Labels: annoyances, conventions, food, friends, gatherings, health, organizing, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:06:00 PM

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Well, it was a diverse weekend, that's for sure.

Thursday we decided to go to Patak's Meats. We were, we declared, not going to buy a lot, just some mortadella and more Italian sausage and maybe some stew beef. Well, James wanted pastrami, too, and the chicken wings looked good, and he bought some bulk breakfast sausage, too. Luckily this is dirt cheap (at least compared to the grocery stores) at Patak's. We also ran into someone we know: Christy, who used to be the daycare person who cared for our friends' sons Neil and Colin for so many years. I thought she looked familiar when she said hi, and then she said hi to James, who blinked and said hi back; she smiled and said, "Don't you know me?" It was too funny: we are so used to seeing her at Ron and Lin's house it took a minute to click! And we spent the time waiting gabbing about the new Cystic Fibrosis drug that could be such a blessing for Colin, and about how much we love Patak's. It's like a meat candy store. (Christy likes Lidl as well!)

Oh, Pataks had all their Christmas goodies out already: stollen and liebkuchen [sp?] and big boxes of petit fours, candies, special sauces, condiments, jellies, jams... Almost wanted to start singing Christmas carols!

We hit Publix for BOGOs on the way home, and then I had to busy myself: I'd found boneless pork ribs on sale at Kroger on Tuesday and they needed to be cooked up, so spent the afternoon monitoring a nice pot of gravy, which simmered sweetly and gave the house a lovely tomato scent, and we had one portion with macaroni for supper and put two other meals away, one in the refrigerator and one in the freezer.

Thankfully all that was already put away when I had an intestinal annoyance and didn't think I would sleep much, but it let me get seven hours of sleep before cutting back in again about 7:30 a.m. So I was not feeling too "swuft" when morning came, and we blew off going to lunch. I wouldn't have gone out at all, but it was spoiling for rain and if it did rain James couldn't take the power chair to Kaiser, needing my assistance.

And indeed it was raining when we emerged from the house about quarter to one. We just popped the handicapped parking sticker into the car and I drove out to Kaiser Glenlake, where he had an appointment with the wound clinic. Luckily we found a parking space outside the front door instead of in the garage; I could run into the vestibule and find a wheelchair so I could push him through the building.

Alas, the blisters are healing, but not to the nurse practitioner's satisfaction. She put colloidial silver pads on the remnants of the two wounds, wrapped James' leg in compression bandages, told him not to get it wet, and he'll have to come back next Friday (and for two successive Fridays if it doesn't heal). Gah.

We salvaged the day by coming home by Trader Joe's and stocking him up on pumpkin fruit bars until next year (they have them only in the fall), and also stopped by Walgreens to get him a plastic cast cover. (I also found a nifty long metal shoehorn—James has never been satisfied with other thin metal or plastic ones we've bought—that he figures would make a deadly weapon if you could sharpen it, the metal is that sturdy!)

Today was rather fun. We had spent all of Friday afternoon and evening making chicken cacciatore thighs slow cooked in the Instant Pot for today's Hair Day, otherwise the Lin and Ron Butler Tonsorial Occasion/Lunch Club/Computer Tutorial Day. 😁 The latter is not a usual event. We arrived at the house to find Lin had invited a former co-worker to Hair Day, a sweet lady named Ruth who is 88 and who still works typing out "tickets" at David Gibson's law office. Ruth is very non-computer savvy, but someone had given her a laptop and she wanted to learn how to play movies on it; she had bought a portable DVD player to attach to it for that purpose. So while we were waiting for the chicken to get hot again, I popped open the laptop and had trouble getting the DVD player to work (it was plugged into a USB port it would not work with; it successfully worked on another USB port, so we labeled everything for her). Well, I thought initially the DVD player might not be working because it needed software, and opening File Manager found out the poor machine only had 63MB left on a [very small] 28GB hard drive. This meant I wouldn't even be able to install VLC on it for her to watch movies.

So anyway, the chicken got warm enough, James made me a dish of chicken and elbow macaroni, and I managed to delete enough stuff off it, and then Alex took over, and we managed to get it up to 5GB free and that was it, which means she can't even do Windows updates! We were ruthless: removed all extra browsers, anything she wasn't going to use (besides seeing movies she wanted to search for recipes online and read the news, all doable in Microslop Edge) and Windows was still taking up 80 percent of the 28GB. Sigh. I did load VLC, and we did show her how to use the DVD drive and she took dutiful notes, so I hope we were helpful!

In the meantime Juanita passed around little books for us to write notes in to send to Aaron Lawson in Wyoming and Colin up in Salem, MA (I bet he has fun this week!) to tell them we miss them.

We left about two o'clock, brought the leftover chicken home (everyone liked it, but I think it would have been better done in the oven; it would have been more difficult to cook, but I think the flavor would have been richer), and then took the chance and went to the Fall Jonquil Festival. It was heavily overcast all day and rained occasionally, and we thought we'd had it for a few minutes as we rolled past the booths and it sprinkled madly on us, but the actual rain managed to hold off. Smack Yo Mama barbecue sauce was there, so we got three bottles; the arthritis in James' hands is so bad he threw in the towel and decided to try a small jar of ointment with CBD oil in it; he bought a jar of very delicious cherry jam; and I got a little jar of espresso honey (and, oh goodness, is it coffee flavored!). We skipped sampling the dips this time, and have so much blackberry honey in the cupboard that I didn't buy a fresh one this time.

Of course the booths were mostly crafts: saw some very pretty gemstone jewelry, paintings, creations by The Button Girl, etc., and I was so tempted by a stained glass booth. They have all sorts of designs, but I was the most taken by a little window-shape of glass rectangles about 4x3 inches in a sort of Mondrian pattern—inexplicably it reminded me of Ste. Anne's Church in Fall River, MA. At the rear of the church they had tacked on rest rooms sometime mid-century (since when the church was originally built I'm sure there were still privies in the rear), and so there was still an outside stained glass window near the rest rooms, left there when they had bumped out that portion of the structure, at a level where you could touch the thick stained glass pieces leaded into patterns in the window. I used to love to run my fingers over the cold, smooth pieces of primary colored glass, bright ruby and emerald and gold, and these smaller squares of iridescence in the stained glass rectangle just brought that all back.

