We had fun with friends this week; yes, these days it's such a rarity that I have to headline it. On Saturday we went to Hair Day, although we were the only ones there except for John Campbell. So we had some quality time with Ron and John while Sherii clipped hair. The house seems so large and echoing without Lin there. It must be so hard for Ron, still cherishing the house they shared but living with the silence.

Went home to wrap gifts and then had Game Night at the Lawsons. I was still feeling a bit sad from the morning and preferred to spend the evening talking with Jerry, David, and John Bouler rather than game playing. Alice and Ken couldn't come because poor Ken had another kidney stone. We munched on pizza and came home with enough leftovers to have pizza for another meeting.

Wednesday was my 69th birthday. I'd like to say I did something really special, but I didn't. I hit a couple of stores, but the most important thing I did was go to Drivers' Services and renew my driver's license. Because I was over 65, it said I had to go into the office and have an eye test. I had an eye test in May and tried to send them the info, but I apparently didn't have the correct info.

Well, to my surprise, it took me exactly one hour and one minute, per Life360! Now, we're only four miles from the Drivers' Services building, so that was no problem. I took my iPad with me, but I hardly had a chance to look at it. I got the friendliest clerk, who noticed it was my birthday, and she was nice to talk to, and then it was done. I had a paper license to carry until I get the new license.

Did manage to put up the 1940s Christmas village, minus the Christmas tree lot, and a bit squished together, on the mantel shelf rather than on the longer board that usually goes on the mantel shelf. Strung line for the Christmas cards under the mantel shelf (the rest of the cards went on the medial bookcase) and brought up the stuffed Max and Rudolph and the Charlie Brown tree (missing the red ornament to dangle on it) to sit on the hearth with Rusty the deer in a Christmas bauble collar.

Finally did put up a Christmas tree: I used the new tree I bought for the library, the four-foot tree. I decorated it only with the glass ornaments that came in boxes (the satin balls, the holly balls, the old McCrory's ornaments, the "snow dusted" red ornaments, etc. and a few of the cellophane wrapped "presents" and two pine cones. I put "Little Blaze" the star at the top and tinseled the whole thing in layers of icicles. It was set on a temporary circular table with a silver tree skirt I found at Hobby Lobby for half price, with the manger set underneath. I managed to crowd most of the manger pieces on the table or in the stable itself, but five figures didn't fit, so I tucked a small teak table that sits in that corner all year under the circular table and covered it with the tree skirt and put the remaining five figures (two wise men, a camel driver, a camel, and the boy piper) on that. It gave the whole thing a nice 3D look, and then the wrapped gifts went around the base of the table.

In annoying medical news, James went to see Dr. Keel, the guy who's supposed to do the "cement." Look, I'm glad this dude is being careful. I don't want him "just winging it" on this procedure. But now he's saying we need permission for James to go off his blood thinner for a week. Until he gets that, no treatment. Sigh.

Did a whole bunch of usual chores this week. Braved Walmart for yogurt, since neither Kroger nor Publix carry my flavor any longer. (Food Depot doesn't, either. I checked. We don't have an Ingles close by.)

James got an early seat at dialysis on Friday, and got approved for an earlier seat starting Monday. 10:30 is too early, but it's better than my picking him up after dark.

Labels: birthday, chores, Christmas, Christmas decorations, friends, games, health, illness

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

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We had a fairly good Atomicon, despite being utterly exhausted from allergies and coughing. We arrived in Helen Thursday afternoon just about four, when several of our friends were checking in, offloaded our junk, and then lay down until I started texting to find out where we were going to dinner. Spice55, the Thai place, was the choice, and we had the usual yummy dinner. I wait for this every year, as they make the best pad thai.

Something sweet happened after dinner: Jessie and some of the others were enchanted by the black-and-white stray cats hanging outside the shopping center where the restaurant was. A lady was also interested in the cats and she and James started talking; she was ex-Navy and also had been a Marine. Now, we had had an appetizer, so I still a lunch-sized portion of leftovers, and it was supposed to rain on Friday. I suggested we stop at the Dollar General, which has frozen foods, to see if we could find him something for lunch there. We did find some taquitos. The same lady also was in the store, and she was quite disturbed by how cluttered the aisles were and that James could not get around in his power chair. She told us she was going to report the store for ADA violations. And on the way out she paid for his taquitos!

Thursday night I was feeling well enough to play some games, and we played Uno No Mercy, which is fiendish. I got kicked out of the first game almost immediately, and ended up winning the last one.

It did indeed rain almost all day Friday. It was probably good because James and I were both stuffy and miserable, and we stayed in with anyone else who didn't want to go out in the rain, talking, farkling around on the computer. I found Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent available and watched that, and last night's Law & Order as well.

For supper the weather cleared well enough to go to the Nachoochee Tavern and have some pretty good pizza. I had to share with James, so I had to eat cheese [bleah], but it was still okay.

One of the things James and I have begun doing since Atomicon has been held at the Country Inn and Suites is to have a daily walk downtown after breakfast. It's about a half a mile, and then we stroll around the little downtown area, maybe walk down to Hofer's Bakery, and then return to the crossroads of downtown and head toward the parking lots, strolling a road in the back down to the hotel. Total it's about a mile and a half, maybe more.

I was feeling so short of air from the congestion that on Saturday morning we took the truck instead; we haven't done that in years and I felt like I was regressing. But I did manage to totter around downtown. We visited the glassblower's shop, bought our annual candy from Hansel & Gretel, and visited the history museum that we missed last year due to food poisoning. This is in a building that used to be the City Hall. Helen was a tiny little logging town at one time, outside of what became Unicoi Park, and when the logging left, so did a lot of the population. Helen became basically a gas and food stop, so they turned the town into a "Little Bavaria" to attract tourists. We've been going to Helen with our friends for...well, Jessie and Aubrey both turned thirty last year, so...longer than that!

