Merry Christmas Crying With Santa, Ruby, Theo & David

This is one of my all-time favorite photos.

I'd estimate this photo was taken over a decade ago.

That is Ruby and Theo being expressive on Santa's lap.

Ruby and Theo became teenagers last Sunday, hence the decade ago estimate.

Big brother, David, looks away, looking amused.

I have never eye witnessed any of the Tacoma Trio crying.

When I've been around the three they spend most of the time being funny and laughing...

Gigglemugging Lucy Park Pagoda Before Chasing Santa On A Motorcycle

It was back to Lucy Park today to do some fast Wednesday walking on the day after Winter began.

Today was a t-shirt and shorts warm outdoor day.

Currently Christmas Eve is scheduled to be heated into the 80s, with record breaking highs. Same prediction for Christmas.

Which makes it zero probability there will be a White Christmas at my location.

I think I have experienced more White Christmases in Texas than all my years in Washington.

I seem to have lost my ability to take a proper selfie photo, with the necessary sober serious look. Instead, being overcome with the holiday spirit has me uncontrollably gigglemugging.

Scraping the sky behind me is the Lucy Park Pagoda. I have yet to get an explanation for this Pagoda. Next time I attend a service at Bob's Buddhist Temple of the Golden Dome I will try and ask my fellow Buddhists if any know the answer to this serious question.

With the underbrush foliage mostly gone, til Spring, today I saw I could get off the Circle Trail and walk the bank of the Wichita River. When I saw this was doable I thought it might lead to being able to take a photo of the Lucy Park Suspension Bridge showing its entire span of the river.

The result did not turn out as I'd hoped.

So, I turned the phone around and took my favorite type of selfie photo. That line you see across the river is the shadow of the suspension bridge. If you look real close you can see the suspension bridge above its shadow.

After the walking was done for the day, as I fired up the engine of my motorized transport I saw something speed by I had never seen before.

Santa on a motorcycle.

I soon was in pursuit, eventually catching up to Santa at the exit from Lucy Park intersection with the Seymour Highway, where a red light had stopped the man in red, allowing me to catch up.

Above you are looking through my somewhat dirty windshield at the stopped Santa, waiting for the light to turn green. As cars passed they honked and Santa waved at them.

 And then the light turned green and Santa took off like a rocket. I followed Santa, turning right on Brook Avenue, then lost him when I got stopped by a red light.

Seeing Santa on a motorbike is the type thing that has me in a gigglemugging tidings of joy mood. It won't last. By the time the new year arrives I should be back my usual sour dour self...

A Merry Christmas From Hank Frank & Spencer Jack With Cousin Jeff

The above arrived in my mailbox yesterday. Sent from Washington. Which would make that Hank Frank Jones wishing me a Merry Christmas. 

Hank Frank is the first born son of my favorite nephew Joey and my favorite niece-in-law, Monique.

Is niece-in-law an actual thing? Or did I just make it up?

I can not tell for sure, but it looks like Hank Frank is working in his orchard, posing for the family Christmas card photo.

Hank Frank's orchard, and home abode, is located in what are known as the Skagit Flats. One of the most fertile agricultural areas on the planet. Most famous for the acres of tulips and other bulb bloomers which color up the Skagit Valley each Spring, bringing tourists, daily, by the thousands, every year, to the valley, totaling well over a million visitors by the time each year's Skagit Valley Tulip Festival comes to its month long end.

Hank Frank had birthday number two in September. I was expecting to meet Hank Frank for the first time, along with meeting his mother for the first time, last summer, but those plans went awry.

I am hoping to get to meet Hank Frank before he turns three years old. But, so far, no solid plan to be in Washington next Summer has actually been actualized.

I also have a significant number high school class reunion which takes place next summer. I have indicated zero interest in attending that event. However, I have agreed to doing the get together thing with those from way back then, whom I actually would like to see...

Seconds after I typed the ... after the word "see" incoming email came in from Hank Frank's uncle Jason and cousin Spencer Jack. The email included the photo you see below and the following text...

FUD --  

Spencer photographed me with what I believe is a cardboard cut out of your first cousin. We were holiday shopping at Yeager's in Bellingham this afternoon when we ran into Santa.  Aka Jeff. Thought you'd enjoy the picture...

