 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Saturday, December 31, 2016
Hit'n'Run Shopping
We slept in this morning, and then assembled our coupons for a quick assault. We wanted to do some errands, but not spend forever in the stores.
First we filled up my car at Kroger. It was 10:30 and the parking lot was already crazy. Arrived at Barnes & Noble along with a downfall of sleet (glad I refilled the bird feeders earlier!) which turned into rain later on. I picked up a couple of things from the clearance table and a discounted book on watercolor painting; James got some magazines and a Star Trek desk calendar. Next we skipped across the road to Bed, Bath & Beyond, where we had six coupons in imminent danger of expiring. With judicious arrangement of the coupons, we both spent about the same thing: I got two new bath mats for the bathroom since ours are fraying and one of those "scissors" to cut vegetables and meat. James got the 8 inch saucepan (we returned the ten when we got in), one of those square "copper" pans, and and bags for Tucker's "remains." I had a wild hair and stopped at Publix on the way home. Got a baguette and hearty beef veg soup for James and chicken noodle soup for me for lunch as it remained cold and clammy without. I let him take a little nap afterwards because he'd slept badly, then we did another quick shopping assault, this time at Kroger. James gassed up the truck while I went inside ostensibly to get milk, a banana, something for my work lunch, and some of the low-salt ham for James. I stayed around the outside edge of the store and also ended up with lean ground beef, beef bits, the ham was on sale so I got two, the baby Swiss was on sale so I got more, some ricotta as a treat, a no-sugar-added apple pie, discount bows and wrapping paper, and oh-my-god, milk at 99¢/gallon! Spent the afternoon watching New Year's specials: Burt Wolf talking about New Year customs, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, and Ellery Queen's "Adventure of Auld Lang Syne," which takes place New Year's Eve of 1946.  » Friday, December 30, 2016
You're a Rat Little Headache...
I feel like I wasted most of my last vacation day. When I got up my nose was a little stuffy and my throat scratchy. I was going to eat some mandarin orange with my breakfast and forgot after taking Tucker outside. I wasn't planning to go out today, but stay inside and get some tidying done, record stuff off the BBC, and work on finishing my Advent wreath that was supposed to be done this year. I sat down to watch a couple of the Rin Tin Tin episodes that I downloaded, which were the first two. There isn't much of an origin story in the pilot; O'Hara says they found them both in the burnt remains of a wagon train massacre, and Rinty was just a puppy. (German Shepherds didn't actually come to this country until the very late 1800s.) The second episode is similar to the Lassie story "The Whopper," where the men don't want to believe that Rusty and Rinty saw thieves after he tells them a fib. I also watched a British special called Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas.
While it was beautiful and blue out, albeit cold, we have rain coming in and by the time I got done with all those programs I had a headache that would have knocked out a horse. After what happened to James I am trying to avoid taking OTC painkillers, so I took a nap for an hour instead, and still had to take ibuprofin after I woke up. Instead I worked it off finishing the Advent wreath: I painted Christmas floral motifs between the candle spaces: holly, pine, cedar, and ivy. Now I just need to do the ink work. Eventually the headache did go away. We had supper at Uncle Maddio's, then went to Sprouts and finally Publix and still made it home by 8:30, where I finished up recording the Charles Paris mystery and started on Doctor Who. We also caught up with the last two episodes of Hawaii Five-0. Oh, crap. I know Daniel Dae Kim has a new series and I'm glad; if anyone deserves his own series, it's him! But I hope they are not going to kill off Chin Ho Kelly. ☹ Labels: crafts, food, health, television » Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Yet Another Elevator Day
You know that old saying "May you live in interesting times"? Today was "interesting."
It actually started last night. Alice had her birthday dinner last evening and of course we went. An added treat was that dinner was at Keegan's, which has great food. We sat with Jerry and Sue Lawson (the tables were arranged bistro style). I got a steak sandwich with some really nice onion rings on top and James got bangers and mash. He said the bangers were not overly salty, a plus. For some reason, James always tells me bad things at bedtime. If he's gotten reprimanded at work, or something's gone wrong, or the doctor has told him something worrying, he always tells me at bedtime. He says this is to not ruin my evening, which is fine, but it really ruins my sleep. So it was actually normal that it was almost time to get ready for bed when he told me he had this peculiar pulling pain under his right arm and under his right shoulder blade. Oh, hell. So very calmly I shut everything off, covered Snowy, got Tucker to bed, and then started asking questions. It had started when we got home. He had no chest pressure, pain down his arms, pain in his jaw, or any of the other symptoms the cardiologist warned him to beware of. His heart was not racing, he wasn't dizzy or woozy. It didn't get worse if he moved. There was just this low-level pain. So he took his blood pressure (a little high, as to be expected), pulse, etc. His sugar was high, but we really hadn't eaten until eight o'clock and it wasn't even eleven. Take a shower, I said, and keep the hot water on the painful area. Huh. The pain went away. Okay, we would avoid the emergency room, but call the doctor first thing in the morning. He called in sick to work. I don't know how he slept, but I was up once an hour making sure he was breathing. He called Kaiser at eight, got a 9:20 appointment, and went back to bed. Anyway, the nurse asked a lot of questions, and the doctor asked even more. She made him raise his arms all different ways, pushed on them, asked a bunch of questions about when the pain appeared and what he ate, checked his heart, etc, etc. Her conclusion was what I had been hoping: she said had the pain been under the left shoulder blade she would worry, but because it was under the right, started after he ate and went away with the shower she was pretty sure it was digestive, eating something too rich too late. Of course she warned us to get help immediately if it came back and was worse than before. Since we were out anyway, we stopped at MicroCenter on the way home. I have been thinking of a new laptop and MicroCenter had a cheap one on sale, so I wanted James' advice. We looked at the two cheap ones and they were okay (they still had DVD drives), but they were so big! Then the salesman started pushing a more expensive machine on us and I walked away. We did come home with a new router—to try to install when we dare, since we haven't had much luck the last two times—and two new keyboards. James kind of messed up his Microsoft keyboard when he tipped some soda on it. I didn't need one, but I couldn't program the buttons on my old Microsoft keyboard anymore since I upgraded to Windows 10. These are ergonomic keyboards as well, with the "camel hump" in the middle. I'm hoping it will help the pain in my wrists. All three of them were on sale. Yay.  We came home for James to relax, but he was restless and took the turkey carcass and made soup from it, adding celery and onion. I found a real treasure online: someone has posted 127 of the 164 episodes of The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. Even better, these are copies of the original broadcast shows
(even if some have been time-compressed and Rusty sounds like a squirrel), unlike the copies that have
been shown on the side channels like MeTV and CoziTV. Poor Rinty and friends have been practically eviscerated by modern syndication—first the soundtracks have been completely replaced (not just the theme song or the credit music, but all
the background music, too) with more modern music that is completely inappropriate for a 1950s show, and then for some reason parts of the dialog are redubbed. Adding insult to injury, Rusty
has been dubbed in by a woman! At least these butchered ones I've seen were still in black and white; the ones they show in England have been colorized as well. Ugh. Anyway, I spent all afternoon and evening downloading them. The picture isn't good on some, and one is incomplete, and another lacks the credits, but they are all watchable and just hearing the classic closing theme makes me grin.We had soup for supper, which suited James' digestion much better. Labels: computers, dogs, health, sickness, television » Thursday, December 22, 2016
The Ups and Downs of Christmas
After kind of a melancholy Wednesday—I was doing laundry and thinking about Mom and Dad—I had a better Thursday.
» Tuesday, December 20, 2016
The Shades of Christmas Past
Yesterday was devoted to must do's, today was supposed to be for "wanna do's." But first breakfast, a walk around the neighborhood with Tucker, and I had to finish cleaning up the spare bedroom, which looked like the aftermath of Black Friday gift wrapping. I had it tidied up except for vacuuming the carpet, and then went off for my usual Christmas tour of downtown Marietta.
I got a prime parking spot in front of the Local Exchange, which I wanted to stop at last, so first I went to look around inside Atlanta Antiques. In the back they have sound equipment, but in front there are all sorts of delightful things from the past, including two big cases of old cameras from the 1920s all the way through the 70s. I looked at a stereopticon that had slides of the life of Jesus, old postcards and Christmas cards, and old military, sports, and medical equipment. Luke the poodle wasn't there today. Next I crossed the park to check out the ice rink and Santa's spot and the big Christmas tree, along with local school Festival of Tree winners and some romping reindeer sculptures (one wearing a tutu). I walked up to the Christmas store, but they weren't opening until noon. The Keeping Room wouldn't be open until 12:30, so I just walked on to DuPre's to spy the Christmas decorations among the antiques. I thought they weren't quite as festive as in past years, but had a happy time wandering through Depression glass, old furniture, vintage textbooks, glittering costume jewelry, teacups, lots of tchotchkes, and other neat stuff. I bought a book from 1956 called Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter, written by Edward Streeter, who also wrote Father of the Bride. It looks like a wry comedy of manners set in New York City at Christmastime. As my time was getting short (parking is free only for two hours), I went on to The Corner Shop (the British store), bought a Doctor Who calendar, and chatted with the lovely older lady who runs the shop with her daughter. We were mostly talking about how salty and sugary foods are today. There is a candy store next door to The Corner Shop, so I popped in to see if they had anything sugar free. They had some taffy, so I tried getting some for James. And then I was back at the Local Exchange to get the Best Pretzels in the World, Knotty Pretzels in Zesty Italian flavor. Yum. I was feeling a call of nature, so drove on to the main library to use their facilities. Of course I checked the stacks, and then the "for sale" books. Found a nice one called Swedish Christmas, which I actually finished today. From the library it was only a short way to the antique market. This is another place I visit before Christmas, where choice placement of garlands, ornaments, sparkly trees, bead roping, and Christmas lights gives all the antiquities a festive air. I saw an antique cane I was kinda interested in. I'll need one eventually, and would like a unique one. But it was $90. Also saw one James might be interested in. Admired all the cool old furniture, wandered into an alcove full of nothing but old china, checked out framed antique sports programs, drooled over the furniture (they had a lovely whatnot, very sturdy and not scuffed at all), and finally found the vendor with the books and checked out their small supply of Happy Hollisters novels. One booth had Jim Shore figures for sale, and I found a darling owl wearing a "Pilgrim hat" standing next to a pumpkin. He will go perfectly with my Jim Shore turkey. It was 2:15 and I was starving, so I quickly did a Tin Drum survey and then drove down to Cumberland Mall to get my discounted meal and read Swedish Christmas. Lastly I stopped at Barnes & Noble with one more coupon they sent through e-mail and bought A Very Vintage Christmas, which we'd seen over the weekend. Came home to walk Tucker and then finish the vacuuming and listen to Christmas carols on TuneIn radio. James made pork chops for supper and later I put on two Christmas episodes of M*A*S*H and the two For Better or For Worse Christmas specials, The Bestest Present and A Christmas Angel.i Labels: antiques, books, Christmas, food, shopping, television » Monday, December 19, 2016
Marathon Gal
Oh, what a day...
