...when you're at work?

Slept fifteen minutes through the alarm on Friday, then didn't stop going all day. I had to stay home anyway because TruGreen was supposed to be here today, and they never give you a specific time. So there was a dog walk, and breakfast, and I spent the rest of the day doing a bit of dusting, putting up the Thanksgiving decorations, clearing off the dining room table, tidying, sweeping the stairs and the foyer and the downstairs hall, and writing out Thanksgiving cards (I tried to mail them, too, but for once the mailman came early). I finished reading Carola Dunn's The Bloody Tower, had another walk with Tucker, and was happy that James came home early (he worked overtime earlier in the week).

Oh, and TruGreen never showed up. Thanks a lot for nothing, guys.

We mounted James' new purchase, the strap-on bike rack, on the back of my car with a minimum of cussing (mostly me because the sun was, as always, in my eyes) before going out to dinner. It worked really well with the Rollator, although we will have to use independent straps instead of the built-in ones because they are built to fit a bike, not a walker. We decided to have supper at the West Cobb Diner and grinned when we realized the Spiveys were just arriving ahead of us. We all had dinner together along with Ken's mom and Mrs. Medina (the mother of Jesse who is married to Ken's sister Deb). Following that we went to Barnes & Noble with our coupons. James got the new 1632 book and I bought Dallas 1963.

Since I was imprisoned by TruGreen on my day off, I decided to go out a little when James worked yesterday. I went to the Farmer's Market to get James some chicken salad and Tucker some dog biscuits. I didn't even bother trying to park out front on Cobb Parkway; just left the car in the public lot behind Johnnie McCracken's Irish pub. This was actually a good thing because they had the market in front of the old courthouse again this week and it was a shorter walk. I scored the dog biscuits (they have corporate sponsorship now: new bags and correspondingly higher prices) and two bacon, cheddar and chive scones for dinner tonight, but the place that makes the chicken salad lost their lease and they have to find somewhere else that has a USDA-approved kitchen before they can make it again. :-(

I mailed the Thanksgiving cards, then drove to the antique mall that's on Cobb Parkway, across the street from the Big Chicken. I love to go to antique stores before Christmas, when they scatter garlands and ornaments and old decorations among the booths to give it a festive look. There was a big lighted tree at the entranceway, and they were collecting toys for Egleston Children's Hospital. I hadn't had breakfast except for a couple of samples at the Farmer's Market, so was happy to nab a couple of free ginger cookies while I walked through the aisles of different booths. Found several dealers who had some Happy Hollister books, but didn't buy them, and enjoyed all the vintage goodies, including a tall Edison phonograph with two levels of storage for records below, an old Underwood and 1940s Smith Corona typewriters as well as an IBM Selectric II (yeah, sad: Selectrics are now antiques), 1950s metal kitchen tables with formica tops, old plows, seeders, a nice Hoosier cabinet despite the warped bottom door, old electric organs, vintage furniture, and even an old Bakelite Viewmaster like I had as a kid, plus lots and lots of china tchotchkes.

I was pretty peckish by the time I left, but I really didn't want to eat lunch out. What I did want to do was find something for supper tonight. I thought some of Publix's chicken and wild rice soup would go great with it. Yep, of course they didn't have any. At the first one I got some French bread for my sandwiches this week, paper towels, and donated $10 worth of food to the can bank and got another reusable shopping bag with the Pilgrims on it. I took the food home and then went to Costco, where I noshed on some samples, bought milk, a copy of Planes: Fire and Rescue for James, some crackers and some lobster spread, and what I really, really needed: omeprazole. With the milk in the back I now had to work fast, so I was happy to see there were not long lines at the gas station, where it was $2.75. Of course by the time I made my way around to the line, eight other cars had gotten in ahead of me. Thank goodness it didn't take so long.

The second Publix just had chicken noodle soup, and I gave up and bought it, then came home, put everything up, and watched Love Actually, which I'd heard a lot about. I could have lived without Kris Marshall's storyline of the young guy who just wanted to get laid, but was totally charmed by both Colin Firth's and Liam Neeson's storylines, and got a good giggle out of Martin Freeman's part of the story.

I was supposed to be warming up supper when Tucker abruptly decided he needed to go out, but supper was done pretty quickly by the time James got in. I had more noodles, chicken, and veggies than soup, so I thinned it with vegetable broth, added a little white wine and ginger, and warmed it up slowly. With the scones on the side, it was a nice treat. James needed it because they ran the air conditioning so high all day he was freezing.

And then it was time for the season finale of Doctor Who. I'm still waiting for a dangerous version of the Master rather than the full-crazy version they have had lately, and I wish they hadn't killed off Osgood, but...Kate! Danny! And that coda with the Brigadier! I'm still not satisfied with the stories they are giving him—my favorite this season was "Flatline" because I've been watching the old series on RetroTV and this was the closest I've seen to a classic episode in ages—but I absolutely love Peter Capaldi in the role and I wish they'd give him more to do; why is the companion always the salvation lately? I liked Matt Smith but his Doctor was getting too wired and the stories were like puzzle pieces. Can't we just have a simple straightforward adventure any longer?

Slept in this morning, and then it was rush, rush, rush all afternoon. First was the weekly run to Kroger. I needed yogurt. We ended up with a scooter cart basket full of all sorts of things, including sale meat, burritos, and popcorn. James forgot and left the newspaper on the "trunk" in the bed of the truck and we almost got it home, but it fell in the street when we turned onto Gray Road. Luckily it didn't scatter much and I was able to collect it. With the groceries put up, we went out to celebrate our anniversary one day early by having dinner at Longhorn. We shared a plate of ribs and had the shrimp and lobster dip appetizer. Between those two things, we were too full for dessert. James bought me a pretty sweatshirt at the Apple Festival and has something on order for me, but I was able to give him his gifts: the Planes DVD, of course; a gift for us both, all 44 of the Dave Allen shows that were broadcast here in the United States; and something he's been looking for for years, a copy of the series Our World with Linda Ellerbee and Ray Gandolf.

From there we went to Hallmark to use some coupons. Got a couple of ornaments and two additional Thanksgiving cards. We also stopped at Petsmart to get a few things for Tucker. Couldn't find what I needed to get for Snowy, though. Best part of this trip was the nice ride through Lower Roswell Road out to Merchant's Walk.

With only a little daylight left, we decided to take Tucker and Snowy out to the other Petsmart at the East-West Connector. I'm still getting Snowy used to the carry box and he is wide-eyed and a little nervous, but he did burble to his mirror quite a lot. Petsmart flat awed him: all the colors and the sounds. The one thing he didn't do was chirp back to the budgies! Maybe he thought they were television.

I was so filled up from lunch I didn't eat until eight, and then only a bowl of cereal. We watched Friday's Hawaii Five-0 (look, how many times are we going to see one of the team be tortured? it's really gross) and yesterday's This Old House, and the tribute to Robin Williams that PBS ran last night, and then missed the first seven minutes of Alaska: The Last Frontier because, while the DVD had it programmed into the schedule last night, it was completely gone from the programming today. Got to call Dish; half our music channels haven't worked since last Christmas, and last Saturday the signal dropped out on Doctor Who in the middle of recording. Both the DVR and the dish itself are slowly dying.

Oh, and we are dropping James' SiriusXM subscription. He hardly listens to it anymore, and when he does, it's always the same few songs. Tired to death of "Me and Bobby McGee."

Labels: birds, books, Christmas, Doctor Who, dogs, DVDs, electronics, friends, nostalgia, pets, radio, shopping, television, Thanksgiving

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:45:00 PM

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