I still can never understand it.

Look at it. It's almost Christmas. Summer went by like a constipated sloth wearing a body cast. The weather finally turned cool (and not until October 3, for God's sake!) and since then it's moved like the Indy 500, days just tumbling over days in their haste to go by: leaves turning, Hallowe'en, Veteran's Day skidding into Thanksgiving, with Christmas decorations already up everywhere, and suddenly it's less than ten days until the 25th.

Which is why after popping into Publix on Thursday to do the weekly shopping we returned home, I obeyed the spinning clock, pulled the divider out of the oven, prepped the dining room table, and commenced to baking wine biscuits. This took all afternoon and filled the house with a pleasant odor. I managed to finish one bottle of hearty burgundy without having to start another. Then at suppertime James practiced his culinary alchemy and we had turkey wings done in the air fryer basted with maple teriyaki sauce. To say this was divine is wayyyyyyy underpraising it. Oh, goodness, that was delicious, and eating them did not make me ill the way eating baked ones usually do, probably because all the fat leached out into the air fryer, leaving just crispy skin and juicy meat behind.

Thursday evening we also watched the new version of A Christmas Carol with Scrooge played by Guy Pearce, who is only in his fifties. This helped bring to life Dickens' description that Scrooge was aged by his miserliness rather than years. The producer of this is the guy who does the often bloody and violent Peaky Blinders series, and he commented that most versions make A Christmas Carol so cozy that you don't see what genuinely hard times Dickens was railing about. He wanted to make a Carol that more reflected the type of dreadful life the poor had in Victorian London. Well, the cast was excellent, it all looked good, and it did really bring home the horrors of poverty in that era. But in this version Scrooge isn't just a guy who decided money was more important than people (something that must have come from his father sending him to such cheap boarding schools), he's a sociopath made that way by a brutal father who basically traded Scrooge's innocence for free tuition. Scrooge isn't just greedy, he's damaged psychologically, and that shows in his character; what he does in this version of the Carol isn't just unfeeling, it's downright cruel (especially what he inflicts on Mrs. Cratchit). So when he does see the error of his ways at the end, it's not the happy reclamation of a soul. The end is a real downer instead, where it's implied that instead of other Scrooges that can be reclaimed, that there's just more of them and the spirits have more work to do, basically that it's an endless job that will never be finished. We aren't welcoming the one Prodigal Son back to the fold, we're instead emphasizing all the lost souls that will never be reclaimed. It's not hopeful, it's just more pessimistic.

It's also been tarted up to give a couple of female characters more to do. Intriguing idea to make Scrooge's sister one of the ghosts, but she just pops up that she's always "been interested in science" in the dialog like that updates her somehow, but seems to be there for no reason for that choice but to note that women were actually intelligent back then but were not given a chance to show it. It's Mrs. Cratchit's role that's been expanded the most, but the fact that she is played by a woman of color and then has some special connection with the spirit world smacks of stereotypes of Caribbean women and voodoo. It's like the stereotypical convention that Native Americans all have some type of spirit guide who can save them in times of crisis, a clichè that even made it into Star Trek: Voyager. So: looked good, excellent cast, but very grim, no hope, very bloody at times (check out the decapitated pet mouse). Would love one that kept the reality of the time with the story of the book!

Very surprised that I woke up on Friday morning with no nightmares after that one. (The intrusive and badly timed commercial breaks for no movie I would ever want to see except for Rise of Skywalker probably helped.) I had a good Hallmark coupon and wanted to add to a gift that was woefully inadequate. So James and I packed up the truck and headed for Amy's Hallmark at Town Center, where I found something quite nice, and also, with a second coupon, a gift to put away. We then went into the Publix next door (mostly to use the rest room, but also to pick up something we'd forgotten), and then stopped at Barnes & Noble to spend all of James' huge Christmas bonus, a $5 Starbuck's gift card, on a peppermint hot chocolate and a brownie.

