Apparently everyone is on vacation or something, so it looks like you all are stuck with me tonight. Poor fools.
Not much going on here. Had some leftovers for dinner, and am now debating whether I should watch the last two episodes of the Witcher on Netflix or go level my horde Warlock on WoW Classic.
Speaking of Warcraft Classic, man, what a blast. For those of you who do not know, World of Warcraft is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) that was released in 2004. Since then, it has had 7 or 8 expansions, and it changes dramatically in each expansion, so the game today is much different than the game 15 years ago. At any rate, I used to play a lot in 2004-2009, and sort of lost interest in later iterations of the game.
Blizzard re-released it, so all the folks I played with back then with whom I kept in touch came back to the game, and we have been playing together a couple nights a week. It’s great fun. It’s also a stunning indictment of the the WoW developers since 2010 or so, as people are flocking to the old version, which was just so much better.
Many people don’t understand why I like it, but these same people have no problem with book club or bridge night/game night, and it’s the same damned thing, just online.
Oh well. Their loss.
This is the least Christmasy I have ever felt. Just not feeling it this year. Hopefully you all are more in the spirit, or at the very least on them. My Christmas present to myself came, though:
Hillbilly fancy.
ThresherK
Watched Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and I’m starting to form the opinion that “Hooray For Santy* Claus” is a watusi. There are not a lot of holiday watusis out there, and this song (scrubbed of the children’s chorus) would fit in nicely with the Ultra-Lounge Christmas Cocktails CDs.
(*sic)
jeffreyw
I’m making it an early night, in bed and making a last pass before turning out the lights. Happy holidays to you, John. Off to the big city tomorrow for Chinese.
G’night
Yarrow
Not feeling Christmasy at all this year. Been a rough holiday season. Realized “It’s a Wonderful Life” was on NBC tonight so I’m half watching that. Will have leftovers for dinner because it’s easy.
Merry Christmas, John. Love your present to yourself. So comfy.
guachi
I wear bib shorts when I ride my bike. Not quite the same thing.
JMG
Merry Christmas John! Whether you’re feeling it or not, you (and everyone else here) are a big reason my other 364 days of the year have some merriment and other positive emotions in them they wouldn’t have otherwise.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Obama is trending world wide. People miss him so much that they’re gaga over his modest, understated Xmas tweet (link).
As a bonus, the loving reaction is bound to make Dump even more miserable.
ThresherK
I am still finishing up the few gifts I wrap (for my wife).
Cole, hope you are feeling better in the morning. You’re the glue that holds this place together.
Ben Cisco
For those in a musical mood, an interlude: Cyrus Chestnut’s My Little Drum: youtu.be/MYFfh_HWeS4
Family gathering pushed back to Saturday because work, so I am getting some much-needed rest.
Happy Holidays, Jackals!
FlyingToaster
It’s XMas Eve, so I’m baking.
The 6 dozen gingerbread cookies are done, cooled, and in containers. WarriorGirl did yeoman’s work rolling out the chilled dough and cutting out the cookies, which bodes well for handing off more jobs to her next year. All of the cookie cutters are washed and can get put away any time now.
The first two batches of rolls are shaped (thanks to HerrDoktor) and rising on racks in the hall. The third batch is in its bowl on first rising and the fourth batch is in the monster KitchenAid stand mixer (this is the 6-cup one with the lever), about to start on its dough hook run.
I need to go bag up presents and fill up WG’s stocking. Since she and HD are down in the basement watching the Doctor Who XMas marathon, I probably have a window after this last batch goes into its bowl.
Steeplejack (phone)
As threatened earlier this week, I am releasing the kraken of Christmas music: John Coltrane, “Greensleeves.”
Ben Cisco
@Steeplejack (phone): Heh. Well played, Steep.
debbie
@Yarrow:
I’m watching it too; just waiting for the tears at the end!
Whereaway
Not feeling it too much this year either. Too many family tragedies, too old, too much other shit going on.
Unlike John, I like many of the changes WoW has introduced with expansion packs. Back after a number of years away, I find it easier not to take the game seriously
Steeplejack (phone)
@Ben Cisco:
Thanks! I know you’re on the same page.
I saw your recommendation on the Arris cable modem, and it was in contention, but I ended up going with a Motorola. Good so far.
John Revolta
I’d just like to share with you John, and all you Jackals, the lovely sentiment from one of the Christmas cards that Laurel and Hardy once sold door-to-door in “The Fixer Uppers”.
‘Twas Christmas Eve in the poorhouse
And the boys were feeling blue.
The boys in grey were fighting!
…………Merry Christmas to you.