Then, very tired, we came home, had a light supper, and wandered about on the television dial from Good Eats to Keeping Up Appearances.

Labels: computers, food, friends, gatherings, health, shopping, sickness, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:07:00 PM

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A quiet day. James made biscuits for breakfast, and about noon we headed for "Hair Day," which turned out to be "Hair Afternoon" this time. People brought snacks instead of lunch ingredients, and we had pizza.

We had fun talking, but the big event of the afternoon was a haircut. Our friends' son, Neil, has had his hair long for some time, but he decided he wanted to cut it into a shorter hairstyle. He was pleased with the result, and the new style looks good on him.

That was about it. We came home, watched some HGTV—we're enjoying the show Cash and Cari, about a woman who does estate sales; this time they found a gadget that looked like a giant rolling pin covered with measuring sticks, and it turned out it was a super slide rule used for engineering projects like bridges. And James likes Mike Holmes' shows.

Tomorrow the whole crazy merry-go-round starts again...wheeeeee...

Labels: friends, gatherings, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:54:00 PM

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So we had supper at Pasta Bella for Ken's birthday; over a dozen folks around the table and "a good time was had by all." James filled up so much on soup and some appetizers that he brought nearly his whole dinner home, and I was served two enormous pork chops in marsala sauce, ate one and have the other for a lunch, with angel-hair pasta for a side. The portions here are enormous—we saw a slice of cake go by that was so big it looked like a prop!

Ken's brother-in-law Jesse had his new toy with him, a color Nook. The neat thing about it was that he had some sort of programmed SD card in it, which launched an Android platform, so he could use it as a tablet, too. Hmmnnnnn...

Came home, drove the dog nuts with the scent of leftovers. Soon it was time for chat, James finally decamped downstairs to the "man cave" and I found a cool documentary about Edward VII. There was a lovely photograph of him; I guess it must have been hand-colored, but it didn't look it and was quite natural.

Labels: food, friends, gatherings, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 1:18:00 AM

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At least it has washed the pine pollen out of the air. Oh, what a mess! When it had rained an hour or two there were yellow-outlined puddles in the driveway, yellow streaks on the vehicles, yellow outlines filling in the grooves of the sidewalks, yellow stains on fences and brickwork, yellow splashed on your shoes and pants. It pretty much rained all day.

Unfortunately, it came on quickly enough so that I didn't have time to refill the bird feeders.

We went out about noon to the hobby shop, then went across town to the "Meet and Greet" hosted by the Brittrack folks from Dragoncon, Rob Bowen and Caro McCully. (Rob looks so great—he cut out junk food and fast food and lost forty pounds.) There were about a dozen of us in a snug at the back of The Marlay House, an Irish pub in Decatur, and we had a lot of fun gabbing for three and a half hours. I had a lamb stew that was quite delectable: big pieces of lamb, red potatoes, pearl onions, and barley in a nice gravy, with an oatcake [I think] on the side, and James had shepherd's pie.

On the way home we stopped at the midtown Borders. Well, it's better than Austell was, about the size of East Cobb, with a magazine stand about the same (a few more types, but, alas, no "Best of British"). The shelves are still higher than a tall man's head, which is always a good sign. :-) You should have seen all the people in there using the wifi in the cafè. Was anyone buying books? (Okay, I did. I bought The Happiness Project.)

We missed Georgia Monsoon Season while we were in the bookstore, and were able to make our way home through lighter rain. There was a brief glimmer of sunshine from the west, then the clouds closed in again.

We spent the evening at home, listening to the pounding of the rain on the chimney and the rumble of the thunder. After supper (leftover pork fried rice) and James called his Mom to wish her a happy birthday, I put on 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. Have loved this film from the first time I saw it on network television. Tony Randall has such fun with all the multiple roles, and he's quite sobering as Apollonius. The scene with Barbara Eden and Pan was quite sensuous for the era! When that was over I put on a couple of episodes of the old Addams Family television series via streaming Netflix. They are still so hilarious after all these years! Loved John Astin's wild-eyed look!

Labels: books, gatherings, television, weather

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

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Friday proper was involved in tasks that are covered in Holiday Harbour. I worked until James got home from work, then we went to dinner at Fresh2Order, since we had a twofer coupon for our anniversary. They had not had my favorite, the Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup, during the summer, so I happily enjoyed a bowl with dinner. This is a thick, delicious soup full of chicken, carrots, and other veggies, very filling, so I ended up taking 3/4 of my dinner home.

We also went into Buckhead to the big Borders, cutting through the "ritzy" homes on Mt. Paran Road and the others north of Chastain Park. "Mr. Inflatable," the guy with the myriad inflatable seasonable decorations, must have gotten read the riot act by his neighborhood association, because while he had his yard and house strung everywhere with Christmas lights and also had an illuminated Santa Claus, there wasn't an inflatable in sight. (I don't like the things anyway; they look cheap.) James had some $10 credits and wanted to go to the largest store where they had the most choice in the history section. Alas, the history section has been denuded; the book James wanted was not there. I fared better: two magazines, a Windham Hill Christmas CD, and two books, one about philosophical discussions about Christmas (such as telling children about Santa) and the other S.J. Rozan's newest Lydia Chin mystery. (I don't usually buy a book without a coupon, but Rozan's books are so hard to find I wouldn't leave that behind, and the Christmas book was nothing I'd ever seen before, so I got both, plus the newest Entertainment Book. We may need the Atlanta History Center coupon for the Candlelight Nights, anyway.)

Had dessert at Bruster's—James had peppermint stick ice cream, which tastes like a soft candy cane, but I would like it better if the base was chocolate instead of vanilla!—and came on home.

