@Tam_I_am

Will you cook him lots of food, Yeladim?

Oh yes! I can't prove it, but I'm sure he only comes because we feed him.

@trystan

https://www.ottlite.com/
pretty sure their bulbs are replacements only for their lamps. I've never used one, but they're supposed to be really good.

Ahh, I wouldn't be able to use them then. Funny though... they have the same name as my friend who died.

@Yeladim

Oh yes! I can't prove it, but I'm sure he only comes because we feed him.

Aww. But food IS a recognized language of love.

oh wow, sorry about that Tam {{hugs}}

Only sad part is I can't tell him about them and hear him laugh, @trystan.

yeah, understandable {{hugs}}

I don't know why, but the brain weasels have been unusually vicious this holiday season. Having everyone but my parents forget my birthday, and my parents give me whatever gift cards Discover was handing out as rewards rather than gift cards for things I'd actually like, probably didn't help.

**hug** @Demyx

{{hugs Demyx}}

so we finally ended up going to my mother-inlaw’s for xmas day. older daughter, J, has been living there since pretty much the summer of 2019, so she’s there all the time. monday last (the 20th), she asks J “should I ask your parents to come for xmas?” really? the Monday before? i think she called either Monday or Tuesday then….. and in the meantime, my brother-inlaw and his wife had made other plans, but, being Xmas, our plans were just “whatever” so we went down to my inlaws. Younger daughter just loves the planning my inlaws do.

my inlaws, and by extension, my hubby make plans one of two ways: a month or two before, and no one confirms that whatever is still happening and we all magically show up on the day in question ~or~ plans are made 5 days before and hope.

sometimes that doesn’t always work when one has a retail job. pre-pandemic times, we’d go to my inlaws sometime in October or November to celebrate hubby’s and his brother’s birthdays. i’d ask my MIL about it in like September and she wouldn’t have a clue or have even thought about it. but when we do get-togethers like that - and even chanukah - I need to know so I can request off. it’s real fun when it’s during black-out dates. ugh *eyeroll*

Wugh. **sympathy** I confess that I plan ahead about as much as that, but that's because when I DID plan ahead, nobody came anyway. So it's like, "You wanna do stuff tomorrow?"

Also https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/36-hour-weather-forecast/alberta/edmonton

@trystan

brr, Tam, that's COLD!

the funny thing is the difference between my mom and my mother-inlaw. if something is planned a month out, my mom would confirm like 2 weeks before, then the week of, and the day of the event. my MIL (as I mentioned above) plans the event, and no one says boo about it until that day - is it still happening? are we still going? and the times I've tried to confirm with hubby, he'd either say "how I'm I supposed to know? i haven't talked to my mom lately!" or "i guess so....."

maybe it's cause i talk to my mom almost daily...?

different strokes, i guess.
but i still haven't gotten used to it, even after we've been married 27 years

Very cold, @trystan! Colder than we're used to here, even.

Awww.

And it suddenly hits me that I never have had my mother plan anything that I was to attend. My siblings and I were so used to never having any kind of family gathering that the day my eldest nephew was born, my dad tried to come to where some of us were staying after the birth with treats to celebrate, but we'd already scattered to the winds to go do other stuff, because family never did stuff like that!

everyone is different, even families. my mom is a planner, always has been.

Aww. That must've made a nice feeling of stability.

Speaking of feelings, today I feel like I've been hit by a steamroller, because I couldn't eat yesterday for some reason. Oh, but I've started on this kit! Can only do a little bit at a time because of how fine the yarn is, and the fancy pretty crochet hook's made in Japan makes my hand a little sore from rubbing, but I'm looking forward to doing more. https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1026233056/diy-craft-crochet-kit-lalylala-batcat?

@trystan.

oh very cute, tam!!

I like the bag that the kit came in too, @trystan. It says, "Crochet is my super power."

Happy New Year!

happy new year!

oooh, that's a great saying, too!

To celebrate the end of Another Damn YEAR, I present one of the most meaningful pictures of 2021: His Highness's first boy clothes.

Today, as I did the one row of crochet that the dark day and my late start allowed me to do, I was thinking to myself, "I have a hook and I know what to do with it!" and "By hook or by cook!". @trystan

The picture doesn't seem to work, @Demyx .

Tam - heh, by hook or by cook! love it!

aww, Demyx, the pic doesn't display, but I'm sure it's an awesomely handsome pic!

@trystan
Two of the things I'm fairly good at. lol
Having kind of a dark ending to an otherwise busy day. I thought of my friend who died, and now I'm grieving again. Right now it's really hard to believe he's gone.