[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Chat for January 2021 #124447

Here’s some pictures.

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Chat for January 2021 #124445

Good Morning Everyone,
I am sure you are all in shock at what transpired in Washington yesterday. It’s something I never imagined that i would ever see in this country. Just like I never imagined that i would see a worldwide pandemic. I pray that our new leadership has the strength and support to unite this country again.
Nothing new going on in our area of the woods. So far Greg has captured deer and maybe either fox or coyote on his trail camera.
The last two weeks have been like groundhog day. The sky looks the same in the morning as it does at dusk. My lucky SIL is headed to Florida for the next few months. At least she will see the sun and be able to go outdoors and do things the next few months.
I read that we in Illinois over 65 have been moved from the 1c to the 1b line for shots although lord knows when that will actually be. Since I’m already staying home I’m not going to line up for hours and hours to get it. I will wait until it’s more readily available without a lot of waiting. I can’t wait for a time when i feel comfortable getting my hair done again.
They said the kids in our district are still on remote learning until March something so maybe by the last quarter they will go back to school. I know getting kids back in schools is on the agenda of the new president. One things our grands will always remember this year if their lives. Piper will remember it as the year Gigi’s hair got white. lol I’m thinking about putting a pink streak in it just to alleviate the boredom. lol
I have not even felt like reading much the last two weeks so you know I have been in the dumps as usually reading makes me feel better. usually when I haven’t read for a couple of days I can feel how much I miss it. But I am feeling a bit more chipper today. Now if only the sun would come out for a few days at least.
Last night was Epiphany so i guess now slowly but surely I will start taking down the decorations. I like to wait until the battery operated things run their batteries out so that might take a couple more weeks. I like the lights.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Chat for January 2021 #124281

Hi Colleen,
We will continue to watch The Masked Dancer just to see how it goes. I’m certain The Masked Singer will be back. They are on a break since they just finished a season a couple of weeks ago. I’ll bet they’ll be back in March.
Did you watch Ken Jeong’s show I Can See Your Voice. Even after watching all the episodes Greg and I still can’t figure out how it works. Could you have five bad singers and one good singer or vice versa. It just seems the numbers could change from week to week on the good and bad singers and it’s about impossible to tell which is which. Even the singers are fooled. I see that Name That Tune is coming back too. Sometimes it seems like the same shows get recycled over and over.
I also wonder if DWTS will be back. I know there have been so many complaints about Tyra that it would seem crazy to bring her back and expect people to watch. Maybe it’s time for that show to come to an end or take a vacation or something. You have to feel kind of bad for Tyra as she is a person with feelings too-to have such negativity come her way-especially in this age when anyone can get online and tear her apart. My feelings were she is not a good fit for the show but I have nothing against her personally-although she sure did wear some kooky outfits-it was almost like she was daring people to say bad things about her.
I am so glad that we bought that crab from Costco. It was kind of pricey but really good and a lot of actual crab in the shells. Not like some where you work and work for one little piece. this had big pieces. I would buy it again if I saw it there for a special treat. I figure it cost less buying it and making it at home than it would have in a restaurant.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Chat for January 2021 #124273

Hi Sue,
I am glad that you knew what was going on so that you could reassure your neighbor. Those winter fires are so hard to fight in the freezing temperatures. The placed that burned sounded like it had to do with lumber and I think you worked at a lumber yard. Is there a lot of logging in your area?
One good thing is maybe there won’t be as many drunks on the road since the bars are supposed to be shut. although in our area compliance is iffy at best this time around.
Well I did see the ball drop in eastern time. I think I was half asleep on the couch when it dropped in central time. lol
We don’t have any traditional foods that we make for New Years. I remember my Mom always used to have some kind of creamed fish-maybe herring to eat on New Years Eve but it was gross. It’s interesting all the different traditions there are for the different parts of the country or different ethnicities.
You wonder how they all got started.
We are supposed to get snow sleet and rain today so naturally it is cloudy again. When it is so cloudy day after day it’s hard to distinguish day from night. No wonder I want to nap. Although I didn’t nap yesterday as I finally felt a bit more wide awake.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2020 #124233

I am starting a new discussion for the new month and the new year. See you all there.

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2020 #124163

Hi Adele,
That was an awesome present that Tillie got. I love presents that are personalized or meaningful in some other way.
I think you probably needed that breakdown. Christmas is an emotional time of year in general and add your loss to that and it has to come out somehow.
Hey, Greg got one of those knit hats with the light on it from my sister. Plus I gave him a Bears hat with blinking Christmas lights so he is all lit up.
He got himself this camera thing that he can put outside to try and take movies of whatever wildlife walks by. So far nothing. They really have to walk by just the right spot and with all the land out there it just doesn’t seem likely. I told him to point it at the pond as maybe animals stop by for a drink. I guess he saw these weird footprints in the yard and couldn’t figure out what they came from so that must have prompted his interest in the night vision camera thing.
They were different looking footprints kind of like a huge cat or something but I don’t think we have anything like a cougar or something like that around here.
We picked up some crab legs when we were at Costco for New year’s Eve. I had just been thinking that it has been such a long time since we had them and then there they were on a big display so I think it was meant to be. It seems like 20 years ago a lot of the restaurants had crab legs but you just rarely see it on a menu anymore. I’m looking forward to that.
I always get stains on my shirts from cooking and eating too so I try to wear older stuff around the house. I really need a bib. lol
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2020 #124151

