Yet Another Journal

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

. . . . .
. . . . .  

 
 
» Sunday, August 05, 2012
Good-bye, Hello, and Good-bye

It was a momentous day in more ways than one.

We still had vegetables left over, so we scrapped the Farmer's Market visit and slept late. At least as late as a barking dog would allow, even after James took her out before we went to bed. Had breakfast and puttered about until it was time to start getting dressed for Amy Rutledge's memorial service. The address of the church had sounded familiar and when I looked it up, I knew why: it was the church right near our veterinarian's office.

I pressed my clothes, patted a bit of makeup on, and we were off, leaving early so James could drop off two models at the hobby shop before we headed out to Dunwoody. The local IPMS club is taking a "club project" down to the Nationals next weekend in Orlando: a Lego aircraft carrier with its deck covered in little egg planes. These are popular small Japanese model kits that portray aircraft...well, in egg shapes. They're cute and fun. James had done one previously and finished two more for delivery today.

We wanted to make sure we arrived at the church on time, especially since the freeway had road construction on it, although at the moment it had to have been stopped because it was raining quite steadily. We stopped on the way at Jersey Mike's for a small sandwich each and shared a bag of kettle chips and a cookie since we didn't know how long the service would be, and went surface roads only and arrived about a half hour early, so we stopped at Kroger and I bought my buns for lunch there. (The buns at the Smyrna Kroger are always covered with bits of cornmeal that keeps the bread from sticking to the baking pans. Ugh.) Then we circled back to the church and drove through the parking lot until we saw familiar faces and parked the truck.

As it always is at funerals, we saw folks we hadn't seen in some months, and those we pretty much only talk to online. One by one everyone arrived and we waited under the overhang outside one of the church halls.

By the time the service started at two, it was pouring rain. I'd carried my umbrella, but James hadn't, and it turned out the short service was being carried out outside. So James had to run back to the truck for his own brolly.

It was a nice service, held in a little outside garden with a statue of the Virgin Mary amongst flowers at one end and a little alcove with a fountain and plinths near which there were small memorial plaques. We were in the rear and the pounding of the rain against the umbrellas made it hard to hear, but we said the Lord's Prayer and did the responses.

After the service we repaired to Allison's Restaurant a mile or so away where Amy's husband and her family had planned a small "collation" and we sat and talked. A guest book was passed about and we enjoyed each other's company and some delicious food: salmon and cream cheese on wheat bread with dill, coconut shrimp, chicken fingers, a few other meats, "tea" sandwiches (cucumber, egg salad—thinking of you, George Hall!—shrimp salad), and two desserts, tiramisu and strawberries and cream. We got to see Mike Rogers and John Cochrane and Stephanie Gould, and met some of Amy's friends from dog shows.

One of the things James and I were talking to Phyllis about was our need for new dress clothing for Juanita's wedding. I'm going to have to put off that ordeal until after the present ordeal, a.k.a. end of fiscal year., is over. He's going to wear his new kilt, in the U.S. Navy tartan, at the wedding and has all the accessories for it, but needed a new jacket. His old suit goes back to our wedding, almost 22 years ago, and doesn't fit around the shoulders anymore.

So since we were right across the parking lot from Jos. A. Banks, the menswear store, after the reception was over, we went there looking for a suit jacket. Wow. They had jackets almost up to $1000. The average price was about $450! We had to wander about for about fifteen minutes just for anyone to talk to us, and then were told they'd have to special order a jacket for him. Well, we were only shopping.

On the way home we stopped at Cumberland Mall, or across from Cumberland, anyway, at the Men's Wearhouse. We were greeted promptly here, by a salesman who let James try on three jackets in navy blue, and we found a nice looking one that fit perfectly. Well, they were having a sale, and he was able to get another jacket, a blue-grey in a pale houndstooth pattern, for just a little bit more, and then he bought a white shirt for the wedding and a blue shirt to wear with the houndstooth jacket. It was a lot more than we usually pay for clothes, but if the new clothes last as long as the old ones, it will be a good deal. So now he's kitted out for Juanita's wedding. My mom would be proud! :-)

This was a great salesman, by the way...we were only supposed to be looking today. He did look a bit nonplussed when James said he would be wearing it with a kilt!

God, I don't want to think about buying a good dress or a blouse and skirt. Half the stuff for women with my tubby figure are big flowered prints. It's bad enough being stout without looking like Hyacinth Bucket!

Stopped at Bed, Bath & Beyond for a bottle of syrup for James' Soda Stream, and then finally home.

We needed a little amusement after the gravity of today, and had a big marathon of Big Bang Theory episodes this evening, watching the rest of season two (about eight episodes) and the only two episodes of season three we hadn't seen, plus the extras on both DVD sets. At last! Enough blooper scenes to make a gag reel on a DVD set worthwhile; most DVDs that do blooper reels have about two minutes of gags and that's it.

And then we got sad news on chat: we'd decided to go to Virginia this year because of Jen being stationed near Norfolk and her ship not scheduled to deploy until next year. Well, wouldn't you know they're going to go on a short mission just when we're due to go on vacation? Typical: Uncle Sam giveth and Uncle Sam taketh away. Phooey!




This is a picture I found of Amy running her basenji, Widget, in an agility trial, on her friend Sharon's Facebook page. Hope Sharon doesn't mind that I have reposted it. We had known Amy for a long time, from when we would drive up to Atlanta from Warner Robins for the Terminus TARDIS meetings at White Hall at Emory University back in the mid-1980s. We danced at her wedding, and she and her husband Charles made it possible for us to have our wedding and reception at the clubhouse at their apartment complex. We watched Amy run her dogs, first Brucie and then Delenn and Vir, and finally Widget, in a couple of agility contests. We hadn't seen much of her of late, but we kept up with her dog show awards on Facebook. We'll miss her.

Labels: , , , ,