 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Monday, December 31, 2007
What's Serendipity?
Serendipity is walking into a second store after having found items at half price in a previous store and hoping the second store will have something good—and finding a gift that is so perfect for a friend that it almost screams the name...and it's half price in the bargain!
Labels: shopping  Town of Cochrane Mural Mosaic
Wow, check THIS out. Each tile in this mosaic is its own individual picture. There are two others below it that are made the same way.
Thanks to Melody of "Christmas to the Max" for passing this on! Labels: art "Then One Foggy New Year's Eve..."
Technically untrue, since it won't be New Year's Eve until sunset or 6 p.m., whatever designation of evening you prefer—it was still what I've always called "New Year's Eve Eve" when I set out to work this morning. Outside was a pea-soup fog (or peanut butter if you're Yukon Cornelius, LOL) that even Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer would have had trouble navigating. Luckily the roads were almost deserted; I didn't see another car till I was more than a mile from home, and then they appeared like ghostly foxfire out of the misty depths. Getting on the freeway was particularly "interesting" because there were no lights on that particular stretch and the ramp descended into impenetrable Stygian mist. Was there even a road down there or was this an intro to a John Carpenter film?
The air is still full of floating cotton wool even as we approach late morning; the building across the way looks like a Monet painting. We are being "let loose" 59 minutes early for our New Year's Eve safety, but I'm taking an additional two hours from our bonus credit time gift. I still have to bring a box of books/DVDs/tapes to the library to get donation credit for this year's income tax and I also need to grab something to take to Bill and Caran's, since James had no time to cook anything. Another year shot to hell... » Sunday, December 30, 2007
Fast Away the Old Year Passes...
 ...but we still have some books basking under the glow of the Christmas tree.Labels: books, Christmas, Holiday Harbour The Bad and the Good
Apparently having pizza for dinner, even without a whopping case of sour stomach, twice in a row does my digestive system no earthly good. I was up between 2 and 4 a.m. and then in the bathroom from 9 to 10:30. We had planned to start out to Warner Robins at nine and ended up leaving at eleven. I was pretty miserable on the trip down, but the welcome at James' mom's house was warm. Our niece Nicki (along with her friend Jackie) was home for Christmas from her new life in Colorado and was leaving later in the afternoon, so we had a nice brunch at home, exchanged gifts, chatted in front of the Christmas tree, and met Sabra's new husband, Jason.
We bought Nicki a LilKinz lion and she was delighted, because she had owned a similar stuffed animal that she had lost awhile back. We minimally showed her the ropes and Jackie now wants one as well. Left about 5:30; stuck in stop-and-go traffic caused by flashing police lights several times. Home at 7:30 after a short stop at the Books-a-Million in Jonesboro. » Saturday, December 29, 2007
Gallivanting and Gaming
Not much gallivanting, really: just to BJs for milk and the usual supplies. Quite a collection of samples today, but they'll have to go far to beat Costco's collection. I picked up the third season of Wild Wild West while I was at it.
Then home for a bit and off for the Lawsons for game night and a belated gift exchange. We had pizza and Pizza Hut actually fixed me a bacon/black olive/no cheese. The guys apparently talked neep/politics/whatever, and we ladies played Chronology (which Ken played for a while), Finish It [name? game where you finish a well-known quote, song lyric, proverb, etc.], and Imagin-iff. » Thursday, December 27, 2007
Sleep, Scrub and Stare
Finally got the good sleep-in that I had been wanting, then went to tackle the nasty job: a good scrub of the shower compartment and later the bathroom counters. I've been giving this a lick and a promise between work, Christmas prep, and just wanting to enjoy the holiday, but, water shortage or no water shortage, it had to be done: it was looking pretty gross. I used as little water as I could on the shower stall, mostly for rinsing, but I had to get my sink drain unclogged. We have dual sinks and mine tends to clog faster than James'. I had the baking soda, had bought the white vinegar, and even boiled water for this go-around, but it simply had to take some running water, too.
In between the shower stall scrub and the counter/sink thing, I watched Ice Station Zebra, which I had never seen before. Tidy little thriller, but I don't think I will care for repeat viewings like I do Hunt for Red October. I was surprised at how sketchily drawn Jim Brown's hard-nosed Marine character was; supposedly you were supposed to suspect him of being a spy, but he was so 2D it was like watching a paper doll. Patrick McGoohan, as always, was watchable, but it all is pretty much by the numbers. » Wednesday, December 26, 2007
I Only Went Out for a Car Registration and Potassium Gluconate...
I bet you know how this comes out!
I really wanted to sleep in, but was up just after James left. After renewing the car registrations online (see December 3 and 8 entries), we had only gotten one registration renewal back. It came so quickly we thought it was James' and it had been left unopened on his desk, then I wondered if both were in the same envelope. It turned out it was his that was missing in action, so I had to call up the DMV to find out what happened. Apparently the postman misdelivered it; the person who received it wrote "not here" on the envelope and sent it back. So I had to go all the way out to the office on South Cobb to pick up a new one. The line wasn't out the door like normal and I wasn't in there but five minutes, but...I hope it wasn't someone close by too lazy to stick it in our mailbox, because I sure would have done it for them. Since I was heading in that direction anyway, I went to MicroCenter, too late for the laptop they had on sale early this morning for $300 (I saw it; cheap-looking thing). Saw the cutest little Asus...what would you call them? Even smaller than a notebook computer; keyboard almost too small even for my tiny hands. Did get a book about WindowsXP digital media processing. There is a Hallmark a few yards away, so I went in and bought a couple of the snowman ornaments for a winter display, an adorable roly-poly Santa that holds a cheese spreader (the handle is his red cap), and the Hallmark collectors' ornaments book, which was marked down to $4. I brought this all home to see what I had bought so far in the Winter Park and Snowmen collection, then decided to go to BJs. I had seen a DVD set there that I wanted to get for James for Valentines Day if one was still available. It was. I then stopped at Kohl's, knowing they had Hallmark and Carleton things on sale. I didn't find what I wanted of those, but they had winter things, snowman bowls and things, not in red and green. It is so hard to find plain winter decorations; it's as if winter stops at Christmas. As the folks in New England, upstate New York, the Midwest, and Canada will attest, this is just not true. :-) I also found two Christmas village figure sets: one of a father and son with packages (for outside the Woolworths) and a set of random dogs and cats. I wanted a dog moving, "running to meet" his master coming home from the war (the soldier greeting his girl), and this was one of the figures in the set. The other assorted cats and dogs I scattered about the village when I got home. I also bought two very nice gifts for next year that ordinarily I would not have been able to afford. Tick, VG! Finally I got to Walgreens for some potassium (I had slightly low potassium the last time I went to the doctor, so I try to remember to take a tablet every day, but I had run out of the stuff) and also emerged with something James needed for the car, and some things at half price: five reels of tinsel cord (never know when they'll come in handy for a craft project) and four boxes of tinsel. Walgreens was a veritable hive of activity; Christmas things being moved out of the way making way for Valentines Day things (Michaels jumped the gun on everyone and had some Valentine things out over a week ago). I figured this would be the best day for shopping anyway and it was good for a walk, so headed for Cumberland Mall. Bought a couple more ornaments at Hallmark, including the Enterprise bridge for James, then walked down to Carleton, but was tired by then and didn't buy anything. I did find something nice for myself on the bargain shelf at Waldenbooks, and also another Christmas gift for next year. Total three future gifts and one Valentines Day present. Very nice! » Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Christmas Photos! Get Your Nice New Christmas Photos! » Sunday, December 23, 2007
Theatre and Turkey, O My!...
And More Books » Saturday, December 22, 2007
Morning Headaches and Evening Christmas Joy...
» Friday, December 21, 2007
Why Looking Up at Walgreen's is Good...
The Longest Day
It was actually the shortest day, nature-wise, but not around here. Since I'm off all next week, I wanted to finish as many orders as I could. Two of my new ones had come ready to go, and some had just "fallen into place," so I got six done today, plus a no-cost extension modification, and two payment authorizations, plus more e-mails than I'd care to discuss! :-) I thought I could get a seventh order done, but it didn't have a line item for shipping and we can't do that.
I realize that I'm really not taking much time off as it seems: only two days, and at least one of those would be use-or-lose by the end of the payment year. Tuesday is a holiday, Friday my regular compressed schedule Friday off, and G.W. nicely gave us Monday off. (New Year's Eve would be too much to hope for; however, I have four hours credit time that was given to us as a performance bonus at the end of fiscal year. I can take that if I feel the need for a nap before Bill and Caran's big New Year's Eve blast.) During lunch I made the spare room fit for company again; it's been all "up in a heaval" since I started with cards and gifts after Thanksgiving. All the spare tissue paper is bagged again, thank God, and while the regular gift wrap container is already tidied, the closet is still waiting for the Christmas gift wrapping container (we still have a couple of gifts to wrap). Most of them are under the tree, a delightful spread—I love giving gifts. I found some dandy ones this year for various folks. Hope they like them! James' gifts to me and vice versa are also in place, plus the nice things that Emma sent. Plus the towels are washed and the kitchen swept, the dog walked and the mail collected. Me, I need a nap! » Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Working Lunch
First those library book reviews, linked at right.Ate a hasty lunch and then commenced to wrapping gifts, James' first to add a little interest to the tree, and then just kept going. It's about half done. It's cloudy and 50°F out, just perfect for a walk, but I have used up my lunch hour on holiday frippery. Perhaps I will nip out in a bit for a few minutes to give Willow and I a treat. (And O frabjous day, I have found the pine-scented sachet which I thought I did not buy at JoAnn. Since we can't have a real tree I wanted it for a touch of evergreen scent under the tree.) Always Reading A multiple book extravaganza—click link at right.The library books have been saved for another post. Labels: books, Holiday Harbour » Monday, December 17, 2007
The Sad and Sober Part
We have had bad news here at work on two quarters. One bit of news was that a co-worker's mother had died. This had been expected, however; she was in her 80s and had not been doing well. Nevertheless, she was a gritty lady who hung on through many crises.
