We are not really seeing much of a change in the amount of light, partly because it hasn’t been very sunny. The sun is setting later but not rising earlier – yet. A couple weeks and we should see a bit more change.

A correction to yesterday’s entry! I meant first book I started in 2025!!! Not 2024. I did finish the book after work today and loved the ending. And my next book “The Humans” is in the hopper. Aliens, mathematics, and I’ll find out what else. Seems like I’m off to a good start.

I stayed away from the news today, not wanting to think too hard about the events of four years ago. (I will never forget my then boss Amazon Woman’s GASP!) I don’t understand why anyone at all was thinking there might be a repeat of that event this year. Trump won (though I will NEVER understand his appeal. Businessman? PBBBBBFT) and the current *democratic* prez and VP promised AND DELIVERED a smooth transfer. I mean the vote was certified without incident, I know the entire transfer of power has not been completed yet. But I think we have every reason to expect it will be.

This is not a democrat/republican issue. I don’t regard the J6 insurrectionists as republican. We don’t have a republican party any more. We have a Trump party and those folks were/are part of it. I have blahgged this before but one of the images burned into my brain from that day is a scruffy looking yay-hoo lounging in Nancy Pelosi’s (?) office saying something like, “Well, we’re here so I guess we should form a government.” We *have* a government and flawed that it may be, I do NOT want that particular person to be involved in creating a new one. Sorry but I don’t trust him or any of his cronies.

Fortunately the folks in office (democrats) this time are sane, reasonable, thoughtful folks who are following the rules our forefathers set out. Both our forefathers and their rules were flawed (as most things are) but I think they were thoughtful about what they were doing. Those rules can (and have) been changed. In my not-so-humble opinion, change needs to happen slowly and mindfully. Unless you are in the act of pulling someone out of a burning building.

I dunno if anything I said made sense and hope it doesn’t open up Pandora’s box. (Fun fact, I just remembered I was Pandora at the Sault High Latin banquet my third year of Latin🤣 Third-year students were gods and goddesses.)

Okay then. I *am* still on goodreads but I am slowly switching my brain over to StoryGraph. Where all the Cool Kids are. A lot of people are voting against Amazon (which owns Goodreads) with their phones/laptops. I agree with their sentiment but I am conflicted because I developed a pretty good habit of buying certain things (oh, nothing exciting) on Amazon during the early days of the pandemic and am reluctant to give that up.

For the first time in a few years, I did not complete my Goodreads challenge for 2024. I think I was 15 books down (100 being my goal). I’m not sure *exactly* what the issue was. I certainly read some good books this year but I also read a bunch that I got kinda bogged down with. No specific titles come to mind, just in general.

I found myself seeking out “short” books for the last couple months but that wasn’t very satisfying. I mean, some of them were very good but I kept seeing longer books that were calling my name and I was so wrapped up in finishing the challenge that I eschewed reading them.

Okay. So I am done done done with reading challenges. For now anyway. I could change my mind at some point. I’m allowed to do that. Obviously I don’t need a challenge to make me read so I’ll just read whatever I feel like.

I wasn’t a super early reader but all the building blocks were in place by first grade, which was when reading was taught back then, and I TOOK OFF like a rocket. I particularly remember sounding out the word “surprise”, like “Oh, *that’s* how you pronounce “suprize” (the word in my head).

A hilarious memory (to me) is when I was four and I wrote my name with an “o” on the sidewalk in front of our shabby little yooperland bungalow. That’s right. A-n-n-o. I remember being very insistent that it was the correct spelling. The Commander disagreed but gave up on trying to dissuade me, wisely choosing not to die on that particular hill.

Anyway, the first book I *started* in 2024 2025!!! is “The God of the Woods”. It is 480 pages (not long but not short) and I am greatly enjoying it and closing in on the finish. Couldn’t put it down today (although I did finish my pantry purge). I read “Long Bright River” by the same author a while back and liked that one too. Whether these are everyone’s cuppa, I dunno. To each their own.

The GG space-i-fied meeeee for six-plus hours today via a 19 mile hike to Dexter and back. What did I do? I worked on purging a lot of stuff outta the Landfill Chitchen. I *finally* got rid of one of the half-bottles of ketchup as well as a ROCK-HARD bag of brown sugar (there was also a SOFT bag of brown sugar, unopened until I used a couple tablespoons of it tonight). Sorry but fling-a-ding. I also “combinded” two jars of molasses. Note that I have not used molasses in anything in a couple years. I have used *pomegranate* molasses, which is a whole different thing. But I only have one bottle of that.

