I had a really nice day today. Woke up and wrote hostile things on twitter for a while, then took a nap. Got up, showered, cleaned the kitchen and made some brownies with walnuts and extra chocolate chips and a batch of home made ice cream, and went over to Gerald’s for an early afternoon Christmas dinner. Came back, and Taylor came with me to watch the Steelers game (Gerald is a Browns fan and Taylor is a Steelers fan, so he usually comes here or to my parent’s house), and now we are watching Rogue One.
I ate too much ham at dinner and they made deviled eggs which are a real weakness for me so I had to nap during the Steelers game.
About a decade or so ago (who knows, time flies), a very nice woman named Anne from NYC started sending me handcrafted knitted catnip balls for Tunch. Tunch is long gone, but Steve is still around, and every Christmas his package arrives. So, here is my Christmas gift to you- Steve getting stoned to the bejeezus on catnip:
He’s such a good boy. I really love him. At any rate, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever.
BTW- I am in the market for a new Ottoman and chair for my living room. Any recommendations?
Betsy
I’m here taking refuge from my awful sister-in-law. Thank you for this video.. Steve is really cute and also gorgeous.
ETA: Jeez, am I the first to comment? I really do have an internet overuse problem.
ETA TA: Why must I blame myself, always. Like I said: I’m here because of my sister-in-law.
Alain the site fixer
Merry Christmas, John. You’ve created a wonderful community here and I’m thankful to be a part of it. Have a great night!
danielx
Steve is totally in his happy place.
Raven
I was describing BJ to the family last night and told them about Tunch, Walter and the other positive shit that goes on here. Pretty Christmasy in a warped sort of way.
James E. Powell
We do a very late dinner out here on the Left Coast, so the prime rib is just getting started. The day has gone well. All three dogs seemed happy with their gifts; several squeaky toys were destroyed with minutes. I skyped with my mother and skillfully avoided talking with my Trumpista family members. Three out of four of us do not work tomorrow, so the champagne will flow.
M. Bouffant
Hmmm, who else do I know of who Tweets hostilely as soon as he wakes up? Right on the tip of my tongue …
schrodingers_cat
Tunch kitteh was the best! I still miss him.
NotMax
Costco online usually has some nice looking ottomans which open up for extra storage space.
The Dangerman
Disembodied voice: “You’re going to roll off the foot stool!”
Steve: “Your point being?”
joel hanes
coffee
stockings with racing reindeer Christmas crackers, tissue crowns, terrible jokes
excessive breakfast with mimosas
three hour gift-opening marathon
nibbling
nap
board games
pack for 7:50 AM flight tomorrow
we’re all healthy
we’re all employed
we’re all safe and secure
Another Scott
Nice days are good.
J really likes her Ekornes Stressless recliner and ottoman.
Good luck with your search.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@NotMax
That is, unless you really meant a capital O Ottoman. That’s a whole ‘nother department.
;)
Shell
Was there some deep purring going on there?
John Cole
@Another Scott: omg those are like three thousand dollars. I’m looking for significantly less expensive
Schlemazel
JC! I got you some Cole for Christmas!
http://explosm.net/comics/4810/
Merry Christmas ya grumpy fart! I very much appreciate what you built here for us unworthy jackals.
Quinerly
World Market has some cute chairs and ottomans. Patterns and ethnic prints. Great sales. I caught a great little sectional sofa on sale there around Thanksgiving for $420.00. Close to 1/2 price. Love me some Steve. Glad your day was great, Cole.
NotMax
Hit or miss on any given day, but the Habitat Re-Store here often has furniture. Gently used, as in from hotels and the like.
Snagged a full-length very spiffy woven cane sofa for 75 clams a while back.
brettvk
Steve vids are always such a treat. I have a whole heard of cats, so catnip here always results in growls and swipes instead of purrs. (But because I am motivated by guilt, I still grow it for everybody.)
Thanks for sponsoring this oasis, Mr. Cole. It’s part of my everyday self-care in the interests of sanity.
GeoWHayduke
You took a shower? What the fuck is wrong with you?
NotMax
@NotMax
These are Re-Store locations that come up when your ZIP code is plugged in.
Anne Laurie
January is usually good for furniture clearance sales — keep an eye on the local ads.
Heck, we just got two very nice recliners (one powered!) for less than what my frugal Spousal Unit expected to pay for just one. But that was a store-closing special, with the local magnate shutting up shop to retire somewhere warmer. Probably gonna be more of those this winter, too also.
MomSense
It’s Who time!
gammyjill
Steve is, as always, excellent. Can you give out the contact info for the lady in NYC to order catnip balls? Thanks.
