Ben wants to play too! Unfortunately Lily and Callie get a bit of tunnel vision around each other.
MERCURY RETROGRADE is still present, but is unusually non-interactive, reducing its impact. Although it does realign with the moon on Boxing Day, but I guess that’s in the spirit of that limey-ist of holidays. And that’s literally it. Enjoy!
Capricorn: Queen of Swords reversed – Spinning around like a top. Obviously this must be a reference to dancing, parties and merriment.
Aquarius: 6 of Coins – This card has a man in a red coat and hat giving away presents while holding a scales in his other hand (indicating judgments as to who is naughty or nice). Interpretation is left as an exercise to the reader.
Pisces: Ace of Swords – You will receive toys (especially weapons, wargames, and vegetarian snacks).
Aries: The Sun – Warmth, happiness. the child with a banner is a herald of the new year to come.
Taurus: Strength reversed – gentleness, cats not biting.
Gemini: 4 of Coins reversed – another spinning like a top card, but this one also involves money. Making it rain perhaps?
Cancer: The High Priestess – A woman in blue (Mary!) wearing a cross and holding a Torah scroll (ecumenicalism!) on a background of split papayas (paging Dr. Freud!) and the Initials “BJ”(oh, come on now, that’s not even a euphemism!)
Leo: 2 of Swords reversed – Tranquility, peace, harmony, as if rowing on a still lake.
Virgo: The Fool reversed – Partying as hard as humanly possible without suffering permanent injury.
Libra: King of Swords – That line from “Pipa Passes” is appropriate here.
Scorpio: Two of Coins reversed – Games, lots of games. You’ll lose most of them but have un anyway.
Sagittarius: 5 of Wands reversed – as above, but with a particular emphasis on sports betting.
Yay! Ben, Angel and Queenie have some fun.
Sagittarius: 5 of Wands reversed – as above, but with a particular emphasis on sports betting.
The race is not always to the swift, nor victory to the strong. But that’s how you bet.
My dogs are in the office while I’m watching your videos, and they are perplexed at who’s barking.
“Virgo: The Fool reversed – Partying as hard as humanly possible without suffering permanent injury.”
That’s not astrology, you read my party invitations.
That kind of New Years Eve is long ago for me.
I’m not leaving the house.
Aquarius: 6 of Coins – This card has a man in a red coat and hat giving away presents while holding a scales in his other hand (indicating judgments as to who is naughty or nice). Interpretation is left as an exercise to the reader.
Well, I told the wife I would “stuff the stockings” in the morning.
“Cancer: The High Priestess – A woman in blue (Mary!) wearing a cross and holding a Torah scroll (ecumenicalism!) on a background of split papayas (paging Dr. Freud!) and the Initials “BJ”(oh, come on now, that’s not even a euphemism!)”
hawt and less sucky then the recent streak.
Morning, Glibs.
OT – I don’t get Non-Metallic Metals. They take more work than metallics and look worse. Why do it?
What are non-metallic metals?
A technique using non-metallic paints to paint and object that’s supposed to appear metallic.
Here’s a random internet link I can’t vouch for.
It’s a lot of work and unless you’re godly at it, it looks like shit.
Poison, Winger, Vixen, Enuff Z’Nuff, etc.
*slap*
You get Winger’s name outcho mouth!
– This chick is hot!
– Yeah, huh huh huh.
Oh, I’m sorry you thought I was listening to the music…
Haven’t gotten that far yet but I am impressed with Army Painters Speed Paint 2.0 metallic speed paints. Got base coats on most of my Marines so far – hope to work on vehicles/dreads (dry brush) this next week – and start some character details too.
Those that I’ve tried from that range have performed fairly well.
Yeah. Gotta make sure it’s got 2.0 on the label. Still like the Vallejo Express ones and the Green Stuff dipping inks are working pretty well too. Nice to have a variety avaliable at great prices. Hoping to get into airbrushing soon too for indoor priming, etc.
This seems to be a good time of TV. Reacher, Bodies and Blue Eye Samurai are all good.
I just finished The Fall of the House of Usher. It is brilliant.
Blue Eyed Samurai is next on the list.
Reacher continues to be great.
Bodies was excellent, but I thought the ending was a cheat.
Usher is next for me.
Blue Eyed Samurai was fun. Kinda ridiculous but in an entertaining Kill Billl way.
Yeah, the first episode was “let’s put in every single samurai trope that exists.”
Ep5 makes me want to see an actual Noh performance.
When Ep6 opened with “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” I sat up. I’m assuming the Indian music was equivalently famous.
Just say No to Noh. It was pretentious before it was cool to be pretentious.*
*It was never cool to be pretentious.
You never could find heater gloves that fit, huh?
