You so wish you were at our place right now. Boysenberry pie, with EIGHT CUPS of berries fresh picked from our garden (I only make mile high pies). Mmmmmmm.
You know, I keep saying that we’d be more than happy to host visitors down here. Have I mentioned that we brew our own beer and I’m famous for my fruit pies, oh and my crepes?
Wild blackberry season is about a month away . . . .
Actually, I’m going to have to make another pie before I get any. This one is going with Imogen to work tomorrow for their holiday brunch.
Good thing the boysenberries are having a bumper year. And it’s been a good year for the wildlife as well. Last year the birds ate all the fruit before we could get to any of it, and we could hardly begrudge them the cherries and berries during a drought.
In fact, I’ve hardly seen any Currawongs this year. They tend to stay up a bit higher in altitude, but last year they came down and ate all the cherries, pulling the fruits right off the pips, which continued to hang on the trees.
We had a few sprinkles yesterday, but the cold front came through and we’re down to 40F at the moment. Low tonight is supposed to be 24F. Now if I could just get some rain to come through tonight, I just might have what I want.
I don’t blame you. It’s a stay in day. George already wanted to go out, and I found out it’s too cold to stay outside with shorts and short sleeved shirt on.
Yep I figure with a foot of snow that I could just throw George out in it and then let him figure his way back to the house. Also with a foot of snow, he might not ignore me when I’m yelling for him to come back in.
I had a geezer awaking moment yesterday. I had to find the serial number on a box and it was in such small print that I couldn’t read it with my glasses on or off. I had to get a magnifying glass to read it. Geezerhood is here to stay. 🙁
Getting just rain really helped keep it from being a disaster — the trees didn’t get as ice covered so we ended up with a lot of light-flickering (usually means that small branches are hitting the power lines) but no power outages.
I’m always thankful when the power doesn’t go out. There are only small windows down here when it’s not too hot or too cold, so power is a necessity for us.
I don’t like losing power but since we heat with wood, in winter I don’t have to worry about getting cold. And our woodstove actually has a cook surface on it so we can even heat up food.
Glad you kept your power.
That’s rarely a problem here (except an occasional blackout/brownout during hot summer days) – all underground feeds.
Looks like rain all day, 35 now and TV says we’ll go to 42.
before I run off to yoga this morning. Glad everyone has power and that this storm seems to be mostly rain. A good day to clean and put up the tree and make cookie dough, I’m thinking…
Yeah, it’s kind of fun to just eat the cookie dough. I was thinking I could make a few batches of dough while the boys are gone for the day, and then we can bake them and decorate them tonight or tomorrow afternoon.
My other mission for today is photo calendar layout completion.
Good morning all! There’s blowing, fine snow outside at about 32F. Its a good day for indoor slacking. Family Man can instruct us in the finer points thereof.
Morning SN! I’m revising the local temp report down to 25F from 32F a couple of hours ago. Sadly, my fire company buddies just got a mutual aid request from a neighboring fire dept. north of here for a 3 story house fully engulfed. Its always a tragic occurrence, but it seems especially so this time of year. No report of injuries, I’m hoping for good luck there at least.
excellent! I’m going to be chatting with my cousin this evening to see what the plan is, but I’ll be there for a few days and would love to get together at some point. Can you send me over an email? man.eegee at gmail dot com
Hi Family Man. I had a voucher from Northwest Airlines after they royally screwed up my luggage for the D.C. march last January. It was lost on the way over there and on the way back, and returned to me damaged, so I decided to cash it in to help my cousin (after vowing never to fly them again). The theme of this trip will be: “How much stuff I can cram into a carry-on bag?”
Having freezing rain and regular rain between the two snowfalls really cut down our accumulation. But there’s a bunch of ice underneath that snow so walking is really tricky.
One is finished Thursday at noon, the other is finished Friday at noon. So, this will be a busy week, trying to get my work stuff wrapped up (I have some marketing analyses due tomorrow) and finish shopping while people are at school.
