No gifts this year (we bought a chest freezer instead). However festivity abounded as we did our usual Xmas Movie day virtually. We added zoom meeting between movies and were not really expecting anyone but family to show up, but quite a few friends joined in. it was delightful to see our NYC friends chatting with our LA and Detroit friends and everyone digging each other. We watched WW84, The Bee Gees documentary and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. All in all, a lovely day.

Timelies all!

Quiet Sunday here. Gary has taken Mr. S to a nearby state(?) park to play. I have done a little cleaning here, with more to be done later.

Quiet here, too. Zoomed with my sister and niece and their spouse and spouse-like people this morning; they are doing their Christmas today. Then DP and I played cribbage, which is new to me. Fun.

Now we're going to watch an ep or two of Counterpart.

Usually when I take Matilda to Japantown, it's on a weekday afternoon and it's pretty dead and we can zip in and out of places even with Covid restrictions.

But on the Sunday after Xmas in the middle of school vacation, it was hopping. Good for the stores, but less good for us zipping. Still, we waited in line and got into the bookstore and she procured her necessary manga, and I got a couple orders of curry in a hurry to sustain our favorite restaurant and we bought a Naruto themed shirt for her friend.

A good outing. Good to get out of the apartment for a little bit. Typically over this part of break we'd be going to see movies with her friends. I hope by next xmas that can be a thing again.

In Sam news, he's doing well, but has not been released from the hospital yet. I'm not sad about that, as much as he wants to come home, I feel like he's safer in the hospital.

I'm not overly litigious, but they need to sue the shit out of the first surgeon.

I agree, but it's up to Sam, and he's a rather passive person, and I don't think he will.

Which the first surgeon should be paying for, because Sam wouldn't have needed home health care if the first surgeon didn't fuck up.

Sam is a government employee and has real good insurance, so this probably won't be a motivating factor.

I found a lady south of Baltimore who had several mid-century pottery planters that I liked, several of them lady head planters/vases

Which ones did you get? My grandmother had a lady head planter. I was fascinated by it when I was little. She was so pretty and elegant.

Hil, I hope you're feeling better! It sucks to wait so long and then be told they can't help.

Steph, glad your friend is getting to go home!

askye, I'm sorry M's family is being so irresponsible.

I never heard of trout dip before, and now I want some.

Shir, I'm sorry about Batcat.

~ma for your uncle, aurelia, and hope your dad stays well.

Hi, Karl! Good to see your pixels, even if briefly.

Mac called! Yay!

Mozzie, no! Yikes! Glad he's okay!

Happy birthday yesterday, Jesse!

Dana, congestion~ma. Hope that's all it is!

The explosion in Nashville is low-key freaking me out. Now there's possibly another bomber in Lebanon, right outside Nashville, where I went to high school. Two makes it a coordinated plan, which means there might be more. Hope the FBI is on top of it.

My family did a Christmas Zoom call, and it went pretty well. I hated it but I won't tell them that. The good thing is, with Kim in Sweden, her sleep schedule finally coincides with ours.

I made Christmas dinner for myself. Roasted turkey breast with gravy, herb stuffing, and corn. Was going to make corn pudding but I didn't have creamed corn. But I love corn, so I didn't really mind. It was really good and it cheered me up to have (what I consider) a real holiday dinner. Also cheered me up to have made it myself, for the first time. Usually my sister and my youngest niece do all the cooking.

I was throwing-up sick this morning, and have spent the day in bed drinking ginger ale and eating crackers. I seem to be okay now. No idea what set that off. Kinda nice to have a not-serious reason to not be productive for a day. Maybe it was my body telling me it's okay to just relax.

Does anybody here have a SodaStream device? Do you use it a lot and would recommend it? R, the roommate, expressed a desire not to be schlepping huge bottles of soda around (she mostly drinks flavored seltzer anyway), and it would make a decent late Xmas gift, I think, but I know not much of the carbonated world.

I love it. I use it daily. I like the half liter bottles, so nothing ever goes flat. My hack is using orange juice concentrate to make a very Orangina like drink. Or you can use the flavors. There are several companies besides Soda Stream that make flavors, even fancy artisinal stuff for cocktails.

I hope you’re feeling better today, Zenkitty.

The week between Christmas and New Years is such an odd space. I am generally lucky enough to have most or all of it off. There’s a sense that new stuff will start next week but I usually try to finish old stuff up before Christmas, so there’s a sort of hiatus. I should just grab one of my new books and enjoy it, but I feel like there’s something I should be doing, you know?

I am trying to be super productive (work wise) this week and make progress on some things while so many people are out.

As for home, I think I will take down and pack up the big tree in the next couple of evenings.

Hope you are feeling better, Zen

I just went and picked up some stir-fry takeout, I got home and the rice is not fully cooked! I’m trying to decide if it’s worth my time to go back to the restaurant and complain.