Tag: christmas

Happy New Year!

Considering that my last LJ post was in the summer, I think I’m going to have to admit that how I “journal” my life has changed. It used to be paper. Then it was LiveJournal. Now I do “microjournaling” via Twitter and Instagram (username pagefillers). And even there I’m not as thorough as I once was. But they’re quick, and that often fits my lifestyle more.

I know a number of “old time” LJers who are jumping ship due to the Russians or somesuch. Haven’t decided if I will or not. But I do want to get a good backup of this journal and soon – my last backup was a few years back. And then maybe I’ll decide what to do.

My own website (pagefillers.com) is still very barebones since it was hacked at some point. Perhaps I’ll get my old LJ stuff onto there. At least my trip stories would be good there. Perhaps 2017 will be my year to get that sorted out. 🙂

I’m currently sitting in my library with Linus on my lap and Lucy sitting on the back of the comfy chair. We’ve got soft Christmas music playing in the background and, when I’m not writing this, I’m working on my eBooks’ meta data (like you do). I had a wonderful birthday today (46 years – sheesh!) Although Amy was back in MSP, the folks and I had a nice time. I cooked pork & kraut & mashed taters and then they came around for lunch. They brought cake & presents!

Since I’m 6, er 46, the gifts were toys & games. 😉 Amy, OTOH, got me an IKEA gift card – to help me get a display case to, um, hold my LEGO… OK, so I *am* 6!

Amy was here for Christmas – she arrived Christmas Eve and left on the 30th. We had a great time and, as per usual, we won at Christmas. And according to WW, I only gained 4.8lbs. Heh.

In 2016, I hit my lowest weight (in December) at WW which is over 40lb lost since I started the program, and probably closer to 50lb lost since I started trying. Yeah, it’s taking years, but I’m working on lifestyle changes, not looking for quick fixes. I’m wondering if, in 2017, I finally get under 180lb. We’ll see!

I managed to reach my book-reading goal for 2016 (read 75 books – I got 76 read – whee!) and I’m going to see if I can read 80 in 2017. You can keep tabs on me through goodreads.

OK, enough rambling from me. Linus has changed his position so that now when I type, I’m having to move him with me. He’s too zonked to care, but I think I should let him rest without being wiggled around.

I hope that 2017 is a good year for you all. I know there’s a lot of uncertainty right now and it has the potential to be truly horrible, but I hope that this isn’t the case. Love to you all!

Merry Christmas 2015!

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Christmas this year (or fabulous Friday, or both!) It’s been great for me this year (as it is every year – whee!) Amy arrived safely at the airport today. Her luggage, not so much. Eep!

Still, the Shorts are not put out by such things. We made lunch (hamloaf, roasted taters, sauteed Brussel sprouts, and beer bread), which we then ate and enjoyed immensely. Then we rested up, then had dessert (cookies, pumpkin roll, cheesecake cupcakes) and coffee (for those who drink coffee). Mom and I took a short walk. Then we decided to unwrap presents till we got down to where Amy’s gifts to us were needed. (They are in her luggage, which is supposedly on its way here.)

Once again, we won at Christmas. We’ve gotten really good at it. 🙂 Adult coloring books were a popular item. Everyone got some sort of books or other. I got mom a “new” phone (Samsung Galaxy S5) to work with and dad a drone+camera to play with. I got Amy the Star Wars trilogy & some sketch books/pencils/pencil case/etc. They gave me all sorts of good stuff (games to play, books to read, a new toaster) and I’ve still not seen the “encyclopedia set” that Amy has apparently gotten for me. 🙂 (She claims her bag weighs as if it contains the Encyclopedia Britannica, but with the bag not here yet, we can only assume she’s telling the truth.)

The weather is… hella warm for this time of year. We have been fortunate NOT to be inundated with tornadoes like some areas of the country. (Those poor folks!) Though two days ago I was sitting in my basement waiting for the all clear on a tornado warning. Warmest December on record apparently. Bleh.

I’ve been doing all sorts of things since I last posted in June. The trip to Britain, as you probably saw, was a blast. School has been good. I might actually be caught up on grading for once (thanks to taking much of this last Monday getting caught up). We have Amy till next Friday (whee!) and all of the family gatherings are already over or aren’t scheduled till January. So it’s just the 4 of us to have a great week together and I’m looking forward to it.

So Happy Holidays to everyone out there! If I don’t post again till 2016, HAPPY NEW YEAR! (And even if I do post before then, I still hope you have a happy new year. Heh.)

