Good Mornin" Y'all From Chilly Taxachusetts.
Not a cloud in the sky, 26, with the temps expected to hold steady until tonight when we are expected to experience single digit temperatures and a below zero wind chill factor. The snow for this Winter season has been negligible with none in the forecast......but that will change eventually.
It sounds like everyone survived the New Years weekend intact with the medical crud infiltrating the homes of some of you and the football crud depressing others. We are awaiting our turn in the RI52 household with the former and for one quarter appeared doomed to suffer the latter with the New England Patriots.....fell 21 points behind right out of the box, turned off the spigot, and then scored 49 unanswered points against the Buffalo Bills. The seeding, bye, and home field advantage won't mean much this year in the AFC with either the Ravens or the Steelers in my "home" team's path. One thing I don't like about professional football is how banged up teams are at this point in the season with top flight starters out of action or hobbling. My Bears are out of it so I will be rooting for SJ's Lions in the NFC which appears to have the teams this year (GB and NO) to put an NFC on the top of the stack in this year's Super Bowl. Is it me, or are defense and the running game dead in professional football? That makes the game boring for me.
We had 19 here at my place for New Years Eve with 10 no-shows due to the crud affecting 3 families' children who had planned to attend. I don't know where they would have all fit here as the place seemed packed and humming from 7PM until 1AM......with trains running around the tree in the LR and a nice fire going in the FR. The attendees ranged in age from 2 to 82. We serve a huge assortment of finger foods like fruit, fresh veggies, cheeses, every sinful appetizer imaginable, and way too many desserts. As is our custom, it is a BYOB affair where we supply all of the non-alcoholic beverages, a sparkling fruit-filled sangria, and the champagne. NO ONE BROUGHT ANY ADULT BEVERAGES. The next thing I know my entire beer inventory was liquidated in short order; the wine stock and the liquor cabinet were tapped as well. But overall, this is a far more sedate and conservative crowd when it comes to imbibing than the exact same cast of characters that have attended in past years. Children seem to beget a safe and sane behavior in folks who were formerly serial party animals and maniacs!!!!
RaySP.........was glad your "issue passed." We told Santa to put coal in your stocking but he seems to have messed up and put it elsewhere.
Jeffrey........I had to take a couple of ibuprofen and a nap after reading about your excapades with your Mom's furniture. There is nothing better than to have a slave son to work mercilessly moving furniture. It sounds as if she didn't get the memo that as we sons age our heavy lifting responsibilities are supposed to be phased out. Hope you can recover from this current flurry of her interior decorating.
JoeyD........it sounds to me like with all of the leaf pickup duties you have that Sherwood Forest has been moved to Japan. I got to wondering.......are the cable/satellite TV bills as bad in Japan as they are here in the States? Are cellular phones more prevalent than land lines for use in the homes?
WES......where are you?
Buckeye.......did you ever rectify your "gas" issue in Eastern Snohio?
Chuck........I keep reading about your chores but your list never seems to include cleaning your track after your more recent adventure. You need to rearrange your priorities.
DougM and Kev.........I hope your supply of thermal underwear is adequate. Sounds like you are sending your frigid temps my way. Direct them in a more Southeasterly direction please. I am getting depressed listening to the whining about temps 30-40 degrees higher than mine. Chief and Dennis......are you listening?
JimmyT........thanks for the pics of this year's Christmas layout. It appears you have 4 loops this time around and some new toys? With the PGT dilemma, next time you may want to run the prospect up on a rack at your local service center for a more complete inspection of the underpinnings. They don't call it the rust belt for nothing. You may want to part out this one and recover some of your investment. Others are out there looking for parts, and you have them!!!! Prayers continue on your job hunt prospects.
Dennis........I have to say that the Nikon D3100 DSLR (with video) was a sound camera investment. I spent a lot of time reading professional (comparison) reviews and researching my needs and concerns before I bought this one. I got it a few days before Christmas and have yet to open the instruction manual. The user friendliness with "on board" guides, easy to understand/recognize icons, sensible drop down menus, a 3 inch LCD and an (diopter) adjustable viewfinder, the provided 18MM-55MM VR Nikor lens (bought the 55MM-200MM optional VR lens too), and the 1080P HD video with sound capabilities make this a solid choice for anyone wanting to enter the world of a DSLR camera that will do a lot of things better than a point and shoot. I purchased a 32GB class 10 SanDisk memory card which will (allegedly) hold 4,500 photos on the 'finest" highest resolution setting or 100 minutes of HD video set on on 1080P. Just as important, the data read/write data transfer rate of the memory card eliminates any choppiness in the video. Our Christmas pictures came out so well that even my wife had to comment "What a difference!" The wife did her usual search for the best prices on the planet and Ritz Camera came out on top (free shipping too).
Rich........Christmas with the Princess versus the job front. Your glass is 3/4 full, and something will pop for you too now that the holidays are behind us. Hang in there, buddy!
I have a new kitchen faucet to install. I'll check back later when the floods have subsided. I attended the Brutus School of Plumbing.
Jack