FOR TODAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Outside my window...
...still very cloudy and raining. We have had bouts of rain days almost constantly this winter. Granted, we need the rain, but the ground is soaked and we're now almost always under a flood watch. Considering that last year we were in drought conditions, it's the flip side.

I am thinking...
...I don't believe I've ever gotten over last year's Christmas depression. Like John Adams, I "reek of discontent." I have to be frank, this reorganization has thrown me for a loop. Every time we reorganize the rules change. You would think there would be all one rule, but there isn't. I'm going to have to learn to do my folders differently, because every contracting officer looks at them differently.

I am thankful...
...right now, I'm not being very thankful, and I should be. I don't have to take a bus to work, and I do have work. I shouldn't be depressed and I shouldn't be upset, but I am.

In the kitchen...
...chicken is defrosting for dinner.

I am wearing...
...my "Lassie Fan" sweatshirt, navy blue sweatpants, beige socks, and blue scuffs. (It's cold enough to wear slippers, but I can't while I'm at the computer; it makes static, so my toes must remain cold.)

I am creating...
...I need to be creating calm. Especially when it affects my body negatively not to be calm.

I am going...
...to have to get Schuyler used to remote meetings! My new branch has them every week, and she insists on trying to join in the conversation!

I am wondering...
...about the future. It seems pretty bleak right now, but that is because of the reorganization and the always variable nature of James' job these days. I know positive change is supposed to be good for you, but right now this doesn't seem positive, and my whole body is rebelling against it in negative ways. I don't sleep well, which means I can't think, and it bothers me physically, so I worry more, so I don't sleep...well, you can see it's a vicious circle.

I am reading...
...still working on The Victorians and The Great War, which are both very thick books. I should read something light, like another Trixie Belden. Maybe that would help.

I am hoping...
...I can figure things out.

I am looking forward to...
...my Friday off. I need sleep so badly. And retirement.

Around the house...
...rain outside, heat purring within. Everything's untidy again, even after I went on a mass book-shelving fit last week (actually, they all ended up downstairs to be shelved and aren't). Out the window I can see Mr. and Mrs. Goldfinch at the feeder. He is in his winter coat, but you can tell him from "the missus" by the bright yellow patch on each wing, above the black bars.

I am pondering...
...contentment and how to achieve it.

A favorite quote for today...
This, sadly, fits my mood:
“I always like walking in the rain, so no one can see me crying.” ― Charles Chaplin

One of my favorite things...
...the marvelous Miranda Hart, who is on Bear Grylls' Wild Weekends tonight on BBC America. I need a cheer up.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
More things to get used to at work, and then an expedition to buy wild bird seed. My wild children will go hungry soon.

A peek into my day...
It would be a grey picture for a grey day and a grey mood.


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Labels: Simple Woman's Daybook

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:23:00 AM

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AnachroCon is a small steampunk/alternative history/time travel convention that has been in Atlanta for several years now, but we've never gone. Oh, we've intended to check it out, but it's always seemed to sneak up on us unawares—suddenly it would be the last weekend in February and oops, missed it again. (Truth to tell, we have also always been a bit leery because we were afraid it might be all steampunk. I like steampunk; remember, I'm the Wild Wild West fan from way back, but I'm not sure I'd want three days of straight steampunk. James doesn't like steampunk, which made it more questionable.) And it basically did so again this year, but we noted it due to an Atlanta Radio Theatre post on Facebook, and James said yesterday "Why don't we at least go check it out for the day?"

So after breakfast we did. It would have been stupid not to: it was just "down the road apiece" at the Marriott near I-75.

I was kinda bummed out when I saw the schedule online, though, because I saw things on Friday that I really would have liked to have seen! There was a World War II reinactment, a panel about science in the 1920s as well as one on fashion (there seemed to be a number of 1920s-themed events this year), a time travel discussion, a Sherlock Holmes panel, and a showing of one of James' favorite movies, Porco Rosso, and a discussion about it. Saturday we missed actor interpretations of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, at least two weaponry panels James would have loved, women scientists of Victorian times, a fiction writing panel, another devoted to dieselpunk, a discussion of Nikola Tesla, and other neat stuff.

