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Post by gams on Nov 28, 2005 9:53:26 GMT -5
I think you just did, no? LMAO. Hubs, last week, was talking about how cold it was outside. Started that exact phrase, but caught himself - the girls were in the room - just in time, and at the same moment I shot him the "look" that means watch your tongue.
Instead he said his other cold weather saying; "It's colder that a well-digger's butt in the Klondike". Imagine this said with a slight Southern accent - he's lost most of it, but still hangs on to a Southern pronunciation here and there. For years and years I wondered what the hell was a "whale-digger".
One of my favorite it's-cold-outside phrases comes from a Calvin and Hobbs cartoon I saw many years ago. Calvin was outside making all kinds of really odd expressions, and Hobbs asks him what is wrong with his face. Calvin replies, "It's booger freezing cold outside." Yeah, I am so immature.
Same here too btw; icy, snowing and temperatures in the teens last week. Yesterday and today: in the fifties and thunder storms. It's December! It is not supposed to be rain. Where's the snow?!
Wha-ale, I should be going now.
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Post by marysgurl on Nov 29, 2005 8:19:51 GMT -5
OMG....I cannot wait for the opportunity to use that in front of the girls...they will fall on the floor laughing. I have never heard that, but I, too, in my finite maturity, will love wearing it out....at home & at work!!
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Post by gams on Nov 29, 2005 9:38:45 GMT -5
Boll, Marysgurl. Enjoy.
Still have a few fall posts left in me; I am behind in my posting, and will have to get them outta my head and in here soon. Just as if I don't get started with Christmas preparations I will get behind on them too.
And so...a quick copy and paste job....
I should get on with it and take the plunge; it is time.
Sigh.
Sometimes I think the season is too rushed; it starts too early. I love Christmas music - yes, I do. Pretty Christmas music too, and not the kind you are imagining I listen to; Godsmack sings Silent Night or Disturbed's version of The First Noel. No, no, no. But Christmas music should be played in season, in my opinion. At least wait until after Thanksgiving.
After Thanksgiving: The Day After. I hit the sales. LMAO. Ok, so I did not brave the dangerous conditions - talking about rabid crowds and not the ice and snow. I did, however, shop the early sales on-line at the stroke of the new day. It took me too long though, to peruse the on-line aisles and I got kicked out for an expired session. (Dang, and I thought all my sessions were up-to-date.) Tried again when I got up in the morning, and though I now knew what I wanted, the on-line sales clerk was slow, (I should have tried check-out lane 5; I always seem to pick the slowest cashier). Finally got it done, and I was beat. Just the tip of the ice-berg though, and soon I will have to actually step foot in a store.
Holiday decorations....ok, I started early on this one, taking advantage of some nicer weather a week or so ago. Yanked my crispy marigolds and dead tiny millon bells outta the flower boxes and filled them with mixed greens. Lettuce stand back and admire them. No - actually not Boston, bib or romaine, but spruce, pine, juniper, varigated euonymus and yew...euonymust see to appreciate; can yew imagine? Some pine cones, tawny brown birch twigs and red and yellow dogwood twigs too. Sprayed them with antidessicant to keep moisture in, and they will stay green until spring. Good thing cuz it'll be that long before I get around to taking them apart. I did though, get the baskets of gourds and pumpkins off the porch before hand. Last year I had two holidays going on at once most of the season. The basket of gourds frozen to the porch, a big basket of greens, and....ok, three holidays...Valentine's Day hearts the girls made on the front door.
Hhmmm...what else? Cards; I haven't even thought about them yet. Christmas lights...can't remember exactly which box they're thrown in...in a tangled mess, I'm sure, in the basement. Same with the ornaments. The tree, I know where that is - just can't get to it right now; it's behind all the Halloween boxes of decorations which I haven't sorted through and put away yet. My basement is not quite orderly.
Same as me; you'd expect anything other? It works, though; all comes out fine in the end. Christmas preparation; even haphazard ones, are fun.
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Post by marysgurl on Nov 29, 2005 10:11:47 GMT -5
Had my first egg nog shake of the season last night from where else...?...Steak & Shake!! By the Gods, it was tasty & undoubtedly not the last of the season. One of the supervisors made a "run" last night & emptied out the machine....at 3am! I think he said he ordered 13! Leave it to those 3rd-shifters!
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Post by marysgurl on Nov 30, 2005 11:31:53 GMT -5
This is off one of my favorite Christmas cds...I love this...hard not to get into some kind of spirit while listening to it!!