I was pretty ruthless at purging. A bunch of dried beans and other things went into the compost. They were “expired” although probably still good but I have not been using dried beans for anything in a while and I needed to make some space. Shortening that expired in 2022. I don’t really use shortening any more but here’s a salute to The Commander, who taught me as a young child how to measure shortening using water. Those were the days. Nowadays I just saw off enough butter to add up to whatever amount I need.

I am not finished purging yet. I’m thinking I will go through and look at EVERY expiration date and purge anything that has expired, whether or not I think it has actually gone bad. I HATE to throw food out but my pantry cupboards are a total jumble and it’s time to take control.

This is a fairly typical post-holiday activity but a couple other factors are raising it to a new level this year. The pandemic is FINALLY enough in my rear-view mirror (even though it is not gone) and I need to get rid of a few more pandemic purchases. The accidentally huuuuge bottle of oregano is not quiiiiite ready to go yet. I’ll give it a good send-off when it goes. (And don’t worry, this is not my first “post”-pandemic purge.) Also, moving back and forth to the moomincabin in the summer always results in some duplicates, etc. and I still working on weeding last summer’s extra out. Last but not least, a nod to our loverly holiday norovirus. A good gut-purge always serves as an impetus for a big kitchen purge.

Faaaar in the faaaarplace, cold outside but seems like any snowstorms will hit well south of us. Winter Storm Whatever. No panic shopping here, not that there ever is.

A cluttered photo that shows this year’s xmas tree. It is “skinnier” than usual and I am happy with that. Navigating around our usual xmas trees in order to turn the lights off for the night has always been a challenge. We also don’t have a whole crap-ton of ornaments on it. Less is better.

We had guests over here tonight and the GG “wowed” them by playing actual record albums on our 1980s vintage turntable. Other components in this tower (to the right of the tree) are newer and I couldn’t probably tell you what vintage all of them are. But the records we were playing were vintage also, some of them American western stuff my parents bought after WWII (Sons of the Pioneers, etc.), others Irish stuff I bought after we were married. I love Spotify when I can get it to work with our crappy music pods but I indulged the GG tonight especially since he was willing to play DJ.

I remember when we bought that “entertainment center”. It was like $800 for a turntable, radio, cassette player and I fergit what else. At some point we added a music CD player. $800 was a lot of money for us then. Our first daughter was a very small babe in arms when we bought the thing and we were standing in line at an electronics store or whatever, waiting to buy it when she began to get a little fussy. Is she hungry or does she just need to, y’know, suck on something? There were no accommodations available for feeding a baby in that store so I stuck my little finger in her mouth and that did the trick until we could get to somewhere else. I am not anti-pacifier (or anti anything that gets a parent “through the night”) but we chose not to use pacifiers and it worked for us. TMI?

I was pretty insistent that I got to have some chill-out time before bed, i.e., goooo home or Ima gonna let the dogs out. I neeeeeed chill-out time before bed. Otherwise I struggle to settle into sleep. We operate on different circadian rhythms than our friends and there ain’t no way I will ever stay *up* until 5:15 AM or even 2:00 AM. 5:15 AM is when I am beginning to poke my head up for the day.

Two grock stores in the morning and then a bunch of chores and lamb stew for dinner! G’night, KW!

Disclaimer: I did not take the photo of the woman rowing. It was an xmas gift to me and the GG and I have it on the shelf above the kitchen counter. After the sun went down (WELL after the sun went down, I mean), I looked up and saw my kitchen LED lights reflected in the glass and took this meta-pic. The woman rowing is our daughter and we love the pic and I hope it is okay that I posted this altered pic.

Moving on into 2025. It is a new year and I do not make resolutions. A lot of people (non-Trumpers like me) are maybe kind of freaked out about the future. I am too, make no mistake! He is just about the worst person to obtain the American presidency ever. We’ve endured him once, why oy why do we have to endure him again? A mini Trump primer (again): HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT HIMSELF.

The only way I can approach the new year is to roll into it with the attitude that “I can carry on”. I said this to people who asked if I was okay after my uber boss Amazon Woman got laid off a few years ago. I think some of them thought I might quit. Nope. I mean. I am an adult. A mature adult at that. I have raised two awesome women (actually they raised themselves) and buried my entire childhood nuclear family (brother dad mother) and, yes, I can carry on. I hope…

I know that there are others out there who don’t have the means or the psychological stamina to carry on. Praying for you in my own godless way.

