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Zoom meeting for the holidays?


widower2

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Anyone interested in a videoconference to say hi more directly? I could use my work Zoom account so we don't have that 40 min time limit that the free one has. I'm open to a date and time, but would hope to make it a time that can work across most time zones, in the states at least...obviously weekends have more flex than weekdays. 

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Sounds interesting if a time and date works for most people.  It’s very nice of you Widower2 to set this up!

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Possibly.  I'll have to think about it a little.  Despite me being "out there" when I'm here, I tend to rather private when it comes to things like this.  OTOH, it's not as if seeing my face will be some great revelation or something.  I probably just need to get over myself about it.  I take Zoom yoga, but don't know much about the options.  I would not want my "picture" or our video chat saved in any way.  If that's agreeable, then I think I'd be in.

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4 minutes ago, foreverhis said:

Possibly.  I'll have to think about it a little.  Despite me being "out there" when I'm here, I tend to rather private when it comes to things like this.  OTOH, it's not as if seeing my face will be some great revelation or something.  I probably just need to get over myself about it.  I take Zoom yoga, but don't know much about the options.  I would not want my "picture" or our video chat saved in any way.  If that's agreeable, then I think I'd be in.

You can also turn off the camera and just do audio.  I often do this. 

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2 hours ago, Michael M said:

You can also turn off the camera and just do audio.  I often do this. 

Yeah, our yoga instructor kind of jokes about that in her pre-class emails for logging on.  She reminds everyone that they can turn off their cameras and "do yoga in your jammies."  A couple of class members turn off their cameras, but only because of signal strength and bandwidth issues.

I'd be okay with both video and audio, just as long as nothing is recorded.

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4 hours ago, KayC said:

I'm in the country mountains, can't do zoom here or skype.

So sad!  I was hoping to meet your cute puppy!

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I would be there (time permitting) from Australia!

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18 hours ago, SSC said:

So sad!  I was hoping to meet your cute puppy!

I can never get good pictures of him...his personality really comes out when Jazzy and him are playing (daily play date) but they're perpetual motion!

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On 12/3/2021 at 1:11 AM, foreverhis said:

Possibly.  I'll have to think about it a little.  Despite me being "out there" when I'm here, I tend to rather private when it comes to things like this.  OTOH, it's not as if seeing my face will be some great revelation or something.  I probably just need to get over myself about it.  I take Zoom yoga, but don't know much about the options.  I would not want my "picture" or our video chat saved in any way.  If that's agreeable, then I think I'd be in.

A few clarifications and FYIs:

- It will absolutely not be recorded; never even occurred to me. This is not a deposition. ;) And you can confirm this because if it was, you'd see the little red button lit and the word "recording" in the upper left. You will not see that. 

- The options are yours on video: you can have your (camera) video on or off. Also be mindful of your mute button in case you want to talk (or if someone/something in your room gets loud to mute!).

- I would ask that people not put their full names just to be safe. Just a first name or nickname or a made up name or even your name here if you prefer.

- My intent was an informal chat, to talk about whatever we're comfortable with but hoping to keep it as light as possible; we certainly don't have to talk about "that" although it might be hard to avoid entirely. And if someone wants to, fine, I just suggest we try not to go too far down that path, at least this time. We could do something like that another time though. 

- Though I think unlikely, if any "trolls" (losers who say or do inappropriate things) appear, they will quickly get ejected. My patience for that is zero and I reserve full judgment on what is or is not acceptable but really it should be common sense...

- Keep in mind you can have a "wallpaper" in the background if you want! I will have something Christmasy. 

- Ugly Christmas sweater optional. :) 

 

Days and times. What does or does not work for people? I am pretty much free about 6 PM on out Eastern time weekdays and almost any time on a weekend, although I would lean to early evening or mid/late morning vs the afternoon. I can't on the 18th but otherwise pretty open. No later than I'd say 21st or 22d if we go that late, though I would prefer earlier. 

 

 

 

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On 12/3/2021 at 8:25 AM, KayC said:

I'm in the country mountains, can't do zoom here or skype.

IF you've got 4g or even 3g cell phone coverage, and a smart phone, one can use those. IF you can watch Youtube videos, that ought to be enough bandwidth for a computer, or tablet. :unsure:

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On 12/2/2021 at 10:58 PM, widower2 said:

Anyone interested in a videoconferencing to say hi more directly? I could use my work Zoom account so we don't have that 40 min time limit that the free one has. I'm open to a date and time, but would hope to make it a time that can work across most time zones, in the states at least...obviously weekends have more flex than weekdays. 

