One of my closest friend couples is two women who moved here, one from VT, the other from MA to go to college in the 1970's and stayed, met, fell in love and got married. One of them has a sister who moved to OR with her husband and I also became friends with them. They had a son and we all visited together a lot, either them coming to Oly or us all going to OR. As he started to talk, he was taught we were all his aunties, so he had 3. To differentiate myself, totally as a joke, I started teaching him to call me "Favorite Auntie Susie" - which stuck! So all of my cards and gifts from them have always been addressed to FAS and it's how I would sign things given to him.

My women friends have hosted a large gathering on Christmas Eve for at least 20 years. As this boy grew older and our lives went in slightly different directions, I would only see him at this gathering, tho his mom would come to town regularly and we always got together, so I was kept in the loop about his life. The last 2 or 3 years, because of the pandemic and some health issues, the gathering hasn't happened, but they hosted again this year.

When I arrived, this young man, now in his early 20's, came to greet me with a full bear hug and a, "Oh, Favorite Auntie Susie!" That was a really good thing that happened!

Olychick, your very cute story reminded me of when I moved into this house 27 years ago, a neighbor with small children asked me what I wanted the children to call me. When I lived in Baltimore, the neighbor children called me Miss Beth, sort of a southern type sign of respect. I liked it. So I told my new neighbors to call me that. Over all these years and many children, they and their parents all call me Miss Beth. I never get tired of hearing that.

Now for my really good thing that happened. It started out badly. Lacey came down with a terrible case of diarrhea on Christmas Eve. We suffered through the night but about 6:00 am, she finally calmed down and came to sit in my lap. She fell asleep and slept for a couple of hours. So I spent the whole night and a bit of the morning sitting in a chair. Not great but it was necessary. So Christmas Day I decided not to feed her since her system was so upset but she was very hungry. When I took her out to potty, all she did was eat a lot of grass. It wasn't even to throw up, just to eat something! I would have fixed her some chicken and rice but Kroger wasn't open. By 10 that night I was getting really worried about her. She was acting strangely. So I ended up taking her to the emergency vet. Lucky for me I was their only customer so we got seen right away. They checked her out and couldn't really find anything but that she was slightly dehydrated. So we decided on a hydration treatment and an anti-nausea shot. This gave me the opportunity to talk to the vet and explain my journey of trying to find a good wet food for Lacey. I thought I had found one from the Natural Food Pet store but I was concerned when I went to get more, they had trouble getting their shipment in. I lost confidence in the dog food company itself since that could be the possible source of her issue. So the ER vet told me about Hill's Biome canned food and sent me home with two cans to try and told me how much to give her. It was midnight when we got home so we went to bed and in the morning I gave her the Biome serving and she ate it right up. She likes it. It fixed her right up and all is right with our world again. And it's something I can get at PetSmart. So my very bad situation turned into the best possible solution and I am very grateful to the staff at the ER for their kindness and help.

murraysmom, I’m wishing Lacey all the best.

Your story and Olychick’s reminds of a neighbour I had many years ago. She was an older lady and lived in the house next to us. We introduced ourselves as ‘Bill‘ and Roxanne and told her that our beagle’s name was Max.

Whenever she saw me outside with Max she’d call over the fence, ”How are you today Maxine, and how’s little Roxie”? 😄

I corrected her a few times, but she always said the same thing. I finally gave up and just went with the flow. 🤷‍♀️She was a very nice lady, and really good neighbour.

She sent us a Christmas card every year, even after we had moved away. It was always addressed to Bill and Maxine.

Roxsolid, you just had me laughing so hard I started coughing!!

Thanks for good wishes for Lacey. She is quite the girl.

Your story reminded me of when I had my dog, Murray. When I would walk him through the neighborhood, this one guy would always call him Walter. There was no changing him either.

murraysmom, was Murray named after the dog on Mad About You?

What I expected was a small thing but was not, occurred on Christmas day as we opened gifts along with our two 22 year old granddaughters. They received several lovely gifts, including some from us. The presents they appreciated the most by far were the 3-ring binders in which I included all the recipes that are my favorites and that they love. I was very pleasantly surprised that I got several hugs and thanks for what I thought might be considered a rather dull gift."

roxsolid, yes! He looked a lot like that dog. He was a stray I got from a Baltimore shelter. He was such a great dog. So sweet. He was a beagle collie mix. (~1994-2009)

@stacey_mb What a gift of love you gave your granddaughters! I have no doubt they will treasure your gift and remember you with love every time they look at their binders you made just for them.

