while talking with someone about the 100 books I read in 2025 (yay me), I discovered there were apps out there to track your reading… who knew🤪…
my method had been to take a photo of the book when I finished it and add it to a Books Read album on my phone… this worked well until I dumped my photos, lol… then I would record the count in a new album and continue adding photos of books as I went along…
I am trying one called Goodreads… this one has many options… you can join groups, accept challenges and review books you’ve read… all I want is a place to record what I’ve read…
all the jobs were done and the living room set up for our morning video call when I went to bed at 11 pm on Christmas Eve…
put my head down thinking I might nap for an hour and then have a Christmas hot tub around midnight…
woke up at 5:15, yikes… apparently no hot tub for me…
laid back down, didn’t really sleep, and got up at 6:30, lol…
made tea and texted a video of me banging pots and slamming doors, (possibly like I used to do when the families would be here overnight, so they would get up), to the kids in Ottawa…
we met and had a lovely time opening gifts and enjoying all of the loot…
what a gift to be able to meet with them face-to-face…
had a bit of a giggle this morning when I went to make my ‘famous’ spinach dip…
I haven’t made it in ages and decided to check the recipe to be sure I remembered it correctly… took me ages to find where that particularly recipe was located… NOT in the recipe book I’d prepared a few years ago…
eventually I remembered that it was in the Baton cookbook that I’d help prepare when the girls were maybe ten and twelve🤪…
hadn’t forgotten anything and it turned out great 😊…
looking at that cookbook now reminds me how much things have changed in thirty years… at the time it was very well done… now I think it looks rather dreadful… although the recipes are excellent, lol…
for the last few days we’ve caught a whiff of gas smell in the basement by the gas water heater and gas furnace…
today I called and was advised they would send someone out within a few hours…
the person didn’t arrive for four hours, but between only three people on shift, and dealing with a real emergency, it took a while to get here…
they always ask if it was gas that I smelled, and I always assure them that it was… I have quite an ability to smell things that others can’t… my grandson says I have the nose of a bloodhound, lol…
when they arrived, they checked the outside gas meter and the pipes for the furnace… both of which were fine…
once inside, they began checking all of the spots where there might be a problem… they came upstairs to say I did have a good nose because something in the furnace had come loose and was leaking gas…
after getting some tools and the furnace getting turned off, they fixed it and then pointed out that on this type of furnace, a piece is held together by magnets and may not close exactly as it should… so if there are future leaks, this piece may need to be replaced 🤪…
but they did say calling the emergency line was the correct thing to do…
it is always wonderful to see and I have given a number of friends tickets to go (with me of course)…
seems like a perfect Christmas gift for anyone who appreciates art, flowers, nature, and creativity… especially after looking out the window and seeing this, lol…
herbiggirlpants 