 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Sunday, December 01, 2024
Reasons for Thanks and Reasons for Sorrow
 Tucker did have the ultrasound to make sure he had nothing nasty going on inside him on Monday. He passed with flying colors.Next day and on Wednesday James had doctors' appointments, podiatry on Tuesday and cardiologist on Wednesday. We had a dinner invitation for Thanksgiving Day, but it was across town and we would have to drive home in the dark. Instead we spent Thanksgiving on our own; we made extra turkey so we could have leftovers (and indeed, we ended up eating turkey for weeks). With carrots and stuffing it was a sufficient dinner, and we watched most of the Macy's parade and the National Dog Show. At night we got a treat: Lower Decks! Alas, the final season. We were able to go to Second Thanksgiving, as we call it, at Alice's house. Juanita made a killer turkey and Kayla brought an even more killer ham. The company was even better than the food, even if I've been suffering from a lack of sleep. All this was beside the point. We had gotten a call from James' sister some days ago. Her husband had been cleaning up some debris left over from Hurricane Helene and hurt himself. He was taken to the hospital to get checked out. The doctors found a virulent cancer throughout his body and gave him days to live. He died on November 27. They told my sister-in-law that the cancer was so aggressive that if they had taken the same tests in September, it would not have shown up. Today I put up the outdoor lights and the candoliers, but I hardly feel like Christmas this year. I'd prefer to crawl under a blanket and forget about it. Labels: Christmas, Christmas decorations, death, dogs, family, food, friends, pets, Thanksgiving  » Sunday, November 10, 2024
The Turn of Events
We saw our first Christmas lights Monday night, November 4! I love Christmas decorations, guys! But, too early!Tried to avoid election coverage on Tuesday by watching a movie, but after the film curiosity got the better of us and we stayed up until midnight watching the returns. I will admit I am not happy, although I disliked both candidates. When your new "leader" nominates an anti-vaxxer to run a health organization there is something wrong. Our parents worshiped the ground Drs. Salk and Sabin walked on, because their children were not crippled, were not confined to an iron lung, did not die from polio, all because of vaccines. Smallpox was a dreadful thing. Just not right. Chores for the rest of the week, and a visit to Dr. Salazar on Friday ended the week. We had not yet seen the orders for the tests, but he assured us they were in the system. So Saturday was a very busy day: we were up early to get in line for free electronics recycling day. Yay, that stupid microwave James keeps barking his leg on is gone. Also my venerable vacuum cleaner, which gave me much joy. The new one works wonderfully, but it's still too heavy. Then we had Hair Day and got to see Mel and Phyllis! We nipped home afterward for a meal (James made pork chops and we ate at three), and then went to Kaiser Townpark. James had two CT scans starting at 5:40, and then we had to wait the hour until his 8 p.m. MRI. It was a relief to get home. It was chilly and cloudy on Sunday, such wonderful weather! Tucker and I had a long walk, me clad in my favorite fabric, flannel! Later I put up the upstairs and foyer Thanksgiving decorations Labels: Christmas, election, events, exercise, friends, health, sickness, Thanksgiving, weather » Sunday, November 27, 2022
Happy Thanksgiving...Wishing for Happiness
I was born two weeks before Christmas, and baptized on Christmas Eve, and I've gravitated toward Christmas ever since. I love the color and the lights and giving gifts and the special scents of the season and getting together with friends. But after Christmas I love Thanksgiving best of all. There's no pretension to it. Oh, a lot of people try to turn Thanksgiving into a picture perfect magazine thing, or they go into the same old tiresome Pilgrim and Indian thing, which isn't even really true and isn't the basis for the holiday we celebrate. It's about getting together with special people, whether family or friends, eating together and feeling gratitude for our blessings, even if it's been a rotten year. After October's debacle, I am very thankful for November, even if it wasn't the November I wanted. This Thanksgiving was spent, as it has been for years, at the Lucyshyn home; they have a great big open space kitchen/dining/living room area just perfect for hosting guests. There were two turkeys, Clair's wonderful pot roast, lots of veg, including our carrot/craisin salad, cornbread, and other goodies, and of course homemade pies and other goodies for dessert. James got slightly wobbly heading back out to the car, but we made it okay. It's a pretty long haul out to Lawrenceville and back, but the company is worth it, and Butch did his best, except for a few minutes when I noticed that the car was in low gear. I couldn't figure it out, until James noticed the second time it happened that his portable oxygen bottle had pushed the gearshift down! Thank goodness it isn't something I need to have fixed again. (There's another thanks for today.) I posted a short Thanksgiving fanfic in my series and gave thanks for that, too, for keeping me sane through four hospital stays. I don't really want to be writing any more stories from the hospital, but am thankful I can. On Saturday, like hobbits, we had Second Thanksgiving at Alice and Ken Spivey's house. Yet another yummy turkey and more veg and warm friends. We are both still down from the October hospital stay, and, although this weekend was the first Sunday of Advent, I really had to push myself to put up the lights. I actually did it Saturday night because rain was expected Sunday, but got no joy out of it. However, I was rewarded for my promptness by being able to program the pesky timer with no mistakes the first time! On Sunday I put up the candoliers and the door wreaths, including the front door wreath and the flag.
