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Good morning! And how was your Tuesday? Merry? Berry? Just plain scary?
I got the *best* present from combined Hubby and his parents. It's this heating pad that hangs over my shoulders and stays in place. Here, this is the one... Heating Pad
It. Is. Awesome. No sliding around, no flopping about, I can sit up and it stays put, and the bit of weight it has to "hang" properly? Feels a bit like hot rock massage pressure to me. Not saying it's for everyone and it's pricey, but wow. This is my new bestie. Works as shown in pictures. I've got it right now after a rough night and wheee! :-)
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Also, my neighbors gave us cookies! This is HILARIOUS. Usually I bake a ton of cookies. This year, I knew a friend aws sending me some. I ended up with FOUR tins of cookies (three of them homemade no less) and I didn't bake. What the what? Nature abhors a vacuum? I'm meant to have Cookies?
The cats, btw, at first LOVED their new toys. And then ignored them. And then the new healthy treats? Dahlia adored. Until she horked them up from eating too fast. Now she hates the packages, too. *sigh* Fortunately, lots of other cats around here... And, no, Dixie didn't like the fancy 100% hugely healthy dehydrated meat bits. Nope. Nope. Nope. She's sticking to her kibble only, like it's some health food granola.
Which, btw, is hilarious, when you consider we usually have former ferals, and they'll eat anything, up to an dincluding ants... (Or is that down to?) Oh, to have had video back in those days! You hvaen't lived till you've seen a cat lick ants off the floor b/c hey! He's done it to live before. (Apparently, some species of ant are sweet-sour tasting, but even the exterminator had never seen a cat eat *them* before. Starving humans in ultimate survival situations, yes. Ex-feral house feline? No. He still talks about that, and it's been over 10 years.) That said, the cat in question ate every bug he found (except the legs on cricketse, those he left in piles) and we always knew when we had an issue. We followed him...
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Today is called BOxing Day, but not for the sport, as I've explained in past years --- it's a UK thing, and for some reason the US didn't pick it up but other Anglophone nations have. Mostly, it's just a day to recover from Christmas, I suspect, but "Christmas box" was an archaic UK term for "Christmas gift" --- and the day after Christmas was when servants and laborers ("tradespeople") got their "Christmas box" from employers. Allegedly. For all we know, it began because of re-gifting crappy stuff from Christmas to people you would not see until the next day. Honestly, I don't know. Nobody's 100% sure, but the above explanation is about as good as it gets. "Eat your leftovers and recover" day. Sounds fine to me!
Like coffee? Today in 1865, the coffee percolator was patented! Happy birthday to the percolator, a long-venerated coffee-making device!
And, of course, in 2004... the Big Indonesia Quake/Tsunami struck, killing over 250,000 and render far more homeless and/or injured. The tsunami of this date in 2004 is one reason why we have heightened awareness and more alerts for tsunamis. It was probably caused by the underwater landslide related to the quake. That quake was also so powerful that the *planet* vibrated about a centimeter. It's the third-largest ever recorded, and lasted 8 to 10 minutes. Courtesy nerdy stuff, we know that the shallow-water tsunami heights were up to 80 feet high (even 100, it's alleged, as moving inland in Indonesia), but out in the big ocean? The displaced water could be more "dispersed" and the "wave" was about 2 feet high out in the open ocean of the Indian Ocean.
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Now, to the day... and the cats.. and taking th ehint given by all the kitchen stuff I got for Christmas. Got it. Bake more... Not. Subtle!
Purrs to your day!
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Welcome to the Perseid meteor showers, the "biggies" usually every year. (The Leonids beat 'em one year IMHO).AND today much of the northern hemisphere will see 5 to 99% solar eclipse. How cool is that? Your best bet is to be in the UK or norhtern Spain, where totality is excellent before sundown. Me, I'll get a super duper tiny itty bitty slice of it, so little that it won't be noticeable. New...
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... observed a solar eclipse.
The heat pad sounds great! I gave Gin a headed neck pillow which I'll borrow when it's available. :-) Hopefully she'll love it as much as you love yours!
I hope you all had a great Christmas!
