In the middle of the night, James grumbled "It's too quiet." And not enough air circulating, either. Needless to say, we didn't sleep very well. Sadly, this is normal when we go away. The one perfect bed and sleep situation we had was in 2013 on vacation, and we were both so sick with headcolds we couldn't enjoy it.

So about 8:30 we sleepily shuffled to the new breakfast arrangement they had. Usually it's a breakfast bar, where you can take eggs and sausage, make a waffle, get juice and milk, pick out a fruit or cereal, make oatmeal or grits and toast, get butter, jelly, sugar, coffee, and tea. Today they had the back of the bar blocked off and a hotel employee handed you a pre-wrapped biscuit or sausage biscuit, the cereal, fruit bars, and milk. You got juice yourself out of the dispenser, and there were packets of oatmeal and grits out front with jelly and butter and disposable eatingware. We took it back into the common room to eat, although most of the others had gone out to breakfast (a little family-run place down the road, Wendell's, is a favorite; I think some others went to Hofer's, which is a bakery and restaurant).

Overlooking the Chattahoochee River.

The temps were going to hike up into the 80s today, so we decided to take our walk into Helen right after breakfast. Initially it was cool, with a nice breeze, but we were soon warmed up with moving. There is a back way on a small service road parallel to the main road, and we strolled along that, watching the birds (lots of robins, the occasional azure flash of a bluebird) and the leafing trees, including a lovely willow in the back parking lot of the hotel. The wind was in our face on the walk in, but as soon as we crossed the river, it was at our backs.

Even for a Friday it was very quiet. Cars were going by only in ones and twos. I had called to make sure The Olive Tree was open, so our first stop was the pseudo-castle building with the olive oil/vinegar store, the Christmas shop, etc. to refill our bottle of peach-flavored white balsamic vinegar. We couldn't get our own samples as is usual, and I sprayed the door handle with straight rubbing alcohol, but otherwise we had a nice chat with the proprietor. James also got a smaller bottle of chipolte-infused oil to use when making burritos and other spicy dishes. We also peeked in the quilt shop (O-so-pretty, but I can't even justify a hand-made king-size quilt for only $95), but the Christmas shop wasn't open, so we went on, briefly stopping at the glassblower's shop to see if they had any autumn leaf suncatchers (ours are dreadfully faded from the western sun), but they had only Christmas and Hallowe'en.

We strolled past the rest of the shops and then turned around and walked the remainder of the stores on the other side. The T-shirt shop was closed, but Hansel and Gretel chocolates were open. James made it up the steep ramp into the store, and I bought my yearly treat of dark chocolate almond bark. Again, I was feeling bad for these folks; there was no one else in the shop but us—how are they going to survive with no tourists to visit?—so I also bought some dark-chocolate enrobed orange creams, quite missing the orange creams from Sweenor's Chocolates in Garden City. They let us go out the side door instead of going down that steep ramp, which was much appreciated!

Daisy the bookstore cat.

We took our time coming back, then decided we would go "down the road apiece" to Cleveland. James wanted some cash, then we would stop at the bookstore (the Mt. Yonah Book Exchange) and finally have lunch at Wendell's, which we understood would be take-out from the reports of those who'd gone to breakfast. So we trucked (literally) back to Cleveland and did a withdrawal at the Regions bank, then did the bookstore. The owner was sitting outside, with a black-and-white cat mooching around near the door. He came inside, which did not please Daisy, the resident bookstore cat. (Many people say their cats have green eyes, but they are usually a yellowy-green. Daisy has real green eyes, a pale leaf green, and she's gorgeous and knows it; she even posed for me.) Oddly, this year I could not find a book I liked, but James got three, including the big picture book about the first World War that he didn't buy last year. (This was published in 1916 and has been so well-loved the binding is broken.)

When we got down to Wendell's it was 12:30, but they were already closed. So we went back by Wendy's to get James a drink, me a milk, and a medium French fry. The fries were a side to my leftover pad Thai, and James had a real fusion meal: his leftover Thai, a burrito, and the other half of the fries!

Spent the rest of the afternoon talking and paging through Facebook where the virtual convention "Concellation" topped 21,000 members. Tried to read, but it's hard to do that when so many interesting conversations are going on around you. Of course we talked about coronavirus reports a lot.

A group of people were going to Bodensee (one of the two big German restaurants in the area), but they are expensive, so we chose instead to go with the gang that went to Glenda's, a small country restaurant in Cleveland. To keep the table sizes down, we went in two shifts. Again, very sobering going to Glenda's, as there's usually a line out the door, but only three or four other people were there when we arrived just before six.

