They are talking about a white Christmas here (maybe) but it will be sleet and frezing rain, other wise just cold and rainy. If the weather is like I saw on the news last night it is going to be icy in Arkansas and Tennessee the day after Christmas and my father in law and brother in law will be driving through it. Let's hope the weather man is wrong, Gee what are the chances of that happening, LOL.
Merry Christmas everyone! Have a safe and happy holiday.


Hey Lori, speaking of weather, I have seen California is getting hit real hard, are you effected by that? Hope you are safe and dry.

Hi there folks, We get out ouf school tomorrow at 1:30 for the Christmas Holiday. Back in on the 2nd of Jan. tomorrow we have an ornament marathan for the 7th graders. A busy, loud, and exciting morning is planned. Then I'll slow down and see what it's like to be out of work for a while.


It's definately White Christmas time here in Presque Isle! though we have rain and freezing rain which has already started and will continue through tomorrow.

Yes, we have had rain, I was a bit excited about using it for the first time yesterday, but it rained instead. Sounds like you have fun, Richard. I shoveled my drive already and am responsible for the sidewalk in front of my house as well. I bought mine to do my neighbor's drive as well......he has been kine enough to mow my grass in the front all season, he would do the back as well, but can't fit the mower through the gate...............so I am doing my part...Sounds like you are gearing up for the holiday season, Pat. Lori, we have been having rain here for the past week, all the snow that we had is now gone.....not looking like a white Christmas so far.

Mornin' all, We even got a new member this week onthe list. The former Pauline Smolnik. Don't know anything about her "adulthood" but I got a note from her telling me I could put her on the list. Nobody new here though that I can see.

These days I'm surrounded by school plays, and musical performances, and my how things have changed: Power Point Presentations! That one sort falls into my lap. I teach that part. Tomorrow there will be a Christmas Bazaar at school to which parents and friends have been invited to learn about Christmas Around the World. This is produced by a 7th grade reading class, through ppt on laptop computers. I think that kind of goes along with the concept of snowblowing that which could be swept! Know what I mean?

Off to bake brownies.

And, yes, Patti, Nancy's right, we do appreciate all you've done to keep this classmate thing alive!

No snowblowers for us--but we had rain all day today. It's a treat when it rains in L.A. cuz it's usually sunny.

Nancy, so glad to hear you have a new snowblower. I live on a street where the National Men's Senior Snowblower Team all live and practice daily. They are mentally prepared, respirator equipped, oxygen supported, and watch the hell out when solid water is floating in the air. They have machines that will suck it down onto the ground for a 10 count pin before being thrown off their driveways and out of their lives forever. Then, with engines idling at about 6,000 rpms, they remain and wait for the next snowflake victim. Sometimes it will be hours, but there they stand- ready. In the off season they train with twig shredders, leaf blowers, and one even vacuums his driveway. Hello!?!?!?! My technique is to use a broom, because most times a shovel would just be a little too much and I no longer seek the thrill and smell that the other men on my street think of as home.

Hi Pat, of course the list is a good thing............you should know that and we appreciate you keeping in touch with everyone and on top of things..........we may never tell you, but we do appreciate it. Christmas is the time of year most people try and get in touch. So you are doing us all a great favor. I have been shopping for the holidays, and am almost done..............which is a feat in itself. Hope everyone is in good health, with the strange weather, it is hard. We had rain most of the weekend, so all the snow that we did have is gone. I bought a new snowblower only to have it sit in the garage. Oh well.....I'm sure I will use it some this winter. Take care everyone.

Hi everyone, Heard from Brian Davis yesterday. He couldn't open my attached list but wanted Roland's address as they were buddis back in the day and he wanted to get in touch. so the list is a good thing. I'm pleased.

Guess everyone must be out shopping!

I was just on ebay and thought someone might like to know that if you go to Springfield Vermont you can find reproduced old maps and some postcards that would make good gifts to mat and frame for a bit of memorabilia. One map is from the 1860's and has a key of family names. Just thought I would mention it because some of you might be in the same boat with parents who don't need a thing and don't care about the latest electronics, etc. Its also fun to go to your last name and see what items were manufactured with companies who had that name. I just bought a cast iron old waffle iron with the Stover manuf. company name in big letters on the bottom and top.....will be fun to have at the family camp.

I miss John. Where is he? Other than that, It's a wonderful world!