My yoga teacher was betting on it being a cold and snowy/icy winter yesterday. It was so mild for so long this fall that I don’t think I have an opinion on what it’s going to do.
I’ve read about them but my Vermont Castings stove shows no signs of wearing out (hey it’s just a little over 1/4 century old) so I’m not in the market.
It appears that they require electricity, so the appeal is limited for me. I need something that will keep the house warm when the power goes out (which it did last night for about an hour).
On nice thing about vermont castings is that they have a cook surface on top so if the electricity goes out you can do some cooking/heating up food in addition to staying warm.
Yep I pretty much agree with that. I think that’s one of the reasons so many people have converted over to gas logs with blowers attached. Seems to put out a good bit of heat.
Hi Toni! Our grandDems go to Montessori and love it. Their mom volunteers there several days a week – cuts the tuition some. Wow, he’s really grown a lot!
I think our big plans should be to go wake up CG so she can give us a nice, clean new cafe. But in lieu of that, I think I’ll plan to go get some more coffee.
I’ve already gone through one pot and stood out in the cold with George. I was really cursing at him under my breath this morning. It’s cold out there!
We’re supposed to go up to 60 today and then Wednesday, we’ll be up toward 70. Like I keep saying, I don’t mind cold weather, I just wish it would stay there and not jump around so much.
I’ll tell ya, Olivia get just a little bit of snow and it’s waaa, waaaa, waaa….. 🙂
Good morning, FM and Andi!
First cup of French Roast for the morning, yum.
Cold and clear here, hope the wind has died down, we had strong gusts yesterday – very unpleasant.
Do you usually go out and take in all the holiday decorations?
I still have very nostalgic memories about doing that (and a little smile at the memory of all the Jewish families piling into their cars to go drive downtown to look at all the store windows).
Do you usually go out and take in all the holiday decorations?
I’m not quite with you.
I grew up in an atheist/agnostic home (of Lutheran extraction), but we did all the usual Christmas trappings, except go to mass (Christmas and Easter are the only busy days in the churches – otherwise, very, very few go to regular mass).
but happy Sunday!
We’ve got rain right now. How about you?
Whaddaya mean “early”? It’s been Sunday for 16 and half hours now. Slackers. 😉
Definitely no snow, just the occasional drizzle, but then it’s back to bright and sunny.
I know, we can never hope to keep up with our Australian compatriots, but you can’t blame me for trying… 🙂
Happy Monday?
Happy Monday?
Tis now. I just woke up. It looks to be a fine sunny day, and surprise, surprise Luna’s at the door wanting her breakfast.
You so wish you were at our place right now. Boysenberry pie, with EIGHT CUPS of berries fresh picked from our garden (I only make mile high pies). Mmmmmmm.
You know, I keep saying that we’d be more than happy to host visitors down here. Have I mentioned that we brew our own beer and I’m famous for my fruit pies, oh and my crepes?
Wild blackberry season is about a month away . . . .
Keres, that looks very, very tempting;-)
You’re right – I totally wish I was at your house right now. 🙂
Actually, I’m going to have to make another pie before I get any. This one is going with Imogen to work tomorrow for their holiday brunch.
Good thing the boysenberries are having a bumper year. And it’s been a good year for the wildlife as well. Last year the birds ate all the fruit before we could get to any of it, and we could hardly begrudge them the cherries and berries during a drought.
In fact, I’ve hardly seen any Currawongs this year. They tend to stay up a bit higher in altitude, but last year they came down and ate all the cherries, pulling the fruits right off the pips, which continued to hang on the trees.
We had a few sprinkles yesterday, but the cold front came through and we’re down to 40F at the moment. Low tonight is supposed to be 24F. Now if I could just get some rain to come through tonight, I just might have what I want.
Morning, FM!
Sounds like freezing rain is hitting the windows, I’m not going out to find out.
I don’t blame you. It’s a stay in day. George already wanted to go out, and I found out it’s too cold to stay outside with shorts and short sleeved shirt on.
