Sort of an interesting Holy Week in making some old progress. Back in 2022, I stopped listening to the Colonial Williamsburg podcasts (I was busy writing, and I can't write and pay attention at the same time). I had caught up on all the Gretchen Rubin podcasts, and need to catch up on "A Way With Words," but wanted to get to the Williamsburg ones, too. This week I started listening to them again and hope to keep up with Rubin and catch up with both the others.

Most of the opening of the week was chores. James did have an MRI on his toe on Wednesday. His right baby toe, the one that showed up with a sore in January, is still not healed. It doesn't look infected, but skin isn't growing on top of it and healing it up, so the doctor wants to make sure the bone isn't infected. (Got the report later in the week; it's not.)

Thursday James' Procrit shot was scheduled early, although we tried to change it. So we went by Lidl on the way home, and I got both chicken drumsticks on sale and some boneless pork ribs, so I made cacciatore for supper and also made gravy for later. And we had a nap, too!

It was a quiet Good Friday: we had to run out to pick up meds, but I did listen to the BBC Lent Talks.

On Saturday while our low-sodium ham was marinating in pineapple, we went to Barnes & Noble and to Hobby Lobby. In the evening I watched the spooky movie Stir of Echoes. Kathryn Erbe is in it, just before she did Criminal Intent. It was pretty creepy, but turned out to be a little of a murder mystery, too.

And Easter was quiet. Unfortunately I had to wash towels since we were out of facecloths. I watched my two Easter favorites, Here Comes Peter Cottontail and The Easter Promise, and we had ham and potatoes for dinner, and then...dark chocolate Lindt bunnies! Yay!

Labels: Easter, food, Good Friday, health, holidays, movies, podcasts, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:59:00 PM

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This was about an average week. Earlier I got the dog brushed out and trimmed the nandina bushes out front (the firecracker bushes are still partially dormant, which is odd). And the grass was cut this week, but at least I wasn't woken up by the mower!

Alas, it was another Thursday we had to go by Kaiser. James is on his third UTI in a row. He'll stop taking the antibiotics on Monday and by Wednesday things get cloudy again. Happily, James sent a note to his new urologist and they ordered him up a test right away on Monday; Thursday being the first day we could go. And then we had to go shopping, the usual nonsense. I was incensed when I picked up some cans of no-salt mushrooms for James: the price on these little suckers has doubled since the pandemic.

This year I didn't do my usual Good Friday quiet time. I think it's more important I spend the time with James when he's off; work is so aggravating he needs to go out and enjoy the world. So we slept late, then, since it was Good Friday, we went to have a fish dinner at the Bay Breeze in Mableton. I had some great baked stuffed shrimp with real crabmeat stuffing, the Bay Breeze's doughnut-shaped hush puppies, a salad and a baked potato. It was quite yummy. We also went by Hallmark to pick up the new ornament Dream Book (yes, it's that time of year) and I went into Barnes & Noble for a few minutes to see if the May-June "Yankee" was out yet. (Nope.)

Alas, we'd forgotten to pick up toothpaste on Thursday, so James sat in the truck while I went into Kroger for it.

On Saturday James had his club meeting, so we slept fairly late, and then about noon he left. I swept out the garage after he left and then washed off the pine pollen on the front porch and the driveway and the trash can. Then I came inside and watched two Vincent D'Onofrio films, The Whole Wide World, about pulp writer Robert Howard, which I quite enjoyed (based on the journals of Novalyne Price, who had a romance with Howard in the 1930s), and Chlorine, about a middle-class couple (VDO and Kyra Sedgewick) who are just getting by and she wants to live more like their country-club friends, who are dissipated and dishonest rich people pouring drinks and snorting drugs all the time. It was really quite repulsive. I've been drunk once and high once (and the latter was after surgery), and have no desire to do either again, and have no idea why anyone has to do this to "have fun."

Plus I got a nice Easter gift in the Saturday mail: my copy of the new "Rivers of London" book, Amongst Our Weapons, arrived!

James had to work Easter Sunday, of course, but it was quite quiet. We had the little Hormel ham I had bought at Kroger two weeks ago, suitably marinated in pineapple and maple syrup, along with a baked potato, and chocolate buns from Lidl for dessert. I finished my essential Sunday chores (charging the water flosser/motion sensor light, sorting medication for the week, washing towels, cleaning the master bath) and watched The Easter Promise and Here Comes Peter Cottontail. I also had a short trip today because the doctor's office called (yes, on a Sunday!) to get James a prescription for the UTI! TownPark's pharmacy is open on weekends because Urgent Care is there, so he could start on his antibiotic today. This time they have given him a two-week's dose, three times a day!

