Whose idea was getting up early on Saturday morning?

Oh, yeah, the vet. Today Willow gets her stitches out and we have to be there before nine. Not like I wasn't awake already; my knees were killing me all night and kept waking me up. Phooey.

There was no time for breakfast first, so we just grabbed fiber bars and went. Willow backpedaled upon entry into the vet's office and had to be firmly led away.

We decided to go to the Brookhaven Farmer's Market since the folks whose jelly we like, One Screw Loose, are regular attendees. James loves their "Cherry Bomb," a rich, delicious jelly. He also wanted more of their balsamic garlic jelly, which he uses as a finishing sauce on pork and beef. Surprisingly, this Farmer's Market, which is held on Dresden Drive in the little community that they created of townhouses and small shops, is very tiny; there were no more than a dozen booths, and most of the food was gourmet-type specialty stuff. There were two vegetable sellers with small stock.

The jelly ladies were there, and, though they didn't have the balsamic garlic (what they had there had pepper in it), they did have the balsamic onion, and also the cherry jelly. We were quite hungry by this time, so we bought two meat pies called a "barek" from a vendor who had Eastern European food. This was ground beef, potato, and onion in phyllo dough and was pretty good, despite a smattering of pepper. Half was enough to satisfy me.

From there we went to the Buford Highway Farmer's Market. Annoyingly, we had forgotten the insulated bags, so all those nice tempting lamb steaks were out of reach. (I was hoping they sold insulated bags, but I didn't see a one.) This place is like a big toy shop for foodies, with aisles of different foods from much of the world. (There's no African, South American, or Australian food, which would be interesting.) And they actually had bananas that were yellow, unlike Kroger. We also bought grapes and white potatoes, and then our cart became a multiethnic smorgasbord: German chocolate and alphabet soup, a Russian something we can't mention, Japanese buckwheat noodles, two kinds of soy sauce, and a nice crispy-crusted baguette. Still love the Armenian wine bottles, which are figurals and almost worth buying for that: a horse, a rabbit, and even a dragon boat.

James was still looking for his elusive "Highlander," so we trucked down Buford Highway and then cut through my old stomping grounds in Buckhead to get to their Barnes & Noble. The whole place is a world away from the neighborhood I used to work in, the small buildings and bars having given way to high-rise hotels and apartments. There's actually a Staybridge Suites on Pharr Road! Happily, we discovered that Fantasyland Records didn't close at all, but moved on Pharr. We'll have to stop by someday.

I see the parking lot of the B&N, which they share with Publix, is just as bad as ever. Their magazine selection is prodigious, but alas, no "Highlander." We did find a new book which is about the history of breakfast cereal, complete with the most wonderful old ads, and there we stood, paging through the book, two aging Baby Boomers singing old commercial jingles. LOL.

Since the vet hadn't called, we went to the hobby shop for about an hour, where I continued reading Black Out by John Lawton, a convoluted mystery taking place in London during the second World War. Quite good. The vet called while we were there and so we trucked once more out to Dunwoody, picked up a frantically happy Willow, who thankfully had been treated to a complimentary bath and no longer smells like a goat. (Well, that's what I kept telling her anyway.) Then we came home to have lunch; I used that nice baguette to make a proscuitto sandwich...yum!

It was only 1:30 by then, but it felt like we'd been out all day. Spent the rest of the afternoon reading under the fan and watching stuff on the History Channel (plus the Flying Wild Alaska we missed bits of last night). I found two new magazines in the Nook market worth trying: the old reliable "Good Old Days," and another Reminisce-like publication, "Looking Back," and am trying them out for fourteen days. They're only a dollar each if you subscribe which is pretty good reading for a buck.

Had oatmeal and yogurt for supper, and some of the most delicious watermelon ever. Really. Usually it looks good and we buy it and it turns out to be mealy or over-ripe or sour, or it's so anemic-looking we don't buy it at all. This was bright watermelon red, still crisp, and exquisitely sweet. Very sensual! When Schuyler saw it, she recognized what it was immediately and started clambering all over the cage bars, kissing. "Mummy, Mummy, gimmee, gimmee, gimmee!"

Labels: books, dogs, food, magazines, pets, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:37:00 PM

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