In the process of canceling our little NYE party, our beach urchin side-channeled us to say something like, “I know youse guyz have been cooped up for a while so maybe I’ll come over for a while tomorrow (New Years Day) for some spirits.”

Yes we have been cooped up. Not that we can’t get out or haven’t. I mean we drove to a rest area the other day to drop off North Country Trail swag. Just I dunno. It has been a struggle to get through this holiday season and I am glad it’s over. I think.

So the beach urchins and one SO did come over this afternoon. I had smoked salmon and fancy goat cheese spread and they brought samosas and some fancy blueberry cider.

I “have” to work tomorrow. I don’t really have to work tomorrow. I could take tomorrow and Friday off. I reeeeealllly want to but… If I do, that means I will have already burned two days of paid time off for 2025. Which I don’t want to do. I will be taking a certain day in mid-January off. The anniversary of the day my dad locked himself out of our shabby little Superior Street bungalow in Sault Ste. Siberia and had to break in through a basement window. At least I think that’s what happened. I definitely do not remember it.

We’ve been “watching” the Rose Bowl. It is over now but we could have done without the chucklehead commentators that commandeered our viewing experience. Bah humbug.

I looked across the street and there was a big billow of smoke rolling along. What was it? Ohhhh! They’re lighting faaarworks over there. Putting two and two together in true Gladys Kravitz style… 1) There are little kids across the street tonight but the neighbors have exactly one adult daughter and she’s expecting their first grandchild soon. 2) There are no extra vee-hickles around so no big party or whatever. …I’m guessing that they are babysitting for the wife’s young charges (she’s a nanny) while their parents go out and party. Those children are in good hands this evening.

It was difficult to get a photo, so this is about the best I got. That pesky tree juuuust to the left is a culprit and for reasons I couldn’t articulate if I tried, I couldn’t navigate to a better view without going outside my house, which I didn’t want to do because it is once again raining cats and dogs or maybe I should call it “snaining” because it is laced with a bit of that white stuff.

We were scheduled to attend a party tonight too. A low-key dinner affair at Lizard Breath’s house that we’ve been doing the last few years and one I find myself looking forward to. Alas, noro put the kibosh on that. Oh, we’re basically over the disease but still a bit low in appetite and a bit fatigued, making it difficult for the hostess to feel like cooking a whole bunch of fancy stuff (she’s a really good cook). We’ll plan a party later on and maybe that shrimp ring that’s been in my freezer since about September (don’t ask, I can’t even remember the timeline myself) will finally get used.

This is okay. Like I said, we are *all* still coming around (I mean, we are FINE, don’t worry about us🐸). But also, given what Old Man Winter is doing now along with the overnight forecast, it is probably not the best night to be gallivanting around. Although I am skeptical that we’ll actually get the kind of freezing rain that makes it impossible to drive around town. If we get freezing rain at all.

Happy New Year to y’all! Love, KW

Light-dark-light. Saturday. Bright sunshine and no clouds ALL DAY. Sunday. Heavy heavy rain ALL DAY. Monday (today). Bright sunshine and no clouds ALL DAY.

We took a drive to a rest area this afternoon. Specifically, the Monroe I75 SUV Speedway Michigan Welcome Center. Why did we drive to a rest area? To deliver North Country Trail flyers, of course. Why would you drive to a rest area? This kind of activity is relatively frequent for Michigan’s Designated Helper, aka the GG.

This involved going south and Mr. Golden Sun was so bright, I was wishing I had my sun hat because he is also low in the sky and there are no leaves on the trees so there was pretty much no escape from him. We took the back roads home, which involved driving west and north and that was much easier on the eyes since Mr. Golden was basically at our backs.

I took this photo of the Methodist Church in Deerfield, a little town in SE Michigan. The GG subsequently took a pic of a Catholic Church (balancing out our respective childhood religious persuasions) but I posted this one.

We continue to improve from noro but are still a bit fatigued and my digestive system is slowly restarting. TMI? I promise, nothing gross about this. I ran into my mouse this morning and she was fully KN95 masked for the [noro] duration. I did not mask for my grock trip but I was only in there for a few minutes and didn’t interact closely with anyone except her. I did not have to spend the entire day with people getting in my face asking me questions, etc. Her main reason for masking at this point is to protect *others* although knowing even the bitsy-est bit about how viruses work, we *think* we are probably not contagious at this point.

