Encouraged by a weather report that predicted a cloudy but dry day, we slept until nine and then went through the usual morning routine, although I had to cut the dog walk short for a call of nature. However, this gave me enough time to write out some Thanksgiving cards and address and stamp them. These came with us as we left for lunch a little early so that we could swing past the Austell Road Cobb County complex so I could renew the registration on my car and get this year's tag. Even with this detour, we arrived at this week's lunch venue in plenty of time and had a nice long meal and convo with Alice, Ken, Aubrey, Mel, and Phyllis. We were eating at Okinawa and discovered that Aubrey's good friend from her school years, Kayla, was working there and had just been promoted to head server. Alice was keeping warm by the window, as she had come home from Conjuration with a cold. Nothing worse than good ol' fashioned con crud. We talked about everything from the weather to the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination.

Lunch broke up after two, and I had James swing by the Mableton post office to drop off the Thanksgiving cards. Instead of coming back up Floyd Road/Hurt Road to return to the East-West Connector, we did a slight variation on the directions being given to us by the GPS and drove a street called Fontaine Road. We're so used to being surrounded by suburbs that we are surprised when we find the small places in Cobb that are still country-like. The road leading to Fontaine was filled with small, older homes, but Fontaine itself paralleled an old railroad line and looked almost like the road we take up to Helen, GA, with widely-spaced homes, some with stables and acreage behind them, and many stands of trees, all in various stages of autumn color. The railroad tracks were out of sight in a little valley at the right side of the road. It was like a little five-minute vacation in the middle of our day.

We were headed for Barnes & Noble to get the cocoa we got cheated out of last weekend when the Acworth Books-a-Million showed up missing in action. The doors were wide open and they had been doing some rearranging inside, with big upright shelves of the newest and recommended books right up front. Before we had our cocoa we wandered around both floors, checking out the magazines (but I'm not buying any this weekend, as they usually have the magazines on discount on Black Friday), and then the books. I did find a book that was discounted, so picked that up (a humorous memoir about a woman who is an introvert attempting to act as an extrovert) and a paperback involving a paranormal mystery. After surveying the reading material and getting ideas for the few gifts we have left to purchase, we sat and had peppermint cocoa and shared a chocolate chunk cookie. No dessert for us tonight!

James wrapped up the power chair before we left the bookstore and a good thing, because we ran through a rainshower on the way home—say, what happened to that dry day we were supposed to have?—but luckily it was barely spitting when we pulled into the driveway. So we got the chair put up safely.

Spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening watching some things on Netflix. First up was a British special narrated by Stephen Fry about the elaborate courting behavior of several types of tropical birds, including birds of paradise and bowerbirds. The narrative was very tongue-in-cheek and the birds beautiful to look at, but with the most extraordinary courtship rituals: dancing, decorating elaborate nests, even a type of bird where the male has a male "wing man" to help him court his lady friend.

While James was cooking up some burritos for his breakfasts, I watched the documentary Harry and Snowman, the story of which is told in Elizabeth Letts' The Eighty Dollar Champion. Snowman, a former plow horse, was on his way to become dog food when a riding instructor named Harry DeLeyer bought him for eighty dollars. The horse turned out to be a natural jumper who won prestigious jumping contests in the late 1950s against younger, fitter horses. It wasn't the first time I had met Snowman. He appeared in a childhood book I still have, More Than Courage by Patrick Lawson, stories of real-life dogs and horses, where I also first read about "Sergeant" Stubby of WWI, Chips the war dog (whose real story was much better than the Disney telefilm), Roman war dogs, the famous Lipizzaners, police dogs, race horses, rescue dogs—and even a chapter on performing dogs and horses that talked about Lassie, Fury, and Rin Tin Tin.

Later we watched a series of short Disney films, including little shorts based on Rapunzel and Frozen, the enchanting nearly black-and-white "Paperman," the Prep and Landing "Secret Santa" short, etc. Totally delightful! The Mickey Mouse cartoon made of half vintage animation and half CGI was very inventive.

Labels: animals, books, Disney, friends, holidays, seasons, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:57:00 PM

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Never did get that extra hour's sleep. Knees were still hurting, and James got up early due to (yet another) call of nature, so we were up and going before nine o'clock, even though we leisurely ate breakfast and I took Tucker out, but all he wanted to do was to hunt down raccoons.

(We had a strange postscript to the raccoon story. When I pulled up Facebook this morning, another neighbor down the street was responding to the Facebook post I'd put on the neighborhood association page. While we were rousing ourselves out of bed this morning, the raccoon had wandered into her yard. Well, her family has big dogs, Italian mastiffs, and one went after the raccoon and killed it. Sadly, it wandered into the wrong yard. I hope the dog was okay.)

We had forgotten to get onions (again; I have no idea how this keeps happening the way both of us love onions!), so we combined a short grocery trip along with our fun trip this morning. We went to the Kroger on Dallas Highway because it was across the street from our destination and picked up the onions and a few more things that added themselves to the list. Once again, it was chilly enough for us to be wearing flannel shirts, so we had no qualms about stuffing some meats and two frozen pot pies into an insulated bag and heading across the street. We were headed to Hallmark first to return a duplicate ornament, but they weren't open yet, so we went to Barnes & Noble instead to kill the 45 minutes until they did. (As if we couldn't fritter that much time away in a bookstore!) James used a coupon on a book he's been waiting on, and I bought the newest Christmas edition of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books along with "Just Cross Stitch."

Finally it was after noon, so James got his refund and I bought a Christmas gift, then we stopped at Yankee Candle so I could get air freshener for my car. I have no idea what's gotten into Yankee Candle. This is just a little store; maybe the larger one at Town Center Mall is still okay, but this one seems to stock only YC's new line of "trendy" looking candles (I can't explain them; they have fancy jars and stuff) and a smaller selection of scents, and the newer scents are really terrible, too fruity or too sweet, sometimes both. Where are the good scents like gingerbread and cafe au lait instead of the blue spruce one (ugh) or another with some winter name that smelled terrible?

I treated James to a soup at Panera before we came home. The place was packed since it was just a little after noon, but it was warm enough that we could sit out on the terrace and I was quite content eating my chicken noodle soup with a surfeit of carrots and reading "Just Cross Stitch." Got some photos of beautiful autumn trees, too. The trees that started to turn when we finally got a cold spell are coloring up beautifully!

It would have been a big temptation to sit down again when we got home, but instead I finished up the job I started on Friday: there were still books stacked horizontally on James' bookshelf in the bedroom and everything there was quite dusty. So that was all removed and dusted and sorted, the shelves wiped down, some junk on James' dresser tossed out, and the carpet vacuumed again. I also vacuumed the stuffed animals on the shoe rack on top of the chifforobe; our bedroom really gets dusty despite the fact we spend very little time in it. No idea why.

I also sorted James' and my pills for the week and washed the towels.

We had sausage and cheese tortellini for supper in the last of the Prego no-sugar-added sauce and half a Ritter "Pfefferminz" bar each for dessert. Watched a couple of episodes of M*A*S*H that hadn't come up in the rotation lately, then The Durrells in Corfu (Gerry's nearly disastrous birthday party—noticed last week that Milo Parker, who plays Gerry, is getting a shadow on his upper lip and looked up his age; he's sixteen, but Gerry has just turned thirteen), and Alaska: the Last Frontier.

Labels: animals, books, chores, cleaning, dogs, food, pets, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:16:00 PM

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We awoke on Saturday morning to find it chilly. It's been great sleeping weather, but I had worked so hard on Friday cleaning out James' side of the bedroom that I hadn't slept as well as I could due to aching knees (and a lot of other things). He has a tendency to finish a book and just stack in in a pile and the piles were just in the way, plus there was a stack of magazines at the foot of the bed. I sorted these out, tossed out what I thought he'd want to toss, and made neat piles of what he thought he wanted to keep. I also found out which books he'd read and which ones he wanted to keep and which he wanted to take to McKay's, and cleaned out under his nightstand to put to-be-read books there. To my surprise he told me to toss the whole kit and caboodle of the magazines. Then I vacuumed out the area, and took the two piles of books downstairs. The "keep" stack I will shelve and the "give away" stack went in the boxes for McKay's. Friday night was spent quietly watching The Cool Kids and Hawaii Five-0.

Anyway, we confined out activity on Saturday morning to limping around supermarkets to finish the shopping. We emerged to a cloudless sky except for one lone, scanty cloud in the north, but the air was so dry James watched in fascination as it just faded away. We had flannel shirts on when we left, but by the time we got to our first destination it was warm enough to remove them. First we went to Sam's Club because they still have skim milk. Got various household needs and I bought more boot socks in the forlorn hope it may be cold enough this winter to use more than four pair. 😉 Then we visited Publix for the few BOGO items and, as always, bought more than we expected. By the time we got home I was aching, so after puttering around the house starting the process of turning the clocks back—there are fourteen clocks and six timers—I fell asleep on the sofa while James gamed and read Facebook.

I only roused because it was time to go out and we were planning to get to our destination early. We dressed, stopped at Wendy's for simple burgers each and a shared lemonade, and then headed to the Unitarian church on Mount Vernon Highway for the November edition of the Hungry Ear Coffee House. Our friend Louis Robinson, who is originally from England and worked for many years at the BBC, had, like many young men in the 1970s, been in a band, and his friends from that band, "Green Ginger," had flown to the U.S. for a visit and they "got the band back together" to play at the coffee house. We brought the usual largesse (you are to donate a canned good for every seat) and were there early enough so James could get a seat near the door for calls of nature, but to our surprise the place was not filled the way it was for the "Summer of Love" concert a few months ago. The opening act was by Pat Walsh, who plays these offbeat "stream of consciousness" folk songs (that's the only way I can describe them), and then "Green Ginger" performed. For four guys that haven't played together in over forty years, they did a very funny and excellent concert. They did some traditional folk songs—including that ultimate folk song, "Wild Rover"—and a short, hilarious piece that was a parody of a train advertisement, and at least two songs that have become standard at Louis' solo concerts, including the beautiful wedding song, "Michaela." We had a grand time, snacking on cheesecake, grapes and hummus, and brownies, and drove home happily in the dark.

