<p>Sending the good vibes for your D1, nm.</p>
<p>Plantmom- hope you heal quickly.</p>
<p>Welcome back, woody.</p>
<p>So sorry, RM. </p>
<p>Fang Jr’s extended Thanksgivo-Christmas vacation is over now; we took him to the airport today, and now we have an empty house. He should be home by now, but naturally he has not called. Of course I worry-- and he had no coat with him, having left it at his apartment, and it’s about 20 degrees now in Denver. He also had no key, though he assured me he could get a new one at the apartment office. At least I sent him with a hat and gloves. </p>
<p>Mr. Fang and I have been watching the entire original Upstairs Downstairs series, in preparation for Downton Abbey season 3, now coming up in a few days. It made us appreciate how beautifully filmed Downton is.</p>
<p>I have my DVR set for Downton Abbey on Sunday! Very excited!</p>
<p>Glad you are back safe and sound woody. Looking forward to hearing more about your trip.</p>
<p>PlantMom…hope you are feeling better after your dentist visit.</p>
<p>Thanks for sending good mojo to D1! Her business is very male oriented so it is hard to move up through the ranks. She is hoping her recent experience from subbing in will push her in as a front runner. Makes me nervous for her as her boss can be a little…hmmm…intimidating. </p>
<p>D2 came home with a raging head cold. Told her to sit in the hot shower, put on her pajamas and take some meds. Hope it clears up soon.</p>
<p>Thank you all. I’m not so happy now, post-sedative, but trying to be hopeful that this dentist can save this tooth.</p>
<p>woody–so rude of your travel seat-mate, especially with such a long trip.</p>
<p>CF are you enjoying Upstairs Downstairs? My H and I watched the whole series after we saw Season 1 of Downton. It’s not nearly as beautiful as Downton, but we both thought the plotting in UD was much meatier. I’m a sucker for period dramas. Has anyone else watched all of The Pallisers (based on Trollope’s Palliser series)?</p>
<p>We’ve enjoyed Upstairs Downstairs a lot, but one thing I found surprising is how many of the upstairs people are horrible people with no moral character. Lady Marjorie and James, in particular, are awful, and Elizabeth is also no paragon. I like the folks downstairs a lot better.</p>
<p>We have two episodes to go. I’ve loved the costuming over the twenty or so years we cover, from the long Edwardian dresses in the beginning to the short flapper skirts of the 20’s. The hats are marvelous too, for both genders.</p>
<p>^
We really are “birds of a feather” on this thread. I got the “Upstairs,Downstairs” DVD’s for Christmas and have watched 2 episodes so far. I am hoping to watch a few more before the DA season starts on Sunday.</p>
<p>CF–I agree! Although by the end, my favorites (and H’s) were Richard from Upstairs and of course Rose, Edward, Daisy, and best of all–Mrs. Bridges from Downstairs!</p>
<p>Can’t wait for Season 3 of Downton!</p>
<p>Deeply sad about the deaths, RM. Very sad about the root canal, PlantMom. Good luck to NM D1.</p>
<p>Good luck adjusting back to US time zones, woody.</p>
<p>We’re without heat again. All of the particulate matter from the repairs has damaged our air handler. We might be able to do a bandaid repair, but if we replace the unit, we have to replace the entire heating system. We’ll see what the insurance company says.</p>
<p>We’re staying tonight at ShawD’s condo. She and her roomies are taking a course that pays them a $1000 stipend, but they have to live in the dorm for the week. It is not too convenient for us, so we may hit a hotel at some point in the near future if it takes a while to resurrect our HVAC system.</p>
<p>PlantMom – we watched The Pallisers. All of it. To this day, we’re not quite sure why.</p>
<p>Are y’all watching the original Upstairs, Downstairs or the new one? Just started hte new version last night.</p>
<p>Tried watching London Hospital, but it was kind of gory for my tastes (at least I wasn’t into it last night). May try it again.</p>
<p>I was watching the old Upstairs Downstairs. Haven’t watched the new one yet.</p>
<p>I like Richard and Virginia upstairs, and Hudson (love the accent), Mrs. Bridges and Rose downstairs. I’m kind of fond of poor little Ruby the kitchenmaid, too.</p>
<p>Shaw - you are indeed a trooper. Seems like you’ve been dealing with dominos since the storm. While I know nothing about insurance, if anyone can make a connection between the two, I am guessing it will be you.</p>
<p>I called a few realtors today and have two walking through tomorrow. Half of Christmas is still littering the lower level, but hopefully they can see beyond that.</p>
<p>Rm, sorry about you news and hope the new year is kinder.
Welcome home, woody! Hex upon the nasty kindle woman 
Shaw, sorry to hear of your furnace troubles. I can relate given the boiler shenanigans of November!
