Saturday the 10th

[carolb]

Gmorning all

Hope y'all are doing well this morning. Barbie, sounds like you should be vindicated since police were called in to view surveillance video? But it sure is a bummer when there is even a suspicion of wrong doing--been there:(

Silver Springs gtg down to just a couple of you, but sounds like it was another success, even despite weather. Crazy old ladies that we are, we know how to have a good time;)

Not much going on here in central NY. Temps only in the 20s for highs these next few days, a little snow, so won't be going out much. Have plenty to keep me busy inside--more closets to clean, purge, reorganize. Sue, you're inspiring--I may even paint one or two of my rooms:)

So y'all have a great day, be safe, & enjoy the magic of this holiday season. I mean, aren't all the activities leading up to Cmas just the best part of it all?

[avalen]

Good morning
Always good to see you post Carolb.
Will be doing a lot of catch up on chores this weekend.
Last weekend I vegetated alot since I was under the
weather. There is much to do.
Barbie, I would suspect the old manager, the one that
got fired, she probably had a spare key she never turned
in. You know it wasn't you, so don't loose any sleep over
it.
One more week to work and we'll be off on Christmas break.
I think I want little elves to come by and paint my ceiling for
Christmas. That would be a nice project.
Y'all have a great weekend, stay warm and be safe.

[Colliemom]

Morning Carolb, Alice and all,

Glad to see your post this morning Carolb. Sounds like all is well in your world. Alice, I'm with you, I would suspect hat old manager too.

Two weeks t Christmas Eve. Hope you all are taking some time to yourselves. Not necessary to try to be "super women". So you don't get all those Christmas crafts made you've been wanting to do. Maybe they wouldn't turn out right anyway. And if you don't get 25 dozen cookies done, people are trying to cut sweets anyway. Decorating. Do the tree. Forget the rest except for a few of your favorite things. Not necessary to "deck the halls" totally. Don't have to attend every party you get an invite to either. Enjoy the evenings with your family or yourself. An editor in our local paper wrote on this topic and she's right. Christmas has turned into a gotta do this and gotta do that, to the point where everybody's all frazzled out and not enjoying the season or the holiday. Maybe it's time to take a hard look and tweak the traditions or start some less harried new ones.

And with that, I'' PM off to get cleaned up and start a Christmas letter while the snow falls outside my window. Blower broke down on me yesterday, but was minor problem and once I got new part, was back in business. Just needed a new spring on a cable. Have a nice day all.

[Othersharon]

Good morning all. A skiff of snow out there this morning. I woke up to a strange sound this morning and once I woke up enough to look it was the guy across the street with his leaf blower blowing the snow off the steps and sidewalk at the church! So that tells me I can just take a broom to it! No leaf blower cause I burned out the motor in mine and haven't replaced it yet! I had a great time in Grove City the other day. Got a couple of presents I hadn't been looking for for the DS. So it was a successful day! Thursday night I got into the pantry and realized something was wrong with the shelf, it was leaning! Turns out DH used those plastic shelf brackets and they've held for many years but one broke. So the long and short of it is that I had to fix it! Of course everything had to come out and I needed to have at least 3 hands but with a bit of improvising I finally managed to fix it! But then that led to a major clean out of the out dated cans etc! The garbage man is going to love me this week! The boys and I need to make a run to the recycle center to get rid of glass jars and cans! The garbage disposal got quite a workout! So I'm feeling proud of myself this morning! And I still need to get to the Christmas cards! Luckily, as Sue said, the list has diminished from previous years! At the rate I'm going it'll be Groundhog Day before I get them out!

Barbie, glad things worked out for you. Videos are a good thing! Looks like the FL gtg was a success! More to come, I'm sure! Time to finish my coffee, get dressed and go out and brave the cold! All of 27 right now! Time for the hats and gloves and much heavier coat! Hope you all have a great day and travel safe.

[bluepinecones]

Good morning
Nothing much going on here, just checking in. Cold but no snow or ice so trying not to complain (I don't like cold).
Need to get leaves blown again to clear driveways and tops of yard drains as rain forecast late Sunday/all day Monday. Trying to hold off on getting the gutters done again until the rest of leaves come down. Couple of big trees seen reluctant to let leaves go.
Good day to make a pot of soup.