JeanneT
I just got home from a Christmas eve pizza night with my 93 year old mom-in-law and my son, his wife and their 6 month old baby. The kid is just responsive enough with smiles and chuckles to be HIGHLY attractive to all us grown ups, so he was the main event as far as entertainment. We also sang holiday songs for a while, rummaging through our memories for standards we sang in various choirs many years ago. It was cozy and went on just long enough to wear out the baby and the great grandma. It wasn’t a bad way to celebrate the season at all.
batguano
I’m not feeling the Xmas spirit at all, I’d rather go to work and treat it like any other weekday.
Barbara
Zero Christmas spirit this year. I decided to take the family ski trip before Christmas so flying back tomorrow afternoon from Denver. I was surprised though should not have been that a lot of other people had the same idea — lower rates, fewer crowds. We had burgers and leftovers for dinner. We will have a late but still subdued Christmas the day after. I can’t explain my loss of joie for the Noel this year. I did see a fantastic production of Fiddler on the Roof earlier this month. If it comes to your neighborhood consider going. The lead actor is phenomenal. Also saw Ford Versus Ferrari while the tyke saw the latest Star Wars. I thought it was entertaining.
schrodingers_cat
The battle for India’s soul is on right now. The Sangh has waited for this moment for 94 years they are not going to give in that easily.
BTW Ian Bremmer is a clown. He thought that the Modi was not dedicated to Hindu Nationalism. He is a fucking Sangh Pracharak. Pracharaks take a vow of ceilbacy to further the cause of Hindutva. Its like saying a Catholic priest wasa not dedicated to Catholicism. Idiot.
Merry Christmas everyone!
KSinMA
John, you are a fabulous human being, and you’ve brought a fabulous blog into being that brings joy–and sanity– to so many of us. Thank you! We’re all tired, and I sure don’t blame you for being tired too. So let’s all get some rest and quit thinking about the bad guys for a little while.
Love those overalls! Merry Christmas!
Steeplejack (phone)
My other sort of weird holiday song. I think it’s the sleigh bells. The Trade Winds, “New York’s a Lonely Town.”
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep. Can’t speak to his comments on India but he’s been really wrong on other stuff for sure.
Barbara
@JeanneT: That does indeed sound really lovely. I think my lack of enthusiasm is a function of the death so close together of my mother and brother. Last time I saw my mother was Christmas Day 2017. I should have realized that her health was even more fragile than she let on.
Nicole
Scene: setting out milk and cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer with my 9-year-old son
Son: Do you think Santa will mind if the carrots touch the cookies?
Me: No, I think it’s fine. I know Santa eats a lot of cookies Christmas Eve, but I bet Mrs. Claus feeds him pretty healthy stuff the rest of the year.
Son: Why does Mrs. Claus feed him? Why can’t Santa feed himself? Isn’t that sexist?
(As the verse goes: And a small child shall remind them to reexamine their own biases)
Barbara
So sweet that your little guy still waits for Santa.
guachi
Also… Merry Christmas to all Balloon Juicers!
Also, also… My house sale will be finalized in two or three weeks at I’ll have money to play WoW again. Maybe I’ll see you online.
SWMBO
@John Cole. Stripes? Is this for those occasions when a pin striped suit is required?
You have wonderful pets, both your parents are still here, you have many friends, and Trump is impeached. And still, it’s not enough.
You find your joy. Probably with Lily snoring in the crook of your arm. Life is good for now.
Nicole
@Barbara: I’m pretty sure it’s the last year. He’s clinging on, but he’s asking a lot of “So, how does Santa…” questions. The critical thinking ability, it will eventually win out.
I hung on until I was ten, when I finally realized that the notes Santa left us thanking us for the cookies were in my dad’s handwriting.
zhena gogolia
Merry Christmas, all who celebrate it, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS to everyone else, even if you don’t have a holiday right about now. I have a few nice friends coming over tomorrow for dinner and I’m not grading papers so I’m reasonably happy as long as I don’t think about 45.
Fair Economist
I’m not feeling Christmassy this year although mostly it’s that I’m not big on gifts or pagan holidays repackaged as Christian holidays repackaged as massive sales pitches. Normally I get dragged in by family and friends but this year there’s a lot less dragging, sometimes for obvious reasons and sometimes mysteriously. I notice, though, that Christmas lights are way down in my neighborhood from a couple years ago – not just my development, but older ones nearby as well. Nearly half the houses have nothing and few have the extravaganzas. My husband put up some of ours (he likes the Christmas stuff, even though we’re both atheist) but distinctly less than in the past, and he only did “socially required responses” for Christmas cards, which I found a relief.
@schrodingers_cat: Merry Christmas and keep up the good fight!
Dorothy A. Winsor
I think I’ve mentioned before that when I was a kid, we left a beer out for Santa. I was quite surprised to learn not everyone did that.
