Do we still have a comet?

Comet ISON passed its closest to the sun on Thursday morning. We had been told that two things might occur.

1. The comet could disintegrate from the heat.
2. The comet could develop a new intense glow, and become more highly visible in the night sky.

Thursday the astronomers watched.  It went into the solar horizon - and disappeared.  Reports went out saying that ISON was no more.

But then -

they started to see a dust smudge on their images, and it got brighter.

As of Saturday, there is still no certainty that there is enough of a nucleus to form a new comet. There IS something happening which has the scientific community watching. The news reports now say "stay tuned".

The little comet that still might.

I'm still interested, how about you?

What happened after the dinner

Neither of us is very fond of turkey giblets, so we offered them to the cats.

Apparently neither of our 2 current cats are fond of or even very interested in turkey giblets.

I took the pro-offered and refused giblets, put them into a small recyclable plastic container, and put them out for Stranger; our unofficial barn cat.  They disappeared. So someone likes giblets.


The cobbler, yeah, hmmm

I had covered the cobbler with foil and left it on the counter. Thankfully I had used enough foil to wrap over all sides and crimp down a bit.

It is still fine, just a bit smashed. The filling pushed out of part of it into open section of pan. It will need to be eaten from a bowl, I think.

Seems that overnight some feline decided that it was in a perch spot. Said feline SAT on it.
It was heavy enough foil not to split - saving both the cobbler and the cat's rear end.

Cobbler now resides in oven.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We decided a few years ago that Thanksgiving Dinner, if it was just us two, did not need to be an overblown feast. A regular meal with some special ingredients suffices.

This year's menu was:
Roast turkey (heh, heh, heh, I win) - see previous post for explanation, if you haven't already read it
Green beans
Corn Pudding
Orange-Cranberry preserves
Pecan Pie Cobbler

I did not make the corn pudding this time, we tried Trader Joe's. It is heavier on the onion than mine and due to the cream in it is more souffle-ish. It is good. Next time I will make my own recipe again.

The orange-cranberry was also purchased at TJ's. It is heavier on the orange than we might have preferred. TJ's regular just plain cranberry preserve was too tart for my taste, thus the flavor choice.

A FB friend gave me the recipe for the Pecan Pie Cobbler. Yum!
Start with a box of prepared pie crusts, see it starts out way easy. Roll crust out to 13" x 9" size.
Make a sticky gooey filling, with lots of chopped nuts.
Crust, filling, crust, bake a few minutes.
Add rest of filling and top with pecan halves, bake a few minutes more.

I didn't buy any vanilla ice cream so the cobbler got a smoosh of whipped topping.

Yup, it's tasty. It is definitely sticky. I wonder if there is a way to make a good pecan pie without it having to be sssooo sweet?

Thanksgiving Turkey

Thanksgiving Day was Thursday.  Due to work schedule disruption, Thanksgiving Dinner will be on Friday at our house.

We found the smallest turkey we could, 11.76#, on the Saturday prior.

It was carried home in a double layer of plastic from the store. It was carried into the house and put in the kitchen sink while other groceries were put away. Then I went to move it to its "thawing" position. I picked up the double bagged bird, lifted if from the sink - and BOTH of the plastics split, dropping nearly 12# of frozen turkey onto the toes of my right foot.

Those wine bottle chiller sleeves that you keep in the freezer until needed (?) work perfectly to ice toes.

Later we went to the local ER to check the condition of my foot. It didn't hurt nearly enough to my way of thinking.

The PA told me that due to the restricted size of toes, as soon as they swell they can diminish blood flow and block nerves. She said to have ibuprofen on hand for when the swelling went DOWN.

X-ray showed toes not broken, just bruised.

Round 1 to the turkey, just wait, I have the final victory here.

The color of weather

You might know that I work in an office which has a view of Lake Union.  Over the years that view has changed due to the rise of new building, the moving of a houseboat, the removal of trees.

I know that several times a day I can expect to see a seaplane arrive or depart from the lake as the carrier has several courier and commuter runs.

In season we can see, and occasionally hear, the U.W. sculls out on the lake training.

Sometimes the lake is flat, sometimes it has whitecaps.

On foggy days I judge the fog level as to whether I can see the lake or across the lake.

The other day the sky was clear, the air was crisp, the lake surface was a definite mid-bright blue.

