Stretchy Pants

Enough said. Let the holiday eating begin!

Five years ago today: An Early Present For You

Let It Be Christmas

Hubby Tony and I went to a unique show last night at our community's performing arts center:

Let It Be Christmas is a musical theater production that uses Beatles songs to tell the story of Mary, Joseph, and the birth of Christ as a modern-day love story. The tag line is "The Gospel According to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George, and Ringo".

The main star of the show was the band, which included keyboard, guitars, bass, drums, and saxophone. Many of the musicians also handled vocals, and there was a trio of backup singers. The handful of acting parts were Mary, Joseph, the Angel, and a Narrator that moved the narrative along.

The show used dozens of Beatles songs, both snippets and complete versions. I started out trying to keep track of all of them, but eventually just gave into the experience. However, some of my favorite parings were:

• Mary and Joseph met ("I've Just Seen a Face")
• They fell in love ("I Feel Fine")
• And got engaged ("Till There Was You")
• The Angel came to Mary to tell her she was going to have a baby ("Blackbird")
• Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, and he broke off the engagement ("Yesterday")
• The Angel came to Joseph ("Hey Jude")
• Joseph did some sole searching ("The Long and Winding Road")
• He apologized to Mary ("Got to Get You Into My Life")
• Mary and David rode on a train to Bethlehem. They tried to find a hotel room and failed ("Help!").
• Jesus is born offstage ("Here Comes the Sun [Son]")
• Mary and Joseph came out holding a baby (John Lennon's song "Beautiful Boy")
• The finale ("Let It Be")
  

It was a very enjoyable evening

A Formula For Failure (And Frustration!)

My daily inspirational calendar told me today:

The words rang true. With a little research I found out that the thought was an abridgement of a Herbert Bayard Swope quote. His complete words are "I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure - which is: Try to please everybody."

Five years ago: What A Difference A [Couple Of] Days Makes

The Dental Work Diet

As a young child I fell and chipped my front two teeth. The damage wasn't significant enough to do anything, but as a young adult I had porcelain veneers applied. Later, when the veneer needed to be replaced I switched over to crowns.

I've taken good care of my teeth, but age is catching up with them. Recently I noticed that the gum line of the crowned teeth had receded enough that there was an unattractive gap at the top. I figured insurance would call any type of work in that area cosmetic, but my dentist disagreed. 

She took x-rays and sent them off to the insurance company for a predetermination. Several months later I found out the work was considered restorative and would be covered up to the policy limits. New crowns awaited!

Two Fridays ago I had an appointment to have the preliminary work done. I left with a temporary crown. This Friday I have a second appointment to have the permanent crown set in place. As I left the office, the assistant told me not to floss the area or bite into things.

I didn't realize how often I bite into things when I'm eating. Now, instead of chomping down onto food I have to cut or break it up into small pieces before wedging them into the back part of my mouth.

The process is annoying, but there's also an interesting side benefit. At the holiday parties I've attended, instead of a loaded plate of appetizers that I thoughtlessly eat while chatting with friends I've carefully selected items. A Ritz cracker can be broken into four pieces, with each topped with a dab of cheese ball. The result takes longer to prepare and longer to eat. (All the taste, fewer calories.) A Two-Bite brownie, whose name I usually take literally, tastes even better when divided into smaller chunks and savored one at a time. The same with deviled eggs and cocktail meatballs.

However, there are only a couple more days until I can go back to having foods that need to be bitten into... sandwiches, pizza, chicken wings, cookies, and fruit like apples and pears. I can't wait.

Five years ago: White As Snow

Mid-December Sights

Hubby Tony and I took a walk this afternoon where I saw several interesting things.

The neighborhood across the street from our condo has a house that loves Star Wars. During the Halloween season the yard had quite a few large decorations which were now repurposed for Christmas. There was a Stormtrooper wearing a Santa hat and carrying a candy cane:

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader was guarding the front door. He was carrying his traditional light saber in one hand and a Christmas ornament in the other. At his feet there was a gingerbread person wearing a stormtrooper helmet:

Later I observed something unusual right in my own development. There is a row of arborvitae planted along the arterial road next to the condos. Earlier this year the water department was doing some work to install mains for a new subdivision just to the south and had part of our street torn up. Soon afterwards two of the arborvitae right where they had been working started to brown up. A neighbor said an arborist came out and determined the tree roots were still alive and they would eventually put out new growth (which never happened). Someone added ornaments to the tree closest to the road.

Five years ago today: Good To Keep In Mind

Office Conduct During The Christmas Season

(Thank goodness I'm retired and this no longer applies to me!)

