DeLurker

@bilgistic - sending you gentle, non-creepy virtual hugs and good thoughts.

Please share the name so I can see if it is in my store. I get the collection of Belgian cookies in the red tin and they are very nice. I also got the Nutty Praline Trio (tin) for my Mom. Truly.

@theredhead77 - so happy that the visit went well! @BookWoman56 - I’m glad that one of your holiday stressors have had a change of plans. It sounded like you were going to be spread pretty thin with all the family and without your daughter being able to help as much as she normally would.

Coffee drinks do too. I was so happy when a kind barista told me I could ask them to adjust the number of pumps in my mocha because the standard version is too sweet. So if you hear someone ordering a grande 2 pump mocha that might be me (the norm is 4 for a grande). Now if I want to try a new drink, I usually just ask for 1/2 the pumps of whatever. I don’t often try a new drink though because I am a creature of habit. So I probably ordered something new 3x in the last decade.

@hoosier80 - I'm sorry. The work situation really sounds untenable at this point. Your stress levels have been sky high for an extended period - perhaps it is time to consider some stress leave?

I surprised myself by coming home from the mall without a car full of cats & kittens. My daughter needed to go to Barnes & Noble to pick up something so off we went. A pet rescue group was set up in the open area near the approach where everyone has to traverse to get to the bookstore - it is attached to the mall, but you have to go out an exit to get to it (worst explanation ever). Anyway, it was cold and windy for here (so mild with a breeze for lots of you) and all the kitten types were burrowed under blankets and peaking their little faces out. The ones really seeking attention were out of the blankets so they could be pet, but shivering. I compensated for not becoming a cat lady in one afternoon by donating generously to them. Based on the bills I saw in there, it was a prime location for getting donations. Based on the number of people I saw seriously checking out the pups and cats, it was a prime location for connecting with potential adopters.

Last night was pork stir fry with white rice, but also some pan fried noodles (Hong Kong style). I'm still experimenting with the noodle recipe and this did not turn out the way I was hoping, but it was still better than ok/less than good. As an added bonus, my son tried some (he can be a bit rigid about food) and liked it well enough to get himself seconds. My nephew had some too and got himself seconds - he would have taken the first serving to be polite, but the second serving meant he liked them. We also had brownies - just from a mix (I love Ghirardelli) in cupcake tins so every piece is an edge piece.

Self peeve. My daughter was looking for a movie to watch last night and found a brand new copy of Home for the Holidays mixed in. I forgot that I had bought it at some point earlier this year from one of the cheapo bins at Best Buy. Damn it!

Oh no! That's quite the quandry - I hope everything goes well and you don't end up too queasy from the antibiotics.

I’m the youngest too. My brothers are always surprised when they think I’ve handled something competently.

Tried the Gingerbread coffee - a big meh on the taste. Worse, it left some form of coffee sludge on my pour over coffee maker that was so thick it took forever to get a whole cup of the disappointing brew. I use a paper filter inside the metal one because it makes clean up easier. Even the paper filter didn’t screen out whatever the sludgey stuff was. They have a great return policy, but I usually just pass on a TJ product I don’t care for to another family member. Not this time.

I bought some Panera Baked Potato soup at a grocery store since I’ve had, and liked it, in the restaurant. It was incredibly bland and disappointing.

Breaking News: Water is wet The first time you broadcast the information, I’ll give you the adjective. After the 2nd hour, it is no longer breaking.

Wow! How does time fly and stand still at the same time? At least for me...it sounds like you've given yourself the ok to be sensible about the holiday happenings and to lean towards what is more in line with your idea of things. I heartily approve and applaud that decision - it always sounds so simple to someone else, but gets a lot more complicated once it is in your own lap. Your plan for a week of solo travel sounds great!

I just found Abuelita in powder form and had to give it a try. Much superior to your standard Swiss Miss packets (my kids love them). It may not be as good as making it from the solid chocolate form, but certainly a lot quicker and easier for just one cup. This has become my favorite spaghetti sauce recipe. I'm trying it today in the slow cooker.