Tucker and I had an adventure when I took him out when we got back. We had walked down the street and he'd done his business, and we were back in the driveway for me to drop off "the deposit" when Tucker began barking hysterically behind me. I wheeled around to see a big raccoon trundling up the lawn toward us, wobbling a little and making little trilling raccoon noises. Now, for all I knew this was a raccoon that was fed by humans and was just looking for some food, but he was walking funny and Tucker was practically apoplectic, yelping and squealing and dashing after an animal that probably outweighed him by ten pounds until he got snubbed by his leash. The raccoon fled, but I hustled us inside fast, because there were over a dozen rabid raccoons discovered last spring next door in DeKalb County. I posted a warning on our neighborhood association Facebook page and one of the neighbors up the street said it had been sleeping on her doorstep earlier.

It must have been wandering outside all night, because Tucker practically barked that long.

Anyway, turned the rest of the clocks and timers back before before bed, which was gratefully welcomed! Farewell till spring, sucky DST. Wish you didn't have to come back!

Labels: animals, dogs, events, food, shopping, time

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:44:00 PM

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January has continued to toss curve balls at us. Of course we were back to work on Tuesday. I spent lunch hour taking the boxes out of my car and stacking them up in the library. There were only five and the bag with the feather tree in it, but it seemed to take forever. I basically cleaned them out during odd off times the rest of the week. Threw any instructional things away and just away tucked special stuff: my twenty, twenty-five, and thirty year certificates and pins, my leave and earnings statements because they said we had to keep them for five years, and my big folder of my government employment history. Plus the photos I had on my wall, the photo of James, and a little cross stitch of a Bible verse. I threw out all the seasonal calendar pictures that I have put up in my cubicle over the years to brighten it up, including two scenes of Boston. Nowhere to put them.

Something cool happened Tuesday night: we had gotten the title for the ruined truck in the mail on Monday, copied it, and then put it in the pre-paid Fex-Ex envelope we had from the insurance company, but we still had to get it mailed. So we drove the three miles back to the Green in Smyrna only to find the Fex-Ex guy picking up at the box behind Shane's barbecue place. I handed it right to him. We came home through Bank Street because I love the Craftsman houses they have put up there, and there trotting across the street near the park was a fox! It paid no attention to us, but once gaining the other side of the street, sat and scratched itself behind the ear and then trotted away!

Wednesday I had to drag four essential things back to work: three packets of oatmeal, my dish and spoon, my extension cord, and especially my fan. I got a lot of little things done, but nothing closer to getting my last two purchase orders finished, and I began to feel a bit off as the afternoon wore on. By the time I got home I was ice cold (and it wasn't cold out). Teleworking Thursday I kept running to the bathroom and again started to get the chills in the afternoon. I logged off about 2:30 because even with a sweatshirt on and my fuzzy slippers, I could not get warm. About five I took my temperature and it was 99, and it was 99.9 about seven. Then I broken into a copious sweat and was drenched with a normal temperature by bedtime.

Friday was my "day off." We basically spent it racing back and forth to Mobility Works to finally get the chair lift put on the truck, first dropping it off in the morning. I had barely gotten any sleep and came home and collapsed on the futon, not to wake up until 11:30, cursing myself, because I had to get to the business office at Kaiser.

You see, Mobility Works told James if he had a letter from the doctor saying that the lift was being used for transportation of a wheelchair, we wouldn't have to pay the tax. Well, I don't know what got misinterpreted by who, but we got a letter in the mail a few days back from Apria Healthcare (which has nothing to do with James' wheelchair or the power lift; he gets his sleep apnea supplies from them) saying they were denying our claim for a wheelchair lift because it was for personal pleasure. Well, (a) I found that additionally insulting because he needs the stupid thing mainly to get to work, which sure as hell isn't pleasure, and (b) we knew we couldn't claim the lift—we couldn't do it last time. All this on top of sending it to the wrong company. The lady in the business office was very sweet but she was utterly clueless and kept calling it a "referral" or a "approval." We didn't need anything referred or approved. We just needed what the salesman told us later wasn't even a letter; they just wanted something on prescription letterhead saying "Mr. Young requires a wheelchair transport device." She finally gave me a printout of the other referral we did put in, before the accident, to get a larger footplate and a new control cover for the chair, and pointed out that it said "accessories." But the lift isn't considered an accessory for the power chair. Basically they provide the power chair; if we want to transport it somewhere, we have to pay for it ourselves. Mobility Works didn't take it, but has given me a chance to get it, which I can do in my "copious free time" next week.

Anyway, once the lift was ready, we had to go back to Mobility Works, bring the truck home, load the chair on it, and then take it back for final adjustments. The guy came back saying he needed to show James something: the chair needed to be fixed. Now it was somewhat damaged in the accident, which is not surprising since it was thrown across the road. The headpiece is crooked, part of the plastic housing at the bottom is broken, and the arms are all scratched. Plus he told us one of the shocks is bent. But the worst thing, he said, was that the two big drive wheels, the ones under the seat, were not resting in the little gap in the lift made for them. The two front wheels and the two rear wheels were suspending it up about half an inch over the gap. He said the shocks were too tight.

Both James and I told him tartly that had nothing to do with the accident; it's never fit into that gap and has always ridden high. He was surprised that no one had told us it needed to be adjusted. Nope, they didn't, even when James brought it there for a 500-mile-checkup or whatever it was last year or the year before. We were going to have to bring it back up there anyway because the old lift was listing to the right.

Since it was suppertime by the time we got done with all this, we went to Fried Tomato Buffet for dinner. In retrospect, this was a rotten idea. I still wasn't feeling well—I'd had stomach cramps off and on all day—and I ate the shrimp, olives, and cucumber and tomato salad. By the time evening rolled around, let's say things had taken a turn for the liquid.

All this and I have to wrestle with Kaiser again, too. Bah, humbug.

Labels: animals, health, retirement, sickness, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:58:00 PM

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Wouldn't you know that I slept worse at the nice hotel than at the tatty one? This was a problem in March, too: I find the bed in the room where we usually sleep (the handicapped access one, where James doesn't have to step over the side of the tub) very uncomfortable. And their pillows are too soft. I had two and they still didn't prop up my head as is needed. While my infection seems to be gone, my stupid nose is still running. It's like being in a mucus marathon. Yuck.

No one in the common room this morning at all after we packed a little and went to breakfast. We knew Juanita and David had gone with the Boulers to breakfast at Wendell's, but didn't see anyone else until John Campbell and the Boroses came into sight in the breakfast room. Country Inn and Suites has a good breakfast bar: eggs, sausages, biscuits, four kinds of cereal, three kinds of juice, bread and bagels with a toaster, fruit, milk, and other goodies. We talking with Phyllis about teachers (and how they just aren't paid commensurate with what they do) for a long while, and then with heavy hearts set out to finish packing and load the truck. We said goodbye to Bill and Caran, who were also loading up.

We'd planned to stop at Dawsonville at the outlet stores, but halfway there James said he just really wanted to get home, so that's what we did, just went directly to the vet's office. It was so funny: they brought Tucker out first, and, unlike in March, he came racing out, bounced at my leg, and then went directly to James, all excited, jumping all over him. In fact, he was so enraptured with the fact that we were back that he completely missed the big, black cat that was sitting on the front desk, observing him with unblinking yellow moons of eyes. This is the new office cat; I've forgotten his name, but he was a pantherlike, well-muscled cat with an unflinching stare.

Then Tucker twigged. He froze between James' legs and stared at that cat and started making anxious, worried, eager little whines and cries, and then started to jump forward, but James snubbed him in. He continued to whine and cry and try to go after that cat; someone finally picked the cat up and put him in one of the offices, a good thing, too, because he probably would have scared Snowy to bits. Snowy came out already ready in his little carry box, the nurse helped us wrap up the cage in a plastic, and we were off.

Snowy sang all the way home, which took some time since we had to turn back at a bad accident and find our way out of the neighborhood we were in. By the time we got home, we were starving. We'd remembered the leftover barbecue pork from last night, and James made sandwiches of it—it made four sandwiches, two for each of us!

And that was the end of our Eclipse Odyssey. I shoved everything in the suitcase into the washer and nearly drowned the suitcase in Lysol. And then I washed the clothes in the hamper, too, because Tuesday's my regular laundry day anyway. James thawed out some already cooked pork chops for supper, and we roved around the television looking for something that was a reality show. We ended up watching the specials the Science Channel did on the eclipse. It was actually kind of dull, since they duplicated a lot of scenes in the last special from the first special, and the "live coverage" was just intermittent live reports from Oregon between showings of a special on the sun and a special on the moon. Should have recorded the NASA coverage.

Sigh. Work tomorrow...

Labels: animals, birds, dogs, food, friends, pets, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:42:00 PM

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I so much love not being a slave to the alarm clock. It was exquisite being able to sleep until we woke up this morning, and then have leisure to eat breakfast and not hurry.

When we did go out, we at first made a brief stop at Hobby Lobby. I was thinking of buying another water reservoir for use with my watercolor pencils, since the one I bought has vanished, but bought eraser pencils instead. I'm managing with a plain old paintbrush. Looked thoughtfully at a collection of 50 watercolor pencils (my set is only 24), but didn't buy it.

Then we went to Lowes. I wanted some small nails (not brads; I'm up to my eyeballs in brads, I want nails with heads), a new banner flag (our formerly pretty spring flag with the birds and flowers is shredding from the Georgia sun), and an outdoor timer. The finding the last was a lot harder than it looked. We have floodlights on the side of the house at the back, but they're aimed at the side yard and at one obscure corner of the back yard. The remainder of the yard is as dark as pitch at night. My idea was to take a string of big bulb (C-9) clear Christmas lights (bought at Hobby Lobby after the holidays at a discount) and hang them between the uprights on the deck, so it will light the deck and the back yard as well. We tried this previously, back when James used to take Willow out in the yard at night, but I had gotten lazy and just hung the lights in swags on two sides of the deck using floral wire. It was surprisingly bright (175 watts for all 25 lights) and it made enough light for James to see quite well. We had, during Christmas, bought a switch to plug the lights in that operated on a remote. But the remote was tiny and we kept losing it, and finally the lights wouldn't come on. We thought it was the string, replaced it, and it worked for a while, and then it quit working again. Once the stupid squirrel chewed it in half, that was the end of it.

Last year I brought a new string of lights. Friday I stripped the old string down, and plugged the new one in directly to the plug. And it didn't work. Turns out the ground-fault interrupter had popped. Once I did, they lit fine. But the timer didn't seem to work, so I went online and found out that Lowes had one that operated either on/off, or for set hours, or dusk to dawn. I looked up what aisle it was in at our closest store.