The other news was more shocking: Carla, the lady who worked in the office across from me, passed away on Saturday. Carla had gone in the hospital last week with a blood pressure problem, but every time we asked after her or our supervisior talked to her, she was ready to come back to work. Carla has been ill with lupus for some years, but did not allow it to keep her down, and had even been talking about coming to our branch Christmas party tomorrow night. She would always ask me if she had a small purchase problem and often we swapped "clueless persons" stories. Labels: events » Sunday, December 16, 2007
Advent Activities
We actually had a quiet Sunday today: breakfast followed by a trip to BJs to get some beef and the usual milk. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was out as well, as well as the new Disney Treasures sets. I wasn't much interested in Oswald the Lucky Rabbit or Donald Duck, but I did get the long awaited Disneyland documentary, one that has been on hold for two years.
We also went to BJ's with 40 percent off coupons in our hot little hands. With a combination of Borders Bucks and Rewards coupons, we each got a Windows XP manual for much less than the list price. I think we're set up for reference books now. Spent a quiet remainder of the afternoon, then went to the food tasting event they had at Trader Joe's. They had a cheese and cracker sample, some different juices, and some candy and cookies. A small sample of each sufficed, and we bought Christmas Eve dinner (shrimp, which can be served with a garlic and margarine sauce and some pasta, plus a small peppermint cheesecake) and more of their chicken-apple sausage. It's so hard to believe it wa sin the 70s and sultry last week, since today it didn't even get out of the 30s. James fixed what was the last of our homemade turkey soup with egg noodles and we watched A Christmas Story and the two M*A*S*H Christmas episodes, "Dear Dad" and "Dear Sis." P.S. It is 31°F, with a wind chill of 23. The low is expected to be 23. Terminally frigid for around here! » Saturday, December 15, 2007
Rainy Saturday
Six entire hours of rain, but not as hard as we would have liked. We only got half an inch of rain, while areas to the south that didn't need the water as much got an inch to an inch and a half. It left the day gloomy, but there was good company in the first half, as it was "Hair Day." Phyllis made the lunch centerpiece, barbecue lamb. We supplied the yellow rice and Lin and Ron made a sweet potato salad (quite delicious!), and two bowls of the Rutledges chili dip vanished in a trice.
We did a couple of errands on the way home, then James went to a Christmas party with his hobby shop friends. I was invited, but decided to bake cookies instead. I discovered, however, that we were quite out of baking powder, so I had to run to Food Depot first. Plus I needed gas, so there was a trip to Costco, and since I was out that way anyway, a stop at Barnes & Noble, where I finally found the December issue of the British Country Living. (As I checked out the magazine counter a rumble was heard, then a flash of lightning; we had quite a short but creditable thunderstorm.) I also had my Borders coupon with me and managed to find a $4.99 book; since I had $5 in Borders Bucks, I not only got the book for free but have a dollar left over as well. And then finally I got to baking cookies, but that sent me back in time: hope you enjoy the trip in Holiday Harbour. "The Tales of Beedle the Bard"
Take a peek at the hand-written and illustrated volume of The Fairy Tales of J.K. Rowling that was auctioned off for charity! Amazon bought the copy, bound in leather and ornamented in sterling silver and moonstones.
Labels: books » Friday, December 14, 2007
Gimp
The arthritis in my shoulders seemed to have a field day today, so I have not gotten as much accomplished as I wanted. The laundry is done at least, and I did manage to do my errand at Lowe's.
I found press-on gold letters at Hobby Lobby for the hobby shop in the village, a font reminiscent of the old Woolworth's font. But James had named it the "A-Z" hobby shop and I discovered after I started applying the letters that they only give you one "Z." Too funny. So we'll have to go back to Hobby Lobby. Ow! Twist my arm! Labels: errands » Thursday, December 13, 2007
Drip
We have had what amounted to a five-minute rainshower. It may have been shorter. I think it's over because the little chickadees are now chortling "Dee-dee-dee!" at the feeder.
However, the air has turned colder, which means the cold front is on its way. I have the windows open with the fans on for now. High Tuesday: a record 77°F! Projected high on Sunday: 45°F! To quote Harry Hoo: "Amazing!" In the meantime I spent my lunch hour working on revising another village house. We've had it up for the past couple of days in its original form, a drugstore, but James wants to turn it into a hobby shop. So I have painted out the drugstore signs in hope of finding plain Arial/Verdana type rub-on letters in white. It strikes me I may be being too optimistic on that; I haven't had much success with rub-on letters of late, but I don't feel confident enough to turn in a job like that freehand. I painted the mailbox from the modern blue to the old-fashioned red and glued the old "express rider" post office logo on it. At the hobby shop on Tuesday, James found a set of miniature WWII posters suitable for dioramas and dollhouses, so I have fastened some of those up on the hobby shop windows (also on a couple of the other buildings), plus a sign that says "Aircraft Spotter Cards Have Arrived" and a blood drive poster. James also found some 48-star flag images, and I have affixed them hanging down in front of several buildings. Labels: decorating, weather Half Past Advent
There is a small flotilla of little birds swooping in and out of the feeder right now: two white-breasted nuthatches, one brown-headed one, a couple of chickadees, a sparrow, the female downy woodpecker (she doesn't have the red spot on the back of her head), and even a lone pine siskin. I haven't seen such action in a while. (Also a bird I couldn't identify from my bird book: small, pale brown, with strikingly patterned white-on-black wings; I didn't get a good look at the beak, but the closest the color came to was a female goldfinch.) The larger white-breasted nuthatch still scatters seed wildly as it eats. Not a tufted titmouse to be seen. I love their big eyes!
I can't believe it is "Santa Lucia" already; the last few months have gone by like the wind. Today is supposed to be the last of the unseasonable high temps, and we are hoping to get some rain out of it, but not as much as they hoped, as always: it's like someone has placed an invisible wall south of Chattanooga outside of which not much rain will penetrate. It was quite cloudy this morning, and James reported a brilliant rust-colored sunrise; the outdoor Christmas lights, set from dusk to dawn, didn't go out until almost 8 a.m. Now the sun is straggling out again. The warm front has been horrible, with temps in the high 70s, sultry and sullen (although I know the folks in the Midwest without power would gratefully trade! no one in their right mind likes ice storms). XP is in-house, since I picked it up yesterday during lunch. I need to finish checking over my entire computer, gleaning passwords and making sure of activation numbers so I can have my own new hard drive installed. James bought a program that will transfer everything from the old hard drive to the new, which is fine for the stuff I have in storage, but I want a new format and install for everything else. I know it's a pain in the neck, but since the Win98 crash on Memorial Day, half of the programs do not work, or send odd messages when they boot up, and my virtual E: drive is clogged up with files that Windows doesn't see, but show up in defrag (I suspect they are backup files from the Win2000 load). » Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Christmas Tree, 1; Computer, 0
I put up our tree last night. I didn't rush and it took about five and a half hours (or maybe it was more like six). We have lots of ornaments and every inch of the tree is covered (except the back portion that faces the wall and the room divider since here's really no reason to put ornaments back there).
I did, however, put tinsel back there, as it ruins the look of the tree if you don't do the whole thing. By eleven my back was aching and it was hard to move, but James had safely slid the tree into its corner, the rug was vacuumed of fallen artificial "needles" and I was setting up the manger scene under swaths of trembling icicles (since it was so warm we had the air conditioner on). James, unfortunately, was having less success with his computer; this continued into this morning. There was a minor hardware bobble, but then the new motherboard/processor installed properly, and he was trying to partition the new hard disk (320GB)/load Windows 2000. While I was enjoying a day off for my birthday by having a late sleep, doing my dailies in Webkinz, reading the comics, etc. he was wrestling with it. He continued to wrestle when we got home. The fool thing won't load. It says he is missing "NT Detect." He also got another an error message, five digits beginning with a 3 (37564? something like that); I did a search for it online and came up with various reasons for the error ranging from bad hardware to a dirty installation disk! I finally said, "Look, the old hard drive works, right? Put that back in and research your problem and then go back and install when you can work with it." He did that. Now he has no sound card and Windows 2000 keeps asking him to install a file from Service Pack 4...which is already installed! Screw it. I'm going to buy two copies of Windows XP. I've had Win2000 since May and it's been nothing but a pain in the ass. Win98 worked better, even if it wouldn't run TurboTax. (Maybe if I get XP, WordPerfect 7 will load again. WP9 is okay, but I bought it only because it does PDF files. WP7 was comfy like an old shoe.) Despite the computer being a complete b**** it was a nice "bird-day": besides the nice late sleep, I put up the boxes for the Christmas stuff, put up a few last decorations, including a cute little display next to "Missie Skye's" cage, got everything vacuumed—the disorder was driving me nuts!—and then we went out for lunch at Longhorn. Stopped at Trader Joe's and Hallmark, visited the hobby shop, and came home. Off to read a library book. (I went to the library just to use the bathroom; I came out with three books!) Labels: Christmas, computers, decorating, food » Monday, December 10, 2007
Detours on the Road to Christmas
For the last two months, James has had some problems powering up his computer. The switch in front would not work and he would have to use the main one in the rear. Sometimes he had to turn the power on two and three times before it "caught." He bought a new power supply late in October, but between working two weekends in November, DIY, and other things, had not installed it. He took to leaving the computer on all the time since it was such a bear to start.