After Call the Midwife, I put on Rick Steves' European Easter. The Eastern Orthodox customs are beautiful, and you so rarely see them!

Labels: books, Christmas, Easter, food, Good Friday, health, movies, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:35:00 PM

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Why can't I sleep deeply like this on workday nights? I slept deep and hard last night, and I believe the only reason I was awake at 8:12 was that I had it in the back of my mind that I still hadn't found the newest copy of "Breathe." (Yes, the irony is not lost on me that I am getting irritated over not finding a magazine devoted to relaxation and mindfulness.)

So I had breakfast and gave Tucker a good walk and then hopped in the car and headed for the Barnes & Noble in Buckhead. I plotted the trip on the GPS this time, since I had a short turnaround time, and it rattled me by taking me the back way (Plant Atkinson Road) which was the way it used to take me to the hospital.

So, finally, the "Breathe" and a "Time" special issue about the first World War, and, to my enormous surprise, two different issues of "Best of British," which I literally haven't seen for years. I had two coupons, and picked up the new paperback copy of The Librarians and the Lost Lamp and also a history of the post office.

The Buckhead B&N literally has more unique items than even the Akers Mill store (especially in the magazines), so I pushed my stay to the limit and then had to hurry home, stopping only briefly by Publix to grab some bread. I was trying not to eat meat today, so arrived home five minutes before noon and hastily put together a blackberry spread sandwich while pulling up the readings for the day off Laudiate. I did my readings, then put on the BBC Lent talks that I had recorded in the past six weeks. This year's theme was Destiny, and my two favorites were the rocket scientist and also the 80-year-old gentlemen talking about old age. I was thinking, though, that the talks weren't quite as inspiring as in previous years. Then I put on some quiet music and read A Year of Biblical Womanhood, which I'm really enjoying—so much that I kept reading long after three.

James suggested we try a new buffet tonight; it was the Fried Tomato Buffet, and the name gave me a bit of pause. And, yeah, a lot of the stuff is fried. However, they have baked chicken and some non-fried stuff, and a salad bar. I was still avoiding the meat, so I ended up eating fried, as that was the only way the shrimp was served. When we got done eating we went next door to Petland to see the puppies (these are the folks with the "designer dogs" that they charge you thousands for), which, despite their price, sure are cute. There was one little shih tzu type puppy who stared in astonishment as James came rolling up in the power chair. What a face!

Anyway, I heard little budgie voices and went up in an upper area where they had budgies, hamsters, rabbits and ferrets. The budgies were in two little glass open-topped enclosures—well, most of the budgies were in one enclosure, and one lone budgie was in the other, and he hated it. He was frantic, pattering back and forth in front of the glass where he could see and hear his flock, but couldn't get to them. Several times he tried to dig his way into the other enclosure. Poor thing! He reminded me of Snowy, with darker stripes on his head, and blue where Snowy is grey. I was trying to get him to come to me, but of course he was just a baby and not tame, and when one of the Petland people came by, I said "He's all alone," and the employee tried to catch him, but he fluttered away, and the guy said, "I'll move him later." But the poor little guy was still running back and forth in front of the glass, trying to get through, and the next time he got close to me and started digging to get to them, I grabbed him and transferred him into the other enclosure. He was so happy; he walked right next to the other birds and started contentedly preening himself. People think birds don't have feelings, but the little guy looked miserable.

Then we went on to Michaels. They were having a 40 percent off on everything regularly priced with a coupon. The last time they did that, I was able to stock up on stuff, but this was a really thin trip: I got a wooden medallion, a magnet for my car, and some small wood blocks for mini-shelves. The other two things I bought (a frame and a pencil sharpener) were on clearance and not covered by the coupon.

We came home through the battlefield park in a soft velvet twilight, the air suddenly beautifully cool as we cut through the trees. I always think it so funny when we come through here on nice nights—we either come home from Town Center through Kennesaw Avenue like tonight or through Church Street, and both these streets are lined by big old homes, some low southern-style homes and others Queen Anne or some permutation of Victorian era, and a lot of them have nice deep porches which the owners have decorated with porch furniture. Some of this is quite elaborate: white rattan chairs with cozy flowered cushions, tables, little table lamps with soft pastel shades, big porch swings with padded seats, potted plants, "fairy lights," etc. The lamps on some porches must be lit by timers because they sit casting soft lights...on empty porches. I understand not sitting outside in July and August when the night air is as hot and heavy as the day air was, but even on lovely cool nights like tonight we never see anyone out sitting on these lush, plush, beautiful porches! Strange.

Labels: books, budgies, crafts, dogs, food, Good Friday, Lent, magazines

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:26:00 PM

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