Yet Another Journal

Stop and Shop

2012-01-29T19:55:00.003-05:00

The dog barked intermittently for two hours this morning. Grrrrrrr!

So it was not a happy morning, and we went out late grocery shopping. We went to Costco for TurboTax (the coupon expired today) and a flat of mushrooms, nibbled on a few samples, did get some milk since it's cheaper than at the grocery, then came back to Kroger.

By then it was almost two o'clock, so that the new Kroger was slammed. We had to ask someone to go in the back to get my yogurt (none of the other flavors was sold out except the one I wanted; which they had plenty of on Friday...how odd!), I was delayed picking up my prescription at the pharmacy because the person checking me out thought I wanted to use my insurance card...um, no. I forgot to buy GasX (coupons were expiring today) and had to go back through the self-check and that was all sorts of trouble.

Once we had the groceries away, we had an opportunity to have a little fun. We took my car, went to Barnes & Noble—nothing much out, but I did find one of those cool ephemera books, this for World War II (where you get pull-out documents, etc.) on the remainder shelf—and then stopped to gas up the car on the way home.

Pot roast pot pie and a cucumber/tomato salad for supper, with a chaser of Holmes on Homes.

Food With Friends

2012-01-28T19:23:00.007-05:00

After an utterly typical week, it's been a fun weekend so far.

Friday night we tried out the new Japanese place near the Battle Ridge Kroger. I was afraid it would be expensive, but James had looked the place up on line and the prices appeared reasonable.

Well, there was a reason for that: they only post the lunch menu online and in the front of the restaurant. Dinner was considerably more. Talk about bait and switch—probably should have walked out, but instead we had the special, steak and shrimp, along with miso soup and a salad. It was quite good, but it was a singular treat. Maybe for lunch, but not for dinner again.

James needed some money for his haircut today, so I suggested we go into Kroger and buy something we needed, like mushrooms, so he could then get cash back; James said if he was going into a Kroger, he was going in the new one that opened on Wednesday. :-) So we did.

I went during lunch on Wednesday, got myself some soup because I was feeling droopy and stuffy, but there wasn't much room for maneuvering then. The huge parking lot (this is now the largest Kroger supermarket in the Atlanta area) was completely full on Wednesday; I had found one last space in the unlined parking area at the north side of the parking lot, and the store was cheek-by-jowl with employees giving away freebies and elderly people taking advantage of the 10 percent Wednesday discount. Friday the parking lot was still pretty busy, but the store was nowhere as crowded. We picked up a few things that would be going off sale before Sunday morning (pineapple for 87 cents!), then came home.

Went to bed early so we could get up before Hair Day this morning and make some couscous, and also stopped at the Winter Market* to get a pot pie for Sunday night, some chicken salad, and some mini-biscotti before going to the Butlers. James got his hair cut, we talked a lot, looked at Jessie's high-school graduation photos, and generally had a good time. We left about 12:30 to make it across town before 2 p.m.

We were heading to the Marlay House for the first Brittack "Meet'n'Greet" of the season, and the GPS tracked us through I-20 to I-75 north and then down the busy streets near the Fernbank Museum and through Avondale to get to Decatur. We were there early, but Rob Bowen and his girlfriend were already in the snug at back, and soon Sue Phillips had arrived, and Joe Campbell, followed by an assortment of others. Again, more good chat, passing around of cute videos (including this adorable snoring hibernating dormouse), discussing the different tracks at DragonCon, Joe talking about doing an English tea in the con suite (he asked what he would need for a proper English tea and Sue and I chorused "Clotted cream!"...LOL), different British series, etc. James had the brisket and I had the (all together now) lamb stew, and we were both happy.

Since we were on that side of town anyway, we decided to go to the DeKalb Farmers Market, which was just "down the road apiece" (literally; we turned right out of the Marlay House, went through downtown Decatur and a bit further on Ponce de Leon, and there it is). It was dreadfully crowded as always on weekends, but they have boneless, skinless turkey thighs for a great price, and other international goodies, so we plowed through, getting kosher salt, something for dessert, whole wheat pearl couscous, bulger wheat, ground ginger, four pounds of the turkey, some fresh peppermint (I opened the container and sniffed and my nose was delighted), and...yayyyyyy! they had frisè which I can put with the baby greens I bought at Harry's.

An uneventful ride home, where Willow was delighted to see us, and Schuyler sang and scolded for the rest of the night. We have been watching Storage Wars, which is a series about people who buy the contents of abandoned storage lockers. Sometimes they get stung, but sometimes they turn up treasures. One guy found a magic lantern (sort of a Victorian slide projector, which projected hand-colored drawings on a wall via the light of a candle), which wasn't worth all that much, but it was cool to see a real one after reading about them in The Bobbsey Twins and other Victorian novels.

* We had a funny at the Winter Market. I was sampling a small piece of coffee cake as I walked across the street where a lady had a big pit bull-type dog on a leash. He looked up at me and I smiled at him, and he noticed I was eating. All of a sudden he got this big doggie smile on his face and started getting all excited, bouncing on his toes. "You have a food! May I have some of the food? Oh, please?" Oh, and he was wagging his tail like mad and so eager to have some of that yummy-smelling cake that he was actually vibrating in excitement: "Oh, pleeeeeeeease let me have some of the food!"

2012-01-25T07:28:00.000-05:00

FOR TODAY, JANUARY 25, 2012 (first post of the year!)

Outside my window...
...the sun is just rising, but it's not very bright, as it is overcast.

I am thinking...
...actually I am trying not to think. My nose is stuffy and I did not sleep well at all last night; my eyes are gritty and heavy this morning.

I am thankful for...
...I'm afraid I'm not much thankful this morning, either. All my effort is into keeping my mind on my work. I'd love to have some soup for lunch. Maybe I'll truck over to the new Kroger and see what's on the soup bar.

From the learning rooms...
...never trust the status quo. Still really spooked by talk of reorganization at work.

From the kitchen...
...oh, gosh, I hope it's nothing. Christmas completely tired me of sweet treats. I want to go back to ordinary food.

I am wearing...
...a purple sweat shirt, grey sweat pants, and pink socks. (Yes, I have new socks and new sweats. Soooo exciting!)

I am creating...
...little at the moment. Post-Christmas depression has gotten me really down.

I am going...
...to attend to my work and not much else today. Not feeling up to it and still not perked up after the holiday. I really hate this time of year. Everything had been so pretty and now it's dishwater dull again.

I am reading...
...A Pocketful of History, which is the story behind each of the images on the back of the state quarters.

I am hoping...
...for a perk-up this weekend. There is a Brittrack Meet'n'Greet upcoming, and also Hair Day.

I am hearing...
...not even the heat coming on. It's very warm, in the 50s, and going up to the 60s today. Not exactly January weather, even in Georgia. For the last two weeks, the news has been showing photos from the snowstorm last year. It's hardly believable this year!

Around the house...
...morning quiet. Gloom until I put on the light. And books all over the place. Go figure. :-)

One of my favorite things...
...Lassie reruns, which are now showing on Angel 2. Well, that is, when they're not repeating episodes multiple times. :-)

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Many more purchase orders to work on! We don't have any slowdown this year. And I do hope to feel better tomorrow. Need to take some ibuprofin later on, and before bed to help the process along.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...
This is a lovely photo I've never seen before.

This series has always been my favorite. Oh, it's terribly old fashioned now, and sometimes corny, but it comes with a feel-good factor, doesn't talk down to its audience like today's programming, and there are no stupid jokes about urinating or farting.

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Two Days = Two Hours

2012-01-22T19:07:00.005-05:00

I mean, really. Sometimes it feels like the two days go by that fast.

Yesterday was begun in the rain. In fact, it was pouring so hard as we set out we nearly turned about and went home (especially after the tornado siren went off to alert a severe thunderstorm warning). Instead we splashed through the deluge to check out the new Kroger. The gas station is already open, but the store itself does not open until the 25th.

We'd both had only a quick breakfast, so we stopped by Dunkin Donuts, only to be disappointed: they say they have discontinued the flatbread sandwiches. Wow, weren't they just introducing some new ones not long ago? Instead I had a bagel and James had one of their "cros-sandwiches."

There was a model contest in Chattanooga, so the hobby shop was pretty much deserted, and we did not stay long, but instead decided to go to Harry's Farmers Market, which is now just a Whole Foods. By now the weather had cleared up and most of the afternoon was pleasant. We haven't been in a while and wanted to see if they had put in the same bulk food choices that the larger Whole Foods at Johnson Ferry Road has. (And the answer is: somewhat. We still couldn't find grains like quinoa and bulger wheat, although they did have bulk nuts, granola, rice, and beans.) So we wandered around and bought fresh salad vegetables, potatoes, wine to cook with ($4 is enough to spend on that!), two cookies for dessert, a wheat baguette, romano cheese, some chicken wings for supper (they had a black cherry sauce), and also supplies for an easy Sunday dinner. For this I shelled out $$$. Too rich for my blood most weekends!

The most memorable thing at Harry's happened before we went in. At the right side of the store, under cover of the garage-door'd-in area, they were having pet adoptions. A basset hound cross was baying, and they had an assortment of mixed-breed dogs, plus a pug, and about eight cats, four of which had been abandoned by their owner and which were being kept in the same cage.

We were absolutely charmed by four black Chihuahua puppies. They were lively and friendly, walking forward one by one to lick our fingers. In addition, there was what I could only describe as a "two-tone" brown puppy that looked like a Chihuahua but with fuzzy fur on its face. A woman with her daughter was looking at this puppy, and said she thought it was a Yorkie/Chihuahua cross. Well, the puppy was very taken with this little girl. She was trying to put it back into its cage, but the puppy kept biting at her fingers and struggling into her hands. When she finally took it back out and cuddled it, it calmed right down and sat in the crook in her arm like it had been born there. It was so cute.

When we got home we told Willow how close she'd come to having a little brother or sister.

We had missed the Betty White birthday tribute they did earlier in the week, so took advantage of the repeat tonight to watch it and quite enjoyed it.

Later talked to Jen and Emma on chat; Jen left early since she is on a new class schedule where the class starts at 5 a.m. That sounds like the equivalent of a horror novel to me!

We tried not to sleep late today so that going to bed tonight would be easier. We woke to a damp, grey day that spread its gloominess through all the waking hours, even getting a bit chillier as the afternoon wore on. After breakfast we did the grocery shopping, our last (hopefully) at the Battle Ridge Kroger.

Once the groceries were put up we had a spot of lunch, then went to use the last of our free movie tickets to see War Horse. In general, I enjoyed it, and was quite teary at the end. The spectacle of the first, discouraging charge and the later battle, with the roar of the big guns and the ceaseless noise, was quite impressive. The cinematography was lovely, with some memorable scenes that left images in your mind long after the film was over, and of course a John Williams score was a definite plus. I was surprised to notice that Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) was in the cast.

However, I was struck by the fact that in the movie they have tried to justify the father's drunkenness, where in the book he is just one of those weak-willed people that allows drink to take him over, and made him into a bit of a hero. I'm also a bit puzzled at the class-struggle subplot that wandered its way in, having the local squire and squire's son be antagonists to the family. The scenes at the farm are also much longer in the film than in the book. Mostly I missed Joey's "voice" as compared with the book. I understand that the filmmakers felt that as an adult film, the horse's narrative was restrictive, but the book was an obvious parallel to Black Beauty, where the horse's narrative is the main feature. I preferred hearing Joey's side of things.

A Friday With My Feller

2012-01-20T18:28:00.002-05:00

Simple math: James worked Saturday, so he had today off. His days off don't usually coincide with my Fridays off, so this was a rare gift.

Of course like the couple of middle-aged duffers we are, we slept late, then had breakfast. Following that we had one Christmas-related task left: we had to take the rest of the outside lights down. I had taken the strings off the railings when I put up the winter decorations, and then taken those strings and the ones off the bushes earlier in the week and put them in the garage. Now James got the ladder and got the rest of them down, and we wound them around paper towel tubes and put them away, dismantling the Moravian star as well, and cramming the octopus extension cord in the container as well.

At noon we drove to Hiram, had lunch at Folks, then went to Michaels. I needed a couple of small frames, and we also went through the clearance items. They had solid color Christmas wrap for 59 cents, so I got a pretty burgundy, a forest green, and a spring green. They will look pretty with appropriate bows. Also got some sale ribbon, and two things to put away as gifts. I need to start looking for a basket of spring/summer flowers for the porch. The one I have is sadly faded by the sun. I don't decorate much for warm weather—not only don't I feel like celebrating it, but the sun tears everything else; I'll have to dig up the photos I took of the two-year-old summer banner I had to throw away last fall because it was literally shredded by the sun.

We also went to Sam's and got some low-carb wheat tortillas, a book about healthful supermarket shopping, and a big bag of luscious-smelling naval oranges.

Spent the rest of the afternoon watching Lassie reruns.

Just a Long Week

2012-01-19T22:50:00.002-05:00

Just haven't felt much like writing this week. Very busy at work, with an ongoing protest against an award. Not feeling like doing much after work besides collapsing in front of the idiot box. Sleepy and cross most of the time. However, it was cold enough last night that I could wear my new flannel pajamas. I think this is the first time it's been cold enough for flannel in the past three years!

I did finish Morpurgo's War Horse, and am reading The Secret Gift.

Had to go to the doctor today to get refills on my meds. Have something to lower my triglycerides now as well. Was waiting in the office a very long time before being called, even though they told me he was on time, and then after that had to go to the lab to give blood (my last test was three months old and he wanted to see if my thyroid levels had changed). I also found out that my mammogram was clean. I never got the results because for some reason Kaiser did not have our proper address, although the last time I had a mammogram the letter came through fine, and I had never gotten the letter telling me the doctor wanted a follow-up because my thyroid levels were off. I only found out when I went to make the appointment after not being able to get a refill on my prescriptions.

Something nice did happen this afternoon: I got home just in time for Amazon Vine at 3 p.m. and there was Jacqueline Winspear's new Maisie Dobbs book among the choices. Now if only the new "Pink Carnation" and new Peculiar Crimes Unit books were in there as well! Ah, well, I guess you can't have everything.

And On Sunday...We Didn't Rest

2012-01-15T22:34:00.004-05:00

Well, except for sleeping late, but then we went to bed late. After breakfast we went grocery shopping at both Publix and Kroger. (As we approached Publix from the opposite direction of the one we usually go in, I said impulsively: "Let's park on this side of the store this time." LOL. I think I'm tired of grocery shopping.)

We ran into Alice and Ken Spivey doing their weekly shopping at Kroger. We had prescriptions to pick up, and the pharmacist asked us if we didn't want to join their automatic refill system. We didn't want to tell her that the moment the new Smyrna Kroger opens, we're outta here. Why go all that way when we can just drive down the road a couple of miles?

Groceries were put up once home, then we had lunch, and finally we got all the Christmas things put away: the tree brought downstairs, which is the hardest part since James has to carry it and it's awkward, then getting it covered up and pushed in the corner of the closet, and then stacking the other boxes on the shelves and on the floor. This means the Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving boxes have to come out first so the Christmas things can go on the bottom.

When we were through with that, we hustled into our coats and drove to Parkway Pointe to see the 3:55 p.m. showing of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I guess the matinee ends at three; even with free tickets I had to pay six dollars extra! (The tickets are worth only a certain amount each.) Zowee! I'm not coming here to a movie again! (Equally depressing, we had to pass by the old Borders store on the way home, with the name still stenciled on the doors and the "ghost sign" on the building still very apparent.)

Anyway, Sherlock was fun and suspenseful, and I enjoyed it much better than I did the first one; I suppose I should watch the original again. Robert Downey didn't mumble half so much in this one, and parts of the story were quite affecting (Holmes feeling abandoned because Watson was marrying; I was getting definite House/Wilson vibes during a lot of the situations). A little suspense, a little danger, some amusing situations mostly courtesy Stephen Fry as Sherlock's brother Mycroft, lots of action and things blowing up, many improbably situations, but all fun, and Jude Law is simply smashing as Dr. Watson. (My gosh, his eyes are green.) But then I love my Watsons anyway, not just Jude Law, but Martin Freeman in the contemporary Sherlock (darn he's cute).

(Speaking of Freeman, this is the second movie we've gone to during the month, and neither time have we seen the trailer to The Hobbit. I feel cheated.)

Had turkey pot pie and a cucumber salad for supper and watched Holmes Inspection all evening. While the pie was baking I vacuumed downstairs and put it to rights, cleaned the hall, the foyer, and vacuumed the stairs. Later I vacuumed the corner where the tree had been, put the winter decorations on the divider, and then James put the rocking chair and the ottoman back in the corner, and I vacuumed the rest of the main living area.

Tomorrow I can put the regular mantel decorations back up (I miss my little autumn houses and trees) and the fall bouquet back in the hall.

One January Saturday, As the Wind Was Blowing...

2012-01-14T14:32:00.003-05:00

James had to go in to work this morning, but I had a good sleep-in until 8:30, then got dressed and went to the Winter Market which is being held on Saturday until March on Mill Street off Marietta Square. It was brisk and chill, and there were only a few shoppers. No fresh veggies, of course, except for some root vegetables and cabbages, but the meat vendors were there, and the folks who sell organic milk, flavored butters, Shea butter, and bread. I got Willow more cookies, bought James more of the chicken salad he likes, got a turkey pot pie for supper tomorrow night, bought a bagel for breakfast and two Portuguese rolls for later, and, since the "goat cheese guy" wasn't there, got some goat cheese from the "goat cheese lady." I have really been jonesing for some goat cheese!

Even though it was still quite chill, I stuffed the perishables in the cold bag and went up to Barnes & Noble for about an hour. I was in luck and found pumpkin bread in Starbuck's for dessert—James has had a hankering for it. I also got the Christmas "BBC History Magazine" and two cross-stitch magazines, and also a box of little Valentine cards made from Victorian ephemera. Last year I wanted Valentine cards for a gathering and could find only junky ones with media characters on them (Transformers, Cars, etc.). Don't know if I'll use them this year, but I have 'em if I want 'em!

Came home to eat my bagel, and then, sadly, to divest the Christmas tree of its finery.

All Downhill From Now On

2012-01-08T20:18:00.004-05:00

Christmas celebrations come to an end, but then...is Christmas ever quite over? :-)

We watched—and quite overdue, too; Netflix must think we lost the disk!—the next three episodes in Season 2 of Murdoch Mysteries while we were eating supper (nice plain fare: pork roast, ramen noodles and cucumbers). "Convalescence" was quite good: Murdoch incapacitated but encountering a mystery while officer Crabtree investigates his own crime with the help of a parrot. Then I found the animated Star Trek on streaming Netflix.

And So Christmas Ends...

2012-01-06T17:17:00.001-05:00

...with Twelfth Night and Epiphany in Holiday Harbour.

No Escape from the Real World

2012-01-03T22:49:00.003-05:00

I am fit to be tied and morose at the same time.

When I arrived at work this morning, prepared to clean out my e-mail box and then get to my orders, I discovered there was a project I needed to do today due to time sensitivity. Accordingly, I got everything else in order so that I could devote all afternoon to this project, which involved getting documentation printed and then in order.

I discovered to my dismay that the printing that needed doing was much more extensive than I had expected. Worse, there was no way to do it expeditiously. The material was in a big .zip file with about eight folders in it. Each folder contained Word documents. Some of them had eight or ten Word documents. However at least four of them had at least thirty or forty documents in them, and the largest one must have had at least a hundred documents in it. I thought surely there was a way to tell Windows to print all the documents, but...no. I had to open each one separately, tell it to print, hit the okay button, click the document to close, and then click the button that told Windows not to change the document, and start all over again. I started this about 2:30 and by 4:30, when I usually leave, I was still not done. So I stayed until 5:30 to get the documents all printed and indexed.

This meant I had to go home cross-country rather than via the freeway, which was spectacularly colored in yellow, orange, and red on the traffic maps. I whiled away the ride looking for what Christmas lights remained—quite a few, and happily drove into our street and into the garage.

I noticed that a couple of the lights on the porch appeared to be out, so I came out of the garage rather than going directly inside to check them out. Nope, they weren't out, just behind the railing of the porch. So I went up on the porch to replace the banner—the wind was blowing so hard last night I was afraid it would pull the mount out—and as I did so, I faced the mailbox.

Son of a bitch! The new Christmas cover I bought for the mailbox was gone. Someone swiped my original one that I bought in Pennsylvania right before Christmas last year, but this year's had stayed intact. I came in the house and asked James if he had for some reason removed it. He said it was on the mailbox when he checked the mail at 5 p.m. So somewhere between five and 6:30, someone stole it!

Dammit, if Windows had offered a proper way to easily print multiple files within a folder within a .zip file, maybe I would have made it home on time and either caught the thieves at it or deterred them from doing it. Visigoths! Barbarians! [And I'm not just talking about the thieves.]

Just Another Monday

2012-01-02T17:38:00.003-05:00

Or would have been, except for the Tournament of Roses Parade. We had breakfast well in hand as the HGTV "Making of" show aired, mostly showing how the HGTV float, based on this year's "Dream House" built in Park City, Utah, was constructed. This one has a snow machine as part of the design.

Well, it was a lovely sunny day in Pasadena, perfect for a parade. There was some inventive stuff this year against a theme of imagination, including a float with three dinosaurs, many dream sequences, a super flying saucer presentation with little green aliens, a float from Paramount Pictures that went from the biplane in Wings to the starship Enterprise, enough marching bands to fill several stadia, and a final float that was a tribute to Roy Rogers, playing "Happy Trails" to end the parade. Unfortunately the HGTV announcers are developing more logorrhea every year. How about shutting up and letting us listen to the marching bands, guys? (The Wisconsin band, of course, was playing "On Wisconsin"!)

Once the parade ended, we had to get to the errands. Since we needed various things and not just a headlight bulb, we went to Wally World. James found two more strings of blue Christmas lights in someplace totally unrelated to the Christmas clearance area (which was pretty much stripped; just junk left; I did get three clear snowflakes for winter decor, and also some small autumn paper plates for a future game night), I picked up some socks, noted some sweatshirts and pants, and we did get the headlight bulb for the truck. We came home the long way, via Publix, to pick up paper towels on sale and buy a few twofers and more supplies for the party. I think all we have left to get is the chicken wings.

We were barely in the garage when James started disassembling the headlight in order to get the old bulb out. The left headlight is cheek by jowl to the battery and it was a concern for some minutes for him working in such a small space. But he finally got the light unplugged, the rubber protector off, the spring that held the lightbulb off—only to discover that the guide to buying the lightbulb at Walmart had given us the wrong number and therefore the incorrect lightbulb. So we had to pop in my car and run up to Advance Auto Parts for the correct type. Once home, it was replaced in a trice while I ran outside to "help" our log reindeer. It has been clear and sunny, but terribly windy today, the type of wind that sneaks under your coat and down your collar no matter what you do. It was rattling the banner so much that I took it down for the evening, but I did right "Woody" and "Holly" and replace Holly's antler. Alas, one of Woody's antlers (a tree branch with bows on it) had vanished completely.

Spent what was left of the afternoon reading and watching "Lassie's Gift of Love." James took one of our containers of turkey soup and made it with dumplings, ala chicken and dumplings, a warm treat for such a chilly evening, thick and savory, with small dumplings, vegetable flakes, and pieces of turkey.

Tracking Unicorns...

2012-01-01T23:50:00.001-05:00

...and other New Year tales in Holiday Harbour.

2012-01-01T11:31:00.001-05:00

Awww...Aren't They Cute?

