Really, it was. Flawless blue sky with lots of puffy, snoozy-looking white clouds, started out at 49°F and then became a nice 63, with a good brisk breeze to flap all the pine pollen out of the air. Slept until I woke up (ah, a dream situation!), got ready and dressed, ate breakfast, gave Tucker a nice long walk, and then gathered my coupons and set out on my odyssey.

I had some goals today, and therefore headed up to Town Center set on achieving them. My first stop was Office Max for padded envelopes. I usually use these to send books as gifts. Yowch. When did they get that expensive?

Next I went next door to the Best Buy to see if they had the Fitbit Alta out. Since I accidentally tipped my Fitbit in the basket when I was doing the whole swollen wrist thing and couldn't wear it, I find I miss it. But I'd like to get one with a watch feature. The starters are either the Charge or the new Alta, both the same price. The Alta does some new things: it automatically tracks sleep, which I like, since I was forever forgetting to tap the old one to sleep and then wake it up, and it also reminds you to move once an hour. Of course I keep thinking: if I'm going to spend that much for a Fitbit, shouldn't I just get a smartwatch and be done with it? It is a puzzle.

Best Buy at Town Center is like Disneyland for geeks. You walk in and are immediately assaulted with tablets, phones, more tablets, more phones, bright lights. I was passing the Samsung phones and there was an Oculus VR device you could try: first a 360° of the Strip in Las Vegas and then one of San Francisco just over the Marin exit of the Golden Gate Bridge. Made me dizzy, looking down like that. However, also noticed it was very grainy, so not quite realistic yet, so I can't say it's a totally realistic experience. Made the mistake of looking at the newest 10-inch Galaxy Tab, which is 2048 by whatever resolution. What a picture! And what a price! For a tablet I just use to read magazines on it would be totally overkill, but I enjoyed looking at it. The Galaxy Note in silver is also a looker, and I love the stylus.

They had Altas, but didn't have them out, so I couldn't see how it fit. They also didn't have the slate blue one I like. If I do buy it I might as well buy it on Amazon where I get triple points on my Amazon credit card.

I stopped in Michael's to see if they had electric candles. One of the two in our front windows is no longer working. We've had these for ages in whatever front window we've had because James said it made him feel happy to see those lights waiting for him when he got home from work. Michaels didn't stock the kind I wanted, so I used my coupon for a new calligraphy pen instead and went on to JoAnn. All their beads and charms were on sale half price and I had a fifteen percent further off coupon that was good on sale items, so I gathered some fixings for bookmarks and jewelry. I even found something special for someone. Plus they did have the candles here; I get the ones that are photosensitive and turn on at dusk and go off at dawn.

And I was bad and had a Milky Way dark, as it was now after noon. It held me over, so I just headed to Barnes & Noble instead of stopping for lunch as I planned. I have coupons, but wasn't particularly hunting up anything to buy today. I did find a couple of things in the clearance bin, including a Doctor Who t-shirt, plus bought a cross-stitch magazine and the new "Country Sampler" annual tour of homes magazines.

And then I headed to the mall. I wanted to go to Footlocker for another set of shoe inserts (and then I didn't buy them). Town Center's pretty much like the other malls these days, clotted with clothing and shoe stores and not much else. I pretty just wandered about checking out a couple of things: the Book Warehouse on the far end of the mall, which is just a collection of tired remainders, but I did buy a cute-looking book about a woman raising a flock of pet chickens. I also checked out the Disney Store to see if they had a stuffed Judy Hopps. They had two and the larger one was very stiff and not cuddly at all, and the second one, I guess, was Judy as a child, in a skirt and carrot-imprinted top. Most of the front of the store was crowded with Star Wars items (and a lot of Frozen things, too, so I guess that's still on).

I had to laugh when I was passing Abercrombie & Fitch because I just finished a collection of poetry and essays by E.B. White and he had written a funny poem about going there, back when it was still a store for camping and fishing enthusiasts and sold rifles and rods and reels along with tents and outdoor clothing, and I had to wonder what he would think of it now with its trendy teen clothing and tubercular-looking models!

By this time I was getting hungry because it was after three, but I didn't want to eat a whole meal as it was getting close to suppertime. All the restaurants at the food court had full meals; you couldn't even get a single slice of pizza for a dollar or two. Then, just what I wanted: Tokyo Express had something called "a skewer": chunks of teriyaki chicken thigh...yes, on a skewer, for $1.50. The right price and just enough to tide me over. I'll have to remember that they do such a thing.

Came home by Publix and did the shopping there; lots of good twofers and then things that needed restocking: "spots" for my nose and Pepto Bismol and maple syrup, among others.

The final stop was at Staples, to get new dry-erase markers for the calendar on the refrigerator. They dry up so quickly! Found a sale on Sharpies with two sets of different colors, so that was cool as well.

I pretty much got home just in time to put up the perishables, walk the dog, make the bed, and have some milk before James got home. We had dinner at the West Cobb Diner and then went to Baskin-Robbins for dessert. Spent the evening listening to "Shamrock and Thistle" on WABE and then some blues, and finally two episodes of Rosemary & Thyme off Acorn TV. Such a pity they never did more of these. Pam Ferris and Felicity Kendal played so well off each other. I wonder what Pam Ferris will be doing now that she's not on Call the Midwife any longer.

Oh, and the new candle I hunted so hard for? It doesn't work and we will have to take it back tomorrow. Well, James wanted a trip to Hobbytown anyway...

Labels: books, food, shopping, television

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:45:00 PM

Comments: Post a Comment