Running Bear's November 2023 Coffee Shop

[troyphoto]

I'm happy, the niece brought ham. Sweet potato casserole was provided by my wife, even if she did burn the cornbread.

She normally cooks it in an aluminium pan, but she used steel nonstick this time.

Bourbon has been poured, and I'm reading a game book about high seas warfare

with orcs and elves.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Goodness ME! Our "big meal" is yet to come. Folks will show up 1/2 hour from now.

From the looks of the dishes (of food) that I need to look for a shelter to share!
MOH is still cooking as if we had those 30 something people still around?

I need to change my shirt and head downstairs - 5 min to go in the Dallas/Redskin game!
WILLIE -- Arlene should be happy?

 

[santafewillie]

Good Evening All. Happy late Thanksgiving. I hope that all had their fill, I certainly did. I left the festivities at my brother's home a bit early so I could navigate the highway construction in the first 8 miles before it got dark. It's already 4-5 lanes in each direction and they're adding Express (toll) Lanes. The current lanes wander around and veer suddenly in either direction seemingly randomly. Makes the lane navigator in the car go absolutely bonkers. The speed limit even through the construction zone is still 70mph, a bit unnerving to say the least to someone like me who only travels that stretch a couple of times a year, and is unfamiliar with the nuances.

During the festivities, my brother handed out a family genealogy that he has been working on for a few years. This is the paternal side of the family and goes back six generations from my grandfather and four generations from my grandmother. It's in a loose leaf binder so that additional pages can be added when information is uncovered. Currently it is 174 pages. He is still working on my mother's side of the family; he says that it will be easier since half of those relatives were from Germany and Germany has kept better records than the Irish and Australians. It will make for some interesting reading.

Sherrel - Yes, I saw bits and pieces of the game at the feast. Lots of folks are happy especially since it is a divisional rival. I may have to start watching some of their games. BTW, the team is still referred to as the Washington Foreskins in the Dallas area.

Gotta go now and take care of the granddogs, who have been home alone since 12:30 today.

BBL

 

[Bruette]

I'm glad to hear Everyone had a good thanksgiving, we did too, thank God!

As Karl said, "So much to be thankful for!", well said sir. I could not agree more.

This was my 21st Thanksgiving with my little Angel. My wife worked her magic again this year. Everything was perfect! Except for the two things I was responsible for. I overcooked the turkey, the internal temperature was 170 when I took it out of the oven. And the sauerkraut turned out to be semi-fermented cabbage.

Everything my wife did was perfectly cooked, and all served hot at the table. I call it magic because I can't understand how she does that. So many side dishes, all perfectly cooked and served hot at the table. Not to mention several homemade cakes and pies. She even made me a sugar free apple pie. Shortly after everything was washed and dried. I don't know if she used the dishwasher. It's all a mystery to me, but I am thankful! I gave up trying to figure it out years ago. Like Faith, I don't need to know all the details.

I adjusted the recipe for the turkey brine, it is now perfect for me. Everyone agreed the flavor of the turkey was fantastic. It even stepped up my wife's gravy, and she already made the best gravy I've ever had, now even better. An interesting fact is, before meeting me my wife never made gravy. She told me she never had or even heard of gravy in Hungary.

I learned two to three weeks is not long enough to ferment cabbage to make sauerkraut. Everything you read on the internet is not true. I should have asked you guys. That is why I normally don't bother to look things up. I ask the real experts in the coffee shop instead! Luckily, I tasted it early thanksgiving morning. It's exceptionally good, but I want sauerkraut on my thanksgiving table, not semi-fermented cabbage. My wife stepped in and saved the day. She opened several cans of sauerkraut, threw in some bacon grease and a piece of left over pork from the freezer. Abra Cadabra, thanksgiving worthy sauerkraut, magic!

On the Brightside the over cooked turkey went mostly unnoticed. The dark meat was juicy. My wife and my son each eat a turkey leg and my daughter-in-law eats extraordinarily little meat. I enjoy the white meat with my thanksgiving meal. My wife's magical gravy saved the day! Thanksgiving is the one meal I eat everything all together. Normally I eat one thing at a time. On thanksgiving I pile everything together and cover it all with gravy. Except for the dinner roll and dessert of course.

The left over dry white meat will be fine in turkey salad. The dark meat is great and will be perfect in the rice and turkey, Hungarian style my wife makes. It's a great meal using leftovers and has a completely different taste from the thanksgiving meal.

The Thanksgiving NFL games I was so looking forward to were all disappointing one side affairs. Although it was fun texting back and forth with my grandson discussing the games. Almost as good as watching the games with him. He has turned into a sponge for NFL and other sports knowledge. Thanks to EA Sports' Madded Football. He has learned so much he usually beats me like a rented mule lately. We also play Sony's MLB The Show and some soccer game. I can still give him a challenging game at baseball. When he learns to wait for a good pitch that will be the end of that! Soccer, forget about it, I'm lucky to score one goal!