Saturday morning started early because it was not only the last Farmer's Market of the season, but it was Hair Day to boot. We got salad veggies and some green pepper, stocked upon homemade dog biscuits for Willow, bought jalapeno pimento cheese to take to Hair Day along with the sun goat pesto and crackers, got some chocolate chip cookies for dessert and a turkey pot pie for Monday supper, and James stocked up on boiled peanuts. We got stuck waiting for the train, but did get out of downtown eventually.

When we go to Ron and Lin's house from the Farmer's Market, we cut cross-country behind Whitlock Road via Polk to Dallas Highway, then go diagonally through Villa Rica Road. Most of Villa Rica is country-like, with horse farms or acreage, and it was like an autumn impressionist painting come to life, all soft edges and lovely colors. You would never think it looking at the Bradford pears in the spring, when they're all fluffy with white blossoms, but they turn extraordinary colors in the fall, from green to saffron to orange to scarlet shading all the way to maroon on one tree. Some of the maples are like molten butter in the sun.

We had a great time at Hair Day. Ron had told everyone Juanita was bringing lunch, but actually Andrew was bringing it, with a birthday cake for his wife, Shannon, and she was coming along later. There were birthday banners strung all over the house, and when she walked in the door and we yelled "Surprise!" she clapped hands to her face in a reproduction of Kevin in Home Alone. LOL.

A little after one we moseyed along home to put up the spoils of our final trip of the season, then went out to the hobby shop. I suggested to James that perhaps the Borders at Perimeter Mall might have the book he wanted, as they have always had a good history section, so we headed in that direction after our visit. We enjoyed our ride through the "ritzy" part of town, then stopped at the Container Store on the way there to buy a few organizational odds and ends.

Alas, when we got to the story there were big yellow banners outside screaming "Store Closing." Son of a bitch! You never see any of those wretched endless shoe stores closing. Looked around, then came home.

Glory be! Jen was on chat! She found a spot in her barracks that accessed the wi-fi in the galley and sat talking with us until very late. (The watch passed her twice without reprimanding her, so I guess it was okay.) She thought she would have a late school start, but there was a sudden opening, so her A-School begins on Monday! So needless to say we were up rather late and didn't get up until ten this morning. Had to go to Publix (good twofers this weekend) and Kroger, then came home to put the perishables up and went to Ikea for the afternoon. We hadn't been in...ages. I can't even remember the last time we went. Had lunch in their restaurant, then walked around. I am looking for a comfy chair to replace the old papasan downstairs. It's been a good old chair, but it's too bulky and it creaks and crackles when you sit in it anymore. I'd love a wing-back, but those are terribly expensive. I just want a comfy, sturdy chair, one you could sit in to read.

I also would love to replace that totty old microwave cart in the dining room. It's doing china cabinet/cup duty and I've always wanted something prettier. But the only thing small enough would be the buffet, which doesn't have a top half. We'd have to put up some shelves or a small cabinet. Not sure I want to mark up the wall like that.

On the way home, checked out the Brookwood Borders. James found a historical book he wanted, and also a collection of short stories, but we had to go out of our way back to the Buckhead store to get the book I wanted, the newest of the Bryant and May books. I'm really loving these, especially the little esoteric details about various London things like the courses of the river or the Underground.

And of course we enjoyed the splendid autumn color in all the older neighborhoods like North Druid Hills Road.

Listend to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on the way home, and a couple of "Splendid Table" installments, including a Thanksgiving edition where they talked about turducken. Later we had turkey soup for supper with whole-wheat egg noodles and watched this week's This Old House and two R5Sons Alaska episodes.

Labels: autumn, books, friends, furniture, gatherings, Holiday Harbour, seasons, shopping, television

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

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It was destined to be a busy Saturday.

We were up and out to get the supplies for game night: Swedish meatballs, onions, and whatever else was needed for the week at BJs. We would usually follow this with a trip to Kroger, but we had a coupon to the newly-opened Food Lion on Austell Road. So we went there for the rest of the fixings instead. The moment we walked into the door they shoved two packages of potato buns at us for free! They were also giving out free grilled hot dogs, so we had lunch.

We brought the food home and while I vacuumed those ever-annoying stairs, James put the meatballs in both crock pots, the little one with meatballs done in barbecue sauce and the larger with the main dish. James doesn't make actual "Swedish meatballs" because the cream sauce would make Juanita sick; instead he makes a combo of poultry and brown gravy, and he added some mushroom gravy to this batch.

With that started, we went out to Borders at "Parkway Pointe." There is a 40 percent off coupon and we just joined their "Plus" club, so each book would be half off! The one book I wanted (The Mental Floss Guide to American History) was already on discount, and I couldn't find the other two I would have liked, so I got the newest Bryant and May book that is in paperback.

After that it was the usual weekly visit to the hobby shop, and then we came home by Baskin-Robbins. (We're adults; we can eat dessert before the meal. <g>)

Then home to finish the last bits of removing books and magazines from the coffee table and setting up the utensils.

We had a small crowd tonight, since poor Jessie was sick—the poor kid is embarrassed since she is already being teased about having "the kissing disease"—and Ann and Clay couldn't make it at the last minute. I wore my "spider cape" and spider hair clip, and a cute little purple spider on my wrist, and James wore his kilt. Juanita had her ski outfit on (since she is still in a cast), and everyone else came as themselves. :-) We spent the first hour or so eating (meatballs, bread, watermelon, mashed potatoes, cookies, and the pumpkin cupcakes) and watching the Georgia-Florida game. Sadly, the Gators won. Later we played one of our new games, Yahtzee Free-for-All, where you either have to make whatever "roll" is on the board, or you can capture another player's card. It was a barrel of fun once we understood how it worked.

The Spiveys went off to see Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Strand in Marietta, and Juanita home to tend poor Jessie, and we joined chat "in progress." Lots of discussing when Jen would be "free." She is graduating on the 12th, so we only have another week to send her letters. Then she will be e-mailable again.