The day before Thanksgiving the sky was overcast, the air was chilly, the lake surface was a steely gray.

One of my small pleasures is watching the weather change the face and color pattern of the lake.

And the WINDS they do blow

This year we had a dry, mild, clear Halloween night. Practically unheard of around here. The standing Halloween joke is about the costumes that are not seen, except as flashing glimpses from under coats, as Trick-or-Treaters brave ice-y rain in order to get their candy. Neighborhood parties are quite common. As are the cars that idle down the street as parents watch their group of kids.

Naturally there is a price to pay for this weather boon.  It arrived last night, November 1st. It started with driving rain that pummeled the house. Loud enough that it woke me. That has been followed by a wind storm. We are on Alert until 8PM tonight (at the moment) because the winds are 25 mph with gusts to 60 mph.

Nope, not letting the cats out.

So far our lights have only gone out for a minute, along with a few flickers.  Just long enough that we had to reset clocks; and the "favorites" preferences on the water dispenser for the refrigerator. We are lucky, PSE is saying that they currently have 95,000 customers who have lost power. I learned this while paying bills. Hope we stay lucky.

Our backyard had a carpet of fallen leaves from the weeping birch tree (luckily trimmed this summer).

The winds picked them up and painted them on the chain link fence by the back driveway.

They are much prettier there.

R-R-R-R-R-R-Rainier

If you didn't grow up in the Pacific NW, the Seattle area in particular, you may not know that one of the most iconic older buildings in the SODO district (South end of Downtown - renamed about the time that Starbucks took over the old Sears building, and fka the industrial district) is the old Rainier Brewery.

Rainier has not brewed any beer there in many years. The old red lighted "R" came off the roof, and was put into the Museum of History and Industry (MOHI). The old brewery was re-developed into lofts and office spaces.

For the past several years it has been the property of Tully Coffee. A new sign went up on the roof, a big green "T". Yup the headquarters of the 2 biggest coffee chains around are a few blocks apart. Or were. For whatever reason, Tully had decided to move out of the building as of the end of October 2013.

They did something for the community before they left.  They commissioned a new lighted sign to go up on the roof.

Those in the "know" knew what it was going to be; others saw a big white sign bearing a ? go up on the building.

This past week a new red "R" appeared on the roof.

Now about the patchwork paint job on the building.....


After I had posted this I learned the D.W.Drang has posted a companion piece on thecluemeter.blogspot.com. The Running of the Rainiers and other of the humorous commercials for Rainier Beer. Go check them out.

A trip, a discovery, and Outstanding! customer support

Some of you know that in February of 2012 I bought myself a Baynes double drive/double treadle spinning wheel. It has done a bit of traveling and has gotten me fairly broken in on its likes and dislikes. Unfortunately it has not had much of a workout lately what with one thing and another. No, please don't ask me to explain; it's complicated and having a cast on one leg for a month is only a small part of that.

I determined to take my Baynes wheel to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno the 2nd weekend of September. I went to accompany my terrific D.W. on the trip, pretty much knowing that I was not going to be putting in any range time and would need to  entertain myself. Setting up to spin or read in the hotel pool area seemed a fine idea.

2 things stopped me.
First thing was that the Silver Legacy does not have an outside pool, only an exercise pool by the "spa" in the hotel. The only outside in the sun at the hotel is on the sidewalks around it.
Okay, we had a nice view from our 15th floor room, I could watch the hot air balloons floating out and over a neighboring hill.
Then I discovered that, somewhere along the line of moving my wheel about, I had lost the drive cord tensioning knob. OOOPS.

For non-spinners a double drive wheel can be used in double band mode with two separate drive bands and using band tension and treadle action to control speed, or in Scotch tension mode where both drive bands work as one and there is a separate tension control "brake". Not having the drive cord tensioning knob meant that the wheel could only work as Scotch tension. Think Toyota versus Cadillac. Both have their place but each has virtues of its own.

I called the distributor from whom I had purchased the wheel, Susan's Spinning Bunny in West Danby, New York. Did they sell spare parts or could they tell me how to fix it? Susan could give me only a broad idea of doing a homemade fix. She could, however, tell me who to contact at the Baynes factory in Ashburton, New Zealand; she gave me his email address. If you have ever ordered anything from Susan you know that she is a wonderfully knowledgeable and friendly lady.

Emails were exchanged between myself, describing my dilemma and asking direction, and Murray B. at the factory.

