Thank goodness, the week was pretty harmless. The one problem was Thursday; by the time we went grocery shopping and finished it, if we went home to drop off the food, we would be late for James' Procrit shot! So we stuffed all the perishable items into the cold bag and dashed to Kaiser. They were quite understanding about the need to hurry with the shot!

Saturday was Hair Day, but we didn't stay long because James' club meeting was this weekend and it was the annual Swap Meet. He went off to the VFW Hall and I stayed home, finally swept out the garage, and vacuumed. In between I did some writing.

Sunday turned out to be fun: we went to Ellijay for the second weekend of the Georgia Apple Festival. It's gotten quite expensive, $10 each to get in plus $5 to park. Of course all the proceeds go to the Elks Club and the Boy Scouts.

We got the second of our two fudge purchases for the year, and also bought some Asian sesame dressing that was very good. We figure we can use it for a finishing sauce. James and I also bought anniversary gifts for each other: I bought him a new leather wallet, and he bought me a Christmas sweater (since most of mine are worn out). We each had an ear of corn, which was so yummy; we stopped having them at the Yellow Daisy Festival because they were always so dry, but these two were juicy and wonderful. Afterwards, as always, we went to Panorama Orchards and bought all our favorite things: James' herbal teas in the little wooden boxes and sugar-free taffy and also some salsa, goats' milk lotion and blackberry spread and peanut brittle for me (their peanut brittle is wonderful), and a bag of Granny Smith apples and an apple pie for both of us. The day was sunny, but not hot, and we had a very good day.

I wish they could be all good days. I don't ask for perfect days, I just want good days.

Labels: chores, events, food, friends, fun, health

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:14:00 PM

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Our original plan was to drive into Knoxville today.

However, by the time breakfast was over, it was already 10:30, and since I still had to call and make reservations for the dinner theater one day this week (we get a free ticket to the Lumberjack Feud, which I wanted to see last year, but we were too damn sick), I had decided to do it after breakfast and thought, well, we'll do that tonight. And since we picked the early show, we had to be there by 4 p.m.

So we will get up earlier tomorrow and go then.

Today we started out by driving out to the needlework store in Wears Valley; I would drive out to Wears Valley anyway, without the shop, since it's such a pretty ride. Must be lovely at peak! It is cold this morning, but without the snow and the wind, nothing like yesterday, although I should have started the car before bed last night, as it started very sluggishly.

I got a couple of Prairie Schooler patterns, two "Stoney Creek" magazines (no one in Atlanta sells them), an old "Just Cross Stitch" with a pretty autumn band sampler, a magnetic wrist bracelet to hold needles, and some two-ended needles. I always feel nostalgic when I walk in because there's a tatting display right in the doorway; my mom did shuttle tatting for years.

Next we drove out to the Russell Stover outlet store, which is almost at I-40. James found very little in sugarless candy that we can't get in Walmart, but we got our Christmas chocolate for the season; eating one for dessert a night I think we will still have enough by Epiphany. I bought a box (24) of the peppermint bark snowmen, a box of those wonderful dark-chocolate covered gingerbread Santas, and a half-dozen each of dark-chocolate covered caramel and dark-chocolate covered mint. Also picked up cashew brittle and some candy for friends.

Heading back in from the outer edge of the Parkway, we stopped at Smokey Mountain Knife Works. I can't describe this as a Bass Pro or Cabela-like shop; they don't carry fishing gear or a lot of camping stuff. They do have knives, from Case to other models, plus guns, tarted-up knives (with sequins and junk), some camping and camo things, specially-made swords from fantasy movies like The Lord of the Rings, and downstairs there is gourmet food, barbecue paraphenalia, kitchen gadgets, etc. The neatest part of the store is the Relic Corner, which carries old things you can buy: Civil War trash found on battlefields (bullets, belt buckles, etc.), older relics like Revolutionary War things (Hessian buttons, musket balls), fossils, 19th Century medicine bottles, dinosaur coprolites, fragments of mammoth bone, etc. Very neat.

We left there early enough to stop at Kroger to get James more Coke Zero, then arrived at the Lumberjack Feud in good time. They saw James' Rollator and put us a front row so we didn't have to climb stairs, so we got a really good view of all the action. All the actors are actual winners of lumberjack contests (men and women), and they do old-fashioned lumberjack activities like log rolling, speed tree climbing, etc. in the framework of a corny but entertaining show about two feuding lumberjack families, the Dawsons and the McGraws. You also see the "Timber Dogs" (three Labradors and what looked like a redbone hound) do several feats like water jumps and fetching balls while walking on logs, and a black horse named Bill came out several times to deliver logs on skids.