Murray, is very handsome. (Doesn’t look anything like a Walter)

I just came in from a walk in the snow with my husband and dog. We usually have a cup of tea at this time of day. I looked in my pantry and realised I had to start a new box of teabags and saw it was a new style of packaging, claiming ”Easy opening”. Hah! I didn’t believe it. I’m getting cynical in my old age.

Good news…the box opened as advertised. Easily. And the teabags were so nicely stacked, to boot.

🤠 A nice slow day so far. And the cup of tea is lovely.

Rox - I'll be having some lovely beers soon after I complete my chicken chores.

Today is a nice sunny day in the low 40s(F). We'll be having a heat wave in the upper 50s this next week. I plan to cut down some dead Ash trees and split it for the wood pile.

Lonejack, my husband says that chicks and some beers sounds like a perfect day!

Lonejack, we’ve had record snowfall and record low temperatures for this time of year. My husband is running out of place to push the snow on my walking trail. It’s slow going on my outings.

Another good thing today. We arranged our transfers and paid our Visitax for Cancun at the end of this month. 😎🍹

Ten years ago I purchased a Ralph Lauren velour 3/4 zip hoodie. It's dark navy blue.(.99cents) Today I found the matching pants. ($4) 🥳🎉

He's still calling me! And I still feel giddy, like a school girl.

I have a brown version of your outfit Nicole!

My son brought me a large bowl of home made vegtable beef soup. And the Packers are paying but not too good so far.

Mattie, the Bears are playing today. We might be seeing you all next weekend!

the Packers lost, boring game.

So did the Bears, not-so-boring fourth quarter (seems to be the Bears MO lately). So, we have to see the results of other games today to know if we meet next week.

Edit: we will meet next week! What a game it will be!

I watched the last seconds of the Baltimore Ravens Pittsburgh Steeler game. That was worth watching. One minute you were sure it was going to be Pittsburgh the next you're like it's going to be Baltimore... The totally accurate placekicker missed the goal????? And the Steelers were into the playoffs. I didn't watch anything else, and that was probably all I needed to see.

As I’ve probably mentioned, I had TKR in April. A very rough recovery has kept me from scheduling a much needed second. I had been doubtful that I’d ever see this day again but I went for it and here I am!

foas - wow! Life is indeed good! Congrats to you for your determination that I’m sure helped you in your recovery.

It is raining here today which is very much needed. The other good thing is that it is not snowing.

I have to agree about the weather. It was positively balmy here today - in January!! Lots of people out walking. I only had a sweater on and even that wasn't needed. We are in the 60's right now even with sunset being just a half hour away.

It’s been a perfectly wonderful day today. I’m just sitting on the beach watching life. I’m waiting for my clan to return from a bit of beachcombing. A bit of a breezy day but all is good.

eta They just returned!

Their treasures.🤠

roxsolid, I am positively jealous!! I am knee deep in snow and single digits, but my good thing about that is that my friend stopped in this afternoon, bringing me a bag of potatoes. She was sharing her bounty. Also she really loves Lacey and loves to visit with her. So we sat and had a nice long chat. I gave her a little blanket and put Lacey on it for her to hold. They both enjoyed that immensely. That little dog has so much personality. She's very entertaining and very sweet. My friend has a stressful job and being in Lacey's calm presence is really a treat for her. So a nice visit with a friend on a very cold day was a wonderful thing to happen today.

I actually had an outdoor walk for three miles today since it's been many days of doing mall laps. Daughter and I walked the streets of her town.

I went to the office this morning. Drafted a tricky letter that has been weighing on my mind.

Wrote a check and brought it to my architect, another weight lifted.

Went to my friend’s house, the house that she is moving from, loaded up a pickup truck’s worth of her trash and dumped it. Went back to her house, my wife got another friend to agree to take a huge 10‘ x 4’ artwork done by Moving Friend’s late husband, my buddy and I lifted that 250 lb thing off the wall, carried it to my pickup, drove it to Agreeable Friend’s house, and carried it into her house where it will sit until she can hire a crew to lift and hang it above her mantle. SWMBO wants us to hang it for Agreeable Friend, but there is no way - it’ll take more and younger guys to do that.

The theme of the day was, getting weights off is good even if the doing isn’t that fun.

I’m so glad you asked! My dear friend John Leopold won a Grammy for his Clifton Chenier tribute album, “The King of Zydeco” featuring, among others : Steve Earl, Lucinda Williams, Taj Mahal, Mick Jagger and Keith Richard. Wooo!!!

murraysmom, I envy you! Aren’t dogs wonderful! I’m missing my little dog Frank right now. ☹️

lily, I love winter walking. I’m glad you got out today.

John Liu, a 10 by 4 piece of art. Wow!