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: His assertion that Modi’s Hindutva turn is opportunistic and recent is something that can be proven wrong by a simple Google search.
Just One More Canuck
Cole, you’re really just Junior Samples, aren’t you
Ben Cisco
schrodingers_cat
NotMax
Cigar reorder arrived today (only 1 day later than it was scheduled to) so in a happy place.
Pot is on the stove to parboil beef cubes before starting in earnest on making a big batch of beefy onion soup, which should last through the remainder of the year. There’s a small box of orzo in the larder, and have forgotten which recipe I originally bought it for, so perhaps will toss that in as well.
joel hanes
Last night went to the gathering of one side of the family — the onetime life of the party has dementia, and is one of the three that need walkers, and three others of the elders were just not up to attending at all. The former young folks are in late middle age — plus one nine-year-old, taut and slim as a blade, attentive and serious and not at all the silly little girl I remember.
Tomorrow morning, present opening here for my daughter and her kids and their child, and then I host brunch — for only five this year, as one couple is probably splitting up and he won’t be here, and none of the friends whom we have invited over the years will be coming — I’ve usually fed eight or ten. My own kids are pushing fifty, and my granddaughters are in their late twenties. The star of the morning will be my great-grandson, seventeen months, who will get a cubic yard of toys, and will entertain us all.
Then home to Mom’s in the midwest, probably having a last Christmas in her own home, as she’s 87, and growing forgetful, and had problems coping with even the modest preparations for the remnants of our greatly-reduced traditional celebration. And only one of the six grandchildren will be there, and none of the great-grandkids. But it’ll be cold and snow and birds at the feeders and time together, one more time around.
So, much love, but the tide of togetherness and talk and laughter seems to be receding.
Merry Christmas to all nevertheless, and may next year be better for us, every one.
Morzer
I wonder whether WoW: Online Bridge Night is really what the developers intended all along…
Merry Holidays, you glorious jackals of the revolution!
Jager
John, 35-40 washings and those bibs will be perfect.
Christmas Eve dinner is on in SoCal, we’ll eat soon and I had a couple of hours of great conversation with my grandsons. Good boys, they are.
You bastids have a good night, I’m pouring another scotch before we eat.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie: Me too!
joel hanes
@schrodingers_cat:
For those of us who cut a certain figure, belted pants become a bother sometime in our middle years, and then become uncomfortable. Bibs are about the most comfortable and practical garment available in such circumstances. Pockets for everything!
Key makes serious overalls — those will last Cole for years and years even if he wears and washes them every week.
And as I doubt that he’ll be teaching class in striped bibs, they’ll probably only be for yardwork and house maintenance and for protection while washing pets.
debbie
@Fair Economist:
There aren’t many Christmas lights here either. Usually the neighborhood is wall to wall with lights. I miss the exuberance of them.
J R in WV
Happy Christmas, John Cole, and all the Jackals, and a Merry Old New Year!!
Had lamb chops and roasted little purple potato wedges for dinner… Have a small turkey breast to roast tomorrow, with asparagus and stuffing and gravy and smushed potatoes. Not very Xmasy this year either. Got a few little things for neighbors…
HoHoHo for one and all ~!!~
NotMax
Do have the final chapter of Life Is Strange 2 yet to play, maybe will clock in some time on that over the holidays. Also need to check my Steam wishlist and scout for end of year bargains.
Reading up on the Battle for Azeroth expansion (which I did not purchase) soured me enough on the direction WoW was headed to suspend my account.
Jackie
@Nicole: I still believe? And, Santa rewards me with a little something every Christmas!
Nicole
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s hilarious!
joel hanes
@NotMax:
Also need to check my Steam wishlist
My brother-in-law and I are contemplating doing Outer Worlds in the new year.
Kayla Rudbek
At my mother-in-law’s watching the extended Rudbek family playing Monopoly, and realizing that my circular knitting needles are going to break at the joints between cord and needles. So I need to dig a project out of hibernation or start another one tomorrow, or else I will wind up getting into a fight with my eldest brother-in-law.
Steeplejack
@Ben Cisco:
I love the music in Cowboy Bebop!
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Attaboy, Clarence!
Dan B
Tonight is quiet before my brother’s family Xmas day dinner. I went to get a few things – prescription then a few blocks to the co-op grocery. 3 PM and there were two parking spots and three grocery carts. It was nuts. In line I watched the jaws drop on on almost every guy. An hour after I (escaped) got home my brother calls to tell me to bring dessert stuff, which I had not done. Went back at 6:30. Zero crowds, no lines 7 cars in the garage. Whee!
Lamb chops and Red Mountain (fancy AVA!) red wine blend for dinner. Partber is binging Schitt’s Creek. It’s great to see gay, and bi, characters that are normal / flawed / interesting but not viewed as weird or to be pitied.
