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

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