Much like UNC’s top-10 rankings in football!
(sorry)
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Thanks everyone! She is fine. No fever and nothing except a runny nose.
My sinuses have been so messed up since the cold weather started. I have a gas furnace, so the air is super dry. Need to clean my humidifier and crank it up. Been in the mountains since Thursday, so between the dry air in the hotel, the smoky air early on then damp air yesterday and dry again today . . . I am a mess.
A few days ago, my sinuses let me know it is cedar season here in Texas Hill Country. Fun!
Caption this photo:
Attachment 13854
"Take THAT wealth redistribution."
Mr Kane's fortune was quite diversified.
My, what a big paddle you have.
“Now, left to grow at 6% compounding returns for just a decade . . . .”
"Talking out of turn? That's a paddlin'. Lookin' out the window? That's a paddlin'. Staring at my sandals? That's a paddlin'. Paddlin' the school canoe? Oh, you better believe that's a paddlin'."
The hardest parts of the semester are in the rear view, and we all just gotta get through this week to the holiday break. Saturday morning, my wife and I leave on our adventure to see THE CHRISTMAS TREE OF ALL CHRISTMAS TREES. Woke up this morning with joy and gratitude bursting through. This is the time of year when the children wonder what's gotten into me.
need any food recommendations, Meat Guy? If you have never been (it's very busy, but you're probably dining alone, could sit at the bar?) the world famous Pied de Cochon is well worth a visit, French Canadian comfort food
Some years ago my wife and I had them serve us the same seven or eight course meal they served the North American Food Writers, quite possibly the best meal I've ever had. Great environment, fabulous food.
It has been VERY dry throughout NC. It did not rain until Saturday afternoon outside of a little sprinkle on Friday.
There was a big fire on Pilot Mt a couple of weeks ago that burned over 1,000 acres. Started by a campfire. And last week there was a fire at Pogue Mt that burned a few hundred acres. Not sure of that source. I am assuming the smokiness was from Pogue, but I could be wrong.
Frogs illegally parked are toad.
Except, of course, in the rare but notable cases when said vehicles are Frog and Toad Together.
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My apologies! I did think about my proximity to a fellow DBR poster, but I was there for a family wedding in Asheville (Biltmore) and the weekend was packed. And any breaks were spent crashing at the hotel. An exhausting weekend, and I am just hoping we all stay healthy! Next time, you can buy me beer!
I have tickets to the US National Figure Skating Championships in Nashville in January. I bought them back in May. I am starting to think flying to Nashville and attending multiple figure skating events over 5 days the first week of January might not be such a good idea. At this point, I'm still planning to go though.
Second-hand, but via CDC insiders who work just around the corner and heavily inform my school's ongoing pandemic-related decision making:
The remaining holdouts against vaccination are both the greatest hindrance to "beating" the pandemic, and the most at-risk population moving forward, and those of us who've chosen to appropriately protect ourselves will eventually need to just decide to go back to our lives with the (relatively mild) risk of COVID still present, probably on a more or less permanent basis.Quote:
[Assuming that you're vaccinated & boosted,] The pandemic, at this point, is over when you decide it is.
I am actually already there, mostly. I've been out to karaoke nights with my theater friends twice in the last 6 weeks or so. I acted in a live theatrical production. I've been to see theatrical productions every weekend since R&J closed. I'm going to The Nutcracker at the Boston Ballet right before Christmas. The one thing I haven't done yet though is attend sporting events. That's been my sticking point. I also decided against hosting my annual Winter Solstice Dessert Open House. It will return in 2022.
I've been to a couple of concerts that required vax proof in recent weeks. I'll be attending a couple of shows early next week in NYC that require proof of vaccination and are then mask-optional once inside.
I won't mask in those places, not because I'm anti-mask, but because I've done everything I can do to protect myself, and I'll be in venues and a community (NYC on the whole) that saw first-hand the implications of overwhelming pandemic conditions and has in response been as diligent as possible in choosing to take individual precaution to help produce community safety. On the other hand, there are other places in my hometown and will be travel-related locations for me in the coming days where I'm asked to mask, and I'll do so without any fuss.
For me, it's just time. There won't be a single "lightbulb moment" for us all, so I'm making my personal choice now that I'm comfortable.
Mostly, but not exactly. I had dinner in Staten Island last night and while they checked for my vaccine card per NYC rules, there wasn't a mask in sight in the restaurant. The Manhattan vibe where all waitstaff wear masks is very different. I assume when you mentioned NYC you meant Manhattan so perhaps I'm picking nits.
