USMB Coffee Shop IV

[Dajjal]

I got back from lunch a few hours ago and promptly fell asleep. I caught up with some zzs at last. But now I probably won't be tired tonight.. So its on with twittering.

 

[ChrisL]

It's very blustery and very chilly out here today. They predict the weather will be much warmer again next week though. That's good. I'm getting spoiled, I think. It's too cold today. Lol.

 

[Dajjal]

It's very blustery and very chilly out here today. They predict the weather will be much warmer again next week though. That's good. I'm getting spoiled, I think. It's too cold today. Lol.

It's so mild in England that the daffodils are in bloom and trees are in bud. One good frost will finish them off.
I am afraid global warming is a reality, and it's beginning to affect us.

 

[Ringel05]

We have 3 of our resident pigeons at the back slider wanting to be fed, one just started pecking on the metal sill plate, sounded like someone was knocking on the door.

 

[Dajjal]

We have 3 of our resident pigeons at the back slider wanting to be fed, one just started pecking on the metal sill plate, sounded like someone was knocking on the door.

They are very clever little birds. They survive in every city in the world. I take my old bread to town every week and feed the street pigeons.

 

[ChrisL]

I live near the woods and don't see pigeons too often. I do see all kinds of other birds though. I still have a feeder out with thistle for some of the small birds that stay around through the winter season. Thistle is like the only thing I can put out that the squirrels don't attack.

 

[Ringel05]

I live near the woods and don't see pigeons too often. I do see all kinds of other birds though. I still have a feeder out with thistle for some of the small birds that stay around through the winter season. Thistle is like the only thing I can put out that the squirrels don't attack.

We don't have squirrels down here but the typical resident diners are pigeons, grackles and wrens. On occasion "Candice" a young neighborhood black cat comes by, runs off the birds and eats the popcorn.

 

[ChrisL]

I live near the woods and don't see pigeons too often. I do see all kinds of other birds though. I still have a feeder out with thistle for some of the small birds that stay around through the winter season. Thistle is like the only thing I can put out that the squirrels don't attack.

We don't have squirrels down here but the typical resident diners are pigeons, grackles and wrens. On occasion "Candice" a young neighborhood black cat comes by, runs off the birds and eats the popcorn.

We have so many squirrels around here. Tons of them. They are very destructive little critters. They eat plants, flowers, vegetables, fruits, destroy them. If they weren't so cute, I would wring their necks! They're funny to watch sometimes though.

 

[TemplarKormac]

 

[Ringel05]

Stepped out this morning to toss out the stale popcorn for the birds, looked up and the power lines and tree in the back yard looked like a scene out of Hitchcock's The Birds........

 

[Nosmo King]

My annual Christmas vacation began Friday afternoon at 4:30. I stopped at the butcher shop and bought the Christmas prime rib roast. Since Pop passed away in 2008, I have been what Dickens called 'the founder of the feast'. My brother, a gourmand of the first order, prepares the meal, but I do my part by paying for it. Five pounds of Black Angus prime rib is currently being dry aged in my Frigidaire. After six days of laying upon paper towels on a dinner plate, the meat will turn into the most unappealing looking hunk of beef in town. It shrivels and turns the shade of maroon one would normally be associated with an old handbag stuck in the bottom of the lost and found box in a bus depot. But that dry aging process makes for one tasty, juicy roast.

The rug I ordered for the bedroom is set to be installed Tuesday. The wallpaper, which I have concluded is actually made of currency, will arrive by UPS on Christmas Eve. This wallpaper must be fives and tens pasted together and then overprinted with the pattern I selected. Not only has it worn a substantial blister on my credit card, but it needs the most expensive clay based wallpaper paste wnd a coat of sizing on the walls which have already been painted.

