Inauguration Lunch: "Birds"

Oh how I wish I could be there so I could offer you tips, Joel. I'd like to at least take the day off and watch on TV, but can't. I'll just record the whole thing.

Gotta run, pre-birthday dinner awaits.

If Dick Cheney is in charge of supplying the fowl for the luncheon, I'd check it real carefully for buckshot. And arsenic.

Now Joel, if I've told you once I've told you a dozen times that 'tenders' are those little muscle-bits on the underside of the breast proper (in chicken you can just pull them away from the breast, taking the ligament and some fell with it) and they pureed them to make a forcemeat.

They both sound delish too me. Maybe they could jam one in the other.

The "I'll take chicken" comment would have earned me a rebuke from my mother/grandmothers/aunts/sister/cousins (and you know where the last two got it.)
"How do you know you don't like it, did you taste it?"
"Tastes change you know, why not try it again?"
"Have you tried this recipe? This combination is something new."
"Someone went to a lot of trouble to make you a nice dinner, you miserable ingrate."

Joel, I think maybe that was the first mention ever of the Lyons in the context of "national championship" importance.

I will say, though, that the golf course at Mt Holyoke is better than anything that the Gators have.

I plan to spend Tuesday watching all the inauguration coverage from the comfort of my couch. I doubt I'll be dining on pheasant, though. Probably the George Thorogood diet... bourbon, scotch and beer (with a side of nachos smothered in cheese and chili, if all goes well). Assuming I don't fall asleep or otherwise pass out, I plan to cheer at the TV like you football fans are sometimes known to do.

I am not an adventurous eater, but I love pheasant, when I was young my father had a client who gave us pheasant every Christmas - we would have it on New Years (I guess it was frozen).

Not sure I want to know what the tender is, somethings it is best not to know.

Best part for me was the beautiful pheasant feather that came in the box with the birds - as the youngest and the one who would whine the most I always claimed the feather.

As for Duck - I would take a pass.

It isn't anything gross, dmd. Just the pectoral muscle, bird-wise.

My Concise OED says that definition #5 for "brace" is: a pair of things, especially birds or mammals killed in hunting.

A have a vague recollection of the only other time I have heard that word in this context - bringing back the LOTR topic - as Samwise talking about a brace of coneys. RD, coney is an old word meaning peanut butter sandwich.

And on that topic, having missed the afternoon, I would say JA is more our Elrond than our Gandalf since he hosts the initial meeting and then the boodle goes off on its merry way. Which means Mudge is likely Gandalf. Galadriel is a composite of Yoki and CqP.

Moria, yellojkt, Moria. But you knew that. Nice insight into Wormtongue.

Forget foofaraws:
Bring in Frou-frou and girlfriends:
We'll all woofaraw!

Pass the duck to me
And none speak of my tenders
they aren't pheasant, okay?

-Wilbrodog-

engelmann... that peanut butter sandwich bit almost landed me on the floor.

Very funny. :-)

SCC: should have been 'kay.

Carry on now.

Joel used a new word I have never seen before-- foofaraw. Nicely done. I thought for a minute it was a made-up word.

I have invited my nearest and dearest Democratic friends over for lunch and bubbly on Tuesday. One bottle of California brut is in the pantry. I probably should buy at least one more, knowing the crowd. We will graze and toast while we watch.

The boy twins will be underfoot, but they won't get any champagne. No mimosas, either, but they won't go hungry or thirsty.

Engelmann, don't forget the passage in Anna Karenin when Lenin takes (who, somebody, can't remember the name) shooting on his estate and they come back with many brace of snipe (all Airforce-types now laugh).

I think the word also occurs in English-countryhouse-mysteries, though this is not a genre I have followed in a long time.

Shakespeare has the prince of Verona say this at the end of Romeo and Juliet:

And for winking at your discord too
I have lost a brace of kinsmen.

And then the echoing accusation:

All are punish-ed.

Yes! CqP!

But I am a idiot. Not Lenin, Levin.

Yoki, I think brace carried idea of two or pair because it is related to bracia -- Latin for arms.

I also think there is a military connotation, too, as in arms and armaments, which are also related to our upper appendages.

I also really like the air that is brisk and bracing; you know, an ordinary day on the fall prairies.

I too, CP, both the arms and the bracing invigourating air, sky, hill. Just moving about this world. Quite wonderful, isn't it?

What No wild Turkey?

Hah! Not up here, green man. You've got yer elk and you've got yer bears, but no turkeys. This is turkey-free zone.

