This is the mildest winter I can recall. New Jersey is the new North Carolina. Global warming is here with a vengence. Hope you all have a healthy and happy 2007. Going to look for a marzipan pig to give me some good luck. Anyone have any superstitions to bring good luck? I usually toss water out of every door to throw out all the bad vibes. Open 12 walnuts to see how healthy and sound each walnut is. I know southerners have hoppin John. Don’t know why. Some people like to have a dark haired man be the first to step into your house on his right foot.(Yes, I’m making this up as I go along..) Any real superstitions to ensure a good New Year? Whatever they are, I hope they work, and all on the wiki have a great year in 2007. Take care y’all and enjoy a safe New Years Eve.
In the 1970′s, global cooling was the big thing…Then China industrialized. Oh well…
Diana - I have southern roots also and am preparing the traditional ham and black eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good luck in the coming year. It’s also supposed to be good luck if the first person to pass through your door is fair-haired (at least I think that’s it).
We’re having some cold weather here in El Paso. One day is fine, and the next day is really cold with chilling winds. But then we also had those floods last summer (yes, flooding in the desert).
I think the world is upside down.
diana and History Lover, perhaps the color of hair is a cultural thing. Scots want the first person through the door in the new year to be a dark-haired man for good, a red head is decidedly bad luck. In some communities there would even be arrangements made to ensure that a dark-haired neighbor made the rounds(known as the ‘first-foot’)- kind of loading the dice in a way I suppose.
I’m only a teeny bit Scots myself (and a whole lot of a whole lot of other things:-), but I do remeber my grandfather telling me about this tradition when I was small.
All the best to my fellow wikians for a safe and Happy New Year!
My Scandinavian husband tells me that the it was indeed unlucky for the Scots if a blonde (i.e. Viking) man came to call. I suppose the red-headed men were Celts, who probably were not too lucky to have around. I beleive that native Scots were Picts who did have dark hair.
Every year for the past, I dunno, dozen or so years, I have fixed black eyed peas and greens for New years, and I can’t say that its brought me any luck- in fact we’ve had some pretty dreadful things happen to our family so this year- NO black eyed peas! No greens! My father-in-law splurged on a standing rib roast and we’re going to have that with Yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes, peas, and some kind of dessert-I’m thinking black forrest cake. (I’m also making walnut-mushroom “meatballs” for the vegetarians)
If the weather holds, I’m going to have a bon-fire. Usually I like to do it on the Soltice but this year we had rain, then a friend of mine quite suddenly passed away a couple of days before so I wasn’t in the mood for a Soltice frolic. Ive been working in this unseasonably warm weather to clear some brush in my garden, an I’ll toss a couple of logs on. The wood ash is good for garden soil, and I’ll plant a tree to make up for the smoke/carbon release. We’ve all found things to toss in the fire that we want to rid our lives of- things like letters from people who have not been a possitive influence, old bills that have finally been paid, my daughter want to throw her old Math notebook in, we’ve all made list of bad habits to break, that sort of thing to toss in. Nt really a superstition, more a ritual I suppose.
Torange? — 30 December 2006, 16:32
…global cooling was the big thing…
I remember that oh so well. LOL. The pollution was blocking the sun! My High school closed for nearly two months because the rivers here (Pittsburgh) were so frozen, the coal barges couldn’t move. Even the ‘ice smasher barge’ got stuck. Today, I was outside in a short sleeved shirt. I think I’ll leave my big SUV run all night, every other night. I’m all for global warming. ;-) Just kidding! I’m only going to let the SUV run all night every 3 nights.
That aside, I think we can all agree that we were very fortunate this past year, panflu wise. It is going to take a miracle to get to 2008, IMHO.
JWB- we must be about the same age- I also remember our high school being closed almost two months-though we were in the Mountains of East Tennessee and the roads were treacherous. We were also without power for quite a long strech- a good beginning for a prepper, eh?
I agree-it will be a miracle if we make through this year without pandemic. Thats been in the back of my head this holiday season-I wonder what Holidays 2007 will be like….
Greenmom,
I also remember the long power outages, and it seemed that there was ALWAYS snow on the ground for the entire winter. You might see grass in March. No doubt, it is impacting our perception today.
As far as the pandemic is concerned, I have never videotaped so much in the last week in my life. I think, feel, and believe, this is the last ‘normal’ holiday season. I’m praying I’m wrong.
I have never videotaped so much in my life, as I have in the last wo weeks.