[havingfunnow]

I found the snow shovel! Good thing too, since we're supposed to have a fairly heavy snowfall tonight/tomorrow. I'm ridiculously pleased with myself -- it was right where I thought I'd put it. Maybe I'm not entirely disorganized after all. Now to hunt down my sewing scissors . . .

[grammynmaggie]

Good morning everyone ...I'm still wandering around the Northwestern part of Florida I'll be headed back to Melbourne had problems with my phone it died it was under warranty with Verizon so I got a new phone free and since I got a new phone I was eligible to get $250 tablet for $50 so pretty good deal a tablet and a phone new for $50 that's all for now have a good one

[chalet05]

Good Morning!

A beautiful, chilly day. Yesterday Liz, her granddaughter and I rode the glass bottom boat. My grandmother used to talk about doing that when she visited her Florida children. Unfortunately, there has been so much going on, Liz hasn't had a chance to kayak.

When I read about all you gals with snow, baking, decorating, gift buying, etc., I can't figure out if I envy you or not! I think this is the first year I really feel maybe I miss it - I'll get over it. Blowing or shoveling snow I know wouldn't excite me! I did send gifts, via Amazon, to my niece's three children in Virginia. They will be going home (Washington) for Christmas so the kids opened my gifts the other night. I sent the 9 month old a dancing, singing, light up toy. She wasn't too sure about it at first, but by the last video my niece sent, Abby was really enjoying it and movin' to the music!

We are off to lunch with a friend of Liz's. Make it a great day - stay safe and warm!

[SoCalGalcas]

Good Morning, Ha Ha, Great for Louise! You found the snow shovel!!! I wouldn't know what one even looks like!!! The high here today will be 65*...the low here today will be 60*. It is '
o'cast too.
I have almost completely knocked Christmas out of my life. Much easier this way. I do love the lights and Christmas Carols. One of our radio stations plays them 24/7 this time of year and I have that station on most of the time. I will buy a large poinsettia for our living room. No tree.
Have a great safe day all...oh yes, Barbie, good that event is now over for you...of course it was horrible while it lasted.
lyn

[Acadianmom]

We have never had a snow shovel either. It only got down to 35 last night and it is already up to 54. It is suppose to be 75 on Monday. Yea! But suppose to rain on Tuesday.

I was in funk last year and didn't make anything I usually make. I need to see if my friends have a trip planned for Christmas. They have family drama so usually clear out for holidays. That's one way to handle it. I would like to be roaming around Florida with our friends. My son just ask me what kind of stuffed chicken I wanted for Christmas. He is going to the specialty meat market. They make the best crawfish pies. Our insurance agent usually gives us a spiral cut ham for Christmas. By New Years we are usually hammed out.

Donna, I hope you like your tablet. I hope Verizon isn't like AT&T. They tell you something is $50 and finance a balance on your bill. The last 2 trips I have only used my tablet to read things on the internet. I usually use it for a hot spot to connect my computer. I haven't tried to post anything from my tablet yet. I don't know how people post from their phone. Too small for me.

My sewing scissors are alway in the container that holds my thread. No one better use my sewing scissors. I learned that from my Mother and Grandmother. I don't know if it hurts them to cut anything but material but heaven help us if we ever used the sewing scissors. I use to have some pinking sheers but guess they went with the flood. I lost 2 sewing machines. The container with my thread must have been in the top of a closet.

Today is the runoff election. I will be glad for the political calls to stop. We have been getting 4 or 5 a day. It will be interesting to see who wins after all the mud slinging.

Martha

[Redetotry]

Good Morning, Cold and dreary here but at least it isn't a damp cold which I find the worst. I'm not a fan of Christmas either. I don't exchange gifts or get together with my brothers as they feel the same. I do buy for a few friends and decorations if any are up to DH. We have an old ceramic tree with the cardinals that he brings from the basement and he usually makes a wreath from things in our yard for the door. I need to get the dogs something because they like to have a package to open.