2012-01-01T10:59:00.001-05:00

David Tennant Wedding: Newlyweds Pictured a Day After Their Wedding

So the Doctor married the Doctor's daughter...LOL.

Wishing You a Happy Sylvester...

2011-12-31T18:55:00.001-05:00

...plus football and pork roasts in Holiday Harbour.

Time Flies...

2011-12-30T15:50:00.001-05:00

...as the 2011 clock clicks down in Holiday Harbour.

2011-12-29T08:02:00.000-05:00

FOR TODAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011 (last post for 2011)

Outside my window...
...frosty! Everything was white with frost this morning, especially in the shade. When I went out to fill the bird feeders, even the deck boarding glittered with frost.

I am thinking...
...what I usually think at the end of December: "Another year shot to hell," a half-amused, half-despairing commentary. The days go by, especially in the summer, with excruciating slowness to match the excruciating heat.

But the weeks go by so fast. Christmas has flown by and I feel as if I've always been a half-a-beat behind.

I am thankful for...
...use or lose. These two weeks have been such a relief to decompress in, even if I still had cookies to bake and the last few gifts to purchase. What was left was fun.

Do you know this week and last I have forgotten to take my Prilosec more than half the time, and I have had bad indigestion only once (and that was on a day I did take the Prilosec)? This pretty much proves much of my acid reflux is caused by stress.

From the learning rooms...
...I am reading Jeffrey Seals' Santa, which is a history of St. Nicholas. Besides the odd little convention he has of assigning Nicholas the power of determining what happens to his legend after he dies, it's pretty neat as a travel and history book.

From the kitchen...
...blessedly quiet and halfway clean. I just need to load the dishwasher.

I am wearing...
...my pine-green "Myriad" shirt and pale blue sweatpants with white socks. Cozy warm.

I am creating...
...still working on a project for some friends. It will be the Sunday after New Year before the project can come to fruition (unless there's a continuation—arrrgh).

I am going...
...to put a last few things in the boxes going to Goodwill and going to the library for donation purposes. If I didn't like the book, or don't remember the plot, I probably won't re-read it. No use in keeping it then.

I am reading...
...Santa, as I mentioned, The Heart Comes Home At Christmas (a collection of Marjorie Holmes), and A Book of Feasts and Seasons by Joanna Bogle.

I am hoping...
...to have a few more relaxing hours! I know we must still transport to Goodwill and the library, but I'm loathe to have my holiday over. Luckily Monday is considered a holiday. And we still have movies we want to see!

I am hearing...
...the heat running. It's chilly this morning, about 30°F, but going up to the low fifties. Otherwise it is quiet for now.

Around the house...
Christmas things still everywhere. I have still about ten Christmas magazines I never have gotten to, including the Christmas "Early American Life," which I adore. Must tidy up some, if nothing else to get a start on next week's party prep!

I am pondering...
...the end of the year...things left to do...things ahead...places to go, people to see...so many books, so little time...http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

One of my favorite things...
...back to Christmas music. Yes, I am still listening to it—we celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas here! When I need a boost in midsummer, Christmas music is always there to see me through.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Donations for taxes, using my coupon for a free dinner in my birthday month at Fresh2Order, putting the new stickers on the cars before the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

This brings back happy memories of the First Nights I spent in Boston with friends. Here's to Deb, and Mary, and Pat, and Gail, and Abby, and, not to be forgotten, MaryB...

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

No New Projects Today

2011-12-28T21:45:00.000-05:00

It's supposed to be bad luck to start a new project on Holy Innocents Day.

Instead I spent the day doing laundry and working on an old project. That was about all. Actually not as relaxing as it sounds as it involved up and down stairs and up and into chairs. But that was good, as well. :-)

Watched a cool National Geographic special I'd recorded earlier in the month, The Science of Winter. Do people still think it's cold in winter because "Earth is furthest from the sun" then? Wow.

A Day With My Honey...

2011-12-26T22:37:00.001-05:00

...in Holiday Harbour.

By Hook or By Nook...

2011-12-25T23:55:00.000-05:00

...and other holiday narratives in Holiday Harbour.

2011-12-25T00:00:00.000-05:00

A Happy Road Trip...

2011-12-24T23:02:00.000-05:00

...on Christmas Eve in Holiday Harbour.

Counting Down...

2011-12-23T23:56:00.000-05:00

...in Holiday Harbour.

2011-12-22T08:49:00.000-05:00

FOR TODAY, DECEMBER 22, 2011

Outside my window...
...grey and cloudy. It is so quiet! Not a bird chirping! No heat on, because it's already in the 60s. What a day for the winter solstice!

I am thinking...
...how much I hate this warm weather. Winter should be cold. Yesterday when James and I were at Discover Mills, my fingers were swollen, it was so warm.

I am thankful for...
...our shopping being finally finished. I shop throughout the year, but there are always a few things left over to be purchased at the last moment. I should receive one last gift for James today and then I can put the Christmas paper away and finally tidy up the spare room. For a few weeks it has looked like the shipping room at Macy's. :-)

From the learning rooms...
I'm indulging in Christmas stories for a while. Alas, James has already begun the December 1941 book, so I must wait until he has completed it.

From the kitchen...
...well, nothing there now. Our kitchen is that, a kitchen. No room for a table and goodies, really. Some tiny treats are there: dark chocolate covered pomegranite seeds and the like, but all the goodies are on the table: wine biscuits, Mexican brownies, a few chocolates, Emma's cookies.

I am wearing...
...green T-shirt over green "Mutts" jammies. It's too warm for anything else.

I am creating...
...Christmas memories! Schuyler and I are watching Christmas stories: The Night Before Christmas (how the poem was written), The Little Drummer Boy, and Simple Gifts.

I am going...
...to sit and enjoy Christmas for the next few days. It's been a fun rush, but an endless one, and I seem to have always been a few steps behind no matter what.

I am reading...
...Santa by Jeremy Seal, a history of St. Nicholas. We heard it abridged on the BBC last year.

I am hoping...
...that the storm ocming tonight won't be as severe as forecast. When it gets this warm with a cold front behind it, I am always worried. And thunder is simply out of place in December.

I am hearing...
...quiet! It's quite spooky! Not even a bird is singing.

Around the house...
...still some wrapping paper out in the spare room. I need to finish wrapping when James' gift comes, collate the trash, put up the table, and then sort out the wrapping paper. Some of the tape refills have fallen to the bottom of the Christmas gift wrap container and I have to fetch them.

I am pondering...
...the New Year already. Certain things need to be done that have not been done, and decisions must be made. does anyone else get tired of being a grown-up all the time? Never did understand those kids who were in a hurry to grow up! All they thought about was getting a car or a boyfriend. None of them ever thought about jobs, living responsibilities, and arranging for things like gutter cleaning and termite protection!

One of my favorite things...
...the tree with unopened gifts sitting under it. I never really think about what I'm going to get. It's nice to get wonderful gifts, but so much more fun to buy things you hope people will like!

A few plans for the rest of the week:
I still haven't taken my annual walk in downtown Marietta. It won't be the same without being able to end up at Willow Too Antiques. There's a flooring store there now. How commonplace. I wish there was still an old-fashioned drugstore, not CVS or Walgreens with the bright aisles, but the cozy kind like DiLorenzo's used to be (or Thalls before they remodeled it).

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Look, as much as I love snow, I know it's a pain to shovel and a nightmare to drive in. But this combines the snow I love and a place I love: Bowen's Wharf in Newport. Cold without and warm within, the perfect embodiment of Christmas.

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

A Trek North

2011-12-21T18:13:00.004-05:00

As a trade-off for working Saturday (a rather inadequate one, from my POV!), James was off today. We took the opportunity to sleep late and recharge our aging bodies, then headed up to Discover Mills. Since we had a day off in the middle of the week and we like to go up to the calendar store there once a year, it was a perfect day of the week to go. Traffic was minimal on the way there, and it was cloudy so there was no glare problem. The biggest problem was that it was damp and warm.

We got a nice parking space close to the entrance near Books-a-Million and then walked clockwise around the mall. This is a great place for mallwalks. This is a multiple-use mall that not only has stores and a food court, but an indoor miniature golf course, a movie theatre, Medieval Times dinner theatre, a place for folks to play airsoft games, and a huge Bass Pro Shop. The stores are about average, lots of shoes and clothes (including a Saks outlet), and more perfume stores than I've ever seen. The Food Court runs through the middle and has a carousel. We stopped in the Lego outlet, in the As Seen on TV store, and of course wandered around Bass Pro, which is a trip. They sell hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor supplies, and stuff like camping food, country-themed decorations (even tree decorations), sporty tee shirts, outdoor clothing, etc.

We also found a Disney Store! We haven't seen one of these in years; the one in Cumberland Mall closed ages ago, and Town Center's store closed shortly afterward. My favorite part of the store is going to the tall display at the center and hugging the stuffed animals. I've never gotten over my love for stuffed animals; even when I was a kid, I could take or leave (but mostly leave) dolls. They were boring. But I loved stuffed animals.

We'd almost made the circuit when we stopped for lunch, having something from the Japanese place. I had teriyaki and sesame chicken portions with lo mein noodles and some water; very filling! This girded our loins for the final portion, which included the calendar place and Books-a-Million.

We usually find good stuff in the calendar place, but nothing appeared very striking this year. Lots of dog calendars. I was looking for a small Susan Branch calendar, but didn't see one. I had one in our bedroom last year, and I liked the bright spot it made on the wall.

However, they did have one in the Books-a-Million! This is a nice branch of the store and I wish it was closer to our house. The one in Acworth is a bit smaller and the magazines, at least, are always untidy, and the Discover Mills store always has more bargain books. I also found the new "Just Cross Stitch" with lots of snow designs.

By the time we left the mall it was pouring rain, so it was a miserable drive down I-85 south, since all the "liquid stupidity" was falling from the sky. As we headed west on I-285, though, it cleared up a bit; while it never got sunny, the sky lighted considerably.

We stopped for One Last Gift and now we are finished! We also had two Barnes & Noble coupons, one for 30 percent off and one for 25. I went hunting in the history books and found Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place Naming in the United States. It looks yummy! I also got The Jew Store, a review or commentary about which I had read earlier in the year. It is about a Jewish family that opens a general store in a small Southern town in 1920. They are the only Jewish family in the area and potential targets of the Ku Klux Klan. It sounds fascinating.

Happy Scents on a Rainy Day...

2011-12-20T18:17:00.002-05:00

...in Holiday Harbour.

A Belated Weekend Report...

2011-12-19T12:19:00.000-05:00

...has popped up in Holiday Harbour!

Waiting for the Waiting to Be Over

2011-12-16T23:23:00.005-05:00

Okay, this was the plan: we would get up early enough to go to Kaiser Cumberland for James to have blood drawn. Then we would have a quick breakfast—yay! oatmeal and fruit!—at Chik-Fil-A, followed by a trip out to Perimeter Mall, where we would go to the Container Store and Barnes & Noble for about 90 minutes before going to Kaiser Glenlake for James' 11:30 podiatry appointment. I figured it would take a bit longer than usual; I expected they would want fresh X-rays.

When we finished James would drop me off at home and go to his 3:40 p.m. appointment back at Kaiser Cumberland. I could change the bed. When he got home we would go out to Books-a-Million (good coupon) and have supper at the Longhorn next door.

Well, the first part of that worked out okay. James was the fourth person in the lab, breakfast was quick, we picked up a few things at the Container Store and bought two gifts at Barnes & Noble. We were at the Glenlake office promptly at 11:15.

We didn't see the podiatrist until almost one. Plus there were the X-rays. By then we were both starving. The building did have a snack machine on the second floor—tell me, why does a medical organization constantly advertising that you live a healthy lifestyle have a snack machine full of candy bars and high-sodium chips in their facility?—but it wouldn't take any of the dollar bills I had. A kind lady nearby even swapped one of her dollar bills for one of mine. It didn't like hers, either. I had a screaming headache from being hungry and finally just walked out to the truck for two bags of trail mix. We ate these before seeing the podiatrist again.

We didn't leave Glenlake until 2:45 and then had to hurry back to the Cumberland office, stopping only briefly at Dunkin Donuts for a flatbread sandwich each before arriving at 3:20. The doctor here was late as well. Sigh. We didn't get home until almost five o'clock, whereupon James took Wil out, then we drove out to...well, that worked out, except of course by 6:45 there was another wait at Longhorn. Aieeee! But I did get a couple more Christmas gifts at Books-a-Million, and ordered a couple more off Amazon while we waited at the doctor's office.

Anyway, the trouble James is having with his right foot (turning on it excessively to the point it is making him limp and twisting his knee and hip) is not just a bone spur. It's a combination of that, arthritis, and plantar fasciitis. We had to buy inserts for his slippers, and he has a referral to get diabetic shoes.

I have had my fill of waiting today!

They Lived Happily...

2011-12-14T23:15:00.001-05:00

I never realized Lynn Johnston had done a Sunday summary strip when the original run of "For Better or For Worse" ended, telling you what happened to the characters.

2011-12-14T07:21:00.000-05:00

FOR TODAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011 (as usual, I didn't get this finished on time! maybe next week...)

Outside my window...
...sun just peeking over the horizon. It's chilly, but will be quite warm today, almost 70°F. And I really need to refill the bird feeders. We will need seed again this weekend.

I am thinking...
...that I will be glad when the parcels are on their way. I need to spend my lunch hour wrapping and boxing gifts. Thankfully only two of them need boxes; the others I can slip into padded envelopes. I love giving gifts, but this year I seem to be minutes behind everything, even though I got a head start on the decorating right after Thanksgiving! It has been very busy at work for December, so when I finish I have been tired. I still haven't put decorations up in the bathroom, and that takes something like fifteen minutes at most! Haven't finished a book yet this month, either.

I am thankful for...
...just a few gifts left for Christmas. Of course the few gifts that are left are the ones that I am puzzled about what to get!

From the learning rooms...
...I've learned I really need to slow the heck down and not do too much at once. But I never listen to myself. [Later: I didn't today, either.]

From the kitchen...
...nothing much, since we've finished the gingerbread. :-) I ordered six boxes of Dromedary from Amazon. Gingerbread so foolproof even I can make it: all you add is water!

I am wearing...
..."Mutts" pajama bottoms (Mooch and Earl play in the snow) and a green T-shirt because the matching top was gone when I bought the bottoms, and white socks.

I am creating...
...Well, I will be creating mounds of scrap paper this afternoon, I hope! Gift wrapping makes a tremendous mess.

I am going...
...to order more vegetable flakes. James has taken to putting them in our side dish (couscous, etc.) so I will get some veggies in my died besides salad vegetables.

I am reading...
...still working on Pearl Harbor Christmas and also The Atheist's Guide to Christmas. Plus on my Nook I'm reading an old novel called The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. This is not the L. Frank Baum story, but a book from the 1920s where Nicholas, an orphan, starts bringing toys to children in his village from when he's a child. Only after he dies does he become the immortal St. Nicholas...Santa Claus.

I am hoping...
...to get some rest after the parcels go out. Although I still have to wrap gifts, that shouldn't be so rushed.

I am hearing...
...just the whirr of the fans right now. This is shaping up to be like the winter of 2001-2002, which was utterly miserable, 50s one day, 70s another. I wore shorts to decorate the Christmas tree, and the windows were open so often the tinsel got tangled from the breeze. Phooey.

Around the house...
...just the lamp on, Schuyler blinking sleepily. I think she's finally feeling better; she has been going through a humongous moult, like the one she has in the spring. When she's shedding feathers she is so listless. I kept giving her fruits and encouraging her to sleep, and now she's rarin' to go again. Willow is in the chair drowsing. Poor old dog, she gets stiffer daily.

I am pondering...
...friendship. And that sometimes it makes you melancholy.

One of my favorite things...
...discussing books! On my Christmas movies and music books we are having a delightful conversation about A Christmas Carol—how the clothing of Scrooge's youth is usually portrayed incorrectly in films, artificial candlelight in old movies, if Belle was Fezziwig's daughter, etc.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Mailing the gifts. Also need to go with James to the doctor. We need to see what to do about the bone spur in his heel. It makes him twist his foot, which is twisting his knee and hip. He limped after me gamely at Greenfield Village, but really, it's getting harder for him to walk, and that just makes it worse.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

While Charles Dickens could be wordy, A Christmas Carol is short, succinct, and classic. Everyone should read the book just once to experience his vivid descriptions, from the London markets at Christmastime to his eye-opening examples of the poverty of the time. There are many good film versions of A Christmas Carol, but the book, in its unabridged form, is a delightful experience. Try it!

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Linda's Birthday Surprise(s)

2011-12-11T21:08:00.000-05:00

(And one of them was a dilly...)

So, when we last left our frazzled heroine, she was sleepy from decorating a Christmas tree. So Saturday she slept late, along with one quite deserving husband.

And then we tackled the outdoor lights.

As I've mentioned, I love Christmas lights. One of my cherished memories of Christmases as a child was "going for a ride" to see Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. I've forgotten dozens of gifts, but I remember those lights! White sparkle was lovely, but I reveled in rainbows and was never happier to see festoons upon swags of multicolor lights.

However, for me putting up Christmas lights ranks somewhere on Dante's Nine Rings of Hell.

Two (or a little bit more) hours later, everything was up. James was a bit frazzled, as he'd done one string of lights twice, and then had to take it down a third time after we discovered it was backwards—the male plug which had to be at the bottom of the column to connect to the extension cord which connected with the timer to light the whole kit and caboodle was somehow at the top. Plus he stabbed his finger at least once and left big streaks of blood on one of the columns. I finally shooed him off to his IPMS meeting, climbed the ladder fearfully to get rid of the blood streaks, and messed with one of the cords that went on the bushes right in front of the house. We had a string of lights that half died last year, and one string that worked last year was dead as a doornail this year. None of the bulbs looked loose or broken, so I tried replacing the fuses on the string that wasn't working. Nada.

The folks on my Christmas group swear by a gadget called a Lightkeeper Pro, which makes nonworking light strings work again. I thought I'd hit Home Depot to see if they had one, and get a couple more of the small timers while I was at it. Timers, yes, Lightkeeper, no. I should have gone on to Lowes, but I lost one of the nose pads on my eyeglasses and my nose was screaming in pain, so I came home instead, and fixed the half-on, half-off light string so that the working lights were on top of the bushes and the nonworking half was stuffed in the back of the bush.

Also, we never could get James' sparkly stars to work; not sure why, as they worked fine last year. :-(

I also put out the two wooden reindeer, Woody and Holly, and the decorative stakes (candy cane, reindeer, and welcome bell).

Besides, I was determined to work on the Christmas cards. I chose a design (I have several sets of cards), worked for a remarkably short time to get an excellent set of labels printed out (usually the laser ink affixes so poorly to the labels that I have to cover them with Scotch tape), then sat down with pens and stamps and labels. My goal was to do at least twenty of the forty cards, and that was accomplished. Then I got up and printed the newsletter off. This goes to folks who don't read my blog and/or Facebook, or don't read it regularly. After figuring out why the printer wouldn't print (there wasn't enough paper in it, apparently, to lift the paper to the feeder), and one minor bobble, I got some of them printed out (had to print some additional later) and went on with the card signing and stuffing.

Then James came home and asked if I was ready to go out.

Hmmm. I thought we were going to the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company performance of "An Atlanta Christmas" Sunday, followed by dinner at the Colonnade (where we always go for dinner on my birthday). Okay...quick gear switch...cleaned up, got dressed, grabbed the camera and the tripod (it's so dark at the Academy Theatre I never get properly focused pictures), and off we went on a chill and frosty evening out to Buckhead, a big shiny full moon overhead bathing the world in silver.

The Colonnade was packed! It must have been a lot of groups or families getting together for dinner, because our wait for two people was only about fifteen minutes. There were even people in the bar area eating. Our waiter—who was absolutely super and so efficient we left him a good tip—said this was not normal for a Saturday and they were really surprised at the volume.

Of course I had the turkey and dressing...that was a foregone conclusion. James had pork loin. It was delicious as always, and by a few minutes after seven we were tooling on our way to the Academy Theatre. It routed us by Clifton Road and CDC's main campus...good Lord! I haven't been to Clifton in several years, since I had a a Green Training class; it's nearly unrecognizable even from then! They had a little piece on CDC's website about them having to tear down the original, historic Building 1 from the 1940s back when CDC was the Communicable Disease Center; it was just not salvageable, but I didn't envision how radical the change was. I could barely take it in. I couldn't even identify the "new" Building 16 that became the main building some years ago. The old buildings, connected by metal catwalks and stairways, are all gone.

The Academy Theatre was dark without, but warm within. This year's show relied on the more traditional, original sketches that Thomas Fuller wrote, including the World War I piece "O Tannenbaum," which is a tearjerker; the joyfully nostalgic "Davy Crockett and Me," the World War II-set "USO Christmas," and my perennial favorite about two lost souls who find each other, "Are You Lonely Tonight?" The Academy Theatre people also did two holiday-set skits, one about a theatre and its unusual ghost, and the second about a grieving man and a woman who simply wants to do a good deed. It was all lovely, and we had a nice chat with Caran afterwards, as well as meeting someone who has just gotten into Remember WENN fandom via Bill and Caran's copies.

A long drive home, but I was able to catch Jen on chat via my phone, continuing the conversation after we got home. Emma and Mike showed up later and we had a good long chat until 2 a.m., even though I promised myself I wouldn't stay up later than one. Missing absent friends as well.

James gave me my birthday gifts as well: Susan Waggoner's Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas, another in her line of nostalgic books taken from old magazines and craft books, and also a photo book called Remember the Forties.

The dog alarm went off at 9:45 this morning, so there was no sleeping in for us. Yes, even on my birthday, grocery shopping must be done! So after breakfast we went to the Whitlock Avenue Kroger, hoping they had one of their pork roasts. I asked at the deli and they said they make very few because people don't buy them. Are they mad? These are delicious!!!! We got a rotisserie chicken (and it did the usual number on me later; not sure how they prepare them, but I never have problems with chicken cooked at home, or from KFC, but supermarket rotisserie chicken gets me every time) and a few groceries that added up to a lot. Ah, well.

Once the groceries were put away, we could go out and have fun. We went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get James a new frying pan and another Misto (the original is being used for olive oil; James wants one for sesame oil as well), then cut through the back to avoid the mall. Stopped at Dunkin Donuts since neither of us had lunch: had a grilled cheese sandwich and James a flatbread sandwich.

Then we went to Barnes & Noble, as we had both a 25 percent off coupon and a 20. I scoured the magazine stand for the last of the Christmas magazines, although I couldn't find the December British "Country Living." Amazingly, the December issue of "Blue Ridge Country" had the most gorgeous fall cover and photos inside...I had to buy it. I also got the new Monk novel and the new collection of Valdemar short stories

By then the cloud cover had crept over what had been a wisped blue sky and the sun was getting low. We stopped at Publix to get some bread for my lunch and a few twofers, then came home. We spent the night watching Christmassy things I'd recorded, followed by White House Christmas on HGTV.

Now, earlier last week, I'd reminded James he needed to get his truck inspected because our vehicle registration renewals and taxes were due on my birthday. He stopped after work and had it done. And then, between work and Christmas decorations, I'd completely forgotten about it until we were on the way home tonight! So once I had changed clothes, I sat down at the computer and did it online per usual. One disaster averted.

Good thing, I thought, I didn't have to renew my license this year. I hadn't received any reminder.

At least I thought we got reminders.

Wait a minute.

Yes, you guessed it, my driver's license expired today, too.

This is why I love the internet: I got online, found the proper website, and renewed my license online, then printed the receipt in case I needed it for corroboration.

Trimmin' Up the Tree...

