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Old 12-03-2009, 07:16 PM   #21
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Hope the person who gave me this doesn't hang out on this forum -

How about a life-size ceramic armadillo? I'd have been happier if that one had been left at the store.

It's so hard to come up with a nice response when receiving something lilke that. At least I must have looked surprised!
Cool! I'd love it.
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Old 12-03-2009, 08:56 PM   #22
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I've never seen a live armadillo..... .....otherwise known as 'possum on the half shell'..
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Old 12-03-2009, 10:23 PM   #23
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Exactly how high IS an armadillo ?
As I recall, this one is about about 10 inches high and about two feet long.

Packed away in a box somewhere in the cellar at present. If I ever decide to redecorate in a Suthwestern theme, I'll have just the thing.

Maybe I can find an armadillo cake mold and bake a fruitcake for the one who gave me this!
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Old 12-04-2009, 04:37 AM   #24
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As I recall, this one is about about 10 inches high and about two feet long.

Packed away in a box somewhere in the cellar at present. If I ever decide to redecorate in a Suthwestern theme, I'll have just the thing.

Maybe I can find an armadillo cake mold and bake a fruitcake for the one who gave me this!
Now there is an excellent play on words if I ever saw one.
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Old 12-04-2009, 04:46 AM   #25
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I love good fruitcake. Emphasis on "good". The kind that has been wrapped in cheesecloth soaked in brandy for several weeks.
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Old 12-04-2009, 05:52 AM   #26
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How about a life-size ceramic armadillo? I'd have been happier if that one had been left at the store.
Better than that was the life-size ceramic cobra, coiled and ready to strike, that I was given. Once the initial surprise was over it did look kinda cool.

I put it in a kitchen cabinet to surprise guests. At least until I got married and then DW wanted it out of there. Women have no sense of humor.
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Old 12-04-2009, 06:12 AM   #27
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Cobra definitely trumps armadillo!
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Old 12-04-2009, 07:00 AM   #28
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She put so much booze in that fruitcake that I think it was the main ingredient! I think she put a lot of rum in it. That, plus imported candied fruits of dozens of kinds and in all sorts of pretty colors, but they didn't seem to go with the booze.
There, that could have been the problem--the colored fruitoids. Even I think the green and yellow ones taste weird My fruitcake is modeled after the ones the Trappist monks sell by mail for around $40. Made out of dried apricots, raisins, cherries and pecans, home-candied orange and lemon peel, a little butter and flour, lots of spices, and plenty of good brandy. Rum, I consider a bit harsh, but brandy is basically fermented rotten fruit, so it goes great

Those who like it, consider it a very desirable gift and ask for it every year. The diehard "fruitcake-haters" on the other hand, probably wouldn't even taste it. I wouldn't waste any of my handmade gifts on people who won't appreciate them. I knew a lady who made a gorgeous patchwork bedspread for her son and daughter-in-law, and the next time she saw her quilt, it was on the back seat of their pickup truck with their dog sleeping on it. If she'd given me that quilt, I would have treasured it.

Seems to me that's the trouble behind bad gifting--not getting to know the recipient well enough to understand what they'd really like.
Odd as it may seem, I know someone who enjoys collecting Chia pets, and would probably like the ceramic armadillo (no, please don't send it to me so I can give it to them ).
Not sure I know anybody who'd want a scale that will announce their weight on Twitter. Then again, we have many respectable Forum members who share their weekly weight loss and gain, so who knows.

A.
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Old 12-04-2009, 09:44 AM   #29
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Amethyst: I'd sure like that recipe or where to get it. I love a good fruitcake myself...and the more booze the better.
My mother used to make one with Vanilla Wafers by Nabisco and butter, fruit and nuts and brandy (I think or rum?). It was THE best ever.
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Old 12-04-2009, 10:12 AM   #30
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Years ago we had a holiday party and one of my friends was unhappy with her gift . It was a chandelier and pretty ugly . Well since the party was at my house I gave her my present and kept the ugly chandelier . It would then show up at all the following parties as a gift .Sometimes embellished . We got a lot of fun out of that present . I still chuckle at the memory !
I wanna party with you.........
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This Thread is USELESS without pics.........:)
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Old 12-04-2009, 10:14 AM   #31
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There, that could have been the problem--the colored fruitoids. Even I think the green and yellow ones taste weird My fruitcake is modeled after the ones the Trappist monks sell by mail for around $40. Made out of dried apricots, raisins, cherries and pecans, home-candied orange and lemon peel, a little butter and flour, lots of spices, and plenty of good brandy. Rum, I consider a bit harsh, but brandy is basically fermented rotten fruit, so it goes great

Those who like it, consider it a very desirable gift and ask for it every year. The diehard "fruitcake-haters" on the other hand, probably wouldn't even taste it. I wouldn't waste any of my handmade gifts on people who won't appreciate them. I knew a lady who made a gorgeous patchwork bedspread for her son and daughter-in-law, and the next time she saw her quilt, it was on the back seat of their pickup truck with their dog sleeping on it. If she'd given me that quilt, I would have treasured it.