I'm still sorry we missed them, but we had a good time today and pre-registered for next year. We came in just for the end of a panel about Victorian picnicking and then stayed for the candy panel. This was a discussion of the proliferation of candy production in conjunction with the industrial revolution, where mechanization made candymaking easier, and the panel moderator had a selection of homemade candies and tips for making them (#1: follow instructions precisely!). We sampled homemade cinnamon drops (made with pure cinnamon oil; wish I'd had it last week to clear out my nose!), caramels (much more flavorful than today's mass-manufactured product), marshmallows (ditto), and Turkish Delight. (My reaction to Turkish Delight is always "Edmund betrayed his brother and sisters to the White Witch for this?" However, finally tasted some flavored with rose water. What a unique taste! And it does taste the way roses smell, if you can imagine that!)

This panel was enough to convince us to sign up for next year, so between that, going into the dealer's room (saw some lovely reproduction writing desks and steel-point pens, and Clair was showing off a neat pair of leather gloves with spool [of thread] trimmings that she bought), and talking with authors (yes, I bought more books—Sherlock Holmes and time travel; what's not to like?), I quite missed the Scopes Trial panel they had in the Science track (there's also a History track, Etiquette, Horror, Culture, Fabrication, and Fashion).

James and I then both attended two of the Culture & Media panels, one about Journalism and Science Fiction (great discussion about how the news is no longer news but entertainment; one of the panelists used to work as a news reporter for NPR) and the other about Nikola Tesla vs. Thomas Edison (equally great discussion about two men who were definitely not perfect despite being innovators).

Trouble is, we had to miss most of the ARTC performance to see the last panel (which was ironic considering it was the primary reason we came to the convention). Typical of life, as February Callendar would say.

Our fun afternoon being over, we headed home to our supper of potstickers and salad, watching yesterday's edition of Too Cute (more kittens?) and the season premiere of Flipping Boston. I love this show but I'm sure glad I don't work for Dave! I'm not sure I'll ever get over watching Peter and Dave dressed in drag, either. :-)

Finished up the evening watching the second of the Doctor Who specials on BBC America leading up to the 50th anniversary special. This was a salute to Patrick Troughton along with the episode "Tomb of the Cybermen."

Labels: books, conventions, Doctor Who, events, food, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:50:00 PM

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Gah. Another Saturday of dancing between stores.

We bundled up as it wasn't really all that cold, but it was damp. Had breakfast at Douceur de France (nothing better on a cold morning than a warm baguette and butter), then went on to the Farmers Market. Willow needed cookies and we bought some chicken and wild rice soup for supper. A freight train roared by, but didn't delay us much.

On the way home I gave a yelp. There was a tiny brown spider crawling on my left hand! I tried to get it out the passenger window, but it scurried so quickly that I could never get it to blow away. It finally scrambled down my sleeve past my coat pocket and out of sight.

Next it was time for a trip to Costco to pick up some granola bars and other items on sale. I finally gave in and bought the two-volume Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries set. I have three of the five episodes and it would basically cost me as much as the set cost to get the other two. While I was looking at the DVDs, the little brown spider reappeared! I left it crawling on the DVD rack.

We also stopped at Bed, Bath & Beyond to get James a new cartridge for his Soda Stream and some Cola Free syrup, had an ice cream cone at Baskin-Robbins (we had a coupon) and I shared bits of the cone with the sparrows, and then stopped at Michaels. They didn't have what I wanted although I have seen projects using the object on Michaels' website. Looked around the dogs and cats they had for adoption at Petsmart; one cat had enormous, bright green eyes. It could have been Harry Potter as a cat!

By the time we got home James suggested we just finish the shopping so we'd have tomorrow clear. So we went to Publix for twofers and then to Kroger for gasoline and groceries. No news there.

So we had the soup for supper and watched three episodes of Elementary we had backed up on the DVR. I keep saying I'm not emotionally invested in the characters, but I still keep watching, so I guess I'm lying to myself. When James went downstairs to do some modeling, I put on The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, which I haven't seen in years. An inheritance rests on whether an elderly brother or sister died first, and was one of the first things I ever saw on television that addressed the affects of severe shell shock.

Emma and I chatted a bit later on, too.

