Just not in the spirit, could be the 64 degrees

Sammy Dog being cute.

It is too warm and foggy for Christmas. Big Daddy finally put the mulch away this weekend, we figured we had pushed the limits of the moderate climate. I am finished with the Christmas shopping and sent some of the items straight to the kids. They won't be wrapped but you can't take wrapped on the plane with any guarantee they won't be opened. And that would really tick me off if TSA unwrapped my presents.

Punkin Head tells me Curly is regular at the rolling over and rolling back. So far she is not rolling clear across the room. The NICU persons have declared her just fine and normal and nothing to worry about so we are all thrilled. Except I have never been a fan of normal. Oh well.

I need to start getting ready for our trip to Vermont for Christmas. We are going to Burlington and they seem to be needy in the good hotel arena. We will see. We do have reservations for Christmas dinner in town, the only snag the car parking lot is guarded by a towing company and you need a pass of sort some on the car. I will need to get the pass and walk it back while Big Daddy guards the rental car. This does give me some worries.

BD has finally been given the lowly Silver Status by Delta Airlines again so he was able to snag us Exit Row Seats on the plane. Woohoo.

Another savage display, San Bernardino

Tulip Grove Mansion on the grounds of the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home, Nashville.

We toured this home along with the Hermitage and grounds back in 2008 I believe. This house was not furnished but fascinating for the history.

I just downloaded Windows 10 and the only thing I see different is all my old pictures are now in one place, I think.

I cannot imagine why some jackass is shooting up a place in California that takes care of disabled and challenged people. WTF.  Wonder if it is a case of the government turned down "my child". So sad either way.

Big Daddy is making smoked almonds for me to hawk to the general public. And I may be making my savory cookies. The only thing, I am just not in the holiday spirit. Listening to Christmas music while I drive is not doing it. And I have no interest in putting up a tree.

Back in the day

This is at the Rose Gardens in Portland.

I finally got the photos out of the new camera. We were the only ones to take pics at Thanksgiving before we left and I promised my MIL to send  her the photos of my niece. She had this childs rocker that was Big Daddy's grandfather's rocker and in front of all of this she gave it to niece. I thought that kind of tacky as no one else has received any momento. Whatever.  

Big Daddy looks happy there, we made him do the hat thing.

I ordered business cards today, most work done.

Still need to get one Christmas present, but I will not go shopping at the brick and mortars again until after the holidays. It is crazy out there. Came home and ordered the rest off the Internet.

I picked up a guy for Lyft and when I went past his house and pulled in the driveway there was a smashed car at the curb. Dumb ole me, I am thinking why did they get the car towed here. Nope, a drunk driver driving on the wrong side of the street had a head on with his parked car. Which is why he needed a Lyft.

My head hurts

I believe I have the beginnings of a sinus infection. I have been taking the "special behind the counter-so you can't make meth-pills" for a week and it is going south on me. So I called the doctor and have an appointment for early afternoon, tomorrow. I think I need the sinus cocktail shot and some antibiotics.

Sammy Dog is sick and at first I feared that we had the rare but dreadful human to dog virus. I am pretty sure that is not true as Sammy Dog is still alive and that apparently kills in 24 hours. He is not a happy camper though. And Big Daddy did not make his pee and poop area big enough so we had a dreadful morning. First thing when he came home we have an enlarged hole and a new area and Sammy peed in them both, kinda like a christening I think.

I am so excited about my weight, and no I am not losing weight because I am sick. It is not that kind of sick. But all together as of today I have lost 17 and 1/2 pounds since the middle of June. And if they are new pants I am back in my old size, the size before I was thinner. This is also the size that sells out quickly. I am wearing the old belt as I am still somewhat between sizes and would like to be able to wear my old pants and not have to purchase an entire new wardrobe for work. But imagine the excitement of not only seeing a new number on the scales, but also skipping a number. Wooeee.

Also, I am over the moon the closer our trip to Portland. We fly out Christmas Day for the long journey to the kids and the only thing we have so far is some candy's Big Daddy bought for the flight attendants. I have to get going on all this, hopefully after the doctor tomorrow I will start feeling better.

Sweetest Day

Yep, we have a stupid made up holiday here in Michigan known as Sweetest Day. So I ask Big Daddy what he is bringing me home for Sweetest Day. He was stumped and stymied as to what I was talking about and then he remembered. As he had gone to Mexico for 6 days and it was a made up stupid holiday I did expect something. He bought flowers and is trying to pass that off as a gift to me. He buys flowers about once a week anyway so that is not gonna fly.

I think I had/have a canker sore in my mouth. I do not know what they are but yesterday I had a terrible pain on the inside of my cheek and what appeared to be a painful bump. Really the whole side of my face hurt. Then it kinda went away and today there is nothing. Now I never really looked at it-nothing good would come from looking-but the bump and pain are gone.