Saturday we had a busy but fun day. We went to Lidl for bread, milk, and juice in the morning, then once home did a few other chores. Cut it really close to the time we had to leave (didn't realize it was so late), but got on chat with Verizon and cancelled those stupid Hum devices for the car. They're costing us $30 month and James' has never worked with his truck. In fact, he ended up getting a new one, which they made him pay for, and it still didn't work, and I was incensed when I discovered they wanted to charge us a termination fee for the "new" account. We told them we didn't want a new account when we had to get a new unit; we wanted to put the new unit on the old number, but apparently they didn't do that. Anyway, I got the dude to waive the termination fee, and we got the 55+ Unlimited plan so James doesn't have to worry about using his Surface at work and eating up all the data. (Unfortunately this doesn't seem to make us eligible for the free Disney+. Ah, well, I already pay for three streaming services we almost never use.)

We had supper at Fried Tomato Buffet and tanked up the truck at Costco up the hill, then set out on the freeway for the city of Tucker and specifically the Tucker Recreation Center, where the Atlanta Radio Theatre was putting on this year's version of An Atlanta Christmas. The rec center is an old school, and the show was in the auditorium, and we enjoyed this year's version with all of our old favorites, including "Are You Lonely Tonight," "Davy Crockett Christmas," and "USO Christmas." Stopped to talk to Clair and Daniel and Ron and Lin afterwards.

On the way in I'd noticed there was a tiny little white building set in front of the rec center on brick pilings. As we came out, used the flashlight on my phone to see what it was. In front the rec center people had planted a butterfly garden, with signs letting you know what each thing was. Turned out the "little building," which James thought might be 15 feet by 20, was an old courthouse! The "Browning Courthouse," specifically, from Tucker, original structure built in 1860 (!) and used until 1977! Wow. They must have had to sit on each other's laps!

We managed to beat the rain home and Tucker had his walk that did not turn into "a bath."

And then "click!" and our weekend was over.

Labels: autumn, baking, chores, Christmas, events, food, friends, gifts, holidays, movies, seasons, shopping, summer

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:37:00 PM

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Seriously. Here it is nearly October and it's still over 90 bloody degrees during the day. No rain for days, just some rumblings of thunder on Friday night that came to naught. Just relentless sun over trees that are looking more limp and tired by the day, some of them desperately trying to change color, some of them just giving up. The two oaks out front of our neighborhood have just thrown up their branches in dismay, turned their leaves brown, and shed them posthaste. The scuppernong vines bore fruit, then wilted, leaving mashed grapes thickening to fruit leather on the concrete sidewalks of the main street.

Misery. Sheer misery. We took the opportunity to sleep late on Thursday, James exhausted by three days in the office and the relentless new lights overhead (he calls them "the Nazi interrogation lights"), so ended up at Costco near noon to find out just how many people of all ages are out of work on a Tuesday afternoon. Not just retirees and stay-at-home parents, apparently. We were there to buy additional things that would go off sale on the 29th: more flonase, BreatheRight strips, and Swiffer wet cloths. Better to buy them now when they're cheaper. Also bought Skinny Pop on sale. Came home by way of Publix to pick up twofers.

And that was it. By then it was airless and broiling. We just went home.

Friday we headed out for lunch early. I had done a dumb thing: ordered a book I already had from Barnes & Noble when I had fully intended to order a different one. So I brought the book I was delivered on Thursday and exchanged it (with a 35 cent upcharge) for the one I wanted. James got a "Wargamer" magazine, and then we headed back (we had gone out to Perimeter Mall because James prefers their magazine selection) to Austell, arriving at Hibachi Grill only a few minutes late. Ken wasn't feeling well, but Alice had come, and Mel and Phyllis. Phyllis was already done reading Becoming Superman and passed it off to Alice. We were trading pet stories today, and parental discipline tales.

Normally we would have gone somewhere else after lunch. You guessed it. Too hot.

Saturday all we did was go to Walmart. James needed suspenders and diabetic socks. (His favorite socks were very low in supply; we only found two pair. Nosing around online later I couldn't find them, either. Damn.) Also got some formerly Grade B maple syrup (now classified as Grade A Dark Amber Robust Flavor—could they get any wordier?) and low sodium soy sauce (Walmart brand is lower sodium than Kikkoman), sugarless candy and wild bird seed. I really can't afford to feed them, but I miss seeing my little flock.

