Note to self – When making both root beer and ginger ale syrups at the same time, make note that the rather expensive sassafras does not go in the ginger beer.

Lucky for me, sugar, water, and fresh ginger are cheap, readily available, and easy to mix up for a new batch. I’m also lucky that I had just enough sassafras to finish the root beer.

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I never thought that using the back porch as a cheap extension to the refrigerator during chilly weather would teach me that a labrador puppy could use a one-liter bottle of club soda as both a bouncy ball and a chew toy, but here we are.

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Being slow at the Dairy Queen drive-thru when Sophie the WunderDachsie is waiting for her pup cup can earn you an ass chewing in the finest Bayrisch barking you ever heard.

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When you get up at 5:30 AM to let the youngest dog and the geriatric dog out before anyone loses what control they have, staying up until the ball drops on New Year’s Eve isn’t that much fun.

In other news, I got to bed around ten last night and slept in until 5:35 AM this morning. Happy holidays, I guess.

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Irish Woman postponed our winter get together until mid-January due to scheduling conflicts with a bunch of invitees. While that did cut down on stress over the past week, it does mean that I can look forward to baking all of the Christmas cookies again in a week or so.

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Boo and his friends are going to the movie theater tonight to watch the final episode of some TV show they’ve been watching for the past decade. The concept of paying full-ride for a theater ticket to watch something we’ve already paid for on the TV makes my flinty little heart itch, but it makes both him and his mother happy.

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Irish Woman has announced that she wishes to have a shindig at the house for her birthday next summer. I’m trying to decide between pony rides and bouncy houses or male dancers and jello shots for the entertainment. Suggesting either has gotten me THE LOOK, so I may just go with both options.

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“I don’t need anything for Christmas” and “This big purchase will count as our Christmas gift to one another” around here equates to a purchase of Irish silver jewelry that looks like it came from the Lord of the Rings prop department for her, and a new grain mill and several sacks of wheat and rye for me under the Christmas tree.