Good morning everyone,

I received a nice letter through Classmates.com a couple of days ago and then again last night. They were from the former Bill Guertin, who now goes by the name Roland McCarthy. Roland has asked to join the Blogger site and I've him sent an invite this a.m. I know you'll all make him feel welcome.
I was reading something in a Holdiday cookbook last night that expressed the thought that in the midst of all the Holiday hub bub we somehow get the urge to play host/hostess. As I ask you to make Roland welcome, I guess it's true. Cookies anyone?

I didn't know they had them in Vermont! I never saw one when I lived there. Here we see them creeping along the wall between us and our neighbors.

Possums are strange! Whenever wildlife get a shot at my trash, there is an impromtu block party. A possum showed up for the last trash rave on my back steps (taking the trash 10 more feet into the garage to the secure trashcan located there was too far, too difficult, too not what my teenager wanted to do right then- and there the bag sat until midnight). My eyes just about popped when I saw the possum because it was the first one that I have ever seen. I understand that the tapered tail is the possum's super power, but it is also a large contributor to its "pretty ugly" look.

I forgot--we have possums, if that counts for anything! They're pretty ugly.

Hi all, we've got a bit of snow up here prestty cold. Low 20's. About like the rest of New England, I suppose. Wild Life in the back yard. We get moose now and then. That's pretty cool.

Wow, deer in the backyard! All we have are squirrels. And snow? It's still practically summer here--though Omer, my youngest, goes snowboarding at Mountain High, about an hour an a half from here.

Been there, done that, several times (got a lot of kids). You will enjoy it. It will be WARM, that would be enough for me! Grand Rapids hit zero on Tuesday morning. We feed the deer and right now they are eating a 40 pound bag of feed in two days. Kellan, my youngest, counted 10 deer the other day. Our feeder is only about 30 feet from the back deck......very cool! We also have wild turkeys. Happy Trails Jerry!

Great to hear from everyone..........hope the holiday season is going well for all........we just got another 7 inches..........talk ablut being dumped on........good for the ski areas here in CT. though. The last was really nice powdery snow.............real light. Take care and have a safe trip, Jerry...........I was there many many moons ago.........(72?) and alot has changed. I hear it is even more fun for the adults than the kids..........

Nice to see you here again, Jerry. Have fun in DisneyWorld. I've only been to Disney Land. My favorite "ride" is Pirates of the Carribean. Not a scary ride, but really imaginative. I don't like the scary ones anymore!

Hello to all. It's been a while. I spent a good part of Thanksgiving Day in Georgia, VT with family. A good meal and good sharing. Was in Montreal the following Saturday night at the Bell Centre to watch the Flyers/Canadiens hockey game taken by Philadelphia with just 6.3 seconds left in overtime. John LeClair from St. Albans had just injured his shoulder badly the night before Thanksgiving in the Flyers game at Pittsburgh so we missed seeing him in action. I enjoyed getting up above the border, actually the second time this year after seeing an Expos baseball game in June before our reunion. On the front page of my newspaper this morning is the notice of the passing of Michael Valuk who had been town manager in Springfield for six years into the early 1980's. Does anybody remember him? He was 52 and had developed pneumonia from a rare blood disease, dying in Boston. After leaving Springfield, he'd been town manager of Salem, NH, then became president of the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce for 17 years. Next Tuesday I'll be heading down to DisneyWorld for four days with the other two youth leaders from church. I've never been, they have. Hope all is well with everyone.

I am in love (again) and it was just as good as the first time! Would it be shallow to simply say, "Thank-you", after six hours of unrestrained passion? All I can say is that every muscle in my body is a little sore today. It started with a run down a steep trail in powder that was up over my boots. I took one digger, but I didn't end up as a yard sale. Lots more runs all day on perfect mid-winter snow conditions. It was really cold, but no one was there because of that, I guess.

Time to wax your board(s) bloggers!

Yes, I agree. I think it's my favorite holiday. We had 23 people here--family and friends--but Avi's sister helped with the cooking, so it was much easier than our usual Friday night meals with Avi's family.

Happy Thanksgiving, all you non-native americans!
What a great holiday! Loads of easy to make food, with the focus on family and friends.
And don't forget to get a little hammered, it clears out the carburators!
I'll be thinking of you all, so be happy!

Gobble, gobble!

Good morning all,

I've removed Janice from the team (old address) and re-invited her under her new e-mail address. Perhaps this time she'll come on board. Let's hope.

Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving and can relax with relatives and friends for a bit.......not being able to be near my family for 20+ years has made me value it even more now. Take care and if anyone is traveling, please be careful!! Congrats Richard, it is good to read good news

Wine for me, too. I'm going wine-tasting soon at a winery in downtown L.A. with my friend, Irene. They have food there, too, so maybe I'll be eating fusilli, too! Glad to hear things are looking up at work, Richard.

Yes sir, that's going to be fusilli with red wine (lots of it) on Monday night! I think I am getting a 6 month stay of execution. I will learn on Monday for sure, but it looks like my company is going to put me into a newly created business development position for a 6 month trial. Keep those higher powers smiling on me, please.

Proves you're twisted. : )

Although angle hair, bow ties, cavatapi, diatalini, egg noodles, fettuccine, fusilli, gemelli, gnocchi, lasagna, linguine, macaroni, manicotti, orzo, pastina, penne, radiatore, ravioli, raviolini, rigatoni, rotini, sea shells, spaghetti, spaghettini, tortellini, tripolini, vermicelli, wagon wheels, and ziti, all come immediately to mind-

I gotta go with fusilli on that one. Don’t care who knows either!!

Hi Lori, you can't tell who's just looking at the page, it IS open to the World Wide Web, so anyone can eavesdrop (get a life). But really, who cares? Just don't leave sensitive information (address, phone, favorite pasta shape) in the public area. I put that in my profile in the TEAM section, which is not public.

Janice can see that there hasn't been an update snce Sept 14 because that's the last post on the page. Without joining, she can't read these messages until the site is working again.

Say Pat, does Janice want to join? She doesn't need a computer of her own. Anyone here can invite people or re-send an invitation (i.e.; a PENDING member at the bottom of the TEAM section) or change the invitee's email address, if it has changed. Go there and find someone to click on!

I still don't understand what you guys see when you click on the team button. How do you know from that who's been eavesdropping?!!! I don't mind the eavesdropping, but it would be nice if a few more people would "surface," as Brian says.

Pat, if you go to http://shs1972.blogspot.com you will get the web page (which stopped in Sept.) Anyone can get that and so you see .........all that stuff you have been saying about your classmates (just kidding) has been public material!!!!!

From what i can see It's all here if you just read from the "Post and Publish" page as Lori called it. Since it's the default window I just stay right here since I'm going to be writing from here anyway. I'm still wondering about Janice though. Since she has not logged into blogger as a member how did she know the web page view stopped in Sept? You can see who has come in at least once by clicking on the my team button. It shows two groups those who have accepted the invitation and those who have not. I guess I'm still trying to figure out how one would view the web page if they hadn't accepted the invitation and become a member of the blog? Am I making any sense? I often don't.

Hi, this is Brian. Don't worry about me, I do submerge for long periods. It's not depression, I just get focused on what I'm doing to the exclusion of all else. I remember getting an email a couple years back from my friend Kitt; all it said was

"Surface, willya!?"

Sometimes when I become aware that I've been ignoring all but my family and job(s), I hear that message. And I say "Oh, yeah, whoops." You can always email me if you want, I don't ignore direct correspondence, such as the one from Richard asking me to check into why Blogger wasn't updating this site.

Darned if I know, so let's see what they write back to Richard.

I'm glad the pulse is beating here, keep up the chatter!

Do you usually read the site through the web page view? I never do. Now I'm confused.

I sent an email to Blog Support asking , "whazzzzupppp?"

I think I know what Karen's talking about. When I open the blog, it only goes to September. The only way I can read the new notes is to go to the Post and Publish page. Of course, I don't have the answer--I'll wait for Brian for that.

I will ask our beloved King. He only breaks for one meal a day and sleep on every third, though.

error 503 unable to load template file. We're working on this. Please try back later. That just came up when I hit the post and publish button. But my post is there. Weird.

Karen, I'm not sure that's right. I may be wrong but if you don't accept the invitation to blogger I don't think you get in at all. I know many times over the past couple of months I'd get an error messge from blogger while post and publishing but then it appeared anyway so I never understood what the problem was. It was my understanding though from Brian originally that this was a secure site and only invited persons accepting the invitation could enter at all. How do you access the view web page section if you haven't logged into blogger? This is really interesting.

Okay, Karen, now the recipe ball/bowl is in your court--that is, if I managed to forward it right. I've never forwarded anything before cuz I never bothered to learn how to do it. That's why all the other chain letters people have sent have stopped when they got to me.