Labels: Christmas, Christmas decorations, Christmas lights, food, friends, holidays, Thanksgiving, writing » Saturday, November 27, 2021
Thanksgiving and Second Thanksgiving
I don't get it. Summer lasts for so long. It goes by with the speed of a constipated sloth, leaving behind the ugly scents of hot asphalt and sizzling concrete, mold and heated metal.And now here it was Thanksgiving week! The early part of the week was notable in that it was cold enough, or we thought it was cold enough, that we pulled the comforter down from the closet shelf and put it on the bed, only for me to put it back up a day later. Even as chilly as it was, it was too warm. Ironically, when we had the furnace inspected on Monday, it was too warm. Thursday it seemed Thanksgiving was back to normal. Except that Dish Network and Tegna are still in a pissing match and I couldn't record the Macy's Parade on NBC, so I watched it on CBS instead. This was actually good; the coverage was better than NBC has done in years. We spent half the morning cooking for dinner this afternoon: steamed carrots with maple syrup glaze and also a green bean casserole. James "mixed it up" a little by using cream of onion soup instead of cream of mushroom soup and also added chives to it. Finally about two we headed over to the Lucyshyns across town, only to be held up in traffic! On Thanksgiving Day, of all days! No accident ahead, just scads of cars on I-85 northbound. We finally got off the freeway and went surface streets. Dinner was delicious as always: turkey, ham, pot roast for the main meats and all sorts of veggies, two different kinds of fruit salad, regular pies and also a hot crispy fruit pie. Had football on the television, and were able to host a friend who is basically in hospice care as he has an incurable cancer. We also had another friend who was able to come but not enjoy himself as he used to: he has a host of medical problems and basically can only sit and watch television and eat simple things. Despite that, we all enjoyed it. Heading home, the freeway was apparently still clogged up and we had to go south to Stone Mountain to be able to double back to I-285 and go north and then west to go home. Quite exhausted when we got there. No need for Black Friday shopping this year; I think those days are gone. We have enough gadgets and enough thumb drives and hard drives for a while. We had to go to the post office to pick up a registered letter and then tried to go to the bank, only to find it closed for the weekend. Then we did the grocery shopping, which means that we didn't get lunch until almost dinner time. Saturday we went to Popshelf to get James more beef and bean burritos so he won't have to make his own, then went by Lowes where I found strings of blue lights on discount sale. Back at home we made more carrots and green bean salad, because in the afternoon we were invited to what I called "Second Thanksgiving" at the Spiveys' home. Juanita made the turkey at home and brought it over, and it joined the veg and numerous desserts and breads. Football was on here, too, as well, and the cats wandered in and out at will as Cinnamon the dog stared at people trying to get them to feed her. Then we came home to watch our usual Christmas starts to the season: "Merry Gentlemen" from All Creatures Great and Small and "Silly, But It's Fun..." on The Good Life. Labels: food, friends, season, shopping, television, Thanksgiving » Saturday, November 28, 2020
Thanksgiving and Christmas Changes
It wasn't the most sterling of Thanksgiving weeks. I've been experiencing some problems with my stomach and lower GI tract all week. It was at its worst last Saturday, but it has slowly improved all week. Wondering if it has been some type of stomach flu, but then I've never had anything like this last so long. Since I needed to check in with my doctor anyway to renew a prescription, I made an appointment for the next week.Came home from the gathering at Alice's this past Sunday with a turkey carcass, so on Tuesday we had made turkey soup. Of course after that we had to play freezer Tetris to get the soup stored, except for the one container we kept out to have soup when the bottom drops out of the thermometer, which we were told was coming up. In the meantime we had low 70s for Thanksgiving and the surrounding days. We ended up staying home for Thanksgiving after being invited to the Lucyshyns like last year. I was still having minor stomach pains. We only knew there was an invitation open recently, so we had already prepared to spend the day on our own: we'd bought two packages of turkey thighs (so we'd have leftovers), diced butternut squash, baby carrots, roasted potatoes, and stuffing. I cooked the turkey in two glass baking dishes. One baking dish was used to make the gravy, in the other dish I cooked the turkey thighs partway, then, James having already put together the stuffing mix with fresh celery and cooked it up on the stovetop, laid the stuffing under the thighs and cooked them all the rest of the way until the turkey was at the proper temp. Meanwhile, I used the lower oven to roast the potatoes, waterless cooked the carrots, and warmed up the butternut squash, which had been cooked and mashed already. Missed most of the initial broadcast of this year's socially distanced Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while cooking, but saw almost all of the National Dog Show, and then rewatched the parade (NBC apparently had nothing better to broadcast Thanksgiving afternoon) while we ate. Dessert was Hershey's dark chocolate pudding (sprinkled it with Andes peppermint bits for a "punch," but they were sticky and stale, so I threw the rest away), which is as good as it sounds. We did some minor Black Friday shopping the next day: first we hit Staples, which had a set of 22 InkJoy gel pens on sale for $10. We then went to Target, where I went looking for a double cube storage set. I had found them online but was bewildered when we arrived at the store not to find them with the furniture (but while we were waiting for help found a nifty-looking convection oven/microwave/air fryer in appliances—not sure we want to drop the cash on it, though). Once we did find the double cube we rode it up front on the platform at the front of James' power chair, checked ourselves out, and he carried it out to the truck. Easiest Target purchase ever. Then we hopped next door to get James a new wireless keyboard, which he'd reserved at Office Max (water fell in the old one, and alas, the hair dryer did not help it recover as it did my own keyboard). When we got home, I put the double cube together. It replaced a dog's breakfast combination of a small teak table, a storage cube, and a cloth storage bin under one of the living room windows. Now two cloth storage cube boxes are stored neatly in the double cube compartments, and my CD player and my cassette player are set on top. A surprise came in the mail as well. I believe I wrote that I found a cheap DVD player that could be hacked to play Region 2 (British) DVDs. Well, last week it quit working! I sent a letter of complaint to the manufacturer and they sent me a new one. Saturday we had a fun visit to Hobby Lobby and then a routine Lidl excursion. The weather report was calling for torrential rain on Sunday, and the first Sunday of Advent is when I traditionally put up the outside lights and the window candles. So when we got home I put out the outdoor Christmas lights. We have multicolor net lights for the small bush right in front, and then I scatter multicolor strings on the top of the larger bushes to one side of the door. Well, the multicolor strings (I did three this year, scalloping them on the outside of the bushes as well) worked fine, but one section of the net lights burned out. After nearly ninety minutes trying to get them re-light, I tried bunching them so the gap that was out wasn't so noticeable. It looked terrible. I went rummaging in the garage and found two more strings of multicolor lights, and a shorter string of LED lights. I arranged the two larger strings on the top of the front bushes, and then scalloped the short string underneath. Looks much better. I also had a new wrinkle on the front door wreath this year. Most of the "picks" on the wreath were faded from the Georgia sun, as was the bow. So I had gone down in the library, pulled off the old picks and the bow, and attached bright colorful new picks (three Christmas-y ones and then three woodsy ones and three holly corsages), the three green baubles from the previous decorations (the green had not faded at all, so I reused them), and a new bow. The ribbon I could find for the bow was not as wide as I wanted, so I wasn't satisfied, but the new picks look nice. Plus at Hobby Lobby I had picked up a string of multicolor battery-powered LED "seed" lights. These were nestled on top of the wreath and do look quite nice. Bet they eat batteries like crazy, though. [On Sunday I did put up all the window candles, as well as the indoor door wreaths, so the first Sunday of Advent decorating was done.] Labels: Christmas, Christmas decorations, crafts, events, food, friends, holiday, shopping, sickness, Thanksgiving » Thursday, November 28, 2019
A Thanksgiving Feast With a Side of Owl...