Chinacatpeekin, congratulations to your friend. It’s always a good day when a friend has a good day.

The job at the grocery store is always a source of amusement.

They buy her a little heart filled with candies for Valentine's, but let her open it now. She reached in and grabbed, with both fists, all five pieces! "Just one honey!", as mom tries her very best to explain that you're only supposed to take one at a time, even though she's about 16 months old.

I'm the fastest scanning cashier there is. There's a record, a log, that we keep for the entire store. I'm basing it on that. Customers tell me all the time how fast I am. I hear out of the corner of my range "can you move it?!" It's the seven-year-oldish child pushing the cart, and I think he's talking to his mom, but he's talking to me. I would never have guessed he was talking to me. When all is said and done she tells him to apologize, which he did. And I'm torn between laughing my rear end off, and me giving an appropriate answer. One I would want as a mother, so I chose to say "It's okay, just try not to let it bother you next time?" (I was also trying to incorporate her "he's very impatient" comments) She says "yes next time, try to be patient!" And I followed up with "I know you can do it!" and smile at him the best I can. I really wanted to laugh and laugh at that child making such adult comments.

rob, I love hearing how fast you are as cashier! Everytime I go to the grocery store (I'm going to toot my own horn) I always think how good I'd be at checking people out. I've always been extra quick at picking things up quickly when it comes to most anything with coordination and physically.

Oh, it was just for the purpose of the story. I don't think anybody could have moved it enough for him 😉

But it is a fun job. Helps that we all get along, and find each other teammates rather than finding it to be drudgery.

Check back after you've accumulated the equivalent of a few years of full time work to report if you still find it to not be drudgery. Be sure to spend a good percentage of your time restocking shelves.

Anything new is new but repetitive tasks become boring before too long. That was my experience after a good number of years (through HS and college) in the grocery business.

Good pay (for a kid) but boooorrring. What I did was repetitive and mindless.

I've worked for this company for years and years and years. And I would say 27 hours a week is pretty close to full time. So there's your report, and I think that you were bored, because you're boring.

New pendant lights! They have edison bulbs. ❤️I have them in matching swing arm sconces in a bedroom.

Okay, I just posted this but I don’t think it showed up. I edited it a bit and copied.

Right now I’m sitting on my little patio, again just enjoying my day. Had a wonderful lunch on the beach. The folks on the patio next to us are loud but extremely entertaining. 😎 They’re good ol’ boys from Nebraska and they’ve made friends with more good ol’ boys from Texas. They’re having an extremely good time. Good for them.

There are three couples who are farmers and one Texas couple who are ranchers. I love their accents. The Nebraska farmers have three adjectives in their vocabulary… f***, gdam, and f**gdam.

They’ve announced several times what they’re paying per night, grumbling that you have to wear long pants in the restaurants at night except for the Steak House where they ordered Flaming Yawn 🤭(filet mignon) They are very friendly people. I mentioned we are from Alberta and they had no idea where that was. I said we were about 600 miles north of Montana and got a big hooooyee. Lawrdy.

My husband talked John Deere tractors for a bit with them. 🤠

Nice afternoon. Friendly people.

eta. Nice lights Nicole!

@roxsolid..Good times! We used to travel/scuba dive with a group from Canada, for three years. The guys ALL worked together on an oil field in Ecuador. Good ole boyz...REAL people! Loved how they'd talk about their lives @ home with rescued horses, rescued dogs...GREAT bunch! Jealous you found a group like THAT! ❤️

Flaming Yawn, eh? No idea where Alberta is? I'm not sure I'd have much to talk with them about.

Elmer, that’s too bad.

My husband is a master of conversation. He loves to hear about other people, and always shows interest. He’s an excellent listener. He’s been like that his whole life. A good leader. It’s made him very successful in life.🩷 People really like him. Especially me. 🤠

They were fun folks. No harm.

" Elmer, that’s too bad. "

Not hardly. I'm outgoing and personable, meet and develop conversations and long term relationships with people with confidence and ease. But I'm not much into mindless, pointless chitchat with random strangers as some like to do when in proximity to ANYONE. In a store or its checkout line, on an airplane, etc.

I'm open for a brief moment to see if its anything I find interesting to talk about or not. My standards are not so low as to think any conversation is better than no conversation. If I'm with others, then its rude to speak to someone sitting nearby and ignore the company you're with. If I'm not with others, I'm not alone because I'm with myself. Alone time allows me to think about how to solve the world's problems, how to make my second Billion dollars, and many other things. I'm never without thoughts to pursue.

People with limited worldliness as you describe and who want to talk about tractors are not the type of people I want to have a conversation with. They'd be happier finding someone else to talk to.