Cousin Jeff is my dad's brother's eldest son. For years now cousin Jeff has been one of Whatcom County's Santa Clauses. I last saw cousin Jeff on August 12, 2017, in Lynden. It was Summer, but Jeff was still sporting his all natural white Santa Claus beard.

I am guessing during this COVID Christmas year that Santas are not doing their regular duty in my old home state. Thus Cousin Jeff being turned into a Yeager's cardboard Santa.

As for Yeager's. That is a sprawling old-fashioned department store in Bellingham. I have never seen a Yeager's type store in Texas.

In Washington I knew of several of the Yeager's type store. Does Chubby & Tubby still exist in Seattle? I bought my all time favorite inflatable raft at Chubby & Tubby's years ago. Does Northern Sales still exist in Mount Vernon? Maybe I will remember to Google Chubby & Tubby and Northern Sales and get an answer to these probing questions.

I wonder why it was not Spencer Jack posing with Santa Jeff, rather than his dad?

I suspect Spencer Jack was not agreeable to doing such, but was agreeable to being the photographer...

Ice Skating With Santa On Ruby & Theo's 8th Happy Birthday

According to my sometimes reliable sources December 17 is the happy birthday of my favorite twins, my one and only niece, Ruby, and my one and only Theo nephew.

The twins are now 8 years old.

The twins happy birthday events took place this past weekend.

Those happy birthday events included swimming at the pool where they learned to swim.

And going ice skating at something called Sprinkler, an ice rink in the Tacoma suburb called Spanaway.

Or is Spanaway a Seattle suburb? I don't remember.

In addition to ice skating the Sprinkler happy birthday party included a pancake breakfast with Santa in attendance.

The twins and big brother, David, felt this Santa had total North Pole Santa credentials, due to his icy appearance at an ice rink.

That and because when Theo's friend, who is also named Theo, had his visit with Santa, the man in red with the big white beard informed Theo #2 that he would be losing a tooth that very same day.

Soon thereafter Theo #2's loose tooth came out, thus seeming to give this Santa super Santa powers.

Below we are looking at Theo, David and Ruby having an intense talk with that aforementioned future telling Santa. Did Santa tell the twins and David that their favorite uncle might be visiting them some time in the coming year?

Below we are looking at my all time favorite Santa Claus photo, from, I would estimate, around five or six years ago, with Ruby and Theo not enjoying the Santa visit, whilst an amused David looks away.

Back from looking at Santa's past to this past weekend.

I assumed the Spanaway Sprinkler ice rink is an indoor rink, but those snow flakes Ruby appears to be skating with would seem to indicate this is an outdoor ice rink. Except, I do not believe the Western Washington Puget Sound lowlands have had any snow falling yet this snowy time of the year.

I only remember trying to ice skate once. It did not go well. Years later I mastered the art of roller blading. I wonder if being able to roller blade translates into a successful ice skating experience. I may never know...

Bike Ride To MSU Santa & Peter Pan Battling Captain Hook With Pirates Of The Caribbean Wenches

Saturday and Sunday strong wind blew cold air at my location on the planet. This frigidity had me not wanting to ride my bike or climb a mountain.

And now, on Monday, even though rain is supposedly on the weather menu, there is no wind, dead calm, nothing blowing.

And so, even though the outer world is cloudy and chilled to the middle 50s, with only a little extra layering I was able to take myself on a long roll of my wheels, first to Sikes Lake, eventually to Hamilton Park and the Circle Trail, but before I got there I rolled through MSU (Midwestern State University) and stopped to visit one of the multiple Santas currently holding court over a large assemblage of Christmas Holiday Season type installations still in being installed mode.

Among those installations is the pirate ship you see below.

I am not sure, but I think this pirate ship is Peter Pan themed. The name of the ship is Jolly Roger. A damsel in distress is tied to a mast, looking like she is being tormented by evil eyed pirates, whilst what appears to be Peter Pan is battling what looks to be the sword wielding captain of the ship, looking like Captain Hook, because, well, one arm has a hook instead of a hand at its termination point.

This pirate ship holiday season installation seems to be a bit out of sync with the times. Didn't I recently read that Disneyland has edited The Pirates of the Caribbean to no longer have scary drunken pirates chasing scared wenches?