I spent the day in true Jewish style and saw a movie and had Asian food. “All the Money in the World” was fabulous. I heartily recommend it. I’d love to have seen what Kevin Spacey did with the part but Christopher Plummer was great.
Elmo
Made the best rib roast of my life: coarse salt, black pepper, garlic, rosemary, paprika, and a touch of thyme, roasted in a 500 degree oven for five minutes per pound and then left with the oven turned off until internal temp hit 112. Rested 15-20 mins and the internal temp came to 124. PERFECTION.
laura
@John Cole: please consider an older chair that might need some refurbishing because they’re usually really well built. Check out a mission style due to wide, flat arms for resting arms or beverages or cats, and wide seats for wide seats. Ottomans are similarly scaled. Don’t rush into an unsuitable chair.
Get one that transfers weight to your skeleton, and not your tissues otherwise you will find that a seemingly comfy chair is only good for 15 to 20 minutes.
Also, Merry Christmas and thanks for the cats and dogs and folks and fury and sanctuary. It’s a balm in troubled times.
JMG
Thanks for sharing your life with us, John. It’s been a lovely Christmas here, but my obsessive children have still not completed their gourmet dinner and their mom, dad, and partners are getting on the verge of too soused to appreciate it.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Happy Holidays*, Cole.
*I’m avoiding “Merry Christmas” because “you know who” says it’s OK to say it.
columbusqueen
So no Merry Shitmas this year? A good deal for you. Merry Christmas and thanks for everything, John.
AliceBlue
Steve is such a handsome boy! Merry Christmas to you John and to all BJers who celebrate it.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I vote that we all say “Feliz Navidad” for the day.
Mnemosyne
As mentioned in the previous thread, Christmas now consists of watching the teenagers play video games while the rest of us shout wine-soaked advice. It’s actually kind of fun.
Quinerly
Leaving this here…tell me what’s wrong with this story. Hard work pays off???:http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2017/12/rich_devos_grandson_takes_2-ye.html
cain
Awww, no girlfriend plus kids this time, Cole? :)
cain
Merry Christmas everyone. It’s been a hell of a year, and I hope that there will be good in the coming year.
Lizzy L
@Mnemosyne: Feliz Navidad is my neighborhood greeting today.
John, that’s a great video. So sweet. Sounds like you’ve had a good Christmas. Thanks for giving us a place to hang out.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Today was a good day. Watching kids opening toys, catching up with family, and binging on some MCU. Hope you had a good one too.
Jager
Nice quiet day up in the canyon, calls to Santa Cruz (Holy shit do my grandsons have deep voices!) San Diego, North Dakota and New York. We had our big dinner last night, Prime Rib roast, mashed potatoes, etc, etc. Today prime Rib sandwiches and now lasagna for dinner. Mrs J got us a new sound system for our TV, we’ve been listening to music on it all day, tonight a couple of episodes of VIKINGS and a couple of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. Then to bed, hopefully Mrs J is feeling frisky, I’ve been plying her with wine. Anze the Dog is licking his new balls so there’s that.
Here’s to World Peace.
middlelee
Thanks John for a haven, for often great laughs provided by FPs and commenters, for well-done derision for those who deserve it.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
satby
Glad you had a nice day John, Merry Christmas to you. And another thanks for creating this community where we all find solace.
I feel a cold coming on, fortunately I don’t have to go anywhere or so anything for the next two days.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Heh, that’ll work.
Another Scott
@John Cole: Really? Hmmm… I guess it has been close to 20 years. Oh well.
Another antiques road trip?
Good luck.
Cheers,
Scott.
LAO
John, check out joybird (joybird.com). I️ love my couch and chair. And the pet friendly fabrics, really are. Good luck.
ETA: my ipad is acting up. ?
rikyrah
Merry Christmas, Cole.?????
Steve still scared me, but the video was cute.
Mnemosyne
@Lizzy L:
Given the latest influx of neighbors, I think the greeting in our building today is, “What’s this ‘Christmas’ thing, anyway?” in Pashtun or Hindi. ?
They seem nice, but it’s annoying that all pop music in every language has the same annoying bass.
cain
@Mnemosyne:
That’s kind of wierd since I believe Christmas is popular in India.. (dunno about Pakistan though) It’s just another thing for culture warrior Hindu assholes fight off. They can’t even really use Hinduism..
Duane
@John Cole: You can find chairs by the road at the end of the month. Free.
laura
@Quinerly: tell me what’s wrong with this story. I’ll start with hubris and move to avoidable risk to others, overreach, and stop at Credit Hogging -but it’d be easy to keep going.
