74 thoughts on “December 28, 2015: Boxing Day (Observed)”

  1. Perhaps this is because the internet isn't exactly sure either. It appears to be related to the feast of St. Stephen and/or a day for giving to the poor and/or the day gratuities were given to postmen and other service providers and/or the day servants received gifts from their masters, with maybe a day off after working on Christmas.

    Do any Citizens actually have relevant Boxing Day experience?

    1. J and I went out on the 26th to try to pick up a few things we needed and it was a madhouse everywhere. People love Boxing Day up here.

    2. Boxing Day for me means a full morning (or afternoon depending on my timezone) of soccer. It started when I lived in Ireland. Now every year on Boxing Day I get up early, make a pseudo-Irish/English breakfast (beans, toast, tomato, egg, bacon, sausage [skip the black and white puddings]), have a few dark beers (Nordeast and Newcastle were the options this year) and watch soccer. Last year I wooed FW with Boxing Day breakfast, as we were just getting back to know each other. This year I cooked breakfast for her entire family.

        1. I've had plenty of puddings, and they are not to my taste. Plus, you try finding them in a small-town Iowa Hy-Vee (a convenient excuse I will make definite use of).

            1. Hold on a second, nobody'd mentioned there was a Cajun version. What sets it apart from normal black pudding?

    1. Holy floodplain Batman!
      I was in town this weekend, and the rain just never stopped. My brother in law spent Saturday putting a new sump pump in his basement. I have a friend who lives out near Cottleville, they posted saying they weren't going anywhere unless it was on a boat. They also replaced their sump pump. It's ridiculous
      Then, this morning, here in Central Illinois it was raining, and I STILL had to scrape my car. Also, with my umbrella broken, I had a lovely second shower walking into work this morning.
      I suppose it could all be snow. Meh... at least kids will play in snow.

      1. we're not all that far from Cottleville. Hwy 70 closed both directions as well as a few streets; we have a walkout basement, so it's unlikely to see any flooding, but there are a couple places on the back wall where it's dripping in from somewhere.

        Several of the rivers here are experiencing their second highest flood stage ever, behind the epic '93 flooding.

    2. Going a little crazy in a 2 bedroom home with 5 kids. At least with snow, we could send the kids outside.

    1. Broadening my horizons. I might have added it to the featured images, though. I'm not sure if that's allowed.

      1. I'm impressed at the match of topic and image. We might just have to keep you around after all. 😉

  4. I took a week off of work because I needed it, but it's been anything but relaxing. Now there is a winter weather warning going on that is making my decisions on how to get home difficult. The worst part is the timing, with the freezing rain expected in southern Wisconsin earlier, and a bunch of snow expected up here later, meaning I can't just wait another day and avoid it all. The biggest problem is that I need to go to work Wednesday. We've got end of the year stuff that needs to get done and my efforts are needed to make sure they get done in time.

    So yeah, good times.

      1. Thanks. I might have to drive back to Madison by myself so i can go to work Wednesday, than drive back up to Somerset on Thursday to pick everyone up. It's turning into a very expensive storm.

  6. Infinite Jest is on sale for Kindle for $3 today if anyone who wants to get in on it hasn't yet.

  7. It is going to be a very quiet week at work, which is a nice change of pace from the craziness of hosting people over the Holidays.

  8. I was away from the internet for a few days, so sorry for the lateness, but Merry Christmas to everyone.

  9. At the feeder in Scandia this week: blue jays, cardinals, crows, chickadees, nuthatches, dark-eyed juncoes, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, a pileated woodpecker, and a pheasant.

    2. At the BiL/SiL's new place near Rush City, they didn't have feeders up [yet], so I made some quick ones out of bacon grease and pinecones. No birds had found them by the time we left yesterday morning.
      However, I did have see two very good birds:
      1. a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches, which I haven't seen in MN for two decades or so (though I heard them in my yard once and got a trail-cam pic)
      2. a flock of about 100 Common Redpolls, which was a state first. My lifer was just this summer in Alaska.
      In addition, a heard* Raven is a good bird for that far south in the state.

      *possibly seen, it was snowing and there were a few Crows around. Two looked different-ish, but I couldn't get a definite view.