I have not been to Disneyland since Christmas day of 1994. At that point in time the pirates were still chasing those scared wenches  The wench chasing part of the ride was one of my favorite parts, going all the way back to the first time I took the dead men tell no tales boat plunge to enter the mayhem of the Disneyland pirate world.

My mom and dad were along for the ride the first time I experienced Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe that's why the pirates chasing the wenches did not seem all that frightening. I was more disturbed by It's a Small World and all those singing Precious Moments type figures singing that annoying song over and over and over again.

I just realized, whilst thinking about riding Pirates of the Caribbean with mom and dad, for the first time, decades ago, that the last time I rode a theme park type ride with mom and dad was in November of 1995, at Luxor in Las Vegas. I was staying at Treasure Island, mom and dad were nearing the end of their retirement trek across America. They met up with me. I left who I was with in Vegas to go with mom and dad to Luxor, where we buffeted and then rode the Luxor virtual reality ride which makes one think one is flying to the center of the world in search of an obelisk, or some such thing. Mom was amusing. Sort of terrified. But, she recovered enough to give me a big box of Christmas presents to haul north to distribute.

As for Pirates of the Caribbean. I Googled to find the correct name for the It's a Small World ride and this brought up a YouTube video with the entire Pirates of the Caribbean ride, start to finish. That ride, along with the rest of Disneyland is one of the many reasons I found Six Flags Over Texas so totally lame the first time I visited that theme park.

Take the video ride below, if you've never been to Disneyland and ridden the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The ride starts slow, building drama, stay with it til the first time you hear dead men tell no tales. Then the video goes dark for a bit, not managing to catch the shock of what actually happens, when your boat sort of goes over a waterfall to enter the world of the Pirates of the Caribbean, eventually ending with the pirate Jack Sparrow counting his treasure.

The blurb accompanying the video....

Avast ye land lubbers! Set forth with this HD Front Seat POV on one of the best Dark Rides every created. Disneyland never disappoints and Pirates of the Caribbean is always a crowd pleaser....

Final October Sunday Bike Ride To Wichita Falls MSU Santa Train

Today, this last Sunday of October, the temperature in the outer world was warm enough, unlike the previous couple days, to facilitate a comfortable bike ride without need of excessive insulating material.

So, I rolled my wheels through my Caribbean neighborhood and then left Nassau for a loop around Sikes Lake, before crossing over a not busy Midwestern Boulevard to do some uncongested, mostly student-free, touring of the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus.

I was doing my wheel rolling, having myself a mighty fine time, when suddenly I was startled to see Santa Claus waving at me from a train.

Three days before Halloween, about a month before Thanksgiving, two months before Christmas, and Santa is already doing his business in Wichita Falls.

I stopped, got off my bike, aimed the handlebars at the shameless Santa and photo documented that which I saw.

It was not just Santa and his train. On the grounds all around Santa there were other Christmas displays getting ready for the apparently already beginning Holiday Season.

I remember last year when these things began showing up, with me having no clue what it was, being new to town. Soon to learn this is an annual Holiday Season display. It is quite an elaborate operation. Many of the displays have animated illuminated aspects.

I would imagine setting all this up is quite time consuming, and difficult, hence beginning the process even before Trick or Treating is done for the year.

Talking To Linda Spencer Jack's Grandpa Reports Santa Found Mom & Dad

Little Miss Linda called me this afternoon from my old home zone of Mount Vernon, Washington.

During the course of talking to Little Miss Linda my phone made its incoming text message noise.

Also during the course of talking to Little Miss Linda mention was made of my mom and dad.

When Little Miss Linda hung up on me I checked the text message to see that it was from Spencer Jack's grandpa, who also happens to be my little brother, Jake.

The text in the message said "Santa finds mom and dad".

That would be mom and dad, above, with Santa. I have no idea where Santa found my parental units. It looks like a semi-outdoor venue. It does not look like a McDonald's semi-outdoor venue. My mom and dad semi-regularly go to McDonald's on Sunday.

When Little Miss Linda and I first began conversing today Linda mentioned that snow was on the menu for the Puget Sound lowlands. Linda said you know how that goes, the prediction usually does not come true. And then whilst we were talking Linda suddenly says snow flakes are now falling.

It is fairly rare for the Puget Sound lowlands to get snow, particularly the Skagit Valley, which is known as a banana belt, stuck between two convergence zones which usually block snow which might fall copiously just a few miles north, in Whatcom County.

