Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates Christmas. I am Jewish, surprise! However, In addition to celebrating Chanukah, I also celebrate Christmas, not by attending church services although I have done that many times, but by getting into the Christmas spirit.
Yesterday,I had to run a numbers of errands. The stores were packed. It was hard to even find a place to park. Nonetheless, most of the people I encountered were unusually pleasant and kind not typical in South Florida.
A special season's greeting to Kari Lake who, justifiably, got her ass handed to her by an Arizona Judge who ruled against Lake’s trying to undo her election results. This is one terrible human being.
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At the risk of bragging -- in fact I am bragging -- the Christmas Eve party at our house last night could not have been nicer. The food and the drink were superlative. Barbara and both sons cooked up a storm. Our friend Tiziana, a professional chef from Ferrara, Italy came as a guest but made several dishes and worked very hard to help Barbara, who once again outdid herself.
I think we finally also found a terrific woman who can help Barbara at parties and taking care of our house. Since Covid, Barbara has had no help taking care of our large house. She does not want to sell it, says they will carry her out, but as we get older, it becomes a real chore to take care of this place.
We had all three children, their spouses and all seven grandchildren. Four of the grandchildren spent many hours during the day being of big help to Barbara. Grandson Blake has a close friend visiting and I took the friend and three grandchildren out for lunch.
In the car, they each had their phones out. I said nicely,“If I wanted to have lunch with cell phones, I would have invited them, not you”. I never saw the phones again and every kid was perfect in every way. Great fun when that happens.
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It looks like I finally got the issue of buying our leased cars purchased, but not before disputes over fees that amounted to about $1300 per car in made-up fees that, finally, the dealership waived. We were also at an impasse as to how the dealership would inspect the odometers and VIN numbers. I refused to take half a day of my time and someone else’s to drive the cars to the dealership. Finally, through my former salesperson, now retired, whom I had no dispute in about 25 years of doing business with, found a former colleague still at the dealership to get this done.
I am not an ultimatum type person. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have given anyone an ultimatum. However, I did this time, taking the position that I had the money and I had the cars. If you want the money and demand inspection of the cars, come see them. If this is not done before I leave the country for several months, my assistant can sign the checks and the papers but if you try to take the cars before it is over, I will be the proud owner of a very successful car dealership. We are scheduled to close January 3.
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Eighteen Republican Senators joined the Democrats to sign the Omnibus Bill which keeps our government open. They are getting slammed by the other Republicans for doing so because all the others were willing to cause untold damage in order to wait until the new Congress to obtain more leverage. This should tell you all you need to know about the Republicans who, apparently, do not care one whit about doing what is best for the country. They are only interested in what they perceive is best for them.
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I will watch the Dolphins on television today because I could not find anyone available to go to the game with me. Oh well! The cat’s in the cradle.
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Dread getting on the scale but will. Will not eat much til Christmas dinner. Even then, I will try to eat in moderation. Funny, even if I pig out, I am eating and drinking way less than half of what I consumed in my heyday.
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Time to go downstairs and help to clean up.
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Go Ukraine