My pencil post bed has yet to be slept in. It is ready to take its place, but not until the carpet installers and the world's most particular paper hanger have done their things. And thus my own personal Vietnam will come to an end. The bedroom renovation has been just like our experience in Southeast Asia. It has gone on too long, it has been too expensive, it has torn Pimplebutt in two and after these many months, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Every Christmas gift has been bought, but none have been wrapped.

Occasionally, God has a way of telling me that I may have too much disposable income. How you ask? Well, I bought both Daisy the Mutt and my brother's over enthusiastic dog Teddy Christmas stockings. They look like paws rather than a human foot and are stuffed with basted beef knuckles, raw hide chews, those compressed rice 'bones' and a toy. Thank you, Lord for the ability to see the folly of these gifts for the dogs.

Mom got a new steel handrail for the front steps at the Big House. She will celebrate her 81st birthday in mid February and she loves the security of a ready hand rail by the steps. My brother and I have already installed the rail before the snow flies and she loves it.

Mom has broken our family tradition and has taken in a cat. We are dog people. I cannot emphasize that enough. WE ARE DOG PEOPLE. But a calico cat now has a wicker laundry basket stuffed with old blankets in which to sleep, an aluminum roasting pan fitted out as a litter box, a food and water dish in the kitchen and an elderly lady's lap upon which to curl up for a snooze.

Mom made an appointment with a local animal shelter to spay the cat. But she would have to drive to the far side of the county for a 7:00 am appointment in early February. Both my brother and I immediately saw the folly of Mom driving on questionable roads first thing in the morning. So we decided to have the cat spayed at amour veterinarian's office at our own expense.

But last week Mom's neighbor knocked on her door and explained that the cat actually has a home. Her neighbor told Mom that the cat (named Ruthie by Mom) is really named Coffee and will no longer abide in her own home. Ruthie/Coffee squirms and cries because the dogs living in her home torment her. Right. The cat no longer wants to live in her own home because she found a cushier place in the Big House.

So Mom asked if she could keep the cat. And, as the signs say, "Free kittens to a good home". Neither Teddy nor Daisy are too happy about the presence of a cat in Mom's house.

And so it goes.

 

[Foxfyre]

My annual Christmas vacation began Friday afternoon at 4:30. I stopped at the butcher shop and bought the Christmas prime rib roast. Since Pop passed away in 2008, I have been what Dickens called 'the founder of the feast'. My brother, a gourmand of the first order, prepares the meal, but I do my part by paying for it. Five pounds of Black Angus prime rib is currently being dry aged in my Frigidaire. After six days of laying upon paper towels on a dinner plate, the meat will turn into the most unappealing looking hunk of beef in town. It shrivels and turns the shade of maroon one would normally be associated with an old handbag stuck in the bottom of the lost and found box in a bus depot. But that dry aging process makes for one tasty, juicy roast.

The rug I ordered for the bedroom is set to be installed Tuesday. The wallpaper, which I have concluded is actually made of currency, will arrive by UPS on Christmas Eve. This wallpaper must be fives and tens pasted together and then overprinted with the pattern I selected. Not only has it worn a substantial blister on my credit card, but it needs the most expensive clay based wallpaper paste wnd a coat of sizing on the walls which have already been painted.

My pencil post bed has yet to be slept in. It is ready to take its place, but not until the carpet installers and the world's most particular paper hanger have done their things. And thus my own personal Vietnam will come to an end. The bedroom renovation has been just like our experience in Southeast Asia. It has gone on too long, it has been too expensive, it has torn Pimplebutt in two and after these many months, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Every Christmas gift has been bought, but none have been wrapped.

Occasionally, God has a way of telling me that I may have too much disposable income. How you ask? Well, I bought both Daisy the Mutt and my brother's over enthusiastic dog Teddy Christmas stockings. They look like paws rather than a human foot and are stuffed with basted beef knuckles, raw hide chews, those compressed rice 'bones' and a toy. Thank you, Lord for the ability to see the folly of these gifts for the dogs.