We had a surprise yesterday when James' mom called about getting together for Christmas: now that they have a new car they suggested they come here. So we are having company on Christmas Eve. We were going to get some dark meat parts for us and a breast for Mom and Candy, but when I got up this morning and dashed to Kroger (I didn't even eat), all I could find were ginormous turkey breast and no parts. They did have small turkeys, so I got a little, 9-pound one. Also got extra dessert, more milk, and a few other things. Then I could come home, tuck away the groceries, take the dog out and have breakfast. Next I went to cookie baking. This was not really fun. The wine didn't turn the first batch mix the proper color and it was very dry. I had to keep adding wine and since I was at the bottom of the bottle, I had to strain it through a coffee filter in case the mother came out. Then the temperatures in the oven varied wildly. This is okay for meat, but terrible for baking. The oven usually reads a little higher than the temp actually is, so I set the thermostat 25 degrees higher. When it said it was up to temp I put the cookies in, the oven thermometer read 200. Ten minutes later the oven was smoking because the bottoms of the cookies were smoking and the oven thermometer read over 400! I had to throw open the back door and put on the kitchen ceiling fan. The cookies came out burnt on the bottom and still raw at the center. The second batch came out better, but there was still smoke and the oven temp varied wildly on that set of cookies. Once that was done, I took Tucker out for his walk, and for the next 2 1/2 hours I wrapped gifts. Some went into paper, others went into gift bags. I had to wrap at least four birthday gifts as well. I finished right before James arrived home, and resolved not to do anything more for the night except watch Christmas specials. Tonight was reserved for The Gathering, the magnificent television movie starring Ed Asner and Maureen Stapleton. And then I tottered outside with Tucker and it was bedtime. Labels: baking, Christmas, food, gifts, television » Sunday, December 18, 2016
Rainy Without and Warm Within
 What woke me up this morning was warmth. During the night it had gone up to 67°F and by eight-thirty those nice cozy blankets from last night were scratchy and hot. Sigh. So I went into the bathroom, where I could just see the sun rising over the pretty-much-naked trees in the back yard, and was scrolling through my phone for a few minutes when I looked out again and it was as dark as twilight and the trees were lashing back and forth. The front was coming through with a vengeance for about five minutes, then it got light again. Unfortunately it also started raining so I couldn't re-fill the bird feeders and Tucker went outside, did his thing quickly on the lawn, and then dashed back inside.I had an eggnog and some oatmeal for breakfast, with James having eggs, and then we headed out for what turned out to be a long day. First we stopped at the new Publix so James could check it out and we could pick out some peppermint tea. They were still giving out samples and we had some kind of chicken pilaf with a raspberry vinegar salad, and also some salami and crackers and cream cheese with brown sugar sauce poured on top of it. We picked up some lamb, some ground turkey, something for Christmas Eve dessert, more wraps so James can make more breakfast burritos to get him past the new year, and this and that, including some soup for dinner. I still had a 25 percent off Barnes & Noble coupon and a ten dollar gift card, and James had a 30 percent off coupon, and both had to be used in the store. So we decided to go into Buckhead, which meant a nice ride down the snazzy lengths of West Paces Ferry Road. This has always been a wealthy neighborhood, but they've been knocking down the former posh houses to build even posher homes, "McMansions" as it were. One even looks like an Italian palazzio. All of them have mailboxes swathed with fresh Christmas greens which must come from Very Expensive Florists and most are traditionally decorated with wreaths, red bows, white candles, and green garlands. The forecast was for rain all day and it was indeed misty and grey, and, as the hours went by, getting colder: it was 67 when I got up and at eleven it was already down in the 50s. We had a peppermint cocoa when we got there, sharing a piece of what was labeled as gingerbread loaf, but what was very lightly gingerbread and had citron in it. Then we hit the magazine racks. I found the magazine I was looking for, the winter edition of "This England," also a big thick magazine from "Country Life" called "Forever England," the new issue of "Breathe," and the January "Country Sampler." I found the book I wanted to get, but James looked around and was dissatisfied with the books he saw. He thought about getting a game, but Buckhead didn't have a good selection of games. Because it was raining, he hadn't taken his power chair, and was looking exhausted from the pain of walking, but we paid for our stuff and then drove home via the Akers Mill store, which usually does have a good selection of games. This time he couldn't find anything that pleased him, but he saw a new book there about the Pacific theater in World War II and bought that. I picked up the book I wanted at a good savings, a beautiful art book about Beatrix Potter. Everyone remembers her for Peter Rabbit and her children's books, and perhaps for preserving a large part of the Lake District in England and keeping it from developers, but not many people know she drew botanical models that were so good they were used in textbooks. And half the time she wasn't credited because textbook publishers didn't want to give a woman credit! By now the mist and the damp were deep into our bones and it was after three and we were tired and achy. We decided to just come home and eat. We had the soup we picked up at Publix this morning (I picked more noodles and chicken and veg than soup, and then took most of the soup so James could substitute no-salt broth in his bowl; a good thing I did, too, as it was very salty) and James made grilled cheese sandwiches. I put all the four Timmy and Lassie Christmas episodes on while we ate, and we had two of our gingerbread boys from Books-a-Million for dessert. Later on we watched the news, and then the saga of Ralphie Parker and his quest for a Red Ryder BB gun in A Christmas Story, and finally the new Christmas episode of Alaska: the Last Frontier. This was a great episode. They did a "white elephant" Christmas—calling it "white rabbit" instead—and there were some killer gifts. Shane made a stone axe which Eivan ended up with, Eve (and little Finlay) made blackcurrant wine, Charlotte made an old model of the Kilcher original homestead, Eivan made a samurai sword and scabbard, Atz did a basket sculpture with an old pelvis bone...just real cool stuff, and it was funny, too. And after all that, the weekend is over, and...damn, I have to go back to the grocery store! My baking powder is outdated! Labels: books, Christmas, food, Lassie, movies, shopping, television, weather » Saturday, December 17, 2016
Merry Friendmas!