Hi Colleen,
I’ll bet you are really busy now with the kids back in your home.
That’s good that they all took turns with the pacman arcade game. It sounds like that was a good investment.
Did you cook dinner for Christmas or bring food in?
How is your leg doing without the brace?
We made a quick trip to CostCo this morning so we could get there for senior hour. We needed to cash in our money that we had earned before the end of the year and while we were there we stocked up on pork loin and beef tenderloin that Greg is now cutting into steaks and chops and sealing them into portions with that sealer thing-i forget what it’s called. Usually, we like to browse a bit when we go there as we don’t go there that often but with covid we just wanted to get in and out. It wasn’t bad-not too crowded. I guess the senior hour is from 9 to 10 and then the store actually opens at ten. I saw a few in there that did not look like seniors. I should have asked for ID-lol
Anyway, we will be set with steaks and chops for the rest of the winter now and probably won’t have to stock up again until summer.
We are supposed to get some snow. Are you catching part of this storm or not?
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2020 #124134

Hi Sue,
I hope the scalloped potatoes and ham turned out okay with the extra hard potatoes.
We all need to give ourselves gifts. My gifts from Greg were things I ordered myself and just gave to him to wrap. lol That way I get what I want. lol
We are supposed to get snow later on today-we are under a winter storm warning. The worst part is it may turn to sleet overnight. I would much rather it just stayed snow because with ice we can get power outages and we have had enough of those for this year.
I hope Jenny will be home from work before the snow starts. I always worry about her driving back and forth to work in snowy weather.
The kids will be happy if it snows as there has been no snow to play in so far over winter break. Plus I guess Lachlan got the perfect snowball maker for Christmas and has had no snow to try it out.
New Years will be like Christmas staying home and watching movies. Half the time I don’t even make it until midnight.
I haven’t been getting as much reading in the last few weeks for some reason-so I made my Goodreads goal but won’t exceed it by much.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2020 #124062

Hi Everyone,
Colleen, I’m glad that you got that brace off in time for the holidays.
Adele, those cookies look so delicious-I wish I could reach through and try one.
Sue, I hope that your ham turned out well-did you make sides too. Do you glaze the ham. Our family always just made a simple glaze of vinegar and brown sugar and that’s what I always use even if a glaze packet comes with the ham. It’s just what I grew up with.
DD I love hearing about Snowball’s antics. She really keeps life interesting. I’m glad that you are over the hump of feeling a bit down. It has been a lonely time.
I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday. I know we certainly had a different one-which actually was a blessing in disguise as it was going to be a holiday different to begin with since we weren’t seeing the grands.
Anyway, we started the day with a zoom call with our friends Tim and Nan at ten o’clock. We were all still in our pajamas except Greg who doesn’t own pajamas-(I take that back he does have a few pair of pajama pants) We normally get together with them for dinner and a gift exchange over the holidays but of course that was not happening this year. Plus we normally go up to their place in Wisconsin over the summer and Greg and Tim usually go fishing in Canada none of which happened this year. Anyway, needless to say we hadn’t seen them in person for a long time so we chatted together for a long time. We had mailed our gifts to each other so we opened our gifts over the zoom call. It was a really nice visit and a great way to start the day.
Around one o’clock we took the gifts over to Jenny’s house. I had put antlers and a red nose on the car and Greg was wearing his elf ears and I had on my antlers with the flashing lights. So we were dressed for delivering gifts in our most festive Santa’s helpers outfits. lol
We dropped off gifts and chatted for about five minutes masked up and socially distanced and told them not to start opening until we could get back home and set up a zoom call with them. Right as we were leaving I could feel myself starting to choke up and I didn’t want to cry and get Jenny started so I hurried us out the door.
So we came home and got the zoom call started and chatted and watched them open presents for and hour until zoom cut us off.
It wasn’t perfect but we did the best we could with the circumstances allotted to us. And it surely was better than nothing.
After that it was around three and neither Greg or I had had breakfast or lunch. I had some snacks prepared for when we opened our gifts so we put those out cheese, crackers and salami (we wanted to make some chicken liver pate but we couldn’t get any chicken livers) , shrimp cocktail and deviled eggs. So we had our snacks while watching a Christmas movie and by that time I was tired and wanted to nap rather than open gifts. So I laid on the couch and Greg laid back in his recliner and then the phone rang with a call from Brent. So we chatted for awhile and then he had to leave for work.
After that I did get a nap in but when I woke up it was too late to start making dinner-so we ended up taking out the leftover appetizers and having that for dinner and watching another movie.
So yesterday we finally did get to open our gifts and I made the dinner that i had planned for Christmas Day last night for dinner. Prime Rib, kugelis, cucumbers and sour cream and a strawberry banana salad.
So it was a different year with a very different Christmas-but it was so different that it really didn’t make me miss a normal Christmas as much if that makes any sense.
I gave Greg a Bears shirt and a Bears vest so he will be all dressed for the game today. lol
New Year’s Eve we normally stay home so that will be the same this year. I like to watch Holiday Inn or White Christmas then or maybe some Marx Brother’s movies. (sorry Colleen) We’ll see what we watch this year. I always enjoy the week between Christmas and New Years as everyone still has their decorations up to be enjoyed but it’s a lot less hectic time.
Hope everyone is safe and well and looking forward to a time in 2021 where if we can get enough people vaccinated we can kick this disease to the curb.
I pray for that.
Hugs to all,
Gail

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