Slept in as late as we could, since James had to go into work this morning. There was little to clean up after this morning, as James had done most of the rinsing last night, but I put the table back together and vacuumed, and put some things up. I was feeling definitely under the weather this morning, my nose all stuffy and my throat sore. Damned if I know why, but it sure dragged me down as I popped out this morning to go to a couple of Borders and try to hunt down the next issue of a cross-stitch magazine that I wanted. I did get Ideals Christmas and the new Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas Magic book, and I found a little "Uncle John's" Christmas book on the bargain table. The December "Victorian Homes" wasn't out yet, but I did find the December "Early American Life" and also "Midwest Living," which I usually get in the fall but haven't seen in months. Picked up the Christmas "Bliss Victoria" and the new "Cooks Country" as well.

By the time I got home my throat was hurting quite badly, so I took three ibuprofin and lay down for a half hour. Also had chicken broth and rice for supper, which made my throat feel better, and watched The Good-for-Nothing (the "For Better or For Worse" Hallowe'en special) and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I have other "spooky" stuff I can watch, like Return to Oz, Midnight Offerings, Haunted History of Halloween, etc, but I usually don't end up watching them. I do the decorations and put on the costume, but I really find Hallowe'en a bit dull.

So here I sit on the steps down to the foyer, waiting as the little goblins come by. Still too many older kids without any costumes at all...come on guys, make a effort, okay? One kid's voice had already changed! Some darling little kids, including one tiny boy who was Dracula, and another as a knight, complete with a makeup moustache! Many demons; don't think they were zombies. As always little girls in princess costumes, a bright-faced little boy as Superman, one tiny child as a convict with a black eye. One little girl was a snow princess among three monster brothers. LOL.

Tomorrow I can pull all this down and put up Thanksgiving decorations, which will make me happier.

(7:56 p.m.: OMG! A girl just showed up in a sailor suit!)

Labels: books, food, friends, gatherings, Hallowe'en

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:49:00 PM

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Although Saturday was hot later on, there was a nice breeze at the Farmer's Market and it wasn't bad walking around. We had vegetables, so bought treats: goat cheese, some applewood-smoked bacon, and a turkey dinner pot pie.

There were signs up all over the market saying it would be open until November 20. I guess they found opening through December didn't work last year, but we're glad it will go into the fall.

We also went to the bank, stopped at Lowes to get some filters for the HVAC system, and at Hobby Lobby just to wander about from the fall decorations to the Christmas decorations.

James had his club meeting this afternoon. I continued working on my digital photograph project. I'm looking at each of the photos, deciding whether to keep all of them or not. This began when I looked through my Timegate photos of Terrance Dicks and Mary Tamm. I had about two dozen photos of them, and several were blurred. If I had no photos of either, I should probably keep the "best" blurred ones, but why was I keeping the blurred ones (or the one of Ms. Tamm with her eyes closed) if I had good ones? So basically that's what I'm doing, losing blurred stuff, or photos where you can't tell what I was taking a photo of (like a shot of an airplane at an air show that is just a dot on the sky), or photos of people with their backs to the camera. In the process I am also renaming them if they are not renamed already, so I know what they are.

This evening we had a birthday party dinner to go to. We stopped at Borders to get the birthday girl a gift card. Now Borders had a paperback coupon this weekend, 40 percent off, but there was nothing I was looking for. The next book I wanted was Deanna Raybourn's Dark Road to Darjeeling, but it wasn't supposed to be in release until October 1, although Amazon said it was available now. Borders' website said no copies were in their stores.

So what do I find in the mystery section? :-)

Anyway, the birthday dinner at Red Lobster was a blast. Juanita's mom even got to come. You must understand that "Mama C" had a stroke several months ago, one so bad that she was not breathing on her own and she could only move her eyes. She is now using a walker and can talk again, if a little more slowly. She is one persistent lady.

So we talked, and ate, and watched Aubrey open her gifts—oh, goodness, she is seventeen this year!—and talked some more. After the party broke up, we went to Brusters for dessert, then home to later chat to more friends. We are all waiting for Jen's address to be posted so we can write to her. I already have a card started.

We woke to cloudy skies and high 60s, which means we didn't have to race to the grocery store at a breakneck pace before it got hot, but could actually eat breakfast first. What a novelty. By the time we left the house, it was raining in earnest. Stopped at Publix for twofers and Kroger for the regular items, and when we finished the temps had dropped further so it was only mid-60s all afternoon. It was wonderful!

Later on we went to Petsmart to get Willow some food; we are going to toss out her food just in case that's what made her sick. Michaels is next door, so we popped in there for a bit to look at the village buildings. They have a bookstore/coffee shop that almost could be a year-round decoration. Also stopped at CVS to use a coupon and Borders, just for the heck of it. No surprise books this time. :-)

Spent the rest of the afternoon working on the photos again, and have finished through 2003. We had the pot pie for supper and now are watching Stossel and R5Sons Alaska.

Labels: books, gatherings, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:07:00 PM

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It was a fun day (well, except for the phone call parts), but boy, was it high traffic all day.

We were up before nine to go to Hair Day. We made the Asian Ginger Fruit Salad last night, and also bought some baklava from BJs when we shopped yesterday (the latter was quite good, sweet, but not overly sugary). Shannon made teriyaki chicken and broccoli beef, and Alex made fried rice and potstickers, plus there was Lin's Asian salad and lots of other goodies. I had a little of everything. The fruit salad came out quite well. The ginger gave it a kick. Plus I had three inches trimmed off my mop and Sheri cleared up a bunch of split ends.

We left before two to go to the hobby shop. Stopped by the house to treat Willow with a potsticker that had fallen on the floor and bring the remainders of the fruit salad home.

When we left the Butlers' house, I called Ed Voyles to see how the car was doing, and was told they would call me back "in a few minutes." Well, after more than an hour I called them back. Twice. I don't stay on hold longer than ten minutes; sorry.