We had a relatively quiet morning, and a good thing, because the rest of the day zipped by at top speed. Despite going to bed late, James woke early and went off to do his morning routine and walk the dog. I tried to sleep a little longer, but merely dozed. When I got up I had breakfast and then had to wrap a couple of gifts for this afternoon: the "wizard college" print I got for Aubrey Spivey's graduation gift and Juanita's retirement gift (a plaque that said "I'm not retired. I'm just starting" and a National Parks coloring book). I didn't have any cards, but thought I still had a greeting card generating computer program. Nope. Just made two simple ones with graphics and lettering instead. Looks like I should buy some card software.We arrived at the Outback Steakhouse in Kennesaw in good time by coming through the back, and good thing, too, as Barrett Parkway is not only lined with stores that are crowded at Christmas, but Town Center Mall is down the road apiece and the road looked like one big parking lot, and had a great lunch. James and I decided to split today's coupon special, which was a huge ribeye with two sides. I ate the potato and he had mushrooms and we both carved off the steak, which arrived at the table on the bone and looked like something the Flintstones would order for dinner. (James took a picture of me gnawing the meat off it.) We brought half of it home, but I won't order a ribeye again; they are just too fatty. I was re-tasting it for the rest of the night. Aubrey had some cool gifts, including a beautiful dragon scarf. After everyone had finished eating, most of us repaired to the house to have cake and talk some more. Jesse was telling us about his new job, and we watched Cinnamon the dog play with the cat, who was batting at her face with sheathed claws. We headed home about six so I could walk Tucker before we left for the Atlanta Radio Theatre performance. It was a very strange day weatherwise, as it had started out cold and was actually getting warmer as the day progressed. As we left it was just a little foggy and much warmer than it had been in the morning—nearly 20 degrees higher. "An Atlanta Christmas" was being performed on our side of town this year. Previously it had been out in Avondale for many years (we actually used to enjoy that ride, as we got to see the decorations in downtown Avondale) and then for the last few years all the way down south in Stockbridge at a very nice venue that the GPS continued to misdirect us to (the only problem being southbound traffic on I-75). This year it was at the Good Acting Studio right next to the Masonic Lodge just north of downtown Marietta, about a 12-minute drive from us. It was a great performance as always, with a bunch of my favorites including "O Tannenbaum" (a.k.a. "Crazy Uncle Richard's World War I Christmas letter") and "Are You Lonely Tonight" (two lonely people meet at the office party) and even "The Legend of the Poinsettia" ("It's red!"), plus a new story called "Role of a Lifetime," about a 1950s actor who has a temporary position playing Santa Claus and is faced with the sobbing wish of a little girl who just wants her daddy back from Korea for Christmas. They finished up with the rollicking "A Blue Hanukkahmas Carol," the story of a stranded young man, and four very peculiar ghosts. Then we came home and relaxed to Christmas music until bedtime. Labels: Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, Christmas, events, friends, weather » Friday, December 16, 2016
Top of the Eighteenth
Today was the first day of eighteen anticipated days of leave and weekends and holiday festivities. If this is an example of the rest of the time, I'm going to have to go back to work to get some rest. 😀I did take the opportunity to sleep late, then had breakfast and walked the dog. It wasn't quite as cold as yesterday morning, but the wind still had a knife edge. Bits of cloud from the upcoming rain already hanging out against a bright blue sky. Now, I had one gift package that had not gone out in last weekend's mass mailing because I needed to add something to it. Plus another gift that had not gone out because we hadn't decided what we would buy. So today I needed to go complete those two gifts. Accordingly, I went to Kroger to pick up these missing pieces. I also found a nice steak and some chops, bought milk and yogurt, and a couple of gift cards. Well, I picked up one of the missing pieces. I was in line and had checked out when I realized I hadn't picked up the one I actually went there for! So I just did a U-turn after leaving the cashier, went back for what I needed, and got back into line. At least I could use the express lane this time. I brought the groceries home, put up the perishables, finished the packages, then drove to the post office and got the items off. Now I could have a little fun. Well, sorta. I had coupons and had to do some other errands first. I stopped at CVS on the outbound with one to pick up Breathe Rights, and at Petco with another to get Tucker more dog food and of course I bought him more treats. I had to stop to say hi to the budgies, and bought Snowy a new grit perch. Okay, now for some fun: I had a great coupon for Barnes & Noble. I didn't end up with a book, though, because by then it was 1:30 and I was hungry enough to eat a book rather than read it. I had a cup of clam chowder at the café and read Facebook (which included such gems as this), then couldn't decide between two books and bought a cross-stitch magazine instead. James has a 30 percent off; maybe he'll want to go to Buckhead on Sunday. Fed the car at Costco, then checked out a Dollar Tree. I usually get a cheap ($1.50) 5"x5" calendar from Michaels to keep track of my paydays and what I pay on them, tacked up next to my computer. Michaels doesn't seem to have small calendars this year. I tried at Kmart last week, since I'd seen them there previously, and they had none. Aubrey said she saw some at a Dollar Tree. The one near our house looked like a bomb—or at least unsupervised small children—had tramped through it. No small calendars. Tried Dollar General; saw no calendars at all. (Oh, also stopped at the new Publix on the way home. I went there at lunchtime for the grand opening day and picked up a bunch of twofers and had samples. Supposedly Milk Bones were on BOGO, but there were no signs up. I talked to one of the managers and he gave them to me for the discount prices. Another manager asked me as I headed for the register if I'd looked for something that I didn't see. I suggested Davidson eggs, of course. Anyway, I noticed that on the deli soups they said they would carry chicken and wild rice soup on Friday, so I stopped by there today. And they had none. Grump.) Came home to walk Tucker again, drink two big glasses of milk (the clam chowder was salty), and wait for James. We had supper at Giovanni's, certainly an improvement on Red Lobster last weekend! Cost less plus leftovers. Then came home to watch a Danny Kaye Show Christmas special I recorded off GetTV and listen to some Christmas music. Oh, yeah, and ordered one of the two books online... Labels: books, Christmas, errands, food, shopping, television » Sunday, December 11, 2016
Birthdays Come Around Again
It's been rather an uneven birthday.We slept late, which was a swell birthday gift all in itself. We both had breakfast after walking the dog. The sky was slate grey and silver grey rippled, and it was chilly and slightly damp, with a bit of a breeze that snuck into the weaknesses of your jacket. About 11:30 we left to go to Books-a-Million. Last year they were the only place that had gingerbread boys. But first we stopped at Publix so I could drop off the recycling and our contributions for Toys for Tots, and also get a newspaper. Well, I got a shock—the store is closing on Wednesday (I thought the aisles looked rather empty), with the new store a mile or so away in Smyrna opening on Thursday (we heard it was opening next year!), so they didn't get a Toys for Tots bin. I was so surprised I walked out without the paper, too. Luckily (or unluckily), James had a call of nature and we stopped at the next Publix on the route and I bought a paper and left the toys behind. From there we proceeded to Books-a-Million after stopping at Kroger for gas. And, yes indeed, they did have gingerbread boys. We had them with peppermint cocoa and bought a half dozen more for the rest of the season. Alas, the days when I could have sweets for lunch and do okay afterward are gone. By the time we left, I was feeling distinctly queasy. James wasn't doing so well, either. He thinks the food at Red Lobster last night made him sick. So I paid for my purchase, a remainder book, and we came home where he could have some ginger tea and take more Pepto Bismol. I got things ready for work tomorrow, then watched the Lassie episode "The Little Christmas Tree," and then The Lost Tapes: Pearl Harbor. This was fascinating as it was comprised of news bulletins, interviews, recordings, and other vocals over photographs, film from newsreels and the scene, handwritten notes, and documents. I didn't get all of it and need to try to record it again when it's on December 22. I always listen to Roosevelt's speech and try to put myself in my mother's place, or my father's. What did they think when they heard the bulletins, and then the speeches? Was Dad scared of the idea of going to battle, or just too angry to care? Did Mom realize how many of her family would go off to war, even the nephews she still thought of as boys? I look at the old photographs and wish I could jump in...not to change, I know I can't do that, but just to see. I want to know how it was so much! Ended up watching the end of Anne of Green Gables, the Sullivan version. The new version with Martin Sheen is on tonight. I'm not sure if I want to watch it, as I hear they've made it "more relevant," which gives me the shudders. I remember "relevant" TV from the 70s, and it usually means "boring." So we went on to the episode of Alaska: the Last Frontier that we skipped last week to watch something else, and then this week's episode. Labels: books, history, shopping, television » Saturday, December 10, 2016
Surprises: Good, Bad and Terrific
We decided to go back to Costco this morning to see if we could get two more of the terrific chair pads we bought last week, so we were up at eight, out in the cold air, and at Costco by the time they opened. Alas, we could not find the seat cushions. Or Eggland eggs, either. We stocked up on milk and "plastic cheese," as James calls it, and a couple of other things, then did find a real bargain: we have our computer chairs on clear plastic chair mats. At that moment very old plastic chair mats. Mine had fine cracks in it, since I sit there all day at least two days a week. I had looked at new ones at Office Depot and they were $45. These were larger and they were only $19! Yeah, with those stupid little spikes in them to keep them from sliding on the carpet they are a pain to handle, but after I had vacuumed around the desks and we heaved them upstairs, they went in place fine. I'd almost rather wrestle with the Christmas tree, though!James left for his IPMS meeting and I put up the milk and cheese. Now, for years I have heard about something called Christmas at the Mable House, which is a craft show at an historic home on Floyd Road. I've always put it on my calendar and never have gone. This year I was determined to go. First I had to stop at the Publix on Floyd Road to get some cash in case they didn't take cards. Well, this Publix doesn't have a SunTrust anymore, either—are they pulling out of all of them?