I was disappointed in my meal. The chicken there is only fried; if I wanted it grilled it would have taken almost a half hour. So I got popcorn shrimp, which I'd had on a previous visit. It was awful, with no shrimp taste at all, and the corn on the cob was tasteless. When the best thing in the dish is the mashed potatoes and the roll, you have a problem. Ken also had the popcorn shrimp and liked them, but I think he got a fresh batch and I got the end of the run. Should have had the pork chop, or the chopped steak like James did.

(Aubrey went with the Bodensee group and she reported to us that they sprayed everyone's hands when they walked into the restaurant, and then sat everyone one table apart, no more than ten to a table.)

Stormclouds over Helen.

Because I was still a little hungry, James stopped at the Zaxby's across the street and got me five wings, but they ended up in the fridge in our room while we snacked on cookies and grapes and tangerines and Fritos in the common room. Before we settled down there, though, I had to run outside and get some photographs of the clouds, which were building up and spoiling for some rain (it rained very little). The wind had picked up, too, and it was really quite pretty, although everyone kept telling me I should go inside!

We played Timeline for a while, and then I really wanted to play Uno or another card game, but got persuaded to play a strategy game instead, Forbidden Island, with Oreta, James, Pat, Alex, and Melinda. You are archaeologists trying to find four artifacts on an island that is starting to sink. Cooperating with each other, you have to get the artifacts off by helicopter before you are swamped with water and drown. Well, we made it down to the last step and then were drowned. It bothered Oreta because we had done everything right and still hadn't won. It wasn't until we were packing the game away that I noticed the side of the box: the game is for one to four players and we'd had two players too many, so I guess we did really well (and I did okay only because everyone strategized wayyyyyyyy better than I did).

Tonight we did a little better sleeping. I downloaded the app "Relax and Sleep" again (I'd deleted it from my phone because I never used it) and I set it to make the noise of an air conditioner running and also some crickets chirping in the rain. This was low enough for both James and I to hear it, but not so loud to keep us awake. And it actually did help, especially after I set out the little fan that stays in the suitcase.

Labels: apps, books, cats, computers, events, food, friends, games, health, nature, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:49:00 PM

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When I woke this morning, at about a quarter till nine, James was already up. I could smell his breakfast (eggs, onions, and something) and Snowy was singing at the top of his lungs. I guess I slept through the night (almost; I woke up once with my mouth dry and not being able to breathe because my nose was stuffed from all that fresh air and ragweed pollen from yesterday, and again at 6:30 to use the bathroom), and was feeling quite human—unlike the 5:50 a.m. wakeup nightmare on weekdays—as I ate my oatmeal and yogurt.

I needed bread for sandwiches at work this week. I'll sure be glad when that is over. I like Kroger's sandwich buns the best, but they're expensive, and not every Kroger makes them correctly. I've tried other buns, breads, etc. Most are dry, some are doughy, Publix' Chicago rolls are nice, but they get hard if you look at them sideways. Hence I've settled on the Kroger rolls, but even that is dicey: If I go to the Smyrna Kroger, they scatter cornmeal all over the baking pans to keep the bread from sticking and their buns are always embedded with gritty, sandy cornmeal. If I go to Battle Ridge they will more often than not say "Oh, we don't have any." Why is there a bakery, then? Aren't you supposed to keep it supplied with baked goods?

So we went to Dallas Highway. They make wonderful buns, and the only problem is to keep them through next week without them molding (the very last bun from the last batch of Kroger rolls came out of the breadbox this morning looking like it belonged in Alexander Fleming's lab). James picked up ground turkey to make burritos. We got a gallon of distilled water for his C-PAP machine humidifier. And we finally found him an affordable tea infuser so he can drink the loose-leaf tea he bought at the Yellow Daisy Festival.

Once that was put up, we decided to go out to Hiram to the big Michael's there. Silly wasting a 50 percent off coupon on a lesser-supplied store. I was looking for some decorative plastic leaf buttons; I need them for the Country Pickin's shadowbox I am converting to a Thanksgiving-themed one, since they don't make one. The woman at Country Pickin's uses the same leaves; I can see where she clipped the shanks off the buttons on the ones I pried off a plaque that I'm repainting.

Guess what. Yep, Michael's doesn't carry them anymore. They have discontinued them. Grrr. Just like the goat's milk moisturizer. I was able to use my coupon on a set of paint pens.

Not only that, but James let me off at the Target next door so I could pick up a couple of more Litehouse Salad Blends herbs. Guess what...

