BobPS

My sarcastic self couldn’t help but  post this. 
 
HOLIDAY EATING TIPS   
1.   Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Holiday spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.   
2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly, it's rare. You cannot find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!   
3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.   
4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission. 
5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Holiday party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?   
6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.   
7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.   
8. Same for pies. Apple, Pumpkin, Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert, Labor Day?   
9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.   
10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Re-read tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner. Remember this motto to live by:   
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate and wine in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming " WOO HOO   what a ride!"   Have wonderful holidays

Safe travels and have fun on your journey West!

My dad was 50 and my mother was 38 when I was born. Unfortunately, my dad died suddenly when I was 17 and my mother died when I was 27 of complications of diabetes. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of  both of them. They were great parents. I only wish they’d lived  longer, and I especially would’ve liked to be able to talk to my dad as an adult and for both of them to see what I did with my life. While, some of my successes is due to my hard work, it was my parents who nurtured me and gave me a great upbringing with rules and boundaries which pointed me in a positive direction. 

Safe travels and have fun on your journey West!

Safe travels and have fun on your journey West!

Safe travels and have fun on your journey West!

Welp....I pulled out my travel bag; it's time to pack. Flying to Columbus Friday, and y'all know what that means.....the westward migration is drawing nigh! 😃
Looks like it's warmer up yonder this week than last. Thanks Oliver and SamFitz for turning on some heat prior to my arrival......😋

Neither did Avalon's:
 

Here are some great responses to a similar question asked a few years ago (including discussions from mothers):
 
https://www.companyofmen.org/topic/91266-did-your-parents-give-you-the-talk-about-the-birds-and-bees/

We had the chat when I was 15. I think it was very informative for them.
 
Kevin Slater

My dad was 50 and my mother was 38 when I was born. Unfortunately, my dad died suddenly when I was 17 and my mother died when I was 27 of complications of diabetes. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of  both of them. They were great parents. I only wish they’d lived  longer, and I especially would’ve liked to be able to talk to my dad as an adult and for both of them to see what I did with my life. While, some of my successes is due to my hard work, it was my parents who nurtured me and gave me a great upbringing with rules and boundaries which pointed me in a positive direction. 

I didn't make it past his "...profound apprehension of the world." 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

A rookie Brooklyn cop who was rescued from a car fire as a baby by two Finest in the ‘90s met her saviors for the first time Friday — and was given one of their shield numbers, prompting its former owner to weep. 
Officer Dennise Gomez was just 2 years old when NYPD detective partners Eric Ocasio and Charles Claudio  pulled her, her mother and baby brother out of a burning vehicle in East Harlem in 1996.
Gomez was reunited with her heroes more than 27 years later at an heartwarming event Friday at One Police Plaza in Manhattan, where Gomez received Claudio’s badge number.
“When we say that police officers make a real difference, it’s clearly not just words … [Gomez’s] life is their legacy,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said as he presented the touching shield to Gomez, causing Claudio to break down in tears.
“And now their work is her work.”
Gomez, who now works in the 90th precinct in Brooklyn, entered the police academy in 2022.  She had written about the incident — which she does not remember — as the inspiration for her decision to join New York’s Finest. Friday’s reunion, she said, was emotional for her and her mother.
“It means a lot. It’s an honor. Hopefully, I can do exactly what they did for others. This is why we’re here — to help others, to be there and to serve,” she said.
“To meet them, it’s like they’re superheroes,” Gomez added of her rescuers all those years ago.
Ocasio, 57, became overwhelmed reflecting on his 25-year career — and also the starting one of the person he helped save.
“It’s a ripple effect to know that you had an impact as a young man coming on the force. You always dream of something like this that you want to do well, you want to do good,” he said.
“But to find out 10 years after I retired that this young lady wanted to carry on because of what my partner and I did that day — it’s very fulfilling,” he continued, starting to cry. 
“To be honest with you, if I was to die tomorrow as far as my police career, you know you did well,” Ocasio said.
Claudio, 60, added, “This is a great honor for me and my partner to be in front of people and live a dream.
“I’m just glad that she joined our family,” he said of Gomez. “This is a family. I feel like I gained another daughter.”
Ocasio and Claudio were on patrol on East 116th Street in Harlem on a hot July night in 1996 when they spotted a vehicle stopped at a red light with gasoline gushing from the bottom, according to police.
The cops leapt out of their cruiser and yelled to alert the driver, but the gasoline caught fire, and within seconds, the car was completely engulfed in flames, with 2-year-old Gomez, her 1-year-old brother, and her mother trapped inside.
The mother screamed as the inside of the car filled with smoke, and Ocasio and Claudio sprang into action and tried to open the doors, but they were locked, police said.
Ocasio busted the driver’s side window open with his radio and, with the help of a good Samaritan, pulled the mother to safety. Meanwhile, Claudio rescued Gomez and her brother from the back seat. 
In the end, the family was unscathed.
Gomez said she first learned about her rescue from an old newspaper article.
“We consistently talked about it all the time throughout our careers: ‘I wonder what happened to them,’ ” said Ocasio, who now lives just 5 minutes from his former NYPD partner in Florida, about Gomez and her family.
Lt. Jose Caraballo of the Police Academy reached out to the retired officers to see if they wanted to meet Garcia.
“When I got the call, for my partner and I it was special because we’ve been retired over 10 years now,” Ocasio said. “So to hear a story like that. I had a great career, 25 years. I worked with some fantastic people. And this was the cherry on top.”


    
https://nypost.com/2024/01/12/metro/rookie-cop-saved-from-burning-car-as-a-baby-finally-meets-nypd-saviors/

He sounds like a professional sex therapist.

Stereotyping! (I'll bet he's actually from Chestnut Hill).

Marriage as a concept is too often associated with love. You can fall in love and want to stay with that person without getting married. Marriage primarily means you want/need to share WEALTH.
I married my wife because we started a family and NEEDED the legal protections of identity as a family where wealth is a consolidated entity not exposed to inheritance taxes in case of an unexpected death of one or the other of us. Does that sound like we forgot the romance? Well ..it probably does to some people. But my wife and I had several romantic relationships before we married...so we weren't blinded by all the fairytale feelings that many get lost in when they marry the wrong person.
I married my best friend.
I think too many people have unrealistic expectations of how marriage will guarantee their secure position to always be loved, cherished and valued without putting in the work to provide the same.
 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiGtfKNmcyDAxXqj-4BHZjjDkc4HhAWegQIEBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublichealth.jhu.edu%2F2023%2Funderstanding-atypical-canine-respiratory-disease&usg=AOvVaw2vxBIAIuEXS8_TXJZYjO1R&opi=89978449