Farewell, 2016

Dear 2016:

You'll be gone in about 12 hours, and your descendant 2017 will take over where you left off.  I honestly can't say that I'm glad to see you go, but I know a lot of people that are going tell you good riddance.  

You were pretty good to me and my family.  You helped see Mom and Dad through another year of being healthy and happy, and for that I'm thankful.  

You helped me make it through another year at work, which in itself, was a pretty big feat.  There were a few times this year when I was one step away from typing out my letter or resignation, but you challenged me and helped me to change my attitude to hang in there.  And for that I am thankful. 

You gave me the opportunity to start a new venture.  I never thought that when I painted my first barn art quilt pattern picture that it would snowball into a side business.  You gave me and Dad the opportunity to work together. And for that I am thankful.  

You reminded me that things aren't always what they seem.  When I bought our used 99 Ranger truck this summer, we thought we were getting a good deal.  I wish you'd also reminded me that if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.  But you taught me to be aware. Yes, I will be the first to admit that I got screwed over buying the truck, but thanks to lessons learned from one dishonest mechanic, and from one very reputable and trustworthy mechanic, it's roadworthy and ready to haul home more plywood for us to paint in 2017.  And for that I am thankful. 

Farewell, 2016.  Welcome 2017.

Happy National Bacon Day

TWIT and I would like to wish you, faithful readers, a very Happy National Bacon Day.  

It's not too late to celebrate.  All you need to do is stop by your favorite grocery store and pick up a pack of bacon and come home and fry it up and eat it up in your favorite way. 

The 'Rents and I have celebrated by having bacon with our pancakes this morning, and again having some slices crumbled up on our baked potatoes tonight.  And we will keep the celebration going tomorrow morning with breakfast. 

Bring On My Mini Vacation

It's only been a three-day week at work this week, but I sure am glad that I am off for the next four days.  All I can say is bring on our next mini-vacation.  That's about all I can say tonight.

What A Day, Part 2

It might be silly to some, but I am still reeling from losing my wallet yesterday.  It wasn't the fact that I would have lost a lot of money; I had a twenty dollar bill and a few coins, but it's the fact that I would have had to call and cancel my debit card, my HSA card, my AAA card, and get new Anthem insurance cards, library card, and a couple of gas station rewards cards.  And I would have had to get a new drivers license, and a new conceal carry license, which I just got last Thursday.

But it all turned out perfect.  I am giving the credit to answered prayers from the Lord.  I had quite a few people praying about this yesterday morning.  

I'm hoping I will calm down enough and get a good night's sleep tonight.

What A Day

Thank the Lord that this day ended up better than it started out. 

I stopped at Walmart on my way to work this morning, only to realize that my wallet wasn't in my purse. At first I thought it was in the bottom of my purse, so I didn't think much of it.  When I got to work, I dumped my purse out onto my desk, and when I didn't find my wallet, panic set in.  I ran out to the Blazer and looked in the front, back and hatch and didn't find it. I came back in and attempted to work but I couldn't focus.  

At 9:00, I called home like I usually do every morning, and asked the 'Rents to look on the kitchen table and around the house, but they didn't find it either.  Then full-fledged panic set in. 

The last time I knew for sure I had my wallet was when I picked up our carry-out last night at Tumbleweed.  I called them at 10:00 this morning, and the person that answered said that nobody turned in a wallet yesterday.  By this time I had been to the bathroom and thrown up a few times.  

On a whim, I got on Facebook at the Dixie Highway page, and posted a picture of my wallet with a note about where I thought I lost it.  A few ladies on the page shared the post.  One of the ladies that shared the post's mother happened to be a manager at Tumbleweed and saw the post.  She saw the post and called her daughter and told her to get in touch with me because she found my wallet and had put it in the restaurant's safe until they could get in touch with me.  What are the chances????

It turns out that as I was leaving the carry-out area, my wallet fell out of my raincoat pocket. A few minutes after I left, another customer came in and saw my wallet and picked it up and handed it to the manager.  Once again, what are the chances?

I picked it up after work, and not a dime or card was missing.  Once again, what are the chances?

My faith is restored, and I am lucky, blessed, overjoyed, ______ fill in the blank, at what happened.  There are still some honest people in this crazy old world.

Happy Boxing Day

TWIT and I would like to wish a very happy Boxing Day to our Canadian faithful readers. 

It originated in the United Kingdom, and is celebrated in a number of countries that previously belonged to the British Empire and Canada. It is the second day of Christmastide.

Regardless, happy Boxing Day to all.

Merry Christmas

The 'Rents and I would like to wish you, faithful readers, a very Merry Christmas.  

I hope that you are able to spend the day with the ones you love - whether it's in person, or by phone or text or the iternet.  

Happy Christmas Eve

TWIT and I would like to wish you, faithful readers, a very Happy Christmas Eve. 