Oh! Update – Amy just got a call from the luggage deliverer – she should be here in half an hour. Christmas unwrapping can continue! (Once Amy wraps the gifts up, of course).

I’m Forty Four with Both Fumbs Down!

So years ago my dad was asked by a neighbor lady how old he was and he said that he was “four with the fumb down.” (Or at least, the neighbor lady told him that he said this as he doesn’t remember it himself.) So we’ve had the expression in our family vernacular for many years. And today, I turned forty four, with both fumbs down. 🙂

Our Wonderful Christmastime has continued to be wonderful. On Monday, mom, Amy, and I went to AAA to talk with a travel agent about going on a tour of Britain. We met for an hour and a half and left with some homework to do. And we spent much of Monday afternoon researching and reading up and trying to decide which of the various package tours we wanted to do. We scheduled a second meeting for Wednesday whereupon we’d have our decision.

On Tuesday, Amy had an appointment with a couple of folks in Columbus to film for the BMC Oral History Project she’s been working on for a few years now. Dad had volunteered to be her gaffer (and to provide the lighting equipment so she didn’t have to bring her set up with her on the plane). Since it was going to take a couple of hours, I suggested that mom and I head off to Polaris Fashion Place to go shopping. So once we had Amy and Dad ensconced in the Columbus Mennonite Church, we headed north to the mall.

Mom and I have been fans of Chico’s for a couple of years now. She had a pair of jeans which were a little baggy on her that she wanted to return, and when we got there, they were having a sale. I found a pair of jeans and a long jacket (think Bea Arthur long) on sale and she found two pairs of jeans. We then stopped into a shoe store where I found a VERY cute pair of shoes in my size. Decided they’d be my birthday present to me. Mom then found a jacket for herself at Christopher & Banks that she wound up getting for $15. We topped the successful excursion off with Auntie Anne’s pretzels.

As we were leaving the mall, Amy texted to say they were done at the church. So we returned and Amy toured around Columbus reminiscing about her days of living in the “big city.” (Columbus is huge for me, but small for someone who lives in Minneapolis. Heh.)

That night, we finally decided on which of the package tours to go on (it was basically a competition between the Scottish highlands and Ireland, Loch Ness vs Guinness brewery tour, Liverpool vs Waterford Crystal. Scotland et al won in the end). Wednesday’s meeting then was getting the tour booked and then the flights figured out. We opted for trip insurance – not something we usually do, but with the total cost of the trip and the fact that we’re not as young as we once were, it seemed like a good idea this time around.

For New Year’s Eve, we met up with Deb & Ben, friends of my folks, for dinner at Trojan Horse. Then we adjourned to mom & dad’s home for an evening of games and snacks and booze. We played Ticket to Ride where Ben managed to win instead of Amy (who’s won every other time we’ve played). Then Amy and I took on mom and Deb with a game of pinochle. We won and then the ball dropped and 2015 arrived!

This morning I made us some baked French Toast (which I’d made shortly after midnight and let sit in the fridge overnight) and bacon. And lunch was our New Year’s staple: pork, kraut, and mashed potatoes. We’d invited my cousin Patty around and the five of us had a wonderful lunch and spent most of the afternoon chatting and laughing. Then mom, Amy, and I returned to Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright and House of Cards (we managed to watch 16 episodes this week). In between episodes, we had a light supper and then I opened presents and we had cake & gelato/ice cream. Judi had gotten me a World of Warcraft game time card (surprise!) and Elsa a nifty sweatshirt with “All of the good chemistry jokes Argon” on it. 🙂 Mom & dad got me moolah to do a subscription to Big Finish. And Amy got me a 7th Doctor brolly! Whee!

So this has been a wonderful time with my sister and folks and other loved ones. Tomorrow we take Amy to the airport so she can be reunited with Curtis (her cat) and Charlotte (her godcat whose currently staying with her). Thanks all for a lovely birthday and Christmas and all that jazz. 🙂

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime

Although I haven’t been posting, I have been having a great end of the year. Amy arrived on Christmas and we had lunch at Waffle House* on our way back from the airport. That night was festivities with dad’s side of the family, and next day was a party at our house with mom’s side of the family. And that night I Skyped with and which was fun. But yesterday, we actually got to have Christmas for ourselves, and once again, we won at Christmas**. 🙂

We have Amy with us till the day after my birthday (so till Friday) and we intend to enjoy her company as much as we can. Yesterday, after presents, we took a walk downtown and wound up doing Happy Hour at the Caroline. Mom and Amy and I have been mainlining episodes of season 1 of House of Cards*** (the US version with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright) while dad hides in his den. (He’s not into political maneuvering and shenanigans, and I’m beginning to see why. Heh.)

