(no subject)
Nov. 27th, 2025 06:24 pmThe girls' eldest cousin L, who is about 27, arrived last from NY to stay with us for a couple of nights so she could go to the family Thanksgiving today, so the girls were all very excited.
This morning we left around 9:45 am to drive to the home of my son in law's sister D, about a 45 minute drive. By the time we arrived everybody else was there and our group of six brought the total to, I think, 14. My daughter stayed home because she had some work to do with colleagues in the UK, and when she set it up weeks ago she forgot that it would be Thanksgiving, because of course it didn't appear on her UK calendar.
We started eating snacks/appetisers around 11 a while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. At about 1:30 to 2 pm we sat down to dinner of turkey, mashed potato, baked potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, green beans, sweet potato pie (with and without marshmallows), corn, and possibly some other sides. I only ate a modest amount because of the earlier snacks, but I saw plates piled high with food being passed to other people. About 4 pm we reconvened for dessert: pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, cookies, and whipped cream. Basically it was an afternoon of eating.
Now I'm feeling really tired even though I mostly just sat around observing. The girls had a very exciting time with their cousins S (18 year old girl) and S (21 year old young man), as well as L, and also plus S and S's 17 year old step brother T. The older cousins look like Pied Pipers when the girls are around.
Son in law's family is apparently not very sports-minded; nobody watched a game of any kind. (Except for a Dog Show programme - these are dog people.)
(no subject)
Nov. 27th, 2025 06:17 pmmy thread here
'tis once again the time of year for the holiday love meme! <3
[ SECRET POST #6901 ]
Nov. 27th, 2025 05:10 pm⌈ Secret Post #6901 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.

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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 07 secrets from Secret Submission Post #985.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Taking matters into my own hands
Nov. 27th, 2025 12:47 pmI did get enough of everything for leftovers but I'll be damned if I'm eating left overs without decent stuffing. So after I finished eating the good bits, I got in the car and went to Safeway and bought already chopped up onions and celery and some stuffing mix (I already had the chicken broth and butter on hand). In under 15 mins I had better than just decent stuffing.
I have enough for the left overs and plenty more for the freezer. It's delicious.
Thanksgiving travesty righted. By Me.
Thanksgiving
Nov. 27th, 2025 12:36 pmDept. of Thankfulness
Nov. 26th, 2025 09:03 am.. even though I don't believe in blessings on most days ending in y. I have so much good in my life, and so many good people in my life, that some days I can hardly believe that the world has given them to me.
Today in the U.S., a huge number of us celebrate Thanksgiving, and we do it with family gatherings that more than occasionally descend into chaos (both the good and bad kinds), food that generally involves a huge turkey, too much stuffing, too many mashed potatoes or candied yams, probably some green bean casserole and canonical pumpkin pie (I prefer squash pie, but that's me) and innumerable college football games. And although it sounds as if I am mocking all that, I am not. All of this somehow combines to make a good thing.
It's also a day of mourning for members of First Nations and Indigenous Americans, who remember the landing of the Mayflower as the start of a centuries-long genocide, complete with theft of land, broken promises, broken families, and loss of culture. I don't want to write about my thankfulness, without acknowledging that the stories we learned in elementary school about The First Thanksgiving were so wrong as to be evil. I hope that those nations and tribes can find some glimmer of thankfulness in this day. God knows you deserve more than a little.
Moar importantly, I am grateful for the friends I have in Chicago and Canada, and everywhere else. You are so loved by me.
Finally, I am grateful to all of you here on Dreamwidth - whether you celebrated Thanksgiving last month up in Canada, down here across the U.S. or never at all in Europe, Australia, Africa, Asia, and everywhere else across the world. You have made my life infinitely more rich, more full of conversation, laughter, intent thought and completely spectacular funniness.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanksgiving
Nov. 27th, 2025 09:03 amThis will be a drama/dilemma for a while, I think. Stay tuned.
I have a perfectly good cart for hauling shit. Packages from the lockers, groceries to and from the car, puzzles down to the puzzle closet... It had double wheels which enable it to roll oh so easily. It folds up and lives in my closet. Sure it's old and battered but still works like a charm. I've had it for years and been perfectly happy with it until
I do have a solid plan now for the storage room/closet rearrangement. I know what I want and I think it's doable with some Bro help. And it would mean that I would not need the Closet Reorganizer. I think Christian does not want to do it so is just 'being too busy'. Which is fine. If I'm wrong and I decide I want a professional, there are several closet places that have done work here at Timber Ridge and I'll just call one of them. BUT it would be lovely to skip that step.