I'm sure that your day will be filled with running last minute errands and shopping trips, but please take time to remember what Christmas is all about.

Happy Birthday, Susan Lucci

TWIT and I would like to wish Susan Lucci aka Erica Kane, a very happy birthday.  The awesome actress is 70 years old today.

 

Happy Festivus

On behalf of the show "Seinfeld", TWIT and I would like to wish you, faithful readers, a very happy Festivus!! 

I hope you are able to make the  most out of your Festivus holiday by getting your holiday groceries from the supermarket, buying and wrapping last-minute gifts, and just generally having a great day. 

This Day In Terms Of Numbers

14 - packs of sugar that I saw a guy pouring into his 12 ounce cup of coffee at the convenience store by my place of employment

10 - packs of non-dairy creamer that I saw the same guy previously mentioned pouring into his 12 ounce cup of coffee

11 - empty small airplane bottles of Fireball in the back parking lot of the hood liquor store this afternoon

4 - stores I visited today that did not have buttermilk

1 - great neighbor who climbed up on our roof in the cold, evening air to clean out all of the gutters on the house

Midweek Anxiety

This morning when I went to work, I had one item on my grocery list - coffee.  When I left work today and headed to the store, that one item had quickly morphed into 14 items.  

Unfortunately the store I went to for coffee didn't have any good fresh fruit nor did they have buttermilk, so I will need to make another trip to the grocery store tomorrow.  And I'm pretty sure that the list of those two items will also morph into a list of 5 or 6 items easily.  

Foods Mentioned In Christmas Songs That You've Probably Never Eaten

Christmas Is Coming

Christmas is Coming, the goose is getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man's hat

We're used to eating turkey and ham on Christmas day, but people used to eat goose (and some still do!). The lyrics are referring to the fact that farmers wouldn't harvest a goose until after freezing weather (which is associated with Christmas time). When geese are exposed to cold weather, they start putting on a layer of fat that keeps it warm but also makes it taste better. We don't eat goose as much now because the animal has a preference for grazing, which makes it harder to raise them in factory farm conditions. It's much more likely that you'll enjoy turkey for your holiday feast.

Feliz Navidad

One of my oldest (not in terms of years old) friends, SDF, and I had our annual Feliz Navidad fiesta at our awesome hood Mexican Joint tonight.  It was a great time.  We had a blast just sitting there and talking for a change.  Ordinarily, we're at work and there are others talking to us and around us, and we seldom get a chance to just talk amongst ourselves, so we treasure our times at the Mexican Joint where we can just sit there and chat over a cray cray margarita. 

When I got home and was hanging up the Christmas card photo of her family, I was thinking back to actually how many years we've known each other.  I guess you could honestly say "since we were born."  That's a pretty darned long time, SDF.  

I am already looking forward to next year's fiesta, my friend.

Happy Anniversary To Me

Twenty-seven long years ago today, I made the walk up a very long flight of stairs into the old United Furniture Building on the Zoeller property into the "office" for my first day of work.  Yep, it's my anniversary.  

In some ways, it seems like just a few years ago.  In other ways, it seems like a life ago. 

But all in all, it's been a great ride.  The job has provided a great income for me to be able to have a fun-filled time with the 'Rents, my Friend Of A Lifetime Stacy, my friends, and family.  It's not been an easy ride; there have been some days where all I wanted to do was come home and type out my letter of resignation, but I'm tough and I'm still there.  And I plan to still be there for at least nine more years.  

Foods Mentioned In Christmas Songs That You've Probably Never Eaten

Today's food that is mentioned in a Christmas song that you've probably never eaten is pudding.  And no, we are not talking about the Jello kind. 
  
Over The River And Through The Woods

Over the river and through the woods,
Now Grandmother's cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done?

Although the word sounds familiar, you likely haven't eaten the kind of pudding Lydia Maria Child was referring to in her 1845 poem, "The New-England Boy's Song About Thanksgiving Day," which evolved into a Christmas song in the 1870s. (Here's a fun fact: The reason Child talked about sleigh rides through the snow at Thanksgiving was because New England in the early 19th century was enduring a Little Ice Age that had earlier winters.) 

Just like in "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," Child was likely referring to figgy pudding. But unlike the more recent evolution of figgy pudding that you saw in the first song—which is made in a pudding basin—by the looks of the illustration that accompanied the 19th-century poem, this round pudding was made in a cheesecloth bag that was "boiled for several hours in a pot," as detailed in the History of American Cooking by Merril Smith.

**Sigh**

All good things must come to an end.  Actually, all things - good or bad - must come to an end.  But I digress.  My week off from work is drawing to a close, and I really don't want it to end.  I wish I was able to retire tomorrow.  

