USMB Coffee Shop IV

[gallantwarrior]

I confess, faced with 40 pages of catch-up, I came to the end of the CS first. We're now a week into the new year and I seem to have missed Christmas here entirely. That doesn't alter my best wishes for all of you and hope that each and every one of you thrive and find your happiness, this year and every year after.
I've been watching the weather and we Alaskans are feeling the pain a lot of you have been experiencing. OK, well, maybe a little bit. I woke up New Year's night to the sound of snow sluffing off the roof and melt water dripping after it. Of course, whenever we have a winter melt, the resulting ice makes life...challenging. I suppose we should have our share of challenges, heh?
Christmas dinner was tuna casserole here. Christmas isn't a big deal, not as important as the Solstice. The turning of the year is significant in my Nature-grounded world. Of course, when sunrise is around 10:30 and sunset 3:30, those short days wear on you. We call it cabin fever here.
New Year's Eve was postponed for me because as I was driving home the neighbor called and told me he had one of my dogs, the other had run off. I've been having problems with the farm dogs lately. So I called my guests and asked them if they minded a delay. George, who was stressing about a job he had to get to in a few days, was relieved. Alan preferred to get here during daylight hours, so New Year's day was better for him, too. So, I actually had time to do justice to the meal I had planned. I made my first Beef Wellington (with green pepper sauce). After overcoming the sticker shock induced by the sirloin roast required by the recipe, the meal was delicious! It's definitely a special occasion meal, though. The bread pudding for dessert was a great complement to finish the meal.
Happy New Year (belated) to everyone!

That ice makes life challenging is a good way to put it! I fear ice. lol Mr SG, an avid fisherman, says he has no interest fishing where you have to cut a hole in the water to get to the fish.

Your New Years feast sounds fantastic - one year we did a standing rib roast for Thanksgiving, I too suffered from sticker shock.

Though Christmas is very meaningful to me - the Winter and Summer Solstice are significant days in my life also. The Winter solstice is a day of relief and rejoicing for me as the sun begins its journey back 'home', and in my mind is really the start of a new year. The Summer Solstice always makes me a little sad knowing the sun is diminishing. Since we live closer to the equator than you do there is not as great a variation in the length of our day light hours - in summer it will briefly be light as late as 9pm, and in late fall dark by 5:30 pm.

Not many people mention the Solstices anymore...though of no religious significance to me they are an integral part of the magnificent tide of life and nature...and I appreciate the ebb and flow.

Hope your New Year is full of light and warmth - even if it's by firelight.

Thank you for your good wishes, SG. Solstice and Equinox are important to me because I live close to Nature, tending my animals and heeding the change in seasons as times to celebrate, to sow, to harvest, to rest from the labors of all that. I'm looking forward now to the Spring Equinox because that's when my first litters of kids are due to arrive. I love the new babies, love to watch them play and just live. Last year, I lost one doe and her second kid. The kid was turned and I couldn't correct the bad presentation. The doe died a few days later, most likely because of damage or infection of her uterus. The first-born kid we named Annie but she died not long ago because of mishandling by my partner.
I look forward to this year. In addition to the goats, I will have chickens, too. Fresh milk and eggs, nothing better. Next year, I'll establish my garden to provide my veggies, herbs, and medicinals.
May your year bring health and happiness to you and yours!

 

[gallantwarrior]

I confess, faced with 40 pages of catch-up, I came to the end of the CS first. We're now a week into the new year and I seem to have missed Christmas here entirely. That doesn't alter my best wishes for all of you and hope that each and every one of you thrive and find your happiness, this year and every year after.
I've been watching the weather and we Alaskans are feeling the pain a lot of you have been experiencing. OK, well, maybe a little bit. I woke up New Year's night to the sound of snow sluffing off the roof and melt water dripping after it. Of course, whenever we have a winter melt, the resulting ice makes life...challenging. I suppose we should have our share of challenges, heh?
Christmas dinner was tuna casserole here. Christmas isn't a big deal, not as important as the Solstice. The turning of the year is significant in my Nature-grounded world. Of course, when sunrise is around 10:30 and sunset 3:30, those short days wear on you. We call it cabin fever here.
New Year's Eve was postponed for me because as I was driving home the neighbor called and told me he had one of my dogs, the other had run off. I've been having problems with the farm dogs lately. So I called my guests and asked them if they minded a delay. George, who was stressing about a job he had to get to in a few days, was relieved. Alan preferred to get here during daylight hours, so New Year's day was better for him, too. So, I actually had time to do justice to the meal I had planned. I made my first Beef Wellington (with green pepper sauce). After overcoming the sticker shock induced by the sirloin roast required by the recipe, the meal was delicious! It's definitely a special occasion meal, though. The bread pudding for dessert was a great complement to finish the meal.
Happy New Year (belated) to everyone!