The world is wonderful,yes, for me too, Yoki. And that we have words to point at this wondrous stuffs, well, even more so.

Bracing air to be embraced by open arms.....the world.

Mmm... soft snow outside
No bitter howlers whoosh by
My fur feels snug now.

-Wilbrodog-

My dear friend, yes. So glad to know your kind fierce self. Oh dear. I'm feeling a bit sob-ish.

I give potes the credit that we have words.

Group hug! I'm in, too.
Let's all be puppies on lawns
giving tongue to world

-Wilbrodog-

Clapp's Pond
Mary Oliver

Three miles through the woods
Clapp's Pond sprawls stone gray
among oaks and pines,
the late winter fields

where a pheasant blazes up
lifting his yellow legs
under bronze feathers, opening
bronze wings;

and one doe, dimpling the ground as she touches
its dampness sharply, flares
out of the brush and gallops away.

*

By evening: rain.
It pours down from the black clouds,
lashes over the roof. The last
acorns spray over the porch; I toss
one, then two more
logs on the fire.

*

How sometimes everything
closes up, a painted fan, landscapes and moments
flowing together until the sense of distance - - -
say, between Clapp's Pond and me - - -
vanishes, edges slide together
like the feathers of a wing, everything
touches everything.

*

Later, lying half-asleep under
the blankets, I watch
while the doe, glittering with rain, steps
under the wet slabs of the pines, stretches
her long neck down to drink

*

from the pond
three miles away.

And the birds are tasty too.

Kaleidoscope

If you peer through stained glass windows,
The world you'll see will be a blur,
A mess of blue and yellow problems
That glare upon you as you go.
Sometimes it's nice to know that somewhere,
Enticed within this trap of color,
There is a gleam of pure logic,
A glimpse of joy that you discover.
So when you feel that, trapped in hues,
You can't escape and can't forget,
And every impulse of contentment
Has left you bare with regret,
What you must do is strain by color
Each one that stares back at you,
And with each tint you will discover
The things you once could not construe.

- Ann Ostrovsky -

If you can bag them! I hear they are smart and stealthy-like.

Lovely poem, Yoki. That reminds me of Edward Taylor's Mediation 39 (pre 1729)

"My sin! My sin, my god, those cursed dregs,
Green, yellow, blue streaked poison, hellish, rank
Bubs hatched in nature’s nest on serpent’s eggs
yelp, chirp, and cry; they set my soul acramp..."

Oh, you literate women. I am humbled by your knowledge. We men have no defenses against the likes of you.

We had a cat when I was kid that (who?) brought home a pheasant or two. My mom used the feathers on a hat.

Tom Bombadil's Song

Now let the song begin! Let us sing together
Of sun, stars, moon and mist, rain and cloudy weather,
Light on the budding leaf, dew on the feather,
Wind on the open hill, bells on the heather,
Reeds by the shady pool, lilies on the water:
Old Tom Bombadil and the River-daughter!

Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow;
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.
green were his girdle and his breeches all of leather;
he wore in his tall hat a swan-wing feather.
He lived up under Hill, where the Withywindle
ran from a grassy well down into the dingle.

Hey! Come merry dol! derry dol! My darling!
Light goes the weather-wind and the feathered starling.
Down along under Hill, shining in the sunlight,
Waiting on the doorstep for the cold starlight,
There my pretty lady is, River-woman's daughter,
Slender as the willow-wand, clearer than the water.
Old Tom Bombadil water-lilies bringing
Comes hopping home again. Can you hear him singing?

Hey! Come merry dol! derry dol! and merry-o,
Goldberry, Goldberry, merry yellow berry-o!
Poor old Willow-man, you tuck your roots away!
Tom's in a hurry now. Evening will follow day.
Tom's going home home again water-lilies bringing.
Hey! come derry dol! Can you hear me singing?

Hop along, my little friends, up the Withywindle!
Tom's going on ahead candles for to kindle.
Down west sinks the Sun: soon you will be groping.
When the night-shadows fall, then the door will open,
Out of the window-panes light will twinkle yellow.
Fear no alder black! Heed no hoary willow!
Fear neither root nor bough! Tom goes on before you.
Hey now! merry dol! We'll be waiting for you!

(J.R.R. Tolkien)

two days of poetry here. you people are amazing. thank you.

on tuesday one blogger will celebrate change and the rebirth of hope by going out for breakfast, then hustling home to watch the c-span coverage.

my best to all of you in dc as you work your way through the next few days.

