Thread Drift

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Mimi...your postal system over there is SUPER WIMPY!!!
A few years ago we had a THREE FOOT snowfall and they STILL delivered the mail, even out over all the rural roads. (And we can't even use chains here!)

I posted a couple pix of my snowshoe trek yesterday over in the snowshoeing thread. Here is the post and the pictures:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showp...&postcount=149
I'm surprised I am not as sore today as I imagined I would be. Last night I felt pretty beat up, but this morning only mild muscle soreness. A good long night's sleep helped.

[Fredwina]

after PT this morining:

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

The 3 grown children are not visiting right at Xmas this year, so DH and I were on our own this year....an odd sensation. This evening we went down into town where our local Welsh pub owner Tom serves up traditional steak & kidney pie and plum pudding to the townsfolk at the pub for FREE every Christmas Eve. He makes it all himself, and serves about 100 or more people. He does this several times a year during certain holidays- (free corned beef and cabbage for St.Patrick's, etc) he's a cool dude.
So we did that and are back home again.
Tomorrow we will open our few modest presents over morning coffee, probably go for a brisk walk, and maybe watch some movies after I make some chicken soup from the leftover chicken. A peaceful day.
The snow is m-e-l-t-i-n-g.......and more days above freezing are ahead.

I hope everyone here has a cozy enjoyable day tomorrow.

[Crankin]

Your day sounds nice, Lisa. I can't believe someone makes all those dinners for free. He must be quite a guy. A lot of our snow melted in the rain and warm temperatures yesterday. Now the winds are howling.
We had our annual Jewish Christmas Eve at a local Chinese restaurant last night. The 2 couples we do this with have included our cycling friends (Brant and Janine) the last 2 years, so now we joke that we have our token Christian to help us celebrate. The food was really good, but I've having too much wine this week! We are going on an AMC local walk/hike in an hour and a half. It's right near our house, so hopefully, it will be fun and we might meet some additional outdoor oriented people.

[Fredwina]

we've got a nice rainy Christmas. I'm supposed to go do altar guild for X-mas mass, and then go make home made tamales

[bmccasland]

Very humid and foggy here in the Big Easy, supposed to rain later. The air is so heavy it hurts to breathe. I know I live in a banana republic, but didn't think I lived in the true tropics??? Our local paper did a collage (sp?) of all the little snowmen photos people sent in from the snow we got 2 weeks ago for the banner above the headline, together they were rather cute.

[OakLeaf]

DH's favorite rendition of Dickens, with a video collage:

http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/20928-...y-lord-buckley

Merry Christmas all!

[salsabike]

Good morning, New Orleans. The snowman collage sounds like fun--can you post it?

[bmccasland]

Good morning, New Orleans. The snowman collage sounds like fun--can you post it?

I found a pdf of the front page of the paper:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/pageone...08A01metro.pdf

Probably some where on http://www.nola.com is the collage itself, but I'm not sure where.

[salsabike]

Love the guy with the green hair!

[Biciclista]

checking in after an exhausting family day.
We live on a hill which is still covered in slush and snow. the 11 miles from my mother's house to here is bare pavement. the last two blocks are hilly and snowy. we instructed my stepfather to leave his car at the supermarket and we would come get him. no, he wanted to drive his car up the hill. so he did. and got stuck. he wouldn't let my son who drove down the the safeway take him home nor would he let him drive HIS car. we finally got his car safe and we had a very nice time. but then he wanted to leave early (and i'm glad they did...). and he got REALLY stuck in a depression between two little hilly streets 1/2 block from here. it took both sons and DH to get him out. Then finally DH convinced him to let DH drive him to the bare pavement.
lots of nonsense about all that. My sons were great. both DH and i want them to kick us in the head if we get like that...
meanwhile, even though the weather reporting places are saying it's 33 degrees out, ICE has formed all over the place again!!!
be careful out there. And yes, i got some awesome gifts.

[jobob]

lots of nonsense about all that. My sons were great. both DH and i want them to kick us in the head if we get like that...

LOL! We just got back from dinner with my sister-in-law and she told us a story about her & Lee's dad very similar to that. Well, without the ice & snow, but the same general stubbornness that ultimately leads to huge hassles for all involved.

Must be something about holidays that brings that out in people ...

[bmccasland]

I had a good time with my Jewish friend - Chinese buffet, then we played dominoes. I've never played before, and tied for 2nd

Drove home in fog thick as pea soup. VERY happy to get home. The streets were wet with condensation. If I was a fern or Spanish moss, I'd be a happy plant. Driving a car, not so much.

[salsabike]

Yesterday--We had 12 people here, including us, to eat fresh Dungeness crab, steamer clams, salad, asparagus, mashed potatoes. We got four more inches of snow overnight, total in the last week about 16-17 inches, in a city whose government apparently is quite proud of its strategy not to clean the streets. Chris had to go pick up his 89 year old dad and 88 year old stepmom and 80-some year old auntie (he has a four wheel drive pick up truck). Then he had to go to a local big parking lot to pick up his brother, wife, mother in law, and three kids because they couldn't drive their van down our uncleared streets.

Just before he had to leave for the first trip, he dropped a can of Pepsi (NOT diet), and it exploded all over our pantry. YEE-ha! The pantry is where our bike stuff, cleaning stuff, boxes of garbage bags, and various other miscellany lives. The bathtub is full of the bike panniers, backpacks, hiking boots, and whatever else got splooshed with sticky soda, waiting to be rinsed. I am thinking of just emptying them of all their contents and then just stepping on into the shower and taking a shower with them all. On the theory that I'm gonna get wet anyway...

We had a great time, though. I made cheddar scones and gorgonzola scones and Dutch cookies. Our friend Neal made apple and lemon and pecan pies. We got our third, or maybe it's our fourth, oven mitt from my husband's aunt, for Christmas--I love her, although I don't use oven mitts much. Actually, I really like everyone in his family. Was glad to host our pie-baking friend as well, who is going through a very bad divorce and would have been alone at Christmas for the first time in 20 years. Glad he was with us instead.

Neither of Chris' presents arrived in time because of the snow, so we haven't done any present exchange yet.

I was snoozing on the couch by 8:30 pm and finally staggered off to bed before 9:30, which I never do.

It's thawing! Hurray.

Happy holidays, you all.

[Crankin]

We went on an interesting 6 mile AMC hike yesterday. Well, the listing said hike or snowshoe, depending on conditions. We brought the snowshoes and wore the gaiters in case. When we got there, it was kind of a toss up. The snow was not super deep, as it had rained a bit, but we were going into the deeper woods. We decided not to wear them.
Well, it was kind of a bad decision. It wasn't terrible, but let's say that my calves are screaming today. I was able to hike in the snowshoe prints mostly, but a few places were wet and mushy and I was glad I had the gaiters on! The hike itself was beautiful. We went through 3 conservation areas. Two we had partially been in, and the third is bordering a road we ride on all of the time. The leader said these trails are good for mountain biking, too. We passed through pine forests, open meadows, streams, and ponds. It got up to about 40 and I had my headband and gloves off for part of the hike.
By the end, me, my husband, and one other woman were fairly far ahead of the leader, always keeping him in sight. He got a little mad, but I calmed him down. I was exhausted, felt like I taken a 50+ mile ride, so I just wanted to get back.
I came home and lay in a bath with the shea butter epson salts that my son's girlfriend gave me.