Fae Briona

Well, that's the biggest indicator you don't work in the US.

Bad weather -- including a risk of small (for here) hail and a very low tornado chance -- is South East of here. We'll just have light rain; followed by light freezing rain / sleet / snow mix; followed by snow. Shouldn't have more than a 1/10 inch or so of ice buildup though, so no issues like last February [crossing fingers]. The hips are REALLY not liking it though.

This has been an extremely hot December. We've routinely been 15F+ above normal. That's going to end tonight. We're 62F right now, and once temps start to drop they'll continue dropping until Sunday morning when it could drop as low as 9F -- not counting the wind chill.

And just weeks before her 100th birthday, and the tv special she was planning for it. She'll be missed.

I lost absolutely everything to a house fire about 15 years ago. Still don't have anything that produces an open flame in the house (even though the source of the fire was probably a squirrel in the attic gnawing on electrical wires). If anyone says to you, "they'll get to buy new things" slap them -- HARD. You don't want new things. You want your old things back. I'll try to send good energy their way.

It's been a long and crazy year. SP just left for work; we'll stay up & have a glass of Champaign when he gets home. Spent some time this week working on his house, but not as much as he would have liked. We have got a lot accomplished (I think). We made Hoppin' John for supper tonight, and there's enough for lunch tomorrow (a VERY Southern US dish for New Years that, in it's most basic form, contains rice, black eyed peas, ham and/or bacon, green bell pepper, and some cayenne pepper for a bit of heat). I'm going to attempt to make a tourtière [Quebec mixed-meat savory pie] for supper tomorrow night. Hopefully, it turns out well. Wish me luck. Our professional photographer should have our wedding pics done in the next few days; possibly as early as tomorrow. But thought I'd share this one of SP and I that my brother took [hope the link works]. We make each other very happy.

Happy birthday tim It's been a long year - here's hoping to a calmer 2022

Hope everyone celebrating has a great day today. SP is nervous about my brother and SIL showing up. Tried to reassure him it will be fine.

Interesting tidbit about Pacha Person in the suit is intriguing. Not surprised he noticed them after their use of ka/skwish to pull the fire alarm

Sounds like some progress at least. Less pain is always a good thing.

Given the shortage on cream cheese, that depends on whether or not you can actually find any. Kraft has a program to pay you for NOT making any.

Welp -- definitely no white Christmas here. It's going to be nearly 30F above normal; we could break record highs. Hope everyone is having an easy [as possible] time getting ready for the holidays. I've taken tomorrow off work to clean and start cooking. SP wants a chocolate-peppermint cake. 🎄

It's been a long week. Stressing over the holidays - this will be the first Christmas (that we've done or normal xmas things) w/o mom and dad. Brother and SIL are coming up here.

Love these, but always forget to check the water level.

Once I was able to log back into Firefox, all my passwords were there again. Still don't have the email from AllState that will start the process to fix the car. Rental car will have to be out-of-pocket then reimbursed (good thing for good credit), but the earliest a "mid-sized sedan" will be available is LATE FRIDAY afternoon -- and they won't "upgrade" to an SUV, despite the fact that crawling into and out of a sedan is painful to the joints. All around, very frustrating and blood pressure this evening is MUCH higher than it should be. SP keeps telling me to just relax, it will all work out. I know he's right, but it's hard for me to do.

Endless and ongoing. At 5pm last night my agent was on hold waiting to talk to their agent. Was supposed to get a txt w. results but never did. Firefox updated it's password storage system -- w/o any notice I saw -- and now I've lost everything I had saved.

That's what I tried to tell him -- we can fix the car easier than we can fix him. Had a small anxiety attack after he called. Will hopefully be able to contact the insurance adjuster this morning.

SP was on his way back to work today from lunch, when an older gentleman -- who admitted to being blind in one eye and having limited use of one arm -- ran a stop sign and hit him. Both are ok, and guy admitted full fault. Police were called for insurance. Front passenger fender is shoved against the wheel, fog-light is broken, head-lamp is cracked; grill looks ok, but it's somehow bent enough you can't open the hood of the car.

Water heater got installed late yesterday afternoon. Having a hot shower this morning and being able to properly wash my hair was heaven.

Hopefully [fingers crossed] they'll be able to get the hot water heater installed today sometime. Installer didn't think it would take that long for approval from the Warranty company, but the office person said it may take a full day.

No hot water when SP took a shower last night - assumed the pilot had blown out in the 40+ mph winds the other day. Woke up this morning to re-light the pilot to find water on the garage floor. Turned the water to the heater off, and put in a claim through my Home Warranty company. Hope they'll call soon.

SP bought a tree this year -- I made him promise to ramp up the Christmas decor slowly (the ex burned me out on it). We'll use some of the floral from the wedding for the tree.

Between the "legal" wedding, the "public" wedding, and the legal paperwork in-between (documents to insure power of attorney, wills, etc.) we've joked that we keep "tying the knot" tighter and tighter. ☺️

We survived the wedding with minimal breakdowns - a small episode when SP realized the very ambitious decorating plan wasn't going to be fully implemented because of a late start Sunday evening and Monday morning; but I was able to bring him down and convince him it would be fine. And it was. Both of us broke down a bit during out vows, but that we both expected. Moments of great love and happiness, like our first dance (to Looking-Glass Sea by Eurasure from the Dick Tracy Soundtrack). Worth the intense pain I was in by the end of the night. Food was good, cake was WONDERFUL, and we've received a lot of compliments on the decor.

Well, in less than 36-hrs the panic-inducing part of the ceremony will be over and we'll be sitting down to [hopefully] a good meal. Trying not to stress about things -- it's too late to change anything at this point so what it is is what it is.