Kel
Hi Kel, I'm sure Gin will love that gift! I hope you had a good Christmas too
My Christmas actually wasn't bad. The best part was it was over by 5:30. Usually it drags on til almost 10 because some family members get there later, but they came early this time so we didn't have to wait long for the yankee swap to happen. And my grandmother/cousin didn't come out so no walking on eggshells. I also brought Miki for the first time, and my family loved her. They all commented on how sweet and well behaved she is-which is honestly true, and not just because I'm biased. And even better, I actually slept last night! It's my 30th birthday today and I have a few errands to do (grocery store, blood draw for thyroid panel), and I need to hit the running store when I go to the trails with Miki for warm socks and gloves that are also moisture wicking. I'm going to get drinks with bf later, he had to work today. There's an Irish pub near my house that we might try. If I have time I'd like to work on some drawing too. But for now I need to make breakfast. Hugs everyone
Leo, that wrap sounds a-maz-ing! I've been eyeing one for a while and my hubs almost bout it for me but I turned him down in the store as we had a few other items that were more important at the time.
And homemade cookies? How sweet is that from your neighbors?
Glad you had a good Christmas. And the cats, yah...Pudge like the packaging more than the toy most often.
Kel, that neck pillow idea is brilliant! My hubs needs one as he doses off to sleep on the couch. I often reach over and gently push his head back fearing he will get a neck ache.
Miki, glad you had a good Christmas too. Yankee swap? Is that like the dice game? (roll a 1 and you get to open it, roll a duce, you can steal from someone, and so on? ) Hope you have a good day today and Happy Birthday to you!
Well it's almost done and we survived. And boy oh boy did I ever crash! We hosted my Dad's side on Sunday. Huge hit. Tank was thankfully too large for my cousins to take home with them. But they were going to try. He was gushed over the entire night and got to eat almost the entire bowl of summer sausage and cheese hors d'oeuvres.
Then yesterday I had my family over, it was easy...just warm the leftovers and I also made some sweetfire chicken as another hors d'oeuvre.
Then on Saturday we have my hubs side. I am doing nothing for today. We were going to have gutters finally installed today, but we have a big ole snow storm rolling in later. Ice and snow is in our forecast and I'm feeling every inch of it. And it's time to pack up these platters for another year. I've been looking at them for 4 days now. So I guess my nothing is already overridden, LOL. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention...I'm so stinken excited for our neighbors. She went into labor on the 24th and they had there little dude that night. I need to shop for a gift for them. He was 3 weeks early. Gah, and he's sooo cute! I just love babies!
But that is it! LOL. Oh it sucks to hurt this much! Yet it was all worth it.
Looking forward to hearing about everyone else's day!
Sounds like you've been busy lately, but I'm glad you had fun. Enjoy your day off!
Leo, that heating pad sounds amazing, they really did great on your gift. And yay for cookies, we made chocolate chip for Santa and then my sister always overdoes it on the cookie department so we get some of hers. :-) Enjoy your sweets and heat today.
Hi Kel, I hope you had a good Christmas too and that things are getting a bit better in your neck of the woods. I bet Gin loves her gift.
Miki, my Christmas was over at 5:10, and that was late for me. I went over to my moms at 12:30 until 5:10, and that's after being up since 5 and doing Christmas with my girlie's, that's way too long for me, but it was a good day. I'm really glad you enjoyed your day.
Wonder, It sounds like you have had such a busy run of baking and family, and you're not done. I hope it goes well this weekend with Hubby's family. The box cat day is hilarious.
Autumn, I love that you got paint supplies and a class from your partner and daughter. They did a great job.
ida, I'm sorry you can't go to Minnesota because of the snow. I am glad you get more rest though. I hope you are relaxing today.
Christmas came and went too fast as usual, but kind of glad all of the hustle and bustle is over with. I plan on taking my garland down today, take the girls toy Shopping and then bunker down with movies (praying I get to do that). The girls keep me hopping and I love keeping them busy so it's hard for me to just let them go off and then relax when we are all at home. I hope they play with their stuff though and don't want me playing with them.
I pray Walmart is not too busy. I hope everyone has a good day.
Leo, yay heating pad, what a thoughtful gift. And whoohoo yummy cookies from friends. Try rubbing the cat toys in their fur. Our cats won’t play with new toys unless we put their smell on it.
Christmas was ok. I sat around the house in my pjs all day. We had left over turkey from Thanksgiving so I didn’t really cook, which was nice. But I made mashed sweet potatoes and a batch of brownies. My husband’s been drinking way too much since break started. He’s either sleeping or drinking and smells of liquor and wine all the time. Last night for dinner he had a whole bottle of wine... and the same the previous day.
He said his new year resolution is to stop drinking.
I have acupuncture today and the laundromat.
Tomorrow a follow up with my PCP about the whiplash. I might stop by Walmart and pick up a few Christmas lights on clearance too. :). Best time to go shopping for the following year.