If you want more Noh, look up the late 90s mecha series Gasaraki or the mythological/time-hopping Otogi Zoshi series.
The suspension of disbelief, in terms of physical capability, was stressed in the last few episodes.
Also not super happy how it ended. We’ll see if Netflix actually pays for a second series, or if (like so many of their anime-ish titles) they just drop it.
I’ve also been watching Scissor Seven, which is both silly and sweet. Shocklingly Netflix has paid for four series thus far. The fourth series, far from resolving any of the existing storylines, just added more. Grr.
Bodies was good. Well done short series. The ending was somewhat predictable, but the story was at least interesting.
Depends on whose bodies they are. 🙂
So what effect did the “writers strike” have on any of this? Weeded out crappy writers? Delayed release of good stuff?
I’ll add Maggie Moore(s) to the list of good new content.
Oscar’s “smoked bratuwurst” are freaking delicious. And the recipe on the side of the King Arthur bread flour makes amazing rolls for same.
I watched the first four episodes of Reacher. I am not displeased. Never heard of Bodies or Blue Eyed Samurai. Amazon Prime?
Netflix.
Tranquility, peace, harmony, as if rowing on a still lake.
Not sufficiently shitty.
The dog videos are good.
Joe Biden’s Christmas letter to Santa Claus
That was awesome. Started predictably enough but then got going!
lol okay
If you’ve got Max for streaming, Mr. Inbetween is funny, violent, and intelligent. Great show about a hired killer in Australia.
Slow cooking ribs in the oven, currently at 210 degrees. Will ramp up the heat if needed. No need to boil (and leach out half the flavor) going low and slow. Dry rubbed Kinder’s Molassas and Hickory, plus Salt Lick’s rub.
Gf has a standing rib roast in the oven. It’s a small one compared to the last one she did at Thanksgiving.
Did one of those last year. Chicken fajitas tonight, ham tomorrow.
https://www.wfmz.com/news/alabama-woman-with-rare-double-uterus-gives-birth-to-two-children/article_d661a0e2-487a-5a64-aae0-f2e6a27942ce.html
Wow.
So many questions! Says she has two crevices and two uteri; but does that mean her vagina has a “Y” on top?
And is she a chimera? Happens sometimes in human females where they are part “themselves” chromosomally speaking, but are part their own sister, with a different X from one parent. I swear I’m not making it up; happens rarely when doing paternity tests where the result is “he’s the father, but your sister is the mother.”
Says she has two crevices
That’s some typo.
🙄🤣🙃😂
I still have gifts to wrap. 😒
I’m just sticking a “Merry Christmas” note on the box of wine I got for Dad.
A boxed wine, or a box of bottles?
Boxed wine. Dad doesn’t have good enough taste for fine wines at his age, and he doesn’t like reds or drier stuff anyway.
Hell, he even bought a case of fruitscato. [retches]
It’s a box of Austrian Grüner Veltliner.
As for me, I picked up a bottle of Monastrell to go with steak tonight, and a Cortese di Gavi to go with turkey tomorrow.
“Would m’sieur care to smell ze tap?”
Eep! Almost forgot to get the gf a Christmas card.
That would have been…unwise. CVS has me covered.
Card? Christmas cards are for sending to people you’re not going to see for the holiday.
…
Which I didn’t do this year… 😕
I tried to divest myself from Big Greeting Card, but I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I was obligated to supply her with one for each standard occasion.
Fly Sean. Fly like the wind!
☑
To be free again?
Jugsy is getting a gift certificate for a massage.
Given her substantial surface area, I had to pay a premium.
Yes, unwise.
Good for CVS.
So we will go to my mom’s for a deli and finger-food party where we will sit and visit. I will take the gift I got my mom, which is two jigsaw puzzles, one of which is not pretty, but it is evil and hopefully she won’t be able to solve it in less than a week of casually fiddling around. I will make a cheese tray (nothing special) and Christmas punch.
We will come home and we will put up our stockings, take the last candy off the advent calendar, and I will stuff stockings with candy, gift cards, and kielbasa. The presents are already under the “tree.” We give lip service to Santa, even though the kids are 20 and 18.
Tomorrow morning, we will divest our stockings and open presents. I will make a Christmas danish. The kids will have cereal and milk (Christmas morning treat, since I never bought cereal ever other than Christmas), and we will nosh on more deli and snack foods all day.
My husband’s and my present to each other is a new water pump for our truck that is on its last legs.
Exciting, I know, but my childhood days of a huge Christmas Eve gathering at the matriarch’s house have pretty much come to an end, which makes me sad. All the people who kept it alive through my great-grandma’s and grandma’s lives are gone now. My cousins are scattered to the winds. My mother and her sisters are going to be moving to small apartments next summer (with any luck). I don’t have room to host, really. My kids are too old to care anymore. We have our Christmas thing on the Plaza having BBQ and cheesecake, and looking at the Plaza lights.