» Thursday, November 21, 2019
All Groceried Out
Had a nice sleep-in this morning which must have relieved James, who probably hasn't gotten six hours of sleep a night for the last four nights. We had a leisurely breakfast and I walked the dog before we headed off for Publix. The sky was so blue it hurt, but the temperatures had risen quickly. We just had flannel shirts over short sleeves, but we needed brimmed hats!Thanksgiving is still a week away—my goodness, that soon!—but Publix is bursting with Christmas, a whole island of baking goodies and red and green, and silver and gold trims. We did some stocking up for both holidays, BOGO flour for my baking, and veg for our Thanksgiving contributions at this year's "Friendsgiving." Bounced around the store from one end to the other to pick everything up. We put up the perishables and then headed to Sam's Club. We were planning to wait till next week, but James was out of cheese and he's going to binge-make burritos on Saturday when it rains, so it was today instead. Probably for the best since next Saturday everyone will be in a shopping frenzy. Even for a Thursday the place was crowded. We gaped over the newest televisions posed directly near the entrance. One Vizio was running a 3-D looking loop that showed off its picture to best advantage. It was quite lovely. Also checked out security systems and new Fitbit smartwatches before going on to what we needed (and could afford): coupon items (Reynolds Wrap, Mrs. Dash, Splenda packets) and not (bulk cheese slices, a bag of Halos). I was going to get milk, but it was more expensive than Lidl. It was around two by then and we stopped at Krystal to get a cheap lunch: two little cheeseburgers for James, two plain "pups" for me, and a little bag of tater tots. Just right! But since it was so late, we didn't bother going anywhere else except to Lidl for the usual: bread, milk, chocolate, elbow macaroni for a steal, a big bag of small Granny Smith apples, almond windmill cookies for a treat. The day had completely changed while we were out. From blue and sunny when we left this morning, white clouds then grey clouds crept in, until the sun was just a brighter grey sphere in the cloudy sky. I'd left my flannel shirt behind when we dropped the stuff from Sam's off, and it was almost a little too chilly by the time we got home. Found a surprise on the front porch: a new griddle that I'd ordered from Amazon Vine. We had nothing thawed for dinner, so we trickled cold water on two of the lamb steaks I'd gotten the other day at Nam Dae Mun. In the meantime, we "killed a frog" and finally cleaned off the top shelf in the fridge, which has been a collecting ground for a mixture of jellies, jams, and sauces. We dumped a couple of things like the congealed mint jelly, and then James scrubbed off the shelf (it's too tall for me to reach the back of) and then we wiped off the good jars and put them back, sauces to the right, jellies and jams to the left, with the Romano cheese in front. I've been cleaning out the fridge one shelf at a time all week and now the inside looks quite smart. James took a nearly empty jar of garlic jelly and another nearly empty jar of balsamic jelly with onion, and made a finishing sauce for the lamb, cooking it on the new griddle. So good! And the pieces were large enough to supply leftovers for a lunch. Mnnn. Lamb sandwich! Spent the rest of the evening playing games and watching the Holiday Baking Championship on Food Network. Labels: Christmas, cleaning, cooking, food, holidays, shopping, television, Thanksgiving, weather » Friday, November 23, 2018
The Best of Autumn Holidays
» Wednesday, November 23, 2016
A Week of Freedom!
» Friday, November 18, 2016
The Buying Department
I was chivvied from bed by calls of nature, but I didn't have much time to waste if I was going to be down at the Northside Library when they opened. So I performed the usual morning ministrations, ate breakfast, walked Tucker, and pulled out the Thanksgiving cards and printed out an address list and made everything ready until I'd get back.On the way to the library I stopped at Barnes & Noble with my coupon and picked up the new postmistress mystery paperback. Lots of new books out including Blanche Weisen Cook's final book in her Eleanor Roosevelt biography. I'm a little disappointed; it's much smaller than the first two and covers twenty-three years! I don't know if she is ill and just wanted to finish up, got sick of Eleanor, or, just maybe, that by 1939 Eleanor had become the Eleanor we remember, was now fully formed, and the previous books covered how she became that Eleanor, which was more interesting to the author. Anyway, David Bianculli has a new TV book out, and I saw several books for James. Now I have a whole pile of books I want, and I also have to save coupon or Amazon credit for the new Bryant & May book. I also noted that the first of the 2017 magazines have appeared. How fast the last few months of the year go. November, at least, is whizzing by. About 11:45 I headed down to Northside. They've had budget cuts so the library opens at noon, which I think is barbaric. This is a very small book sale compared to the Cobb County one, but I found two brand-new books which I won't mention since they will be gifts, and found three for me, a small book about Christopher Radko Christmas ornaments, one hefty volume about Victorian country houses, and one called The New England Experience from 1962 with photographs from the six states up to 1962, most earlier. Since it's from 1962, the pictures are in black and white, but it's the NE I remember as a child, old homes, white churches, country stores, etc. I took this in with me to Tin Drum to read and was amazed when the author said they were all taken with a "view camera," one of the type Matthew Brady used, with the bellows and putting your head under the black cloth and exposing the photos on glass plates! I had no idea people still used them during my own time. When I finished my lunch, I went to Costco to top off my gas tank, and then went inside to pick up "a few things." So i did get milk, picked up stuff James needed like BreathRights and aspirin and Tylenol, I bought one of the books for James that I'd seen first at Barnes & Noble plus Bill Bryson's Road to Little Dribbling—oh, yes, and a birthday present for myself, Adobe Photoshop Essentials. It was half price! When I reached home I put everything away, and then wrote out the few Thanksgiving cards I was sending while watching episodes of Lassie and actually managed to do all that before the postman came, but he does come really late! James was also really late tonight; he had an appointment at America's Best to get his eyes checked because supposedly they take the medical insurance he bought at work. (Turns out they don't take it! There are different entities, and they take a different entity.) He's going to do some research online on other prices and the America's Best people are going to try to put it through the insurance anyway. So we just went to Ken's for dinner by the time he got home, and then came home for the night. I was finishing up the Bess Crawford mystery The Shattered Tree and we had to be in bed early anyway. Labels: books, errands, food, holidays, shopping, television, Thanksgiving » Friday, November 04, 2016
C'mon, Fall, Push That Bastard Summer Out the Door...