Came home by way of Lidl for bread, milk, ground turkey, and chocolate. Found chicken thighs for 79¢/pound. Sunday dinner taken care of [Later: I made cacciatore and there was so much left over we have two more meals]!

We came home, and James was feeling ill for the rest of the afternoon. Not that I was feeling much better. It's not like this is a new thing. I've never liked summer, even when I was a child. The sun gives me headaches, the heat gives me rashes, and if I'm overly hot for too long I get the runs. And after I turned sixteen it was no fun any longer because I had to go to work. I hoped it would get better as I aged; instead I've gotten worse. The heat saps me, saps us so much. Sometimes its scary.

I just wish it would cool off. I know I'm flaky about summer, and I'm used to it. But I worry about James.

Labels: autumn, books, food, magazines, seasons, shopping, summer, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:21:00 PM

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Today was the kind of day I love. We got stuff accomplished and mostly had fun doing it.

After sleeping late and breakfast and dog walking, we headed out to the Cobb Parkway area. I know Best Buy takes electronic recycling, so we threaded our way through the traffic that surrounds the IHOP and Scalini's Italian Restaurant and I hopped out of the truck and disposed of the bad batteries and the CFL bulbs in the bins at the front of the store. Finally! Gone!

We had some Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons and a real need for more Plinks (deodorizers) for the garbage disposal) and also two hand towels for the hall bath: the towels currently there are getting see-through in the middle. Got the Plinks, and found two very nice aqua-colored towels to match the seashore theme going in that bathroom which will not get confused with the two different shades of blue towels in the master bath. I also finally picked up some sachet for the blanket chest and the "toy" chest, something I've had on the "to do" list for over six months. I picked lavender because they say it helps you sleep.

James also found something he wanted: Forged in Fire chefs' knives! Now he can say, like Doug Marcaida, "It weeell cut!"

James moved the truck over to the other side of the parking lot while I drove the power chair over there. It was broiling hot and it would have taken the same time to load the chair, drive the two minutes across the lot, and lowered the chair again. Actually, having it on the highest speed, I got a nice breeze!

So we strolled around in Hobby Lobby, reveling in the autumn decorations. I wish I could lasso fall and pull it closer! There are trees "berrying" out there, and leaves turning yellow; nature knows summer is dying (and let the bloody summer die, dammit) and the sun won't believe it. They also have lots of rows of Christmas things out now, including at least four Grinch-themed pieces of art!

I picked up a set of three plastic containers (a little bigger than cup size) and two items on clearance: adhesive dots and dowels. James got two clearance model kits.

Got home in time for a late lunch, but kept quite busy. I took the three packets of lavender sachet and put one each into a plastic container from Hobby Lobby, and one pair went in each chest and one in the master bedroom closet. (I wanted the sachets in a hard container because sometimes the oils in them leak and I didn't want that on the blankets or afghans.) I unloaded the dishwasher, started loading it again, put a new garbage bag in the trash can.

Then went into the craft room. I painted two "flashies" to put over the front door of my car, both a bright blue. Have you ever tried to find a white Kia in a supermarket parking lot? There are something like four million of the silly things. I have magnets all over the car, but it still doesn't help me pick it out. I tried copper ones up there, but they weren't bright enough. Hence the bright blue is being tried this time.

Now it was time for a big change. I mentioned a furniture replacement in the foyer in my last post. This is the piece that was replaced. I should call this the "Cat" table, as it has lived many lives. It's 68 years old and was in our house growing up as long as I can remember. Mom probably used it as a side table until the encyclopedia came along (1962). Later when we got something large enough for the World Book it went into any corner it was needed. It was my night table for a while until I bought an unfinished unit at Ann & Hope and stained/varnished my own. We were going to leave it behind as there was no room for it in the old house, but James took a fancy to it and we moved it along with the few other pieces of furniture we took out of my folks' house. It's been down in the foyer for 13 years holding the flag and other odds and ends, but but then I decided to let the table from Vine replace it. (Bennett is posing for you on top. He was Schuyler's stuffed animal, and you can see the mark in the middle of his nose where she used to nibble on him.)

