Welcome newcomers! Please introduce yourself
Come on in!
Coffee & Tea under the window, platters of treats on every table
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Newspapers are in their regular spot next to the door
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Please recommend (and unrecommend the Cafe/Lounge from yesterday)
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May the 4’s be with you
Mornin, cafe is open for business, how’s everyone today…
Hi, Diane,
My “office” lately is a library where I can plug in my laptop. I’m bereft when they close at night or for holidays!
May I have a a cafe con leche, please? And one of those cheese Danishes would be nice, too.
Hello, you can have whatever you want mam….I will have a serving person bring it to you….lol..
Cheese danish, they look lovely don’t they…I had them inported from my favorite childhood bakery in Oakmont, Pa. best in the world at the time in my opinion and never had one better since.
I had never even heard of cheese Danish until my first visit to NYC when I was 20. I had my first bite and. . .a moment of epiphany, revelation, bliss. Never have found a truly great one in the midwest. Or maybe it’s just that my memory has turned that New York City sample into the gustatory equivalent of a first kiss, never to be duplicated. Hell, I don’t ever remember my first kiss. But my first cheese Danish. . .ahh, mon cher, the memories! We will always have New York.
Cheese Danish Monday..now you’ve done it..cruel and unusual punishment-I now want cheese danish and I want some right now-that’s the really bad thing of no longer being able to drive-I can’t rush out to the store and buy up a bunch and pig out-well maybe that’s a good thing actually.
And Morning to all the regulars here and anyone else who drops on in and if anyone happens to be actually eating a cheese danish this morning, wipe those crumbs off your face before you get here. No need to rub it in for us little people who are cheese danish deprived.
I do occasionally crave sweets other than chocolate but don’t tell the Chocolate Fairy ok…she does get in a bit of snit when she thinks I’m straying. And tends to make sure the chocolate I buy for awhile has that cloudy color which while it still tastes good isn’t as esthetically pleasing.
Good morning Diane and FBC patrons….
Life is a little frantic today…3 big deadlines by tomorrow and one presentation today…aaaccckkk!
Ready for winter…and suprisingly getting ready for spring gardening. Starting to get seed catalogs, considering heritage seeds this time, and thinking about asking for a food dehydrator for Christmas! Yule holiday for me will start later this week…I make it 6 weeks long!
So here’s a winter picture to get in the mood! did I steal this from you…I can’t remember!
Yeah pic came from me, but then I got it from Josephine Wall, the artist, well actually from her website.
Hey Sally, don’t work tooooo hard today, sounds like you will have a big day today.
Today here in socal we had an erie fog hanging just off the ground, that’s winter here.
You’d think working from home, I could manage just once to get the first (non-host) comment in. I need to step up that eternal vigilance stuff.
Can’t beat Gooserock for vistas of the ocean or mountains or spectacular fogs shots but I’m pretty sure I’ve got a big advantage in the “moody morning sky shot through bare branches” category.
It so very well captures the gray of winter!
I’ve been looking for a background for my blog for the January ‘gray’ time as I call it…may I use your picture?
I’d be delighted to have you to use it. Do you need a higher resoltuion version?
I just tested the background as tiled and it is really good. I’ll adjust the size in photoshop at home.
I’ll probably put up the picture as background New Year’s week…
Thanks!
Hi Andi, I have an idea, how to get first comment in, you can guest host the cafe on Wed. how about it…Although that doesn’t guarantee first comment, sometimes I don’t have first one even when hosting.
Another great pic from you Andi…
Funny you should say that. Just yesterday I was thinking that AndiF would be a (an?) hilarious host for the Cafe. Not to put the pressure on, or anything, AF. But on some days you’re a virtual co-host anyway, always being kind and funny to everybody. (Is flattery getting me anywhere?)