We got the Christmas show, in which a maniac elf named Elfred comes from the North Pole to Pigeon Forge, where he's found the perfect Christmas tree. Both families want to cut it down, since, since the National Park opened, they've been out of work. So the ranger decides that a contest will be held to decide who will cut down the tree. This leads into demonstrations with climbing, chopping, two-man sawing, one-man sawing, chain saws, and finally the log rolling. Santa Claus appears via "Elftime" to say both families will benefit if he builds a road to the Park (one family will open the 17 pancake houses in the 3 mile stretch and the other will open amusements which will make them all rich), so everyone technically wins.

We were served dinner in "bear proof" tin lunchboxes that latched shut: a complete holiday dinner of turkey, dressing, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and tri-color corn, with a roll each, a drink, and a surprisingly not overly sweetened apple cobbler. The pre-show was a bluegrass trio singing standards and Christmas music. It was a lot of fun. We even got a show souvenir, a "lumberjack cookie" (a slice of wood sawed in one of the contests) that I got autographed by all of the Dawson performers, the Ranger, and the maniac Elfred.

Yeah, and we bought the photo they took of us, just like last year at Biltmore. In fact it's the same outfit who takes the pics at Biltmore.

Back to the cabin for an early bedtime...I hope!

Labels: cross stitch, food, fun, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:02:00 PM

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It turned into a dreadful week at work. I had to throw a lot of effort into something that, in the end, I had to turn over to my team lead. It would have caused a serious problem otherwise. In the end, Alan at least stopped what would have been a critical event, although the total problem is not resolved. Plus we had the whole scare about possible freezing rain falling on Friday morning. It rained a little, but nothing freezing.

Didn't set the alarm last night and we actually slept until almost ten o'clock! This afternoon we did something different: went to the Atlanta RV show. We got there about noon and there was a big long line at the exit, since the exhibition center was right at that corner—unfortunately it was across the street. So James had to maneuver into the left turn lane almost immediately, and we inched behind the line of cars, having to park at the very back of the building.

However, the very long line around the side of the building went very quickly (a lot more quickly than the old line at DragonCon, that's for sure). While we were waiting the Lawsons arrived—they love camping and always come to the RV shows. So, pray tell, what are we doing here? We sure have no money for an RV and nowhere to keep it. Well, it was something to do, we love the annual RV program on HGTV, and we wondered...if we had just a little money, what could our truck pull?

Well, not really much. One of the vendors told us the max pull on the Tacoma is probably 3500 pounds. So we'd have to have something very small and very light.

We did find some cute little guys: a few A-frame popups, and also a cute little thing called an "ebug" or something like that. The one they had was cramped and had bunks in it for kids, but you can get them without.

After that we clambered in and out of larger units, one we would need a full-sized pickup truck to pull, and the fold-out campers with the screened sleeping areas. Again, these were mostly affordable. About 1:30 we stopped for a hot dog and bottled water, then I said to James, "Okay, I've been to Tomorrowland. Now I want to go to Fantasyland and ride Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." :-)

So we went looking through the expensive units, the ones that no way in hell could we ever afford, including two all-in-one units that cost more than the original price of our house (and several that cost what our house is valued at now [wince]). These were veritable palaces. Several had [small] walk-in closets and electric fireplaces. There were units that had the master suite "upstairs" (up a couple of steps). three or four actually had full-sized refrigerators.

We were sitting up in the front seats of a quite nice unit, with a swivel chair behind us, a nice little kitchen and all, and I said to James that I wished we could just drive off it, swing by the house to pick up the fids and some clothes and just go. I'm so abominably restless. Nothing seems to suit anymore. I just want to spread my wings and fly.

But of course we didn't go anywhere. We just walked around until five o'clock and then went home, after picking up dinner at Dragon.

Sigh. So many places to go and no way to get there...

Labels: food, fun, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:27:00 PM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Labels: animals, birds, food, fun, outings, television, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:33:00 PM

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If you'd like to see what we do every Labor Day weekend, check here at PBS Video online:

Watch the full episode. See more Dragon Con.

Labels: conventions, fun, weekend

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:54:00 PM

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Whose idea was this?

Oh, yeah, it was mine. LOL. But when I made the reservations two weeks ago I had no idea it was going to be as hot as...well, you know. I was figuring...June in Tennesseee. 80s, tops.

At one point we were parked and the thermometer in the car read 103°F. (After we got moving it went down to 95.) It is also evident that my car needs its freon, or whatever they use now, recharged. It's fine if you start from the garage or under a tree, but cold start after sitting in the sun in 90 degree temperatures, and the A/C never really gets cold.

I managed to make it through the day even though I forgot to take my Claritin last night and have been sneezing and stuffy all day. It got progressively worse as the day went on. Ugh.

