Cards Against Humanity- love that game, and I admit that despite a rather large vocabulary, I learned quite a few new words from it :>)

Bill - you elevated our conversation out of the gutter very nicely- I'm proud of you. And Silverbirch, nice of you to assist.

Dagmar, thank you for restraining yourself; we have had entirely too many bodily functions and body parts discussed on this forum recently.

Michele, when you order by mail, do you find the clothing generally fits you? I have such a love/hate relationship with mail order clothing, mostly because even 2 items that are the same size from the same store often fit differently depending on the cut. Do you try them on in the store first, then order when they go on sale, or just trust that they will fit?

If our conversations need to be "high brow" I better just make my exit now.

CherryPie, I want to know about your garden. Have you put it to bed for the winter? Is anything bravely hanging on? Once again, I missed the autumn and my garden is in disarray: long grass, lavender not cut back, hedges unkempt - you name it. We're doing well for wildlife, though!

I used a service this year - two gardens and not enough time to look after both. I did pull all the frozen hosta leaves and dead maple leaves out of the front bed yesterday, only to discover that our downspout is disconnected to run straight down into the pillar that supports the front porch. Another thing for DH to fix.

I also trimmed down the holly a bit in the front. It has no berries - I think the opposite gender plant is in the back yard and we need both for berries to develop. I will transplant the one from the front next spring.

Somewhere there is a detailed 40 or so page account of what's in the garden out back and tips for caring for it. I think it's in the shed - must go out back and look. I so look forward to only having ONE garden to care for - the last 5 years I've had anywhere from 2-4 at once. My back is not so keen on all that stooping.

Dagmar

Agreed - one exploration of the urbandictionary is quite enough. I'll go back to being civilized. Just keep in mind that I spent my first five years after college in an automotive assembly plant in Flint on the night shift ... and nobody emerges from an experience like that unscathed. But I know how to pull on the "mostly acceptable" mask.

Dagmar - that's neat that somebody took all the time to write down what's there and what you can do. That would be great winter reading. I empathize with you about the stooping. There's nothing quite like trying to get up off the ground after spending an hour rooting in the dirt.

Jen, on the topic of games, if you haven't played "Thingz" in low-brow company, I highly recommend it.

Silver, I too missed the fall cleanup. I am looking out my dining room window at a flower bed that's been almost overwhelmed by some ornamental grass. Not nice at all.

Joy - I forgot to thank you for the vegetarian cookbook recommendations! I browsed them online and added them to my Christmas list.

Allison - good to hear that Chico is bouncing back. Hopefully Ringo will do so too, now that things are back to normal around your house. Poor guy!

Michele - no, you're not the only one! My favorite catalogs keep sending me all these killer deals for Christmas, and it's very distracting. December's budget is only so big! I love WHBM; sounds like you scored!

Today's a big day for me. It's time to renovate our master bath (even though the siding project, now a year old, won't complete til spring) due to functional problems. The shower enclosure has begun to leak thru the pan, plus the whole room's vibe is late 70's with brown tile with gold flecks - and CARPET on the floor. I am at the point where I'm willing to take a second job to pay for ripping it all out. I have to go in there at least twice a day, and I need it not to make me clench my teeth every time. So I'm meeting with a designer. Hoping that my tastes don't translate to obscene $$$.

Welcome saraphin!

Bill, whenever I need to know about a historical figure I go straight to wikipedia. All I know about Cromwell (and I haven't read saef's links or wikipedia) is that he led some kind of revolution in the 1600s to overthrow the monarchy, then was the leader of the government for a little while until the monarchy was reinstated, and that was the end of absolute monarchy and the beginning of constitutional monarchy. Or something like that anyway.

DH cleaned up our garden for the winter at some point. I'm not sure when it happened but I looked outside and all the dead underbrush was gone, so he must have done something! Our holly has berries for the first time this year. It's supposed to be a hybrid kind that can produce berries on its own but we've had it several years and this is the first time it's done it. I mostly picked it out because I liked its leaves anyway!

For the gardeners, I have to say, our most reliable crop year after year has been GARLIC! I haven't bought garlic at the store in years. DH plants a bunch in the fall, then we get garlic scapes (the garlic flower stems) in the spring, then harvest the bulbs and leave them to dry in the garage/basement. We end up using up the last of them about the time the next batch is ready, and I eat a lot of garlic!

There is something going on with one of my contact lenses this morning. :-/ I rinsed my eye with saline solution but if it doesn't clear up I may have to go home from work to get my glasses or a new pair of contacts. Annoying! There doesn't appear to be anything in my eye or on the lens so I don't know what's going on. Maybe it will clear up on its own in a little while.

In other news, the twins slept GREAT last night. We only had to get up to feed them the one time, and they actually slept until 6am on the dot (past few days they have been up at 3:30/4 and then refuse to sleep after 5am). I think the couple of naps that DH let them cry it out the other day let them learn a little bit how to put themselves back to sleep because there were a couple times I woke up to them making noise on the monitor but they went back to sleep in just a few minutes.

