Weekend Thread, 2nd to 4th December, 2022

I am starting this thread with news of our daughters' weekend rather than anything to do with my own. One lives in Cincinnati and the other one lives in County Wicklow in Ireland. They have both left their husbands holding the babies and have met up in New York for a girls' weekend with a few of their friends. This does affect our weekend because we are receiving multiple Whatsapp pictures and videos which are filling us with joy.





On Sunday we will have one of the baby-holding husbands* dropping in with their three children for a visit. We have been decorating the house and making if very child-friendly for the holiday season. Sunday will be a test of how much the children like it.

*No prize for guessing it will be the Ireland-based one.

By child-friendly I mean:

>1 pgmcc: Your daughters' weekend looks fab, Peter. I bet the grandkids will love your decor :)

There's a library book sale at the downtown main branch this weekend. It started today, but I had too much to do so will attend tomorrow. Because, you know, books.

Otherwise, no specific plans. Probably work on the Christmas cards and some baking. Maybe pack up the parcel that has to be sent to Nova Scotia.

>1 pgmcc: Oh, what memories they are making together. I hope they have a blast.

I suspect that your grandchildren will be thrilled.

This weekend I've got some furniture to move around, otherwise when I set up my tree it will be blocking some much needed sunlight in my living room. The only decorating I've done so far is to take a pilgrim hat off Cletus, and give him a Santa hat and a wreath to hold.

>1 pgmcc: Such a blessing to enjoy time with siblings! And I love your kid decor!

>3 clamairy: Cletus is looking very festive.

I need to get a flu shot. The Husband needs to get a Covid test. No, he’s not sick. He has a knee replacement surgery coming up next week.

I also want to start my December project of giving the house a deep clean and decluttering session. I plan on doing a lot of this project while The Husband is recouping.

>1 pgmcc: Good for the ladies! And I love the tree theme, with the little animals scattered about. Such fun.

I am laying low, trying to recover, but if it is at all possible, I will attend an event at our cemetery this Sunday. We begin the holiday season by celebrating those who will not be with us this year (our any other year for that matter). Families gather to hear a choir sing, a speaker speak, and then set luminaries which we prepare on their loved one's graves. This is my first year as an employee and I really don't want to miss it. I have about 10 graves I would like to decorate.

>1 pgmcc: That's some next level grandparent stuff there!

>1 pgmcc: Wonderful to see one's children enjoying each other's company!! And Karlstar is right that you're doing this whole grand parenting thing amazingly well.

Otherwise, it's going to be a low-key weekend. I'm doing some freelance reading and writing this weekend. We'll do a Zoom cocktail hour this evening w/ some friends. And my husband is continuing w/ his West Wing binge-watch marathon. It's pouring rain and neither of us wants to be outside unless absolutely necessary.

I spent Friday in Cardiff with tokengingerkid. Did the rounds of the bookshops and oddly didn’t buy anything at Troutmark Books, although she did. Her partner Eddie didn’t show because he is still getting over a bad cold—apparently has had a series of them since getting over Covid. I hope he gets better real quick—he has the viva for his PhD pretty soon.

I got What If? 2 as an early Christmas present!

Not too much. Might take the new car out if the roads aren't too much of a mess. Otherwise, just sticking to home and maybe watching some movies. Got a few new Criterion Collection discs that have fun extras to get through as well as the films themselves.

Went this morning with Mom, Sister, and Cousin to a couple of craft fairs, where I bought a couple of things for myself. Been chilling on the sofa ever since, halfway watching the Mavericks basketball game while wasting time looking at social media. After lunch I will go to the basement to look over Christmas decorations and put up the tree. My big tree and majority of my book-themed ornaments are at school (surprisingly, many of the teenagers seem to enjoy finding old friends like Arthur, Harry Potter, and Dr. Seuss ornaments; I wasn't sure they would enjoy it as much as my elementary students did). However, I know there's at least one more box in the basement with book character ornaments, so it will do until Christmas break, when I will bring the school tree home and place it somewhere in the house. Last year, I had one tree with just Harry Potter ornaments; one with Dr. Seuss, and the big tree had everything else. I'm pretty sure I have enough Winnie the Pooh ornaments to give him his own tree. It's a crazy ridiculous collection of nearly 300 ornaments that have been collected for 25 years, but it makes me happy. :)

>10 theretiredlibrarian: I would love to see pictures of any of all of those trees. What a fun collection!

