Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Friday, December 28, 2012
Well, It's Been an Uneventful Two Days...
...until this evening, which was how I like it. I've spent the past two days listening to Christmas music and doing things around the house. Did some sweeping yesterday, and two loads of laundry, and mopped the kitchen floor. James worked all day yesterday, but I did go out and get more storage boxes and greeting cards. I also bought bourbon chicken from the hot bar at Publix, which I had for lunch (today, too) and stopped at Costco, which appeared to have a thousand copies of the DVD of the movie Ted. Also started a craft project, but the paint pen died on me. I was pretty disgusted anyway, since I had to keep pumping it to get the paint out—my wrist started to hurt. Today I cleaned out two drains—one can now shower in the hall bath without being ankle-deep in water—and vacuumed...again. Trying to put things away slowly, but it's taking a while. Everything seems like it's been "up in a heaval" since the end of fiscal year. James came home about two and we went to Publix and...well, I think you can finish that one by now. He also bought black-eyed peas since New Year is coming up. We had a treat this afternoon and evening: our friends Anne and Clay were up from Warner Robins to go to Home Goods and to Fry's, and when they got done they joined us for dinner at Giovanni's. Good meal and great company. We found a show tonight on television we'd never heard of before, I Love the 1880s, what was described by the History Channel as a humorous look at American history. It didn't particularly concentrate on the 1880s. We learned some facts: Jefferson and his compatriots were prodigious drinkers, for example, but it was short on true humor and long on stupid jokes. How far the History Channel has fallen! Labels: chores, Christmas, food, friends, shopping, television » Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Only 364 Days Until Christmas!
And one, of course, must be prepared, so I dragged myself from bed at 7 a.m., had breakfast, and was out the door by eight. I didn't know what time anything opened, as the stores I wanted to go to were not the ones which had advertised in yesterday's paper. I was so surprised that neither JoAnn nor Michaels were having the usual after-Christmas sales! Well, I knew one place that would definitely be open and items discounted: Hallmark. I headed to the Town Center store via Walgreens, where I bought enough tinsel to replace what I used on the tree and some new Christmas hooks. I would like to replace all the silver hooks on the tree with the stronger green ones, especially those newer, cheap thin silver wire ones that collapse at the merest squeeze. At Hallmark I bought a Wile E. Coyote for James, a Merida, the two turtledoves, and the miniature Chessie system steam train. Also found some gift ornaments, and some Christmas cards. Then went next door to Publix, which was advertising storage containers as a twofer. Wow, and good storage containers, too, the 66 quart clear Sterlite ones. I bought two as well as two twofer Hallmark cards. Also stopped at Barnes & Noble to check out their clearance items. Not much there, though; many Hallowe'en leftovers. I did go to Garden Ridge briefly to see if they had any more strings of blue lights. One of the new strings on our bushes is already half out! But, alas, they were pretty well stripped, and, as I shuddered, they were already putting out spring garlands. Ugh! From there I went to Michaels to see if they still had plain single-color wrapping paper. Success! I bought three rolls, red, green and blue, plus three frosted picks for winter decorations. They had no bows, and neither did JoAnn, which I left without buying anything. I did get some bows, tissue paper, and shred at Hobby Lobby. On the way home I stopped at the Publix at Barrett Parkway and Old Highway 41 to buy two more storage boxes, plus the twofer greeting cards, and then at the Walgreens at Dallas Highway for more tinsel—who knows when it might become extinct, just like the Woolworths I used to buy it in? and how could I have a Christmas tree with no tinsel—and more hooks, and a few half-priced candies, including sugarless for James. The Publix at Dallas Highway didn't seem to have any containers, but they did have cards. I'm stocking up for birthdays right now, but at least one Publix was stocking Valentine cards when I went in. By the weekend I should be able to get some Valentines, too. As I emerged from Publix #3, James called. They'd let him out early again and he was at Kroger picking up something for his supper. Did I want something? Sure did: when I left the house it had been 51 degrees, and when I left JoAnn it had already fallen to 43. It was getting colder and windier by the minute. So I told him to get me a loaded baked potato soup. Oh, and it was very good, too. I ended up having half of it for lunch. He also came home with more Christmas lights and a cute little snowman lamp and a York peppermint patty cake for desserts. Tidied up some during the afternoon, read Facebook, finished another book, and finally went on to the news. Now watching factual Christmas specials: Gavin Weightman's Christmas Past about Christmas in Great Britain, Christmas: Behind the Traditions, and I think I'll go on to the best of the Andy Williams Christmas specials. » Tuesday, December 25, 2012
» Monday, December 24, 2012
One Christmas Eve...
...in Holiday Harbour.
Oh, by the way, a miracle occurred. I ordered a gift for James at the last minute, like three days ago, and it arrived today! Good show! Labels: Christmas, Holiday Harbour » Sunday, December 23, 2012
Sunday
» Saturday, December 22, 2012
A Saturday of Shopping
Despite wanting to sleep in, we did get up early this morning, as it was the final Farmer's Market of 2012 and nothing starts up again until January 19. We had to bundle up, because it had gone down to the 30s during the night, and a sharp, keen wind was blowing in from the northwest. I do mean keen! I put on my heavier jacket (I don't pull out my coat unless it gets really cold), a scarf, and my hat plus an earband over it, plus my new gloves with the capacative fingertips, and we were still freezing. The breeze went through the top of my hat as if it wasn't there. The market was held on Mill Street, and the wind funneled right down the street, from one end to the other. The vendors were red-nosed and buried in scarves and either fumbling with gloves or struggling with stiffening fingers. The owner of Big Daddy Dog Biscuits had brought the eponymous Big Daddy [a laid-back, gentle pit bull] with her, complete with dog coat; nevertheless the poor guy was cold and she had to cover him with her coat as well. We had to laugh when the guy from Capra Gia ("goat cheese guy") came by with a two-week old female kid (a miniature Nubian goat.) tucked in his jacket; he said they were keeping each other warm. He said she was ready to go to her new home and he was keeping an eye on her till then. Did you know you can housetrain a goat? He said she has already been housebroken and will be a pet. Too cute. So we got dog biscuits (including some Christmas cookies), goat cheese, some Christmas bread to take to the folks' house next weekend, some cake, chicken salad for James, and a baked rigatoni for Christmas Eve. From there we went to the Whitlock Avenue Kroger. I wanted some bread for the week, even if I wasn't going to work, and theirs doesn't have cornmeal all over it like the Smyrna Kroger. The store was still a happy tangle of baking supplies, poinsettia plants, fruits for Christmas, and other holiday color. We bought some boneless pork ribs for a future supper, got yogurt, and also the baking powder we need for this afternoon's baking orgy. So we were home, and things put up, and we had changed into clothing for baking, and James started his prep—he was planning to bake some low-sugar chocolate chip cookies to start with—and I started mine, going downstairs to fetch the wine bottle. There was one in the closet downstairs. Well. No, there wasn't. I was remembering the year before; we were completely out of wine. James discovered at the same time that, while we had baking powder, he needed baking soda for his cookies. Two different animals. So...we had to get dressed again. It was already past lunchtime and neither of us had eaten, and we were pretty grim going out to Mink's for hearty burgundy wine (but I did find it immediately...and I bought two bottles as well). On the way back we stopped at Publix for the baking soda and picked up supplies for corn casserole, too. By the time we got back it was 2:30, so it was a long afternoon baking. James turned out a batch of chocolate chip cookie drops (they were supposed to be cookies but they didn't flatten) and then he adapted the recipe to make cinnamon-chip cookies...uh, drops. These are both very light and tasty! I mixed out my first batch of wine biscuits while he was baking. Wow! I haven't seen hearty burgundy this dark since my Papà made his own wine; it was purple, a deep amethyst color. And boy, did it turn the dough purple. I baked two batches (about 70 cookies) and it was hard to tell they were done because the dough was so dark, with the result that they are slightly overcooked. They take a while to bake, too, so James' last batch, his butterscotch drops (he's been jonesing for butterscotch), went in the oven late. We didn't get out to supper until way after six, but we left the house smelling heavenly! James had stuffed a couple of flatbreads with meat and cheese sometime during the afternoon; I'd just nibbled on cookie dough, so I was starving by the time we got to Hibachi Grill. Afterwards we went to Barnes & Noble to use up my second coupon and James' first. I found a linguistics book and he got a card game. Got home to find Rodney already on chat and had a nice conversation for over an hour. By the time Emma got on, though, we were both pretty well tired out from the cookie orgy. So I made my regrets early and we went off to bed, as we wanted to go to BJs early tomorrow. We need batteries, mandarin oranges, and paper towels. There's an odd combination! » Friday, December 21, 2012
Four Days Till Christmas...