You do suffer so much, don’t you. Especially since you never get any pretty, fluffy snow, nyah, nyah.
Yep I figure with a foot of snow that I could just throw George out in it and then let him figure his way back to the house. Also with a foot of snow, he might not ignore me when I’m yelling for him to come back in.
It’s a stay in day.
That’s the plan; curly did some serious food shopping yesterday – no need to go out today.
Yep I’ve always said it could be a blizzard here, just as long as we had food, power and phone.
serious food shopping? I’m jealous.
Maybe you need a trip to NY?
we’ll be up there just after Christmas, but we won’t be able to get together that day.
Just let us know next time you have a chance.
Looks like you might have to put some pants on. Yep, poor, poor FM.
Hi SN.
If it’s for George I guess I could do it. Then again, the little bugger doesn’t care how cold I am. He’s got a full coat of fur.
Morning SN.
I started to type something else but by the time the message got to my fingers to type, I’d forgotten what it was. Ah, the joys of geezerhood.
I had a geezer awaking moment yesterday. I had to find the serial number on a box and it was in such small print that I couldn’t read it with my glasses on or off. I had to get a magnifying glass to read it. Geezerhood is here to stay. 🙁
I think that the liner notes on CDs are a clear indicator of the systemic ageism of our society. 😉
So far we’ve had snow, then freezing rain, then rain, then freezing rain, and now snow again.
Morning Andi.
Oh to live in a winter wonderland.
Good morning, Andi!
That seems to be what is ahead ffor us as well, unless it gets a little warmer.
Getting just rain really helped keep it from being a disaster — the trees didn’t get as ice covered so we ended up with a lot of light-flickering (usually means that small branches are hitting the power lines) but no power outages.
I’m always thankful when the power doesn’t go out. There are only small windows down here when it’s not too hot or too cold, so power is a necessity for us.
I don’t like losing power but since we heat with wood, in winter I don’t have to worry about getting cold. And our woodstove actually has a cook surface on it so we can even heat up food.
Luckily we have my sister’s house across the street, and she has propane heat. But if all else fails, get in the car.
Glad you kept your power.
That’s rarely a problem here (except an occasional blackout/brownout during hot summer days) – all underground feeds.
Looks like rain all day, 35 now and TV says we’ll go to 42.
As often as we lose our power, I’d love to see them go underground but it’s unlikely they’d ever spend that much money around here.
before I run off to yoga this morning. Glad everyone has power and that this storm seems to be mostly rain. A good day to clean and put up the tree and make cookie dough, I’m thinking…
Mmmm, cookie dough. So much better before it’s baked.
Have a great day, CG. Enjoy the festivities.
Yeah, it’s kind of fun to just eat the cookie dough. I was thinking I could make a few batches of dough while the boys are gone for the day, and then we can bake them and decorate them tonight or tomorrow afternoon.
My other mission for today is photo calendar layout completion.
What are you up to today, SN?
Hi/bye CG.
Sounds like you have a non-slack day there today.
Enjoy!
Good morning all! There’s blowing, fine snow outside at about 32F. Its a good day for indoor slacking. Family Man can instruct us in the finer points thereof.
Morning ID.
A couch, a book or remote, a hot drink and naps are what I recommend.
Ah, thanks very much for the tips. I know its time to get warm when parts of the local critters’ anatomy begin to look like this!
At least he froze with a little smile on his face! Morning, ID. Keep warm!
Morning SN! I’m revising the local temp report down to 25F from 32F a couple of hours ago. Sadly, my fire company buddies just got a mutual aid request from a neighboring fire dept. north of here for a 3 story house fully engulfed. Its always a tragic occurrence, but it seems especially so this time of year. No report of injuries, I’m hoping for good luck there at least.
Now if I could only get a picture of George like that. 🙂
Oh, why not take pity on the poor little guy and get him something like this?
