Well, it was a long weekend to remember, but, unfortunately, mostly for the wrong reasons.

Friday I continued a combination "de-Christmasing" of the house, putting up the winter decorations, and cleaning up for the party. I got everything packed up but the Christmas tree—it just wasn't going to happen and it was a postponed Twelfth Night party anyway, so we needed some appropriate decoration. Otherwise I had put up the winter decorations everywhere except on the room divider, because the Christmas tree was blocking the way.

Since we had to go to Sam's Club to get supplies, we tried to find somewhere to eat Friday supper nearby. The Marietta Diner was slammed. The Chinese buffet is too salty. Didn't want the halfhearted food at IHOP and fast food was out. We ended up at Williamson Brothers for barbecue (yeah, salty too), and then went to Sam's. Got honey barbecue wings and "Lil Smokies," but their mini-egg rolls were spicy, so we skipped them, but picked up chips and popcorn as well. Then we went by Publix to do the shopping and pick up another BOGO set of pot roasts. We were going to serve one of them at the party.

Saturday was Hair Day, so James zipped off to get his hair cut while I continued cleaning and clearing. There are so many books everywhere! :-) He came home when he got done to get the bowls down, the utensils, etc., help me move the table, and all that. We got done early enough that I could relax down for a little while and that James could be done with most of the warming up before the first guests arrived at five. Since Willow isn't around anymore, there is no Ritual Barking of the Dog, but all our dogs have known John and Betty are soft touches anyway. :-) We had a nice crowd—Bill and Caran even drove all the way here from Stone Mountain—and a good chat/feast/gift opening was had by all. We watched the Falcons beat some other team, which means they are one step closer to the Stupid Bowl, talked about commuting and Juanita's retirement, watched Aubrey find the pickle on the tree for the umpteenth time in a row (I didn't even remember where I'd put it this year), and generally enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately my tummy was being a little touchy and I had to retire for a bit, ostensibly to walk the dog, but also to get me a little air.

Once the last guest had left around ten, we put up the perishables, stretched out for about an hour, then went to bed.

Took our time getting up Sunday and spent the rest of the end of the day mostly cleaning up, but we had a nice break in the early afternoon: we had to go up to the Town Center Kaiser for James to pick up more insulin, so we took the opportunity to stop at Barnes & Noble with our coupons. James got lucky and found a new "1632" book, and I picked up a book about a man who walks the old roads of Great Britain, plus two cross-stitch magazines. I also asked James to drop me at JoAnn to spend some coupons: needed more superglue since mine had gone stringy, bought a Command shelf for the bathroom, and a red bandanna for the truck since the old emergency one has appeared to have done a bunk (plus the new "Just Cross Stitch").

We had eaten lunch at Panera after going to Kaiser, and were still pretty full at suppertime, so we just potlucked it for dinner. I wasn't feeling hungry much and just had a PopTart and some cereal. I was okay up until after I walked Tucker at eight thirty, so I could be ready to watch the first part of Victoria at nine. Alas, about five minutes to nine, I started getting terrible stomach cramps.

I'll spare you the details, save that I saw very little of Victoria, not to mention my bed. Nothing stopped until nine in the morning, and by then I was exhausted. I had my usual breakfast yesterday and neither the PopTart nor the cereal should have bothered me; it had to be something I'd eaten at Panera. I suspect the cream cheese I had on my bagel. It didn't taste bad, but it's a likelier trigger than the soup. Anyway, I finally slept from nine to noon, then watched Victoria and, thanks to PBS and no thanks to Dish Network and its amazing disappearing channels, last week's Sherlock, which was literally mesmerizing—I couldn't take my eyes off the odious Culverton Smith, who had definite Jimmy Savile vibes. Just plain creepy. And then I went back to bed until James got home. I didn't eat much today, just dry toast and milk, and had plain chicken broth and rice for supper. I hope I feel better tomorrow; I never even got to the tree and feel like a bowl of boiled spaghetti.

Labels: books, Christmas, crafts, food, friends, parties, shopping, sickness, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:30:00 PM

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