I read a couple days ago that all Washington's Cascade Mountain ski areas are already open. There has been a winter or two over the years when not enough snow falls to open the ski resorts.

I don't know when the Texas ski areas will be opening. Oh, that's right, there aren't any....

Raspberry Jalapeno Jam & Santa At The Wichita Falls Arts & Crafts Show

No, what you are looking at is not the notorious Downtown Fort Worth Santa Claus whose bad behavior aggravated a lot of people of late.

What you are looking at is Santa Claus at the Wichita West Arts & Crafts Show in the JS Bridwell Agricultural Center in beautiful downtown Wichita Falls, where Santa does not refuse to see kids waiting to see him, unlike what is allowed to happen in Downtown Fort Worth

The Wichita Falls Santa was with the West Wichita Falls Firemen, hence the unusual Santa hat.

The Arts & Crafts Show runs from today, til tomorrow. I did not know what to expect. A small amount of people, such as I've seen at the downtown Wichita Falls Farmers Market. Or a lot of people like at the downtown Wichita Falls Farmers Market Watermelon Festival.

Well. As you can see below there were a lot of people perusing local Arts & Crafts.

I'm guessing food counts as a craft. One crafter had handcrafted jalepeno jam in various flavors. I tried the raspberry jalapeno. At first I thought it had no jalapeno kick, just a strong raspberry flavor. And then the kick hit. Good stuff. I bought a jar.

Another look below of the crowd of Arts & Crafts seekers.

One art crafter had signage informing that he was a Texas Veteran. All his crafting had a patriotic flavor to it.

In the center of the above photo of the Texas Veteran's products is a plaque which says "If you can read this thank a teacher. If you can read this in English thank you military".

I would hazard to guess this Texan Veteran likely voted for Trump. Then again one of his plaques says "You Can't Fix Stupid"......

Growing Disgust Over Downtown Fort Worth's Bad Santa Scandal

No, that is not the notorious Fort Worth Santa Claus terrorizing kids you are looking at here.

Yesterday I blogged about the Fort Worth Bad Sundance Square Santa Leaving Kids Crying.

Overnight that blog post accumulated a number of page views I have not seen previously in so short a time frame.

Apparently the Fort Worth Santa Scandal is of interest to a lot of people. I hope this does not hurt the number of downtown Fort Worth's booming post Thanksgiving shoppers.

Oh, that's right. I forgot that downtown Fort Worth is a ghost town on the busiest shopping days of the year, due to being the only downtown of a large American city with no downtown department stores.

I have blogged about the downtown Fort Worth post-Thanksgiving ghost town multiple times, in bloggings such as Having Fun Looking For Black Friday Shoppers Today In Downtown Fort Worth.

Apparently a large number of people have been appalled by the Fort Worth Santa Scandal. I wonder if the Downtown Fort Worth Inc. people have taken measures to make sure downtown Fort Worth never breaks the Santa seeking hearts of any little kids ever again.

I suspect nothing has been done. Fort Worth has a long storied history of doing nothing about things about which something should be done, which would never happen in a civilized American city.

I have been asking people in other towns if the Santas in their towns behave as badly as downtown Fort Worth's Bad Santa.

The replies have pretty much been universal disgust regarding Fort Worth and the town's Santa. However, more than one person in more than one town has told me that in various ways their town's Santas require a fee or donation of sorts before Santa will let a kid sit on his lap so has to hear the kid's Christmas wishes.

When I was a still believing in Santa kid, my parental units would take me and my siblings, annually, to our favorite Santa, located in downtown Sedro Woolley. That Santa was jolly and he gave you a big candy cane. There were other Santas in the Skagit Valley, back then, none charging a fee, except, maybe if you wanted the Santa photographer to snap a photo.

This morning I asked my little sister, the mother of David and the twins, Ruby and Theo, what the Santa situation currently was in Tacoma and the rest of Washington, as per her experience with her kids.

My sister replied with the Santa picture you see above of Ruby and Theo a bit unhappy to be sitting on Santa, while brother David looks away bemused. That photo is from four years ago.

Along with the above Santa picture from four years ago my little sister also sent the below Santa picture from this year's visit to the Tacoma Mall Santa.

Regarding the current Santa status in the Pacific Northwest, based on my little sister's experience, in part, she had this to say....