I do hate spending almost the whole day in grocery stores!

Labels: food, insects, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:42:00 PM

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FOR TODAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2013

Outside my window...
...the sun is low in the east. I'm going to miss seeing the sun rise soon, since we'll be going back to Daylight F***ing Savings Time on March 10. [I don't excuse the language. I despise DST. It ranks up there with cheats and spinach.]

I am thinking...
...of all the different things I have to do today that are held up by other things! How frustrating. I need to advertise something...if I ever get an answer from someone.  I need to award something...but the awardee needs to get back to me about something. And so on.

I am thankful...
...I'm done with the flu (although I have to admit that sleeping almost all day last Wednesday was actually very nice—I always feel short of sleep, no matter what). The cough was not fun.

In the kitchen...
...soon some chicken will be defrosting for tonight's dinner. But as of now it's quiet.

I am wearing...
...my green "Myriad" sweatshirt, grey sweatpants, purple socks and powder blue scuffs. Not to mention a sleepy face.

I am creating...
...potential purchase orders. That's about it.

I am going...
...to have to do some shopping this weekend. Some good bargains expiring at Costco on Sunday. Also Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons. I really, really need new pillows.

I am wondering...
...how bad the rain is going to be tomorrow. I don't just hate driving in the rain—liquid stupidity falling from the sky—it actually scares me. Driving freeway speeds...crazy drivers...frightening all around.

I am reading...
...The Victorians by A.N. Wilson, The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell (the illustrated version, which is terrific), and still slogging through the Louis Agassiz bio (not the writer's fault; Agassiz is just so self-absorbed!).

I am hoping...
...the rain tomorrow won't be as bad as they fear. They're talking about two inches or more.

I am looking forward to...
...sleeping late on Sunday. (Hm. I sense a theme here.)

Around the house...
...the computer hums. Schuyler is grinding her beak. Willow has gone back to sleep.

I am pondering...
...change. I generally don't like change. It never comes with any hope...

A favorite quote for today...
I'll continue a theme: "No wonder they shoot people at sunrise. Who wants to live at six in the morning?" . . . Hawkeye Pierce

One of my favorite things...
...chicken cacciatore. I think I'll make some with the chicken I'm going to defrost. But there's no bread to zoop. Perhaps that's for the best.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Costco and BB&B visits. Not much else.

A peek into my day...
A cuteness of budgie:




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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:27:00 AM

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James went off to Hair Day alone today; I wouldn't risk it with so many people there. Slept a little, tidied a little, watched Alakazam the Great (why? I dunno...I was just thinking about it, that's all).

James got home about three and we decided to go out for a little bit to see if I could stand it. (We'd gone out to supper at Panera last night, but it was a dead loss: the place was too hot, I was in miserable pain with my sinuses and couldn't taste what I was eating, and when I got home my fever was back up.) We had a cold front come galloping through this morning, and it was not only cold out,  but the wind had a blade edge. I washed my hands thoroughly and then took care not to cough while I was inside, and I guess it was all right. I tried to take deep breaths to clean out my lungs and my nose and it was downright painful, though!

James needed some flat white spray paint for his modeling, so we stopped by Hobby Lobby for some. Nothing much I needed, so I bought some tape with this week's coupon. James got a [mumble] as a gift for someone. I was still ambulatory by the time we got out, so we went to Barnes & Noble with the Valentines Day coupon. I picked out Eric Weiner's new book, but by then was feeling a little wiped out.

James brought me home some of the pot roast from Hair Day, but my stomach was queasy and I had Cheerios instead. Watched Britcoms for the evening, including As Time Goes By. I like Lionel and Jean; they are so real, and funny without being juvenile, and just plain charming.

Labels: animation, books, crafts, friends, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:08:00 PM

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Here's John Verney's inimitable February Callendar with "a stinker," from the book February's Road:

 
And, boy, do I know how she feels.