2011-12-09T23:15:00.001-05:00

...in Holiday Harbour with help from Benji, Waldo, and Lassie.

2011-12-08T07:26:00.000-05:00

FOR TODAY, DECEMBER 8, 2011

Outside my window...
...sunny already, and very cold, which suits me just fine. Before the cold front moved in, I was aching in every joint and limping.

I am thinking...
...about putting up the Christmas tree, which will consume me tomorrow. It's a long job, but usually a happy one. I have to remember to corral all the new ornaments that will go on the big tree. I even have a shopping bag ornament from Bronner's!

I am thankful for...
...Lassie! I've found some reruns on Angel Two! They're showing the earliest episodes, with Jeff.

From the learning rooms...
...watched an interesting Pearl Harbor special last night, about events following the attack. Apparently President Roosevelt had a terrible problem with his sinuses; without penicillin at the time there was nothing to treat infections with. So his personal physician used cocaine dabbled on the inner part of his nostrils to reduce the swelling of his sinuses so he did not sound "stuffy" when he made the "day of infamy" speech.

From the kitchen...
...well, we have gingerbread mix. I'm waitin' on it. I really want to find some Dromedary mix. I haven't seen it in any of the stores. We bought Betty Crocker, but Dromedary is better.

I am wearing...
...my Lassie sweatshirt and blue sweatpants, with white socks.

I am creating...
...just finished putting together a cross-stitch project to include in a gift! Haven't had much time otherwise with the Christmas decorating. Oh, and I finished the letter that goes in the Christmas cards...now if I can only get to the Christmas cards...

I am reading...
...Pearl Harbor Christmas by Stanley Weintraub. Weintraub appears to be making a career of writing about American historical incidents taking place at Christmas.

I am hoping...
...for a pleasant birthday weekend. We usually go to the Atlanta Radio Theatre Christmas show, and then go out to eat at the Colonnade.

I am hearing...
...the soft hum of the heat kicking in, Willow's collar tags jingling, the hum of the computer starting up for the day.

Around the house...
...Christmas-sparkly, almost everywhere you look. I just realized I still haven't decorated the bathroom yet, but the longest part of that is putting the soap in the snowman dispenser!

I am pondering...
...something depressing that happened news-wise over the weekend: the rape and murder of a little girl. What sort of terrible person does this, whether to a child or to an adult? What sort of thrill can someone get out of a hideous act? Baffling. Sad.

One of my favorite things...
...Christmas magazines! I buy at least a dozen at Christmastime. I read the fluffy ones first, like "Women's Day" and "Better Homes and Gardens" first, leaving the cool ones like "Early American Home Christmas" and "Victorian Homes" for a final savor. I did read "White House Christmas" first...I couldn't resist; it looked so pretty.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Christmas tree! And after that my birthday.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Just plain cute!

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Broadcast from Pearl Harbor

2011-12-07T19:32:00.001-05:00

Remembering Pearl Harbor

2011-12-07T12:23:00.004-05:00

I was born long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but my father, uncles, and older cousins all fought in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Theaters, and I never tired of asking my mom "Tell me the Pearl Harbor story again." (She and her mother had been walking to a cousin's house to "go visiting," and from an upper story of one of the triple-deckers up on Federal Hill, a friend called to them news of the attack. Later the whole family had gone to church; there wasn't a scheduled Mass—they just went there to pray.) One of the always fascinating things in our attic was a box full of newspaper clipping from the era: mostly maps from the newspaper detailing the daily movements of the troops, but also whole newspapers like a tribute to President Roosevelt after his death.

This novel radio special, chronicling the attack from the viewpoint of Hawaiian newspapers and Hawaiian residents is running for the next seven days on BBC 4: Random Edition, Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor attacked: A Witness Remembers, 70 Years Later

Pearl Harbor: Three Enduring Mysteries

New Book on Pearl Harbor

Whither Savings?

2011-12-06T13:36:00.003-05:00

"Why Americans Spend So Much, Save So Little"

Interesting article talking about the tipping point as being the 1980s. I remember being encouraged to save in school. We had little savings envelopes from whatever bank we had chosen, pink for Citizens Bank, and blue for the Old Stone Bank (ours). My mom and dad took out a selected amount for "house money" after being paid and the rest went into the bank. I remember Mom keeping track of everything they spent on a "ten cent pad" from Woolworths (about 4x6, white, unruled) which sat in the "money drawer" of their dresser. My parents didn't have a checking account until I got one in the early 1980s...I didn't even know how to write a check when I got my checking account—I looked up how to do it in the World Book! They saved up for everything before they spent their money, including vacations, and Dad's last car, the white Pontiac Phoenix I named "Canrith." It was seven thousand something with tax, and Dad paid for it in cash.

A Yuletide Weekend...

2011-12-04T20:48:00.001-05:00

...in Holiday Harbour.

Up and Down the Stairs and the Street

2011-12-02T23:53:00.000-05:00

Remember, it's that time of year: many of the posts, like today's, will be in Holiday Harbour.

A Lull

2011-11-30T22:23:00.002-05:00

...from the Latin "lullare"...ooops, sorry, wandered into a Remember WENN episode.

The lull is in the Christmas decorating; there simply wasn't time today, as I had to do the laundry during lunch. Work, on the other hand, was reeeeeallllly busy. I'm hoping with my team lead's help the last-minute hotel order will get done. There's also a vaccine storage order. And a no-cost extension that has to be done before next Wednesday. Not to mention five new orders. Wheeee.

Getting increasingly disenchanted with Harry's Law. Too many extra characters now—not fond of Ollie or Cassandra, and even though I'm fond of bombastic Tommy, he dilutes the mix even more—and the quirky "shoe store" plot has been abandoned except for occasional references. It's basically turning into LA Law or some other ensemble law drama, with "ripped from the headlines" storylines. Heck, Harry was barely in the last episode!

Oh, God...It's Us

2011-11-29T11:07:00.003-05:00

Sunday Times

2011-11-27T21:20:00.003-05:00

We did get up early to fetch the final Tintin ornament, the solo Snowy, holding a bone. It's a bit static, as James observed; wish he'd been in partial leap, or at a run or a trot.

We had breakfast at Ken's Hometown Grill (I indulged and had two orders of toast with a slice of ham; ever since I read A Discovery of Witches, which is full of characters eating delectable or cozy meals, I have been on a mad buttered toast jonesing) and then finished the week's grocery shopping at Publix. By this time it was 10 a.m. and after six hours sleep we were a bit punch-drunk. I did actually crawl back into bed, but couldn't sleep and got back up at eleven. Eventually all the things got put away, and we meandered about for the rest of the day with the Lord of the Rings trilogy running in the background on Encore. Read the paper, and then did get the three boxes out into the garage and the Christmas boxes taken down from the storage closet. James also helped me cut the red-checked gingham I bought and we tacked it to the front of the bookcase we are using as a pantry. We had no tacks and used push-pins, which look dreadful. Will replace them next weekend or whenever.

Had some thin steaks we found at Publix for supper with couscous and James is now watching Punkin Chunkin 2011. Yes, Virginia, some perfectly normal adults do spend autumn afternoons trying to hurl pumpkins long distances with catapults and trebuchets. Beats wasting money on professional sports.

Christmas Approaches...

2011-11-27T20:26:00.001-05:00

...some Advent links in Holiday Harbour.

An Early Saturday

2011-11-26T22:47:00.005-05:00

Well, we were planning to support Small Business Saturday, but didn't do too much for it, just a visit to the hobby shop. Nevertheless, it was a tiring day, but fun.

We were up early for Saturday (7:30), but as we had gone to sleep at 11:30, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We wanted to be at Cost Plus World Market when the doors opened to get the second Tintin ornament, which is Tintin on his motorcycle. (And yes, we're planning to go tomorrow to get the third one of Snowy.) I found some goodies for Christmas, too. Then we went for breakfast across the parking lot at the IHOP. We're disappointed because they don't have the same specialty pancakes as in previous years, except for the pumpkin...I wanted to have the gingerbread ones again; they were delicious. We had the Nooks with us and connected to the IHOP wifi and were watching the pre-launch activities for the launch of the new Mars probe "Curiosity" via NASA's streaming channel. Cool, eh?

We crossed Cobb Parkway so James could get a look at a Kindle Fire at the Office Depot. Had the Nook with me, so noticed that the screen of the Kindle is slightly smaller. Unfortunately it only had a demo mode, so you couldn't really judge how it worked. Office Depot also had the new Asus EEE tablet, but we couldn't check that out, either; they didn't have it plugged in. [eyes roll] Nice way to sell something, guys.

We needed some things at Costco, so we went there next, arriving just as they opened, which was very nice! We needed soap, Breathe Rights, and mushrooms (there's a weird combination for you) and also picked up an Entertainment book for $20; there are at least $20 worth of coupons in it—plus a "few other things." They had the book I've been drooling over, Harry Potter: From Page to Screen, which is a ginormously huge coffee-table tome with dense text and gorgeous photography as well as original drawings of costume and set design. Still thinking about it.

So, home to drag all the stuff inside, and a bit of a respite while checking e-mail and stuff, then we drove out to Merchants Walk for a visit to Trader Joe's. Found a pumpkin tart, peppermint bark, and other Christmas treats, but...no almond bark! The manager said they didn't get any! Blast. I wait all year for their almond bark. I wonder if it's just the Marietta store...we could check the Sandy Springs store...

We stopped by Betsy's Hallmark to get the Lucy section of the "Peanuts" band. Also got the Pongo ornament, which meant I got a freebie item, and I also had a coupon for a free ornament, and then $7 off the entire purchase.

We headed back to the hobby shop past the Kroger where we had gotten the delicious beef and chicken soups recently, hoping to take more home for supper. Sadly, they had different soups today and none looked good, so we got some pork loin instead. (I didn't eat much of it, sadly, as it was too highly peppered as well as being thick and juicy.)

Ended up at the hobby shop for a while, where I read my new issue of "Birds and Blooms" and wrestled with a sinus headache created by the approaching rainstorm. I finally downed three ibuprofin and closed my eyes on the way to our last stop at Barnes & Noble. We both looked covetously at the Nook Tablet, but only I found a book: Simon Garfield's Just My Type. Made for each other: me and a book about fonts! He even mentions College Humor's "Font Conference" and "Font Fight." Also got an Agatha Raisin book off the remainder table, as I'm rather curious after hearing the Raisin radio shows during vacation.

And then home for a rest, and supper, and listening to Schuyler give a budgie concert, and then finally chat. Hadn't talked to Rodney in several weeks, so that was nice.

Missal Changes

2011-11-26T20:06:00.001-05:00

On Sunday, Catholic Mass Won't Sound the Same

Interesting...I remember when the Mass was in Latin and the priest faced the wall, not the congregation, and also the introduction of the first reading from the Old Testament. It was a great change for the older people, who thought it a bit sacriligious.

2011-11-25T20:58:00.002-05:00

FOR TODAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2011

Outside my window...
...the world is bathed in darkness. It's been a busy week and I've finally had a chance to sit down to do this.

I am thinking...
...that it will be nice to get some sleep! I was up at five this morning to "do" Black Friday. No, I didn't go to the mall or any of the big stores, just Office Max and Depot, World Market, JoAnn and Michaels.

I am thankful for...
...everything: life, love, family, friends, animals, plants, fiction, reality—why limit thankfulness? Be thankful for waking, and sleeping, sunrise and sunset, the earth and the sea, the ground and the sky, and the lovely, lovely stars.

(Okay. I am not thankful for summer.)

From the learning rooms...
...I just finished reading Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates. I didn't really enjoy her snark, but there were many interesting facts about Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, which we never learned in history class. Coming from the home of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, this is rather neglectful.

From the kitchen...
...well, it needs to be cleaned...LOL. We ate out tonight as we always do on Fridays.

I am wearing...
...my ratty old Lassie sweatshirt and blue sweatpants and white socks. It's a bit warm even for that.

I am creating...
...order in my craft room. Pretty much just shoved extraneous junk into my assembled "Chopper Hopper" for now so I could move around in the room and clean off my drafting table.

I am going...
...to relax some tonight. It was a long haul this morning, and I didn't even go anywhere busy!

I am reading...
...A Pocketful of History, the stories behind the images on the state quarters. Pretty cool.

I am hoping...
...to do some business with small businesses tomorrow. It is Small Business Saturday. Not many small businesses around here, though, to buy things we actually are interested in.

I am hearing...
...Flying Wild Alaska! It's an episode about the Iditarod.

Around the house...
...we're winding down for the evening. Schuyler is singing us a song and Willow is asleep on her dog bed.

I am pondering...
...how quickly the month has gone by! I still have gifts to put together, Christmas cards to write—and decorations to put up! Where does all the time go?

One of my favorite things...
I'm watching it on television: Flying Wild Alaska. If I were younger, healthier, and stronger (and if there was proper storage for the books), I'd be up there in a minute.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Sadly, I'm writing this so late there's not much of it left. A trip to the hobby shop for sure. :-) And Hallmark to get the next Peanuts jazz band member.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

This photo of Alaska is courtesy of TripAdvisor

We have a lovely planet and need to keep it this way. No one's telling you not to "live." But try not to waste.

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

OMG, I Agree With Ted Forth...

2011-11-25T13:10:00.000-05:00

Shopping for Fun and Profit...

2011-11-25T12:58:00.001-05:00

...in Holiday Harbour.

Best Wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

Cool, Cool, O So Joyful Coolness

2011-11-23T22:39:00.009-05:00

Day one of Thanksgiving leave from work! I celebrated by sleeping until 8:30, making up for losing sleep the last two nights when it was so warm. My joints ache so much when it gets this humid and warm that I wake up due to my knees hurting and my shoulders stiff.

Next I had breakfast and headed out to do some errands. In the Sunday paper, the Target ad showed wireless mice on sale for $10 and I wanted to see if there were any left. There were; they were smaller than the one from Microcenter, but I bought one anyway for use with the laptop.

I made the mistake of wandering into their Christmas aisles and found the cutest little ceramic reindeer salt and pepper shakers; one has a red scarf, the other a green, luckily not expensive. They are a bit cartoony but very cute, with pointed faces, and the pepper one has his eyes closed as if he's just sneezed. I was very taken with their Christmas lights; as much as I don't like the LEDs I did love the sets they had that were all six colors of the rainbow, with the yellow clearly different from the orange. When I see things like that I am tempted to do multicolor on the front porch rather than blue! They also had a nice variety of different figurals I hadn't seen anywhere else, not even at Bronner's: from media like Mickey Mouse, Disney princesses, Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph (Rankin-Bass versions) to lobsters and other animals.

Before I stopped at Target I had made a brief stop at Kohl's. I checked out flannel sheets (not a lot of colors, and expensive) and flannel jammies. I also checked out the flannel pajamas at Target; it looks like if I want them they will run about $25. Still not sure I should buy them, as it gets cold enough for them only about two weeks out of the year!

From Target I turned up the East-West Connector and went to the Barnes & Noble on Dallas Highway. By then I had my phone plugged in to my car stereo and listened to instrumental Christmas music. It was such a lovely day I wanted to burst with happiness: just cloudy enough to keep the sun out of my eyes, 55 degrees, and the breeze was at a good clip, whirling leaves about. Talk about energizing! The ride through West Sandtown Road is pretty, too, kind of country/suburban, with tree-surrounded yards.

So I took a look at the new Nook Tablet. It's really slick and zippy. But...there is that Color I bought all too recently. Goodness! does gadget envy ever end? Strolled around the bargain books and the new ones as well. Very surprised that this year there is not one Christmas book that I want!

Stopped at Publix on the way home to get a baguette and picked up a couple of twofers and gave $5 to the Can Bank. I haven't seen any donation barrels this year! That's a shame because I loved walking through the store last year buying staples and then watching the cashiers' faces as I told them it was all for the barrel.

At home I had the baguette with some goat cheese and dubbed off two episodes of Castle before I realized I hadn't started the laundry and it was nearly three o'clock. So I stuffed the washer for round one and then tackled a chore downstairs.

We have a bookcase in the hallway that we have filled with old APAzines. We don't read them and I really don't like the bookcase anyway. However, we do need an additional place to add food items that we are storing in our pantry closet. So I emptied the zines into Xerox paper boxes, then cleaned off the bookcase and refilled it with light things: granola bars, tea, Sweet'n'Low, cereal, box potatoes, etc. Next time I am at JoAnn I will get a piece of material large enough to cover the front (24"x60"). Maybe in red gingham. It will look cute and be an extra "closet."

When James arrived home we had supper and then he started baking the sweet potato "sonker" for Thanksgiving dinner. It has steamed sweet potatoes in it and is basically a pie. He used the leftover bits of crust to make little cinnamon rolls, the bits rolled out, basted with a little butter, and scattered with cinnamon and nutmeg, baking them in the oven. My mom used to do this if she made a pie, knowing I'd rather eat the crust anyway! Made me feel like a little girl again.

An Unplanned Autumn Ride...

2011-11-22T22:42:00.001-05:00

...in Holiday Harbour.

There and Here and There Again

2011-11-20T21:29:00.005-05:00

::grump::

Yes, I was a grump immediately upon arising. It was going up to 70°F today and it was already getting warm. Plus we'd gone to bed late, then my alarm went off at eight, and almost immediately after that the power burped, so that every single light in the room went on, including both cell phones and the Nooks, which also bleated. ::gnash:: So, short of sleep, and warm, I was grumpy.

So we went to Publix for twofers, and I bought yogurt there just in case, because when we went to Kroger last week they only had a paltry few left. And they still had chicken broth ten for $10, so I got more of that. Chicken broth now averages $1.50 a can, so this is a good sale. Then we went to Kroger for the remainder of the shopping.

Once home with everything stowed, I pulled out and signed and addressed some Thanksgiving cards. I had a headache compounded from only having oatmeal for breakfast and the cloudy, sultry weather outside, and the fact that I had procrastinated on this was solely my own fault. But soon they were addressed and stamped, and we could combine the mailing trip with something joyous: bringing old stuff to Goodwill, including that clunky old Kirby.

I'm still feeling guilty about the Kirby. Mom spent a lot of money on providing the down payment for it. But it's heavy, difficult to maneuver, hideously complicated to put on the hose for the attachments, and the bags cost a fortune. It just doesn't work. We also brought our original DVD player, some cases for floppy disks, and both Mavicas. I looked on Gazelle.com, which Leo LaPorte is always talking about, but the cameras weren't worth anything. However, they do still sell batteries for them, so I felt comfortable donating them. I even tossed in some floppy disks for each one.

We circled around to mail the cards, then went to Aldi, then had to stop back at Kroger again. James is making a sweet potato "sonker"—a kind of pie—for Thanksgiving dinner and what with buying the usual groceries and the supplies for Thanksgiving, he'd completely forgotten the crust for the sonker.

Had a nice afternoon watching some episodes of From the Earth to the Moon and reading the paper, with a pot-roast pot pie for supper as a chaser.

Can't believe the weekend's over already!

Chicken Soup for the Soul

2011-11-19T23:50:00.000-05:00

We had the last Farmer's Market of the season today, so we stocked up on things like pilaf, dog biscuits, more goat cheese, a pot pie, chicken salad and pimento cheese, plus apple and peach bread and a baguette to take to Hair Day. We did hear that in January they are going to have a "winter market" that will apparently be indoors. This will last through March until the outdoor version starts again.

We drove to Ron and Lin's house through Polk Street, Dallas Highway, and then Villa Rica Road. The last is so pretty with the little smallholdings, now looking austere with the faded leaves and bare branches, horses grazing in the paddock, cows lying down in the meadow, a small still pond, a picturesque barn.

A good time as usual at Hair Day: Lin passed around a funny story from "Reader's Digest," Oreta talked about her new librarian assignment, and we had chicken rice soup for lunch. This was procured from a nearby restaurant, and was thick and filling and delicious, with just a hint of lemon in it. The baguette went perfectly with it, and the apple and peach breads were gone long before that.

We went to the Hobby Shop for a while, then stopped at MicroCenter on the way home. I bought an enclosure for the hard drive that came out of my original laptop, as well as a new wireless mouse. My old mouse is still working, but it takes fits; it wears out two rechargeable AAA batteries in a week and sometimes when you put the batteries in, it doesn't power up; you have to wiggle them to get it to work. This new one (a Logitech) takes only one battery, which they claim has a life of 12 months. We'll see about that, as the old one (an Inland) claimed alkaline batteries would last three months and they barely lasted three weeks. Plus you can shut the Logitech off at night so it's not wasting battery life.

I put the laptop hard drive in the enclosure and was dismayed when it started making a grinding noise. However, I had it seated badly, and eventually it did work. I was rewarded by finding old Remember WENN chats dating back to before the series was cancelled in September 1998; heck, from before fourth season aired!—Joanne, who began the chats, was actually on one transcript, and folks we haven't heard from in years like Emerie, Lee, Jess, Diane, Jill, etc., as well as our late friend Dana Sherman—plus my original diary entry for our trip to Nyack, NY, to see Rupert Holmes' play Thumbs, Jess' prom photos, conversations with Rupert's dad Leonard.

Watched some British Christmas things tonight: The Good Life's "Silly, But It's Fun," the To The Manor Born Christmas special, "Christmas Crackers" from Are You Being Served?, and All Creatures Great and Small's "Merry Gentlemen." I love the last...just the coziness of that old house, and the Dalelands; I want to transport myself into it, like Lucy into Narnia.

Ended up the night on chat and watching a couple of Thanksgiving specials I'd recorded in previous years, Thanksgiving Unwrapped and The Secret Life of Thanksgiving.

Free Friday

2011-11-18T20:08:00.000-05:00

Today was the first of my use-or-lose Fridays off. For some reason, although I could fall back in somnolent comfort every morning this week, today I couldn't sleep. Typical. So I dressed and had breakfast, then went to the bank. We've had a safe deposit box for years, but I've never put the savings bonds into it. Today I brought them over along with some rolled coins to deposit. Several were matured, so I had planned to cash them in, but the teller let me know they are still accruing interest, albeit at a lower rate, so I just put them all in the box.

Then to Office Max for a dog's breakfast of things—bookends, labels for Christmas card envelopes, and coin rollers—and a stop at Lowes. Bought some blue bulbs for the candoliers and also one of their battery-operated LED candles, which is a warm yellow rather than that creepy, dim LED-blue color of the cheaper ones I bought last year, plus a new timer.

I kept giving wistful glances over my shoulder at the empty Borders store. I keep thinking perhaps one time I will look that way and it will all have been a bad dream. Alas, still empty. At least they haven't converted it into something horrible, like...a shoe store or something. Talk about degradation and squalor.

(I don't get the women-and-shoes thing. Really, I don't. Shoes are to keep your feet warm and protected. Why would you want hundreds of them, in different styles and colors? Very strange.)

Did a quick check of the Dollar Tree, then zipped into Walmart for a few things, including the Lean Cuisine dinners I like that no one else carries, and then it was time to turn for home. I spent the afternoon having goat cheese and crackers for lunch and dubbing off two episodes of Castle and appearances by Julie Scardina and Pauley Perrette from The Tonight Show, while working on a cross stitch of a bird. The kit's been sitting on the coffee table for months and I'm tired of it being there.

We had supper at Ruby Tuesday because of the coupon, then had a novelty dessert: a doughnut each. We haven't had a doughnut since Atomicon (April). Finally a stop at Hobby Lobby. All their Christmas decorations were half off, and they have a village set this year. Well, we found a bookstore! There's no more room on our Christmas village display, but I thought the bookstore—which is so minimally Christmas-themed you almost might not notice, except for the wreath on the door—would make a good nightlight for the library. Coolness.