Friday night he came home and found the computer off; he hadn't turned it off. Since we had to get to bed early because he had to work Saturday, he just did a couple of things on my computer and then left it. Saturday night we went out for supper at Sweet Tomatoes, stopped at Hobbytown for a couple of more "ornaments" for the library tree (I'd put it up during the day and still found the literary figures a bit skimpy) and JoAnn (had coupons; mostly bought Christmas light hooks), and then came home. James pulled the computer out, opened it up, installed the new power supply. Nothing. Now this had happened before when he bought his new motherboard/processor nearly two years ago; the power supply he had didn't work. He couldn't return the power supply because it was over 30 days old, and now he wouldn't be able to work on the computer for a while. We still didn't have the Christmas tree up and we were planning to go to Stone Mountain yesterday for the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company's annual performance of "An Atlanta Christmas" at the "Fruitcake Festival" (or at least that's what Stone Mountain has called the performance in the past), with a stop at the Colonnade beforehand for an early birthday dinner. I woke up Sunday (a) knowing he was miserable without his computer and (b) still feeling godawful. On Thursday he had to stop at Publix on the way home to get chili fixings for a cook-off at work, since his chili had made the finals, so he brought home a rotisserie chicken for supper. The chicken tasted great but my digestion has been a wreck ever since. Sunday morning when I got up, I took my Prilosec and ate only a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of mandarin oranges and was immediately sick to my stomach. So I suggested we go see ARTC at the Stage Door Players in two weeks and run to MicroCenter instead to get a new power supply. So that we did, and we also ran down to Ikea (and I mean "ran"; we just drove there, didn't even go upstairs, went directly to the bin we needed, and did self-checkout) for the side table that had been out of stock last weekend, got milk and samples at Costco, and went to Michael's for a few more ornaments for the library tree (take the library tree challenge). When we got home, he eagerly installed the new power supply. Nothing happened. Of course this meant the only other thing it could be was that the not-even-two-year-old motherboard was fried. To get his computer going anytime before next weekend we would have to sacrifice our day out on my birthday to go up to Fry's. Which explains why we were driving to Fry's at five thirty last night. We had supper at their cafe—a very insipid and thick clam chowder was all I could manage—and then James, armed with the instruction book for his old unit in the forlorn hope he could get a new motherboard with the same processor and memory type, went to that department. Forlorn hope indeed since I think they change the formats every two weeks; not only was there nothing matching, but he even had to get a new video card because the new motherboards don't use AGP any longer, but something called PCI Express. We got home about nine. I did get the divider between the living room and the foyer cleared and decorated, and we did get the space cleared for the Christmas tree (the rocker has to go into the spare room) and he brought the tree and the box with the ornaments upstairs, and we also put together the new side table. This is four inches narrower than the old one, but a little longer, with more storage space underneath for his magazines, Willow's brush, any books or model kits he wants to look at. It should give us a little more space after Christmas as well when the rocking chair is back where it belongs. We put Mom's old end table in the bedroom for now, but it's too big for the space; as I predicted, I barked my leg on it in the dark this morning. I've never been overly fond of those end tables (the only furniture I was really attached to in the house was the tier table and the horse lamp and those are in the foyer); we might fit them in the library, but since they're still in great shape it's more likely they're headed for donation unless someone wants them. » Saturday, December 08, 2007
Relief
Except from the heat. It's 73°F. Note to the Midwest: I would send it to you if I could.
I had to go to Hallmark to find Hanukkah cards, but they are on their way, if very late. Car is inspected, registration renewal applied for. So that's done. » Friday, December 07, 2007
A Tale of Three Lunches
My three telework days have been busy if not always productive workwise, since I run into continual roadblocks. One order I could have done today was stopped dead when I noticed a small-print notation about shipping fees. We are required to have a line item for shipping; we can't let them prepay and add. So I called the company who had quoted, but did not hear back from them.
Wednesday I managed to have my walk, watch Rick Steves Europe, and even put up a few Christmas decorations. Yesterday and today, however, were a flurry of finishing up the Christmas cards. I've had them out since Thanksgiving, had started them, then the signal dropped out, so to speak. :-) At least the letter was done; I had put it together to send out with the packages I sent last weekend. Yesterday I watched Rick Steves European Christmas while writing out the cards, and today I finished them, scribbled personal notes on each of the 12 letters, stamped, labeled, and sealed all of them, then bundled everything in the car and drove to the post awful so they would be picked up at 5:30. This meant I had to work until six, but them's the breaks. We forgot to get Hanukkah cards last weekend, so I stopped at a couple of places looking for them since I had the labels, stamps, and pen to sign them with me. I didn't expect Dollar General to have them (they didn't last year), but I was totally flummoxed when CVS didn't have any either. Hanukkah's not over until Tuesday; they can't possibly be gone yet, can they? Yesterday was the oddest of the days: the Hispanic family across the street, who rent the house, are apparently moving—the house was for sale and now look as if it's sold—and are using a school bus sans seats to move their things. I wondered what the racket was and it turned out they were using our driveway to back into theirs. I had done about half the cards yesterday and really wanted to walk, so clipped on Willow's leash and off we went—until we were about halfway up the street and she heard the men talking very loudly in Spanish. She turned tail the way she does with strange dogs and I could barely get her to walk half the street. When I walked past to do the bottom half, she dug in and refused to go any further and dragged me back to the house even though she was half-choking herself. Wednesday we at least got through the entire walk; I was thinking of going around at least halfway again, but Ruth was outside with the three pugs and of course Jenny the busybody came hurrying across the street, followed by Thomas, with Zoey pulling behind on her leash. Willow got all bristled up and pulled me back toward the house "toot sweet." Today's Pearl Harbor Memorials
The Associated Press: Pearl Harbor Survivors Honor Comrades
Cincinatti Survivors Remember Pearl Harbor Remembered on Long Island Pearl Harbor Radioman Remembers USS Arizona Memorial » Wednesday, December 05, 2007
The Weather Seesaw
Yesterday morning it was down into the 20s, and I finally wore a coat.
The weather report says that it's going to be in the 70s beginning of next week. Arrgh! Wish I could send the weather to the Midwest, Northeast and especially up in the Northwest where they really need a break. Usually I am hoping that the Weather Channel prediction comes true rather than the weather report on WXIA. This time it's the other way around, as WXIA only has it in the high 60s. At home on Sunday, it won't be so bad; we can open the windows. Not so in Cubicle-Land on Monday. I wish we could take a little of the slack from Oregon and Washington; here we need the rain badly. I'm praying for the best for them. Labels: weather » Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Blue Star Home
James figured since he wouldn't have time to put up the lights during the daytime until Sunday, he could put them up tonight. So we've been outside for the last hour stringing things up. The falling stars are actually purple, but they look blue enough in this shot, and from a distance look blue as well.
I had completely forgotten that we had bought the white stars along the sidewalk until James brought them out. They twinkle!  Labels: Christmas, decorating » Monday, December 03, 2007
Trafficking in Frustration
The cold front came through last night, whipping the shades up and sending the dog in a frenzy of barking. When I woke up I was spoiling for a migraine, so I took something for it, went back to bed until seven, then started to work. I checked the traffic report before I left, but there was just the usual problems on I-285 east, nothing on I-75 South/I-85 North, the way I usually go.
However, twenty minutes later when I reached the freeway, there was Trouble in River City. Traffic was already clotting up and I saw a rescue squad in the distance. Must be an accident at Paces Ferry. Nuts. The radio traffic report wasn't saying anything about it. However, I was already abreast the exit for Mt. Paran Road when the next traffic sign reported that the accident was four miles ahead. No one would let me get over, so I inched, in the company of hundreds of fuming commuters, down to the next exit, two miles away. This took a half hour. However, I was able to get off at Paces Ferry and go down Northside Drive, which would eventually intersect with the freeway past the accident. By then the sun was full in my eyes and I couldn't see the southbound exit signs, passed the exit and had to turn around and come back. Gah. (By the time I exited at Paces Ferry, the traffic report had not only picked up the accident, but was saying that the backup went all the way to Wade Green Road, over ten miles away, and that the approximate commute time was seventy minutes. Yow!) Tonight there was a massive accident on I-285 Eastbound at Chamblee-Dunwoody. Same situation as this morning, three left lanes blocked. I thought about this morning as I made my way westbound, which was clotted as usual at Roswell Road and then at Northside Drive, but nothing unusual. It took me 35 minutes to get the twenty miles from work to the International Farmer's Market on Spring Road. It took me 35 more minutes to make it the remainder of the four miles home. Thirty of that was inching up to the intersection on Atlanta Road. From the top of the bridge I could see flashing red lights and some blue lights all the way down Atlanta Road going toward Windy Hill. I have no idea what was wrong, but after I crossed the bridge I distinctly got a quick whiff of natural gas. I wonder if the construction crew digging up the old shopping center for the new Jonquil Plaza broke a gas line? I sat there waiting at the light hoping something wouldn't explode while we were all sitting there trapped. To top it off, I went downstairs to get the wreath for the front door and plugged it in. Nothing. Will you tell me how a string of lights that worked perfectly for a month last year and which was working perfectly well on January 6 and was then stored in an indoor, climate-controlled closet downstairs suddenly dies when plugged in eleven months later? Okay, so I had this light tester I bought from Michael's...cool! Well, until I discovered you still had to pull the stupid bulbs out to test them. What's the use in that? It made no difference. According to the tester, we've got at least three bad bulbs and I have one, count 'em, one replacement. Well, here's something I can do: sit down and renew the car registrations online. Almost. I renewed James'. I couldn't do mine because I'd forgotten my car is three years old this year. It has to be inspected from now on. So I guess while James is at work on Saturday, I'll be getting the car inspected. I was even disappointed in a small thing: I was discussing with friends that although James had to work Saturday, it turned out his compensatory day off was Tuesday, my birthday, which I was taking off, and he was taking me out to eat at the Colonnade, which has the absolutely best turkey and dressing in the entire world. (You can keep your prime rib; I'll take the t&d at the Colonnade any day.) Except the Colonnade isn't open for lunch during the week anymore. ::sigh:: Maybe on Sunday? she asked hopefully. As Robert Hayes says in Airplane... :-) » Sunday, December 02, 2007
We See Someone Famous...
...and other surprises and fun at the Marietta Christmas Tour of Homes in Holiday Harbour.
Labels: Christmas, events, history, Holiday Harbour » Saturday, December 01, 2007
"What's That? I Don't Like It!"
Schuyler's giving her new toy a really fishy stare.