I know some other groups that run a Zoom room all day,  I'm not sure exactly what my plans are myself, as I do spend time with my step-daughter and mother-in-law a lot.

But if one were to host it for a couple of hours, or so? Why not drop in?  I'd hate to promise to come to something and leave one person hanging out in a zoom room feeling more lonely than before.

 

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16 minutes ago, Jennifer Uren said:

I would like this if I can figure out how to do it.

If you have a tablet or phone, they've got an apps for it. Or Download it onto a computer and install. - I personally prefer the computer versions.

The Zoom website has some tutorials.

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21 hours ago, Jennifer Uren said:

I would like this if I can figure out how to do it.

Just look up "Zoom" on the internet and download the free app and create an account. Again I suggest using a false last name at least (and you can use a false first name if you want too). From there it's easy: I will send a direct link that you click on at the given time and it just pops up. Then at the bottom you can see options to enable or disable video and mute or unmute yourself. 

If this doesn't work out no big deal, but it would be nice to talk direct with people I've been "talking" to just online back and forth for awhile now :) PS I was thinking this would probably go an hour or so, probably not much more...although if it helps to stretch it out to accommodate people who can make at diff times I probably can.

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bump!

If anyone is definitely interested in this, please PM me and let me know day/times which definitely do or don't work. I'm thinking some time next week, since later than that is probably too conflicting with holiday stuff.

Oh and looks like I will be using my home version vs work account, but we can get around the 40 min limit if need be.

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Widower2, 

I am not sure what PM means or how you do it. I see people say it all the time, but what it actually is is a mystery to me. 

I have a paid for zoom account, so if we want the option of going over the 40 minute limit, I could do the invites.  But I have also found that at the end of a 40 minute lime limit, everyone in the call can just sign in again and you get another 40 minutes.  So either way can work fine. 

I am available most any time. 

Gail

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PM = private message.  

16 hours ago, Jen H said:

 

 

4 hours ago, Gail 8588 said:

I am not sure what PM means or how you do it. I see people say it all the time, but what it actually is is a mystery to me. 

PM = private message.   Click on the round icon by someone's name to see their profile page. At the top near their name use the orange button that says message. 

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Thanks.  That's the little envelope symbol. Got it.  I have never initiated that method of communication, so I just didn't understand it was PM. 

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On 12/12/2021 at 11:13 AM, Gail 8588 said:

Widower2, 

I am not sure what PM means or how you do it. I see people say it all the time, but what it actually is is a mystery to me. 

I have a paid for zoom account, so if we want the option of going over the 40 minute limit, I could do the invites.  But I have also found that at the end of a 40 minute lime limit, everyone in the call can just sign in again and you get another 40 minutes.  So either way can work fine. 

I am available most any time. 

Gail

Hey Gail, got your "PM" :) and I'm fine either way...if you want to send the invites, fine, or we can use my free one and re-sign in if we go over 40 mins. 

A few have signed on, anyone else? I'm looking at early to mid next week...Weds at latest. 

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As I said, I will be there time permitting (australian time that is) and look forward to it!

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Sorry I missed it.  I didn't have delays at the doctor's office, but the visit itself took longer than expected.  That meant I hit what passes for commute around here, plus some construction.

I really would love to talk about setting up another one after the first of the year when things might be a little easier for more members.  Would you be on for that @widower2?  Would anyone be on for that?

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On 12/7/2021 at 12:05 AM, Jennifer Uren said:

I would like this if I can figure out how to do it.

Hey Jen, 

I am not sure what happened when we lost the zoom connection.  I enjoyed talking with you.  Wishing you the best this holiday season. 

Gail 

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Hi all.  I would have loved to join you, but one of those calls was from my baking partner (friend who lives across the street).  Today was the only day we could bake this week, so he took the dough to their house to finish and bake because of my appointment, rather than us doing it together.  Well, whoops, their oven died just as it was time to bake the sourdough, so we had to scramble and get things back over here, get the oven going, and finish the bread.

Wishing everyone a loving, peaceful holiday.  I hope we can set up another zoom in January, if others are interested.