» Thursday, December 20, 2012
FOR TODAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 (goodness, I haven't really done one of these in ages) Outside my window... ...raining, dark and dreary, while I ponder, weak and weary...wait, wrong season. It is grey and drear, though. I am thinking... ...I wish I'd gone outside last night and filled the bird feeders. I will have no opportunity to do it today. When I first got up, there was an assortment of wet waifs perched all over it: a wren, "Mrs" downy woodpecker, two brown-headed nuthatches, and a female goldfinch. Now it seems to be all house finches. I am thankful... ...I appear to be better than yesterday, when I was chivvied into the bathroom with multiple instances of stomach cramps. I finally came home from work and curled up under a blanket on the sofa. I am most thankful that Schuyler's right eye is now back to normal. In the kitchen... ...nice and tidy. James cleaned it while he was off yesterday. Need to figure out something for supper. I am wearing... ...blue "Mutts" pajamas, Earl in his basket with stars all over the navy blue pants, and Earl's face and hearts on a light blue top. I am creating... ...well, Tuesday evening I finally cleaned off the craft table in my craft room and I am hoping in the next two weeks I may have time to work on the "me" shelf. I am going... ...not sure where I am going. I thought after fiscal year things would quiet down, but first there was preparing for and going on vacation, then Schuyler got sick, then it was Thanksgiving, then it was time to decorate for Christmas. It's been like one big merry-go-round. I am wondering... ...why the tape player, which was inexplicably not working on Tuesday, is now inexplicably working today, but I will not look a gift horse in the mouth. :-) Right now the Norman Luboff Choir is on. I am reading... ...The Dreaded Feast, a collection of short, cynical pieces about Christmas. Just finished the book I bought in Williamsburg, Four Centuries of Virginia Christmas. I am hoping... ...the time will quit going by so fast. Summer goes by like a constipated snail. Woosh...October comes and it's on falcons' wings, into November, now it's December and then it will be January and the next thing we know it will be February and getting warmer again. It hasn't really even gotten cold now. It gets cold for a few days, then goes back up into the high 60s. UGH. I am looking forward to... ...being off for seventeen days in a row...almost as good as being on vacation. And all Christmastide, so there will be Christmas, and visiting friends and relatives, and New Year's Day and the Twelfth Night party. I am learning... ...I don't like clutter as I get older and really want to do something about it. Around the house... ...Christmas music, of course. I've now gone on to Mantovani. During lunch I need to vacuum. I am pondering... ...now that all the aching back part of Christmas prep is over, should I make my back ache again by washing the dog? A favorite quote for today... "Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas." . . . . . Calvin Coolidge So for gosh sakes, folks, quit knocking people over to get the last toy and putting yourself into debt to buy Christmas gifts "to show your family you love them." That's not what Christmas is all about. One of my favorite things... ...going out looking at Christmas lights. We've been doing that for the last couple of weeks. Coming home from the ARTC performance on Saturday we drove through the side streets checking out the lights! A few plans for the rest of the week: Want to bake some wine biscuits. Only have them once a year. But I want to go to Richard's, too. Just a small slice left of what it was like when the five-and-ten cent stores were around. I acutely miss so many people all year round, but Christmas really reminds me of the places I miss: my grandpa's house at Christmas, Woolworths, Newberrys, Grants, the Paperback Book store on Weybosset Street, the Outlet Company, lovely Shepards...Oxford Books and my lovely, lovely Borders. I've gotten so many things at Amazon, but it's just an online store. Borders was in my heart. A peek into my day... "Sisters, sisters, there were never more disinterested sisters..." LOL. If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook. Labels: Simple Woman's Daybook » Sunday, December 16, 2012
"This Whole Place is Feeling Very Kringly..."
» Sunday, December 09, 2012
Movie Sunday
Just a normal Sunday morning at the Young household: we went to Kroger. At least it is interesting going to the grocery store before Christmas: everything is so colorful. Big "dumps" appear in the middle of aisles with things you never see any other time of year: brilliant rainbows of boxes of dried fruit in stained glass colors; figs and nuts; chips in flavors other than chocolate (we found cinnamon chips today); frosted gingerbread cookies in red, green, and white; stacks and stacks of sugar and flour each marked by their manufacturers' colors; peppermint in various forms and all in red and white; candy canes, multicolor Christmas candy tins, and Christmas chocolates. For a while it's actually fun to go there, even if you can't buy most of it. This afternoon we used the first of our three free movie tickets and went to see Wreck-It Ralph. This is the story of the bad guy in an old 1980s arcade game that has survived till today who gets sick of his role. When he isn't invited to the 30th anniversary celebration by the other game denizens, he is determined to win a medal in another arcade game to show his "friends" he isn't so bad after all. But his accidental invasion of yet a third arcade game sets off possible danger for all the games. This is just a neat movie on all levels. It works best if you remember those old arcade games, since there are lots of inside jokes and referrals to characters like Pac-Man and Frogger. Qbert even has a substantial role! It also features the typical Disney "plucky child," who as always talks tough but has a soft heart. And, frankly, had I been Ralph, I would have been pissed off with the rest of the Fix-It Felix game denizens myself—he's the integral part of the game, and he's treated like a pariah! Incidentally, King Candy is brilliant—a cross between Ed Wynn and Frank Morgan as the Wizard of Oz, and in the transforming scene I got vibes of the scary Dr. Smith transformation scene in the otherwise pretty awful Lost in Space film. Very creepy. Anyway, we were boggled when we arrived at the theatre and there was a big long line of women, about half of them in pink shirts. I thought it might be something about breast cancer, although I didn't recall any type of movie about breast cancer being shown. But it turned out not to be for a movie at all; a group of salespeople from "Thirty One Gifts" (they sell purses and junk like that) were having a motivational meeting in one of the auditoriums. We left just as they were departing with their stacks of catalogs. Stopped at Barnes & Noble before heading home to use our other coupon. I did get Mr. Monk is a Mess and James got Ken Jennings' new book, Because I Said So. Picked up a couple of lovely British magazines about the countryside that I'd never seen before, "Land Love" and "Landscapes." Also the January "Country Sampler," which has winter themes. This is the last one I'll buy until fall. Had steak and rice for supper and three small dark chocolate-covered ginger cookies from Trader Joe's for dessert while watching White House Christmas 2012. Lovely as always; marvelous stained glass wreaths that were made for the gallery were my favorites. The "gingerbread" house was a bit boring this year because there was no drama getting it upstairs, but they had a neat feature: they printed views of "inside the White House" on edible paper with edible ink on the windows, so it's as if you are looking inside. Next watched the two Prep and Landing specials, and now have John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together on. Labels: books, Christmas, movies, shopping, television » Saturday, December 08, 2012
It's a Wrap!
I have finally sunken into my chair. The back support feels so good! Let's rewind. I could tell it was going to be warm today because I woke up with aching joints everywhere. Even my toes hurt. I'd forgotten to shut off the alarm, but I just groaned, whacked it off, and turned over, basically what I'd been doing all night, because it hurt every time I tossed and turned in bed. We only got up because Willow barked to go out, but we needed to get up and eat breakfast (and watch This Old House, which the DVR wasn't recording because it wasn't labeled "new," having already aired on PBS, but we didn't see it because of dadratted fundraising), because I had four more packages to go to the post awful. I was afraid of a line out the door and was very surprised to see only six cars in the parking lot? Is this a sign of the economy? A Saturday before Christmas that the post office isn't crowded? Wow. So that was done posthaste (pun intended), and there were parking spaces downtown, so we were able to go the Farmer's Market, too, even though it was nearly noon. We got goat cheese, cucumbers, sweet corn, and some cookies for desserts. Also walked down to the Christmas store and got one square of dark chocolate ginger cashew bark. It was a wilderness of Christmas, all sorts of specialty items from Kurt Adler and Christopher Radko, and more moderately-priced Old World Christmas. I definitely miss Willow Too antiques at this time of year. They used to decorate with candles and primitive items and little pine picks tucked here and there, and it was so pretty. Had to get home because James was due at his club meeting. So he was off, and I decided I would wrap gifts. Instead of sequestering myself in the spare room, though, I brought out one of my craft tables, the wrapping paper container, and the gifts in batches of four or five, and started to wrap while watching stacked up programs on the DVR. I watched the last two episodes of Elementary, two episodes of Lassie from Angel2, and finally the last part of the celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (yeah, I still have some of it still to watch). When James came home I was still wrapping. I was still wrapping as he printed out Barnes & Noble coupons. I finally gave up and finished getting dressed and we went to Fresh2Order for supper (I had a twofer coupon for my birthday). The cashier even discounted my soup! That was nice. Stopped at B&N hoping to pick up the new Elemental Masters paperback. It's always good when Barnes & Noble has coupons, because Amazon doesn't discount ordinary paperbacks. And today we both got two coupons with two different codes, so we can use both of them. Usually the codes are the same. That's good, because not only was the Elemental Masters book out (short stories in Mercedes Lackey's universe), but Mr. Monk is a Mess is out in paperback. Came home and started wrapping again, and wrapped until I was done, except for one gift that isn't finished and one gift that's not done. The last two were the hardest because they were gift baskets. I had to make shred for them and then wrap them. James helped me clean up and I was finally done. Of course now I have to have a Christmas tree to put them under. I guess I will have James tow it upstairs sometime tomorrow and I will decorate it on Tuesday. It's my birthday and I'm taking it off. » Sunday, December 02, 2012
First Sunday of Advent
Most of the tale is contained in Holiday Harbour. However, amongst the Christmas-y tumult and watching DVR'd programs, including the Advent episode of Feasts and Seasons, Schuyler sorta came out of her cage on her own. I've been putting her near the couch and leaving the larger door of the cage open. Tonight she clambered to the edge of it and was hanging as if she was going to fall, so I scooped her up quickly and set her on my finger; she let out a scold and then looked astonished to find herself on my finger. She sat looking about for a few minutes while we talked to her, then stood craning her little head toward the cage, so I let her hop back in. Well, with Little Miss, this is something. :-) Labels: birds, pets, television » Saturday, December 01, 2012
Another Day With "My Guy"
Ah, well, one morning sleeping in, one morning not. Even though we had nowhere to go early, we were awakened by Willow needing to go out. Nevertheless, after breakfast, I got some things done: put two Xerox paper boxes together with stuff to go to Goodwill, since we were taking the old printer today. I also found a few new toys I had stashed. James nearly killed himself getting that awful printer out the door. We had slid it down the stairs last night (for once I am glad we had carpeting!) and now I pushed it until it was as close to the door as it could get. "All" he had to do was pick it up and get it down five steps and a few more strides to the back of the truck where we had backed it in. The danged thing must weigh 60-70 pounds and he turned scarlet hefting the wretched thing to the truck bed. But it was done, finally, and the Goodwill guy unloaded it. We dropped the toys—a puzzle I had been given once; I don't really do puzzles and two Webkinz reindeer still with tags—at Publix for Toys for Tots. We also snagged a couple of twofers for us and bought a few more to put into the Can Bank (diced tomatoes, chili, chicken broth). We stayed so long at Publix, in fact, we barely made the Farmer's Market; we got there just as they were breaking down. We managed to get James' chicken salad (the guy wasn't there last week), more dog biscuits, and some desserts. Then we walked across the square to the British store, The Corner Shop, which was having an open house with British Christmas treats: mince pies, jam tarts, and Jaffa cake. Someone had made sausage rolls and meringues with chocolate cream in between. Yummy! We got some treats to take to the Lawsons' party and James bought a little Christmas pud because he wanted to taste one. Had lunch at Panera, then went on to Garden Ridge. We needed to get something to make the space tree. We got a black tree with white lights and I bought some extra stars to go on it. James bought some lights to put on the columns; unfortunately they are multicolor, not blue. I also found a bargain Christmas book, Kringle, that I couldn't afford last year. We also stopped at Five Below, and at Hobbytown, where James found at least three of the late hobby shop denizens wandering around for their modeling fix. They will be having their IPMS meetings at Hobbytown from now on. By the time we got home, it was late afternoon, and it was very good to relax. I finally put on Christmas programs: Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, followed by Rick Steves' European Christmas... Labels: Christmas, food, shopping, television » Thursday, November 29, 2012
A Sunny Day With a Special Guy
Since James worked last Saturday, he had a day off coming this week, which was today! And we were able to "sleep in," all the way until 7:30! Then we drove over to the NAPA Auto Center using both vehicles. James was dropping the truck off to get two new tires; the left rear is very badly worn and the right rear has a slow leak—we have had to pump it up every few weeks either at the QT (where air is free) or with the bicycle pump. We also had his vehicle inspection done, and they did mine right away, so we could leave after James gave them his key.