We also bought more white peach balsamic vinegar (love this stuff) and some blackberry ginger as well from the Alpine Olive Tree. I got James a neat gift: someone gave us a little turntable/light gadget: you plug it in and put a statue or something on it and it lights it up and revolves. They had laser-etched lucite items, and I got James a U.S. Navy one, with an aircraft carrier and destroyer and planes flying overhead. (I was going to get him a smaller one, but he said the planes weren't correct!) It looks really pretty on the turntable.

We then drove down to the Mount Yonah Bookstore—the owner always puts out a "Welcome, Atomicon!" poster and gives us a discount—and I found a brand-new copy of the annotated version of The Phantom Tollbooth, one of my favorite books in the whole world (seriously, what my life would have been without the Stadium School and Hugh B. Bain libraries I will never know). I also found a book about a woman FBI agent, a book by Robert Ressler (one of the first FBI profilers), and the book that inspired the series Homicide: Life on the Streets, which introduced Richard Beltzer's John Munch character.

And it was back to Spice55 for supper with Alice and Juanita. I had pad cashew this time, which was exquisite.

Sunday I was feeling strong enough to do the walk downtown, if a bit slowly, and we made it to the Christmas store before I started to be nagged by lower GI problems. It was a good walk, anyway. We spent the afternoon reminiscing about old television series, and had supper at Rib Country in Cleveland, GA. The ribs are so good and half the price of any ribs in the Atlanta metro area.

Alas, neither of us slept well, so we staggered up, ate the hotel breakfast, and packed up and left. Stopped at the outlet mall because I so much needed new socks. We also stopped at a knife shop where James went in; I sat and read. And finally, by the vet—$1300 for exams and boarding! Oliver apparently seems to be okay to them; it looks like they don't have an avian vet again. ::sigh:: Yes, they noticed he's shy.

Labels: Atomicon, books, events, food, friends, games, gifts, history, kindness, shopping, travel, walking

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:47:00 PM

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It was our last full day in Helen, so we celebrated by having a long, long breakfast with everyone. Hopefully next year we can go back to proper breakfasts and we won't have to juggle cereal bowls and cups over to the conference room; previous years they brought us eggs and sausage and we could use trays. (This year the tables used for breakfasts were covered in their extra inventory of paper products.) Luckily it was a little cooler today than yesterday, so the fact that we didn’t go out until almost noon was okay. Once again we traversed the back street and took the bridge over the Chattahoochee, and this time we did find the Olive Tree–it is now downtown on Main Street next to the coffee shop, in a terribly teeny space (I think it was formerly a T-shirt and sunglasses shop!), but we did manage. They didn’t have their sign out yet, so they had to keep shooing people in, though. (They can't leave the door open because the vinegar samples attract flies.) We already had a second bottle of the white peach balsamic vinegar, but we had loved the honey ginger as a finishing sauce for pork and chicken last year, so we got a larger bottle of that.

This time we walked all the way down to Hofer’s bakery and sandwich shop, where the nice broad sidewalk ends and turns into a narrower path not suitable for the power chair. James wanted a slice of German chocolate cake, but the ramp at Hofer's is not wide and kind of hard for him to navigate, so I went in to get it for him, and found a bonus: Ritter dark chocolate-covered peppermint cream bars. They were terribly expensive, but I got two as a treat. We used to find these all the time at Nam Dae Mun, then they quit carrying them, and I'd wondered if they had quit making them.

On the way back we peeked in the other stores on the opposite side of the street and I bought my yearly half-pound of almond bark from the Hansel and Gretel candy shop, and got James some sugar-free caramels as well. It was another lovely, breezy day, and we loitered under the overhangs of the different little shops, listened to the live music being played in the performance area, then walked/rolled under the bridge again, along the river, and wound through the parking lots through the back via Edelweiss Street.

Once again we had leftovers for lunch–James had the big chili bowl he didn’t expect last night at Bigg Daddy’s and I had the other half of my personal pizza. People wandered in and out, and we always had someone to talk with.

A big group went out for dinner tonight at Bodensee, the German place down the road, but it’s rather expensive, and Bodensee is not a large place. I was also kinda jonesing for barbecue. We found two likely places, both a few miles away in Cleveland, but one was going to close in a half hour. So James and I, plus Alice and Ken, and their former church pastor, Amy, went to a place just past the Walmart we went to yesterday, Rib Country BBQ. We had to wait about 20 minutes, but, boy, what great food and the service was terrific! I wanted ribs and James said “Let’s splurge!” and we got a dinner for two: a rack of ribs, a pound of barbecue, a pound of brisket, and half a barbecue chicken, plus french fries and I had applesauce on the side and he had baked beans. I ate every single rib except for the one I gave to James, he ate a little of everything, and we had two big containers of leftovers to take home. [Later: James used the fries to make eggs, Spam, and potato breakfasts, and we ate off the leftovers as well!]

By the time we got back, people were already playing games. Oreta had the new anniversary edition of Chronology, and she, Melinda, Shawn, and I played both versions. The new version has a lot more modern stuff and isn’t as “nerdy,” I think. She also showed us how the locked room mystery games work, but we didn’t play one. There were different “conversation pits,” and James partook of several, and we wandered sleepily off to bed sometime after midnight.

Labels: food, friends, games, outdoors, shopping

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

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I don’t think there’s one vacation we’ve been on that we’ve actually slept well. You’re supposed to rest on vacation, so I understand, but we both feel it hard to get comfortable in a strange bed–and there’s always something that keeps us awake. If it isn’t the light between the curtains (which is why we now carry clips to keep them closed) or a light in the bathroom, it’s the mattress or the pillows (hotels use foam pillows, which give me headaches), or noise outside, or the air conditioner making funny noises (and we have had the A/C on in November to keep the air moving in the room). The one time we had the perfect mattress and perfect pillows–2013 in a cabin sixteen miles north of Gatlinburg–we both had headcolds and couldn’t sleep for not being able to breathe (we knew every drugstore on the strip in Pigeon Forge that year), which is typical of life, as February Callendar would say.