The Tacoma Mall Santa was awesome, he spent lots of time talking to the kids, knew all about toys, etc, but he died this year.  The new one was ok.  He looks great, but wasn’t as chatty.  Still, when he picked Ruby up he commented that she’d grown since last year and said some other stuff the kids thought was awesome.  They still believe in him, you know.  What irks me is that every damn holiday event now has a Santa and I’m like, people, my kids think he is real, how is he everywhere?!? The gold standard Santa in these parts is the downtown Seattle Nordstrom.  We’ve made it there a few years. Beautiful set up.  And that Santa rotates, one year the day we showed up he was Asian, another he was black.  The kids don’t seem to notice or care, which cracks me up.  I can see how great it is for families of color.

_____________________________

Sounds to me like my old home zone still treats kids right when it comes to Santa expectations.

I wonder what my little sister would have done if she'd run into a downtown Fort Worth type Santa situation, with her kids in line, eager to see Santa, then told Santa was closed for the night, heading home on his sled to the North Pole?

My little sister is a lawyer.

The result probably would not have been pretty for Santa or the city that did that to her kids....

Spencer Jack's Christmas Letter To Santa

This morning in my email inbox I found photos of Spencer Jack's letters to Santa in which Spencer thanks Santa for putting him on the Santa "nice" list.

The first photo documented Spencer Jack's letter to Santa and the cookies and milk Spencer left out for the hard working old guy.

The second photo documented Santa's reply to Spencer.

Very thoughtful of Santa, I think, that he would take time out of his busy schedule to write Spencer Jack a personal note.

A short while ago Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew Jason, texted me with photos attached.

The attached photos documented what was in Christmas presents for me in Texas, sent to Mount Vernon, in Washington.

Soon thereafter a video arrived from Spencer and his dad, documenting the opening of the Christmas presents that were sent to Washington, whilst I am stuck in Texas.

The video of Spencer Jack opening my Christmas presents is below, following the photo of Santa's reply to Spencer Jack's letter to Santa.

The below video was taken before the sun arrived in Washington this morning, hence the slightly dark nature of that which you see....

Is My Neighborhood Santa Protesting Police Brutality?

Today is the first day of Winter.

Winter is off to a chilly start at my usually not too chilly location on the planet.

Yesterday, on the last day of Fall, on my way to walk around Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park, drenching drizzle caused me to opt out of that plan and continue on to an increasingly rare Saturday Town Talk visit.

Today in the noon time frame there was no drenching drizzle so I opted to take an increasingly rare walk around my neighborhood.

Walking north on Canyon Creek Drive I soon saw that one of my neighbors has Santa looking a bit unusual.

This Santa is about three miles from the machine gun toting Santa I blogged about earlier in the month in a blogging titled On My Way Today To Walk With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts I Had An Encounter With A Machine Gun Toting Santa.

I am fairly certain there is not some sort of Santa Gang War going on in my neighborhood.

Could Santa, with his arms in the air, in a "Please Don't Shoot Me" pose, be a reference to the Michael Brown murder in Ferguson?

Or is this supposed to suggest that Santa is climbing the tree to gain access to the chimney?

I likely will never know the answer to this particular Santa question....

On My Way Today To Walk With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts I Had An Encounter With A Machine Gun Toting Santa

On this first Saturday of the last month of 2014, on my way to go bike riding with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area, I stopped at Sam's Club to squirt some gas into the tank of my mechanized bike conveying device.

In the midst of squirting the gas I looked across the street to find myself startled by Santa Claus brandishing what looked to me to be a machine gun.

I am guessing this is an "Only in Texas" type thing.

Where even saintly Santa is an open carry advocate, jolly while waving a weapon at people passing by.

Santa is doing his gun slinging from the roof of a business located on Eastchase Parkway, across the street from the Eastchase Super Walmart in far East Fort Worth, near where Fort Worth becomes Arlington.

As you can see above, the business Santa is guarding is a Fort Worth Gun store. Santa is aiming towards those driving west on the entry lane to Interstate 30. I would imagine there has been a motorist, or two, startled at seeing this type behavior from Santa Claus.

I had no incidents with gun toting Indian Ghost aficionados in the Village Creek zone today. A lot of people were out enjoying the perfect weather.