This started Sunday night, I suppose, when I walked out from Kroger to the fuel center. I got rather wet. I know they say that doesn't give you a cold, like our mothers used to believe, but I can still hear Mom saying "I told you so." :-)

Monday I coughed all day at work, despite guzzling copious amounts of water. Unfortunately I coughed all night, too, to the point that I had to go to the spare room to keep from waking James up. Tuesday I woke up short of sleep, still coughing (one of those hacking things you can't stop) with a killer sore throat. Now, this had to be the worst day ever to get a cold. We were having two meetings today to sum up the reorganization: a general one at ten to talk about contractor performance ratings, and a more specific on at 1:30 in which the small purchases team would meet their new Branch chief and team lead (both had flown down from Pittsburgh). Heck, I would have gone to the meeting with a mask on if I could, but I had gotten so little sleep I felt I would be a danger on the road. I sat in via conference call instead, and the little I could contribute was done in the voice of Tallulah Bankhead crossed with a bullfrog.

Tuesday night was again spent in the spare room. I pretty much slept all day Wednesday, except for getting up to uncover Schuyler and put the television on for her. I thought I'd try sitting up for a while, taking a dose of the cough medicine James had picked up for me Tuesday evening, drinking more water, and watching Leave It to Beaver and Dennis the Menace on Antenna-TV. After two hours I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and I went back to sleep. As I slept through the day, I did get a fever, which maxed out at 100.6°F before sinking down to normal, then going back up slightly to 99.6.

Last night, I thought we had a breakthrough: I slept all night in our own bed. My temperature was back to its usual normal (97.6) and my throat had quit hurting, but my nose was still stuffy and my head now felt like it was filled with cotton. I logged onto work, but it took me a half hour to think up the correct wording to answer an e-mail. So I called the advice nurse at Kaiser again. She chatted with me for a while, then said she was recommending me for some Flonase and the pharmacy would call me. Okay. So I struggled with doing some work. It was so hard to concentrate! At lunchtime I lay down, but my nose was getting so stuffy and now running so badly that I couldn't sleep. We had another staff meeting at 1:30; by this time my sinuses were so clogged I could barely hear what was going on. I was wondering if I had better call back and ask for a doctor's appointment when they saved me the trouble and called me saying they wanted me to come in. I could have gotten an appointment for today, but I still wouldn't have felt safe driving. Instead I made it tomorrow for nine, since James has an appointment at 8:40.

That was about three, and the situation's just deteriorated. By the time James got home, with a Valentine card and gifts, he decided we ought to write off tonight's planned dinner (shrimp scampi) and go with soup for me, since by now I can barely taste anything. My sinuses and throat hurt, and my right ear is ringing like I've got a little Quasimodo in there.

At least there was chocolate cake for dessert and there's a new Big Bang Theory tonight.

(Oh, James bought me the book Show Dog and Rick Steves' Europe: A Symphonic Journey. I got him a Wild Cards book he didn't have and nonfiction about aviation in World War I.)

Oh, February, you are so lucky having a doctor that still makes house calls...

Labels: books, gifts, health, sickness, television, Valentines Day, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:53:00 PM

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FOR TODAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013

Outside my window...
...it's a cloudy day again. It seems like it's been raining forever.

I am thinking...
...I picked a hell of a day to be sick! I had two meetings I needed to go to and instead I had to listen to them. One made sense and the other people were talking so much it got a bit garbled.

I am thankful...
...for my nice warm bed. I wish I could have slept in it last night.

In the kitchen...
...it's quiet. It's funny; I'm hungry, but I can't bear the thought of warming something up and eating. I've had some cereal, a plain piece of bread, milk, and my breakfast—oh, and some peppermint tea.

I am wearing...
..."Mutts" pajama bottoms with Earl and Mooch on them, and a "Soft Kitty" t-shirt (from Big Bang Theory). And purple socks.

I am creating...
...nothing. What I want to create is wellness. Coughing all night is a PITA!

I am going...
...nowhere at this point. The most I've done today is listen to two meetings and order a book I discovered I didn't have, using my points on Amazon.com.

I am wondering...
...really wondering where this cold came from. I haven't really been in any big crowds. Of course I don't have a fever. We've been cleaning at work and there's been a lot of dust in the air. I've had allergic bronchitis before. I hope this isn't it again.

I am reading...
...The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers, volume 1; The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell; Elemental Magic, a group of short stories based on Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Mage universe; oh, and a biography of Louis Agassiz.

