Author: trinalin

Holiday Goings On

Things started off wonderfully this holiday season. Mom & I got up early and headed off to Curves and then to mom’s Weight Watchers meeting. (They had some funny Weight Loss Carols that were played.) Then we popped off to Walmart to pick up two family-sized pizzas from Papa Murphy’s. They make up the pizzas to order, then you bake them yourself. These were for supper. And then it was back home to pick up Papa so we could head off to the airport.

Amy & Rachel arrived in Ohio just fine and only a little late (darn that Detroit airport!). We had a nice lunch at Max & Erma’s and then scooted on home. Mom’s brothers were going to join us for supper (hence the pizza) since the girls head back to Minnesota before the Anderson gathering. Folks all napped and I returned home to goof off (and write my journal entry).

Uncle Bob & Aunt Madeline arrived first, followed by Uncle Doug, Aunt Charlene and finally Patty, my cousin. We all squeezed around the kitchen table for pizza, chips, and popcorn popped in Gramma’s old kettle. (Doug recognized it right away.) We had a nice evening chatting, eating, and laughing. I ate too much (no surprise there).

The next day was our day off. Heh. We decided to spend it shopping. CD Connection to pick up an Amy gift, the pet store for Leo’s present, then K’s for lunch. K’s is a greasy spoon (aka diner) that’s been in Troy since 1935. I got a cheeseburger, fries, and malted milk. Very yummy. And greasy. The way cheeseburgers are meant to be. We then headed off to Kohl’s where I found a bedspread for my winter sheets. It’s flannel and had matching shams & bedskirt all together. I also got a spare set of snowman flannel sheets for when my current winter sheets wear out. Some more Christmas presents were found & bought. And our final stop of the shopping experience was Krogers, for all of the groceries we’d need for the holidays.

Once we got back, I dumped my stuff off in my house. When I got back to the folks’ house, I found out they had a phone call from Aunt Becky – they were waiting on the squad to come & pick up Granny. So mom & dad headed off to Granny’s and followed the ambulance to the emergency room. Granny was having intestinal woes (TMI) but in the process of helping her with that, they found out her blood had gotten too thin and she was bleeding internally. Eep! Had she not had the intestinal complaint, they wouldn’t have found the blood chemistry problem and she probably would have passed away that evening. Yikes!

The good news is that they caught it in time. They were able to stabilize her condition and they admitted her to ICU that night. Mom & dad stayed with her the whole time, finally coming home after 11pm or so. Poor Granny!

Today, Amy, Rachel & I went to visit Granny in ICU. She recognized us OK, but she did have a lot of confusion. She asked about Grandma Lowry (either her grandmother or mother – I’m not sure which). She was convinced that mom & dad were in a car accident and was relieved when we told her that they were both home and fine. It was sad to see her with such confusion, but she is eating and drinking. Not a lot, but it’s something. Her blood pressure is fairly normal now. They still have the intestinal complaint to deal with, so she has that to contend with. But they’ll do what they can for her. When the folks get home from visiting, we’ll find out of there’s anything new.

After visiting Granny, we headed to the Night Sky Cafe for lunch. Grilled cheese on sourdough with tomato & ham, plus a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup, was my lunch. I bought lunch for the girls too. Then off to Wynan’s for coffee (for the girls) and cocoa (peppermint, for me). A stop in The Bakehouse for a chocolate chip cookie split three ways, and we were done with the downtown. We stopped at Krogers once more to pick up something for the parentals, then back home.

I returned home to form the dried beef cheeseballs I made this morning. One for tonight at Granny’s (even though she won’t be there – alas!), one for tomorrow night when we open presents, and two to take along to elsaf‘s. One for the Doctor Who Viewing Party (where her brother and his g/f will join us to watch The Christmas Invasion!) and the other for when Elsa, judiang and I get together in Chicago.

While typing this up, I got a call from CD Connection- the other CD that I ordered is in, so I should probably go get it before the party tonight. Then I can wrap it tonight so it’ll be ready for tomorrow. Yay! I love Christmas!

