Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.
Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).
The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.
So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?
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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.
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– Page One of Comments is here.
– Page Two of Comments is here.
Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 23 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 36. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
There were some strong reactions to the nazi puff piece that the NY Times published over the weekend. Here are a couple worth reading:
This is where it can lead. I don’t share the sympathy that the author expresses about how the Republicans “let this kind of get away from them”. That is not an excuse. If you hand a toddler a gun, you don’t get to stand back and say “Who could have predicted that?” when he shoots himself or someone else.
this is part of a short thread, but it’s the best one
<blockquoteclass=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”>
How about we focus on the humanity of those the Nazis seek to dehumanize, instead of reaffirming those whose existence is never challenged?
— Bailey, who wants this site to ban Nazis already (@the_author_) November 26, 2017
and she added another
<blockquoteclass=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”>
How about we punch the Nazis and uplift the people the Nazis want to harm? Just some wild ideas, idk, just tossing them out there
— Bailey, who wants this site to ban Nazis already (@the_author_) November 26, 2017
Excellent!
and then there was this thread, that just smashed my heart to pieces
https://twitter.com/JuliusGoat/status/934521315322626048
{{{Jan}}} – my mother was a very wise woman in many ways but she had a blind spot about America. She came as close to hating Germans as she came to hating anybody and never forgave them for the Holocaust. She always said the “good Germans” had to know what was going on and should have stopped it from happening. Even when we got RR as prez she believed that America would see and stop any slide into fascism. She died just over a decade before W was appointed prez. W’s reaction to 9/11 and America’s reaction to his reaction told me not just that it could happen here, that it was happening here. And as long as the fascisti own the media we can only resist and block (as we did during the Obama years) but we can’t stop it. But, BUT, resisting and blocking saves lives and is worthwhile of itself. AND resisting and blocking may get us into a position to chip away at that fascist media consortium which is even more worthwhile.
Healing Energy to us all – shaped to our need.
Good Sunday Meese
Am going back to bed to laze around today – since I don’t have a Sunday piece to tend at DKos.
A reminder:
Enjoy your lazy day! I am trying to catch up from being gone for five days. I always bring projects with me when I travel in the event that I feel motivated to work on them but that rarely occurs. My travel laptop is simply not as comfortable to work on as my desktop computer and besides – vacation! Fortunately there are still 5 days left to get November projects done. Now, to find motivation …
{{{Denise}}} – did I miss something? As in why you don’t have a Sunday FP to tend. (I needed to look something up for somebody who’d emailed me about doing a fundraiser diary and checked my stream. You weren’t there so I finished my email reply and headed over here.)
Holding the Good Thought for Puerto Rico. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere.
There was a deadline change for Sunday – due to the holiday – and I failed to see it – so I just saved what I wrote for the following Sunday
Glad you got a holiday and it was nothing bad going down. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meese, and a lovely one it is here in NoVa—pale blue sky with veils of white cloud here and there. Right now it’s 45 F., going up to 51 F. Going to put a pot roast in the slow cooker and then some potatoes, leeks, parsnips, and carrots to go with it. Might do an apple-walnut cake or apple crisp for afters.
Have a nail appointment this afternoon, breakfast to cook and the last Formula I race of the year to watch this morning. Today I’m just going to tend to biz and not worry about anything except Puerto Rico. Many are leaving. Is anyone rebuilding the electric grid?
Got in a walk, gym workout & a visit to my friend yesterday. Today: thawing breakfast & lunch, another visit — and I’ll walk around the hospital block for 1.25 miles again. I have loved sleeping in. Tomorrow’s going to hurt.
Good morning, 53 and raining in Bellingham. I’ve got a quiet house today and lots of laundry to keep me occupied. We all enjoyed our busy family Thanksgiving together but everyone is ready to be home.
Blustery wind and rain kept me awake in the night so a nap will prolly be happening soon.
Best Sunday wishes to all.
Good morning meese! I haven’t slept much the last few days as I’ve been sick with fever/flu and generally feeling blah. But I did put up a diary about breakfast and it seems to be going well :)
{{{basket}}} – lots of Healing Energy and congratulations on the breakfast diary at DK. moar {{{HUGS}}}
30 at dawn and at 64 fairly close to our predicted high of 67. Mostly sunny with some fluffy clouds which is good. Yesterday’s 7.7 KWHs was very good and we’re on track to at least get over 7 today unless something unexpected moves in. The m-t-d is 149.9 so the 150 is going to happen within the next hour. Definitely bringing 180 into the possible range – depending on sunshine for the rest of the month of course.