 

To: All Employees

From: Management

Subject: Office conduct during the Christmas season

Effective immediately, employees should keep in mind the following guidelines in compliance with FROLIC (the Federal Revelry Office and Leisure Industry Council).

• Running aluminum foil through the paper shredder to make tinsel is discouraged.

• Playing Jingle Bells on the push-button phone is forbidden (it runs up an incredible long distance bill).

• Work requests are not to be filed under "Bah humbug."

• Company cars are not to be used to go over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house.

• All fruitcake is to be eaten BEFORE July 25.

• Eggnog will NOT be dispensed in vending machines.

In spite of all this, the staff is encouraged to have a Happy Holiday. 

~~Author Unknown~~

Five years ago: It's Closed And Ours!

Feline Fasting Fraidycats

It's been a month since Foster Cat Pimento fell ill. After the clinic analyzed his tests they told us he had a bacterial parasite, should take antibiotics for 30 days, then have a followup ultrasound to make sure there were no lingering issues.

That appointment was this afternoon. The shelter made the appointment, then forwarded an email from the facility confirming it. The message said that instructions for preparing the 'patient' for his procedure could be found on their website. When I checked out those instructions I was surprised to learn that Pimento had to fast the morning of the appointment.

Have you ever tried to withhold food from a critter? They don't handle it well. Especially cats, who are creatures of habit, and can be very demanding when they're hungry. Pimento is used to getting breakfast from Hubby Tony right after he wakes up.

The instructions had an exception for medical conditions, so this morning Tony mixed the cat's liquid medicine into one tiny spoonful of wet food. Surprisingly, Pimento seemed to be satisfied with that. However, Tony and I knew the satisfaction wouldn't last so we made plans to make ourselves scarce until just before it was time to leave for the appointment.

After a trip to the gym we ran a couple of errands. Next, we went to lunch at the latest pop-up restaurant at the mall food court (which featured burgers and chili made with locally raised, pasture-fed beef and tallow fries). When lunch was finished we walked around the mall.

The next part of the day was timed with military precision....ten minutes to drive home and walk upstairs up to the condo, ten minutes to grab the cat, put him into the carrier, and take it down to the car, and ten minutes to drive to the facility. Everything went better than planned, and there was an extra five minutes to stop by Panera for a cup of coffee to go.

We were in and out of the facility in a half hour. Back at home, I put food into Pimento's bowl and let him know it was there. He couldn't decided if he should eat or hide under the bed but his stomach won. Then he disappeared for quite a while.

Sin City (Fall 2024 Western Adventure)

(I'm documenting our latest trip through several blog posts for my future reference. Feel free to read along, or if you're not interested come back in a few days.)

When Hubby Tony and I left Barstow California after breakfast we only had a two hour drive northeast to our last stop in Las Vegas. However, our room would not be ready until late afternoon, so we decided to add in one last nature experience and detoured to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

The canyon offers a 13-mile scenic drive in addition to hiking and rock climbing opportunities. It is so popular during the non-summer seasons that you have reserve a timed entry slot. I was pretty sure that we wouldn't have a problem on a Tuesday, and I was right.

At the visitors center the ranger cheerfully answered our questions. She told us they no longer offered printed park maps, but we could download one to our phone as long as we did it inside the building (the park had no cell service). She also recommended a picnic area where we could eat lunch.

The Scenic Drive was well named. At each parking lot Tony and I got out of the car to take advantage of the vistas. Many of the lots were filled with cars of people who were hiking and climbing. 

After eating lunch we decided we would do some hiking ourselves. The trails were categorized by difficulty into easy, moderate, and difficult. We chose an easy trail right next to the picnic area that was a little over a mile long. I thought it was a little strange that the map said the average completion time was 1.25 hours, but when I had to scramble up some boulders I realized why.

It was easier than it looks :-)

The trail ended up recrossing the main road at the the halfway point. Tony and I bailed out and walked on the road back to our car.

It was an easy drive back to Las Vegas. Tony had booked a condo at a time share resort two blocks off the Strip close to its northern end. After we got situated in the room we went to the Strip and walked around. Eventually we got dinner at a Pan Asian restaurant then came back to the room and crashed.

Wednesday (the last day of our vacation) we started at Flyover, which is an immersive flying experience that uses special effects to make riders feel like they're actually flying. It was like nothing I have ever done before. The experience started in a circular room with a screen in the middle that projected images on the walls and screen. After the preshow we moved into a room with chairlift-style seats and buckled in. The lights dimmed, the floor dropped, and the screen in front of the room came to life. I felt like I was in a helicopter with a camera as it zoomed up, down, and around. The chairs moved back and forth, and sprayers offered a gust of wind or a hint of mist when appropriate.