I spent Saturday afternoon doing odd jobs in the house. One job was replacing the ballcock valve in the downstairs toilet cistern. The water flow feeding the cistern had dropped away leading to a half-hour cistern refill time.

Well, I got the new valve, turned off the water, drained the cistern, took out the old valve, replace the new valve, reconnected the water supply, turned on the water again, and observed the water flow was no better that when I started. It would appear we have a blocked pipe somewhere. I may have to seek professional help...but I am not going to let this get me down. I will not. Definitely not.

>12 pgmcc: Plumbing is hell. We had a persistent leak from the upstairs shower. We caulked and re-caulked it, changed the valve on the shower. Nothing helped. Finally, my husband pulled down the main floor ceiling where it was wet and stained and discovered that the drain pipe from the shower had rotted away.

Since I know you're all dying to find out, these are the books I bought at the library book sale today: Regenesis and Finity's End by C.J. Cherryh, Lyon's Pride by Anne McCaffrey, Riders of the Storm by Julie E. Czerneda, and Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny. Whenever space opens up, they're putting out more books, so it was hard not to hover around the volunteers, and I actually did get one out of an armload that a volunteer was filing. This also means I will have to resist hard the temptation to go back tomorrow to see if anything else on my wishlist has been put out.

>13 tardis:
You were correct in terms of our wanting to know what books you got. Thank you for the book report.

The next thing we want to know is why you appear to be considering not going back tomorrow.

>14 pgmcc: I'll see how my time is tomorrow, but all 5 of these books and anything I might potentially purchase tomorrow will go onto Mt. TBR and I don't know when I'll get to them. Plus I really need to do more Christmas baking. I was going to some today, but my husband made bagels and is apparently planning to make bread, too, and we've only got one oven. I guess I can do some of the stovetop/no bake stuff.

>14 pgmcc: and >15 tardis: She's got a point there, Peter. Christmas baking is a priority this time of year.

And >9 Bookmarque: What were the Criterion Collection films you watched? Films are like books. We like to yearn enviously over the full list of what you got to see...

It is a lovely rainy day here in dry California. I spent the morning writing letters and Christmas cards to a few people. Then i unwrapped the new air fryer I bought for my husband. It won't be used for a couple of days due to lack of motivation on my part, but I'm hoping it will produce some decent fried chicken too keep the man happy and keep me from cleaning up a lot of grease. Now I'm recharging the battery, hoping to find the energy to make the creamy mushroom-turkey soup for dinner.

>15 tardis:
If the oven is being used you have to go to the book sale. You could miss that book you’ve been hunting down for ages if you do not go.

>16 jillmwo: The importance of Christmas baking can't be overstated. A cup of tea and a plate of cheese, fruit, and cookies makes curling up with a good book even more enjoyable.

>18 pgmcc: too late - they're done for the day :) Anyway, I was able to prep some dough that has to be chilled before baking.

>10 theretiredlibrarian: I’d love to see pictures of any or all of those trees as well. Our tree doesn’t have ornaments on it because, well, four cats. We’ve learned. It’s funny how “Little kid” high schoolers still are. They think they are all grown up but really aren’t.

Alas, all I’ve done all weekend is watch college football and read. Overall, not a bad way to spend a weekend.

>20 catzteach: "It’s funny how “Little kid” high schoolers still are. They think they are all grown up but really aren’t."

This applies to many adults as well, and I think it is s good thing which they should allow to surface more often. Keep the wonder.

>21 MrsLee: Agreed. We should all have a little bit of Peter Pan in us. :)

I have one small tree put up in my home library...it is all Winnie the Pooh. But I decided it needed a little more, so I've ordered some things to make a garland for it. I think I will start slowly taking off the Seuss ornaments at school and bringing them home so I can put up that tree. I will try to post pictures when they are all done. I haven't tried uploading a photo here in a long time. At last count (I have a spread sheet, lol), I have 297 book-related ornaments.

>12 pgmcc:: Tell me again about replacing the ballcock valve... but slower.