We have other regulars, too, who would be terrific, though I won’t name names. You know who you are. The truth is, although Diane may demur, I think she could use a break from having to host two days a week plus run her own site. Even if somebody (bodies) could sub just now and then, it would be nice. I’m no good at this guilt trip business, I keep wanting to add, But Don’t Feel You Have To!!
oooh, can I nominate 4 people, one for each week of the month?
Hey, that’s a cool idea! And it would take the pressure off each one of them to do it every week.
AndiF would be a (an?) hilarious host
Not it’s ‘a’ because the ‘h’ has an initial consonant sound (as opposed to, for example, an hour because hour has an initial vowel sound).
Your flattery is having the opposite effect because the idea of having to be both kind and funny to everybody on a regular basis sounds like a good description of one of the middle rings of hell.
I take it back, I take it back!!!!
turned down your request to change history.
now I want to go back and fix my busted subject line. I’m sure I have some learning disability that makes me not see that I’ve typed in words that don’t belong or left out words that ought to be there — in fact, now that I think about I believe a formal name for the syndrome is impatience.
Yes, that’s the clinical term.
Diane has a funny Freudian typo in her headline this morning. “Bank to Work.” So true.
That is funny, and I am going to leave it as it does seem to fit, was slip showing….
Wow, I never knew that about the initial consonant sound vs. the initial vowel sound. The things I learn here! Thank you!
If you are asking me to substitute on occasion, I’d probably be willing to do that but I can’t do hosting on a regular basis for a several reasons, one being that I travel 10 – 20% of the time. The other main one is the amount of time I can spend in the cafe is directly related to the work I’m doing — some of it has lots of built-in gaps and some of it is intensely demanding.
I don’t know if you know it, or not, but most of us hosts go away from the job for big chunks of time on any given day. Gasp! It’s true. Cafes are generally much more lively when a host sticks around, but I’ve found that if I participate a lot in the morning that I host, then it becomes pretty much a perpetual motion machine until I check back in a few hours later to set it back into gear, if it needs it, which often it doesn’t, or to open a fresh one if the old one got wall-to-wall. I’d always rather stick around to trade quips with you and SN and IndyLib and katiebird and everybody, but most of the time the way I have to do it is to host, then go away from it a while to work, then host, then work, etc.
Also, any time you agreed to do it but then couldn’t do it, the rest of us are always here to take over. Plus, there is nothing wrong with just putting up the diary and then disappearing. There are times when we all have to do that.
More than you wanted to know.
You are so right, the cafe doesn’t require a constant hostess, sometimes I just get in the way if I over host. Cafe’s generally run themselves, biggest problem is giving all the 4’s.
Some days I am all talkative and other days not so much…and some days I have actual work to do in rw and can’t participate all that much.
At any rate Andi, the hostess is only required to post the diary and post a new one later if the cafe fills up to much, so would you like to be guest host for just this one Wed.
I would like to gather some others that would be willing to do a one day hosting, Wed. could be the guest host day. So if anyone is interested let me know.
This wednesday is not good but I could do next wednesday, nov 23rd.
Guest Host Wednesday! Cool.
Sign up right here. (Easy, easy, don’t jostle, there’s plenty of room for everybody.)
I’d be willing to step up for an occasionaly guest host. Wednesday is probably a good day for me – most of my deadlines fall on Tuesday for some reason.
Just let us know which date and I’ll add it to my deadline list – wow – a deadline I’ll look forward too!
This is great. Anybody else?
I’d offer but my ability is compromised by my illness and since I just committed to doing feminism diaries, i really can’t do both.
Ha, you felt the pressure! (Diabolical laughter.)
Do not apologize. (Oh, all right, go ahead, we enjoyed it.) We need you on those feminism diaries. And besides, if you hosted you might be tempted to tamp down the snark and that would be TERRIBLE. (Are you listening, AndiF?)
Okay, I’ve done my damage for the morning. Off to the library I go.
and I’m suffering mightily already from the thought of having be both nice and snarky. I can see now why it is so easy for you to be cruel to the characters in your books — you need to feed your inner torquemada.
