How is your day Today? Chat about your plans and achievements 2025....

Sliverfox said:
I noticed on our Sunday drive,,, that in the small towns/villages.
There wasn't a lot of Christmas decorations out.
A wreathe on the door,, a string of lights was it.

When we drove through Jamestown N.Y. there were figures,,etc in the yards.
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exactly the same here..in many places. I don't know what's going on.

Last week in the Mall there was no Christmas tree, or decorations as they always have.. no Santa's grotto...

.. yesterday after I left the doctors, I went into the pub nearby for a coke.. and there was nothing in there either.. a string of lights which could easily be missed... but nothing else for the festive season.. No christmas tree...nothing that there would be usually... not even anything related to the Nativity... ..it could be any day of the week if you didn't know the date . How sad, I don't know why it's happening
 

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Morning all folks!!! Been up since 5am, slept fairly
well, better than last 2 nites anyway...44F outside now
going to near 60f today wow....Santa will have to
switch from ski's to tires for this area, again,!! I am
a great procrastinator as i still have not done the laundry or my nail!!! shame on me....oh well... joints
are achy today, got heat pad on my shoulders now...
Take care now ya'hear!!!! ;):cool::love::coffee::devilish:
 
It takes me 3 hours to get out of the house in the morning. Got up at six to take thyroid meds then have to wait an hour before taking pantoprazole and then wait another hour before eating and taking the rest of my medication. I leave at 9 for an ultrasound with the vascular folks.
The rest of the day looks good.
 

When I woke up at 6:15, looked out bedroom window, saw an inch of snow on ground decided not to go outside like I usually do.,temp was 34 Its cloudy now probably go out in an hr or so,have to wear my boots
My plans for rest of day,read yesterday&today's NYT,read my book,see what today's lunch& dinner menu looks like
Everybody have a good day
 
Good morning to everyone. Sunny with temperature in the 70's today.

No winner in Power Ball and now Wednesday night, it is 1.7 billion. I matched one number so won't get anything.

I had a good delivery from the grocery store this morning. They had everything I had on my list.

I hope you are all well and have a great day. :)
 
My poor wife was up till four in the morning to bake cookies. I helped her a little bit, like unwrapping chocolate kisses that go on top of some cookies. My grandson would have been eager to help, but his whole family has the flu. My older daughter will help when she comes back from San Diego. Actually, we won't need so many Christmas cookies to bring to the neighbors. Heavy rain is in the forecast from Wednesday till Friday, and we may not be able to go around on Christmas Eve. Twenty years ago, I founded our neighborhood watch group for 35 houses and, although the watch folded because insufficient business, I am still in tough with many of these neighbors.

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My older daughter is visiting friends in San Diego, and yesterday they visited Sea World. (Copied from her iPhone picture.)

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Left: At sunrise, I let my dogs out to do their morning business. As so often, a coyote next to the fence is watching them. My pups are not as battle hardened as a coyote and are in potential danger. A coyote can easily jump a six-foot high fence and attack, but they are afraid of me..
Right: Driving along Victoria Avenue in Riverside, the middle strip has already some trees in full bloom. It's way too early, but then we just had about two weeks with 80+ degree temperatures. Forty years ago, we had ice on our pond at this time of the year.

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I just had my usual breakfast: a scoop of oats, ½ scoop of ground flaxseeds, a tea spoon of sugar and cacao, pre-measured levels of electrolytes, amino acids, red beets powder, and fiber supplements. Everything microwaved.Then a table spoon of extra virgin olive oil and a dozen nutritional supplements like alpha lipoic acid and quercetin swallowed with kefir. Finally one fresh fruit as desert.

Now it's time to take my puppies on our morning walk.
 
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Happy Festivus! Or, as my kids called it, Christmas Adam (today being the precursor to Christmas Eve). I love, love, love this time of year!!!

As some may have noticed by scarce posts, my time is nearly all spoken for right now. As always, DH & I are hosting Christmas Eve which will be about 20 people (including some Jewish friends) for appetizers, dinner, cookies and a grab bag, so about 4-5 hours. Then a repeat for just the 12 of us (kids & GKs only) Christmas afternoon/evening.

The 28th will be our final pizza cookie party of the season, and it promises to be a monster. RSVPs are for nearly 60 people, but this being the cold and flu season and the party being heavy on the under ten years old set, there will undoubtedly be last minute regrets.

So on the 26th, rather than resting I'll be making up 24 pizza doughs in anticipation of that party. Cookies are mostly done, done, done for the season. On the 26th or 27th I'm planning another round of sugar cookies for decorating on the 28th.