Evil Ones being Evil. (fascist-controlled media – they have moved out of the RWNJ category into the fascisti category – busily normalizing the Evil.) At the moment the best we can do is resist, block, push back – and work as hard as we can on GOTV for the 2018 elections. If we can get Congress back we can do some damage control and start repairs. Meanwhile no change in my status at the other place. Probably won’t be. But I will hang on as long as my online family over there does.
Got everything done but one last pot of soup and of course finishing the laundry. (Lemon muffins this week – made with lemon-infused olive oil instead of butter mixed into the almond butter – only way to get more lemon flavor would be to sprinkle brown sugar on a lemon slice and eat it straight. LOL) Hung the sheets and towels outside but everything else inside. The sun is shining and it’s warm enough to do everything outside – but day length is an issue. I’m not sure everything can dry in the hours before the sun starts setting. This way the big stuff it’s harder to dry inside will at least have 4 hours of sun and wind to get them mostly dry and it won’t take long to finish them in front of the wood stove. Probably have the tag-end of pork roast for dinner as a change from leftover turkey (most of which is in soups anyway) – maybe a baked potato or sweet potato and steamed green beans with it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
I actually had to turn on the air conditioner last night. Overnight lows on the 50s but my apartment was so warm & stuffy. Even with a/c I still woke up hot about every 2 hours or so.
also – lemon muffins with almond butter sounds amazing!
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – they are lovely. I use Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour mix which has to be sifted before measured (like the old days in your grandmother’s cookbooks – LOL) – it’s got the same caloric load and protein load as whole wheat (400 cal/cup & 12g protein/cup). So.
Preheat oven to 350F and prepare muffin tins or 8″ x 8″ baking pan
Sift, measure 2 cups GF flour, sift again with 1 tsp baking powder or 1/4 tsp baking soda. set aside.
cream together 2 oz almond butter with 1 TBSP butter or lemon infused olive oil; cream in 2 TBSP brown sugar; grate then mix in the peel of one lemon; beat in 2 eggs; beat in 6 oz 2% yogurt; stir in juice of the lemon with enough seltzer water added to equal 1/2 cup.
Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until all the flour is damp (which takes a little more doing with the GF flour than with wheat flour). Spoon or pour into to baking dishes. Bake 20 minutes if using muffin tins or 30 minutes in the 8″ x 8″ baking pan. Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy. :)
thank you! it sounds amazing
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 27 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 50. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
The numbers are starting to come in on the Senate Republican tax cut bill and they are confirming the early analysis that the tax cuts are going to be paid for by middle income taxpayers and the poor – and a ginormous deficit ala Bush Tax Cuts. In theory, there are at least two deficit hawks in the Senate, Corker and Flake, neither of whom care about re-election. If they are honest with themselves, they will vote against this. But they are Republicans and the “principles” they use to dupe their voters are easily cast aside to please the donor class. The vote will take place on Thursday but they are still tweaking the bill. They added “Drilling in the ANWR” to lock in Murkowski’s vote, Ron Johnson wants the tax cuts for his businesses to match the corporate tax cuts because really it is all about him so they may add that. They can ignore Collins and her concerns over adding the ACA mandate repeal to the bill and probably McCain so the only hope for passage is to get one of the deficit hawks to bail on it.
Meanwhile, states are starting to wind down SCHIP, leaving 9 million children without healthcare, a government shutdown is looming, and people in Texas and Puerto Rico are in need of disaster recover assistance, especially housing. It turns out that when you put incompetents in charge of government agencies like HUD, they end up poorly run! Quelle Surprise!
I am watching the CFPB drama this morning and have a couple of stories up in tabs to try to sort it out. Leandra English, the deputy director, has filed (or will file) a lawsuit saying that she is the director pending Senate approval of the nominee. The CFPB’s own attorney and the Trump “Justice” Department say that Trump can appoint Mick Mulvaney to start the dismantling prior to Senate approval. English’s lawsuit states that Mulvaney can’t run an independent agency while he is still an employee of Trump’s and under his control. Good point! I do know that Mulvaney will destroy it – another Obama Administration good government initiative tossed into the dustbin. I wonder if President Obama regrets not sharing the Russia information with the American public? There will not be much left of his legacy after the shitgibbon completes his revenge. :(
See all y’all later!
there was a sad story on the local news, Habitat for Humanity was almost finished building a new house for one of the flooded ones near here (Austin didn’t get flooding, but places near us did) and someone stole the trailer with all the stuff. It’s going to be hard to not notice, brightly painted with “Habitat for Humanity”… but that someone would steal that….