Just for fun, here's the bread cooling on the rack.  We did a rye sourdough this week.  We have been baking together for more than 2-1/2 years.  It started because he wanted to learn sourdough and his wife (also my dear friend) had done some baking with me--little knowing that I had not had success with sourdough, even though I'm a great cook and baker.  Plus, she knew I'd had little incentive to care about cooking and baking after John died.  It snowballed from there so that we do most of the family baking together now and split it between us.  Our starter is more than 2 years old (so, before the COVID sourdough craze. LOL.) and is getting really nice.  We do that, other breads, sweet goodies sometimes, etc.  I taught him a lot about baking in general and he's gotten good at it.  He's even come up with suggestions for some of our recipes.  It's been one of my steps forward to be able to enjoy baking again, even though it's sad at times.  During COVID when we had to stay separated, we divided up tasks and then swapped stuff back and forth at a distance on the front porches.  We called that "baking together, separately."  Now that we're all vaxxed and the numbers are down in our area, we have started baking together every couple of weeks and then splitting the tasks if one of us needs to be at home or something like that.  Today was quite unusual, but we got it done!

 

 

 

Bread.jpeg

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Jennifer Uren

Sorry my phone died. It was a pleasure talking to you as well. The Holidays will never be the same without Jay but I’ll do my best to make it great for the kids. Merry Christmas to you.

Jenn

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Hi Jenn.  I am so sorry I missed it!  Would you be interested in another zoom meeting in January or February?  Maybe more people would be interested once the holidays are over and things have settled down.

No, the holidays will never be the same, but I applaud you for doing your best for your kids.  Just be sure to take care of yourself too.

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19 minutes ago, foreverhis said:

 

Bread.jpeg

That is s beautiful loaf!

It sounds very hectic with all the back and forth, but the proof is in the pudding.  Great job!

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Thanks, Gail.  It was a wild time today for sure.  But especially since the beginning of COVID, we've learned to roll with whatever we need to do to make it happen.  John used to be my assistant and official taster for new recipes I was creating.  For a full year, I could not bring myself to bake much of anything, much less bread that John used to enjoy, because it just hurt too much. 

The friend I'm baking with now and his wife are our friends who lost their daughter at birth many years ago.  They know grief; they get it.  And because they do, they seem to know when to gently "push" and when to back off.  It's their dog I spend a few afternoons with each week.  Between the three of them and a small circle of other friends and family, I've made more steps forward in the past year than I would have thought possible given everything going on in the country and the world.

 

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Foreverhis, 

I am glad you have your baking partner. My husband loved to bake.  When he was in college he had a job at a healthy,-food co-op baking bread. He would go to work at 4 in the morning and bake all the bread for the day before he would head off to his college classes.  He enjoyed baking bread for our family and my boys and I have many happy memories of gobbling up dad's warm bread just out of the oven.

I would be up for having another go at zooming after the first of the year.  It was very nice seeing a few folks here. 

Gail

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What a great college job!  Plus, it gave him a wonderful way to help nurture his family.  I can just picture him pulling bread out of the oven, while your sons watched impatiently.  More than once John's "little boy" self couldn't help it and he'd pull rolls apart or beg me to slice the bread before it was quite ready.  I could never say no when he gave me the "pleeease" look.

I'm glad you'd be up for more zooming.  I would have happily rescheduled my appointment today in order to be here, except that it was my orthopedist.  A second appointment to deal with my blankety-blank torn bicep tendon and shoulder damage.  Finally the snafu with my MRI referral was cleared up and I should get the okay to schedule it in the next day or two.  I just about lost it when I was at the office today.  My doctor was peeved, not at me, but at the system that causes delays and denials.  He had wanted me to be able to have it 3 weeks ago, right after the x-rays, which were a required first step.  I have good doctors and their assistants are great at helping care for patients and following through on things, but there's only so much they can do when the problem is my insurer.

One of my friends had a meniscus tear about 2 months ago, about the same time I tore my tendon.  Her insurance is different.  She was able to get the tests needed, see her orthopedist, and had surgery to repair it 10 days ago!  I'm glad for her, of course, but the whole thing really upsets me.  When one person can get proper care and others have to fight for it and still others can't get or afford care at all, something is really wrong with our piecemeal, patchwork system.

Okay, enough ranting about what we all already know.  I look forward to actually seeing you at the next zoom time.  (And it's perfectly okay for you to call me Annie here, if you want to.  This is the one place I don't really feel a need to be protectively private that way.)