Back in a sec.
Christmas was fairly laid back compared to other years. I deliberately stayed in bed until about 2 PM. We opened our presents, showered and headed over to Moms. My partner was in charge of cooking the beef tenderloin. While he puttered in the kitchen, I dragged out the silver and china and got the table set. We ate dinner pretty much on time which is pretty miraculous. My sister and her family tend to be late. Took a break to open gifts and then sat down again for dessert. My sister makes a deadly mud pie which is made up of a gallon of ice cream, crushed candy canes topped with hot fudge. I had a bite of it but was afraid all of the chocolate would keep me up all night. Turns out it didn't matter because I was up anyway. We got home shortly after 9 and my partner headed off to bed. He is working today.
This morning, Santa brought us a new Weber grill. My old one is pushing 20. It still works well but the firebox is beginning to rot out lol. It arrived assembled and they put it up on the deck. I slapped a new cover on it and it will be ready to use in the spring. With the way the weather is going here, we could use it now. No snow and another warm up on the way starting tomorrow.
Leo - I've seen those shoulder shaped heating pads. I'm glad that they thought to get you one and that it is comfortable. Silly cats...
My oldest niece flies back out to Cali today. I hope that the return trip isn't bad as there are a lot of delays from bad weather elsewhere.
Hi Kel - Great to see you on the board today. I hope all is relatively well in the frozen tundra.
Miki - Happy Birthday! I would have loved to be done by 5:30 and home relaxing on the couch watching movies! Yankee swaps are so much fun! I sure hope that you have a fun day! Hugs!
Wonder - I have no earthly idea how you managed to host all of those people. Setting the table for 12 and feeding everyone was more than enough for me. A new baby is always exciting! I hope that your day is a good one and that you manage to get some rest.
Hi Twin - It sounds like you did pretty well getting through Christmas! I hope toy shopping is not too crazy today. I hope that you can catch your breath at some point and work in a Hallmark movie or something that you enjoy. Hugs!
Shout out to Ida, Bear, JP, Milily, Susan, AngelaJo, Autumn and Blue. I will check back later to see how things are going.
Thanks, Leo, for getting us going.
I have a stressful thing going on today and I hope it works itself out. I’m kind of a wreck with lots of anxiety. I’m just not up to answering everyone.
Have a good day, everybody.
Happy Birthday, Miki!! Glad Christmas was good and they liked your dog too :)
Kel, the neck pillow sounds great. My husband bought me one a few years ago that vibrated lol... it's supposed to massage, but really the heat would have been better. It was the strangest thing but at least the cats liked it ha ha
Wonder, that is a LOT of Christmas gatherings ha ha. Sounds like you'll need a break from Christmas break!
Twins, shopping the day after Christmas is always the best for deals. I hope you nab some good ones. I got to watch a good Christmas movie on the Hallmark app yesterday while my husband was napping, it had me laughing out of my chair. It's called What I Did For Love. I don't know why they called it that, they should rename it Walking Disaster! It's about a city man who meets his fiance's family for the 1st time over the holidays, and they from the country. Anyway, if you're looking for a laugh, that should do it.
Fantod, good for you for staying in bed till 2. We fibro peeps have to save up as much energy as we can when there are big events. Congrats on the new grill! I would love one... haven't had one since the short sale of my townhouse back on Oahu. I grilled a lot, so miss it. Maybe once we get moved out of this super rainy area. I can't see us grilling here with only getting an ave of 30 min breaks between the rains. I hope you get a nap in after the lack of sleep last night. It must have been all the excitement....fibro and big events don't get along LOL.
I need more boxes;_) LOL on that video Wonder!
Kel, def hope Gin loves her gift!
Twin, fun shopping!
Fan, yay you! :-)
Blue, I feel that. Some meds can rile my innards and I'm thinking, "Is the sensation of hot coals really worth the med's benefits?"... Not quite the same, but the idea is there....
Miki: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I am exhausted and painful. Couldnt sleep last night because of pain. Didnt sleep enough for too many days now. Mostly being a slug today. Meeting my BFF at Culvers tomorrow night and then going back to mostly slug mode.
My son got me a new kindle for Christmas (new 8 inch on sale) , so I have been dorking around with that. Much different than my old, old kindle. I love it.
Blue - I have to be careful with muscle relaxants because they decrease motility. Lately , when I need to take one , I try half a pill first and see if I can by on that. Same with my other as needed meds that slow motility..
Happy Birthday Miki