Plan B Forum

Later today we're heading downtown to see A Christmas Carol, this has been an annual family event for us since Tati was 5...

I got us great seats; third row Orchestra ... (I got the seats way I usually get tickets when I want to see a show; I slipped the guy at the ticket booth at ACT 20 bucks to call me when the first three rows in the Orchestra section that they always keep on hold for the local poobahs get released for sale 48 hours before the show; I picked the tickets up Thursday.)

This will be Jimmy's first year...I was a little reluctant to shell out a hundred bucks for a seat for him, given the way he has performed in movie theaters, but he's promised me he's going to be good, and I'm taking him at his word...(also his mother has agreed that if he starts fussing she will be the one who has to take him out, and Tati and I will stay for the show)

Then after that we're going out for a nice dinner, and then we're going to check out the Christmas lights and displays at the major hotels and around Union Square...

Sunday we're going to The Dickens Fair at the Cow Palace, which is also a really fun time...

It's sort of like a Renaissance Fair, but with a Victorian Christmas theme:

http://dickensfair.com/

Sounds fun Jim.

We started ours today with a family meal at one of our favourite pub restaurants over on the Fylde. I had a beautiful slow cooked lamb shank with mint gravy and braised red cabbage.. Mmmmmmm!

Tomorrow it's the farmers and producers market in Ashton-under-Lyne where we will get cheeses and all our fresh vegetables for the Christmas dinner. No Victorian Renaissance here though, just proper local food and drink.

As is the tradition in our house at Christmas we will be getting one of these Lancashire Strong Bomb.

We are officially shut down for the rest of the year. Because it takes a certain minimum number of people to keep a cleanroom with its assorted tools operating and provide enough technicians to operate them it makes more sense to just turn it off for the last week of the year. All of the process gasses have to be bled from the lines, silane, SF6, H2, CO, N2. And while we could keep the synthesis labs going with even 2 people most of the work there is to make things which are tested in the cleanroom and there's no point to starting the year with a huge backlog. (I have a couple of demos on-hold until the 6th anyway). The heat will be off so that some of the reagents will freeze solid (titanium isopropoxide freezes just below normal lab temps.) which renders any work moot anyway.

So other than some at-home work trying to make sense of some new data I'm at liberty!

A lot of the x-mas shopping is done but there is always room for more stocking stuffers and then we're off to Portland from the 25th to the 30th. We'll check out the new elephant at the Portland Zoo, she was just a tiny 3-month old baby last year. Take a trip to the coast and stay at Neah Ka Ne. Have the traditional Big Duck Dinner and the ritually necessary Salmon dinner. Board games with the krewe. My Dad is coming up to stay with my Sis so I'll be there visiting when we get back to the Bay Area.

Its been a tough year. Nice to be able to stop and just enjoy company; family and friends. Hoping for better.

yrs,
rubato

Jim is going to be surprised when he goes to the theater and realizes he was able to get good seats because he didn't notice that he was paying to see "A Chirstmas Carol", which is a depressing holiday story about a dyslexic homeless woman named Carol.

Our Xmas started yesterday with the five of us, me, Hen, Hatch, Hatch's beau, and Mother Hen going to Artisan for a meal. This was Mother Hen's Xmas present to us all, fair play to the old bird.

Jim, that sounds like a very lovely thing to do, and a great socialist indoctrination for your kids! Xmas is all about kids. Oh, don't forget to tell them none of it is true though.

Oh, don't forget to tell them none of it is true though.

That's right. Christmas is only 60 years old.
It was invented by those capitalistic departments stores to get you to stop eating thanksgiving turkeys to instead go buy stuff. Especially stuff you didn't need nor want. Macy's was the leader who brought you a parade on thanksgiving day at the end of which they had Santa who fired the starting gun signaling the shopping to begin.

The fruit cake was invented to keep the family together by regifting it every year and it is passed along to the person who was the worse that year. This way they know the family was not happy with them and they can get their act together.

Parents jumped on the band wagon and made up the Santa thing to keep the kids in line. Bad kid, no gifts. The parents of us baby boomers were smart. Not like us boomers who let their kids do anything and give them everything.

Religions (well some anyway) took the Santa Claus and figured the name was close to their dear Saint Nick so they adopted it too. Wnet back further some 2000+ years and tied it in to the birth of Jesus. Even went so far as to make up a tale of these three kings from China who brought gold, (maybe just gold plated) some smelly thing and murr (whatever that is).

And that's the REAL story of Christmas.

Myrrh

Crackpot wrote:Myrrh

It's "Murr" (whatever that is) in the REAL Story of Christmas.

oldr_n_wsr wrote:

Crackpot wrote:Myrrh

It's "Murr" (whatever that is) in the REAL Story of Christmas.

"Murr" is short for Murray -- specifically, Murray the Mohel, who the Weissmans brought in to do the bris. You have no idea how hard it was to find a decent mohel in Bethlehem back then, especially around the holidays, when they were all taking a week in Miami Beach.

Wasn't it Frankenstein and Muir? It was before Dennis Norden got into the picture....

I ways have some frankincense and some myrrh incense occasionally combined bot mostly separate. Love the smell. I burn some every week. Difficult to get decent quality though. Triloka and Salish Winds are both good. The Triloka Premium is the best I've found.



yrs,
rubato

As we're hosting this year, we've got a lot of the work done already.

Christmas chocolate bomb was made at the weekend (nobody likes Xmas Pudding except for me), it's a pretty ice cream and panettone confection, with cherries and glacé fruit.

Port and cranberry sauce made yesterday - we always make our own cause the jar stuff is rank.

Today has been a blast, we've made chicken liver parfait, braised red cabbage and prepped all the green veg.

Tomorrow is a glorified roast dinner with a beautiful free range turkey that has been crowned, the wings went into making a stunning vat of gravy.

We have completed today with a download of a bunch of SingStar songs for a rowdy family singalong when we've all imbibed our body weight in food and wine.

Have a ball everyone - love you all xxxx

Sounds a hoot Daisy!! Have a great one lover!!

You too feller. All the best to you, hen, hatch (can we call hatch's feller the little rooster) Mother Hen and more importantly those beautiful doggies ... More pics?

Not got any recent ones I think, hang about...

Just doing a couple for you....

Awwwwwwwwwwwe! So adorable xx