Murray told me the particulars of the part I needed including screw width, pitch, and length and the total length of the part. He told me that I could most likely replace the screw at a local hardware store but that I would have a bit more difficulty finding the weighted knob to which the screw was affixed.

And then he said "I think it would be just as easy if I sent you a new knob and threaded rod complete at no cost.", and asked if my postal address was the same as when my wheel was shipped from the factory. This offer was quite unexpected but definitely appreciated, of course I accepted.

These emails were exchanged on September 7th. The replacement part arrived September 19th.
A small replacement part at no cost and half way around the world in less than 2 weeks.
That is what I call amazing customer support. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Can I get snaps and kudos for these 2 marvelous people?
Anyone looking for a new wheel? Fiber? Spindles? Accessories? Yarn? Patterns? Knitting needles?

Alaska - half way

We are here. Only took us 20 years to get around to it. I'll try to post pictures later.

We were in Ketchikan yesterday. Chilly. Met  some interesting locals.

I have never seen so many jewelry stores in one place. The cruise line pointed everyone toward several of them, they paid sponsorship in a coupon book, by staging a 'scavenger hunt' of questions.

That being said, my favorite stores were both non-participants in the kickback game. They were Sockeye Sam's and Tongas Trading Company. I bought a silk shawl with Tlingit bear box motif at Sockeye Sam's.
From Tongas I got a nifty alpaca knit hat with ear coverings and those braidy strings.

Today we got up early and spent 2 - 2 1/2 hours on the upper deck (in our warm gear) as we traveled through Tracy Arm Fjord. There is so much gorgeous scenery that I couldn't decide where to look. After a couple of hours we kind of went into overload. A "few" pictures were taken. A glacier calved. Wow, just wow.

This afternoon we moored in Juneau. There must be a clause in our ship's contact that says that they must moor at the dock farthest from whatever town they stop at. Yesterday that meant a 10 minute walk. OK, did that. Today the note in the ship's paper said "15 minute walk to AJ Dock" Oh and BTW there is a low fee shuttle available for those you need it. HMMM walk or ride? Oh yeah that was tough. I doubt anyone walked.

Favorite store? Alaska Knife company, or maybe Rufus Page. R.P. is a small shop that carries local, and quite high quality, crafts. We purchased a man-size ulu for mister, among other small items.A.K. had a caribou antler handled ulu for me with a chopping bowl and sharpener included.

We are pulling away from dock and I am about to lose signal. Bye for now.

In April I put in some raised beds for planting veggies and herbs.

Here is a pic from a couple weeks ago. The tomato plants are taller now, still flowering. The strawberries are bearing small but very tasty berries; it's their 1st season. The kohlrabi are forming nice bulbs. The snap peas are trying to bush rather than climb, but hey we've got dinner veg. The string beans not quite so well. Fennel seems to really like me this year. You can't see it in the picture, there is a small planter of nasturtiums for color and to go into the salad as well. The cat? That's Celia.

There is enough green leaf, romaine, friese lettuces that we are sharing with one of his co-workers. And I think it is going to be a good thing that we like spinach salad as well.

 A friend will be tending the garden while we go on vacation. She's been told to share in the harvest.

Multi-color blooms

A bit more color, a few days later.

May flowers?

The weather has been so on again,  off again between sun and downpours of rain that it has confused the flowers.  I took this picture as I left for work this morning.

Pay to sell my car?

The title of this post sounds distinctly odd.

I'll explain.

The problems that evolved last year with my back and leg made me realize that it can be problematic to count on a small, low, stick shifted car to get around in.

My small car is a 1990 240SX, which is popular with the street car fans.

It drives well. It is in quite good shape for its age. Yeah, it needs cosmetic work. We all do as we age. Florence is still fast and beautiful.

There is a neighbor kid (17) who wants a car that he can get to school in and work on. He is enrolled in classes to become an automotive engineer. He works on his Dad's BMW. He has no money, or not much.

His father works on Boeing's airplanes. He has come and looked car over, ran it, approves.

So we now have a "handy-kid" who is gung-ho about helping with yard work, or other work, that we don't want to tackle (like climbing up on a roof to spread moss stuff). He doesn't want money in hand, we are keeping a worksheet of hours worked and/or tasks performed to show accumulation of value.