That ice makes life challenging is a good way to put it! I fear ice. lol Mr SG, an avid fisherman, says he has no interest fishing where you have to cut a hole in the water to get to the fish.

Your New Years feast sounds fantastic - one year we did a standing rib roast for Thanksgiving, I too suffered from sticker shock.

Though Christmas is very meaningful to me - the Winter and Summer Solstice are significant days in my life also. The Winter solstice is a day of relief and rejoicing for me as the sun begins its journey back 'home', and in my mind is really the start of a new year. The Summer Solstice always makes me a little sad knowing the sun is diminishing. Since we live closer to the equator than you do there is not as great a variation in the length of our day light hours - in summer it will briefly be light as late as 9pm, and in late fall dark by 5:30 pm.

Not many people mention the Solstices anymore...though of no religious significance to me they are an integral part of the magnificent tide of life and nature...and I appreciate the ebb and flow.

Hope your New Year is full of light and warmth - even if it's by firelight.

Our daughter was born on the winter solstice and has always felt that was a positive charm for her.

But I was surprised to hear you say in late fall you are dark by 5:30 pm. For most of December and January, so are we. I figured it would come much earlier for you that far north, but then Alaska is a LOT of real estate and you are in the south. There is quite a bit of difference in the climate in New Mexico say between Las Cruces and Santa Fe. Probably a huge difference between Willow and Barrow.

Definitely a difference between Willow and Barrow, more than 400 miles, and you cannot get there by driving. While we actually have "day" and "night" during the winter/summer, Barrow has "day" for six months and "night" for six months. During the summer, the sun never sets there, and vice-versa in the winter.
I've experienced the differences in NM, too. I love the Continental Divide, especially around Lake Roberts. But you get down to Demming and it's a lot less tree and a lot more desert, even though Lake Roberts features lots of cactii.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Our daughter was born on the winter solstice and has always felt that was a positive charm for her.

But I was surprised to hear you say in late fall you are dark by 5:30 pm. For most of December and January, so are we. I figured it would come much earlier for you that far north, but then Alaska is a LOT of real estate and you are in the south. There is quite a bit of difference in the climate in New Mexico say between Las Cruces and Santa Fe. Probably a huge difference between Willow and Barrow.

5:30 in late fall for us - in my region of Fl. GW said 3:30 pm for him, I believe. Sunset is about 6pm here now...a precious minute later each day, at least for a while.

No, he said 5:30 though he might have meant 3:30? I dunno. Sunset for us today is 5:12 pm. Sunset was at 4:58 on December 21. I just looked up Anchorage and sunset is at 4:08 there today. But maybe they have a long twilight? Albuquerque has a relatively short twilight period probably because of the nearby continental divide and mountain ranges between us and the setting sun. But in Amarillo, roughly 4 hours east of us as the crow flies, sunset tonight is 5:52 pm and the twilight out there on the flat plains lasts for a looooong time.

If anybody wants to check out sunrise/sunset in their own locale, this is a great site:
timeanddate.com

OOppps! 3:30, or so, during the winter, just before the Solstice. Today, sunset is a few minutes after 4 pm, so we've already gained almost a half hour since Christmas. By the summer solstice, we won't really have dark, it gets dusky between 3-4 am, but no more than that. Imagine telling your children they can play outside until dark?

 

[Nosmo King]

Our January thaw is beginning. It got above freezing today and our daily walk in Thompson Park featured slush rather than hard packed snow. The guessers at the National Weather Service say temperatures near 50 by the week's end! And I'll believe it when I feel it.

Meanwhile the playoff atmosphere in and around Pittsburgh is growing. There's the Strip District here, the old wholesale grocery, fruit and vegetable and meat packing warehouses situated on a narrow strip of flat ground on the south bank of the Allegheny River. These days you can venture down there for trendy restaurants and boutiques as well as sidewalk vendors hawking everything Black and Gold.