So it wasn’t surprising we didn’t sleep well last night. For some bizarre reason, instead of having nice standard-size pillows, Radisson hotels have these square things the size of sofa pillows. Two are too little, three are too much. At least the hotel has gotten rid of what I called “the 200 pound duvet” (it was like having a dead body covering you up) and gone for a lighter one. But we had a restless night, especially because the air conditioner sounded like a 18-wheeler truck cab starting up under our window, and then James had forgotten something. So we were quite yawny when we crawled out of the room for breakfast. Sadly, with the demise of the bar, the only “non-carb” item are packaged sausage biscuits, which James consumed along with juice and cereal. We collected some tea for him, but he ended up never drinking it. I had a bowl of Frosted Flakes and a double packet of oatmeal, and lots of milk, saving a glass for lunch. We ate our meal in the common room with a small group (the other crowd went to Kami’s Place, formerly Wendell’s, a few miles down the road–coronavirus dealt badly with Wendell’s, and then Wendell himself, in his 80s, got sick and couldn’t carry on). In a bit we ambled back to our room, got dressed, and went out for a morning walk.

There’s a back pathway from the hotel to “downtown” Helen where all the shops are, and we were walking/rolling on it presently. It was still chilly at this point and we had jackets on over flannel shirts over short sleeves. We went past the bar next to the hotel, then some rental “betsitter” type condos being built, and some other existing small rental condos decorated, of course, in the German/Bavarian theme of Helen, and then Bodensee, the German restaurant, before getting to the cross street and walking up to Helen’s main street. Our main mission this morning was to go to the Alpine Olive Tree, the olive oil and vinegar shop, to get another bottle of their honey ginger balsamic vinegar. James was quite taken by the flavor for use in cooking (tastes great with chicken and pork) and he wanted to get a larger bottle this time. The store is located in a building called “the Castle Inn” (the hotel is upstairs) on the opposite bank of the Chattahoochee River.

Or it was: when we got inside it said they had moved to Chattahoochee Street “next to the coffee shop.” Okay, so out we came (since the Christmas store wasn’t open yet) and continued down the street. Except for the life of us, we couldn’t find it. We went all the way down Chattahoochee Street to the back street that the locals use instead of taking Main Street, and no store. We wandered around the stores and the Cowboys and Angels restaurant set behind the Main Street stores, then came back to Main Street and walked a little further on to the park with the waterfall and then turned back. Where was the store? Finally, confused, we crossed the street, surveyed the shops there, and crossed over under the bridge along the river and walked back to Edelweiss Street (the back street just mentioned) and trudged back to the hotel. We will just need to phone them to see where they are!

What a difference from last year, though. Even before noon there were already a lot of people out, and as the day went by the traffic on Main Street started to back up all the way to our hotel. Life had come back to the city: there was a trout tournament scheduled for the next weekend, and also another gathering: an art exhibition.

Back at the hotel we loaded up the chair and drove to Cleveland, GA, to get the item James needed at the local Walmart. This was the strangest-laid-out Wallyworld I’ve ever seen. Instead of the pharmacy being against one of the front walls of the building like in every other Walmart I’ve seen, this one had the pharmacy in the middle of the store, with all the toiletries and medicines lined up in aisles leading to it. We picked up a plastic water bottle for James to mix up his medicine inside in the morning (he takes it as a slushee at home, but no blender here!) and also a bottle of cranberry juice to help wash it down.

On the way back we stopped at the Mt. Yonah bookstore. The proprietor there is so nice! She always remembers what weekend we come down and gives us a discount. James bought a history book about the M1 carbine and also a beautiful knob-topped wooden walking stick she was selling for the artist in her store. It’s big and heavy and we dubbed it “the shillelagh.” I bought a copy of the memoirs of a Maine country doctor that is equal parts medical, spiritual, and life story. Daisy the tortoiseshell-and-white cat (she of the vivid green eyes) rubbed against my leg, and we met Ronnie, the cat from the record shop next door.

On the way back we called the olive store-we couldn't find them because they had one more inspection late this afternoon until they could open and the storefront windows were still covered in kraft paper! If they pass the inspection they will be open tomorrow.

So we were a bit late in getting to our lunch, the leftover pad thai and beef noodle soup which we had with cookies and mandarin oranges (and me with a nice glass of milk saved from breakfast). Spent the rest of the afternoon talking while goofing off on the computer, until dinner time rolled around again. This time Bigg Daddy’s was the dinner choice du jour, eaten with the Lawsons and the Allens. There was quite a big crowd, and, sadly, we had something to watch part of the time during our wait: there is a motel across the alley from the restaurant and just as we arrived, an older lady had tripped and fallen walking toward the back entrance. She was not moving and everyone was anxiously watching until the ambulance arrived–it took a while because I think it had to come from Demorest, where James ended up in the emergency room two years ago.

Finally we got seated–and wouldn’t you know our seat was right next to the live performer for the night? He wasn’t a bad singer, but they had him amped up so loud that you could hear him clearly out in the parking lot, and he was singing a lot of loud country and rock. If I wanted to talk to Jerry next to me, I had to get within six inches of his face and bawl at the top of my lungs! WTF, people? I go to dinner to talk to my friends, not be deafened. It’s tiresome, not relaxing. The only time we could actually talk is when the singer took a break.

It took a while to be seated, but the service was fairly quick once we got our orders in. Since I’d had wings on Wednesday night, I had a personal pizza instead. (Disappointing–not a patch on Uncle Maddio’s!) James ordered some steak tacos, and, being hungry, also ordered what he thought would be a cup of chili. It was a huge soup bowl instead! So he took home chili for lunch tomorrow and I packed up half a pizza.

Then once again we went back to the hotel for more chat (and it was again almost nine o’clock!). We saw photos of Jessie and John’s new house. The present owner is a woodworker and is leaving behind a gorgeous workshop on the lower level. Jessie is going to use that for her printing room (she has a 3D printer). There’s also a big yard for their two big dogs. We found out Juanita not only had a heart ablation, but also another procedure that we had not known about. The latter was happily successful and she says she feels more relaxed than she has in years.