I have also tried pigeon,seagull and crow.
But Thankfully no Raven.......nevermore......

Good for you, butlerguy. I'm insanely busy this Tuesday, will be lucky to see anything. It's at 1 PM EST, right?

Not a chance, RD.

Wilbrod, beautiful!

seasea, meant to say earlier that you are certainly one of the Rohini. As Striker, I can say so. And I've always loved Tom Bombadil's song!

Ahem. Yes, the word "brace" does have an armaments connotation, the most common (and I simply can't believe none of you seem to have heard of it) referring to "a brace of pistols," meaning a matched set of dueling pistols. Dueling pistols always come ina brace (pair). Also-- and this may be where Yoki remembers it from in connection with English countryhouse mysteries-- fancy-schmancy British hunters often had shotguns manufactured for themselves in matched pairs, so a "brace of shotguns" was a very common term back in the day.

(I realize, of course, that I actually did live "back in the day," whereas you young folks did not.)

Allow me to elucidate further: a much unsung and vastly underrated British spy thriller writer is my idol, Anthony Price, author of approximate 20 really fine espionage novels featuring his heroes, the mastermind Sherlocjian clone Dr. David Audley, and his right-hand man, the always proper Col. Jack Butler.

Come we now to the point: Price's finest novel (and which I rank as the 3rd finest spy novel of ALL-TIME (allcaps for emphasis, cuz that's how highly I think of it) is "Other Paths to Glory," which won Price the esteemed Golden Dagger Award, perhaps the top prize for mystery/crime novelists. And the plot of OPTG hinges upon the discovery of one of a matched brace of very fine hunting shotguns handmade by the (also legendary) Charles Lancaster.

(If one wants to do a bit of very high-class snob namedropping in this area, one merely needs to know the names Lancaster, Purdey, Lang, Boss, or Joe Manton, shotgun makers to the English upper classes.) (Of course, this sort of arcane knowledge doesn't much pop up in conversation over here in the Colonies when you are gathered at Hooters watching the Steelers knock the snot out of Green Bay.)

So: let us summarize. A brace of dueling pistols, a brace of shotguns.

Thus endeth the sermon.

Oh, Dr. Stephen Maturin once owned a Joe Manton shotgun in the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series. He was very fond of it, but IIRC he gave it as a gift to the chief of a very powerful tribe, I think in Hawaii, to get the chief to ally with Britain instead of the arch-villain Napolean. I can't remember if the Joe Manton was one of a brace, though.

See, that's how one picks up this sort of thing. Sticks to the brain, like damned little Post-It notes.

William Blake, mystic and artist, said “Damn braces: Bless relaxes.”

Braces, the noun, also means a beneficial restraint of some sort.

But, most of us resist such structures. Blake may have been speaking of the body portion of mind-body dualism. He preferred the soul to the body.

Pity so often that the two are parsed separately.

William Blake, mystic and artist, said “Damn braces: Bless relaxes.”

Braces, the noun, also means a beneficial restraint of some sort.

But, most of us resist such structures. Blake may have been speaking of the body portion of mind-body dualism. He preferred the soul to the body.

Pity so often that the two are parsed separately.

I kept thinking I had heard "brace" in regards to hunting, but I was thinking about the dogs, not the guns. Mudge is, of course, correct.

One of our best friends in our youth was nicknamed Strider. He is how Mr seasea and I came to meet, as that Strider was going out with my best friend. One of my favorite characters, of course. Thought Viggo was perfect in the movies. (not that Yoki is not!)

Chris Cizilla (sp?!) is about to be on Larry King Live...the visit to the WaPo building was mentioned in the ramp up...

Cris C may have a velveteen sport coat on...I am astonished. And, I now my fabrics on stage. Wow. Wish I could get JA to ask but that would be very weird.

The fabric has pile and texture; not a monochrome tweed....He also has a windowpane check shirt on...tiny pin line, but tattersall window pane....very professorial...pair of rectangular glasses that are slightly emo....wow. Pardon this fashion moment. I know I am NOT Robin Givhan....

I'll have to check out Larry King later - almost over here.

I came back because I found this about the HBO broadcast of the concert Sunday. It is supposed to be broadcast for free, but I guess that would be up to the cable companies (and heaven knows, mine may have moved HBO to a digital only channel)...
http://www.hbo.com/weareone/
And they may be streaming it online...
And I wanted to let people know that Fleet Foxes are the musical guests on SNL this Saturday. Very good folk-rock type group from Seattle (Issaquah, actually, I think).

