Just need to talk to my friends (214)
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Morning very cold and windy here. The north sky is dark so guess that's the clouds from the cold front Even the birds weren't out on the porch when I fed them. I hear them now. Girls are standing in front of the barn out of the wind and others are on the south side of the house out of the wind.
Glad you slept well. Ron. Carl, I wear thermals most of the winter and two pairs of socks. No need to be cold if you can help it. Weatherman said we might have a few snowflakes today.
Time for hot tea and breakfast. I have been wanting to fix scrambled eggs and hash browns.but am always too hungry to wait so I have cereal. Sheena and Stormy love scrambled eggs.
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Good morning. Ron, I too slept for six hours without getting up once. It's wonderful!
Beth, I have seen Dubai chocolate in stores but never tried it. I like pistachio. I see that it has pistachio and a phyllo filling. Let me know how it tastes, chocolate bars are not on my diet now.
Iris
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Good morning.
I forgot to answer about the cranberries that I was soaking the other day. I finely chop one bag with my chopper. Then I chop up an orange and toss in several hands full of pecans & chop that. Mix it up in a bowl and let it sit. Its easy, colorful and good. I know some people add sugar - I don't usually do that. The other bag of cranberries I was soaking I dried them well. Put them in a container of powered sugar and made sure they were shaken up and covered. Then dumped them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet & baked them at 200 for 10 minutes. Another easy peasy snack. you can refrigerate them or not. I like to soak the berries in Sprite, that sweetens them up.
Fudge, I've not had it in years. My mom had a recipe to make it with velvetta cheese. If you didn't know prior to eating it you'd never know it. I'll have to get that out for y'all. I think I've made that once. HD isn't a fudge fan, loves chocolate, not fudge though.
I've got to take DH to PT. He's not had any since the week of Christmas. We've done his program at home. Frankly I'm not seeing improvement, but I'm not seeing him getting worse either. I hate to think he's going to walk around with his head looking down but he doesn't even recognize he's doing it. When he pull his head back its never in what I'd call a 'normal' position. He doesn't hurt so that's the plus. Everyone be careful and safe. Back later.
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Just to add to the chocolate discussion…Frango Mints.
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We used to make a cranberry relish- ran the cranberries through a grinder and the orange. Seems like we added jello but not sure.
My little branches of Japonica I brought in are blooming. So pretty makes- me think of spring until I go out on the porch. It's cloudy now with a temp of 30 and strong north wind. Wind chill is 18.
L
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Judith, I gave out Frango Mints as Christmas gifts this year not realizing the recipients from Texas and Virginia would not be familiar with them. Had to explain the history of them from Marshal Fields and the continuation with Macy’s. They did enjoy them.
Lorita, I was disappointed that the Bears lost also. That game tying pass was really good.Really windy here today. Temperature is 30 now but very sunny. Of course I won’t be going anywhere. Have a good day all.
Sandy
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Stay in and be safe, Sandy. Tell me about Frango mints. Never heard of them.
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More than one ever needs to know about Frango Mints:
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They look delicious but are they as good as Lindt Truffles? I have gotten addicted to those.
Just boiled half a dozen eggs for the GPs. Sheena loves them but Stormy will only eat the yolks. I had one first one I have had in ages. I used to mash them with mustard and eat them on crackers. Still have some from that dozen to scramble- Stormy likes those. The cage free eggs I buy are now $2.99.
Still cold, cloudy and.windy.
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Very different from Lindt.
For those who reqd about the Frangos you might find this interesting:
This adds one more thing to celebrate haven been raised in Chicago. 😊
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So, that-s why you and Sandy know about the Frango mints.
I opened a pull tab can of cat food with my thumb and broke my fingernail into the quick- really hurts.
Are you all watching what is going on with Greenland? Scary world, right now..
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Good Afternoon Rockers.
GG. Your so right about the fur babies, making decisions for you. Im on the couch right now with Molly and my cat Sammy laying on each side of me, so unless its a emergency I will be put for awhile. We love our furbabies.
Beth . Im going to look at that Fantasy Fudge recipe it sounds real good, My SIL would really like it with the peanut butter. I prefer fudge thats not real soft. Do any of you remember the fudge thats not soft to bite into, or maybe this is hard fudge i had when i was a kid.
Not much happening on my end of the porch today. It's cold 35° windy foggy. We also have a Air Stagnation Advisory. So here i sit with my fur babies.