Steelers fight songs blare from boom boxes at every stall. Shoppers scurry from shops like the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company and Wholey's Fish Market gathering goodies for tailgating and Sunday noshing by the warm glow of the 60" LED television. You can by bulk spices in one store, go next door and buy prosciutto sliced so thin a burst balloon would envy its thickness, then next door for fresh produce. It's a fun place to be just before Christmas and especially during the NFL playoffs.

I know we're spoiled silly here with a championship caliber team every season. I have no idea what it's like in Cleveland this time of year. I suppose they get wrapped up with the Cavaliers, but I know Cleveland has a good football tradition and loyal fan base. What a shame that the old rivalry between our two cities has eroded into pity.

And so with that I say in the local distinct accent "Jere we go Stillers, here we go!" Incidentally, I found an app for my robotic overlord Alexa that translates any word commonly used in American English to Pittsburghese. Rubber bands are 'gum banz' baloney is 'jumbo' and down town is 'Dahn tahn'. Slippery is 'slippy', to be nosy is to be 'nebby' and to clean up the house in Pittsburghese is to 'redd up the haus'. Boston, New York and Baltimore ain't got nuthin' on our speech patterns!

 

[Hossfly]

Our January thaw is beginning. It got above freezing today and our daily walk in Thompson Park featured slush rather than hard packed snow. The guessers at the National Weather Service say temperatures near 50 by the week's end! And I'll believe it when I feel it.

Meanwhile the playoff atmosphere in and around Pittsburgh is growing. There's the Strip District here, the old wholesale grocery, fruit and vegetable and meat packing warehouses situated on a narrow strip of flat ground on the south bank of the Allegheny River. These days you can venture down there for trendy restaurants and boutiques as well as sidewalk vendors hawking everything Black and Gold.

Steelers fight songs blare from boom boxes at every stall. Shoppers scurry from shops like the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company and Wholey's Fish Market gathering goodies for tailgating and Sunday noshing by the warm glow of the 60" LED television. You can by bulk spices in one store, go next door and buy prosciutto sliced so thin a burst balloon would envy its thickness, then next door for fresh produce. It's a fun place to be just before Christmas and especially during the NFL playoffs.

I know we're spoiled silly here with a championship caliber team every season. I have no idea what it's like in Cleveland this time of year. I suppose they get wrapped up with the Cavaliers, but I know Cleveland has a good football tradition and loyal fan base. What a shame that the old rivalry between our two cities has eroded into pity.

And so with that I say in the local distinct accent "Jere we go Stillers, here we go!" Incidentally, I found an app for my robotic overlord Alexa that translates any word commonly used in American English to Pittsburghese. Rubber bands are 'gum banz' baloney is 'jumbo' and down town is 'Dahn tahn'. Slippery is 'slippy', to be nosy is to be 'nebby' and to clean up the house in Pittsburghese is to 'redd up the haus'. Boston, New York and Baltimore ain't got nuthin' on our speech patterns!

Have one on me, Nosmo.

Rege Cordic advertised it on KDKA when I was a kid.

 

[Nosmo King]

Our January thaw is beginning. It got above freezing today and our daily walk in Thompson Park featured slush rather than hard packed snow. The guessers at the National Weather Service say temperatures near 50 by the week's end! And I'll believe it when I feel it.

Meanwhile the playoff atmosphere in and around Pittsburgh is growing. There's the Strip District here, the old wholesale grocery, fruit and vegetable and meat packing warehouses situated on a narrow strip of flat ground on the south bank of the Allegheny River. These days you can venture down there for trendy restaurants and boutiques as well as sidewalk vendors hawking everything Black and Gold.

Steelers fight songs blare from boom boxes at every stall. Shoppers scurry from shops like the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company and Wholey's Fish Market gathering goodies for tailgating and Sunday noshing by the warm glow of the 60" LED television. You can by bulk spices in one store, go next door and buy prosciutto sliced so thin a burst balloon would envy its thickness, then next door for fresh produce. It's a fun place to be just before Christmas and especially during the NFL playoffs.

I know we're spoiled silly here with a championship caliber team every season. I have no idea what it's like in Cleveland this time of year. I suppose they get wrapped up with the Cavaliers, but I know Cleveland has a good football tradition and loyal fan base. What a shame that the old rivalry between our two cities has eroded into pity.

