Weekend thread for December 2024

This is a quiet weekend for me, but at least it starts with a library book sale :) After a bite of lunch, I will be heading downtown to the main branch to see what I can find.

Despite not having to go anywhere, there's lots to do at home. Holiday baking, maybe putting up a few decorations, writing cards so they can go in the mail as soon as the postal strike is over, housecleaning, reading books, etc.

I bought 6 books at the library sale, but one is a newer edition of something I already had, so that's one in-one out :), and one is a present for my brother, so it doesn't count either. So really only 4 books :)

I’m not sure what I’m doing this weekend. If the pass doesn’t look too bad in the morning, I’ll be going to my mom’s for the night. If it’s snowy and icky, I’ll stay home and watch college football, work on a puzzle, and read.

Today we attended our grandson's 6th birthday party. It was held in a community hall in the Wicklow mountains. We had a severe storm last night and it was touch and go whether people could make it to the hall. There are 400,000 premises without electricity due to the storm. The community hall was one of those buildings. Through a bit of innovative thinking and help from other children's parents, the party was illuminated by battery powered fairy lights, electric Tea lights, and a, particularly in the windowless lavatories, motion sensor triggered batter lanterns. It all went well with the electricity coming back on just as the last children were going home.

The children did not mind the dark hall or the lack of heating. They ran around and played games and generated enough heat to keep everybody warm. I still wore my coat, hat and gloves.

The birthday boy had a ball.

>2 tardis: Nice!
>3 catzteach: I hope you did something enjoyable.
>4 pgmcc: What innovative solutions to an unusual problem. (I for one am very thankful for the invention of battery operated led lights and candles so I don't have to have open flames around if the power goes out.) Happy to hear the birthday boy was pleased!

>4 pgmcc: I am happy you found such a great solution! :)

>2 tardis: Yay :)

>3 catzteach: I hope you had an enjoyable weekend :)

>4 pgmcc: I'm thinking that will be a memorable birthday for all those involved.

Another not-too-busy weekend. Sunday is the annual Christmas Bird Count, and I'll be counting the birds at my feeders. It's alway nice - excuse to make tea and watch birds for a couple of hours.

Other than that, I'll mainly be writing Christmas cards. I've been procrastinating as Canada Post has been on strike, but it looks like they may be legislated back to work so I need to have everything ready to go. A mixed blessing - probably bad for the employees, but I have certainly missed being able to mail things this time of year.

My son has been home with a pretty bad cold all week, so I've been juggling office time with working from home more than usual. Today we'll venture out for some speech therapy and social skills training. I hope he'll be up to it ;)

Tomorrow my sister-in-law will come by for a short visit - she is traveling and will spend the night. It will be nice. Maybe we'll finally make a start on the apple strudel and/or Sacher cake that are lying in the freezer to no purpose at all. They are too big for two people ;) (the little one is picky about food, even when it's dessert).

Another busy weekend. Last night one of my cats had to go to the vet. The vet comes from out of town, so is here one weekend a month. We actually have a vet practicing in town now, but they only take appointments 3 days a week, don't do surgeries or emergencies, and were away for last week. I tried to get an appointment two weeks ago, but they could only fit me in at a time I couldn't make it (I was in an all-day course, which started before and ended after the vet hours). Turns out the cat that has been peeing on things the last few weeks has a UTI, which I suspected. The other suspected cause - that he is annoyed about not being to go outside whenever he wants - may be a contributing factor. He is on antibiotics for 2 weeks, but I am leaving to help Mom over Christmas in a week. I will have to rely on my wonderful cat-sitter for the last week. Also, need to change the cat food - which will apply to both cats.

Today I have to reprogram the cash register at the museum. The government has given everyone a sales tax holiday on some items until February, so the buttons on the machine need to be reprogrammed to charge the correct taxes. Fun. I just hope the user manual is handy.

Tonight is the first cross country ski club Moonlight Ski of the season. It looks like excellent conditions for it. Hard to tell what turnout we'll get, due to the number of Christmas parties.

Tomorrow I need to finish off the museum budget for the town. I was thinking of going to the firehall kids party, but changed my mind. I do like to see all the kids having fun, though.

>12 NorthernStar: That really is a busy weekend ahead. But out of sheer curiosity regarding the difficulty involved, please do post an update as to how well reprogramming the cash register goes!

>12 NorthernStar: I agree with >13 jillmwo:. That's a full weekend! I have had the cat UTI issue to deal with with multiple cats, and meds take care of it, and the right food should mean it does not return. Fingers crossed.

>11 Alexandra_book_life: Hope he is back to 100% soon.