The first thing I did this morning was get a good eight hours' sleep. It's worth more than gold.I had several errands I needed to do this morning. We want to put in some LED lightbulbs downstairs, so my first stop was Lowes. On the way there stopped to take a photograph of a magnificent autumn tree in Hurt Road Park. Our trees are pretty much either turning yellow slowly or turning brown and dropping leaves, so this was quite a surprise, all scarlet, orange, and yellow trimmed with a remaining bit of green. Lowes had some nice prices on LEDs; I got a pair of 40s for the hall bath and a set of three 60s for the downstairs bath. Then I killed a few minutes by wandering around Office Max, since I've never lost my delight in perusing stationery stores. I was feeling like soup, so I headed to the Panera Bread at the Avenue at West Cobb and dipped my baguette in my chicken noodle soup and scrolled through Facebook. Then I popped into Barnes & Noble to see if there was anything fit to buy with this weekend's 15 percent off coupon. Found a couple of things but decided to wait for James to go with me. I did pick up a pair of new Christmas magazines and the newest "Blue Ridge Country" which I would have bought just for the autumn cover. My final fun stop was at Yankee Candle to check out the new scents. The new fragrance they're pushing is "Christmas Thyme" as in "pine with." Didn't like it at all. Funny how the "Mistletoe" scent smells more like a Christmas tree than "Balsam and Cedar." My last stop was Publix for a few twofers and a contribution to the Can Bank. When I pulled into the driveway I checked to see if there was mail and figured that while I was out there (despite the fact it was about 78 bloody degrees) I'd take the fall mailbox cover off and put the Thanksgiving one up. And since I did that I put the Thanksgiving banner up as well as well as the wreath. (I started a Thanks jar on Tuesday and am very happy to see James is using it, too.) Spent the rest of the afternoon doing chores. I put the 40 equivalent LED bulbs in the hall bath (one was burnt out, so I figured it would be a good time to replace them) and I don't like them. They are "warm white" because they didn't have "soft white" in 40s and the light is still too harsh. I tried putting two of the 60s downstairs to replace the CFLs (I am getting rid of the four we have by electronics recycling day; I hate the rotten things) and they were just too bright. We will need to get more 40s. James and I went to Ken's Grill for supper. There was a terrible accident down by the railroad tracks: at least one ambulance, a rescue squad, a fire truck, and two police cars. Scares me to death. Hope everyone got out okay. Afterwards we went to Barnes & Noble. I bought The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge with my coupon and we noticed that Eve and Eivan Kilcher (from Alaska: the Last Frontier) have a cookbook out. Gift idea! So we came home and spent the evening watching Hawaii Five-0 since tonight's episode made us five weeks behind. The episode with the psycho psychiatrist nearly did both of us in when Steven and the profiler lady were trapped in the underwater cave. We were both getting claustrophobic and we finally fast-forwarded through that part. I'm starting to get homesick for the old days when you didn't want to curl up in a fetal position while watching TV. Labels: books, errands, food, magazines, television, Thanksgiving » Saturday, October 22, 2016
Friends, Fairs, Feasts and Fluffy Clouds
Well, it's been a lovely day, and it started out with a delicious sleep because it was so cool outside—high forties last night. I wasn't too hot or too cold, but nice and snug under a flannel sheet and a regular sheet. And I believe eight hours sleep was involved, a definite plus. When we got up the house temp was only at 66°F, and I'd left the spare room window open.We had Hair Day this morning, so I gave Tucker a nice walk in the brisk morning air and then we grabbed our glazed carrot contribution and skedaddled. We were particularly eager to get there to see Lin this morning—she was only just released from hospital yesterday after suffering a heart attack and having a stent put in. Thankfully, even with some health problems she has, she did not have to while away her time in the hospital getting her kidneys in shape. Her only problem at the moment is being unable to eat, so while we had all that good food spread upon the table at lunchtime—roast chicken, oven-baked potatoes, our glazed carrots, and dinner rolls—she couldn't eat anything but the rolls. Hope she is feeling better soon. Meanwhile it was the usual chat: current events, families, illnesses, upcoming events. Phyllis bought Ron and Lin a Death Star tree topper and they tried it out: it flashes red and green to the "Imperial March" and white and blue to the Star Wars theme. Their tree gets more fannish every year: football, fantasy, SF and more. Always neat to see what they've added to it! Note to self: Pet Penelope on her head. She does not like you petting her tail, and I have the cat scratch to prove it. How she glowered at me! :-) We left about two with the rest of the day ahead of us. It was so nice and cool and breezy today that we wanted to go to the Jonquil Festival instead of tomorrow when it would be in the 70s. But first we had to swing by James' work to get the insulin he'd left behind yesterday. Once that was finished, and since we had to go past the house to get to downtown Smyrna anyway, we did stop to pick up my hat, put the remainder of the carrots up, and take Tucker with us. Now this is rather like taking a hyperactive three-year-old to a museum with you, but I think we all had fun. We found a recently vacated parking place behind the library, unloaded the power chair, let Tucker do his business in the bushes, and then had a nice stroll past all the booths. We bought a couple of things for a Christmas gift, sampled the dips, ooohed over the beautiful wood items, and finally came upon a lady who was selling two- and three-tier ceramic dishes in various themes. Now I need one of these like I need a hole in the head, but she had two beautiful autumn/Thanksgiving designs that were just so pretty that James bought me the one I liked best for our anniversary. It's square and has bright leaves and a pretty Thanksgiving sentiment on the middle tier. Surprisingly, we saw no dog biscuit salesmen; the Lose a Finger people weren't there. Neither were the caramel people. Rats. Tucker enjoyed himself getting petted by friendly strangers and sniffing noses with canine compatriots. Probably the two prettiest dogs were the two different Shetland Sheepdogs, both sable and white, with lush, plush coats, one with a nice blaze like Lassie, but the cutest dog had to be this little female ginger-colored terrier named Roxy. She was a third smaller than he was, but jumped right at him to sniff his nose and then the usual doggy places, and was so forward that he jumped back in surprise. There would be a girl to keep him in his place! James picked up some jambalaya and red beans and rice for supper, and we had some lemonade. I was tempted by the barbecue, but didn't feel like having it come up on me all night, so I skipped it. We took Tucker home and put him back up in the dining room, then went out again. James wanted to stop by the Publix we had shopped at last night to get whatever was left of the clearance tea he had bought: chocolate orange flavored black tea. He had tried some this morning before we left and loved it. I just jumped out and went in myself, buying the two that were left and then four more boxes of the Chamomile Lemon, which he also likes. Then we went on to Barnes & Noble to enjoy ourselves for an hour. I picked up a couple of clearance items and a copy of the new "Breathe." We had 15 percent off coupons, but I didn't find anything I wanted and he couldn't decide between the new Travis Taylor book or the new Harry Turtledove book about the Cold War, so I bought him the latter for our anniversary. By then we were kind of "out of gas" and came home. I ended up just having some cereal because it was the easiest thing to eat that wouldn't come up on me, and later it was the usual Saturday night of Rosemary and Thyme, Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By, and French Fields. Plus the mind-boggling news that the Chicago Cubs are going to the World Series. The underdogs finally win! Labels: books, dogs, events, food, friends, pets, shopping, television, Thanksgiving » Saturday, October 15, 2016