We stopped for breakfast at Dunkin Donuts—yum, bagel!—and then headed for the freeway. It was a bright—very bright; the sun bugged us all day—blue day, chilly when we left. We listened to the latest "Splendid Table" on the way up. Our friends Matt and Kelley are always talking about a used bookstore called McKay's in Chattanooga, so we finally decided to check it out. It is in a stand-alone building just northeast of the Hamilton Mall complex. Kelley said it was big, but we were very surprised when we walked in and found out just how big. It's as least as big as a good sized Barnes & Noble, and has a balcony all around the store which holds CDs and records! We were there over two hours and I never did get upstairs to the balcony! James bought a few books as well as some interesting CDs, including the Boston Pops playing Celtic music and a Celtic Christmas music album. I was really surprised at how many used books they had that were practically brand new, so I was able to pick up six Christmas gifts in one fell swoop! My own haul: • Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, which was my seventh-grade English teacher's favorite reference work. This was only 75 cents! • One of the Holly Beth Walker "Meg" Whitman mystery series, Mystery of the Witch's Stairway • Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female With Mass Media (this was in bad shape, but only 75 cents, too) • Quirky QWERTY, about the typewriter keyboard • Seasons on Harris, about a couple on the Hebrides • An unfortunately uncovered copy of The Happy Hollisters and the Haunted House Mystery • Another travel book, A Walk Through Wales • When Television Was Young Oh, plus a nice Blu-Ray copy of Arthur Christmas, for only $11. We finally headed out about 1:30, looking for something to eat. We found a Hibachi Grill and had a nice buffet; this one had pork loin and also coffee ice cream in the ice cream case. No coffee-flavored chocolate cake, though; just strawberry. Next we fed the car, because gas was ten cents cheaper a gallon in most places in Chattanooga, then we drove past the mall trying to find what sounded like it might be a stitchery shop, but it seemed to be gone. We did find out what replaced my lamented A.C. Moore (ironically a JoAnn Crafts) and the Books-a-Million (a Big Lots). Finally we checked out Chattanooga Hobby Depot, which is mostly a train store. (I wandered around thinking that Sheldon Cooper would have loved it.) They had a cute Christmas train in the front window, with a locomotive with a red headlight and antlers (yes, it was labeled "Rudolph"). Headed home about 3:30, with rush hour already starting in Chattanooga, listening to another "Splendid Table." We had enough time to stop at Office Depot on the way home to pick up James' new printer. (It's a hell of a thing when it's cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy printer cartridges for it!) Then we went by the NAPA place to pick up the truck. James' credit card went "squeak" because while we were at McKay's they called him to say that squeak he heard when he hit the brakes was trying to tell him that they were shot. He had all four done. Ouch. Since we had a big lunch, we had pot lucks for supper, and relaxed. Big Bang Theory was new tonight, and we had a surprise when we watched Tonight for "Headlines": Jim Parsons was a guest! Also watched an Extreme Couponing, and part of The View which had a performance from the new musical version of A Christmas Story, which is being produced by "Ralphie" himself, Peter Billingsley. Only two more gifts to buy!!!! » Sunday, November 25, 2012
Shopping is Never Done
That's because Sunday is grocery day. We had a detour this morning, though, because I had told James they had real vanilla at World Market. So we stopped there quickly, but were unable to go to Aldi for milk because they weren't open yet. So we just hit Kroger, where we found some chicken drumsticks for supper, too. Brought the perishables home, then went to Sam's Club again, via Walmart so James could get another $10 OneTouch mini for his pouch. I thought we could find Brawny paper towels at Sam's, but I was mistaken, so we left empty-handed and went to Publix for twofers and a newspaper. And, yay, then we were done! so it was a nice quiet afternoon at the Young house. Watched last Monday's Hawaii Five-O and the First Sunday of Advent segment of Feasts and Seasons. The drumsticks were prime, and we tried some new low-carb pasta, with a slice of pumpkin pie as a chaser. Been watching Christmas specials on the Travel Channel all evening. Labels: food, shopping, television » Saturday, November 24, 2012
Alone on the Range
Unfortunately, it was only half a weekend for James, who had to work today. He was out of the house before 7:30 and I was up not long afterward. Yesterday I had seen some fall items at half price at Cost Plus World Market, so I went out early when they opened because I had other things to do this afternoon. Then I headed up to Town Center because I wanted to stop by the Barnes & Noble to check something else. On the way there I found a Five Below discount store near the old Borders (yes, I sniffled when I saw the building). I found a nice small gift for someone which was later joined by something else from B&N, and a holder for my backup hard drive so I don't have to swath it in flannel. On the way home from B&N I stopped at the Farmer's Market. Alas, the chicken salad guy wasn't there. I did get James some boiled peanuts. Spent the afternoon updating the new phone. We had supper at Hibachi Grill and stopped at the Barnes & Noble at the Avenue at West Cobb. We both got Christmas books: James a book full of science fiction/fantasy stories and me a Chicken Soup for the Soul. Had a good time noticing all the houses decorated already for Christmas. I won't start till the first weekend of Advent. Plus a nice chat later. Only pain in the neck was remaking the bed (I changed and washed the sheets this afternoon). That mattress gets heavier every time! » Friday, November 23, 2012
Thanksgiving and Beyond...
» Thursday, November 22, 2012
» Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Thanksgiving Eve
What a luxury sleeping late is. An even better luxury is not having a strict rising time, so that when your back aches you can take some ibuprofin to go back to bed for twenty minutes.
Once again last night I had a long, involved dream: this is three within four days. The first one, Sunday night, was almost a murder mystery; Monday was akin to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; and last night it involved some sort of celebration and a co-worker who towered over me. Weird... So I had breakfast and hied off to Publix, after calling BJs and confirming that they no longer sell a no-sugar-added pumpkin pie. I remembered that Publix also sometimes stocked no-sugar-added pies. Well, they do, but they didn't have any then; they were just starting to bake them. So I put in an order for one, picked up a couple of other things, and went home. It seems the year has just flown by; I was supposed to write out and mail my Thanksgiving cards on Saturday, but we had hair day and a trip to the hobby shop and the Timegate get-together...it seems lately that I am always the proverbial "day late and a dollar short." Well, no matter. I gave poor Schuyler her eyedrop, and then left her cage open as I wrote out the Thanksgiving cards. (I thought I had a surfeit of them and found out to my chagrin I should have picked out about three more at Publix. No matter. I would take the pen and my mailing list with me when I went back for the pie and buy and make out the cards there.) She did not respond to the invitation. Her eye almost looks worse after the eyedrop; it was wider open this morning! Poor little birdie. I also cleaned out both toilets (ah, how prosaic!) and tried to tidy up a bit. At about 12:45 I gathered up the cards, the pen, and the list and went back to Publix. My pie was ready, I had a few more cards, and I mailed them at the post office before coming home. Well, before I left I found a little surprise on the stairs: Willow had left a little deposit! She hadn't barked to get my attention, so I was a bit wrathful. I had cleaned up the solid part, but it was wet and had left a stain, so when I got home I had to get the Resolve and dab and scrub. Once I was finished Willow needed to go out and it looks as if she had a bit of a stomach upset. I called James to see if he had fed her a leftover that might have bothered her, but he said no. So no idea what the problem was. Incidentally, I am so glad I took today off. Just the traffic in the neighborhood was horrible and tiring, and it was so bloody warm: it was 71°F by the time I left Publix the second time. Ugh. On the other hand, I did order James' Christmas gift and ordered a birthday gift for myself: Sullivan Entertainment has the restored, widescreen versions of Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Green Gables: the Sequel on sale for half price through sometime tomorrow. You can't find them on Amazon, and they are something like $45 each on Amazon.ca. Of course the wretched postage is almost as much as the sale price of one DVD!!! I am so very spoiled by Amazon Prime. Later in the afternoon I sat down to watch my favorite Thanksgiving story, the Addie Mills special The Thanksgiving Treasure, which is addressed here. James came home at the usual time and we had our supper. We spent the evening watching Thanksgiving specials: Thanksgiving Unwrapped, The Secret Life of Thanksgiving, The History of Thanksgiving, and New England Thanksgving. (I swear somewhere I had a Thanksgiving special with Al Roker, but I can't find it.) Now I'm watching the "Home from Home" episode of Alistair Cooke's America. Labels: birds, dogs, errands, food, pets, shopping, television, Thanksgiving » Sunday, November 18, 2012
A Week Later
Yeah, it's been a while. In the meantime, I've gone to work four days and came home four days. And before each of those days and after each of those days, I've had to grab the squirming body of a highly indignant, squawking budgie and try to drop one drop of medicine in her eye. How hard could it be? She's so small and I'm so big. Yes, that's the problem. I have to hold her firmly enough, but not so firm as to hurt her. She's as slick as an eel with shoulders like Schwartzenegger and in the time that I get the tiny medicine bottle flipped over (having taken the precautions to uncap it first) and squeeze it (it's a firm bottle and with the arthritis in my hand, awkward.), she either has flipped herself over or tightly clamped her eye shut. I have applied medicine to her head feathers, her ear, and her beak as well as her eye, so it's a mess on the right side of her head, even though I've tried to wash the feathers there. Her other health signs hasn't changed much. She's still eating, drinking, checking out treats. And finally, for the first time in her life, she sits on my finger. She'll sit on it while I sit talking to her, and I can take her into the living room to talk to James or check out what's on the television, and she'll mostly sit without looking like she's thinking about flying (or flopping at this point, since her wings are clipped). It's sort of "Be careful what you wish for," because I've wished for this for years, but she's not doing it because it's friendly, just because she does. Because, you see, she's pissed at me. She won't play with her bell with me, won't eat oatmeal if I offer it to her, turns her back at me, won't chirp when I call her when I walk in the door. This morning she finally accepted some oatmeal and pecked at the bell when I rang it rather than snubbing me. I wouldn't mind this at all if it looked