Click on the left side of this site where it says "view web page" and you will see what I mean. That is the official posting and I think it is what people see who have not accepted the invitation to blogger. It only goes to the discussion of viruses, sometime in Sept.

If Janice is trying to get into the site now, she'll need to change her e-mail address in the team profile. She's jstearns@vermontel.net now. What do you mean when you say blogger stopped in September?

Are you guys aware that the web page for Blogger stopped in September and no further blogs were registered after that. Janice Stearns asked me what was up and I don't have the answer. All the people who have not joined the site are not able to eaves drop. Can Brian help us or are we now an official SHS "clique"????????????

Brian King and his family were over for dinner last night. We had wonderful Indian food that was completely over the top! (great conversation too).

I've just sent my recipe for Danielle's Temptation to you Lori. So the ball is in your court! (or is that bowl)

It's a deal, Patti. You're welcome any time! Especially if you're planning to cook!

I'm adding desert! Will send it out tomorrow to Lori, who will invite us to her house where I will prepare it.

I just started a recipe chain e-mail. My contribution is on its way to Patty. I hope many additions will be made and that the accumulated file will be distributed to all some time in the future. Brian King is a great cook, don't miss a chance to see what he might add!

All this talk about pot roast is making me want to eat some. I make something I learned from Avi's mother that she calls "roast." I don't know if that's the same thing. How do you make pot roast? Patti, that cake sounds good, but I'm afraid I'll be too lazy to bother making it. Now if you were here to make it for me, that would be a different story. I'd be glad to eat it!

Okay sounds good but can we meet somewhere in the middle, prepare and eat this meal? I love pot roast

Maybe I should start a recipe-chain-email where everyone could add something as it travels- contemplate what is there and add whatever. I know Robin has a good Yankee Pot Roast.

Hi folks - just got in from my new work out class. I'm back into exercising regularly again and it feels pretty good. I needed to do something indoors since our temps up here have been pretty nasty and there is ice where one would normally be walking. Besides that it's dark out there by the time I get home from work. so many excuses. so little time.

Don't feel badly Lori , my cookin is nothing to write home about. Though I crock pot a mean pot roast. I've long since stopped worrying about it though. Especially now that's its just Dave and I living at home we have pretty standard fare. Same ole same ole.

When we were living back in Rutland we belonged to a terrific super club. International menus and the whole nine yards. Gave us a reason to use the "good dishes". I wonder if they are still together? I'm such a picky eater though. We always knew the menu ahead so I'd bring something I'd like to eat if the main dish was icky. I do love to bake though. If anyone is interested in a heavenly flourless chocolate cake recipe I have a beaut!! It's a real choco-holic thriller.

I'm more interested in Karen's slimfast recipe right now! My food's not THAT bad. It's just that I compare myself to the people around me who are all really good cooks--Avi's mother, his sister, his brother's wife, my Israeli friend here, etc. So I've developed an inferiority complex regarding cooking. But the main problem is I see it as a chore instead of an art. Wish I could see it as an art. But I do have a lot of food in my poems!

Karen, Lori, and the silent 237 (were we a class of 240?); Dinner was great! The breaded fish in wheat tortillas was not too much and a selection of hot salsas brought it to life (or possibly afterlife, those *x^'+@#s were on fire!). I am saving Karen's recipe for spicy shrimp in tacos for a "why don't I cook moment". That recipe is money in the bank. I am a little concerned about Lori not having any lip smacking recipes (in a way, no money in the bank).

There was an article about supper clubs in the Sunday New York Times. Unfortunately, my supper club was not included. Two supper clubs from Texas were mentioned, one gay and the other with cleavage. No wonder we didn't make the article, we don't have either. Anyone up for trading recipes, I mean sending Lori some recipes?

By the way, ah... Emeril...Bobby Flay.......the chef formerly known as "Dick", how did the dinner go and what did you end up serving? Rich could have loaned you his apron that some friends gave him for his birthday......It says "now you are cookin' with DICK!! Well, anyway, hope you had fun. Lori, I can come up with the good ideas.........for OTHER PEOPLE, but I haven't exactly been whipping up a frenzy lately. Got any good ideas for things to do with SLIMFAST? HAHA!

Hi, Richard. I didn't want you to think I was ignoring your question about the food. We were out of town for a week, so I'm just getting caught up on all the news. It looks like Karen helped you out. You've got good ideas, Karen! I should know more about fish tacos (living out here), but I don't and I'm not much of a cook. Nothing you'd lick your lips over.