Oh, damn, it couldn't be 8:30 already.

It was. And despite getting up at that time, we still didn't make it out the door until 10:30. I can't imagine how dog-walking and breakfast takes so long.

We drove up to Chattanooga today to go to McKay's and trade in a couple of boxes of books. It was a very pretty day for a ride, and we listened to the Thanksgiving show on "The Splendid Table" and half of "A Way With Words" segment. We did pretty well; we came home with half a box of discards, which shall go to the library for the book sale, and got enough credit to buy the scant box we came home with and still have $10/credit left over. I bought a huge book (8 1/2x11 1/2) for only 75 cents called American Manners and Morals, The Scent Trail which I heard the author speak about on "Travels with Rick Steves," a Bennett Cerf compilation, Strange Red Cow (about odd classified ads from colonial times), a history of Paper, a "Dear America" about an African-American girl who must go to an integrated school for the first time, and a British book about the Christmas truce. I also got five Christmas CDs: one of carols from St. Martins-in-the-Fields, "Christmas Night" by the Cambridge Singers (medieval carols), Scott Miller playing carols on hammered dulcimer, "Guitar Winterlude," and Morton Gould conducting three symphony orchestras. (Yes, the Morton Gould.) They had all the Christmas CD's out front and made that very easy. Wasn't interested in any of the Christmas DVDs; most of the Christmas books were romances.

James got a book of paper planes, two John Ringo fantasies, two L. Neil Smith books, and Bill Engvall's biography. We also mutually bought Scott Carpenter's book because we didn't have it.

By the time we finished it was almost three o'clock and we hadn't eaten, so we went back to City Café for lunch. We had gone there last  year and really enjoyed our meal. To our delight they had the same chicken soup as last year. Instead of putting noodles in their chicken noodle soup, they use spaghetti. My mom and aunts and grandmothers used to do this, so eating it brings back a lot of nice memories. James had a shepherd's pie and I had an open-face turkey sandwich. I was as stuffed as the turkey would be when I finished. Brought most of the tater tot side home for James to make eggs with. We also ordered some of the soup to bring home for tomorrow night's supper, and took our dessert home as well.

We'd planned to stop at the Hamilton Mall's Barnes & Noble because, frankly, they have a better selection of books than any of the stores in Atlanta! However, there were clouds moving in and rain on the horizon, and we were afraid for the books riding out in the back of the truck. Plus I'd forgotten our coupons. So we headed south, listening to the rest of one "A Way With Words," plus another. There was another lovely sunset, though not as spectacularly red as last night, and this one was attractively layered between grey clouds. Traffic was great until we got close to home; they were turning people around on Delk Road, so we had to go home through Cobb Parkway and Windy Hill Road, both which were clotted with cars.

Didn't have our cake until much later. The pieces were so big we had to carve off only a portion, and I still couldn't finish mine. Sort of watched a Rosemary and Thyme episode (we've seen the whole series) and Keeping Up Appearances and As Time Goes By, and now are watching This Old House.

Tucker was going crazy a little while ago, barking at the back door and the side window. I went out on the deck with the big flashlight, but didn't see a thing. [Later: Aha. That was what the row was all about. The bunny is back.]

Labels: books, food, podcasts, television, travel

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:47:00 PM

Comments: Post a Comment