A few folks did play some games: the younger set (they’re in their 20s) were playing some type of survival game, and Oreta and John and Melinda attempted one of those escape-room games. But yet again we wandered to bed about midnight, and hoped we’d get some sleep!

Labels: books, food, friends, games, health, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:05:00 PM

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We woke (having slept a bit better with some minor noise in the room provided by the Relax and Sleep app) to another lovely day. Again, most folks went out to breakfast, but we had ours in the conference room again joined by Jerry and later by Charles.

We had done our usual things yesterday (the bookstore and walking downtown and popping in and out of the shops, even if the latter was severely curtailed), and, because of the virus, did not feel like venturing other places we had gone previously (the art store in Clarkesville or even Hiawassee), so we figured we would stay close to the hotel this afternoon, but have a nice grand walk this morning, and we did. It was going to be a bit cooler today, but still in the 70s, so, like yesterday, we headed out after breakfast.

We walked the same route as yesterday, through the back road, emerging at the main road at Wendy's, walking by small, closed restaurants, and then along the truss bridge that spans the Chattahoochee River. Down in Atlanta the "Hootch" is muddy and brown and mostly torpid unless it's storming, but here it is clear and rushing among rocks. Anglers in hip boots dotted the stream. We passed the "castle" building with The Olive Tree, the glassblowers' shop, the T-shirt shops, the L-shaped shopping center where the old (better) Christmas shop used to be until it caught fire, and then kept going, down to the little waterfall overlooked by a gazebo, "Helen Falls."

Here scattered among the grass at the foot of the hill were tiny blue flowers with four petals. I have seen these growing in the neighbors' lawns and used Google Lens to look them up. This is "speedwell." (The photo makes it look huge. The blossoms are tiny, maybe an eight of an inch in diameter.)

We walked all the way down the hill, past Hofer's restaurant and bakery, past the big windmill, past the wooden toy store and Charlemagne's Kingdom (a big model train layout), all the way to Betty's Supermarket. We crossed the street to reach Betty's, then headed back up the hill past rental homes and old houses repurposed as restaurants and shops, and then past the row of shops we explored yesterday (Hansel & Gretel, etc.). There we stopped for a few minutes so I could take photographs of the beautiful flowers in the raised beds dotting the shopping area: tulips, daffodils, ornamental cabbage.

Behind the restrooms that are set across the street from these shops, there is a path that slopes downward so that you are mere feet from the river. I wanted some photos, so I went down the rather steep slope to take a couple of shots, and James in the power chair managed to navigate it, so I set the camera to "movie" and took a nice little video of the river and our walk under the bridge, the anglers in their hip boots, and just the pretty day. The path came out at the parking lots in back of the Helen shops, so we wound our way over the gravel surfaces and came out at the very back, to the back road that would lead us back to our hotel.

There is a just a small bridge here over the river, and since there was little traffic, we crossed the road to check out all the fisherman. There was a man just at the edge of the river right under the bridge and we were talking with him; he had just tossed his line in and caught a fine trout! He was sorry they had to cancel their trout tournament next weekend. As we walked back, bicycle riders sped past, calling a good morning to us.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the hotel, talking with whomever was there (a lot of people took walks today and came back bouncy and happy as well), messing around on the computer, watching Riley the puppy, and just having a grand time. At lunch time I still had the Zaxby's chicken wings from last night. James nipped over to Wendy's for a hamburger and brought me a milk. At suppertime we decided to go to Bigg Daddy's, which was in walking distance. As we were going back into our room to change, Aubrey was in the hallway asking if we by any chance had a blood pressure monitor. Well, yes, we did. Ken had been taking a nap and then felt a bit odd when he got up, and he did have a hospital stay for low blood pressure a couple of weeks ago, but that had been straightened out by his doctors. His BP was normal, so we went off to dinner.

Well, Bigg Daddy's wasn't seating anyone inside (understandable) but the way it is set up you have to go inside and then outside to the patio again, and there is a very small step up to get inside. Juanita almost tripped over the step, and then when Ken came in he missed it completely, tripped, and took a header right in front of me! Several men in the store helped him get up; thank goodness he did not look, at least, like he was hurt at all! (The only time I ever fell like that I landed on my face and broke my nose!) So we were able to have a nice supper, even if they followed instructions and broke us up into two groups and left empty tables in between. Bigg Daddy's food is very good. I had a bowl of chicken and dumplings and five delicious chicken wings. (Yes, wings again. I could eat wings until they came out of my ears.) James had soft tacos.

Just chatting (Juanita, Jerry, Pat, and the blur that is Riley.)

The final night is always a little bittersweet in the background, but the most fun. Some folks had a Dungeons and Dragons game going. There was a coloring group, and Clair was working a minute crocheted chain. James and a few others watched the DVD of Ford vs. Ferrari that the Butlers brought. Juanita, Alice, Aubrey, Kristine and I played Big Bang Theory Uno (there is a "soft kitty" card; if you draw it, you are required to draw cards from the deck until you get a Sheldon or a Penny card—they are both on two different cards, but you'd be surprised how many cards you had to draw sometimes)!

After that, we played Qwixx, which is a fun dice strategy game, and by then the film was over and it was time for bed.

Fisherman on the Chattahoochee during our walk.

Beautiful tulip in downtown Helen flower display.

Ron and Lin in a blur of chat.

Charles and Alex.

Jerry with Riley.

Damien, Kristine, Aubrey, and, at back, Ron.

Labels: exercise, food, friends, games, movies, nature

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

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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.

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

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Today was very laid back. We slept until 8:30 and then had breakfast in the common room. Actually, we spent most of the day in the common room. After breakfast we sat and chatted. At one point we were all riding Juanita's scooter—she has bought the coolest scooter that folds up into a suitcase shape, and you can then wheel it from place to place, or put it in the trunk of a car, and she wants to take it to Disney World and run the battery to capacity. Since it's brand-new, you have to empty and then recharge the battery several times, so as to "train" it. Juanita's been tooling around for two days and still never got out of the green zone. So we were taking turns driving the scooter around the conference room to run the battery down. Sarah got it to corner on two wheels! It goes surprisingly fast.