I am hoping...
...I'll be well for the weekend, but my nose is getting stuffier as we "speak." Wretched thing.

I am looking forward to...
...things being settled at work and being able to get back into a routine. Change makes me uneasy. I don't sleep well and I get other physical reactions.

I am learning...
...I should keep my mouth shut to people who don't have the right information.

Around the house...
...I'm playing "The Tech Guy" because Schuyler hates it when it's quiet. I can't blame her; when birds are quiet it means there's a prey animal around. I took a nap, but it's not easy settling down because eventually I start coughing again.

I am pondering...
...not feeling well enough to think. It's taking enough energy just to write this blog entry, but I don't feel like turning into a complete slug.

A favorite quote for today...
“[B]eing sick feels like you're wearing someone else's glasses” ― Megan Boyle.
Actually today it feels like I'm wearing someone else's lungs.

One of my favorite things...
...can I name a few of my hated things today instead? Icing/frosting. Child molesters. Spinach. Breaded/battered and fried anything. Math.Whatever that pre-bottled spice is that they refer to as "Italian seasoning." Spaghetti sauce with sugar in it. Meatballs/hamburgers. The Westboro Baptist Church. The freeway when it rains. Cowbirds. Borders being gone (ditto Woolworths). Fluorescent lights. Spousal abuse.

And, yes, the damn cough.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Well, James has Friday off, but since I'll probably be sick, what's the use of even planning?

A peek into my day...
Naw, I think you've had enough of Linda the Grump. We now return you to your regular program already in progress. Even Justin Beiber has to be an improvement on me right now.


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Labels: Simple Woman's Daybook

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 3:54:00 PM

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It's been a long week. We had a "stand down" this week due to the reorganization, where folks cleaned out their cubicles, got rid of shreddables, transferred files folders, etc. Unfortunately there are things that just haven't been finalized. Also, I had to go into work on Thursday, usually a telework day. I didn't mind going in, but it rained all day and traffic was a mess. It took me 75 minutes to get home. It was exhausting; I came home tired to the bone and headachy.

So we treated ourselves on Friday night and went to Longhorn. James got a big steak so he could have some for lunch on Saturday, since he had to work. This is the "new" Longhorn in one side of the old Circuit City at the shopping center at Akers Mill (the old restaurant is within walking distance and closed up and dark), and I'm afraid the service was rather spotty. James' steak was underdone, mine had pepper on it when I told them no "prairie dust," his mushrooms were late, we had to ask for our bread. They were very nice and made everything good, but I've never seen a Longhorn so discombobulated!

We had Barnes & Noble coupons, so we stopped across the street to browse. I found Dying in the Wool, a post-World War I English mystery.

James had odd hours on Saturday, noon to nine, so we went to bed relatively on time Friday night and got up at eight so we could go out for breakfast to partially make up for it. We went back to Douceur de France; we haven't been there since the weekend Juanita got married. James had a nice omelet, and I had some bacon, the baguette with butter, and a big fruit cup (strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, and grapes, with an orange slice on top; I know James likes the pineapple, so I let him have it—it was a huge bowl anyway). When we paid up we could not resist getting a chocolate dessert to share and also a chocolate chip cookie to split. Then we stopped briefly at the Farmer's Market to get James some chicken salad, finally heading home so he could go off to work.

Once he was gone I got in the car and went off to Publix for twofers, then on to Kroger for the remainder of the shopping. I finally remembered to use my rebate cards from buying our new phones in November! I needed bread for work sandwiches, so I went up to Macland Road because the Smyrna Kroger bread always has cornmeal on it. Ugh. Once the perishables were put away, I went out to Michael's because I needed Command hooks and I had a coupon. Gah. What was I thinking? What a mob scene between the makeup store, Petsmart, Michaels, TJ Maxx, Anna's Linens and Dollar Tree, the furniture store and the rest. I was surprised how busy Michael's was, too; it usually isn't that crowded.

