After thirty-six hours of work this week, a couple of purchase orders, numerous advertisements, and too many e-mails, I feel like I've accomplished nothing. It's so bloody frustrating!

Which is probably why I woke up on my compressed day off feeling under the weather, nose stuffy, headachy and feverish, although there was no sign of a fever. I really wanted to curl back up and go to sleep, but that wouldn't have done me a bit of good. So I got my library book and returned it, then went to MicroCenter for one last set of narrow six-DVD cases. Got some four-DVD cases as well, which will work well for Ask the Manager, Brooklyn Bridge, Doctor Who, etc. Plus I realized I could put Connections and The Day the Universe Changed in the same case. Cool.

By this time Borders was calling me. Since it won't be able to send me subliminal messages much longer, I listened to it. I bought two gifts, a Rick Steves London book, a book about the British, Mary McDonough's autobiography, The Wild West on 5 Bits a Day, and a sociological book about how advertising affects our lives, Ad Nauseam. Then I came home to have some vegetable soup for lunch and cool off until James arrived home. We went to supper at Folks, had Baskin-Robbins for dessert, then went to Barnes & Noble for a while. Guys, you need to ramp down your background music so it's really in the background...and what's with the ants on the bookshelves? Yuck. Bought a David Crystal book. Um, why are your linguistics books with sociology and psychiatry? Too odd.

(Oh, Mark Stein has a new How the States Got Their Shapes book out, The People Behind the Border Lines. The first chapter's on Roger Williams.)

This morning we were awakened at the break of eight by the alarm and the dog; the guys had arrived to replace the pine straw. They'd finished by the time we were ready to go to the Farmer's Market. Definitely better than last week; it was mostly overcast and there was a breeze.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

We brought our food home, then went to Costco. Money-saving guru Clark Howard was autographing his new book there this morning. Since we enjoy Clark's show, and his website, and his books, we figured we'd get the new one. They were still setting up when we arrived at ten, but soon a line formed. I let James go through the line with the book while I stood across from where Clark was signing to snap a couple of pictures.

Next to me a red-haired man in a red-striped shirt was talking on his phone, explaining to someone who Clark was. Several times he mentioned WHJJ, which is what WJAR radio in Providence morphed into. I don't usually speak to strangers, but this was too tempting. When he hung up, I said, "Excuse me for being nosy, but are you from Rhode Island?"

Well, he was. His name was Derek and he's been living in Georgia for three years. He even went to Cranston High School West...I went to CHS East...our traditional enemies! His dad went to Cranston East, though. I felt bad for the Telemundo lady who was trying to do a broadcast next to us, because we were jabbering away about RI...Buddy Cianci...Borders closing...

(I called to James, "This guy is from Rhode Island" and he just rolled his eyes. It was a long-running gag between my mom and my dad that no matter where he went, he could find someone from Rhode Island. Whether it was Florida or Lake George or Virginia, he'd get this look in his eyes and say, "See that guy over there? He looks familiar." He'd go talk to the guy, or the couple, and come back about twenty minutes later. "They're from West Warwick, but he has family in the Lake [the Silver Lake neighborhood, where he grew up] and she's related to the Cataldos who own the bakery..." Apparently I've inherited this to a minor extent. James remember the time we were at the Air Force Museum and the man taking the reservations for the Air Force One hangar noticed his Mystic Seaport t-shirt and asked him if he was from New England. James answered, "No, but my wife is from Rhode Island." The guy asked me where was from in Rhode Island, I said, "Cranston," and he stuck out his hand and said "Barrington." James blinked at both of us, and said, "What is it with you people?" LOL.)

James finally got to the head of the line and I snapped a pic of him with Clark Howard.

Miss Emily Baldwin was right: "The nice thing about life is that you never know when there's going to be a party."

So we finished our purchases, including a pair of jeans for me that I bet will be too long (they only had "average" in my size), and took the milk home, then went out to the hobby shop. Business is very slow and they are struggling. :-(

We were up for lunch after this, as it was around one o'clock. We headed for either Olive Garden or Red Lobster for a cheap lunch, and then decided to detour and see if Cracker Barrel was not crowded. And, surprise, it wasn't—but then it's not Sunday morning after church, either. :-) Cracker Barrel is a restaurant with a country store attached, so after we finished our lunch, we wandered around looking at the different things for sale. They had apple-themed things, the fall and Hallowe'en things were already out, and a corner was even given over to Christmas. They usually sell Christmas things with a cardinal/chickadee motif. This year's birds are highly stylized, like simple paper cutouts. Not sure if I like all of them, but one serving plate looked a lot like a postage stamp design.

Since we had no other plans, we went to Kroger to do the grocery shopping, so that is done, done, done! We did see a welcome sign on the way there: the "Ditch" is opening next Wednesday.

(About two years ago, they started carving a ditch at the edge of Jim Miller Park. A big ditch. It turned into an underpass in the park, and a road elsewhere; it's a shortcut route to connect the intersection of Windy Hill Road/Austell Road and the intersection of Macland Road/Powder Spring Road. Every week we'd cut through Jim Miller Park on the way to Kroger to see how "the Ditch" was doing. And now it's nearly finished.)

We arrived home to gathering clouds, rumbling thunder, and a few spatters of rain, but the storms were running south, so I don't suspect we'll get any real precipitation.

Oh, and I found two fall-themed magazines at Kroger! There is a light at the end of the hellish tunnel that is summer!

Labels: DVDs, events, food, health, humor, shopping, weather

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