>10 tardis: I always swear I am going to do the Bird Count, but then something interferes.

Went out for dinner with friends last night, and will spend the rest of the weekend decorating and cleaning.

>14 clamairy:
Went out for dinner with friends last night, and will spend the rest of the weekend decorating and cleaning.

My goodness. What did you have to eat that necessitates a whole weekend decorating and cleaning?

>14 clamairy: Thank you! He did quite well during our training session and has been in a good mood ever since :)

>12 NorthernStar: What a busy weekend! I hope everything goes well with your cat.

I am also very curious about the cash register ;)

>15 pgmcc: Very funny, Peter. It's not what I did, it's that I will be having my kids here in 10/11 days, and there is so much to be done!

>16 Alexandra_book_life: That is such good news. I am glad to hear he is recovering.

>12 NorthernStar:, >17 Alexandra_book_life: - of course the cash register manual could not be found, even after a long search. Fortunately it was available on the internet. After finding the right section and interpreting the desired actions, I kept getting an error message, and couldn't get it to work. Turned the machine on and off, and pressed lots of keys with no change to the error message. Finally pressed a different key, and it worked. So now we have keys for all combinations of provincial and federal taxes on souvenirs, and well as keys for books, donations, and memberships. At least two will need to be reprogrammed again in February when the tax holiday is over.

Thanks for all the good wishes about McTavish (the cat, Tavvi for short). Seems good so far, so I hope all will be well. He is such a sweet cat.

>18 clamairy:
Have a great time with your children. I know the joy of having offspring visit.

>19 NorthernStar:
Glad to hear McTavish is looking good so far. May the progress continue.

Well done with the cash register. They can be cantankerous beasts whether on their own or en masse. In a former employ with a retailer I could never manage to operate the tills. My department was responsible for systems which included the tills. It was amazing the problems we encountered. Well done on getting yours sorted.

>12 NorthernStar: We had a year where all our kitties got UTIs. They were peeing everywhere. And because they all peed all over the carpet, we struggled with them peeing in the house. Luckily that has almost stopped now that we got rid of the carpet.The new food should help, too. We also put more water upstairs. Mine like drinking from ceramic bowls on the bathroom counter. Go figure.

Nice, quiet weekend here. I was planning on doing a whole bunch of lesson planning, but I forgot my computer charger. Oops. So I’ve been working on a puzzle, doing laundry, and reading.

I'm going to be spending the weekend (beginning Friday morning) driving up and down I-35 a few times. Two announcements:
1) All of my sons (41, 40, 35) are now living under separate roofs. Throughout their adult lives, there's always been a scenario where two of them have shared living arrangements. That ended back in September.
2) I am in a committed relationship. Anna.
So, I'm driving up to Anna's home - about an unfettered hour's drive north of me. On Sunday, we're driving to my oldest son's place about an unfettered hour's drive south of me to a) have my sons meet Anna; and, b) do our traditional Festivus activities (eat Taylor ham, Swiss cheese and a fried egg on an English muffin - maybe two each, plus perform Feats of Strength, and have the Airing of Grievances.) This will be the first time that (b) will not be occurring in my own home. I'm still in a slow clean-up phase from the aftermath of the work I've had done to the house, compounded by the intrusion of a semi-permanent tenant - a neighbor whose home caught fire (twice in 30 hours) back in late July. He just got the insurance money to begin the rebuild project, so it's going to be a while.
Post Festivus activities, Anna and I will be heading back to her place, and I'll be heading back to my home on Monday. Depending on when I arrive will determine whether I play at an Open Mic Night (OMN) that evening.
Tuesday, I'll be in major clean-up mode (shovel up the dust, make neat stacks of paper out of the piles of documents I need to file away, etc) because Anna will be driving down my way to spend the 25th with one of her sons and his wife and grandchildren about eight miles from me. On the way back, she'll be coming here.

And just because ... I recently heard (and then figured out how to play, and then performed at two OMNs recently) a song by Evan Honer called "Mr. Myers." He's in his late 20s, but he captured exactly what I had been going through for the first almost five years since the world lost MrsHouseLibrary. Cathartic. When I play it, there are very few dry eyes in the audience.

>18 clamairy: Ditto, my daughter, son-in-law and grand-daughter will be here starting Sunday, so there's a ton to do.

I am also apparently the designated gift wrapper, people are sending gifts here for me to wrap for other people, despite my lack of skill at said gift wrapping. I keep telling my daughter I'm going to start charging a fee.

