James wanted to go to the preparedness expo today at the North Atlanta Trade Center, so we arose to the barking of the dog (8:30) and had breakfast before heading out to Gwinnett County. We stopped at the QT for a newspaper. Dang. They don't carry Munchoes anymore. I get them as a treat a few times a year. Phooey. Enjoyed listening to "The Splendid Table" as we drove.

The "North Atlanta Trade Center" basically looks like an abandoned big box store with lots of wide-open spaces for booths or displays. This is a nostalgic place for us because this is where they held the bird fair where we bought Pigwidgeon. This was a small fair, probably not even fifty vendors; they had stuff ranging from emergency food to collapsible bows to water purification to solar panels. We were most interested in the solar panels and the water purification. Saw some tornado shelters as well, and bought a book about treating animals if you don't have access to a vet. We did try some of the emergency foods; one vendor had particularly good stuff—it wasn't overly salted.

My favorite thing was the vests that had multiple pockets (24 pockets for guys, 17 for women). At least one pocket would hold a full-size tablet. Too cool.

We came home by way of the Barnes & Noble on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. I found Susan Orlean's Rin Tin Tin book on the remainder stack, so got a copy of that, and also the first of three books about Sherlock Holmes' niece in an alternative Victorian England (steampunk, of course). James wasn't feeling well, so we just checked out the chocolate store, walking out empty-handed, before heading home. Quite lovely today; we could drive with windows down all day.

Not much to say about the rest of the evening, although something funny did happen just after I changed clothes and sat down. I picked up my copy of "Doctor Who Magazine" and then looked from the couch across the dining room through the open windows to the deck. I hadn't refilled the bird feeders yesterday because it had rained during the morning, so they were still hanging empty. A chickadee fluttered to the feeder, pecked, then flew to the deck railing, right over the can that holds the bird seed. It looked down at the can, looked in the window, looked back down at the can, and then back in the window, gave a little twitter, and flew off. Yeah, I took the hint. I have the only birds who nag me to refill the feeders.

We had a barbecue pot pie and a cucumber salad for supper and have been watching documentaries about the planets, then a Clark Howard special, and now Alaska the Last Frontier.

Labels: birds, books, excursions, food, magazines, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:45:00 PM

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