2011-11-18T15:48:00.006-05:00

FOR TODAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011 (yes, late again, but Wednesday was very busy at work)

Outside my window...
...sunny and delightful—it's only 53°F right now! Sadly, it will be into the 70s again on Monday and Tuesday. [sticks out tongue] Florida needs to keep its wretched warm air where it belongs. Wild birdies at the feeder. Much fewer autumn leaves on the trees than there were Wednesday; we had a terrible storm blow through...tornadoes north of us...a sky that looked like the hounds of Hell were coming...wind, rain, some thunder, tornado sirens shrieking. It was not a good day.

I am thinking...
...I'm glad to have a chore finished. I finally have placed the savings bonds in our safe deposit box. We've only had the box for...well, it's been awhile. I was going to cash out the matured bonds, but the teller says they are still earning interest, so I will hold them until I need them. It's not like I have a fortune in them, but I may need even that paltry sum someday.

I am thankful for...
...all the good things: James, Schuyler, Willow, friends, relatives, nice co-workers, cooler weather, favorite television programs, autumn leaves, our past vacation, my car, books, cross-stitch, the Christmas music I have on right now...

From the learning rooms...
...reading the young people's version (which is not all that dumbed down, but more condensed) of Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower, Mayflower and the Pilgrims' New World (appropriate before-Thanksgiving reading). Did you know the Separatists (what the "Pilgrims" called themselves) were not married in religious ceremonies, only civil ones? Or that, while Franklin Roosevelt's mother's family did not come over on the Mayflower, they did come over on the very next ship?

From the kitchen...
...quiet. Just had a nice Granny Smith apple. I hadn't even sat down with it before Schuyler was cheeping frantically: "Apple! Apple! Give the birdie some apple!"

I am wearing...
...my autumn chickadee shirt and the tobacco-colored "Amanda" jeans from Gloria Vanderbilt, and my black leather Reeboks. I didn't change when I got home from my errands (bank, Office Max, Lowes, Dollar Tree, Wally World), just commenced to having goat cheese and crackers for lunch and then dubbing off a couple of Castle eps.

I am creating...
...a bird cross-stitch. I was tired of it sitting on the coffee table. Was working on it last night while watching the rest of this season's History Detectives (which I had to watch online) and today during Castle.

I am going...
...to drop off some things at Goodwill this weekend. Why on earth we are keeping an 11-year-old DVD player and two 13-year-old digital cameras we haven't used in years I'll never know. Oh, and that boat anchor Kirby's about to get the boot out the door, too.

I am reading...
...besides the Philbrick book, Acceptable Loss by Anne Perry, which I had on reserve at the library. Luckily I checked online, because they never called to tell me it was in, and Sibley is closed today because of budget cuts. (Cut politicians' salaries, not library hours!) Oh, and I still haven't finished Boneshaker yet.

I am hoping...
...to get more rubbish out of the house by the end of the year. It's really silly to keep these old things.

I am hearing...
...Christmas music—Dish's Traditional Holiday channel. Not bad. Their other channel has modern stuff on, like N'Sync and newer. Not my cup of tea.

Around the house...
...I need to put away the useful things I bought today: coin rollers, Christmas labels, bookends, a couple more strings of Christmas lights, blue lights for the candles. I have to try out the battery candle. Last year I bought one from Lowes and then a pair elsewhere. I tossed the two posthaste in the donate box: they are that ugly "cold" white LED light that looks so awful. The Lowes candles have a yellow glow and flicker like a real candle. These have a special feature I like: you decide when you want them to turn on—say, 5 p.m. You put the batteries in exactly at that time. The candle comes on and burns for six hours, then shuts off and thereafter comes on at 5 p.m. until you take the batteries out again. So you can put them in the window the first day you start decorating and just leave them there until Christmas is over.

I am pondering...
...candles in the bedroom windows for Christmas. :-) I was only going to buy them for the living room windows. The front windows have Mother's five-candle candoliers in them, and the rear have the color changing single candles; downstairs has our three-candle units.

One of my favorite things...
...I'm listening to it: Christmas music. When things get bleakest in summer it even helps to put it on then. Usually I choose instrumental for summer; it isn't so obvious, and, played low, no one knows the difference.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Hair Day. The last Farmer's Market.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Such a little thing, but so bright and cheerful. Love and friendship is like a little candle in the darkness.

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Workin' and Hopin'

2011-11-17T18:35:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was...a trip. At exactly 11:09, my DSL connection crashed (yes, again). I immediately signed back on to work via dial-up, while screaming at Earthlink on the phone. After a half-hour the technician determined it was...an outage. As usual, Earthlink didn't tell its support staff about it. It was AT&T's fault again—the outage just on area code 770. He told me the problem wouldn't be fixed until tomorrow. So I pegged away at work and about 3 p.m. checked Earthlink's outage site on my phone. They said it had been resolved at 1:23. So I tried to get back on the DSL only to discover that my computer was no longer talking to the network. I could connect to DSL directly through the modem, but not through the router.

James helped me test this later when he got home. I plugged into every open connection of the router, but it still kept telling me my cable was unplugged. I even plugged into the one James was using which worked perfectly. So the network card works with the modem, not with the router? Gee, thanks.

However, some time ago, James bought a wireless dongle from MicroCenter because it was on sale. He pulled this out now and installed it to my computer. After fiddling with it a while, it worked. So I'm connected to the network, and the internet...but I have a perfectly good wired connection and it won't work. ::grumble::

In the meantime, outside all hell was breaking loose. When I went into the kitchen for breakfast, I had stopped at the windows out to the deck, admiring the color outside. "I should take a picture," I muttered, then went on to get my breakfast so I could get to work.

I should have grabbed the camera then. By afternoon we had tornado sirens in stereo (Smyrna and Marietta), I turned the television on to find Chesley McNeil at WXIA describing hook clouds and tornado sightings (while people whined on Facebook that he was pre-empting Days of Our Lives), rain fell in torrents, and I had the dog on a leash, ready to grab Skye's cage and run downstairs, while the weather radio shrieked in the background. It got terribly dark at one point, as if all the Hounds of Hell were leaping over the horizon, with surprisingly little thunder and no hail to speak of.

By this morning the terrible, oppressive 70s of yesterday were but a memory, and it was cold, one that bit down to your toes. I loved it, but not the sight out on the deck: half the lovely leaves were gone. Autumn is ephermal enough!

However the cool was quite welcome, and the wireless worked fine for work. I am trying to juggle proposals for a conference that was given to us at the last minute. The big problem with it is that it's being held in Guam, so I can't talk to them during the day. I phoned two of the hotels late last evening to get the e-mail address of the events directors so I could discuss with them via e-mail; thank God for e-mail! Plus I got a neat item on Amazon Vine, and, had I reacted a tad quicker, I could have had Bluetooth headphones. Phooey.

Not to mention I had to toss on my jacket about 3:30 and rush to the library. For the third time in a row, they haven't called me when a reserved book has come in; I just happened to check the web site to see where I was in the queue. This was for Anne Perry's Execution Dock.

Oh, and I gave myself an early birthday gift: I joined Amazon Prime. Two-day shipping and video access! I used my Amazon credit card points to buy Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, and 320 watermelon-flavored Jolly Rancher candies (since you can't buy them separately in bags at the supermarket anymore). At two a day they should last a while.

Networkin'

2011-11-15T20:13:00.002-05:00

The NBC network is 85 years old today.

NBC Chimes Through the Years

NBC Chimes Museum

Three Famous Notes of Broadcasting History

Summer in Fall

2011-11-14T17:47:00.002-05:00

Ugh...75°F today. Thankfully, it was cloudy most of the day, especially on the way home, so I didn't have to worry about a herd of Atlantans who evidently have no idea what a sun visor is for. Smells more like spring today than fall, despite the mellowing fall colors surrounding the city. Every once in a while a gust of wind sends dozens of them swirling around. It was so positively grey on the way home that I needed to put my lights on.

I'm afraid this is going to be another year like the loathsome winter of 2001-2002, when it was 75 or more every other day. The house was overrun with flies and the ants came marching in. Makes me thankful for quarterly extermination.

Worktime and Playtime and Back Again

2011-11-13T20:28:00.009-05:00

Saturday was a busy day, but most of it was entertaining.

We heaved the box with the dead electronics into the truck and went on to the Farmers Market first. It was cool at this point and we had a nice amble about, buying salad veggies and a few other things. There wasn't a crowd at the recycling event, and we dumped and went, stopping off at Food Lion before going home, as we still had a few chores to get through before game night: James cleaned the kitchen and I did the hall bath and finished the vacuuming and tidied other things up.

James was still sneezing badly today. I've never seen him have an allergy attack last a second day, but I've had them myself and know they can happen. Nevertheless, he still went to his club meeting. I tidied up a few more things, then put on BBC4X and listened to some radio drama, including an excellent adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's War Horse that has been such a hit as a play and is the subject of an upcoming film.

Folks started arriving right on time at five. We had a jolly evening eating the turkey and stuffing James had prepared—it was quite delicious! We had a variety of sides provided, including mashed potatoes, green beans, fruit, a relish tray with olives and pickles, cornbread, a chocolate peanut-butter cake, chips and salsa, and some wonderful homemade fruit pie made from peaches, strawberries and blueberries. Some folks put on the football game and later James, Jerry and John retreated to the library to set the universe straight while the ladies played games and Mel and Ken watched television.

We first played "Urban Myth," which I had as an evaluation copy. You are supposed to determine if a clue read to you is true or a myth. If you are on a certain square and answer the question correctly, you get a letter which either spells "myth" or "true." If you get the letters to spell either one, you win. We all felt there were some bugs in the game; it was okay.

Then we went on to play Yahtzee Free-For-All, which is a favorite. It's a version of Yahtzee where you have to match cards that have been drawn. You can also take cards others have earned. It's loads of fun.

And then one by one our guests left. We did most of the cleanup except for the vacuuming, then relaxed and got on chat, talking with Jen and Emma. Alas, the busy day caught up with me and we signed off half an hour early.

I was hoping for a restful night's sleep, but bad dreams nagged me all night, and I wasn't all that refreshed this morning. After breakfast we went out to Trader Joe's. They had some of their Christmas favorites out, and we were able to sample cranberry goat's cheese on some wonderful ginger cookies, and hot cider. James was still feeling under the weather and I wasn't much better, so we got some mints and also mint tea. Neither of us ended up sampling the latter, but the former were good on the stomach. We also stopped at Kroger for the weekly needs (milk, bread, etc.). Since it was close to Trader Joe's, we stopped at the store on Johnson Ferry Road, which had a Dollar Tree in the same shopping center. [shakes head] All the ladies in my Christmas group walk into Dollar Tree stores and find bargain Christmas DVDs. I haven't even found a Dollar Tree in the area that sells DVDs! James did find some sugarless candy there. Anyway, we walked into Kroger and this one dumps you directly into the deli. We hadn't had lunch and bought some delicious soups for each of us along with the staples. Finally, we stopped at Sam's Club for gas before coming home to read the paper and having the soup. I had chicken and he had beef vegetable; both were excellent.

Yesterday while I was listening to War Horse, I started the little cross stitch kit I'd purchased at Michaels on Friday. This afternoon and this evening, while we were watching Murdoch Mysteries, I finished it tonight. "My girl" is on the right.

I added the little face to give her a little more of a personality. I also made a mistake with the reds, which I'm glad I did...it looks like she's wearing an overskirt.

Fun Before Chores

2011-11-11T21:05:00.005-05:00

Alas, this morning when I wanted to sleep a little late, I woke up with a clogged nose. James had woken up sneezing violently as well. I'm wondering if it's keeping the windows open, since numerous neighbors are burning leaves.

Well, since I couldn't sleep, I could get up and have breakfast, and then skedaddle off to JoAnn. It was a chilly but beautifully sunny day; the trees, whether bright or dull, made a picture against the vivid blue of the sky.

I haven't been in a craft store since way before vacation, and was not surprised to see that all the autumn things had been whisked away. I was delighted in JoAnn's line of red and white decorations this year; it's very Swedish. They even have matching scarves and hats! (Incidentally, I've never seen more "Jayne hats" than I did in JoAnn today, in all colors.) They also have a very varied line of figural glass ornaments this year, including ethnic Santas, themed ornaments (like Paris or ballerinas), and items I've never seen as ornaments before, like a fortune cookie.

Well, I wasn't really satisfied with the craft item I had to pick up to finish my project, but that's all they had and I don't know any other source for it. I can make it work; it just wasn't what I wanted. I did pick up something to use as a gift, and fixings to make another gift.

I stopped at Michaels next door because they had a 25 percent off entire purchase coupon. Not much I wanted, but I did find something to add to the first gift I bought at JoAnn. Usually I find some stocking stuffers in the dollar bins (which are now $1.50), but it was pretty sparse. I did get a little cross-stitch kit.

Also stopped in Hobby Lobby to get a few small fall picks to put into the china cabinet to give it an autumn flair, and a very pretty garland for the stair rail. It is shiny silver with a matte muted gold mixed in, very distinctive. It was all on sale, so a very reasonable purchase.

Then I turned toward Barnes & Noble, where I did find the November British "Country Living" as well as the Christmas "Victorian Homes," always a favorite, and the January "Cooks Country" for James.

I stopped at Hallmark because I thought there was a new piece of the "Peanuts" jazz band out this week. Turns out it is next Thursday. So I headed for home through the edge of Kennesaw National Battlefield Park, a lovely day to do so. When the trees started turning this year, they were really quite dull, but the ones that turned later often turned out to be spectacular. Near the Michaels there was a quintet of trees that should have accompanied the definition of crimson in an illustrated dictionary, a dark, rich red with undertones of purple. On the way through the park, before I passed all the business buildings on the left, there was reddish-orange tree, really more red than orange, but with enough orange undertones that it looked afire. The rest of the ride, though the old homes lining Kennesaw Avenue, was duller but very pleasant.

Once at home I had some leftover soup and some goat cheese with crackers for lunch while watching a Rick Steves DVD, Austria and the Alps. I let it run all afternoon while I was giving the table a good cleaning for game night tomorrow, washing it down and giving it a little mineral oil treatment, and also ironed the runner.

James was home early, in the midst of what looked like a full blown allergy attack! He had hot chili for dinner, hoping it would help unstuff his nose, and I had more soup. Afterwards we tidied up the living room and I got together the last of the things to go to electronics recycling tomorrow. Finally it was time to watch Flying Wild Alaska! Look at all that snow! I love this series.

2011-11-11T14:40:00.002-05:00

Thank you!

2011-11-09T21:14:00.000-05:00

FOR TODAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2011

Outside my window...
...it is light out! A rather watery light, as it is cloudy in preparation for rain later in the day, but it really seems morning as it never does in spring and fall when Daylight Saving is in effect. It is so much easier to rise when it's light out; you feel as if you ought to be awake and not as if you are forced that way.

I am thinking...
...it's time for Thanksgiving decoration. I toyed with doing it last weekend, but there was never time. I love Thanksgiving much more than I like Hallowe'en. It's a mellow holiday, one where people expect nothing but a good meal together and sports or parades watched in happy cameraderie around the television, or perhaps even games inside or out.

I am thankful for...
...the end of the year, with all the lovely holidays before us: Veterans Day to remember all who serve; Thanksgiving to be grateful for your blessings, Advent to prepare for Christmas, and Christmastide to enjoy friends and family.

From the learning rooms...
...reading A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey about the beginning of the space race. Many details I did not know before, especially about the fate of Laika (that was not the dog's original name).

From the kitchen...
...dark and quiet right now. Perhaps later on I'll burn a candle. Coffee would be suitable today.

I am wearing...
...Mutts pajamas, socks and scuffs. [Here I was interrupted.]

I am creating...
...nothing right now! We are having a game night on Saturday, so I am going to be cleaning rather than creating.

I am going...
...to need a trip to JoAnn. A piece of a craft project is not in my possession and I could not find a similar product at Michaels. This weekend is their Veterans Day sale, so that should get me a nice discount.

I am reading...
...A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey by Michael D'Antonio, as mentioned above, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (essays on Doctor Who), and just finished Murder on Lexington Avenue by Victoria Thompson.

I am hoping...
...to find an inexpensive new flannel fitted sheet for the sofa. I use one as a seat cover. The one I have with the autumn leaves on it sadly has developed a worn spot and has torn.

I am hearing...
...well, since I'm late in finishing this, Harry's Law is on right now. We have to watch it, as we have two other things recording on the DVR, Mythbusters and Law & Order: UK.

Around the house...
...well, I did the Thanksgiving decorating during lunch. It didn't take very long—there's no tree to decorate or fussy bits to do, just put out Pilgrims, Indians, and about fifteen turkeys, including the cute turkey lamp I got at Cracker Barrel two years ago—and I was even able to go put out the mailbox wrap, Thanksgiving wreath, and Thanksgiving banner, and take a few minutes to use the pruning shears on the two bushes on either side of our St. Francis statue so that he is visible again. I have new batteries in the "electric" candles and they are "burning" within my sight. The coffee table needs to be cleaned off.

Again.

I am pondering...
...how to get the coffee table cleaned off by Saturday! It really is a problem: it's holding magazines, books, DVDs, remotes, coupons, my daybook, and catalogs! Nope, it's not that big, either...LOL.

One of my favorite things...
...Reminisce magazine! Received a bumper issue yesterday and have already read it cover to cover. There were many stories about the service, celebrating Veterans Day, and stories about being gathered around the table in honor of Thanksgiving, and the usual just plain fun nostalgic stories. I love this magazine.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Gaaaaaame night! Knock on wood, the Spiveys, the Elders, the Boulers, and the Lawsons are coming. We're having turkey and stuffing, and Alice is bringing mashed potatoes and Sue vegetables, and we'll have a good feed and then commence to gaming (well, the ladies will...most of the time the guys just sit around "saving the world"). :-)

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Memories are precious, no matter which era they are from. :-)

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Remember The Emergency Broadcasting Test Today

2011-11-09T09:09:00.001-05:00

At 2 p.m.

I'm wondering if the tornado siren will go off.

Now It's Really Getting Ugly

2011-11-07T14:25:00.003-05:00

Barnes & Noble Unveils $250 Tablet

Two days after Amazon starts shipping the Kindle Fire.

I can hear the little voice of Bugs Bunny now: "Of course, you know this means war."

Sleep, Shop and Savor

2011-11-06T20:59:00.002-05:00

Oh...dear. We had a fun chat last night, discussing earthquakes, Jen's Naval future, and Christmas music.

But, oh, up too late. Much too late. :-) Maybe it's why I woke up with a sore throat, although I had a sudden attack of post nasal action yesterday that probably was the primary contributing factor. Ah well, if we didn't sleep that extra hour, at least it was spent with friends (actually, I should say family, because all the folks on chat are friends who have become family).

Got the shopping out of the way this morning, then James started the turkey we bought yesterday. He made a basting sauce of butter, wine and maple syrup, then put the turkey in the oven. We then ran out to get gas for my car and to make a brief stop at Barnes & Noble, to pick up a book of Sherlock Holmes homages I had seen.

Then we came home and waited for the turkey to finish. James made a super gravy with the giblets and the neck bones, adding vegetable flakes, and then combining it with the turkey dripping. Yum. James' gravy should be a food group.

Listened to a Christmas music during the afternoon, the news, then a fascinating Nature about animal homes. Now watching Holmes Inspection...next up, Pan Am.

A Cool Fall Day, The "Mister," and Me

2011-11-05T21:56:00.003-04:00

Our first Farmers Market in weeks! Today is the third from the last, so we went a bit mad: a beef pot pie; jalapeno cheese spread, chicken salad, and sun goat pesto; cookies; dog cookies; boiled peanuts; country sausage; plus breakfast and some corn on the cob. Oh, and more onion and chive goat cheese—jolly!

It was a bright blue day, not a cloud in the sky, and 39°F when we left the house, with a slight but searching little breeze. Perfect for walking, although I felt bad for the vendors: it's easy to keep warm when you are walking, harder when you have to stand there and wait for customers! We further warmed ourselves by walking across Glover Park to see if the British store was open. alas, not until eleven. We also noticed that Old Ephraims, the country-type place we had my birthday dinner in last year, is gone.

We put the perishables in the insulated bag and drove up to Woodstock to BJs. We wanted to stock up on peanut butter because it is about to increase radically in price due to bad crops. We were also going to stock up on a few other things, and noticed that if we did, along with a couple of other things that we would use, we could get a free turkey! So we did; James plans to cook it tomorrow. I also found another pair of jeans to replace the mislabeled ones I had purchased.

A treat in the DVD section: two sets I had seen in the BBC America online catalog: BBC Holiday Comedy Collection and BBC Holiday Drama Collection. Things like the To the Manor Born Christmas special, the All Creatures Great and Small episode "Merry Gentlemen," Blackadder's Christmas Carol, a Hogmanay celebration from Monarch of the Glen, etc. Super!

On the way back from BJs we stopped at Barnes & Noble. I wanted to pick up Stanley Weintraub's newest book, Pearl Harbor Christmas. James got a book of science fiction short stories. I also bought the November issue of "Atlanta" magazine, which later turned out to be a dead loss. I thought it would talk about some of the upcoming events for the holidays, but there were only a few meager pages about the subject.

We were at the hobby shop for about 90 minutes. I read my Nook while the guys gabbed, and then, finally, at about 2:30, we headed for a late lunch at Shane's Rib Shack. James was in the mood for barbecue and Shane's bothers me the least. Had pulled pork as always, saving some for a lunch, and had some of James' sweet potato fries, a better "not good for you."

We arrived home around 3:30, put all the groceries away, and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Made the bed, put some things away. Read e-mail, and discovered that Dish has not one, but two Christmas music channels already up. I'd discovered "Holiday Pop" after it was mentioned on my Christmas movies and music group. I'd left it on for about four songs; when they hit Britney Spears singing something I quit. (Later in the evening I found them playing N'Sync...uh...no.) "Traditional Christmas" is more to my taste: Nat Cole, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand. Okay, they did have Frank Sinatra, but nobody's perfect.

Sometime during the evening we both got hungry. James had some soup, and I descended on my lovely goat cheese, eating it with crackers, along with a glass of milk, and had some yogurt as a chaser.

While looking for something to watch on television, we discovered that HGTV was actually showing...don't faint now...a decorating show! Really. Design on a Dime, followed by something called The High/Low Project (HGTV's successor to Sensible Chic, where the designer tries to recreate an upscale room with similar, less expensive furniture/curtains/decor). Today's HGTV seems chiefly comprised of House Hunters, House Hunters International, My First Place, Property Virgins, and other related homebuying shows, like the one that takes place in New York City and will give you heart failure when they talk about prices. Most of the DIY shows have been transferred to DIY Network, so it's one relentless relocation search after another. It's nice to actually see some home retention on HGTV!

About 9:30 I rose from my comfy chair to change clocks. If I was in a cartoon, there would be a little black mark floating over my head. Fourteen clocks! And my watch! For heaven's sake, stop this madness!

Now watching The Incredible Dr. Pol. Seeing all those really gross things James Herriot wrote about in All Creatures Great and Small and sequels, last week a prolapsed uterus, this week a cow that retained its afterbirth. And using [mumble] to work on a gift for [mumble]. Heh.

Didja Ever Notice How We Eventually Must Lose The Special Ones?

2011-11-05T16:24:00.001-04:00

Remembering happy minutes spent listening to Andy Rooney:

CBS Commentator Andy Rooney Dies at 92

2011-11-04T09:10:00.003-04:00

FOR TODAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2011 (yes, it's late)

Outside my window...
...nothing like yesterday, which was dark and still. Today the sun is peeking its way through fall-dappled leaves, and the wind is tossing the trees a good bit. The breeze is making the window shades in the bedroom slap against the window frame.

