01/06/26 22:37: Homely: Welcome Back, SS! We missed you! We were cruising in the Netherlands and Belgium and I keep joking that we did not see the light of day the entire time - just a lightening of the gloom between the hours of 9:30 and 3:30. And now I, too, am craving something warm! And also, I think that maybe a small boat in the winter time is just not a great idea from a health perspective - by the end of our week the entire boat had an upper respiratory virus that included vigorous coughing. It's taken me three weeks to get over it (so far). I think I need to try the Greek Islands...
Exciting to hear about another legal career! One of my dear friends was a clerk in the Md. Court of Appeals back in the very early 90s... he loved that job and he is now a very successful litigator. I did not do well enough in school to even be sniffed at for one of those jobs ;-)
01/06/26 22:30: Homely: N Q - My parents were surely scrambling to get away from the kids, and there were only two of us! Once quiet one (not me) and one troublemaker (me!). They always got a babysitter for NYE, which is probably why we were up and banging pots and pans outside! I grew up in a neighborhood that seems like a fantasy now - none of the moms worked outside of the home and nobody was divorced. By Friday night all the adults were climbing the walls to go out somewhere. I remember them doing lots of dinner theater and participating in groups like the Jaycees. None of that for my generation - we are all too busy working and too tired to go out at the end of the week!
01/05/26 04:53: silversquirrel: Homely, I didn't even know that you are a lawyer. I'm a retired judge's secretary. Appellate Court. 20 years in Maryland and seven years in Ohio. Great jobs. But I'm happy to be retired. Hubby still working.
01/05/26 04:49: silversquirrel: Hi everyone. Happy New Year! Hubby and I had a great time on the river cruise on the Rhine. But it was cold, wet, and miserable the whole time. No more winter travel to cold places for us. Our next trip is at the end of April. Berlin to Copenhagen. I'm glad to be home. We were both sick with head colds during the trip. Recommend wearing masks on the plane next time. Best wishes to you all. Susan silver squirrel ðŸ¿ï¸
01/04/26 21:29: N Q: We were never allowed to stay up on New Years Eve but that's probably because mom & dad wanted alone time away from us 6 kids ! and I probably would have fallen asleep anyway.
We really don't have many people who set off fireworks on NYE, I also only heard a few in the distance.
01/03/26 16:05: Homely: N Q, that sounds like a perfect NYE, doing exactly as you wished! We did manage to stay up. I failed in my efforts to persuade DH not to shoot fireworks off the deck, but got him to at least only do one or two of them. I don't like the home fireworks! Other than that, we flipped the channels around and had a calm evening together. Living as far out as we do, there's not a lot of racket when the clock strikes midnight - you can hear some fireworks displays off in the distance and that's about it. I remember as a kid running outside and banging on pots and pans with great gusto!
Happy, happy new year to you!
01/02/26 21:15: N Q: Homely you and your sister's travel agreement sounds like my sister and her husbands agreement. She makes all of the arrangement while he researches where they should go and what sites that they should see and if he can center the locations around how many pubs they can visit, that works for both of them :)
I had an uneventful New Years eve, I was going to stay up till 11pm to watch the ball be lowered, it's nice that us in the midwest don't have to wait till midnight but I didn't even make it to 11pm. At 10:45 I decided I was tired enough that I really didn't care if I watched the new year come in for New Yorkers and went to bed.
Hope you had a nice New Years Eve then me !