The local branch of the International Plastic Modelers Society had a model show today, so James was up at the crack of 8:30. Well, actually, it was the power failure that woke both of us. We have these stupid pinpoint power failures every weekend, either on Saturday or Sunday morning. The power goes off for less than a minute, but it means I have to reset all the wretched clocks in the house.

James dug his camera out of the bureau drawer, only to find that both the battery and the spare were dead. That figures since he hasn't used the camera since DragonCon last September. So with great grace I offered him mine, only to feel like I was sending my child off to boarding school for the first time. LOL.

In the meantime I checked e-mail to pass a message on to someone who is trying to get on the Remember WENN chat and had some milk and a SlimFast meal bar because I wanted to get moving. I had two packages to mail at the post awful, some media going to a friend and a copy of the Ikea catalog for my mother-in-law, who has requested one four times from Ikea and hasn't gotten one yet. We forgot to take it down to her when we visited for Mother's Day.

The phone rang and it turned out to be a friend of ours who has, like us, tons of books. He was interested in just how adjustable the "Billy" shelves from Ikea were because he wanted to use them for paperbacks. I remembered I'd taken pictures of the library and we searched online together until he was able to see them.

Then it was off downtown, only to find I couldn't go straight through the square because it was blocked off for what looked like some sort of carnival. Stood in line with about a dozen others—why do they only have two clerks at the PO on Saturdays when they know there is a line out the door?—and had a convivial conversation with a guy who used to live in the Midwest and a lady who was a transplant from Los Angeles. I asked them if they knew what was going on up the street and the lady said it was a marketplace and it was now happening every Saturday. I wondered if they had fresh veggies, but I didn't stop to see because I had other things planned.

Got gas at Costco (3.86⁹) and then went to JoAnn with my 50 percent off coupons (it was the last day of "Firefly Frenzy"), but I couldn't use them on their nice lawn chairs. I got two flameless candles instead since I've been fascinated by them since I first saw them. From there I cut up US41 on my way to Acworth. It started to rain, but didn't continue, just sputtered off and on. Drat.

On the way I stopped at a Hallmark store because I had heard a rumor that the ornament catalog might be out. It wasn't, but I saw a display case full of some neat-looking resin figurines and investigated. They turned out to be "Mary's Moo-moos," black and white Holstein cows dressed for different activities or for different seasons/holidays. They were on sale for 40 percent off.

Well, one of them just took my fancy. It was a Christmas piece, with a nightlight bulb in it like a Christmas village house. The light represented a fire in a fireplace, over which was a mantel covered in typical family memorabilia: a photo, a statue, a clock, a little barn, a milk bottle vase with greens in it, a miniature Santa and reindeer, and pine cones and greens surrounding all. Of course the photo, statue, and Santa's face were all of cows. In front of the fire slept a cat, and next to the fire, in pajamas, is the bull "Dad" with the calf "Son" on his shoulder. It was all about 5 inches high and 6 inches wide.

There didn't seem to be a corresponding cow "Mom" but they had a cute little figurine of a cow in a nightgown with a quilt over her that matched, so I bought both units. Since they didn't have the box for the fireplace unit I got it for half price. Cool. The quilt has a John Deere logo on it, but I figure I can cover it with a sticker or paint it, and the white bulb in the fireplace is too stark; I will replace it with a yellow one, or, even better, one of those flickering bulbs.

I made a quick stop at the Dollar Tree for toothbrushes and sunflower seeds, then hurried across the road to Books-a-Million. Everything was 20 percent off today to members. There wasn't much I wanted, but I did get the new Kit book and also the new Main Street. Naturally they didn't have the new issue of the British Country Living!

I did find all three of Lauren Willig's Eloise Kelly books on discount for $4 each. I had seen one at the BAM in Owensboro and thought it looked interesting.

Came home by the Kroger on Mars Hill Road, where I did find low-carb whole wheat tortillas. At $4.19 a package!!!!! Yow! Still, I got one just to tide us over so we wouldn't have to go to WallyWorld this weekend. I sauntered by the meat counter to look at the discount/sale meat and salivated over the T-bones, realizing we were going to need something for our Independence Day cookout. I was going to buy one big one, thinking we could share it. Then I though, screw that. It's Fourth of July! I bought two small ones and we can each have a lunch leftover.

Because I had the meat and not the large, insulated bag, I headed straight home, had some lunch, watched National Velvet (just because I felt like it). James arrived home around five having helped with the judging all day. He had brought some models with him and one of them won a silver medal. Also, he was laughing about a diorama that was built by Paul Crowley, one of the reporters at WXIA Channel 11 (or as folks like to call it, "11 dead or alive"). It was a reproduction of a news photo that was called "Khrushchev's Plane at Idlewild" (from the visit of Nikita Khrushchev to the United States in the 1950s, the one where they wouldn't allow him to go to Disneyland for security reasons). Parked near the plane Crowley had placed a New York police car of the era, with two patrolmen, one tall and thin, one short and plump, next to it. The number on the car was "54."

I nearly laughed myself silly.

::cough:: If you don't get the joke, I refer you to this Wikipedia page; check out the entry "theme song."

Labels: books, Christmas, events, shopping, television

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