And so with that I say in the local distinct accent "Jere we go Stillers, here we go!" Incidentally, I found an app for my robotic overlord Alexa that translates any word commonly used in American English to Pittsburghese. Rubber bands are 'gum banz' baloney is 'jumbo' and down town is 'Dahn tahn'. Slippery is 'slippy', to be nosy is to be 'nebby' and to clean up the house in Pittsburghese is to 'redd up the haus'. Boston, New York and Baltimore ain't got nuthin' on our speech patterns!

Have one on me, Nosmo.

Rege Cordic advertised it on KDKA when I was a kid.

The pale stale ale so light the foam's on the bottom! Rege Cordic, Bill Burns, Bob Prince, Ed Shaughnessy, Ed and Wendy King, Jack Bogut, Chilly Billy Cardille, these are the broadcast heroes of my misspent youth!

Bob "the gunner" Prince, play-by-play man for the Pittsburgh Pirates would put the curse of the "Green weeny" on opposing dugouts. Bill Burns of KDKA television would talk up the upcoming football game between the 'Pitts' and the "Notre Dames" and Chilly Billy hosted Chiller Theater on WIIC channel 11 on Saturday nights. Even Saturday Night Live was held out of the Pittsburgh Market for a few years due to the popularity of Chiller Theater! Ed and Wendy King hosted Party Line on KDKA radio. A unique radio talk show where you never heard the callers, only Ed and Wendy.

We had a 19" Muntz black and white TV fitted out with rabbit ears wrapped in tin foil to enhance the picture quality. Pop would wake me up, even on a school night if there was a good movie on. "Hoy! Grand Hotel is on!" he would whisper to me so as not to wake my baby brother. "That's John Barrymore. He's dead. And that's his brother Lionel. H's dead too."

So I in my flannel pajamas and Pop in his cap would settle in and watch the dead guys together.

 

[Nosmo King]

Hey Hossfly! Do you remember Nick Perry and Bowling for Dollars? Nick, of course, became infamous for trying to rig the Pennsylvania Lottery by injecting Elmer's glue into the ping pong balls. 666, the "winning" number caught up with Nick just before the Pennsylvania Stare police did.

 

[Hossfly]

Our January thaw is beginning. It got above freezing today and our daily walk in Thompson Park featured slush rather than hard packed snow. The guessers at the National Weather Service say temperatures near 50 by the week's end! And I'll believe it when I feel it.

Meanwhile the playoff atmosphere in and around Pittsburgh is growing. There's the Strip District here, the old wholesale grocery, fruit and vegetable and meat packing warehouses situated on a narrow strip of flat ground on the south bank of the Allegheny River. These days you can venture down there for trendy restaurants and boutiques as well as sidewalk vendors hawking everything Black and Gold.

Steelers fight songs blare from boom boxes at every stall. Shoppers scurry from shops like the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company and Wholey's Fish Market gathering goodies for tailgating and Sunday noshing by the warm glow of the 60" LED television. You can by bulk spices in one store, go next door and buy prosciutto sliced so thin a burst balloon would envy its thickness, then next door for fresh produce. It's a fun place to be just before Christmas and especially during the NFL playoffs.

I know we're spoiled silly here with a championship caliber team every season. I have no idea what it's like in Cleveland this time of year. I suppose they get wrapped up with the Cavaliers, but I know Cleveland has a good football tradition and loyal fan base. What a shame that the old rivalry between our two cities has eroded into pity.

And so with that I say in the local distinct accent "Jere we go Stillers, here we go!" Incidentally, I found an app for my robotic overlord Alexa that translates any word commonly used in American English to Pittsburghese. Rubber bands are 'gum banz' baloney is 'jumbo' and down town is 'Dahn tahn'. Slippery is 'slippy', to be nosy is to be 'nebby' and to clean up the house in Pittsburghese is to 'redd up the haus'. Boston, New York and Baltimore ain't got nuthin' on our speech patterns!

Have one on me, Nosmo.

Rege Cordic advertised it on KDKA when I was a kid.

The pale stale ale so light the foam's on the bottom! Rege Cordic, Bill Burns, Bob Prince, Ed Shaughnessy, Ed and Wendy King, Jack Bogut, Chilly Billy Cardille, these are the broadcast heroes of my misspent youth!