Now it's in my craft room to hold the Cricut-like gadget I got from Vine and only used once (will need to read how to use it all over again, as I never had time to mess with it while I was working—this goes for my label maker, too). I was hoping to put a larger number of craft books at the bottom, but these are all that would fit (I don't think it was meant to take anything larger than hardback books or maybe a large Bible.) The table the gadget was on was a tray table and has now been folded up and put back with the other tray tables.

Labels: autumn, crafts, cross-stitch, decluttering, errands, fall, furniture, shopping, summer, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:21:00 PM

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It's so August. Now of course I was tired of summer back when June started, but by August I have about had it. The worst part is having to roust myself out of bed at 7:30 because I have to hotfoot it outside to walk the dog and get my exercise. The later I wait, the higher the sun is. I find myself postponing breakfast and plotting the walk so Tucker and I will be in the most shade. This morning we got lucky. There were patchy mackerel clouds which hid the sun, so we were not being scorched on our walk. Not that it was exactly cool, but skin didn't sizzle, and nature is starting to fight with the sun about what season it is. By the flora and fauna, summer is closing. Crickets only are chirping, there were no cicadas screaming, and near those unkempt thickets across the street are showing yellowing leaves, berries and scuppernong grapes are ripening on the vine, and with the fruit and dwindling foliage, it smells almost like fall, that faint grap-y scent I remember from Zia Maria's grapevine arbor in her back yard next door. It's welcome yet maddening in the heat, making me long for autumn.

Once the dog was walked and breakfast eaten, we went to Patak's. This is a butcher shop we discovered several years ago through friends raving about it. They're open only weekdays and the first Saturday of every month, so we haven't been there much. But with our new weekends we can go. Today we wanted to get more sweet Italian sausage—theirs is remarkably low in salt!—and stew beef (which James actually stir fries). Well, we got those. And more mortadella. And pastrami. And stew pork. And breakfast sausage. Plus we found peppermint Ritter bars. (Should have left those. They are cheaper at Nam Dae Mun.)

We'd brought one of those freezer chill blocks, so we could, even in the stifling heat, stop at Kroger and Lidl. Just got a few things at Lidl: bread, mostly, and some chocolate. Kroger had milk on sale, so we went in for that, and no-salt mushrooms, and, even though we had bought all that meat, we found some bargain beef in the manager's special slot.

And then we came home to chill (literally) for the remainder of the day.

One of the jobs I had today was a bit grotty. The plastic strip at the bottom of the shower door (also called a "T sweep" because that's the shape it is) is disintegrating again. We replaced the current one several years ago from a generic shower maintenance kit we got at Lowes, so we went back to get another a few weeks ago. Surprise! They don't carry them anymore, and they only had two other kinds of "sweep." Both looked too large. I bought the smaller one, and when I pulled the current one out I realized it was still too big, and the top "T" was too wide. This had three potential "T's" at the top, and I had to cut the two bigger T-slides on the top off to put the T-slide that looked the correct size at the top—but I either cut away too much, or it's a teeny bit too small and falls out of the groove the "T" portion goes into. Spent some time afterward at the computer searching on line for one like the one we had and can't find one anywhere. Now what do we do???

Spent the evening watching Perry Mason and reading.

Labels: autumn, chores, fall, food, home improvement, shopping, summer, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:50:00 PM

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Mmmn...shrimp...

It was all those television ads, I think.

Friday night we decided to celebrate the new mortgage with a rare treat at Red Lobster. We had the shrimp promotion they've been endlessly advertising. and how could I possibly resist crab-stuffed shrimp? It's been a long time since I've had baked stuffed shrimp actually made with crab/seafood stuffing. I remember we'd have that at home, but then the stuffing must have become too expensive, because they replaced it with a grainy, buttery stuffing instead, even at the Inn.

This was a bit too slavishly covered with a buttery cream sauce, but it was oh-so-good! Also had some shrimp scampi, and we even had an appetizer, wood-grilled shrimp bruscetta. Bellissima!

