Ah, so I thought it would be a normal Saturday: arise grumbling, dress, and head out to the Farmer's Market in the warm summer funk.

Until the garage door opened. It was cloudy, cool, and breezy, more like a mid-autumn morning than a summer one! No sign of rain, just blessedly comfortable. We settled two birthday gifts and a set of Remember WENN DVDs into the car and drove with windows open to downtown. We were moving pretty briskly because we were due at hair day, but did buy some vegetables as well as two apple turnovers and some peaches.

Alas, our hurry resulted in one casualty. There are a couple of Italian vendors at the Farmer's Market, Costa's Pasta, and another booth whose name I never remember; they sell some vegetables, Italian bread, homemade pasta, ready-to-eats liked baked ziti. And today the woman had a tray full of nearly-baseball-sized golden-brown spheres that looked like they were breaded. I was fascinated. I hadn't seen them in years, but my mind immediately identified them: rice balls! My aunts used to make them over the holidays. I was afraid I was mistaken, but James asked what they were, and sure enough, they were rice balls. He bought one to have as a lunch, but had to put it down to pay for it and left it there, something we didn't discover until we got back from Hair Day. Well, snellfrocky.

And now for the most enchanted part of the day: the ride down Polk Street through the old homes, and then down the pseudo-countryside of Villa Rica Road, cool breeze on our arms and faces, the air so pleasant you could smell grass, fresh-turned soil, leaves, and the new-mown hay in the battlefield parklands, and it struck me then how much a little bit of heaven this was, the small moments that make life so special.

Hair Day was fun as always. We got to see Juanita, who broke her ankle earlier in the week. I gave Daniel his DVDs and we chatted a bit. We ate the apple cake and pumpkin bread we bought at the Farmer's Market, cherries and grapes that Juanita brought and the apples and cheese Charles provided, and some Ruffles, too, I'm afraid. The football draft started at noon and soon a few of the guys including Alex and Colin were gathered around a laptop. Phyllis and Ron opened their birthday gifts (books, of course). Somewhere in there, James got his hair cut. I was too busy talking to notice.

We left early so James could get to his meeting on time (for some reason Hair Day always coincides with the IMPS meeting, even when one is moved). I did a bit of tidying up, but mostly recorded things off the BBC. Goodness, after her bath Willow has left bits of hair drifted all over the carpet! I did wash all her towels and her dog bed/blanket that sits in front of the fireplace so she'd have a place to lie tonight.

I told James I was after comfort food, so of course we went to Panera Bread and I had chicken soup with a baguette to dip in it. Since we had only a small lunch, we splurged on a cookie each for dessert instead of splitting one. We sat comfortably reading on our tablets—I've found all the issues of "Elfquest" online and a browser that will read them!—and watching the clouds gather overhead, all "shades of grey" (steel and slate, silver and leaden, mist and storm) with edges of white near the sunside and black outlines opposite, billowing upward.

James wanted to get an SD card, so we went to MicroCenter: always a dangerous place. I decided to get some scrapbooking software, although I think I really just want it for the graphics. :-) I keep drooling over the full-color book of the elements, but I really need to find a used copy at that price! James also got one of those little, inexpensive drum-shaped speakers; it has quite creditable sound for its size.

Spent the evening watching some dressage and jumping on the tablet (since the Olympics app is still available). I think we overloaded the internet connection a couple of times, since I was recording off the BBC and James was watching videos on YouTube. Might as well, since there's nothing much good on television.

Labels: computers, food, friends, shopping, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:47:00 PM

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