And the fawning press. My god, the adulation of the plutocracy. Forrest/trees. So obvious we’re being conditioned to admire our economic betters.
I’m curious if this is the opening Salvo of the Koch Bros funded sell job on the tax cut bust out?
Mnemosyne
@cain:
I assuming it depends on the family or region? My Canadian-Indian coworker doesn’t quite get the whole festival, though he likes watching us enjoy ourselves.
(I call him Canadian-Indian because he was raised in both places, but he’s a naturalized American now.)
Corner Stone
Rogue One sucked donkeys. Period.
Corner Stone
@Duane: Much like the relationships Cole finds himself in…still not worth it.
James E. Powell
@Corner Stone:
I thought it was the second best of the whole bunch. All taste is taste.
The Lodger
@Jager:Your dog has replacement balls? Impressive.
mai naem mobile
@John Cole: John, I don’t know if they have any clearance Lazy Boy stores in Pittsburgh but if they do they’re totally worth it. BTW most of Lazy Boy is made in the US. They also have good deals when they have their sales. Also whoever mentioned the Habitat Restore stuff is right. They have junky stuff but they also have some really high end good quality stuff.
cain
@Mnemosyne:
I guess, but Christmas is fairly well known, although it doesn’t quite the encompassing presence it has here. Our celebration fo Christmas is sort of like Diwali.
Corner Stone
@James E. Powell: Yours is poor.
Corner Stone
Rogue One wasn’t even really a SW movie. The best 3 minutes of the entire movie happened in the last 10 minute sequence. When Vader went Vader NUTS and killed every fucking body like he was opening a soda can.
Amir Khalid
@cain:
Yesterday,Wikipedia’s main page was noting that the 25th of December is a public holiday in Pakistan — not the Prophet Jesus’ birthday, but Jinnah’s.
NotMax
@The Lodger
Neuticles!
(Not a jest, they’re a real thing.)
Mike J
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
Frohes Weihnachten.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike J: Obviously Fake News.
Vheidi
@Alain the site fixer: I concur! Thanks to you all for this wonderful community. Alain, I hope the cooking helped, at least for a bit.
Vheidi
@Elmo: wow, sounds fantastic!
J R in WV
John,
here it is nearly over already, and I’m just now wishing you a Happy Yule, ya’ll. Take your time on furniture, it’s too hard to move around to just go after some piece that strikes your fancy without spending some time sitting in it.
Last new car we bought at VW, I took a book and sat in it, while it was 98 outside, with the A/C blasting and the engine idling. It kept the inside cool without over heating, so we bought it and drove it 189,000 miles.
Merry ChristmasFelice Navidad everyone!! and many happy returns.chopper
happy xmas, you jackals.
rikyrah
@Elmo:
That sounds delicious ???
Jackie
@brettvk: how do you manage to grow catnip with cats around? I’ve tried hanging baskets far away from everything from a jumping distance and, somehow, someway, a cat manages to find a way to get to, and eat budding catnip down past the roots. I gave up.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
@Another Scott:
Totally agree about the Ekornes Stressless recliner and ottoman. We have 2 and I know they are expensive – but your back will thank you.
chopper
@Corner Stone:
you and tenguphule need to hang out and complain together.
mainmata
For the record, the Steelers trounced the Texans 34-6 to get their first round bye. Both offense and defense were quite strong though Houston has been decimated at the QB position. Hope you had a great holiday and same for the rest of the community.
I will be happy to see the back of 2017. It started with Trump’s hideous inauguration and went straight down from there including the premature deaths of a brother-in-law and my youngest sister, one of our pet cats and several professional colleagues. Meanwhile, the political situation has become simply awful except for AL and VA elections and there lies a tiny hope for 2018.
Selamat tahun baru
mainmata
@Elmo: We did that version last year and it turned out great too. This year we did the reverse treatment where you roast the standing rib roast at 250 degrees until it reaches 130 (in our case for medium rare), let it rest for 15 min. while you crank the oven temp to max. (500-550), then put the roast in for max 10 min. to get it dark on the outside. Also led to great results with additional fat to help the Yorkshire puddings we made.
Corner Stone
@chopper: You and your mom need to go fuck each other some more.
In case that was not clear enough for a moron like you – go fuck yourself and take your mom with you.
Corner Stone
@mainmata: Yep, they whupped us. Shit happens with a QB that they pulled off the couch after 8 weeks.
HumboldtBlue
Nuttin wrong with being stoned.
It’s balloon juice.
msb
Really late (because we had 11 people over) but wishing everyone happy holidays and thanking Our Grumpy Host for a great video.