Explain to me why I'm supposed to like summer again?

We were up fairly early for a Saturday because it was Hair Day, even though James had baked the cornbread and steamed the vegetables last night. We had a good time, found out a friend is about to become a grandmother, and got disappointed: our hairdresser's husband is a landscaper and we were going to ask him to do our lawn. Except he's not landscaping any longer. Dang it.

We came home to fetch the JoAnn coupons—they had a 20 percent off coupon on everything, even sale items—and on the way out saw our neighbor across the street and stopped to talk to her about the house next door to her, which is for sale. We had been under the impression that the family that had been living there were renters, but they were the owners. They disappeared around Thanksgiving, after apparently loading all their things in a school bus with no seats. Well, they not only packed "all their things," but they stripped the house as well! They took the fixtures, the upper-level cabinets in the kitchen and the doors off the bottom level cabinets as well, plumbing fixtures, and at least one bathtub! Now the bank is trying to sell it as a fixer-upper.

(Also, I remember last summer we kept hearing a rooster crowing and I thought it was from the trailer park behind it. No, the guy was keeping some chickens! Even after he was told to get rid of them, our neighbor thought they were still keeping them in the house. Of course I remember how they planted tomatoes in the front of the house so they could have flowers, since vegetable gardens are exempt from the watering ban. Of course the lady violated the watering ban a lot!)

Anyway, we were out there talking for about half an hour and even though I shaded my eyes with the large JoAnn coupon, the sun did its usual number on me. We went to the hobby shop in its new digs—gosh, the place looked small, but it's huge; goes wayyyyy back, with a nice little office and a meeting room, hall for storage cupboards, storage closet, rest room, and a back room—and the longer we stayed, the worse my headache got. By the time we left it felt like someone was driving a long nail from one temple to the other. I cadged some Tylenol off James and we picked up a drink at Wendys and I closed my eyes until we got to JoAnn, where the headache had diminished to a low throb. I bought a few little things for the yard, a clip art book, more magnets, a metal tray for a project, and some other odds and ends.

By then it was suppertime. We picked up dinner at Dragon—yum! pork fried rice! (yes, Ivan, with no peas and carrots; it's civilized fried rice)—and watched the last New York This Old House. Kinda disappointed we didn't get to see the basement apartment, but I suspect it was a duplicate of the third floor one. This one was just too short!

Then we watched one of the Doctor Who episodes we missed last year when our satellite box died (twice), "Planet of the Ood," and finally the dog show on Animal Planet.

Labels: food, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:33:00 PM

Comments:

"Civilized fried rice." I like the sound of that.

# posted by  Ivan G Shreve Jr : 10:41:00 PM

 

Planet of the Ood is one of my favorite episodes.

# posted by  Tina : 11:36:00 AM

 

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