Ah, a late sleep!

Of course it really wasn't, because we hadn't gone to bed until three—all the fault of the discussion I was having online with Mike and Jennifer about Remember WENN. :-)

We had three errands to run today and did the first two this morning: went to Trader Joe's for chicken salad and other things (we bought some quinoa to try this time) and Kroger for the weekly necessities (bananas, yogurt, my sandwich bread for work, and the newspaper). We found some chicken noodle and minestrone soup "kits" on clearance and bought them for our emergency stash. Then we brought the perishables home and did some housework: James cleaned out the kitchen while I started the towels and vacuumed and made the bed. I also painted a block of wood for use as part of a decoration for the kitchen. Michaels sells these various sizes of blocks for wood carving, but I like this particular size for stands—I painted one for my St. Joseph's altar and another one for displaying the gingerbread goodies in the kitchen—and for use in bookcases for propping a row of books up so you can put another row of books in front of it.

My old computer died eventually because of an increase in heat inside the case; when we bought all the "fixings" for a new unit, I bought an extra fan that used one of my empty slots. This fan has always been very noisy, but starting yesterday it became downright loud, sounding like it was grinding. So James opened up the case, cleaned it out using canned air, and tried to reseat the fan. But the fan was seated as tightly as it could possibly be; James figured the noise is from the bearings having worn out. After he finished in the kitchen, he was sitting at the computer playing a game and finally said, "You know, that noise is aggravating. I don't know how you're going to stand it Wednesday when you work."

So we left a little early on our second errand to go to MicroCenter. We bought a different type of fan this time. Then we went to Michaels, the real purpose of the trip along with getting gasoline and milk at Costco. There was a 25 percent off everything in the store, even sale and clearance, at Michael's tonight, which is a great chance to stock up on items in the dollar bin, which are useful for stocking stuffers, little extra gifts, etc. I even got a new "bill paying calendar" for next year (I keep a small one at the computer marked with whose paycheck it is and what bills are paid on that check). I even got a very nice wooden desk organizer that had been marked down to nine dollars, with 25 percent off.

At Costco we not only bought milk and 81mg aspirin, but began stocking up on the things we will need for DragonCon weekend. Since we take our own food rather than eating at fast food or expensive restaurants, we must buy supplies; plus next weekend we will have to buy extra of almost everything since we will spend pretty much four days total at the convention. Today we bought lean roast beef and some ham, as James is already stocked up on cheese. Next week I will buy an extra supply of low-carb tortillas, some juice boxes, and some of the small bags of baked chips (we already have some 100 calorie packs of crackers purchased). We will each have a lunch rollups and dinner rollups, as well as juice boxes to accompany.

At Kroger, we had found two delicious-looking turkey thighs. When we got home I peeled the skins off, seasoned them with onion powder, minced garlic, and a little Kosher salt and baked them in the convection oven until done. We had these with an ear of corn, and an all-natural pumpkin muffin for dessert. As it cooked, we watched one of the What's My Line episodes I recorded last week along with The Name's the Same (with Conrad Nagel as host instead of Robert Q. Lewis). During supper, we watched this week's Monk, where Monk and Natalie are trapped aboard a submarine on emergency maneuvers to find out who killed a ship's lieutenant, the friend of a Naval officer who was a friend of Natalie and her late husband Mitch (a Naval officer who also seemed rather fond of Natalie <g>). Since Monk is claustrophobic, he developed a coping mechanism by thinking that his psychiatrist was with him. James, of course, noted that the officer's sidearm was wrong and that ballast tanks don't work like that (I did figure there wouldn't be lights in the ballast tank <wry g>).

Surprisingly, we not only didn't have "stupid Randy," we had "immensely helpful Randy." (If you don't watch the show, Lt. Randy Disher is assistant to Detective Stottelmeyer. He is usually light comic relief, unfortunately sometimes much too comic, to the point of stupidity. We had hopes he would smarten up after a second season episode involving his mother, but Randy wavers between silliness and the outright idiocy that makes you wonder why he wasn't fired long ago.)

Oh, and James installed the fan, too. Wow. You can hardly tell the computer is on.

Labels: shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:58:00 PM

Comments:

I was wondering that about the ballast tank... otherwise, did James find the navy stuff relatively acurate?

I really enjoyed our re-hashing of our decade old dilema. It was very fun.

Have you read my "finale" fanfiction? I could send you the word document if you want... that format is always easier for me to read. I really want to know your opinion and hear your criticism.

# posted by  niferjen : 12:03:00 PM

 

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