Good Monday Meese
35 here in Saugerties NY going up to 45.
Reminder.
Hope the registration efforts are ramped up in FL
In a just world, the neglect of Puerto Rico would come back and bite the Republicans on the ass. Flipping a half-dozen Florida congressional districts red to blue and kicking Rick Scott to the curb would be a good start.
IF FL Democrats get their act together and do targeted registration/GOTV it can happen.
The situation in PR isn’t going to go away anytime soon – sadly.
The social services situation in FL atm is also a problem – that may also be something voters pay attention to.
Good morning, Meese. At 6:45 a.m. it’s still too dark to tell what kind of day it will be, but the weather gadget says it’s 33 F. here in NoVa, going up to 57 F.
Jan, you said ” I wonder if President Obama regrets not sharing the Russia information with the American public?” And we’ve now learned the Fibbies never told the subjects of Russian hacking they were being hacked. What happened to all this much-vaunted “transparency” following 9/11, when the agencies admitted they weren’t sharing information with each other? Oh, the patriarchs and their little fiefdoms and power plays!
Hoping for a quiet day of catching up on chores. We have got to deal with the photographs this week—Christmas is coming and we’ll have 15 people here. Wishing all a good day.
It probably wouldn’t have helped even if President Obama had shared the entire intelligence briefing; the people voting for the shitgibbon didn’t care – and still don’t care – about a foreign government interfering in our presidential election. They wanted their dumb white male and they got him!
Did you see this encouraging WaPo article over the weekend? Why a historically conservative county in Virginia is making national Republicans nervous
I love this part:
And they have their sights set on Dave Brat’s congressional seat:
It would be very satisfying to see the smirk wiped off his face.
I did see that article and just ate it up!
Walked again this morning — 1.34 miles. Blergh. That alarm was early. Oatmeal, tea. Assuming the person who has e-mail duty won’t be here because it’s Monday & why would she be here on Monday; so I’m gonna start sorting e-mail. Brain is playing American Soul, which makes me happy.
Good morning, 45 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. I’m going to the pool this morning and hope to work on my quilt project this afternoon. The pool was closed last week so it will be good to be back in the water.
Time to find some coffee. Take care everyone.
40 at dawn and 54 now – heading for upper 60s and sunny. Got just under 7.9 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 154.7 – small W00t! there, which will be a big W00t! if I reach 180. (Rain expected Wednesday may stop that but live in hope.)
Many years ago I read a line a character in a mystery series I enjoyed said that “cupidity and stupidity” were the cause of all the ills in the world. I’d say the current situation is proving it all over again. My own term for it has been “short-sighted greed” – the Rs in Congress and apparently everywhere else seem to believe they can get all the golden eggs at once if they kill the goose who lays them. and the ones who don’t believe that hate geese and want them all dead (anti-government people who are perfectly fine with the idea of anarchy because they think somehow they will thrive in those conditions). Meanwhile my status at the other place has only changed in that my membership has run out so now I’m seeing all the ads AND the other place is still sending me fundraiser emails (which I’ll divert to spam when I stop thinking it’s ironic).
Still haven’t finished going through emails and still got a bunch of travels to deal with so I’d best get back to it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 52 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 54. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. We will cool down into the 40s for the rest of the week. Still pretty nice weather for almost-December!
Tax Cut Week begins in earnest today. There are currently three no votes, two that could bottle it up in the Budget Committee, forcing Mitch McConnell to break more Senate rules and put the bill on the floor without committee approval. Only one of the votes is a “principled” vote, Bob Corker is sticking to his deficit hawkishness, the other two are craven attempts to get more for themselves: Ron Johnson and Steve Daines want bigger cuts on the pass-through for their small businesses. The question is whether “principles” will hold fast longer than “feathering one’s own nest”. With the modern Republican Party, who the heck knows? My prediction is that Johnson and Daines fold and that Collins becomes a No for the ACA mandate and Flake joins Corker.
Busy morning here as I try to get November projects completed – only three days left.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Moosekind, and a beautiful one it is too, here in NoVa—flawless blue skies and sunlight, but frosty. Current temp. is 32 F., going up to 61 F.
Had another Night from Hell. This time, after lights-out at 11 p.m., was still tossing and turning at 1 a.m. I was worrying about how to make and store a gluten-free dessert for Christmas dinner as my DIL is going gluten-free. Lemon Syllabub would fill the bill but there’s no room in the fridge. I worry about the stupidest things!