Now I wrote all that out, it seems kind of pathetic.
On the bright side, your Mom will know where the thumb pieces go. 😉
LOL
Not pathetic at all.
Wholesome. Like a Norman Rockwell painting.
I wrote the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day finger-food buffet in 1520 Main, with the addition of lots of children and Midnight Mass, the way it was when I was a child.
Speaking of Midnight Mass, I love it, but I have no one to go with.
Since I’m the only sister with a home (just barely) uncluttered enough to accommodate company but already hosted Thanksgiving, we’re meeting my sisters and BIL at a restaurant next Saturday. Thus, tomorrow will be a day of indolence, sloth, and lots of “barbecue” (ackshually Heinz chili sauce and grape jelly) meatballs. And maybe some toasted ravs if they’re not too freezer-burnt. TT put out a general invite on FB for anyone alone or wanting to escape a dysfunctional family to come over to hang out…but I hope no one takes him up on it./antisocial
I’m doing most of my holiday celebration remotely. Via Snail Mail.
I do have a little something for you I need to drop off, assuming I leave the house tomorrow.
I hope she throws that puzzle at you. I would.
That’s exactly the response I’m looking for!
What’s really called for is a puzzle that’s a picture of a pile of puzzle pieces. Anyone here know how to find one of those?
Meta?
It’s not pathetic at all.
Norman Rockwell’s 2nd wife suffered mental illness and he suffered with her. He said that he “painted happiness but didn’t live it.”
Cheers to all! Cereal sounds pretty good to me today.
Pathetic? Doesn’t sound like it to me.
Me neither. The essentials are all there.
Assuming I did the test correctly, I dont have the ‘vid. Or Im not pregnant.
Small consolation cause I still feel lousy.
Hope you feel better ASAP, homey! 😟
I’m back to feeling like shit. This Christmas is getting off to a good start.
My eye is much better. So I’ve got that going for me.
I may hop on the Zoom later tonight, if anyone is orphaned or wants to escape family.
And I’m going to buy myself this: https://x.com/moriahjovan/status/1738772586022969832?s=61&t=h5BOKTRU9mc6OIfm7REElw
Any advice on what to do/see in Southwick, Massachusetts?
Visit the Southwick jog?
Southwick is western MA. I don’t head out there often.
Springfield is nearby. Springfield has Springfield Armory National Historic Site and The Springfield Museums.
I’ve been to the Armory. I found the machines used to make stocks fascinating.
The only one of the Springfield museums I’ve been to is the Springfield History Museum. It has a car collection and a collection of Indian motorcycles. Plus some guns and other things made in Springfield.
You’d be close to the Berkshires, so probably some winter hiking or skiing if you are into that.
Come visit charming Saratoga Springs?
Ok, my cat might be possessed.
I was in the bathroom, seated and doing what one does when seated in the bathroom. Cat comes up to me and starts figure-righting my legs, purring up a storm. I reach down and casually scratch her, which turns up the purr volume.
Suddenly with no warning, she chomps down on my bare shin!! Then darts out of range and looks back at me—her pupils were so widely dilated that I could not see her green irises at all.
Very freaky.
And about 10 minutes later she comes up to me in bed, all normal and affectionate. Little monster.
Isn’t that normal cat behavior?
Ha pretty much.
Yes. Could be “stop petting me” or “I flurve you!”
“…doing what one does when seated in the bathroom.” – reading morning links?
Suddenly with no warning, she chomps down on my bare shin!!
Sounds like the usual pleasure/rage thing cats get into sometimes. You can be petting them and getting lots of purrs, but then they get a look in their eye and you’d better stop or they’ll jump you. Or sometimes there’s no warning at all. Our younger cat does that to us.
Holiday plans:
Yesterday – Relax, wrap presents
Today – Relax, go to family gathering at cousin’s house
Tomorrow – Open presents, go to family friends’ house for dinner
Holiday reality:
Yesterday – Go to in-laws house to help them deal with a slab leak – get their water shut off, wet-vac the carpets, empty a closet and move all the clutter so they can get some plumbers in to fix it, then set up the couch so they can stay with us for a few days
Today – Quarantine son who has 101 degree non-covid fever in his room so he doesn’t infect his grandparents, wrap presents, come up with last minute dinner plan
Tomorrow – Open presents, continue quarantining son, family friends are dropping off some food as they already bought everything before we had to cancel.
Wheeee.
for Not Adahn Animation vs. Physics
Now youtube is feeding me more of these
That one I watched first. My problem with it is that the animation isn’t really related to the concepts it’s “illustrating.” The math one is perfect, down to the way the characters move through the complex numbers plane.
I did appreciate the Slim Pickens reference though.