Our Daily Thread 1-3-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1521 Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther.

In 1777 the Battle of Princeton took place. George Washington defeated the British forces, led by Cornwallis.

In 1888 the drinking straw was patented by Marvin C. Stone.

In 1924 English explorer Howard Carter discovered the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.

In 1938 the March of Dimes was established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

And in 1959 Alaska became the 49th state.

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Quotes of the Day

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

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“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”

J. R. R. Tolkien

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Today would be Victor Borge’s birthday.

On this day in 1900 this was first performed in New York City.

And it’s my favorite QB’s birthday. So here’s some highlights (not many of those this year), with some 3 Dog Night. 🙂

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Anyone have a QoD for us?

59 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-3-14

  1. Speaking up for those poor Canadians slandered by an unnamed person from Idaho: Most of us look at the picture on the box when we’re putting together a puzzle. That’s half the point of having a photo on the box. (It’s also there, of course, to entice you to buy the puzzle in the first place.)

    QoD: what family events are you looking forward to in the coming year? For us, we have a daughter’s graduation, a family reunion for my side of the family (first one in 15 years–my sister’s firstborn was an infant and he just had his 15th birthday), and a mini vacation for the four of us, our first. (The family has gone as a family before I joined them, and my husband and I have gone as a couple, but not the four of us. We’re going to get three nights away.)

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  2. Not everyone likesTolkein’s poetry. But I do. It is perceptive.
    I got up at 6:10 this morning to go to the Y.
    It was 14 degrees (It’s 12 now), and some snow on the ground, and the wind is blowing.
    I went back to bed and stayed ’till 6:50.
    I could have still been first, couldn’t I?

    I know we don’t have it like some of you, but I”m thankful for a warm house.
    In Washington, some are sleeping on grates. Maybe they found a bed in the rescue missions.
    When we lived in Annandale, Elvera always worried about the men on grates. I never knew what the women did. Most of them chose other lifestiles, but there were “bag ladies” out there.
    My dad slept in a rescue mission in Charleston in 1941.

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  3. QoD,

    We’re actually in the middle of one such event right now Cheryl. My MiL is visiting from Virginia. It’s been nice having her here, and my wife and daughter are really enjoying the time with GrandMa. 🙂

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  4. Family events?
    Mary is going to have a baby anytime now. He’s due on 9 January. Mary says “any time”; she’s ready.
    And Becky’s Brian finishes his doctorate this year, sometime.

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  5. Seems like it gets cold in Hendersonville every time January comes.
    I didn’t know until I got here, but the apple growers are happy for the cold weather.
    The apple trees need to be dormant for a long period, or they won’t bloom. I don’t know how long, maybe a couple of months.

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  6. Is it just me or are the snowflakes falling on this page bigger than they used to be?

    QoD: My sister-in-law wants to get everyone together in the summer sometime, instead of always waiting until Thanksgiving or Christmas. So maybe this summer we’ll do that.

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  7. Chas, maybe you will get a baby on the 6th. It is a good day for a birthday.
    Daughter in Law has stated that they are working on a reason to put a crib in their spare room. 😉
    We are thinking about going to visit them at Easter.
    Ex-husband has accomplished sommething I never did. It seems that Baby Girl cannot stand the Obamas. Every time she complains about not being able to buy Doritos at lunch, he asks her if she knows whose fault that is. Michelle Obama’s fault that’s who it is.

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  8. My baby is graduating from college in June. Our Stargazer should get his PhD in the late fall. My husband’s side of the family is hoping for a reunion at Thanksgiving . Next week our missionary H returns to stay with us for 4 months as she continues to sort out visa issues with Italy.

    Many of us are considering a trip to Seattle on March 8 when my nephew is slated to start his first game as THE goalie for the National Champions Kansas City Sporting soccer team!

    Other than that, they’re supposed to leave me alone so I can write my book! 🙂

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  9. Oh, Canada, what have you done? The picture is for selling purposes. The whole idea of the puzzle is to puzzle out the pieces and how they fit together. Next thing you know, you will be telling me you do crosswords in pencil….

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  10. Yes, they do sell snow ball making kits. I suppose they sell sand castle kits as well. And you have not answered the question: do you look at the box? Do you use a pencil?

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  11. Mumsee- my brother had a math teacher who said the height of pride is doing math and crosswords in pen. (Or maybe it was overconfidence.) Anyway, I know very few people who don’t look at the picture when doing jigsaw puzzles. The only puzzle I ever saw where the picture didn’t help was one my aunt had. It was a round, 500 piece puzzle with all red pieces. When finished it was a circle about 1.5 feet in diameter.

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  12. ~~~WARNING~~~: This is a sports post, not a pet post!

    Sometimes I wish I did go ahead and pay for cable or satellite TV, such as the game last night. Looks like I missed an exciting one. Too bad for Alabama. At least the Mizzou vs Oklahoma State game tonight is on Fox broadcast channel so I can see it.

    Speaking of football, Chas and IBNO are winning the Bowl Game version of Peter’s Pack of Pickled Pigskin Picks with 5 correct, three games to go. It will come down to the tie breaker since that is the only game on which they differ.

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  13. My son will graduate with his mdiv, I think. And his wife will have their third in March. The family is having a reunion in June, which I will not be attending.
    I am looking forward to next Christmas when I will be home for six months! And I will have the missions house so, if family comes, they can stay with me.
    Had a great shopping trip yesterday. Got two years worth of vitamin C, allergy pills, etc. at Costco and elsewhere found a light jacket with coordinating scarf. Something that I have been looking for for a long time. It was so helpful to go with friends and get advice.