At least she's on the same perch with it. This afternoon she wouldn't even sit on that one, except to eat. Visions of Gingerbread
We decided to do the Tour of Homes tomorrow, so we had to get most of our chores done today. Thus it was off to Costco before noon for gasoline for the truck, then milk and other necessities of life. James bought me a Christmas or birthday gift, and we had lunch by noshing on all the samples. The lobster spread was on sample today; yay.
Since it was cool, we just put the milk and eggs into insulated bags and went on our way, first to PetsMart and then Michael's. I wanted to buy Schuyler something she could chew on, since she has gnawed the center of her smaller swing down to lollypop stick-diameter in the middle. I also bought a new bar for the swing, a natural perch to see if I can tame her to stand on the perch since she's frightened of my hand, and some seed. We also got Willow a Christmas collar in place of the usual bandanna and some treats for Christmas. The place was full of dogs today: one man had a male and female Yorkie on leashes and their two puppies in a carrier. They turned a corner and found a Westie lunging at them. The male Yorkie lunged right back, yapping canine imprecations at him. We also saw a woman with a tiny warm-brown cocker spaniel puppy that she had just picked up. I exclaimed "Oh, she's the color of gingerbread! How perfect!" I think I may have given them an idea for a name! On to the hobby shop and then to Lowe's for a board to place on the mantel. Since I bought the Woolworth building, the village will not fit on the existing space. We bought a melamine-coated board instead of just a piece of lumber that would have required painting and had it cut to the correct length. Now we just need to paint the two edges and I can letter something appropriately festive on the front. We came home with out loot, walked the dog and fiddled about with the computer, then went to Ikea for supper. I have been having the chicken marsala instead of the meatballs, but they had none tonight, so instead I had the salmon with apple glaze, which came with plain potatoes and baby carrots. It was quite good. (It still came up on me, but that's normal. ::sigh::) We were there because (a) I needed an extra shelf for a bookcase downstairs and (b) have been wanting to get James a better night table (he's been using one of my mom's old end tables) and a better side table next to his chair in the living room (where we're using the other end table). The latter was out of stock, but we got the former, and the shelf. This is also the time of year when the gingerbread hearts appear. In Sweden it is traditional to decorate trees with gingerbread hearts tied with red ribbon. In the American South this can often bring you tiny six-legged visitors. They are better to eat, very gingery but light; two are a perfect small snack to cure a sweet tooth and if I have an upset stomach I often eat one or two since ginger is a natural digestive aid. I used to find them in discount stores or Linens'n'Things, where I would buy them up after Christmas on discount, but Ikea has them in big boxes of 74 cookies. Last year I bought two and they lasted until June, so I got four boxes. A good thing we went, too, since they only had seven boxes left upstairs and none in the Swedish shop near checkout. » Friday, November 30, 2007
Some Stuff Goes Out, Some Stuff Comes In
I realized at 10 p.m. last night that I had planned to mail out gifts this morning and went into hyperdrive. Made two boxes and one parcel, and this morning printed out another of our annual Christmas letters to enclose with the card to friends in England.
Only fly in the mailing ointment was that I realized this morning that I didn't have Nicki's address to send her her Christmas gift. Unless she is coming home for Christmas, in which case never mind. So I hit the bank first, then the post awful, where it wasn't much of a wait (which was the reason for mailing early anyway, besides being able to send parcel post instead of first class). Next I stopped by the Marietta Welcome Center to get tickets for the Holiday Tour of Homes this weekend. After that I was free to amuse myself. I stopped at Michael's, then dropped in a couple of stores at the Avenue at East Cobb, including Bath and Body Works. James has been asking me for gift hints; I think I want some of their Japanese Cherry Blossom eau de toilette. Yeah, I know, something "girly." Sometimes a girl just wants to smell like a girl. When I finished up there, I drove about a mile or so west to St. Ann's Church and School. They were having something called the "Apple Annie Christmas Market." I had never gone to this and was surprised at how crowded it was. People were parked on the grass verges on both sides of Roswell Road, which is a busy four lane highway. Luckily there is a light right at Bishop's Lane Road (great name for a road next to a Catholic church, right?). I turned into the road and found only an exit to the parking lot of the church, but I could see empty spaces. I tried to find an entrance, but finally had to turn around and come back. The cop guarding the entrance told me I absolutely could not get in because the parking lot was full, I would have to park on the street. I tried to tell him there were parking places, but he just told me to quit blocking the road. So I went out to Roswell Road and parked. When I walked across the parking lot there were at least a dozen spaces in eye view. When I got into the show you betcha I complained. This was an excellent craft show. The sellers, I overheard, are picked by judges; you can't just rent a booth and sell your product. The only problem was that these were good crafts, therefore pretty steep prices. I didn't buy much—some all-natural air freshener from one herbal vendor and a cute snowflake pin from another—until I got downstairs and found the lady who was selling primitive Christmas decorations. I have always wanted blocks that spell out "Merry Christmas"—well, now I do. I also got two tiny candles in small star-shaped pewter-like candle holders that duplicated old-fashioned candle holders, two cornucopias, a little embroidered sign that says "comfort and joy," and a winged cow made out of jingle bells labeled "Holy Cow!" One artist was selling beautiful chickadee prints, but I simply didn't have the money for one. I came home by Abecedarius, the needlework store, and had to laugh at her "no solicitors" sign on the door, because she had added to it "NO AT&T, Hawks, Thrashers." She told me when she asked the AT&T guy to leave because she didn't want solicitors that he had given her the finger. Geez. I would have called AT&T on the jerk. Anyway, I agonized over a gorgeous band-sampler winter design before deciding I really didn't have the time to do it. Abecedarius doesn't stock the usual cross-stitch patterns you see in the craft stores like Michaels and JoAnn, but has specialty samplers, including stuff from Shepherd's Bush and reproductions of antique samplers. I just like to go in there and drool over the samples. A fruitless stop at Book Nook, then home to a late lunch of leftover turkey soup and noodles. I'd only had a meal bar and half a gingerbread doughnut (nice and spicy; pity Dunkin Donuts feels it has to put that gross overly-sweet sugar icing on it—I guess they want to keep up with [gag] Krispy Kreme) for breakfast, so I had a headache and ended up lying down until James got home. We had supper at Sweet Tomatoes, where I chowed down on lots of salad and another bowl of soup, then visited JoAnn and Linens'n'Things before heading home. Unfortunately I still had the headache when I got home so I had to take something for it, which meant I was late taking my heart pill which meant I couldn't take anything for my stomach, which means I'm now nauseated re-tasting salad dressing. ::sigh:: I guess it's long enough that I can go chew on a Pepto Bismol... Labels: Christmas, crafts, decorating, events, food, gifts, shopping » Thursday, November 29, 2007
Don't Faint
» Wednesday, November 28, 2007
A Tale of Two Mornings and One Day
There was the most extraordinary sunrise yesterday, like something out of an idealized Thomas Kincade painting. As I neared work and exited the freeway, the tree line was gone and the sunrise spread across the east. There were rippling clouds covering most of the sky and between these was light like molten fire, an eye-popping orange, with the clouds between grey and purple layers. The rest of the sky was mauve highlighted with orange-red.
I almost pulled off into the movie theatre parking lot to take a picture with my phone, but I would be late if I did and I didn't like the idea of being in a dark parking lot alone. Sure was lovely, though. Something equally extraordinary happened last night. I was cold. I woke at 2 a.m. curled into a tight ball with my feet like ice. I tried to go back to sleep. Then I took the fan out of the window. Finally I changed into flannel pajamas. Then I had to add fuzzy socks. Had to shut the fan off altogether, which I haven't done in months, even when it was cold. I was still cold, but waited it out and finally fell back to sleep again. Weird. It was easier to explain after James came back in from walking Willow after we got up: there was frost everywhere. It was a telework day and I spent it with Christmas music in the background. I have broken out my cassettes. I have some unique albums on cassette, including three British tapes I bought when Oxford Books went out of business, the choir of Trinity Church in Boston singing (including the famous carol written by their pastor, Phillips Brooks, after a trip to the Holy Land: "O Little Town of Bethlehem"), and the Amor Artis group. I got through three purchase requests and many e-mails, and during lunch had the rest of my "Happy Family" from Friday supper (we went to the Oriental Café again; their wonton soup is outstanding) and worked on the Christmas letter to go with our cards. » Monday, November 26, 2007
It's Still Raining
Not hard, not enough, but some. Made driving a bit treacherous this morning; I don't think anyone around here remembers how to drive in the rain. Someone cut in front of me and I slammed on the brakes, only to have the car start to skid and the ground scrape, but I reacted quickly enough and remembered to tap them rather than jam. Hairy two seconds, though...seemed longer. <wry grin>
Have cranked up the Christmas carols while I do purchase orders; musically, it's my favorite time of the year. I wait all year long for 24-hour carols. Finally gave the new Mannheim Steamroller CD a good listen this morning—disappointing. Maybe it's just because the first two were so novel, but I think the early arrangements were more inventive and memorable. Also...I love Johnny Mathis; I have his classic Christmas album as an LP. Don't mind Olivia Newton-John or Chip Davis. But when I listen to Mannheim Steamroller, I want instrumentals. Not interested in vocals. » Sunday, November 25, 2007
Electronic Sunday
It was a typical November day: damp, chilly, and drizzly/rainy.
