Always feel disoriented that first morning of Daylight Saving Time. It didn't help this morning that the sun was quite bright. I thought of the line from Auntie Mame: "Darling, how do you see with all that light?"

We both grabbed a quick bite and then went about mixing pleasure with business: we decided to check out that Barnes & Noble at the Mall of Georgia. It was a bright blue day with the temperature rising rapidly; we wore windbreakers on the outbound leg and discarded them by the time we found the mall (turned out the GPS was directing us to "Mall of Georgia Chrysler-Jeep," which was in the opposite direction). Listened to an edition of "The Splendid Table" on the way there.

The first thing we did was have lunch at the food court at something called "Fresh Market," which was really a glorified Chinese restaurant. I had charbroiled chicken strips with potatoes and cucumber/tomato salad; the chicken was rather greasy and a tad peppery. I ate it anyway. Then we went upstairs to check out a store that the app PointInside was here (a bakery) but it was gone and yet another clothing store was in its place. We strolled through Godiva Chocolate, but, as always, the prices made us flinch.

The Barnes & Noble is across from the food court in an area of stores and restaurants gathered about a brick courtyard that has a fountain and a concert venue. There was a nice strong breeze still blowing outside, and I think I could stand summer if it never got warmer than 70°F and that breeze was always going! (Of course in a few weeks it will be 70, but we won't be able to keep the windows open because the pine pollen will be so thick!) The bookstore actually shares a building with a Mexican place and P.F. Chang's, so it isn't as big as it looks, and their magazine maintenance is abysmal; there's still a November "Best of British" there. In fact, I prefer the B&N in Chattanooga for anything "close" by; if nothing else, their travel section blows any travel section in the metro area away. I did get a book about deals for the retired and If These Walls Could Talk, a history of the home.

And then we headed home to continue the business portion of the day: picking up Willow's ashes at the vet. She was sent to the crematorium near my old apartment; we used to pass it all the time. Her ashes are in a pretty little square tin, like a candle tin, with flowers on it, and that came in a box with a card with a prayer for animals by Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Not sure what to do with it, but it's on the dining room windowsill right now, just over where her crate used to be.

And of course we had to make the inevitable stop at Kroger for bread, bananas, and other weekly fol-de-rol.

Watched HGTV or DIY network until it was time for the new Cosmos with Neil de Grasse Tyson. Think I like the original series' re-enactors more than the new series' cartoons, but the graphics are spectacular. I had tears in my eyes when Tyson talked about Carl Sagan inviting him to visit when Tyson was seventeen years old.

Labels: books, errands, food, television, travel, weather

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