like her eye was getting better. Wednesday I thought she had it a little wider open, and so did James. By the time I got home from work, the squint was back to where it was on Election Day and, of course, it looks worse because the feathers around it are dirty. I thought there might be So I've been depressed most of the week. Not to mention work's been frustrating because I have been contacting vendors and not getting calls and e-mails back. I couldn't submit an order for signature because it's taken so long to get a form back. I hope it's there tomorrow. And right now I feel like crap. I have a sore throat so bad it's hard to swallow and another sinus headache that's so annoying I have to have a pad of Kleenex between my glasses and my nose to be able to do anything else but retreat into a dark room. We did have a good time yesterday, though. In the morning it was Hair Day. "A good time was had by all," as always, even if the conversation did turn to Twinkies. <wry grin> Next we made a last stop at the hobby shop. James will be working next weekend, unless he gets off early. Finally we went home, took Willow out and made sure Schuyler was okay, then went to the Timegate gathering at the Elks Lodge. Next year is the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, and this was sort of a one-year "countdown" to the anniversary as well as a wind-up for next year's Timegate on Memorial Day weekend, which will feature a Doctor as a guest: Colin Baker will be attending! We had fun, although the sound system was pretty bad and in most of the "panels" (this was held all in one big room) we could hardly hear the speakers. People talked about their favorite moments in the past fifty years, the Earth Station Who podcast people spoke, and several episodes were shown, including part four of a Colin Baker story and part three of "The Three Doctors," with one of my favorite Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart lines when he walks into the TARDIS for the first time: "So this is what you've been doing with UNIT funds!" LOL. They also served snacks and had a hot dog/hamburger supper with a killer salad on the side. We stayed through the performance of the Ken Spivey Band, then gave our friend Sue a ride home rather than her having to take the bus—why would we leave a friend hanging out at a bus stop on a cold Saturday night? At home we had a nice chat with Jen, Mike, and Emma. This morning we went grocery shopping, then went to Hallmark. They have a Linus to go with the "Peanuts" band from last year. James got the Star Trek ornament and I found a cute set of turkey salt and pepper shakers really cheap (having forgotten I already have similar pair; oh, well, one can never have too many Thanksgiving decorations). We also stopped at a new British shop in the same shopping center with Betsy's Hallmark (Merchants Walk) called "The Queen's Pantry." Bought a Scottish calendar for the guest room and James sampled some ginger beer. On the way to "The Corner Shop," the British store in Marietta, we stopped at Book Nook. I usually don't buy Christmas books with recipes, but this was a book written by Ruth and Skitch Henderson (Skitch used to be Johnny Carson's bandleader) about their farm in Connecticut with lovely pictures of the snowy countryside and rustic decorations. I also got the third volume in Eric Wiggin's retelling of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, which is totally new except for the adaptations of two chapters from New Chronicles of Rebecca. It's more simply written, but I've always wanted it, and it was discounted. Also got a $3 DVD called A Scottish Christmas filmed at various Scottish sites. Watched Lightmares tonight, a DIY production about two clueless pairs (a son and his mother, and two brothers) putting up Christmas lights, last night's Flipping Boston, and Thursday's Elementary. Waiting for Ken Burns' The Dust Bowl. And now I'm going to take some ibuprofin because my throat's being a wretched bore. Labels: birds, Christmas, Doctor Who, DVDs, friends, health, pets, shopping, television, work » Monday, November 12, 2012
Score!
I had one goal today: get the spare room back to rights. Otherwise, I slept late, still feeling a bit down after our active weekend and tussling with Schuyler. I had some nice coupons for this morning, though, and a glance at the radar showed me that the rain was coming in sooner than later. So, after breakfast and dosing Schuyler's squinty eye—and this time I know I got the drop in!—off I went with my coupons. Stopped at Petco to see if I could find a new forked perch for Schuyler, and did find something. It's a bit bigger and James will need to cut it down. We'll see if it works. James needed a new bottle of "Coke Zero" syrup for his Soda Stream, so I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond for one. There was a real find amongst the clearance items: the display model of one of the larger Vornado fans, the 12-inch diameter one. We love these fans and have two of the smaller models in our bedroom, one on my side of the bed, one on James'. They cost more because they are super-quiet, perfect for the bedroom, so finding this one at half price was a delight. We have been talking about getting a larger fan to pull the always cooler air from the bedrooms into the living room, and this opportunity dropped into my lap. My next two stops were at Cost Plus World Market and Michaels. By the time I was done, I had taken care of three Christmas gifts, finished off two more, and gotten a start on another, thanks to some very nice coupons. And I made it into the car just before the rain started. Work was slow, so James was out early, arriving home about 1:30. He spent the afternoon in the "man cave" after helping me finish closing up the futon after I completed making it up. I finished watching Call the Midwife, which I had completely forgotten in the tumult of vacation, still with three episodes to go. Stories four and five were heartbreaking. Oh, but I do love "Chummy" and was so glad she defied "the Mater" to marry her policeman! Labels: chores, shopping, television » Sunday, November 11, 2012
Nuptial Madness (A Weekend Saga)
It's been quite a weekend. The weekend frolics began a bit early...like on Monday. I noticed on Monday night that when Schuyler was relaxing, she looked as if she were falling asleep, with her eyes squinted. It was after nine and she had a right to be sleepy. Tuesday I got up at six a.m. to go vote. It was a miserable, chilly, rainy morning—given the choice between 44 degrees with rain and snow, I'll take the snow; it's drier!—and I huddled in line with about one hundred people in front of me and fifty behind after about twenty minutes in line. I had my umbrella propped up and was reading the first Falco novel on my Nook, but the umbrella of the guy in front of me kept dripping on it and finally I closed it. The poll opened promptly at seven and I was out of there by 7:30 to get home and start work. When I got in Schuyler was full of beans. She raced back and forth at the bottom of her cage, chirped, sang, and bounced around most of the morning. I, on the other had, was miserable: the chilly rain had seeped into my bones and I couldn't get my feet warm. I was cold and headachy, and at lunch took a nap. Before I got back to work, I walked past Schuyler's cage. That right eye...she looked like she was squinting. But the left eye was fine. Hmn. On Wednesday I was in the office at "SURGE" training (a team-building exercise that highly puzzled me, since it assumed—to my perception, anyway—that we as an office didn't get along; there were these long lessons about politeness and talking to each other and consideration...say what? do other branches have this problem? ours doesn't!), but James was home and I asked him to keep an eye on Skye between his errands. He said she was still squinting, but otherwise seemed healthy. That night, however, she just suddenly had a bout of uncontrolled scratching under and near that eye. It was like a fit; she didn't want to stop. I finally had to take her into the spare bedroom, half cover her cage, and keep the light low. I read to her from the "Looking Back" issue I was reading and was quite upset, even though she calmed down quickly and sat sleepily, squinting at me. Finally we just all went to bed. On Thursday she didn't do any relentless scratching, but she was still squinting—I started making jokes to her about being a pirate—so I called the vet, but couldn't get an appointment until Friday. Well, Friday already had plans around it. Our friend Juanita, who has been a widow for about fifteen years, had finally found herself a nice new "feller," David Gibson, and they became engaged at the beginning of the year. On Saturday, the 10th (our wedding anniversary!) they would be married! Our friend Shari, who is a superlative baker, was asked to make the wedding cake. Problem: Shari lives in Birmingham, Alabama. No problem: Shari could stay with us! Shari was coming in on Friday, with the baked segments of the cake with her. She wanted to go to the DeKalb Farmers Market before arriving at our house. I told her traffic was bad on Friday and she needed to leave there before rush hour and all Hell broke loose. So she was planning to arrive some time in the morning, drop the cakes off at the banquet hall, and then go on to DeKalb, then come back to our house. I wanted to get the car "vetted" to remove the vacation remains (crumbs, dog hair and the like), but was otherwise planning to be home. Instead, I had to take Schuyler to the vet at 10 a.m. Nothing was seriously wrong with her, thank God! They stained her eye to make sure she did not have a scratched cornea, and that was clear, but she had conjunctivitis in that eye. I will have to put drops in her eyes for the next ten days. Oy. The vet clipped her wings to facilitate this and she came home looking gloomy and depressed. While I was there, a gentleman came in, upset. He had an injured hawk in his trunk. It had run into him on the road and before he could get out of his car to look at it, another car had hit it. He wrapped it in a cloth and put it into his trunk and called the fish and wildlife people, and they told him to take it to our vet, who is an avian specialist. I left Schuyler at home half covered so she could sleep and watching television and went to take care of the car, which was done before I'd even finished filing my nails. Shari, by this time, was having her own problems. It turned out the banquet hall was suddenly rented out for Friday when they had told Juanita there would be room for Shari to assemble the cake onsite on Friday. After it took her four hours to drive here from Birmingham (it's normally a two and a half hour drive), she had to change gears and take the cake parts to David's house where they had refrigerator space. Later the cakes would be transported to the banquet hall and Shari could decorate them. So she had gone off to DeKalb. In the meantime work was slow and they sent James home early. He'd already eaten, but I hadn't, so we went to Panera. We were going to stop at Barnes & Noble, but Shari called; she was on her way to our house but had made a wrong turn. So we headed home while giving her the correct directions. We spent the rest of the afternoon settling her in and relaxing. It turned out she would not be able to go decorate the cake tonight after all because of the event that was planned, but would have to go there early tomorrow instead. We could at least have a good evening: we took her to Giovanni's for supper. She really enjoyed the food there; she had a lasagna. James had pork marsala and I just had pasta with sausage. We all had leftovers. Afterwards we went to Kroger to get a