However, we did see some cute dogs and kittens for adoption at the Petsmart next to Michael's. They had three adorable ginger kittens, one of whom stuck out an imploring paw at me. I hate when they use the paw. The rest of the little dogs for adoption were all chihuahua crosses—do people with chihuahuas just not neuter or spay them?—and one was a dead ringer in size and face for Tucker, except that he had short hair. He wasn't paying attention to any of the people; he was just looking around at "outside" as if all he did was want to explore.

As we drove home, I found the leaf buttons I was looking for at a craft outlet. I ordered a few more miniature fall items and was able to check out through Amazon.com, and we weren't even halfway home yet.

Came home to work more on the shadowbox (re-painting) while James made burritos. Once he had those done, we headed for Longhorn and Jessica Elder's birthday party. We had a great time, even if they did get some of the bills all messed up. I guess you have to put up with that if you have twenty people at dinner. I don't think Juanita's prime rib even saw the grill, though; that was not medium rare.

Dog walking is over and now it's time for Alaska: the Last Frontier. Funny, they say there are two new episodes tonight, but the season premiere isn't until next week? Eh?

Labels: cats, crafts, dogs, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:54:00 PM

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It was a hellish week at work. Frustrations piled up upon frustrations and I ended up in tears at 5 a.m. on Friday. Four hours sleep, 45 minutes on the road, eight hours of fluorescent lights glaring off printer paper, 60 minutes on the road again...I crawled into the futon when I got home (after taking Willow out) and had only about fifteen minutes of nice quiet darkness before James got in from work. We only went to Hibachi Grill for supper and then came home, and went to bed as if we were going to work in the morning.

That's because we were up at 7 a.m. to get to the Hallmark ornament premiere. It was cloudy and cool, and we were able to drive out to East Cobb with the windows down, a treat in the summer. When we finished at Hallmark, we went to Trader Joe's. We don't come out to East Cobb as often as we used to since Borders closed, so we stocked up on several things and also bought chicken and salad for tomorrow night's supper. Then we headed off to Town Center to hit their Hallmark store, and also stopped at Publix for twofers.

Finally we arrived home with our treasures, and James was off to his club meeting. I decided to go pick up a book I'd seen at Book Stop a couple of weeks ago (if still there, of course), and found them adopting cats at the front of the store. I do regret my allergies! I did find the book, then swung by Kroger to get gas for the car, and stopped by Dollar General to see if they had any more of the instant Rice'a'Roni. Finally I settled down to watch a few more episodes of The New Adventures of Kimba the White Lion. This is so much grimmer than the original, and much emphasis on honor.

We had supper at StevieB's tonight, the Dallas Highway location, but I like the Town Center location better; certainly quieter! There was a car show going on in the next parking lot over, with a nice variety of vehicles, even some 1930s cars. As we left a Volkswagen station wagon from the 1960s was driving by, and as we pulled out, a late 40s-early 50s Chevrolet was behind us, complete with hood ornament of the swooping lady with wings.

James said he had polystyrene withdrawal, so we went to Hobbytown so he could prowl the model aisles; I found a table and sat down to read "BBC History Magazine." Then we had dessert at Barnes & Noble, splitting a Hershey's chocolate cheesecake slice. We emerged from the bookstore to find a lovely sunset glowing scarlet in the west, despite it having been cloudy most of the day.

But I guess it's a fact of life, isn't it—to get the prettiest sunset one must always have some clouds as well.

Labels: cars, cats, Christmas, food, magazines, shopping

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

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Downtime from last weekend, which is welcome, but still a bit sad; everything over for the spring and now the horrible looming presence of summer has come, and with that the scourge of End of Fiscal Year.

Traffic's been a [excuse my French] right bitch for about three weeks. I'm used to this on Friday, but it's even happening on formerly calm Monday. So it was another struggle to get home last night, and by the time I did my eyes stung and hurt from the lethal combination of fluorescent lights all day and sun. I took Willow out and then stretched out on the bed to get cool until James got home.

We wanted something different to eat, so we went to Zaxby's. Not the best dinner for us, but different at least. Then we had time to stop at Hobby Lobby, where I got a few things for gifts. To my delight an entire aisle (well, one side of an aisle) was already devoted to fall, including a beautiful turkey hanging for Thanksgiving! Light at the end of the tunnel! And after that we headed home.

This morning we were up early to go to the Farmer's Market, a blessing as far as I was concerned because I was dreaming about work again. We decided to give ourselves a treat, so after we picked up some vegetables, dog biscuits, homemade cookies for dessert, boiled peanuts, a beef pot pie, nice hard peaches, and some chicken salad, we walked to the Australian Bakery and Cafe to have breakfast. It was real oatmeal, if tasting of the metal pot they cooked it in, and the bagel was great. James had eggs and biscuits. We lucked out after we were finished: the Corner Shop, the British store, was open, and James picked up some pork pies for lunches, and we stocked up on Fry's orange cream bars for dessert.