Hey he’s warmer outside than I am. I’m going to have to get him a hair cut to just realize how cold it is.
A matched set of the above perhaps? One large, one small, no itchy wool.
LOL, nope don’t think so.
Now if we had weather like your…….
Good morning all. The snow has stopped with only a relatively small accumulation. We’ll have to get out later to see if we can build a snow man.
Morning Boran.
Pictures please.
Good morning FM. Will do.
Well, looks like I’ll be in the NYC area for the New Year. Anyone gonna be around?
YOu will be making a Philly detour, won’t you? 🙂
Don’t know the details yet, flying in to help my cousin move to her new job site (she’s a traveling nurse). Will let you know, of course!
Hey Manny,
curly and I expect to be in town most of the time over the holidays & New Year. Hope to see you then.
I probably don’t need to tell you this but getting to meet Manny IRL is one fine, fine pleasure.
That’s the impression I have from reading about some encounters.
meeting the Fs is a fine, fine pleasure, too! Plus, they bring torrential rain with them 🙂
excellent! I’m going to be chatting with my cousin this evening to see what the plan is, but I’ll be there for a few days and would love to get together at some point. Can you send me over an email? man.eegee at gmail dot com
Geeze the life of you jet setters. 🙂
Hi Family Man. I had a voucher from Northwest Airlines after they royally screwed up my luggage for the D.C. march last January. It was lost on the way over there and on the way back, and returned to me damaged, so I decided to cash it in to help my cousin (after vowing never to fly them again). The theme of this trip will be: “How much stuff I can cram into a carry-on bag?”
The last time I flew, which was years ago, I made sure to only have a carry on bag. I had my luggage lost on a flight before and it does suck.
I hope the voucher at least put you in first class and drinking champagne. Yea sure. 🙂
Heh, I don’t even have direct flights. Damn one terminal airport in Tucson 🙂
Don’t worry Manny. I’ll have a talk with the airline bigwigs and have a private jet sent to you. Yea sure again. 🙂
Hi FM!
What will it take to bring you up here?
(Oh, and check mail.)
Hiya Ask.
Lets see, a private jet, chauffeured limo and first class accommodations. Since I haven’t won the lottery yet, I think it will be awhile. 🙂
Mail sent!
What do Sonny Bono and Hall of Fame baseball manager Connie Mack have in common?
about it being Monday but failing. I guess I’ll sprinkle a little magic dust around to see if that helps … nope.
Beautiful snow picture. Nope magic dust doesn’t work around here either. It’s still Monday.
It’s a honest snow picture — it has dog prints in it but I figured the glitter would distract people from noticing that.
It distracted me from seeing it. That looks just about the right amount of snow I want down here.
Having freezing rain and regular rain between the two snowfalls really cut down our accumulation. But there’s a bunch of ice underneath that snow so walking is really tricky.
With tricky ice, I think that would have me forgetting a morning walk and tell the pack they’re on their own.
Hey I only fell 3 times on yesterday’s walk (all on steep hillsides, though).
Sad to say, I’m not walking in the morning during the week — by the time it gets light enough, it’s too late. So I walk at noon instead.
The last time I fell on ice, I was flat on my back and some idiot was laughing like hell across the street.
I would say at noon it has at least warmed up some, but up there, I’m not sure.
Good morning, Andi and FM!
Cold; frozen slush in the streets.
Yep, our Monday sound track is crunch, crunch, crunch.
Morning Ask.
It cold here, 24F, but dry. Frozen slush doesn’t sound good.
Wow, that’s colder than here – we’re at 26 and may see 35 in the afternoon.
I just looked at the weather again and it say we’re down to 23F now. Won’t last long though. We’ll be up to the mid 50s today.
Good morning all! It’s cold and windy here this morning, which means the house is colder than usual this morning.
Good morning, CG!
When are the CBs off for holiday break?
The asklets have school till Friday.
One is finished Thursday at noon, the other is finished Friday at noon. So, this will be a busy week, trying to get my work stuff wrapped up (I have some marketing analyses due tomorrow) and finish shopping while people are at school.