So I guess you could say that I am paying him to buy my car. The old barter system at work.
His grandparents (who I am guessing to be around my age, based on ages of his parents) got a chuckle out of it when they heard.

Handy-kid also works for others around the neighborhood but says it is hard to get enough jobs.

He doesn't work on Saturdays. That's his dirt-bike day.

Bang!

Did I tell you that the local firearms store relocated?
Did I tell you that it is now within a mile of home?
Did I tell you that it is also now an indoor range?

Last month I went in and took a refresher course on shooting. My grip is much improved.

Ladies get discounts all day on Tuesdays.
Met a lady who wants to be shooting buddies.

LCR tries to bite which is not nice.
Star, OTOH, behaves better than others of its ilk that the range master has seen. :)

I'll let you know how this goes.

Age, definitely a state of mind

This year I will have a garden. More exactly I will have 4 raised beds that are 4' X 4'. With risers for viney things.

I put in 2 different types of tomato, several herbs, an assortment of greens, peas, beans, cucumbers. There will also be carrots and radishes, also kohlrabi and golden beets (hopefully).

We got a string of days with really nice weather and so in went the vegetable starts. Then we got a couple of frosty nights. Followed by a couple of nice days. Followed by thunder storms.

I like rain, it means that I don't have to water anything. It's just that I don't want it in such a way that it eradicates my plantings. Sigh.

But I am feeling "young" and able and cane free; so very unlike last year when there was only pain and hobble.


And now I will start shooting again. More about that in a separate post.

But I am older according to the calendar so I guess I'll have to accept some of the things that occur as a result.

Eyes:

My optometrist informed me that my eyes are aging. A change in prescription, stronger, is in order.

My present glasses suit me admirably; unless I get tired, at which time I occasionally loose focus at bit. So the new ones should keep me sharper.

I picked up my new glasses a couple of days ago. They are going to take some getting used to. The first time I wore them and moved around very much I got a bit dizzy. On the other hand I can now read the fine print on things without "trying".

I'd never heard of the frame brand of Ellen Tracy. The pair I chose is called Greenstone. The stems have sort of a jungle grass pattern, and in just the right light there is a subtle green tint.

Back:

I started getting some pain from the herniated disk again in late January. Saw the doc, again.

This time he wanted me on a nerve paid medication. Start with 1/2 a pill 2X day and work up to 1 whole pill 2X day.

Uh uh. 1/2 a pill made me feel dopey and unfocussed. Not a good trait for a bookkeeper.
So I talked to my pharmacist. She said to reduce the medication and add an Aleve tablet.

It works!  So morning/evening I take 1/4 pill + Aleve (it's shorter to spell than generic name) and am pain free.

Now if I can just keep from miss-stepping and twisting my ankle...

A-crusing we will go

Plans are made for a family reunion of sorts on a cruise to Alaska. That wasn't planned, it just happened. It is quite a tale.

D.W. and I took our 1st cruise this past December, courtesy of his parents. We had a good time. You can read my previous post if you want to know more about it.

We have said for the past 20 years that we would like to take a cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska "someday".  Well! In February we received a reasonably priced cruise offering, which we decided to take.

Remembering the pleasure of cruising with "the folks" we asked them if they would be interested in booking onto the same cruise. They decided to join us on board.

A couple of weeks later Mom told us that she had been talking to D.W.'s sister and told her about the cruise plans. Sis decided that she and our niece would join the party. (Bro-in-law is doing a stint with an overseas company, which is 1/2 way complete. His schedule precludes him from joining us. Sis was already planning to be in the States taking care of business that would be difficult if not impossible to do from overseas.) We haven't seen Sister and Niece for way these many years.  So now we are 6.

Another month passed and again Mom called. She left a message. D.W. said that he couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying, but that she sounded slightly hysterical. He called back.

Mom had been talking with her sister and telling her how the 6 of us were going cruising as a family. Mom's Sis looked into it, and now she and her daughter have joined the party as well. Mom called the cruise director and re-booked the dining arrangements as we will now need a larger table for the 8 of us.

Cousin expressed some reservations about them just "dropping in" on us.  I emailed her that it was by far the easiest family reunion I had ever planned. All it took was a phone call to Mom. And none of us has to worry about housework or cooking for a week.