I had a great idea/place to put one of those pull out shoe organizer cabinets. I had one all picked out and ready to order when I decided to burrow into the comments a little farther and discovered that probably my feet are too big. Most all of the ones I had my eyes on, said somewhere in the comments that it was great for kids shoes but anything bigger than an adult 7.5 was going to be too big to get the pull out to go back in. I wear a 9. Oh well. I couldn't even find one for big feet. Saved some money there!
Today they are doing a buffet for Thanksgiving dinner. It's from 11 to 1. Last year's power outage led them to a buffet scheme that works pretty well for the staff and for us. Easy to serve and really no waiting at all - even when they are serving everyone like today. As usual, I have extra meal money so I might just get two meals. One for eating and one for leftovers.
I remember once years and years ago when I was living on my own in Charlotte, NC, one of the nicer hotels had this marvelous scheme for Thanksgiving. It was buffet style and had all the usual Thanksgiving stuff plus a lot of nice, fancy extras but their main selling point was that the deal included a box of leftovers to take home! It was such a cool scheme. I had a group of friends and one year we all pitched in and got a room at the hotel overlooking the main street. We had cocktails in our room and then went down for dinner and then had dessert in our room while we watched the Christmas parade. And we all took home leftovers. It was a very grand Thanksgiving.

You'd have thought they'd have recalled the coypu issue....
Nov. 27th, 2025 05:26 pmNorfolk's first capybara café opening in Toftwood, Dereham
That's right. An area which has had FORM for escaping invasive large semi-aquatic mammals: see this article by a guy who dealt with the coypu menace in the Broads.
Animal rights and protection orgs are already up in arms:
FOUR PAWS strongly opposes the keeping of wild or non-domesticated animals, such as capybaras, in settings where their complex welfare needs cannot be properly met.
Freedom for Animals has united with our colleagues at Born Free Foundation, Animal Aid, OneKind, World Animal Protection, and RSPCA to strongly urge the operators, and the local authority, to halt these plans before they get underway.
RSPCA criticises new ‘capybara cafes’
Apparently there is a whole thing of cafes where you can embrace cuddly animals in Asia: Cuddling capybaras and ogling otters: the problem with animal cafes in Asia: A boom in places offering petting sessions is linked to a rise in the illegal movement of exotic and endangered species, say experts:
Capybaras breed rapidly, can withstand a wide range of temperatures, and have a flexible diet of grasses and aquatic plants. “There is a high risk for them to be invasive,” Congdon says.
I will cop to have looked rather wistfully at a place in Australia which offered encounters with WOMBATTS, but a) that was in their native land and b) it looked like this was a sanctuary and they were rescue wombies, and thus one would be supporting the mission. (While interacting with ADORABLE WOMBATTS.)
***
And because tradition: this is one that I haven't iterated overmuch:
(no subject)
Nov. 27th, 2025 12:36 pmWhat are your special interests and things you love to talk about?
What are your favorite kinds of drinks and snacks for hanging out? If I come to your house, what kinds of things am I bringing for the purpose of spoiling you?
Do you have any allergies/sensory sensitivities/trauma triggers/pet peeves/other bad stuff I should know about? How do I keep you safe?
How do I comfort you when something big goes wrong/you are overwhelmed/you are having a panic attack? Do you want to be hugged, to be helped, or to be heard - and in what order do you want them if there are multiple?
What are your favorite types of parties/get-togethers? How do I invite you to things you will like?
What kind of gifts do you like: frivolous, purposeful, experiences, perishables like baked goods, donations in your name, some completely other thing? How do inspire you to feel like I appreciate you?
If you don’t want a list of your likes and vulnerabilities floating around in the world, I get that. But if you think this information is safe with me, I would be grateful for guidance on how to be a good friend to you. Feel free to DM me if you have answers, questions, or concerns.
30 in 30: Marvel X-Men
Nov. 27th, 2025 11:19 amChapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men [Comics]
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rogue [X-Men], Jubilation Lee | Jubilee, Katherine Anne "Kitty" Pryde, Laura Kinney, James "Logan" Howlett | Wolverine
Additional Tags: Drabble and a Half
Summary:
Wolvie needs a rescue
Rogue looked away as Jubilee set off a light show in the dark of the power going out. Kitty had definitely delivered on that, and everyone they were facing was dazzled. They had waited just long enough for the night vision goggles to go on, after all.