And it wasn't there. We finally had to get an employee (who didn't seem to understand the concept of "outdoor timer" and "remote control") to track it down; it was located in a box at the very top of the shelves two aisles away from where the website said it was. Will have to hitch it up soon to see how it works. Anyway, got the nails, and two more 3-foot extension cords (we never seem to have enough), but the banner search was a bust. I'll have to look online. [I ordered one off Amazon with a lighthouse and a sailboat on it.]

We were going to come home by Sprouts and Publix, but I found chicken and dumplings in Sprouts and at that point it was after three and we were hungry. So we went home to eat the chicken and dumplings, then went out about five to visit both Publix and Kroger to finish up the shopping, including a steak to grill at the Spiveys tomorrow.

Finally supper at Uncle Maddio's and finally home, where I walked Tucker (the night, after the heat of the day, was actually quite pleasant, so I walked longer than usual, to Tucker's dismay, since someone is popping fireworks in the distance) and finally could sit down to relax. Put on Wild Britain With Ray Mears and saw lovely things: the Cairngorms in Scotland and the Flow north of them (bogland), and out in Norfolk and Suffolk, and also islands off the coast of Wales. Lots of birds—hen harriers, barn owls, gannets, swans and cygnets, plovers, ptarmigan, golden eagles, plus the adorable puffins who look like rubber ducks as they bob in the ocean—plus a water vole which looks like a beaver without the flat tail, a Chinese water deer that has fangs instead of antlers, a spider that lives on the water, and a rabbit just changing from his winter white coat. Oh, and hazelnuts buried in peat from thousands of years ago.

Labels: animals, crafts, decorations, food, nature, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:59:00 PM

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Well, slept a little bit better, but not much; still the hip problems and had to get up at seven to use the bathroom and then hoped to get back to sleep. When I did get back to sleep, it was a Louisa May Alcott-like dream where I was someone sent to take care of a young cousin and didn't find out until I got there that I had to stay a month. I was so upset in the dream that I called out and scared the family dog. Thankfully the alarm rang.

Came into the conference room to find a big table almost full of folks eating; we got our own food from the breakfast area and brought it in and helped clear a space for Lin as well. No French toast this morning, so I had extra regular toast. (I see the curse of A Discovery of Witches goes on.)

During the end of breakfast, Alice and Aubrey were talking about going to a little bookstore in Cornelia that we'd never heard of. After they left, I asked James if he wanted to try to go to it, too, and John Campbell was interested, as well. So we rushed into our room to finish getting dressed and grabbing money.

Because we were in the truck, John unfortunately couldn't ride with us, so he was following behind. Cornelia was about a half-hour's drive away, turning left at the big field where a big herd of Holstein cows are always grazing. It was cloudy again today, but not quite as chilly as yesterday, so we just brought our flannel shirts in case. Didn't really need them today.

Unbelievably, we caught up to the Spiveys about a third of the way there, until we got to someplace where the police were escorting a long ride of motorcyclists; we and John ended up between the police cars and the motorcycle riders, so we pulled over until the latter passed. A little further on, as we approached the Walmart, for no reason John got in the turn lane and turned around and went back. We hoped there wasn't a problem back at the hotel.

The GPS led us a merry chase as we got into Cornelia, which is a fairly large town with chain stores and a megachurch called the Torch, telling us the bookstore was on a street around the corner from the public library. It was, in fact, in a shopping center before the public library, a tiny little place that was also a notary public. And, sure enough, the Spiveys were there.

I didn't find anything (all that I was interested in I already had; they had a pristine copy of The Little House Cookbook!), but James got a nearly untouched three-volume set of the history of 20th century sea power for only $30 and another book of interviews with fighter pilots. Then we were all feeling peckish, so we went to a place that the elderly lady running the store recommended, Fender's Diner. This had an old diner vibe and was definitely a vintage place that is well-beloved by the folks in Cornelia. It was a nice lunch, too! I had roast beef and onions au jus with onion rings (truly I will need to pay) and James had a hamburger steak with vegetables.

We'd decided that when we finished at the bookstore we were going to detour to Clarkesville to go to The Art-Full Barn, which is part pottery shop and part comic shop and part art shop and part model shop, and Alice and Aubrey couldn't resist an art store. They used their GPS and we used our phone, and we made it there first, despite the phone telling me initially that we were going in the same direction. Whatever, we made it, and I had to go out and admire the animated metal pinwheels in different colors and styles that are out front. They remind me of the metal sculptures made by Aunt Meg in Twister. Really, they are not so expensive; the most expensive one was $150.

Alice and Aubrey did indeed enjoy this store, and so did Ken, who stocked up on comic books. James also found a comic, and, although the model department is now very small, he got two models. I bought a set of oil paints.

The Spiveys went on home, but we continued onto Cleveland and then turned back toward Helen so we could stop at the Mount Yonah book store. Surprise! Ron and Lin, their son Neil, Bill Ritch, and Charles Rutledge were already there. Some folks meet at bars, we get together at bookstores (and I do still miss those Friday nights at the Borders Books on the East-West Connector!). Bill had turned up a really neat find: there's no copyright on it, but it's a hardcover copy of Swiss Family Robinson with an inscription to a person for Christmas 1918! The pages are browning, but it's in super condition. (He let me look at it back at the hotel. I thought I had a complete version, with a different translation, but no, what I have must be still abridged, because there are some parables Father tells the boys that are not in my edition. Franz is called "Frank" in this edition, but I was delighted by the footnotes, that explained to the evidently younger reader what things like trigonometry and oil lamps are, and how when the book was written there were no trains. Plus it still has the color plates!)

Anyway, James turned up a book on fighter pilots and I found the next book in Gerald Johnson's history of America trilogy for young people, the first which I bought here a few years ago, and then on the way out I found a copy of Mercedes Lackey's A Study in Sable in paperback. James bought both for me.

After a short stop at Nora Mill Granary for James to get some white gravy and start on this year's Christmas surprise for Mom and Candy, we finally arrived back at the hotel. Turns out John thought we were going to the Mount Yonah store and turned around because he didn't recognize anything. As he said, a failure in communication. But I swear we said it was in Cornelia.

Saturday night we usually eat at the German restaurant, but James said that this year he thought the German food would be too heavy. Well, there I was typing and the next thing I knew James was asking where we wanted to go for supper, and when I looked around almost everyone was gone. Juanita and David, though, were about to head back to Wendell's for supper and asked if we wanted to come with them. Well, we'd love to!

Unfortunately, Wendell's isn't open for dinner, and another place the desk recommended was only a breakfast place. So we decided to try Cowboys & Angels, which Shari had spoken of favorably. This was downtown, close to where we had parked yesterday.

Cowboys & Angels is a bar/restaurant with live music, so we kind of expected it to be loud when we got there. But when James and I walked in, the sound was deafening: live band playing not-bad music, but amplified in a small space, and with everyone talking over the music, it was awful. When David came in, we asked if he thought Juanita would mind moving outside. David thought it was too loud, too, so we went outside.

The tables and chairs outside are set on dirt covered up by pine bark. James sat down in a chair and immediately started toppling backward as the thin legs of the chair sank into the dirt. David and I had to rescue him, and he found a different chair and took a different place. About then Juanita walked up from having parked the car, and we explained about the music. Of course then we had to smell cigarette smoke, but at that point it seemed the lesser of two evils.

Juanita has lots of health problems, including a penicillin allergy, a cheese allergy, and a shrimp allergy. The latter is so bad that she can't even eat fish fried in the same oil that shrimp has been fried in. But the waitress told us that they did not serve shrimp. Juanita also has some other health problems and had bariatric surgery some years ago. She cannot eat dry foods (like crackers or chicken breast) because it makes her throat seize up and causes a lot of pain. So when she ordered the fish, she told the waitress the only way she could eat it was if it was moist. The waitress assured her they could cook it that way. She was also asked not to include the tartar sauce as Juanita is allergic. The place was very expensive, so James and I split a ribeye and had salads for our two sides and David had a hamburger.

Well, when Juanita's fish came, it was cooked in a very thick sauce and inside the fish was dry as paper. Plus the tartar sauce had been included in a cup and had spilled over the second piece of fish. Juanita called the waitress back and said she was sorry, but the fish that she could eat was too dry, not moist as promised, and that the other piece had tartar sauce all over it. The waitress said she would get her a new batch. James had had some mushrooms as appetizers, with a very light beer-batter coating instead of the dry cornmeal coating, and Juanita asked if when they made her a new batch, could they fry it in the beer-batter instead? The waitress went off for fifteen minutes, then came back with Juanita's cold plate and said if they did her a new batch like that she would have to pay for it again! Can you beat that? We had to talk to the manager and they finally gave her a new fish dish with the fish fried in the beer batter, and it was indeed moist instead of dry and Juanita said it was good, but it was too much work to go through, especially since the food was so expensive.

This place also reminded me why I don't like bars. The restaurant and the surrounding buildings are in a pretty area with paths and metal sculptures and grass and flowers. When we had been there yesterday we noticed two domestic rabbits hopping around, apparently "free range," a black-and-white one and a black one (I swear I'd seen a white one earlier, too, but didn't see it now). Well, while we were eating, the two different bunnies came out to graze; they disappeared when some little kids chased them, but returned and we were enjoying watching them.

The people at the table behind us were frankly getting flat drunk. So when the bunnies came back out, a woman screeched "Oh, look at the rabbits!" and honest to God got up and tried to chase them, in a pencil skirt and high heels. She kicked off the shoes and went staggering after the black rabbit, and of course he hightailed it out of there. She then came wobbling back and was so tipsy she could hardly get back into her shoes. When someone teased her about the shoes, she shouted back than she "had blood on them from beating her husband." (Once back at the table, she admitted loudly that it wasn't true, she wasn't even married.) Mind-boggling. Why people want to get drunk and do stupid things are beyond me.

So by the time we finished eating it was full dark. David and Juanita walked to get the car, and we walked as far as James could go to meet them at the street. Well, the black rabbit had come back and stood there about 10 feet from us, just eating and swiveling his ears back and forth as I talked to him. A few minutes later a guy just walked four feet past him and he didn't turn an ear. He's just put off by drunks. Me, too.

So games were in full swing when we got back to the hotel. I watched them play a game called Anomia, where people who pull a card with the same symbol have to think of an answer before the other person does. That looked like fun. Then I joined in when they played something called Karma. There's a passing resemblance to Uno. And, then, of course, we played a couple of games of Uno! Always fun. I love Uno!

The "kids" wanted to play Betrayal, so we cleared the table for them. James was reading on his baby laptop trying to find a certain model from a model show to show to John Campbell, and I sat next to him and worked on a cross-stitch while watching Oreta, Ron, Lin, Shannon, and Phyllis play a card game called "Once Upon a Time," which seemed to be about making up a fairy tale. Shannon was also working on a beading project. Some folks were still coloring and Bill and Damian were talking politics (Damian has served in Afghanistan, so knows the politics of the military a little better than the rest of us).