couple of ingredients Shari needed for the cake frosting. We also located the hall. Schuyler was a bear to treat. You wouldn't believe this tiny bird has such strong shoulders. I'm not even sure any antibiotic got into her eye! So, needless to say, worrying about doing this for another nine days, I didn't get a lot of sleep. James was really restless as well. On Saturday Shari hoped to have an early breakfast before she commenced to cake decorating. Accordingly, we were up at seven. Our old neighbor Susan Robinson had often urged us to go to the little French bakery off Atlanta Road, Douceur de France, located in a tiny house at the corner of a side street. In the time that we never took to go there, Douceur moved to Powder Springs Road, closer to downtown Marietta. We pass it on our way to the Farmer's Market on Saturday and it is always crowded, so that was the other reason for getting up early, getting there before the crowd. Well, it was fabulous. Shari and James both had eggs, which they said were wonderful (she had scrambled, he had an omelet), and Shari loved the coffee. James and I both had hot chocolate, which was very chocolaty and not overly sweet, a big plus! We both hate sugary cocoa. I had a fruit cup with a nice variety of fruit, bacon, and a baguette. Oh, this baguette! Angels smiled over this baguette! To my cousin Debbie: think of Garzilli's bread. Oh, my! With butter, just perfect! Then Shari was off to assemble and ice the cake. We went to the Farmer's Market and I finally got some goat cheese; we got a pot pie for Sunday supper and James picked up some boiled peanuts. We dropped off the food at home and snatched up the coupon for Books-a-Million we thought we might need, and headed up to Acworth for their 20 percent off sale (we were hoping to score some Christmas gifts). When we got there we walked down to the Petco first. Schuyler needed a new sand perch and the vet says she has too many bells and not enough enriching toys. We didn't find much in the latter category. While we were there we had to get someone to rescue a cockatiel who had one of his legs caught between the bars of the bottom of his enclosure. His leg was bleeding by the time they got him out. We scored mostly stuff for ourselves at BAM, sorry to say: a Big Bang trivia game and Uno game, a bunch of $5 DVDs. No books, actually! And we took a short enough time there to be able to go down to the hobby shop for about a half hour. AAA Hobbies is closing Thanksgiving weekend. They are just losing too much money. People come in there and look at models, then order them online. So today is probably the last time I will sit in the meeting room and read whilst James model neeps with the guys. Next week is the one-day Doctor Who event at the Elks Lodge and then James has to work after that. So...farewell...sometimes it was boring for me, but lots of time I had fun. The guys were always polite and funny, and apologized to me if they cursed. Shucks, you haven't seen the way I talk to my computer at work. Or traffic on I-285. :-) We made sure to be home by one so James could shower and we'd have plenty of time to dress. James was going to have a Wendyburger and I was planning on some Soup in Hand and cibatta bread when Shari called. She was doing a basket-weave pattern on the cake, still needed something to finish and was waiting on someone to get it to her and could we bring her her clothes and makeup so she could get dressed there? Oh, goodness, this threw us into high gear. We thought we had everything ready, but it turned out my high heels no longer fit, and neither did my dress Hush Puppies. Once James had a shower I knew his hair really needed trimming—he's missed Hair Day two months in a row due to work and didn't have a chance to hit the barber—so I did that. James then realized he'd never taken his shirt out of the pins, so I had to do that and iron it, so I also touched up my blouse and the shoulder scarf. Then I had to run downstairs and get my mom's jewelry that I wanted to wear. And James couldn't manage to tie his tie. I called Shari; she does plays and knows a lot about costuming. My frantic question: "Can you tie a man's tie?" "I think so." Zoom, we were off! Oh, what a comedy of errors! And then, when we were finally fleeing the house with Shari's clothes and makeup, at 2:30 (the wedding was at three!) I realized halfway there that I hadn't turned off the iron! So I had to drop James and the clothes off, hoping one of them would manage the tie, and he rode to the church with Shari while I doubled back to the house to turn off the iron. So I was five minutes late to the ceremony, but tried to arrive composed despite having to fight Saturday traffic and people dreaming at traffic lights. Bless Twilight, he's light on his wheels and quick to move. It was a wonderful ceremony. I cried through most of it. The church was beautiful, all white inside with splendid chandeliers. They did something unique: did a "braid" called the Ceremony of Three Cords. The gold cord was God, the purple David the groom, and the white Juanita as the bride, braided together as one. They also both lit a Unity Candle in unison. They exchanged vows and also words they had written themselves. Simply lovely. Juanita's daughter Jessie and niece Kim and David's daughter Jen all looked lovely in burgundy gowns. And then finally we could relax and head leisurely for the hall and have a good time with our friends and celebrate Juanita and David. But I had one more surprise today. Back when I started walking at CDC, Marty Hirsch was my branch chief and the assistant branch chief was Andrea Stokes. "Andy" always followed the rules and was strict, but sweet and gentle at the same time. I knew she kept in touch with Juanita and Betty, and I wondered earlier if she had come to the wedding. And when we walked into the banquet hall there she was! My gosh, I must have hugged her about ten times. It was so nice, especially with the reorganization plans going fast and furious and that perplexing SURGE class, to see a friendly face from the past when PGO was such a simple, straightforward organization!!! It turns out her husband Jack died three years ago, but she still lives in the old house in Buckhead. I told her we still have her wedding present, the Bullwinkle counter clock that we had top of our wish list, and that we were so surprised she bought. And she looks so good!!!! I told her she must have a picture in her closet! We ended up sitting with Juanita's nephew Michael's three youngest kids, Grace, Noah, and Anna. The girls were a little shy, but Noah was a little gentleman, asking me how we knew Juanita, and what my name was. It was obvious the kids were a little bored, but they were quiet and polite and well behaved. They were a joy to have at the table with us. Later John Bouler's sister Carol came to sit with us as well. It was a swell reception. Juanita did a series of dances with all the members of her family, and there was much snacking and schmoozing and chatting and hugging, and photographing! Shari's cake was lovely, for all that her hands were cramped with arthritis for the rest of the weekend, with a light crumb and a delicious frosting (I usually hate frosting; most of it is too sugary). And finally after the sun was just set we saw them off with bubbles and finally made our way home, getting into comfy clothes. Shari wanted to get some liquor for baking, so we went to Mink's, and then we stopped at Subway so that she and James could get some supper (the reception had just been "finger foods"). I opted for oatmeal and yogurt, and we sat and relaxed watching Too Cute. We were all so exhausted we were in bed by eleven. Still wrestling with Schuyler... This morning we slept in. James made biscuits, and cooked bacon from the Pine Street Market, and we had breakfast at table. Today we took Shari on the food-lover's tour of Atlanta. :-) We started at the Buford Highway Farmer's Market. As expected, she was intrigued. We had a leisurely two-hour walk around the store, checking out all the cool stuff: sugar loaves from South America, Russian chocolate, Polish canned goods, noodles from Japan (and Korea, China, Indonesia), sauces, fruits, international sodas, Turkish Delight to lamb steaks, sushi to Irish butter. We got some lamb steaks, goat pieces to crock pot, and potstickers to steam, plus odd groceries. Shari had expressed an interest in seeing a Trader Joe's, so we stopped at the one in Sandy Springs. As we drove in the parking lot, we saw a new store, Penzey's Spices. Yes, an entire store filled with just spices, like you read about in old books! Each spice had a sample container you could sniff, and oh, what a lovely scent the store had. They even had different kinds of spices, like three kinds of cinnamon (the Vietnamese was really strong) and smoked and sweet paprika. Both Shari and James bought some paprika! Finally Trader Joe's and I was able to get some chicken salad for lunch. Also replenished my chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds. We'd recommended the apple chicken sausage to Shari, but they didn't have any. Phooey. No Christmas goods out yet, and no pumpkin tarts! But finally we had to get Shari back to the house so she could leave for home. We thought we had all her stuff loaded in her car, but she forgot some of the butter she bought at DeKalb as well as some baked goods, and her leftover lasagna. :-( I know she was enjoying that butter! Meanwhile, we went to Kroger for milk and a newspaper. James had some soup and I had some of the baguette from Buford...good, but nowhere as good as the Douceur loaf yesterday. We bought salad greens at Buford and chicken strips at Trader Joe's and decided to have that for supper instead of the pot pie. James chopped up the rest of this morning's bacon, and we had that and chicken strips with the greens, mandarin oranges, almond slivers, and chow mein noodles while watching episodes five and six of the Cambridge project on This Old House. We also watched a goofy little Cooking Channel special called Back in Time for Thanksgiving, where two comedians, a man and a woman, learned how to cook and tasted the real foods the Pilgrims would have eaten at "the first Thanksgiving." They liked the turkey and the lobster, but the stewed pumpkin (no sugar nor flour to make pumpkin pie back then!) got a screwed-up face from both of them. They also ate venison, succotash, spinach, and eel pie. Oh, and the latest episodes of Doomsday Preppers and Alaska the Last Frontier. After all the excitement of the weekend, I'm feeling rather down. I even had Christmas music on while James was cooking. Schuyler has spent the day mostly asleep. I am rapidly using up her medicine because she squirms so! The vet called for a follow-up and says they will give me more if I need it. I want to make her well now! We did play "Olympics" a little with her bell and she has cuddled with Red Bell and pecked at her swing, and she has eaten and drunk, but she doesn't seem happy. I want her to be happy. Something astonishing happened this morning, though, after we had this morning's tussle over the medicine. A frowsy, fluffled Schuyler was cupped in my hand, and I gently transferred her to my finger. She stayed there. Stayed there long enough for James to come out of the kitchen to see her before she started to look restless and I walked her back to her cage. The vet said maybe she's "turned over a new wing." Maybe. You don't know my Wild Child. She's a stubborn girl. But damned if I'm not fool enough to hope so... Labels: anniversary, birds, celebrations, food, friends, pets, shopping, television, weather, work » Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Yes, Indeedy!
We Pause Now...
GO VOTE!