I am thinking...
...how, while we saw some great things (and even some beautiful things) on vacation, I simply could not relax and did not sleep well at all. It was very disappointing and very tiring. I had wanted to see the Henry Ford almost all my life, and I really enjoyed it, but parts of the trip were just a bust for me.

I am thankful for...
...getting to GO on vacation at least. We had a great time doing things: the AF museum, the space museum, seeing the artifacts and memorabilia at Henry Ford, seeing things like Edison's lab and the Wright Brothers' house and riding in a Model T, shopping at Bronner's, seeing Lake Erie (if however briefly) and the Ambassador Bridge, driving through the countryside, even traveling with the fids. Schuyler's such a good traveler for a small bird!

From the learning rooms...
...well, having been on vacation, I now want to read a good bio of Edison, and Henry Ford, and find out more about the Polar Bears [U.S. soldiers sent to Russia to fight Bolshevism after WWI]. I read about them briefly in another book.

Plus, after the Armstrong Museum, I want to watch From the Earth to the Moon again!

From the kitchen...
...blissfully quiet, thanks. I have a candle burning, Yankee's "Nature's Paintbrush," which an apple/fallish scent, but sorry to say the scent doesn't disperse as well as my other favorites, the coffee or the cinnamon.

I am wearing...
...my old Lassie sweatshirt Alice made for me, navy blue sweatpants, and scuffs over my socks. My feet are cold, but I can't put my slippers on. With the heat on, it makes static electricity, dangerous for the computer. I killed a computer mouse once with static electricity.

I am creating...
...purchase orders again. new fiscal year this time. :-) Nothing creative; all by the book as it should be.

I am going...
...to finish listening to "Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair" on BBC4X today...and, oooh, look, they have the second series of "Tomorrow, Today!" airing!

I am reading...
A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia De Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley, featuring precocious 11-year-old Flavia, a chemistry devotee living in a crumbling old British country house with her widower father and her two bullying older sister. Also A Ball, A Dog, and a Monkey, about the early days of the space program.

I am hoping...
...to get to JoAnn this weekend. I am missing the part I need for a birthday project.

I am hearing...
...the hum of the furnace and the tap-tap-tapping of the window shades driven by the wind.

Around the house...
...pretty quiet except for the furnace. In a few minutes I'll turn on a podcast; I'm way behind again in my "Tech Guy" and "TWiT" broadcasts. This weekend we need to pull out dead electronics, to prep them for next weekend. My original laptop is completely dead, and has been sitting in the closet since we moved in; we're going to remove the hard drive and see if we can get anything off it, and junk the rest.

Oh, and we can donate that awful old Kirby now!

I am pondering...
...Christmas without Borders. I know, it's silly. It's gone. But I found an unexpected "gift" from Borders the other day: I looked into the Hallmark bag we got at the ornament premiere back in July, and at the bottom discovered the July British "Country Living" we had bought at the East Cobb Borders the same day. I was so frazzled during end of fiscal year that I didn't even realize I had bought it and didn't read it! We'd go to Borders a lot during Christmas: survey the new stock, buy gift cards, relax in the cafe and have a wonderful "Cocoa Trio." Bother. All gone.

One of my favorite things...
...the ongoing season. I love the fall; it's like I come alive again after hibernating in misery all summer in air conditioned enclosures. There's air you can breathe, cool air that doesn't make you break into a sweat the moment you twitch a limb, beautiful colors, festivals to attend, delicious foods back to the fore, Christmas to look forward to, and lovely Thanksgiving. Couldn't care less about Hallowe'en; I decorate for form's sake, not my own.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
BJs for a stockup tour, the last of three (or is it two?) Farmers Markets. I really should put up the Thanksgiving stuff!

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Look at this lovely fall pathway! Wouldn't you just love to walk in this beauty, packing a sandwich and some fruit, to sit under a tree and eat, perhaps discover a little place for coffee around the corner and sit near a window sipping cocoa? Bliss!

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Just an Ordinary Workday

2011-11-02T22:16:00.004-04:00

A bit of an aggravating one, as there has been a problem with Earthlink's DSL since Monday. Our download rate is supposed to be 5MB and we were barely chugging along at .22. Several calls to Earthlink determined the problem was theirs, except there was nothing on their website about it, and their first and second tier support knew nothing about it. Way to go, guys: don't give your employees the information they need to work properly.

The clog finally cleared about noon; it didn't really bother me unless I wanted to look something up. I worked on an advertisement and four new orders, and in the afternoon was finally able to listen to some things on BBC Radio 4X that I couldn't listen to earlier because at that slow a speed the player just clogged up after five minutes—they had started a new series of a Paul Temple mystery story; I really enjoy these, which are a breezy old-fashioned type adventure of a husband (detective story writer and amateur sleuth) and wife (journalist). This one is "Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair." They have something I want to listen to tomorrow: Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula.

At lunch I took down and put away all the Hallowe'en decorations and put the fall things back up. I've usually not put up the Thanksgiving things until after Veteran's Day in the past, but it gives me so little time to enjoy them. Didn't have time to put them up today, but may later in the week.

Soup for supper, then the laundry finished, and Harry's Law followed by Extreme Couponing.

Some Tricks and Some Treats

2011-10-31T22:14:00.000-04:00

I'd taken the day off today to finish the laundry and get things from the trip put away, and to rest up for Hallowe'en, which I find very tiring. It's fun when you dress up in a costume and go to a party, kinda dull when you have to sit on the stairs waiting to give out candy.

James ended up not going into work this morning. He's been feeling bad since Saturday, when he was nauseated after eating breakfast. It happened again yesterday, and during the day he deteriorated, getting stuffy and hoarse. So we ended up both sleeping in this morning, and then I did laundry, and more laundry.

Not much else going on. DSL had slowed to a crawl all day. We're supposed to get up to 5mb download speed and we had an average of .2 all day. It would have gone faster on dial-up. First tier support didn't even know about a DSL slowdown, but they gave me a number at third tier to call which confirmed a DSL problem. Nice teamwork, Earthlink. [eyes roll]

Had a yummy supper of lamb shanks with rice pilaf. I was already dressed in my candy outfit: the spiderweb "poncho" over James' purple shirt, with the spider pin in my hair and a purple spider on my hand. (Okay, the blue scuffs kinda ruined the effect, but I wanted to be comfy.) By the time it was 6:45, the first doorbell rang.

You know, this late Daylight Savings Time stuff is crap. Before it was dark before six and I kept the door open until eight; now I was stuck down there until 8:30—and some dimwit kids actually came by at 9:30 and pounded on the door even though the light was out. I guess parents don't give a damn where their little darlings are or that they have to go to school tomorrow.

Anyway, we had a bunch of cuties: several Spidermen, witches, fairies; only one Superman, some cute bugs and animals, the usual contingent of princesses, a very dapper cowboy, one girl who wasn't really in an Amy Pond costume but who had "Silence" tickmarks on her, pirates, one gypsy I think, and someone who looked like Tina Turner (or maybe it was Lady Gaga), two "Scream" people, and more, plus little Jack from across the street, who was dressed in a skeleton outfit.

The funniest costumes I saw weren't on the kids. One family came by with not only the kids in costume, but two stocky white bulldogs, one in a striped prisoner's outfit, and the other as a honeybee.

Quit in time to watch Scared Shrekless, followed by House and now Castle.

Back to the Routine

2011-10-30T18:27:00.000-04:00

But first, sleeping late! Oh, sweet sleep, in one's own bed, on one's own feather pillows, with the window open, and the fan on...yes!

We took a long time at breakfast this morning, dawdling while watching Extreme Couponing and two Rocket City Rednecks. (Still have a Law & Order to catch up on.) James was feeling rather queasy and we didn't go out until he was a bit better.

Finally we went out to Hallmark (by way of Costco, where James bought me Colonel Roosevelt for our anniversary), to get the next little "Peanuts" quartet figure (Charlie Brown playing a saxophone). We walked around a little bit, got a small cinnamon stix serving from Cinnabon, and bought some new cooky sheets at Sears before going to Kroger and finishing the shopping for the week.

While we were away fall has certianly "fell." When we turned into the street yesterday, two towering trees at the perimeter of the neighborhood were bright gold, and the tree near what used to be the Robinsons' backyard was a brillant scarlet. From our deck we can see trees that are now more yellow or other colors than green.

We had bought a rotisserie pork roast from Kroger last week, intending to eat it the night before we left, but we had forgotten it and ate something else. So we had it tonight with yellow rice with veggie flakes in it. It's excellent, and we have another meal left.

I finally wrestled the Netflix connection into working (honestly, I always have to put the info in multiple times) and we are now watching the opening episode of season 5 of Waking the Dead. I love this show; it presumes that you have more than two brain cells to rub together and it's not above tossing unexpected images and overlapping dialog at you. This one opened with one of the cast members going to prison!

The Big Finish

2011-10-29T23:33:00.002-04:00

Wow, the car was covered with frost this morning!

Ironically, last night was the best night's sleep I had the entire trip, except for the Viagra-challenged dingbat who burned rubber and squealed by the motel in the wee hours of the morning. I expected to hear machine gun fire along with it.

We had breakfast in the little "Daybreak Center" at the Days Inn: two kinds of cereal, golden waffles, coffee, milk, orange juice, bagels, toast, some fruit. I was tremendously tired and only had a bowl of cereal and two pieces of toast. I've been jonesing for toast for weeks and satisfied it only in the past four days.

Next we packed up the car, which was ice cold. When it was full, James stayed in the room and I drove it around until there was warm air coming out of the vents, then we loaded Schuyler and Willow in.

Once the fog burned off—and boy, did we run into a big fog bank almost immediately—it was a nice ride. The temps never got above 60, so it was pleasant without being too frigid. Apparently the fog obscured every single one of the thoroughbred farms, because I don't remember seeing a one of them. We listened to a couple of more Agatha Raisins, then James took his turn to drive and we played Gaelic Storm. I drove the last leg in to more Agatha. Willow lay down to sleep a bit more today than yesterday, and Schuyler burst into volleys of chirps every time Agatha was out in the garden with birdsong in the background.

We saw some lovely autumn color in Tennessee in the Pine Mountain/Rarity/Elk Valley area, absolutely spectacular colors ranging from palest yellow to gold to orange to coral to scarlet and a few of the dark reds and purples. Very vivid yellows as always. It was quite nice, but we were tiring by that time and glad to see Knoxville and then skim by Chattanooga to arrive home about 4:30. We put the critters inside, emptied the car, and then went to Publix to get milk and something for supper. James was thinking of chicken, but our meals have been so carb-heavy this week that I persuaded him to have chicken and beef strips with our usual "summer salad" of greens, oranges, slivered almonds, and chow mein noodles. It was good, but gave me indigestion afterwards. Do you know I didn't have any indigestion while I was away?

Would that I could say the same about sleep-interrupted nights!

Rewatched the season premiere of Flying Wild Alaska because the television picture at the Days Inn was so poor, then the first two eps of the new season of This Old House, a special called The Real Story of Halloween, and finally a new veterinarian series on National Geographic, The Amazing Dr. Pol. Quite interesting...

...but quite enough for tonight.

James and I have been dragging all day, and Willow half asleep, but Schuyler was singing all through the night. That's our girl.

The Big Farewell (and, Briefly, a Big Lake)

2011-10-28T19:44:00.003-04:00

Soooo tired.

The high-heels started up again this morning at seven, but I was already awake, and could hear when she took her shower, too. Next time at the Drury Inn, just a regular room. And I think Staybridge has nudged out Drury as favorite hotel. :-)

We had two problems this morning, one more critical than the other. The most urgent was keeping Skye warm. It was in the 30s outside. We also needed to do something with the Bronner's shopping bag.

Well, after we had breakfast and stuffed the car full, Schuyler was forthwith wrapped in both her flannel cage cover and her fleece one, left to load last. The Bronner's bag went next to the bird cage, secured to the seat back, only encroaching a little on Willow's space, but she refused to lie down until we were almost to our motel for the night and sat in the back seat with her eyes half closed unless we came to a stop.

We had a smooth trip through Detroit, ignoring the GPS' efforts to get us to go out of our way (very odd, since it routed us directly through Detroit coming in), and had a dandy, head-on view of the Ambassador Bridge as we came past it...and it is emblazoned "Ambassador Bridge," too, at the top of each tower.

On the way up we had passed something called "Luna Pier" that looked as if it were directly on Lake Erie. So we went the two miles out of our way, to bump our way into a badly-paved little parking lot next to a tiny rise, and, indeed, over the retaining wall, was Lake Erie, water lapping against the shore with seagulls skimming it overhead, but very misty in the distance and the sky a pale, watery blue. We couldn't tell whether there was an island in the distance or a shoal. We did see one boat, backlit against the mist, and what looked in the distance to be trees. Or not.

It looked, as I saw it, like a miniature version of Oakland Beach, back when Iggy's was Gus's and just a shack.

So we saw at least one Great Lake. Would have liked to have seen Lake Huron, but both times coming back from the Henry Ford the traffic was a mess going out to Port Huron, and we were exhausted coming back from Bronner's (and the traffic was a mess then, too).

So, back to the freeway at the nagging of the GPS, past Toledo and an Eastern Orthodox Church and the beautiful mosque with its gold dome and twin minaret. Past all the fields of corn, harvested or with stalks still standing, and the occasional brilliant autumn trees in a grove of otherwise dull ones. Past the Armstrong Air & Space Museum right by the freeway when we went through Wapakoneta. There was another mosque further down, with a thin, elegant minaret. We listened to an Agatha Raisin mystery about a murder in a rambling [walking] group, and also the Paul McGann Doctor Who story "The Scapegoat." Schuyler cheeped occasionally and we let Willow sniff about at an Ohio rest area.

We stopped to pick up lunch at the Arby's at the same exit at which we had stayed in Dayton, waving at that Drury Inn as we went by, and also got gasoline at Sam's.Club on the same road. However, we didn't eat it there.

We had gotten to the Wright Brothers shop and the visitor's center in Dayton so late that by the time James tried to buy something as a gift the park ranger had shut down the cash register. So we figured to just stop by and purchase it, and sit there in the parking lot and eat our lunch, since we couldn't do our usual thing when on vacation with the critters, get a picnic table at a rest area and eat there.

We had a minor adventure: James got off at 53A rather than 53B, which dumped us directly into downtown Dayton, with nary a helpful pointer directing us to the Wright Cycle Shop in sight. So James drove around the city while the GPS desperately tried to get us back on the freeway, and I struggled to type "Wright Brothers" into my phone over badly-mended streets (it came out "Wrugnt Btotjers" the first time) to get us directions. It was only a mile away, three quick right turns and a left. I popped in to use the ladies' room and get the gift after feeding Willow half my sandwich.

Next down to Cincinatti, where I monitored the traffic, but it was all in the opposite direction as we had experienced it last Friday, and finally into Kentucky. This, ironically, was the one place we ran into traffic, if just briefly; police cars being stopped on both sides of a Jersey barrier, everyone decided they had to stop and look. Idiot rubberneckers.

Interestingly, in Kentucky we passed one of those U-Hauls with a city or country attraction or notable painted on the side. This one was marked "Wapakoneta" and had a graphic of Neil Armstrong in his space suit on it!

We reached our motel about 5:30. It hadn't gotten over 50 all day and was quite damp and cold when we got to the Days Inn in Georgetown, KY, just north of Lexington. I had picked this one because it was the only place around Lexington I could find with five stars, and it intrigued me. Well, it's a motel, kinda down around the heels. The grout in the bathroom is gross, but everything is clean, and the bed is nice and firm. Don't know about the shower yet. It's across the way from a truck stop, so it appears the evening will be noisy.

Still, it seems to be popular with folks with pets! Next door to us is a Sheltie, and in the room after that is a Yorkie.

Bet no one has a Schuyler. :-)

So we had dinner at Waffle House, just on the other side of the Motel 6 next to us. Mmmn. Pork chops! Now waiting for the season premiere of Flying Wild Alaska.

The Big Time Machine

2011-10-27T20:40:00.003-04:00

First of all, I hate high heels.

I wasn't wearing them, I was hearing them. At 7 a.m.

Again, this is a suite: living room separated from bedroom by bathroom and "hall" with tile floor. Also, to move the air from the window air-conditioned bedroom to the living room, there is a vent above the hall. Big empty space, perfect as an echo chamber. Apparently whomever was in the suite upstairs was getting ready for a business meeting this morning and spent at least 20 minutes trotting around the bathroom tile in high heels, which you could hear, tap by infuriating tap, downstairs in our room. Arrrgh.

Both of us were therefore very tired today.

After breakfast we drove back into Dearborn to "the Henry Ford," this time to visit the museum building. Ironically, we are touring the place at the time the entire automotive exhibit is being remodeled, so we did not see many of the cars. Some of them were at the edges of the automotive exhibit, and there were also cars in the transportation exhibit, but we probably missed 80 percent of them. We could see some, covered in plastic, and see the bits of the new exhibit they are working on, including the improvement of overnight shelter during road trips (from self-carried tents to motor courts to the Holiday Inn), and also an exhibit on diners and fast food—James says he read the diner will eventually serve road food; heh...maybe Jane and Michael Stern will eventually eat there.

The museum is divided into several sections. We started at the agricultural implements, from a primitive colonial plow to one with a steel plowshare all the way through McCormick reapers, corn shuckers, and finally, modern, huge combines. There was also a home arts exhibit comparing four different kitchens: colonial, early republic (1830), Victorian and 1940s, and a set of elaborate dollhouses once owned by wealthy girls, from a four-room colonial to a more elaborate twelve-room home to a set of townhouses.

We did walk through the Wizard of Oz exhibit, which was intended for small children and was mostly based on the film. We had to check out the toys, which included poseable dolls based on the characters, books from the original novel to Gregory McGuire's Wicked, to other little items like a stuffed Toto sticking his head out of a basket and Oz costumes for your American Girl dolls!

A unique exhibit was the only surviving Dymaxion House designed by Buckminster Fuller. This was a house conceived to solve the housing problems that occurred after World War II. It was an aluminum, doughnut-shaped structure supported on a central pole, complete with two bathrooms (tiny ones, to be sure!), two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room, complete with air conditioning, which was nearly unheard of in a private home in those days. The closet and other storage areas were on rotating shelves to save space: no dressers or bureaus were needed for clothes or linen. Only one was ever sold, to a family who lived in it for 20 years, and extended it conventionally. Instead, more conventional projects, like Levittown, went through. The Henry Ford people bought the Dymaxion House from that family and reconstructed it here, although the closets are locked shut.

"Your Place in Time" is a timeline for anyone born in the 20th century, from the progressive generation (my mom and dad's) to Y2K, with a radio broadcasting "War of the Worlds," a classroom where the teacher is instructing the kids in a late 1950s civil defense drill, an exhibit of music from 1950s radio to eight-track tapes, a tribute to Hollywood and movie magazines, cases of memorabilia from each era, and an exhibit of the future as envisioned by SF magazines and books, including an evidently humorous book called Mr. Adam, about the only man left in the world who can father children.

Between this last exhibit and the factory exhibit was a small exhibit of firearms going back to wheel-lock pistols and rifles, including the original Pennsylvania rifles used by Daniel Boone and his compatriots. I looked for a Melchior Fordney like Levi Zendt in Centennial had, but they didn't have one of those. :-)

A very large exhibit was "Made in America." The first half is "power," and is almost more generators and working engines than you ever wanted to see. :-) The oldest engine had pumped water out of a mine in England from the early 1800s through the early 1900s! There were examples of water wheels and turbines, Edison generators, steam powered and gasoline powered equipment, and even a big Corliss engine, made in Providence, RI, like the one which powered all the machinery at the Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. (There were several pieces of machinery made in Providence, the Corliss pieces and also equipment made by Brown & Sharpe.) As each engine grew more powerful, this power was illustrated by how many 40-watt lightbulbs could be lit by the engine.

There is a small exhibit of different types of furniture over the years, from Jacobean chairs and chests that came over with the Pilgrims to plastic bucket chairs. In between was a classic wooden high chair like we remember from childhood, a plush Victorian chair once owned by Mary Todd Lincoln and one of the old, ornate desks and benches from the House of Representatives, decorated Pennsylvania Dutch cupboards and dressers, a Chippendale chair, tables, bureaus, seating, storage, fine furniture and rude benches, stained items and painted ones.

We saw one more exhibit before heading to the Michigan Cafe for Lunch: "With Liberty and Justice for All." This was a combination of four themes: the American Revolution (with a very rare copy of the Declaration of Independence from the 1820s, and a special exhibit on George Washington, including Washington memorabilia), the Civil War with special emphasis on Abraham Lincoln (the museum has on display the rocker in which President Lincoln was sitting when he was assassinated; you could still see bloodstains...it was quite chilling), the Women's Suffrage movement, and finally the Civil Rights movement. This latter exhibit has the bus on which Rosa Parks refused to move to the rear; you can walk right on it and sit in the seat she was sitting on that day.

We then walked over to the Michigan cafè for lunch. The menu was about the same as at the cafeteria in Greenfield Village. James had a beef pasty which he found less than thrilling, and since he had the last one, I had chicken breast. Also less than thrilling. Real mashed potatoes, though; Clay would have loved them. The dessert, a chocolate "wave cake," was delicious.

We then went back to the aviation exhibit, which was what James was waiting to see. I must admit this was probably the best of the exhibits. The centerpiece is a reproduction of the Wright Flyer, and other pieces surround it: a DC3 that, at the time it was installed in the museum, was the plane that had the most miles on it (another DC3 has since taken the honor); a "flivver," a small airplane Ford conceived so that people could own airplanes the way they owned automobiles; a Lockheed Vega like the one Amelia Earhart flew; a Stinson-Detroiter that almost flew around the world, a reproduction of The Spirit of St. Louis used for the movie with Jimmy Stewart (Stewart bought it after the film wrapped and then donated it to the museum) along with Lindbergh memorabilia like sheet music, souvenir pillows, games, toys, etc.; two airplanes used for barnstorming (a "Jenny" and another older plane, a Laird biplane, flown by "the flying schoolgirl," Katherine Stinson, who took chances many men would not) in a super setup depicting an air show at a county fair; a racing plane ahead of its time (single wing with contouring and landing gear in the 1920s); and, best of all—oh, my ears and whiskers!—the Ford Trimotor used by Admiral Byrd to fly over the South Pole, and the Fokker with Wright "Whirlwind" engines that Byrd used on one of his expeditions! I was sorely tempted to reach over and just touch the tip of the tail of the Trimotor, but I didn't. They also had memorabilia from Byrd's Antarctic camp "Little America" and film from the era.

We then visited the smaller portion of "Made in America," which was small hand machines like lathes and borers, braiding machines, spinning units, etc. The highlight of this exhibit was the actual workshop of a cobbler who assembled leather pieces sent to him by a central jobber, which he would then send to shoe stores to be sold.

In walking down to the cafeè, we had passed the Museum's collection of Presidential limosines: one used in the Reagan era, the limo in which Kennedy was riding when he was shot (later retrofitted with bulletproof everything), Eisenhower's limo, and Roosevelt's big touring car, the "Sunshine Special." There was also a brougham used by Theodore Roosevelt. We passed them once again as we walked down to the train exhibit, and also saw tantalizing glimpses of what would have been on display in the automotive section, including an experimental "safety car," the earliest Chevy Suburban, the first Plymouth Voyager, and some older cars and horse-drawn equipment like a buggy.

