New Weird

[Regenbogen]

Hello, everyone!
How are you?

I've been ill for a week. I am still not exactly well but definitely better than on the weekend. Some people have covid, some have something else.
Even our cat Lisa had a cold. She was treated with antibiotics and now she is well again. The vet told me to keep her inside until the snot is gone. It was very cold and wet outside, so she only complained for a little while, because I opened the door for the other two but she had to stay inside, poor kitty. The others were nice and brought a lot of winter birds inside. I managed to safe only one. The others were either already dead or dying. The one I saved managed to escape and flew around in the kitchen dropping shit everywhere. Yay. It took me almost an hour to catch the bird. But I managed to bring it outside and it flew away.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_blue_tit

There are a lot of these here. We also feed them sunflower seeds during winter time. I try to hang the feeders where cats can't reach them.

Yesterday, there was a woodpecker on the half dead apple tree again.


I have finished the Sandman Slim books. They were a great read, if you are not feeling touchy about Christian beliefs. Sometimes they felt a bit like Dresden going Deadpool starring in Mad Max. The last one was not that good plotwise, but it still left the opportunity to continue in the end. And I have read somewhere that the author is currently writing the next book.
The first one read a bit like just one guy wanting revenge and I wasn't sure if I wanted to read more in this style. But there was some promise of character development and interesting world building that kept me reading and I wasn't disappointed.  I read all 12 books without pause.

Norwegian feels like a mix of German and English so far. But I think understanding spoken words is more difficult, because of the pronunciation and because they tend to swallow the ends of words which makes them almost sound like another different word, if you know what I mean.
But I like the sound of the language.

[Dina]

Regen! I've missed you so much.
I am sorry you were ill and I am glad you are feeling better. Hope you get super well soon.
Those birds are lovely! I am glad you could save one, sorry it left you so many "gifts". You are a good person for spending so much time to save one. I am sad for the other ones, but Nature is hard. And it is good that Lisa is better too. I imagine with Winter coming the kittens will rather stay at home.

Hubby told me about your exploits in Duo, so congratulations! And I think what you said about Norwegian makes a lot of sense. I once saw a video about oral Norwegian, and oh my God. That reminds me I've been watching a couple of videos about the Korean alphabet, which is, by design, super easy to learn. It is a very interesting story. Korean used Chinese characters, but the grammar was different, so it was super complicated.  And only a few people could read. But then, a Korean king decided to create a new alphabet that everyone could learn super fast.

[BugBear]

Hello Weird, and the forum at large. As a long time lurker, I just wanted to say thanks for always being here over the years. I'm delving back into the DF and refreshing myself on everything, so maybe I'll be around. Even if not, I look forward to talking about 12 months with all of you.

[Dina]

Awww, that is so sweet! Thank you BugBear. We are so looking forward to 12 months! 89% done. It would be great if you share the waiting and the wonderful time of the first reading with us.

[Regenbogen]

Hello Weird, and the forum at large. As a long time lurker, I just wanted to say thanks for always being here over the years. I'm delving back into the DF and refreshing myself on everything, so maybe I'll be around. Even if not, I look forward to talking about 12 months with all of you.

Hello, BugBear!

What Dina said  🤓 and I hope we will have 12Months by summer or autumn next year.
Time to start getting excited.

[Regenbogen]

So, hello again.

Today my husband was at the hospital to have surgery on his purulent toe. He has had that bad toe for a few months now. A toe nail grown badly into the skin. Against all advise from me and others, he did not go to the doctor before. Instead he tried to treat it on his own, which obviously didn't work. Last week I had enough and told him, that he cannot expect pity, once they amputate and that he might be lucky to be able to keep the foot. Ok, I exaggerated, but all the sweet talking didn't work, so I used more drastic methods, lol.
Yesterday he finally went to the doctor in our village who was quite shocked and immediately sent him to the hospital, because he could not risk cutting this open. I guess he was afraid of sepsis and other complications. A hospital was clearly the better choice. Today they cut it open. Now he has to let it heal slowly, which will definitely take until next year.
We don't know yet, if they left part of the toenail, but thank God the bone wasn't infected. The amputation part of my rant wasn't so far fetched.

He said that he is always very hopeful, but in my opinion this was pure stubbornness, lol.
But out of love I repressed my "told you so."

Yeah, that was our funny adventure today.


Other news: our new sofa will arrive on Thursday next week.  Just so you know that from this point of time there will be an old red sofa haunting the paranet. Just be nice and sit on it from time to time, maybe put some stuffing back in. Or else it will haunt you and EAT YOU ALIIIIIIIIVE!!!! Mwahaharrrrr!


I am listening to The Law again. Just to hear Jim Butcher's voice, lol. And because my other audio book was finished when I was still on my way and I could not download the next one while still driving. But The Law was still on my phone so I just started this one.

Hope you are well.
R.

Edit: typos

[Dina]

Oooh. I am sorry about your husband. I mean, part of the problem was, of course, that he waited so much. My hubby is like that and even worse, but I won't tell more details here. Only that I understand you and I applaud you for saying "enough". I  wish your husband a good recovery and if you refrain from the "told you so" you really love him 

New old sofa!! I will put a sweater in it. For some reason, I always found the idea of a sweater casually laying over a sofa so homey and cozy.

Today is a very hot day. To make things worse, we had an event at the university. All the research groups in our Department made a sort of meeting, it is something we do every five years or so. A person from each group does a presentation, telling the others what they are working in and with what methods. Results are better left out, as interested people can find the papers, but the methods can light a buln in someone else. By the way, I did the lecture for my group. But the thing is that the lectures were on a big classrom with no air conditioning! (due to malfunction, not the lack of i). And the place was very hot.