Finally, at 3:15, I talked to my "consultant" and found out the car wasn't going to be ready, but my service plan gave me a free rental car. But we had to get to Enterprise Rent-a-Car before 4 p.m. when they closed. And, pray tell, when were you going to call me with this information?

Anyway, we got to Enterprise. Because I was a Chrysler customer and on a Chrysler service agreement, I had to rent a Chrysler Corporation car. The only Chrysler car left on the lot was a silver Jeep Cherokee. Wow. I mean, it drives nice and has lots of cool perks including built-in satellite radio (it rather feels like you're driving your sofa), but it's huge. I don't dare try to get it into the garage; I might clip one of the mirrors.

At five-thirty we went out to Hiram to join friends to celebrate Ken Spivey's birthday at Folks. Used the GPS on the Droid to get there. Makes me laugh the way the mechanical voice pronounces "Smyrna": "Smeye-er-na." Pork chops, baked potato and fruit cup. Yum. Brought one chop home. We had a leisurely dinner, Ken opened gifts, and we shot the breeze. When we emerged from the restaurant, the heat of the day had burned off and we had a pleasant ride home with the windows down. Stopped at Brusters for dessert.

By the time we got home it was after nine. James walked Willow and we settled down to read tomorrow's paper, which we'd picked up at the QT on the way home with the rental, and watched The Ten Commandments starting when Moses was brought back as a prisoner after killing the man abusing the slave.

When midnight comes I will put out the Easter banner. While the porch is decorated for Easter, I left the spring banner up. I don't feel comfortable putting the banner up early, since I managed to find one with a Christian theme (a cross with lilies on it). He hasn't risen yet; it's just not right.

Labels: cars, decorating, food, friends, gatherings, movies

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:40:00 PM

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That's what I did all day Friday: clean house. Scrubbed the hall bath, got the spare room ready for company (sadly, Shari decided not to come due to the age of her car vs. the intense cold, but I invited her for another weekend, perhaps one where we had a game night) and dusted, neatened up the craft room so all the extraneous stuff (read "vacuum cleaner") could go in there, cleaned the master bath, gave the initial vacuuming all over the main floor, did the deep clean vacuum to the stairway, swept the foyer, checked downstairs (I had already cleaned the downstairs bath, vacuumed the library, swept the downstairs hall and the laundry room), and dusted the living/dining room. James brought home Wendys, and then I rearranged under the tree, and, after James finished stuffing the dishwasher and cleaning the kitchen, washed the floor in the kitchen. At 10:30 James took Willow out for the rest of the night, then I gave her a bath.

This meant all I needed to do Saturday was clear off the coffee table, then do a quick vacuum of the main area and the stairs again, move Wil's dog bed into the bedroom and her food and water into the kitchen, and put the laptop away, and all was ready.

This would have been fine, but I slept really badly Friday night. I had a terrible nightmare about having moved to some horrible place that looked like a loft with ceiling fans that didn't work and saying to James "Why did we do this? I want to go back to the house!" It was one of those dreams you couldn't awake from, either, so when I got up I was disoriented, depressed and utterly nauseated. So it look us longer to do our shopping at Kroger and BJs.

James ran off to the hobby shop and took his shirts to the cleaner for about 90 minutes; I was planning to tidy just a few things up and then lie down for at least a half hour, but my breakfast was sitting so badly on my stomach that I had a big air bubble pressing on my throat and I couldn't relax.

James got home a little after three and it seems we were immediately going again. All the frozen stuff had to go in the oven, or in the microwave, the table had to be cleared, I had to make the dip, the bowls had to come out of the closet, etc. We were almost finished when the first guests started to arrive.

It was a great party. Ann and Clay came up from Warner Robins, and Daniel and Clair from across town, and John Campbell even showed up for a couple of hours (there were still icy roads between his downtown location and our house). We ate and chatted and exchanged a few gifts and talked more, and compared job notes and vacation stories and jokes, and had a dandy time for almost six hours.

So now Christmas is officially over...and it's time to take everything down...::sob!::

Labels: Christmas, gatherings, housework

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:51:00 PM

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We had a combination Homeowners Association meeting/cookie swap tonight. Pleasant, even if I was as tired as all get out: besides working I finished the decorations on the divider, did a load of laundry, tidied up the hall (there's no use sweeping it until James brings the tree upstairs), and finally put up the decorations in the foyer. This would have taken less time if the %@$!$!$! lights had not been burned out on the miniatures tree! I was done just in time to change clothes and run next door. I haven't baked a darn thing yet, so we brought Pepperidge Farm ginger family cookies and Peppermint Jo-Jos.

Spent the rest of the evening watching Schuyler's favorite show (Ellen) and harvesting crops in Farmville. They have snow you can buy!

Oh, we managed to get the tire on the truck pumped up. James stopped and got a hose and a air pressure tap so he could use it on the air compressor he uses for his airbrush, but the poor thing wasn't up to the task. We actually got it up to 20psi using the bicycle pump!

Labels: cars, decorating, gatherings, television, work

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

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Thanksgiving got off to a good start: I found a newspaper at the first place I went, Food Depot. I also got some whipped cream to go along with the Indian pudding.

However, the Indian pudding we'd made looked like such a small amount we made some more; we just cooked it on high in the crock pot instead of at low. Should have left it at one—there weren't many takers. Of course the desserts were neglected anyway, as there was so much yummy food! Alex and Pat roasted a turkey and got a fried one as well, and Ron and Lin brought roast beef. There were also stuffing, cranberry relish, turnip greens, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, James' corn casserole, noodle kugel, stuffed cabbage leaves, and sweet potato souffle—and great conversation, too.

Alex gave us the carcass of the turkey and we had gotten a call from Juanita earlier that she had one for us, too, so we dropped by her house to pick it up when we were on our way home. Gosh, she had Christmas lights on already, outside and in, and almost all her villages up...in the dining room on top of the bookcases, on the divider between the kitchen and the breakfast nook, on the table in the living room, and on brand new revolving tier shelves! I remember her original collection; she has about four times more now. The tree was up, too!