@BookWoman56 - you've had a nutty kind of year already with a whole lot going on. If I recall correctly, you moved to a new place, your son & DIL stayed with you for a bit, your sister died and you moved your Mom from Florida (where she was in some kind of care facility) to your house in Texas, getting her set up with new doctors, etc...Please don't stress yourself out over trying to make things perfect according to someone else's idea of perfect. Recruiting your younger sister to help may be more headache than you need since she comes with some issues attached to her. And you have limited PTO...between your Mom, son & family, brother & his wife - your dealing with a LOT more people than prior years. Christmas decorations do not have to look like a Hallmark movie threw up in your living room. A tree, fresh house plants and flowers, some candles and some decorations can create a peaceful, but appropriately seasonal, setting. Instead of knocking yourself out cooking, make a nice fruit, cheese & cracker plate, some good wine or champagne than go out to dinner as a family, order in pizza or make a big pot of spaghetti. You can put more of the decorations up in your mom's room since she is really into it. But seriously, right now you have a lot on your shoulders and if you get worn out/spread to thin, there's really not a lot of family that can pick up everything your doing. Be kind to yourself.

I say you did. If he had been an abusive person, SOP is to isolate the abused. It sounds like the prospects of her marrying him already put a strain on the family relationship, so giving her a connection back to the family would have kept that from happening. Just throwing the abuse part out there because it is more common than most of us realize, not because of anything you said. The family criticism, no matter how warranted, can push the victim closer to the abuser because "no one understands or sees what I see". As someone who was in an abusive relationship for many years, truly acknowledging that was what was going on was extremely hard on me - I did not know that abuse happens in every sector of our society no matter how you slice and dice us.

Dinner was hamburgers cooked on the grill. Summer is too hot and too buggy to grill for me, so I have to wait until those Goldie Locks days where it isn't too hot, isn't too cold and is relatively mosquito free.

All you can do know is wish them both well.

Happy dance for Lily! I spent an excessive amount of time on Rescue Me and Adopt-a-pet today looking at cats. I think Sir Robin would be happier with a cat buddy since his efforts to buddy up with Kook are pretty one-sided. When they aren't one-sided, it often results in a Pyr paw being plopped on him and that hardly feels like a sign of affection given the size difference. I've been searching for articles about long haul truckers and their cat buddies who travel with them, but haven't really found that many. I've seen Siamese or similar type cats on the road before, but they seem to be one of the cats I get an allergic reaction to.

Despite being a mix of two breeds of dogs known for guarding, Great Pyrenees and German Shepherd, Kook is definitely not a guard dog. He is an alert or an alarm dog - he will bark, very loudly, to tell you something is amiss. He will continue barking until you go look and he knows you are aware of the danger. He is not the kind of dog to rush fearlessly up the stairs when he hears something odd up there - he will bark, continuously, from the landing downstairs. Kook's List of Things Amiss in the past 24 hours: Different car parked in neighbors driveway; People putting up Christmas lights; Pizza delivery car parked street in front of neighbor's; Thud from shampoo bottle that slipped out of daughter's hand in the shower; Neighbors bringing garbage cans out to the street; and Any/all delivery trucks.

There's a difference when someone is being genuine in their interaction with you and I imagine that is what your customers were responding too. You probably were also good at reading your customers and not continuing to engage if they were obviously per-occupied or not receptive to your approach. Is it possible that he has something like Aspergers*? Being in a position where you are interacting all day with people would have been hell on my son previously - and that is pretty exactly how he would have behaved in a similar situation. His social skills have improved some, but through specific exercises to do so. As a result, they aren't inherent and come off as stilted. If someone goes off-script (not in line with what the exercises told him to expect), he's pretty much mystified at how to respond. *not diagnosing him off one line.

My kids loved that movie so it was played a lot on dvd in my house when they were younger. I'm relieved to say it has not found it's way to my dvd in the last couple of years.

I don't get Will Ferrell - his comedy and roles are just not my cup of tea. The only movie with him in a larger or starring role that I've watched all the way through was Stranger than Fiction which was certainly out of the norm for him. I actually liked him in that.

@hoosier80 - Is there anyway that the next time you visit you can just stay in a hotel? It sounds like she really can't be pleased no matter how much you try, so just face the rage straight on maybe? Say you really need time for yourself and to unwind on your time off, but staying with her is too unstructured and neither of you get enough of what you want out of the visits.