Araucaria Appreciation Thread

[PalacePaul]

Good evening, John.

 

[Araucaria]

Good Saturday morning Paul, Gary, Thad, Frankie, and Andrew!

Paul, it's good to hear you're feeling better. It sounds like you're going to be busy for the rest of the year with Christmas concerts and what-not.

Gary, I'm sure you're happy to finally relax in your home with everything fixed and working. Your Holy Men should win, and USC looks to be likely to win. But I'm afraid my Gators are likely to have a hard time at Missouri. Missouri is playing well, and Florida has a poor winning record on the road, so it's probably going to be a long night for them.

Frankie, I'm sorry you have to deal with that manipulative maid. I hate dealing with people like that. I wish you luck, and hope you're feeling better.

Thad, I take it you're somewhere out West taking in some more NHL hockey games. I think you said you were going to Las Vegas, I don't remember if you were going to Southern Cal. Hope you're having a good time.

Well, on Thursday I made a Ginger Pumpkin Chiffon pie from a cookbook recipe. It turned out great, but there was a lot of preparation and many steps to it. Separating the yolks and egg whites, warming the sugar in evaporated milk over the stove to make it dissolve, mixing in the canned pumpkin, beating the eggs whites with a mixer, finally mixing it all together, etc. I skipped the step where the recipe called for crumbling gingerbread cookies to make the crust, instead buying a pre-made graham cracker crust at the store, but it was a lot of work, and I could see making a mistake, since there were so many steps to making the pie. Now I'm reminded why I don't make recipes like that very often.

 

[frankifab]

Hello again Johnnie , thanks for writing and thanks for your words , I feel better now

Wow cooking that recipe sounds tricky , but it must've been rewarding to taste and enjoy the final product ( I know what it feels like to cook something tricky and to enjoy the results of the patient work , it's been a few years since I've cooked something tricky )

I hope you enjoy your Sunday my friend , take care

 

[rmcrae]

Hey John!

 

[Triple G]

WOW, what a game which makes the loss even worst. The Gators were amazing, but losing Mertz was the difference.

UCLA won the VICTORY BELL 38-20 from USC

The only bright spot was the Holy Men destroyed Wake Forest 47-7

I hope you still have some of that yummy Ginger Pumpkin Chiffon pie left to drown your sorrows in.

 

[Araucaria]

^Yeah, last night's Gator loss really hurts. They played well, and actually made me believe they might actually beat much-favored Missouri. But they lost on a last-second field goal (much like the Arkansas game a couple of weeks ago, when they lost in OT). And of course, they lost quarterback Graham Mertz to injury in that game. Curiously, the Gators' arch-rival FSU, who they play next week, also lost their QB to injury last night. It's almost as if the gods want to shake up next week's rivalry.

Your Holy Men won easily, but I see that UCLA bested your Trojans.

 

[MusicMan321]

Hi good Sunday afternoon John ☺

 

[Thad1527]

Hi John!

Tomorrow I leave California. I did see the USC campus today; I rode Metro's E line the entire route from East Los Angeles to Santa Monica. And I was near UCLA but not in eyeshot.

Of the hockey I saw, the best performance was the Los AngelescKings. And you know they haven't list on the road yet this season? I think they're winning me over.

I don't go home for a week; I'm trying my luck in Nevada.

Hope you're well and ready for Thanksgiving. I'm kinda blowing the holiday off this year; my brothers do other things so nobody is missing me at their table.

 

[MusicMan321]

Hi John happy Thanksgiving

 

[Araucaria]

Happy Thanksgiving Andrew, Thad, Gary, RM. and Frankie!

Well, I went to the Rare Fruit Council Meeting last Friday night to hear a talk from Mango Man, looking all hot and study as ever. He has a mango farm that somehow survives to this day in the middle of urban West Palm Beach, but he talked about mamey sapote and green sapote that night. I really lust over him, but I think he bats for the other team, so to speak. There's this girl he lives with or is married to, who sort of stays in the background.

Yes, it's Thanksgiving here in the States, for those of you who live elsewhere. This Venezuelan lady from the local Senior Center who hardly speaks any English invited me to go with her to visit her family later today, and they're supposedly having a pool party. Of course, I don't know any of them, so I'm not sure what to expect.

Thad, it sounds like you're living it up in SOCAL right now, and I'm glad you got some good hockey games in. Las Vegas should be quite an experience. Just don't bet more than you can afford to lose.

