Today was very laid back. We slept until 8:30 and then had breakfast in the common room. Actually, we spent most of the day in the common room. After breakfast we sat and chatted. At one point we were all riding Juanita's scooter—she has bought the coolest scooter that folds up into a suitcase shape, and you can then wheel it from place to place, or put it in the trunk of a car, and she wants to take it to Disney World and run the battery to capacity. Since it's brand-new, you have to empty and then recharge the battery several times, so as to "train" it. Juanita's been tooling around for two days and still never got out of the green zone. So we were taking turns driving the scooter around the conference room to run the battery down. Sarah got it to corner on two wheels! It goes surprisingly fast.

At one point Neil and his new girlfriend Emily walked in. She didn't even blink, so I think she's one of us. It was like an episode of The Cool Kids.

Around one we went to Wendy's for lunch along with Juanita and David. She is still not feeling well due to overdoing some lifting, and just ate a little bit. I was going to have a baked potato, but got stuck with fries. They ran out of potatoes just as we got to the counter!

During dinner James saw a tiny little spider on the cup holder of his power chair; it had just finished neatly stringing the start of a web across the cup portion. I teased it off with a napkin and it ran for cover under the paper placemat, so I scooped it up with the fries cup and took it outside. It was really teeny, about the size of this numeral 8, with a white body.

Then we walked back to the hotel and went back into the conference room. Half the group was coloring, and I continued working on a mandala pattern that vaguely reminded me of a snowflake, so I did it in blues and violet. I'm still not resigned to winter being over! I finished it up with a bright yellow border.

We had talked at the Wendy's about going to the small North Georgia Zoo in Cleveland ("down the road apiece"), but I looked it up online and it was $23 a person, and, at that point, would be only open two and a half hours longer. Too rich for our blood. Nobody brought it up again anyway.

We had considered going to the German place, Bodensee, tonight, but were distracted by Alice and Ken talking about a barbecue place. If nothing else, it would be cheaper. They drove us down there. My feelings were mixed. The cole slaw was dreadful and tasted of nothing but mayonnaise. The baked beans were okay, but I can't eat too many of them. I ordered ribs and got four meaty, lovely-looking ones. And they were beautifully cooked! The meat was so tender, practically fell apart as I bit into it. Unfortunately it was done with a pepper rub, so I couldn't enjoy the flavor. I think I like the other barbecue place, the one on the river, better for taste. But it was nice to try something new.

And...yes, back to the common room. More people coloring, talking about old movies, history, "and all that." People wandered in from activities: Pat and a bunch of folks had gone out chasing Pokemon. Others trailed in from dinner. A contingent went over to Bodensee for supper at eight, and when they finally returned, we had three rousing rounds of Chronology, and between bouts of history, laughed our heads off. Jake kept getting ancient events and big spreads between years so it was very easy to place his cards. Some were a bit fuzzy on history until the mains came back online, and most of us missed things by that much. It was quarter till one when we broke up.

And, damn, tomorrow is Sunday...

Labels: food, friends, games, wildlife

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 1:01:00 AM

Comments: Post a Comment