Then I headed back to Kroger to gas up the car. I had forgotten to use a $1 off coupon and I still needed to get some lunch. I didn't really want chicken soup again, but they didn't have any potato. I also got a little baguette for a sandwich later on and some pumpkin bread from the Starbuck's counter for a dessert. Finally I picked up my prescriptions at the pharmacy and got to come home.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching The Flame Trees of Thika, a 1981 seven-part Thames television series based on the book by Elspeth Huxley, who drew on her own childhood experiences when her parents bought land in East Africa and set up a coffee plantation, only to have their experiment interrupted by World War. Holly Aird played a lovely young Elspeth (as an adult actress she went on to do one of my favorite British series, Waking the Dead) and Hayley Mills was her mother Tilly. (One of Aird's Thika co-stars was Sharon Maughan, the wife of her future co-star Trevor Eve.) I had Schuyler sitting with me and she chirped madly at the African birds.

James arrived home at nine thirty with some chili, and once he finished, went down to the "Man Cave" for a while. We were up very late since Mike and I were advising Emma on a new laptop.

So we woke very late this morning, but then since I'd finished the shopping yesterday, we didn't have much to do. We had a leisurely breakfast and I did some file swapping, and we only went out about 1:30 to use the other Barnes & Noble coupons. James had a book reserved at the Town Center store, so we drove through the gradually darkening day past downtown Marietta and Kennestone Hospital through Bells Ferry Road to the store. By the time we emerged with our findings—the newest Molly Murphy mystery was out in paperback!—it was spitting rain and it was raining when James went in and out of Hobbytown for a few minutes while I stayed in the truck and read.

We had a sad stop to make on the way home. Our friend Ken Spivey's father had died over the weekend and the viewing was this afternoon. Ken's dad has been sick for a while and finally was transferred to hospice at the end of last week. The now steady, cold rain created the mood as we arrived at the funeral home just as they opened. We talked to Alice and Ken for a while, said hi to Juanita and David, and then chatted with Ron and Lin before actually going in. The scent of the flowers surrounding the casket struck me immediately as we walked in and brought back a lot of sad memories. We said hello to Ken's mom and talked to his sister Debbie before leaving.

By now it was five o'clock and we were both starving, having not had lunch. Again, we had talked about having bacon and waffles, then bacon and buckwheat pancakes, but were reminded on our ride that Shrove Tuesday was coming up—what a good day to have pancakes on! So the bacon was temporarily shelved again. James needed gasoline, so we drove by Kroger and while he hit the pumps, I went inside and picked up a Hormel beef tips and gravy, plus a Sunday paper.

By the time we got home, we were chilled and tired on top of hungry. We cooked up some spaetzle and warmed up the beef tips and had them together for supper, with the pumpkin bread for dessert, and watched this week's This Old House. I wanted to laugh watching them bring in supplies to build a stone wall, because I was thinking of all those 17th through 19th century New England farmers who broke their backs (and possibly even their horses'/oxen's backs) pulling stone after stone after stone out of the rocky soil to make a decent field to grow crops on—how they would goggle if they knew how much modern folks paid for rocks to make stone walls! Also watched Saturday's Too Cute!, which took a vacation from kittens and puppies to do hedgehogs, mini potbelly piglets, and mini lop-eared bunnies. Talk about a cute overload!

Sadly, it was raining too hard to watch the 2013 RV show. Phooey.

Labels: books, food, friends, shopping, weather, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:56:00 PM

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I hadn't anything really planned for my Friday off, since the exterminator was coming, until the new Publix ad was published on Thursday. They usually have one of their shrimp rings buy-one get-one on Stupid Bowl weekend and this year was no exception. They're still expensive, but half as expensive, and they're nice to use for a treat. So after the exterminator did the perimeter of the house, I zipped over to Publix, wrapped up even in a scarf due to the nippy cold, and bought two of the medium rings. These will be decanted into two plastic bags—whatever James does with the icky cocktail sauce is up to him—and can be used on a special occasion (like Valentine's Day) to make a nice homemade shrimp scampi or other shrimp dish. There were some other goodies on twofer, like Near East couscous and quinoa mixes, and Hallmark items were also included, so I came from the store with a pretty good haul. I also stopped at the hardware store; no three-foot non-flat-plug extension cords there, either.

