respublica

White Navities-A family thing

Years ago, Bill Jourdain, a member of our church, made a white Nativity silhouette for the front of the church. We liked it so much we asked him if he'd be willing to make another one and we'd buy it. And he did. It's been in one of our yards or other ever since. Last year one of our seminary workers made us two more which we gave to each of our daughters. The tradition lives on as all of us put out the white nativities this weekend.

Here is Lizzie and Darren's. No boys in the creche...yet.

And Katie and Charlie's out in Maryland

There's Drew.

And Jake. Seems this one fell over after a bit of Jake romping. But it's back on its feet now.

And the sem boys.

Dale and Ferdie.

HGTV Pop'd ??

Here is a tweet from HGTV last night:

"Love House Hunters and House Hunters International? Stick around for the premiere of House Hunters Pop'd-coming up at 11/10c!"

Ok. I watch House Hunters and have liked it for years. Many nights I stick around for the International version which follows but often I turn to something else because I don't find some of the world wide hunts that interesting. I missed knowing about the new Pop'd version and have no idea what it is but it seems it wasn't all that well received by other viewers.

There must have been a pop up message on the screen constantly which was accompanied by a bell ringing. That would be annoying. But here is the comment to this tweet I appreciated the most:

"HGTV, good lord, who thought this was a good idea? This is the worst idea since you shaved Property Brothers into every second broadcast."

WOW I so agree with the Property Brothers overload. They are on so often, day and night, weekday and weekend that just the sound of one of their voices has me changing the channel.

In any event, here's the program info for HGTV Pop'd.  "Integrated factoids take your favorite House Hunters episodes one-step further with real estate trivia and bubbly quips popping up in fun on-screen graphics. Ugh. Factoids. ugh

When to shop for groceries

Do you need groceries the day after Thanksgiving? Not everyone does, but if you do go today. I went for a couple of things this morning and the check out man told me the day after Thanksgiving is the slowest day of the year in the grocery business.

Thanksgiving wrap up post

Ruth and Mary came to dinner and Ferdie just loves them. Actually, he's quite pesty around them.

This is my favorite picture. Most everyone except Nick and Ruth were on their devices.

We did eat.

Nice day. Today? Who knows. Which is good to know.

Thanksgiving leftover post

Here's map showing the most google searched Thanksgiving food by state. Saw this yesterday but was busy with our real food prep. It's interesting how different and sometimes how weird these food searches are and to think many are doing it makes it more curious. For instance, the most frequent food search for Missouri was Green Rice Casserole. Seriously? In Colorado, Nevada and Idaho, it was Frog Eye Salad. Click to enlarge.

The boss man at the head of the table

The Nick-ster

Cordless vac?

Looking throught the Thursday Personal Tech page in the New York Times this morning there was a new vacuum cleaner highlighted-the Dyson Motorhead. This looks rather like a sort of weed whacker for inside the house. The motor up near the top handle connected to a pole which connects to the suction head. The story described this new vacuum as "a light-weight, hand-held,vacuum cleaner that is nearly as powerful as a full size, plug in model. Though it looks like a space age laser gun, there's nothing better at cleaning up."

Now I was intrigued. This is a rechargeable vac so that is a cause for concern, but it seems as though battery drain isn't really an issue as reviews say it will do a whole house before it needs recharging. It looks small so I naively gave some thought about maybe getting one. Then I saw the price. $549. 

No way I'd pay that much for a vacuum and one that needs charging at that. And while it may do the whole house, the fill canister looks very small which means stopping too often to empty it. If you live in an apartment, don't have a dog or kids, this might be fine, not for me though. There are stores which have it on sale online right now, but it's still too much. I'd rather spend money on other things.

Merry Chri...er...Happy Thanksgiving Eve

 

Stuffing!

Thanksgiving dinner: Stuffing is the entree, turkey is, depending on your view, either a side dish or a garnish.

Said by Dan McLaughlin on Twitter.

I'd have to agree, I love stuffing the most.  Not the same Dan McLaughlin as does Cardinal games

Not every steak is exactly the same

Part of the Affordable Care Act, Obama Care, will be new regulations for the food industry.

The draft language would require restaurants and grocery chains with more than 20 locations that devote more than half of their floor space to selling food to list the number of calories in each item of food they prepare.

The nation’s eateries are faced with the costly prospect of having to calculate the number of calories in the various meals they serve. The problem is not every meal or every ingredient is fixed in the same way which means, even steak could have various calorie counts depending on what was ordered.

But restaurants and grocery stores are concerned they’ll be required to recount the number of calories in a meal every time they tinker with a recipe, which they say would be nearly impossible to do considering the endless number of food combinations they sell.

This is just one of the many many regulations coming from the president in the coming days. In fact 3415 new regulations are coming or have been already released.

We're from the govenment and we're here to help.