The railroad exhibit is small but solid: a reproduction of the first U.S. locomotive, the "Dewitt-Clinton"; three stagecoaches that transported people from railroad stations to hotels, a combination car (baggage and passengers), the "Fairlane Special," which looked like Ford's private railroad car (unfortunately, due to the auto exhibit being closed, we couldn't read the placard on it); a steam locomotive that resembled the "Cannonball" from Petticoat Junction; a huge Canadian snowplow locomotive; a 1925 caboose put back in mint order; and "the Allegheny," the last of the huge steam engines that were produced before diesel replaced them. This is the only one left in existence; the others were all scrapped. This locomotive was huge, as long as a house and immensely tall. You had to climb a stairway of at least 15 steps (it may have been more) just to get into the engineer's compartment. And it was coupled to a combination coal and water car that made it nearly twice as long.

Next to the train equipment was a small exhibit of other transportation, mostly automobiles, from a tiny 1940s Crosley to a huge Bugatti that looked a lot like Cruella DeVil's car (I believe her car was based on a similar vintage Bugatti). There was a Cord roadster, a beautiful Thomas Flyer, the very first Mustang off the line, a slick but icky-colored classic Corvette, and a Chevrolet BelAir the same vintage as myself. There was also a horse drawn vehicle called a "chariot." We had seen this name on the toll bridge fare placard in Greenfield Village and wondered what on earth it was. I rounded the corner, saw it, and said, "It looks like a pumpkin coach for Cinderella!" Really, what it was was a half-sized coach for two people, with a driver up front and a platform in the back (for a footman or manservant, I guess), and it did kinda look like the pumpkin coach in Disney's Cinderella (not in orange, though).

We walked out for the day through two exhibits, jewelry (which included mourning jewelry, a Masonic pin from 1880, colonial pieces—two from the early 1700s—and even a piece of costume jewelry by Coro, where my mom used to work!) and clocks that went back to the units that once made Connecticut the clockmaking center of the U.S. Let me tell you, when you owned a "shelf" clock in the days preceding spring-driven clocks, you had better have had a big, strong shelf!

We were tired and missed the short silver and pewter exhibit, but did take a brief nip into the gift shop, where we got a refrigerator magnet, mug, and some recipe cards.

Well, by this time it was almost 4:30 and Detroit rush hour was well into full swing. On our route home (I-94 to I-75 northbound) there were already three accidents. However, on the way in we had passed a shopping center. The outside sign only advertised the stores, but we figured there must be some restaurants in the milieu as well, and we were right. We had supper at Panera Bread, chicken soup with a baguette and a grilled cheese sandwich for me, wild rice soup with an Alpine steak sandwich for James, until the traffic had let up a little. We still got stuck in stop-and-go, especially on I-94, but there were no accidents. Before we came upstairs, we bought gas for tomorrow. This is not a good stretch of road for gasoline; we had to go several miles before we found a gas station!

Homeward bound tomorrow...

The Big Holiday

2011-10-26T20:27:00.010-04:00

Remember in a previous post I talked about wishing to go to a store called Bronners someday?

Today was that someday.

No, I won't give you a play-by-play about wandering about the world's largest Christmas store. Let's say we got there at 10:30 and finally came up for air about 3:00 (with a half-hour for lunch). I'll probably chat more about it some time in Holiday Harbour. I will give you the particulars: Bronners is located in Frankenmuth, about 71 miles north of where we are staying at the moment. The road to Frankenmuth is lined with rural landscape, except when you pass through Flint, and when you get off the freeway you are surrounded by harvested fields and other rural, small town amenities. Bronners is located on 25 Christmas Lane, which is a smile all in itself. The founder, Wally Bronner, started out as a sign maker, and eventually got into selling Christmas decorations as part of the business. The store is 5.5 acres and sells Christmas material from all over the world. Most of the stock is decorations (tree and otherwise), but they also have lights, Christmas trees, a few books and music products, an area of fall, Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving decorations (me being me, the first things I bought were fall things), and a room that tells the Bronner story with displays of Nativities from all over the world (there are also collections of what must be every single Hummel and Precious Moments figurine ever sold).

After visiting Bronners, I walked over to see the Silent Night Memorial Chapel. The original church, St. Nicholas, in which "Silent Night" was first performed, had to be demolished early in the 20th century because of dangerous structural damage. On the site, the Austrians built a chapel to memorialize the birthplace of the song. Wally Bronner obtained permission from the Austrians to build an exact copy of the chapel on the grounds of Bronners. It's a lovely, tall circular structure, with two beautiful stained glass windows, an altar and pews, some lovely artwork, and bulletin boards with the story of the song, its authors, and the chapel. Outside is a simple white Nativity scene. "Silent Night" as sung by different singers is played continuously over loudspeakers lining the walk to the chapel. Lovely.

Not a quarter mile down the road from Bronners is Michigan's Own Miltary Museum. I had offered this to James as someplace to go if he got bored with wandering around in Christmas-land, but he stuck with me (at checkout we suggested they should have another T-short besides the one that says "I got lost at Bronners": this one should read "I followed my wife all the way through Bronners"...LOL). So since we had 90 minutes until they closed, we walked through it together.

This is just a neat little place, the only one like it in any of the 50 states. It honors military from Michigan (except one guy from New York...later) with their uniforms and other memorabilia. There are a few men from the Civil War, one from the Spanish-American War, and then one whole gallery of World War I veterans, followed by World War II, etc. There was a special corner of the World War I gallery for "the Polar Bears," otherwise known as the North Russia Expeditionary Force, troops dispatched by Woodrow Wilson to Siberia to battle the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. 90 percent of the men who served were from Michigan, most of them from Detroit. This is a fascinating piece of military history about which I know little; I've just heard it mentioned briefly.

Each display case has exhibits from one man (or woman). Four cases cover the five Michigan governors who had military careers, including one gentleman who lost both his legs at age 19 in World War II. All of the World War II and later display cases are changed out regularly, because they have more memorabilia than display cases. If the curator—a man who started collecting World War II memorabilia in 1945 when he was twelve years old—has advance warning of someone who is coming to the museum whose display is not up, he can put that memorabilia on display so his or her family can see it. He had just finished a display for a World War II vet who is visiting tomorrow.

There are also cases for Medal of Honor winners and other servicemen who won awards, and a gallery in the rear for Michigan's participants in the space program, including Jim McDivitt and Roger Chaffee.

There are two cases holding German and Japanese memorabilia that soldiers brought home. The owner is very intense, and told us the showcases are deliberately disordered, with items just tossed in, because the regimes of those countries were evil at that time, and he does not want to give people the idea he is honoring the ideals of those regimes. He also has photos from concentration camps and prisoner-of-war camps and says he has to be careful which ones he puts out, so not to scare children.

Each case holds different things, depending on what the person or their family saved. The memorabilia from the Spanish-American War veteran, for example, had all his braided epaulets and his sword. Several men were survivors of the "Hanoi Hilton" and the rubber sandals and striped prison costume were part of the display...chilling when combined with a placard telling of their ordeals. One man's exhibit had the toy soldiers he used to play with as a boy. The "Polar Bear" men had fur boots and other clothing to keep out the cold. One soldier's letters home, on lined paper done in pencil, were lined up so you could read. The astronaut memorabilia included bits of space suits. If the person has passed away, there was usually a booklet from his memorial service. There were medals and service pins, a portable communion kit for a chaplain killed in battle, rifles and helmets, tin cups and canteens, small personal items, photographs of family.

The story of the man from New York: this was an African-American man who won both a Purple Heart and other medals for bravery. For one reason or the other, his family sold his medals after his death. The medals were bought by a military collector in Michigan. So since there was no display like this for servicemen in New York, the Michigan museum displays his medals.

Brrrr was it cold by now. It had been bad enough when I walked out to the Silent Night chapel—it was about 49°F with a sharp 15 mph wind; Weather Channel said the wind chill made it 39. At five when the museum closed the clouds were lower than ever and it was damp. We drove back to the Drury Inn, and confounded the critters by immediately turning around and going back out to supper at a local place called "Recipes." James had a shrimp mac and cheese while I had pad thai.

And then we were back, so Willow could prowl the living room and Schuyler could chirble at me.

The Big Stroll

2011-10-25T22:10:00.002-04:00

I can't remember how old I was the first time I heard about the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. It may have been on one of the Evening/PM Magazine shows, or some documentary on television. All I do know is that I said "I want to go there someday."

Today we took care of half of that.

We left a bit late to skip Detroit rush hour, and ended up arriving at "The Henry Ford" (which is what they call it) about ten. We parked on the museum side, unfortunately, so had to cross through the entire building, with its tantalizing tidbits of exhibits, to get to the Greenfield Village portion. The entire complex is a paean to American life, Henry Ford style; in fact, as you approach the village complex, a statue of the boss greets you.

Greenfield Village is like Sturbridge, or Plymouth, or Mystic, or any other recreated village in that you walk around to different historical buildings, manned either by docents dressed in a tourguide uniform or in the costume of the period of the house. It is more like Strawbery Banke in that all the homes are not from the same era. However, these homes and buildings are not native to the area, as those at Strawbery Banke. Instead, Henry Ford bought up historic buildings and moved them to this little parklike area with paved streets and curbstones, peppered with the occasional restroom or a food stand, dotted with benches for sore feet. It's like Disneyland in a way as it is girded by a railroad track and you can get rides on old-fashioned steam trains which have several stations around the complex. For history buffs like me, it is Disneyland.

The buildings range from those of the famous—Thomas Edison is very prominently featured—to those of the ordinary—a two-room cabin with a tacked-on kitchen taken from a little town near Savannah. They have been having Hallowe'en weekends for a couple of weeks now, so the place is decorated prettily for autumn with pumpkins and cornstalks, with some Hallowe'en touches near the Wright Brothers' home. I can't possibly tell you everything in order, especially since we interrupted our walk through the village some time after noon to have lunch at the cafeteria, but I'll hit the highlights.

• Thomas Edison's Menlo Park, New Jersey, complex, moved here piece by piece. This is where he and his team of workers invented the long-lasting light bulb, the phonograph, and so many other items. There are several buildings, but of course the laboratory is the showpiece. There are duplicates of his inventions inside, besides the phonograph, the electric pen (an early duplication invention made obsolete by the typewriter and carbon paper), the automatic vote tally, and, strung all over the laboratory, reproductions of Edison's light bulbs, which they have hand-blown. This was particularly memorable because the woman they had working as a docent was an unabashed Edison fan and just rattled on story after story after story about Edison, including the one about the chair that is nailed in the middle of the floor of the workshop upstairs.

Henry Ford and Edison were good friends; they even had homes in Fort Myers together. Ford had the Menlo Park lab installed in Greenfield Village before Edison's death, and, on the 50th anniversary of the light bulb, he had Edison there at Greenfield, in the lab, with notables like President Hoover, Marie Curie, Will Rogers, etc. Edison was in his 80s at that time and asked to sit down, so a workshop chair was brought over for him to sit on. After the crowd left, Ford commemorated the occasion by nailing the chair to the floor where Edison sat in it in tribute to him. And so that's where it sits [chair appears in this pic]!

There is also a reproduction of Edison's dynamo plant and Edison's Fort Myers factory (a smaller building that shows that he wanted to work even when he was relaxing).

• The Wright Cycle Shop. As the park ranger in Dayton pointed out on Sunday, the Wrights had several cycle shops, and this was just one of them. However, it's the cycle shop for most aviation buffs because this is where they worked on the Wright Flyer and the problems of aerodynamics. This bicycle shop has the airplane shed out back.

Next door is the Wright family home, which was actually donated to the museum while Orville Wright (Wilbur died in 1912) was still alive. He used to come to the museum to make sure the house looked exactly as it did in 1903, complete with his own childhood books and the carved staircase newel post and rails and bannisters he made from cherrywood. The house was the usual Victorian wallpaper/carpeting, but very cozy. We spent some time here talking with the young docent, who asked us how we started visiting historical sites, and we recommended places for her to go!

• Henry Ford's birth home. It was still in the family after his sister died, but had been empty for about fifteen years. It was moved to Greenfield and reproduced from Henry's memories. He was very thorough about the whole thing: for instance, he couldn't quite remember the china pattern they had when he was a child. So he had a garbage pit dug up to find the fragments of the china. Again, a very Victorian home, but cozy. Nearby is the barn, which is surrounded by a field which appears to be kept farmed during the year. Right now it is lined with corn stooks and dotted with pumpkins.

There is also a reproduction of his first Model T factory, before the assembly line. The docent said it would take about a day to assemble one car. This building holds the last Model T which was produced in 1927.

• A reproduction of George Washington Carver's birth cabin. This had a particularly nice touch: each of the fifty states were asked to supply a board to panel the interior of the cabin, and each sent a native piece of wood: red maple from Rhode Island, live oak from Georgia, pine from Maine, etc. It was actually a larger cabin than the one next door to it, the birth place of William McGuffey, of the famous McGuffey readers. His cabin was about the size of the living room we have back at the hotel! Next door to the McGuffey cabin is the McGuffey school, also a log cabin and crowded with benches and desks.

• The Firestone farm—Ford was also good friends with Harvey Firestone of tire fame. We actually didn't make it out to the farm, although I got a nice picture, with its lovely patterned roof. We did ride by it on the train and saw several flocks of Merino sheep (grey rather than white); they also have shorthorn cattle and other heritage breeds.

• Robert Frost's home. This was a home he lived in while he was in residence at the University of Michigan, and the house was actually fixed up in the style of the original owners in the 19th century, although a recording of Frost reciting "The Road Less Traveled" is playing in the home.

• Noah Webster's home, with a very large exhibit of Webster's books (he didn't just do a dictionary!) upstairs. I was surprised by the bright color of the front parlor, a vivid green. The docent said they did find notes that Webster ordered the room painted "apple green." She also noted that most folks had wallpaper back then, because it was cheaper than paint (!!!), so Webster was quite well off to have painted rooms.

• The Logan County courthouse. This was brought from Illinois and was where Abraham Lincoln would have practiced law during his years as a a circuit judge. Ford was so reverent of this building that he even had the plaster of the ceiling broken up, numbered, and then reinstalled. It was so awesome sitting in a building Lincoln had worked in.

• Charles Steinmetz' cabin. This was a tiny place, with only a porch lined with windows and a sleeping room with a hammock. Steinmetz was handicapped with a spinal curvature and was only in less pain sleeping in a hammock, not a bed.

The oldest building on the property is out on the furthest boundary, a windmill from Cape Cod built in the 17th century. One home over from the windmill is the Plympton house, which is a colonial dating from the early 1700s, but the bricks in the chimney, from an older house, date from the 1600s!

We enjoyed visits to some other neat shops. One was a millinery shop having belonged to a widow and her daughters, full of actual vintage hats in glass cases and reproduction hats on stands. They also sold men's clothing supplies (suspenders, buttons, etc.) and children's hats. Another was the tintype shop. The tintype artist had, when photographs became popular, given up his art to work in the Ford factory. He was finally the last tintype artist living, and when Ford found out, he installed him at Greenfield, doing tintypes of guests, including famous folk like Walt Disney. We walked through the Smith's Creek Depot, a railroad station that was on the route Thomas Edison traveled when he was a "news butcher" as a kid. They don't know that Edison ever stepped into the station, but he could have. Surprisingly, to me, anyway, the station master kept his home in the station itself. I don't think I'd ever seen that before, although it makes sense.

One home mentioned Stephen Foster, but did not say it was Foster's home. This contained a small exhibit of American music, with displays of instruments, and plaques about how music was used at social gatherings like singing schools and band concerts for people to get together (and young folks to court!). The Georgia home previously mentioned belonged to the Mattoxes, an African-American family. A grape arbor where the family ate and cooled off in the hot summer months was meticulously replanted there, and a chicken coop out back held the same number of hens and one rooster as the Mattoxes owned. The house is notable for being decorated in Depression-era magazine pages, and the ceiling is lined with brown corrugated cardboard. We chatted with three ladies eating their noon meal in the Daggett farmhouse, which is 19th century, and also two ladies quilting in the kitchen of the Susquehanna Plantation, dressed in Civil War-era memorabilia. One of the ladies was from Atlanta.

We visited a wagon shop, a jewelry shop where they also sold watches and silver serving pieces, the Sarah Jordan boarding house where Edison's workmen stayed—the owner and her daughter and the long-suffering Irish servant on one side of the house, the men on the other, two tiny brick slave cabins (and these being solid they were better than most quarters than those enslaved had), and an entire stone English cottage, barn, tower, and blacksmith's forge imported from the Cotswolds. This last was lovely, with vines crawling up the side of the cottage, and a bursting full English cottage garden to its left. We were entertained by the chipmunks that were scampering about under the plants.

There was also a doctor's office; he was a homeopathic doctor, and had some plants I had never heard of as part of his pharmeocopia. We visited the General Store at the same time as some kids working on a school assignment; the docent was giving them gentle hints about which items in the store had been manufactured in the city. We peeked in the little house of John Chapman, who was Henry Ford's favorite teacher. In fact, we thought we got almost every place except for a machine shop and the farm, and now that I am looking at the map, we missed the saw mill, the potter's shop, the glassblower, the printing office, the carding mill, a weaving shop, a gristmill, and another school! Oh, well. We can't get back in without buying another ticket. I saw what I really wanted to see, too: the Wrights and the Edison stuff.

As I said, we took a ride in a Model T, a fun, top-down, brisk ride. It had started out chilly this morning, but was clearing up as we took the ride. The driver told us about the car as we drove, and I made a little film of it (interrupted by a dead battery) as we rode. Later we rode the train around the perimeter, which includes the oxbow of a part of the river separated from its main course by the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Henry Ford Academy (a charter high school). The doors were open at the school and we waved to a bunch of the kids as we went by!

We were out of there right at closing time, and expected a nice 40-minute ride home via I-94 and I-75. Instead, the dippy GPS routed us through an alternate road that was fine until it became uncontrolled access with traffic lights every other block. Two out of three lanes on part of the road were closed even though no work was being done on it, and traffic crawled. It took us an hour to get back. Bleah.

I was so disappointed: I brought back a cup of milk from the breakfast buffet this morning to enjoy with my supper (leftovers and some pretzels and things from the evening hot snack). Well, it was frozen solid because the little fridge is set so high! In fact, here it is 10 p.m. and it's just thawed!

The Big Weather Change

2011-10-24T22:06:00.010-04:00

Sigh. Alarm set for eight, awake at 6:30. This means I was awake a few minutes later when it started to thunder.

Ah, well. It was raining pretty well when James took Willow outside, but it had stopped by the time we had finished breakfast and had loaded up the luggage cart (Willow jumped upon it before we had it full; we weren't going to leave her behind!). I stopped at the desk to tell them that the sink was not emptying properly and also that we had not been able to get hot water out of it. So they credited my card with one night's stay! That was nice of them.

We got gasoline at the station catty-corner from the hotel and were off; Schuyler wrapped against the chill: it was 50°F out and heavily overcast. We drove through a band of rain, and then it slowly began to clear, lower clouds to higher, lighter grey clouds, to fluffy clouds, to cloudless and fluffy clouds again. It was always breezy, and by the time we reached Michigan it was snapping the flags out.

Ohio was farm fields from Dayton until we approached the outskirts of Toledo, broken by groves of trees sometimes filled, sometimes dotted, with chrome-yellow brilliant trees mixed in with bits of orange. We crossed the Lincoln Highway (U.S. 30; see our adventures on the Lincoln in November 2009), emblazoned with the Lincoln logo, and also I-80, which I was last on in 1978. We stopped at a rest area in Ohio next to a windswept farm whose fields lay bare in the sharp breeze (some miles down the road we had passed a farm that was going to be sold at auction; very sad). We picked up some Wendyburgers before we left Ohio and ate in the car at the Michigan welcome center, where the breeze off Lake Erie made it too chilly to eat at the picnic table.

Then we drove through Detroit, past the Ambassador Bridge, and up a long, long freeway to our hotel in Troy. I remember way back when when all you needed to visit Canada was a driver's license and they inspected your car. I would have liked to have gone...but we didn't have time to get passports.

This is an odd neighborhood: a mixture of hotels, a few restaurants, and many high-rise office buildings. Down the street there are some shopping centers and stores; we hung around for a while after moving into the room (this one a full one-bedroom suite, with a full living room rather than a sitting room), and then went out to the TGIFriday attached to the hotel. We did the "2 for $10" thing, with me getting an appetizer (potstickers) and chicken bruschetta, and James getting dynamite chicken and the dessert (peanut butter cup pie), and then we shared. Afterwards we stopped at Petsmart to get something for Willow, and then went to Barnes & Noble just to walk off dinner. Did buy two cross-stitch magazines.

Nothing much on television again...were watching House Hunters on HGTV until Castle started. Schuyler has been singing her little head off tonight. Almost couldn't hear the dialog over her voice! We have her on the desk in the living room rather than on the tray like she was at the other hotel, and she seems pleased by it.

Wow! They are saying the aurora is visible in some towns outside of Detroit! They even had photographs sent by viewers of the shimmering curtain.

Oh, we watched Castle on WXYZ, the television station that derived from the original Detroit radio station of the same call letters. This is where the radio series The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet were created. Almost as good as passing by KDKA. :-)

The Big Mission

2011-10-23T20:12:00.005-04:00

Breakfast didn't end until ten today, so we slept until 8:30 this morning, then went downstairs. The breakfast area was mobbed, almost as noisy as last night. We were right, there was some type of soccer tournament in the area. The people sitting next to us were talking to someone else about having lost to another team.

Since the Armstrong Air & Space Museum didn't open until noon today, we made a minor stop at the WalMart across the street (James needed 81mg aspirin), then went back to the bookstore at the Air Force Museum, since it had been so crowded yesterday when we were shopping. I found a discount book about the selling of War Bonds, plus bought two CDs, the Air Force Band and the Singing Sergeants singing "Songs to Fly By" and also a collection of Christmas performances. By then it was about eleven and we headed up to Wapokoneta, listening to last week's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me."

The road is rather bland, farms (mostly growing corn; the stalks appear to have been harvested, but are still erect—perhaps for a corn maze, sale, or later to be harrowed under to enrich the soil?) interrupted by exits with stores and gas stations. Again, the fall color is rather muted except for occasional patches of bright leaves, usually the smaller trees and brush in front of a grove. We also saw one of the "barn quilts" that are so popular in this area. Instead of hex signs on the barns here, they paint a quilt pattern, and there are guides to them.

After an hour we reached the little museum, which is a domed and angled structure behind a Bob Evans. There were only a few other cars in the parking lot; I supposed the place doesn't get much business this time of year.

This is just a neat little museum that you can go through and read everything in about two hours (this includes sitting down to watch the 30-minute film about the Apollo 11 mission), chiefly to do with Neil Armstrong's career. There is personal memorabilia like family photos and his school yearbook; his service uniforms, keys to the city and other awards given at the time of the moon mission, his backup Apollo space suit and his Gemini suit, etc, and also some dandy things like the Gemini VIII space capsule that almost killed Armstrong and David Scott (one of the thrusters jammed, sending the capsule into a continual spin), a moon rock, Gene Cernan's jump suit and Jim Lovell's longjohns, and other space memorabilia, going all the way through the space shuttle era. There were also neat things that people had sent Armstrong, including a ... well, James said almost a mosaic: it was a portrayal of the command and service modules and the LM, made of beads, clips, fasteners, and other everyday items...fascinating! Portraits, too, and a bust of Armstrong...all sorts of cool things, including a collection of newspapers chronicling the mission. My favorite was the local newspaper's headline: "Neil Lands on the Moon," like he was everyone's kid.

