Bernard, This is the emerald version Prince Albert designed. https://www.sothebys.com/en/digital-catalogues/power-image-royal-aristocratic-tiaras/an-historically-important-emerald-and-diamond-diadem-joseph-kitching-1845

My hair started falling out and I remember the moment I was looking in the mirror and noticed it. I shaved my head after that and never looked back. Four years later I moved to Hawaii where almost every man shaved his head. Lol. Now twenty years on in Florida and over 55 nobody gives AF if you shave your head. Of course, I'm an "average Joe" and not a "world leader" so I guess I have more freedom. So dumb. Shave your head and move on with your life.

@jon-nyc said in 3 hours and 42 minutes: almost 4 hours of hold music with a ‘your call is important to us’ message every minute. That is easily the worst thing about waiting on hold!! How you got everything squared away!!

That looks like a fairy land! Stunning.

@wtg Tin Can Knits does excellent patterns!

Dinner tonight. It’s just too easy to be this good. Chicken and bean chili. No recipe, Sharon made it up. Sweat mirepoix in a big pot with a sliced green chili and a couple of cloves of garlic. Melt a block of cream cheese on top of it. Add one can each of white beans, black beans, pinto beans, corn, and diced tomatoes. Add shredded Costco rotisserie chicken. Heat up. Season to taste - cumin, coriander, paprika, salt, pepper. It’s way better than it should be with those ingredients. Even for a no UPF warrior with a Mediterranean diet mindset it’s hard to fault it other than maybe too much cream cheese

They are good for small areas. I kept my insulated tack room above freezing in the barn in Maine. We have one near the desk at the gallery (plus several others that blow air) since the rooms in the lower level of our building have no heat. I like that they don’t make noise, and are so much safer than the ones that get red hot. They are easy to move around too. Just don’t get a cheap one. Our cheap one from Walmart quit working after the first winter.

Finally, a Peace Prize. Trump wins his peace prize from Fifa – any chance of a VAR review? At a gaudy and gauche World Cup draw, Gianni Infantino went all out to flatter the world’s most precious ego https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/05/trump-peace-prize-fifa-world-cup

@Piano-Dad said in My "final exam" for piano class this semester: Glad you're continuing to play! Yep! Sometimes I can barely get 15 minutes to practice, but those 15 minutes make it possible to continue, and then when I have, I can actually make meaningful progress. You know, I remember a very long thread on PW about that Croatian Rhapsody and all of its variants many moons ago! You have an excellent memory! I’m pretty sure I started that, and it was probably 20 years ago now! I think I sent some people physical copies of the piece in the mail even?? But I never got the piece playable, so even thought there are still some rough patches, it’s nice to be able to play it now.

@DougG said in The end of an era: wow, you must be really old. But congratulations. I have really enjoyed retirement the two or three times I’ve done it. Yeah, I get it. As an emeritus professor I still plan on doing stuff, just not in the classroom. I might even see if there is any need for an old curmudgeon in consulting!

I'll have one of those, please.