Dear Goddess, let at least three Senators peel off so that awful tax bill won’t pass. Can you imagine the devastation if medical expenses can’t be deducted? And if Social Security and Medicare are going to be cut, well, we’d have to go live with the people who cut it. Hope they have room.
Off to the gym this morning and then a day of trying to figure out what to do about all the photos littering our living area. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Walked 1.28 miles. Did 5 bouts of 30 seconds of running. Tomorrow, I’ll walk around the Capitol (it’s flatter) and aim for 10 bouts, which was supposed to be today’s goal. It’s 50-something, I needed a jacket. Because I’m a Texan.
54 at dawn 55 now and heading for 70 on another sunny day. Supposed to get a front (and rain) tomorrow morning but one more day of whatever we wish to call this season. (I call it winter – there are juncos and black-capped chickadees at my bird feeding station now.) Got 7.6 KWHs yesterday bringing the m-t-d to 161.9 – 170 for the month is probable, 180 is possible but not likely unless tomorrow’s projected rain/cloudiness clears off by mid-morning.
Holding the Good Thought on blocking the R’s tax scam however it’s managed. And get SCHIP reinstated however it’s managed. And Maria-Irma-Harvey especially Puerto Rico recovery however it’s managed. And Dream Act and/or serious (and sane) immigration reform… But right now mostly holding the Good Thought and sending lots and lots and lots of Healing Energy to Aji and hope she can go home today. No change in status at the other site – still the irony of donating/being asked to donate to a site that’s banned me.
Still working on travel claims from that conference half the faculty went on last week. I’ll check back later. Bright the day, meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Hey, bfitz, I stopped my puny monthly donation to that site. They chose to ban the nicest person on it, so they’re not getting any more money from me.
Good morning, Meeses. Currently 46 here with an expected high of 57; I checked the calendar, and yup, it really is late November in Michigan. I’m not complaining though, as this is Day 15 without a working furnace. To say I’ve been frustrated (and left cold!) by the ineptitude of furnace repairmen is an understatement. The first three were sent by a service we subscribe to through our gas company; each time, they made minor fixes, and the furnace was up and running when they left…only to stop again, sometimes within hours after they left. We finally decided last week to bite the bullet and call company of our choosing. They discovered an entirely different problem which requires more than the minor tweaks we’d been getting. Of course, they didn’t have the part in stock, and of course, the company they could get it from was shut down for Wednesday-Friday of Thanksgiving week. They’re allegedly coming today with the part and to complete the work…fingers crossed! The dogs and cats have each been provided with multiple down comforters, fleece throws, and flannel quilts for their comfort, while I’ve been running a small electric heater to keep the kitchen warm, as well as baking almost non-stop to add warmth. Anyone want any cookies…I have plenty to spare? In short, our repair bill is going to be expensive; our electric bill will likely be 3-4x the usual; and my husband and I have probably gained five pounds each. Just another day…!
Morning Do. Brrrr and ouch!!
Do your cookies go well in the mail?
Now there’s a thought…
Yikes! “Day 15 without a working furnace”. That could be deadly in some parts of the United States. I hope they have the part and get you up and running again.
Oh, my Goddess, Do, what you’ve been through!
Hope they repaired the furnace today.
Good morning, Meeses. Currently 46 here with an expected high of 57; I checked the calendar, and yup, it really is late November in Michigan. I’m not complaining though, as this is Day 15 without a working furnace. To say I’ve been frustrated (and left cold!) by the ineptitude of furnace repairmen is an understatement. The first three were sent by a service we subscribe to through our gas company; each time, they made minor fixes, and the furnace was up and running when they left…only to stop again, sometimes within hours after they left. We finally decided last week to bite the bullet and call company of our choosing. They discovered an entirely different problem which requires more than the minor tweaks we’d been getting. Of course, they didn’t have the part in stock, and of course, the company they could get it from was shut down for Wednesday-Friday of Thanksgiving week. They’re allegedly coming today with the part and to complete the work…fingers crossed! The dogs and cats have each been provided with multiple down comforters, fleece throws, and flannel quilts for their comfort, while I’ve been running a small electric heater to keep the kitchen warm, as well as baking almost non-stop to add warmth. Anyone want any cookies…I have plenty to spare? In short, our repair bill is going to be expensive; our electric bill will likely be 3-4x the usual; and my husband and I have probably gained five pounds each. Just another day…!