Books and Paints and Other Great Things
Had a nice sleep-in, dog stroll, and breakfast this morning. No use in rushing because James was eventually leaving for his club meeting. Put PBS on for Snowy, and, after James left, I headed back to the book sale and found a few more things, including a couple of rocketry books from the 1950s for James. I'll be interested to read the Madeleine L'Engle story "Poor Little Saturday"; I've heard of it, but never read it.When I finished there, I spent a happy hour immersing myself in the autumn and Christmas decorations at Hobby Lobby. I found a little pumpkin with Thanksgiving sentiments on it and bought it for my desk at work, plus a few other things that were already on clearance, but used my coupon on a box of opalescent watercolors. Mostly I just reveled in the garlands and the pumpkins; looked at the Christmas things briefly, but not a lot at the individual ornaments. Unless they don't have all their stock in yet, they don't have as many vintage-looking craft items as last year. Pity. They had some pretty stuff in 2015 based on old Victorian "scraps." From there I went home, made the bed, did a couple of other things, but finally dozed off on the sofa. When I got up about four, James was still not back from his meeting, so I decided to take the matte finish glaze he gave me and treat the items on the Thanksgiving shadowbox. Well, it worked perfectly on the turkey, the pie, the Pilgrim hat, and the little autumn lady. They look more like they belong with the other Country Pick'ns items. But evidently the art pen I used to write "Happy Thanksgiving" on the little signboard—which is labeled as "archival quality"—is liquid soluble and it smeared. Sigh. So I pried it off the shadowbox itself and pried the leaves off and sanded it down and started again. Now, I wasn't really happy about the bonnet and the collar on the autumn lady. The white looked too stark and unnatural and the ink had smeared a little on her, too. So I decided to use eggshell instead of white and opened up that little paint pot and stirred it up. I was about to dip my brush in it when the base of the whole collection of paint just tipped over and fell. Arrrgh! Luckily, while the eggshell paint made a big smear on the fleece cover I have on the seat of the old loveseat-sleeper that I use as a seat, the container actually landed open end up and the smear of paint was all I lost. I made the background color of the Thanksgiving signboard eggshell as well. Once the colors are dry, I will matte finish the two items first and then use the pen. James finally arrived home. We needed to go to Sam's Club for Skinny Pop and mushrooms, so we tried to find somewhere around there to eat. We thought about Marietta Diner, but their food is expensive, and after last night's debacle, we didn't want another one. We settled on a Chinese buffet called Atlantic Buffet. Not bad. They had steak on the bar as well as pork roast and pork ribs. I didn't have the roast, but James said it was good, but not too salty. The ribs were outstanding. Their desserts are so-so. The lo mein was good, not salty at all. Hibachi Grill is still the best. Glad we brought James' power chair with us because once again Sam's only had one cart and apparently it wasn't charging. We got the popcorn and the mushrooms and some Asian salad mix, but I was annoyed because the fresh milk was at the bottom where we couldn't get it and the milk on the top level was actually expired. Came home in time to watch Britcoms. Should have gone to bed earlier, but French Fields is on at 10:00 and we've never seen it before. Those two never fail to make me laugh. Labels: books, crafts, food, shopping, television, Thanksgiving » Thursday, November 26, 2015
Just the Usual (and the Happiest)
And so another Thanksgiving tradition begins the day: I'm up and off to the QT for a Thanksgiving newspaper. It's 8:30 and the place is remarkably crowded. I'm home just a few minutes after nine, so I just have to back up the DVR a few minutes to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from the beginning. And that was the morning, reading the paper, watching the parade, tidying things, while James cooked corn casserole, green bean almondine, and something for his breakfast. Then came the dog show, and then came the best part of the day, Thanksgiving dinner with friends. Leigh Boros and her fiancee Robby hosted the feast; we had two kinds of turkey, fork-tender pot roast, James' contributions, Ron's mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, and other goodies, plus two types of pie for dessert and an apple pudding and small homemade pecan pies. But as good as the food is, the talk and the company is always better. There were football discussions and retirement chat and even some political banter. The game ran in the background, people wandered in and out of the kitchen to get another nibble, and the talk went on until there was none left.We came home early to finish packing for our overnight tomorrow. I got the dog crate and the tray for the birdcage in the trunk of the car and the protective cover over the back seat and remembered to pull James' hat, sunglasses, and the handicapped parking tag out of the truck. I give thanks today: for James, who keeps me from going crazy (even though sometimes he makes me crazy ;-) ) for Tucker, who can always make me laugh for Snowy, who sings his sweetest songs (even if he's turned into Vampire Budgie) for family and friends, however far, for being a sweet part of our lives (and, trust me, I am still thankful for everyone who helped us move, both times, every. single. Thanksgiving.) for our "fid sitter" for this year's vacation, Aubrey Spivey for "the helpers," as Fred Rogers called them, those who serve every day, overtime, without sleep, the police, the firefighters, the 911 operators, the emergency room folks, the emergency vet, the Armed Services, the service organizations for my team lead, for infinite patience in the face of "damn, I've been doing this job for thirteen years that-was-a-dumb-mistake I-should-know-better" actions and I know it's silly, but to SFM and RetroTV, for giving me back Doctor Simon Locke...because, honestly, that was the happiest gift of the year. Labels: food, friends, holidays, Thanksgiving » Wednesday, November 25, 2015
The Hurrier I Go...