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Wow, looks yummy!  I can't have wheat/gluten/bread but am making lots of things Keto, took my homemade Dr. Berg pizza to our church Mon. night for movie night!
image.png.20df9c2b68f9082a2f6e8b4bab392c92.png

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Kay, that Keto pizza looks amazing!  It's good that you don't have to forego foods that you love; you simply have to learn different Keto ways to make them.  So it has been for my sister, who was diagnosed with actual celiac disease several years ago now.  She has always been a bread lover, so she scouted out all the good GF breads, etc.  Then she and my BIL got a GF cookbook.  She's not much into baking, though when she does what she makes is yummy, but my BIL loves experimenting and baking things for her.  When they were here at Thanksgiving, I bought a frozen GF pie crust and then used one of the GF replacement flours to make a crumb top.  It came out great.  My baking partner and I also tried our hand at GF dinner rolls using a recipe I found online.  I'd bought the King Arthur Measure-for-Measure replacement flour and we separated the kitchen into two "zones" with one side absolutely GF and the other side "regular."  The rolls came out nicely, though the author wasn't kidding when she said they're best eaten right away.  We had made them 3 days before and frozen them; the first one came out of the pan rather dry.  So...We put them in my steamer basket for about 5 minutes and they were really nice.

It's amazing how easy it really is to learn different cooking and baking techniques to make sure everyone has food they enjoy and that is healthy for them.  I have a friend who is vegan; another who also has celiac disease; two others are lacto-ovo with locally caught fish only; another two friends are violently allergic to shellfish and one to pineapple (bummer); my doctor has me trying a modified carb diet (about half the "typical" US diet as Keto isn't appropriate for my health conditions); and the rest of my gang are "whatever."  Yet somehow, we all manage to create things that please everyone.  One of my favorite things to do when it's a mixed group is make a pot of stew, chili, or soup that's GF and vegan.  Then I have a whole bunch of different add ins (meats, sauteed extra veg, maybe soup noodles, cheese, sour cream, etc.,so that everyone can make it just how they want it.  I could even do a base Keto version for you and have adds in for others.  Maybe it's easy for me to think of cooking that way because I love to be creative and make my own recipes, and because John was one of the 2% of the world-wide population who react to the enzymes in alcohol the same way celiac patients react to gluten.  It took years to get the diagnosis.  I couldn't even cook with extracts because the enzymes remain even after cooking or baking.  John's only "complaint" was that he got diagnosed just about the time he was far enough along in his career to afford good bourbon and wine.  He didn't drink a lot, so when he did have a drink, he wanted the best he could afford.  Bless his heart, he attended all the winery events with me and our two best friends/family at the winery where we're friends with the vintners.  He was our DD, obviously, and said he went for the food and the company and didn't really miss having the wine.

And there I've gone and relayed another silly story about him.  I just can't seem to help wanting to share the things that made him uniquely mine.

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Jennifer Uren
19 hours ago, foreverhis said:

Hi Jenn.  I am so sorry I missed it!  Would you be interested in another zoom meeting in January or February?  Maybe more people would be interested once the holidays are over and things have settled down.

No, the holidays will never be the same, but I applaud you for doing your best for your kids.  Just be sure to take care of yourself too.

Yes I would definitely do it again. I find it a bit therapeutic. I’d be willing to do it regularly.

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Hey so glad for those who made it and hope others can if we have one in the future. 

And thanks a lot FH, now I want fresh bread.  Or pizza, Kay! :)  

 

 

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4 hours ago, foreverhis said:

And there I've gone and relayed another silly story about him.  I just can't seem to help wanting to share the things that made him uniquely mine.

? Nothing silly at all about that story. With my beloved, after her cancer spread to her liver, she couldn't drink either. We had vintage grape juice. :) 

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17 hours ago, widower2 said:

And thanks a lot FH, now I want fresh bread.  Or pizza, Kay! :)  

Haha!  Annie, I am gluten intolerant, something I discovered after going on this, I bought a loaf of Franz "Keto Bread" (NOT!!! I wish they'd outlaw misrepresentations in selling like that) and had a reaction, it instantly closed me up...I threw the loaf away, all $5 of it.  I've learned to make Keto english muffins, etc and recently ran across a bread I can make in my bread machine, still need to buy a couple of the ingredients but it took me two years of searching to find this!

I love all of your sharing.  At first I wasn't reading here as I thought it was all about zoom but it's not (I can't do zoom here). 

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