Afterwards we made our third trip this week to MicroCenter. You see, James has been considering upgrading his 4-year-old EEECPC, but didn't want to spend a lot of money. MicroCenter had the old version of the 10-inch unit, with WindowsXP, and refurbed, for a very reasonable price (not quite half the price of the new one with Win7). So on Tuesday he bought one and took it home, started to set it up—and the minute he connected anything to it via USB that needed to pull power, like the DVD drive he needed to make a backup copy, Windows seized and died, and he not only had to shut the thing down, he had to pull the battery and wait a half hour before starting it again! And then it did it again. So Thursday night we went to get another. We no sooner had it home and James turned it on than it threw a Windows registry error. He was just going to reboot and press F9 to get into setup, but he couldn't, because the keyboard wasn't fastened on properly. So this time we tried out the replacement in the back room at MicroCenter, with the blessings of the staff. This one seems to be better, but I'm not impressed with Asus' refurb department!

Today we had to get Willow's stitches removed. We were going to take Wil to the Farmer's Market with us, and then directly to the vet, but then I remembered how shy she is around other dogs. We would need to have more time to negotiate the booths. Plus I thought someone would see her stitches and ask about her—I know I would!—and that would take more time we didn't have. So we had breakfast and then went off to the vet.

Were we embarrassed and chagrined! We took the shirt off Wil midweek because she was being so good. Sometimes we caught her scratching and told her "no" firmly, and everything was healing nicely.

Well, except for the one place under her left foreleg. It was covered by fur and we apparently didn't notice she'd been worrying at it. It was bright and red! They had to restaple it and now she has to go back next week and we have to keep her away from it. So when we got home, back on went the shirt—to her chagrin. You should have seen her face when I called her with the shirt in my hands.

Anyway, on the way home we stopped at Borders at Perimeter Mall. I had seen a book here in April that looked quite promising (The Victorians) and this was the only place I had seen it. James walked Wil around outside while I went inside, and then it was his turn. I took her and walked down to Pet World. They had miniature bunnies, and a great flock of budgies singing, ferrets, mice, rats, guinea pigs, and a wall of barking puppies who seemed very envious of Willow being outside! Several Yorkies, and two of the cutest Cairns ever!

We made one more short stop, at the Container Store so I could buy more hooks for the car. These go around the supports of the headrests, and I could fit another two sets in the back seat. It will be nice to have hooks for any shopping bags instead of worrying about them falling forward if I have to stop short.

James let Wil and I off and went off to the gun show at Jim Miller Park, and then to the IPMS meeting. I put Willow back into her shirt, then took the rug that was too small back to Walmart, then decided to go to the Barnes & Noble at the Avenue at West Cobb. Didn't intend to buy anything and didn't, but did discover they had a Yankee Candle shop there which just opened yesterday. Sadly, they don't have a coffee-scented car freshener. I would have loved one of those. Right now I have "Sun and Sand" in my car. It smells just like Coppertone, one of the few happy memories I have of summer. It brings back Sundays at Sand Hill Cove [cough...'scuse me, Roger Wheeler State Beach] and Galilee and Newport and Narragansett Beach.

But, boy, was it a shock going back outside. As the morning wore on, it got more humid and smothery, and at Walmart the sun emerged from the clouds. Very hot by the time I arrived home.

Came home, read a bit in How the States Got Their Shapes. When James got home, we took the new EEEPC (dubbed "Little Blue" because it is "midnight blue") to Borders to see how it worked with the wifi (flawlessly) and he had a strawberry Koohla (like a smoothie) and I had a kids' cocoa trio. Wish I could have the lattes. :-(

Came home past Publix, where we shopped while the folks at Dragon 168 prepared our supper. (Yes, Ivan, real fried rice. Yum.) Ate dinner to Doctor Who—we haven't watched any of the Matt Smith episodes yet! So we watched "The Eleventh Hour," which we enjoyed, and also "The Beast Below." I like him so far.

Labels: books, computers, dogs, food, shopping, summer

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

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