I dimly heard James get up for work and went back to sleep. Had a rotten dream about being stuck at the airport (James had to fly home early because of an emergency, which was bad enough), which finally drove me out of bed for pooch perambulation and breakfast. Was eating and watching what is possibly the worst episode of Lassie ever ("The Horsenappers," from the final season, with two "villains" whose combined IQ was probably lower than the dog's) so I could add the summary to my website when James texted me and said he thought he was suffering from some type of stomach flu. A few minutes later he said he was coming home. All this after he had to leave work early yesterday because the lift for the chair wasn't working properly and left early Monday to go to the chiropractor.
I still had to get through my "to do" list for the day. First I pulled all the reusable bags and the emergency box and "Fred the traveling pillow" and such out of the car. By then James was arriving home, looking quite miserable. I left him to take some medicine and relax, grabbed a towel and put Tucker on his leash, and took him to the dog wash. There was a lady washing her big dog there; she told me he was half husky and half pit bull. I think she said his name was Teck. He was wailing and complaining throughout the whole procedure. Tucker just sat and looked aggrieved. A half hour later I was exhausted but he was as shiny as a penny and full of energy. I bought him a new tug toy and we went on to the car wash by way of CVS so I could pick up something for James. I'd worn short sleeves because I knew bathing Tucker would be warm work; I cooled down considerably while waiting for them to clean out the inside of the car. It hasn't been washed or vacuumed since before last year's vacation and still has road salt from Gatlinburg on it; I shouldn't have left it so long. A man stopped and talked to me about Tucker; he sells the microchips so you can chip your dog. It was clouded over at that point and the wind had a keen edge. Finally Tucker and I were on the way home. I found James had eaten some soup and was trying to rest, but still looked tired. It was almost two o'clock, so I put all the things back into the car and then went upstairs to have the leftover beef bits from last night for lunch. About quarter past two, James got dressed and I went with him to Kaiser. He discovered yesterday that he had reordered all of his pills except for his glypizide and would be completely out this morning, so yesterday he had called up Kaiser, told them the problem, and they said they would have the pills ready for him this afternoon. He also had to pick up his back and hip x-rays to take to the chiropractor when he goes back. Well, picking up the x-rays was easy. They give them to you on a DVD. But they didn't have the pills ready as they said they would, and we had to go upstairs, talk to the med tech, and James had to get examined before they called the prescription downstairs. Had leftover rotisserie chicken for supper with Bear Creek pasta, watched Doctor Simon Locke, Make Room for Daddy, and Jeopardy, then some Christmas programs running on getTV: a Bing Crosby special, a Perry Como special with Rich Little and the Carpenters, and a Danny Kaye with Peggy Lee, Harvey Korman, and Harold Gould. Oh, and finished washing the dog's bedding, and loaded the dishwasher, and fixed a bit of jewelry and wrapped some baby gifts. And then finally I put on The Thanksgiving Treasure—because it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it. I love Addie Mills; she is the child of my heart, the one I never had. Labels: Addie Mills, dogs, pets, television, Thanksgiving » Thursday, November 27, 2014
Friends, Food, and Flummery
There are never enough hours in the day to do what I wish! I wanted to sweep and wash the kitchen and bathroom floors yesterday and never got to it. James had finally put all the plastic storage away, so I exchanged the step-shelves on the counter which holds veggie flakes, additional spices, etc. for a taller but narrower one. Everything can be seen now. I did get some books reviewed.James got home early because work had slowed to a crawl. He had bought some accoutrements for his power chair (a storage pouch and a drink holder, and also a flag), so we put the first two on. (Will have to study on how to get the flag on; we don't want to fasten it on before he has the back of the chair adjusted.) Since we were already down in the garage, I suggested we fix the truck's passenger side mirror. It broke several weeks ago, and I had ordered a replacement from Amazon which came with all that we needed to install, including super-sticky adhesive. I removed it from the box, placed it up against the broken one, and noted with approval that it would fit perfectly. And then I dropped the wretched thing. Unprintable comments follow. I ordered a new one as soon as we got upstairs. How provoking! This evening we watched several Thanksgiving specials, The History of Thanksgiving, A New England Thanksgiving, and another Food Network special about the history of the foods, and then, finally, my favorite of all, The Thanksgiving Treasure, the second of the Addie Mills specials in which an eleven-year-old Addie befriends a crotchety old farmer in order to emulate the Pilgrims befriending the Indians. She does have an ulterior motive—he owns a horse and Addie is crazy about horses—but learns to think of him as a friend. This is my copy that I recorded off the Disney Channel so long ago when Disney had decent programming, but I discovered that they have re-released the first Addie Mills story, The House Without A Christmas Tree on a double bill with a professional copy of The Thanksgiving Treasure! I still have many Amazon points, so I ordered it. This morning I was up at eight o'clock to go after a newspaper. I was awed by its size. On Sunday we usually buy a double paper to get twice the coupons, and this behemoth was even bigger than the two of them. And the Constitution takes advantage of the desire for this paper: once upon a time the Thanksgiving paper was the same price as the daily paper. Several years ago they started charging Sunday paper prices, and today they charged a dollar more than that! Once I got home I walked Tucker and then settled in to watch the Macy's Parade and then the National Dog Show. During commercial breaks and Broadway spots I baked a chocolate peppermint loaf to take along, read the paper, and pulled out ads I was interested in. There's nothing we need, but I'd like to get season seven of Big Bang Theory and some flannel pajama bottoms for James. And I really want to look into getting a new phone. Today we were heading to Leigh Boros' house and the GPS gave me trouble, and then the phone rebooted at the crucial turn. Enough! So the best part of the day came during Thanksgiving dinner with all our friends. We shared turkey and ham and pot roast, rice (James made Uncle Ben's wild rice and put toasted almonds in it; fabulous!) and corn casserole and stuffing, and sweet potatoes, cranberries and beets, with pumpkin and raspberry pies and the chocolate loaf (which was overdone on top but still tasted good) for dessert. We sat at the table and told pet stories about half the night while another contingent watched football, and we finally headed home about eight, full of good food and good fellowship. Finished the night watching the last half hour of Airplane! and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. And finally, Counting-Our-Blessings on Thanksgiving Day: Having Willow for nearly 16 years. For Snowy who sings and speaks and enjoys his teevee and loved vacation. For Tucker, who freed us from our Slough of Despond. For a warm home on a cold day (and, conversely, for a cool home on a warm day months ago). For family (from Georgia all the way up to Rhode Island, and everywhere in between and out west) and friends who have become family (too many to name here) and long-distance friends. For Kaiser who gave James his chair without quarrel. For work, which buys us the things we love. For autumn days and books, and conventions and books, and places to go and things to see and winter afternoons...and did I mention books? And so much for those who serve: the police, the firefighters, the EMTs, the highway patrol, the doctors, the nurses, the social workers, the soldiers, the sailors, the flyers, the guards, and the volunteers. You are truly blessings, each and every one. Labels: food, friends, holidays, television, Thanksgiving » Sunday, November 09, 2014
Why Doesn't 72 Hours Go By This Fast...