The Betrayal game broke up about midnight when the gamers found a flaw in the scenario they were running, the fairy tale ended, and people wandered off to bed. We weren't the last folks out the door, but it was close. 😊

Labels: animals, books, dreams, food, friends, games, shopping, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:56:00 PM

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The cuddles were with my pillow. I definitely planned on eight hours sleep this morning, but got more like ten. I always say I get my best, deepest sleep after 6 a.m., and this certainly proved it. I woke up at 9:45 realizing I was not going to make it to Costco before it got really hot, as I still needed to take Tucker for a walk and eat something for breakfast so I didn't go wandering through the store like Grumpy Cat.

Lucked out and a guy was leaving right near the door; I didn't want to mess around with a long walk back to the car with the frozen chicken thighs I was buying for Hair Day. Since I was here, I also picked up milk; if we bought milk at Costco every week the savings alone from that would pay for the membership twice over. Scanned the DVDs (lots of British series!) and the books (mostly things I wouldn't read), and sampled some very nice smoked gouda.

I went home the long way, with the chicken in the insulated bag, by Sprouts to get the soup of the day (clam chowder) for Sunday supper; I have been dying for their clam chowder. Well, when I got there the chowder was almost out and the next batch would not be ready for forty minutes. So I took as much as I could get and they gave me a dollar off at the register because the container wasn't full.

I'd left Tucker penned in the dining room while I was out; if he is good for longer periods of time we can leave him there during the day. He'd been good, so I had a brief bit of lunch and gave him a cookie, cleaned up a little, then sat down to watch the Lassie episodes I recorded off CoziTV yesterday and this morning. They are showing the ninth season episodes, which, as far as I can tell, haven't been seen in syndication for years, possibly since Nickelodeon showed them. Plus, according to their online schedule on TitanTV, they are going to show "The Journey" as originally broadcast on the network, something that has not been done on American television (TVLand in Canada did do it) since the original broadcast, as it was edited into a film called Lassie's Great Adventure. However, Cozi will certainly be editing it for extra commercials, so we won't be seeing it totally uncut.

When James got home, we went to Ken's Grill for supper (it's cheap) and then came home to cook the chicken cacciatore. We put all three Pyrex dishes into process and cooked the nine pounds in one fell swoop. It's really easy—brown each boneless thigh fifteen minutes on each side, then distribute tomato sauce on top of it, add mushrooms and onions (there would have been green peppers, but we didn't have any), and turn over every fifteen minutes until at temperature inside. Then let cool until they can be ladled into carrying containers and put into the fridge. The hardest part is scrubbing out the chicken dishes afterwards.

Even got a few episodes of Strange Paradise in there, and a dog walk.

Incidentally, guess what I saw when I took Tucker out last night: we have bats! They were swooping around the light at the end of the cul de sac last night, gobbling up bugs. I could hear them squeak as they surveyed Tucker and I for signs of danger. Perhaps this is why the mosquitoes haven't been as bad this year.

Labels: animals, food, health, Lassie, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:43:00 PM

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One, sleeping late, but you knew I'd say that. :-) Next came breakfast, and then a nice long walk up and down the street with Tucker. We had a cold front blow through last night with a great flapping of the shades, and this morning had a nice bite of cold in it, with clouds over all. After the walk I let Tucker go upstairs while I removed the winter decorations from the foyer. These went all in one box, even the Avon snowman, so perhaps the big box with the main floor decorations won't be as much of a puzzle box this time.

The front door was still bare, as I took the winter wreath down a couple of weeks ago, so I removed the spring/summer wreath from the garage, pulled out the bag from Michael's, and sat down at the couch with my wire cutters. The old flowers on the grapevine wreath base were faded from the Georgia sun and dusty and sad. I stripped them all off and then cut the new flowers off the bunches I had bought at Michaels (they're made to go directly into a vase; I take them apart one stem at a time to distribute on the wreath. The plastic stems worked right in the twisted grapevine; no floral wire was even needed. The blue daisies were the base flowers, with yellow ones distributed in between, and a sprinkling of purple puff flowers dotted here and there. I added a monarch butterfly, a bee, and a little "stuffed" goldfinch on a nest, used some floral wire to make a hanger, and voilà, wreath. (You can't see the goldfinch here; he's behind the vertical leaf in the center.)


I was starting to get a bit peckish, so I thought I might stop at Barnes & Noble to see what they had in soup; on my way there, I pondered stopping at the Smyrna Library to see what they had in their perpetual book sale, but thought I might do it on the way home. But it turned out I stopped on the inbound leg, because as I was approaching the entryway, there was a mother duck and her seven ducklings in the middle of the road. The Library is right next to a little woodsy area with a gazebo where people get married and a little pond, and ducks and geese nest there all the time. The ducks are a weird combination of Pekin (barnyard) ducks and wild ducks, and come out in the wildest color patterns. This one was black with a white head, but the duckling were all the same color, fuzzy yellow-grey with stripes on their backs. I had to stop in the library parking lot to get some pictures, so I ended up there first anyway. I found a hardback copy of a book I love, and a couple of other things, too, but, alas, I discovered the book I picked up for James he already had. It only cost me 50 cents, so no biggie.


The soup at B&N turned out to be tomato basil, which would have been Indigestion City for me, so I just looked around. Picked up the new Harry Dresden book in paperback with my coupon. They also had Nook HD covers on sale for 75 percent off (since they're phasing out the HDs in favor of the Samsungs); I've been wanting a thinner cover and snapped up one.

On the way home I stopped at Panera for a bowl of soup, and at Publix to pick up a couple of things, including more oatmeal. Since they aren't including the lower sugar kinds in the BOGO sales anymore, I am buying plain for home and mixing a teaspoonful of maple syrup in each batch. I even bought an easy-pour bottle of maple syrup to make this easier.

Once home I cleaned up the mess from making the wreath and put my work clothes in the wash, made the bed and concatenated the winter decorations on the dining room table. James got home a bit early, so we went to the West Cobb Diner for supper. Broiling hot in there! Come on, guys, it's not that cold. Dinner was good, but, wow, was the dressing salty. I think someone accidentally seasoned it twice.

After supper we went to the West Cobb Barnes & Noble to see if there were any books James would be interested in (he's still got the two 20 percent off coupons he got in the mail). He found three magazines only, and I got this year's "Country Sampler" home tours magazine as well as Erik Larson's new book about the Lusitania, which was 30 percent off. Perturbed to notice afterwards that my membership card did not "ring up" and I didn't get the additional discount. Will need to go back and see if I can fix that. $3.80 is $3.80.

Watched Night Court for the remainder of the evening. Part two of "Hurricane" was hilarious, with Harry and company having to deliver four expectant mothers' babies in the courtroom during a hurricane.

Labels: animals, birds, books, crafts, food, magazines, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:28:00 PM

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Why, why, why...must I have to use the bathroom fifteen minutes before the alarm rings? And then I had to hit the ground running: dress, assemble, eat breakfast, walk Tucker. The sky was serrated with cirrus clouds that kept the sun away during the walk, but it came out as we re-entered the house. I did it all in time to arrive at Jim Miller Park at about ten minutes of nine and had to hunt up a parking space; I was going to park in the back, but the long line was blocking the driveway. I had to start a new row near the equestrian ring. The rodeo is this weekend, and along with the books, I had this cool experience!

Leaving the book sale, I headed for the Battle Ridge Kroger because my gas light was on. Gas was 3.19⁹. ::boggle:: Once finished, I decided to go into Buckhead to the Barnes & Noble, although I looked at the time and worried if I'd run into lunch-hour traffic. Thankfully, it was very light, and the worst annoyance was a diesel-fume spewing truck in front of me. And when I got to the bookstore there was a parking space right out front!

But first, I was hungry and the coffee shop in Barnes & Noble doesn't have soup the way the one at West Cobb does. So I went into Publix next door, only to find out they had chili and cheddar broccoli. I bought a baguette and an apple instead.

Sadly, no luck in the bookstore. I guess they don't carry "Best of British" anymore either, and I didn't see "Victorian Homes." Maybe Books-a-Million will have it, or someone on my Christmas list will see it and I can ask if they can send it to me. I can't see either of the supermarkets having it. I did pick up the new Sleepy Hollow novel with my 20 percent off coupon. On my way home I stopped at Michael's and got a couple of things for a craft project and a Command hook to hang up my cross-stitch project holder. I saw an alphabet pattern book with a fall pattern and a nice Christmas and also a redwork pattern, so I had to grab it, as well as a 23rd Psalm one. Unfortunately Michael's won't let you use coupons on books, not even pattern books.

Came home to have lunch and then take Tucker in the back yard. I had laid my apple on the coffee table, intending to finish it after I'd finished his walk. Suddenly I heard a "thump!" and there was Tucker walking off with my apple!

James got home early due to working late earlier in the week; we had supper (turkey! cucumber and tomato salad!) at the West Cobb Diner after narrowly escaping an accident. We were in the parking lot and had slowed down to approach a space right in front of the diner when this woman driving an SUV just zoomed past us; I looked right at her in the driver's seat and it was as if she didn't even notice us. Probably yapping on a cell phone. Idiot. Checked out the Barnes & Noble at West Cobb after eating, and James sat in the truck for five minutes while I checked out the new scents at Yankee Candle. They have something called Pumpkin Ginger Bark which is quite intriguing, and I think "North Pole" is peppermint scented, although the Peppermint Bark candle is stronger. I need a new tumbler of Cinnamon Stick; they have Cinnamon and Sugar out all year, but it's just too darned sweet smelling. I'd like to combine their chocolate layer cake scent and the coffee scent—it would smell just like a family gathering when I was a kid.

Finally we bought ice cream for dessert, and then headed home.

Tucker spent the rest of the evening bouncing off walls after having such a quiet day. I watched parts five and six of "Inferno" on Doctor Who and looked through my new books, and thought about those lovely horses trotting about the ring and the woman riding them so effortlessly. Made me feel like a kid again.

Labels: animals, books, Christmas, dogs, food, pets, shopping, traffic

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:25:00 PM

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So we had a fun late morning and early afternoon with some guests! Jen Waters' sister Meggan, her husband Jason, and their little girl Jonna (turned a year old two days ago) were doing a quickie trip to Atlanta over the weekend to attend a wedding on Saturday night. They got in late last night and I got a message to call them when we were up.

