The funding from Congress has done its work and the work is tumbling in. So I was very glad for my compressed day on Friday.

It wasn't a strenuous day. I did a course or two around Wally World looking for things as varied as a scatter rug (not found, at least not the one I wanted), a pruning shears, and yogurt, after already having hit Publix and been disappointed that the oatmeal that was a twofer was not the instant I needed for breakfast. Sam's Club gasoline was the least expensive way to feed the car, so I did that as well.

Then I spent the afternoon dubbing off How the States Got Their Shapes until James arrived home. We had supper at Fresh2Order and dessert at Baskin-Robbins, made a brief stop at Michaels, then came home.

At 10 p.m. we watched the first episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day. Torchwood has gone underground in the year since the events of Children of Earth. Suddenly the name "Torchwood" is text messaged to every government agency. After that, no one dies. I mean, even if you are burnt to a crisp or shot in the heart, you don't die. (This leads to one very gross scene.) One of the people affected is a CIA agent injured in an accident; a man convicted of child molestation and murder is also set free after his execution fails to kill him. In the meantime, Gwen and Rhys, with their baby daughter, are hiding away on a smallholding in the wilds of Wales. But their peace is short lived.

I'm...intrigued. I'm just afraid it's going to turn into a lot of gunfights and car chases. I really preferred it when Torchwood made me think, so I hope it turns that way.

Saw a very familiar name in the credits as co-executive producer: Vlad Wolynetz! Vlad used to be associate producer of Remember WENN. Majorly cool!

We managed the Farmer's Market Saturday morning, although I definitely would have preferred to sleep late! Someone had the cutest grey-brindle French bulldog puppy on a leash, and half the crowd wanted to cuddle him. We also went to Kroger, then came home, where James watched Ice Pilots before going to his club meeting. I did some cleaning and stripped the bed, and started watching a movie called Angel, based on a book by the English author Elizabeth Taylor. Romola Garai, from I Capture the Castle, played the lead, a self-absorbed British daughter of a grocer, who became a popular author of romantic novels (the character was based on the 19th century bestselling author Marie Corelli). She really was an obnoxious person! (I was doing some reading on the original book and apparently the character is even more repellent in the books!)

When James got home we went to supper at Ken's Hometown Grill. We go here often because the food is inexpensive, but good. It's nothing earth-shattering, just plain food, sort of like a Waffle House, but you get better choices. I like having their pork chops. At Waffle House you can only get hash browns with your pork chops, but there you can get fries or baked or mashed potatoes as well. And instead of a salad (because the salad dressing will just make me sick to my stomach), they will bring me sliced tomatoes. Much better than...yuck...iceberg lettuce.

Since Borders is gone, there's nowhere to go on weekend evenings. Neither of us felt like going to Barnes & Noble, so we just came home. Had to finish changing the bed anyway; the mattress is so heavy it takes both of us, and I'm trying the new "garters" (that's what they look like, old-fashioned garter belts) to keep the bottom sheet on the bed.

Later was chat, and we had a bunch of fun. Jen got the e-reader we sent her to celebrate her engagement and promotion, and for when she gets deployed, and the whole bunch of e-books we sent along with it. So we talked about books, and later Mike and I got into a debate about the historical veracity of 1776, which was fun, too—even if it made me stay up too late.

James, sadly, was abed early since he had to work today. I woke up at 9:30 with that foggy, drugged feeling that I hate. Still, I managed to clean part of the master bath, clean and refill the bird feeders (blast, the thistle seed makes a mess when it rains!), eat breakfast, make out a card to mail, then go out and mail the card on the way to Michaels. I now have both the pumpkins I need for the front porch in the fall (the others were so badly faded I had to toss them out) and can take them off my calendar. Also got a paper and made a stop at Family Dollar.

Did some more cleaning, and then spent a satisfactory afternoon watching the next two episodes of History Detectives and two episodes of Secrets of the Dead, one about the 1918 "Spanish" influenza, and a second about Herculaneum. The first of the two History Detective episodes had a fascinating and ultimately very affecting segment about an African-American soldier and his white friend in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, serving during the Spanish Civil War. I had heard about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in passing during my reading about that era, but I did not know it was the first non-segregated group in the American military.

Supper was lasagna from La Famiglia, which we bought at the Farmer's Market, along with a salad, and strawberry shortcake for dessert, and then watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We are wayyyyyy behind in watching all the films before the premiere of the last one! Not sure if we can get through all the extras and the films by the weekend.

Evenings are just too short.

So, may I say, are weekends, even three-day ones.

Labels: chores, food, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:34:00 PM

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