—but I could get money out of the Presto machine for nothing. (I picked up a baguette and the eggs for James, too.) The Mable House is just a block down from the Publix. The craft show wasn't at the house, though; it at the meeting building across the driveway. It was arranged more like the flea markets we go to rather than having the vendors at individual booths as at Apple Annie (some of the vendors were there, they just weren't taking money). Each item had a number signifying whose craft it was and a price. You paid for all at the end at a check out cash register and I guess at the end of the day or the show each crafter gets his money. I bought some little items like a tea bag holder for James and something cool for David Gibson. From there, since I was so close, I stopped at KMart. I usually put a little 5x5" calendar next to my desk, marking when I will be paid and which paycheck goes for what. I usually get one at Michaels, but I haven't seen any this year. KMart is the only place I've seen these tiny calendars. But there were none. I did find more tinsel (I try to replace what I use every year and a little more), real 50-strings of "fairy lights" (I bought three, and they weren't $15 bloody dollars each, either), and C7 bulbs in multicolors as I'm toying with making the candles multicolor one day. I also stopped at the used bookstore to see what they had in Christmas books, but only bought a couple "Sisters at Heart" I don't have (these are like "Dear America" books, but with a Christian slant). The Christmas books were piled out front but I either had them, they were romances, or they were cookbooks/decorating books. By then I was starving because it was almost 1:30. I had a $9 birthday credit at Tin Drum, so went there for lunch, which ended up costing 54¢. (In the end, it was a good thing I filled up!) I stopped in at Barnes & Noble before going home. Children were singing the score from Annie. I picked up a "Period Living" and "English Period Homes." I had just gotten home and was tidying up a little when James arrived home. He wanted to take me out for my birthday dinner tonight. Usually we go to the Colonnade, but it's way in Buckhead, and I wanted something different for a change. Let's go to Red Lobster, I suggested. Well, our waitress was nice and the food was good, but oh, goodness...I ordered a pick-two combination so I could have grilled scallops and grilled shrimp, and as my side I had "roast gold potatoes." The sorriest plate I've ever seen emerged along with James' seafood trio (which has fried shrimp and alfredo shrimp, both which I dislike): six puny shrimp on a stick and three good sized scallops and a tiny one on another, with six (count 'em, six) tiny round potatoes, two about the diameter of a dime. James was aghast. He gave me some of the alfredo and the sauce was thick and unappetizing. I ate the shrimp and the scallops up, but could only eat one of the potatoes because they were so heavily peppered. James was annoyed enough to complain to the manager, who comped us the scallops. Honestly, they were $2.50 extra. They could have at least given me six, and all full size! Dessert was better; we went to Bruster's and had ice cream. Yes, ice cream when the mercury stands at 40°F. One of my favorite stories from my mom was the one about the snowstorm in which she and her best friend walked all the way downtown and then walked home eating ice cream in the snow. We have no snow, but we've had the cold! It was 27 this morning and I even put Tucker's jacket on him. He hated it, but he wore it. :-) We took him out again when we got home, and then settled in to "watch some Christmas." I played Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, and then put on Rick Steves' European Christmas for some real hygge. Following we listened to the additional songs on the disc, and then we got caught up watching an old NYPD Blue episode on Heroes & Icons. That was such a good series. Anyway, the biggest news of the day came when James arrived home from the IPMS meeting. I got an excited phone call right after he pulled into the driveway: "I found it!" His wedding ring was sitting in the groove where the garage door comes down! How we missed it when we searched I don't know, but he's happy and I'm happy that it's back. Labels: books, Christmas, errands, excursions, food, shopping » Friday, December 09, 2016
Lots of Hits and One Sad Miss
So, this week we've had some new work done, one training course completed, one telework agreement renewed (I have my Friday back! yay!), one backache—contracted from one dog yanking me out the door to chase a cat—successfully defeated, and some sad news: James' wedding ring turned up MIA on Thursday after he came back from the doctor. He's pretty sure he had it on that morning, but he has checked at work and I have checked at Kaiser and no one has seen it. Blast.And now to something fun: the Christmas tree! » Sunday, December 04, 2016
Second Weekend of Advent
We had a fairly happy and busy weekend."Hair Day" was scheduled for Saturday morning and we were bringing the main dish. On Thursday and again on Friday I had supervised the cooking of pot roast in the crock pot. We used a pork roast recipe with brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, and cinnamon, and it came out wonderfully. There was a nice crowd, but we were all a little subdued: Lin was sick and Phyllis coming down with a cold, and Charles was, after eating with us, heading back to Pennsylvania to be with his mother, who is under hospice care. There were veggies to snack on for breakfast and mashed potatoes and rolls to go along with the pot roast. I was rather appalled by the stories we were hearing from Pat and Alex's son. He said he was often distracted by kids playing loud music in class or talking aloud, and we in all innocence asked why the teacher didn't make them shut up. He said the teacher can't do that! If he/she does, the parents of the kids will complain to the school board and the teacher will get into trouble. How on earth do kids learn anything today if their teachers have no authority? What rubbish! We were on dessert (a nice cake) by the time we had to leave and go get James' eyes dilated. They couldn't do it when he had the eye exam because he had it at night. (If they dilate your eyes, it makes your pupils open and more sensitive to light. So why couldn't they do it in the dark???) So we had this done, and then went down to Kroger and did that part of the shopping. By then the eye dilation kicked in and he was getting a headache, so we came home with the groceries and were in for the night. Put on John Denver and the Muppets, Muppet Family Christmas, "Santaclaustrophobia" from Hill Street Blues, and the documentary Christmas Past. After that, when James couldn't find anything decent to watch besides Guy Fieri, we went to bed! As of Friday Atlanta had not had rain for 42 straight days, but finally rain was coming toward us. One of the reasons we came directly home from Kroger is that we had to get the power chair under cover because the anticipated rain was starting. Today it rained, it misted, it mizzled, it showered. James woke early, but I tried to stay in bed, defeated finally by a stuffed nose and a dry mouth. We went to Costco and while James had eaten breakfast, I forgot to grab a Bel Vita bar on the way out, so I was happy for a few samples at Costco. We found Skinny Pop there and bought sausage and mushrooms. (We also bought new chair pads for our desk chairs. I've been using a rectangle of padding and a "chill pad" that was out of shape. These are nice and firm and so much better. We need to go back and get two more for work, especially on my $1600 supposedly ergonomic chair which has to be the most uncomfortable piece of office furniture ever.) For a little fun we went to Barnes & Noble next. Checked out the books and the magazines, and we had some cocoa. On the way home we stopped at Big Lots for a new "airplane tree" and Publix for Smart Balance, lunchmeat for my work sandwiches, a Sunday paper, and a few other things, then arrived home for lunch, a movie, and decoration of the airplane tree. This evening we watched America's Funniest Home Videos and Pearl Harbor: 75 Years Later. Labels: errands, events, friends, television, weather » Sunday, November 27, 2016
Life is What Happens When You're Making Other Plans #1257
We got to bed kind of late, but this morning we had a chance to sleep in. We needed to get some milk today, and I had to go back to Verizon to get my Hum installed, and we were thinking about going into Buckhead to see what they had at Barnes & Noble since 30 percent off a book and off all magazines doesn't happen every day.At 5:30 a.m. I was awakened by a thump, what sounded like books falling over, and James' voice near my side of the bed. He was on the floor, having headed to the bathroom, then somehow twisted on his feet and stumbled forward, heading for the door instead and clonking his head on my dresser. So in a few minutes I was playing nurse in the bathroom—James' skin has gotten very thin and he had scraped his hand and his elbow—and I was doing the usual "clonking" questions: is your vision blurry? how many fingers am I holding up? what's your mother's name? etc. He wasn't dizzy, his pupils were equal, he was coherent, and we just stayed up for an hour before going back to bed. He got up before me and limped through walking the dog and scraping together breakfast, but he was in a lot of pain. He called the advice nurse at Kaiser and she told him some stuff he could do, but she recommended going to urgent care. Sigh. While he was eating I went on the porch and took down the Thanksgiving decorations and put up the Christmas ones, including the net lights on the bushes and the little blue pine tree on the table. I usually do a little bit of decorating on the first Sunday of Advent, even if it's only putting the candles in the windows. Didn't know if I would make it today. And I ran to Publix to get that milk we needed, a couple of yogurt cups, and some bread, which I made a sandwich with since God knows how long we would be at urgent care. We went by Wendy's to get James a grilled chicken burger. We still had to stop by Verizon first. They'd opened at noon and at ten past were already slammed, so I had to wait. I filed my nails while I stood there. Finally got the Hum install (it plugs in the socket they use when they inspect your car), but then we couldn't log on to James' e-mail to get it fully connected. Sigh. But then finally we could head up to Kennesaw at urgent care. We were actually taken care of pretty quickly by a nice team of folks, but it took a while because there were so many things to get through. First we talked to the nurse, then went into the back where we talked with the Physician's Assistant. Even though the bump on James' head did not break the skin, she wanted a CT scan just to make sure he wasn't bleeding internally (because he's on blood thinners), and then they had to do an X-ray of his back. In the meantime the tech cleaned out the scrape on his hand and cut away all the dead skin and bandaged him up, and he had a flu shot. The CT scan came up clean and the X-ray showed a lot of arthritis but nothing broken. The PA talked about giving him muscle relaxants, but he wants to go to work tomorrow because he hopes he can get his computer in shape to telework when it finally rains this week. So instead he has the week's worth of steroids that will make his blood sugar go crazy. Hopefully it will make him feel better, too. We came home by the Town Center Barnes & Noble so we could use a coupon on the new David Weber book, and I got some modeling magazines for him as well. And we went by Best Buy and I finally got this year's copy of Big Bang Theory. So everything got done anyway (except the fun trip to Buckhead), and we had the City Cafe soup for supper, since we needed some comfort food. And I did manage to get the candles put in the front windows. We are the first house in the complex with outside lights, although Eddie and Miranda next door and the new folks down the street from Florida have Christmas trees up. Will commence more decorating tomorrow. Later watched the animated A Christmas Carol (with the voice of Alistair Sim) and needed a laugh so put on The Fiveish Doctors Reboot. And then finally it was time for Alaska: the Last Frontier. Labels: electronics, errands, food, sickness, television » Saturday, November 26, 2016
Day Trippin'
We'd been toying with going to Chattanooga today, and the subject had gone back and forth for a couple of days. James worried about it possibly being crowded on the road because of shoppers and travelers, but then we wouldn't have a chance again until right before Christmas. And we got skunked out of our vacation, so today would be kind of a mini-vacation for us. So we set an alarm for eight and ended up waking at 7:30. Still, we didn't actually get on the road until 9:30, after eating, Tucker's walk, and a stop at Sam's Club for gasoline and to use the facilities. (We got there at 9:01. The sign on the door said that until Christmas Eve they were open at 7 a.m. The doors were still locked. They let us go in the exit, and didn't look ready to open yet. How strange.)Anyway, it was a nice ride up, with pretty trees that faded about the time we got to very north Georgia. I drove, and we listened to "A Way With Words." The time passed pretty quickly. I don't know why we complain so much about driving up there; it takes me longer to get home from work half the time, and the ride isn't half as pleasurable. McKay's was crowded, but not terribly so. A man helped us carry in the books and we sent them forward for trade in, and then set to investigating the shelves. They had the Christmas CDs right out front and I was chatting with a lady about music we liked to listen to as I thumbed through the albums. I got a nice selection of books, including three Malcolm Gladwell volumes, a book where a family cycles the Lewis & Clark trail, another where the narrators travel Spain and stay only at monasteries, some linguistics books, a book about the Harvey Girls, another about Queen Victoria's daughters, a big beautiful anthropology book in full color for only $4, and a bunch of other goodies including some nice Christmas music (Robert Shaw, Narada, etc.). By the time we were finished, we were both hungry as wolves, breakfast having been five hours ago. As usual, we went to City Cafe for lunch. They are attached to a Best Western motel, have a diner motif, cook yummy food, and I love their chicken soup: it is very light and flavorful, with carrots, celery, and parsley, pieces of chicken, and the noodles are the way my mom and aunts and godmothers did them in a hurry, just spaghetti broken up into small bits, so it's very nostalgic. We both had a cup and James had liver and onions with pilaf and green beans, and I had spaghetti with meat sauce. It came in a huge bowl and I took most of it home. We also bought two extra servings of soup to bring home. Sadly, by then it was three o'clock,so we had no time to go by the Barnes & Noble at the Hamilton Mall (I like to see the regional books and magazines) and still get home before dark. So we topped up the truck, since it's around 25 cents a gallon cheaper up there, and headed south. Ran into a couple of small traffic jams, but nothing else, and spent the rest of the night relaxing and messing with the new phone again. » Friday, November 25, 2016
Ready, Set, Shop...