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  14. Never do math in pen, always pencil. I thought that was the rule. It is here. I do crosswords in pen because I am very prideful. Or because I cannot see the pencil on the newsprint. Or because that was the way my grandfather and mother always did them so I thought you were supposed to, until my father in law made some comment.

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  15. Hah, you know it’s been a long stretch of cold weather when you open your windows at 7F just to get some fresh air into the house!

    We also have windchill warnings for the weekend of between of -49F and -67F!!! Ugh. So thankful for my down-filled coat.

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  16. That picture could have been taken out my back window except that we don’t have a pond. There are some ponds in the neighborhood, though.

    Misten found out this morning what deep snow means. It’s cold out–in the teens now, colder earlier–but she has gone out several times. Well, she meandered onto the deck and without realizing it into a drift. Next thing she knew, she was belly deep in snow, and the look on her face said she hadn’t expected that. “Am I stuck? What happened? Boy, that stuff is cold on my tummy!” My husband went to the door and she willingly came in . . . only to ask to go out again minutes later. (Hey, if you have a long fur coat, you might as well use it!)

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  17. It is so windy here today. We went over to Harbor Town for a bit and I saw a nice jigsaw puzzle, 500 pieces, showing a giant heart outlined by running shoes of pleasant hues (poet, don’tcha know it). Its sales goes to benefit the Boston marathon victims. It would be nice to do for Valentine’s Day with a young person.

    Yesterday as the weather was changing there was quite a bit of fog. I went two years to Georgia Southern which is about an hour away and it was often foggy there in the winter.

    We have to leave much earlier than usual to pick up Bosley. Long time no see. I have tried not to worry, but have been under the weather some this week and wondered if it was from missing that little kitten. When I took her for boarding she had gained some weight already. She was over two pounds. Hope she held it this week.

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  18. Karen may be out of electricity . . . It’s 65 and sunny here in CA.

    Work got canceled for me today so I ran errands this morning. I got into a discussion at the Christian Bookstore with a woman about the power of prayer–we were standing in front of Stormie Omartian’s books. The conversation went deep fast and we ended by praying together and an exchange of cards–she wants to keep talking to me.

    Curious how God orchestrates our affairs. I detest that store and rarely go, but there I was just when some one needed to talk.

    In other news, I didn’t mean to post it quite so soon (I wanted to think about it a little more), but I read a fascinating book about the author of It is Well With My Soul and his wife. She basically ended up running a cult group in Jerusalem–but they did good work, so I couldn’t quite label them a cult in my blog post. You can see it here: http://bit.ly/1l5uOKn

    I love that song but I’m not sure I’ll ever sing it quite the same again. 😦

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  19. Amusingly, I just finished a puzzle with the two little folk (between bonbons and naps) and as we finished, daughter picked up the box from where it had been placed away, so she could put it away. She commented that the picture on the box looked just like the picture we had done. Son asked why they did that. I had to explain the dynamics of sales. Never occurred to them that there were people out there who looked at the box as they were working the puzzle.

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  20. Say, isn’t it Friday? … Perhaps Peter is busy shoveling snow. Nevertheless, it is Friday…

    Yes, it’s Friday. It’s called being off for two full weeks in a row and not really paying close attention to the days of the week. And I did shovel a little snow. We don’t have much yet, but there are predictions of 2-5″ for the weekend. I also had to go get tires for the second car. Otherwise I fell like we pretend Mumsee is- lazing around doing little but reading and playing Scrabble on the computer. And tonight it’s college football, tomorrow NFL playoffs. Let it snow!

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  21. You have to have snow to use the snowball kit, don’t you?

    In honor of Bosley’s return to her new home, we now take a “pet thread” break.

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  22. Mumsee! You’ve brainwashed them – the damage that could result from never looking at the box to do a jigsaw puzzle is untold. :-p

    Our main family event is over for another 360 days or so. Sniff… We said goodbye to eldest sibling and her brood this morning. I miss the little voices, even when screaming or arguing.
    We are however, looking forward to another reunion which will be earlier than usual, this spring in fact. Second sibling is getting married! As eldest and youngest are already married (there are four of us), that means I’m last man… err, woman standing – not only of the siblings, but also of the over twenty cousins on the maternal side. My family has noticed the fact and speak of matchmaking and other dire threats 😆

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  23. It was -22 C on the thermometer this morning (that converts to -7.6 F). A little hard to take when you are used to temperatures in the +40 C range (+110 F).

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  24. In case that isn’t clear, she’s up to her belly in snow, not lying on top of it. And the look on her face really said, “What?! Who’s going to dig me out now?”

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  25. Peter,

    I have no idea what you’re talking about. Everything looks fine to me. Perhaps you’re having a senior moment? 😯

    🙂

    Just kidding, I actually had the wrong year on all 3 of today’s posts. 🙂

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  26. Oh, Mumsee–notice that the dog is OUTSIDE. Or at least that is where we get snow in Indiana. (Of course, very soon she decided it was time to come in and warm up. But that might be partly because she has this really bad habit of doing her major shedding in December and January. It didn’t matter much in Tennessee, but it matters in Indiana.)

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  27. If she was allowed to stay outside, she would probably keep her coat for the winter. Of course, that would require you guys moving outside with her.

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  28. Why would we have to move outside with her? I mean she’s a pretty special dog and she loves it when we are outside with her, but this is the first I’ve heard of some such requirement.

    And if she can’t figure out it’s winter when she’s outside for several hours a day, and keep her coat, why would she figure it out just being outside longer?

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  29. AJ- I noticed the date on all three, but just mentioned this one. Oh, well. There were lots of times when the first few checks I wrote in January had the wrong year on them. (And every moment for me is a señor moment. 😉 )

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