>24 Karlstar: Well, I am sure you are excellent at carefully nestling a specific gift amidst the tissue paper stuffed into gift sacks! That's why you've been designated as being this year's Best Presentation Bagger and Wrapper of Gifts. My congratulations to you on acquisition of the title! (Did they at least provide you with scotch tape and scissors?)

Sounds like a great weekend WHL and congratulations on your relationship with Anna. Good luck with OMN, too, although you sound like you have it down.

So yesterday the girls gathered for our holiday gift exchange with food and specialty cocktails and it was great fun. Tonight going to dinner with one of them and her hubby. Mine comes home tomorrow and I think we'll be settling in at home after a quick trip to Sam's club after I pick him up at the airport. It's gently snowing now so feels more Christmas-y. We'll break out the usual holiday shows including Charlie Brown, maybe Rudolph and some other clay-mation classics as well as possibly Christmas Vacation or A Christmas Story. Oh and our usual Christmas Carol versions that are Alister Sim, George C. Scott and Muppets. Everything feels so compressed with him traveling that we might not get to a Christmas adjacent movie this year. Phew!

Friday will be grocery shopping, which means that tonight I need to finalize the menu for Christmas Day. I already have a turkey. Need options for older son, who is vegetarian, and must take into account younger son who needs gluten-free. Fortunately, I'm used to dealing with both.

Saturday is the Solstice and our anniversary (39 years!) and, as is our tradition, we're going out to a dinner theatre. They serve the BEST roast beef, the rest of the buffet is always excellent, and the show will be fun.

The rest of the weekend (and Monday/Tuesday) will be house cleaning, baking, delivering the neighbourhood cards, assorted prep for Christmas Day dinner, and reading. I also need to select the books I will read on Boxing Day, which will be a Do Nothing But Read day.

Dear Linda,

Please Stop. This is neither the time nor place to plug a already popular and very award-winning novel that, please be assured, most people on this website have been very well aware of.

Regards,

Everyone on Librarything

My daughter arrives tomorrow. We will be having clam chowder (New England) and sourdough ciabatta rolls for dinner. Saturday the local son and his family will join us for tostadas, chili relleno casserole, pork steamed with tequila, orange juice and spices in banana leaves. Sunday morning will be homemade cinnamon rolls.

I have been baking goodies like a fiend all week. Only because I like to. Brings back memories of Christmas with my mom.

>23 WholeHouseLibrary: Best wishes for the relationship! (I speak as one who has now been married 3 times.)

I would try to persuade the gang to celebrate Festivus if they lived close enough.

>26 Bookmarque:. our usual Christmas Carol versions that are Alister Sim, George C. Scott and Muppets. Very clearly, the two of you are a couple of taste and discernment.

(And I thoroughly enjoyed your response in #29. I mean, thoroughly...)

Thanks Jill 😊

We wanted very much to like the Patrick Stewart version of CC, but somehow it lacks something. Every year we discuss this lament and only this year did we hit on it (at least I think). The other two have touches of whimsey that go off script a bit. For example, the "I must stand on my head" bit that Sim so beautifully pulls off and then his moment with Mrs. Dilber on the steps when he fluffs his hair and gives her a present. It's so charming and unique to the vibe of the film. One in the Scott version is when Edward Woodward as The Ghost of Christmas Present rolls his eyes at Scrooge's fatuous comments while observing the Crachit family. Priceless. Also when Scrooge asks Bob about garments invented to keep out the cold. Fabulous. There isn't anything like that in the Stewart version because it takes itself so seriously.

And thanks about post 29. I've been reading Everett for years, and while I'm happy about his new-found readership and appreciation, James itself doesn't need much more promotion at this point. I bet it will make a smashing film.

>23 WholeHouseLibrary: Good luck with your relationship! It's lovely to hear.

Oh, all this talk of lovely food in >27 tardis: and >30 MrsLee: is making me so, so hungry :)

I've closed my work laptop, and now I am in the process of making saffron buns. Yummy. My brain is happily letting go of all the work-related stuff (I'll be working for half a day on Monday, but I'll be doing fun stuff, so...)

This weekend we'll be packing and traveling - to visit my parents-in-law and sister-in-law over Christmas :)))

>30 MrsLee: cinnamon roll question: I want to make them for Christmas morning, but can I put them in the fridge overnight and cook them in the morning? And if I do, do I have them rise first or rise in the morning? I’d rather not have to wait hours for breakfast that morning.

Today is the first day of Winter Break. I’m resting. It was a very loooonnnng week.