Corduroy CP, just caught the light and quite easy to discern on Mr. F's mondo HD screen.

Oh Frosti, that is good to know. Reporting in velveteen is so Oscar-Wild. So, guess I need one of those very good TVs.....JA, cancel the sartorial query.

Cord de Roi -- the cloth of kings!

Very professorial; the emo glasses,however, remind me of the phase I endured with CPdotII. Very confessional, intense music for those earnest souls: like Janis Ian but times 7 or so.

And a rasher of bacon with that brace.

Corduroy: velveteen but with tough dignity.

CqP, didn't see it, but I can well understand the surprise of any man wearing velveteen on TV and not being Elton John or "Austin Powers."

Once had a corduroy outfit; I felt like I was supposed to wear it with a pith helmet and go chasing butterflies in it. 'Twas too british.

CqP-I think the lighting they use to make Larry King appear alive makes it hard to see the guest's attire. At first I thought it was a sueded fabric, or the velveteen you suggested.

Jumper, my Irisher granny said rashers always; bacon almost never.
Thick cut bacon! And, fabulous on open face peanut butter toast. Comfort food.

Frosti, the background of the King studio is busy, busy, busy with those little lights....so, yes, I think you are right. Glad I was not the only one.

Suede? Ha! Never trust a reporter in suede. Cowboy, perhaps, but only if tis split sheepskin suede.

No swede reporter dudes in suede, got it. Any other all-points bulletin from the fashion police?

Paisley is sometimes problematic.
Taffeta rustles very loudly.
Leather pants do not look as good as they feel.

Howdy again. This doesn't have the word "brace" but always makes me think of it:

Roe-Deer

In the dawn-dirty light, in the biggest snow of the year
Two blue-dark deer stood in the road, alerted.

They had happened into my dimension
The moment I was arriving just there.

They planted their two or three years of secret deerhood
Clear on my snow-screen vision of the abnormal

And hesitated in the all-way distintegration
And stared at me. And so for some lasting seconds

I could think the deer were waiting for me
To remember the password and sign

That the curtain had blown aside for a moment
And there where the trees were no longer trees, nor the road a road

The deer had come for me.

Then they ducked through the hedge, and upright they rode their legs
Away downhill over a snow-lonely field

Towards tree-dark -- finally
Seeming to eddy and glide and fly away up

Into the boil of big flakes.
The snow took them and soon their nearby hoofprints as well

Revising its dawn inspiration
Back to the ordinary.

-- Ted Hughes

This reminds me of greenwithenvy's journeys, and of Yoki. Also, let me just say that the New Oxford Book of Children's Verse, edited by Neil Philip, rocks. This is in it along with many other worthy and wholly un "child" like poems. The Boy and I had great times with it in his infancy and toddlerhood, when I could still shape his tastes for years to come.

Off to taxi duties. Here is your night time chanson:

I see the moon and the moon sees me.
The moon sees somebody I don't see.

God bless the moon and God Bless me and
God bless the somebody I don't see.

CPDotI used to say

'eveybody' in place of 'somebody'

She would be right.

Too tuckered to type or think. Will continue my Lincoln tale tomorrow with mention of America's first female detective.

Lovely Ted Hughes poem, Ivansmom. Yes, that's a brace of roe deer indeed.

I must learn the feel of taffeta. It always seems more like color than an actual fabric.

I always visualize this light buttery cream yellow with extreme ruffles whenever I read "taffeta"-- almost precisely the right complementary shade of yellow to go with a powdery turquoise bottom.

Nancy Loomis Drew?

Jo Loomis Friday?

Jessica Loomis Fletcher?

Dick Loomis Tracy? (She was *very* butch*)

Cagney Loomis Lacey?

Spoiler alert!

Kate Warne (real name Angie Warren) first female Pinkerton detective, helped foil the Baltimore Plot to kill Lincoln on the way to his inauguration. Died young, buried in the Pinkerton family plot.

Wilbrod, that made me smile. When I read the word taffeta, in my head it is red. Black red almost. I once found a fabric like that and could have swore I was in heaven.

Sounds like there is a major power outage in Ontario. Hope dmd is warm and toasty. I know many of you are having really rotten cold weather, so Scotty, warm up the faxes, I'm sending toques. And socks for yellojkt.