I was still sleepy when we got home, but we managed to rouse enough energy to go up to Hobbytown at Town Center. First we stopped at Petsmart, where they were doing adoptions, with a great variety of dogs. There were dignified pit bull crosses, a Lab mix that was a "leaner," two collie mixes (one sweet and shy, the other defensive), a yipping Yorkie, a huge French mastiff, and one Pomeranian with so much excess energy she was trotting in circles. There was a grey, geriatric Pom with one bad eye who howled so much it sounded like the pound scene from Lady and the Tramp. We quite liked another Pom there, a five-year-old female who was very quiet. Every time we came close to her she bowed and stretched. I think it was a nervous tic.

Oh, and they had two of the cutest kittens, a black and a Siamese pointed. The latter took a shine to James and started climbing all over the cage and sticking out his paw. What a darling!

We hit Hobbytown, and also Five Below, and then had a very late lunch (cups of clam chowder and splitting the lobster pizza) at Red Lobster. Goodness, they're expensive now, and they don't do lunch on Saturdays. Even that little bit was over $20.

By the time we got home it was almost 4:30 and not much else to do. I made the bed and washed my work clothes and later on had a peach and some milk.

Spent the rest of the evening watching Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, all the way through "The Parting of the Ways," noting all the little things that became significant later on, especially the Rift in Cardiff and Captain Jack Harkness, who was a considerably lighter character way back then. And I noticed Anna Maxwell Martin (The Bletchley Circle) as the young woman who tried to take down the Editor and the hideous creature controlling Earth. And so now David Tennant has felt his new teeth and remembered Barcelona...

Labels: cats, Doctor Who, dogs, food, pets, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:52:00 PM

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Has everyone seen this? It was forwarded to me in e-mail but I only had a chance to watch it today. Apparently a couple was having high water bills, but no leaks could be found. One day the husband was home sick and heard water running constantly. He found this going on:

Water Leak Problem

Labels: cats, humor

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 3:54:00 PM

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On Saturday we were woken by the idiots from Circuit City again, wanting to know if we want to renew our extended warranty on the television. Are you guys calling again? A few minutes later our lawn guy showed up, which put an end to sleeping later.

We had the usual grocery errands, then a sojourn to the hobby shop, then came home for about an hour to cuddle the critters.

We had a games night at the Lawsons' starting at five: the gals usually get together and play board games and the guys play something guy-ish, like Pirates or an aviation card game. Tonight they spent the night "solving the world's problems." :-) We played Cranium and a game where you finish quotations and another game which I can't recall the name of, dealing with words.

We're hosting a games' night next Saturday.

Today we drove up to Chattanooga. Love to go up occasionally and pop into A.C. Moore; wish they had one here close. (The closest one in Georgia is in Columbus, which is further away than Chattanooga.) It takes about eighty minutes to get there, so we listened to OTR on the way up and back: two Supermans, a Green Hornet, Dragnet, The Whistler, an adaptation of the Fibber McGee and Molly movie Heavenly Days!, and part of The Great Gildersleeve.

Moore has some completely different things from both Michael's and JoAnn, and many of their decorations are bargain-priced: I picked up simple Valentines Day hearts for a dollar apiece. I also hadn't found any religious-themed Easter decorations in either Michael's or JoAnn or, ironically, that many in Hobby Lobby, which is closed on Sunday because the owners are devout Christians. Moore's didn't have a lot of Easter decorations out yet, but I did find an Easter banner (I completely forgot to look for a Valentine one) with a cross on it.

Did find some cool "leafing" paint pens. Supposely these put a shiny metallic mark on your crafts, not just a metallic color like most paint pens. James got a silver one for use on models and I couldn't decide between gold (which would be the most useful) and copper (which I adore), so I bought both.

James grilled a steak when we got home and then we put on The Game! We've been waiting for this one in anticipation every time the commercials came on.

No, not the Super Bowl. Who wants to watch football? We're watchin' the Puppy Bowl! Right now the Kitty Half-Time Show is on.

I notice they are refining these things as the years go on. The first Puppy Bowl was basically a webcam on puppies in a football-painted pen, with a cam in the water bowl and different angles with some music. Last year they pumped up the music a little and added the Kitty Half-Time Show with kittens playing with cat toys on a platform. This year they seem to be editing the action so we don't watch five minutes of puppies going to sleep. The kittens don't seem all that playful this year; they have a disco ball effect and I think it's bothering them a little. There's a orange-tabby-and-white guy that is quite adorable, though.

Labels: cats, crafts, dogs, Easter, games, Valentines Day, weekend

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:37:00 PM

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