In a place that needs rain so much, this means it was an absolutely beautiful day. How I think about two years ago, when it rained nearly every day during the summer, so much that the back yard smelled like primordial swamp! I find that, although I am taking a bit longer to get warmer, I am sleeping quite comfortably under the new quilt. So we had a nice eight-hours sleep before doing a few chores and then heading out to Fry's. James is looking for an AC power cord for the Magellan so he can program some addresses in. We used the gadget to get out to Fry's in Alpharetta. Predictably, it does not have our address in its database yet (several of the online maps do not), so we used the address of the house on the corner. It was interesting to see how it routed us. For instance, we would not ordinarily use one road if it was a Saturday; too much traffic. However, the back way it used to take us to the route we usually use was quite expedient. We had the Sirius Pops channel on during the drive; they are playing classical-oriented Christmas music as well as traditional carols. It occurred to me that there was nothing I enjoyed more than driving out on a nice chilly day with my favorite guy and Christmas music playing on the radio. Went through the sale papers from the paper as we drove. Fry's was nice and warm and chummy after the chilly drive, and more people than we've ever seen there (the store at Gwinnett Mall is always more crowded). We had lunch in the cafe—nice hot potato soup in a bread bowl for me!—and had a fruitless search for an AC adapter. They had one only for a Garmin. On the other hand, they had the Rocky and Bullwinkle second and third season sets for only $15 each. We came home virtually through the same route, although James had substituted "fastest route" for "no highways" on the GPS unit and we completely befuddled it by turning "off course" because we wanted to stop at MicroCenter. For the first five turns it had to replot a course to the original direction, until it plotted an alternate course instead. It's kinda nifty: tells you about two miles, and then one mile, then a half a mile, before a turn, and chimes when you get to the turn. The display is 3D while the closeup during the turn only in two dimensions. We struck out at MicroCenter, too; they told us to go to Radio Shack, which had been my first idea. :-) (Like I was going to turn down an opportunity to go to Fry's! It's like a candy store for adults.) Cumberland Mall was slightly off our course, too, but the GPS gallantly replotted (complaining several times, "As soon as possible, please make a legal U turn!") until it could tell us how to get home from the "hidden parking deck," our favorite place to park. (I have seen Cumberland Mall at Christmas with people parking "in the galleries," as I call the outer lots, and you can drive right in this level of the parking deck and at the most find it half full. Today there were six cars there while people circled the mall looking for close parking spaces outside.) Radio Shack did have what we wanted, a wall plug called an "iGo." It is variable amperage/wattage, depending on what your unit needs, with interchangeable tips so that it fits the gadget you are charging. It has tips/plugs for cell phones, PDAs, iPods, etc. (You can also get a kit with a car charger and a trio unit of car charger, AC plug, and USB charger.) So tonight James has plotted several scenarios out, including his route to work, to his mother's, and right now up to Unicoi. We had homemade turkey soup with rice for supper, thick with turkey meat, and the rest of Lin Butler's pumpkin pie for dessert, and watched March of the Penguins for the first time. Very lovely and lyrical, and of course the baby penguins are too cute for words. Amazing how they survive the brutal cold! Labels: electronics, food, movies, music, shopping, travel, weather » Saturday, November 24, 2007
Finding Our Way
Compared to yesterday, it was a leisurely arising before making the weekly visit to the hobby shop. We had already exchanged Shrek the Third last night after dinner (along with a visit to Borders, where we bumped into our Thanksgiving hosts, the Butlers), so we were free to go out to Trader Joe's and get another pumpkin tart and then visit the toney-titled "Avenue at West Cobb," where I picked up a tin of peppermint bark at Williams-Sonoma as a treat for Christmas. A lot of people sell peppermint bark but they are all disappointments after you have eaten Williams-Sonoma's. The box lasts for two Christmases, so it's an affordable luxury. We also stopped by Bath and Body Works and bought two Christmas gifts; that leaves us with two left to get.
In addition, went into Border's and found Madelyn Alt's newest "Bewitching Mystery." I was looking at the Susan Wittig Albert books and think I might like to read all the Beatrix Potter series, or at least test out the first one. There's an interesting-looking herbal daybook based on her China Bayles mystery series, which I have never read. We stopped at Wild Birds Unlimited on the way there and bought a magnetic Christmas cover for the mailbox. They had three that I liked, one of a pair of cardinals on a snowy branch, one a sketchy nativity scene, but I bought the third, an arrangement of three enlarged postage stamps, each with a wild bird on it. There is a gelato shop next door, so we decided to try some. It was flavorful, but I found it too sweet. Unfortunately as the day went on and the clouds built up leading into some fairly inconsequential showers tonight, I started developing a migraine. I managed to get through BJs (and the coveted Prilosec-on-sale) and we stopped to pick up dinner at the Atlanta Bread Company instead of eating out, but it was almost an hour before I could enjoy my Asian salad (chicken breast, romaine lettuce, diced tomato, mandarin oranges and slivered almonds with Asian-sesame dressing) and enjoy my parcel, which was my copy of Flax: Police Dog from Germany. This was a book written in the 1920s that I enjoyed as a library book when I was a kid. Today it would be considered an odd choice for an elementary school kid but this very old-fashioned library didn't have many choices. (I remember complaining to my mom that the newest book they had there had a girl driving a car with a running board. I was very bitter about it. Now I'd give a lot to see those books again!) Anyway, James indulged in something he's wanted for a while: a GPS unit for the car. We didn't have a lot of money for such a gadget, so we got a low-model Magellan that BJ's had on special ($90 off with the coupon). He was itching to mess with it, but it doesn't come with an AC power cord, just the car jack, and he didn't want to go out in the garage. We had AC adapters, but all were six volts and this gadget needs five volts. He mused so much about maybe Walmart having one that after we got done watching Torchwood (with James complaining mightily about the next-to-the-last scene and me agreeing but not complaining), we went to Walmart. Man, we should shop here at 10 p.m. on Saturday all all the time. I think there were less than two dozen people in the store. We found adapters with adjustable voltage, but not one that adjusted to five volts. Since we were there anyway, we finished the shopping: yogurt, bananas, chicken broth, all that exciting stuff. No one was at the checkout line. The cashier was chatty and friendly. We were home by eleven! Yow. Incidentally, passed a dozen houses with Christmas lights already blazing. » Friday, November 23, 2007
Black Friday, Ho!
They had a laptop at Best Buy for $300.00. James was Really Tempted, but he had to work today. I was tempted, but I wasn't getting up at 2:00 a.m. to get in line at Best Buy, God help me.I did get up at six, my usual hour when I don't telework. Yesterday while the Macy's parade went from Columbus Circle to Herald Square, I was looking through sales flyers, cutting out what I was interested in, and labeling the cutouts with a notation of what store it was. The only thing I really wanted I got first: I went directly to Staples on Dallas Highway and got a second memory card for my camera. It was half the price of the original. We never did get a Staples flyer yesterday—I'd found out about the sale on the Black Friday website—so I didn't know something else was on sale for the same price, something that James might find useful. Everyone in line was very nice and we were joking back and forth about having been directed to the wrong place for both these objects. I ran next door to Target because I had seen they had Shrek the Third on sale and I had a coupon for it, too. I also bought National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which I've never seen in its entirety, since it was on sale for $6. Next I headed down to Belk, also on Dallas Highway. This is a store I never go in, so I had to be directed to where they had the Hometics heat massage unit for your neck. My arthritis is getting worse and causing me headaches, and I thought it would be useful. Nipped in across the street at the Avenue at West Cobb, a bit of a break from the madding crowd, but it was after eight and I had to hurry up to Town Center if I wanted to use my Michael's coupon. This was good even on sale items, so I got some trees for our Christmas village and some other small things. Next I went to JoAnn for some winter-oriented decorations I'd seen the last time I was there (their coupon was the same, even good on sale items), and then to Bed, Bath & Beyond. I had a 20 percent off the entire purchase coupon, but there wasn't much I wanted there. I did get some potpourri pine scent to put under the Christmas tree since we can't have the real thing. And then...I went to the mall. I said that if I found a close parking space in what looked like almost SRO space in the parking lot, I'd stop. Someone pulled out of a space near Sears just as I decided this. A sign! I found a gift for my mother-in-law at Sears and also bought a couple of half-price, inexpensive gadgets for the car. The big purchase was a "handmade" patchwork quilt in a star pattern and fall colors; all the quilts were on sale $35 no matter which size. I am usually too warm under our comforter and it's beginning to look a little worse for wear. In fact, I'm hoping with the lighter cover I can actually start wearing flannel jammies again. I'm just wondering if I will be able to sleep with the lighter weight because I am so used to the comforter. We'll see. I hope it will work, since it looks very pretty on the bed. By then it was noon and I headed home. I didn't have the BJs coupon for the discount Prilosec anyway. :-) Discovered when I got home that I will have to exchange Shrek the Third since I got the (yeech) full screen version. The best thing that happened? When I got in the door and called to Schuyler she chirped back. That's better than all the quilts on earth. :-) How You Know... ...you're getting old:A special flyer arrives for a store with coupons for Thanksgiving weekend. You page through it and start squealing in delight...because it has a $5 off coupon on the expensive OTC drug you must regularly take. Oy veh... :-) Labels: events » Thursday, November 22, 2007
 Give thanks for blessings tiny and large, and for just being alive. (And, in our case, for Willow being okay.) Labels: holidays, Thanksgiving » Wednesday, November 21, 2007
James Herriot I Ain't
Willow needed a bath, so I gave her one. It went wrong from the start. We discovered the shampoo we bought was actually conditioner, so while I wetted her down, James went to get our shampoo. The shower head upended and drenched me. Willow kept shaking off before I shut the shower curtain and I had to mop the floor.
I told James that since her nails were soft we should trim them. She hates to have her nails trimmed. Still, we got through all of them; he did the back claws and I did the front and it was fine till the last dewclaw; she jerked her paw and I cut through the quick. She pulled away and there she was, bleeding. I sat on the floor putting pressure on the claw while James fetched the styptic pencil, peroxide, gauze and Scotch tape (since apparently we have no white adhesive tape). I cleaned it off and wrapped it, and it seemed okay for a few minutes, then it started to bleed again. James held her while I unwrapped it and got a good look at the claw; good heavens, no wonder it was bleeding—when she jerked I cut about half of it off rather than just the tip. So I cleaned around again and applied styptic pencil again and it looked like it had stopped bleeding by then, so now it's re-wrapped and we're watching her. If Seigfried Farnon walks in, I quit. :-) Labels: pets Thanksgiving Eve
Spent the work day setting up orders to do on Monday and sorted out a payment problem, the usual stuff.