To cut to the chase, we drove down to their hotel (they are planning to take MARTA to the wedding, so didn't rent a car) to pick them up; they shared the backseat with Jonna and her car seat. Then it was off to the zoo, right past Turner Field. It was drizzling and grey, but it hadn't kept out the families. Price sure has gone up since the last time we were here, though, which I think was when Jessie and Aubrey were babies (they're both turning 21 in the fall; you do the math)! Plus they added sales tax! Luckily we had a coupon from the Entertainment Book.

To answer what I'd wondered before we got there, yes, the flamingos are still at the front gate. Behind them, we didn't even need a sign: it was the budgie free-flight cage—you could hear the noise all the way across the flamingo pond! But at the point we arrived it was still too chilly for them to be let out, so Meggan suggested we go the other way, which worked out well.

I think what I remember most is the birds; we saw all sorts of birds, from huge eagle owls to vultures (they had an artificial zebra carcass to eat out of), a lovely golden pheasant and a sleeping whistling duck, a dour kookabura, a big flock of different birds in a flight cage. We saw ring-tailed lemurs and greater lemurs, including a greater lemur who posed very nicely for us. We did see the bongo [a large, striped antelope], but the legend said they were very shy, and sure enough, he wandered off out of sight. The giraffes, elephants, and otters were not on display, but we saw a beautiful Sumatran tiger; a trio of lions including a young one; gazelles, ostriches, and zebra; a rhinoceros and her baby; the reptile house (I skipped most of the snakes, but I had to laugh when I saw a rattlesnake about two inches away from the heat lamp; he must have thought it was chilly even in the overwarm reptile house); and a lone red panda asleep in a tree (the new giant panda cubs are nine months old now, but all of the giant pandas were sacked out by the time we got there). We arrived at the orangutang enclosure just as the zoo attendant was trying to get him to do some of his exercises on the computer. The orangutang evidently figured it was Saturday and he wasn't going to do any "schoolwork." He'd click the green button and put the exercise back up on the screen, and then go sit in his hammock!

Early in the circuit we also stopped at the children's zoo. Jonna is fascinated by goats and she spent a happy fifteen minutes in the goat pen patting them. We also ate at one of the cafes, but I wasn't impressed. The hot dog was okay, but my milk had a skin on it (like you might find on latex paint—ugh!) and the fries must have had my maximum amount of sodium for the day on them. James' cheeseburger was cold.

So by the time we reached the budgie enclosure (and you can hear the budgies all the way back into the African section!), they were all outside. It was lovely! I want to live there! They give you a little stick with some seed and fruit on it, and, if you're patient enough, and hold the stick up, sometimes the birds will come to you, but it's easier if you find one perched in reach and offer the stick to them. They're not exactly tame, but not exactly wild, either, because they will eagerly feed on the seed—until a warning scold or a shadow sets them off, or if they're eating grass. They were especially flighty because it was quite obviously mating season, and on branches, in corners (the "exit" sign seemed to be an especially coveted perch), upon the netting, there were pairs billing and cooing at each other. Except for one little bird who was trying to sleep in all the racket! They're not all green and yellow like wild budgies in the outback, either, but a rainbow of budgie colors: blue, white, green, chartruse, yellow, purple. One was mixed pastels just like my little Pip, who only lived five months, and there were birds who looked like Merlin, or Bandit, or Schuyler, and even Pigwidgeon.

At last it was time to get the Padvoracs back to their hotel to get dressed for the wedding. Having found lunch unsatisfactory, we had an early supper at Panera and returned home for James to relax his aching knees.

Labels: animals, birds, events, food, friends

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:27:00 PM

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We took the opportunity to have a long, lovely sleep-in this morning, except at six when James had to get up to let Willow out, as she was barking with frantic notes. After breakfast we did the usual grocery store roundup, first to Publix for a few twofers, and then to Kroger for the rest of the meal. You can tell it's fall because the grocery stores have those cinnamon-scented decorative brooms everywhere and the store entry is heady with cinnamon. We found some nice thin-cut round steaks that will be perfect for James to cook after work; show them a picture of a fire and they'll be done.

Now for the shocking portion of the day: we had to ride out to Dunwoody to get Willow's meds, because her blood test indeed indicates she has Cushing's disease (another one of those old-dog diseases; she has too much cortisol in her system due to a tumor on her pituitary gland—humans also get it and the symptoms are far nastier, as far as I can tell). We are supposed to give her the pills one a day for two weeks and then come back for a blood test. As far as I can tell, this is going to get expensive very fast...almost $100 for 30 pills! (Have checked online; can get them for around $50 if she stays on that dosage.)

If James wasn't feeling poorly when he got up this morning, he did after he paid that vet bill! He was looking so pale as we were driving back down Mt. Vernon Road (after a fruitless stop at the Dunwoody Kroger to see if they had his favorite salad dressing) that I had him stop at Panera and we both had some chicken soup. (By this time it was almost three and he ate at ten; I think low blood sugar had something to do with it.) Publix didn't have the salad dressing, either, so we just came home, and we were able to catch up on This Old House (from the Jersey Shore after Hurricane Sandy) and Sleepy Hollow.

What was left of the fallout after Tropical Storm Karen collapsed in the Gulf of Mexico combined with the cold front coming from the northwest blew in around 7:30 with a clatter of rain on the chimney-top. It rained for the remainder of the night, sometimes very hard—I looked out on the deck at one point and rain was sluicing down one of the chairs like a waterfall—which means, of course, that I probably lost both Last Tango in Halifax and the first episode of The Paradise. Ah, well, I missed the third episode of Last Tango anyway...

Labels: animals, food, health, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:27:00 PM

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Hark, hark, the dog does bark...but why before the alarm?

But we were going to the Farmer's Market anyway, so might as well get up.

We had a cold front go through late yesterday, and the weather was glorious this morning: a sky of bright winter blue, temperature about 60°F, a light breeze blowing. We could drive with the windows down and were comfortable enough to stroll through the twice-monthly artists' market that sets up on Mill Street and check out the jewelry, artwork, and crafts. At the Farmer's Market, we bought cucumbers, baking potatoes, tomatoes, sweet corn, some brownies for dessert, and boiled peanuts and chicken salad for James. The Capra Gia folks ("goat cheese guy") brought a two-day old kid with them, and were letting the children feed it with a baby bottle. You should have see the little white goat waggling her tail as she nursed. All I could think of was Heidi and the Alm Uncle's little goat Schwanli.

From the market we went directly to Costco, intending to stock up on toilet paper and Mandarin oranges. We also had coupons for omeprazole and loratadine. Well, we found Star Trek: Into Darkness on sale, and they had a new stock of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, including a neat storm grey color in my size and, even better, my length, that I couldn't resist. They will look slick with my bright blue winter sweater!

Once home James left for his club meeting, and I washed the bathroom floor, made the bed, topped off my omeprazole bottle, cut out coupons, and dubbed off Joanna Bogle's newest Feasts & Seasons about the saints. I could have sworn I had five of these, but there were only four. There was a Lassie episode I was keeping, too, "The Moved Monument." I want a couple of more, too, like "The Rescue" with Kenneth Tobey, "Fire Watchers" with Ruth taking a turn in a fire tower, "The Musher," which takes place at a winter carnival, and "Deadly Goats," where Paul's goats are suspected of having anthrax.

I was thinking I need to start spiffing up my Lassie website; it's my most popular site and two big anniversaries are coming up: December 17 is the 75th anniversary of the Lassie character; Eric Knight's short story was first published in the December 17, 1938, issue of the "Saturday Evening Post." Next September 12 is the 60th anniversary of the first episode of the television series. Special moves should be afoot. :-)

Tonight for supper we went to Taste of Smyrna. Yes, I badly abused my digestion, but I enjoyed what I ate: a crabcake that was much too peppery, but so "crabby" that I ate it anyway, between bites of Atkins Park's "drunken pork roast" over white grits, to cut the fire. (I don't usually eat grits, which tells you how good these are). Also had some chicken pad thai, and some pork barbecue from Williamson with very little sauce (it's still coming up on me). For dessert, chocolate ice cream from Brusters. We didn't go until 6:30, just as the sun was getting low, so it was pleasant, if not cool, and not suffocating in the crowds of people going from booth to booth. (But, dang, doesn't anyone make a crabcake without a ton of pepper in it?)

Oh, here's the Doctor Who poster we saw last night, except the one we saw was horizontal, not vertical.

Labels: animals, events, food, Lassie, movies, shopping

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

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A nice warm sleep-in as a prelude to going out on a very cold day—imagine, it's March and it's pretty much the coldest day we've had all season, 28°F with the wind chill. Hats and scarves and hoods were employed against the wind's edge.

Predictably, the crowd was small. We bought a turkey pot pie for Sunday supper, two big baking potatoes, and James got more chicken salad and some pound cake for himself. As we walked about, flurries—actually little sleet pellets—flitted about us, spinning in the wind. It was so cold even the little goat brought to the market by the Capra Gia folks [a.k.a. "Goat Cheese Guy"] was in a "coat" (a little knitted thing). She was awfully cute. She had a little crate she could escape into, but she mostly stayed in the collapsible metal fence surrounding the crate. You could tell she wanted to play; she kept cutting what capers she could manage in the limited space. Too cute for words.

We also finished the shopping at the Whitlock Kroger, and James bought some breakfast. I had my own oatmeal and yogurt when we came home, and then we lazed a bit and I started the monthly backup on my hard drive.

Went out again, heading up for Hobbytown by way of Michaels and JoAnn. I had to ask for [mumble] in Michaels; the clerk said she didn't think they carried them. I said, well, there are three craft projects on your website that use them, I figured you could buy them here! And she did find them. (Sorry not to divulge; gift-making item again.) Also picked up a cross-stitch magazine and some more linen for cross stitch in JoAnn. While James wandered around Hobbytown, I sat on one of the platforms they have so people can look at the big model train setup near the cashier and read the first Phryne Fisher book on my little tablet. I was rather surprised to notice that two dogs were in the store, a rather elderly dachshund and a very sturdy Shetland Sheepdog. It wasn't a delicate version; it almost looked rather like someone had shrunken Lassie. It could have even been a working dog.

Then we cut through the back of the shopping area and went to Barnes & Noble in the midst of a pleasant flurry, as I was still looking for the "Country Sampler" Home special. Not there, but I did find a big surprise: the book Lost States, that I looked at for months at Borders, but didn't want to pay $25 for. It was on the remainder shelf for $7. Score!