Mom got a new steel handrail for the front steps at the Big House. She will celebrate her 81st birthday in mid February and she loves the security of a ready hand rail by the steps. My brother and I have already installed the rail before the snow flies and she loves it.

Mom has broken our family tradition and has taken in a cat. We are dog people. I cannot emphasize that enough. WE ARE DOG PEOPLE. But a calico cat now has a wicker laundry basket stuffed with old blankets in which to sleep, an aluminum roasting pan fitted out as a litter box, a food and water dish in the kitchen and an elderly lady's lap upon which to curl up for a snooze.

Mom made an appointment with a local animal shelter to spay the cat. But she would have to drive to the far side of the county for a 7:00 am appointment in early February. Both my brother and I immediately saw the folly of Mom driving on questionable roads first thing in the morning. So we decided to have the cat spayed at amour veterinarian's office at our own expense.

But last week Mom's neighbor knocked on her door and explained that the cat actually has a home. Her neighbor told Mom that the cat (named Ruthie by Mom) is really named Coffee and will no longer abide in her own home. Ruthie/Coffee squirms and cries because the dogs living in her home torment her. Right. The cat no longer wants to live in her own home because she found a cushier place in the Big House.

So Mom asked if she could keep the cat. And, as the signs say, "Free kittens to a good home". Neither Teddy nor Daisy are too happy about the presence of a cat in Mom's house.

And so it goes.

I love your stories Nosmo. Retirement has caused us to better prioritize what is really important, or at least important enough to continue on a much more limited income. So no more of those really fun gifts for the doggies that they really don't understand, etc., but we were as 'guilty' as you when we could still afford doing things like that.

As for us, all the decorations that will be done are up. All the buying is completed and what needed to be wrapped and shipped has long been done. We send a blanket Christmas card greeting to friends and relatives instead of individual cards, and the money we save goes to the Salvation Army and Joy Junction. We'll have a quieter Christmas without our kids being here, but have plans for Christmas Eve and will have some of the local family here for a simple, modest Christmas dinner. I'm to the point I can do only what I really want to do and gives us joy, and that means it is what it is, and it is now stress free and a blessing.

It took awhile to figure out that all the stress I used to heap on myself during the holidays simply was not necessary and nobody cared when I stopped doing it. And now I do only what is enjoyable to do and I am no longer stressed out by or subject to depression during the holidays. It is a wonderful thing and I recommend it.

 

[Foxfyre]

By the way, In addition to being President of the Procrastinator's Club, I am definitely one of these:

 

[Montrovant]

I keep trying to do things, but I am not crafty. After at least 5 hours of work, I made the little one the most pathetic pony ever, and a Spongebob which looked great when I drew it, but turned into a creaky, half-assed crappy thing after I added arms and legs. I used boxes, paper towel and toilet paper rolls, and a couple of large sheets of blank wrapping paper.

The Spongebob really was drawn well (not that it's a very hard character to copy). I wrapped paper around a rectangular box and drew then colored Spongebob. I then used paper tower rolls to make his arms and legs.....and that's where it all when to shit. I couldn't find an efficient way to connect them to the main box. Tape isn't enough. I tried to cut some slits into the box and made a couple of tabs at the top of each limb to insert into those slits, but still, that turned out to be too weak. I ended up putting some tightly wound paper towel rolls inside the regular rolls I had used for the legs. It makes them strong enough to stand on, but it doesn't have the balance to stand up on its own.

That was a lot of time and effort to not make what I wanted to make for her. She's still going to get it on Christmas morning, but I expect the arms and legs will come off almost right away. Hopefully she likes having a Spongebob torso.

 

[Foxfyre]

I keep trying to do things, but I am not crafty. After at least 5 hours of work, I made the little one the most pathetic pony ever, and a Spongebob which looked great when I drew it, but turned into a creaky, half-assed crappy thing after I added arms and legs. I used boxes, paper towel and toilet paper rolls, and a couple of large sheets of blank wrapping paper.