Spent a much more enjoyable lunch hour updating my Addie Mills webpage, adding some new photos and re-scanning old ones so they'd look better. I already had the text corrected, so it was relatively simple to pop in the new images. Simple, but time consuming. It's been almighty warm for November, in the low 70s, for two days. They say rain is approaching again...we need every other day of good long soakers now, since Lake Lanier is at its lowest point since December of 1981—it is only 68 percent full—and Lake Allatoona is less that half full. . I see anyone watering their idiot lawn and you bet I will report them. The radar map says it is raining in northwest Georgia and some "green clouds" are south and west of us with a scattered line behind. Supposedly a larger storm is in store for Sunday. The wind picked up about late afternoon, looking promising, but it is quiet again now. I used the lull to go out and take photos of the Thanksgiving decorations. I have a pot of rice on to cook for soup and am in the middle of re-reading The Thanksgiving Treasure. Schuyler is asleep and Willow, of course, is patiently waiting for her daddy. All the Christmas music channels started on Monday, so I started out listening to the Holiday Music Channel on Dish, but abandoned it for Sirius' Classical Pops channel, which is playing carols, from uptempo versions of "Deck the Halls" to Bach's Oratorio. This way I am in no danger of hearing "The Christmas Shoes." :-) (They keep playing "The Hallelujah Chorus." Sigh. That's an Easter song, guys. The Christmas song from "The Messiah" is "For Unto Us a Child is Born.") We are about to finish the last quarter of the pumpkin tart from Trader Joe's. I hope these are available for the rest of the year at least, because it is delicious...nice and spicy; the ginger in the pumpkin has a bite! » Monday, November 19, 2007
Leaves and Lights Alight
» Sunday, November 18, 2007
Sole Sunday, Part 2
So I've had an apple and some of the pumpkin seeds I bought yesterday, and just finished playing the recently aired-in-England "Time Crash," the Doctor Who short done for "Children in Need." (Thanks for the link, Rodney.) There's also a "Doctor Who Confidential" to go with it that's nearly as long as the 8 minute production.
I absolutely fell over laughing at "...you're a fan!" Too delicious. Earlier I took Schuyler with me into my craft room. She stared askance at the light overhead and was a bit quiet, but didn't go flappy or anything. Maybe something will give. She's not really afraid of us. Especially at night she will come to the upper perch and let me talk to her. Sometimes if I'm close she creeps up to the bars and I can kiss her. Sometimes I can even place a finger-tip up to the bars and she will nip at it, then back up, surprised at her own audacity. I painted a frame which I will be decorating with seashells and glass, and also glass-painted the four leaded blank glass ornaments I bought at Michael's: a wreath, an angel, a candy cane and a pine tree. These are for the sidelights of the front door to replace during Christmas the autumn leaves that are there year-round. Willow came and slept outside the door, and we listened to half an Andy Williams Christmas LP and also The Waltons Christmas album. Before we retreated to the room, I sat and watched The Thanksgiving Treasure. Hope this gets a DVD release some time. A DVD copy of an EP videotape just isn't the same. Labels: Christmas, crafts, pets, television Sole Sunday
James had to work today (his day off is Thanksgiving; duh) and Willow is lying gloomily in her crate because Daddy is gone. (He got the rotten shift, too, noon to nine, the only advantage to this being we got to sleep late.)
I've been tidying at present and trying to forget how nauseated I feel. A few months ago, although I eat the Lower Sugar Maple and Brown Sugar Quaker Oatmeal which only has 4g of sugar, I decided to buy a box of the Weight Control version. This uses malitol and sorbitol in place of real sugar. All I can say is...ugh. When you open the packet of the Lower Sugar oatmeal, it smells like oats with a faint hint of cinnamon/maple. When you open the Weight Control, it smells like a sugar bowl. It literally turns my stomach. When you mix it up, it turns to sticky glop, no matter how much water you add. Still, I haven't wanted to waste it, so this morning since it was going to be my lunch as well, I mixed up a packet of the Weight Control with a packet of the Lower Sugar, so now I'm sick to my stomach. The heck with "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." I'll do without. Out in the trash it goes. It might be edible if I was starving to death, but that's about it. Labels: food » Saturday, November 17, 2007
A Varied Day
We brought an interesting new cake recipe to a gathering this morning, one that someone on "Christmas to the Max" had posted. You take a chocolate cake mix, add a can of pureed pumpkin, put in a greased pan (actually, the original recipe was for muffins), and bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes. That's right, no eggs, no oil. We had no idea how it would turn out.
Remarkably, since the mixture was so thick, the resultant cake was light and fluffy. Everyone enjoyed it. I would like to try it with spice cake (and have bought a spice cake mix to do so). I suspect it will come out tasting a lot like pumpkin bread, but hopefully lighter. James had his IPMS meeting today, and since we had things to do in that direction anyway, we swapped vehicles and while he was nattering on about plastic models, I went to Harry's Farmers Market. We needed nuts—it's not really Thanksgiving without a big bowl of filberts, almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts and pecans—plus vegetables including a cucumber which we had for salad tonight and some baby greens for tomorrow when James is at work. They also have soup bars and hot bars, so I bought some dark-meat turkey, which was providential since we had nothing planned for supper. I also went to Rowan's, a used media (books, DVDs, VHS, records, CDs) store and found to my dismay that they are going out of business in February. The discount is at 20 percent right now. One less used bookstore, dammit. And this one used to have deals: I could always find the book-club editions of the newest Amelia Peabody mystery a month or so after it came out. I got two WWII books for James, and for me, the companion book to the 1776 miniseries The Adams Chronicles (which apparently is finally coming to DVD next May) and also an anthropology book, The Neanderthal Enigma. Haven't read a good anthropology book in a dog's age. A nip-in at Big Lots: they had my oatmeal for only $2 box. So I got more. :-) Then we went out to Merchant's Walk. Good visit, too; found a Christmas present we had been agonizing over (someone rather hard to buy for). James purchased enough to get me the cute stuffed polar bear that Borders is using for advertising this year; its name is "Marshmallow" and I'm wondering if this is just polar bear year or it's playing off the upcoming release of Golden Compass, which features a definitely not cuddly polar bear. We also stopped at Trader Joe's to get James a supper for tomorrow and me some more popcorn; we found a pumpkin tart which we had part of for dessert. Superb...nice spicy pumpkin in a firm shell, great accompaniment to turkey with cucumber salad. By the time we were heading home it was twilight. We had the Scary Car Thing, then saw a couple of homes with Christmas lights (one was an illuminated palm tree!) just before we made the last turn for home, and someone in our own neighborhood with the inside of their house decorated. Early Thanksgiving
We avoided something very nasty tonight, so this is a very public "thank God!"
James and I were on our way home in my car after a full day. We were turning left onto Sandtown Road when someone came blasting by us at at least fifty miles an hour (this is a two-lane road, speed limit about 35 mph) through a red light. James jerked the steering wheel to the left and the jerk driving was paying attention, because he avoided and missed us by a hairsbreadth and went shooting up Sandtown toward Austell, running another light in the process. Not sure if he was drunk or what; pretty sharp at the wheel if he was inebriated. Had we been going straight instead of turning left he would have T-boned the car right where I was sitting. Early Thanksgiving indeed. Labels: events » Friday, November 16, 2007
Friday Fun
• Barnes & Noble: new British Country Living (and when I got home there was my subscription copy of the US edition)
• Michael's: Christmas light tester (maybe we can finally figure out why that other GE string is only half lit) • JoAnn: floss bobbins and the new copy of "Cross-Stitcher" with a winter sampler • Bed, Bath and Beyond: more CocoaVia bars and...FINALLY!...food-based mineral oil for the kitchen table; I noticed while cleaning it off after the party Saturday that it was looking quite dry (I've been looking for this for quite a while, so I count this as a major coup) • Borders: "Country Home" and "Cook's Country," and the Holly Claus color picture edition • Costco: gas, milk, and shredded cheese...plus lunch: Costco has the best samples. I tried some type of Cinnabon cake, hummus with red pepper flakes, pate on crackers, teriyaki chicken, lobster bisque, crab cakes, turkey breast, French bread with butter, pumpkin-flavored cereal flakes, some type of energy granola bars, and a biscuit with strawberry jam (who needs a restaurant when you've got Costco?) Came home through Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield Park, which is simply gorgeous with color. Plus the laundry is 2/3 of the way done, the Thanksgiving decorations are up, and we had a very nice supper at a new place, the Oriental Cafe, that John and Betty were talking about last weekend. Their wonton soup is quite good. I had cashew chicken and brought home enough of the meat for a small lunch on Wednesday. Labels: books, crafts, decorating, food, magazines, Thanksgiving » Thursday, November 15, 2007
Blowing Hot, Then Cold
For two days it was in the 70s and sticky. Then the rain whirled through last night and the temperature dropped like that proverbial rock. It was in the forties when we woke and never got higher than the mid-50s, with the wind blustering about the house, tossing autumn leaves into the air as fast as they could loosen from their branches. Willow and I took a good walk around the neighborhood enjoying the nice cool air that is like a transfusion of energy.Labels: weather » Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Thank God! It's Raining!
Don't know how long it will last, but will take all we can get!
Labels: weather Bother...
...here I am blubbering at the end of "Random Shoes" again...
Labels: television Baby, It's Hot Outside
It was a warm, sultry day. There's a cold front approaching from the northwest, but in the meantime it's been in the 70s, sticky and uncomfortable. The heat has set the ladybugs to swarming and they seem to be one and two all over the upper story of the house: at the screen door to the deck, on the kitchen window, flapping about in the bedroom.
I wish the front would go through; I've had a sinus headache all day and no amount of nose spray and pain reliever has helped. Mildly diverting this afternoon during breaks and after work have been the Five Little Peppers movies which are showing on TCM for the first time. They're pretty much B movie specimens. No attempt was even made to set them in the correct time period, which was the 1880s. About the only thing that is the same is that the children do get the measles and Polly does get a new stove and almost goes blind. Most of the plots seem to include some funny stuff by the younger boys and the children are involved in all sorts of situations even more improbable—getting trapped in a copper mine and in rapids on a river in Oregon—than in the original stories. » Monday, November 12, 2007
Enjoying the Fall, But Christmas is Approaching!