We bought passes for The Deuce, a bus that ran between the Strip and Downtown. Our first ride was to the Arts District, which is roughly halfway between the two areas. We got off and walked around. I saw the pawn shop that is featured on the TV show Pawn Stars. I was not tempted to stop in.

Back at the resort, we headed down to the bar for a free glass of wine during happy hour, then headed off for a simple dinner. Before going to be, I set my alarm to allow enough time for us to check out, return the rental, and get to the airport in time for our trip back home.

Finis!

A California Crossroads (Fall 2024 Western Adventure)

(I'm documenting our latest trip through several blog posts for my future reference. Feel free to read along, or if you're not interested come back in a few days.)

At this point in our trip Hubby Tony and I had been traveling for a week and a half. There were four days left before we flew home from Las Vegas early Thursday morning. Monday was back to work/back to school for the kids and grandkids, so Tony and I decided to break the eight-hour drive back to Vegas up into two days. After walking to school with Grandsons Jay, Dee, and Ell we packed up the car and got on the road.

There are two passes over the Diablo Range mountains close to the San Jose area. The fastest one between the Son Brian and Son Tony's houses is the Altamont Pass, but our route took us over the more southern Pacheco Pass. We got off the highway at Gilroy, which calls itself the Garlic Capital of the World. The road had quite a few produce stands. Even though it was really too late in the year for local produce, we stopped at one. The packages they were selling were too large, but they also had garlic ice cream. I had it on a previous trip, but couldn't resist another taste.

Chocolate and a hint of garlic

After some discussion of how much ground we wanted to cover the first day of driving Tony and I chose to stay in Barstow, which is a city along Route 66. Unfortunately, we found out that on Monday many of the historic things were closed, but I enjoyed seeing the series of pedestals topped with classic cars along Main Street.

For dinner Tony found a great soul food restaurant. The food was served cafeteria style, and a plate consisted of a main dish, two sides, and a cornbread muffin. I couldn't decide if I wanted pulled pork or rib tips, so the associate gave me a sample of both. He also offered a sample of the oxtails. Farther down the line, when I asked if he liked the cabbage or collard greens better he gave me another sample.

The generosity continued once we were sitting down. First the manager came by with a side of ribs for Tony and I to share, and later he brought a small bowl of sweet potatoes for each of us. I had trouble finishing all the food, and there was certainly no room for dessert! I practically waddled across the street to our hotel.

After breakfast the next morning we stopped at the store to buy grab and go sandwiches for lunch and headed east for the last part of our adventure.

To be continued...

The Main Event (Fall 2024 Western Adventure)

(I'm documenting our latest trip through several blog posts for my future reference. Feel free to read along, or if you're not interested come back in a few days.)

Beatty, Nevada Day Two. Hubby Tony and woke up and packed up, then drove away from the motel. I was surprised to learn that the roads through Death Valley had many public roads, one of which was a California state route. Google Maps said the most efficient way to get to our next destination was to retrace part of yesterday's drive through the park. We did that, but before entering the park turned off to see the Rhyolite Ghost Town, then continued our trip. Halfway across the park, we again deviated from the Google route to head to one last place in Death Valley-the Father Crowley Overlook above the Rainbow Canyon, near the western boundary of the park.

National Park Service

After seeing the vista Tony and I decided it made the most sense to leave the park by a nearby exit instead of backtracking. We drove for three hours southwest, then another four hours northwest. Along the way the terrain changed from desert, to scrub, to agriculture. Thanks to traffic we rolled into Son Tony's house about 6:30 in the evening.

The next four days were spent with the two California families. 

• On Thanksgiving we joined Tony and DIL Ie's family for a Thanksgiving celebration. There were about 50 people there, and enough food to fill three 6-foot folding tables.
  

• Afterwards Hubby Tony and I got in the car and drove across the Altamont Pass to Son Brian's. 

• Friday we attended a San Jose Sharks game with them (The Sharks beat up on the Seattle Kraken, winning 8-5).

• Friday afternoon Son Tony and family checked into an AirBnB by Brian's house and came to socialize. They stayed until it was time for the kids to go to bed.

• Saturday Son Tony's family came back for a family Thanksgiving lunch. It was nice to see everyone, but we all missed Son Donald, who was back in St. Louis. 

• Sunday Hubby Tony and I joined DIL Nicole at swim lessons for the grands, then we ended up at the mall where they visited Santa.

Sunday night Tony and I started packing our things up so we could get a quick start after taking the grands to school. We had more places to be!

To be continued... 

 Five years ago today: 1 Corinthians 13 (Christmas version)