anyone past 50 on here?

[Tanwen]

Got TMA 02 back - guess I must have sent the right version...72% . Better than last time so I suppose I did take some  of the tutor's comments to heart  

[Cobie]

.

[Kazbe]

On 14/12/2017 at 8:40 AM, daveb said:

I also bought a wreath and hung it over my fireplace. All set for the holidays!

I still haven't put up my tiny little tree. We've been having a heatwave here and I can't be bothered doing anything much - other than applying for jobs and not getting rung back for an interview.

 

I did send some Christmas cards but I don't get or give presents, so I haven't had to worry about that.

 

I'm going to a friend's place on Christmas Day so I may not put the tree up at all. Sort of looking forward to the visit, but the  3.5 hour trip down and the 3.5 hour trip back is a bit of a turnoff.

 

On 14/12/2017 at 6:12 PM, chandrakirti said:

at the moment I spend so much time staring at a screen during the day, I've kinda gone off looking at one at night as well!

Completely understand - that usually how I feel when working as I'm stuck at a a screen almost non-stop 8-10 hours a day (minus get ups and walk arounds to iron out the postural kinks). Last thing I need is a computer screen when I get home.

[EarthMama]

Went out for a walk last night after work...dayam, it was cold.

 

But worth it, for this shot alone.  I guess I've gotten bitten (just a bit) by the Christmas bug.

 

 

[Mocha Jo]

On 12/11/2017 at 7:49 PM, will123 said:

The farm near our cottage when we were kids had geese. Bill the gander snuck up behind my grandfather when he was visiting one day. Grandpa ended up with quite a wound on the calf of his leg.

Geese are evil! My grandmother had one that wouldn't let us out of the car when we went to visit.

@teatree- that just stinks that your patient couldn't have let you know. Would have been nice to go home early.

@Muledeer- I don't think he has brahma in him- I am told he is a cochin. The feathers on his feet are amazing- he looks like he has snow shoes on. And the girls are more interested in him than he is in them, as far as I can see. My Mae West is flirting for all she is worth!

 

Working this weekend, so I had today off. Spent it waiting around, not food shopping, for a carpenter to call me who is supposed to frame in my new bathroom renovation! Called around 5pm to see when I was free. Well, I WAS free today! Darn it.

[teatree]

Everyone is suspiciously quiet on this thread! I am about to go to bed, after having spent a quiet evening watching "White Christmas" on Netflix and finishing the book I was reading. Hoping that tomorrow is a tad warmer; this morning it was about 0 degrees F.

 

Anyone know where @cdrdash has been lately? Haven't seen any posts and am wondering what's up.....

[daveb]

3 minutes ago, teatree said:

Anyone know where @cdrdash has been lately? Haven't seen any posts and am wondering what's up.....

I've been wondering the same thing. Hopefully she's just busy with work, or possibly helping out with her parents or something.

 

It was a quiet day for me today. I watched the new Psych movie and as a fan of the series I enjoyed it. Fun to see the old cast back in action again.

[will123]

Spent the day out in the woods helping to brush some snowmobile trails. On a Christmas theme, we saw six or so partridge (ruffed grouse) eating buds in a maple tree. I've never seen that. They usually are in birch or poplar trees.

[Autumn Sunrise]

I'd heard of partridges (obviously ) and ruffed grouse (I think I read about them in The Swiss Family Robinson, more years ago than I'd care to admit ), but I never realised until now that it was the same bird! It's true that you learn something new every day ( . . . and wouldn't life be dull if we didn't ).

I too had been wondering about @cdrdash - has anyone heard from her? I hope she's OK!

 

Very hot here today  A clearing thunderstorm/rain shower would be nice . . . 

[will123]

1 minute ago, Autumn Sunrise said:

I'd heard of partridges (obviously ) and ruffed grouse (I think I read about them in The Swiss Family Robinson, more years ago than I'd care to admit ), but I never realised until now that it was the same bird! It's true that you learn something new every day ( . . . and wouldn't life be dull if we didn't ).

I too had been wondering about @cdrdash - has anyone heard from her? I hope she's OK!

 

Very hot here today  A clearing thunderstorm/rain shower would be nice . . . 

Actually the partridge family and grouse aren't really the same. In rural Canada 'partridge' is kind of a malaprop for grouse.

[daveb]

Looks like quotes got mangled. I didn't make the comment about partridges and Swiss Family Robinson.  

I never groused about the Partridge Family - in fact, I always liked Susan Dey and Shirley Jones.  

[Myssterry]

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  I am going to a carol service later.  We all hold lighted candles and as the sun sets outside the candlelit church is very beautiful.  The music is lovely, accompanied by some of my colleagues playing in a brass ensemble.  Last year the lady in the pew in front of me nearly set it alight with her candle, which she had pushed directly under a wooden ledge.  Fortunately the smoke and smell of burning alerted her and the old wood seemed fire resistant. 