» Saturday, November 10, 2007
Confetti Check, Part the Second
We had a great time. We had chicken cacciatore with bread, chips and various dips, fruit, two-bite brownies, and John's pineapple upside down cake, then spent the rest of the evening playing Chronology, which is a great game. Each player gets a card on which is a year and then an event that happened in that year, say 1920 and woman's suffrage in the US. Then a person pulls a card and reads the event only, say the start of the Spanish-American War. The person to that person's left has to say whether it goes before or after their original card (and later on, if between two cards). You go around the table that way. If the person on the left can't answer the question, it goes on to the next person until someone answers correctly. Whomever answers correctly gets the card. First person with ten cards wins. Much fun was had by all.
Oh, forgot to mention I did something very old fashioned today: I bought a watch. I haven't had one since the one my dad bought me in 1985 stopped working. It has Arabic numerals in an interesting cursive font and a moon phases dial and of course a second hand. I don't like the faux alligator patent leather wristband, but that can be taken care of at a later date. Confetti Check
It's our anniversary! Seventeen years today!
We celebrated by going to the 20 percent off sale at Books-a-Million. (Hey, this is us. <g> Besides, we couldn't go away as we had planned; I had wanted to go up to Charlotte for the big Christmas sale they have, but Schuyler isn't tame yet.) They had Christmas books and Christmas CDs buy-two-get-one-free, so I got three of each (Guideposts Christmas book, Jeff Guinn's cookbook based on his "Santa" series, and Why Does Santa Wear Red?, and all three Trans-Siberian CDs). I also found a Stony Creek Cross-Stitch issue with some nice patterns, The Original Girls Handy Book, and Susan Conant's newest in paperback, Gaits of Heaven. James got the boys' version of the Handy Book. We also went to Michael's, Walmart, and had lunch at Longhorn. I had the shrimp and lobster dip as an entré, which may have been a mistake. :-) I'm retasting it now. Anyway, we're having company so I have to go... » Friday, November 09, 2007
That Frosty Feeling
It was quite chilly on Tuesday morning, but yesterday was the capper: we woke to a frosted lawn. However, the temperature is supposed to climb again. They even mentioned 77°F for next Tuesday, which made me choke; the forecast this morning is a little less bleak: low 70s instead. If only it would rain!
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Christmas waving its flags in the distance. This morning, the big tree was delivered to Rockefeller Center (of course the Today crew was there). Time moves so much more quickly in fall and winter! » Tuesday, November 06, 2007
"Gingerbread Weather"
The shades flapped a few times last night, but it wasn't until about five a.m. that the cold front announced its arrival by rattling the bedroom shades and making the bedroom door sway back and forth before it slammed shut, which set off the dog.
I emerged from the garage to an iron-grey cloud covering and enough leaves scattered in the air by the errant wind to remind me of the lines from "A Visit from St. Nicholas": "...As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,It's so nice to be able to see when driving to work in the morning. The sun rises so much later here—north of New York even during DST the sun is up by 5 a.m—it's pitch dark at 6 a.m. during Daylight Savings except for a few hours around the summer solstice, and it's so tiresome to drive to work in the dark; you feel like you should still be in bed asleep, and on rainy mornings it's a flat nightmare. Overhead the clouds were in ever-changing patterns: like the mottled sides of fish swimming by, or ridged like those photos you see of the Sahara sands after a windstorm, or convoluted like the coiled patterns of paint in water, then finally pushed away by the time I reached the parking lot at work at seven. It seems the trees have changed overnight; I was bemoaning last week how few of them had started shifting color save for the one red tree in our backyard and its companion next door in the Robinsons' yard and the few yellow leaves elsewhere. Now there are few trees that haven't been touched by autumn's paintbrush and there are amazingly bright patches even in early-morning light: the little maples around the mostly deserted shopping center near Cumberland Mall and what's left of the maples on the other side of the mall, and one huge maple in the apartment complex on the access road that is the last leg of my route to work, glowing nearly pumpkin orange for three quarters of its softball-round growth of branches. It's supposed to be in the thirties tonight and the temp had already dropped ten degrees from six o'clock, when it was 60°F. Now it's inched up one degree, but isn't supposed to go past 57 (or 63, depending on what weather forecast you listen to). We may have to put the heat on tonight! » Monday, November 05, 2007
Rudolph Returns...
Congrats and All That! Just got a phone call from James' youngest sister, Sabra...she got married today![confetti toss, horns toot, whistles blow and all that!] Labels: family Ho-Ho-Ho... It's the time of year when things are going in Holiday Harbour, so drop by if you're interested in fall and winter celebrations.Labels: Holiday Harbour » Sunday, November 04, 2007
On the Lam(p)
There's nothing funny about putting up light fixtures in Autumn Hollow.
Labels: Autumn Hollow, home improvement » Saturday, November 03, 2007
In Between Errands
Ah, well, the grocery shopping always must be finished up and shirts fetched from the cleaner. However, when we were at Kroger getting yogurt, bananas, and shampoo, we found some shrimp on sale, which we bought for supper (it was delicious; we had it with garlic-spiked Smart Balance spread over plain ramen noodles and there is enough for another meal). and also the prettiest drinking glasses in a fall leaf motif for 50 cents each.
We went out to the Merchant's Walk Hallmark store to see the last of the premieres: I bought the mini Angels of Many Lands and the Rudolph and his mother ornament as the last touch for my Rudolph tree. Also bought a chickadee sculpture and a blue Santa bell to bring the amount up to where I could use the coupon for $10 off as well as the coupon for the free Christmas tree cheese dish (the spreader has a light-up Christmas tree bulb for a handle). For buying two ornaments, I also got a free snowman ornament. We also went to Borders, where I bought Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (which was recommended to me). I am in the middle of reading his Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid—every few minutes I have to put it down because I am laughing so hard. Talk about bringing my childhood back! I was especially convulsed when he talked about going into the men's room, locking the door of one stall, crawling underneath to the next, locking the door, crawling underneath to the next, etc. I used to do that in the ladies' room at the bowling alley when I got really bored. And of course now I think what I was crawling in, but people were neater back then and Tom and Ray kept that place neater than a pin. You never saw paper on the floor or blocked sinks and it never smelled the way public bathrooms do now. My mom would have been appalled at his mom, though! I also found three interesting looking Christmas books on the remainder rack: Cornelia Funke's book from last Christmas, Merry Kitschmas about tacky decorations, and a British book of Christmas stories and poems. » Friday, November 02, 2007
Cruisin' to Christmas Music...
» Thursday, November 01, 2007
Yes, Christmas Videos Already...
» Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Goblins Everywhere...
...Hallowe'en arrives later than usual in Holiday Harbour.
Labels: Hallowe'en, Holiday Harbour, holidays Shutterbug
I finally put together all those photos I took on my cell phone (since I forgot my camera every time) from the various October events like the Mistletoe Market and the Apple Festival into one album. They're here.
Labels: photos » Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Cool Joys
It went down into the 30s last night; we shut all the other windows, but of course left them up in the bedroom—with the fans on low both last night and the night before it was delightful for sleeping, all cocooned under the comforter, and so hard to rouse oneself from the warm quilted cave this morning. I think the house temp stayed at 68°F all night; no heat needed. Wonderful to live in a structure that's been properly insulated. :-)
Labels: weather Bat's Breath!...but a Green Light Anyway
My shipment from Amazon arrived in a less than pristine state: details in Holiday Harbour.
The other sets I purchased were Rick Steves' Austria and the Alps, The Lost Prince, and the double Eleanor and Franklin set, since you can't buy White House Years seperately (gee, thanks, guys). Labels: DVDs » Monday, October 29, 2007
A New Experience
Ever eaten oatmeal or whipped yogurt with a fork?
Ever since someone stole my oatmeal bowl and one of the spoons from our silverware set out of the bathroom at work, I've been eating out of my mug using one of those heavy duty Wendy's chili spoons. Last Tuesday the spoon broke and I was going to bring in another one that James had stashed in the truck. I forgot. So I was "tine one on" this morning. :-) Labels: humor » Sunday, October 28, 2007
From Big Box to Little Booth
James' computer's power supply is sending up signals that it's about to die, so we went to Fry's this morning to get him another. We had our lunch there: cream of potato soup...yum...but no bread bowls. Oh, well. James also had a sandwich, since he hadn't had breakfast (I had a Slim Fast meal bar).
Since I am about to convert to a larger hard drive soon, I was about to once again back up the portion of the drive I use for storage to CD-ROM and then a conversation during chat this weekend came back to me. Instead I looked for a thumb drive. What I got was a jump drive less than two inches long and not even an inch wide that holds FOUR GIGABYTES. Good grief. It copied back the contents of that storage partition, about a gig and a half, in a couple of minutes. Wow. We also had to stop at Kroger for the yogurt I forgot yesterday and after I had tested out the jump drive and we'd put up the yogurt, we went to the fall edition of the Smyrna Jonquil Festival. This is a small craft fair with some stage shows and those inflatable bouncing things for the kids, and of course a line of "carnival foods," all fried. We passed them by, but I did accept a sample of the pumpkin latte the Starbucks people were giving out. It was in such a small sample cup that I hope there wasn't enough of the caffeine to "get" me. I bought one thing: the library was having a used book sale and I got a thick 1954 volume called American Science and Invention: A Pictorial History. It begins with the crafts and trades of colonial America and ends with the atom bomb and television. Too cool. Another nice sunny day—enough for me to get the beginnings of sunburn on my face—but I had to change into short sleeves before we went to the Jonquil Festival. It wasn't hot, but it was too warm for hanging out in a black long-sleeved shirt! » Saturday, October 27, 2007
A Supper Surprise
When James got home from work (yes, it was another Saturday workday again), we were ambivalent about a dinner location—we are tired of all the same places. So we decided to go to Ted's Montana Grill. They are expensive, but usually their blue plate special is reasonable.