Are you all set for the holidays?
Alas, not even close.
But I’m cranking it up today.
Morning CG.
Our wind came through the other day. It’s just cold now.
24 is pretty cold. Maybe even colder than we are here…but somehow, 28 doesn’t seem like it’s worth gloating over.
It’s definitely cold for around here. Makes me wonder what Jan. is going to be like.
My yoga teacher was betting on it being a cold and snowy/icy winter yesterday. It was so mild for so long this fall that I don’t think I have an opinion on what it’s going to do.
We got off pretty easy weather-wise last year.
Hey if a yoga teacher doesn’t know, then who does. 🙂
Morning CG.
It was down in the teens here so our house was colder this morning too but I kicked up the woodstove and now it is nice and toasty.
A toasty woodstove would be nice about now. Are your dogs enjoying lying near it?
I think I would have a singed shih tzu in pretty short order if we had one.
The dogs love the woodstove — they’ll lie by it until they’re so warm, they’re panting and they still won’t leave it.
(The downside of the woodstove is that you have to go outside to get the wood.)
I would think the down side is you have to clean the ashes out. And the outside for wood. 🙂
The ash only needs to be emptied every 2 or 3 days and the ash bucket only needs to be emptied about once a week so that’s no big deal.
I’ve never had a wood stove, but I remember fireplaces were a hassle with the ashes.
Fireplaces are pretty and all but they suck more heat up the chimney than they put out so they’re definitely not worth hassling with IMHO.
I agree about all the heat going up the chimney.
One of my friends swears by the pellet stove, but I’ve never known anyone but him who had one.
I’ve read about them but my Vermont Castings stove shows no signs of wearing out (hey it’s just a little over 1/4 century old) so I’m not in the market.
It appears that they require electricity, so the appeal is limited for me. I need something that will keep the house warm when the power goes out (which it did last night for about an hour).
On nice thing about vermont castings is that they have a cook surface on top so if the electricity goes out you can do some cooking/heating up food in addition to staying warm.
Yep I pretty much agree with that. I think that’s one of the reasons so many people have converted over to gas logs with blowers attached. Seems to put out a good bit of heat.
Gotta go. Got an appointment this morning and I have to start getting ready.
Everyone have a good day and stay warm.
Have a great day, FM.
I snowed in our house, as well as outside. We made gingerbread cookies and Andrew really got into the process.
Hi Tony!
He’s getting so big – how old is he now?
He’s 3 and 1/2. He’ll start Montessori in January.
Hi Toni! Our grandDems go to Montessori and love it. Their mom volunteers there several days a week – cuts the tuition some. Wow, he’s really grown a lot!
Hi ID,
Tuition is big. We really lucked out, though. My brother-in-law offered to pick up the bill! WooHoo!
Andrew will get skating and gymnastics lessons through Montessori. I really can’t wait for him to start.
He looks like he’s ready for big things for sure! One of ours is 4 1/2 and she’s a very busy girl. I’d forgotten just how busy they are at that stage.
Andrew!!!
Oh yeah, hi Toni. 🙂
I’m just second banana next to the boy.
Wow – that is just too much for me to handle. Not only is he the perfect size for hugging, but he smells like gingerbread, too.
He had it all over him. I could have eaten him up:)
Helloooo Toni.
I missed you this morning, but it’s good to see you, and to see how much Andrew has grown. He’s really shooting on up there.
Hey FM!
He’s growing like a proverbial weed. How is your brother doing?
I can see how he’s growing. It feels like just the other day that you were showing us his baby pictures.
My brother is still up and down after his second bypass surgery. We’re hoping soon the doctors will get him straightened out, and thanks for asking.
Now you know what I’m going to say. More pictures! 🙂
Life has been crazy hectic and will likely be that way until June – but I’ll try to stop by more often.
Good luck to your brother.
Morning Toni.
will likely be that way until June.