My characters complain about how MEAN I am to them all the time.
I tell them to check their contracts — they shoulda known the job title of “protagonist” was dangerous when they took it.
(I am looking forward to the current project being finished so I have time to read some of kansas’ books!)
Did I miss a cafe where you outed yourself as an author?
Either way, tell me all!
I write for role-playing games (the kind with dice, not on computers); I have author credits on a number of game books, which sometimes include some short fiction pieces, and I also had a novel published in 2003.
It’s basically a medieval vampire romance. It’s also book #9 of a 13 novel series based on a well-established game line, so it was rather like writing an episode for a long-running TV show, coming in the middle of the fourth or fifth season. I had to coordinate with the authors writing the books before and after mine in the series, because there were some plot lines that extended through several books. But it was a lot of fun to do, especially since some of the other authors on the project were good friends of mine, and we write stuff together all the time.
I’m currently working on a novella, one-third of an upcoming modern-era supernatural/horror anthology, also game-based. Should be out in 2006 (hopefully first quarter, if I can get my part of it done in time). (And my protagonist is a very unhappy little vampire right now, but it’s really all his own fault).
So you can kinda see where the ghost stories come from…
Yeah that does explain the great story for the “haunted cabin” and you career sounds really interesting, though I have to admit that role-playing games are not something I ever wanted to do — about the only games I play are card games; I like my games to be over in 20 minutes or less.
Have you ever read Nancy Collins’ Sonja Blue books? I’m not a major vampire fan (unless it’s a Hammer film starring Christopher Lee) but I love those books.
to a guest host spot come December — if all goes well, the spouse will be back to his regular schedule and I’ll have my mornings back! 🙂
More erranding today — trying to do them now while the weather’s still good — then come home and try to figure out menus for the week, and clear old crud out of the refrigerator. Cleared out a bunch of unneeded canned goods from the pantry on Saturday courtesy of the Sharks canned food drive.
Only day I have set is Friday; since I have my test to determine the cause of my “female issues”, I figure that’ll be a good day to have chili in the crockpot. Tonight the spouse is going to stop and get salads at Baja Fresh, but the rest of the week is relatively open. I’m thinking maybe getting out early to get some good fillets at the Fish Market (it’s a restaurant and seafood restaurant) one of the days; I’m not crazy about fish, but I know we need to eat more of it. Spouse will actually be on vacation for two weeks starting Friday, so we can eat dinner at a reasonable time! 🙂
Have a great day, folks…will check back later…
I’d always rather stick around to trade quips with you and SN and IndyLib and katiebird and everybody, but most of the time the way I have to do it is to host, then go away from it a while to work, then host, then work, etc.
Yeah, from a couple of comments she’s made in the past, I suspect that when Kansas says “work” what she really means is something else involving a lot of empty White Castle wrappers and a 6 foot bong in the corner of her “study”. Kansas, you know I only tease you because I like you, right? 😉
White Castle, ew! They’re from a local joint named “Winstead’s,” I’ll have you know. As for that 6-foot Bong, how did you know that’s what I call him?
I miss those brooding midwest skies and the fronts that come sweeping by every other day in the spring and fall.
Here in NC we are blessed (?) with Bermuda highs that keep the weather fairly constant and mild. There is really no wind to speak of and I miss that more than I can say. I’ve always been one of those crazy people that, instead of taking shelter from storms, I rush out to greet them.
When my kids were little and we were living on Lake Erie, my kids must have thought the definition of a tornado watch is when you go out onto the porch and watch for tornados.
So funny about your kids and “tornado watch.” Me, too.
Seeing those bare branches makes me think about how much I hate the noise of leaf blowers in the morning. I think the inventor ought to be forced to listen to a hundred of them all lined up like a marching band outside his bedroom window every Saturday and Sunday.
Or maybe it’s envy. While I rake and rake and rake, my neighbors blow their little hearts out.