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Post by gams on Dec 3, 2005 8:13:52 GMT -5
I called my sister-in-law yesterday, to ask what she wanted for Christmas. A Magic Bullet was her reply. "Magic Bullet? I know what a Silver Bullet is, but have not heard of a Magic Bullet. A new and improved super-charged model?" Uhm...no. A Magic Bullet is some kind of blender/mixer kitchen thing. A Silver Bullet is not. * * * I was invited to a party: a cookie exchange party. The invitation said to bring 7 dozen of your favorite homemade cookies for sampling and giving to the other guests and in exchange I would come home with more cookies than I could ever possibly eat or pawn off on others. I want to go; I really enjoy this group of people's company. But.... I called the hostess to ask if there was some mistake. Homemade cookies? Me? Surely I was not meant to be on the invitation list. She said no, it was not a mistake and no, I could not bring the slice and bake things that come out of a tube, nor could I run to the local bakery. "You can do this, Phalon", she assured me. Next call: An urgent plea to my Marathong friend. She is the one who gives me a platter of cookies each Christmas that is large enough to end hunger in at least three third world countries. "Yes, I will help. You can do this, Phalon." She gave me a list of what to buy at the store, which included a bottle of our favorite cheap wine, which must be drank out of only the finest plastic; it is that good, (I got three bottles...they were on sale; three for $9.99; a deal that could not be ignored). She would bring her power tools: a mixer, (which I don't own), and some 21 century invention called "air-bake" cookie sheets, because my cookie sheets are from the dark-ages and have only been used to place under casserole dishes in the oven to prevent those culinary delights of mine from bubbling over onto the oven floor. Last night we baked. And drank wine. And laughed endlessly in my kitchen. For four hours. I now have 8 dozen beautifully golden-brown cookies ready to exchange. I still have enough dough in my refrigerator for 8 dozen more. Somewhere between the mixing, the laughter and the wine we decided that more was better, and I'm left with another day of baking, and more cookies than I could ever eat or pawn off on others.
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Post by marysgurl on Dec 3, 2005 12:00:32 GMT -5
That was a wonderfully delightful, warm & fuzzy kind of holiday story, gams!!
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katmandu
Kenin
kenin
Don't Mess With Me, I Bite! =D
Posts: 2,803
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Post by katmandu on Dec 3, 2005 18:51:09 GMT -5
That was a wonderfully delightful, warm & fuzzy kind of holiday story, gams!! I second that, great stuff, as a matter of fact all the writing on this thread is really excellent, makes great reading. Two questions, can we expect loads of cookies from you from now on Gams, seeing as how you know how to whip em out so easily, and exactly how does anybody know just how cold a Witches, ummm, thingy, gets?
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Post by marysgurl on Dec 5, 2005 6:37:23 GMT -5
Nice save, katman!!
gams, Is that not an item that could possibly be purchased at the Fantasy Party that ilb & I have been invited to in two weeks? I've seen the advertisement for the Magic Bullet, but the last silver bullet I had any dealings with was on Halloween...when I was loading my trusty 38 for the inevitable onslaught of werewolves that were sure to be thwarting my task of arriving at work on time that night....thank the Gods that I managed to avert any confontations....
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Post by marysgurl on Dec 5, 2005 7:16:55 GMT -5
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Post by gams on Dec 5, 2005 8:27:24 GMT -5
Whatever could you be talking about, Marysgurl? (smile)
There are silver bullets for taking care of werewolves. And there are Silver Bullets for taking care of other things.
Off to slide. Later.
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xengab
Mounted Samurai
Posts: 356
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Post by xengab on Dec 5, 2005 10:05:54 GMT -5
I am looking forward to my grandaughter Lucy(8)singing with her school choir in Durham cathedral,I know that will realy put me in to the christmas spirit. My cards are all written out and most of the presents are wrapped.I am well ahead of myself.
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vladtepes
Mounted Samurai
Let's play my little Xena....Hehehehe
Posts: 203
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Post by vladtepes on Dec 5, 2005 14:23:19 GMT -5
You should see that! Whole mountains of cards she wrote. I would get a cramp in my fingers. hahahaha - I never wrote so many cards in my whole life as she does in only one christmas time! But I've wrapped all the presents, tomorrow comes Nikolaus and fill up the shoes of the kids, IF they've brushed 'em and IF they were very good kids.
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Post by marysgurl on Dec 6, 2005 7:44:12 GMT -5
Well, they kept talking about the tradition of the "German Christmas Pickle" this morning on the radio. Since I had never heard of it before, I had to come home & do some research..... Seems there is little merit to the story... You know I just have to ask, vlad....have you ever heard of the Christmas pickle??
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Post by gams on Dec 6, 2005 8:38:41 GMT -5
I remember asking Vlad the same question last year in Cyrene's, and neither her or Xengab had heard of the tradition.
