Just chatting

bdsamm

Avery I thought of you today. I am only about a mile from a large high school. I saw a bunch of high school runners out doing their training run today going up my street in our 60 degree weather. Made me wonder where you run in your kind of weather. I guess MA is not as cold as some places because you are close to the ocean but still????? Hope you practice indoors.

Avery

bdsamm Made me wonder where you run in your kind of weather. I guess MA is not as cold as some places because you are close to the ocean but still????? Hope you practice indoors.

I'm home now for Christmas so I ran this AM with a guy I went to high school with. Outdoors, about 28°F. You get warm fast, the body anyway. Gloves are necessary and a hat helps. When we go back to school we will be indoors.

Sorry to hear about your 3 friends. Just saw the post now.

Angelina

Max9 Just updated my profile. 8 years of chastity now and @Angelina is already about to get married. Boy, I'm getting old.
👴👴🏼👴🏼🦳🦳

didn't you have a birthday recently, i mean december it was 😃

bdsamm I have lost 3 close friends in the last two weeks. Natural causes.

my condolences and a very true sentence

Max9

Angelina yeah, a few days ago. 😊

bdsamm

Avery You should come to Arizona to run. Much nicer.

Avery

bdsamm You should come to Arizona to run. Much nicer.

My great uncle retired to Phoenix from Chicago. He's dead now but they used to go out to play golf at like 4AM so they could make it back before the heat of day. Colorado is a place lots of folks go to run. The whole area is very beautiful, I know that.

bdsamm

Avery Yes, Back in the 90's I was offered a VP job in Norwalk Connecticut. When I went to visit I was shocked at the congestion and I bet it is worse today. I did some years later take on a project in Ohio but only stayed a year. Was ready to head west. Colorado is beautiful but does have some pretty wild weather at times.

Southern AZ is warm or hot. Northern AZ is cool or even cold and snowy in the winter.

Avery

bdsamm When I went to visit I was shocked at the congestion and I bet it is worse today.

It is. Stop and go traffic on US Rte. 95 in the area within 25 miles of Boston is often stop and go. US 95.

Angelina

Max9 yeah, a few days ago. 😊

happy birthday "nachträglich" 😃 and my wedding is still a few months away (until august), besides, you're not old yet, many people here are older.

Max9

Angelina thanks 🙂
True, many people here are older.

Laura

Unlike year ago, the forum is very active at X-mas time 😂

Avery

Laura Unlike year ago, the forum is very active at X-mas time 😂

Inflation is high everywhere and we have little money to go out shopping so we stay home and post on the internet.

Avery

From The New York Times best of the year awards: The best German phrase Lauren Oster in New York City learned via Duolingo this year was “Und für meinen Anwalt eine Apfelschorle” (“And for my lawyer, a sparkling apple juice”).

Also, a Christmas song I enjoyed even though I cannot understand a word she is saying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohhXZtgO3J8

curious

Avery
German language original version of "Silent Night".
The original was written and first performed in 1818 in a small village in the alps near Salzburg in Austria.
Back then the region was devastated by war and mice had actually destroyed the billows of the church organ.
The assistant priest assigned to this parish was desperate when he found out on Christmas Eve and went to his friend, the local teacher and organ player with the text of the poem "Silent Night" he had written some years earlier.
With in a few hours, just in time for the Christmas Evening church service, they wrote the melody - for tenor and bass with a single guitar as the only instrument available to them.
The simplicity and beauty of the arrangement ensured, it would go on to become the most popular Christmas Song in the world. Today there are translations in pretty much every language in the world where even a few Christian people are living, more than 300 by now (for comparison, there are slightly less than 200 countries in the world).

Angelina

Yes, the forum is really very active at the moment, but I still have time to write here myself while the food for evening is in the oven.
Anyway, I think even if it's still too early, I can now wish all users of the forum a Merry Christmas and a relaxing one. 😃 Enjoy the time with the people who are important to you and eat until you or your chastity belt bursts 😂

Jonas

Angelina Merry Christmas Angelina, and Merry Christmas to all! 🎄 🎅 🧦 🎁 🌟

Angelina

so christmas dinner is really a danger, i have had the feeling several times that my belt is about to burst. anyone had similar experiences? 😂

Avery

Americans, of course, think all the world is interested in our politics. At about 2AM last night, after 15 rounds of voting, the 435 members of the US House Of Representatives elected a new Speaker (the House leader). Usually it takes 1 round.

At one point someone nominated Donald Trump. Trump, of course, currently holds no elective office, but it seems that the US Constitution does not require the Speaker to actually be a member of the House. Guess no one thought it would ever happen.

What the Constitution does say is that whoever is Speaker is 2nd in line to the Presidency, after the Vice President. So, if President Biden should pass away or become incapacitated, not unlikely given his age and general frailness, and something should happen to Vice President Kamala Harris, then Trump would again be president despite not having been re-elected by the people. What a great country (irony)!

Angelina

Avery

I followed the "drama" a bit. i'm really surprised that someone who isn't a member could become a speaker and i thought there are two speakers (one for the democrats, one for the republicans)? then there should actually be two people at number 3 on the presidential list, or can only the majority party provide a speaker?

Ines

Avery What a great country (irony)!

Even with faults, (as every country in the World), USA is a great country.

Avery

Angelina i'm really surprised that someone who isn't a member could become a speaker

So was I. I bet the founding fathers never imagined such a person would be nominated.

Angelina or can only the majority party provide a speaker?

Yes, for all practical purposes. The entire House votes for Speaker, but no one would ever "cross the aisle" and vote for someone of the other party. Therefore the majority party really gets to pick the Speaker.

Angelina i thought there are two speakers (one for the democrats, one for the republicans)

After the Speaker is chosen by the full House the parties get together separately and each chooses a leader. These two would be called House Majority Leader and House Minority Leader. They are subordinate to the Speaker, tho the Speaker and Majority Leader would usually work closely together, being of the same party.

curious

Angelina
Speaker is the equivalent to the Bundestagspräsident in German parliament. And rules are actually very similar.
When a new Parliament is constituted, in Germany the oldest member automatically is given the right to preside over the first session, until the Bundestagspräsident is elected. And usually the biggest party can put forward the candidate for that.
The leaders of each party in the house of representatives are the equivalent of the Fraktionsvorsitzende in Germany.

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