Major chore of the day was de-contaminating the bathroom. It needed it anyway and noro pushed me over the edge.

Tonight’s whitefish dish is in the oven. The recipe title (from a long ago Gourmet Magazine) includes the word “Pacific” and I know there are probably different kinds of whitefish everywhere but mine is good old Lake Superior whitefish, which is a very mild, totally NON-fishy fish. I topped it with capers, black olives (not Kalamata for this particular dish), scallions, and lemon zest, buzzed up in the Cuisinart and sauteed in white wine.

So lots of trivia on a boring kind of day.

Cheers, KW

P.S. I must be feeling a LOT better because writing this has got me thinking about cooking things with Kalamata olives🤣

Okay, 6:30 AM. Let’s get up and get going. And I did. I have approximately three cotton maxi skirts that hang out on the counter next to the sink as I rotate them. (I get dressed in the bathroom.) One of these was a bit soiled (don’t ask), which means the others were suspect since they were all bunched together. Plus other laundry (some of it also suspect). So I took a quick shower and threw the whole mess in the washer PDQ.

We’ll never know for sure but after some googling, we think our illness was caused by a norovirus. Our case timeline (who got sick when and after which gathering) is complicated but my gut says it wasn’t food poisoning, which was also under consideration.

I wasn’t moving at top speed this morning but I was pretty darn fine. As my system is restarting, my main food for today was Saltines with butter, an old childhood “treat”. I texted that to the beach urchins and one of them said it actually sounded kind of good. I was still being careful but I’ve got xmas leftovers warming in the oven for tonight and the sight/smell of them isn’t turning me off. Alas, I will have to throw some of those out after today. I am pretty darn sure they are not contaminated and I HATE to throw food out but I am kinda *done* with xmas food. I’m planning a nice light whitefish dish accompanied by rice and a simple green veggie for tomorrow night and looking forward to it!

I haven’t been able to focus on reading for a while, particularly in the last few days. Sick in the last few days but otherwise various reasons too long to articulate. Then I randomly ran across “The Husbands” (Gramazio). I don’t know if I’d call it great literature – I may even end up calling it “chick-lit”, which I normally steer clear of. But it bends time and space, which I like, and it is hitting the spot so during/after the laundry and word puzzles, I read all day. It also rained cats and dogs all day, which was nice since I was sitting in my window seat.

The GG periodically battles squoils that try to ravage his bird feeders so one year (quite a while back), I bought “Donald” off Etsy. I’m not sure if he really likes “Donald” or not but the rest of us do. This was before Etsy started selling all kinds of cheaply produced stuff from “overseas”. Which, in full disclosure, I have been known to buy. Like cotton maxi skirts. I have more than three of those but three have currently been hanging out in the bathroom. Once a clothes-horse, always a clothes-horse albeit a clothes-horse of a different “color” these days but we’ll go there some other day. Or not.

So yesterday morning I was hanging around doing word puzzles when first one then a second text message came in from people who had barfed multiple times during the night and needed someone to buy the typical comfort food and deliver it. Saltines, cup-a-soup, and ginger ale, etc. Well, sure I can do that. Meijer to get food. Plum has a LOT of fancy stuff but things like saltines and cup-a-soup, not so much, at least not in the form factor that people remember them from when they were children. In the pic I am on the way from the country mouse’s house to the city mouse’s house.

Okay. Much later in the day, 4:00-ish, it was time to take the garbage carts out. I felt strangely chilly and almost asked the GG to do the deed but he was still feeling fugly so I sucked it up and did it myself. Maybe five minutes after I got back to the house, I was running to the bathroom to do guess what. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Three more bouts of that ensued and then I felt like the worst of it was done but still felt like you-know-what.

I was better this morning and by afternoon I sent the GG over to pick up some leftover crackers and things from the beach urchins. Although I remain on the upswing, I have not done much today, which is driving me nuts.

I am 99% sure this is not COVID. The GG tested negative and although his symptoms were a bit different than the rest of us (no vomiting), this felt like the regular old 24-hour “flu”. Empty your gut and you start feeling better.

That is all you need to know. Cheers.

