marg

I think he's got his old job back (plastering mindless graffiti around TD forums) now his ersatz has disappeared ..

.. but .. what the heck.. happy New Year, anyway..

.. and, sorry, no emoticons, but I actually meant that sincerely !

matthew

Wow Marg... Very sweet today...

(and I mean that sarcatically)

matthew

I currently have 2 part time jobs trying to feed the family... Looking for sum'n with a future...

As soon as the blisters go away from the butt burning I took with the pool hall, I will probably venture out on my own again with some sort of wild idea...

Dragon

Here's hoping your burnt butt blisters heal quickly. Hmm, that's kinda fun to say -- burnt butt blisters, burnt butt blisters...

Baldur

poledancers are always in demand......
and with the right skills the tips are good.
Definitely the burnt butt blisters have to get cleared up first though.

Dragon

Unless you can find a market for that sort of thing. Of course if you slide down that pole the wrong way you might end up with more burnt butt blisters.

marius

Goodness, marius is overwhelmed by emotions ... whoops, I mean emoticons! Don't know how to use them so unless it happens as an accident, I'll just have to enjoy the artistic emoticon creations of others. : )

Qsilv, loving the "memory as fine lace" too.

Baldur's evening sounds like it will be great fun. The snacks sound yummy and what are Jalapeno poppers and are they as spicy-hot as eating plain jalapenos or can one make them with a pepper that has less kick to it?

Dragon's New Year's evening plans sounds fun. Actually close to my ideal except we will probably fall asleep before there's time to watch the Bond movie. I did rent the new star trek only to be reminded that spouse has already seen it!

Marius is in a fine mood today. We made the hour drive to see my family yesterday and it was a most comfortable and lovely visit. It was probably more lovely than normal because, long story short: for sixteen years marius did not see or speak with any of these people. There were some rather pronounced problems in the family many years ago (and still are some), but what matters now is that we've seen the family three years in a row and it finally felt comfortable, even easy, and more of a blessing ... it was downright enjoyable! Even spouse had a good time.

Yesterday was also "Gene's" birthday, the kid people think is gay. So we had a holiday pizza party and Sponge Bob Squarepants birthday party combined. First time for me to meet Gene, who just turned six, and gotta say, he's my main buddy. He's also an absolute delight! (The older brother, who is seven, is cute too and sang us a Christmas Carol he made up about sausages. The only words in the carol are: sausages and fa and la. Yes, the first verse was cute, but after that the funny part was that the kid could not stop laughing. At least he can amuse himself.) But, back to Gene ... I didn't notice one thing about him that spoke to preferences, all I noticed was a wonderful spirit. Since he likes art things, we took him a bunch of arty supplies, but what he liked best was a tablet of sketching paper I'd gotten free from the local art gallery. Gene said, "So ALL the pages are blank?" That pleased him very much.

After the party, the four hormonal teenagers were making too much racket with whistles, recorders, rattles and other odd "musical instruments," so they were sent to the basement rec room. That left quiet time for adult talk and the little kids sat in the middle of the floor playing with a miniature train set. My older brother, who all the kids call, "Uncle Inert," or just "Inert" lived up to the name. He sat and gazed around. He'll talk if you pester him, but otherwise he's happy to just sit. He's always been rather like this but it confuses my chatterbox spouse. : )

The sweetest part of the afternoon was my 87 year old Dad. His violin was sitting on top of the piano so I asked if he wanted to play a few carols. Last year *everyone* wanted to play and we had harmonica, electric guitar, plastic recorders, Dad on violin, me on piano and oh - it sounded awful! But, this year it was just Dad and me. Brought back fond memories. My sister kept calling out songs she wanted to hear and one time Inert came over to the piano and sang. He has a nice voice. That is something I didn't remember about him.

When we were driving home spouse said, "It was comfortable this year, but there is no way I could tolerate eight guests for a week, especially four teenagers!" Agreed. Tonight we're having salmon and tons of veggies, maybe some wine. We'll probably fall asleep around 8 or 9 and unless the cats wake us up, sleep through the new year. Tomorrow is really our day - the annual Taco fest for spouse's kids and grandkids. It's an easy day because they all come here and no one dresses up. We eat taco's, beans, dips and chips, then play board games of some kind. Am hoping no one notices the guacamole is missing. (Forgot to get the avocados in time for them to soften.)

Anyway, so enjoyed Sheftali's wishes to all for the new year, that I'm going to borrow hers and say, "ditto from marius." (Why improve on something that's perfectly said? giggle)

Happy New Years everyone!

