Saturday Night at the Froggy Bottom Lounge
Maryb is your host tonight.
Newcomers and Lurkers are welcome!.
Just jump right in and introduce yourself.
Just jump right in and introduce yourself.
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The bar is fully stocked; help yourself!
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Please recommend (and unrecommend the Cafe/Lounge from earlier)
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Hey! That 4 looks good on you!
The above is an illustration by Maxfield Parrish contained Eugene Field’s “Poems of Childhood” ( I don’t know what poem). It’s owned by the Dartmouth College Libraries.
OK, the lanterns are hung. Where is everybody?
Though, I’ll be stepping out occasionally to bake some cookies. The shortbread just came out of the oven.
mmmmm! homemade shortbread. I wish it were possible to taste some. But I’ll just trust that it’s as good as I’m imagining.
It is. How are things Mary?
They are very good. I’m relaxing because I’m finished with all holiday preparations.
How about you? Are Andrew’s gifts wrapped?
Not yet. That will be tomorrow. After my girlfriend and I have spent the day making pierogies and dill pickle soup.
We’re always running late around here. My last day of school was Thursday and my husband worked right up until Friday. We’ll be mailing our Christmas cards out on Tuesday!!!!!!!
Will you have people over at your place or are you going someplace for the festivities?
Remember, there are TWELVE days of Christmas. So mailing your cards on Tuesday is perfectly acceptable As long as people get them by January 6 you are completely on time.
No, I’ll go to my mom’s for Christmas.
Tell me more about the Dill Pickle Soup. I’ve never heard of it.
I remember this from last year. It actually sounds almost good.
Is very Eastern European. My family is Ukrainian, but I think the soup is Polish. It’s good. Here’s the recipe, though I’ll be making some modifications.
8 c. chicken broth/stock (I’ll be using veggie broth)
2 cubes chicken bouillon cubes.
2 med carrots, cubed
2 cups potato, cubed (I’ll use 2 1/2 c.)
1 c. celery (I am omitting)
5 large dill pickles, grated (I’ll add one more)
1/2 c. milk (I’ll use 2%)
2 tbsp. flour
1 egg
5 tbsp sour cream (all I have is fat-free in the house and I’m not going back to the store)
In large pot, combine stock, bouillon cubes, carrots, potatoes, and celery. Cook about ten minutes or just until the potatoes are soft. DO NOT OVERCOOK
Add the dill pickles and continue cooking about 15 minutes.
In a small bowl, beat milk and flour until smooth. Add a small amount of the hot broth. Stir in and then add to the soup, stirring well.
Bring soup to a boil, stirring often until slightly thickened. Remove from the hear.
Beat egg and sour cream. Add to soup, stir until smooth. Keep the soup warm, but do not boil.
It’s quite yummy.
I’m going to try that. After the new year.
Thanks for the recipe!
I see myself adding more sour cream on top. And not that fat free shit either.
They have deep friend dill pickle chips at restaurants here. God help me, I like them.
They have deep fried pickles at a bar I go to. I love them too.
What’s the deal with the egg? Does it get like egg drop soup?
I’m not sure. This is a slightly different recipe than I tried last year (I didn’t like last year’s batch), but I’ll let you know.
This sounds like something Lucy would have craved when she was pregnant.
I think I’m around. We’re gonig high class I see.
I think you’re around too.
High class?
No one has ever called me high class before. Thank you:)
I only see high class here. 🙂
Oh your VERY high class. You raise the class level of the cafe by just stepping in — even when you only show up to grade papers. Of course — it’s not hard to raise the class level of the cafe most of the time.
Yep that’s why I come here. Just to hear people who have indoor plumbing talk.
Now, where I am I shipping those shortbread cookies?
haven’t seen that Parrish before, but he seems the perfect portrayer of paper lantern practices.
so we went from christmas to halloween
I was reading the Blue Christmas diary and it just sucked all the air out of Christmas. So I decided a party with Japanese lanterns was in order. Something totally different. To keep everyone’s spirits up. Because I don’t believe in wallowing.
With the mood I was in I skipped the blue christmas dairy comepletely. LOL
A very wise decision.
Only at BT would a Blue Christmas diary be at the top of the rec list with everyone wallowing in their Holiday misery. People here REALLY like to wallow.
You have the right idea. Distract yourself.
well as you noticed my holiday podcast was anything but depressing. Some old memories and some sadness associated but still all in all good memories and happy times. Even when things are at their worst, you can still look for the good and also remember happy times, people who love you, and the endless possibilities that are in the future!!!
Yes, I always appreciate that you try to look on the bright side of things. I figure that life is a struggle between hope and despair with most people in the middle but TENDING toward one or the other. I like to tend toward hope, as I think you do.
Other people LIKE to tend toward despair. Which I totally don’t understand. But, it’s their lives to do with as they please.
Some people get really depressed around the holidays when they feel like their families aren’t all happy and shiny like they’re supposed to be.
I understand that.
But some people REALLY like to find other people who are depressed and wallow in their mutual depression. And any excuse will do. The holidays just provide a great big excuse.
