James worked on Saturday, so he had today off. We used the opportunity to sleep a little bit later, but I had to get up early to check on Mom and give her her pills. Because she was sleeping so deeply last night—I literally cannot wake her up when she sleeps like this; she just mumbles and grunts—I couldn't give her her pain medication, so when she took it at 7:30 she was in quite a bit of pain.

We still had things to do, so we called up some friends on the off chance someone could come over at the last moment. Leigh Boros had some research she wanted to do and came over to keep Mom company and read while she slept. It was a welcome respite; thank you, Leigh!

We bought more watermelon and some tea for Mom at the grocery store, then went to Lowe's to return something James bought a duplicate of and buy a new mailbox (the old one is too small and also no longer latches properly) and two new blinds for the glass doors to the den; Willow had finally broken and/or bent all the lower slats to the aluminum ones we had up to the point where they were taped closed and together with electrical tape and Scotch tape and everything else and looked horrid. We got "faux wood [read "plastic"] plantation blinds" this time, which were a bit more money but have thick, wide slats which we hope Willow can't break and also which we hope will let less light in the room, keeping it cooler and not reflecting as much in the corner of the television screen in the daytime. (We installed them with the usual circus of electric drill, level, pencil searches, and confusion when we got home; they look pretty good.)

We also bought some groceries and a baby monitor at WalMart (finally; it will make me feel a bit more secure when Mom is sleeping and I'm doing housework), and stopped at Borders for a treat: we both had 50 off coupons on a beverage and 30 percent off coupons on a book. I got an anthology of 1920-set mysteries and James got the novel We Few.

Got home to find a nice surprise despite the money it cost: I have a Waldenbooks/Borders credit card that earns me book coupon points. I got six $5 coupons this time due to those $$$$ plane tickets and had two from last time, which means both James and I can get a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for free. Only seventeen days left.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:18:00 PM

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