About half the homes I saw in the Interlochen neighborhood appeared to be ready with their Christmas displays. A couple homes were lit up in the midday sun, with one of those sporting a lot of glowing purple lights glowing bright, causing me to think this house must be blindingly bright at night.

It has been several years since I braved the Interlochen Christmas traffic jam. I have no inclination to see those bright lights this year.

I will be experiencing Christmas in the Fort Worth Stockyards, though, on the evening of December 15.

I hope the Fort Worth Stockyards Santa is armed with a more era appropriate firearm, something like a Colt 45, or a Winchester rifle....

Christmas Off To A Rocky Start With Ruby & Theo Terrorized By Jolly Red Giant

I don't know what my nephew David was thinking, taking his high strung little sister and brother, the twins, Ruby & Theo, to sit on the lap of a stranger dressed like a big, red, bearded monster.

David looks quite pleased and not at all concerned that his siblings are in hysterics.

I have no details regarding the final outcome of this apparent debacle. All the poodles, Blue & Max, shared, was the photographic evidence of the terrorized twins.

One Week Until Christmas Thinking About Being Naughty To Fat Judgmental Bastards

When I stepped outside to look through the bars of my patio prison the sun was at least a half hour from its scheduled arrival.

The heater in the sky has now arrived, illuminating the 3rd Sunday of the last month of 2011 sufficiently that I can sort of see that it appears the sky is semi-clear of clouds.

Currently it is 47 degrees in the outer world at my location on the planet.

It is now one week til Christmas, the day in pre-Jesus times that celebrated the Winter Solstice, though 3 days later than the day when the sun reaches its lowest position as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere.

The most amusing thing I've seen today, so far, was from CD0103, on Facebook. CD0103 is a bit of a bad girl. She let Santa know that she had been naughty this year, and that she did not care that she had been naughty, telling Santa that, "I've been naughty...and it was worth it, you fat, judgmental bastard."

Methinks CD0103 is going to find some lumps of coal in her Christmas stocking.

My Nephew David Takes Ruby & Theo To Talk To Santa

David, Theo, Santa & Ruby

In the Santa picture you are looking at my nephew, David, talking to Santa, being the mouthpiece for his brother and sister, the twins, Theo & Ruby.

David had already visited Santa once, relaying to Santa that he had been a really good boy and that all he wanted for Christmas was his own personal robot.

Apparently, as the days passed after David's visit with Santa he became concerned that Santa had not been told what Theo & Ruby would like for Christmas. And that Santa also needed to know that his brother and sister had also been very good.

So, back to Santa the kids went. In the picture David is telling Santa that Theo & Ruby have been very good kids, even though they did do some squabbling on Thanksgiving.

David then proceeded to inform Santa that all his brother and sister wanted for Christmas was Thomas the Train stuff.

I have absolutely no idea what Thomas the Train stuff is. I hope Santa does. Or knows how to Google.

Merry White Christmas From A Skinny Dipping Santa In Texas

The Dallas Morning News article about yesterday's day long Christmas Eve snowstorm called it a blizzard. I thought it looked like a blizzard, heavy wind blowing the snow horizontal, but since I'd had never been in a blizzard I didn't really know for sure.

Three inches were recorded at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, with that three inches being the first Christmas Eve snowfall since the National Weather Service started keeping records in 1898.

The National Weather Service was keeping records where D/FW Airport is located? Way back in 1898?

At times, during the blizzard, visibility was reduced to around a quarter-mile. A lot of flights did not make it out of the airport yesterday on time.

This morning it was well below freezing when the sun came up. Making this a White Christmas. Because it was so windy a lot of the snow got blown into little drifts. I have a little snowdrift outside my front door. The snow had mostly blown away from the cement area around the pool.

We have now gone above freezing so the white stuff is starting to disappear.

Like I said I would, yesterday, despite my therapist Dr. L.C.'s admonishment not to, I went swimming this morning and photo documented it. And like I said I would, all I wore was my Santa cap. I believe this is the first time I've gotten into the pool when it was below 25.

Since the water in the pool was not frozen it was significantly warmer than the air. So the immediate reaction to getting in it was that it felt warmer. I have no idea what the temperature of the water is. We got to almost 80 two days ago.

Thai food is my Christmas feeding theme. With blackberry pie. The feeding is around 2. Don't be late.