My next door neighbors have a band of illegal aliens that come by once a week and clear their yard of leaves. Like clowns coming out of a Volkswagen, about 17 of them emerge from a small panel truck with gas-powered leaf blowers strapped to their backs, and, in a flurry of activity and noise they remove every single leaf from the yard inside of 2 minutes. Seriously, if you blink you miss them.
It takes me and my boys an entire afternoon to do that with our little rakes and tarps.
That is funny! Maybe it’s better to get it all over with–at top decible–in two minutes than to labor for hours in silence.
Nah, I’ll take the silence. And if it weren’t for the exercise of raking, I wouldn’t get any exercise at all.
Must place this comment somewhere in the middle of this, our family business is tree service, I have to live with the sounds of chain saws, in the morning, but then they leave and go to a lot of neighborhoods, make a lot of noise, annoy everyone and come back here at the end of the day to annoy me with their sounds again.
But I do have a little sympathy for them, they, have to listen to chain saws, blowers, grinders, all day long, ex’s hearing is bad now because of all the years…yes they do use ear protection, but haven’t always in the past.
Move to the country. Everyboy leaves their leaves right where they fall. Of course, the sound of leaf blowers does get replaced by gunshots, howling dogs, and chainsaws.
Ah, the sound of chainsaws in the morning.
Chain saws in the morning in the country…or the sound of gas wood splitters.
We only use hand splitting for kindling…one of my favorite stress relievers! Amazing who you can visualize under that small splitting maul!
I’m pretty good at bigger stuff so long as it is straight-grained (I left Jim do the nasty ones). I think the sound that the wood makes when you get the maul to hit just right is one of the most satisfying sounds I know.
BTW, I like using a carpenter’s axe for kindling.
speaking of blow…I’m outmatched in Parker’s sex diary. Yikes.
Good morning all. I’ve been up since 5:30, pacing up and down on the sidewalk waiting for somebody to finally show up. I can usually count on the Europeans being out and about early, but not today.
We had a beautiful weekend with friends living on the bay, feasting like royalty, watching pelicans congregate on the water, travelling from the sunrise side of an island to catch the sunset on the other side. It was a magical experience sans electronics, but still I missed the Bootrib.
Thank God for the good coffee around here!
Earl Gray with honey today. My throat’s gone hashy and my sinuses tell me that it’s going to be a long day involving lots of tissue. Since I’m not allergic to anything, I find these to be ominous portents. Hope all is well with everyone here. Gotta go unload a face cord of wood now, since my source is pulling up. Had I but known I was going to have a cold, I’d have scheduled it for another day.
Ok, I am moving the signups for guest hosting down here, and so far I have this; correct me if dates aren’t good.
SallyCat, this coming wed.???
Andif-11-23 (is this ok for you, that would be day before Thanksgiving)
because it’s always a very quiet day.
I can step out for a while in the morning…a couple of no brainer meetings this Wednesday will slow things down.
Early posting is okay??? Like 5-6am Pacific?? That way I can get it going before work starts…
Yes sally and earlier the better, cause the east coasters hate to wait till us west coasters get up, well I guess just mannee and I are west coasters.
For guest hosters, just use your own pics and write what ever you like, it will be easier that way….
Anyway I will be helping, just nice to not have to post, I am too boring with cafe’s now, and new blood usually makes them a little more interesting.
Kansas, are you ok with hosting on Thanksgiving day, let me know if you want the day off….
Christmas is on a Sunday this year, so brother will have that day…
Jeeze, gotta get up early with this bunch, 46 comments at 9:30…??? Morning person I am not.
Here’s another Foggy headed foto – Dusseldorf, Germany:
AP
Later…
Peace
Very nifty photo. But having spent a couple weeks in Bad Soden, you couldn’t get me to ride a bike in the street in the fog (though I can see that this looks pretty rural).
It’s a pretty autumn morning in Puget Sound, promising mixed sun, mizzle, breezes and who knows what else.