Then come back and read. Some jotted-down thoughts about books that influenced you as a kid in A Cozy Nook to Read In. I remember that, when the voting age was still 21, I would have been of age one month after the election, and was happy that they changed it to eighteen. I've voted ever since, including one day when I was so god-awful sick that James went off and got hot soup for me for when I got home. (I think it was a two-hour wait that day.) I'm glad today it was just rain! Labels: events » Sunday, November 04, 2012
An Eventful Sunday
Perhaps it's being off that wretched Daylight Savings Time, but I woke up feeling more refreshed than I have in a long while. We were up at nine, had a leisurely breakfast, then ran some errands. First we stopped for a paper, then we went to Lowe's. Part of this was fun; we were there to get cup hooks for a project, but also wandered around looking at the Christmas decorations. Bought more blue C-7 bulbs, a device for picking up small items in tight spaces and also an extendable stick with a magnet at the end, and the Christmas issue of "Country Home" (seeing the price tag on this reminded me painfully why I quit buying this magazine). Also stopped at CVS so I could get a dressy barrette for Saturday. It started to rain as we drove here, but the shower didn't last long. Once home, it was time for a project that had been delayed by voyages to Virginia. Check out this afternoon's chronicle here. We were good and hungry after all this work. Had some homemade turkey soup with egg noodles and some ice cream for dessert. Finally chilling out and girding our loins for Monday. Labels: home improvement, shopping » Saturday, November 03, 2012
Life Is Full of Surprises
It turned out to be an ordinary week back to work: the usual assortment of new orders, modifications to old orders, and learning enough about one order to realize I needed lots, lots more information that had been given to me. It was busy enough that I didn't get to do the usual "Simple Woman's Daybook." A miracle did occur on Tuesday: TruGreen finally showed up to do the aeration and seeding of the lawn that I paid for in early fall 2009. This has been a comedy of errors and annoyances since then. Now, when I talked to the TruGreen guy earlier this year about finally having this done, he told me we were supposed to water the lawn before they showed up. However, since no one called before they showed up today, that didn't get done, so I don't even know if the aeration and seeding will work. How jolly. Not. We also had a rather strange staff meeting. We have a new director who is trying to determine the direction of our upcoming reorganization, and she wants us to define our "vision" for it. My vision doesn't involve reorganization; I don't want to be reorganized. I'm perfectly happy with the people I work with. I just want us to have (1) more help, (2) better equipment (and more supplies, so our clerk doesn't have to dole out three strips of staples instead of a box), and (3) more understanding from the people I do work for (most of them still don't know what it is we have to do to get them the supplies or services they need, and some bitterly resent us "getting in their way"). Those are the biggest problems. Hallowe'en I just came home, shut off all the lights, and elected to hibernate with James. I'm tired of the whole thing. And it was a very relaxing evening, thank you. So James tramped off to work this morning, and I got up in time to go to the Farmer's Market. We badly needed vegetables and I knew James wanted some chicken salad and also boiled peanuts. Managed all this, but struck out on goat cheese—the guy forgot to bring any of the plain cheeses. I came home via Kroger, where I replenished a few things in the larder (like Those Damn Bananas) and found a very pretty artificial pumpkin with a Thanksgiving theme on discount. The Christmas glasses are quite attractive this year—a distressed red, white and green reindeer motif and also one of snowflakes. No goodies on the hot bar yet, however. Also stopped at Publix, which had two essentials on the twofer list: more of my favorite oatmeal, and Campbell's "Naturals" soups. One of the flavors of the "Naturals" is the tomato with basil that we use to make chicken cacciatore. We couldn't find this for a while, so now I'm determined to stock up. It makes the best cacciatore! I bought eight of the "Healthy Heart" version, which has 200g less sodium and more potassium. Brought the loot home and ate my treat for a late breakfast: a Chicago roll from Publix which I spread with mint butter. (Hey! I'm Italian; bread is a treat!) Also had some yogurt and milk. Well, next I faced a very unpleasant task. When last we met on the saga of the wedding clothes (see October 14), I had found a nice top and a decent bra. Now I needed a skirt. I could have sworn there was a Catherine's up at Town Center, so I headed that way. I intended to go there via downtown Marietta, but stupidly headed there through "the ditch," which stuck me on the part of Barrett Parkway that's under construction. Very aggravating. Plus while trying to find the Catherine's, my phone locked up. I had to change batteries in it to get it to go again. And then when it was working again, I discovered all the other Catherine's are on the other side of town. So I plugged "Lane Bryant" into the search and did find them, and ended up...ugh...at the mall. However, I did luck out. I found a nifty skirt. It has an A-line underskirt and then a lighter pleated material on top, so that when I walk it swirls nicely, just like Loretta Young. :-) Well, they had everything in the store on buy-one-get-one, so I was able to get a nice pair of dress pants, too—the saleslady was super-helpful and led me to the pants for short people, so I don't even have to shorten them! I also bought a pair of tights—$17 for tights!—and a large scarf that can be used as a shawl, in whites and silvers. So that being over, I could have a little fun. Went over to Yankee Candle where they were having a Christmas open house, and sniffed all the Christmas scents. I had heard they had icicles you could put on your tree which will make the tree smell of Balsam and Cedar, but they had only the cookie scent, which I find a bit nauseating. I did fall in love with the new scent, Peppermint Bark, and also got a Balsam and Cedar decoration for the car. I was amused to discover they had a line of Sound of Music scents, based on "My Favorite Things": Whiskers on Kittens, Bright Copper Kettles, Warm Woolen Mittens, and Brown Paper Packages Tied Up in String. The scents were rather pleasing, but I wasn't tempted. I also stopped at Barnes & Noble. I didn't expect the Christmas issue of "Victorian Homes" to be out yet, but it was, and I also got a British magazine called simply "The Christmas Magazine." Not only that, but I walked down to CD Warehouse to see what was new in used DVDs. I found a copy of the Christmas drama, The Gathering, on a commercial DVD! I didn't realize one had been released. Long ago there was a commercial VHS, and you can get the movie and its sequel from the Warner Archive "on Demand," but I've only seen bootleg versions of DVDs on places like eBay (where they go for $75-$85!). Apparently this was released last year. Very glad to find it, and it was only $5. Stopped for gasoline on the way home, and know at some point I'm going to have to get something else fixed in the car: we noticed on the way home from Virginia that the air conditioner is not always coming on properly. Today I noticed that if the car was idling at a light, the air coming out of the vents was warm and the car rough idled off and on; it only ran properly if I was actually driving. Finally arrived home, had some lunch, ran the vacuum, and watched a streaming movie on Netflix, the Truman Capote story One Christmas, with Henry Winkler as Buddy's flimflamming dad. (My first reaction: oh, my God, his father was Scott Sherwood....) When James got home, we had supper at Panera and then went to Hobby Lobby. A nice lady gave us coupons she didn't use, and I got the loveliest piece of Zweigart linen for cross-stitching. Also found a new brand of embroidery floss, "Artiste," that had some colors that were like the DMC Color Combinations, but in a couple of combinations DMC didn't use, especially a neat purple mixture. Labels: cars, Christmas, clothing, crafts, food, magazines, movies, shopping, work » Monday, October 29, 2012
Winding Down and Totting Up
James' feeling last Thursday was totally correct; he was feverish yesterday and spent today getting equilibrium. We had a late sleep and then I did laundry most of the day while he partook of hot soup, ibuprofin, and relaxation. We had the Weather Channel on all day watching the progress of "Sandy" and the Atlantic creeping up on Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and Narragansett Pier in Rhode Island. The latter was surreal: first high waves, then sea foam flecked and spread everywhere over the concrete sea wall, then water in the streets as dark came on. Later we heard part of the Atlantic City pier was gone. Most bizarre was the blizzard it created in the West Virginia Hills. Weather Channel shot of Showshoe, WV, showed an outdoor electric lamp glowing in the midst of piles of snow.
Here our effect from "Sandy" was a wind that kept pushing one of the chairs on the deck from one end to the other. Where yesterday gave us a dark and looming sky, today's sky was such a brilliant blue that it hurt to look at it. I drank in the brisk breeze and the bright sky as I finally refilled the bird feeders. Usually the birds take forever to come back to the feeders if I haven't filled them for a while, but I hadn't been inside fifteen minutes before the first house finch appeared. Saw chickadees later on. While watching hurricane coverage I pulled out the CDs I'd purchased at Williamsburg and Yorktown, which were: • "Crystal Carols," Dean Shostak, 2 disk set of carols played on a glass armonica (not harmonica) with piano and harp and violin • "Profound Joy" by Timothy Seaman, carols on dulcimers and guitar • "Apples in Winter" by The Itinerant Band ("Seasonal music of times past") • "Christmas Joy," Fynesound, traditional carols and Celtic music • "On Christmas Day" by the Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes and Drums (this is "Middlesex" as in Lexington and Concord) I listened to the last three. Yes, the last one is indeed Christmas carols done with fifes and drums! "Christmas Joy" has other songs besides Christmas songs, and "Apples" is dulcimers and other vintage stringed instruments. Very nice. I made chicken cacciatore for supper, as it was just what I was craving. As dinner began to cook, the mail finally arrived: the postman stuffed every bit of mail from the last week into the mailbox. Seriously...really? Bonus...bonus...bonus...December "Early American Life" and November-December "Yankee" arrived while we were gone. Folding the massive pile of clothes was not fun. But it's over, thank God. » Sunday, October 28, 2012
Grey Day
We had ten hours sleep. I guess we needed it. Otherwise it was a grey day, literally and figuratively. James wasn't feeling well and I was achy. We decided to finish our vacation with breakfast out, until we realized why we quit going out for breakfast on Sunday mornings—even places usually deserted on Friday night when we go to dinner, like the IHOP, had lines out the door. We ended up at Ken's Corner Grill, where we still had to wait. There was a woman all alone who could have sat at the empty seat at the counter—which is what I would have done—letting a group have a booth, but she claimed it for herself, and at least two tables were occupied by people who took twenty minutes to finish a drink. When we finally got seated it took us so long to get my food that I was sick to my stomach and could only finish half of it. Ugh. Sick to my stomach most of the day. Got the grocery shopping out of the way, but decided to get the milk at Aldi since, as James said, a dollar is a dollar. To make it worth the time, we also went to Barnes & Noble, where James got aviation and model magazines and "Good Food," while I copped Christmas magazines and a new Ideals Christmas issue. Odd. I could have sworn last year they said it was the last for these. By the time we got out of the bookstore James was feeling poorly again and I wasn't feeling all that great either. We got the milk and came home. We had woken to pewter grey skies and cold. It was only in the 50s today with a sharp, cutting breeze. While we were gone the countryside had turned into a wilderness of autumn and we passed multiple gorgeous trees (mostly maples) turning to fire. Heck of a nice day to be under the weather. Had a quickie for supper: Hormel beef tips over spaetzle. Various stuff on television, most which I don't remember (Mythbusters did a Hallowe'en show), and then we watched Too Cute (kittens this time) from October 19. I extracted the photos from the cameras and put them away, and pulled the books, pamphlets, and souvenirs out of their bags. Put away the underwear I'd already washed, and washed and dried the shirts and pants, and am now drying the washed bedding that was in Willow's crate. Tomorrow I get to do the regular laundry! Yippee. Yep, "back from the moon" all right... (Ah, well, Schuyler is singing a pretty song. A nice blessing indeed.) Labels: birds, food, illness, pets, shopping, television, weather » Saturday, October 27, 2012
Return to the Nest
Back to the routine: up at six again (actually six fifteen, since I couldn't stand the thought of there being less than seven hours until we got up). We'd pretty much concatenated the purchases last night, and I put up the Nooks. This morning it was actually very simple to get everything together and in its place, and James even managed to snag a luggage cart (as far as we can tell, the hotel has only one) so we could get out to the car in one trip. By dint of turning luggage and souvenirs into puzzle pieces, we did get everything in, although closing the hatchback was problematic for about ten minutes.