Last night my son called asking if we could watch the littles (4 and 22 months) for a few hours this morning because he and his wife are also slamma-jammed for time. I said, yes but only for a few hours and I'll have to have the TV running the whole time to help distract the older one. He said they themselves been heavily relying on the TV as an electronic babysitter this week so no prob if we do, too.

So I'm busy but it's a happy busyness. A busyness that comes from the blessing of having many nearby family members and good friends who enjoy getting together and having a good time. In 20 years of these parties, we've never had a single problem with people arguing, drinking too much, or causing problems. Experiencing and spreading joy, peace, love and goodwill - isn't that what this holiday season is all about?

I hope all of you, my SF friends, are having a wonderful, joyous Christmas/Hanukkah/Holiday season!
 
Much enjoyed Dead jam band last night, Monday, at a rowdy packed club while keeping an eye on the 49ers vs Colts game. Earlier yesterday worked on some YouTube files, and Youtube watched an ancient Egypt history channel. Ordered a $43 concert ticket for a Dead jam band on Saturday evening December 27 at a San Francisco downtown old theater type venue with a 470 person capacity. This morning had to reorder 3 minor items from Amazon that I received a refund for that was cancelled due to unknown shipping issues.

Although much rain a few dozen miles to my north where it stalled, over the last week, we've received just brief light rain. The real AR storm starts to move south into our region later tonight where it will stay a couple days and then Southern California Wednesday.

This Tuesday afternoon with rain threatening, at 3:15pm I may visit a theater complex a mile's walk away where a new Avatar movie ticket is just $8.19.
 
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Babs2u said:
It takes me 3 hours to get out of the house in the morning. Got up at six to take thyroid meds then have to wait an hour before taking pantoprazole and then wait another hour before eating and taking the rest of my medication. I leave at 9 for an ultrasound with the vascular folks.
The rest of the day looks good.
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I also take pantoprazole. I have to wait 1/2 hour after Rybelsus (for diabetes) before eating and taking other meds. I usually do that between 5 and 6 a.m. If I'm hungry when I take it, I busy myself and the time goes fast. Having to wait two hours before eating breakfast wouldn't work for me most times. Sometimes if I'm really hungry in the morning, I don't take the Rybelsus or I'll take it later. Instead I'll take Farxiga, the other diabetes medication when I eat breakfast.

Re my day: Looks like my bread making adventure may be foiled again! I decided to finally use my bread maker this afternoon and set it up. Since I don't have yeast in the house, I was going to make yeast free pumpkin bread. But I need a can opener to open the large can. After looking where it should be, I had to call my son. Turns out, he threw it away because it wasn't working properly.

He said he'd go pick one up...probably at Walmart, so I told him to get dry yeast too. If he gets a can opener that works, I can make the pumpkin bread. If he finds the yeast, I'm going to try plain bread first. I hope he doesn't get home too late. I'm such a lazy cook and I hate the prep...measuring and weighing (recommended) the ingredients. :(
 
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I talked to my daughter today. She wants to come home. She dislikes France. The people are the opposite of Americans and the doctors expect to say Jump! and for their patients to reply, How High? The food sucks. She thinks if she served salsa and chips to a French person they would curl up their toes and die -- because they are used to bland food. No one is friendly in the American sense of the word. Her friends are all from different countries and they are friendly, so there is that.

One bright spot is the McDonald's gives out free dog toys with adult meals. I'd really have to check out those toys before I gave one to a dog. I've always been very picky about everything when it came to my dogs (and children).

I think she decided to learn French and moved there because it seemed like a good idea at the time. She'd already been learning Mandarin, so maybe she thought that because French is easier, she'd switch to it. Plus she had to listen to me telling her that she would never use Mandarin and moving to China was a Very Bad Idea.
 
WheatenLover said:
I talked to my daughter today. She wants to come home. She dislikes France. The people are the opposite of Americans and the doctors expect to say Jump! and for their patients to reply, How High? The food sucks. She thinks if she served salsa and chips to a French person they would curl up their toes and die -- because they are used to bland food. No one is friendly in the American sense of the word. Her friends are all from different countries and they are friendly, so there is that.

One bright spot is the McDonald's gives out free dog toys with adult meals. I'd really have to check out those toys before I gave one to a dog. I've always been very picky about everything when it came to my dogs (and children).

I think she decided to learn French and moved there because it seemed like a good idea at the time. She'd already been learning Mandarin, so maybe she thought that because French is easier, she'd switch to it. Plus she had to listen to me telling her that she would never use Mandarin and moving to China was a Very Bad Idea.
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I'm not surprised...we Brits generally cannot stand our next door neighours... the last thing the french are known for are friendliness and or warmth.. or a sense of a humour.....not to mention their well known cowardice as a nation... completely opposite of us ...