Luscious rhody outside my office

Sunday, March 24th, a Full day

D.W. and I got up early (for a weekend) in order to get to the WAC gun show before the "after church" crowd. We have heard that the membership lines have been back to and out the door, and the floor crowded. Getting in early today there was no line to avoid. Some vendors were not represented this month because their store stocks are depleted enough to not want to do table sales.

Ammo prices were high, surprise. I heard one man ask a vendor if he was having any difficulty getting ammo stock. The vendor gave him a "well duh" look and then explained that yes, he definitely was, along with everyone else.

The KelTec KSG (shotgun) was seen for $2100.00. We saw it on their web site when it was still in development with an estimated SRP of $800. Somebody is looking to make a profit.

One vendor had a sign saying that he now accepts Paypal. The only one there as far as I know.

Lots of knives for sale, no beany babies in evidence.

 I was told that AR-15 parts are becoming available again and the prices falling. So I'll wait a bit longer to get mine built.

I talked to some familiar vendors that haven't seen me for a while. I saw a few "interesting" things; and bought a couple of others (thank you,  Sweetheart!). My amber dealer didn't have anything which called to me this time. I found some green turquoise that is quite nice. It's bling, even though it does not sparkle.

I bought a number of DVD's to send in "care packages" to Afghanistan. When the vendor heard where the DVDs were headed he gave me a set of 3/a season  as 1 and told me to pick a couple more for free. Veterans like it when we support the troops.

I bought a T-shirt from Banterwear. It's the "Guns and Coffee" in support of Starbucks' for their support of 2nd amendment. It is raspberry color, finally not pink or black. They were trying the color out new this weekend.It works for me.

From the gun show we went to buy moss killer for the garage roof. While we were at the store we decided to buy a couple of grocery items. Why is it that once you are in the grocery store there are always more things that come to mind that are needed, but which are not on the list?

We had about 3 hours at home before we had to leave for our dinner reservation.

Novilhos Brazilian Steakhouse is located at the edge of Factoria Square,in Bellevue.

They have a set of double entry doors. This  is the inner pair.

 To the left of the doors is an alcove which I will assume to give nice ambience when in operation.

In the alcove is a number of large pillar candles. Lit and in the darkness between the doors it would be striking.

We were there in early evening and it was still too light. The candles were unlit.








Novilhos is a meat and potatos lovers kind of place.  They  have a salad bar in the center of the restaurant which has 60 items on it; salads and side dishes. It is the first course.

When you have eaten your salad they clear your plate and give you your dinner plate, and a two sided token which indicates if you are ready for meat. Green side up means you want to see the next selection, red side up indicates that you are fine for the time being. There are 3 side dishes to the entree. They are mashed potatoes, fried polenta with grated parmesan, and fried bananas with cinnamon and sugar. The servers rotate through the restaurant with 17 different meat selections; chicken, beef, pork and lamb. They give you a slice or chunk off their serving skewers if you want that selection.

We asked one server what he could tell us about their selection of Malbec wines. One he knew not very much about as few people ordered it, it was triple the price of most of the others. One he described as very dry. Two others were "meh". That left two choices: one that he said that he really liked and drank "all the time at home". the other he described as getting rave reviews from diners and somewhat more expensive.

We went with his at home selection. It was quite good! Not too much for the chicken but perfectly able to cope with beef or pork.

 I tried 7 or 8 of the meats. I didn't track D.W.'s but he said he had his fill.
D.W. finished with homemade flan, I had the lemon cake. And coffee for both of course.
[Dinner was kind of pricey. I think if we go back it will be for lunch.]

We got home to the cats yelling that it was past THEIR dinner time and where had we been forever.
Time to dress down, relax and digest.

Spring (?)

This is the time of year when we all expect the sun to come out of hiding, for flowers to bloom, and for the weather to warm up.

Ah, expectations. We seem to have jumped a bit too far this time.

Spring began officially at 4:02 AM on March 20th. It came in with SNOW, and 60 mph winds. Well, actually, Everett got the snow, and Camano Island got the highest winds and wind/tree damage. At home I only got hail and rain and winds clocked at 41 mph. And temps in the low 30's which meant scraping ice.

March 21st - Our wedding anniversary - driving home from work in the sleet.
D.W. gave me a beautiful floral bouquet.
I gave D.W. a garden gnome. Before you start shouting or cursing, you should know that it is a Thorsson & Associates combat garden gnome. Reclining position, red hat, blue shirt, green trous, and black rifle.
 The 50 cal machine gun was not available when I ordered; I almost got the flame thrower, but this guy was cute.