We made our way home through the park, but before we got home, we stopped at Lowes. James knows they sell range hoods like ours there and was hoping they sold covers for the light bulb in the hood. Ours is rotting from a combination of cooking and light bulb heat. All they could offer us was a number to call to order another one.

Had supper at home and watched more episodes of From the Earth to the Moon before James went downstairs to work on a model. So now I'm dubbing off Castle.

Labels: animals, books, dogs, food, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:20:00 PM

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I hadn't anything really planned for my Friday off, since the exterminator was coming, until the new Publix ad was published on Thursday. They usually have one of their shrimp rings buy-one get-one on Stupid Bowl weekend and this year was no exception. They're still expensive, but half as expensive, and they're nice to use for a treat. So after the exterminator did the perimeter of the house, I zipped over to Publix, wrapped up even in a scarf due to the nippy cold, and bought two of the medium rings. These will be decanted into two plastic bags—whatever James does with the icky cocktail sauce is up to him—and can be used on a special occasion (like Valentine's Day) to make a nice homemade shrimp scampi or other shrimp dish. There were some other goodies on twofer, like Near East couscous and quinoa mixes, and Hallmark items were also included, so I came from the store with a pretty good haul. I also stopped at the hardware store; no three-foot non-flat-plug extension cords there, either.

I had just put up the groceries and was doing a few chores when James called: he was coming home since work was very slow. We took our Barnes & Noble coupons and went out to the Avenue at West Cobb, where I picked up the newest Daisy Dalrymple mystery in paperback (actually, it seems like it's the last new Daisy mystery period; I don't see a corresponding new hardback). While we were out, we decided to do the shopping at Kroger to avoid the maniacal Stupor Bowl shoppers. It wasn't a bad time to go, either, as a lot of people weren't out of work yet. Kroger was a little less crazy than Publix—they had mostly Valentine-themed foods, whereas Publix was a jaw-dropping wonder, with football themed cupcakes, cookies, cakes, not to mention turkeys and turduckens and foil roasting pans as if it were Thanksgiving!—and we also picked up soups for supper.

Saturday both of us evidently needed to sleep, because we ended up getting up at ten. By the time we got to the Farmer's Market, there was no more chicken salad. That'll learn us.

Later in the day we checked out a bookstore/coffee shop noted in the local freebie magazine "Cobb Life." This is Traders 22, across from the Kennesaw public library in downtown Kennesaw. It was a cute little place, in an old 1920s house (complete with a hallway niche for the telephone), with the kitchen used to prepare the coffee and hot chocolate and the bathroom looking still the same as it had back then. There were some books in what was a living room and a bedroom, but just a small supply. We sat and relaxed and had a peppermint cocoa and some nice coffee cake which wasn't overly sweetened.

On the way home we stopped at Three Way Campers on Cobb Parkway to look at baby trailers. We can't afford a lot and can't pull much. Much of what we can pull is about $10,000-$12,000 and pocket sized. I liked the little rPods, but there were a couple of other small trailers that were a bit roomer and better laid out. I forgot what the brands were. They had several used Class C units (the ones that have a truck cab with a "loft" bed over them) that had seen better days. Someone had loved them to death. :-) We also stopped at the little place on Austell Road, Norman, but the only little one they had would have only fit two skinny teenagers or a hunter and his dog. :-)

To clear the fridge a little we finished up our Chinese food for supper, which ended up being a bad idea. This batch was massively greasy. I couldn't finish mine and was sick all night despite taking my Prilosec. I also ended up with a killer headache that even three ibuprofin couldn't quell. It finally went away enough to talk with Emma on chat, but I was having connection problems all night.

Up earlier this morning, so feeling shellshocked if better all day. We ended up going back to Publix to grab a couple of more shrimp rings and some birthday cards. Also found some no-sugar spaghetti sauce, one which might be useful with the shrimp, and some chicken apple sausage we haven't tried before (so far nothing is as good as what we get from Trader Joe's). It was still cool enough to tuck all the perishables in an insulated bag and take a turn around the Akers Mill Barnes & Noble to see if there was something to use a second coupon on. James found a World War II nonfiction book and I almost picked up the second book in Jennifer Worth's Midwife series (I finished the first book, a super page-turner, last night), but this is where she addresses the workhouse survivors, such a sad story I wasn't sure I could bear it. I found a travel book instead, about a man who picks up an old Frommer's Europe on $5 a Day who decides to follow its itinerary and see what the sites Frommer reviewed were like now. It was recommended by Eric Weiner, whose Geography of Bliss I had enjoyed.

Finally we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Panera Bread, then returned home. James wend down to the "man cave" and Schuyler and I watched the Puppy Bowl. A real cutie of a small female dog won "MVP," most valuable puppy, and there was lots of adorable romping, the "Kitty Halftime Show" (the kittens always look astonished at the confetti finale!), hamsters in a "blimp," a cockatiel "tweeting" the plays, and, this year, hedgehogs as "cheerleaders." Much better than that football nonsense!

We found these wafer-thin pork chops at Publix this morning. James showed them a picture of a gas flame and they cooked up nicely. We had talked about having waffles and bacon this morning, but James forgot to take the bacon out to thaw and then was sick to his stomach this morning and figured he shouldn't be eating bacon anyway. He had Cheerios instead, so we had the waffles with the pork chops. It all sorta works out in the end.

Labels: animals, books, food, shopping, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:57:00 PM

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Despite wanting to sleep in, we did get up early this morning, as it was the final Farmer's Market of 2012 and nothing starts up again until January 19. We had to bundle up, because it had gone down to the 30s during the night, and a sharp, keen wind was blowing in from the northwest. I do mean keen! I put on my heavier jacket (I don't pull out my coat unless it gets really cold), a scarf, and my hat plus an earband over it, plus my new gloves with the capacative fingertips, and we were still freezing. The breeze went through the top of my hat as if it wasn't there. The market was held on Mill Street, and the wind funneled right down the street, from one end to the other. The vendors were red-nosed and buried in scarves and either fumbling with gloves or struggling with stiffening fingers. The owner of Big Daddy Dog Biscuits had brought the eponymous Big Daddy [a laid-back, gentle pit bull] with her, complete with dog coat; nevertheless the poor guy was cold and she had to cover him with her coat as well. We had to laugh when the guy from Capra Gia ("goat cheese guy") came by with a two-week old female kid (a miniature Nubian goat.) tucked in his jacket; he said they were keeping each other warm. He said she was ready to go to her new home and he was keeping an eye on her till then. Did you know you can housetrain a goat? He said she has already been housebroken and will be a pet. Too cute.

So we got dog biscuits (including some Christmas cookies), goat cheese, some Christmas bread to take to the folks' house next weekend, some cake, chicken salad for James, and a baked rigatoni  for Christmas Eve.

From there we went to the Whitlock Avenue Kroger. I wanted some bread for the week, even if I wasn't going to work, and theirs doesn't have cornmeal all over it like the Smyrna Kroger. The store was still a happy tangle of baking supplies, poinsettia plants, fruits for Christmas, and other holiday color. We bought some boneless pork ribs for a future supper, got yogurt, and also the baking powder we need for this afternoon's baking orgy.

So we were home, and things put up, and we had changed into clothing for baking, and James started his prep—he was planning to bake some low-sugar chocolate chip cookies to start with—and I started mine, going downstairs to fetch the wine bottle. There was one in the closet downstairs.

Well. No, there wasn't. I was remembering the year before; we were completely out of wine. James discovered at the same time that, while we had baking powder, he needed baking soda for his cookies. Two different animals. So...we had to get dressed again. It was already past lunchtime and neither of us had eaten, and we were pretty grim going out to Mink's for hearty burgundy wine (but I did find it immediately...and I bought two bottles as well). On the way back we stopped at Publix for the baking soda and picked up supplies for corn casserole, too.

By the time we got back it was 2:30, so it was a long afternoon baking. James turned out a batch of chocolate chip cookie drops (they were supposed to be cookies but they didn't flatten) and then he adapted the recipe to make cinnamon-chip cookies...uh, drops. These are both very light and tasty! I mixed out my first batch of wine biscuits while he was baking. Wow! I haven't seen hearty burgundy this dark since my Papà made his own wine; it was purple, a deep amethyst color. And boy, did it turn the dough purple. I baked two batches (about 70 cookies) and it was hard to tell they were done because the dough was so dark, with the result that they are slightly overcooked. They take a while to bake, too, so James' last batch, his butterscotch drops (he's been jonesing for butterscotch), went in the oven late. We didn't get out to supper until way after six, but we left the house smelling heavenly!

James had stuffed a couple of flatbreads with meat and cheese sometime during the afternoon; I'd just nibbled on cookie dough, so I was starving by the time we got to Hibachi Grill. Afterwards we went to Barnes & Noble to use up my second coupon and James' first. I found a linguistics book and he got a card game.

Got home to find Rodney already on chat and had a nice conversation for over an hour. By the time Emma got on, though, we were both pretty well tired out from the cookie orgy. So I made my regrets early and we went off to bed, as we wanted to go to BJs early tomorrow. We need batteries, mandarin oranges, and paper towels. There's an odd combination!

Labels: animals, books, Christmas, food, shopping, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:50:00 PM

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The weekend festivities actually began on Thursday, with our work picnic. This was held once again at Jones Bridge Park in Norcross. (The iron bridge once crossed the Chattahoochee River, which runs parallel to the park grounds, but was closed before World War II; indeed, half of it is gone, having been dismantled for scrap in the war.) It was chilly in the morning; I even had to wear my jacket. Sadly, it was also sunny, so it got very warm by afternoon.

It was a swell party. I had the usual complaint about loud music, but it wasn't on too long. Lunch was "burgers and dogs" with fixings, chips, some fruit, ate with Tiffney and Vivian, listening to some others do kareoke.

One of my favorite things happens after lunch: I take a walk along the river, then through the woods in back of the picnic area. Parts of the undergrowth are fenced off because of past erosion, so there are several flights of steps down to the river that end at small streatches of rock before dropping off into the water. People like to sit at the foot of the largest flight of steps and feed the ducks and the geese. There were at least five or six dozen of mallards and Canada geese on the river today, ducking underwater for their dinner or preening, or just drifting like little flotillas upon the sun-drenched water.

As I descended one of the smaller sets of steps, I spied a squirrel at the edge of the path. As I wondered if I could slip my phone out to get a photo of him, there was a wild scratching from the trash can less than two feet from me. In the opening appeared another squirrel face, looking panicked, then the squirrel scrambled out of the trash can and beat it into the underbrush! How I laughed!