Hugs Zetta
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There is a big solar storm so a.lot of our County may be able to see the aurora borealis tonight seven this far south. We missed them. or I.did, last time. Be sure to look.
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I watch the news and the market report for 2 hours every weekday morning, CNN/Fox and NBC. So yes, I am following Greenland. I even spent time looking at our globe to get a better understanding.
I hope King Charles and William cancel their visits!
Just checked the northern lights in OKC and they say nope.
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Where did they plan to visit? Are there protests in OKC? There was a big one in Durant protesting ICE wanting to use s big warehouse for detainees and in several towns in the US.
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Just a quickie - I'll be back later on, but I wanted to post about the northern lights. We're starting to see stuff in the PNW.
The thing that's impacting viewing now is the "IMF", the Interplanetary Magnetic Field. According to the app that my s.o. uses, the IMF is "badly aligned".
Here's what that means (you want the Bt to be high and the Bz to be low):
The solar magnetic field not only surrounds the Sun itself, the solar wind carries it out into the solar system to form the interplanetary magnetic field or IMF.
The strength of the interplanetary magnetic field is given a value called Bt and is measured in nanoTesla (nT). The north-south direction of the interplanetary magnetic field (Bz) plays an important role in the formation of Northern Lights. When the north-south direction of IMF flips south, the magnetic field lines connect to the earth’s magnetosphere which faces north. A rift opens that allows the solar wind to pour into our magnetosphere. Bz becomes negative, for example –10nT, which is a good sign that auroras will start to appear.
So, when you are out chasing the northern lights, watch the orientation of the IMF closely. When it flips south, odds are that northern lights are visible overhead.
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Because people are seeing stuff not too terribly far from us, we're going to go out and see what we can see.
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The invasion of Greenland will be a boon for Putin. If the EU has to fight a war in the West, it will diminish their ability to resist the Russian effort to rebuild the Soviet Union in the East.
I'd like to see the Northern Lights, but it's 12 degrees out there! I'm not even going to look.
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Look out the window, Carl. Nothing here yet. Addendum:Sorry, Carl, didn't mean to be bossy. I'm not going out either- it's. 23 here.
Maybe.what you said is the whole idea.
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Lorita I always use the tines of a fork to open the cat food cans. I'm not risking my nails.
Eaglemom, maintenance of status is an appropriate goal for PT. It's great that DH isn't getting worse. Neck pain is bad!
Good night.
Iris
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Well, aurora viewing was mostly a bust over here. The Bt stayed really hi (which was good) but the Bz stayed positive, so it ended up being a big meh. That's what happens when you chase auroras. 🙂
Beth - the fantasy fudge recipe looks great! I love that it comes with "nutrition facts". I've never had Dubai chocolate. But I probably wouldn't like it, I'm not a fan of pistachios.
Iris and Lorita - it's dark chocolate for me too. I favor something of at least 70% dark. But I also like Ritter Sport dark chocolate and marzipan.
Judith - I must have had Frango mints at some point - the packaging and the label look awfully familiar.
I haven't had these in years, but I was quite partial to After 8 dark chocolate mints.
I've been listening to Death Guild for the last half hour - they're extra political tonight, starting with Southern by Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (for MLK Day). I don't know how long I'll stay up listening to this, I'm kind of tired, and the next few days are extra busy.
Have good night everyone!
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good morning
Ron
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Good morning. I'm eating my usual breakfast of fruit, nuts, toast, and coffee. It's 14 degrees here, but the wind is from the south and we expect warm weather this afternoon. Of course, that's bringing moisture from the Gulf to fuel the snow that's predicted for Friday. ❄️
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@Lorita
This cow made me think of you.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/science/animals-cows-intelligence-tools.html?unlocked_article_code=1.F1A.2xii.mye5P_1F9NLQ&smid=url-shareIt's a gifted link but you may need to copy & paste it into your browser.
HB1 -
There are many pics of the northern lights in my FB feed. I started seeing them online around 6 pm: Colorado, Ireland, Iceland and other places. It made me excited but alas, I went out several times to look; finally went to bed at 11 without seeing them. I was up twice during the night looking. No luck for me but many did see them. We saw them on November 11 (that's the only time). You cannot always see them with the naked eye but can if you look through your camera. If you really want to see them, go to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. They are visible 300 nights of the year up there! Svalbard is another place where they can be seen frequently. Svalbard is an island, part of Norway, up near the North Pole. Cecelia Blomdahl's YouTube channel tells all about her life on Svalbard and there are many beautiful aurora shots. She has written a book too and the photographs are amazing. It's a beautiful place but very cold and they are in total darkness (Polar Night) part of the year and 24/7 sunlight part of the year.
