War on Christmas Shopping

Maybe we should also mention Edith Felber’s “Queen of Shadows”, also now available and in paperback.

While waging the war on Christmas, be sure to shop at your independent retailer!

Jeebus, Tess. All that and the egg nog AND a thesis? It’s all I can do to remember to feed the cat.

Hey, I need to clean out my fridge at one point or another. I’ve had some of those raspberries since summer.

Here in Olympia, power on my block came back on at 8:30 PM on Saturday. I’m the lucky one since there are blocks near me that are still blacked out. The inside temperature fell to 46, and I discovered that my wood stove is better at providing atmosphere than actually heating the house. On the bright side, a very cold house meant that stuff in my non working refrigerator didn’t spoil. A flying note, my 8:30 flight home from Denver on Friday left the gate at 10:00, then sat on the tarmac for an hour. We finally took off at 11:15, and when we arrived in Seattle it took almost an hour to get bags off the plane. I got home at 3:00 AM. Driving in black out conditions is scary, especially when it is a patchwork. Fortunately no one was hurt by falling trees, although there are houses and apartments that are heavily damaged.

I’ll have you know that the power went out here when I had just reached the point where the bird’s in the bag in the crosswalk.

It takes me a while to get to some books, you understand, and it’s a serious nuisance when Mother Nature decides to be the holiday prankster just when I’m reaching the denoument.

However, we have power now, we did spend a great deal of today out and about amongst the commercial hordes, and I greedily anticipate a soothing evening seeing how It All Works Out.

Oh, Edith, Mother of all Felbers, I feel your pain.

After giving the ingrate the Wii on release date; I found a cute little bear on line to present on HIS 18th Birthday. He declared it “All Concept. No Content.” Sniff! All my friends thought it was funny!

tess (I think the comment goes with your name),

You make strawberry guava jam? You have a strawberry guava tree? Where are you, geographically speaking? We used to have one (Central Florida) that was a good 15 feet tall until a killer freeze in the late 80s did it in. I do not even remember how old it was, but I do remember us - and the birds - eating all the strawberry guavas before Mother could make anything with them. They were soooooo good.

Here’s a bit of humor…. A Bluff the Listener tale by our own dear Adam was a convoluted Kennedy assasination conspiracy theory allegedly set forth by…. Spike Feresten! (Nov 19, 2005) I am slowly working my way back through the archives while at work, trying to maintain a grip on sanity.

Katie

Harold, I’ve been bad this year. And I’m very cold… OK, so I shouldn’t whine so much compared to everyone else here, but it’s 55F in the house and I’m too cheap to turn on the heaters.

July 26, 2006

Dear Diary,

Patricia’s been after me to write more often. Darn it, it was her idea to start this diary in the first place. It seems to me to be a rather faggy thing for a grown man to do. She says I need to put down my thoughts and accomplishments everyday, while they are still fresh in my mind. She thinks I might want to publish a memoir when my time in Washington is over. Well, maybe… I have come up with a working title for the book - “Dirk Kempthorne: Eight Heartbeats from the Presidency”. I like it a lot - Patricia says the title needs work.

Okay, diary, this happened today. A press release for new funds for Hurricane Katrina:

Office of the Secretary
For Immediate Release:
July 26, 2006

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne today announced the award of $27.5 million in 2006 Hurricane Disaster Relief Grants to Mississippi.

Big deal! Between you and me, for all that remains to be done to make the Gulf Coast whole again, $27.5 million dollars is pissing down a mighty deep well.

Actually, there’re pineapple guavas around here, but I added some strawberries to tint the jam and add an extra hint of flavor.

tess,

That sounds good, too. Anything involving guavas does (I guess even that, although I’m not sure how one would work guavas in).

Off thread (if that’s possible with this particular thread) - Cokie Roberts (along with Steve Roberts) came through with this one:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1218-27.htm

Ann - get a Mac, that ought to go over well.

IE7 is evil incarnate.

Ann,

Install Linux. That’ll solve all your problems involving Microsoft. You’ll just get different ones.

But hey! You’ll almost never have to worry about a viruses or antivirus software ever again!

Thanks everyone for the good advice. I think I can just remove IE7 and reinstall an older version.

I was supposed to be heading home to the Heartland for Christmas this morning, but all flights into/from Denver are canceled—bad weather. Now I have to decide whether I want to sit in the airport for hours on the off chance that I can get standby to another hub.

Is it too early to drink? It’s almost 8 AM in Seattle!

Egg nog is a 24/7 beverage (with Maker’s Mark as a nod to Adam?)

Effing 50? I assume the only functions of the heating system are to prevent frostbite and insure that the pipes in the house don’t freeze. I slept in an unheated house in my childhood, but that was in Central Florida, and we did have a fireplace in which Dad would get a roaring fire going before he got us up for school (did I mention my dad was one of the greats?) But Michigan ain’t Florida (oops, I just realized that has unintended BCS overtones - but I am pulling for the Woverines in the grandaddy of all bowls).

At the risk of repeating myself, I arrived in Michigan yesterday (after a niine hour drive– a new record!) in time to see the Newport Christmas Parade. A flatbed truck full of Boy Scouts (including my two nephews), a flatbed truck full of Girl Scouts, tractors with lights on them and every emergency vehicle in the townshp decorated and the parade lasts all of ten minutes. My kind of parade.

And I have no idea why Fanny didn’t like that the first time I wrote it.

A colleague (and very close friend) is from way, way upstate New York. He grew up on a dairy farm on the shores of Lake Erie 15 miles out from To Hell and Gone. His childhood friends were black and white, and had four legs and really big hooters. Talk about tough, and stoic to his bone marrow, not to mention stong-minded.

It’s Pat.

You are welcome for the Brag and Gag Rag. Yes please send me your letter.

I know it’s late for me to mention anything here but December is always a super busy time, and this year I had 4 straight weeks of subbing, along with having to get out a wedding video I took for a friend of my children, which sucked up about 100 hours. (I’m serious). Not to mention how long it takes to make and get out the B&G Rag, So one of many things that has taken a back seat, is my time here at FA.

Last call. Most of the (ir)regulars have signed up. Any lurker or other is welcome to get a copy by sending me your address to murray@grouseland.com

It even has a picture of Adam and friends at Felberpalooza!