It was already cloudy out, with layers of pewter-grey clouds overhead. The spookiest thing was that there were no birds singing at all, as if they were hiding out from Hurricane Sandy. We picked up breakfast at Chik-Fil-A, and were officially on the road about 7:30. We got some spatters of rain, but by the time we passed Williamsburg, that had stopped. We had quite a good show from the trees west of our location, with nice color all the way to Richmond and then south; they only dulled once we got to the endless highway of North Carolina. We took several "potty breaks," had lunch at a rest area in North Carolina, where I had Schuyler's cage on the picnic table before I found an ant on it—aieeee! I hope it was only one ant!—and listened to some Gaelic Storm, two editions of "The Splendid Table," the conclusion of Paul Temple and the Conrad Case, and the first four parts of The Nine Tailors. We were seriously tired by the time we reached Georgia and even more exhausted when we got home, where we just dragged stuff in. I only washed a load of clothes because after being on the picnic table, I wanted all of Schuyler's cage covers cleaned. We arrived about seven and I emerged from the car to find it chilly, with a brisk wind blowing. It was 70s for most of the route, and then we reached Gwinnett County and the temperature dropped like a rock. Supposed to be in the 40s tonight...where was this earlier this week when we were 500 miles further north? First thing we did after dragging everything in? We both took a shower! Had oatmeal for supper with an ice-cream bar chaser, read my Images of America Williamsburg book. Television on in the background: PBS and then How the States Got Their Shapes. And that's it, we're home and back to being landlubbers again. :-) Labels: food, television, vacation, weather » Friday, October 26, 2012
The Last Museum
There's no help for it. We're going to have to come back here someday. There are just too many things to see. We never made it to the museum at Fort Monroe, or the Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, or took a schooner ride on the York River. Never finished up at Jamestown or Yorktown. Missed half the shops in Williamsburg because of the school groups and James' foot.
But this morning we went to another essential museum for the area, the Mariner's Museum. We'd talked about going to Jamestown this morning and then having lunch at the Carrot Tree, finishing at the National Park portion of Yorktown, and then hitting a couple of stores in the Williamsburg area, including their gift shop again, before coming back to the hotel. However, it was overcast due to the approach of Hurricane Sandy, and we both wondered if they were already battening down the hatches on the shoreline areas. On the way out this morning, we solved the mystery of the GPS unit and Tidewater Road. When James initially programmed the GPS unit, he told it to automatically avoid bad traffic. This explains why it has taken us off the freeway several times and put us on surface roads or alternate routes. It just does it automatically and doesn't explain itself. Of course that doesn't explain why on earth it took us to the Mariner's Museum the way we did. We arrived at the intersection across which you could see the entrance to the museum. All we had to do was wait for the light, cross the road, and then turn left into the entrance. Instead it made us turn left at the intersection, go down a mile, and enter the park that surrounds the museum, taking us in through the back! Again, it wasn't a bad ride, the first part through an old neighborhood dotted with homes decorated for fall and Hallowe'en., and the rest through a gorgeous wooded park. Besides, how could we miss the the main draw at the Mariner's Museum, which is a exhibit about the Battle of Hampton Roads, otherwise known as the conflict between the two famous ironclads, the "Monitor" and the "Virginia." (Most schools still teach that the ship was called "Merrimac"—correctly "Merrimack"—and several of her crew still called her that, but it was renamed after refitting as an ironclad.) The Mariner's Museum has recovered portions and memorabilia from the "Monitor" (she sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras on New Year's Eve, 1862), discovered in 1973, and is carrying out extensive preservation of the ship portions they have brought to the surface. You can even see the big tanks in which the ship parts are being soaked, in the hope that in ten or fifteen more years they may be stable enough to display. This gallery tells of the earliest attempts to armor ships, showing a Korean vessel that looked like a turtle, and following, the story of the two ships, the Union's "Floating Coffin" and the Confederate's ship made from a Union vessel which had burned to the waterline. There are reproductions of the captain's two-room cabin and those of the executive officer, ship's surgeon (who bored everyone by reading them letters from his sweetheart!), and engineer, and the story of the man who designed the ship. A "lifesize" exhibit chronicles the conversion from "Merrimack" to "Virginia." Finally the battle is chronicled, and then the sad, frightening story of "Monitor's" sinking at the end of 1862. Preserved is the lantern they frantically signaled with. Amazingly, many of her sailors, including the captain, still survived. You can even step outside on a concrete "deck" that is the top of an exact replica of the USS "Monitor" (well, not the inside, just the shell). It has a ship's bell and, of course I couldn't resist ringing it. Then into another gallery, which was all about exploration of the seas. There were paintings of the noted explorers, including a rare portrait of Ferdinand Magellan, a huge one of Columbus, and one of Bartholomew Diaz. There were also navigational aids, maps and books on cartography, weapons, ship decorations and arms, ships' decorations, and other unique or beautiful items. This gallery segued into an exhibit about Admiral Horatio Nelson, with oil portraits, busts, commemorative pieces from the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of the Nile—even a bust of Napoleon! It was called "The Nelson Touch." The remainder of the gallery was a history of United States maritime service, from the colonial days to the Navy astronauts. Saw another photo of the "Yeomanettes," young woman who were permitted to serve as clerks in the Navy during the first World War. One big gallery was called "The Age of Steam," and was about...ta-da...steamships. There was a corner devoted to "Titanic," and beautiful models of everything from paddle-wheelers to the big twentieth century cruise ships. Gorgeously painted figureheads lined the walls, and there were also ships' name boards peppered among them, including from a ship from the Fall River Line. Another walk-through exhibit was the story of people who had survived shipwrecks, or stories about shipwrecks. Here was a watch and a life jacket from a "Titanic" passenger. A favorite gallery for me was an A to Z collection of some of the items owned by the museum, from an ancient Greek amphora to...well, I forgot what the "Z" stood for. But there was a miniature horse-drawn fire pumper, movie posters, a yellowing calliope keyboard, a wartime target kite...from all eras and all countries. There was an exhibit of a model builder who does models of ships from different eras, back to the Egyptians. They had a gallery of his stuff, each model, from a foot to several feet long, each in a glass case with a spotlight over each, as if they were little jewels, but they truly were: galleys and warships, galleons, sailing ships all finely strung and sailed...really gorgeous! They also had a building with nothing but small boats from kayaks to cabin cruisers, and from all different countries. Thee was a sampan from Asia, several boats from the Philippines, the oldest known Chris-Craft from 1923, a bathysphere, a Welsh coracle, an Eskimo hunting boat made of walrus skin, a genuine 19th-century Venetian gondola, an ice boat, a craft that looked like the "African Queen," sailboats, canoes, and two extraordinary crafts: a tiny aluminum boat with a lawn-mower engine that was used by a Cuban husband and wife in 1966 to escape from Castro's Cuba, and "the April Fool," a boat the size of a kitchen cabinet with a sail on it that a man sailed from Casablanca in Morocco to Florida! We had one more gallery to see, but it was after noon, so we broke for lunch at the museum cafe. I had lobster bisque, astonishingly with no pepper in it, and a grilled cheese sandwich and James had two chili dogs. Afterwards we did the Chesapeake Bay gallery, which was the entire experience of life along the water: lighthouses, fishermen, duck hunters, shipbuilding, buoys, the ubiquitous excursion boats, rowing boats (including ones made for taking your lady courting, with a rowing seat on one side and a wicker seat for the young lady next to it; the one we saw had room for six couples!), and early outboard motors. What a really, really neat museum! It had been cloudy when we left the hotel this morning, but it was even more cloudy and chillier when we left. As we departed, it began "mizzling" on the car's windshield. We were headed back up to Williamsburg, where I wanted to do one specific bit of shopping. I have heard for several years now the ladies on my Christmas group talking about a chain Christmas store called "The Christmas Mouse." There was one in the shopping area surrounding Williamsburg, and I just wanted to see one. So we did. This is on a long stretch of motels, shops, restaurants—including more pancake houses in one place than I have ever seen in my life; Williamsburg must be the city of pancake houses as we saw at least a dozen!— amusements like a Ripley's Museum, and more. It's a cute little shop. I went in there just to look and was seduced by several small things, including two jeweled airplanes for James' airplane tree. They have a good selection of ornaments, including many seashore-themed ones, and a variety of model trees, including a peppermint tree, a gingerbread tree, a Victorian glass tree, an icicle and snow tree (with LED icicles like running lights), a wine tree, a children's interest tree, a bird tree, and a sports tree. So I did come out with a small bag, and James predicts that Willow will have to ride with a bag this year like she did with the Bronner's bag last year. I hope not! Neither of us were interested in any outlet shopping, so we headed back to the Colonial Williamsburg bookstore and gift shop. I had seen a book here on Sunday that I should have picked up then, one about solely American holidays like Thanksgiving and Columbus Day. I'd seen it sitting on the bargain table, and sure enough, it was still there. And so were other books. Yes, I was seduced again, but they were all bargain books except for one, which is a history of Christmas celebrations in Virginia. Many of the books had no relation to Williamsburg or American history at all, but that was okay. LOL. James bought a King's Arms T-shirt and also a couple of the bargain books. Now it was time for two treats! We were going to drive back up the lovely, tree-lined Colonial Parkway to Yorktown, and we were planning to have supper at the Carrot Tree, since we missed lunch there. I was already salivating thinking about the mint melon yogurt dressing for the salad. Well, the Colonial Parkway ride was marvelous. I would love to drive this road every day, especially in the fall, with the trees changing colors around me and going from the shoreline of the James to the shoreline of the York with those delightful brick bridges in between. But when we got to the Carrot Tree, it turned out they had a huge group coming in, 46 people! Now, this is a tiny cottage, and it was going to be filled. So they asked if we could come back at seven. It was 5:45 and James couldn't wait that long to eat. We should have gone back to Huzzah!, which was the colonial-themed casual restaurant outside of Williamsburg, but we were both a bit aggravated. We thought the Texas Roadhouse near our hotel might be a good choice, but when we got there it was clogged with people, with a line outside the door. So we just went back to the "main drag" on Jefferson Street and ate at Golden Corral again. We were both a bit dispirited by this time, knowing it was time for us to become landlubbers again. So it was back to the hotel, starting to pack a bit, watching the last of the lousy channels they have here. (Yeah, I remember when I was a kid we were lucky if the rabbit ears on the television at our motel pulled in four channels! Spoiled, I tell you.) Labels: autumn, books, Christmas, food, history, museums, shopping, travel » Thursday, October 25, 2012
By the Bay and Other Voyages
Surprise! Fog!