Thanksgiving having been covered here, we were ready to go on to the next phase of the weekend: acquiring certain items (or at least looking at them).So we (James having worked Sunday to take today off) got up by my usual work alarm, ate quickly and I walked Tucker, and then we went to H.H. Gregg. I still would like to buy James a stove. The ones they had on sale weren't all that prepossessing, and I've been attracted to this one, but it's not cheap. I am thinking that since we would mostly use the top half, it would use less gas in the long run. But, oh, that price tag, especially when I'm still paying off the HVAC. So we left there to go by Best Buy to pick up the latest Big Bang Theory DVD only to find out they weren't open for ten minutes. Instead we went across the street and picked up my online purchase from Office Depot (a couple of wireless mice and some backup media) and by the time we came back they were open, but I could not for the life of me find the stupid DVD. Usually they have it on a rack or in a bin, and I walked around four times and never saw it. I hate going into Best Buy anymore; the lights are so bright and the televisions and the sound systems are cranked up so high that I get disoriented. Plus last year when they opened on Thanksgiving there was no one in the store on Friday; there was already a long line forming after 20 minutes, and BBT wasn't worth standing in it. So out we came and went to Verizon. Frankly, I think we stepped on a rocket to the moon. You see, James got a tablet from them two years ago with 4G access because when it's slow at work he's not allowed to surf the internet any longer on his work computer. It's a security thing. But the tablet has been shutting down abruptly when he's in Facebook or even just reading an e-book, even after we reset it, and, worse, last month we went over our data plan because all of a sudden it has been pulling more data than usual. So he wanted a new one. After what seemed like hours we not only came out of there with a new tablet, but new phones, and even this gadget called a Hum which is like Onstar. It monitors your car and you can call for roadside assistance and for help. Plus they said our bill would stay the same and we have more data. I really wanted a Droid Turbo 2, but we ended up with the Google Pixel because it was the special, and it has gotten terrific ratings. I spent the rest of the day wrestling with it (I even had to chat with tech support to find out how you got it to show up on your computer), and guess I like it. It's a tiny bit smaller than the old phone, but very light and the sound is better. The camera is supposed to be better than any phone, even the new iPhone, although I noticed it doesn't have a zoom. (I have the app Camera Zoom which does have one, so we'll see how that works.) So we stopped at home to use the bathroom—it took forever there because their computers were messed up with all the people upgrading—and then dashed to Staples to pick up the thumb drive I'd bought online before having lunch at West Cobb Diner. It was warm enough to eat outside and we took full advantage of it, taking a table under a tree. Afterwards we stopped at Barnes & Noble because all their magazines are 30 percent off this weekend. I was fabulously lucky that the new "Bella Grace" was out (with all that heavy paper it's expensive), and I also got the Christmas "Smoky Mountain Living" and "Southern Lady Christmas." From there we finally came home and I spent a lot of the evening putting stuff back on my phone. Labels: electronics, shopping, smartphones » Wednesday, November 23, 2016
A Week of Freedom!
» Sunday, November 20, 2016
The Hygge Department
So James got up for work and I got to sleep in. I really missed having him here today. Of course he's tied to the laptop for eight hours, but he's still here; it's very companionable between calls.I wanted to make sure I got some bread today and we needed a paper, so after I took Tucker for a nice long walk—it was too pretty to just make it a short one, all bright and blue and breezy again—I skipped breakfast and went back to Publix. This time they had baguettes and I got the last double newspaper. I also picked up onions, Band Aids, Neosporin, and a small bottle of Dawn. Yes, I kept to my grocery list for once. Well, except for one thing: I bought a dozen of Davidson's eggs. These are safe to eat raw because they are pasteurized in the shell, so I made myself an eggnog for breakfast. This is what I had for breakfast all thirteen of my school years. We bought the eggs fresh from Stamps' farm and never worried about salmonella. Instead of that icky thick stuff you get in cartons and cans, this is fresh and light: eight ounces of milk, one egg, and less than two teaspoons of sugar. I remember that at Christmas mom would add nutmeg, and when it got really cold she would put some brandy in it. And that was all I did outside today. I put the rest of yesterday's groceries away, aired out and made the bed, did my usual Sunday chores (counting out pills for the week, putting out my work clothes, getting my work bag ready for the week, setting up my lunch box, etc.), and spent the afternoon either listening to DishNet's Traditional Holidays music channel or watching back episodes of Elementary. Read a bit of Kirkpatrick's Thanksgiving, fiddled a bit more trying to get Paint Shop Pro 9 off my computer (it quit working and I've been trying to uninstall it and possibly reinstall it, but it keeps getting stuck in the removal process, even with a software removal tool I got from the PSP people), paid some bills through online banking, walked the dog again, did a blog entry for "Stir-Up Sunday," read the paper and cut out coupons, and a bunch of other little chores. Snowy sang to the Christmas music, and Tucker, looking depressed since James was not here, settled for sleeping on my right leg for a while. James was home on time, having had a slow day, and we finished up the tortellini from last week and had a cucumber salad with peach vinegar dressing. Watched the lighting of the Christmas tree on top of the Macy's store at Lenox Mall, then The Durrells in Corfu (the final episode, it looks like), and a Thanksgiving episode of Alaska: the Last Frontier. Labels: books, computers, food, shopping, television » Saturday, November 19, 2016
The Busy Department
Yesterday the high was 78°F, any wind blowing sullenly from the south with heat oozing from every pore, only dipping into the mid-fifties after the sun set. And there it remained, only creeping up two degrees during Saturday. Along with the cold came a long blast of wind and this combined to make it chilly and breezy all day.Needless to say, it was beautiful. The sky was clear and so blue it hurt. All that cold air puts heart back into me after the sweaty despair of summer. We were up at 7:30 to eat a quick breakfast and get the dog perambulated before we had to load boxes of dead electronics/electrical items in the bed of the truck and also load the power chair. We took dead lamps, defunct computers, burned-out fans and all sorts of nonsense, including all those lousy pigtail CFLs. There was already a line to get in when we arrived at Jim Miller Park at 8:58. We got directed into the wrong line, then into the correct line, but they didn't take lightbulbs, and James protested that we had just gotten out of the lightbulb line and they hadn't told us that was for lightbulbs, so they took the lightbulbs anyway. We had the power chair with us because we wanted to go to the Farmer's Market, but on the way there we spotted an inspection station. I had my car done when I had the window switch fixed, but the truck still needed to be completed. So we stopped and had it done and now I can go online and pay for the car registrations. Most of the vendors at the Farmer's Market today dispensed with the tents because of the blustery weather. We hadn't been for a while and discovered that they have fixed the sidewalks from the parking lot to the square; it's all been bricked and what was already bricked was repaired, much nicer for James to trundle on. We bought fresh tomatoes and cucumbers for ourselves and to make a salad for Thanksgiving Day, dog biscuits and some Thanksgiving dog cookies, pumpkin bread to take to the "kitchenwarming," and scones for desserts. Stopped and talked to the guy who used to sell the chicken salad, substituting for Diana who sells salmon, and he said his wife is so retired she won't even make chicken salad for him anymore. LOL. While we were surveying the booths, America's Best called. They couldn't get James' insurance to run; did he want the new glasses anyway? James said yes, because he'd priced them online and they aren't much cheaper. Those "cheap online glasses" aren't just cheap frames, they're plain single vision lenses with no other additions. Once you get bifocals, progressive ones no less, anti-glare, anti-scratch—it all adds up. So from the Farmer's Market we went to put in the final order for the glasses. They are pewter color and will go well with his beard, and should be here in around a week. Finally we stopped at Publix to round up a lot of twofers. We found not only the ones I had on my list, but a bunch more (nothing we couldn't use)—but no oatmeal in my flavor and no French bread. I only need one sandwich next week and there's no use buying a whole pack of buns. Was astonished by the absence of the bread, since it wasn't even noon yet. So we came home for the rest of the afternoon. We had lunch, I did a few chores, and then watched Ray Mears (Wild Britain) until it was time to leave for the "kitchenwarming" party at the Spiveys. Their old kitchen was not only outdated, but had safety problems, so they had it remodeled and new flooring put in (due to water damage). It looks lovely now; the kitchen is no longer boxed in, and the new floor now connects what was the old "Florida room" to the rest of the house and makes it look all of one piece. Best yet, it makes the whole family happy. So we had a lovely party, guests flowed in and out, we saw familiar faces and met new ones, especially the minister who put James on their prayer list, ate goodies, and loved every minute of it. Sadly, it was soon 9 o'clock and time to go home so James could set up his laptop so he could telework tomorrow. Except that he couldn't. While his work laptop performed flawlessly the last time he teleworked (Election Day), it would not connect to our internet. It kept saying there was some error. All we can think of is that some Windows update confunded it. But this meant we now had to rush to bed so that he could get up at 6:20 to get ready for work. What a rotter of an ending for a beautiful day. » Friday, November 18, 2016
The Buying Department