A funny—I called her right before we arrived, then shoved the phone back on my belt. When we went into the house, I realized I didn't have my phone. James called me in the house and in the driveway, but we didn't hear the phone ring. Then I opened the truck door and I could hear my phone ring. It was clipped onto the seat belt!

So we came home to relax. I am keeping a wary eye on Schuyler. She's having the same problem she had when we went to Owensboro, kicking at her behind. I deduced there that she had not drunk water all the way there and was probably...well, constipated. So I gave her first an apple and then an orange this morning, but she's still doing it. I put an extra dish of water in her cage and hope it will help. I hope I don't have to take her to the vet; she hates it so. She doesn't act sick: she's been playing tonight, and just sitting grinding her beak (which means she's contented), and cleaning her beak and preening. But doing the kicking thing, and not eliminating a lot, and squeaking when she does.

Labels: Christmas, food, gatherings, holidays, pets, Thanksgiving

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:58:00 PM

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Needless to say, we had a slow day. James called the advice nurse at Kaiser, who called back just as we were getting dressed to go out. Looks like we did everything right, except she said not to use peroxide to clean the wounds. Just water and soap is fine. She made a follow-up appointment with the doctor for him on Monday. His right middle finger looks a little swollen.

So we went to the hobby shop for a while, then stopped at Publix for some groceries and a bite to eat. James rode the little cart.

Came home for a few hours, then we were off again to Jerry and Sue's for a game night. We got lost on the way there and arrived late. We knew someone that lived out in that direction previously and we confused the old directions with their directions. Nice crowd, good supper, played Cranium and Imaginiff. Everyone keeps their house too warm for me, though! LOL. I'm used to 64-67.

Labels: errands, games, gatherings

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

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Since James is working tomorrow, we "slept in" until almost nine, and then made our way to Hair Day. James baked more blueberry muffins and they were definitely a hit, along with the "Sun Goat Pesto" (with sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese) from the Farmer's Market last week. We had a small crowd today, but a good time. The main course was deli meat and cheese, and Lin made the Asian salad from one of Paula Deen's cookbooks. I love this stuff, not the main cabbage (bok choy, I think), but the nuts, seeds, crispy Ramen noodles, and oranges that go with it, but predictably I was burping it up all afternoon.

Plus we got the good news that ARTC's "Rory Rammer, Space Marshal" will have a CD release for DragonCon (which is in two weeks—yipe!).

From there we went to the hobby shop for a little while, then stopped at Wild Birds Unlimited and got another "arm" for the feeder hanger assembly. The bigger squirrel-proof feeder is just too big and heavy to be on the old, thin pole. Finally we stopped at Trader Joe's for tomorrow night's salad supper and got a few other things, including something for James to eat for lunch tomorrow, and then came home.

Installed the new arm immediately and also added a bag of safflower seed to the seed can. I had refilled the feeders and was putting up the suet feeder when one of the little brown-headed nuthatches flew up. I froze in place with my right arm up like the Statue of Liberty and he eyed me and I eyed him. We were so close I could have reached out and touched him (or her) if he had let me. Then I said softly, "Hi, sweetie," and he played it safe and flittered away.

Was feeling distinctly overheated by this time and was glad to rest under the ceiling fan and watch Colour Confidential with Jane designing a home office for a couple. Wow. Even I would want to work in what she designed.

Dozed off for a while, even, and kept company with Schuyler until it was time to go to trivia. Need to remember to get there earlier from now on.

We won tonight! At least one answer I pulled out of some dark memory (which book Forrest Gump carried in his briefcase [Curious George]), and the final question was about which Mercury astronaut did not get to fly in the Mercury program—Deke Slayton, of course. One other was "The champion in what sport is commemorated by an Eclipse Award?" After my having read all her books, every Marguerite Henry fan in the world would have killed me had I gotten this one wrong! LOL. (It's horse racing; Eclipse was the ancestor of all of today's thoroughbreds.)

Now, right before we left for trivia, James took Willow outside and came back in saying, "Hey, you remember that noise we heard earlier and Willow started barking? Well, the front's come through. It was the flag [the banner on the front porch] snapping and changing directions."

It was nice outside. We drove to the restaurant with the windows down, and when we came out it was blessedly, delightfully, gorgeously cool! I had to pull my arm away from the window on the way home because it was chilly. Lovely, sweet and pure cool air!

Come quickly, O Fall! We miss you!

Labels: birds, food, games, gatherings, shopping, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:43:00 PM

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Wow. Been a bit since I had a chance to really write instead of just post links. Busy, busy, busy.

Work is really stressing me out. I hate having to hurry. I go too fast, I make mistakes. I like to be methodical on each order and I can't do that if I have to rush. I'm missing stuff when I "triage" and that bothers me. (When I get assigned the orders, I print them out and give them a look, scribble questions on the front: "Did they get a quote?" "This is sole source; where's the sole source justification?" When I actually ask these questions of the end user, or request a quote, or a new quote, my comments get dated.) Or I proceed doing an order that looks good and I realize they're listed twice in our system, with two different DUNS numbers...have to contact them to find out the DUNS, because if I put the wrong one, they won't get paid and we have to do a modification. A delay. A quote's outdated. Another delay. And other things. Sigh. I feel harassed and it makes my emotions bounce from one end to the other.

Wednesday night there was a brief respite: we went with friends to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Good version of the book—again, much left out, but all the important parts left in, including a bit of humor with Lavender and "Won-Won." :-) Jim Broadbent was enjoyable as Horace Slughorn, if he didn't quite fit my image of the character. There was one scene, in the cave, where I knew just what was going to happen—and I jumped anyway. I'm so glad the male members of the cast have gotten over the "long hair" thing—I really hated the Phelps twins and Rupert Grint and Tom Felton with long hair! And, goodness, the ending was very reminiscent of The Empire Strikes Back!