...when you're at work?Slept fifteen minutes through the alarm on Friday, then didn't stop going all day. I had to stay home anyway because TruGreen was supposed to be here today, and they never give you a specific time. So there was a dog walk, and breakfast, and I spent the rest of the day doing a bit of dusting, putting up the Thanksgiving decorations, clearing off the dining room table, tidying, sweeping the stairs and the foyer and the downstairs hall, and writing out Thanksgiving cards (I tried to mail them, too, but for once the mailman came early). I finished reading Carola Dunn's The Bloody Tower, had another walk with Tucker, and was happy that James came home early (he worked overtime earlier in the week). Oh, and TruGreen never showed up. Thanks a lot for nothing, guys. We mounted James' new purchase, the strap-on bike rack, on the back of my car with a minimum of cussing (mostly me because the sun was, as always, in my eyes) before going out to dinner. It worked really well with the Rollator, although we will have to use independent straps instead of the built-in ones because they are built to fit a bike, not a walker. We decided to have supper at the West Cobb Diner and grinned when we realized the Spiveys were just arriving ahead of us. We all had dinner together along with Ken's mom and Mrs. Medina (the mother of Jesse who is married to Ken's sister Deb). Following that we went to Barnes & Noble with our coupons. James got the new 1632 book and I bought Dallas 1963. Since I was imprisoned by TruGreen on my day off, I decided to go out a little when James worked yesterday. I went to the Farmer's Market to get James some chicken salad and Tucker some dog biscuits. I didn't even bother trying to park out front on Cobb Parkway; just left the car in the public lot behind Johnnie McCracken's Irish pub. This was actually a good thing because they had the market in front of the old courthouse again this week and it was a shorter walk. I scored the dog biscuits (they have corporate sponsorship now: new bags and correspondingly higher prices) and two bacon, cheddar and chive scones for dinner tonight, but the place that makes the chicken salad lost their lease and they have to find somewhere else that has a USDA-approved kitchen before they can make it again. :-( I mailed the Thanksgiving cards, then drove to the antique mall that's on Cobb Parkway, across the street from the Big Chicken. I love to go to antique stores before Christmas, when they scatter garlands and ornaments and old decorations among the booths to give it a festive look. There was a big lighted tree at the entranceway, and they were collecting toys for Egleston Children's Hospital. I hadn't had breakfast except for a couple of samples at the Farmer's Market, so was happy to nab a couple of free ginger cookies while I walked through the aisles of different booths. Found several dealers who had some Happy Hollister books, but didn't buy them, and enjoyed all the vintage goodies, including a tall Edison phonograph with two levels of storage for records below, an old Underwood and 1940s Smith Corona typewriters as well as an IBM Selectric II (yeah, sad: Selectrics are now antiques), 1950s metal kitchen tables with formica tops, old plows, seeders, a nice Hoosier cabinet despite the warped bottom door, old electric organs, vintage furniture, and even an old Bakelite Viewmaster like I had as a kid, plus lots and lots of china tchotchkes. I was pretty peckish by the time I left, but I really didn't want to eat lunch out. What I did want to do was find something for supper tonight. I thought some of Publix's chicken and wild rice soup would go great with it. Yep, of course they didn't have any. At the first one I got some French bread for my sandwiches this week, paper towels, and donated $10 worth of food to the can bank and got another reusable shopping bag with the Pilgrims on it. I took the food home and then went to Costco, where I noshed on some samples, bought milk, a copy of Planes: Fire and Rescue for James, some crackers and some lobster spread, and what I really, really needed: omeprazole. With the milk in the back I now had to work fast, so I was happy to see there were not long lines at the gas station, where it was $2.75. Of course by the time I made my way around to the line, eight other cars had gotten in ahead of me. Thank goodness it didn't take so long. The second Publix just had chicken noodle soup, and I gave up and bought it, then came home, put everything up, and watched Love Actually, which I'd heard a lot about. I could have lived without Kris Marshall's storyline of the young guy who just wanted to get laid, but was totally charmed by both Colin Firth's and Liam Neeson's storylines, and got a good giggle out of Martin Freeman's part of the story. I was supposed to be warming up supper when Tucker abruptly decided he needed to go out, but supper was done pretty quickly by the time James got in. I had more noodles, chicken, and veggies than soup, so I thinned it with vegetable broth, added a little white wine and ginger, and warmed it up slowly. With the scones on the side, it was a nice treat. James needed it because they ran the air conditioning so high all day he was freezing. And then it was time for the season finale of Doctor Who. I'm still waiting for a dangerous version of the Master rather than the full-crazy version they have had lately, and I wish they hadn't killed off Osgood, but...Kate! Danny! And that coda with the Brigadier! I'm still not satisfied with the stories they are giving him—my favorite this season was "Flatline" because I've been watching the old series on RetroTV and this was the closest I've seen to a classic episode in ages—but I absolutely love Peter Capaldi in the role and I wish they'd give him more to do; why is the companion always the salvation lately? I liked Matt Smith but his Doctor was getting too wired and the stories were like puzzle pieces. Can't we just have a simple straightforward adventure any longer? Slept in this morning, and then it was rush, rush, rush all afternoon. First was the weekly run to Kroger. I needed yogurt. We ended up with a scooter cart basket full of all sorts of things, including sale meat, burritos, and popcorn. James forgot and left the newspaper on the "trunk" in the bed of the truck and we almost got it home, but it fell in the street when we turned onto Gray Road. Luckily it didn't scatter much and I was able to collect it. With the groceries put up, we went out to celebrate our anniversary one day early by having dinner at Longhorn. We shared a plate of ribs and had the shrimp and lobster dip appetizer. Between those two things, we were too full for dessert. James bought