Granny, get well!

It’s Beginning to Feel a lot like Christmas

I had so much fun recently rereading my LJ entries during last Christmas season, that I’ve decided to try and get as much stuff about this holiday down so that I can remember it as well as I remember last year’s.

Yesterday was our last day of school before Christmas break. As we’ve done for a number of years, we have Spirit of Giving Day. After students make donations to the Pleasant Hill Food Pantry (canned goods or $1) they can sign up for fun things to do during the school day. There are many activities and in my room, it’s Euchre & Card Games. As I love Euchre & other card games, I love hosting this for the high school kids. The first session was mostly seniors & juniors exchanging presents with each other. That was fun to watch. But the other sessions did have games going on. I played Sequence for the first time (a student brought it and Uno) and liked it. Must get that. Played a game of Uno with a group of sophomore & junior (and one senior) boys that looked as though it would never end. It did, right as the session ended. Watched folks play Phase 10 (which is similar to Shanghai Rum). Played spoons with a large group of sophomore girls (and one boy). Finally got to play some euchre, and finished off with a couple of Sequence games. Fun stuff, even if I usually didn’t win. 🙂

Lunch was Papa John’s pizza in the gym (along with some Chex Mix that the FCCLA made for me). And the day was finished with a Pep Assembly that wasn’t too horrible. Well, except for when the cheerleaders pitted 6 male teachers with 6 female teachers to do Pom Pom letters. The men were to spell out NHS with their pom poms. We women were to spell out RED. I kept explaining this to the other 5 women on our team. And they kept trying to make up some new cheer or other. And ended up with some “classic” called Watermelon. I just stood there looking frustrated (well, a bit of overacting for the audience – but yeah, it did annoy the anal retentive person within me) while they did what they weren’t supposed to, but ended up winning anyhoo. I thought the guys did a good job on their NHS, however. 🙂 One of the lady teachers later said “You know, if we’d been graded on a rubric instead of on style, we’d’ve lost.” Heh.

At 1pm, students were dismissed and it wasn’t long after that that our respective principals let us go too. Six of us teachers had plans for shopping and the early dismissal worked nicely into those plans. (The original plan had been to do this the previous Thursday, but the weather had other plans for us.) We all headed off to the Little Professor book store in Troy. I spent lots of money on my little cousins and got a hunk of my Christmas shopping done. Yay! Then onto a little boutique shop on the way to the square. I didn’t get anything there, but it was fun to look around. Once in downtown Troy we stopped in several shops. In the Amish furniture shop, I got more stuff to finish off everyone except Leo. Yay! The Bake House was also one of our stops, so I got a loaf of sourdough bread (sliced on their bread slicer – the coolest thing since, erm, sliced bread). Oh, and some filled croissants for breakfast. Yay!

We finished off our lovely evening at La Piazza, a nice Italian restaurant also in downtown Troy. The food, as always, was excellent. And the conversation with my 5 co-workers (or cow-orkers- a term I introduced to them much to their amusement) was very lively and funny. I really love the people I work with. There were only six of us who went this time, though we’d originally had more planned to go for the Thursday event. Perhaps we’ll get more together in another trip.

So my last day of work in 2005 was a grand day. Full of fun, friendships, and food. And that’s just the start to the holiday. Amy & Rachel are safely home as of 11:45am today. We’ve already had one family gathering and we’ve got more to come. I think I’ll have as much fun this year as last. 🙂

A Tech Christmas Poem

Tomorrow when my users check their e-mails, they’ll see this poem.

A Poem for Christmas by Trina, aged 34

‘Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the school
Several computers were on
And that wasn’t cool.

The computer techs were nestled
All snug in their beds
While visions of Open Source Software
Danced in their heads.

When out in the night sky
There arose such a blast
‘Twas thunder & lightning
Neither of which were forecast

The computers went down
The servers shut too
And several network hubs
All went “boo hoo!”