–Oh, I forgot: I do, at least what not else. No snow, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes or sirrocos.
There’s no end to the variety in what mist is allowed to do in oceanic & hilly environments. The streak across the hill above is not wood smoke, it is (or was momentarily) a layer of mist probably 30 feet deep and several hundred yards long.
I’m a bad boy, having kept Puget4 up too late talking about Big Emotion Stuff when I should have been a good little man and busied myself with tools or politics. If you reply, type quietly so we don’t wake her up.
Hi gooserock, I am typing quietly….shssss….
not good keeping Puget up later, now we have to wait for her to wake up and come on site..
We had our tiny morning fog here and now it’s gone.
Morning everybody. This is my last week of leave, I can’t believe that 12 weeks have already whooshed by since we’ve come home.
My husband starts his leave this week, so it’s like a mini vacation, without traveling.
on all sorts of levels.
Going back to the classroom after an extended time off is my husband’s idea of his worst nightmare — he thinks that they have to close down the entire school system if he is off for even a day. His head is full of visions of the kids heaping massive disaster on top of the sub’s utter destruction of his lesson plans.
I hope you have a nice last week of leave. I cried every morning when I left my fella to go do my clinical rotations when he was little, and couldn’t wait to get home at the end of the day.
Speaking of the guys, Cabin the Younger made Peach Butter Bars yesterday, and they were great! Of course, they’re already gone…
Good afternoon and almost 13 bells here in TN. Had a meeting here today to attend and then Wed/Fri I will be gone till late. Thought I would spend the day here with you fine ppl.
It is overcast and misting some. About 67 degrees. The fdamp is what is getting me and my old friend arthritis today. oooooooooooohhhh need some dw40 I suppose..;o)
I am going to do what is best for me today. nothing…;o)
I so love the pictures presented here. Am replacing my front door and all the storm doors on the house this week. Now that I have the time to do it, it will get done.
Am going for the first time ever Christmas shopping with number 1 daughter onthe day after Thanksgiving. I know this is a mistake, but I have never done this in my entire life and she has wanted this for ever so long too. So guess, I will give in and do this this year and then I will not have to do it any more….
I sure hope all is going well with each of you today. My love and hugs to all.
about never having to do it again — if she gets bit by the bug, you’re stuck.
My mom and I used to get up and hit the stores when they opened at 6 or 7 am; we’d stop and have breakfast at Denny’s (open 24 hours), then go shopping. We’d pretty much be able to finish the shopping (other than my gifts for her or hers for me) and be home by noon. Then came the wrapping… 🙁
This year Christmas will be easier; we’re not doing a gift exchange on my side of the family, though I’ll probably at least send checks to the nieces and nephews, or possibly take the gift card route. And for the spouse’s folks, we’re going to get small gifts for unwrapping but the main gifts will be in the form of charitable contributions in their names…at their age, they don’t need any more crap to dust, polish, or figure out where the heck to put it…
I usually am done shopping by this time of the year. This year, I have not bought one thing so far. I will not spend that much as I always have, Money is tight for everyone. I give money to everyone so they can buy what they really want and not have to return anything. I will buy one gift for them to unwrap, otherwise that is it for me this year. I will do the Christmas dinner and we will all sit and enjoy each other and then go to bed and get on with our lives. Memories are what we are looking for. Anyhow, I am not a scrooge, I just do not have the money this year to spend like there is no end to it. I know, never is a bed way of saying it, but soon I feel my body will not be able to handle the all day shopping sprees she goes on. It is already that way. I find the coffee place and send them on their way. I love watching ppl…;o)
Does anyone know do you actually get a hold of a human being to talk to at Google? I need to report some abuse on a google news group, their abuse report form doesn’t work, and I get an endless-spiral menu if I try to call the phone number that appears on whois.com (their main number. This is a request for insider information, if anyone happens to have it. If anyone has any suggestions, I would be grateful. 🙂
The Olympics at dusk.