The woods path was strewn with dead leaves and had the delightful scent of fall, although the trees are not turned as much as they've been in previous years. There were birdcalls overhead and at one point I saw a wren flirting his tail on the rail of a little bridge that goes over a creek from the river.

By midafternoon I was starting to feel uncomfortable with the sun and wary about Thursday traffic—it was already backing up near Roswell Road—so I got on my way. I stopped for a few minutes at "The Forum," a shopping center just down from Jones Bridge Road to check out the Barnes & Noble. I finally did find The Tale of Castle Cottage, which I searched for all last weekend. I also stopped at Publix to buy some bread and some twofers.

My first stop Friday was the Cobb County Library book sale. I also went to Wally World for Breathe Right strips and other necessary items. I had perishables, so came directly home. Had things to clean up and got lured into reading the first of the Trixie Belden books I had bought. We had supper at Hibachi Grill and then decided to hit Publix again, then finished up the shopping at Kroger since James had to work on Sunday.

We were in bed early because we were up at seven on Saturday to head up to Ellijay to the Apple Festival. This was our first time going on Saturday, so we wanted to get there when they opened. We went by Wendy's for breakfast; their oatmeal isn't as good as Chik-Fil-A, but it was on the way and you can get it plain, unlike the glop at Burger King. Traffic was fine and we saw a few nice-looking autumn trees among otherwise uninspiring pines.

They were parking us near the Lions' Club grounds again this year, although we had a good hike to the gate. Most of the usual vendors were there and we had a grand time for over two hours wandering in and out of the booths. We bought a couple of gifts, our last Ginny's Fudge for the year, a few little autumnal decorations—oh, and a new cabinet for the dining room.

I've been wanting to get something new to replace the old microwave cart for a while. The gentleman who made our table and chair set and the medicine cabinet that we bought at the Yellow Daisy Festival also sold a lovely little china cabinet, half the size of the one we have, that would have been perfect. But he hasn't shown up at the show since 2002. I've looked online since then, trying to find something comparable. The closest idea I had was to buy a Leksvik buffet from Ikea and then mount shelves on the wall—in fact, James and I were talking about this last week at the Container Store—but I didn't want to mar the walls.

This isn't my ideal cabinet. It's plain boards dry brushed with white so it looks "distressed." I'm not fond of the look. But it is nice and sturdy, and has three shelves on top and an enclosed cupboard on the bottom. With some autumnal trim it ought to look fine. Our decorating is nothing but eclectic anyway. :-)

By the time we found the pickup spot and got the cabinet loaded, the sun was doing a number on both of us. (We both take medications that say we shouldn't be in the sun too long, and we've lucked out the last two times in that it was cloudy.) At least it was still cool, with a nice breeze. We were happy to thread our way out through a huge car show they were having in the baseball fields next to the Lions' Club grounds. There were some great cars, too: at least a half-dozen blue-and-white 1950s Chevy Bel-Airs, 1930s cars made into roadsters, 1960s muscle cars, old pickup trucks with shiny engine parts, and even a PT Cruiser painted in a flame job.

We stopped at Panorama Orchards on the way out, to get our apples and also a fresh apple pie, some sugar-free taffy for James, some goat-milk hand moisturizer for me, and some apricot teriyaki marinade. We stopped at Krystal for a quick lunch and then drove back listening to last week's episode of "The Splendid Table," and arrived at the hobby shop just in time for James' club meeting. I had bought The Doomsday Vault with me and spent the meeting reading.

We had soup for supper and spent the evening recovering from the sun. I wasn't sunburnt, but my skin felt hot long into the night. Jen was able to get on chat and, later, Mike and Emma, but I spent most of the evening in a stupor. Went to bed an hour earlier than usual, and ended up stuck in the bathroom at 2:30 in the morning. I guess my popcorn sensitivity is back. Gah.

James was off to work before I was even conscious. I got up at nine, conscious that I had a distasteful task to start today. No, not housework: clothes shopping. I need a new outfit for Juanita's wedding in November. The prospect filled me with dread. I've never liked clothes shopping, even when I was at my ideal weight. But this had to be done.

First I went to Publix for a newspaper and some bread, then came home and tried to tidy up a bit. I ended up cutting coupons and watching the "Space Jump," Felix Baumgartner trying to set a new record for a free-fall jump from space. Coaching him through the attempt is the previous record-holder, from the 1960s. Sadly, I had to leave before he jumped, but I did record it.

To take the onus off the errand, I went back to the book sale for about an hour, details here. And finally I girded my loins and went to Catherine's.

The salespeople were incredibly nice. The first thing I needed was a properly fitting brassiere. My current one hurt, made worse by the surgery scars and arthritis. By rummaging around and deciding no underwires, I did find one. Yay. I also found a nice dressy black top, but I wanted a skirt and there were almost all pants there. Look, if I'm going to get dressed, I'm going to get dressed. I did find a skirt I liked, but it was, ironically, too large.

I discovered caftans are apparently in again, and when I dropped by Ross Dress for Less, I found out to my horror that so are miniskirts. That's all that was there in a skirt, minis. Ugh. I couldn't even find skirts in Kohl's. Acres and acres of casual tops, dressy tops, casual dressy tops—but no skirts! Fuggedaboutit. I came home and watched the rest of Baumgartner coverage (I peeked on Facebook; he landed okay) until it was just time for him to make the jump itself. It was just time for James to come in, so I paused it. Too cool: he guided the parachute right down to a two-point landing right on his feet from twenty-three miles up! Plus he broke the sound barrier on the way down! Today, incidentally, is the anniversary of Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in 1947 in the Bell X-1.

We had supper; we watched America's Funniest Home Videos, another heartbreaking episode of Call the Midwife, and finally Mythbusters before it was bedtime.

Labels: animals, autumn, books, clothing, crafts, food, nature, science, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:01:00 PM

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Even with Wednesday a holiday, I needed this long weekend as a respite from work. And, looking at the weather report, I didn't want to spend too much of it outside. Besides, I had plenty to do inside...well, after catching up with sleep on Friday. By nine thirty I was busy: there was housecleaning that needed to be done and a few other things to catch up on. I also went downstairs and finished shifting around the books in the library, moving the science books to over the humor books, and shifting my Albert Payson Terhune books to the top of the bookcase they were in so more books could be fitted into the hardback fiction bookcase. I did think about going out, but changed my mind after refilling the bird feeders!

I finally sat down about four, and that's the way James found the three of us, Schuyler with her head under her wing, Willow sacked out on the chair, and me asleep on the sofa, when he got home from work. We went to Ken's Hometown Grill for supper, and then couldn't think of anything else to do, so went home and watched episodes of The Big Bang Theory instead. We are presently watching a bit of a dog's breakfast of the series on WPCH: they restarted the series on the Sunday airings, so we have gotten to see the pilot and the next two episodes. The 7 p.m. weeknight show is presently on season two and the 7:30 airing on season four, so we have a mishmash of Leonard/Penny and Leonard/Priya and with and without Amy and Bernadette.

Saturday James had to go to work, and was out the door about the time I got up to go to the Farmer's Market. I didn't stay long, as we still had supplies from the previous week. I did get some plain goat cheese, as they aren't selling the three-pack of the onion and chive I like as they did earlier in the year. (We have chives, and we do have minced onion, so it will be do-it-yourself goat cheese.) And two cucumbers as I think the one we have at home is soft. There were a wide variety of dogs in attendance this week along with the standard Greyhound Rescue attendees: a blue merle collie in full coat and a younger dog with coat just starting coming in, a West Highland White, several large black Labrador-type dogs (and a black puppy with black-spattered white stockings trying to make friends with one), and the rest of indeterminate parentage.

From there I went directly to Kroger and did the weekly shopping. At least the bread here doesn't have cornmeal all over it like the rolls from the Smyrna Kroger. Picked up yogurt, bananas, four Edy's Slow-Churn ice cream cups for dessert, some beef bits for Sunday supper, as well as the bread; apparently they've quit making the chocolate angel food cake, which was a great low-cal dessert. Phooey.

And I was home before noon which suited me fine. Did some more housework, and some reading, and some things on the computer, and fell asleep again waiting for James, but was just about to take Willow out when he finally arrived home. We picked up Dragon for dinner and that was that. Chatted with Emma and Mike later on, and I finally started watching the rest of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration that I recorded from BBC America. This began with a service at St. Paul's Cathedral. (I thought it was Westminster Abbey, but wondered why the entrance looked different...well, that would explain it...LOL. There's a pizza parlor and a Starbuck's just outside St. Paul's!) They did some lovely close-ups of the decorations on the ceiling, which looked like complicated Byzantine patterns (not Byzantine, but it had that air). Loved the beautiful music, and the Archbishop of Canterbury did a nice sermon about dedication, which included this passage from Romans:

Then since the gifts that we have differ according to the grace that was given to each of us: if it is a gift of prophecy, we should prophesy as much as our faith tells us; if it is a gift of practical service, let us devote ourselves to serving; if it is teaching, to teaching; if it is encouraging, to encouraging. When you give, you should give generously from the heart; if you are put in charge, you must be conscientious; if you do works of mercy, let it be because you enjoy doing them. Let love be without any pretence. Avoid what is evil; stick to what is good. In brotherly love let your feelings of deep affection for one another come to expression and regard others as more important than yourself. In the service of the Lord, work not half-heartedly but with conscientiousness and an eager spirit.

The closing blessing was from Thessalonians, and I figured that even if you are not religious, you can stop after "honor everyone," and it's still good rules for living.:-)

Go forth into the world in peace;
be of good courage;
hold fast that which is good;
render to no one evil for evil;
strengthen the fainthearted;
support the weak;
help the afflicted;
honour everyone;
love and serve the Lord,
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit;
and the blessing of God almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always.

Instead of being in bed before two, we spent a fruitless half hour searching for my phone, which wasn't on the charger. I tried calling it, but Timeriffic turns off my ringer at night, so it wasn't making any noise. Well, found it in the sofa cushions, but I can't for the life of me remember why I left it on the sofa back so that it fell down there! Updates? Checking out an app? Who knows?

Which is why I appreciated this so much when it was posted in my Christmas movies and music group!: "Memory" Spoof.