..however I have to tell you re the chip and salsa.. the french retty much invented it.. ( french fries and Mayo)... and they love it... and it's available everywhere..
 
hollydolly said:
I'm not surprised...we Brits generally cannot stand our next door neighours... the last thing the french are known for are friendliness and or warmth.. or a sense of a humour.....not to mention their well known cowardice as a nation... completely opposite of us ...

..however I have to tell you re the chip and salsa.. the french retty much invented it.. ( french fries and Mayo)... and they love it... and it's available everywhere..
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Oh, I forgot to mention that she is thinking about going to a German University for a Ph.D. in math. She thinks they would be friendlier, and as lovely as our relatives were (all but one has died), we were family. Meanwhile I read on an expat board that Germans are unfriendly. I just don't see how that could be true and I hope to go there within a few months to see how they respond to me. I am working on getting the citizenship I am entitled to.

Here, salsa is a very spicy tomato-based sauce or more like a chopped fresh vegetable thing with spices. I like the spicy sauce. I love without reservation the chopped fresh veg salsa, which a friend from Puerto Rico made.

Similar recipe: The Best Fresh Tomato Salsa

There must be a zillion salsa recipes, though. The spicy tomato sauce is good, too. Horror story: When I lived in Boston, I couldn't find a suitable Mexican restaurant. My criteria was that the workers be from Central or South America. Everyone was white and the food was awful. When a friend decided to take pity on me, she took me to her favorite restaurant. The salsa was literally canned tomato sauce (probably Hunt's based on the substandard taste) and had been poured from can to bowl, then served.

I would rather die (hyperbole) than eat fries dipped in mayo. Ketchup only. I hate mayo. Use Miracle Whip in tuna salad only.
 
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I'm just off to bed, but I had to answer this... the Germans are very cold fish.. verrrry..... if anything at all they're worse than the French for being cold...

WE spent some time living in Frankfurt, and we never got used to being in a group of Germans in a pub and no laughter...they are sooo serious! ..also german food is horrible, really honestly....

We as Brits were used to hearing a lot of laughter and music in the pubs.. but not in Germany!
 
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Success! I made my first loaf. My son brought home the activated dry yeast, so I started with the basic bread recipe. It came out more like a sweet bread or cake because I had to make slight substitutions. It's definitely not sandwich bread. I have to get more flour (bread flour is recommended) and next up will be pumpkin bread. :D Cute little machine, not much wider than a gallon of water. Thank you again @Coco for the information about this appliance!

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God mornin' peeps of SF..on this Christmas eve day of 2025...

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It's slightly overcast here... very quiet... except the bin men emptying the bins

I nearly missed having my wheelie bin emptied.. we have a complicated emptying system here.. we have 5 recycle bins that need emptying.. and 2 different ones including the food caddy are emptied each week ...so it's imperitive we try and keep track of which bins go out on which week, but the council don't give us a calendar of dates for the year as they used to.. instead we have to go online and see which forthcoming date is for what bin...only give us the next 2 emptying dates

Anyway I thought as it's Christmas , they will have changed the dates as they always do, but I could only find a change for after Christmas.
I looked out , none of my neighbours had put their bins out last night , and they always have theirs out well before dark the evening before .. so I didn't....only to find the Bin men emptying the bins this morning..

They already emptied my neighbours who'd got there's out in time this morning, and they'd moved on.. so I called them to come back, and they did... which is a miracle because there's a strict rule if the bin isn't out by 7am..they don't empty it.. but with this new system they put in place a few months ago.. if they didn't empty today it's 3 more weeks before this bin gets emptied again, so I'm glad I caught them


Anyway it 's already been a busy morning here and it's just 10.15am... phone calls to me already before 8.30am... and now I've just had to phone the AA roadside service , because I remembered I'd forgotten to update them about my new car, they still have my old car on file...

I will not be venturing out in the manic-ness of Chritmas eve. Once upon a time it was a joy to shop on Christmas eve, decorations and lights everywhere.. not now.. . Outside of central London we can barely tell it's Christmas ...such a shame !
 