So we had our complimentary "continental breakfast" (and Willow lucked out as I didn't realize they had hot water for the oatmeal so I put cold water in it and was going to warm it up, until the lady showed me where the hot water was, so Wil had cold oatmeal for breakfast) and then headed for Gatlinburg. It was about 9:30 and there was plenty of parking in the rear of the stores on the parkway.

So we walked around for the next couple of hours. Visited the Maple's Tree gift shop and got more little prim items, and a couple of gifts, stopped at a knife shop, went to the little "village" with its quaint shops and stopped at the Celtic store to get the Gaelic Storm albums we didn't buy last time and then regretted, stopped and had ice cream at the Mayfield Dairy stand, bought another gift. As it got on toward noon it started to get warm, so we decamped and headed back to Pigeon Forge.

The first place we stopped at was a cross-stitch store called Dixie Darlin' in an area called "The Old Mill." There is actually a mill still there, at the falls, but the water wheel no longer works and it's a restaurant now. The needlework store was in an old house behind the little shopping area. It was a mix of the commercial stuff you can get in JoAnn, like JanLynn, and more exclusive patterns and kits like Shepherd's Bush and Lizzie Kate. I was good and only got two patterns and a fall wreath kit (only 5x5, but with beads).

We made a brief stop at the Book Warehouse, and James got more books than I did. I did buy something about the history of Daylight Saving Time. Then we stopped by the motel to see how the animals were doing and James took Willow outside. Finally, about 1:30, we had some lunch.

Then we went almost back to the freeway, to one of the two Christmas stores I saw on the way out on our last trip. The other, Christmas Done Right!, had closed. (James said dryly, "I guess they didn't do Christmas right after all.") This turned out to be the same folks that have the Christmas store just a few blocks down from The Incredible Christmas Place. I was determined not to buy anymore stuff, but we found a perfect Christmas gift for someone, plus a lovely glass collie ornament, a little resin Scottish tree to go with the Italian tree I got last year, and a little Thomas Kincade house. James got a set of LED Christmas lights for his tree at work.

Then we went up to the fireworks place to get some stuff for next week. I got some sparklers and Roman candles, and James got some rockets and a multipack.

We were going to hit the sugar-free chocolate at the Russell Stover store, but this is where we saw the 103 temp. I figured even in both insulated bags it wouldn't last! We'll stop tomorrow on the way out.

On the way back we stopped at this huge knife store. I mean, huge. They didn't just sell hunting knives and Swiss army knives, but they had swords, and swords based on Lord of the Rings and Klingon weapons, and kitchen knives and other stuff for your kitchen, and grilling, and camping, rocks and minerals, and a bunch of other things. This was on several levels and waterfalls in the middle of the building!

I started running out of gas here because of the allergy attack and we were both suffering from the heat. By now it was about five, and we came back to the motel, turned up the A/C, and I fell asleep for over an hour. Schuyler just kissed at me once in a while. Poor sweetie, I wasn't much company.

We went out for supper about seven. We went to Dennys in Pigeon Forge and I just had soup. For dessert we had something called "pancake puppies" (I kid you not). They are little doughnut holes covered in cinnamon and sugar and you dunk them in syrup. Very sweet.

On the way back we stopped at the Inn at Christmas Place. This is across the street from The Incredible Christmas Place and is decorated for Christmas all year long. It's beautiful! They are always talking about this hotel on my Christmas group and I wanted to see the public areas. The lobby has a huge fireplace, and there is a big tree with stuffed deer, antique Santa Clauses, and even an antique music box. Downstairs is a gathering area where the "Singing Santa" gives a concert every evening. He was just chatting with the audience when we looked in.

I'd like to stay here just once. You can get a plain room or one decorated for Christmas, and all of them have jacuzzis in room.

But we ain't coming back here again until it gets cool. Even with the mountains hovering in the background, it's mind-numbingly, exhaustingly HOT.

My nose had cleared up a bit after the soup, and we'd been passing miniature golf courses all freaking day, so now that the sun was down we decided to stop at "Old McDonald's Farm" and play a round. This was either a good or bad idea, as we did have a great game—I got three holes in one, a mind-boggling event, and we had a good time with the three girls in front of us and the family in back—but it was still hot and humid, no breeze to speak of, and the wait time for each hole was very long because the place was so crowded. It took us 70 minutes to play 18 holes!

But the course was fun; lots of crazy animals, like a goat on an outhouse and pigs on a mud-slide, sheep, turkeys complaining of being "stuffed," one hole like a pinball machine with rabbits' heads sticking out of their holes, and the last hole was the henhouse. The animals "cracked wise" via recordings, and there was even one shot where you shot under the outhouse. At that hole you heard the toilet flush, but a gadget attached to the outhouse also shot water onto another hole every time someone shot the ball under the outhouse.