This is the GG in the Cozy Room with Skeletor. We’ll explore the Cozy Room some other day. This room has had various purposes throughout our tenure here at The Landfill. Sewing room. Computer room. Teenage daughter’s bedroom. Etc. We’ll go there some other day, including when that teenage daughter went to college and her dad TOTALLY rearranged the room her first few weeks away… Not fun. When she came home to go to a concert, she kinda freaked out and I said, “Dad’s at Hoton Lake. Call him.” But she doesn’t much care any more so it’s the GG’s lair now.

So, yes, the [baby?] board book “The President and the Big Boy Truck” was noticeable in yesterday’s photo. It was not a 2024 xmas gift from anyone to anyone… Yer fav-o-rite blahgger bought it for herself back in the early days (pre-COVID) of the first Trumpian Bombasty. It flew by on Twitter or somewhere one morning and I snagged it before it went away. Except it didn’t go away…

To me, it seemed to disparage Trump but of all things, my Trumpian life partner actually liked it. He liked it well enough that it disappeared. And I don’t mean he found himself alone with it somewhere that he could put it in the garbage without meeeee seeing it. I mean, he took it out to the Lyme Lounge and added it to his “library” there. All roight! It’s MINE and I want it back. I bought that book a loooong time ago but today I took a gander at whether it is still available. Yes. Yes, it is. New and used at all kinds of online book vendors. Google away.

Okay. Yesterday, I had myself set to cook stuff all day today. Also yesterday, sometime in the mid-afternoon, someone started feeling sick. This worsened throughout the evening and he (yes it was the GG) was miserable all morning, Was it the crackers he had just eaten? Or was it, dun dun dun, COVID? Or just a garden variety xmas flu.

As of this morning, it seemed like we weren’t really doing xmas so I sorta vegged out most of the day. I did drive out to the country mouse’s house to swap a chicken for a more up-to-date COVID test than sometime in 2022. We were *pretty* certain that this was not COVID. It wasn’t exactly the right symptoms (gastro but not the gross stuff, at least not that I know of). And yes, I *know* that COVID symptoms can vary greatly but my gut told me it wasn’t COVID. Anyway, COVID status yet unknown, I was welcomed into the mouse house for coffee and a cinnamon roll and it was a lovely slow drive over the river and through the woods along the dirt roads and at one point, two deer crossed the road in front of me. I was creeping along so in no danger of hitting them.

After three negative COVID tests of various vintage, I am willing to believe that he did NOT have COVID. But still, I was figuring on not having to do much cooking today and that was actually kinda nice. All kinds of “ebaborate abanements” (mid-1980s toddler speak) had been made to deal with the second chicken (don’t ask).

Mid-afternoon I heard some grumping and growling from the bedroom and shortly thereafter a BEAR emerged. Not 100% yet but feeling better enough to be able to consume chex mix and other edibles. So xmas dinner, etc., was on after all. By this time I was “comatose” enough that I couldn’t even remember what I was cooking besides a chicken (or two). I kicked myself out of my “coma” and all the food is in Gertrude’s ovens now and all of the available family is here. And boy oh boy am I glad Gertrude has two ovens because we usually cook holiday birds on the grill but that wasn’t really gonna work out this year for reasons too complicated to repeat here.

That’s about it. Instead of gathering with everyone in the back room to open gifts, I am in the chitchen and the everyone else is in the back room. They are delivering gifts to me and I am sending gifts out to them (because I did not label my gifts). The GG is (mostly) in a quarantine corner just in case.

This angel graces the top of our xmas tree most years.

She was given to me when I was very small by my great aunt Elizabeth, who lived in my grandparents’ house. The angel used to carry a wand in her right hand.

When I was a little kid in Sault Ste. Siberia, my grandparents lived a countable number of blocks away from our shabby little Superior Street bungalow. 8-9-10, I will have to count them the next time I’m up there. And I still GO there thanks to my grandparents passing vacation properties to their children and grandchildren. Thank you!

When I was a little kid, two great-aunts lived with my grandparents in their big house on John Street. There was my eccentric great aunt Ann (Grandma’s sister), who lived in the attic and I’ll talk about her some other day except that she lived to be 103 and I wasn’t named after her but I always worried that I might have been… (I was actually named after Anne of Green Gables, who didn’t like her name either.)