At one point Neil and his new girlfriend Emily walked in. She didn't even blink, so I think she's one of us. It was like an episode of The Cool Kids.

Around one we went to Wendy's for lunch along with Juanita and David. She is still not feeling well due to overdoing some lifting, and just ate a little bit. I was going to have a baked potato, but got stuck with fries. They ran out of potatoes just as we got to the counter!

During dinner James saw a tiny little spider on the cup holder of his power chair; it had just finished neatly stringing the start of a web across the cup portion. I teased it off with a napkin and it ran for cover under the paper placemat, so I scooped it up with the fries cup and took it outside. It was really teeny, about the size of this numeral 8, with a white body.

Then we walked back to the hotel and went back into the conference room. Half the group was coloring, and I continued working on a mandala pattern that vaguely reminded me of a snowflake, so I did it in blues and violet. I'm still not resigned to winter being over! I finished it up with a bright yellow border.

We had talked at the Wendy's about going to the small North Georgia Zoo in Cleveland ("down the road apiece"), but I looked it up online and it was $23 a person, and, at that point, would be only open two and a half hours longer. Too rich for our blood. Nobody brought it up again anyway.

We had considered going to the German place, Bodensee, tonight, but were distracted by Alice and Ken talking about a barbecue place. If nothing else, it would be cheaper. They drove us down there. My feelings were mixed. The cole slaw was dreadful and tasted of nothing but mayonnaise. The baked beans were okay, but I can't eat too many of them. I ordered ribs and got four meaty, lovely-looking ones. And they were beautifully cooked! The meat was so tender, practically fell apart as I bit into it. Unfortunately it was done with a pepper rub, so I couldn't enjoy the flavor. I think I like the other barbecue place, the one on the river, better for taste. But it was nice to try something new.

And...yes, back to the common room. More people coloring, talking about old movies, history, "and all that." People wandered in from activities: Pat and a bunch of folks had gone out chasing Pokemon. Others trailed in from dinner. A contingent went over to Bodensee for supper at eight, and when they finally returned, we had three rousing rounds of Chronology, and between bouts of history, laughed our heads off. Jake kept getting ancient events and big spreads between years so it was very easy to place his cards. Some were a bit fuzzy on history until the mains came back online, and most of us missed things by that much. It was quarter till one when we broke up.

And, damn, tomorrow is Sunday...

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 1:01:00 AM

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So, of course we are away from home and can't sleep. This is normal, but I hate it. I think we've gone on vacation once where we found the bed so comfortable that we could sleep properly. Either the mattress is too soft, or hard, or the pillows the same, or the room is too warm...it's frustrating that our bodies are so contrary. And, ironically, the one time the bed, pillows, and ventilation were perfect, we were so dog sick we couldn't enjoy them. I pretty much couldn't sleep because I had to keep rolling over due to my hips hurting. Annoying and not the hotel's fault, because they put in a new mattress last year.

We had breakfast in the common room (they have a nice buffet that includes eggs and sausage; I hope they do some bacon this weekend), then decided to walk into Helen. It was chilly this morning, with a strong breeze, so we had to don flannel shirts over our short sleeves, and jackets over that with hats. It didn't seem so bad until we came out of the lee of the hotel; goodness, what a gust! Otherwise it was sunny and lovely, the just-budding trees waving back and forth in the erratic wind, the occasional blossom or two coming loose and swirling around. We loved it! It's the kind of wind that puts heart in you. Also saw something neat as we left: there was a pickup truck parked behind the hotel, with a big German Shepherd lying down on top of the toolbox. He belongs to one of the maintenance men, who brings him to work every day, and he stays there until his person is done. He was there when we left, and then when we came back over an hour later.

We stopped at the olive oil shop to get a new supply of white peach balsamic vinegar; sadly, we forgot our bottle to refill. We also got some honey sesame ginger vinegar as well. This will not only be good on Asian salad, but should be a good finishing sauce for chicken, too. Then we hiked up the hill to Hoher's Bakery and bought a treat for each of us: I got a cinnamon twist, which is the closest I can get to a cruller these days, and James got a German chocolate brownie. We also stopped at the candy store to get my annual dark-chocolate almond bark fix and James got a small assorted box of sugar-free candy. We enjoyed the stroll, admired the spring flowers (especially the ones against the Christmas decorations still remaining—it was funny seeing garlands of pine and fir with tulips and daffodils swaying in the background), and stopped at Wendy's for James to get lunch (I had leftover wings and waffle fries from Bigg Daddy's).

When we got back to the conference room, we started talking and our plans changed. We had decided we were going to the new Thai place for supper, but everyone was going there for lunch. Well, lunch would be cheaper, and it's no fun going alone... So we put James' Wendybag in the room refrigerator and went off to Spice 55 for lunch: us, Alice, Ken, Aubrey, Jessie, Dorothy (Kristine's sister), Alex, Pat, Shari, Charles, Terry, and Juanita. I think this is a new place; I don't recall it being here last year (but then last year is rather a blur). Anyway, the food is outstanding. Alex and Pat raved over the sushi. I had Pad Thai and probably the best I've ever had. It had ground peanuts in it and tasted wonderful. James had Pad Cashew. Everyone else was pleased as well.

I'm not sure what other groups of people do after they have lunch together, but we went to a bookstore together. We always stop at Mount Yonah Bookstore, and the lady knows us since we've been there so often. In fact Terry is on their Facebook page and told her we were coming. She had a big sign outside that said "Welcome, Atomicon! Check in at the front." I found two anthologies of juvenile mysteries and James found an old flying manual plus a real prize: a copy of Igor Sikorsky's autobiography signed by Sikorsky! I had a blast from the past in the kids' section: they had an assortment of the Thornton W. Burgess Mother West Wind books, which I remember from the old Arlington Library on Cranston Street. Back in those days I wanted to read Marguerite Henry and the the Trixie Belden books, and Arlington had what could charitably be described as "vintage books." I once complained bitterly to my mother that the newest book Arlington had involved a girl with a car with a running board. Now I would give a lot for those old books. I did find one of them once, Flax, the story of a police dog in Germany.