It's been a very busy week off.  My Favorite Cousin from northwest Indiana and her awesome husband came down and spent the week with us, and we had a blast.  We didn't do all that much, other than go out to eat two times, and have a quasi-mini-family reunion one evening, but we had a great time just being together.  And I had a great time not being at work. 

I'm already dreading Re-Entry on Monday, but at least I have the holidays to look forward to - we work four days next week, three days the week after that, and four days the week after that.  So it will be almost mid-January before we have to work a full week!! And I'm already thinking about taking off the last week in January for PuddinPalooza aka my birthday.  

 

Foods Mentioned In Christmas Songs That You've Probably Never Eaten

Today's food mentioned in a Christmas song that you've probably never eaten is chestnuts.

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos

Sleigh Ride

We'll be singing the songs
We love to sing without a single stop
At the fireplace while we watch
The chestnuts pop; Pop! Pop! Pop!

We don't know about you, but our pantries are mostly filled with already-shelled almonds, cashews, and walnuts—not chestnuts. According to a 2006 story published in the magazine Performing Songwriter, the "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" lyric was inspired by songwriter Bob Wells's childhood in Boston: He remembered when street vendors used to serve up paper cones full of roasted chestnuts around Christmas.
It makes sense that it was inspired by his childhood, considering his song (The Christmas Song), as well as Sleigh Ride, were written in the 1940s—right before the American Chestnut species went extinct after succumbing to a blight that started in the early 1900s, according to the U.S. non-profit American Forest Foundation. That explains why you don't see the sidewalk snack as much. If you ever do see chestnuts, they're likely imported from Italy.

And A Good Time Was Had By All

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take off this week because I needed to use up 5 vacation days or I would lose them, and I sure as hell wasn't about to let that happen.  I mentioned it to my Favorite Cousin who is just three hours away in Indiana, and she and her husband were all too happy to come down this week for a visit.  One thing led to another, and before we knew it, the Old Man's two cousins and their spouses from Breckenridge County were coming up and we had a Holiday Gala on our hands. 

Last night was one of the most awesome holiday gatherings I've ever been a part of.  The food was awesome, but just being together was even better.  We sat around the dining room table, laughing and telling old stories, bringing up old memories and making new memories.  When the last relative left, I told the 'Rents that we could take the Christmas tree down right now, because to me, I've already had my Christmas. Next to celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus, being with family is what it's all about.

Foods Mentioned in Christmas Songs That You've Probably Never Eaten

Today's food mentioned in a Christmas carol that you've probably never eaten is sugar plums.  Actually, they are not mentioned on a Christmas song, but in "Twas the Night Before Christmas", as in "visions of sugar plums danced in their heads" or in The Nutcracker's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy."

If you could hazard a guess as to what sugar plums were, you'd likely probably guess that they're those purple pieces of gummy candy or sugared plums (the actual fruit)—but you'd be wrong. Sugar plums are not plums, but they are sugar. The now obsolete term refers to a type of candy called "dragee" or "comfit," according to The Oxford English Dictionary. It's a sweet made from layers of sugar hardened around a central seed, nut, or kernel—like a modern-day jawbreaker. Traditionally, sugar plums would be made with either an almond or a caraway or cardamom seed at the center. The "plum" part of the candy likely refers to the fact that the sweet was a similar size and shape of the fruit.

Flashback Monday

The 'Rents and I spent the morning Christmas shopping, and while we were waiting in line to check out, something popped into my mind.  Back in the day, whenever we would go to one of the department stores during Christmas, Grandma or Mom would always ask for a box.  And in later years when I would be driving and they would send me to one of the department stores for a Christmas errand, they would be sure to remind me to ask for a box. Those days are long, long gone. 

Today, you're lucky if you can find what you want in a store, much less expect them to have a box.  Today, we lucked out and found what the 'Rents wanted, but we didn't dare ask for any boxes, because we know they would have looked at us like we had three heads. 

And on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, you'd better not have torn up your box as you were opening it up, because those boxes needed to be saved for use next Christmas (or on birthdays).   Today, we normally don't have boxes that our gifts come in, and instead, we save any gift bags.  

But all in all, it's the thought that counts. 

Foods Mentioned in Christmas Songs That You've Probably Never Eaten

Today's food that you've sung about in Christmas carols but probably have never eaten or drank is wassail.

Here We Come A-Wassailing

Our wassail cup is made
Of the rosemary tree,
And so is your beer
Of the best barley

Although you probably haven't had a traditional cup of wassail, you've likely had something quite similar—mulled cider. The name for the drink came from a greeting, "Waes hael," meaning "Be well." It's what people would say while they held up a mug of spiced cider to toast to a good cider apple harvest for the following year. In Shakespeare's time, wassail was a mulled punch that was made by boiling mead (an alcoholic beverage brewed with honey) with crab apples.  