Bob "the gunner" Prince, play-by-play man for the Pittsburgh Pirates would put the curse of the "Green weeny" on opposing dugouts. Bill Burns of KDKA television would talk up the upcoming football game between the 'Pitts' and the "Notre Dames" and Chilly Billy hosted Chiller Theater on WIIC channel 11 on Saturday nights. Even Saturday Night Live was held out of the Pittsburgh Market for a few years due to the popularity of Chiller Theater! Ed and Wendy King hosted Party Line on KDKA radio. A unique radio talk show where you never heard the callers, only Ed and Wendy.

We had a 19" Muntz black and white TV fitted out with rabbit ears wrapped in tin foil to enhance the picture quality. Pop would wake me up, even on a school night if there was a good movie on. "Hoy! Grand Hotel is on!" he would whisper to me so as not to wake my baby brother. "That's John Barrymore. He's dead. And that's his brother Lionel. H's dead too."

So I in my flannel pajamas and Pop in his cap would settle in and watch the dead guys together.

Remember the old Dumont TV network? I grew up with listening to Rosy Rosewell. I remember when he brought The Gunner on the broadcast and taught him the proper procedure of a Pittsburgh broadcaster.. Then Bob brought in the Possum and Nelly King. The good old days.

 

[saveliberty]

The Job interview went fine and I went home and slept. I have vapor rub on my chest. I hope this clears up quickly.

See, I told they would put some on....

 

[Ernie S.]

I watched the game last night. Frankly I'm a bit tired of National Championships going to schools not located in Columbus, Ohio.

We did too. And while its really hard to emotionally root against Alabama we were really sort of pulling for Georgia because they haven't won a national championship in so long and they were the decided underdogs. But the game ended as championship games should--in overtime.

The mood at Doc's crashed when we missed that field goal, then it was even more subdued when the Dawgs scored in OT.
But Damn! That was one hell of a pass to end it.

Don't college teams generally score in OT? I mean, they start in FG range....

Pretty much. They start at the 20 so you're pretty much guaranteed 3 points. The Georgia QB got sacked on 3rd down so they settled for the 3, but when the Bama QB got sacked for a loss of 20 yards on 2nd down, they had to make a play to get back into field goal range at the least, but seeing the kicker hd already missed 2, getting a man all alone in the end zone was the priority. 6 points! Interestingly, all the folks who love to hate the Tide, had a good day. The betting line was 3 1/2 so we didn't cover the spread.

 

[Montrovant]

Ugh. The little one normally gets up at about 6AM for school, so I get up at the same time. Tonight, for some reason, she decided she wants to get up at 5 tomorrow. She has her own alarm clock (which I got her for Christmas) that she has only used a couple of times. The alarm isn't all that loud, and her first morning with it it did not wake her. I told her that if she gets up at 5, she can come wake me up then....but I'm hoping she sleeps through the alarm.

 

[Ridgerunner]

ALARM CLOCK

That is a lot like buying a Drum set for a kid...

 

[Hossfly]

ALARM CLOCK

That is a lot like buying a Drum set for a kid...

When I as about 8, I got a drum set for Christmas. Took my dad till noon to stomp it flat.

 

[gallantwarrior]

I have to go enjoy my cats playing. A kitten does liven things up!

 

[Montrovant]

ALARM CLOCK

That is a lot like buying a Drum set for a kid...

She only uses it to get up for school, at least so far. She wants to feel more grown-up.

 

[Gracie]

I have to go enjoy my cats playing. A kitten does liven things up!

Mine is again plopped in front of the monitor. Sigh. I have to stretch to look around her because if I try to move her out of the way...all hell breaks loose. At least she no longer attacks my hands as I type on the keyboard. It's a start.

 

[Hossfly]

I have to go enjoy my cats playing. A kitten does liven things up!

 

[Hossfly]

I have to go enjoy my cats playing. A kitten does liven things up!

Mine is again plopped in front of the monitor. Sigh. I have to stretch to look around her because if I try to move her out of the way...all hell breaks loose. At least she no longer attacks my hands as I type on the keyboard. It's a start.

Don't try to take her food.

 

[Hossfly]

What in hell is this thing?

 

[Gracie]

I have to go enjoy my cats playing. A kitten does liven things up!

Mine is again plopped in front of the monitor. Sigh. I have to stretch to look around her because if I try to move her out of the way...all hell breaks loose. At least she no longer attacks my hands as I type on the keyboard. It's a start.

Don't try to take her food.

She doesn't mind me messing with her food when she is stuffing her face. She just doesn't like being moved once she finds the spot she wants to plant her ass on.