Moda, indeed, they will see past that. Good luck!</p>
<p>I felt fine at work all day but the idiot cough kept me up every hour again last night. Fortunately the weekend isn’t too far away if I need a makeup sleepathon. In that sense, I suppose the Tuesday holiday suits my purposes, but I know what you mean.</p>
<p>Mcson and mcgf went off in the middle of the night to save an open mic night from the clutches of technical malfunction. I hope that doesn’t mean mcson donated his mixer as the last time it left the house it was gone for a year! As he increasingly pays for his own gear, I notice he’s a little more cautious about lending it out I predict in the near future, he will become even moreso!</p>
<p>TA, I think we should invent some kind of consciousness transfer device and live vicariously through your son. Perhaps we should convince him to keep an anonymous travel blog so we can “read in” you’ll have to forgive my flights of fancy, but I’ve been reading the latest Jasper Fford book in the Thursday Next series and it has that effect on me ;)</p>
<p>Speaking of flights of fancy, found a little gem of a book called Mr. penumbra’s 24-hour bookstore. It’s a fun, hip little melding of present-tech tense and old school mystery that is quite wry. Long live long form narrative!</p>
<p>Got to go get ready for ungodly hour meeting, but have a great day!</p>
<p>Yesterday’s work day started with a bang. Luckily no malfunctions, the way 2012 ended, but I forgot that many of my co-workers were still off, and some of the others called in “sick” (one had a sick pet with an expensive vet trip, another with a sick child), so it was a pretty skeletal crew. Luckily lots of people we support were also still off. One of the university employees is leaving for another job, and today is his last day. He wants to get 1098-T’s done today. I also have 3 meetings scheduled, including the first meeting of an implementation team for our newly-selected online learning management system, which needs to be in place this FALL! Our present system was purchased by a competitor and is being discontinued.</p>
<p>I second the TA son blog idea. A year ago my D was just beginning her study abroad journey and kept a wonderful blog. I’ve also followed blogs of kids of some of my co-workers, and friends of my kids. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned here one of the Christmas presents I gave D which ended up being a big hit. I had D’s blog from last year converted into a printed/bound book. It turned out beautifully and wasn’t too expensive, either. D brought it over to her grandparents on Christmas Day, and they asked to keep it until we were there on New Years Day.</p>
<p>We are also counting down the days to season 3 of Downton Abbey. I watched the original Upstairs Downstairs series on PBS when it came out, back when we had 5 TV channels and way before cable. It was must-see TV back then! Our local PBS station recently hosted a very successful fundraiser. For a small donation, folks could attend a hosted tea (period dress optional) and they had a guest speaker who was an expert on period dress. They also had an advance showing of the first episode of Season 3. Sadly I had a conflict and could not attend, but several of my friends went and said it was a blast.</p>
<p>I nominate missypie to form a private FB group on our behalf so we can get the 2013 meet-up ball rolling. Is that okay missypie?</p>
<p>I love the blog to book idea, cq!</p>
<p>Hope you get heat back soon, shaw.</p>
<p>For whatever reason, I missed Upstairs,Downstairs the first time around. The DVD’s I am watching are the original series. I was unaware that there was a later series.</p>
<p>Haven’t even gotten dressed for work yet and realize that S’s retainers are missing. Oh joy.
It is hard to live with people who just do not get putting things away. I am too tired and lazy to be disorganized.</p>
<p>It’s pretty bad when my very first thought of the day when the alarm went off was “*****”.</p>
<p>More later in support of those hurting. Gotta get ready for work.</p>
<p>Just read the thread about food allergies. I usually don’t vent about other posters but the level of ignorance by some folks on that thread is amazing.</p>
<p>Looking forward to the weekend. Taking future DIL, S and future DIL’s mother out to lunch and then to go and look (and hopefully pick) flowers for the wedding. I don’t hold out much hopw on picking them as future DIL and mother have trouble making up their minds. I’m just there with the checkbook. I told S and future DIL that I would pay for the flowers. I don’t expect to have any input and I’m okay with that. Something to look forward to. :)</p>
<p>Still finishing up D’s sweater. It was a Christmas present. I did wrap it up but with the needles in it. Hopefully I’ll finish it up before Sat. morning as she is heading back to school. If not I’ll just have to mail it. Only about 20 more rows to go and then weaving in the ends. If I was still at home (and not working) it would be done. Oh well…</p>
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<p>I was a Special Ed major. I remember one prof saying that the teaching profession needs people who wake up and say “Good morning, Lord!” rather than “Good Lord, it’s morning.” Obviously my career as a teacher was brief.</p>
<p>I am loving the clothes on Downton Abbey. And yes, the hats. I guess I’ll set the DVR for Season III then watch it when we’re done with I and II. I finally deleted hours and hours of Project Runway that I realized just weren’t going to be watched.</p>
<p>Oh, CF, your posts about your son and no coat, no keys, etc. hit way too close to home!</p>
<p>Will the food allegies thread make me angry?</p>
<p>I will work on the private Facebook group. I’ll let a couple of you that I know on Facebook know when it’s up so we can test it.</p>
<p>Love that quote from your prof, missy.</p>
<p>Yes the food allergy thread will make you angry.</p>