I was chivvied from bed by calls of nature, but I didn't have much time to waste if I was going to be down at the Northside Library when they opened. So I performed the usual morning ministrations, ate breakfast, walked Tucker, and pulled out the Thanksgiving cards and printed out an address list and made everything ready until I'd get back.On the way to the library I stopped at Barnes & Noble with my coupon and picked up the new postmistress mystery paperback. Lots of new books out including Blanche Weisen Cook's final book in her Eleanor Roosevelt biography. I'm a little disappointed; it's much smaller than the first two and covers twenty-three years! I don't know if she is ill and just wanted to finish up, got sick of Eleanor, or, just maybe, that by 1939 Eleanor had become the Eleanor we remember, was now fully formed, and the previous books covered how she became that Eleanor, which was more interesting to the author. Anyway, David Bianculli has a new TV book out, and I saw several books for James. Now I have a whole pile of books I want, and I also have to save coupon or Amazon credit for the new Bryant & May book. I also noted that the first of the 2017 magazines have appeared. How fast the last few months of the year go. November, at least, is whizzing by. About 11:45 I headed down to Northside. They've had budget cuts so the library opens at noon, which I think is barbaric. This is a very small book sale compared to the Cobb County one, but I found two brand-new books which I won't mention since they will be gifts, and found three for me, a small book about Christopher Radko Christmas ornaments, one hefty volume about Victorian country houses, and one called The New England Experience from 1962 with photographs from the six states up to 1962, most earlier. Since it's from 1962, the pictures are in black and white, but it's the NE I remember as a child, old homes, white churches, country stores, etc. I took this in with me to Tin Drum to read and was amazed when the author said they were all taken with a "view camera," one of the type Matthew Brady used, with the bellows and putting your head under the black cloth and exposing the photos on glass plates! I had no idea people still used them during my own time. When I finished my lunch, I went to Costco to top off my gas tank, and then went inside to pick up "a few things." So i did get milk, picked up stuff James needed like BreathRights and aspirin and Tylenol, I bought one of the books for James that I'd seen first at Barnes & Noble plus Bill Bryson's Road to Little Dribbling—oh, yes, and a birthday present for myself, Adobe Photoshop Essentials. It was half price! When I reached home I put everything away, and then wrote out the few Thanksgiving cards I was sending while watching episodes of Lassie and actually managed to do all that before the postman came, but he does come really late! James was also really late tonight; he had an appointment at America's Best to get his eyes checked because supposedly they take the medical insurance he bought at work. (Turns out they don't take it! There are different entities, and they take a different entity.) He's going to do some research online on other prices and the America's Best people are going to try to put it through the insurance anyway. So we just went to Ken's for dinner by the time he got home, and then came home for the night. I was finishing up the Bess Crawford mystery The Shattered Tree and we had to be in bed early anyway. Labels: books, errands, food, holidays, shopping, television, Thanksgiving » Sunday, November 13, 2016
Dejunking
So we slept in a little this morning; won't be able to do it next weekend as we will need to be up early for recycling day on Saturday and James is working on Sunday so he can have Black Friday off. I can't believe we are almost halfway through November already. October went by beautifully, not too slow or too fast, and now November is speeding away!The smoky smell and grit in the air was back, which was a pain as we headed out after breakfast. At least it was chilly, which kept the air from being stagnant as well. Clouds hung over the house as we emerged from the house. Sam's Club's electric carts are so undependable that we loaded the power chair for this trip. Had to get Skinny Pop, mushrooms, trash bags, and milk, and had to search around the store for the first, as they had rearranged again to get all the Christmas items in. We passed some Eddie Bauer brand slippers that were ninety dollars. Are you kidding me? On the way home we stopped very quickly at Publix so I could pick up eggs, yogurt, lettuce, bananas, and a paper. And I didn't pick up anything extra! :-) We spent the rest of the afternoon getting rid of old computer junk, rather than being stuck doing it on Friday night. James had taken home a discarded server from work many years ago and we'd paired it with an old monitor and left it in the library just in case the kids got bored at one of our parties and wanted to play computer games. That never happened, and now everyone has a phone with games on it, so it's barely been used. We brought that all out in the garage to dump into boxes to take to Jim Miller Park next Saturday morning, plus an old light James uses when modeling that has completely burnt out. The last thing I need to extricate is a window fan that has burned out its bearings, and that will be it (I think) for the load. It's been piling up because they didn't bother announcing it online last year and calling them is like talking to a tree. We also put aside some salty food James can't eat anymore to give to Alice for her church's food pantry, and cleaned out some expired stuff. Our trash can is already overflowing and we don't have trash collection until Thursday! This took most of the afternoon. James made pork for supper and we spent the evening with AFV, The Durrells in Corfu, and Alaska: the Last Frontier. So sorry to hear that Charlotte's mother has died! I love Otto and Charlotte. Labels: chores, shopping, television, weather » Saturday, November 12, 2016
Two Sheets to No Wind
We'd talked about going to the Farmer's Market this morning, but it was a much nicer morning to sleep, cool enough to use two blankets! So very happy it's gotten cool. I've even closed the vent in the bedroom in anticipation of cold nights.We had a leisurely breakfast and Tucker had his walk. The wind was blowing from the Northeast this morning, so most of the wildfire smoke from up north was headed over Alabama, and it was pretty and blue and cool. Soon James was off to his meeting. I'd remembered the other thing I wanted to look for at Walmart, so I grabbed up my wallet and went. After digging through the supply, I did find the flannel sheets I was searching for (not too light colored, as I use the fitted bottom sheet as a cover on the sofa cushions to keep them clean), bought a new rug for the foyer, and picked up other items I needed (air freshener, light bulbs, that sort of boring stuff). Oh, yeah, and first season of The Librarians on DVD, because "why not?" When I finished there I decided to go to Sprouts to pick up some beef and pork, and something for lunch. I tried to feed the car at RaceTrac first and the pumps shut down when I got there. Was it something I said? :-) Ended up using the QT instead after I finished at Sprouts. Had a delicious lunch of Italian wedding soup and some bread while watching episodes of Lassie, and then started the next Molly Murphy mystery and was so immersed in it that when James came home early I just kept reading when he fell asleep in the recliner. Needless to say, we didn't go out to eat until after six. We ended up at Cracker Barrel for supper—I didn't think they had as much Christmas-oriented merchandise as in past years—and that was pretty good and we had a super waitress. From there we drove to the Hallmark store at Town Center, because I had $10 worth of coupons, $2 of which would expire soon. I bought a retirement gift to put away. We ended up the night at Barnes & Noble to have a peppermint cocoa at the Starbuck's. It was getting chilly and it tasted good. I picked up a couple of Christmas magazines as well. Labels: books, DVDs, food, Lassie, magazines, shopping, television » Friday, November 11, 2016
Smoke Gets In Everyone's Eyes
I probably could have slept longer this morning, but didn't. Lots of interruptions during the night, including having a bad dream about some small animal dying—James woke me up to ask me why I was crying—and my alarm going off because I'd forgotten to turn it off last night.It was chilly but nice when I took the dog out, with a smell of smoke in the air. For a moment I wondered if someone already had been at their fireplace, and then I realized it was still smoke from the wildfires burning up at the Georgia/North Carolina/Tennessee state line. When will we get some rain? I don't remember it raining since that thunderstorm we had when James was in the hospital. That was July! Driving into Buckhead early did nothing to alleviate the traffic; oh, well. It was a pretty ride. I went through Vinings, which has a pretty little shopping area planted with maples and other colorful trees, and then down Paces Ferry Road, which is all "swells," with houses far back from the road, long driveways (even little bridges over creeks), and surrounded by trees. Our trees are muted compared to up north, but occasionally there's a patch of nice color, and the arch of the trees and the diffused sun made a pretty scene of it. West Paces Ferry Road, where the Governor's Mansion is and is now a mix of "old money" and modern McMansions, was also a treat. They were preparing for a Veteran's Day ceremony at the Atlanta History Center and a man in colonial uniform crossed the street in front of me. I spent too much time in Barnes & Noble, but did find the "This England Annual 2017" and bought a Christmas magazine. Really too early for the winter edition of "This England," and I'm not sure when the winter issue of "Bella Grace" is coming out. I was quite happy with the autumn one. I've finished almost all the journaling portions. Also saw an interesting new book called The Dog Merchants, about breeders, puppy mills, pet shops, shelters, etc. Came back through the streets behind West Paces Ferry, which have beautiful homes, including a Tudor-style and a Colonial house that would not look out of place at Yorktown. Smoke was still in the air. I thought about going to Sam Flax to see what they had in art things, but I had a 60 percent off JoAnn coupon and was hoping I might get another Ott light. Heh. Of course they had all the expensive stuff already on sale, which means I couldn't use the coupon. I got more superglue with a 40 and India ink calligraphy pens.with the 60. Also popped into Michaels and got a couple of tiny sale things with a 20 percenter. By then I was hungry, so headed home through Kennesaw National Battlefield Park. Again, more mellow trees, chiefly pale golds and a lot of oaks fading directly from green to brown, autumn color enveloping the cleared fields. The route home passes through another ritzy area with huge old homes or big low bungalows with trees hanging over them like benevolent guardians. Came home to some leftover chicken and played a couple of episodes of Lassie to update my website. Was worried about Tucker—I had let him out on the deck, where he remained happily until I brought him in for his walk, and abruptly he was throwing up what looked like bile. I walked him slowly and then he slept until James got home, which perked him up considerably. We had supper at Hibachi Grill, where it seemed like they oversalted everything tonight, and then just came home. I was trying to finish a book but half watching a new show on HGTV, We Bought the Farm, which is House Hunters with smallholders. Meh. When I took Tucker out for the last time tonight the wind had freshened and the scent of smoke was back. ================================ Once again, I spent a happy day off. I went about my town and drove home. I walked my dog and talked with my bird, and was able to have supper with my husband. And I can do this all freely because some man or woman offered their time and perhaps even their life to defend my country and my freedoms. Thank you to all those who serve and who have served. We owe you so much. Labels: autumn, books, dogs, magazines, pets, Veterans Day, weather » Sunday, November 06, 2016
Let There Be Light...Almost