Oh, and we are struggling with Disney  The thing is, the authorities of the university decided a couple of years ago that they could rent part of our campus (the one normally used for sports) to events, for a nice sum, of course. And so, we have several days of an event, called Disney's magic Christmas or something like that. And due to that even, the buses stop entering (and leaving) the campus at 16:00. So annoying. Luckily today I left before 14:00 even, because I left just after the meeting I just told you about. But the Disney event will have functions every day from a week or so.

[Dina]

update: my part on the event went well. Thursday was another very hot day. Friday stayed working at home, so I stayed away of the Disney shenaningans. Today, we will see. At least, temperature is nicer.

[BugBear]

Regen, I have to plead guilty to reluctance about doctors, but never so badly I risked infecting bones! I'm glad to hear nothing crucial had to be cut off. And speaking of sofas, I just helped someone move theirs. A curse borne by all who own a truck. I am very tired.

Dina, glad to hear your presentation went smoothly. Hopefully you set off a few light bulbs (with any luck, perhaps ones about transportation arrangements when Disney is in town). It has also mellowed out here, but in the opposite direction.

[Dina]

[quote author=BugBear link=topic=54777.msg2362820#msg2362820 date=1734401113
Dina, glad to hear your presentation went smoothly. Hopefully you set off a few light bulbs (with any luck, perhaps ones about transportation arrangements when Disney is in town). It has also mellowed out here, but in the opposite direction.
[/quote]

Thank you  . And well, Summer is coming here. Days are moderately cool this week. I mean, the afternoons are quite warms, but the nights and early mornings are quite cooler. It is also sunny.

[Regenbogen]

Hi!

The new sofa is great. It is a bit bigger than the old one and there is enough space for all of us.
I've already tested watching TV from all positions, lol.


There were all kinds of clothes on the old sofa. Occasionally one would find a sock or something else in it's crevices. So, just look for something when you sit on it. Maybe there are still some sweets left.

My husband's toe is getting better. He can walk better now though it still hurts. This will take some time.

@BugBear:
I understand not wanting to go to the doctor.  I too don't want to go. On Friday I accompanied my husband to see how they do the bandages,  so I can do it properly, during the holidays. But there is no need anymore. They said to let it get some air to heal now. Just some protective gauze and that's it.

This year, we have a very small tree. I hope, it is too small and boring for the cats to climb on it.
So far, only Lisa has seen it and tried to catch some of the decorations. Appearantly this made her tired, because she has been asleep ever since.

It is Christmas evening. This is when the Christkind brings the presents here. I think I wrote something about it last year: this is where the name Chris Kringle is supposed to be derived from. The Christkind comes more in the southern parts of Germany and in Austria. Probably Switzerland too, though I am not sure.
The other parts of Germany have the Weihnachtsmann (similar to Santa Clause), who resembles Saint Nikolaus of Myra.

We are doing fondue again like every year. This is not an official tradition. Most people I know will eat sausages with potato salad. But in my family, we decided to have something special for Christmas, so fondue it was.

[Dina]

Hi everyone!

Regen, it is good to hear that your husband is better, I hope he stops hurting soon.

I am glad your new sofa is so good. I imagine you did a lot of experimentation with sitting in it. For science, of course.

And yes, the other day I was alone here and I sat in your old coach and pet it, so to welcome it here. He produced a very small sock, so I think he liked me. I was wondering if I would find a couple of euro cents, but not such luck so far 

That was a good idea about having a little tree. I think mine looks good. I made it in steps this year? How, do you ask? Well, I know I told you already that the tradition is decorating the tree on December 8th (Virgin Mary's without sin conception Day) but this year it was a Sunday, and I had other things to do, including zoom with friends, and I was also very tired. So I installed the tree in its place, I put it about 5 or 6 ornament, a piece of tinsel and the small pesebre (the representation of the moment where baby Jesus arrived and the shepherds went to worship him) stucture with only Mary and Joseph in it. Next day, Monday, it was too hot. I had intended to finished the decoration, but I did not feel like it, so I only added a few more ornaments. And only the next day (or the following day, I am not sure) I finished with the tree and a few other ornaments around the place 

Children here are waiting for Papá Noel, who will arrive at midnight. I think I told you before that 50 years ago or so, Papá Noel was not a big thing here. In some of our provinces, the child Jesus arrived to bring presents but in my city in general, people just exchanged gifts and the children received the magical extra gifts on January 6th, courtesy of the the Wise Men. Now, they still arrive on January 6th but the main gifts come with Papá Noel I think.

Fondue is a wonderful idea and I would totally do it if I was in Winter. We will have a fresh and simple food, with some salads, pionono, sandwiches and of course ice cream 

well, so, my dear friends here in the forum
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!   💖🌟🎁🎄🎅🏽✨✨🥂🎉

[Dina]

Oh, sorry for the double post, but Spot asked me to wish everyone in the forum Happy Holidays! from her part.

[Regenbogen]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Dina!!!!!

For science, of course.

Only for science, of course.

@all: Happy Holidays!


The old red sofa gave me a pencil tonight. I am waiting for the next time. Probably I will receive some paper. I think it means for me to draw something to put into the sofa for the next one to find.

Today we will eat the rest of the fondue, go to the cemetary to say happy birthday to my dad and then to my mama to drink coffee and eat cake.

[Dina]

Happy Christmas!
Cake and coffee is always an excellent idea!
Another excellent idea is the one about the sofa wanting you to draw something. It would be a nice surprised for the next person sitting in it. I sat there today and it gave me a tiny sparkling star, the kind you could find as a Christmas tree ornament. So I am taking it home, to grace my little tree.