But I didn't enjoy the last hour as much as I could have, because the movie theatre seat was downright uncomfortable. I remember when they went from the old seats to the reclining, cushy seats...what luxury! And now they're back to cramming everyone in the theatre like cordwood (or flying coach). My big problem is I can't really sit still for long periods anymore, and when I do sit, I have proper back support. So sitting there for three hours (movie, plus previews and the sucky commercials you pay $$ for, and they're the same idiot commercials from television) isn't exactly a happy event anymore.

I'm sure I'll enjoy it better from my sofa with the back support pillow. DVDs are wonderful things.

(I do think I want to see the new Sherlock Holmes film, if just to see Jude Law do Dr. Watson—one who is not tottery or blustery.)

Anyway—so I spent all day Wednesday and all morning Thursday doing advertisements. Thursday afternoon was problematic because I'd had popcorn at the movies. Let's say part of me wasn't happy. Time for more cheese.

Friday was the frustrating day because I would start something and not be able to finish, then start something else and not be able to finish. So my pile of completed orders is scant this week. Bother.

We did have a nice supper at Fresh2Order and a good walk around Borders. Also, I tried something different on Friday: since it's too warm to walk at lunchtime, I took my walk right after I got up. It was cloudy, so quite nice. Won't be able to do that long, though, because we will have to be pulled off teleworking for the last month of end-of-fiscal-year. I dread it...all those 40 minute minimum commutes, the warm cubicle, and those damn fluorescent lights giving me screaming headaches.

I thank God I don't have the two-hour torture like some folks at CDC...my new team lead lives south of the Perimeter. On Friday it takes her two hours to get home. Aieeeee!

Today has been a splendid day, however, although I wish I could have slept later. We went to the Farmer's Market, where we received delightful news: this year it is staying open through December, so we will get late vegetables, squash, and pumpkins, perhaps some decorative things for Hallowe'en and Christmas. Also, next week they are doing a Christmas in July celebration downtown.

The biggest surprise was the weather. It was sunny and cool! Probably still in the 60s, with a breeze! The sun was still strong, and I regretted leaving my hat behind, but otherwise it was delightful. We still had salad fixings, so we only bought some ears of corn and some pumpkin spice muffins, and some freshly-made cheese spread and chicken salad.

From there we went on to Hair Day. We go from downtown Marietta to the Butlers via a lovely route, down Polk Street, all older homes, smaller than the historic ones a block away on Whitlock Avenue. We meet back up with Whitlock, then get on Villa Rica Road, which is dotted with smallholdings and homes with some acreage, so it is a delightful country road with the occasional view of horses.

Nice time at Hair Day. We had a Carvel ice cream cake (two small ones actually, "Fudgy the Whale") for Pat's birthday; chicken for lunch with sides of vegetables and baked beans. Didn't leave until after 1:30, dropped the vegetables we bought off at home, then went to the hobby shop with a side trip to Harry's for raw cashews, potatoes, celery and bananas. By the time we left, we only had about a half hour at home before it was time to go to Longhorn to celebrate Juanita's birthday. We had a great time, and then came back to hearth and home, and one very happy terrier and budgie. Watched this afternoon's Colour Confidential and then the always funny Keeping Up Appearances bookending an repeat episode of Castle. (I'm glad the latter will be back in the fall!)

The commercials during Castle are enough to give me heartburn: the newest is called Dating in the Dark...couples meet each other in—surprise!—a totally dark room! They are scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas, aren't they?

Anyway, the weather was wonderful all day for an Atlanta summer: we could still drive with the windows down when we left Hair Day. The only time we actually put the A/C on was on the way to Longhorn at five. At seven it was once again cool enough to go on open windows. If this would only last for the rest of the summer...especially DragonCon weekend!

Labels: gatherings, shopping, television, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:11:00 PM

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Time to kick back and enjoy freedom...so we slept late and then had lunch for breakfast.

LOL. I mean it: James made me a grilled cheese sandwich. I didn't have my oatmeal till late afternoon. We messed around on the computer, James rolled our boneless pork ribs over (they were marinating in soyaki sauce from Trader Joe's), and then a little after noon I put 1776 on. This time I amused myself, along with watching the story, with watching the reactions of the other actors to the ones speaking.

And of course James and I always hook fingers during "Yours, Yours, Yours, Yours." :-) Sentimental cusses we.

The hour after the movie ended seemed to fly, and then it was hustle, hustle, hustle to wash faces, get dressed, and pack up the brownie bites, key lime pie, and the pork ribs to go to Alice and Ken's house. The grill was already fired up and the guys were outside around it when we arrived, so James and the ribs remained outside while I went inside and placed the desserts on the table.

We had a great time. Juanita and Jessie, Juanita's mom and Ken's parents and sister and brother-in-law were there, and Aubrey's friend Isabel, Mel and Phyllis, John and Betty (with news of their new dog, a stray they found in a parking lot), and some neighbors of theirs who I wasn't familiar with. The pork ribs came out tender and juicy. We chatted and the girls goofed off, and we told stories about our pets. Poor Juanita had a terrible sunburn, though.

We left just as it was starting to get dark, came home, James took Willow out, and then we shot off our fireworks. James had bought a great deal of rockets, but they were almost more trouble than they were worth: some color and sparkly tails, but not a lot of boom for the buck. And you had to go chasing the little wooden tails not to leave trash behind. The Roman candles were great, and so were the fountains, and even these little things that spun around like tiny flying saucers and turning different colors. And then I had my sparklers.

Because we bought $40 worth of fireworks, we got a "finale" firework that looked like a big cereal bowl. James debated whether to set it off, so I surveyed the street for the rocket sticks and he used the hose to soak the other fireworks down.

And then he set it off. There were two godawful reports and then we had fireworks overhead! About eight of them, chrysanthemums and stars, just like real fireworks, only just about forty feet up! Cool!