As I mentioned, there's a film about the moon landing in a little planetarium-like theatre. As you walk in there, there's a small entry corridor that is some combination of lights and reflective mirrors that makes it look like you are floating among the stars. Too cool. Just a tiny touch, but it works.

You finally exit through the gift shop, which is small but has a variety of neat things, including men's ties, one with mission patches on it. Bought a couple of postcards and a gift, and we signed the guest book, then went outside to take photos of the jet out front. James tells me it is a very rare experimental plane that Neil Armstrong had test flown; only four were built and three of them were scrapped, so this is the only one left.

We had lunch at the Bob Evans, where I partook of the turkey dinner and James had meatloaf. We had pumpkin bread as our side!

We still had a bit of afternoon left, so we drove back to Dayton past the hotel and to the Aviation Heritage Trail to the Wright Bicycle Shop and the Visitor Center. Alas, we'd tarried too long at lunch and only had 40 minutes for both, but the park rangers were nice: we were taken directly over to the bicycle shop, and then we wandered around the exhibit, basically where I read a few things but took a lot of photos.

This is not the bicycle shop, the one where the Wright Brothers worked on the airplane. What you see is the third bicycle shop they owned; the fourth, where the Wright Flyer was born, was around the corner on another block. That building, as well as the Wright homestead, was taken up and moved to Greenfield Village in Michigan, as part of the Henry Ford Museum. The third bicycle shop was, in fact, only rediscovered recently; the brothers had a total of five different shops, each one larger than the next. Number three is fitted out as it would have been at the turn of the century, and there are several bicycles (mostly reproductions) illustrating the type of cycle they would have sold, plus the part shelves, and the workshop in the back where they could straighten frames or spokes.

The Visitor's Center honors not only the Wright Brothers, but Paul Laurence Dunbar, the African-American poet, who grew up in the same neighborhood as the Wrights. Sadly, we were not there long enough to see his home. From our walk-through of the exhibits, we saw the steps in which the Wrights worked on making a heavier-than-air craft fly (including some bad initial structural design) and also their jobs previous to becoming involved in the lucrative bicycle business, which included a printing concern. People today rarely think of what a great transportation breakthrough the bicycle was: for many people it's only a kid's toy, or for exercise junkies. The bicycle actually was a factor in the woman's suffrage movement, as dozens of young women took up bicycle riding ("immodest!" cried many) and therefore had to wear less restrictive clothing to do so.

Finally it was five and we headed back to the hotel to take Wil for her walk. About seven we walked over to Panera and got some soup for supper. Been casting about the television all night for something to watch and finally settled on Holmes Inspection.

The Big Hangar

2011-10-22T22:44:00.003-04:00

Will you tell me why I am so blankety-blank hard to unwind? I have never been a "type A" personality, yet the only time I seem to relax any more is when I am reading; otherwise I'm strung tighter than a bow. Last night we had a comfy bed and comfy pillows in a nice cool room after a great shower. The blackout curtains really worked (and a good thing, too, because there's a spotlight that shines right toward our window). We went to bed and had eight solid hours of nice sleep ahead of us, from 11:30 to 7:30.

I woke up at 6 and never could get back to sleep. My mind was racing about the glass of milk I stupidly left in the refrigerator; I was supposed to drink it yesterday before we left. Now it's going to sour in there. Left a cup of yogurt behind, too. I can't sleep because I am thinking about having to clean the refrigerator. Is this idiotic or what?

So we were up at 7:30 to dress. I got a rude surprise: the last pair of GV jeans I bought at Costco didn't fit. Although they were marked my size, they were at least one size too small. Phooey! James walked the dog and then we went down to breakfast. I hate to be disloyal to Drury, but I think I like the Staybridge breakfasts better. Their oatmeal was in packets and didn't have a metallic taste. They also had mixed fruit instead of just apples and bananas. And there was toast.

So this morning we were headed to the Air Force Museum. We were here eleven years ago, having stopped in Dayton a day early before going on to Columbus for the "WENNvention" [gathering of Remember WENN fans] [that account is here]. There was a new hangar of experimental planes James wanted to see, and some of the planes formerly on the flightline were now inside. Plus we had had to rush through the post-World War II galleries very quickly last time. So since we were heading for "points north," it made sense one of the points was here.

The first thing we did was spend a half hour in line to get registered for the bus to the hangars where the Presidential planes and the experimental Air Force planes were. Both of us skipped out of line to take a couple of pics. After that we started walking through the galleries we had examined in detail last time: early aviation (starting with balloon ascents and the efforts of non-Americans—there's an actual Bleriot, which will mean something to anyone who loved the British seies Flambards) through World War II. The exhibits segue logically one into the next along a curved pathway that makes the experience more interesting, as you turn a corner and see a new vista of aircraft, or come upon a little alcove where you might have a small exhibit about spying or prisoners of war. You walk out from the World War II gallery into a short, but very effective display about the Holocaust. There is also a display for Bob Hope's involvement with entertaining the troops, a small exhibit about service flags, and a huge, beautiful hanging quilt paying tribute to Air Force installations, as well as a mosaic reproduction of the famous photo of the Wright brothers' flight.

At this point we decided to break for lunch, so went upstairs to the cafè, where they have hot dogs, hamburgers, some ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit, drinks, milk, chips, and desserts. It has been busy here all day, and we shared company with what sounded back down on the exhibit floor like veterans visiting for the day, plus a plethora of Boy Scouts. After lunch there wasn't much time before we needed to be on the bus, so we just wandered around the gift shop until it was time to gather in the auditorium.

For reasons that I'd rather not go into, I ended up not going to the experimental hangar. James enjoyed the excursion very much and took about a gajillion pictures, to the point where he ran down my spare battery down on his camara. He had already run down his own in the first gallery! By that time I was slightly better and wandered after him through the remaining two galleries: Vietnam and Korea, and the Cold War, which also included the missile gallery and the few spacecraft exhibits (including the Apollo 15 capsules, Gemini and Mercury capsules, and a moonrock). All those names from Vietnam bring back such bad memories. We watched it night after night on television. My cousin Jimmy went to Vietnam and came home so changed and emotionally fragile. My friend Penny's dad went as well. I remember going to her house one night to watch her Dad appear on the news. And we never saw the actual carnage...just indistinct bodies and wounded men wrapped in bandages.

Vietnam was part of my childhood, but it's funny how the World War II gallery also always resonates with me, as it was my parents' war. But then it was as alive in our house when I was a kid as it had been to them twenty years earlier. I would ask my mother to tell me the story about what happened to her the day of Pearl Harbor, and even today I can't hear John Charles Daly's Pearl Harbor announcement or FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech without getting gooseflesh.

While waiting for James to finish taking pictures in the last gallery, I sat down near a young mom discreetly nursing a baby under an afghan; she had another tiny little girl with her. Very soon dad and slightly older brother turned up. I'd say she was three and he was about five. She was sitting in the stroller and would push him away and he would pretend to get pushed backward, then come back for more. Then she slipped out of the stroller and they were trotting around the stroller. So cute!

So, very close to closing time, we ended up back in the gift shop. They have a great selection of military and aviation books, and I could have bought a lot more than I did, including a illustrated book of World War II memorabilia (games, ration cards, greeting cards, etc.), several space books, and others I can't recall. I did get a book called A Ball, a Monkey and a Dog, about the early days of the space program, and a book chronicling girls' serial/series stories about aviation (The Girl Aviators, The Aeroplane Girls, etc.), plus the souvenir booklet. By the time we walked out it was 4:55 and they closed at five.

We had supper mostly at the Drury evening meal setup. This time they had hot dogs, mac and cheese, baked potatoes, salad greens, pretzels and chips, and chili. I had to have some mac and cheese (if you get my drift) and also had a baked potato with cheese sauce, and some bread. It was terribly noisy in the dining area; apparently there was a little girls' soccer competition in the area. This explains the three little girls on the elevator yesterday, as we ran into one of them on the elevator again tonight—she said, "I remember you; you're the ones with the parrot." Schuyler gladly accepts the compliment!

We finally fled from the tumult and walked across the parking lot to the Panera Bread to buy some of their chicken soup, and two cookies, and brought it back to the room. Willow fixed her eyes on the bowls for the entire time we ate, those big liquid brown eyes that try to persuade you that she's starving to death with a bowl of kibble not a foot away. We finally mixed her dog food with two spoonfuls of the broth and she scarfed it down.

Wandered about the television dial tonight, ending up finally watching the second half of The Fugitive on "Spike," and most of an America's Funniest Home Videos. Did some checking; the Neil Armstrong museum doesn't open tomorrow until noon, so we have a quiet morning tomorrow.

The Big Ride

2011-10-21T21:48:00.002-04:00

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Yes, it's a long, long, long weekend edition.

We were up at "o'dark thirty," but actually didn't end up leaving the neighborhood until 7:30 a.m., so we ran into school buses aplenty. It was sunrise about the time we hit the freeway, fortified by Chik-Fil-A (I wasn't driving at this point, so I could have more oatmeal). Mainly, we drove, stopping for gasoline or potty breaks for us or for Willow. We either listened to Gaelic Storm or some BBC programs—two Agatha Raisin stories with Penelope Keith and Malcolm Sinclair, and a Paul McGann Doctor Who, "The Beast of Orlok," plus a "Splendid Table" talking about small kitchens. We also listened to an hour of a local radio talk show while stuck in traffic. And we made it here on a tank and a half of gas.

We are in "points north," as I put on my calendar earlier this year, right now staying in Dayton, OH, at the Drury Inn. It was a nice ride, if somewhat long because of being stuck in traffic in Cincinnati. (We should have taken the perimeter road, but both the traffic report on the GPS and the traffic report on the radio said traffic was moving well going straight up I-75. Boy, were they full of it. Wish I'd checked Google Maps on the Droid first; it was up to date on the problem, but by then it was too late!) Willow whined for the first half hour and then looked aggreived for the remainder of the trip (unless James stepped away from the car; then she cried and whined). Schuyler was alternatively quiet or whistled along with Gaelic Storm (and chirped loudly at the birdies in Agatha Raisin's garden).

We saw some very pretty fall color north of Knoxville and then again for a few miles after we crossed Kings Mountain—some as bright as what we saw in New England last year—but otherwise the autumn leaves were rather dull or it was past peak as we went northward. When we stopped at our first rest area in Tennessee, there were two wild turkeys wandering the parking lot followed by people taking photos of them. In Florence, Kentucky, we saw the famous water tower which says "Florence Y'all."

We arrived at our hotel about five o'clock and were pleasantly surprised by the room. They had something called an "oversized room" for a dollar or two more a night, so I got that, figuring it would be a longer or wider room where there would be more room for Willow's crate and Schuyler's cage. It did puzzle me when the description mentioned two televisions. Instead it is like a baby suite, with a little sitting room as you come in with two plush chairs, one a recliner, a lamp table, and a console with a television on top and a microwave and baby refrigerator inside. Then there is a small hallway with the bathroom and closet to the left, and then a nice-sized bedroom with a second television and even room to keep the suitcase on the luggage holder without it being somewhere you will trip on it.

The hotel is also in the middle of at least a half dozen restaurants, including a Panera Bread a few dozen steps from the hotel, a Red Lobster almost as close, and a Golden Corral across the street. The Drury has an evening food offering along with a breakfast, usually something informal like chicken tenders, hot dogs, chili...they had hot dogs and chili tonight, so we availed ourselves of the Golden Corral. The lobby is lovely: registration desk on your left and a big gathering place on the right, with sofas in conversation groups and a television on the wall with a fireplace. You go straight through to the elevators, with the meal area behind, and to the left is a small indoor pool and an exercise room. Very spiffy!

So you had to see us coming in: all the luggage on a luggage cart, with James pushing behind and Willow leading, and me in front carrying Schuyler's cage. We had three little girls with us on the elevator holding the door for us, and ooohing over Wil and getting peeked at by a curious Schuyler. It was too cute!

After dinner we have been just lounging in the sitting room. I put Schuyler's cage on the tray we brought, between the chairs, and Willow's crate is in the corner near the television. Found Keeping Up Appearances and a show called Mulberry about Death's son, who is trying to learn the business, but who has become attached to the wealthy, peppery old lady he has been assigned to. He's constantly at odds with her housekeeper and butler, a married pair who are stealing the old lady blind, selling off her wine and the contents of her kitchen garden to buy things for themselves.

Very sleepy already and it's not even ten o'clock. Been doing too much prep and not enough sleeping...

The World is Poorer Today

2011-10-19T07:54:00.003-04:00

Radio Giant Norman Corwin Dies in California at 101

CBS News Story

Los Angeles Times

Corwin's Website

2011-10-19T07:22:00.004-04:00

FOR TODAY, OCTOBER 19

Outside my window...
...it is still pitch black. We had a cold front come through last night (although you couldn't have told it by 2:30 a.m., when it was warm and still, and even with three fans in the room it was too warm to sleep). But it was cooler this morning, and with the trees moving and rustling like they are, I'm sure I'll have to shut the windows soon. [8:25 a.m. Yes, indeed, I did.]

I am thinking...
...about being a little nervous today. I have to go for a mammogram at 10:30. There's always something sinister about a mammo, because a problem you didn't know about might be lurking there, but I have never had a problem with the procedure itself. I have read stories about women who don't want to go because it's terribly painful. I have always found it a brief discomfort, nothing more, but last year when I had mine, the technician had to get very close to me to adjust the machine and I had an unexpected attack of claustrophobia. She released me from the apparatus immediately and let me take a breath, and I finished with no problem, but it preys on my mind.

[Later: I had no problem. Kept my eyes over the machine and stared at the wall ("close your eyes and think of England?").]

I am thankful for...
...cooler weather, although the last few days of 80s have not been bad. 80s in the fall are different from 80s in the summer; it's a "softer" heat which doesn't hurt your skin.

From the learning rooms...
Just bought what sounds like a fascinating book: Words to Eat By: Five Foods and the Culinary History of the English Language. Lynn Rosetto Casper of The Splendid Table was talking to the author on a recent show.

From the kitchen...
...all dark and quiet, and will be, as tonight is "pot lucks."

I am wearing...
...same thing I was wearing last week, as it's been so warm I haven't worn them since last week.

I am creating...
...just this blog. On a brief hiatus, although I have a couple of more projects to work on before Christmas. I discovered I had the wrong color of a craft component and need to go to JoAnn, since Michaels apparently sells little of that item.

I am going...
...to suggest to James we have a "work day" the first weekend of November, unless he has to work. We still need to put the shelf up in the kitchen, the one that will go over the baker's rack and hold the items we use rarely: the stock pot, the small crock pot, and a few other cooking things. They are just jammed together on the baking rack now and it's awkward.

I am reading...
...The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (a series of essays about Doctor Who), A History of the World in 6 Glasses (I seem to hit this only intermittently; I'm on the tea chapter now), and am about halfway through Cherie Priest's Boneshaker.

I am hoping...
...things will go well during my appointment (both during and afterward).

I am hearing...
...the television in the background for Schuyler. Something on the Today show. The door to the bedroom was squeaking earlier; I had to close it so she wouldn't get a draft.

Around the house...
...all very quiet. You can hear the faint pattering of rain outside, but it's not intrusive. The other rooms are dark, and beckon you to come nap. I must work instead!

I am pondering...
...the news has me pondering the questions of why people do what they do. Mentally disabled adults are kept captive in squalor while people steal their benefits. A woman gets drunk while her baby is kidnapped. And more people hurting others. Why must this happen?

One of my favorite things...
...Susan Branch @ (what else?) www.susanbranch.com! I love her homespun drawings and lettering. I have both of her Christmas books and was overjoyed when she put out one for autumn. One of the things in the dining room is a framed Susan Branch postcard with the legend "a season of love and laughter" with an autumn-themed table set below, and as a caption the lovely Humbert Wolfe quote: "Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves, We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!" Yes, indeed!

A few plans for the rest of the week:
I'm due to give Willow a bath, and I think I will put the Hallowe'en decorations up tomorrow during lunch. I'm not much of a Hallowe'en fan, but it should be nice and cool tomorrow as well—the forecast is 50s and windy—to do the job. The weather is so freaky here it might be 80 again by the weekend!

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

As it gets closer to Christmas, I long for Christmas-y places to visit. Here's someplace I want to see someday, Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, the world's largest Christmas store:

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

"Harry Potter in 99 Seconds"

2011-10-18T14:30:00.002-04:00

From Mugglenet.

So Want This

2011-10-18T09:53:00.001-04:00

TARDIS Glass Christmas Ornament

Thanks to Teri, who mentioned it on Facebook!

My New Favorite Commercial

2011-10-18T09:31:00.002-04:00

I love the expression on her face when she looks at the green glop! (And the little Wii avatar.)

Wishing I Lived In Reasonable Driving Distance From New Jersey...

2011-10-18T07:54:00.006-04:00

The Homecoming 40th Anniversary

I love this movie. Much prefer it over It's a Wonderful Life and many other highly-touted Christmas films. Seeing it in a movie theatre would be lovely!

(Be nice if they did something next year for the 40th anniversary of The House Without a Christmas Tree...like maybe a DVD set of all four Addie Mills stories—this is a hint, son! With extras—an interview with Gail Rock, a chat with Lisa Lucas, tributes to Jason Robards and Mildred Natwick, a featurette on the locations in Canada where they filmed...sigh...)

And So It Ends

2011-10-16T22:36:00.002-04:00

Friends Of Old Time Radio Gather In Newark, N.J. For One Last Convention

Stream-O'Consciousness Sunday

2011-10-16T13:17:00.003-04:00

Nope, not gonna do it...will not sleep more than eight hours...alarm is set for exactly eight hours after I went to bed...of course I wake up when James leaves for work...again at 7:30 because my knees are hurting...but I do get up at 8:30.

Oatmeal, yogurt and milk, the staff of breakfast...out to hit Bed, Bath & Beyond when it opens...a stop at Publix for a newspaper and to spend a twofer Hallmark coupon...birthday card and some wrapping paper more suitable for guy gifts...now to BB&B past another Publix...OH! they have Thanksgiving cards! got one and a birthday...well, guess what, BB&B doesn't open till eleven...okay, then across the road to Costco to get gasoline...3.11⁹!...then into Costco...oh, look, a gift for James...wow, they have Murdoch Mysteries...and Foyle's War for less than a fortune...very tempted by Prohibition.

Then off to BB&B...bought a Misto and a gift...then to Michaels for some inexpensive frippery and double-sided tape (wanted something to finish a craft project, but they didn't have it...I suppose this means a trip to JoAnn...grump)...let's try Dollar Tree...cool, a book about blogging!

Need lunch...time to head home...aieeee, when I get in the house Taboo is starting...someone getting a tattooed eyeball...ewwwwwwwwww...

Books and Buddies

2011-10-15T18:56:00.006-04:00

I had to go get blood taken yesterday, so I planned on rising so I could just get up, get dressed, and drive to Kaiser when they opened or a few minutes afterwards. It was a chilly morning, but since I planned to be in and out of buildings, I didn't bother taking a jacket. It was a bright blue day with a breeze

I didn't count on the school buses! Honestly, school buses still driving around at 8:30...8:40...8:45...when on earth does school start? No wonder I see school buses driving around from 4:30 through 6 p.m.! It's not just after-school programs keeping the kids there late.

Anyway, the vampires took three vials of blood, then I crossed the road and had breakfast at Chik-Fil-A: multigrain oatmeal with about half a pack of the brown sugar cinnamon and the nuts on it, and the fruit cup, and milk (of course). Dawdled my way through breakfast reading on my Nook, so didn't get to the Cobb County Library book sale until after ten. It was already packed, and I had to park down near the pond where the trailer hookups are. Mud everywhere and my tires so encrusted with it that when I left I crunched and crackled my way down the road until all the pebbles fell off.

I found some goodies everywhere, so my cloth grocery bag was crammed full and I was hefting and resting, hefting and resting until I got to the counter's desk. The tally is here. I was quite happy at finding the Sydney Taylor; they are so rare and expensive now!

Okay, I know the sale attracts a lot of stay-at-home moms. And they can't leave their kids at home alone. I know they can't, and I'm glad they don't. But I wish they could find babysitters! I really, really hate strollers, especially the SUV-sized ones they make today. Not to mention the people that bring suitcases to put their books in!

From there I went to the Avenue at West Cobb and the Barnes & Noble, windows down and the sunroof open. I spent almost as much on magazines as I did on all those books. I got this month's "Atlanta," plus a special "Saturday Evening Post" about Norman Rockwell—today is exactly one year that we visited Rockwell's studio in Stockbridge!—and the October issue of the British "Country Living." Thought about having a bite to eat there, but decided not to.

Instead came home and had the rest of my onion and chive goat cheese with whole-grain crackers and some milk, and watched Rick Steves in the Cinqueterre. James got home early, but we didn't go out until dinnertime, to pick up some Chinese from Dragon 168 while we bagged some twofers at Publix. We now have enough Hallowe'en candy, and even some cards and wrapping paper. We ate supper at home while watching Murdoch Mysteries.

Unfortunately, the Chinese did not agree with me and I was up a lot later than I wanted, and woke up this morning feeling distinctly sleep-deprived. We blew off the Farmers Market, but only could sleep a half hour later since we had Hair Day today. Last night, James made some pumpkin bars to bring with us; they seemed like a good fall treat, but we both decided they were too sweet. Folks ate them, and we brought some of the leftovers to the hobby shop, but we regretfully tossed the remainder. If we want something like that, we need to make it ourselves; they put so much sugar in everything these days!

Hair Day was fun as always. Chicken was the main dish, with carrots and potato salad on the side. I ate of that sparingly due to last night, but did eat quite a few of the olives and the dill gherkins that Phyllis and Mel brought, and drank strictly water.

We finished the weekly shopping after going to the hobby shop. Found some finely chopped beef (not ground) we plan to eat in tortillas, and also bought two cucumbers for a nice salad during the week. Plus their Hallowe'en decor was on sale, so I picked up two more small signs for the porch and a copper-colored wreath hanger, which will be more appropriate for fall.

The remainder of the evening we have been watching Frontier Force, a National Geographic series about the police (which includes wildlife officers and search and rescue) in Montana. As in Alaska State Troopers, they seem to have to deal with a lot of drunks and druggies. But it isn't all arrests; they also showed them tracking down missing hikers and hunters, and transporting mountain sheep away from a dangerous area. Several episodes with snow, and breathtaking mountains always in the distance.

2011-10-12T07:17:00.000-04:00

FOR TODAY, OCTOBER 12, 2011 (the real COLUMBUS DAY)

Outside my window...
...still quite dark because it is overcast; even the birds aren't at the feeder. It's supposed to clear up later and go up into the 70s. I like the idea of the former, but not of the latter. :-) Staying 60s would make me very happy.

I am thinking...
...not yet, not yet. Once I have breakfast and start work. :-)

I am thankful for...
...not having expected company last night (we are getting quotes on a home project). It took me 75 minutes to get home in the rain and I arrived home stiff and with a headache. It was nice to eat and relax, and not have to talk business. I suppose I misheard and they are coming tonight.

From the learning rooms...
...LOL! I will learn to listen to telephone messages better!

From the kitchen...
...James cleaned it yesterday, so it is quite spic and span except for the floor, which I need to wash. If this inquires about treats, we have the apple pie we got at Panorama orchards, which is still a bit too sweet for me. I've never had a high tolerance for sugar: I don't like frosting (icing, whatever...I call it "ick"), Danish, Cinnabons with the ick on them, even raisins are too sweet for me. Bittersweet chocolate is my speed.

