I was ready to decorate the Christmas tree on St. Nicholas Day, but the weather didn't cooperate: it was still too warm. If I'd done it on Monday, the tinsel would have stuck to my hands. So instead I changed the bed, cleaned out James' side table that would be next to the tree, cleaned out the corner, and brought the tree up and assembled it—as well as replacing about seven more bulbs (after I replaced every bulb at the bottom of that tree last year!) and fluffed it, all ready for the morrow.
The tree was up on Tuesday, while I worked my way through Pearl Harbor specials on the History Channel (yeah, I know...actual history specials on the History Channel!) for the 80th anniversary. When they quit, I put on my own: The Waltons' episode "Day of Infamy."
Wednesday was my usual laundry day. We were also celebrating Snowy's eighth adoption day. And James was happy because Forged in Fire was back Wednesday night.
Thursday was a busy day: we did the three-stop shopping trip in Lidl, Publix, and Kroger and then came home for lunch. This particular Thursday we actually went out again, as we wanted to drop off a bag of childrens' items at Vickery Hardware since they were collecting for Toys for Tots. James needed gasoline, so we went to Costco next, and then ended up at Barnes & Noble. This time I committed book: the newest Harry Dresden in paperback, a murder mystery taking place in Italy featuring an Irish/Italian former NYPD detective, something called The Love Hypothesis about romance among academics, and also an issue of "American Road" magazine devoted to lighthouses.
Ended the evening with Star Trek: Discovery and a very surprising ending for Tilly! (She's one of my favorite characters, so this was particularly heart-rending. I'm also getting particularly fond of Adira and Grey.)
On Friday we slept until ten, then had lunch at West Cobb Diner with Alice, Ken, and Aubrey Spivey. Turkey dinner of course, my favorite dish there. On the way home picked up Christmas napkins at Party City and then burritos at Popshelf.
On Saturday rain was predicted, so I drove James up to the sports bar where they were holding his club's Christmas party, then went across the street to gas up my own car at Costco. From the Costco parking lot you could see the black clouds of the storm marching south, so I figured I'd better go somewhere and take cover, so I chose 2nd and Charles, the used bookstore. The skies opened while I was there, but I lucked out, too: among the DVDs found the sixth season of Homicide: Life on the Street for $15. This season had a famous episode called "The Subway" that won a Peabody award and PBS did a documentary about; both are on the DVD set. Did I mention "The Subway" featured Vincent D'Onofrio? Oh, and that another episode in this season featured Kathryn Erbe? (Yes, when I have an obsession I do it thoroughly.) I also found one of Max Allan Collins' original CSI novels—and I also discovered a nifty Christmas gift for Aubrey there.
At this point I was hungry, so I drove toward Barnes & Noble, hoping to find something to eat on the way, but Tin Drum is gone and I didn't want anything else. Instead I popped a watermelon candy and soldiered on. Since I was there anyway, I strolled down to CD Warehouse and not only turned up the DVD (with commentary) of the rom-com Happy Accidents (you can look this up and find out why it's significant), but I found the BluRay of the newest film of Midway, which James wanted to see, each for $4. Next door at Barnes & Noble I turned up the newest "Chicken Soup for the Soul" Christmas volume and also a book of short stories based on Christmas and crime just as James called asking to be picked up. The party itself was over and they were starting to watch the Army-Navy game. So I tooled on to pick him up.
We were supposed to go to Longhorn on Saturday night to have dinner for my birthday—yes, Saturday was my "Route 66" birthday—but neither of us wanted to go out in the rain, so we stopped at Zaxby's on the way home and I bought wings for both of us. Amazingly, what did we watch? The Army-Navy Game! Yes, us, the sports-phobic. But James was Navy and we cheer for Navy. (And they won!)
[Later: We ended up at Longhorn Sunday afternoon. James had 20 hours of vacation time left, so he's taking one whole day (the 26th, we hope, if not the 22nd or the 29th) and then two Sunday afternoons off, since Sunday is generally a dead day, but they need him early in the morning as no one else is covering until 10 a.m.]
So I had a swell birthday with books and DVDs, but felt rather sad because we'd found out late the evening before that a friend was in the hospital with a slight stroke. This person has had many health problems this year, including having to have chemotherapy, and we feel terrible that they've ended up in the hospital yet again. After what James went through last year it is doubly dismaying.
Labels: birthday, books, chores, Christmas, Christmas decorations, food, friends, health, shopping, television
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