also lived in a regular village in Germany

My DH is an Army brat and grew up in a German village because his family opted to stay off base.

I've known people who lived, worked, shopped, socialized on base

Our neighbors are a couple in their 40s and this is their first time living off base. When we went over to welcome them to the neighborhood they were terrified. They'd heard all these stories about how America is all gangs and crime and people who hate the military. It was really sad. (They are better now)

On case anyone is wondering brain fog from pain+feeling bad for yourself+online Black Friday sales is not a good combination.

We lived in Düsseldorf for six years until '74

He lived a couple places, Enkenbach-Alsenborn and his favorite place was Kaiserslautern. They were there in the late 70s. His apartment was overlooking Kaiserslautern Stadium. He and his brother used to break in there and play with the Pro's kids. They also used to go down to the BBK Bayerische Brauerei Kaiserslaughtern where they would steal empty bottles with a rope on a tree hanging from a cliff and sell them to buy beer they drank in a cave on the hillside cliffs. (kids!)

They had great times walking trails there, they rode bikes in summer and sledded on the paths in the winter. He said this was a favorite area. [link]

People: if anyone still wants to vote on when we're having the holidays zoom, please do it in the next 12 hours. I'll announce time and date tomorrow (well, my tomorrow. It's already Sunday night here). [link]

(cross-posted with Natter)

I tried to make breakfast. And in the end it was successful. Coffee with eggnog, and fried potatoes and hot peppers with an egg on top. But the first egg I tried to fry is congealing semi-cooked on my burner, because there was apparently already a crack in it so when I tried to move to crack it into the pan it instead flew out of the shell and under the pan onto the gas burner. Bleahhhh. Do not want to clean that up but have to wait until it’s no longer burning hot. Thank god it’s Friday.

Other than the mess on the stove that sounds pretty delicious, meara

Oh meara, that does sound good. Does the burnt egg stink?

Yesterday, DH ran to the grocery store. One of the items he got was a dozen eggs. At the register, he bumbled picking them up and putting them on the conveyor belt. The carton opened, the eggs flew out and broke everywhere. He said the staff was understanding and helpful, and someone went and got another dozen for him, but he wanted to die.

So christmas shopping has turned fraught. I am not relaly feeling it at all. I have no ideas what to buy anyone.

M's philosophy on gifts is just "buy them something, they'll like it because it's a gift" and mine is "Buy people something they want/will like so it won't sit unused (and wont' be a waste of money)".

And then he was like "we can buy the teenagers clothes" ok. Fine what sizes do they wear? He doesn't know.

Me: You should talk to your brother and sister and get some suggestions from them/size information. My employee extra discount is one more day so I can shop for stuff tomorrow.

M: but I don't know what to get them because I don't know what your store carries, we can just look at the website and see if there is anything that looks cool, like a sweater or something.

Me: ...ok but do you have any idea of what anyone wants or their sizes?

and then it goes around.

And Iv'e repeatedly texted my brother about xmas and have never received any acknowledgement he's seen my texts. Maybe I need to double check his number or just not bother with anything since he can't be bothered to reply

askye, I feel for you, that's what holiday shopping always is for me too! It's ridiculous. Frantically trying to find things they'll like, no one ever takes my suggestion to make a f*cking wishlist, and I end up doing a Sunday-before-Christmas run to Marshall's and TJMaxx. It always works out fine but who needs that stress? This year I'm giving everyone gift cards.

My sister's long-time live-in boyfriend (they refuse to get married) has been ill for a month. He had a gangrenous gallbladder taken out (I know a couple people here have dealt with bad gallbladders) but kept getting fevers and pain, so they put him on a scary powerful antibiotic. The fever is gone, thank TPTB, but he feels awful, can barely eat, just sits in his comfy chair, and he's lost a bunch of weight. He was 240 and he's down to 186. He has a CAT scan scheduled for Friday. Apparently he's a grumpy patient. My sister is doing her best but she's stressed tf out with worry and having to be a caretaker, and her job kind of imploding. She said she was actually glad we weren't doing holidays this year, because she couldn't handle that stress too.

Man, I hope we all can get vaccinated by spring. I'm a hermit by nature, but not wanting to go out is way different from not being able to go out.

edit to add, Cindy, I feel for your DH; I'd have wanted to sink through the floor.

Y'all, I am rewatching Season 7 (why that season? Dunno) and I had totally forgotten how much gratuitous shirtless Spike we get. The thirst is real, and seeing a nice bit of iliac crest peeking out from under the covers is just delightful.