Sorry you didn't get to see them, GG. I hope you have the opportunity another time. Remember to look through the camera lens as they can sometimes be seen that way when not with the naked eye.
Good morning to our OK friends Judith and Lorita. Hope the weather is warming up for you. I have a cousin who lives in Muskogee. I've not been to Muskogee but have driven through OK on road trips to TX. It's interesting to me seeing there are apparently a lot of native Americans and reservations there. I read "Killers of the Flower Moon" about the oil in OK and bad people trying to steal oil rights from the native Americans. I saw the movie too. Sad, but a very interesting book.
Dubai chocolate can be made with dark or milk chocolate. Sometimes the filling is smooth and sometimes crunchy. The taste/quality varies widely. The candy bars are very expensive - large bar can run $20!
Eagle, your cranberry recipes sound very tasty! Thanks for sharing. Regarding fudge, I used to make lots of goodies at Christmas but I minimize that now. I made fudge a year ago.
I have never had Frango mints. DH buys York peppermint patties all the time - I don't hate them but not really a fan. My favorite candy is peanut butter M & Ms.
Sandy, hope your pain is improved.
Zetta, hope you are doing well. Hang in there, spring is on the way. The extremes in cold and heat are hard on us! Somehow I think a climate like where Iris lives would be much easier to deal with. Are you in the mountains Zetta?
Ron and Carl, hope it warms up for you in MO (and us in IA too)!
HB, best wishes with your TKR. I watched an interesting YouTube video yesterday by The Surgeon Unmasked. He is an orthopedic surgeon and had his own knee replaced and documented it on his channel. He did a video concerning the importance of protein in the post op period. He quoted 3 studies showing that a certain amino acid product reduced the loss of muscle greatly (muscle loss occurs post op.) I hope all goes well for you and that your sweet mama stays relatively healthy while you are recuperating.
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Good morning. Cold and sunny today. Wind chill will keep it in the single digits all day. Yuck.
Judith— I'm not sure how I feel about a state mandated ban on devices in the school given the risk of shootings in schools in this country. DS attended a private lab school for a couple of years where the owner didn't believe in allowing tech, later he attended a public school with an IEP that allowed him a phone as a graphic organizer. There were pluses and minuses to both approaches.
Gothic G— The soup was good, not as good as my last batch. Normally I use a can of crushed tomatoes; this time I crushed my own and it wasn't as intense. I did try to compensate by adding a little tomato paste but it wasn't quite as rich. I had some Stilton and Cougar Gold left from Christmas, so we had that to go with and a Brooklyn baguette.
We did sorta see the aurora. I think. Right after sunset the northern sky lit up in magenta. It was kind of hazy, but in photographs look more intense.
Eaglemom— It must be somewhat frustrating to invest in the PT sessions and not see an improvement. That said, stable and out-of-pain is wonderful.
Lady Z— Air stagnation? Does that lead to unhealthy air for at-risk individuals?
Beth— I wasn't dazzled by the Dubai chocolate I tried. My go to is a local Swiss confectioner. His stuff is lovely although some of his "artisanal" combinations are not to my taste.
I'm 2 weeks out from the knee surgery. The time has flown by. I have a pre-op appointment with the PA tomorrow to go over things. I did see that surgeon pop up in my You Tube algorithm but I haven't watched him. Perhaps I should. I do recall the importance of protein in recovery. I failed at this miserably last time; the meds made me sick and I could barely eat. It was like morning sickness. I've been doing pre-hab with strength work and have bought some high protein shakes to have on hand if needed.
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I'm taking mom for a haircut today. I want to have her get a pedicure, too, but she's balking and telling me she's not quite there yet. I don't think she's really wrapped her mind around me not being available to cart her places for a month or more. She says she can Uber or call a lady who drives folks in her neighborhood, but I have yet to see her do this independently. I love when she tells her doctors how she Ubers; LOL, I arrange it on my phone (and pay) and then I call her with the details. Fingers crossed she doesn't get sick during my recovery. She'll be in the house for the most part, so at least not exposed to germs.