The Spongebob really was drawn well (not that it's a very hard character to copy). I wrapped paper around a rectangular box and drew then colored Spongebob. I then used paper tower rolls to make his arms and legs.....and that's where it all when to shit. I couldn't find an efficient way to connect them to the main box. Tape isn't enough. I tried to cut some slits into the box and made a couple of tabs at the top of each limb to insert into those slits, but still, that turned out to be too weak. I ended up putting some tightly wound paper towel rolls inside the regular rolls I had used for the legs. It makes them strong enough to stand on, but it doesn't have the balance to stand up on its own.

That was a lot of time and effort to not make what I wanted to make for her. She's still going to get it on Christmas morning, but I expect the arms and legs will come off almost right away. Hopefully she likes having a Spongebob torso.

And I'm guessing she will love it Montro. It was sweet of you to make it for her no matter how 'unprofessional' it looks to you. Little ones have a very different eye when it comes to 'art'.

 

[Gracie]

BRRRRRRRRRR! No likey! I miss summer!
Meanwhile, I am out there checking some drawers to a dresser MrG brought home that needed some repair and as we are standing there..forgetting WHERE we are standing which is underneath the hummer feeder...MrG feels some drips on his shoulder. We both look up and 2 of them are sitting there slurping away, no more than 12 inches away. MrG says he is amazed they are so close while standing perfectly still and I am having a cig, shifting one foot to another, brushing my hair out of my face and he goes "stay still! You'll scare them away" and I'm all like "uh. They know who feeds their asses. They are not afraid of me". I had to laugh at him being a statue and practically dancing around him while slurps were going on.

 

[Montrovant]

I keep trying to do things, but I am not crafty. After at least 5 hours of work, I made the little one the most pathetic pony ever, and a Spongebob which looked great when I drew it, but turned into a creaky, half-assed crappy thing after I added arms and legs. I used boxes, paper towel and toilet paper rolls, and a couple of large sheets of blank wrapping paper.

The Spongebob really was drawn well (not that it's a very hard character to copy). I wrapped paper around a rectangular box and drew then colored Spongebob. I then used paper tower rolls to make his arms and legs.....and that's where it all when to shit. I couldn't find an efficient way to connect them to the main box. Tape isn't enough. I tried to cut some slits into the box and made a couple of tabs at the top of each limb to insert into those slits, but still, that turned out to be too weak. I ended up putting some tightly wound paper towel rolls inside the regular rolls I had used for the legs. It makes them strong enough to stand on, but it doesn't have the balance to stand up on its own.

That was a lot of time and effort to not make what I wanted to make for her. She's still going to get it on Christmas morning, but I expect the arms and legs will come off almost right away. Hopefully she likes having a Spongebob torso.

And I'm guessing she will love it Montro. It was sweet of you to make it for her no matter how 'unprofessional' it looks to you. Little ones have a very different eye when it comes to 'art'.

It's not just that it doesn't look as good as I wanted (although that is certainly part of it). It also ended up far more fragile than I expected. If she does like it, she'll probably want to play with it, and I don't think it will stand up to much playing.

Still, I bought her a few presents as well, and I am going to do a game for her on Christmas morning. Sometimes I put post-its up around the house with little clues for her when she gets home from school, she follows the clues to get a treat. I am going to get a big box, put a bunch of packing stuff in it and another, small box, wrap it and put it by the tree as her present from me. Inside the small box I will put her first post-it clue. I'm going to do the 12 clues of Christmas, when she gets to the end she gets her real presents. That I am pretty sure she'll have fun with, unless she is too impatient to just open all her gifts.

 

[blackhawk]

 

[Ringel05]

Finally took that trip up to Silver City the wife wanted to take as expected though most everything was closed but she got the ride in she wanted.

 

[Spoonman]

its been so long since I've been here my avatar is in season again