crust medium brown.
seaboogie
@Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: Hey Karen,
What you want to get for Muppet to use on rainy days is some pee pads, available at your local pet supply place.
I have an elderly arthritic kitty who basically lives on my bed, and they are a godsend -although a not insignificant part of my petcare budget as that is all that my Zoe uses these days.
Mnemosyne
@Schlemazel:
Shepherds watch their flocks by night during lambing season, to make sure they don’t lose any lambs or ewes to predators. That definitely sets that scene in the spring, at a minimum.
Schlemazel
@SiubhanDuinne:
Wash?!?! No dear, thats for the plebs. She saves 2 minutes & her time is much to valuable for that nonsense/
BruceFromOhio
@SiubhanDuinne: Poor RWNJ’s would have been doubled over purple with rage if the Secret Service commandeered the men’s head for Hils.
SiubhanDuinne
@SIA:
Hi! Merry Christmas (or Bah, humbug! as you prefer). Haven’t seen you around here in forever. Hope you are well.
mclaren
@gene108:
To google, these kinds of scammers are a feature, not a bug. Google makes its ad money off these kinds of scammers. Yet another reason why Google is a deeply evil company out to destroy the world.
The main reason why Google is a deeply evil company out of destroy the world, of course, is that their goddamn adsense bullshit fires off massive database searches based on your cookies whenever you hit any web page, pulling down megabyte after megabyte after megabyte after megabyte after megabyte after megabyte after megabyte of customized ads all filtered through googleapis and other revenue-trawling basebase-based google-analytics-type interactive horseshit.
Google’s targeted ads are the reason, in short, why it takes 2 minutes loading 40 megabytes of customized ads complete with pop-up streaming flash and pop-under Microsoft Messenger apps just to read 300 words of plain goddamn HTML text.
Google, like Disney, needs to go away and die.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl:
“Who knows what it is to be running? Only he who is running knows.”
“Running nose, running nose.”
SIA
@SiubhanDuinne: Hi SD! Good to see you. I only comment sporadically but usually read some BJ daily. Holidays I’m around more. Are you in town? Strange weather eh?
SiubhanDuinne
@Schlemazel:
Ewww. As if I didn’t have enough reasons to be put off by Miss Carly.
SIA
@jeffreyw: Would be delighted to receive ANY of your food cast offs until you get more practice. :)
SiubhanDuinne
@SIA:
Yup, here most of the time, with the exception of a few planned road trips. Memphis in late February, Phoenix in late May, Canada (Ontario) with side visits to Michigan whenever I can figure out an itinerary. Oh, and Boston in April for Passover.
Yes, very odd weather.
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Women using a Men’s room — I was once at an art gallery and the line for the Women’s Room was LONG. So we got a man to stand guard and began using the Men’s room too. If a man come over to use it, we let him jump the line. The line reduced itself very fast and we could stop the routine. It just made sense.
SIA
@vtr: My husband was in CT for a family visit and was amazed how tidy and clean everything is there, unlike the trashy south where we reside.
SIA
@SiubhanDuinne: I gathered from some of your comments you’ve been traveling. Sounds like you’re enjoying your retirement!
Satby
I’m beat after a cookie making extravaganza today. We made 5 kinds, which is less than I would normally make, but overseeing two novice cooks wore me out worse than the cooking did.
They’re quite pleased with their cookies though the oatmeal ones look like pancakes. Not their fault, they followed the recipe exactly.
Satby
I’ll say it again tomorrow, but a Happy Christmas to all the Juicers everywhere. May your day be joyful or peaceful in exactly the way you want.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Meh
RSA
Tonight it was chili for me, meatloaf and mashed potatoes for my wife. We generally eat leftovers the night before a trip, which will be to visit the family up in MD. If I have to drive a good distance, I love to do it on Christmas Day.
jeffreyw
@SIA: Yo, Screaming! Nice to see you out and about.
Debbie
@Schlemazel:
She’d save more time if she just stood.
Suzanne
We’re about to have our dinner: London broil by Mr. Suzanne, Gorgonzola mashed taters and roasted carrots by SuzMom, and bananas Foster by me (and Foster, I suppose). Then presents and church.
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and a joyous, safe winter to all who do not.
Schlemazel
@Debbie:
She’d save us all a lot more than that if she would just step off the edge of the planet & drift away
PurpleGirl
Many thanks to whoever mentioned TCM showing The Bishop’s Wife. One of my favorite Christmas movies.
NotMax
@PurpleGirl
Saturday at 6 a.m. is Larceny, Inc., a fun romp with Edgar G. Robinson parodying his gangster persona, much of it set at Xmastime.