I’m hoping y’all are also having a nice end to 2014 and I hope that 2015 starts out wonderfully for you.

*Well, it was one of the few places open on Christmas day. Though we felt bad for the joint – busy as they were, their ATM, phone, and credit card machine all crapped out at the same time. Basically, the phone died and took everything with it. Thankfully we had cash as did other customers. Christmas is one of Waffle House’s busiest days. We even had a 20 minute wait before we had a seat. I decided to have second breakfast and it was yummy.

**Lots of fun stuff from the folks and Amy and others. Some new outfits, sweatshirts, books, Doctor Who DVDs, and a couple of new appliances – egg hardboiler (cuz I was envious of mom’s) and smoothie maker (cuz my blender just doesn’t have the power). We all had stockings this year, which was fun to help fill. Mom made the stockings and they’re lovely.

***Last time I had the DVD set from the library, I managed to get the first three episodes watched before my 1 week time was up. This time I have the set for 3 weeks and recommended to mom and Amy to catch up and we could watch together. Amy did her homework (she has Netflix) and mom got started on hers and finished up once Amy had arrived. We’re all pretty captivated for now.

Merry Christmas!

Seems to be I’ve only been posting to my journal on holidays. So I guess I’ll be posting on Jan 1 next. Heh.

We’ve been off school since Friday, which has been lovely. Sadly, I wasn’t caught up in grading yet, so Monday I went back to school and got some done, finished more that night, and did even more this morning. I’m nearly caught up – whew!

The folks and I decided to celebrate Christmas Eve tonight by going to a local restaurant’s Christmas Eve buffet. By the time mom got us reservations, most of the later evening slots were filled up, so we reserved for 4:30 at the Caroline. Dinner was fab. And we’re still full!

Once again, my sister is holding Christmas hostage (not that I mind the extra wait), so present opening will take place on Saturday at the earliest. Amy flies in on Friday night. *bounce bounce*

I’m mostly done with Christmas shopping (just something yet to get for one of my little cousins – I’ll get it on Boxing Day) and most of what I’ve ordered folks has arrived. So I’ll be wrapping presents on Boxing Day, along with making Chex Mix and baking bread. Should be a lovely day. 🙂

I’m spending the night with the folks tonight since tomorrow (Christmas) will be Baking Day. We’re watching The Hunger Games in anticipation of watching Catching Fire some time when Amy is with us.

I hope those of you who celebrate have a wonderful Christmas tomorrow (or whenever you’re able to celebrate). And those of you who don’t, have a wonderful Wednesday!

Welcome 2013!

Nearly a week into the new year and I’m finally posting. I blame my sinus infection. When I wasn’t hanging out with the folks and Amy (or working), I was getting sleep to fight my sinus infection.

But I’m feeling almost normal (or as normal as I can be) and have a bit of time this morning to type up a post about the end of 2012 and start of 2013.

Amy arrived late on Friday evening and it was lovely to have her home again. We did Christmas morning on Saturday, then. First stockings, full of fun, small kitchen gadgets, then breakfast. Dad grilled us Egg McMikey’s and served ’em on the English Muffin Toasting Bread that I had baked for just that occassion.

We opened lots of presents and, once again, won at Christmas. Mom and I even zipped off to the Co-op in the middle in order to pick up a few supplies (and then to Kroger to pick up one more Christmas pressie). I got lots of nifty stuff, including a mini-cannon (which actually fires), bread baking supplies, nice clothes (most of which fit), and an HO train car, just like Christmasses when I was a kid. Lovely nostalgia. 🙂

Sunday was mom’s day to shine. She decided to make a true Anderson dinner. Her brothers and my cousins were invited around for dinner and she made fried chicken and noodles like Grandma. Amy and I helped with other things, like banana salad and rolls. I decided NOT to make Grandma’s tapioca, because the last time I’d made it, everyone tasted it and said “Gee, this tastes just like Grandma’s tapioca. I never did like her tapioca!” Heh.

Monday was New Years Eve and we had a relaxing day which finished off with us having snacks and watching Trading Places and The Amazing Spider-Man before the ball dropped. I fired my cannon during the countdown (almost timing it perfectly).

New Years Day was even more relaxing. Mom made us baked oatmeal for breakfast. I got to watch my parade (thank you Pasadena!). I finished reading The Casual Vacancy. We had pork and kraut for lunch. I opened birthday presents. Money to buy Neil Innes, new box-set and a Mah Jongg tile set in handy carrying case. Sadly, I then had to go home that evening because I worked the next day.