Sigh...well, it was a partially successful day. Unfortunately what we didn't succeed at we fouled up really good.The nice thing was waking up this morning actually feeling rested. We went to bed by Daylight Savings Time at 12:30 a.m., but woke up at eight on Eastern Standard Time having slept eight hours. I was alert and didn't have the rotten headache I had all day yesterday. But then EST makes me feel good. Despite getting up that early, we didn't get out of the house until almost ten. I needed sandwich bread, so we went to the Kroger at Dallas Highway and did our shopping. We found 100 watt and 75 watt LED bulbs there, so we decided not to go to Lowes. Once home, we put the perishables away and started in on the light bulbs. We finally have all the awful CFLs out of the house. They will go to electronics recycling. There are now two 100-watt equivalent LEDs in the garage that don't have to warm up—that was aggravating; wanting to look for something in the garage and having to wait for the CFLs to get to 100 watts. I was having trouble seeing in the laundry room, so we put in a 60-watt LED equivalent in the laundry room fixture (I wanted a 75 up there, but the 75 bulbs are too big for the fixture) and discovered that the bulb in there was original to the house! No wonder it was so dim. Also put another 60-watt equivalent in the hallway to replace another CFL that took forever to warm up, wasn't bright enough, and was starting to buzz. Then the bad luck took over. The downstairs bath has the sink in one room; the tub and the toilet in another. It was too small for the door to the toilet/tub area, so James took the door off and brought it into the attic. There is a waterproof (well, presumably) canister light fixture over the bathtub and James got it popped out—we'd hoped the plastic clear cover might twist off, but no. So he gets the fixture out, but the light bulb inside it will not fit through the hole in the top of the fixture, either to get the blown-out bulb out or to get the new bulb in! We don't see any way else to get the fixture open (no screws or other fasteners). James put it back where it belonged, but it's still Stygian darkness in there. To compound that failure, we tried to replace the bulb in the ceiling fan fixture in the library. We've done this before; it comprises taking the whole bottom part of the fixture off. Got it unscrewed and down, James started to unscrew the light bulb—and the glass part broke off leaving the screw part. Easy, get a plier to unscrew it, right? Nope. Wouldn't come loose period. The plier just broke off bits of the metal screw part, so half of it's in bits in the rug and the rest is still in the socket. Grrrrr. So we will have to replace the socket, I guess, and there's still no big light in the library. It shouldn't be this hard to replace light bulbs! James was pretty ticked off and had to sit a while to calm down. He was bemoaning the fact earlier that we could only find about four flavors of low-sodium soup, and none of them had beef in them. So he made his own today: no salt beef broth, rinsed canned mixed vegetables, and canned roast beef, and set it to simmer altogether on the stove for a few hours. Smelled nice and he had some for supper. He also had to make himself some breakfasts; homemade burritoes and thin sandwich roll "McMuffins" with Eggland eggs, 97 percent fat free hamburger, some Rotel tomatoes, and spices. I had chicken broth and rice for supper and we read the paper and watched Rick Steves, AFV, The Durrells in Corfu, and Alaska: the Last Frontier. Labels: chores, food, television » Saturday, November 05, 2016
Let There Be Lightbulbs
So I followed a night in which I slept beautifully except for James waking me three times thumping his heel against the side of the bed with a night where I barely felt like I slept at all. Which means I was bleary and headachy most of the day, and so sleepy I forgot to take my stupid omeprazole until late in the afternoon, so I was sick most of the evening.We wanted to head to Trader Joe's to see if they'd traded pumpkin bars for cranberry bars, so we decided to have breakfast out at the IHOP on Johnson Ferry Road. We had a delightful Japanese waiter who made the kids at the table around us laugh; we left him a nice tip. The Trader Joe's trip was less successful. They have straddled the line between Hallowe'en and Christmas by still having pumpkin but also getting the peppermint stuff in stock. We bought a couple of things including peeled and diced butternut squash for a "squish" side, but not as much as we usually do. We thought we'd check out Half-Price Books again, even though I find them overpriced. James found some model kits for a couple of dollars each and I bought a book about geographical place names and another about unusual historical events. Then we backtracked to check out the LED bulbs in the Home Depot on Johnson Ferry. They have a bigger assortment than Lowes, but man are they more expensive! We will check out another Lowes first. Finally it was about 2 p.m. and we were both getting hungry, so we stopped at Sprouts. I got clam chowder and James had a salad with chicken and we picked up beef and pork bits and cashews, and we came home from there to have lunch. The clam chowder was a bad idea; that's when the indigestion began. I finished reading a book I got from NetGalley, Martians Abroad, and posted a rather sour review of it; sorry, I liked it better when it was called Podkayne of Mars and Robert Heinlein wrote it (really, the parallels are that close), and James took a nap. Then he took Tucker outside while I finished writing the book review. Later on I had some oatmeal for supper and then started the long, arduous process of turning the clocks back. Why we can't stay on Standard Time I don't know. I'd much rather have it light in the morning when I'm on my way to work than be light as late as 9:30 p.m. in the dead of summer when I practically have to start getting ready for work the next day and then go to bed. They've already proven it doesn't save energy; it actually wastes more of it. While I was downstairs turning back the library clock I tried to check out what wattage the overhead ceiling fan bulb in the library had; it's been out for months and we need to replace it. Alas, it's been almost ten years since we installed it and neither of us remembers how the light cover comes off. We did check the seriously dim bulb in the laundry room to discover it's one of the original bulbs that came with the house! I went upstairs to finish the clocks—the one in the master bath, the two alarm clocks, the one in the hall bath, the one in the spare room, the one in the craft room, the one in the kitchen, the one in the dining room...you can see why I hate this—and then regarded those two 40 watt equivalent LEDs in the hall bath. The light is still too creepy bright for words. So I took them out and put real 40 watt bulbs in them, and put the 40 watt equivalents in the downstairs bath. James is down there the most and the creepy brightness doesn't bother him the way it does me. Now we just have to replace the light bulb over the bathtub (yes, over the bathtub; it's high up under a protective dome) in the downstairs bath; I think it's been out over a year. Watched a Rosemary & Thyme I don't ever remember seeing, "the Bucket woman!," As Time Goes By and French Fields. Two more clocks to change and we can go to bed! » Friday, November 04, 2016
C'mon, Fall, Push That Bastard Summer Out the Door...
The first thing I did this morning was get a good eight hours' sleep. It's worth more than gold.I had several errands I needed to do this morning. We want to put in some LED lightbulbs downstairs, so my first stop was Lowes. On the way there stopped to take a photograph of a magnificent autumn tree in Hurt Road Park. Our trees are pretty much either turning yellow slowly or turning brown and dropping leaves, so this was quite a surprise, all scarlet, orange, and yellow trimmed with a remaining bit of green. Lowes had some nice prices on LEDs; I got a pair of 40s for the hall bath and a set of three 60s for the downstairs bath. Then I killed a few minutes by wandering around Office Max, since I've never lost my delight in perusing stationery stores. I was feeling like soup, so I headed to the Panera Bread at the Avenue at West Cobb and dipped my baguette in my chicken noodle soup and scrolled through Facebook. Then I popped into Barnes & Noble to see if there was anything fit to buy with this weekend's 15 percent off coupon. Found a couple of things but decided to wait for James to go with me. I did pick up a pair of new Christmas magazines and the newest "Blue Ridge Country" which I would have bought just for the autumn cover. My final fun stop was at Yankee Candle to check out the new scents. The new fragrance they're pushing is "Christmas Thyme" as in "pine with." Didn't like it at all. Funny how the "Mistletoe" scent smells more like a Christmas tree than "Balsam and Cedar." My last stop was Publix for a few twofers and a contribution to the Can Bank. When I pulled into the driveway I checked to see if there was mail and figured that while I was out there (despite the fact it was about 78 bloody degrees) I'd take the fall mailbox cover off and put the Thanksgiving one up. And since I did that I put the Thanksgiving banner up as well as well as the wreath. (I started a Thanks jar on Tuesday and am very happy to see James is using it, too.) Spent the rest of the afternoon doing chores. I put the 40 equivalent LED bulbs in the hall bath (one was burnt out, so I figured it would be a good time to replace them) and I don't like them. They are "warm white" because they didn't have "soft white" in 40s and the light is still too harsh. I tried putting two of the 60s downstairs to replace the CFLs (I am getting rid of the four we have by electronics recycling day; I hate the rotten things) and they were just too bright. We will need to get more 40s. James and I went to Ken's Grill for supper. There was a terrible accident down by the railroad tracks: at least one ambulance, a rescue squad, a fire truck, and two police cars. Scares me to death. Hope everyone got out okay. Afterwards we went to Barnes & Noble. I bought The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge with my coupon and we noticed that Eve and Eivan Kilcher (from Alaska: the Last Frontier) have a cookbook out. Gift idea! So we came home and spent the evening watching Hawaii Five-0 since tonight's episode made us five weeks behind. The episode with the psycho psychiatrist nearly did both of us in when Steven and the profiler lady were trapped in the underwater cave. We were both getting claustrophobic and we finally fast-forwarded through that part. I'm starting to get homesick for the old days when you didn't want to curl up in a fetal position while watching TV. Labels: books, errands, food, magazines, television, Thanksgiving » Sunday, October 30, 2016
Help, I'm Melting