That’s looking to far ahead knowing it’s going to be hectic. Hope you do get some slacking time in there somewhere.
We’ll be ready when you stop by, but be forewarned, come armed with pictures. 🙂
He’s such a big boy now! Montessori school sounds like it will be fun
I’m excited for him to start! When does vacation start for your boys?
Thursday for CBtE, Friday for CBtY. Are you and the hubby done yet?
I’ll be done on Friday, but my hubby is done on Wednesday – thanks to working part-time. We’re flying to Florida on Sunday to see my parents.
Good afternoon all. After our 2 hour school delay, I’ve finally made it to work. Unforunately it was too icy to do any snowman building.
Good afternoon Boran.
Good thing you mentioned about the snowman because I was going to ask about pictures. 🙂
Hi FM! I could probably go out and carve one from the ice. 😉
OK that would be good, and I’ll even give you a little extra time just for the carving. 🙂
From the last snow we had down here, maybe 99 or 00, everyone ran out and made snow men and snow women before it melted. This was my favorite one.
You can’t really see it from this picture, but I think they did a very good job on the face.
I” have to see the photo later when my evil overlords aren’t blocking it. 🙁
The hairdo looks rather 60’s.
Hi ID.
It sort of reminded me of the little seamstress from The Incredibles, or either Mary Tyler Moore from her show.
Out of all the ones in the little town I lived in, this one showed more of artistic flair.
Yeah, MTM is perfect!
Yep but where is Rhoda? 🙂
or snow brontosaurus!
(I have a freakishly good memory)
Up a little bit early today. It’s about 30F and still dark outside.
So today is Tuesday. Who has big plans for today?
I think our big plans should be to go wake up CG so she can give us a nice, clean new cafe. But in lieu of that, I think I’ll plan to go get some more coffee.
I’ve already gone through one pot and stood out in the cold with George. I was really cursing at him under my breath this morning. It’s cold out there!
Cold here too but we’re going up to 40 so soon it will be goodbye snow. Too bad poor Olivia can’t say the same. 🙁
We’re supposed to go up to 60 today and then Wednesday, we’ll be up toward 70. Like I keep saying, I don’t mind cold weather, I just wish it would stay there and not jump around so much.
I’ll tell ya, Olivia get just a little bit of snow and it’s waaa, waaaa, waaa….. 🙂
I put my helmet on for that remark. :O
and I missed it all. 🙁
Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening.
Good morning, FM and Andi!
First cup of French Roast for the morning, yum.
Cold and clear here, hope the wind has died down, we had strong gusts yesterday – very unpleasant.
Sounds like our Sunday weather went straight to you. We’re warming up to the 40s today so maybe you’ll get that as well.
Looks like our mornings will remain cold, but milder daytime and chance of sleet/rain Wed/Thu.
Do you usually go out and take in all the holiday decorations?
I still have very nostalgic memories about doing that (and a little smile at the memory of all the Jewish families piling into their cars to go drive downtown to look at all the store windows).
Do you usually go out and take in all the holiday decorations?
I’m not quite with you.
I grew up in an atheist/agnostic home (of Lutheran extraction), but we did all the usual Christmas trappings, except go to mass (Christmas and Easter are the only busy days in the churches – otherwise, very, very few go to regular mass).
I did go to midnight mass one time just to see what it was like — my take: nice music but mostly boring.
Morning Ask.
I can’t tell if it’s clear or not yet. Still to damned dark out there. I think Thursday we’re supposed to get some rain. I hope so, we could use it.
Did you get the e/m?
Got it.
It’s 24 and my windows are frosted over. At least now I won’t have to look at how the covering of leaves is smothering the grass in the backyard.
Morning all!
My f-i-l always said leaving the leaves on the grass over the winter protected it and then in the spring, you just mow into low cost mulch.
Are all the kids going to be home for Christmas?
I have that problem with seeing the leaves in the yard too. My solution is regardless of the weather, ignore them. 🙂