I had just put up the groceries and was doing a few chores when James called: he was coming home since work was very slow. We took our Barnes & Noble coupons and went out to the Avenue at West Cobb, where I picked up the newest Daisy Dalrymple mystery in paperback (actually, it seems like it's the last new Daisy mystery period; I don't see a corresponding new hardback). While we were out, we decided to do the shopping at Kroger to avoid the maniacal Stupor Bowl shoppers. It wasn't a bad time to go, either, as a lot of people weren't out of work yet. Kroger was a little less crazy than Publix—they had mostly Valentine-themed foods, whereas Publix was a jaw-dropping wonder, with football themed cupcakes, cookies, cakes, not to mention turkeys and turduckens and foil roasting pans as if it were Thanksgiving!—and we also picked up soups for supper.

Saturday both of us evidently needed to sleep, because we ended up getting up at ten. By the time we got to the Farmer's Market, there was no more chicken salad. That'll learn us.

Later in the day we checked out a bookstore/coffee shop noted in the local freebie magazine "Cobb Life." This is Traders 22, across from the Kennesaw public library in downtown Kennesaw. It was a cute little place, in an old 1920s house (complete with a hallway niche for the telephone), with the kitchen used to prepare the coffee and hot chocolate and the bathroom looking still the same as it had back then. There were some books in what was a living room and a bedroom, but just a small supply. We sat and relaxed and had a peppermint cocoa and some nice coffee cake which wasn't overly sweetened.

On the way home we stopped at Three Way Campers on Cobb Parkway to look at baby trailers. We can't afford a lot and can't pull much. Much of what we can pull is about $10,000-$12,000 and pocket sized. I liked the little rPods, but there were a couple of other small trailers that were a bit roomer and better laid out. I forgot what the brands were. They had several used Class C units (the ones that have a truck cab with a "loft" bed over them) that had seen better days. Someone had loved them to death. :-) We also stopped at the little place on Austell Road, Norman, but the only little one they had would have only fit two skinny teenagers or a hunter and his dog. :-)

To clear the fridge a little we finished up our Chinese food for supper, which ended up being a bad idea. This batch was massively greasy. I couldn't finish mine and was sick all night despite taking my Prilosec. I also ended up with a killer headache that even three ibuprofin couldn't quell. It finally went away enough to talk with Emma on chat, but I was having connection problems all night.

Up earlier this morning, so feeling shellshocked if better all day. We ended up going back to Publix to grab a couple of more shrimp rings and some birthday cards. Also found some no-sugar spaghetti sauce, one which might be useful with the shrimp, and some chicken apple sausage we haven't tried before (so far nothing is as good as what we get from Trader Joe's). It was still cool enough to tuck all the perishables in an insulated bag and take a turn around the Akers Mill Barnes & Noble to see if there was something to use a second coupon on. James found a World War II nonfiction book and I almost picked up the second book in Jennifer Worth's Midwife series (I finished the first book, a super page-turner, last night), but this is where she addresses the workhouse survivors, such a sad story I wasn't sure I could bear it. I found a travel book instead, about a man who picks up an old Frommer's Europe on $5 a Day who decides to follow its itinerary and see what the sites Frommer reviewed were like now. It was recommended by Eric Weiner, whose Geography of Bliss I had enjoyed.

Finally we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Panera Bread, then returned home. James wend down to the "man cave" and Schuyler and I watched the Puppy Bowl. A real cutie of a small female dog won "MVP," most valuable puppy, and there was lots of adorable romping, the "Kitty Halftime Show" (the kittens always look astonished at the confetti finale!), hamsters in a "blimp," a cockatiel "tweeting" the plays, and, this year, hedgehogs as "cheerleaders." Much better than that football nonsense!

We found these wafer-thin pork chops at Publix this morning. James showed them a picture of a gas flame and they cooked up nicely. We had talked about having waffles and bacon this morning, but James forgot to take the bacon out to thaw and then was sick to his stomach this morning and figured he shouldn't be eating bacon anyway. He had Cheerios instead, so we had the waffles with the pork chops. It all sorta works out in the end.

Labels: animals, books, food, shopping, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:57:00 PM

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Fascinating story!

Richard III: The Mystery of the King and the Car Parking Lot

Update 02/04/2012: Yes!

Labels: history

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 1:47:00 PM

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