Some of the group then went to "the mead place," but James hadn't brought the power chair and had been walking around for a while and his back was killing him. So we just came back to the hotel via Nora Mill and bought some new whisks and a new bag of Pioneer Porridge.

We ended up playing a game of "Roll for It" when we got back with Terry and Jessie (and later Shari). This was fun. You get three cards with different die faces (six sixes, for example, or a one, three, and five, or four twos, etc.) and you throw your six dice trying to match them. Then a group went off to Catch 22, which we went to last year, and a small group to Spice 55, but I got out my leftovers and James had his chili and cheeseburger, and we snacked on the veggie tray that Shari brought. People eventually trickled back in to chat, and then to play games. I spent most of the evening watching Dorothy, Shari, Shannon, and Terry play Rummikub (I was helping Terry, which helped me learn the game). Alex brought a blender with him and was making drinks. There was watermelon with vodka, Bailey's, and some type of margarita. I had a couple of sips of the Bailey's but couldn't really drink what I wanted because it was time for my heart medication. The Bailey's was good, and the watermelon one looked fab.

Labels: books, dogs, food, friends, games, restaurants, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:04:00 PM

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Actually, the first thing we did today was go to the doctor. James had his stitches out this morning. They put butterfly bandages on it and told him to keep it from getting soaked, and the bandages would start to fall off after three days. Okay. The surgical site has looked very good the whole time, and we needn't have waited to pack the polysporin, because we don't need it right now.

Then we came home and began the arduous process of loading up the truck. We were mostly packed, but had to add little things to each container. Tucker, despite being distracted by a cookie, raced up and down the stairs, knowing something was up. Snowy was still concentrating on his "girlfriend" toy. (Yesterday he decided it was mating season and he needed to do something about it as I started to clean out his cage. The moment I put my hand in, he went after it, but I realized he wasn't attacking it, he was attempting to molest it. I've had budgies do this before, but instead of preening me gently with his beak, Snowy bites. Little bites, but he bites. If I was a girl budgie, he would have been beat up by now. As it was, I watched him spread his wings over my hand and just saying calmly, "Snowy, that hurts. You know that hurts, right?") I grabbed him out of the cage and he fastened down on my thumb, so it was no trouble getting him into his carry box while I encased his cage in a plastic bag (it has to ride that way in the truck). Finally we got the traveling circus all packed up and it was an easy ride to the vet.

However, traffic was horrendous in Dunwoody and we took the back way out of there, thereby depriving me of my doughnut, which I'd been looking forward to. I don't think I've had a doughnut since last fall. Instead we got on GA-400 and stopped at the next exit for a burger at Wendy's. James' twitchy leg cut in about Cumming, but he kept driving, and we arrived at the hotel a little before three. We were checked in in a trice and we were fixing up the room when Alice and Ken arrived. James and I lay down for a while (I didn't sleep good, he was reading), but then I started getting fidgety. Then James went out for ice and didn't come back. I found him in the conference room watching Jessie, Aubrey, and Terry play some sort of a strategy board game with dragons. So I brought my games out, and they played a game of Scrabble Scramble with me, and by then it was time to go to supper.

Ten of us ate at Bigg Daddy's. I had wings and had enough left over for lunch. If I'd known they were that big I would have had five with a baked potato. But they were good. James got a side order of onion rings and those were less good. Not crispy enough, and the onions should have been either sweeter or sharper. But we had a fun time and the live band was great, except Juanita wasn't feeling very well. She strained something after lifting some heavy stuff and then moving the wrong way and now has a painful injury. She looked very unhappy during supper because it was bothering her a great deal. She does have a nifty new gadget: a scooter that folds up at the press of a button. But she's not enjoying it as much as she could.

After supper we gathered in the conference room for games. Juanita taught Shari and I how to play Qwix (Betty played as well, but already knew how), which involved rolling dice and then figuring out what numbers to play to make a row of five or more in four different colors. Once you reached the end of a row, you locked that color, and that color die was thrown out of the game. I ended up winning (I think; after not sleeping well last night I'm not sure I added up my numbers correctly) but it's not the favorite game we have learned.

I can tell we are getting old; one by one people started wandering off to bed before ten o'clock! Back in the day, we'd be up until one or two o'clock. But there are still about ten of us hanging in right now.

[Later: We missed The Orville earlier, so tried watching it on Fox's site. Five minutes from the climax of the story the video stopped and insisted we log on to Fox's website using our Dish password so we could finish the story. What stupid rubbish! Before they would let you watch the most recent episode for free until the next episode aired. Money grubbing assholes. Luckily I had the password list on my laptop, so we could jump through the hoops and finish the story. Hello, advertisers! I paid attention to the commercials this time and be assured I won't be buying any of your products if Fox keeps doing crap like this.]

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:03:00 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. 😊

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

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Well, that was a rotten night. The mattress was too hard and either the air conditioner was too loud or too cold. I'd wake up with my hip hurting, turn over on the other hip, and wake up a half hour later with the other hip hurting, and thus it continued all night into the morning. On a positive note, for once the pillows weren't bad. We eschewed the 200-pound duvet: James used the blanket that was on the shelf in the closet, and I unfolded my trusty shawl scarf all the way and it made a nice blanket. (Today I repurposed it into a scarf as we drove home from supper. I'd rather bundle up and have the truck window open.)

So we were a tad bleary-eyed when we staggered out for breakfast. Picked out cereal, oatmeal, milk, and toast and butter from the breakfast bar, and then the hotel also left eggs, sausages, potatoes, and French toast in the conference room, so we all noshed together there. They have expanded the breakfast area further back, so now there is room to get around to the various stations, but they have the syrup hiding near where people are making waffles. It needs to be where people aren't inconvenienced by its presence.