I don't doubt that a majority of people who participate here would feel the same disinterest in having a long conversation with people with the interests you describe, leading apparently insular and unworldly lives. But I suspect few are likely to speak up to agree with me.

roxsolid, I would love your husband!!! I'm getting better at talking to just about anyone about anything but having someone who can get the ball rolling is priceless. I like down to earth people. They usually are a lot more fun and don't take life so seriously. I have never been one to only talk to someone who will benefit me. Life is too short to be that wrapped up in one's self.

rob, your job must be good to keep you there for so many years! I have always had just a job, never a career. I found that even if there were aspects I didn't like, as long as I was getting paid fairly, I usually enjoyed what I was doing and I always made friends and kept a lot of them through the years. I would rather be happy in my life and I pretty much always have been. To me, friends are what life should be about.

Oh and the good thing that happened to me today just happened. We are expecting another round of snow - 3"-5" tomorrow and my neighbor just told me they bought a snowblower today so now the neighbors on both sides of me have them and will be taking care of my driveway!!! I am so fortunate!!

"I'm outgoing and personable, meet and develop conversations and long term relationships with people with confidence and ease."

Well, that's evident from your popularity here.

If you take another look and broaden my words there, you'll find an accurate description of many comments to be found here. Your own included. You might be able to have a conversation about tractors.

Murraysmom, I think you’d like my husband as well! He’s a great guy. He’s very modest and has a very pleasant confidence in his abilities. I really don’t think that he knows exactly how good he is at making those around him feel comfortable. He likes people, and they seem to like him.

I always say “When you're good at something, you'll tell everyone. But when you're great at something, everyone will tell you.”

Yes, you are fortunate to have such good neighbours! I’m sorry that you’re getting another batch of snow, especially if you’re not a snow loving person. LOL, my son-in-law, who is with us right now, is hoping for more snow when we get home as he is an avid snowboarder.

Anyhow, it’s after midnight here, and I’m off to bed.

roxsolid, I always say “When you're good at something, you'll tell everyone. But when you're great at something, everyone will tell you.”

I LOVE that!! I don't think I have ever heard anything more meaningful, at least not lately.

Our snow has begun. I do enjoy it but not when it overstays it's welcome. I don't spend much time out in it any more but years ago I quite liked taking a winter stroll down my street in the evening during a big snow. We used to have a canopy of trees and it was quiet and beautiful. Now it seems to be more work than fun. But I do see the beauty in it for sure. And having such kind neighbors does take the stress out of it for sure!

I have am acquaintance that I have known since 5th grade. He was the first black student in our class. I hadn't seen him in years after we graduated from high school, we had both moved to other cities and our paths just didn't cross. Then I got on Facebook and got a friend request from him. He told me that he still thinks about me and how when he was new in school and the only dark face in the crowd, I was the first person to make him feel welcome. He told me how I talked to him at recess and invited him to play with my group of friends and that I helped him with his math homework. I honestly didn't remember this. I guess I had drunk the Kool-Aid that my father served. He was a physician at the local hospital and he knew every orderly and janitor and cook or kitchen worker in the hospital. He always told us that every person who worked in the hospital had an important job and as long as they did their job to the best of their ability they were a worthy person and contributed to the running of the hospital. Black, brown or white, male or female, a doctor or a janitor was not what made them worthy or unworthy. Being productive and doing your best was what mattered.

Throughout my life I have tried to make people feel welcome and valued. I have gathered a network of friends and acquaintances from every socio-economic class and every level of education. I have friends who are Amish and friends who are Wiccan and pretty much everything in between. Same goes for race and ethnicity.

This diverse group of people have truly enriched my life. I have learned to look at the world not only from my perspective, but from the perspective of others. I learned to appreciate how blessed my life was and to admire the strength of others who had so many more challenges to overcome. My relationships have challenged my ideals and ways of thinking.

I can't imagine how different my life would have been if I wasn't open to meeting and getting to know people who were different than me.

Tonight I had a belated birthday dinner with my mom and sister. Mom had asked what I wanted her to bake, and I said the Austrian chocolate cake. She didn’t remember it at first, but then found the recipe. I made her promise not to get upset if she messes it up, assuring her that no matter what it looks like, the mix of ingredients can’t taste bad.

She baked it Tuesday, decorated it yesterday. It was a lot for her, but I think she was proud. Not flawless, but really good for her 96 years.

And that was a good thing that happened to me today.

foas - what a lovely birthday present from your mom to you. A birthday memory you’ll likely always treasure.

foas, what a sweet and amazing gift from your mom! Glad it worked out for her to be able to do that for you.