Seems to me that's the trouble behind bad gifting--not getting to know the recipient well enough to understand what they'd really like.
Odd as it may seem, I know someone who enjoys collecting Chia pets, and would probably like the ceramic armadillo (no, please don't send it to me so I can give it to them ).
Not sure I know anybody who'd want a scale that will announce their weight on Twitter. Then again, we have many respectable Forum members who share their weekly weight loss and gain, so who knows.

A.
Never got into the fruitcake thing. My mom makes wicked brandied fruit though, in a glass jar on the counter. It would ferment over time and she would add brandy and sugar to it over a period of several weeks, and then when it was done serve it over ice cream and stuff. My parents were in good moods all the time until the brandied fruit ran out....so us kids would wait for the holiday times to ask for things that my parents would say no to any other time of the year..........
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Old 12-04-2009, 10:46 AM   #32
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Amethyst: I'd sure like that recipe or where to get it. I love a good fruitcake myself...and the more booze the better..
I'll PM you so this doesn't turn into a recipe threadjack
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Old 12-04-2009, 07:27 PM   #33
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Gentlemen..and I use that term loosely ..the mother of all unwanted xmas gifts...NEVER EVER buy your missus a vacuum cleaner or iron for xmas.
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Old 12-04-2009, 09:00 PM   #34
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Many years ago i went with a food processor that had bin-filling clattering piles of plastic containers and grater blades and pushers and knife blades and spout thingies and salad squirters and juicer centrifuges and such. it has been referred to off and on over the decades. won't do that again! this year i'm going with a tasteful stainless pressure cooker. To paraphrase, I'm a man, I can learn. if I have too. I guess.
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Old 12-05-2009, 06:21 AM   #35
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Speaking of gifts and fruitcakes...read Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory". I think of Aunt Sook every time I take a bite of fruitcake. My favorite Christmas story is O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi". I can't keep a dry eye whenever I read it and it has everything to do with what is most important in any relationship. I think a beautifully bound copy would make an excellent wedding gift. But that's the librarian in me speaking.
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Old 12-05-2009, 07:05 AM   #36
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Gentlemen..and I use that term loosely ..the mother of all unwanted xmas gifts...NEVER EVER buy your missus a vacuum cleaner or iron for xmas.
DW has been asking for a Roomba for Christmas...thats a vacuum robot. Still a bad idea?

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Old 12-05-2009, 07:38 AM   #37
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Our old housekeeper got a shiny, new super-vacuum for Xmas one year. From her husband. Who stays home. And sits on his can. While she works like a dog. (My mother and I thought she was dumb to be happy about it as a "gift." But she would never catch on, so....happy she is.)

Rambler: I'd like a Roomba myself, so, yeah, I should think DW would love it for Xmas. Little different than the above posted.
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Old 12-05-2009, 08:12 AM   #38
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DW has been asking for a Roomba for Christmas...thats a vacuum robot. Still a bad idea?

R
You might want to search the forum, or check other reviews. We got one (gift), worse than useless IMO. Entertaining for 32 seconds, never used after that. I assume DW gave it to Good Will or something, don't know.

The instructions even tell you to occasionally vacuum the rug with a regular vacuum as the Roomba does not do a 'deep clean'. Great.

I can sweep the floor in less time than it takes to get that thing out, set up the barriers, and clear the room of stuff that makes it stop or get hung up.

Maybe some people like it for specific uses, but in general I think it is a huge waste of resources.


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Old 12-05-2009, 08:15 AM   #39
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DW has been asking for a Roomba for Christmas...thats a vacuum robot. Still a bad idea?

R

If she wants one it is a good idea but just to be sure I'd add a bottle of her favorite perfume or some jewelry .
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Old 12-05-2009, 09:10 AM   #40
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DW's large family likes to do Chinese auctions. One year I had no idea what to put in there. One of her sisters said, of all the wild stuff you have in your workshop and office surely there is something you can come up with.

Ergo, the original 8 bit video board from my first XT computer. Wrapped finely and decorated with a nice ribbon.

The look of disgust on that same sisters face when she picked it out of the pile at random, priceless.

She held it up high between two fingers, with the proper disdain as only women can do, for all to see. The laughter went on for a good bit of time. Some actually had to ask, what is that thing?

Needless to say I got it back may years later as a stocking stuffer. This after it went around a few times in the clan.

Not to be outdone, DW painted the ICs pretty colors, painted some Xmas motifs in pretty colors, we had it framed. It is now hanging on the wall in the sister's home's bar.

The story as told by her DH is enough to have everyone rolling on the floor.
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