We got a rude surprise yesterday. James asked to work May 16 or 17, so he could have the Friday of Timegate off. Well, he's not only working one Saturday during May, he's working three. Sigh. So we decided to go to the Farmer's Market today since we can't go together for the rest of the month. Yes, we took Tucker with us; he needs more to do than the daily walks and a few pets and scritches from the kid down the street. He had a lot of fun, too, and we would have had a lot more fun if it hadn't been so crowded.

Turns out there was some type of carnival on the courthouse side of the square, the artist's market on the side of the square where the Market usually sets up, and the Farmer's Market itself was squashed in on the side street where it's held during the winter. We ended up parking behind Johnnie McCracken's pub, careful to avoid the rear lot of the pottery place which tows at the least provocation (they have at least put up larger signs, but it looked like someone got towed anyway and took revenge: their plate glass window had a shot through it this morning, with the glass all crazy-paned), and crossed Glover Park to get to the vendors. When they cram them on Mill Street like this, it's crazy hard to get around, and even worse for James in his chair. Let's say that in his navigating the people and the booths that it was good practice for him at DragonCon.

We bought some bacon—Tucker even got a little piece—two scones, a huge chocolate chip cookie that we split for dessert tonight, and James bought tamales and some tamale sauce. As we were heading back to the truck, we noticed the flag was out on The Corner Shop, and the proprietor was just putting out "It's a Girl" balloons. The British Royal Family has finally had their blessed event: Kate had a little girl. Now she has the set. :-)

In the meantime little terrier-nose had his paws full dodging people and touching noses, from a huge goldendoodle to a Shih-Tzu/Maltese puppy who was very shy of his forward play invitations.

We brought Tucker and the groceries home, gave him his breakfast, and went off on our errands for the day. But first, it was lunchtime! We ate at Whole Foods because I remembered their yummy cucumber-and-tomato salad. This I had with barbecue pork and olives, plus a slice of nan bread and a cup of minestrone. Next I "drove" the power chair down to the Hallmark store while James brought the truck down to the other end of the shopping center (saved loading the chair and messing with the lift). We had some coupons to use on a Mother's Day card, and if we bought $20 worth of stuff, we got a $10 gift card. Well, in the Betsy's Hallmark catalog, there was a nifty silicone "pad" that can be used as several things, including a trivet, but we were interested in using it to microwave soup. Usually we stick the bowl in the microwave and then have to be careful carrying the hot bowl out. This goes on the carousel and then you can turn the sides of the pad up and lift the soup out without burning your hands.

The $10 gift card will come in handy when the ornaments come out in a little over two months. The catalog just went live online at the beginning of the week. Not too many things I want, but James is very excited about the P-38 plane for this year. And there is a lovely anniversary ornament with white doves, which I think I will buy as a keepsake because this year is our 25th.

We stopped at Trader Joe's long enough for me to run in for some of the shrimp for supper tomorrow night (sadly, the chicken apple sausage was out of stock), and at the Chicken Salad Chick store so James could get more of their fruity chicken salad. Finally we stopped at the comic book store on East Piedmont, which was jammed because it was free comic book day. Supposedly there was a free Doctor Who comic this year, but those were long gone by the time we went by at three.

I don't get it. Everyone loves when it gets warm and they drink up the sun. When we both got home we were exhausted, not from all the errands, but just by being out in the sun. It's like it sucks every inch of energy out of my body, and I felt like I was sunburned even though I had my hat on most of the time. We came in and fell asleep for over an hour, and then rustled up a pot-luck supper because of the big lunch. James had something with beans, and I ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich made from the baguette I bought at Whole Foods, some frisee with black cherry balsamic vinegar (from the collection we got in Helen during Atomicon), and some milk, of course. We watched this week's episode of Hawaii Five-0, the latest Ask This Old House and This Old House, Thursday's episode of The Big Bang Theory, and then three episode's of Kal Penn's series The Big Picture, in which subjects ranged randomly from sex (drive-in prostitution in Switzerland?) to the internet to food.

Labels: comics, dogs, events, food, pets, television

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