Not that I know too much about depression or anything, but when you talk to other people who are depressed it makes you feel more normal. You just don’t understand happy people. They’re just too stupid to know how depressed they should be.
I’ve been depressed in my life SN.
If you’re depressed and you hang out with other people who are depressed, the short term satisfaction of knowing you’re not alone is outweighed by the long term damage of beginning to think that being depressed is OK. Because, after all, everyone you like is depressed too.
Exactly. But the first thing to go is rational thought.
That’s why it doesn’t hurt for other people to say “STOP WALLOWING”. 🙂
Well…actually it does. You can’t stop wallowing. If you can stop wallowing when people tell you that you’re wallowing, it’s probably not depression.
Of course the person doesn’t snap out of it immediately. But at least it might break the illusion that wallowing is perfectly normal behaviour.
Or at least break up the group so they stop being such a downer to everyone around them.
I never talked to other depressed people when I was depressed. First, I didn’t know I was depressed, and second, I just didn’t talk to anyone. I totally isolated myself. So I’m just guessing about the dynamics of group depression. But I’m pretty sure they’d be a downer at a party.
(((SN)))
I’m glad you got the happy pills!
I just had this vision of a depression self help group trying to throw a holiday party. LOL I am truely eveil I know and will rot in hell for this but I am ROTFLMAO!!!!! Can you here the music now. Blue Christman, I’ll be home for Christmas,….
now YOU’RE being evil 😉
But wouldn’t it make the perfect skit for SNL. LOL
rational thought……I am suppose to thikn rationally… oops.
My Mom always wants a family like father knows best and trust me ours is anything but. LOL Everyone in the family loves each other and gets along for the most part but very few of us are close in anyway. My mom is my best friend as I have said but I could care less if I ever see any of the rest of the family ever again.
I read the Blue Christmas diary and came away feeling kind of guilty. This is the first Christmas in a number of years that I haven’t felt completely grinchy.
Although my husband and I will be away from the rest of the family, I have been concentrating on the things that delight me.
We just got back from Madrid, NM where old hippies go to live — or die — but not to grow up. All the galleries were open, and serving cookies and cider. The town is decorated from stem to stern in lights that are both old fashioned and a little whacked. We grabed a burger at the Mine Shaft Tavern, where they are always out of half the menu items and provide the world worst, albeit friendly, service. A trio was playing some cross between rock and country. It consisted of an electric mandolin player who looked pretty normal, a John Bolton look alike in a cowboy hat who was playing some kind of bass like thing made from a wash tub and some rope and a lead singer with a patch over his eye. Colorful.
Tomorrow is the farolito (lumineria) walk on Canyon Rd with bonfires and carol singing.
I know what it is like to be blue at Christmas, and I know there are plenty of reasons to be, but I’m going to seize the season this year and go with my sense of enjoyment.
A very merry, happy, joyful, peaceful, delight-filled Christmas to you all.
that sounds heavenly.
Good for you Kahli. Have a joyous Xmas.
Thanks.
Good for you Kahli. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel guilty for trying to be happy and enjoying the things in life that ARE good.
I wish you would have taken a picture of the trio.
Merry Christmas!
I wish I had taken a picture, too. I meant to take my camera to get pictures of the lights, but I forgot it. 🙁
about not feeling guilty for being happy and enjoying yourself — but forgetting to take pictures, that you should feel guilty about. This is the FBC — pictures are our oxygen.
I’m going to frame that phrase “Well Maryb’s right”
I never take pictures and I don’t feel guilty. No matter how hard you try. So no one else should either.
you’re bigger than me (wait, why doesn’t that work for Jim?)
Sounds wonderful!!!! Happy Holidays to you also!!!
Old hippies never die… they just smell that way.
Only at BT would fellow frogs recommend the diary of of someone who is experiencing any emotional hardship and reach to console that person. It’s not wallowing. Yearning for a child when you can’t concieve is not wallowing, and cannot be put aside to share in a lot of fakery that passes for Christmas and joyfullness. Consoling a sister who’s husband died a week ago is not wallowing. Lamenting the fucked up country we live in is not wallowing. A lot of bad shit has happened to a lot of good people here and if they can’t talk about it and reach out here without being criticised then where can they do it eh? I’m surprised at the tone of your post and am taking your advice to speak up when something bothers me. I guess it’s all wallowing unless your’re “poor Boo” who has mentioned for what, the fifth time that he got lyme disease? Wallowing. Feh.
I’m glad you spoke up super. Arminius’ diary isn’t wallowing. But everybody piling in there to talk about all of THEIR problems is wallowing in my opinion. They aren’t just offering him love and support. They are using the opportunity to wallow in their own misery.
If they HAD taken the time to simply console Arminius and offer encouragement, I wouldn’t have made the comment.
You can disagree with me, but I’m entitled to my opinion. IMO that is a diary full of wallowing. And I DO think that there is a large group of people at BT who LIKE to wallow.
I’m not sure what to make of your comment about Boo and the Lyme disease. Nobody took the opportunity in his diary to start talking about all their health complaints — they tried to make him feel better. Maybe if people had done that with Arminius it would have been better.