I almost forgot to mention; the frozen dough dinner rolls we bought for the first time were fantastic! They have earned a place on future Holiday tables.

I fell short of my goals for my Christmas trees and trains. With my wife's help I managed to get the tree decorated in the family room. I have most of the track work done in the family room. I have one train up and running, Lionel's Christmas "Pioneer" Zephyr. I'm watching and listening to it make its rounds now. The stereo speakers on the Christmas Zephyr are amazing! Sadly, Santa's Flyer and other Christmas accessories are still in the box. God willing, they will be up and running soon.

All I managed to do in the living room was to put the carpet down we set the trains, accesories and tree up on. I can't wait to set up my Hawthorn Village Nativity. I have been searching for it since we moved in here! My wife was far too busy with thanksgiving to ask her for help. Like Santa's Flyer, God willing the Polar Express and other Christmas accessories will be up and running in the living room soon. Pictures and possibly even videos to follow. I'll need my wife's help with the videos.

On Thanksgiving Day, and every day I am most thankful for my wife. I've known many beautiful women in my life. None as beautiful and as talented as my wife. She is hardworking, diligent, kind, forgiving, generous and so much more. She far exceeds all my expectations. Only by the Grace of God did I find her. It's another mystery why she fell in love with me. All I can say is thank you, God, for my little Angel!

 

[Bruette]

Karl, this one is for you!

 

[Bruette]

A few more of my Christmas favorites, in no particular order. I have too many, I could never post them all!

Patrick, Even I don't like any version of that song I won't mention!

It is after thanksgiving! Happy Holidays!

A quick black Friday note: I see Best Buy is offering a 75" Samsung TV for $579.99! That is the same one I have in my living room!

Two of my wife's favorites

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning! This is myself showing how to put in 1:1 scale signals on the NS (sometime in the '80s).

 

[NorthBrit]

Good morning all. A cold, wintry feel to the weather.
Off for a couple of days with the family. Big city Christmas shopping. With family living in London, Yorkshire and Scotland, presents to buy and have delivered before the 'big day'.

 

[Smudge617]

 

[ctclibby]

Good Morning All!
28F @ 83% and dark

It sounds like y'all had a great T.Day, well so far.

We are not doing T.Day until Saturday. Kid is coming in from Missoula and staying until Monday. Her request for food ( besides turkey stuff ) is Biscuits and gravy, then Sushi on Sunday.

The pix is me ( of course ) dealing with the wife wanting the ceiling fan in the living/dining moved to be centered over the table. Whom ever put it in did not have a clue as it was more or less in the middle third of the room, not even close to center. Anyway, cut a hole in the floor upstairs where I had previously marked about where it needed to be moved. Put a small hole in the ceiling where my guess was and looked downstairs. Geesh, missed the center over the table by 4" both directions - how can you beat that? Just happened to have a piece of romax going by pretty much where I am looking in the pix. Thought that there would be problems routing the wire to the fan, but NOOOO. 8 ft ruler worked just fine and I did not have to get my wire snake out. Trouble with the existing wire was I could not pull any slack so I had to cut and add 4" of romax to get it in the box and covered up proper. Put the kitchen back together and will do the fan today. Slacker ain't I? Well the wife is grinning so I guess it is what it is.

Later

 

[TLOC]

Good morning to all this Black Friday shopping day. I have now watched 5 NFL football games this season, 2 of them yesterday. The Packers/Lions was a great game because the family are all Packer fans since birth except me! The Dallas/Washington game was tolerable only because I was happy for Mike “regular season” McCarthy. As proven with all the seasons but one in GB he is great regular season coach but normally loses in the playoffs

This afternoon at 3, Terry and I will venture on campus to watch #1Nebraska take on #3 or 5 (depending on the pole) the still injury depleted Badgers. In Nebraska the then #1 Badgers fell to #2 In a great 5 set match, but that’s when the string of injuries started. Still 8000 crazies at the Fieldhouse on the UW campus will be fun.

The temperature is 19f degrees going to the low 30’s in So. Central Wisconsin and they are reporting a possible 1-3” of the White Gifts from Above (WGFA) on Sunday.

Today I set the timers to “on” for the outdoor Christmas decorations. We will put the indoor stuff up (greatly reduced) next weekend.

The grandson and his dad are heading to a 1PM NHL game in Chicago, the Toronto Choke Maple Leaf and the Chicago learning to play Black Hawks. They r both Toronto fans (I think they may have both been dropped at birth) while my daughter and I are Hawk fans.

If I get to the trains it maybe after dinner tonight. Enjoy the day!

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Ours was lots of fun & games, and food a plenty! I ate so much I felts like a stuffed bird!

I had plans of going down stairs after the kids left around 7:30, but the Tryptophan kicks in and soon we all were passed out in the living room. Son#4, wife and I along with the dogs and the cat all passed out til about 10. Ahh, the good life! Today at work I'm hugging my coffee cup and moving a little slow, but hey, it's Friday!