I felt bad for my students. Even though I felt fine, by this point in my sinus infection, I had practically lost my voice. I felt like a cough drop addict on Thursday. But on Friday, during physics, my ear canal finally drained and I could hear again. And today I feel even better.

So a nice, quiet start to the New Year. That works for me! I hope others have had a great start and that 2013 turns out to be the Best Year Ever!

Merry Christmas! Happy Tuesday!

Although today is Dec 25, AKA Christmas, I opened no presents. Poor Amy will not be with us until Dec 28, so we’ll open presents after she arrives (Sat morning, if all goes well!)

We also didn’t have a White Christmas today. But that’s OK, because we’re getting a blizzard tomorrow. If the power doesn’t go out, I’m intending to have a lovely day of bread baking, present wrapping, and game playing. Woo! And if it’s not horrible, maybe a walk in the snow. We’ll see!

What mom and I did do today was our annual Baking Day. However, due to me doing Weight Watchers, we didn’t go as overboard on cookies like usual. We did three things from scratch (pecan cookies, Lindy cookies, and ice box cookies) and three things from Market Day (shaped sugar cookies, macadamia nut cookies, and chocolate mint cookies). We watched schmalzy Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel or listened to Christmas music while we baked. It was a good day.

I am now back with the kitties though (and Linus wants some huggings, so I need to get offline shortly for cuddles) and I’m hoping tomorrow will be a good snow-watching day. And I really hope things get cleared up by Friday evening when Amy’s supposed to be flying in!

Hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Christmas today!

First Christmas of the season!

Today was our day inside. We started the morning with elsaf making us a breakfast of pancakes & bacon (mmmm, bacon!) and I had whole milk with mine (OMG, whole milk!) Tasty, tasty. Then we didn’t eat at all until supper time, cuz Elsa was making us our Christmas Dinner. (Well, OK, we all had a slice of butter bread from the loaf of bread that Elsa baked.)

I did take a short walk to Jewel (with a stop into Trader Joe’s for grins) to get a few essentials that we needed. Oh, and I took Patty (judiang‘s doggie) out for walkies once. She wanted to get back inside ASAP to watch Elsa cook, so we weren’t out long.

Elsa had e-mailed us last week asking for votes on the dinner. The consensus was rack of lamb, mushroom soup, asparagus, rice pilaf, and lava cakes. She added a red currant & wine sauce, pear salad, and from scratch rolls to that menu.

I think I cleaned the cooking dishes 3 times during the day, it took that much cookware for the meal, but it was worth it when we finally sat down for our meal.

The pear salad was very simple – sliced fresh pears with bleu cheese, walnuts, and a poppy seed dressing (no lettuce). Very tasty. She’s made the mushroom soup (with sherry) before and it was once again very yummy (and I’m not overly fond of mushrooms). The lamb was cooked perfectly and the sauce complimented it well (and was also good on the pilaf). For out-of-season asparagus, they were pretty good. And the lava cakes were spongy and nice, especially with a side of ice cream.

After the meal, we opened presents. I got lots of nifty stuff, including a real surprise – a K’nex roller coaster thingy that Judi got when she was in the studio audience of the Anderson Cooper show. Pretty darn nifty!

I managed to get stuff packed into my bag (and into another bag). I tweeted several photos from the meal tonight, along with a few gift photos. If you visit this lockerz.com page, you should be able to click on the photos that I tweeted tonight.

Tomorrow I fly home for more festivities! Woo!

Christmas in January!

Almost 2 weeks after Christmas and we finally got to have it. Yay!

Although Amy and Rachel couldn’t fly in to celebrate Christmas with us this year, we were finally able to have Skype Christmas this morning. The gifts to the girls had arrived on Tuesday, but the gifts to us from the girls arrived yesterday. (They sent them on Tuesday.) So I spent the night with the folks last night, and this morning we all sat on the sofa, with mom’s laptop across from us, and had Skype Christmas with the girls.

We had a fun time opening presents and showing off our gifts to the girls (sometimes with dad doing hand motions to indicate what smaller things looked like). It wasn’t as nice as having the girls with us, but it was probably the next best thing. 🙂

Amy is doing well and even getting a break from blood tests this weekend, which is a good sign. She was quite chipper this morning and looked well. So we’re very pleased with her recovery.

Anyhoo, I got lots of nice pressies today, and once we were done with Christmas, I opened the birthday presents from my sis & Rachel too. Let’s just say that thanks to family (and friends – elsaf, judiang and hergrace all rock!) I have received many nice things this season! Yay for family and friends and presents! 🙂