Of course you’re entitled to your opinion. And my opinion of your post is that it’s cold. I don’t see wallowing. I see relating. The same way SBJ related to BooMan by telling him that his close friend is near death from Lyme disease. You know, maybe if you people got out of the lounge more and read and participated in the diaries more then they would be more suitable to your tastes. Personally i’m kind of embarrased for the site when the lounge and cafe regularly get 100 plus comments and the diaries, many of them extremely good, get 5, 10, 20, maybe 30 comments.
End of rant,
Good night Mary
good night super.
But before you go, you may be interested in knowing that I no longer participate in anything BUT the cafe and the “fun” threads here at BT. I’d like to participate in the other diaries and offer substantive comments but that’s no longer possible for me. Since this community came to a consensus that outing corporate lawyers and attacking their clients is perfectly acceptable, I no longer substantively comment on anything that could involve me in a poltical argument. It’s a shame. But you were part of that consensus a I remember.
Damn. I’ve been wondering why you won’t make substantive comments here, but will at orange, ’cause I miss them!
Now I know.
Orange has rules.
they are offering boxed editions of the FAQs as gifts this year.
Armando is a hypocritical, abusive prick who outed himself as a slave to corporations that work counter to democratic priciples and abuse workers. So no, I don’t think it’s ok to out anyone. He outed himself. My opinion. But I do respect your concerns. Thanks for explaining them.
well, the rest of us who might possibly be seen as slaves to corporations that work counter to democratic principles and abuse workers are SO happy that the rest of you are so incredibly pure!
But thanks for your response. It certainly confirms my decision.
Don’t feel bad, refinish69. I was telling someone today about the horribly inappropriate gifts I get from my new s-i-l who I’ve only met once and with whom we’ve tried to communicate our wish not to exchange Christmas gifts.
The first year she got me what can best be described as a mumuu (ok, how the hell do you spell that?) that a 75 year old woman in Florida might wear. The second year I got a furry knitted scarf that looked like every colorful Care Bear had yacked up a hair ball to contribute to the yarn.
This year I got a lavender, size XXL Tinkerbell shirt. OMFG. In how many ways is this wrong for me.
ROTFLMAO!!!!! OMG are you sure she isn’t my sister in law?
What are s-i-l’s for?
She hates me! She told my other sister in law that she’s jealous because my new mother in law always talks about how cool I am and I’ve only been in the family for 4 years and she’s been for 25.
What can you say, you’re just too loveable. Give you s-i-l a jar of pickels for Xmas.
A jar of pickels which she could easily hide in her butt crack.
OMG was she the modle for this halloween costume
Exactly!
Poor little chihuahua.
I was going to get that costume and put a george doll where the dog is and change the sign to say has anyone seen my idiot son and of course wear some big pearls. LOL
Would have been most fitting RF. 🙂
well there is still next halloween
That’s what you have to do. Buy her something like she bought you except X-small.
There’s an idea!
no … here’s what you do. Buy something EXTRA small, but change the tag to say it’s HER size.
buy her a thong. LOL
It would get lost!
Ooh, that is evil!
I knew you’d like it 🙂
WHAT is she thinking?
She’s thinking what could be better than an enormous, pastel tinkerbell shirt with sparkly fairy dust for someone she hates.
we need to think of something REALLY appropriate to do with it.
I’m not sure it would fit.
Cut it apart amd make a big fluffy pillow to give her next christmas with Tink on it. LOL
ooh I like that! Re-gifting. AND making lemonade from lemons.
Put it on the next time you clean the toilet bowl. Take a picture and send to her. Let her know how much you appreciate it, or something there abouts.
Clean the toilet bowl? Is that why ours look so nasty. You’re supposed to clean them?
Like I said, you people with indoor plumbing have different ways. 🙂
I voted in a Republican primary a few years ago. As a result I was sent a lovely color photo of W and Laura. My husbane (recovering Republican) taped it to the toilet brush holder. It was rather satisfying to watch it disintegrate over the course of a year as toilet water got splashed on it.
It could have been Dumbo. LOL
Tinker Bell? Oy!
Technically it just says Tink. In a size XXL you think they’d have room to spell the whole thing out.
but I’ve narrowed my SIL down to stereotyping me with “olive oil in a weird bottle”
Is it the olive oil in the weird bottle with all kinds of nasty looking vegetables layered in it that you’re really not supposed to use but put on a shelf for a decoration? Really, what is the point with those?
just a desultory herb included.
If they are fresh poils with different spices they are wonderful and if it is quality olive oil they are meant as dipping oils anyway. if it is the crap from ross or tj max it needs to be thrown out. LOL
I like the term eccentric myself.
at least olive oil is useful. Although you may have to hide the weird bottle.
Night everyone. I’ve got to get some rest for the next wave of rels tomorrow.
g’night Family Man. See you tomorrow.
sweet dreams familyman!!!!
The new cafe is now open.
Carrying on, we now have Kidspeak.
The young Keres
Cabin Girl`s dreamboat.