Folks were shooting up things to the north and south of us, including some big Roman candles over in the church parking lot, and colors popping up behind the trees, plus lots of firecrackers. When we got in Willow was pathetically happy to see us. James had to cuddle her for a few minutes before she calmed down. I was recording the Boston Pops on the DVR and we restarted that. Of course they start in the middle of the flippin' "1812 Overture" anymore. Neil Diamond was the guest star, and then we had the singalong and finally the fireworks. WOW. I saw a report on WBZ's web page that they had a new fireworks company this year. They put on a terrific show, even with CBS's spotty coverage. There are new colors this year: aqua, a lime green, magenta as well as purple, and I even saw orange at one point. At at least one point, the design looks like Queen Anne's lace. And there are big umbrella ones that are one color on one side, and another color on the other. Also the cute hearts and smiley faces.

Once we were done watching that show, I shut off the DVR and the rebroadcast of A Capitol Fourth was about one third of the way through, so I left that on. Aretha, sweetie, where did you get that dress? It does not flatter you at all. But she was good, as always, and Barry Manilow was fab, as was the piano duet on "Rhapsody in Blue" (though I'm sorry, I can't hear that song anymore without thinking of Mackie Bloom), and they had a nice fireworks show sprawled behind the Washington Monument, with a nice band accompaniment.

And when that ended, WSB-TV was showing the Lenox Square celebration repeat broadcast and just getting to the fireworks...this was done as a long shot over the mall, facing up Peachtree Street, we thought, and as in the Washington, DC, fireworks, you could see other fireworks shows going on in the distance. In the Washington skyline, there must have been about six other shows going on back there! I couldn't tell which were which during the Atlanta show, but I would have guessed Chastain Park and Stone Mountain.

I'm used to watching fireworks on television. My dad avoided big holiday crowds the way women avoid mice, so we never saw live fireworks on the Fourth. We got our fill of them at all the church feasts. There was one pretty much every weekend of the summer: St. Mary's, St. Bartholemew's, St. Rocco's, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, etc. I think these were the last shows at which I saw ground fireworks. Does anyone still remember ground fireworks? They'd be on a platform, and be lit up in the shape of the flag, or the Statue of Liberty, or some other shape, or you might still have Catherine wheels that spun round and round as each firework on a spoke shot off, and St. Mary's always had one that was in the shape of the church.

We made our own ground fireworks tonight. LOL.

Labels: gatherings, holidays, television

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

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We picked up the apples for today's lunch centerpiece after dinner last night and James spent most of the evening cooking up the chicken apple sausages with mushrooms, onions, and apples, and a little bit of maple syrup. He had to do a little extra cooking as two of the people coming to lunch are our friends who are Jewish. I checked the sausages when I bought them and, although they were chicken sausages, they had a pork casing. So I also bought some boneless skinless chicken thighs, which we needed anyway, and James cooked up one package of them in the same manner as the sausage.

This morning it was hard to get up at 8:30, but we shook ourselves awake and went to the Farmer's Market for fresh corn on the cob and cucumbers, as well as French bread. We sampled some chicken pot pie and walked by the greyhound rescue folks and let the big-eyed dogs sniff our hands.

From there we went directly to the Butlers. We had a very small crowd today as some folks were not feeling well, and even Colin was still in the hospital. Poor kid is going stir-crazy. However, we still had a great time, and the sausage was well-received.

Afterwards we took the other container of sausage home, then went to the hobby shop and out to Trader Joe's. We didn't have anything else planned, so we came home and I dubbed off Jay Leno's last Tonight Show as long as various things from the last two weeks of his shows: the last animals appearance, the last "Headlines," the best of "Jaywalking" and "Pumpcast," all of Arnold Schwartzenegger's appearance and all of Billy Crystal's.

Labels: food, gatherings, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:26:00 PM

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Out of nowhere, I woke up sometime after 2 a.m. coughing. Coughing loud enough to wake James and have him say "that doesn't sound good." Coughing long enough to take me past 3 a.m. with no relief, even thought I got up and had some water. My nose was running and my eyes were itching, so I surmised it was nothing more than my allergy reacting to all those damn trees that are blooming: it started with the flowering plum (or cherry, whatever the purply ones are) and the forsythia, and now the jonquils are up and I noticed just this morning that the Bradford pear trees are showing blooms as well, and the pink flowering cherries. Gah.

Anyway, up at nine feeling as if I were a cartoon character that got hit by a steamroller. We went to Hair Day today and I was pretty much half-awake through the whole experience. Phyllis and Oreta were talking about teaching, as always, and I'm so glad I don't have to go to school today!

We had a treat at one point: we looked out the window into the little stand of trees behind the Butlers' house and there was a big, beautiful pileated woodpecker pecking about looking for food. He's a large fellow (described as "nearly as large as a crow," the largest of the woodpeckers). On the way there we had also seen a wild turkey wandering around the front lawn of a little Baptist church on Macland Road.

After haircuts and chat and lunch, we had to leave so that James could get to his IPMS meeting. I came home, put my bag down, stretched out on the couch, and fell asleep for three hours. It was a reflection on how bad I felt that when I woke up I didn't feel any better, except that the headache that I'd had since ten a.m. was finally gone, despite the fact that I'd taken three ibuprofin about eleven. The Tylenol was what finally helped.

James got in and we went to do the shopping, as they are suddenly, incredibly were predicting snow for tomorrow, perhaps one to three inches. In-credible. It's going to have to happen quickly, since at this point it's still 52°F! We went to Costco for milk and some other coupon things (sponges, Clorox 2, etc.) that were running out tomorrow, made a quick stop at Michaels, then went to Kroger. Unfortunately got there after the pharmacy closed, so James will have to go back tomorrow to pick the prescriptions up.

I wonder if it really will snow! In prep I have filled up the bird feeder. Would be nice to have some snow...hope I feel better to enjoy it. Damn, my throat hurts. Had soup for supper and it didn't help much at all. During supper we watched the most recent Doctor Strange movie, the animated one. Interesting; went back to the origin story...was the sister made up for the movie, though? I don't remember a sister in the "original" origin story.

Labels: birds, gatherings, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:15:00 PM

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