The other great-aunt was Elizabeth (Granddaddy’s sister) and she died when I was seven, my first funeral. I admit I was often a little afraid of Elizabeth. She could be “severe” with small children sometimes (she did not marry or have children). But she could also be kind and I have a particular memory of her that I cherish. When me and my cousins were little kids spending our summers at the Old Cabin, we slept on the Front Porch, which we loved (more on that some other day). One night a thunderstorm rolled in to the moominbeach and there was LOTS of thunder and lightning and we were all pretty scared, or at least I was. Great aunt Elizabeth suddenly appeared to close the numerous big windows and reassure us that the thunder was just Thor (the Norse god, right) rolling his bowling ball.

So whether or not the angel was given to ME or my family (I am unclear on that), I somehow absconded with it when I made my own home here on The Planet Ann Arbor. Wouldn’t you know that the first time we used her as our own tree-topper, her wand somehow got destroyed. I can’t remember what kind of errant weapon did the dirty deed but this was WELL before the Blowgun Era🤪😵‍💫🤣

When I was writing this I was thinking about a song by Lucinda Williams that I thought was called Broken Angel. It is not. It is Drunken Angel. But close enough. (Not that the person who caused the accident was actually drunk when it happened.)

Whew! Last night I wrote about how thankful I was to Old Man Winter for keeping the weather under control and the roads dry for the trip to our annual family holiday party.

And how! Today we’re having a pretty dern good ice storm. In the early afternoon, the GG went a mission to the Bag Tree (shown) to get me a photoooo. When he left, the driveway was wet but not slippery. When he returned like 15 minutes later, the driveway was icy as all getout and he had to salt it as well as the sidewalk. I particularly worry about postal workers when we have an ice storm. I’m pretty sure YakTrax would not be the best for them because they alternate frequently between driving and walking. Getting in and out of a vee-hickle wearing YakTrax comes with its own problems. Maybe they have a different system…

We drove by the Bag Tree last night but it’s difficult to get a pic from a vee-hickle because it is adjacent to a busy and somewhat complicated intersection and it is very hard to stop long enough to take a pic. Plus it was late and we were tired. Not to mention it’s illegal in the Great Lake State to operate a handheld device while driving.

The GG got a couple of good pics but in the end, Lizard Breath sent me the one I have posted, which she took on her walk home from work. It is marginally better than the GG’s pics because it was taken after dark so the tree is lit up. She had a fun time getting home. Ice was the main culprit exacerbated by having to climb a fairly steep hill. She walked on the grass a lot of time.

Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. It’s a rap song so don’t click if rap isn’t your cuppa. I was like, ‘Isn’t there a song ‘Ice Ice Baby’?” Yes, yes, there is. My brain was thinking it was something like Santa Baby. Nope. Rap. And then when I played it, I actually recognized it. I don’t hate rap but it isn’t my tiptop music genre. But Ice Ice Baby is actually pretty good.

Today was the first cFam xmas party since you know when (2019 was the last) and this is the only picture I took. The Twinz of Terror in Santa hats.

In truth, I usually don’t take many photos at events like this. For one thing, I’m pretty terrible at photographing people. Also, I understand why people like to take posed family pictures (even informal ones like at parties) but I kinda hate it and only grudgingly cooperate with it. I much prefer candids, at least when they are not “fuglies”, or photos that show some kind of action, not just a person’s face. Being an amateur iPhone-ographer, I’m only randomly good at capturing those moments.

Oh well, enough of that. I was too busy yakking to take pictures anyway. It was a lovely party, hosted by the Lord and Lady of Linden, the only folks in the family who own a house big enough to host even the fraction of our crowd that could attend. Pizza and some of its friends made it easy on the hostess. I hope. I know I was not much help.

It was great to reconnect to folks in person after so many years. I mean, we have been with a lot of these people individually or in small groups throughout but this once annual big bash has been on hold. I love how well our children’s generation has turned out, the 19 grandchildren of my late parents-in-law. Successful, thoughtful, articulate adults all.

I hung out at the introvert table. The GG was wildly mingling, helping little kids build forts and who knows what else. At one point he flew by to ask me why I wasn’t circulating. My reply was that I was at the introvert table and people were coming to me. And they were. Covid isolation taught me to embrace being introverted and to “re-brand” myself as a “friendly introvert”. I was able to put that into practice tonight.

Bone dry roads at 24 degrees or whatever were also appreciated for our 80 mile round trip. Thank you Old Man Winter.

One of my spaces anyway. This is a chitchen shelf above the counter where I *mainly* use my MacBook Pro. Standing desk if you will. My work laptop resides by the front window, which is another MySpace. I mostly blahg from the Kitchen Counter MySpace but sometimes I take my MacBook over by the window.