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Morning all folks!! got up with a bad dream at 4am, and it caused me to jerk awake suddenly and look
around quickly which for some reason caused vertigo, so got this to look forward to this day befor
the Great Birthday!!!! woweeee what a way to start....
Think I will try to make sense ofthe Epley Manuever
shown on u-tube for this condition, it worked last
time this happened...may see u later, or may not,
not comfortable on the pc right now......:(:love::coffee:
 
How good am I ?..:D I just spent and hour and a half, on Christmas eve clearing out my dressing room drawer... off all my hair stuff.. and implements and accessories. It's been needing doing for about 2 years.. and I finally done it..Then I cleared 2 shelves in the shoe cupboard.. and I've bagged everything up for the charity donation...

then I went into the garden, and moved a few heavy things around.. ... cold and windy out there but the sun is coming out now at almost noon.... ☀️☀️
 
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Dio got me up about an hour early today. Today's high is expected to be 76°F/24.4°C. Normally that would be too warm to use the oven, but I needed to make a Dump Cake for tomorrow. Soooo, since it's a special circumstance....I'm up early, the cake is in the oven, and it should be done in about a half an hour. Usually, I'm just rolling out of bed at this time!!!! 😅
 
It is POURING buckets of rain here The weather gods are predicting at least SEVEN inches of rain from this storm (last night through Friday evening). Given my experience last month when I set up a tub to measure the rain, and saw we'd received 8" rather than the officially reported 5", I fear we might actually receive over 10" from this storm.

Our pool will overflow if DH doesn't pull the drain and let out some water that way. Unfortunately, that pool water will only increase pressure on a city sewer system that will already be overwhelmed by rainfall.

The 24 hour radar shows heavy rain with zero breaks throughout the entire period

I'm getting concerned about the safety of my children and other guests as they drive here today.
 
Brrrr!! 🥶🥶 I just went up to the barn... and in the 2 minutes it takes to walk to it I nearly froze ...it's absolutely freezing out there , the air is like Raw Ice.🥶🥶

It's dark now at 5.15pm... and the temps are at 3deg... but it feels a lot colder....
 
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hollydolly said:
I'm just off to bed, but I had to answer this... the Germans are very cold fish.. verrrry..... if anything at all they're worse than the French for being cold...

WE spent some time living in Frankfurt, and we never got used to being in a group of Germans in a pub and no laughter...they are sooo serious! ..also german food is horrible, really honestly....
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That makes sense. Here in ND almost literally the entire population is of German descent. Very few people leave the state, and almost nobody comes here (because why would anyone? there's nothing here of interest).

Everyone is just like you described, @hollydolly. Just very morose and reserved, almost no sense of humor and very little interest in anything that lies beyond the state borders. And the food! I guess I should be glad that German cuisine is my least favorite; it helps me keep my weight in check. 😆
 
KSav said:
That makes sense. Here in ND almost literally the entire population is of German descent. Very few people leave the state, and almost nobody comes here (because why would anyone? there's nothing here of interest).

Everyone is just like you described, @hollydolly. Just very morose and reserved, almost no sense of humor and very little interest in anything that lies beyond the state borders. And the food! I guess I should be glad that German cuisine is my least favorite; it helps me keep my weight in check. 😆
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exactly, that's precisely how we found the people to be in Germany....
 
@WheatenLover: I'm with you on mayo; I avoid it in every case except the one you mention (tuna), and even then I use the bare minimum to bind it together, or use Greek yogurt. The thought of french fries with any sort of mayo, even a gourmet one, makes me gag. I love to peruse menus online, though, and I see it's a popular choice.

@StarSong: Yikes, that is a lot of rain! I've been reading about the extreme weather hitting California right now. I hope you and your loved ones stay safe. Please keep us posted. (I see there is actually a thread on this.)

I made the mistake of calling my father to wish him a Merry Christmas, which sent my depression skyrocketing, as I knew it would. However, he's my father, and I do love him, and he's in his 90s, so I want to be sure to talk to him while I still can.

I've run all my errands—not going near the stores today! I'm getting ready to settle down to a mix of work and relaxation.

My poor older daughter and her family are all sick, including the three infants. Their 13-month-old son spiked a fever of 103.4 last night, but they managed to bring it down before a trip to the ER may have been necessary. I told her to say the word if she needs me and I will hit the road regardless of the cold temperatures, old car, and desolate highways. (Well, I didn't phrase it like that, of course, ha ha.)

It brings back memories of dealing with my own little ones when they were sick. Not fun!

I hope everyone has a great day.
 
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Just like for Thanksgiving - I put some things together or partially prepared for Christmas dinner. Made the stove-top stuffing, defrosted the chicken breasts and now they are marinating in the fridge in poultry seasoning and butter. Pearl onions are soaking in water in the fridge.

Some things can't be prepared ahead of time. Tomorrow I will cook the onions and chicken. Stuffing and the canned zucchini can be heated in the nuker. What can be said for cranberry sauce?
 

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