Some computers when down
Will never wake up
And this costs us moolah
Which we never have enough*

So the moral of this poem
If it isn’t obvious to you
Turn off your computers
Oh, and Merry Christmas, too!

*Yeah yeah, not the world’s greatest rhyme. So sue me!

Baking Day (Part 1)

A tradition for as long as I can remember, mom and I spend a day baking up all the Christmas goodies for our upcoming gatherings. Sometimes it spreads over two days, like this year. We started by heading out to get supplies. First, I had to get my haircut cuz people were beginning to notice it was getting LONG. (Long for me, BTW, isn’t horribly long. I can’t ever stand it enough to get to that stage.) But then we went to Wally World and got supplies. Lunch was Chinese Buffet. Then home again to start baking.

We started with some snicker doodles that mom bought from a co-worker. These were pre-made & frozen dough balls, ready for baking. The teenage daughter of this co-worker was trying to get money for a school or athletics related trip. And she’s a good dough maker. Then we made the chocolate chip cookies (aka Lindy Cookies – so named after my mom, Linda). We used some really great cookie sheets from KitchenAid which made baking easy-peasey. Mom made the dough for Ice Box cookies (aka butterscotch cookies). Those were then put into loafs & out into the back porch for ice boxing. 🙂 We hit something of an impasse here. We needed the recipe for candy buckeyes, and our favorite recipe was in a cookbook now at the Lake. So I called Granny & asked to borrow their copy. I headed off to visit with her & aunt Becky & pick up the book.

When I got back, it was supper time. I ate light – apple, orange, cashews – and returned to the folks’. Mom had made her praline mix (evil addictive munchy stuff) while I was at Granny’s. We then got to work on the peanut butter innards for buckeyes. That’s one of those things you just have to do by hand, so before too long, I was up to my elbows in peanut butter, powdered sugar, and butter. I then rolled the little buckeyes & we put them out in the back porch to cool. While I’d been rolling, mom was working one another of my favorite holiday treats, floor-sweeping cake. It doesn’t actually have floor sweepings, it just looks like it. 🙂 By then, it was nearing 9pm, so we had Advent & I returned home.

Tomorrow, we dip the buckeyes, bake the Ice Box cookies, and make peanut butter blossoms (aka nipple cookies – you know, the peanut butter ones with Hershey’s kisses in ’em). Oh yeah, and there’s the cheesecake cupcakes. I think we’ll be done then. 🙂

If I’m feeling in a generous mood, I might put the recipes of some of these delectables up in another post. Or I could just let y’all suffer. (judiang & elsaf will get to sample many of these treats this year – unless we eat them all before I get off to visit with them!)

Soup Making Day

Thanks to the ice and now snow being dumped on us, school is closed again today. Works for me! I’ve spent the morning making mom’s veggie soup. Here’s hoping I do a capable job of it cuz mom & dad are joining me for lunch. The soup is better with cooking, so they won’t be getting it at its prime, but it should be tasty.

Several of my coworkers and I were going to go shopping (and eating) today after work, but, alas, with work closed, it’s been canceled. So perhaps we can do it next Tuesday instead. Tuesday, meanwhile, is our last day of school before break. And best of all, the break lasts until January 4th. So I’ll have two days to recover from my birthday. (The birthday, btw, will be spent with judiang & elsaf at Elsa’s. 🙂 (Oh! Elsa,, the parade isn’t until the 2nd! Maybe the 1st can be movie day & the second sleep in & brunch day?)