      There was a place I wanted to stop on the drive home, not far from the main road, where Red-headed Woodpeckers are nearly guaranteed, but two little girls falling under the weather and the stress of a mad dash out the door to try to make mass (failed: we went last night) made that a non-starter.

      1. I have managed to avoid this place for fifteen years. I look forward to the next fifteen years of not going.

        1. I haven't set foot in that place since they decided

          'Spoiler' SelectShow

          1. I wish that was a more reasonable option. I would also live in Germany for any of a number of other reasons. At least with H&M they are right around the corner from the door, so you don't have to venture too far into the mall.

      3. There was a time when we would go there on purpose.

        I recall this as well. My recent experiences (which have been few and far between) were considerably less enjoyable.

        1. Children's Museum off-site is awesome.

          We were there on Christmas Eve. The whole mall was just dead. Enjoyed it quite a bit.

    4. Just realizing there's supposed to be a dump of snow tomorrow. Not sure how that changes anyone's plans. I guess I'd prefer something on the downtown side of the River because of that.
      (That would mean Red Cow, Black Sheep, Yellow Duck, Blue Dog, Purple Cat, Goldfish, Teacher, Class, or Freehouse.)
      But if Pepper can cross the River, so can I. (What, are you taking a bus or something?)

      1. ...Blue Horse, Green Frog, White Dog...
        Eric Carle thinks he's so clever...

        Edit: Dang. Looked him up. He looks like a sweet old man. I'm sorry Eric Carle.

        1. I was going for Carle but remembered it wrong.
          (I wonder if I have the sequencing of animals right though.)

          I don't care if he's sweet, reading his books is barely better than reading Berenstain Bears.

            1. I still enjoy reading them with the kids ... B. Bears too. If the kid enjoys it, who am I to quibble?

              1. You're obviously not familiar with A Crack in the Track (Thomas & Friends).
                One of the worst books ever for reading aloud. Here there's a meter and a rhyme scheme, now it breaks, now it's back... yep, wait no. Meter without rhyme. Rhyme without meter. In and out and back and forth. Plus the story is awful. Hail breaks rail, toad in road stops a bus... let's all ride the helicopter!

          3. Let the record show that Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was written by Bill Martin Jr. It's illustrated by Eric Carle.

          4. (I wonder if I have the sequencing of animals right though.)

            I'm going by memory, but I think the order is: brown bear, red bird, yellow duck, green frog, blue horse, purple cat, white dog, black sheep, goldfish, teacher, children. I've never had an issue with Carle (other than my need to correct "cocoon" to "chrysalis" when I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar), but I stay far, far away from the Berenstain Bears.

            (There are plenty of busses we could catch on Hennepin that would get us across the river.)

      2. I pass a bar on my daily walk to my office: the Fox and Hound, which name I usually forget, despite there being a large statue outside the place depicting the namesakes. Dog and Pony, Fox and Goose, Bubble and Squeak, Cow and Chicken, etc.

          1. Nah. Pretending to be an english-style pub. Unfortunately, the beer is waaay too cold and not Real Ale.

            2. Though to be fair, I'll drink a good "non-real" American ale over a real English ale Amy day of the week.

                1. iPads are the worst, but yeah, I am appreciative of the non-embed. And real ale is still overblown, dammit.

                  1. When the alternative is shite, which is too often the case....

                    But seriously. Real Ale just means live beer.isn't live beer good, ceteris paribus?

                    1. Well, per CAMRA, real ale pretty much refers to cask-conditioned ales. So if a beer is force carbonated with co2, its out. That's all well and good, but in my (admittedly limited experience) the English tend to make it a be all, end all of what makes a beer good. After two weeks in Manchester, I stopped giving a,shit whether it was real or not and just tried to find some bloody variety.

      3. Re: snow

        Let's see what conditions are like once we're both downtown tomorrow morning and take it from there.

  13. The Girl currently is stuck in Kansas City. Repeated delays of her flight to Boston means she likely will spend the night at the airport (because now missing last shuttle to Farber College). She's now convinced that she will miss the morning shuttle too. Oy.

  14. I hate to say it, but I may not be able to make it for tomorrow. I pulled my back on Saturday and I'm still having a hard time just getting around the house. At this point I'm day to day and will have to see if there's improvement by tomorrow.

    1. Sorry to hear that, twayn. Here is to a speedy recovery. Failing that, here's to getting some sympathy at home.

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