So glad you're getting relief from the eye!! Great news! I'm a big Horowitz fan and read "Magpie Murders" quite a while ago. I'm surprised I didn't recommend it to you. "The Word is Murder" is also a fascinating book. Horowitz puts himself in the story, which is such a cool technique. This December weather--oy. I'm not a fan of the driving rain, PLUS wind.

I love Quinn's HO HO HO! He is growing into such an adorable little man. We never did get the storm up here, although it rained a lot. Helen looks great and I'm glad you had such a lovely time together. Wylie is getting old and needy? I'll take any kitty snuggles I can get!

I hope we're closer to the end of Trump and his cronies. He seems to always skate out of these situations, but I'm not sure he can this time.

What a load of crap you're dealing with, especially the eye. That doctor is a POS.I would be going bonkers too!! As you know, I could barely get through that horribly written post. It's not only incoherent, it's also LAZY.

Beautiful photos indeed!!

Terrible!! The doc needs to figure out a way to fix this. You must be so miserable and frustrated!!

What a beastly day indeed!I'm hoping for the best for the eye AND the traffic. I'm scared to go to the store and it's only 10 minutes away. It's always such a mess this time of year. Have a lovely Thanksgiving with your family! As always, I remain grateful for our long friendship. xoxo

In case others are wondering, the answer would be a qualified no. I still care about H. and he's on my mind a lot, but there is too much proverbial water under the bridge. The hurt is probably too deep to be fixed, even if he wanted to. (which he doesn't) Would I like to go back to May when the relationship was excellent and he was full of plans for the summer for us? Yes. But that's not the reality. Letting go of people I love has always been hard for me.

You are too kind, Pam! If (hopefully WHEN) I come to Scotland, I'll need to visit Langholm, the ancestral hometown of my Grieve relatives.

It's the formula that people love these days. An unreliable narrator and gimmicky surprises. The writing is indeed poor and that's why I didn't care for the book.

Never mind, I see it says Netflix. :) And your sailors are gorgeous!

What are you reading for BC? And I am so sorry about your damned eye; it is much past time for that to get fixed. So frustrating!! Grrr.Your plants look great; I've pulled most of my annuals (too cold at night) and have put away my hoses. The Forest would be great, if it's Netflix, which I have. Otherwise, John has amazon prime, so I can beg him to watch it. ;)

I live in relatively blue country and I see hate and confusion. I guess it depends on where you are, and how openly people express their feelings. I try to be kind to everyone and make a lot of effort to understand different points of view. That has become increasingly difficult. I'm glad that you live in a kinder place!

I can see it now! Yay!!

I get the same message as Liora. Dang!

Yes, exactly right. I try to focus on that aspect of the holidays or on the activities I enjoy, like the baking and playing of board games on Christmas Eve with my kids. However, there are too many people I know who judge me for not decorating enough, not being religious enough, not being into Christmas movies in July, not being thrilled with gift giving or receiving, etc. If that's what I have to do to be jolly, I'm out! :) One year Ashley asked people to donate to a couple of her favorite charities instead of buying her gifts and you would have thought that she had tried to ruin Xmas! Another time many years ago, Patt and I asked his family whether we could stop the adult gift gifting and either draw names or do a cool event as a family instead of presents, and we got utterly destroyed for even suggesting such a thing. So, I keep my head down and do what I want these days.

I've remade Christmas the way I want it, and my girls are fairly on board with it. Alison doesn't like gift giving either, but Ashley does, so we make do with small stuff. We all like the holiday cookie baking, and I get a small tree that I can manage myself. Patt used to do the 6 footers and there's no way I can even get one of those in the house, much less get it in the stand and get the lights around it. Although not particularly jolly or totally excited about Christmas, we've always celebrated it, even the first year (2012) when Patt had just died on December 4th. We didn't have a tree but we did go to my parents' house, baked our usual cookies and went to a movie on Christmas Day. I've never been a fan of Christmas, for a variety of reasons, but I'm not a Scrooge either. :)

Quinn truly does radiate sunshine and happiness! Just wish he lived closer so you could see him more, right? I agree with you about traveling. I dread traveling to NY in the winter; it's going to be long and messy. It looks like you all had a marvelous time, quick as it was!

He's growing up so fast! They are a beautiful family and I know you'll love seeing them in a few weeks. That is the second time for me with the cauliflower dish; I was sure I must have imagined how delicious it was. In fact, it was even MORE amazing than I remembered! It's always wonderful to spend time with girlfriends and catch up on those unbloggable things. ;) Let's meet at that restaurant again!!

It is unbelievably fucked up, and I rarely use profanity on social media. It makes me want to move far, far away.

Thank you! Ashley and I both felt great in our dresses, and they twirled around when we danced, which was great fun. :) I love the Strike books, although I wasn't as impressed with the first one as I was the last two. I'm at 23% on the latest one and am enjoying it very much!

Nope, I wouldn't invite anyone to a marriage. That's for the two people getting married at the wedding. :)

When the official photos come in, I will bore ALL of you with them, probably in Parts 2, 3, etc. :) I've always told everyone who will listen that it's not about the wedding, it's about the marriage. That said, it's wonderful to start out on such a high note! Thanks again for your wise words. I have people who are printing them out to study them. We can all relate to the train and car crash analogies.

How wonderful to have the paved driveway--now I can drive down it!! I'm with Helen on hoping that Bailey is doing well, and your eye too.

Thank you for your excellent and wise comment. Your words about why I'm having such trouble with this are spot on. From what I was seeing this past year, the relationship was long term; I wasn't having any doubts of that, in spite of bumps in the road. I was open, loving, and trusting and got completely blindsided. I've always considered myself a decent judge of character, so this has made me doubt myself and my own view of reality and people. These events happen to everyone and I guess I'm lucky(?) that I made it to 61 before getting hurtfully dumped by someone I cared about.