 

Mulled wine and mince pies are served afterwards.

 

[Autumn Sunrise]

I don't know what happened to my last post, @daveb  when I typed it up I didn't mention you! I think it must have picked up something from a post I made on the previous page - I did say something had gone wrong with the formatting  

 

@Mizzletoe that Carol Service sounds lovely . . . but I do hope no one manages to start a fire with their candle this year!

Mulled wine and mince pies - mmm 

[Skycaptain]

6 hours ago, will123 said:

Spent the day out in the woods helping to brush some snowmobile trails. On a Christmas theme, we saw six or so partridge (ruffed grouse) eating buds in a maple tree. I've never seen that. They usually are in birch or poplar trees.

Not pear trees? 

[Cobie]

9 hours ago, teatree said:

Anyone know where @cdrdash has been lately? Haven't seen any posts and am wondering what's up.....

@cdrdash Yes, I was wondering about that too. 

[will123]

8 hours ago, daveb said:

 

I never groused about the Partridge Family - in fact, I always liked Susan Dey and Shirley Jones.  

You shouldn't have mentioned Shirley. Not sure how old I would have been when the show aired, but I had a MAJOR crush on her. As far as I knew she was the prettiest girl on TV even though she was the mother on the show.

[Semisweet]

Shirley Jones was only in her upper 30s when the Partridge Family aired -- probably not too ridiculously old for an adolescent crush. My similar experience involved making note of how handsome the 35-ish Christopher Plummer was in The Sound of Music. 

[Tja]

My first crush was on Richard Thomas; John-Boy from The Waltons.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Hi all, well done @Blitzentan! Good for you! 

Ooh, partridges at Xmas, just the right time, @will123. Oddly enough. I never watched The Partridge Family, even though I listened to David Cassidy, but I've seen clips from the series as an adult. Have seen Swiss Family Robinson though, we all went to the cinema for that one and it was a favourite in our house when they showed it again on TV.

Same here, @cdrdash, if you're out there following the thread, sign in to let us know you're fine. Missing the lovely hiking photos. Hope you're well.

 

Very tiring week! The office is processing 10,000 pharmacy orders for hospitals and chemists nation wide, it's relentless! 

First attempts to get to Star Wars fell on rough ground....it was all booked up, so I'm going to belay my forays to the cinema till I'm at my daughter's , as it'll be quieter by then. I'm sure it'll be playing till New Year.

[Muledeer]

I just experienced a two hour power outage when I first got out of bed this morning.  I've been hoping for a drill opportunity to make sure my emergency equipment was reliable.  My power generator is about ten years old and I have never really used it so it had ten year old gas in it.  but it started anyway.  Ran a cord into the house, turned on a space heater and my gas fireplace blower, made coffee and had music from my cell phone.  Minimal disruption..... and I felt pretty smug that I could be comfortable and warm.  It wasn't too cold today - only about 0 C and no wind.   It was good to burn all that old fuel and confirm my backup systems work well.  I learned I could use another extension cord and some fresh gasoline.  I was actually hoping it the power would be out all day but life is much easier with regular electricity.  I plan on sending Christmas cards today.  Happy Saturday everybody!

[will123]

4 hours ago, Semisweet said:

Shirley Jones was only in her upper 30s when the Partridge Family aired -- probably not too ridiculously old for an adolescent crush. My similar experience involved making note of how handsome the 35-ish Christopher Plummer was in The Sound of Music. 

Checking Wiki' she would've been 36 to 40

 

(pic taken in '72) 

 

and I was 9 when it first aired 

 

And Christopher is still going strong!

 

http://theprovince.com/entertainment/movies/christopher-plummers-golden-globe-nomination-causes-a-stir/wcm/2c6eddd5-57aa-4614-b6ab-1cea6a47716a

[Kazbe]

18 hours ago, Autumn Sunrise said:

Very hot here today  A clearing thunderstorm/rain shower would be nice . . . 

I'm so with you on that. It's overcast today and a bit cooler, so much so that when the sun peeked out a moment ago I found myself thinking "Go away!"

 

18 hours ago, will123 said:

On a Christmas theme, we saw six or so partridge (ruffed grouse) eating buds in a maple tree.

Oh, how wonderful! Since my Uni days and the chickens, I've become a huge fan of all birds phasianid. I had to do a lot of comparative work as background so read up on all kinds of pheasants, grouse, quail, partridge, jungle fowl, guinea fowl, currasow and other assorted galliformes. The sad thing is that we don't have many in Australia, only a few species of quail which are quite cryptic.

 

18 hours ago, will123 said:

Actually the partridge family and grouse aren't really the same.

Yes, partridge are birds which are native to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Homesick settlers tended to to call similar looking grouse "partridges" in other countries.