Rogue let loose, drawing all attention to herself, letting Kitty have time to get back — and their fourth member to sniff out where the man they'd come for actually was.
No one had to guess when X-23 found him, as father and daughter cut a path back to this point.
"You look like hell, sugah," Rogue called to her long-time friend.
"You look like the cavalry," he said, before shorting out the one robotic enemy with a well-placed claw-punch.
"Time to exit!" Jubilee called out, and while the few standing tried to stop them, they were no match for Wolvie and his girls.
Thanksgiving Entry
Nov. 27th, 2025 10:53 amBook Review: I Leap over the Wall
Nov. 27th, 2025 11:37 amAs Baldwin went into the convent in 1914 and emerged in 1941, I knew instantly that I had to read it. What an absolutely huge period of social and technological change to miss! Baldwin is astonished by modern underwear, the wireless, wartime shortages, and masses and masses of people who have become famous since she went into the convent: Greta Garbo, Picasso, D. H. Lawrence… Right up to the end of the war she keeps clanging up against her ignorance of so many things that everyone else takes totally for granted.
However, as interesting as I found all the details about social change, the parts I found most fascinating were Baldwin’s descriptions of life in the convent. I’ve read about early twentieth-century social changes before, although not quite from this angle, but the convent was totally new, in a “I wouldn’t make it five minutes as a novice” kind of way. Bells, bells, bells, ringing at intervals all day and all night, telling you to move from one occupation to another, stopping mid-stitch if that’s when the bell rings, lengthy sung prayers every day, every scrap of behavior governed by the Rule. There’s a correct way to sit, stand, eat, speak, and presumably breathe.
It’s particularly interesting because, although Baldwin left the convent, she still has faith in Catholicism and the concept of monasticism. She’s outside the convent but still “inside,” if you will, the belief system, so she’s particularly good at explaining the ideas behind an enclosed convent: humans were created to adore God and that therefore a life spent in adoring God is profoundly unselfish and also useful, because usefulness doesn’t mean first and foremost serving other people but serving God.
Unfortunately for Baldwin, most of her interlocutors aren’t willing to listen. It’s not just that they disagree (I certainly was going a bit bug-eyed over this order of priorities), but that they’re not even interested in trying to understand. And she’s never the one who brings up the whole nun business! People just tell Baldwin, the ex-nun, their opinion that nuns are selfishly hiding away in convents when they should be getting married or having families or building careers or CONTRIBUTING to the world.
Even if you think that, why would you tell this to an ex-nun unprompted? Were these people born in barns? But maybe they think that Baldwin, having left the convent, will agree.
But Baldwin does not, and she tries to explain the theory of the cloistered nun. Her interlocutors “listen” (read: sit in silence without taking any of it in) and then reiterate their original opinion.
So if Baldwin still believes, why did she leave the convent? Well, she believes in God, and Catholicism, and the concept of vocation, but has realized that she personally does not have a vocation. As she explains it, when she first decided she wanted to be a nun, she didn’t stop to ask herself if she actually had a calling. “I wanted to be a nun; it followed, therefore, as the night the day, that God must have chosen me.” (Some of my students who want to be doctors have the same attitude, insofar as you can have a thoroughly secular version of this belief.)
All through the year of her noviceship, and the five or six years of probation that followed, she continued in this willful confusion between “wanting to be a nun” and “being called to be a nun.” Only after ten years in the convent does she realize she’s made a horrible mistake.
And then she stuck it out for eighteen more years! The same pigheadedness that led her to decide wanting to be a nun meant she must have a vocation also kept her from throwing in the towel for nearly two decades after realizing she didn’t.
The tone of the book is generally pretty sprightly, a sort of quizzical madcap adventure, an Edwardian Rip Van Winkle awakens in World War II. But there is an undercurrent of tragedy, too, which sometimes breaks the surface in a brief lament. If Baldwin had left the nunnery at 31, when she realized she had no vocation, she might still have built a life for herself. But in staying so long, she missed everything: marriage and children, yes, but also the chance to build a career, or even just acquire the job skills that would suit her for any kind of war work.
As it is, she can only bumble from war job to war job. After the war she retires to a cottage in Cornwall, which is certainly a happy ending of a kind. But what a shame she didn’t change direction at once when she realized she was on the wrong path.
The Images that Fucked You Were a Patriarchal Structure!