Well, not tonight. But we didn't want to walk out, so James ordered a burger (their burgers are nine dollars but come with a salad and are huge) and I looked about for something cheap. They had chicken breast, which I consider inedible unless it's drowned in gravy (which kinda negates the reason for eating chicken breast in the first place), and, strangely enough, this low-cal dish came with French fries! Then I noticed that as an appetizer they had "four gigantic grilled shrimp," so I asked for that with a baked potato on the side. The waiter looked at me a bit doubtfully. "It's only four shrimp," he said. Wow, but what four shrimp! They weren't quite as large as the ones used for baked stuffed shrimp at the Inn, but it was close. Labels: food Gifts What a beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky, which was like a bright blue bowl overhead, and only in the high 60s. On days like this I feel like reaching out and hugging the air. The sun did get a bit much during midafternoon, but there was a good breeze to make up for it.I was a bit "high" this morning because I finally finished up a package I was sending to a friend in New Jersey :-) with a purchase and hurried home to wrap the rest of the gifts and bring everything to the post awful before they closed. The folks standing behind me helped me pick out the appropriately-sized box and very soon everything was off. I've been looking forward to sending the things for ages. Threw in the towel because the porch decorations looked incomplete, so I bought a Hallowe'en flag with a Michaels coupon. I also found the most beautiful fall-ornamented plaque at Love Street: "Having a place to go is called Home, Having someone to love is Family; Having both is a Blessing." In addition, finally gave up on the lighthouse-themed towels in the hall bath. They are actually large dishtowels because there were no lighthouse-themed hand towels for a bath, but they have been getting sadly worn. Since the bath theme is lighthouse/seaside, I stopped at Linens'n'Things with my coupons and got a pair of towels that are sand-colored. I would have gotten sea blue, but was afraid they'd be confused with the same color towels in the master bath. When I got home I had to complete an odious task: I realized early in the week the reason I couldn't tell if the bird feeder was full or empty was because the combination of two rainy days and the cayenne pepper we have to put into the feeder to deter the squirrels had created a thick moldy film on the lucite sides. The hot pepper suet had also molded. Ugh. So I scraped the wet gunk from the feeder, washed the lucite panels, and refilled it, then swapped out the moldy suit for fresh. Then I scrubbed my hands (I wore gloves, but...ugh) and brought the trash from the operation outside, bringing Willow with me for a walk. The moment I walked into the back yard, I heard an excited chirp and saw the white-breasted nuthatch perch, upside-down, of course, on the suit and call again, to be echoed by the same call from the trees. Another white-breasted nuthatch came flying down, a brown-headed nuthatch following, and also a chickadee. They must have been monitoring that feeder because I've been hearing them cheeping and chipping outside ever since! I caught the series Travels and Traditions With Burt Woolf and wished I'd known it was on earlier so I could have recorded it: he did Christmas in Austria, from the Christkindlmarkets to dinner at a swanky Vienna restaurant to Christmas trees and crechés. The only sour spot in the day was going out this morning and seeing pumpkin seeds and some rind strewn on the street. Our neighbors had two big pumpkins on their front porch steps and evidently last night some hoodlums came by to destroy them. I remember even back in the 1960s my dad would never buy pumpkins for the front steps because the boys would always come by and bust them open. But we were on the corner of a main street and near the junior high school—it was a fact of life that the boys would destroy things left out, steal the Christmas bulbs, and jump our fence. We live on a dead-end street and this means someone deliberately had to come through to smash the pumpkins. :-( Labels: annoyances, birds, decorating, gifts, weather » Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Creepy...
Despite the fact that it would have tossed continuity aside, perhaps they should have saved the Torchwood episode "Countrycide" for next week. This had to be one of the creepiest things I've ever seen.
Labels: television A Profitable Day
Phone call with a potential vendor, item advertised, another competed, the usual e-mails exchanged.
My order from Hamilton Books finally came: I got the making of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and also Welcome Books' Christmas Almanac, which has stories, trivia, and all matter of Christmas interest with nineteenth century scrapbook illustrations and vintage art. The sun is just coming out, so I may have to rethink the lawn watering business. :-) Oh, and I had the first of the apples that we brought home from Ellijay. ::drool:: Yum! Crispy, just tart enough...if only this type of apple turned up closer to home! "Reunited...and It Feels So Good..."
According to our weather station, here it is after two and it still hasn't hit 60°F yet. It is still raining at the moment and is damp outside.
And I have the strangest feeling... I'm cold! I have my well-worn WordPerfect sweatshirt on, the one Alice made for me, and a pair of sweatpants, and I'm having nice hot chicken caccitore leftovers for lunch. I feel like singing! :-) (The lawn people did a re-seed of our fescue yesterday. We have a permit allowing us to water for 20 minutes a day. Under these conditions I feel no compunction to comply. <g> As far as I'm concerned, it's God's job to water the lawn. We'll see what happens later in the week...) Labels: weather » Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Air You Wear
With the rain yesterday came another one of those dang warm fronts. By bedtime it was so sticky James closed all the windows and put us back on air.
Once I was out of the car this morning and then outside at lunch today, I'm glad he did. The air is like a heavy, sticky cloak about your shoulders, and not a featherweight gossamer cloak, either. It sits upon your shoulders like a hawk about to stoop. The radar shows another line of thunderstorms marching toward Georgia and then hopefully we can go back to cool night temperatures again. Labels: weather » Monday, October 22, 2007
The Amazing Mysterious Sound!
As has happened so many times this summer, the weather forecast was for showers. Because it's happened so many times without fruition, we ignored it.
So I was surprised to emerge from the bedroom this morning and hear something uncanny—it wasn't audible in the bedroom with two window fans and a C-PAP machine going—the sound of water rapping on the gutters and gurgling down the spouts! As much as we needed it, the sound made me wince, since rain turns commuters into raving maniacs anyway and it was still pitch dark. I was not disappointed, either. Rain should make people more careful. Instead they use the opportunity to display how many driving bad habits they have developed. God was with me as I accelerated getting on to the freeway, only to have to stop short to avoid the car in front of me: there was a car several lengths in front who had his flashers on and was going very slowly. Unfortunately the traffic left of me was going so quickly that there was almost no chance for me or the people around me to get around the disabled car and away from the exit-only ramp it was leading us to. Fortunately a gap emerged. Erratic rainy-day driving seems to be epidemic everywhere. It just seems worse in Atlanta metro traffic. » Sunday, October 21, 2007
Sizzle
The sun's gotten to me. I have a raging headache and sinus pain. Annoying.
The ironic thing is that I'm always the one who usually remembers the suntan lotion and this morning we sallied out without it. Not that it would have helped the headache any, but my skin wouldn't be feeling so crisped. My nose and cheeks are a bit pink, but there is actually no visible sign of sunburn. I just feel roasted. Labels: health Cacciatore, Country and More Country
Yesterday was "Hair Day" and it was our turn to provide the main dish.
About a month ago, knowing our turn was due, we came up with a "scathingly brilliant idea, " to quote Mary Clancy, which we promptly forgot in the morass of weekend work, end-of-fiscal-year, and assorted chores. Last Saturday we decided to make crock-pot chicken cacciatore and bought boneless skinless chicken thighs at Costco. Every night we would cook as much of the chicken as would fit into our crock pot in tomato-and-basil, no-sugar-added tomato sauce with an onion, a couple of small slices of green pepper, and a sprinkling of granulated garlic, and then put it up in plastic containers, so that yesterday at lunch all we had to do was decant it and warm it up. Someone else brought bread to "zoop" and we had the most delicious crab dip and a bacon-lettuce-and-tomato cheese ball provided by our hosts. Afterwards we took our weekly trip to the hobby shop and also stopped at Book Nook. James got two books about aviation and I found a copy of The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden. This book was very popular in the wake of the success of the series Upstairs, Downstairs in the mid-1970s. The author was an English countrywoman who lived on a large estate. She taught nature studies to girls—one of the few "ladylike" sciences acceptable to teach to women back then—and the Country Diary was originally written in 1906 as an example of the type of nature diary that she wanted her students to keep. The journal was "discovered" as the popularity of the British series brought a demand for Edwardian-themed programming and books, and printed in an exact facsimile in Edith Holden's own handwriting, with her meticulous watercolors of birds, birds' eggs, plants, leaves, and even paintings of the countryside. In the 70s there were Country Diary notebooks, journals, flower albums, diaries, photo albums, cookbooks, etc. until the craze ran itself out. The book itself is a precious snapshot of times and flora and fauna gone by, with lovely watercolor portraits of different birds. We were up early this morning to attend the Apple Festival in Ellijay, about sixty miles northeast of us. I had read about it in a flyer given out at one of the craft shows earlier this year. It is held for two weekends and because James had to work last weekend, we actually got the better of the two weekends to go: it was in the high forties this morning when we left at 8:30, but despite the fact that it got into the high seventies, it never got unbearable, except for the sun being relentlessly bright; even though there were mostly cool temperatures and we remembering our hats, we still were slightly sunburned. (James takes medication that makes him sensitive to sun and I've burned easily ever since the radioactive iodine treatments.) We arrived promptly enough to get parking next to the Lions Club field where the festival was being held rather than having to take shuttle buses and spent an enjoyable three hours wandering over a hundred different craft booths. This one was a very nice mixture of crafts, clothing and other odds and ends; I got a few country-themed Christmas and Thanksgiving decorations, but the coolest thing I found were removable appliques. I have a lovely fall sweatshirt and a cute Hallowe'en sweatshirt, but I don't get to wear them very often because it's usually warm straight into November. These appliques—I got the fall pack with leaves, pumpkins, a turkey, a black cat, and a purple bat—will stick to any shirt, long or short sleeved, then come off and stick to a different shirt. When the adhesive eventually starts to weaken, you can buy the glue to renew it at any craft shop. We contributed to the Lions Club by purchasing lunch from them and to the Boy Scouts who were taking parking donations as well. We also found another Christmas gift...yay!...and bought a bag of farm-fresh apples, Granny Smiths of course, before we left at one, just as the crowds were getting thick. There was one huge apple the size of a softball that we munched on all the way home. |
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