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne:
You’d think, but sheep these days are expected to start birthing in February, and there’s always outliers, so ‘xmas lambs’ are a thing in sheep-ranching communities.
Two thousand years ago, in the Middle East, lambing season was probably mid-March, give or take, and the “nativity” stories that have accrued were originally connected to the Spring equinox / resurrection. But in Europe, there were all these midwinter customs going begging… and, besides, the Yuletide Baby Jesus helped keep the most sacred Christian holiday (Easter) separate from that peasant kitsch.
All those “Jeebus is the reesin” Xtians don’t know their theology!
redshirt
Spoiler Alert!
There’s no such thing as Santa Clause.
burnspbesq
@efgoldman:
Saving money on heating oil? Cool. You can use it to buy a clue about the futility of blind testing. And by the way, i’ve been playing since age 6, and performing since seventh grade.
NotMax
@redshirt
Tim Allen would disagree.
PurpleGirl
@Anne Laurie: I don’t think it’s theology as much as it’s history and geography. And those same people don’t know that “Christmas” trees come from northern Germanic areas and were transplanted to the British Isles during Queen Victoria’s reign because her prince consort Albert was German and grew up with decorated trees and not holly and pine boughs or burning yule logs
Shell
Thanks for reminding me….gotta take the chicken out of t he fridge to finish defrosting. Stuffing with walnuts and dried cranberries. A green salad with artichoke hearts.
Tried some new cookie recipes this year. The Lebkuchen I got from the Leonard Lopate show didn’t quite turn out…too bready. But the chocolate gingerbread is great. And I always make Walnut Tassies; always popular.
redshirt
@NotMax: The North Pole is the largest drug dealing location on Earth. Spinning out so much hope to kids who don’t know better. It’s like a nuclear power plant running on kid’s wishes.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Yeah, you’d think. Apparently this wasn’t the case last Saturday.
SIA
@jeffreyw: Merci Mr J! Good to see some old friends!
PurpleGirl
@efgoldman: For years seeing Schickele at Christmas/New Year’s was my habit. I’ve never met him but one year I had to leave a friend’s ticket at the box office and as I ran up the stairs at Avery Fisher Hall to the first box seats, I saw work boots running down the same stair case. I turned, saw it was Schickele and pointed at him and shouted “It’s you!” He turned, waved wildly at me and we both continued on our ways. I got to my seat and told my group he’ll be coming through the back doors any moment (which he did) and I told them of my encounter. I still laugh at how I shouted “It’s you!”.
I’ve seen him come down onto the stage on rope ladders, fly in on a rope, or come in the seating area being chased by a man in a guerrilla suit just after his stage manager announced that he’d be late because he had visited the Empire State Building that afternoon.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Well, that sounds lovely. I am invited to the home of our mutual friend in Boston (his wife is Jewish and, so I understand, does a killer seder each year), but I would love to share a meal with you and Mrs. efg, either before or after Pesach. We can fight over who gets to be the youngest child, and who knows all the words to Chad Vadya.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Was hopeful someone would continue the trope. Happy not to be disappointed.
@PurpleGirl
Was an annual tradition to catch him at Town Hall. Good times.
PurpleGirl
@NotMax: I tried to catch him at whichever venue he used. After Town Hall he did concerts at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. One year at Carnegie his opening act was Anna Russell who presented a bunch of oddball acts and another year she did her short version of the Ring Cycle. Also have to mention how the audience booed and hissed at his stage manager. I don’t remember how or when I stopped attending his year-end show in NYC. But the lasting memories of him and the shows are precious.
PurpleGirl
From 1953, Anna Russell’s Ring Cycle
She was something to watch and hear.
Bex
@seaboogie: Get underpads at K-Mart, etc. or Kroger grocery stores. They’re cheaper than at the pet stores.
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@seaboogie: Thanks! Actually, though, my husband gives in when she looks unhappy and takes her back inside too soon. With me, she’ll look miserable and try to head back to the house, but I keep walking — she quickly figures out that she has to do whatever she needs to do ASAP if she wants to go back inside.
I often imagine how well-behaved my dogs would be if my husband was on board with the whole consistent-training thing.
Ruckus
Boss took us all out for to a Japanese place for xmas lunch, a tradition. The xmas lunch, not the where. I think it would have been great if I could actually taste it but that doesn’t stop me from eating it. A kid (Ha! he’s 22 so that’s more a reflection on me than him) had joined the National Guard not too long ago and goes to boot camp on Monday and he joined us, last Friday being his last day. As jobs go this is the best one I’ve ever had. And that includes working for myself!
Have no idea what I’m having for xmas dinner but it will be simple and made out of what’s in the fridge.
Ruckus
@Schlemazel:
That would be a nice xmas present for the rest of us.