I'm on my second novel, but the going is not so easy. It is a fiction based on Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience by Blake. I'm thinking I'd rather read Blake than this book. Too sad really. Tracy Chevalier did such a good job with her other books, but she has not captured my imagination yet with this one.

Mo once taught me that you must perservere (she said I absolutely must keep reading Memoirs of a Geisha. She was so right) and so I shall, but it might not be pretty.

Oh, but Wilbrod, it rustles. It is both tactile and aural. Taffeta!

Being nautical, I tend to prefer salt water taffeta.

So the Post reports lots of empty, expensive hotel rooms. Could the Inauguration turn out like the Pope in St. Louis, where the local authorities prepared so exhaustively for vast and unruly mobs that hardly anyone came? It was apparently the worst welcome John Paul II received in his career.

dr, I read that one. I know what you mean -- not as satisfying as her others -- but I found it enjoyable nevertheless. I hope it gets better for you.

Warm and toasty here dr, the outage was in downtown TO, hit a large residential area and parts of the subway.

Unless people kept their taps dripping there will be a lot of burst water lines, it is very cold outside.

Think things were beginning to improve by later in the day.

Thanks for thinking of me.

Lovely poetry this evening all.

Off to bed to climb under a nice warm duvet.

Although cold today, is was nice and sunny.

... A poofy pirate shirt with ruffles, made of salt-water taffeta, of course.

I have to get on a plane crazy-early in the morning, and I'm not particularly happy that I'm still awake. It's probably all the running around the house I did to get it cleaned up so I won't be embarrassed when my friend comes in to feed the cat. It took a while to wind down from that. But I just got hit with my first yawn, so that must mean it's time to get in bed. Good night, boodle!

When grousing with a brace of Purdeys one should one must tip the gun-bearer if he is not your man-servant and always remember to shout, "Good man" when one wings a beater.

Unless you're the Vice President of the United States, of course. In that case cheerfully snarling, "Get *#$@& out of my way", will suffice.

Howdy all
Home to my semi warm house,but with a bed of coals,so it will warm up.4 below outside and watching the moonrise outside my window. Now i often see things and have to do a double take.But i could of sworn I saw a moth outside my window tonight.

Heard this on the way home,maybe that was why I thought I saw a moth......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg4KMEg34Jc

So...
If all the fear of unmanageable crowds, gridlock, pedestrians stuck on the Potomac bridges for hours, and five-hour waits for restroom access at the Mall museums . . . will cause everyone to stay at home, should I jump in the car and drive straightaway to some base of operations in Virginia, and enter the Inaugural Zone for the Public on Tuesday?

I would think the warm faxes would help anyway, dr... :-)

But peanut butter's off the emergency foodstuff list for now.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/16/AR2009011602903.html

:-O

When you see Metro putting porta-potties outside a suburban Red Line station, you know they're getting serious about Tuesday. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the kinks get worked out --

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/16/AR2009011604421.html

And I find this disturbing:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/16/AR2009011604921.html

*planning-a-chock-full-of-chores-kinda-long-weekend-to-stay-warm-if-nothing-else Grover waves* :-)

Oh, and this is just silly -- The NYT has a piece that uses the inauguration as a hook for explaining how NYC feels like it's "losing its sense of pre-eminence."

*twirling finger by ear*

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/fashion/18york.html

:-)

Ai chihuahua...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/01/17/church_arson_tied_to_racism/

*SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH* :-(

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

Good morning, friends. Morning, Scotty. I hope you don't have what I have. I spent most of the night sitting up. I must concede that this bug thing is getting the best of "moi". And of course, the asthma has to have its say, too. I am unable to walk this morning, just don't have the strenghth or the desire to "brace" the cold. I was reading some of the poetry here a minute ago, and everything went dark. I hope that isn't a sign of the day to come, no power.

My neighbor is standing out on her porch this morning, bless her heart. She was wrapped up in a blanket yesterday sitting on the swing. She's probably lonesome. Sitting in an apartment all day can get very close and tiresome. One needs the bright sunshine and the crisp air as well as all the other stuff a body requires. Human interaction helps too, although when people try to communicate with her, she walks away.

Yoki, Martooni, Slyness, Mudge, and everyone, have a great day. *waving*

It is dangerously cold here. I hope everyone found shelter last night. I hope everyone is warm this morning, including the pets. It is too cold for man or beast. The weather person is talking some kind of wet stuff that going to hit the cold stuff producing some stuff we probably won't like. All that for Sunday. Be warm friends, and check on the elderly.