L8ter!

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 38°. Two more mild days before Mother Nature hits us with a brief taste of winter from Sunday through Tuesday, with highs in the low-50's. Rain is still a possibility Saturday night, but the chances are diminishing somewhat. I don't think that the NWS really has a clue.

Thanksgiving Day was not quite the raucous affair that our family is used to, there was only 22 people gathered at my brother's home. By comparison, last year I hosted the dinner at my daughter's home with 40 relatives. We've had as many as 52 before, all directly descended from my parents. I will be hosting Christmas this year at my other daughter's home. I do my hosting at their homes in the Dallas area so 40+ folks don't have to drive 75 miles each way to our house, which can only hold maybe 20 at full capacity.

Today I will make the abbreviated weekly grocery trek, as I must re-stock before my wife returns Sunday. Looks like the Vitamin Shop is on the itinerary this week. Gasoline stop is needed, since I only have a few days left this month to use my 60¢/gallon discount from fuel points. Those are left from October, for November I have $1.10/gal discount to start using - months cannot be combined.

While I did not make it out to the train shed yesterday, I did get a bit of time out there Wednesday. Easy part of a project. In the house earlier, I made copies and printed the saloon sign to replace the missing one, and then affixed them to the saloon structure.

I don't know what today will bring.

Mike - I agree that the Scaletrains sale was a bust for me. Mainly they didn't have anything that I could use, and Autoracks were too damn expensive. I'll just be content with the nine Accurail and Walther's ones that I've had for 15+ years.
Patrick - I had to look up "Last Christmas". What a horrible song, I turned it off about 2:20. I prefer my music a lot heavier than that "synth-pop" style in the Wham version that I found.

Of course today is Black Friday. I hope that the allure of shopping keeps the crowds out of the grocery store this morning. I'll probably still have to deal with extra traffic.

Everyone have a great day.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

57-f with a 62-f high with variable cloudy and possible rain/showers. I hear the pitter-patter of raindrops on the aluminum patio ... just enough to make the streets shiney looking.
We could have fed multitudes of folks last evening. When my soulmate gets busy - stand aside:
LOUIS - that was a really profound statement from you concerning your spouse!
I feel the same towards mine. I keep wondering how that I was able to convince her to "Take a Chance on Me" - ABBA? What a joy to have her in my life!

Well - It is time to dig out the boxes of Christmas and see what we can "throw together" again.
I remember as my parents past the 80 mark - their decor started diminishing with each year; I am starting to feel the same.
I must allude to MOH - She has not reached that point - I pray she does not!

Happy Day after Thanksgiving everyone - we have to look forward to the 'FAT MAN' Now!

 

[migalyto]

I had plans of going down stairs after the kids left around 7:30, but the Tryptophan kicks in and soon we all were passed out in the living room. Son#4, wife and I along with the dogs and the cat all passed out til about 10. Ahh, the good life! Today at work I'm hugging my coffee cup and moving a little slow, but hey, it's Friday!

I had big plans to spend a couple of hours in the train room last night as well. I never made it either. I couldn't bring myself to moving a car out of the garage, dragging out the chop saw to cut more risers. Without more risers, I can't really move forward with sub-roadbed.

I will try later this afternoon when the Christmas decorating is done.

 

[migalyto]

Good morning, everyone!

Happy Black Friday! Did anyone wake up early to grab any deals?

When my wife and I first started dating we would wake up early and go hit an outlet mall in Iowa and grab some bargains. The nieces and nephews were all grade school age then and wanted clothes and toys, We would then come back to the casino, spend the night and come home early Saturday. We haven't done that for 15+ years. It still is a great memory.

Have a great day all.

 

[MikeGTW]

Good morning! This is myself showing how to put in 1:1 scale signals on the NS (sometime in the '80s).

View attachment 177229

I remember those we used them for crossing protection that had the cantilever out over the street
If I remember the base was about 5 or 6 inch thick by 5 x 5 ft so much fun
Here's what happens when a car decides to meet up with a crossing gate

 

[migalyto]

My daughter’s elf on the shelf made her long journey from the North Pole to bring Christmas wishes and ran into this!

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good morning, all. The sun is just now starting to peek out from the clouds. We had a great Thanksgiving, with all but the son and his wife present. On today's agenda, outdoor Christmas decorations.

Mike - Might be time to take a trip to the mall and casino. New memories.
Willie - What a coincidence, I passed up thumb drives to our kids and grandkids with all the genealogy stuff I have gather over the years. For anyone interested, there is a free program in the Microsoft Store called, "My Family Tree". It has many of the features of the pay for programs, and in my opinion easier to use.

Still playing with AI

STAY SAFE
LATER

 

[kbkchooch]

Mike, that pup is adorable, even if he did catch the elf!