JWB_I hope you have power to play the video tapes! :-o
Ive taken a lot of pictures, and Ive written pages and pages in my journal. Ive tried to keep up a holiday spirit, especially in frount of the kids, but I just have a bad feeling about the coming year
I will do what I do every new years day,,,,,,go to the local small casino, eat a breakfast, then play penny slots. Kills time and does not break me.Oh did I say about keeping my fingers crossed, my eyes crossed and my legs crossed? Makes it difficult to press the buttons, but I knew my nose was good for something besides sniffing out news! Be safe all
We’ve started taking down the Christmas decorations,but won’t get the tree down till Monday probably….seems that’s supposed to be some sort of bad luck to have it up past the new year, but I have more pressing issues to deal with & a DH available tomorrow without any football interruptions! Not the case on Monday so I have to get him to boogey while the boogey music is playing, so to speak. So 2 days of work ahead…some of it with help.
I would just like to add my best wishes to everyone here! When I was growing up, I heard that how you usher in the year is a clue as to how your year will go?? So, I hope everyone has a great new year’s eve ushering in the new year :)
Greenmom @ 20:27- I love that idea of tossing old/negative things into a bon fire. I’m all for “cleaning house”, so every new year’s eve, I make a list of the bad/negative things I want out of my life, and I than burn it, saying a little prayer to my powers that be, for assistance in this. This is why I have “lost luggage.” I equate it with packing a suitecase, and tossing it in the river. Once it’s sunk to the bottom, there’s no retrieving it. It’s gone. Have the attitude “I don’t need THAT anymore.” This has worked wonders in my life. Then I have my list of good/postive things I want in my life, say another little prayer to my powers that be, and I keep my list in view all year. This may seen odd, but as I always say,”whatever it takes.” Happy New Year Everyone!
I like your “lost luggage.” I keep a list of good things that I WANT in my journal, and think about them as Im writting. I keep a list of good things ALREADY in my planner, so when my schedule seems to be getting too hairy, or bills too pressing or whatever, I flip to my happy page.
Our tree/decorations wont come down til after Epiphany. Partly because we like to drag things out around here, but also because we get visitors throughout Christmas week and through to New Years day, and I like to have the house festive. We use to have people come for Epiphany, but not so much any more.
Happy New years to Everybody!
JWB I think, feel, and believe, this is the last ‘normal’ holiday season…
Daggumit. Don’t scare me now. :)
Happy New Year folks!
My Christmas tree has been taken down and run through our mulcher. It is now happily being reconstituted into nice loam for our garden. Chrismas decorations are down and out of sight. I can only handle so much of the festive stuff before I start to miss the normal daily stuff.
Every year, I usually go to a cool SF club or hotel and party hardy with strangers and masked-entities until the new year’s a bit older, but perhaps this year, I’ll slow things down a bit and hang out at my house & having fun with my family.
Enjoy the holiday everyone.
HAPPY NEW YEAR FLUBIE’S!
Happy New Year every one, saw the new year in sitting outside in −10 deg C temps. around a great fire in our out door fire pit, roasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate. Hope we all have a great 2007.
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I’[ve had a really very pleasant beginning to the New Year. As probably all here (except those size 0) resolve I am determined to shed pounds, and be careful about grooming. Tend to be very casual .Blue jeans, white golf shirt and a lot of colorful sweaters .I think everyone in the United States wears jeans, almost every day. Just logged into a new site for me, called http://spark people.com/myspark/planner.asp. Free. You create a journal and can share it or keep it private just for yourself,as a way of keeping in touch with your goals. I don’t like group meetings or weigh ins. It looks like a really nice site.Ate 6 giant shrimps, steak,caesar salad, a margarita and 3 mini rich desserts, so will start with a binge. One splurge a week from here on in. Bought a lot of Lindts dark chocolate with 70% cocoa. It is supposed to be as good for your heart as an asperin a day. Will add some to my coffee in the morning. Also supposed to prevent strokes.I watched a marathon Tara Banks Model show after Gerald Fords funeral in Washington, and was actually riveted. Didn’t go to sleep till 5 a.m.. Didn’t realize what those girls go through. Don’t know who would win, but you root for some, and boo at others.What a crazy business that is, weirder than flubies by far.If anyone else wants to diet, I would check out the spark people site.Might as well get as fit and healthy as is possible.
Oh, I shared some of my breakfast strawberries with a Mexican girl, and she said spanish people eat twelve grapes at New Years, and make twelve wishes at that time. Thats a lot of wishes, possibly one will work out.One of mine was that H5N1 goes away.
diana- I hope you meet your goals. Just remember to not put alot of pressure on yourself. That’s self defeating.
I have June of 2008 down as my goal date. A lot of water under the bridge by that time.
diana- Good for you. That’s the way to do it. I really need to work on my krispy cream donught addiction. Hey, I went a whole month, then I fell off the donught wagon! ;-)
Diana, you might like trying www.fitday.com — all free, great info for tracking what you eat to the degree that you want to, as well as any activities you might want to track for calorie burning! It’s the best I’ve seen for having the flexibility to fit folks like me who hate to exercise to fitting those who are marathon runners and everyone inbetween.