Dragon

marius, glad you had a nice visit with family. While I love my family I find they are best in small doses (either for short times or just having a few of them around). I think the highlight of the Christmas season for me this year was being at my Dads and visitins with my brother and his kids, they are about 3 (Charlie) and about 18 months (Greir). At one point in the evening we were all visiting in the front room and 2 large white hares showed up on the front lawn which is quite common in my Dad's neighbourhood. The kids were absolutly entranced and could not be pulled away from the window for anything (even though Charlie clearly had to go to the bathroom, he could not be persuaded to leave the window, just stood there doing the pee-pee dance and holding his pants). Though I don't plan on having kids of my own I do very much enjoy being an auntie.

sheftali52

Lmao at matthew's #5372. Er, a bit risque? It's past the bewitching hour here in Yorktown, Virginia, and the champagne has been consumed. Our friend from Germany did indeed call at 6 p.m. yesterday (midnight in Germany) and wish us a Happy New Year. Sheftali's chili turned out very spicy for the new year's eve supper--a habanero and ancho pepper provided the zing. Here it is, the start of 2010, so let's all have a happy, healthy year.

Baldur

Baldur is awake.
Happy New Year everyone.
Baldur got the last houseguests tucked into bed by 2am, and then was awake himself at 7am putting Chez Baldur back in order.
This involved hauling out trash, searching for empty glasses everywhere, moving chairs back to their places and then setting the breakfast table.
Only 2 people spent the night so it was breakfast for 4
Among the food items that arrived last night were a dozen donuts and 3 dozen cranberry walnut muffins, so that was part of the breakfast ment.
Beyond that I planned to make scrambled eggs and toast. Along with coffee and orange juice that was indeed enough.
The houseguests however were both still snoring loudly at 10am.
Baldur needed to go and wake them. When they still seemed reticent about getting up to eat I told them I would open all the windows and let the 20 degree Farenheit air in.
That did get them moving.

Baldur

ment - t + u = menu

Baldur

We all shared a nice breakfast and then they both got their belongings together and left at 12:30 PM.
Baldur then promptly took a nap. I stretched out on the sofa and slept for 3 blissful hours.

We ended up with 30 revelers last night. The background music was a selection of recordings by Connie Francis, Etta James and Little Richard.
The menu, especially with everything brought by the guests got quite out of control.
Robert and I stocked the bar mostly with soft drinks. There was also beer and liquor available, but by and far the crowd drank soft drinks.
Then at midnight there was the champagne of course.
Someone brought a 'box' of white zinfadel, this was a first for Chez Baldur as we have always served wine out of bottles.
I hope we will continue this archaic trend.

Here is the menu that we served

Deviled eggs
Hummus
Green Goddess dip
assorted crackers
sliced cucumbers, carrot sticks & grape tomatoes
sharp cheddar cheese
jalepeno jack cheese
Spanish olives wrapped in puff pastry
Jalepeno Poppers (to answer and earlier question these are purchased frozen and baked in the oven. They are jalepeno peppers with the tops and seeds removed, then they are filled with cream cheese, breaded and fried. Sometimes you see them filled with cheddar instead).
fried mozzarella sticks
Chocolate Crinkles
Butterscotch Pecan Bars with Brown Sugar Meringue
Lemon cheesecake with raspberry chambord topping
Coffee Amaretto Cheesecake with chocolate topping

Baldur

Brought by the guests:
A tray of sliced pepperoni, sausage and assorted cheeses
A tray of sliced fruit with a sweet cream cheese dip
a tray of assorted pound cake slices
8 assorted jumbo muffins
a dozen assorted donuts
36 homemade cranberry walnut muffins
a homemade cake with a baked topping of crushed pineapple, cranberries, sliced red delicious apples and coconut
trail mix
a bottle of cognac
a box of white zinfadel
a quart of homemade kosher dill pickles

I am certainly forgetting things here, for example in my part of the menu there was also a sliced Italian Panetone and pieces of Bergamot flavored Turkish Delight.

sixstring

The lemon cheesecake with raspberry topping gets my vote.

Baldur

Did you enjoy it? Happy New Year

sixstring

Very much, i had 2 pieces.

Baldur

I packed up the leftover lemon cheesecake, with quite a bit of other stuff and sent it home with Matthew of Shrewsbury.
He will be overindulging for at least a week.

sixstring

Very nice. Thanks for the hospitality, and best wishes for the new year.

Baldur

Glad you could be here, and welcome to Thinkdraw.

sixstring

Thanks mister. Found it this morning, and did my first try just after breakfast. There are some very detailed pieces on here.