The End Of One Era, The Beginning Of Another

Today is bittersweet here at The Compound.  This morning, our dear neighbors of 15 years moved to Bullitt County.  We really hate to see Bev and PS leave us.  They were more then neighbors; they were family.  We knew that we could call them any time of the day or night, and they would be there if we needed them.  I know it's not like they've died or moved across country, but still; you know what I mean.  

But with them moving away, this means that another family has moved into their home.  It's none other than their oldest son and his awesome family.  They are great, loving, kind and helping to everyone they meet.  So they will be a perfect fit here in The Compound. 

Foods Mentioned in Christmas Songs That You've Probably Never Eaten

Today, we start a new recurring feature in TWIT, titled "Foods Mentioned In Christmas Songs That You've Probably Never Eaten."  We have a half dozen of these to educate you, faithful readers, about.


Today's is the infamous Figgy Pudding

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer

Surprise! Figgy pudding neither resembles the gelatin vanilla or chocolate pudding you're used to, nor does it contain real figs.  It's also known as "Christmas Pudding" or "Plum Pudding"—but there are no plums, either. According to experts,  "The 'plum' was a pre-Victorian generic term for any type of dried fruit, but most specifically, raisins." It's also called a pudding in the British sense (i.e. it's a dessert), not in the American sense that's known as gelatin. Specifically, figgy pudding is a steamed cake made with 13 ingredients (for Christ and the 12 apostles)—including raisins, currants, suet (raw beef or mutton fat), and lots and lots of brandy. It was traditionally made weeks ahead of Christmas as the alcohol would essential act as a preservative and help draw out more flavors.

A Sad Reminder

It's a sad, sad day when restaurants have to post signs in their bathrooms reminding their employees to wash their hands before they leave the bathroom.  

 

Never Forget

Merry Christmas, Again

We're deep in the Christmas season, and we're also deep into the holiday season here at The Compound.  We're gearing up for a Mini-Gala next Tuesday, with relatives from north and south converging on The Compound to visit, eat, laugh, and enjoy the holiday season.  

I've got to use 5 vacation days before the 18th or I will lose them, so I am taking off next week.  I'm not about to give up 5 days to the company.  Luckily my cousin and her husband are going to be able to come down and visit us all week, so we are looking forward to having a very large time with them. 

I'm also getting geared up for our department Christmas party pot luck tomorrow at work.  We've got a big spread coming, courtesy of the Scheduling and Purchasing departments.  Yours truly just spent an hour in the kitchen making some festive tortilla roll-ups.  




Stay tuned.

I'll Drink To That

On this day in history, way back in the ancient days of 1933, Prohibition was repealed.  It was a pretty darned long five-year dry spell, literally.  

In honor of this occasion, you still have time to have a drink today.  Or two.  

The 2016 Christmas Price Index

PNC released its annual Christmas Price Index on Friday, and it showed that prices for items from the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" rose by 0.7% from last year. That's slightly up from the 0.6% pace in 2015.

The cost of everything on the list, from the partridge to the drummers, totaled $34,363.49, an increase of a few hundred dollars from last year. The "core" index, excluding volatile swan prices, rose 1.1% to $21,238.49.

 

Strange Saturday

This has been a Strange Saturday.  I slept in until 10:00.  That is something that I haven't done in decades. And it sure felt nice. I went to bed at my normal time last night, and it sure was good to sleep in and get some much-needed extra rest. 

Then after I ate a carton of yogurt for breakfast, it was game on.  I had my Saturday Errands to run, and I just now got home and had a snack with the 'Rents.  

I think an afternoon nap is in order.  All of our painting it is up-to-date, so there's nothing I'm slacking about on that.  The groceries for the week have been bought and put away, so I'm good there. 

The 'Rents are in their recliners with a glass of their favorite wine, and are watching WK hopefully win this afternoon. 

Yep, a nap is in order.

Flashback Friday

If you'll remember, for the past few years, here at The Compound during the holidays, we've had our own version of The Elf on the Shelf, with our own little elf Junior English.  During the day while I was at work, one of the 'Rents would hide him somewhere in the house, and it would be my job to find him.  They found some very ingenious places for Junior to hide, but I was always able to find him.  Until today.

One of the 'Rents [note: they stuck with their story and didn't say who hid him this morning] hid him so well, that I can't find him and they can't remember where they hid him.  

It's going to be a long holiday season, faithful readers. 

Link Of The Week, Christmas Edition

Today is December 1, and a lot of people will be starting their countdown to Christmas calendars.  You know what I'm talking about - you open something on the calendar each day and count down until Christmas.  Instead of getting a piece of candy a day on these kinds of calendars, I'm going to challenge you to make it a Kindness Countdown To Christmas.  

Visit http://maketodayhappy.co.uk/act-of-kindness-24-kindness-advent-calendar/ and follow the instructions for each day.  

Peace.