James, for some reason known only to God, was up by 8:30 this morning. I went back to sleep, taunted by dreams of Schuyler sitting on my shoulder. Sigh. We ate breakfast and then decided to do something, so we drove up to Town Center Mall to walk around (because Cumberland Mall is just entirely too boring). Town Center at least has a Yankee Candle and a Disney Store and a Brookstone among the entirely too-many clothes and shoes and clothing accessories stores. Bleah. We parked at Sears and the first thing we saw upon entering the mall is that the old Waldenbooks is a clothing store...diarrhea! Stopped in the Best Buy mobile store and in the Verizon store to look at the newest breeds of smartphone (good grief, even the new phones are still operating on Gingerbread [Android 2.3.5]?), found pumpkin bread for dessert at the Starbucks, wandered among the fascinating but mostly overpriced gadgets at Brookstone, stopped at Yankee Candle where I found a gift for [mumble], looked at more eyebrow-raising gadgets at the As-Seen-on-TV Store, then went up the escalator to find the Hallmark store gone (no Hallmark store at all anymore...how weird!) and visit the Disney Store before wandering down the mall back to Sears. We found the toddler Merida doll which a friend had mentioned: I don't like dolls, but this one is adorable: she looks like she has the very devil in her. LOL.

We came home via Kroger to pick up my prescriptions, some orange sherbet for James, and a newspaper, before spending the rest of the afternoon watching documentaries about Yellowstone on the Destination America channel: lots of snow. Screw summer; if I ever go to Yellowstone I want to go in the winter to play in the snow! James made beef bits with onion and mushroom for dinner with Ramen noodles on the side and a cucumber and tomato salad, and the pumpkin bread was a nice change in dessert: you could eat it and imagine it was fall. :-) Then more Big Bang Theory (hey, I think a Doppler effect costume is really clever; better than a "Scream" mask or another dumb vampire) and Holmes Inspection. But alas, it's almost time for bed, and for purchase orders to take over my sanity again...

Labels: animals, chores, food, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:42:00 PM

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I knew eight hours sleep was impossible, but seven-and-a-half seemed do-able. Except when the dog starts barking before seven hours are up.

Grocery shopping was fairly painless: we did both twofers at Publix and regular shopping at Kroger in one hour. We were going to have to go back to Kroger, though, because it would take 30 minutes to fill my prescription. That's one minute per pill. Gah.

So we brought everything home, then went out again, specifically back to the Jonquil Festival to see if the lady with the buttons had any more of the Doctor Who themed ones. She did, actually, and we ended up buying a bunch more, mostly for friends. I did get a Hogwarts button and a Ravenclaw button (don't want to be in Gryffindor—I don't think I could live up to it), a House button and a Castle button, and had they a Sherlock button, I would have bought that, too. :-)

From there we went on to Petsmart. I needed to get Schuyler more "fruit seed," as I refer to the ZuPreem pellets. It is never good to go into Petsmart during pet adoptions, because it is a saddening experience sometimes. Today we looked at the dogs outside, including a huge, mellow bullmastiff/Labrador cross, and then went inside. They had some darling kittens, but there was the loveliest longhair female cat, a pale tortie—she miaowed at James, then reached out first one paw and then both paws to him, and finally began rubbing herself against the bars of her cage. Ohmygosh, this is not the first time I have wanted to spit vitriol and fire at my wretched, nasty, horrible, soul-searing allergy. Of course there would have been Schuyler's heritage to contend with, and Wil's enjoyment of chasing cats, so those might have been deal-breakers right there anyway, but never being able to do something like this just because of this wretched allergy is !@#$%!@#$ annoying. But if I can't spend three hours at the Butlers and then three hours at Shari's house in one day without being reduced to a sodden, sneezing, wheezing, tearing bundle of misery, I certainly can't bring a cat into the house. ::grump!::

We also stopped at Barnes & Noble, where I got the new "BBC History Magazine," and Bed, Bath & Beyond to use some 20 off coupons. James got some mix for his soda maker and I bought more "garters" to hold the sheets on the bed, as one of the originals just will not stay closed. Hopefully one of the new ones will.

Came home by Kroger to pick up my prescription and for James to get gasoline, and then we were both very happy to get ourselves out of the heat. I ironed my clothes for work and listened to the last part of Anne of Green Gables on BBC Radio 4X and read my new "Yankee." Loved the story about inn hikes. In the fall even I might be able to handle 10 miles a day. especially if one day ended me up at the Vermont Country Store. :-) ::sigh:: Already homesick for autumn and it's only the end of April.

Labels: animals, birds, books, dogs, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:28:00 PM

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Ah, sweet Saturday of sleep-ins! Our late sleep-ins, back in the apartment days (pre-1995) are long gone, though. I remember sleeping until eleven or later on Saturdays. Now if an aching joint or two hasn't woken one of us around nineish, Willow's yips or a call of nature will.

We spent about an hour at the hobby shop a little after noon, where I annotated the list that I spent the morning working in front of the computer; it will accompany a gift. [There, that's cryptic enough. Heh.] Since we had nothing else to do before evening, we went home, where James began warming up the little "smokies" we were taking to a combined game night/late Christmas gift exchange with the Lawsons, and baked some sugar-free brownies. We were due at the Lawsons at 5:30, so we left a little early so we could hit the nearby Trader Joe's for some supplies: chicken salad and sausage, something for James when he has to work next Sunday, popcorn, etc. We arrived on the dot at 5:30.

Had a great time! We ordered pizza, and Jerry even got me a bacon and black olive without cheese. Unfortunately it appears Domino's uses pepper in its tomato sauce, so I only ate three small slices. There were baked chips and a veggie tray, as well as our smokies and the brownies, which weren't bad, just a bit overcooked on the edges. We played two games: Five Second Rule and Origins. The first was fun (you must name three like things within five seconds, like three Big 10 colleges or three state capitols), but our middle-aged brains aren't made for quick five-second answers anymore! With Origins you had to concoct the origin of an expression (like "baker's dozen" or "a stitch in time"). We were about to play Scattergories when it was time for the gift exchange. The Lawsons always give a neat smorgasbord of gifts in some type of reusable bag. This year was no exception: some science or SF DVDs, a nifty pair of gloves, a book of Naval trivia for James, and other neat things. And the bag itself is waterproof and zips (another Ikea find)!

We came home about ten o'clock and then had a pleasant few hours chatting with Jen and Emma. While we were chatting, I put on a 2010 movie called Sherlock Holmes—not the one you are thinking of! This movie stars Gareth David-Lloyd of Torchwood as Dr. Watson and Ben Syder as Sherlock Holmes. James sat down to watch with me. My gosh, what a howler! I can't even list all the howlers...take the one scene where Watson goes for a morning constitutional and Holmes accompanies him. Within short walking distance from 221B Baker Street, in the very center of crowded, cobbled metropolitan London, apparently there is an extensive overgrown—and I mean overgrown!—wood with some deserted outbuildings! The film also involves a sea serpent, a dinosaur, and what looks like a copper robot, plus a clockwork human and Sherlock Holmes' older brother (not Mycroft Holmes) who is a former police detective. Not to mention that the actor who played Holmes was shorter than everyone else in the cast (Doyle's Holmes is quite tall) and played the role in such a colorless manner that he pretty much faded into the woodwork! Was this because the more well-known Torchwood actor was playing Watson?

When it was finished, James said "Well, there's over an hour of my life I'll never get back." LOL.

The most entertaining factor was that, even with his heavy moustache and thick curly hair, Gareth David-Lloyd was almost a dead ringer for Robert Sean Leonard as Dr. Wilson on House (who is, of course, based on Dr. Watson).

It was warm all day Saturday (almost into the 70s; I almost didn't wear my new pink sweatshirt with the heart on it) and it was still positively tropical by bedtime; was quite afraid I wouldn't fall asleep. However, I was quite soundly asleep at 9:30 this morning when Willow started to yip. James got up, but I snuggled a few more minutes until I absolutely had to get up.

I found out about a week ago that AntennaTV has been showing The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin on weekend mornings. I thought it was on Saturday, and was irritated to find out it's actually Sunday, since I missed it last week and they showed the "origin" first episode, where they mention how "Corporal" Rusty and "Private" Rin Tin Tin came to live at Fort Apache. This morning I was determined not to miss it.

Now I had heard that there was a set of these episodes on DVD in Great Britain, and there were several comments about how the score had been changed to something more modern, including a new march theme for the opening and credits, and some voice dubs. Well, this is the version they're showing on AntennaTV. Of the two things, the score is the least irritating. You can tell it's not original as the fidelity is different and doesn't fit the background scores of the time. But the dubs are absolutely awful. I'm not sure why it was done. You can tell looking at the moves of the characters' mouths that they're saying the same words. And whomever they have dubbing Rusty's voice is dreadful. It's very obvious this is an adult miming a kid's voice (possibly even a woman doing the voice) in a terrible nasal tone.

Ironically, the print is gorgeous compared to some 1950s series that pop up these days! It would have been quite enjoyable along with a Sunday morning treat—James made biscuits!—if not for those changes.

Okay, now this is the type of grocery shopping I like! We left the house at 11:10 a.m., went to Publix for twofers (including shrimp platters for "the big game" which we shall use for dinners instead), then went the few miles down South Cobb Drive to the new Kroger and bought the weekly supplies (milk, yogurt, bananas), plus a pork and a beef package from the "managers special" shelf for Tuesday and Thursday dinners. We were home by 12:25; two stores in 75 minutes!

Once we had everything put away, James decided he'd like a hobby room day. Fine with me! I indexed all the cross-stitch magazines I bought since November, used the two new crates to make extra storage space in the pantry closet, brought Willow's new bag of dog food upstairs, cleaned some in the main floor bathrooms, made sure all the reusable shopping bags were back downstairs, and gathered the trash. We had also already read the newspaper, and I had even cut out and put away the coupons, something I usually put off as long as possible (which means Thursday, when the trash goes out).

So it was a nice quiet afternoon in which I read my book (The Tale of Oat Cake Crag) and popped on Facebook occasionally.

We had soup from Kroger for supper (and James also had a small deli sandwich) and watched the final three episodes of season two of Murdoch Mysteries. Two were nicely done episodes in which bigotry figured, without heavy-handing moralizing which writers of American shows appear to find mandatory. Bravo!

Oh, and wasn't that a great game! Some terrific touchdowns, super action, and fun commercials. My favorite player was Australian, and unfortunately did not get voted MVP, but he was spectacular on the field.

Well, yes, of course he could be Australian. I was talking about the Puppy Bowl—darling little white (with tan ears) Australian sheepdog mix named "Aberdeen." His sister "Abilene" was also in the game; she was almost all black. Loved the cockatiel "tweeting" the results!

Wait, you mean there was another game on today? :-)

Labels: animals, books, dogs, food, friends, games, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:20:00 PM

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