Okay, it wasn't that early, but it seemed like it when we walked into the bathroom with the sun flaring into our eyes..."the light! it burns!" I often feel like a refugee from a Twilight novel when morning comes 'round.

Okay, warm weather coming is a drag—however, spring is good for one thing:

Marietta Square Farmers' Market

"Yay!" and all that, even if we had to be up at 8:15 to get there as it opened. Naturally, we forgot our brand-new hats, but James popped on his boonie hat and I had on my foam visor, so we made out okay.

Poor James, here he is at the Farmer's Market, all the delectable samples—pot pie, lasagna, fruit spread, jalapeno spread, bits of candy, slices of tomato, etc,—and he can't have any. Several weeks ago he went to the doctor, who neglected to tell him he wanted bloodwork done before the appointment, so James had already eaten, so he needed to go by Kaiser to get blood taken. He can't go on the weekday without being 90 minutes late to work, so for the last few weeks we were supposed to go out to Glenlake on Saturday morning (since they are now the weekend facility) to get the labs done. With one thing and the other, we forgot.

So as we orbited the booths and did our shopping—cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet corn, and a bell pepper, a turkey pot pie, organic bacon, something for breakfast later from Bernhard's German bakery, garlic cookies for Willow, chicken salad and jalapeno cheese—I tucked a few non-messy samples enrobed in napkins in his shirt pocket (a slice of salami, some granola bar, some fudge).

Naturally, we finished our shopping and arrived at the railroad tracks a scant second before the gates came down and a freight came thundering through. It was a pretty morning to stand there, though, still a bit chilly (high 40s) and with a brisk breeze that kept up all day and made it nice rather than hot. We had brought a cold block with us, and the guy packed the cheese and chicken salad in ice, so we put all the perishables in an insulated bag with the ice block and put that inside the insulated Sam's Club bag. You betcha it stayed cold!

Glenlake is halfway across town, a little bit more than halfway to my work, and we had to skirt roadwork on I-75 south to get on I-285 east. When we reached the exit we got turned around because when James goes to Glenlake he usually approaches it from the opposite direction. Voilà—I grab the Droid (last week's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is already playing on MyPod) and ask Google Maps to find the Glenlake office. Damn, I love this thing; good thing, too, because not eating for twelve hours has left James feeling nauseated.

The place was nearly empty, and he was in and out of the lab in a trice. I was waiting for him with a cup of unsweetened applesauce that I had brought with us (I'd already eaten mine), and nibbling on the samples in his pocket made him feel better until we could get back to the truck and the ham and cheese croissant from Bernhard's Bakery.

Since we were already halfway across town anyway, we decided to go to the original Fry's in Gwinnett [County]. On the way there we stopped at the Aviarium and went into the bird room to chat up the babies: a big scarlet and gold macaw, several sun conures, various other conures and parrots, an African grey, four budgies, a cockatiel, and lots and lots of finches of various denominations. The macaw wouldn't talk to our face, but every time we turned our backs we heard him squawk "Hello!" We also perused the fish tanks at the other side of the store—Jen! they had lionfish!—and I bought Schuyler a new bell toy, a new millet clip, and some oats and groats.

We wandered around Fry's about two hours, which included lunch; the soup of the day was chicken noodle. I had it in a bread bowl and James had his with a roast beef sandwich, half of which we brought home. I found James an "Easter bunny gift" (the BluRay of Excalibur), a $4 disk of four Topper television episodes, and a gift to put away for a friend. James got a quartet of war films, and also the fourth season of Rocky and Bullwinkle (fifth season was a bit rich right now). I didn't realize they have gotten as far as third season with Barney Miller, but I am still debating it.

Also saw a cool-looking but rather expensive book called Cooking for Geeks, but passed it up.

Traffic was miserable on I-85 south on the way back, due to an accident, and was backing up as far north as Beaver Ruin Road. Up came the Droid again (by this time we'd finished with Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and were listening to a February installment of The Splendid Table) and we discovered we could just continue on Beaver Ruin until we got to Buford Highway and go south again.

We ended up at the hobby shop for an hour and then came home via Bernhard's to pick up a few night's worth of desserts: a couple of Florentines and a couple of German gingerbreads, and some spelt-flour chocolate chip cookies. Having washed and dried the bell toy, I have left it is hanging on the outside of Schuyler's cage, where she can give it the fish-eye to her heart's content and get used to it. Occasionally I come over and make it jingle, and I've caught her near it once, examining it ("Are you going to eat me?"), but mostly when I ring it, she retreats behind Swing for safety.

Labels: DVDs, food, podcasts, shopping, traffic, weather

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 4:23:00 PM

Comments:

Oh, neat! How I remember that tank at the Atlanta Aquarium that was full of them!

# posted by  niferjen : 9:51:00 PM

 

Post a Comment