Yeah, I don't intend to spend much of my vacation in Staten Island...no offense to that lovely corner of the world, but my time will be spent in Manhattan & Brooklyn, with perhaps a brief jaunt to Queens.
...basically I'm just planning to stare at this as much as possible:
Attachment 13859
Poor Staten Island! Even in NYC it isn't "the island," it's just an island located nearby about which most people know little.
EXCEPT that my co-worker's daughter is now pretty sick with COVID, and she is fully vaxxed and boosted. Not sure what happened, but her baby's daycare provider tested positive last Wed. She has no idea where she caught it. Several babies in her care tested positive, but NOT my co-worker's grandson, yet his mother is sick. She teaches high school, so I wonder if she caught it there and the daycare thing was a fluke. She is getting monoclonal antibody infusion this afternoon. Co-worker tested negative today and I have not been near her since last Wednesday.
Hoping my close contact with others this weekend does not end in disaster.
Jellyfish Montreal - restaurant
+1 514-303-0908
https://maps.app.goo.gl/TzKyyKnsUcLBMvvk9
Where I ended up for dinner
I can finally stop avoiding the Succession thread.
There's a food truck that operates near me called "Sum Pig", which I love as a dark Charlotte's Web reference.
Today's story is Tales in Bulk Density...
I'm teacher-in-December tired.
A 7th grader decided that today would be a good day to argue with me about the history of ship design.
Given that I hold a master's degree in Maritime Studies (don’t ask) and that it’s December in junior high, that was unwise.
This thread has really sunk to new depths, but I expect smooth sailing ahead
Welp, y’all have really managed to torpedo another conversation.
Pretty much your conversation, in fact. FWIW, I would have loved to have been there. I'll bet you even did it with relative gentleness, but 7th grade is just such fertile ground for a total smackdown. Kids that really don't know anything, yet, but are brimming with unfounded confidence. But I'm sure you piloted him in the right direction.
I hate the pun crap, but I am suuuuuper interested in the history of ship building.
I did not get the part. I forget if I mentioned that it was down to me or one other actor who happens to be one of my closest friends. So, win-win. And now I get to go to one more Duke game in January cause I won't have rehearsal.
You know, yes and no. I think kids need to be taught that adults aren't always right --- and that some of them are really dumb and uninformed. I will never forget being in a summer daycare at 6 or 7 and getting into an argument with a teacher about which state was the largest. I had family living in Alaska and had been there and knew all about the state but the teacher kept pointing at the map and saying, "Look, CLEARLY Texas is the largest." He was not messing around.
I saw a bass wearing a bowtie today. Very sofishticated.
Mighty Egyptians
Bragging about their fast ships
Trading on the Nile.
But Baby Moses
Sailing on a raft of reeds
Defeated them all.
Then the Phoenicians
Mediterranean Kings!
But Tyre laid to waste.
Vikings and the Celts
Took to the seas to plunder
And their culture spread.
Soon it was Spaniards
And Pilgrims and the English
East India Tea Co.
Pirates roamed the seas
How much do their earrings cost?
A buccaneer, duh.
Large Ships of the Line
Gave way to Dreadnoughts and subs
Then carriers ruled.
The Love Boat broadcast
Titanic was a movie
Carnival Cruise Line is run by a bunch of criminal dimwits set upon destroying all that is good and holy in the world.
(I may have broken form there at the end)
While I am glad basketball is back in session, these noncompetitive games aren't easy to watch.
I have mixed emotions. I think girls need to be taught to speak up more when they think an adult is wrong. I have had one too many 10-12 year old boy treat me as though I don't know what I'm talking about to completely agree with this advice. Certainly kids should be taught to ask questions but teaching them that some adults are really dumb and uniformed does not give them to tools to discern whether it's the adults who are dumb and uniformed or if it's them.
The people who should be teaching kids that adults aren't always right are the kids' parents. I got into similar arguments in my childhood, and more importantly, so did my kids. If they weren't sure for some reason (or if their teacher argued well), they came home to verify. They rapidly learned how to tell good teachers from the not good ones, without explicit instruction that some adults are idiots. Eventually, they also learned that their parents are idiots, but that took longer.
All kids eventually learn that their parents are idiots. ;) But alas, some of them actually are, and they are the ones that probably aren't teaching their kids that adults aren't always right. Family members, teachers, coaches, caregivers, or any other trusted adult in a kid's life, we should hope that one of them teaches kids not to accept everything as true, even if it's an adult who is providing the information. But, in the end, that's what education is all about, learning to think critically.