Of course when you've designated one day for a boat ride, and it's foggy on that morning, you are naturally taken aback. Except when we checked the weather report, the fog appeared to only be over our area. Very odd, but good news. And of course we were paying particular attention to the weather this morning, because of the reports on Hurricane Sandy. It looks like we are lucky to be leaving when we are, as the forecast for early next week is primarily "wet." We were awake fifteen minutes early so we would be certain to get to Hampton on time, and indeed we did, fifty minutes early. We should have parked in the free lot, but we didn't know when boarding time was, so we just parked in the hotel garage next door. Turns out we still had over a half hour until they would let us embark, so we made a "pit stop," then walked to the park between the cruise center and the Air and Space Museum, where there was a monument to the founding of Hampton and four panels chronicling the history of the city. We almost had to immediately turn around to return to the dock to board the "Miss Hampton II" (I never did ask what happened to "Miss Hampton I," but it was in the souvenir book we bought after the cruise. They only used her a year and then she was sold to someone in Panama.). This was set up just like "Victory Rover" yesterday, with an enclosed compartment below and open decking on top with a partial cover, except that the pilot's cabin is up front on the top, and the tour guide, Dave, conducted the tour on the top deck. This was a super cruise! The only overlap in material we had with "Victory Rover" yesterday was touring the piers at the Naval Base. This tour started with an overlook of the berthing area, which included the beautiful old buildings and clock tower of Hampton University and also the spot where the head of Blackbeard the Pirate was spitted after his capture on the Outer Banks. Dave also pointed out Strawberry Banks, where the Jamestown expedition first landed after their Atlantic crossing. They found strawberries there, which helped with the scurvy aboard, but found no fresh water. So they went on up the James River, ending up...well, you know. :-) Next we passed the Hampton Roads Bridge/Tunnel and the Chamberlin, which was once a hotel on the grounds of Fort Monroe, but is now a retirement home. The original Chamberlin was the first hotel in the United States that had electric lighting throughout. Fort Monroe was closed last year, but originally was the place where the Army manuals were written. It's the only fort in the United States with a moat around it! At various times both Robert E. Lee and Edgar Allan Poe were stationed at Fort Monroe. Also in the area is the Old Point Comfort lighthouse, which was dedicated by Thomas Jefferson in 1803. It looks so tiny from shore! After entering Chesapeake Bay, the tour stops for a half hour at Fort Wool, originally named Fort Calhoun until the Civil War. (It's "Wool" after a general, not in reference to sheep.) As we approached it, cormorants dotting the piles around the dock area took wing, leaving only one of the long-necked birds to check us out It was begun in 1819 and Andrew Jackson once had a summer home there (this later used by John Tyler, after which it burned down). It was used during the Civil War, enlarged during the Spanish-American War, once again occupied during World War I. Its last hurrah was during the second World War, and the island is a strange conglomeration of 1898, 1917 and 1941 fortifications. Most of the crannies and storage rooms are chained up, and you can no longer climb the WWII-era tower, but there is one wall you can scale via wide granite steps, and it was there Dave told us some of the history of the fort after giving an introduction on the parade ground. Then we wandered about the tiny island, checking out the 1898 old battlements, with uneven stone and stains, and the more regular concrete put up during WWII. We even saw the grave of Lady, a German Shepherd who was the camp mascot during the war. She died in 1945 and was buried with military honors. Once back on "Miss Hampton II," we went on to the piers at the Norfolk Naval Base. We headed into the area from the opposite direction from yesterday, starting with the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, and went down the line. Dave had taken care to familiarize himself with the ships and named them all off as we went by. However, we saw something cool before we even reached the piers: as we turned away from Fort Wool, we saw a submarine (Los Angeles class, like in Hunt for Red October, heading for us). At first Dave thought it was heading for one of the piers, then he spied one of the tugboats zipping in the direction of the sub with some Naval midshipmen aboard, and military police boats shooing civilian craft out of the way of both the tug and the sub. It turns out the submarine was probably from Annapolis, and it would "trade" middies out in the harbor, the sailors aboard the tug going on the sub and the ones from the sub transferring to the tug! We had an even better view of the ships than yesterday (this boat went in closer) and aircraft were doing maneuvers overhead, so we were kept busy taking pictures. I stood at the rail for most of this portion of the trip, enjoying the cool breeze and the briny scent. We didn't see any dolphins this time, but at one point "Victory Rover" came steaming toward us and the boats traded horn beeps. We passed her going back as well. Dave said Jen's ship, Truxton, had probably been berthed at Piers 5, 6 or 7, so I waved at them. Too bad they couldn't make it back in time from Jacksonville. (I wonder if the tropical storm will just keep them in port down there.) The last "sight" we didn't actually visit, but it was pointed out to us, and that was the encounter between the Monitor and the Virginia (or the Merrimac, as it's still referred to in some history books). The ships were actually evenly matched, and Virginia lost the battle because she did not have the specially-designed metal-piercing shells designed for her guns, since they only expected to encounter a regular wooden warship, not the Monitor. And then it was just a nice cruise back, with Dave telling us funny stories about silly questions he'd been asked, like "Why is that fence around the ships?" and the dumbest one, "How is that so many significant battles have happened at National Parks?" (This is akin to the lady who called up the talk show saying they should move deer crossing signs from the freeway where they are getting hit to safer places so the deer won't think they can cross there.) We also saw the little tug heading back with her fresh "middies," and the submarine was nowhere to be seen. We were as hungry as bears from all that sea air once we were back at the dock, so we followed several other passengers who had asked Dave what was a good place to eat. Just across from the Air and Space complex, there was a street lined with little eating places and boutiques, and one of the places he recommended, "Marker 20," after one of the buoys in the harbor, was located there. It's just a little sports bar/eating place, but we enjoyed it. We both had crab cakes, and I was really wary about this because every other time I've had a crab cake it's been highly peppered. Well, this one wasn't and was quite delicious. There were also nicely done French fries and cole slaw so good that I finished all of it. Dave was having his lunch here and walked by our table asking if we were enjoying the food. We nodded and then I asked curiously, since he said the boat's last tour would be on Wednesday and then they close until April, what he did on the off season. Well, he's a student and he'll wait tables until it's time for the tours to start up again. He makes a good tourguide, that's for sure: he has the tour facts down pat, he enjoys talking to people, and his gags are amusing. We learned a lot and it was well presented. After lunch we headed east on I-64 to something called the Military Aviation Museum James had read about before we left, and the gentleman we talked about at Air Power Park recommended it as well. This is a collection of World War I and II aircraft: the WWII units are all authentic craft from the war and the WWI aircraft are reproductions. But they all can fly (well, one can't anymore because it's Russian and they can't find parts; it would fly if it could); they aren't just exhibit shells in a building as in most aviation museums. Twice a year they have air shows and at one time or the other all the aircraft in the building have flown. We had to wind our way quite a distance in the Virginia Beach countryside to get there, but it was quite neat. The Navy planes are in one hangar and the Army ones in another, and they are all in beautiful condition, even if some of them are less than beautiful: there are at least three Russian aircraft, vintage 1930s, that are pretty ugly, painted mud brown as they would have been at that time. They also had a vintage MG, an old Jaguar that had lines like something out of a 1940s cartoon, some small tanks, an authentic British telephone box, a Wright "Vin Fiz," a 1940s motorcycle with sidecar and trailer, a Nazi staff car, a tiny car that looked as if it would hold only one passenger (made by Messerschmidt; yes, the Messerschmidt—there was a Messerschmidt sewing machine upstairs as well), and an amphibious car. We had come on a day when one of the hangars was being used for an event, so several of the Navy planes had been rolled out back. There was a big band gearing up to play and the scent of delicious food was everywhere. What a neat idea: much better than going somewhere for the rubber chicken! We also wandered about upstairs, where there were cases of memorabilia, including service uniforms, reconnaissance cameras, and an Enigma machine. At the back there was a gallery of aviation art. Of particular interest were paintings by Henri Ferre, who fought in World War I. Some of these were of night raids, and had a distinctive impressionist look. Some of his charcoal sketches were also included. We finally checked out the gift shop (it's a state law...LOL) and then headed back toward the hotel via a detour: we drove past NAS Oceana, where James was stationed for a year when he was in the Navy. You can't see a lot of the base from the road, but we did see the control tower and James was able to pick out the building he used to work in. After that we headed west as guided by the GPS. Now, I appreciated the GPS's directions tonight. There was a six-mile backup at the Hampton Roads Bridge/Tunnel and we pretty much skirted most of it by avoiding I-64 westbound. But...why? We didn't ask the GPS to avoid the traffic, it just took us on a different route...in fact the same route it brought us through yesterday, in both directions. Is this GPS getting kickback from Tidewater Road? Does it just like the street? LOL! You can see the piers at the Norfolk base from the bridge part of the bridge/tunnel, so we had a last, final surprise: we could see that another aircraft carrier had pulled into her berth since we had passed there on the tour, and another ship was on its way out, plus a cruise ship was heading for one of the docks at Hampton. But finally all was obscured by the lowering sun before we descended into the tunnel. We had food back at the hotel, so we just ate in tonight, watched two older Big Bang Theory episodes and the newest episode (Raggedy Ann and Raggedy C-3PO indeed!), plus Ask This Old House and Mysteries at the Museum. Labels: history, humor, television, vacation, weather |