me a pretty sweatshirt at the Apple Festival and has something on order for me, but I was able to give him his gifts: the Planes DVD, of course; a gift for us both, all 44 of the Dave Allen shows that were broadcast here in the United States; and something he's been looking for for years, a copy of the series Our World with Linda Ellerbee and Ray Gandolf. From there we went to Hallmark to use some coupons. Got a couple of ornaments and two additional Thanksgiving cards. We also stopped at Petsmart to get a few things for Tucker. Couldn't find what I needed to get for Snowy, though. Best part of this trip was the nice ride through Lower Roswell Road out to Merchant's Walk. With only a little daylight left, we decided to take Tucker and Snowy out to the other Petsmart at the East-West Connector. I'm still getting Snowy used to the carry box and he is wide-eyed and a little nervous, but he did burble to his mirror quite a lot. Petsmart flat awed him: all the colors and the sounds. The one thing he didn't do was chirp back to the budgies! Maybe he thought they were television. I was so filled up from lunch I didn't eat until eight, and then only a bowl of cereal. We watched Friday's Hawaii Five-0 (look, how many times are we going to see one of the team be tortured? it's really gross) and yesterday's This Old House, and the tribute to Robin Williams that PBS ran last night, and then missed the first seven minutes of Alaska: The Last Frontier because, while the DVD had it programmed into the schedule last night, it was completely gone from the programming today. Got to call Dish; half our music channels haven't worked since last Christmas, and last Saturday the signal dropped out on Doctor Who in the middle of recording. Both the DVR and the dish itself are slowly dying. Oh, and we are dropping James' SiriusXM subscription. He hardly listens to it anymore, and when he does, it's always the same few songs. Tired to death of "Me and Bobby McGee." Labels: birds, books, Christmas, Doctor Who, dogs, DVDs, electronics, friends, nostalgia, pets, radio, shopping, television, Thanksgiving » Thursday, November 28, 2013
Missing Thanksgivukkah
Because of what happened yesterday, we basically stayed in today. Instead of me, it was James who got up early, urged out of a warm bed by the dog alarm, and went out to get a newspaper. I tried to go back to sleep, but nature screamed. Had breakfast and read the paper using the DVR to zip through the commercials during the Macy's Parade, only to stop for a few of the cute ones, including the wonderful Wells Fargo stagecoach commercial (too bad they're such an ass as a bank!) and yet another new Sprint ad with James Earl Jones and Malcolm McDowall.
Skipped through the National Dog Show in a similar manner, and was arrested by one of the new dogs, the Portuguese Podengo Pequeno. This little dog was almost a dead ringer for Willow! It is actually a sight hound, but runs around 14-15 pounds, and has the fuzz face, brown and white and all. The coat is a little different, though. Amazing. Had the rest of the chicken and rice soup that I was supposed to have for supper last night for lunch. (Chicken soup with rice is my very favorite comfort food, which shows you how sick I was feeling yesterday.) Then at some point during the rebroadcast of the parade I just fell flat to sleep and awoke only to find a Timmy episode of Lassie running on Angel2. If only this was a good omen! James had put the chocolate cobbler in to cook, so I took over doing the turkey thighs that we'd fished out of the freezer. I cooked them with onion powder and a bit of salt, with white wine over all. James made maple-glazed carrots and I chopped up celery so he could make stuffing. I cleared part of the table off (really, we didn't need the whole thing) and we used my stoneware with the Royal Mail motif and the fall goblets. Still, we were really sorry to miss Thanksgiving dinner at the Lucyshyn's, especially because Phyllis and Mel brought two of their Hanukkiahs and lit the second candle at sundown in what must have been a nice ceremony. The chocolate cobbler, incidentally, was very chocolate, almost too rich. It had a chocolaty crust and then a liquid bottom, like a lava cake. There is enough for several desserts. And then came a Christmas rerun of Big Bang Theory and this year's Punkin Chunkin, and Thanksgiving is over for another year. Labels: food, television, Thanksgiving » Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Let's Say This Isn't the Way...
...I had planned to spend Thanksgiving week!
Here's the original plan:
Tuesday we slept, and slept. James got up after eleven, but I was only able to escape the clutch of Morpheus after one o'clock, and still felt exhausted for what was left of the day; not really steady on my feet and barely hungry (hey, in my case that's always good). All the mail the post awful has been holding came in today, including my two shipments from Amazon Vine, a very nice, heavyweight aluminum "Racheal Ray" fry pan, and a super set of headphones. Spent the evening watching Robin Hood: Men In Tights and Spaceballs. Surely after two days of antibiotics, feeling better I should be. Maybe today... James had already gone off to take the truck to the mechanic, as the slow-start of the engine indicated a low battery. Plus he wanted an oil change and needed his inspection certificate because the license tax is due on my birthday. I was supposed to follow him, and then the two of us were supposed to have fasting blood tests at Kaiser before we could eat breakfast. Instead, I found myself down for the count with severe nausea, and finally told James to get them to give him a ride back and perhaps by then I'd be on my feet. Sadly, thirty minutes later he was on his way to Kaiser alone in my car. I asked him only to give me something to throw up in. He did, and I did, which means in the last ten days I've lost my cookies more than I have in the past ten years. Didn't even do this when I had the flu. Needless to say, I didn't get blood taken today. However, when we went to fetch the truck, I did actually get out for a while. We stopped in Aldi to get milk and a few things, and I stopped by Kroger on the way home to get an Annie Chun noodle bowl for lunch. Later the mail came and we watched our Thanksgiving gift, The Right Stuff on Blu-Ray. The picture is stunning and wonderfully clear, and the soundtrack held sounds we had forgotten were on the soundtrack—an echo as the astronauts walk en masse under the tail of a rocket, for instance. Very much enjoyed! Now we're watching Thanksgiving-themed programming. Labels: chores, food, movies, shopping, sickness, Thanksgiving |
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