Time for coffee.

Almost forgot...

I have the task of finding some chairs for the church that will accomadate us "fat" folks. Nothing fancy, just folding chairs or stack chairs; however, they need to be really sturdy and able to accomodate a certain amount of weight. I've checked the internet, but haven't really found what I'm looking for. I would appreciate any help.

Hi Cassandra,

I'll look at the university supply catalog for you on Monday. Perhaps I can give you a brand name or two.

Off to a swim meet. The moist air is not bracing but welcome for a time, given that our cold is so dry.

Enjoy the day, whether busy or not. If you come across bare earth in this cold, look at the tiny cratered surface: the freeze-thaw pattern yields what is friable. This is a good harbinger for spring.

Cassandra, how many and do you have a budget? Do they have to match? Or stack? Craigslist has a bunch under Fayetteville (isn't that kinda sorta near you?). Like these. http://fayetteville.craigslist.org/fuo/994149259.html
Good luck.

Zero degrees? What manner of madness is this for the Old Dominion? Time to start a large fire and break out the emergency flannels.

Good morning, Boodle, Cassandra, CqP, all.

To speak of Spring's messengers in mid-January! This is not something in my experience.

Many alarums and excursions today; retail, domestic and workplace.

Have a wonderful day.

In England, "braces" are what we in America call "suspenders" -- as I learned at a young age from Monty Python ("The one in the braces, 'e did it!") Coincidentally, they always come in pairs.

Speaking of birds, we have a lot of them in Florida this time of year, passing through or spending the winter. But I didn't expect what I saw this morning during my sunrise jog: a peacock. One of life's little mysteries...

Good morning, all.

Only time to do a low-n-slow Dawn Patrol over the Boodle this morning, off to chores momentarily.

Well, first I'll brush my teeth with peasant paste, better for TARP removal.

I'm familiar with foofraw, as I've shared a bathroom with my daughters.

Cassandra, LiT's right, Craigslist is a land of wonders - the very couch I'm sitting on as I type this was a Craigslist freebie, as in "I need to move so get it outta my house please."

Maybe there's something there for you, too.

Gotta fly, brace yourselves for -- well, I got nothin.'

bc

As they say, I kid you not, the WashPost is forecasting "fickle snow chances" for today.

I'll be outside for about 5 hours straight.

Could someone bring me some lunch?

My preference would be a pheasant on rye with mustard and sauerkraut.

Good morning, everybody! The bed was warm and I stayed in it as long as I could. Weather.com was reporting 13 degrees when I first looked, I don't know how low it actually went.

I have a wedding on the agenda today. One of the Geekdottir's friends is making the plunge at the ripe old age of 22. The groom is several years older and seems to be a nice guy. This is the first marriage in the Geekdottir's cohort. Fortunately, the reception is in the fellowship hall of the church, so we don't have to go back outside after the ceremony.

BTW, front page alert. I hope it will be quiet, compared to the Drudgestorm Thursday.

'M-M-M-M-Morning, B-B-B-B-Boodle. Brrrrrrr. It was down to about 6 here overnight, now all the way up to 15. A three-Mudge night...and I'm still two Mudge's short.

Forecast calling for 50 perchance of snow (flurries) tomorrow afternoon for the big concert. I think it the height of madness to go to that thing...but I'm old, so what do I know. If it was up to me, they'd hold that concert on St. Kitts. So it's probably a good thing I'm not in charge of anything.

Alarums and excursions here too (well, not so much on the alarums)--gotta go make our weekly dump run.

L-L-L-Later G-G-G-Gators.

Morning all. I feel special, I had the first comment in the Boodle yesterday and this morning I realize that Michelle Obama and I share a birthday! One chore to do then going to meet all four of my girls for lunch in Woods Hole. I love that place in winter. Stay warm everybody.

Mornin' everybody...

Still freezing our butts off here. -2F now, but they're calling for a heat wave that should bring us up to about 18F but that's before the wind chill gets factored in, so who knows. I completely avoided the shop yesterday, but I gotta get out there today -- no workie, no money.

Cassandra... you might want to ask around for any carpenters or woodworkers in your congregation. A simple chair or bench design using regular construction-grade lumber would be very sturdy, cheap to build and if made by the right hands could be quite nice. I'd offer my services, but you're just a wee bit too far away. I'd be happy to draw up plans for you, though.

I better get moving here (and keep moving before I freeze in place).

Have a great day, everybody...

Peace out :-)

FYI there's a new kit.