 

[rmcrae]

 

[frankifab]

Hello Johnnie , I hope you've had a very pleasant Thanksgiving Day and I also hope that your meeting with the Venezuelan lady was fun

That Mango Man sounds interesting ... I haven't eaten mamey sapote in decades ... I like its unique sweet flavor

Have a Fun Friday later

 

[Triple G]

Good morning, John.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Was the time at the pool party fun?

I watched the 49ers and Sea Hawks last night. 49ers ruled at 31-13. It is sure fun watching McCaffery run, and Purdy throw the football. They make the game exciting. And are so easy on the eyes.

Appears the Gators are up against it tomorrow while my Holly Men should have fun destroying Stanford. USC has a bye.

Do you have to work today or are you enjoying a 4-day weekend?

 

[PalacePaul]

Good evening, John. I hope you had a pleasant Thanksgiving... specially at the pool party with some hot Venezuelan studs

 

[Araucaria]

Good Saturday morning Paul, Gary, Frankie, and RM!

The Thanksgiving went very well with the Venezuelan lady's family. It turns out she was the only one interested in the pool, nobody else paid attention to it. I'm glad I wore my regular clothes and only took my swim trunks and a towel in a bag, which I didn't have to change into. Her family's was a bunch of cooks, seeming to enjoy making and cooking the turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, etc. One hot guy made a sort of buffalo chicken dip, which turned out surprisingly good. They were a loud and fun-loving group, and played bingo after dinner. And yes, there were several hot young Latin men in their 20s, which I had to remind myself not to lust over too visibly.

Paul, I take it you're busy with the rehearsals for Christmas cantatas and such. I'm sorry you're getting cold and windy weather right now.

Gary, my Gators face arch-rival FSU. They need this game to be bowl eligible, but things don't look good. Your Holy Men should take care of Stanford with no problem. I hope you're having a relaxing time at home in front of the television.

Frankie, I love mamey sapote. The fruit's popularity took off in Florida with the Cubans. I planted one about 10 years ago, but it never grew, and finally died a couple of years back. I bet mango man could tell me what I did wrong.

RM, I hope you had a good time with your family on Thanksgiving, with good food and good conversation.

 

[frankifab]

Hello again Johnnie , it's great to know you had a good time on Thanksgiving

I bet there were several attractive latin fellas there , if I had been there , I would surely have been caught lusting over them ... I can't help myself when I see stunning fellas at a reunion ...
I know how to admire beauty discreetly but sometimes it's hard when there are several hotties in the place

Once again , I hope that you have a Fun Sunday My Friend

 

[Triple G]

Good morning, John

Your Gators put up a strong fight, but their mistakes did them in. They could have won except for some unnecessary penalties. It was an enjoyable game.

The Holy Men had no problem with a 56-23 win.

You did good to resist openly lusting over those Latin studs.

I'm off to pew duty.

 

[Araucaria]

Good Tuesday morning, Gary and Frankie!

Well Gary, the Gators put up another great fight against FSU, but once again, they came up just short. It was a disappointing season, with so many games that were ever so close. Your Holy Men cleaned up on Stanford.

Frankie, I hope you're having a great week. I really didn't get much of a chance to talk to any of the hot Latin studs at the Thanksgiving dinner last week. They were all hanging around their cluster groups and such, so it's not like I had any opportunities to talk to any of them one-on-one. The most talking I did was with one guy in the car that carried a bunch of us to the dinner. He was doing this sort of DJing thing with his cell phone, he made good selections and he knew a lot about the songs. I could talk to him because I knew more about the music than anyone else in the car.

Yesterday evening I mowed the lawn. It was a lot of work as usual, but a cool front had dropped the temperature into the upper 70s with low humidity, so it didn't kill me like having to mow in the summer when it's 90 degrees and ungodly humidity. We're going into the cooler part of the year, and usually drier, so the grass won't grow so much, though a few weeds will still grow. I should only have to mow once every couple of months until next summer's heat and rainy season kicks in.

 

[Triple G]

Hi, John.

No lawn mowing here, just rock racking and that only in wintertime to avoid heat stroke. The weeds have been few.

 

[frankifab]

Hello Johnnie , the good thing of ThanksGiving is that you had a good time , I would have liked to be there to check on the guys haha

It's cool that the lawn - mowing is not as heavy as it is during summer

Thanks for writing to me buddy

Have a Pleasant Wednesday later