My son is unusually astute. The other day he said: "You know what you and mom got right? You never talked down to us, even in front of other adults. You used big words and hard concepts with us even when we were little." Also when I have been wrong about things I have gone to the kids and told them I recognize I was wrong and may have reacted poorly in the moment, but it's because I am human and prone to mistakes. I am bad about denying I made a mistake or was wrong in the moment. But I am good about owning it later. I have worked so incredibly hard not to be my parents. Whom I love, but didn't want to emulate.
I agree with every after the smiley. "Should be" was doing a lot of heavy lifting there, and there are plenty of kids for whom it won't be the case that they learn this from their parents. On the other hand, every kid figures at some point figures out that not everyone is right or even to be trusted, and it is a whole lot easier if they have friendly help to get there, regardless of where that help comes from. I didn't make that clear.
Obviously, I agree with everything before the smiley, too. :D
Yes, I think my original point on this is that I think a lot of parents teach their children not to doubt adults — and sometimes the parents will trust other adults more than they trust their own children.
I think children need to be taught healthy but respectful skepticism of adults’ claims and actions. It’s a big difference in teaching your child confidence in themselves versus self-doubt. Maybe it’s because my wife worked for NCMEC at one point but we are both very untrusting of adults in a position of power.
They had a cookie swap at my wife's work so she brought home a bunch of different cookies. One of them was just an Oreo dipped in some sort of lustrous fudge. Nice little 2-step process.
A convenient one-step process version is also available. :p
https://images.albertsons-media.com/...=Not_Available
While conversing with someone about music and then searching YouTube, I stumbled on this. MCC was my antidote to too much grunge at kegs late into the night:
https://youtu.be/i5fRsGxioAs
dentist looms. Must fight off the x-ray demons once again...
I wrote a play once entitled "A Roomful of Snickerdoodles". It's about a cookie swap. Sadly, it was not one of my best, but I might rework it, or reuse the title.
These are way better:
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I'm pretty sure I know my Shirleys, Aimo. It's kind of my thing. Wilson has his old boats, Clems has his push-ups, YMo loves stocks and rolling around in pristine lawns, budwom was a CIA operative in Russia or something, Boston has her feet and drama...I know Shirleys. It's what I do.
The day before the holiday break (mercifully) begins, I've had no fewer than ten students ask me a question that I've clearly and repeatedly answered on a minimum twice-weekly basis since the week preceding Thanksgiving.
Almost the weekend!
what's a "weekend?"
ClemmonsDevil is afraid to respond!!!!
I'm starting to think this thread needs a little Christmas.
All over but the post-lunch sugar rush for junk-food addled adolescents here in the junior high trenches. My last day before break outfit is stupefyingly festive. Tomorrow I'm going to see the Christmas tree of all Christmas trees, something that's been on my list for like 35 years.
No Christmas needed for me; I've got plenty.
OK, just to clarify. There are some days when people, in general, DO irritate me. These are usually when I have encountered dangerous aggressive drivers and really bad customer service.
Budwom's reminder that I am not yet retired is a bit irritating but I was mostly being facetious.
As for Christmas spirit, yeah, I need it. One annual family holiday gathering has just been cancelled due to COVID fears. I have a 93 yo aunt and an 81 yo uncle, not to mention my mom, who need to see family as much as possible. I worry we won't be able to all get together again soon enough.
Plus our immediate family gathering may be whittled down to nothing again, depending on this crappy virus. And family members wanting to move away from traditions is saddening. It's others' Scroogedom making me a Scrooge, and I do not like it.
On the plus side, I am working from home today, and will not be back in the office until 1/4/2022. Whoo hoo!
Nothing gets me in The Christmas spirit like pulling tinsel out of a cat’s butt.
Sometimes sports fans are the worst.
That person was exceptionally tone deaf to the issues around WHY we lost 2 games this week. Maybe let's not pretend basketball is the most important thing in the lives of anyone on this board. My dad was a coach and basketball quite literally put food on my table as a kid. It CAN'T mean more to that person than it does to me. AND BASKETBALL GAMES BEING CANCELED IS NOT THE WORST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED IN LIFE. I'm mad.
my 16 year old car just got recalled. huh.
Totally agreeing with that, except the mad part. It's still the internet. I can get angry about the internet when it is a public problem (e.g. the pandemic itself), but tone deaf expressions on a basketball message board? Yeah, I can't let that rile me, or I'll end up mad at everything.