On the other hand, my alma mater decided that 9:30pm was the perfect time to call asking for money, which interrupted my "long" sleep stretch (8pm-12:30am). I politely told them that we were in bed and they should call during the day. I'm pretty sure that the poor student who was calling me didn't realize I was in the eastern time zone.

Does that mean that a former owner wrote all that down? Wow. Someone must have really cared about the future welfare of their plants. About two weeks ago I finally got romaine, mixed greens, broccoli, snow peas, and kale seedlings down in my winter veggie garden. They seem to be doing ok but have a lot of growing to do. I was late this year.

I had choral rehearsal last night and have an extra one coming up on Thursday. Our winter concerts are this Saturday & Sunday. We're singing Christmas music and mostly more contemporary carols including a Charlie Brown Christmas medley. Hearing the Charlie Brown puts me in the holiday spirit no matter what. I'm REALLY looking forward to yoga tonight and hope to do some Christmas shopping online (my mom is asking me about items - the pressure is on). I chopped up a butternut squash last night to roast tonight, and there's leftover chicken, so dinner will be easy.

Joy, yummy cabbage salad! Except I made it and ate it for lunch, and then looked back at the recipe: "serves 2-4". Oops.

Andrea, it's almost impossible for me to mail order clothing for the sizing reasons you mentioned. When I do shop, I just order things in two sizes and accept that I will send most items back. I consider the return shipping my fee for not driving to the city and dealing with the hassle of stores.

Welcome saraphin! Glad to have you with us.

Oh boy! Here in Northern NY everything is dead and gone by September! All the flower gardens as well as our vegetable garden are covered in about 6 inches of snow and the only things sticking out are little black stems that I didn't cut back!!!

I am, however, still enjoying all the spaghetti squash we grew over the summer - that seems to last a LONG time even in the house! And I have a TON of green beans, yellow beans, and sugar snap peas that I harvested, blanched, and froze that I am enjoying for dinners.

I will have to go through in the early spring and cut back everything that is dead from the flower gardens that I didn't get to in the fall!

Jen

Hmm. I didn't know it was that early. I forget about continental climate as it's so temperate here by comparison. But you're still running outside? How on earth do you manage that? (We don't seem to have a cold smiley.)

Saef, here is the one you're looking for ("brr")

And they do make quite a lot of high-tech gear to keep you warm running in cold temps!

Jessica~if your eye is bugging you and there isn't anything on your contacts, you may have an abrasion. Wearing glasses for the rest of the day will allow your eye to heal. Thankfully eye abrasions heal quickly!

I got my house back! All the guests are gone and I spent an hour or so after a long day of work getting everything cleaned up and mostly put back together. I threw out all the pies and then gathered all the leftovers and fixed reasonable plates for reheating for dinner last night and then threw everything else away. Well, except for the turkey which I bagged and froze for casseroles in the future.

My dad flew into SLC yesterday afternoon and as I understood it, it would have been better for him to have stayed here. I guess they had a tremendous snow storm all day and my SIL said she never got out of first gear on the freeway going home. The normal 30 minute drive took close to 2 hours. Have I mentioned how much I prefer the weather here?

DH picked up meds for Ringo at the compounding pharmacy last night. The vet didn't have the right dosage, so we had to go this route which make my job of dosing him more difficult. The e-vet had given us teeny tiny pills that were easily hidden in a pill pocket, but the compounding pharmacy filled small gelatin caps. I ended up pouring the contents into two pill pockets and sealing them up but he only wanted to eat one. I suppose he tasted the medicine in there so I ended up having to force the other one down him. But it is already working so I'll continue doing what I have to. He rewarded me with a long lap nap last night--something he couldn't do the past week or so because of all the commotion in our house.

I don't order much by mail usually except WHBM as I know my sizing there. I read the reviews and order accordingly. I ordered one dress in a size smaller than usual due to the reviews saying it runs large. I can send them back with no charge so I usually end up keeping some and returning some.

ICUwishing: glad you liked the vegetarian cookbooks -- great for Christmas getting!

Megan: cool that the cabbage salad worked for you. I bought a cabbage yesterday! They stay cheap all winter, right through St. Patrick's Day! I eat huge salads every day, cabbage or otherwise. I'm sure I eat what a regular eater would consider 4 servings.

I'm attempting mail order clothes for the first time since I lost the weight. We'll see how that goes. I used to enjoy the luxury of having my house as my changing room. While I was losing weight, I shopped in stores because there was no predicting what would fit. Even at normal weight, I still don't seem to have the sort of body that clothes are made for. I'm also pickier about how things fit than when I was heavy (at which time, I preferred loose and hanging). I wanted to try mail order once more before giving up. Should get a big package this week!

Thanks for the links, silverbirch, I'm off to become a tad better aware of Cromwell.

For those who wonder if this is appropriate discussion for 3 Fat Chicks, here are two points extracted from the links that describe the Cromwell Diet to help those feeling challenged by the eating season ahead:When I name myself The Protector, I'll add cookies to that list enforced by the soldiers.

Joy-- please report back! Hope your shopping experience is a success!

The heater doesn't seem to be working today in the library. This has happened the last few years when it gets really cold. I hate cold. I'm cranky. Think I'll go do jumping jacks. Bikram will feel great tonight!!