>36 catzteach: I think you could let them rise mostly, then refrigerate and bake in the morning. I am freezing mine, putting them in the refrigerator, then baking them the next morning, but you're right, it takes a long time for them to rise. I am not a cinnamon roll expert, as can been seen by the following:

I baked a pan of cinnamon rolls this morning. I wanted to flip them out of the pan into another pan so the sweet syrup at the bottom would go through them. I did this over the sink and learned a lesson. Do it over an empty sink, not one with a bowl of soapy water in it. We got 6 rolls that didn't get in the water.

>37 MrsLee: Oh, no! Poor cinnamon rolls...

>37 MrsLee: Ack!

>37 MrsLee: Oh, a cinnamon roll tragedy!

I need to go through my recipes and decide on a cinnamon roll one.

Today’s my birthday. We are going out to breakfast and then to a bookstore. :D

>40 catzteach:
Happy Bookstore Day.
I mean Happy Birthday.
They are basically the same; aren’t they?

>40 catzteach: Hippo Birdie two ewe ...

And enjoy the bookstore!

>40 catzteach: I hope you have a wonderful birthday, Cindy! 🎈

>40 catzteach: Sounds like a perfect way to celebrate your birthday (or anyone's birthday). I might even celebrate your birthday. Happy book hunting.

At the theatre last night, the last song before intermission was "The Time Warp" and Marcel reminded me that 39 years ago, possibly to the minute, we were dancing to that at our wedding reception. So, it's kind of "our song."

A busy weekend. Thursday was my last work day before the break (Friday is my non-working day). Himself had a couple of extra days - his last day in was Tuesday. So we both went to the Friday market in town (me on the bus, himself walking) and did a lot of shopping. He went home while I got a couple of beauty treatments. We did the main Morrisons shop in the afternoon.

Yesterday morning was back into town for the farmer's market, where we got eggs, veggies and nice apple juice among other bits and pieces. Then we went back into town in the afternoon - I had my annual hair cut, and himself went to the Waitrose looking for exotic fruits. He went home while I was at the salon. Did some more odds and ends round town, and walked back home (the bus only runs weekday mornings). When I got home, I discovered I'd lost one of my nice new hair sticks...my hair tends to be slithery after a blow dry.

Today was quiet; himself took some bits to the car and found the lost hair stick literally outside the front door! Phew! This afternoon we nipped to the Co-op and found some bread sauce and brandy butter and we went to the tip with some garden rubbish.

Tomorrow we're off to family - but we have to wait for a repair man first. My new dishwasher broke down and the part had to come from Italy. I'm not impressed; what's happened is the water inlet valve is bust. I specifically got the Haier because it was A rated and wasn't involving weird cassettes like the Miele. I had wanted to get away early, but I won't know what time this chap is coming until early morning. We may end up travelling on Tuesday instead, which I really don't want to do because of traffic, and because it doesn't give us sufficient time for any last minute shopping (Tesco will be heaving).

We'll be away about a week - we need to be home in enough time to get a pheasant out of the freezer for our New Year dinner, and himself is on call New Year's day. Then it's housework and laundry before we're back at work on the 6th. At least there's no decorations to deal with; I'm not in favour of putting them up early, and as we got away, we don't bother. I expect this will change once his mother dies and we start staying home...

>40 catzteach: Hope you had a lovely birthday!

Oh my gosh, such a fun birthday! We went to breakfast. I had cherry crepes. Then we went to Costco and got me the Wicked Lego set. I’ll make it and put it in my classroom next to my other Lego things. Then we went downtown and to two of my favorite bookstores: Pegasus Books and Dudley’s. Pegasus is more fantasy, sci fi, and comics. They also have trinkets for the fantasy and comic people. We then went down the street to Dudley’s. They have all sorts of genres. I bought six books and a journal. Later in the day we went to a late lunch/early dinner. I had been wanting to take The Husband to a little food court place so we went there. I also spent some time reading, watching football, and snuggling with the kitties. Wonderful!

>46 Maddz: Arrgh! The dishwasher is still dead. New inlet hose went on, still no water so they now think the board has blown.

They're going to replace the machine, but probably not until the New Year now. Just as well we're away for a week (still be washing up though at the in-laws).

>46 Maddz: and >49 Maddz:. I recognize the tone of that Arrgh. I am familiar with the sense of discombobulation that this type of household repair can introduce during the holidays (even if you are visiting with the in-laws). Take a deep breathe and cross your fingers. The New Year will be better.

>50 jillmwo: It's worse than that. The replacement has to come via Amazon, and guess what, they have none left in stock. What Amazon is proposing to do is refund me everything (appliance, installation & recycling of the old dishwasher) so I can repurchase elsewhere.

The moral of the saga is do not under any circumstances purchase major household appliances from Amazon...

>51 Maddz: Ugh, what a mess!