I am wearing...
...my Mutts "jammies" which are fall wearing on telework days. The top is pale blue with hearts on it and a big picture of Earl, the little terrier in the comic strip, with dark blue sleeves. The pants are dark blue with stars, "sweet dreams," and Mooch [the cat] and Earl on a bed.

I am creating...
...order! I need to do more sorting and disposing on Friday. I'm keeping the Early American Life, Best of British, and, right now, Yankee issues, but I need to take the other magazines and just get the useful stuff out of them. Why have year old computer reviews? I just need the links to useful software from PC World. I just want the fall and winter photos from Country and Country Extra and Vermont Life and Midwest Living, etc.

I am going...
...to take the car to the mechanic in a few minutes. I need an oil change, a tune up, and I need to get it inspected. They will give me a ride back home.

I am reading...
...Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, Mr. Monk on the Road by Lee Goldberg, and A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage, and, because it called my name, A Rather Curious Engagement by C.A. Belmond.

I am hoping...
...to continue on my decluttering streak. It's helping me work out some personal frustrations.

I am hearing...
...birds chipping from outside the window. And the wonderful silence that goes with no A/C being on. The ceiling fans humming.

Around the house...
It's all vacuumed! Looking up at my bookshelf over the computer, it needs to be cleaned out. I just, just realized where my IRIS Pen software is, after making such a fuss and having to get it from the manufacturer. It's up there, over the computer, hidden by another book. Bother. Some of these books, too, have to go.

I am pondering...
...a conversation last week which troubled me, and the sharp, sad realization that I can't stop things that trouble me from occurring.

One of my favorite things...
...a radio show and podcast called A Way With Words. Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette discuss grammar, punctuation, sayings, proverbs, dialect, idioms, and more. It's always funny and lively. I plan to play an episode or two today.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Tidying. The Mistletoe Market (though God knows why it takes place so early. The Cobb County Library Book Sale. (I know, like I need more books!)

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Our former neighbor Susan posted this on Facebook...so beautiful! Fall is such a lovely season!

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Tidy-Up Tuesday

2011-10-11T18:54:00.003-04:00

We had a "tidy-up Tuesday" today at work—the supervisors treated us to breakfast (eggs, ham biscuits, fruit, orange juice, coffee, and some other things), we had atta-boys all 'round, and then we were encouraged to clean up our offices. Great quantities of ring-bound binders (many from submissions of proposals), copy paper boxes full of papers, and other items suddenly appeared in the hall. We had a big shredding container brought upstairs and we not only filled it, but we filled it with so much paper that the axle of the wheels was bending and the rubber wheels were tilted sideways.

It was a perfect cleaning day, too: overcast, drizzly, and cool, which was a mixed blessing, especially during rush hour (it took me 75 minutes to get home and it was barely drizzling), as noted in Holiday Harbour.

However, I finally cleaned out the bottom drawer of my black filing cabinet of old course information (instruction books for WP5.1, WP for Windows, Paradox, etc. included), just keeping the contract law materials and the ICE instruction manual, and some old reference stuff going back to when I started here in 1988. I also finally got rid of my rubber stamps, a sorta-fond memory of the days in PAB, and a clunky old rack I used to use to hold invoices. The old order changeth...

Assault on Clutter

2011-10-10T18:24:00.003-04:00

Woke to a damp-scented morning, a precursor to the afternoon, when we eventually did have some rain. The breeze picked up a bit, too, leaving us to enjoy a nice cool evening later on. It was just perfect for sleeping in on a holiday. After breakfast I attempted to tidy the craft room, but surrendered after putting some jewelry pieces away and indexing and shelving some cross-stitch magazines.

I had an idea to dub off the first three episodes of this season's Castle while looking through some catalogs before throwing them away. Halfway through the first catalog I just said "screw it" and tossed them all. I did get the coffee table partially clean, so that was a plus.

While finishing Castle I had some goat cheese and crackers with milk for lunch, then went to tackle the spare room closet. This has been a thorn in my side for some months. It hadn't reached the proportions of the McGees' hall closet, but lately every time I went in there Clay's gift fell over and blocked the door. The Christmas and birthday gifts I've been accumulating all year needed to be tucked away in the boxes, and that was done (Clay's went on the shelf). Then I emptied out the left side of the closet, which included two boxes of software and manuals that we haven't used since we moved into the house. It's time for them to go, so those were left out. I rearranged the other boxes back in the corner, shifted the vaporizers and CD cases on the shelf so that I could put the bag of party supplies on the shelf next to the paper party supplies (instead of it sitting out on the floor of the room itself), and then spent a half hour folding tissue paper and the heavier waxed paper Hobby Lobby wraps around glass items so they would lay flat and go into one big bag instead of four. I also used some wire to hang the mailing tape and labels from the rod so they would be readily available for mailing projects.

An unexpected bonus: the Dyson now fits in the closet, too!

I discovered that Animal Planet was running Animal Cops: Houston this afternoon and we watched it through early evening. I'm a bit miffed because I have the DVR set up to record all of the Animal Cops series if the episodes are new, but these appear to be 2011 episodes and they've never recorded. Grrr.

Please, Mr. Columbus...

2011-10-10T17:28:00.001-04:00

From the late, great Lou Monte:

Grazie, paisano!

Food'n'Festivals

2011-10-09T18:54:00.000-04:00

We swapped sleep-in days.

Yep, yesterday we slept in, and I do mean that: got up at 10:30 and took so much time over breakfast we didn't go out until 11:30. Since we both had prescriptions to drop off at Kroger, we did so, then went to Publix for twofers (except they only had two boxes of oatmeal left, but that was enough for work—we did get Hallowe'en candy, though), then came back to get the rest of the Kroger things and our meds. We were home just in time for James to go to his IPMS meeting while I worked on a few things including wrapping two gifts, as we were off to dinner later at Longhorn to celebrate two birthdays: Jessie, who just turned 18 and John, who is [mumblety]. Special guests were: the Lawsons! We hadn't seen them in ages: they've been remodeling parts of their house and have been on a cruise. (While we were looking at Sue's Facebook posts of the cruise, suddenly we also had messages from Juanita, who was on a different cruise—since Rodney took a cruise earlier this year, it appears it's going around. Jen and Mike even spent some time on the water during their honeymoon, but they were in a canoe, not a ship. Please note: this is not contagious. We don't intend to be on the water when we go on vacation. <g> )

So we came home from dinner and rested up—even got off chat early, which is a miracle—since this morning's alarm was set for 7 a.m.

Well, okay, I set it for 7 a.m., but it reverted to the original setting of 7:30...I was awakened by James at 7:24, saying it was 7:30. !@#%!@!$%! alarms! You would not believe how quickly we got out of the house. Even with walking the dog we were on the road by eight.

We usually go to the Georgia Apple Festival on the second weekend, but James has to work next Sunday and next weekend is so busy it will make my head spin, so today was our chosen expeditionary day. We lucked out as in two years ago and got a nice day for it; it never got over 70°F and there was a nice breeze, plus it was cloudy (of course, since we remembered our hats!). We made it up to Ellijay in 70 minutes (and that included stopping for gasoline and eats at the QuikTrip—no oatmeal, but I found a container of Mandarin oranges, a piece of sharp cheddar cheese, and a Lunchables package; James just had a couple of burritos).

We parked at a new place, "Huckleberry Holler," which is a country play park mostly for the kids: petting zoo, little pumpkin patch, recumbent bikes in place of go-karts around a perimeter walled by hay bales, hay rides, a corn maze, and shooting corn cobs with some type of air bazooka at a target. From there you walked over a new little bridge dedicated to service veterans that crossed the creek and led right into the back of the Lions' Club fairgrounds where they hold the Apple Festival. We walked among the craft exhibits for about ninety minutes, buying the last of our Ginny's fudge for the year, something called "Christmas Chocolate" (hot chocolate mix, very dark chocolate with a hint of mint), and jelly from the folks at A Screw Loose: the basalmic jelly with garlic they told us about last year, which is great as a finishing sauce on meat (their regular balsamic is super on lamb) and coffee jelly! Woohoo! Let's declare these folks honorary Rhode Islanders!

(And I was thinking...if you bought some Nutella, and then used it on sandwich bread along with the coffee jelly...[insert George Takei's voice here: "Oh, myyyyyy..."])

Instead of buying our apples at the festival and tote a peck of them across the fairgrounds, we just decamped and went to the apple store, Panorama Orchards. A bag of fresh onions, a peck of Granny Smith apples, a homemade apple pie, three jars of fruit only spread (cranberry, blackberry, and strawberry), a carob-and-peanut butter treat for Willow, and a little packet of sugar-free peanut brittle (peanuts predominate!) later...

Had to have one of those apples the moment we got in the truck. Don't know what those waxy things are that they sell in the supermarket are, but they're certainly not fresh apples. This thing crunched with a satisfying snap when you bit into it and it was just sour enough, a yummy sour with no trace of bitterness. Oh, yum!

We brought the produce home, then took Twilight out for a run out to Betsy's Hallmark, where the next in the series of "ornament premieres" was taking place. I had ten dollars worth of coupons, so we got the new "Nautilus" ornament (from Disney's version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and the first segment of their new wireless "Peanuts" musical ornaments. This is Schroeder playing piano; the rest of the quartet is Lucy and Charlie Brown playing other instruments, and Snoopy playing sax (of course) being released about every two-three weeks until December 1. They each play several songs, then when linked together play all the songs, in a neat cool-jazz style. I wasn't interested in buying them until I heard the jazz music.

Then we made the mistake of stopping at the new Whole Foods across the parking lot and fell into the world of bulk foods. They have bulk grains, spices, nuts, dried fruits, some candies, flours, etc. We got more steel-cut oats, some nuts to go on the oats, some bulger wheat James wants to try, salad dressings that can double as marinades, and various other small things, including some soup and some "sweet-and-sour" chicken for dinner.

So we spent the whole day with nice open windows, enjoying the day and listening to a combination of backlogged episodes of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and episodes of The Splendid Table, and were ravenous come suppertime. The chicken tasted more like chicken cacciatore than sweet-and-sour, but it was quite good, even for chicken breast, and the soup was delicious. Now off to watch last week's PanAm before this week's airs...

The Kids

2011-10-08T15:41:00.002-04:00

Lil brown dog:

"Missykins":

Fresh Air, Food, and Friends

2011-10-06T20:33:00.000-04:00

Today was our annual work picnic, preceded by an all-hands meeting, so I had to be up promptly by the alarm for dressing and breakfast before heading out the door a little after 7:30. I left all the fans on in anticipation of a warm day and was not disappointed—darn it.

Traffic was hideous, although I managed to skip part of it by using Akers Mill Road rather than taking I-285 all the way. Spring Road was bumper-to-bumper, though, and I thought I'd never reach the freeway. After Roswell Road—and what the dickens is it about the Roswell Road exits, both directions, that makes traffic thicken up so?—the traffic vanished and I did fine until reaching the last turn into the street that led to Jones Bridge Park. I counted: the left turn signal stayed green for three cars only every single time. Considering the line was usually twelve cars at the time, you can see this turn took a while.

Thankfully they ditched the Stone Mountain area park from last year and went back to Jones Bridge Park from 2009. No pretty fall photos this year; the leaves have hardly turned at all. In fact, they are falling off the trees having just gone sickly yellow and brown. However, it was nice and cool this morning, with a good breeze, so those errant leaves were swirling around everywhere. I walked down to the river almost as soon as I arrived and had leaves dropping in my hair.

Everyone else was late due to that left turn as well, but about 9:15 we did have our meeting—some attaboys, some awards, some time-in-service acknowledgement (the smallest I have seen in several years!)—and then I whisked down the path along the river. There are stone steps down to the river in several places, and at the bottom of one was a dad with a small girl feeding Cheerios to the mallard ducks. There had to be two dozen (at least) male and female ducks pecking hungrily at the food.

By this time it was already too warm, so I stuck my jacket back in the car and then went back for a real walk down the entire path, and then into the woods, just in time, as someone had put on some loud music. Sigh. This is such a pretty place, with its own music: the rattle of the river, the quacking of the ducks, the birdsong...why ruin it?

It's only a small wood; if you climb the hill along any part of the path you come up behind a house. But if you angle yourself correctly, you could be Laura and Mary in the Big Woods, or Caddie Woodlawn running about in pioneer Wisconsin. (Heck, once down the steps to the foot of the river, looking in either direction, it's sheer Huckleberry Finn, and with the breeze playing through the trees and ruffling the water, you could understand the appeal of independence on a raft.) There were already brown and yellow leaves underfoot that crunched pleasantly, and the distinctive sound of a wren, a cardinal, and a chickadee up in the trees, even if I only saw the wren.

I returned to the picnic complex just as Richard said grace, and then we queued for lunch: chicken and pork barbecue, beans, potato salad, fruit, chocolate chip brownies, and various drinks (I just had water). Later someone put out chips and brownies, but I just grabbed a handful of the latter and then went back to the lakeshore for a while, watching the ducks go "bottom up" as they trolled for dinner, and also watching three geese come in for a landing on the river, gliding in with their wings spread and finally their webby feet making contact with the water, then taking a shorter stroll in the woods.

I did get back for most of the cakewalk, which is fun to watch: everyone goes in a circle, from one chalked, numbered spot to another. When the music stops, you must be on a number. A number is called and you get a dessert. Elmira made everyone laugh during one circuit, doing a daisy chain in and out of the other participants. Also chatted a bit, then headed back to the lake to take a few more pictures.

I missed the two I really wanted: I heard a rustle along the leaf-strewn rocks and mudflats that edged the lake. When I looked down, there was the cutest little chipmunk, both his cheeks crammed skin-tight with food, darting in and out of the rocks, scampering right at the base of the stone staircase, coming from my left and finally disappearing to my right.

Plus I am pretty sure I saw a blue heron flying across the river. It was a bluish-grey bird, and certainly was not a goose, which fly with their necks stretched out; this instead had the S-kink of a flying heron. That was so cool!

So I took another tramp in the woods, emerging at a culvert where I took some photos of the varied foliage growing around the water source, including a berried bush, bright orange flowers, and a huge bush taller than myself with leaves bigger than platters.

By then I was casting eyes at my watch; there's a reason I picked Thursday for my sole telecommute day during end-of-fiscal-year—on Thursdays, it can take up to 90 minutes to get home, and it has taken me two hours on the worst days. So I decided to leave while the going was good. I was diverted by a new shopping center on 141; it had a Barnes & Noble, so I nipped in for a few minutes. Found a new "Good Food" magazine for James and also The Sherlock Holmes Companion on the remainder shelves, which contains ordinary synopses of each of the canon stories, but also fascinating illustrations of Holmes covers and interior art over the years, and inserts with various information: about Doyle and his creations, about the inspiration for Holmes (Dr. Joseph Bell), actors who have played Holmes or Watson, Holmes in the movies and on stage, etc.—worth it just for that!

There's only one thing wrong with Barnes & Noble...

...it's not Borders. ::sigh::

The fresh air was making me sleepy anyway, and although I'd avoided the sun most of the morning, by the time I drove home the sun striking my arms made them feel burned.

Got home to discover James already home. I logged back on to work, but not much going on yet, as they haven't yet authorized FY2012 to be spent.

Turkey for supper with wild and brown rice, and now watching the last part of Prohibition.

2011-10-05T19:21:00.002-04:00

FOR TODAY, OCTOBER 5, 2011

Outside my window...
...it's dusk. It's the kind of light where it's still bright enough to see, but you squint at the same time because there's not quite enough light to see by. The little birds at the feeder who were crowding around earlier are gone, although I can hear a persistent chirp from the trees.

I am thinking...
...it was much nicer earlier in the week when it was cooler. It won't satisfy me until its in the 50s.

I am thankful for...
...it's too silly, but I really am thankful for my new vacuum cleaner! Today I was able to vacuum downstairs without needing James to lug the monster Kirby downstairs. The little guy pivots me into small places without struggling.

From the learning rooms...
...just finished A City So Grand about Boston 1850-1900. Very enjoyable!

From the kitchen...
...it was potlucks tonight. I had chicken broth with rice. Yum!

I am wearing...
...since it's gotten warm again, the blue tank top and the aqua shorts.

I am creating...
...nothing right now, but I need to finish that birthday gift before Saturday. :-)

I am going...
...to watch something on television tonight. We are just getting slammed right now!

I am reading...
...Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, Mr. Monk on the Road by Lee Goldberg, and A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage.

I am hoping...
...it will be cloudy on Sunday. We are going to be walking around outside and neither of us can tolerate the sun very well.

I am hearing...
...Jeopardy, and James trying to update his GPS unit.

Around the house...
...Willow is lying at my feet, Schuyler is munching on some seed, James is muttering over the GPS, Alex Trebek is asking questions. All the windows are open, the fans are on high, and I can still hear the crickets. :-)

I am pondering...
...when to get the oil in the car changed. Not very deep thoughts! After all those trips to Tucker during end-of-fiscal-year, Twi certainly needs and deserves it!

One of my favorite things...
...Hawaii Five-O—which I think I'm going to go watch.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Work picnic and 18th birthday party!

If you'd like to participate, check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Sunday Changes

2011-10-02T19:33:00.004-04:00

Do We Need Sleep, Part 2: Yes, we did. We got up at 10:20, despite having woken up to (a) a notification sound going off on my phone (::grumble:: I thought I had those turned off with Timeriffic) and (b) my alarm clock. It was in the 40s last night and soooooo nice for sleeping

(Of course, we didn't go to bed until almost 2 a.m. ...)

James made biscuits for breakfast, which I had with the maple pecan butter we bought last week. I hope the butter doesn't spoil before we use it all up!

So we went to Walmart because I had twofer coupons for James' favorite deodorant. This is one of my chronic complaints: although we go to very large supermarkets, they still don't have all of the products we like to buy. James likes the Speed Stick musk, which we can't find at Kroger or Publix. I also can't find my favorite frozen dinner (Lean Cuisine Pasta Romano) at either supermarket, although between both Publix and Kroger they must have fifty to sixty types of Lean Cuisine. Just not that one. Nor can I find Renuzit citrus air freshener at either market, or the Jimmy Dean breakfast croissants that James likes made with turkey sausage instead of regular sausage. Tres annoying.

So: Walmart and CVS, and then we were done outdoors for the day.

Did spend the morning and afternoon doing chores: washed the hall bathroom floor, tossed out a bunch of old catalogs, cleaned off the rocking chair (which attracts junk like magnets attract iron filings), put some books away for James, put the autumn runner and candle arrangement on the dining room table (where do the crumbs come from if we barely eat on this table?), and vacuumed for the fourth time since I got the new Dyson last Sunday. Another canister full of canine undercoat! Ye Gods, what was the Kirby actually picking up?

We had turkey pot pie and a salad for supper while watching Rocket City Rednecks and Extreme Couponing. Now on to Ken Burns' Prohibition...

In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Daytime

2011-10-01T23:43:00.000-04:00

Honest to my grandmaw, it was 49°F this morning. It certainly was perfect sleeping weather.

This would have been fine except like dopes we stayed up late last night. Hugh Laurie and Herman Cain were on the Tonight show, and then Jimmy Fallon came on—he's so adorable!—with wild animal guests (including a vulture and the cutest tiger cub!). So we didn't get to bed until two and got up at eight to go to the Farmer's Market. Definitely yawn time.

Since Willow finally had a bath last week, we took her along. It was a beautiful day, with a crystal blue sky and a nice breeze; we actually had to wear jackets. As usual, Wil whined all the way there, but she enjoyed it once she discovered there was food there. She had bits of a chicken pot pie and a tiny piece of bacon, and a dog cookie for treats, and schmoozed with people who wanted to pet her. She was very funny with the other dogs, though: at first she was striding confidently up to a Belgian Tervuren...and then about four feet away from him, you could see this look on her face: "What am I doing? That's a wolf!" She definitely didn't like it when a large puppy came romping after her!

But if I thought her face was funny when she saw the Turv, it was nothing to the expression she had on as we strolled down the sidewalk and came upon a St. Bernard and a black Great Dane. She got about four feet away from the Dane and just stopped dead, looking sideways for an exit! A few minutes later she gave the same look to a brace of greyhounds from Greyhound Rescue.

We went past the bakery on the way home, then brought her home, grabbed the coupons, and went to Kroger to finish the shopping. So that was done, and all before noon.

Later on we went to the hobby shop (where I ended up napping in the truck) and the Dollar Store (where I bought one of those pet seat covers for the car), and finally to Barnes & Noble. Did buy the new Abigail Adams mystery, a cross-stitch magazine, and the October issue of "Our State," the North Carolina magazine, simply because it had a section of fall photos so beautiful it would make angels sing.

We came home through Kennesaw National Battlefield Park and the old road along which there are venerable old homes; this will look beautiful in another month. It's such a peaceful ride.

By the time we got home it was four o'clock. We'd talked about going out to Ragamuffin tonight, but I was still exhausted from lack of sleep and James wanted to finish up a model he was working on. So I made some elbow noodles to go along with some soup that was in the refrigerator, and we had that for supper and watched last week's Doctor Who and Mythbusters before watching the season finale of Who. Wait...you mean that's the question? The Silence...the creepy lady in the eyepatch...everything...boils down to that?

Cool, Cool Water Air

2011-09-30T23:24:00.002-04:00

I realized this is the first time since 1987 that I wasn't required to work on September 30. I had somehow managed to finish that tangle of orders, although as in other years, I'm still not certain how I managed it. Every year the logjam just breaks up abruptly and although there's work to follow, it's not the struggle it was initially.

In the meantime my body took advantage of the opportunity. I slept until 9:30! Wow.

Ran some errands this morning: stopped at the bank to finally deposit a rebate check I got when I bought Paint Shop Pro X3, and, since I was at Publix anyway, gathered up some twofers: Uncle Ben's rice and some SnackWell 130 calorie packs to put away for vacation. Then I went to Sam's Club for gasoline (3.14⁹!) and went inside, where I found just the three original Star Wars films on BluRay, rather than having to buy the entire set. This only has commentary on it; no extra features, but I decided I didn't care...we end up not watching the extras as often as not. Also picked up some lovely Thanksgiving cards at Dollar Tree—my gosh, they already have Christmas cards out!

Then came home, answered some e-mail, and dubbed off the rest of season 3 of Castle. They re-ran episode 57 out of order, so I am stuck with an episode with storm warnings on a crawl overlaying the video. Oh, well, it wasn't one of the arc episodes. In between commercials I was vacuuming again; I am appalled at the dirt coming out of this carpet, along with more dog hair...apparently the Kirby was picking up almost nothing, even after I changed the bag. Yuck.

We had Chinese buffet for supper, then came home. Yes, we were home before seven on a Friday night. With no Borders left and not wanting to go to Barnes & Noble every week, there's really nowhere else to go. I mean, where is there to go? Movies? ::snore:: Hobby Lobby? We were there last week. A bar? Don't drink. The mall? What, look at clothes and, even more disgusting, shoes? Forget it. Must pick up the slack engendered by end-of-fiscal-year exhaustion, get the house in order, and plan a nice fun game night!

Anyway, it has been splendid all day: a gorgeous, bright blue sky and no warmer than 74°F this afternoon. I threw all the windows open this morning and when we got home even opened one of the windows downstairs in the library and aired the room out. It got downright chilly around 11 p.m. On the news they mentioned snow flurries in the mountains in North Carolina. Yesssss!

So we watched Star Wars on BluRay; stunning picture and sound. They apparently now have worked it that Han and Greedo shoot at the same time. O-kay.

I did shut my computer down before the movie started. The last time we watched a new version of Star Wars, Windows died on my computer. I wasn't taking any chances. :-)