I intended to hit only a couple of stores today, but time, and my ideas, got away from me. And I didn't even go to Cracker Barrel!

(Folks on my Christmas group are always talking about the cute things they find in Cracker Barrel. I wanted to check them out! I know Bob Evans usually has neat stuff in the fall and at Christmas.)

I started at the Barnes & Noble at Bells Ferry—or, rather, I started at the CD Warehouse a few doors down. I often check them out for used DVDs, but don't usually find anything. Today they had a copy of Kit Kittredge for $10, which I snapped up. I can't believe they are charging a minimum (at Costco) of $18.99 for this DVD when all it contains is the film!!! No extras at all, except you can get a dopey digital copy. Like...who cares?

I found a cool book in B&N called Christmas Long Ago. It's actually a Schiffer price book for collecting what's called "paper ephemera," but I love the Schiffer books because they actually tell you about the items and their historical period rather than just showing a photo of the item and listing a price. This one is mostly Victorian Christmas postcards and cards, but also includes paper dolls, trade cards, engravings, and advertisements, all in full color, and talks about customs back then and contains quotations from period books.

Anyway, I had to laugh: I was approaching the checkout line and passing the calendars as I did. They had a desk calendar...I couldn't believe my eyes!...called "What Your 'Poo' Says About You." I kid you not! It is a fact a day about toilets, colonic issues, etc!!! Anyway, there was a man coming up behind me and he grinned at me and said in a very charming British accent, "I saw that just as you picked it up. Too much information, don't you think?" I had to agree!

From there I went to Michaels, where I picked up two gifts, and then I crossed Barrett Parkway to go to Town Center Mall. I was approaching a long line of full parking spaces when a space opened up right next to the handicapped slots, about three spaces from the door! A good thing, too, since I'd parked at the wrong entrance and had a bit of walking to do. I was headed for the Yankee Candle Store, and I was successful in finding the café au lait candles. Instead of buying a big candle I purchased the collection of eight tea lights and then bought a holder for them—these were of crackle glass with autumn leaves on it and all the fall stuff was half price.

I dropped in at Hallmark, and then stopped for a few minutes at FYE, which sells DVDs and CDs. If you bought two or more used DVDs they were 20 percent off. I found something called A Classic Christmas: The Ed Sullivan Show (I talk about it here) and also bought season two of A Bit of Fry and Laurie.

From the mall I went to JoAnn. For once their books weren't already on sale, so I bought 101 Places in the USA and Canada to See Before You Die. Also got a couple of things from the dollar bin and a piece of aged-looking plaid material to go under my woodland tree and Santa.

I stopped at Borders, which was a bad idea, since all I had for breakfast was oatmeal and yogurt and it was now after three and I was starving. So finally I just headed home and ate what was left over of last night's salad for a very late lunch. Did some tidying in the house and finally sat down to watch The Nude Bomb, which played on Sleuth a few nights ago. I remember when this came out. It played only at the Lincoln Mall cinema and, of course still being crazy over Get Smart, I drove all the way there and saw the movie after lunch at the Roast House. I was...disappointed, especially that Barbara Feldon wasn't in the story. Maxwell Smart is a free and easy bachelor in this one, working for PITS rather than CONTROL.

We had thought about going out for our anniversary tonight (eighteen years today!), but by the time James gets home, it is 7 p.m. This means we probably wouldn't get to eat until 8 or 8:30...not very conducive when you have to be in bed by eleven. So I just brought some Chinese food home and we ate at the table with the electric candles flickering.

Oh, I have one of the café au lait candles lit. Wow, that smells good! I wish I could drink coffee, but regular gives me palpitations and decaf gives me heartburn. I love the scent of coffee! It reminds me of all those family holiday gatherings where an aunt or a cousin would be brewing fragrant coffee to go with the dinner or the dessert on the table, or morning breakfast when Mom would be brewing coffee in the percolator for her and Dad. Sometimes one of them would spoon a couple of servings of coffee into my milk, or occasionally I could have Eclipse coffee syrup in my milk as a treat. Hot coffee is a comfortable, welcoming scent, the scent of home and love.

[Later...well, that did it...I had to go have some coffee milk...you can take the girl out of Rhode Island, but you can't take the Rhode Island out of the girl...LOL!)

Labels: memories, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:50:00 PM

Comments:

LOL about the "can't take Rhode Island out of the girl"...and happy anniversary, you two! ;)

# posted by  Emma : 2:17:00 AM

 

I'm impressed, Linda--I wouldn't sit through The Nude Bomb again if you paid me.

# posted by  Ivan G Shreve Jr : 1:58:00 PM

 

LOL, Ivan. Well, I've been a Don Adams fan for so many years...every so often I watch it just to see him. The movie is...ridiculous, even for a Get Smart story, there are redone gags, 99 is totally forgotten.

# posted by  Linda : 6:28:00 PM

 

Linda,
I was totally intriqued by the coffee milk. Gads, who would believe that it was the official drink of RI.
From wikipedia:
1932 - The Silmo Packing Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts, began marketing a more refined version called "coffee syrup", under the Silmo name.
1938 - Eclipse of Warwick began marketing a more refined version of what was being made and called it "coffee syrup." Their slogan was, "You'll smack your lips if it's Eclipse."
1940s- Autocrat of Lincoln begin making their own mixture of corn syrup and coffee extract. Autocrat's slogan is "A swallow will tell you."
1991 - Both companies, Autocrat and Eclipse, used to vie for the coffee syrup business. Their rivalry ended in 1991, when Autocrat bought the Eclipse brand name and secret formula. Both labels are now produced by Autocrat and are available in stores.
1993 - After much political debate the Rhode Island State Legislature proclaimed Coffee Milk as "The Official State Drink of Rhode Island" on July 29, 1993. The Providence Journal-Bulletin newspaper covered the story.

I gotta find a bottle of "Autocrat" and try it.
S. Skellie

# posted by  Anonymous : 2:51:00 PM

 

It's like chocolate syrup...only better. LOL.

# posted by  Linda : 10:44:00 AM

 

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