It’s very pretty outside – the ice on the trees has allowed the snow to stick nicely on them. Of course, ice on trees is never good – leads to falling on things like power lines. They say we’ll get 3″ or more snow. Ice might be icky, but I don’t mind snow. 🙂

Well, looks like chemistry won’t be having their test over naming & formula writing until after Christmas break. We’ll have tomorrow for a review, then Monday is Making Gak day. Tuesday is “Spirit of Giving Day” which used to be called “Christmas Fun Day.” With donations to the Pleasant Hill Food Pantry, students get to spend the day doing fun things like playing euchre, charades, Monopoly, volleyball, etc. Movies are also available for watching too. Physics is building toothpick bridges from now until Christmas Fun Day. So they’ve got an easy load for the rest of 2005. We might have to have another build day when we get back – usually we test the bridges the day we get back. We’ll see how tomorrow & Monday go. (That’s 3 periods of building for them, so it might be enough.)

The folks and I have finally started doing Advent. 🙂 Yup, 3 weeks in and we’re finally lighting candles. We have to get in practice because Amy & Rachel join us next Wednesday (YAY!) and they’ve been doing Advent since it began. It’ll be great to have the girls here with us over Christmas. Actually, they leave Christmas evening, so we’re going to do our gift exchange Christmas Eve. Dunno if I can do it! (Actually, I probably can. I’m in it for the family togetherness & the gift giving & receiving. The date is really arbitrary.)

I think I’ve discovered why Leo’s been eating his food so damn fast. I think that he thinks there’s someone eating his food. So he feels he has to hurry up and eat his food before someone else does. What he doesn’t realize is that the person eating his food so quickly is HIM. Stupid cat. 🙂 I’ve decided I should have called him Garfield. He is so obsessed with food these days. Maybe he intends to hibernate. 🙂

Anyhoo, since it’s a snow day, I don’t have any real plans. So I think I’ll go do them. 🙂

What to do with a snow day…

  1. Sleep in

  2. Play City of Villains

  3. Watch season 2 of Bewitched

  4. Have lunch

  5. Watch that Xmas episode of Monk you keep missing (How did the USA Network know I was going to have a day off school today?)

  6. Finish Going Postal by Terry Pratchett while listening to Christmas music

  7. Have supper

  8. Play City of Villains – successfully doing the respec trial (yay!)

  9. Read LJ, write LJ, and chat on IRC while listening to Christmas music

  10. Continue rereading Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets before bed

  11. Sleep

I haven’t done the last two on the list yet, but I think the rest pretty much covers my day. Snow days are so much better than days off. I mean, you always plan stuff for your day off. But you’ve never got plans for a snow day, cuz you never know when/if you’ll get one.

Snow addendum

I took a photo of the snow! I went out to measure how much we’ve gotten so far (at least 3 1/2″ – probably nearer to 4″) and decided to take pictures.

Snow out the back door.
Here’s lovely snow out my back door. You get a good idea of how thick it is from the tops of the lounge chair & trash bin.

Well, Leo decided he wanted to go outside while I had the door open. I let him.

Leo goes out.
Leo steps out. Hesitantly.

And of course he has to give me this “Mom! If you’d just take this white stuff away, I could go outside!” look.

Mom! Take the white stuff away!
Silly kitty!

Snow!

As with many people in this neck of the US, we’re having a mighty fine snowfall here. So much so that they’ve already declared a 2 hour delay.

Here’s hoping for a day off tomorrow. I need one. 🙂

Happy December 1st!

I know that February is the shortest month, physically. But man, November just FLEW by. So I nominate November to be the actual shortest month of the year. Geez.

In the “OMG, I didn’t think it was possible” state of things, it’s now the 5th day of Advent and I’ve not lit one candle or read one Advent passage (trad, rad, or whatever). Shame on me. Well, at least I’m listening to Christmas music right now. How will I turn into an Elf for the season if I don’t get my Adventy stuff going on?

One of the days, I might write a bit about Advent and why it’s so important to me, but I’ve already stayed up too late and should go take a bath & get to bed. And once in bed, I can continue rereading Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone. I’ve decided to reread all the books while I lay in bed. I’ve not reread most of them, actually. But dammit, I’m having so much fun in Harry’s world. It’s just so cool to be joyful while reading.

Anyhoo, off to bath & bed! May you all have a fine start to December!