Sniff. And after reading the website you posted, MG, I feel so taken by the marketers now. Pfft. Not really.
This, or a similiar story, is the one I've always heard....
"The Medieval tale of the pickle tells of two Spanish boys traveling home from boarding school for the holidays. Weary from travel, they stop at an inn for the night. The inn keeper, a mean and evil man, steals the boys' possessions, and stuffs the boys into a pickle barrel. That evening, St. Nicholas stops in for a rest at the inn, and becomes aware of the boys' plight. He taps the pickle barrel with his staff, and the boys are magically restored. The boys thank St. Nicholas, and continue happily home for Christmas.
The tradition of trying to find the little ornament shaped like a pickle began many years ago in Laschau, Germany. Pickle ornaments were considered a special decoration by many families in Germany where the fir tree was decorated on Christmas Eve. It was always the last ornament to be hung on the Christmas tree, with the parents hiding it deep among the green boughs.
When the children were allowed to view the tree, they would begin searching for the Pickle ornament. The children knew that whoever first found that special ornament would receive an extra little gift left by St. Nicholas for the most observant child. If the family could not afford such extras, the pickle finder was rewarded by being the first to open presents."
There is a town near here that actually holds a pickle festival in December, complete with a Pickle Parade.
Our family does the pickle thing, with a bit of variation. We have a tiny hand-blown glass pickle hidden in the tree on Christmas eve. Whoever finds it gets a tiny gift to be opened that night. The previous year's finder is the one who "buys" the gift - with a bit of help from Mom - and is the one who gets to hide it.
The girls love it. I suppose there doesn't have to be any true basis in the legend: the tradition is now ours.
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Post by marysgurl on Dec 6, 2005 9:26:07 GMT -5
Very well said, my friend. After all, that is the true spirit of the season.... Can I ask? What made you start the pickle tradition & how long have you been doing it?
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Post by marysgurl on Dec 6, 2005 10:50:22 GMT -5
A little early Christmas present, katman!
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Post by marysgurl on Dec 6, 2005 10:54:39 GMT -5
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Post by marysgurl on Dec 8, 2005 8:46:21 GMT -5
Well, it's on the way! Four to six inches starting about noon...but if the sky is any indication, we'll have three feet! Brrrrr....makes me cold just looking out the window. I have to go find some weight for the back of my truck....no four-wheel drive, so I'll be slip-sliding away tonight on my way to work. At least by the time I need to leave, maybe the roads will have been traveled enough that I can make it....that is, if I can get out of the neighborhood!! Now I'm ready to put up my Christmas lights outside....lol...wonder why I couldn't find the mood last week when it was still 60-ish??
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Post by gams on Dec 8, 2005 9:45:34 GMT -5
LMAO, Marysgurl. We were wondering the same thing yesterday: 'Why didn't we put the lights up weeks ago?' If it weren't for BP asking at least once a day, I think we'd pass this year.
I have to keep my baby in the garage all winter. It just doesn't work in the snow no matter how many sandbags, snow, or various other things of great weight we put in the bed, (one year we tried a 200 pound chunk of steel in addition to the sandbags). It has something to do with some kind of physics thing; my brother tried to explain it to me once but I gave him that "huh?" look, and he quit. I had big tires put on it years ago; shiny chrome wheels that make it look pretty. It's a small truck, an S-10, with a big engine. The bigger, wider tires and rear-wheel drive allow the thing to start and go fine, but stopping is impossible. Even the slightest bit of snow and I'm slip-sliding all over the place.
Besides...Hubs "pimped" it this past year - a shiny new paint job with pin-stripes - and he'd have a trauma if I got even so much as a knick in it. (rolls-eyes) He's always hated my truck; says it is too small; but since the paint job, he's suddenly referring to it as his truck.
RE: the pickle thing....
We started the tradition soon after BP was born; I can't remember exactly when....3 or 4 years ago. I bought the ornament at work. My boss bought them from a supplier along with a bunch of other hand-blown glass ornaments, not knowing there was even a tradition attached to the pickle, (I looked it up on the Internet way back then, because I thought a pickle in a tree was strange).
We have to watch her....she orders all kinds of odd stuff and when a sales person walks in the door for an appointment, one of us tends to hang out in the office and chime in whenever she starts getting that look in her eye, and remind her, "No, we do not need anymore cute little concrete bunnies gnawing on carrots posing as yard art." Her taste is impeccable, but she is a sucker for a good sales pitch.
Hence the glass pickles.
And I am a sucker for something with a bit of folk-lore attached to it. Hence my glass pickle.
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