I'll be home by dinnertime, but I think we'll go out for pizza tonight. There's a cute place about 2 miles north of here with excellent pizza and a wall of craft beer/wine taps. It's always crowded over the weekend, but Tuesdays are not.
Forecasts are hinting at a big storm over the weekend. I'll have to send DS out for gas for the snow blower and do some serious food shopping. If I prepare, perhaps we'll get off easy.
HB1 -
Good morning
4 this morning
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Morning, no northern lights here but some were seen north of Tulsa. Sounds like a lot of the Country will be having a snowy weekend. Eagle, maybe the ice storm will be north of you and hopefully, south of us.
I noticed the green light is out on our generator. We are going to have snow so the.generator needs to be working. I called he company that services it.
Groceries will be delivered in an hour or so. Got a.lot of vegetables to make a.big pot of stoup this weekend. Stoup because I IIke a thick soup.
Pretty day here, very little south wind and will be about 50.
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Good morning.
I spent a wonderful Martin Luther King Jr Day yesterday listening to his marvelous speeches on the radio. He truly made an impact on our nation's history.
Beth, the weather in SoCal is the best! I live closer to the coast, so we don't get the extremes that the more inland counties get. I often think about moving but I know I will never find this weather anywhere else, except perhaps in Hawaii. Florida is too hot and too muggy, I've been there. Other southern states have bugs. And I don't like the cold or snow at all. I'm stuck here for the foreseeable future.
GG, if you want to see the aurora borealis, just hop a short flight up to Fairbanks and you will see the lights, so amazing!
HB, I'm from Brooklyn but I never had a Brooklyn baguette. They probably came along after I left. All we knew about growing up were bagels, pizza and Wonder Bread!
Iris
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Cold and windy on my end of the porch too. Not as bad as for some of you farther North, but bad enough. Winter blast expected by the weekend. BRRR!
All the animals are fine. Nobody's sick in my house or my family, so I'm happy about that.
Our trip begins Feb. 1st and I'm almost ready. Got most all the groceries for the meals we will cook. Lots of crockpot dinners. Easy peasy. SIL/BIL are leading the way again. He does the itinerary for us that includes two overnight stops along the way. We usually drive about 6.5 hours a day (not us girls, we're Passenger Princesses, lol)
This week includes two funeral visitations for us and a trip to Scottboro to deliver food and groceries. Then we'll go again next week with more cooked food. A nephew is going to step in for us one week while we are away and I've stocked BIL's freezed with microwave dinners. Grandson will feed dogs and goats and keep check. My oldest daughter will feed Oliver Kitty. It's takes a lot to organize a get-away, but worth it.
Youngest daughter just drove (alone) 1000 miles roundtrip to assist in a Rescue Mission for abused animals this weekend. She hauled a 17 year old Paint gelding who had never once had a halter on! Luckily, a local man familiar with horses came to help her get him loaded. She had her Vet kit with her so he could be sedated for the long trip. Other folks are helping with over 200 dogs on the property. Criminal charges are pending for the owners. Sad, sad. My Girl's got grit!
Eagle, glad your DH is not having pain.
HB, good luck with your surgery and with Mom. I'll be checking on you while we are away.
Iris, glad your sleep is improving. Sticking to a schedule works for me most of the time.
Ron and Carl - hope you get to meet up soon. That weather would just keep me inside all the time.
Zetta, the air quality during an Inversion is awful. Be careful.
Mint, my daughter complains about the cold with having to be outside feeding horses. She'd really like to move back to a warmer climate.
Everyone stay safe and warm. ❤️
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Here…sister had 3 TIAs while traveling. Is now in the hospital in Naples FL. I know her daughters are grown but they have no experience with aging crap although one thinks her EMSA training in 1980 qualifies her to make decisions.
Also trying to be helpful with ex son-in-laws total knee replacement coming up. Found the utube.
I’m a Knee Surgeon — 5 Things I Learned From My Own Knee Replacement
HB…this may be the same one you saw.
Googled Brooklyn bagette (sp). It came up as a diamond cut. What's not to like? lol
We do not have a state ban on smart phones etc in the class room. I think it is merely going back to not using computers all the time. I personally like the idea of no phone use during school use. I do not see a safety problem. What am I missing?
My generator has lights???
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