 

We are going to go to dinner at Novilhos Brazilian Steakhouse  on Sunday. We couldn't go on our anniversary because the salt mines insisted he be at work way too early the next morning. We will both have next Monday off.

March 22nd - 15 minutes of scraping ice; soon after getting in to work it started snowing. It didn't last too long and it didn't stick, here. North of town there were school delays and closures because of snow accumulation.

If March is planning on going out "like a lamb", it had better temper its temper soon.





                                     

A bus ride, and a short cruise review

Hello New Year!

I really need to learn how to keep a journal.  I keep forgetting to post.  This year my resolution will be to keep writing.

So, it is 2013. January 10th to be exact.

A milestone day; I rode the bus to work this morning. 
Big deal you say?
Well yes!
It marks the fact that after months of pain and stiffness, I could actually ride the bouncy jouncy bus into town without becoming so stiff that I couldn't walk by the time I reached my destination.

Herniated discs are unpleasant. (Just a tad bit of understatement BTW) Add to that an inflamed nerve bundle and you get real pain that runs from your spine to your toes. Thank goodness for modern medicine and good drugs.

So now I have had 3 procedures done. I get a few errant "tingles" but the PAIN has ceased.
(Hope it stays gone for a good l-o-n-g while.)
Thank you Dr. Ricki at Highline Hospital in Burien, WA!!

We went on vacation with D.W.'s (you know him? GREAT guy!) parents in December.
Fantastic!

We have had few occasions where we could spend an extended time with them. Mostly due to weird work schedules.  We had never been on a cruise, but knew that they had enjoyed several.

This Fall they said that if we'd fly down to meet them that we would all go together. Wow!

I had no vacation time left but told my boss that I couldn't pass up the chance. He agreed, so I got the time off although unpaid.

D.W. took vacation leave; not too difficult as the scheduling called for us to return just prior to the holiday.

We did run into a snag at the beginning of November. His job decided to loan him out to FEMA in NYC post- Sandy. They said "you won't be gone more than 45 days". Problem was that the cruise was in 39 days. OH NO! The folks went into shock when told. We all crossed our fingers and hoped that it would work out. Alternate plans for meeting up were made.

Then on Thanksgiving eve I received a text message saying that he would be home the next morning. HURRAH.  And he even got a decent seat on the plane even though they had overbooked it.

So now we are seasoned sea travelers. It was only 7 days, there were only 2 ports of call. Aruba and Curacao. Not a bad beginning.

Warm weather in the low 80's, so comfortable. We had a balcony. The food was good, our service people were admirable. I over packed. We took the 1st portrait pictures we've gotten since our wedding.  It was FUN.

We snorkeled in Aruba. There might have been a storm shortly before as the water was not as clear as we had expected from our experiences in Hawaii. I picked up a cold.

We did a short bus tour at Curacao. That is quite the colorful place! Seems that a former governor had decided that with everything painted white and reflecting the sun that it was just too dazzling. He told everyone to paint their buildings anything BUT white. Turned out later that he owned a paint factory. Hmmm. 

One of the stops, the major stop, on the tour was the Curacao distillery.  I knew that Curacao was made from oranges; or what was an orange before exotic locale soil changed the fruit composition. Unedible fruit but essential oil that was exquisite. A new industry is born. And the stuff is not blue.
The distilled liquor is clear and then they add whatever color they want to it. But it is not just orange in flavor either. We tasted chocolate, kaffe, and rum raisin as well. Seems that not all flavors are for export. We brought home some of  the kaffe and rum raisin.

The 4 of us participated in a set of music trivia contests in one of the piano bars on the ship; Caribbean Princess by the way. It began as a sort of "we're here, why not" thing. The idea was to name one or more of the song title, the composer, and show title if it was from a TV show or movie. Turns out we were quite good at it. The 1st round was 15 tunes, we got them all. The 2nd round was 16 tunes, we missed 1 so came in 2nd. He just had to throw in a character's theme song from a soap opera.

It was lovely to spend time with Mom and Dad. A very good holiday.

D.W. went back to work on Christmas so that someone else could have time with family.
Carole went back to work a couple days later; in time to participate in all the year end detail stuff for the office.

Now there is an idea in the works about a cruise up the Inland Passage to Alaska this next summer. Fingers crossed again.