Now we'd talked about driving back to the outlet mall, but we were so woozy we just gave it up and sat talking and coloring until almost noon. Tony's wife brought all sorts of adult coloring books, gel pens, pencils, and even crayons. Then James was looking for new jeans, so we went to check out the Walmart a few miles away in Cleveland. Thankfully it was cloudy out and we didn't have to face the glare of the sun as well. He did find two pairs, and also a plain pair of black pants, and we picked up a bunch of little things: strawberries for the conference room, the flags I need for outside the house (since we were there so I won't have to go at home), and a few other things. I even found a pretty, light item called a "kimono wrap." I got wild and picked one in bright red.

By then it was way past lunchtime, and we decided to go to Wendell's, a place on the way back to Helen that Juanita recommended. It's just a little mom-and-pop place in an old sort of strip mall country shopping center, and there really is a Wendell, but we didn't meet him. We had just put our orders in—James had a chicken dish and I had open-face roast beef—when Shari and Phyllis arrived. So they sat with us and we all had a jolly lunch discussing early DragonCons and Shari's new play. Then they went on to the grocery store and we visited the antique store next door. Lots of glass vases and Hummel figures and old tchochkes. Juanita found a full set of her wedding china (Noritake), same pattern, in there last weekend. Well, James spied an electric pressure cooker for $30. He's been thinking about buying one, so he figures we will try this and if we like it, we will get a good one, and if we don't, or it breaks, we're not out much. Alice has one and loves it. She cooked a mean chicken and rice one night when we came for dinner.

We dropped off the things we bought at the room, and then went downtown for about an hour. We wanted to buy a pretty trinket to put with the gift we got for James' mom's birthday, and found one in the glassmaker's shop. I love this place; it's full of color and sparkle and glitter. We stopped and had ice cream at the stand near the glass shop; I wasn't really pleased with their coffee flavor.

Then stopped by The Olive Tree to get more White Peach Balsamic Vinegar. We ran out of our last bottle from The Leaning Ladder, and since it is salad season again, we'll be wanting it.soon. We hard a nice chat with the proprietor, could go to the Christmas store because it was closed, and then went on to stroll (or in James' case, roll) on the opposite side of the street. I bought my yearly almond bark at Hansel and Gretel, and we searched for a knife dealer who evidently isn't here anymore. One of the horse carriage drivers had two dogs with him, a medium-sized black shaggy type and a Jack Russell terrier. I wanted to pet them, but just let them sniff me instead. Took some photos of the flowers and the metal horse and ostrich sculptures down near where we were parked before we left.

Went back to the hotel to chat more and work on the coloring project I'd begun this morning as we were talking before the Walmart trip: a wolf in fall colors, using the big Crayola set like I have at home. I'd almost finished when it was dinner time. (I completed it when we came back by adding blue coloring to the feathers surrounding him; winter swirling in after the fall.)

It wasn't until after six that everyone got their wagons in a row (we're saving the ducks for the weekend when it's supposed to rain) and went off to respective restaurants. Ron and Lin, who'd arrived when we were heading downtown, wanted German and went to Bodensee. A few folks went back to Big Daddy's. We joined the contingent going to Glenda's, a tiny place in Cleveland that we passed on the way to Walmart. I was kind of worried because a lot of the country-style places have a lot of fried things and nothing else. Pleasantly, this wasn't like this, although we both blew it by having popcorn shrimp. We will have to be insanely good after this. The company was good and so was the food. The portion was so big I never ate my biscuit.

Once back at the hotel we changed into comfy things and then headed back into the conference room. Shari is a mad Phase 10 fan, so a bunch of folks started that up, but I found myself drawn into a game of Farkle. This is a game played with six dice. Ones and five keep you in the game and then various combinations get you different points—or kick you out of the game. I went out first, but everyone had one last roll and Juanita beat me on points. It was a lot of fun.

The Lawsons arrived just as we were finishing, so Sue joined the game and I went to see how the Phase 10 tournament was going back in the conference room. Instead they were playing Cards Against Humanity, which I threw myself into with a will (Shakespeare, not Robinson), and we were up until after midnight in helpless laughter. Jake won.

And now of course we're all going to hell...but not before we go to bed!

Labels: events, food, friends, games, gifts, hobbies, shopping

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

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Labels: food, games, insects

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:42:00 PM

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It had begun to mist heavily by dinner time. We corralled Sue, Bill, and Caran and went to Bodensee, the German restaurant we went to last year. James and I had the sampler plate. Sue tasted a little of everything and we still have leftovers; it's a big platter for two. We had a nice chat and, since we walked there and back, got rather damp as it was drizzling in earnest on the return trip.

Changed our clothes and spent the rest of the evening in the big conference room, where we got the sad news about Alice's brother Joe. Earlier in the afternoon we got word that Joe had been in a car accident caused by his having a heart attack while driving. Ironically, it was good that it happened then because if he had been at home, it might have been days before he was found. Instead people who saw the accident called the police and Joe was rushed to the hospital. But he didn't make it. Alice is devastated; she just talked to him this morning.

Later on we played Big Bang Theory Uno, which has a "Soft Kitty" card, which can be meaner than a Draw 4 card. :-)

But I'm tiring early because of the fluorescent lights in the conference room. Nasty things. Just like at work.

Labels: food, friends, games, tragedies

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:05:00 PM

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Really needed the trip to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, since we were out of salad veg completely. Arrived to find all the stalls crowded on Mill Street because there was a Juneteenth celebration going on on the main square. To James' dismay, the chicken salad folks weren't there. We did get cucumbers, sweet corn, and tomatoes, and a pot roast pot pie for Sunday supper, and James bought some lemon chess pies from the Sweet Auburn lady. We also got a couple of apple turnovers to have for breakfast and bought a loaf of French bread to take to Hair Day.

Then the nice drive through Polk Street/Dallas Highway/Villa Rica Road to get to Ron and Lin's house. Bother. Forgot Neil's graduation card and gift. Juanita brought barbecue chicken legs, Lin made baked beans, we brought yellow rice, the Taylors brought salad, Charles brought a fruit tray, there was cantaloupe, and there was potato salad—a nice assortment of food. The chicken legs were wonderful.