 

I don't think partridges were imported like mad, bad Ring-Neck Pheasants - which are only native to China and East Asia but as valued game birds were imported all over the world and often set free for hunting purposes. Actually, their Latin name is Phasianus colchicus - pheasant of Colchis. They were named after the trading port of Colchis (remember where Medea came from in Jason and the Argonauts?) which was where they were initially traded from China and east Asia to Europe.

 

13 hours ago, Mizzletoe said:

Mulled wine and mince pies are served afterwards.

Yummy!

 

5 hours ago, Semisweet said:

My similar experience involved making note of how handsome the 35-ish Christopher Plummer was in The Sound of Music.

Oh, dear. What does it say about me that I had crushes on cartoon characters like Jonny Quest 

 

4 hours ago, chandrakirti said:

First attempts to get to Star Wars fell on rough ground.

For some reason, the morning sessions out my way were almost empty, so I managed to see it Friday morning. There were ten of us in a very large cinema.

 

[Semisweet]

 

3 hours ago, will123 said:

and I was 9 when it first aired 

 

And Christopher is still going strong!

This also reminds me that when I was a similar age, our family doctor was a man who happened to be movie-star handsome ... probably even more so than Christopher Plummer.  But because he was so handsome, I always felt uncomfortable being examined by him, even though he was never less than totally professional.

[BobRossRules]

8 hours ago, Tja said:

My first crush was on Richard Thomas; John-Boy from The Waltons.

Me too!

[EarthMama]

I had an idea this weekend...

 

I have 2 different bases for my Holey Grail - the original is rather aggressively cupped and rigid...the other was made by accident when I put the stabilizing rings on the wrong ring-pairs on the base.  This softer base is a bit flexible and flatter.   Once the stem was added to this base, it reminded me a lot of depictions of the Tree of Life.

 

So I had to...

 

 

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Very beautiful and unusual @EarthMama, bet it glitters in the light.

You sound very capable in an outage crisis @Muledeer!

I've decided to go just after Christmas @Kazbe, when the buzz will have died down a bit.

 

It was a good weekend in this corner, daughter brought me my Xmas present, which was just the ticket...an all singing and dancing printer, so I was well chuffed with that one. I cooked a vegan dinner for herself and boyfriend, which was lentil soup, ratatouille with pasta, then baked apples with cashew caramel sauce. These vegans seem to eat very well, I'm thinking of taking it up after the new year as the only dairy I've had in a while is milk for my tea!

 

At work today, the management decided to give us all an Xmas present, which was ....... a very large tub of chocolates..... well, mine is being put into the collection of food for the 'office buffet' on Wednesday.....

[BobRossRules]

@chandrakirti a tub of chocolate, that pretty sweet!

 

@EarthMama your piece is beautiful as usual.  

 

I've been pretty busy lately.  I got my chairs last Friday.  They are 2 giant chaise lounges that I put tougher to make one epic couch.  I'll have to take some pictures.  The animals love it.  I slid my old couches to curb for the garbage collection.  They picked it up this morning.    They were in pretty bad shape and not worthy of donation.  

 

My gardening project is going well so far.  I have a few microgreens that I've started and so far everything is living!  I should be ready to harvest it in about a week.  I'm still waiting on some seeds for my hydroponic garden to get that started.  I'm looking forward to growing my own food all year around.  I hope I stick with it.  Once I get everything set up and organized, I'll post some pictures.  

 

I hope everyone is well.    

[Semisweet]

@chandrakirti, what is an "all singing and dancing" printer?? I applaud if mine simply prints properly.  As for your tub of chocolate, I'm sure that will be appreciated at the buffet. Similarly, my neighbors gave me a nice holiday box of candies, but to avoid a sugar overload, I'm "donating" them to the office pantry. 

 

@EarthMama, your creations are so eye-catching and stylish -- very impressive. 

 

I'm so glad we're a mere 3 days away from the shortest day of the year. By Christmas we'll have an additional 13 seconds of daylight. Woo-hoo! 

 

 

 

[Cobie]

51 minutes ago, Semisweet said:

I'm so glad we're a mere 3 days away from the shortest day of the year. By Christmas we'll have an additional 13 seconds of daylight. Woo-hoo! 

Happy Solstice to you. 😊

[daveb]

One year the place I worked at at the time gave each employee a bottle of wine for Christmas. I'd rather have a tub of chocolates, or the cost of the bottle of wine! (I don't drink alcohol, so that was a dud present for me)

 

I'm annoyed with my mortgage company - got my escrow statement from them today and there is well over $500 shortfall (which can either be paid now or over the course of the coming year). Plus, they still haven't dropped the mortgage insurance, which I had requested they drop a few months ago since I had paid off enough of the loan to easily qualify for dropping. The person I talked to at that time said it was clear I qualified and they would drop it. I gave them some time because they always seem to take months to do anything. Now I will have to give them another call - which I do not enjoy since it always seems to take a while, jumping through hoops, dealing with bureaucracy, and phone anxiety.