I not in love with the Christmas present I bought for myself, a new computer. The new OS has removed/changed all the features that were convenient and easy to use. If you sell on eBay note, there is no way to identify your picture. Used to you decided which pictures you wanted to use, wrote the number of that picture down and you could go back into iPhoto from eBay and find it...not any more Lots of unhappy people when I Googled the issue and a suggestion to use an app called imageMeta. Haven't checked that out yet as getting late to post put items up on eBay for Christmas shoppers.

I also grew up knowing not to touch my Grandmother and Mother's scissors! I still have pinking shears and never use them as I seldom even hem pants. Used to sew a lot but got out of the habit when material got so expensive and the quality so bad. Now the scissors I guard are the ones I cut the dogs hair with

Beginning to wish I were somewhere warmer for a few months but I know I wouldn't be comfortable in Elsie for very long.

[JudyJB]

Lyn, I gave up putting up a Christmas tree about 25 years ago before my last son left home. He went to take the tree down and tipped it over, creating a huge yucky-moldy water stain on my almost white carpeting!! Had to hide it with a chair. From then on I just bought a real pine wreath and hung it up. After moving into motorhome, I just hang up some lights inside and that does it for me!

Got my last paper done, but had an exam disaster. Supposed to be on 5 chapters, but had questions from two extra chapters added when it was programmed by online staff. I was supposed to check it but did not bother. So, now I have to go in and manually give every one of 70 students credit for wrong answers to questions from those two chapters!! It will take me forever. Questions come from textbook database and each student gets a random selection of questions from each chapter, to reduce cheating. (As I tell my friends who teach at other colleges, if they are cheating, they are doing a VERY bad job of it because grades are so low.) It is also considered open-book so they can look things up, but of course not enough time to look all up.

I will be done for three weeks on Wednesday. Hurrah!

[IrishIroamed]

Hi Ladies ~~~not morning any more, for Lyn & Martha, since snow shovels are a mystery to you, come on up & over. I show you mine and will even let you play with it for the next couple of months if you want.

Did errands this A.M. (groceries, Colt's storage, stopped at Jayco) and I'm in now for the weekend. Cold out there and snow is supposed to start early evening thru Monday commute ugh!

I stopped decorating for Christmas a few years ago. Finally got smart enough to realize that it took me 3 days to decorate, for my family to come over for 3-4 hours. And don't give me the 'well if you enjoy it!' comment. Sure it's pretty but I'm getting to lazy for the work involved Now that it's down to just me & Mom, she is talking about going out to eat this year and has found a restaurant. Saves me from cooking for 2 days. Am I getting to be an old Grinch? Nah, I still like the season and songs and some Christmas TV specials, but I'm OK skipping the chores.

My project from he_ _ is finally in testing mode! 70% done and only 1% of failures that are not showstoppers, but one possible one because we've identified the new tax system in the cloud has been coming down. Being a 501C3 you'd think we wouldn't have to collect taxes but you know the government.

That's it for about now. Stay safe, stay warm and be careful wherever you are.

[JudyJB]

Cheryl, after my kids moved out of state, and it was just my mother and me, I made reservations for dinner at a really nice restaurant for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. We had a great time and fantastic food, and it was a lot less expensive and stressful than those old family dinners!

I think for Christmas dinner this year, I am going to see if I can find some stone crabs as a treat for myself!

[Acadianmom]

Cheryl, I have a better idea. You come down here and we will just whine when we think it might freeze. I had my fill of snow the 2 weeks I spent in New Jersey. The first week it snowed a foot and I was stuck at the hospital. The second week it snowed a foot and we were stuck at my son's house with no water for a few days. We were melting snow to flush the toilet. I don't know how so many people live with that every year.

My decorating has tapered off to almost nothing. I did buy a poinsettia to take on my Christmas campout. I had said I wasn't going to buy any more because they have a death sentence when I buy them. I took some decorations to put out but it was raining so much that didn't happen. I have a 4 foot tree with a heavy cement base that the cats can't turn over but I didn't even drag that out. There was a beautifully decorated tree in the meeting room where we had our Christmas party. I wish I had taken a picture of it. We had our party at the Farm Bureau office and I bet that tree cost a pretty penny.

Martha