This rotten heat wave has been the limit. Who wants it in the 80s on the weekend before Hallowe'en? It was so warm we had to shut all the windows in the house and go back on A/C. At least there was a nice breeze outside at lunchtime on Friday—I slept through it all.For supper on Friday we went to Uncle Maddio's Pizza Joint (I am really enjoying that fresh basil on top), which made a trip to Sprouts next door pretty natural. Like Trader Joe's, this place is just oozing with pumpkin-flavored everything. They had a big display in the area where the carts go that included pumpkin spice oatmeal and pumpkin "loops" (like Fruit Loops). We bought more potatoes and some of Sprouts' great beef bits, but the best part was finding the Litehouse Salad Blend herbs there. Now we don't have to drive out to Hiram for them. And since Publix was directly across the street, it was natural to go there next for the twofers. They had chicken leg quarters again, so we have four dinners on reserve now (one is for Sunday). However, there were no bananas. Urgh. We were on our way home when we realized we had not bought eggs and there were none in the house. Oh, well. We went to Kroger, got the eggs, got the milk (hm, still no bananas) and shopping was over for the weekend. Yayyyyy! Plus—I made it through Friday, and now I don't have to work any more Fridays until the first week in January. Thank goodness! We had no plans for the weekend, the first one to be free this month, so we slept in on Saturday, then did a few errands: used a coupon at CVS for BreatheRights, then stopped at Nam Dae Mun. None of our grocery stores carry Kikkoman reduced sodium teriyaki sauce, so we have to go there to get it. Picked up ginger tea as well. Finally we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond—goodness, they already have a bunch of Christmas things up—to pick up a new 12-inch saute pan and also the egg rings James wanted to make his own breakfast sandwiches (using two coupons). I picked up a new dog blanket for Tucker for Christmas with the third.  It was only midafternoon, but well up into the 80s, so we just came home for the rest of the day. The heat is really making me ill after having so many nice days in the 70s. It's like spring when it first gets warm; my joints ache. Read most of the afternoon, picked at fruit and a bun and milk for supper, since lunch had been so filling, and watched Father Brown, Rosemary & Thyme, and the Britcoms to close out Saturday. James seemingly can't sleep after eight anymore, so he got up and walked Tucker this morning and had breakfast while I tried to sleep in. My left leg was hurting, so I slept, but not well, but got up at 9:30 and had breakfast. Next we had a very important errand to do: "drown" the dog. At least that's how Tucker sees it. He hasn't had a bath since after James got out of the hospital, so we brought him over to the "dog wash" at Petco (formerly "Unleashed by Petco"), where a big labradoodle was already getting bathed. His owner was doing a trim job on him, too, so he was there when we got there and still there when we left. Tucker took long enough. I took a stripping brush to him today while he was soaped and got five big chunks of fur off him, and then another after I rinsed him. But now he's all bright and clean, and James bought him some dog biscuits while he waited, and I picked up some birdseed for Snowy. I had to walk over to Publix next door, too, to get distilled water for the C-PAP machine, but they did have bananas. So I'm all ready for a new week at work. yippee. We came home, cleaned the blankets out of Tucker's crate (this is usually surprising, because Tucker snitches stuff out of the wastebasket, and it's always amazing to see what he's got squirreled away in there: paper towels, napkins, plastic wrappers...), and then left him with some cookies. We had a 10 percent off coupon to Cost Plus World Market and went there to work on a gift we are putting together for Christmas. I couldn't remember if I liked marzipan or not, so one of the things I bought was a dark-chocolate covered marzipan bar. (I tried it later; I don't. I know it's ground almond, and I love almonds, but they always use almond flavoring, which doesn't taste the same.) I had one of my 20 percent off coupons with me, so James went by Barnes & Noble so I could run in and get the Thanksgiving book. By then the heat had us both feeling bad, so we came home and had some soup for lunch and sort of half watched something called Building Alaska. After that I was reading "Outdoor Photographer" (some killer shots of fall scenery), so I put low music on and eventually had a nap (James had his earlier) and when I woke up supper (chicken leg quarters and mushroom rice) was nearly done. Later it was time for America's Funniest Home Videos, The Durrells in Corfu, and Alaska: the Last Frontier. Labels: books, dogs, food, pets, shopping, television, weather » Sunday, October 23, 2016
Laid-Back Sunday
It was nice and chilly last night. I slept with the flannel sheet and the fleece, which I love; nothing better than being all curled up under blankets. That's probably why I don't sleep well in summer; I love coverings, but not being hot. Outside it was 42°F, inside a nice 66, a cloudless sky. Too bad it was going up to 75 today. Friday was so perfect.Once we'd eaten breakfast, it was our usual Sunday trip to Kroger. Since Smyrna's bread is so icky and the Battle Ridge store's bakery so unreliable, we went back up to the store at Dallas Highway. Found ripe bananas instead of the eternally green ones at Smyrna, plus nice looking rolls, bought some mortadella for lunch and James is trying some "low sodium" American cheese. Added to our tea collection. ☺ When we got done we put the milk, the cheese, the mortadella, the crumbled turkey sausage, and the yogurt in the insulated bag so we could go across the street to the Hallmark store. They are running a BOGO on Christmas cards, paper, and other miscellaneous items. We had to wait ten minutes until they opened. It might have been a nice moment next to the little fountain they have in the nearby wall, but it was ruined by canned music coming from hidden speakers. I'm so tired of being "amused." Could have listened to the water and the birds and instead we have to listen to someone caterwauling. Anyway, I'm overflowing with Christmas wrap and have cards for a while, but found a "Peanuts" card design that was delightful, and paired it with a vintage wreath design, plus we bought two specialty ornaments for gifts. We didn't have any other errands to run or things to buy, so we just went home. We ate lunch. I watched a couple of episodes of Lassie and last week's Elementary, finished a couple of book reviews for NetGalley. James made himself burritos for the week and cleaned the stove. I also "loaded up" the tier dish James bought for me. Publix had had a twofer deal on both Weight Watchers desserts and FiberOne brownies awhile back and we still had all the boxes on the dining room table. I emptied all the boxes and now we have a "dessert display." At least it looks better, and we can see we have dessert for weeks! We had supper about six (Asian salad with chicken) and then waited for this year's "Treehouse of Horror" on The Simpsons. Don't watch the latter anymore, but "Treehouse" is always fun. If you get to see it, that is. The fugly football game ran 44 minutes over and when they started up the programming it was stupid Bob's Burgers, the next show. Grrrr. Then it was the next part of The Durrells in Corfu (with a litter of the cutest puppies!), a short pause for a dog walk, and finally Alaska: the Last Frontier. Labels: Christmas, food, shopping, television » Saturday, October 22, 2016
Friends, Fairs, Feasts and Fluffy Clouds
Well, it's been a lovely day, and it started out with a delicious sleep because it was so cool outside—high forties last night. I wasn't too hot or too cold, but nice and snug under a flannel sheet and a regular sheet. And I believe eight hours sleep was involved, a definite plus. When we got up the house temp was only at 66°F, and I'd left the spare room window open.We had Hair Day this morning, so I gave Tucker a nice walk in the brisk morning air and then we grabbed our glazed carrot contribution and skedaddled. We were particularly eager to get there to see Lin this morning—she was only just released from hospital yesterday after suffering a heart attack and having a stent put in. Thankfully, even with some health problems she has, she did not have to while away her time in the hospital getting her kidneys in shape. Her only problem at the moment is being unable to eat, so while we had all that good food spread upon the table at lunchtime—roast chicken, oven-baked potatoes, our glazed carrots, and dinner rolls—she couldn't eat anything but the rolls. Hope she is feeling better soon. Meanwhile it was the usual chat: current events, families, illnesses, upcoming events. Phyllis bought Ron and Lin a Death Star tree topper and they tried it out: it flashes red and green to the "Imperial March" and white and blue to the Star Wars theme. Their tree gets more fannish every year: football, fantasy, SF and more. Always neat to see what they've added to it! Note to self: Pet Penelope on her head. She does not like you petting her tail, and I have the cat scratch to prove it. How she glowered at me! :-) We left about two with the rest of the day ahead of us. It was so nice and cool and breezy today that we wanted to go to the Jonquil Festival instead of tomorrow when it would be in the 70s. But first we had to swing by James' work to get the insulin he'd left behind yesterday. Once that was finished, and since we had to go past the house to get to downtown Smyrna anyway, we did stop to pick up my hat, put the remainder of the carrots up, and take Tucker with us. Now this is rather like taking a hyperactive three-year-old to a museum with you, but I think we all had fun. We found a recently vacated parking place behind the library, unloaded the power chair, let Tucker do his business in the bushes, and then had a nice stroll past all the booths. We bought a couple of things for a Christmas gift, sampled the dips, ooohed over the beautiful wood items, and finally came upon a lady who was selling two- and three-tier ceramic dishes in various themes. Now I need one of these like I need a hole in the head, but she had two beautiful autumn/Thanksgiving designs that were just so pretty that James bought me the one I liked best for our anniversary. It's square and has bright leaves and a pretty Thanksgiving sentiment on the middle tier. Surprisingly, we saw no dog biscuit salesmen; the Lose a Finger people weren't there. Neither were the caramel people. Rats. Tucker enjoyed himself getting petted by friendly strangers and sniffing noses with canine compatriots. Probably the two prettiest dogs were the two different Shetland Sheepdogs, both sable and white, with lush, plush coats, one with a nice blaze like Lassie, but the cutest dog had to be this little female ginger-colored terrier named Roxy. She was a third smaller than he was, but jumped right at him to sniff his nose and then the usual doggy places, and was so forward that he jumped back in surprise. There would be a girl to keep him in his place! James picked up some jambalaya and red beans and rice for supper, and we had some lemonade. I was tempted by the barbecue, but didn't feel like having it come up on me all night, so I skipped it. We took Tucker home and put him back up in the dining room, then went out again. James wanted to stop by the Publix we had shopped at last night to get whatever was left of the clearance tea he had bought: chocolate orange flavored black tea. He had tried some this morning before we left and loved it. I just jumped out and went in myself, buying the two that were left and then four more boxes of the Chamomile Lemon, which he also likes. Then we went on to Barnes & Noble to enjoy ourselves for an hour. I picked up a couple of clearance items and a copy of the new "Breathe." We had 15 percent off coupons, but I didn't find anything I wanted and he couldn't decide between the new Travis Taylor book or the new Harry Turtledove book about the Cold War, so I bought him the latter for our anniversary. By then we were kind of "out of gas" and came home. I ended up just having some cereal because it was the easiest thing to eat that wouldn't come up on me, and later it was the usual Saturday night of Rosemary and Thyme, Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By, and French Fields. Plus the mind-boggling news that the Chicago Cubs are going to the World Series. The underdogs finally win! Labels: books, dogs, events, food, friends, pets, shopping, television, Thanksgiving |
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