HarlequinGnoll
You mention WoW classic (or the main game really) without mentioning which server you use?!
Steeplejack
@Ben Cisco:
Good Cyrus Chestnut, too!
chopper
hickory…stripe?
Steeplejack
@Ben Cisco:
Good Cyrus Chestnut, too!
kindness
John. You have to give us a picture of you in those overalls. Not now. When it’s seasonal. That’s a have to.
Ruckus
@Nicole:
Every year the cards on all the gifts from Santa were in mom’s handwriting. I don’t think she ever figured out that we knew from a very young age. As we got a bit older we’d sort of poke at her about it but she always kept the story line intact.
Leto
@HarlequinGnoll: As they’ve just opened up character xfers, I’m sure it’ll be down to just 2-3 here soon. They were already having issues.
geg6
Merry Christmas, Cole, and to Lily, Rosie, Steve and, especially, Thurston, who gets so little love. I love you, Thurston!
Koda, Lovey and Cleo are already curled up with John in bed. I am grateful for that quartet so much and that is all the Christmas spirit I need. Tomorrow, family time featuring our newest addition, Amora, my adorable five-month-old great niece. She’s the happiest baby I’ve ever seen and the biggest reason to be in the Christmas spirit that I’ve ever seen.
Merry Christmas to all my beloved jackals. May 2020 bring the goddess’ blessing on us all.
Steeplejack
* DVR Alert *
The version of A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim (1951) is on AMX now. Starting again at 12:20 a.m. EST, and they’re running it several times tomorrow, starting at 3:00 p.m. EST.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Sorry to hear about the ongoing troubles in India. I don’t know what to say, but I try to keep up. It’s awful.
Steeplejack
@Nicole:
Hilarious. Nancy Drew junior.
Kattails
I worked an insane retail day, my till was over by $.01 on about $3000 cash. (phew).
Came home, fed the cats and the wood stove, checked out BJ, took a nap. Now I’m about ready to make the no-bake cheesecake recipe, doctoring it with some Frangelico, possibly some espresso dissolved into the whipped cream. It needs to set up overnight. I’ll make some hazelnut praline to decorate it with for serving. I am incredibly lucky to have neighbors who host a Christmas day dinner to which we all contribute. We will get pleasantly intoxicated, keep the politics muted, open Christmas crackers after dinner and wear paper crowns and read the silly jokes.
I have 5 rounds of cookies made plus cider caramel, brandy chocolate, and caramel mocha dessert sauces for gifts. Just need to make the nuss stollen tomorrow. My life is subdued right now, but that’s OK.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
Is Cleo a cat? I sort of remember her addition but maybe need a refresh.
Steeplejack
Something tonight really hit me about family connections. Bro’ Man said something that reminded me when he was texting with his partner earlier this week and asking about how the kids (ages 5 and 3½) did on the long flight to Brazil on Saturday. My niece (the 5-year-old) has an extremely outgoing personality (which my brother and BIL are at pains not to crimp), and the BIL texted, “She was handing out magazines and serving drinks.” That is my niece to a T, and only a slight exaggeration. LOL.
Merry Christmas to all jackals! I am sipping cava, watching Perry Mason and interspersing Christmas and jazz music. Multitasking!
tomtofa
@Ruckus:
My brother and I finally figured it out one year. We collected samples of our parents’ handwriting, and sprinkled flour on the outside walkway to check for foot/hoof prints (the chimney was too small for Santa to come down). Then we had to face the decision of when to tell them we knew . . .
@Nicole:
My recent ‘mouths of babes’ story: our daughter asked our 5yo granddaughter if she wanted to help do laundry. Gd replied “Mom! Girls don’t do laundry, boys do. Dad will do it!”
John:
Nice ov’r hauls, as my boyhood NC mountain compatriots called them. But ‘zippered fly’? Not buttons?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Fair Economist: For the past 6 years, I’ve made it a tradition to photograph Christmas lights in my neighborhood, there’s quite a bit fewer houses that have done lights this year.
SWMBO
Got to thinking about memories of Christmas past. Who can forget Shitmas?
balloon-juice.com/2016/12/25/let-me-tell-you-kids-about-the-legend-of-shitmas-2016/
marv
@joel hanes: That was really a beautiful post. Merry Christmas!
Jim
Problem is John – EVERYTHING changes over time – good and bad .
polyorchnid octopunch
@NotMax: Check out The Long Dark. A nearly perfect video game for Christmastime and long dark winter nights, even if there’s no Christmas in it whatsoever. Best of all it’s on a deep discount right now: store.steampowered.com/app/305620/The_Long_Dark/