Nov. 27th, 2025 08:22 am(When I saw her in concert, she was very pleased with that line).
(Video has a thread of a butch teen being socially pressured to feminise. But there's a happy ending.)
Happy Thanksgiving, 2025!
Nov. 27th, 2025 01:30 pmIt’s Thanksgiving today here in the US, so Happy Thanksgiving to all of you – no matter where you happen to be!
Even if you don’t celebrate this particular holiday, you are definitely the object of my gratitude. Each of you helps make Needle ‘n Thread the inspiring needlework community that (I hope) it is! Thanks so much for hanging out here with me as we explore All Things Embroidery. Thank you for your inspiration, your creativity, your support, and your friendship! Truly, without you, Needle ‘n Thread wouldn’t be here.
Continuing with our own little tradition and striving to make the holiday fun and festive, Anna and I put together a little I-Spy image and puzzle for you, to while away that post-Thanksgiving-dinner digestive time. As Cordelia would say (can you name the book?)… “must digest!”

If you click on the image above, you’ll get a much larger version of it – and hopefully it will retain clarity for you if you want to zoom in. Every year, I fight with the Compression Gremlins lurking on my publishing platform. They’re so stingy!
How does an “I Spy” puzzle work? Well, you follow this little rhyming ditty below and try to discover all the elements mentioned in it, according to their number.
Once you’ve done that, wait! There’s more! You’ll also find a link below to a fun jigsaw puzzle you can assemble online, if you enjoy doing jigsaws.
2025 Thanksgiving I Spy Puzzle
Let’s go on a hunt! Let’s look for some stuff
(All autumnally themed, oddly enough).
We’ll search for some pumpkins, that round and orange squash.
You’ll find twenty-four – some are velvet, quite posh!
So many things! We’ve got acorns galore!
(I exaggerate, t’s true: there’s one…and four more.)
You want turkeys? We’ve got ‘em! Look, if you please:
There are four of those fowl – and two little bees.
Eight pretty song birds inhabit some places,
And three little mice, with little mice faces.
Twelve pinecones just waiting, all prickly and scaly,
And twenty-five pins, the kind you use daily.
Three hoops, eight marbles, three trees you can find
Forty-two bobbins and spools spring to mind.
Oh dear! Find a deer – you’ll only find one!
An aficot, too! And still – you’re not done!
A bucket of apples, juicy and sweet,
Eleven candy corns – a detestable delectable treat.
Two candles, two mushrooms (each a fungi),
Three elephants, too – go find them! Just try!
Five scissors are there, some big and some small,
With two laying tools, and my friends, that is all!
Thanksgiving Jigsaw
I love jigsaw puzzles. They are my favorite winter “quiet” (non-needlework) pastime at home, when the weather is inside-weather. A good audio book, a good puzzle, a hot cup of tea. The only thing that could make it better is a visitor who enjoys a good audio book, a good puzzle, and a hot cup of tea! Anyone want to join me?
Well, since we can’t work one together in person, here’s an online Thanksgiving Jigsaw you can enjoy!
You’ll find the official 2025 Thanksgiving I-Spy Jigsaw Puzzle from Needle ‘n Thread here.
Happy Thanksgiving! And I’ll see you next week as we continue our stitch-along project for Twinkle, Twinkle – getting close to the finish!
This is what I get for being civilized
Nov. 27th, 2025 09:44 amNicked by M. T. Anderson
Nov. 27th, 2025 09:40 am
A pious monk is dispatched on a mission about which he has serious reservations: steal the bones of St. Nicolas.
Nicked by M. T. Anderson
Cats
Nov. 27th, 2025 12:26 pmI am thereby caught, because they already had one they were looking for a good home for. His current name is Quata, and he’s a medium haired tabby.
The reason he’s an indoor-only cat is because he has cerebellar hypoplasia, also known as “wobbly cat syndrome”. He’s a sweetheart and not as wobbly as some cats I’ve seen with that condition, but is definitely best kept indoors.
He arrives at my place on Saturday afternoon. I am going to change his name to Geraint, which is a solid Welsh name.
Opal
Opal is over grooming, and I’m not sure why. The area in her middle back is devoid of fur, but she won’t let me put ointment on her, even though it would help. It’s a worry.
I can’t take her to the vet this week as I’m not paid again until Friday, and had a lot of expenses this month, what with cremating Smokey and having to pay the man for repairs on my fence. Fences, as I discovered, are not covered by buildings insurance.