12 or 13 ?
Count the people and then wait.
Are there 12 people or 13 people?
How'd they do that?
Sailing Ship
Here is a cool snow globe to shake with your cursor
http://ww12.e-tractions.com/snowglobe/globe.htm
It’s The Yule Time of the Year
In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter solstice, or Yule, is day of the year
(near December 22) when the sun is farthest south. It is the shortest day of the
year, because the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day
is a minimum for the year. It also marks the first day of the season of winter,
as well as the height of the holiday season.
There are many holiday traditions that have all but died in practice, but live
on in nostalgic images and songs. One of these customs is the lighting of the
Yule log.
The custom of lighting the Yule log dates back to the 12th century when around
the beginning of winter, an enormous log of freshly cut wood would be fetched
and carried to the house with much celebration. The master of the house would
place it on the hearth and the log would be lit with splinters from the
preceding year’s log. The Yule log would burn for twelve days, and then the
remaining scraps of wood would be stored for the lighting of the next year’s
Yule log. It was said that the leftover wood from the log would protect the home
from fire and lightning, and protect its occupants from ailments throughout the
upcoming year.
This tradition persisted up until the last quarter of the 19th century. Its
disappearance coincides with that of great hearths, which were gradually
replaced by smaller cast-iron stoves. The great log was thus replaced by a
smaller one, often embellished with candles and greenery, placed in the center
of the table as a holiday decoration.
Today, the Yule log has become a traditional pastry, a cake roll, smothered in
coffee or chocolate-flavored icing and decorated with sugared holly leaves and
roses.
With the pending arrival of Yule time also comes the joyous holiday season. No
matter what holiday traditions you celebrate, this time of the year always seems
to bring cheer and laughter to everyone. We look forward to spending time with
family and friends, and of course, those delicious holiday feasts!
Hale, recognized as the oldest man in America, celebrated his 113th birthday Monday quietly with four generations of descendants at his side.
"It was just a small, quiet party. He cut the cake," Fred Hale Jr., his 83-year-old son, said Tuesday.
Hale Jr. and seven other family members, including three great-grandchildren, gathered at the Syracuse Home Association, giving the elder Hale a robe as a present.
"He doesn't like big parties. But he loves having the children there," Hale Jr. said.
Hale became a celebrity of sorts in 1995 when Guinness World Records named him the world's oldest licensed driver at age 107.
The Gerontology Research Group at the UCLA School of Medicine, a group that documents people over 100, lists Hale as the world's ninth-oldest human and second-oldest man behind Joan Riudavets Moll of Spain, who turns 114 on Dec. 15.
The world's oldest person is Charlotte Benkner of North Lima, Ohio, who turned 114 on Nov. 16, according to the California-based group.
I had a great time at an engineer's meeting this Thursday night.
The Haested Methods Company that develops and sells software to civil engineers held a free cocktail party at the local Marriott to show us their new computer programs.
I attended and was pleased to have two quick Makers Mark Manhattans. There were about 80 engineers in attendance, and after they told us about their newest programs, they gave us a quiz, promising tee shirt prizes. The woman moderator asked questions and would recognize the first engineer to raise his hand.
At the fifth and last question "Who was the famous structural engineer whose methods are now used for water distribution modeling?" I somehow raised my hand while sort of in a drunken stupor.
She pointed to me and said "Yes". Everyone in the room turned and looked at me.
I asked "Was it Hardy Cross?"
She said "Yes! Hardy Cross!" and her associate walked back and handed me a tee shirt. The fellow sitting in front of me who won question 3 asked "How did you know that?" The earlier speaker looked at my name tag and said "Yeah Peter."
I took the tee shirt and smiled. At my age, these little victories in life mean a lot! How I knew that useless piece of information was beyond me. It must have been that Ginkgo vitamin I took this morning.
By the way, did you hear the one about the American Indians who opened a bar in New York City?
They are
selling Manhattans for $24.00 each.
Here's the house at the start of the year's first real snowfall. Since this occurred on Dec. 5, does the old wives tale hold true that we will get five snow storms this year?
The cement board is on the bottom half.
Here's
the sheetrock, completed for the entire house. Spackling and taping
starts this week. This is the view from the kitchen sink. .
Pete