We were home a little after one, and James went on to his IPMS meeting and I set the house to order: vacuumed the dining room and put the table and chairs back in place from Thursday dinner, changed out the futon and made it (I'll need James' help to close it), and just ran the vacuum again and made the bed. By then I needed a nap, since we went to bed so late. That was an hour treat!

When James got home we closed up the futon, then went to JoAnn for the Firefly Frenzy. Only three coupons instead of two pages of them, so very strange. I was looking for new ultrafine Sharpies and found them, but, although we stopped at Hobby Lobby first and went next door to Michaels afterward, no one had the new DMC Color Combinations floss. ::grump:: Got some autumn and winter glitters and some little bells (trim for book thongs), and found something we could use to differentiate the tablet cases. We also bought something for {mumble]. (Well, I'm not telling.)

On the way home we stopped at La Parilla so that James could get Mexican for supper. I sat in the truck and played Angry Birds Space. Coolness! Love the trajectories!

I had oatmeal and yogurt for supper and spent the evening watching Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III—a real Sam Neill festival! Emma came on chat late and we talked about all the great stuff she found at a city-wide yard sale.

And then sleeping late this morning! Till ten! (Well, it was two when we went to bed.) Actually woke up feeling awake. We ate something quickly, then went to Costco. Was very tempted by Anne Frank's Family and the DVD of Downton Abbey for $15, but didn't do it. We just got mushrooms and soap. Dang it, they didn't have any Chex again! We also each bought Omeprazole because it's $12 right now, but with the discount just on one at a time. If you don't think I'm going to stock up at that price, you have another thing coming.

We stopped at Aldi on the way home because their milk is cheapest, and then went to Kroger for bread, Those Damn Bananas, and a few other things. Looks like they are replacing the soup bar for a stupid salad bar. Barf. I can get salad anywhere. Good hot soup, that's a treat. Boooo, Kroger. I'm already tired of them; they didn't even have my favorite sandwich buns today, and when they do have them they are covered with cornmeal.

And then we went home, having forgotten the newspaper and a small bag of Chex. Sadly, we didn't miss the newspaper and I have a few kettle chips I can substitute one day for the Chex. We'll have to go to Sam's again or truck up to BJs to get a bag next weekend. Spent the afternoon finally finishing my book reviews for May, listening to shows off BBC Radio 4X, and communing with Schuyler. And we finally put Willow's collar back on. With the bandanna on, Willow's neck is healing nicely and is no longer red and irritated where they shaved her hair.

Now we're watching Holmes on Homes because, in lieu of watching our Netflix disk, which we really should do, but what the heck, it's the best thing that's on television right now.

Labels: food, friends, games, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:51:00 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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Saturday was a busy day, but most of it was entertaining.

We heaved the box with the dead electronics into the truck and went on to the Farmers Market first. It was cool at this point and we had a nice amble about, buying salad veggies and a few other things. There wasn't a crowd at the recycling event, and we dumped and went, stopping off at Food Lion before going home, as we still had a few chores to get through before game night: James cleaned the kitchen and I did the hall bath and finished the vacuuming and tidied other things up.

James was still sneezing badly today. I've never seen him have an allergy attack last a second day, but I've had them myself and know they can happen. Nevertheless, he still went to his club meeting. I tidied up a few more things, then put on BBC4X and listened to some radio drama, including an excellent adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's War Horse that has been such a hit as a play and is the subject of an upcoming film.

Folks started arriving right on time at five. We had a jolly evening eating the turkey and stuffing James had prepared—it was quite delicious! We had a variety of sides provided, including mashed potatoes, green beans, fruit, a relish tray with olives and pickles, cornbread, a chocolate peanut-butter cake, chips and salsa, and some wonderful homemade fruit pie made from peaches, strawberries and blueberries. Some folks put on the football game and later James, Jerry and John retreated to the library to set the universe straight while the ladies played games and Mel and Ken watched television.

We first played "Urban Myth," which I had as an evaluation copy. You are supposed to determine if a clue read to you is true or a myth. If you are on a certain square and answer the question correctly, you get a letter which either spells "myth" or "true." If you get the letters to spell either one, you win. We all felt there were some bugs in the game; it was okay.

Then we went on to play Yahtzee Free-For-All, which is a favorite. It's a version of Yahtzee where you have to match cards that have been drawn. You can also take cards others have earned. It's loads of fun.

And then one by one our guests left. We did most of the cleanup except for the vacuuming, then relaxed and got on chat, talking with Jen and Emma. Alas, the busy day caught up with me and we signed off half an hour early.

I was hoping for a restful night's sleep, but bad dreams nagged me all night, and I wasn't all that refreshed this morning. After breakfast we went out to Trader Joe's. They had some of their Christmas favorites out, and we were able to sample cranberry goat's cheese on some wonderful ginger cookies, and hot cider. James was still feeling under the weather and I wasn't much better, so we got some mints and also mint tea. Neither of us ended up sampling the latter, but the former were good on the stomach. We also stopped at Kroger for the weekly needs (milk, bread, etc.). Since it was close to Trader Joe's, we stopped at the store on Johnson Ferry Road, which had a Dollar Tree in the same shopping center. [shakes head] All the ladies in my Christmas group walk into Dollar Tree stores and find bargain Christmas DVDs. I haven't even found a Dollar Tree in the area that sells DVDs! James did find some sugarless candy there. Anyway, we walked into Kroger and this one dumps you directly into the deli. We hadn't had lunch and bought some delicious soups for each of us along with the staples. Finally, we stopped at Sam's Club for gas before coming home to read the paper and having the soup. I had chicken and he had beef vegetable; both were excellent.

Yesterday while I was listening to War Horse, I started the little cross stitch kit I'd purchased at Michaels on Friday. This afternoon and this evening, while we were watching Murdoch Mysteries, I finished it tonight. "My girl" is on the right.


I added the little face to give her a little more of a personality. I also made a mistake with the reds, which I'm glad I did...it looks like she's wearing an overskirt.

Labels: crafts, errands, food, friends, games, sickness, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:28:00 PM

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