Since the Stupor Bowl was being held this year at new our Origami Stadium—that's what I call Mercedes Benz Stadium anyway, because of the way its roof unfolds—there was more of a furor than usual around getting ready for it. I didn't want to set foot in a supermarket this weekend, so on Friday I went to Sam's Club (for milk and popcorn mainly, but also picked up a rotisserie chicken) and to Publix (for the twofers, and also found some nice lamb shanks) and got that over with. Both places were definitely more crowded than they usually are on Friday and you had to swing your cart wide to avoid the pyramids of soda cans, stands of snack foods, and the overflowing bakery plinths.

So we had a whole weekend with nothing to do! What a treat! On Saturday, we went to the Container Store (we had a coupon) and got James a new lunchbox for work. He hated to give the old one up, but its vinyl innards were shredding. They didn't have the little flashers for his power chair, though; not sure if they were out of stock or they quit selling them. Since we went to the Perimeter Mall store, we could also walk past the makeup store and nip into Barnes & Noble. I hate it that they no longer put the new books "up front" in the various genre sections. This makes it very hard to see what's new in mystery, SF, etc. One of the clerks told me once that all the new books face out, which is a fib; I've seen books facing out that have been out for six months sometimes.

We took our time and by the time we were finished it was late enough to head to Town Center for dinner: we went back to Fried Tomato Buffet. We figured going early we would beat the crowd, but there were at least two birthday parties in there! They found us a booth in the back and a place to park the chair, so it was copacetic. Later we drove home through the Kennesaw battlefield park, and there, amongst the walkers out in droves, were three deer calmly grazing on the greensward in front of the park building, between the sidewalk and the hiking trail at the back.

James spent some time down in his "man cave" that night while I listened to some episodes of the "Happier" podcast. Next morning we were able to sleep in, only going out to CVS (with another coupon) to get Band-Aids. Once again he spent the afternoon in the man cave and I watched the Puppy Bowl, part of the Kitten Bowl (adorable, but dull), and some Caught in Providence. I bet my mom and dad would have liked this show.

At 6:30 I put the Stupor Bowl on to see Gladys Knight sing the National Anthem—finally, someone who can carry a tune! instead of these recent pop stars and their dreadful vocal fry—and catch the Thunderbirds flyover of the Origami (they had the roof open for it, then closed it for the game), and learned to my dismay that this had been part of the pre-game show. Huh. To me the National Anthem is part of the game. Phooey on you, NFL.

In the evening, of course, it was time for another installment of Victoria. I had not known that person was going to be killed off, least of all in conjunction with another historical event (the cholera epidemic in which Dr. John Snow figured out that the vector was not bad air or "poverty," it was one particular contaminated well). Apparently the actor has another continuing role in another series where they play the polar opposite of the one portrayed on Victoria. It was very sad.

Labels: books, food, hobbies, shopping, sports, television, wildlife

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:16:00 PM

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