The weekend festivities actually began on Thursday, with our work picnic. This was held once again at Jones Bridge Park in Norcross. (The iron bridge once crossed the Chattahoochee River, which runs parallel to the park grounds, but was closed before World War II; indeed, half of it is gone, having been dismantled for scrap in the war.) It was chilly in the morning; I even had to wear my jacket. Sadly, it was also sunny, so it got very warm by afternoon.

It was a swell party. I had the usual complaint about loud music, but it wasn't on too long. Lunch was "burgers and dogs" with fixings, chips, some fruit, ate with Tiffney and Vivian, listening to some others do kareoke.

One of my favorite things happens after lunch: I take a walk along the river, then through the woods in back of the picnic area. Parts of the undergrowth are fenced off because of past erosion, so there are several flights of steps down to the river that end at small streatches of rock before dropping off into the water. People like to sit at the foot of the largest flight of steps and feed the ducks and the geese. There were at least five or six dozen of mallards and Canada geese on the river today, ducking underwater for their dinner or preening, or just drifting like little flotillas upon the sun-drenched water.

As I descended one of the smaller sets of steps, I spied a squirrel at the edge of the path. As I wondered if I could slip my phone out to get a photo of him, there was a wild scratching from the trash can less than two feet from me. In the opening appeared another squirrel face, looking panicked, then the squirrel scrambled out of the trash can and beat it into the underbrush! How I laughed!

The woods path was strewn with dead leaves and had the delightful scent of fall, although the trees are not turned as much as they've been in previous years. There were birdcalls overhead and at one point I saw a wren flirting his tail on the rail of a little bridge that goes over a creek from the river.

By midafternoon I was starting to feel uncomfortable with the sun and wary about Thursday traffic—it was already backing up near Roswell Road—so I got on my way. I stopped for a few minutes at "The Forum," a shopping center just down from Jones Bridge Road to check out the Barnes & Noble. I finally did find The Tale of Castle Cottage, which I searched for all last weekend. I also stopped at Publix to buy some bread and some twofers.

My first stop Friday was the Cobb County Library book sale. I also went to Wally World for Breathe Right strips and other necessary items. I had perishables, so came directly home. Had things to clean up and got lured into reading the first of the Trixie Belden books I had bought. We had supper at Hibachi Grill and then decided to hit Publix again, then finished up the shopping at Kroger since James had to work on Sunday.

We were in bed early because we were up at seven on Saturday to head up to Ellijay to the Apple Festival. This was our first time going on Saturday, so we wanted to get there when they opened. We went by Wendy's for breakfast; their oatmeal isn't as good as Chik-Fil-A, but it was on the way and you can get it plain, unlike the glop at Burger King. Traffic was fine and we saw a few nice-looking autumn trees among otherwise uninspiring pines.

They were parking us near the Lions' Club grounds again this year, although we had a good hike to the gate. Most of the usual vendors were there and we had a grand time for over two hours wandering in and out of the booths. We bought a couple of gifts, our last Ginny's Fudge for the year, a few little autumnal decorations—oh, and a new cabinet for the dining room.

I've been wanting to get something new to replace the old microwave cart for a while. The gentleman who made our table and chair set and the medicine cabinet that we bought at the Yellow Daisy Festival also sold a lovely little china cabinet, half the size of the one we have, that would have been perfect. But he hasn't shown up at the show since 2002. I've looked online since then, trying to find something comparable. The closest idea I had was to buy a Leksvik buffet from Ikea and then mount shelves on the wall—in fact, James and I were talking about this last week at the Container Store—but I didn't want to mar the walls.

This isn't my ideal cabinet. It's plain boards dry brushed with white so it looks "distressed." I'm not fond of the look. But it is nice and sturdy, and has three shelves on top and an enclosed cupboard on the bottom. With some autumnal trim it ought to look fine. Our decorating is nothing but eclectic anyway. :-)

By the time we found the pickup spot and got the cabinet loaded, the sun was doing a number on both of us. (We both take medications that say we shouldn't be in the sun too long, and we've lucked out the last two times in that it was cloudy.) At least it was still cool, with a nice breeze. We were happy to thread our way out through a huge car show they were having in the baseball fields next to the Lions' Club grounds. There were some great cars, too: at least a half-dozen blue-and-white 1950s Chevy Bel-Airs, 1930s cars made into roadsters, 1960s muscle cars, old pickup trucks with shiny engine parts, and even a PT Cruiser painted in a flame job.

We stopped at Panorama Orchards on the way out, to get our apples and also a fresh apple pie, some sugar-free taffy for James, some goat-milk hand moisturizer for me, and some apricot teriyaki marinade. We stopped at Krystal for a quick lunch and then drove back listening to last week's episode of "The Splendid Table," and arrived at the hobby shop just in time for James' club meeting. I had bought The Doomsday Vault with me and spent the meeting reading.

We had soup for supper and spent the evening recovering from the sun. I wasn't sunburnt, but my skin felt hot long into the night. Jen was able to get on chat and, later, Mike and Emma, but I spent most of the evening in a stupor. Went to bed an hour earlier than usual, and ended up stuck in the bathroom at 2:30 in the morning. I guess my popcorn sensitivity is back. Gah.

James was off to work before I was even conscious. I got up at nine, conscious that I had a distasteful task to start today. No, not housework: clothes shopping. I need a new outfit for Juanita's wedding in November. The prospect filled me with dread. I've never liked clothes shopping, even when I was at my ideal weight. But this had to be done.

First I went to Publix for a newspaper and some bread, then came home and tried to tidy up a bit. I ended up cutting coupons and watching the "Space Jump," Felix Baumgartner trying to set a new record for a free-fall jump from space. Coaching him through the attempt is the previous record-holder, from the 1960s. Sadly, I had to leave before he jumped, but I did record it.

To take the onus off the errand, I went back to the book sale for about an hour, details here. And finally I girded my loins and went to Catherine's.

The salespeople were incredibly nice. The first thing I needed was a properly fitting brassiere. My current one hurt, made worse by the surgery scars and arthritis. By rummaging around and deciding no underwires, I did find one. Yay. I also found a nice dressy black top, but I wanted a skirt and there were almost all pants there. Look, if I'm going to get dressed, I'm going to get dressed. I did find a skirt I liked, but it was, ironically, too large.

I discovered caftans are apparently in again, and when I dropped by Ross Dress for Less, I found out to my horror that so are miniskirts. That's all that was there in a skirt, minis. Ugh. I couldn't even find skirts in Kohl's. Acres and acres of casual tops, dressy tops, casual dressy tops—but no skirts! Fuggedaboutit. I came home and watched the rest of Baumgartner coverage (I peeked on Facebook; he landed okay) until it was just time for him to make the jump itself. It was just time for James to come in, so I paused it. Too cool: he guided the parachute right down to a two-point landing right on his feet from twenty-three miles up! Plus he broke the sound barrier on the way down! Today, incidentally, is the anniversary of Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in 1947 in the Bell X-1.

We had supper; we watched America's Funniest Home Videos, another heartbreaking episode of Call the Midwife, and finally Mythbusters before it was bedtime.

Labels: animals, autumn, books, clothing, crafts, food, nature, science, shopping

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