I do have good news for me. The kids are staying in Portland for Christmas and Mama and Big Daddy are planning a trip to go see them and their new environment. It is so exciting. New hotels and restaurants and places to see. And we may be able to go first class as we must use up our miles before Delta declares them useless. And I get to see Punkin Head and The Bride. It will be so exciting. We have not spent Christmas with PH since either New Orleans or Montreal. I can't remember which was the last trip. We never did make it to New York City.

Late Christmas

One of the mansions on Lakeshore

Well we had our Christmas last night with the kids. We got Punkin Head an Aeropress coffee maker, it is a small plastic thing that you pour your cup of hot water in and it makes the best coffee outside of using a 700 dollar espresso machine. It is so lightweight and small it is easy to pack. We also got him the small electric grinder so he is now set and does not need to go out for coffee. He is like his dad and picky about the coffee. I do appreciate a nice cup of coffee but in the morning I will drink the Krups pot dry.

Oh we also gave Punkin Head one of our iron skillets. We still have around 6, we collected them for years. But just how many do you need and Punkin Head wanted one so I got Big Daddy to take care of that wish. And it was already seasoned. It still needs more seasoning though.

The kids got us some nice books which I will talk about later. The Fiancee liked The Cats book I got from Pearl,thanks Pearl,. I said it was about the Minneapolis Biteys and she said Liza Bean and I cracked up. We had a nice dinner, ordered in from The Dish and a nice time was had by all.

When Big Daddy went out this morning the whole town smelled like booze, as in dark colored whiskey. We were not sure if the Slavs were cooking up a holiday concoction until BD went further into town and the smell got stronger. The Canadian Club distillery is just across the lake where it meets the river so I suspect something happened there. And his trip out this morning leads to tomorrow's post . . .

It's not beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Okay it is starting to get on my nerves about no Christmas here at the old homestead. Well, we do have the wreath on the front porch but I am not gonna sit outside and look at the decoration.

The wallpaper is not in so we can't get the paint matched yet. Project on hold.

It is raining cats and dogs. Not really is raining copious amounts of water. We were supposed to get snow, but no we are getting rain. So it will be soggy and damp tonight. Rain is boring

We need to go get wrapping paper as we did not get a gift of present wrapping necessities this year. I forgot we used to get gifts from Big Daddy's suppliers in the good old days. If we wait (which I know BD is going to think is a good idea) all the stuff will be gone the day after Christmas and we need to wrap for the kids as they are coming after Christmas to visit with us. They are going to Vermont for Christmas with The Fiancee's family.

We have not spent Christmas here for years and years. We always went away for Christmas. In China we were certainly away and BD took some vacation days to make it seem like a holiday. We usually went to New Orleans, though once after Hurricane Katrina we went to Montreal. I have never been so cold as we were in Montreal, mostly because I did not dress properly for freezing your ass off temperatures. I wore a full length beaver coat and gloves and boots and bought a fur hat and still felt like a popsicle.  And we walked everywhere in the snow and Montreal does not shovel sidewalks and walkways.

We need a plan to get through this Christmas and start fresh in the new year, just dust this past year off our shoes and carry on.

Driving Miss Daisy to drink

Chocolate Santa, Amay's Christmas present.

Yesterday was a roller coaster ride. Boredom followed by sheer fright.

The ride home to Shanghai did not commence until 4:30 PM. I sat in the lounge from check-out at 2 until about 4, taking very tiny sips of my wine. This was because I was monitoring liquids as I knew peeing on the way home was not an option. It is a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive. We made one stop, for roasted corn on the cob and truck stop Christmas presents for Frenchey's family. He bought his wife a phony handbag from a truck stop in east lower hell.

The driver was a crazy man who has obviously never worked in automotive as he assumed all his equipment was far, far beyond 6 Sigma. The highlight of the trip was when we were drafting 2 huge trucks, we were straddling the white line and flashing our lights. The trucks parted like the Red Sea and we quickly scooted between them. We only used the lights once in a while, no one uses lights full time here, only when they feel the need.

When we got to Pudong Airport the car had barely stopped before Big Daddy snagged a taxi, this is kinda illegal for them to pick up at that spot, and we were on our way home in a flash. It seemed like the shortest ride ever and the driver was the best ever. He got a huge tip. He seemed sad and tired and I thought, well God blessed us with this driver and him with the easy and lucrative fare. So I gave him the Christmas tip hoping that maybe he would have at least an easier night and something nice for the weekend.

I was complaining to Tony at the hotel about the train ticket problem. He is so strange. He agreed with me and then asked if I knew about the train accident. And he said it as if that explained everything. I am thinking what, you make it harder to get tickets when the train crashes, for what purpose? Further conversation mentioned there were some really recent government inspections on this line and maybe they were not in compliance with the regulations. Tony said it should get better next year.

BD had another job interview Thursday morning, 5 AM China time. But the company is going into holiday shutdown so there will be no feedback until next year.

Punkin Head, you two stay safe and drive carefully. Love you both. Sorry I missed
your call.