We got back to the hotel drenched to the skin with sweat and basked in the A/C! Watched the end of "The Tholian Web" on Star Trek and joined chat already in progress.

Labels: food, fun, shopping, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:57:00 PM

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We were up early this morning to go to the Yellow Daisy Festival. Nothing remarkable to report upon: the guy from Alabama who made our kitchen table and chairs wasn't there (I guess he's retired), nor were the bread knife people, or the person who made the affordable German pyramids. Ah, well. We bought our yearly fudge, got more "Smack Yo' Mama" barbecue sauce, and sampled the dips (bought more garlic dip to make garlic butter with).

I did allow myself an extravagance: there's a gentleman there every year who sells shelved small frames and miniature cupboards. To go along with them, he makes little wooden, metal, and resin items to go on the shelf/in the cupboard. They are in themes like pets, sewing, Christmas, autumn, Hallowe'en, winter, etc. For instance the sewing theme had miniature spools, little bolts of cloth, tiny thimbles and sewing machines, signs that say "I ♥ Sewing," etc. They're like small dolls' houses. I've always wanted one of the cupboards, but settled for two shelf frames: one has a scarecrow in the background and I bought little items like an autumn angel, an apple basket (to give you an idea of the scale, the apple basket is only about an inch tall), an "Apples 5¢" sign, a watering can with a pumpkin on it, a birdhouse and a couple of other things.

The other has snowmen in the background and says "Love," "Friends," and "Be Kind" on it. It is mostly winter-themed but has red cardinals and the snowman has a star. So I bought four little Christmas-themed bits for it (Santa, reindeer, etc.) and four winter-themed items (bottle of "snowballs," winter birdhouse, etc.) and it can be interchangeable winter and Christmas.

Since we were already on that side of town we went to the DeKalb Farmer's Market for boneless skinless turkey thighs, and also stopped at BJ's for the necessity of life (milk!) and other things. By that time both of us were suffering from sun overdose, although it was better this year (some clouds), we remembered our hats and I rigged up something with heavy-gauge floral wire so we could carry a bottle of water without having to have it in our hands all the time (James brought his carry pouch at the last minute and didn't need his). Heat and sun just leach energy from me; by the time we got home I was sleepy. But by the time we put the turkey up, wiped the counters, gone through the paper, and put away the rest of the groceries, this had passed.

Labels: decorating, fun, outings

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:46:00 PM

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I was given this link in a World Market e-mail: Yellow Bamboo Baskets at World Market.

The funniest thing is that the URL actually does state what they are, it's the description on the page which is wrong...wonder if they will change it eventually. (They did; it was changed before 11 a.m. The photo was originally of two very nice folding chairs. Trust me, if I knew they had a set of nice wooden chairs like that for $2.96, I would have been at World Market in a flash...)

Labels: fun

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:52:00 AM

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In an attempt to cheer me up, while James was out on Tuesday he bought me a Webkinz toy (and one for himself). These are little stuffed animals that come with a secret code. When you go to the Webkinz website you give the critter a name and "adopt" it and then are given "Webkinz bucks" to furnish the little room you are given for your pet.

Basically it's like one of those tamigotchi gadgets crossed with the "Dogz" (or "Catz" or "Horsez") computer programs. There are an arcade where you play games, tournament challenges, daily quizzes, a mine where you "dig" for "gems," and other activities where you can make more Webkinz bucks. You use this to buy food for your pet (it gets hungry), keep it happy by playing games with it, and add more "rooms" to its living space. If it gets sick you can take it to the clinic and have it seen by the vet.

There are various little animals and we had seen them in Hallmark shops, but we didn't know what they were until a friend of ours, Jerry, bought one for his little boy. He was pleased at the variety of non-violent games and started having fun playing the games with his son, so he and his wife both bought their own Webkinz. He was showing us all the games and activities at Atomicon and it looked rather like fun, so we've been looking around for them, but they're very popular and all the Hallmark stores were out.

Tuesday James found pugs and tree frogs at Hobbytown. I'm not an amphibian person, so we got the pugs. James gave his a name that means "firmament" (help me here, hon...). I was more traditional: I named mine "Weenie" after Eloise's little pug in the classic Kay Thompson books (except my Weenie is a girl).

So while I've had fun playing Cash Cow #1 and #2 and a really cool miniature golf course, I've also made some Webkinz bucks and bought Weenie not only "furniture" and "food," but also a yard with flower and vegetable gardens. It's goofy but cute.

I noticed there is a Clydesdale coming out in June...it looks adorable!

Labels: fun

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:30:00 PM

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