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I’m working at it, and cottontop. Thank you. I just added 10,000 steps by parking further from my destinations, since the weather is so fine. A New Year, and all the usual resolutions. Never kept any resolution more than a week. Want to fit into older clothing and not bigger sizes. Hope I can do this for a year and a half. Then everything you become accustomed to becomes a habit. Small but needed measures , better for any weight bearing joints. Have watched a very vibrant and busy neighbor becoming more and more crippled. Was going to treat her to a lobster dinner after her knee arthroscopy, but it turned out to be worthless. The MRI didn’t show how bad her knee was.. Walking bent over with a cane, (bad back too.)She is miserable and cranky, a good example of what I don’t want happening to me. She likes restaurants, and even a lobster dinner ( I won it.) isn’t tempting her out. Thanks again.
Just came back from the spark people site. Will not post there until I lurk for a while. The people seem sincere, the site well maintained. They have good articles on Nutrition. Anyone can always learn more about anything that interests you. Noone, even an expert, (which I’m not) knows everything, even if they have studied it all of their adult lives. I’m taking slow, considered steps to improve my life style. Everything we do that is positive will help us get through any rough times in the future.I am almost disgustingly positive all my life, regard trouble as challenges, and tragedy as part of everyones experience. Don’t have any backup, so need to depend on my own efforts to lead as full a life in 2007 as is available to me. The internet is fabulous in its range. We Americans are so open to others and welcoming. We all have obstacles and problems to overcome. Anyone here who wants to slim down for their health,( blood pressure for example..)should look into the spark people site. If there is a SIP, the better your blood pressure, the better you will feel throughout any ordeal. People in poor health tend to be crabby and cranky. Noone likes to be around cranky people.
Anyone interested in maintaining a personal journal of recipees and hints that make sense to you and you alone separate from this wiki, in case it crashes can do so on the Spark People site. Right now I’m not interested in interacting with anyone there, just settling in, keeping a food journal and ignoring anything but my own personal concerns. I’ve always written long hand as I dislike the typos I manage to accumulate by typewriter, but find the easy correctability of text by internet better. I am a poor typist, but that feature does leave you time to think as you revamp your text. It is like having a real diary to record your ideas, without anyone else looking in.
diana- do you have a address for them? I’m always looking to find new ideas.
Looks interesting!
I’ve been journaling there for three days, and enjoying it. I’m not into dieting, never have bothered. I think I’ll read up on Barry Sears In the Zone and be sensible, keep the high end buffets down to a few a month.. We all know what we have to do. My neighbor with the crippled knees and bad back, and another neighbor, my age, who has just recovered from a heart attack are the reasons I want to slim down. They are object lessons for me. I have classic clothes in smaller sizes. I put on excess fat in my upper story. Well enough proportioned but too much is bad for the back. I also want to do some yoga, and I won’t until I get rid of some flesh.It seems like a good site, and you don’t need to buy anything, or pay fees.I think you also feel more vibrant and energetic when you get rid of a few pounds.
A April day in January. Was going to see the movie “Perfume,” but after seeing the trailers on the net I think I’ll wait for a rainy, and a suitably dismal day. The eighteenth and nineteeth century is interesting to me, such extremes. I wouldn’t have wanted to live at that time, but I enjoy visiting it vicariously. so I’m going to go and watch the trailers with audio where I can also enjoy the dazzle of the day from a sunny windowed aclove. No one I know is sick with any virus, though some people are griping that they miss the cold weather. Are they balmy? I think I will wander around some of our local gardens and see how this weather is effecting the plants and trees. Make up a picnic lunch and read the sunday papers in the nearest one. They have picnic tables and bird houses. A healthy long stroll around the garden paths every day, without bird gunk or deer droppings. I wonder if the birds are out of sync. I have dozens of bottles of French and American perfumes. Its time to start using perfume again. I am a foodie, and since I’m cutting back on restaurant meals, scents and sensations of other sorts will have to fill a vacuum. If anyone is interested in Perfume., and has a ton of cash to burn, there is a new one called” the trail of the queen,” French of course.. A large bottle is 10,000 Euros in a Baccarat flagon. Queen Marie Antoinettes personal perfume.The diet is working, though I’m not following their daily meal schedule. 2007 is shaping up in as interesting, thankfully very quiet on the H5N1 front.The weather is perfect for long, pleasant walks.
I was talking to a farmers wife this morning about our weather. She said it is probably merely the calm before a storm. I hope the H5N1 news remains quiescent with a few blips here and there, but no H2H. As long as so many people keep their eyes wide open a pandemic might be averted.