This shelf is decorated for xmas. Sorta. Most of the elements in this “scene” are there year-round. Lemme see:

— The glass bottles at the back were purchased for a blueberry liqueur making session the GG undertook waaaaaay back in the Jurassic Age. The liqueur was fine but he never repeated that adventure. I keep the bottles because I like them (not that they are valuable).

— The “cake mold” (I’m guessing that’s what it is) and the flour sifter are from The Commander’s collection. I remember her using the flour sifter when I was little. I don’t remember her using the “cake mold”. I have never used either of them.

— The teakettle? I’m not sure where that’s from. I *think* from The Commander’s collection but it could be a cFam artifact? I *like* old teakettles. When I was a kid, we used HUGE teakettles to heat dishwater in the Old Cabin and later in the moomincabin. This was before we had hot running water in either of those rustic cabins. Then I met the GG and lo and behold, at the moldy old Hoton Lake cabin, in the winter we used a huge teakettle to heat water for washing dishes. I was all on board with that. “I know how to do this, it’s just like home.” This teakettle looks too small to heat dishwater so I’m not sure I have its story straight. Maybe the GG used it for camping back in the day? I dunno.

— Red ornament: Red tree with the Great Lake State cut out in the middle (embiggen). The Uncly Uncle gifted me with this a few years ago. Embarrassing story is that I posted it on facebook when I first received it. But. I posted it BACKWARDS so the Upper Peninsula was “pointing” EAST instead of WEST. I have a lot of FB friends in/from the yooperland so you can guess what they thought🤪 It is correct in this pic and it stays there all year just so I remember where I came from, as if I needed a reminder.

— Green ornament: Frog. He doesn’t stay out year round even though I love him.

— Oh yeah, that white fluffy thingy is to clean out glasses or whatever. It is too pretty to use so I have never used it.

P.S. We’ll talk about the continuing resolution and Trump and his “advisor” Elon’s meddling in the process some other day. Or not… I’m just glad gov’t employees (and don’t forget the contractors) know when their next paycheck is coming. A lot of those folks are living paycheck to paycheck. Been there done that and also through a few gov’t shutdowns myself.

This falls into the category of “looking for something else, I found this”. Looking for what? I wasn’t really sure. December-type images, I guess.

It’s my dad sitting next to the Dillon Street faaaaaplace. My brother’s dog Sam is next to him and my brother’s wife is to the left of the dog. Behind her is the door to the Dillon House kitchen. The pic was taken on December 27, 2001. We must have traveled up there after xmas that year since we NEVER actually spent xmas day there.

Except once. When Lizard Breath was two months old I so wanted to take my infant up to spend xmas with her grandparents and various other relatives. Okay. Freezing rain on the way up so bad we actually got a motel room halfway up. Rain and freezing rain the whole week we were there to the point where it was hard to walk anywhere. Freezing rain on the way back home. The baby was crying in the back seat of our little Ford Fiesta. It was too dangerous to take her out of her car seat, which I have been known to do, so I reached back there and grabbed her feet. That settled her down for a while but the last half hour of the trip was dicey.

I swore right then and there that I would never make a plan to travel to the yooperland specifically *for* xmas again. I only got two weeks of vacation time back then and I would save it for summer. That’s not to say that we never went there during the holiday season again, just that we always spent xmas eve and day in our own house on The Planet Ann Arbor, creating our own holiday “traditions”, willy-nilly as they were (and still are).

The xmas in the pic, that tiny infant was in her senior year of high school. Her granddaddy lasted another five years. My brother (his son) left us nine months before he died.

Not to leave this on a sad note. I am still feeling some random holiday grumpiness but I took the afternoon off, the last four hours of my use-or-lose paid time off for 2024. I can’t say I got a whole lot done this afternoon but I was able to think ahead a bit about menu planning, which opened up some head space.

P.S. On the long-ago trip up north with the infant, when we FINALLY arrived, The Commander (her grandmother) was sitting in a chair next to the front door. I put the baby in her lap and… The baby, who hadn’t seen her grandmother in six weeks, looked up and immediately broke out in a HUGE smile! Did she remember her grandmother? Who knows.

xmas that is.

