Not much to tell about this morning: packing, breakfast, finishing packing, including what was left (thank God, not much) of the food we bought, and taking things to car, checking out, then returning to the common room to see what was going on. Betty told me that someone that used to work with us is coming back to PGO, but she'll be working down in Construction and Facilities.

James and I were one of the first folks to leave for the picnic shelter for this year's picnic, so we got one of the plum parking spaces. Picnic Shelter 6 was taken, so the Spiveys, who are usually in charge of the picnic, relocated to #4. The parking space there is very limited, so we were all squeezed in.

The picnic was, as always, fun. Alice and I were wandering about taking pictures, as was Juanita. We had hamburgers going on one grill and hot dogs on another. It was really warm later on, but it was cool enough at that point that even James wanted a jacket. Very nice! The two little Baskin girls got excited over the chance to roast marshmallows over the grill and it was wearying for their dad to try to explain to them that they had to wait until the grilling of the meat was done. This picnic shelter was also creekside and I took some photos of the sun peeking between the trees and three yellow butterflies looking as if they were playing tag over the stream.

We left about one—after, amazingly, not one of the kids had fallen into the creek—since we had to pick up the critters, but as we were driving through Helen, I noticed that the Christmas Shoppe was indeed open, so we parked and stopped in. I bought a sheep Christmas ornament, a collie ornament that is not Christmasy that I can put with my collection, and a very small German pyramid at a very reasonable price. (These have vanes at the top that turn when candles underneath are lighted, and the little wooden scene underneath revolves.) The old Christmas Shoppe was better, with items upstairs, but this is very nice, too, and the ornaments are all reasonably priced.

We also saw a man with a huge dog on the main street. It looked like a curly-haired Irish Wolfhound or Scottish deerhound and indeed was the size of one, but it turned out to be a "labradoodle." Much larger than either a standard poodle or a Labrador retriever!

By now the sun was very strong, but we did stop at Cumming at the North Georgia Premium Outlets so that James could purchase some briefs. We dropped in Kitchen Collection to get him a new medium-sized spatula to replace the one he "loved to death," and discovered John Campbell in the store. It turned out that a bunch of the people that had been at the picnic had also stopped by the outlets: I knew the Butlers were going to stop by, but Bill and Caran and the Taylors were there as well.

Already tired and thirsty, we went by the vet and picked up the animals. Schuyler seemed to be happy to see me and bore no malice about having been manhandled by her yearly examination. She even kissed when she saw me. Willow, as usual, was panting so loudly that I could hear her coming out from the back while I was in the bathroom.

We got home early enough to drop them off (poor Willow was whining—"You guys just got home!") and run to Cumberland Mall so I could pick up my new glasses. I also got gas at Costco and we bought dinner to go from Fresh2Order.

The glasses, as always, will take a bit getting used to. I need to re-gauge my distance to see the computer screen. But everything is put away or in the hamper, suitcase back in the closet, and we've eaten, and now we are planning to watch the new production on Masterpiece Theatre, which is about Rudyard Kipling's son, apparently played by Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter film fame.

Labels: Christmas, food, friends, outings, pets, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:33:00 PM

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