It isn't often James works a weekend day and then gets a day off that coincides with my compressed day off, so we took advantage of today.

First we got some well-deserved rest. It has been a miserable week, four straight days of rain, and I have been on edge because of the reorganization at work. Well, they finally broke the news to us this week. They're splitting Grants and Contracts apart again, which is sensible. That's the way things ran when I joined CDC. They're both methods of acquisition, but they're like apples and oranges: both fruits, but completely different.

Sadly, Small Purchases is going to be consolidated again, which, again, is the way it was when I first joined CDC. I am sorry for this because I will really miss the people I am working with. They have been a great bunch of people.

I managed to get things done despite the cold rain making me feel stupid and cross-eyed. Yesterday we had snow approaching us—this is after it was 70°F on Sunday!—but by the time it was cold enough here, the storm had passed us by.

This morning you could have never told we had four days of miserable weather: The sky was painted a bright blue devoid of any cloud, and it was briskly cold, in the 30s. We had breakfast and then went out to Publix, where there was a generous supply of twofers this week: instant oatmeal, Honey Nut Cheerios, Smart Balance, etc. We filled four fabric grocery bags.

After we had put the groceries away, it was time to have some fun. We drove out to the Barnes & Noble at Perimeter Mall. We had coupons and just wanted to go to a different store. Found a cool book about children living in the city at the turn of the last century, and the newest "Just Cross Stitch." We had lunch at the cafe, a nice cup of potato soup with oyster crackers (James also had a sandwich), and split a cookie.

We also stopped at Costco. I'd intended to buy toilet paper, but they didn't have Scot Tissue any longer. Grump. James did get chili and mushrooms.

We made it through I-285 before rush hour got bad and came home past Lowes.

Since we moved into the house, we have had a large plastic container (larger than the 66 quart ones Publix was selling on twofer several weeks ago; I think these are more like 100 quart, and I use three others for Christmas decorations, one for the Hallowe'en decor, and a fifth for the Thanksgiving stuff) sitting in our bedroom closet, full of kitchen things we can't fit in our tiny kitchen, mostly things I got from my mom's house: Corningware casseroles and a roaster as well as a carving set from Imperial Knife, where my Uncle Brandy used to work, plus an enameled turkey roaster we got from our late friend Diane, and some Christmas cookie cutters. On top of it we had a stuffed full container of holiday linens. It was hard to get in and out of.

Well, at Lowes I bought a nine-compartment storage shelf (of a lighter brown color than the image linked) and four canvas containers in red, green, light blue, and dark blue. Once we arrived home, I started assembling it. I don't think James expected that, as it was almost suppertime. But it was very easy, except for one recalcitrant screw, which we were able to finish hammering in. And then we pulled the plastic container out of the corner, put the shelves in the corner, and set things in the cubicles: the Corningware casseroles in one, the electric skillet in another, the roasting set in a third. The Christmas linens are in the green container, the fall ones in the red container, the paltry two Easter towels in the pale blue one, and the dark blue one is empty right now except for some shammy cloths. The turkey platter and the serving tray for the Corningware casserole I had to set on top of the shelves. Other things that didn't have a place are also tucked here and there.

To access the cubbies, we had to move a small, three cubby shelf that held some old things we didn't need anymore. It now holds spare light bulbs, empty cases, a nice portfolio James brings to interviews, and his C-PAP case, and the floor of the closet is nice and clean. We do have to finish our "bug out" bags and the one for the animals, but they are now tucked out of the way.

Had supper, then James headed down to the "man cave" for some modeling time (his meeting is tomorrow). I'm upstairs blogging and watching television: had Hoarders on, and then a couple of Lassie reruns, and am now watching Elementary.

Labels: books, food, organizing, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:18:00 PM

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