I don’t have gifts for *anyone* beyond the items they specifically requested. This always feels odd to me because I used to shower my kids et al with gifts. But we are all in the same boat with tooooo much crapola and the last thing I want to do is load them up with stuff to re-gift or take to the Kiwanis sale. BTW, gifts I do give come with no strings attached, meaning they can be re-gifted or donated without guilt. I would never visit their houses and ask, “Where is that ugly gewgaw I gave you three xmases ago?”

I am feeling really disorganized about xmas-type meals. Shopping must be done and at multiple places and I am… Well… Discombobulated. A bit of a reprieve came when the GG corrected me that the cFam party is on Sunday, NOT Saturday like I was thinking. One or two of the places I need to shop are only open on Saturday and the party is 45 minutes away. And and and…

We are having the cFam party this year for the first time since 2019 (pre-covid of course). It will be hosted by the hostess with the most-est. I mean she has a spacious house with multiple bathrooms. Plus she is a good hostess.

This can be a difficult time of year to throw a party here in the Great Lake State because weather. Fingers crossed that we don’t have to traverse a frickin’ ice storm like the year I was getting over the vomiting virus from hell and sat in a chair ALL NIGHT. No mingling for me. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t contagious by that time but post-covid I sure think about communicable diseases differently than I used to. Like even if I am a disease warrior, others may not be so I keep my distance if I have cold symptoms, etc. Or stay home.

The pic is of a setting moon. Waning gibbous from a couple years ago. The moon right now is also waning gibbous (but 10 days or so later). We can’t see the moon because cloud cover. And probably snow but I haven’t looked outside in a while.

Actually it’s an old pic. We still have some lights strung on the back of the “puano” (toddler-speak) but a lot of them are burnt out these days. Actually I would like to get rid of the piano…

I had a very grinchy morning. I get like that every xmas. Feeling behind about getting things done and are there enough gifts for everyone? Etc. I started to take my grinchie-ness out on the GG but then I realized what it was and backed off.

Giving (i.e., making a donation) this afternoon put me in a better mood somehow. I got serious about philanthropy when The Commander died and I took over a few of her causes. Sault [Ste. Siberia] Historic Sites, etc. (In case the GG deigns to read this entry, my disclaimer is that I *know* we are NOT “Warren Buffet” and I consider my donations carefully.)

Today an email came in from the Washtenaw Community College (WCC) Foundation and I made a donation. This is an organization that changed my life, even though I wasn’t exactly looking for a change.

I have a college degree (music) from long ago but instead of working in that field (I had no clue where to start), I fell into a tech job. Always an autodidact, I taught myself the BASIC computer language on our original Apple II+. At my job, I figured out FORTRAN. When Al Gore invented the internet [that’s a joke], I figured out how to code html PDQ and made my own (crappy) website along with sites for the middle school science fair and the youth theatre guild my kids (and I) were involved in.

I knew that I wasn’t coding html using “best practices”, so back in the early oughts (2000s), I took myself back to college. To WCC. There I found some of my people. Their web design/dev program was highly esteemed and I found the profs to be absolutely EXCELLENT. As luck would have it, one of my profs decided we needed to do internships as a part of an advanced class. The internship he assigned me to was the only PAID internship. $12 an hour was more than I was making at the time ($0) so with some trepidation, I did the interview and took the drug test. And wow has it paid off as I was hired full-time with a good salary after a couple months.

Community college can be a great opportunity but it’s worth noting that many of the folks who attend are just scraping by and don’t all have the background or support to be successful. I often sat next to a young man with learning disabilities (?) and although he was sincere about learning, I don’t think he could read well enough to succeed and I sometimes wonder where he is now. I would never let anyone copy any of my homework that was for credit (got busted for that in 7th grade in an attempt to be “popular”) but when we did in-class group activities that were not graded, I did let him copy. Laboriously, sigh.

This young man is one of the reasons I donated (and will continue to donate) to the WCC Foundation. And people like him are one of many reasons I do NOT support the Trump party. That party cares only about Trump and all of his billionaire friends. What does he know about a kid who has a learning disability, a disabled wife, a beloved cat, and no car (just a few facts that I know about this guy). Some of these folks do not have the bootstraps I (and Trump) grew up with.

This photooo is from last year and I can’t remember what got sent with dry ice then but TODAY’s delivery was LOBSTER POT PIE! The Mad Scientist did some of his usual dry ice shtick stuff but today’s pics were not as good as last year’s although I posted them on Instagram *anyway*.

I have two and a half days of work and then I am off until January 2. And that is about it.

G’night. KW.