Oh, that makes me mad. I had no alarm set this morning. I should have slept with no trouble. Did I? No. Knees hurt, right leg twitchy, in and out of the bathroom, a fat disappointment all round. Phooey.

Emerged from the bedroom to find James had tried his first time on the stairs since last Friday. He got his juice, but it wasn't an unqualified success; he had to sit down at least five minutes before the pain subsided.

Well, we had to see if he might be in shape to go to work next week, so we went out. Instead of taking the truck and the power chair, we took the car. I dropped him off at the front door of Publix, since the carts are stored just inside. We picked up various things I'd forgotten:  BOGO Miracle Whip, the yogurt the other store didn't have (we got the last ten), a couple of other things.

I did get ticked off when we checked out. Occasionally Publix, which sells Hallmark cards, has a BOGO Hallmark coupon. The coupon clearly says on it that it is for a Hallmark item of equal or lesser value. I picked two packs of Easter cards with one as the BOGO, and also added a birthday card into my cart for a friend's upcoming birthday. The checkout went smoothly until we got to these items. First the cashier told me she could not do this as a BOGO because one of the cards said "Dayspring" on it, not Hallmark, so it wasn't a Hallmark product. "Dayspring" is a trademark Hallmark uses for its religious cards, and I pointed out the Hallmark logo on the back of the package. She then told me she could not give me the second pack of cards as the "get one free" because the second item has to be a lower price than the first item. I directed her to read the coupon, but she insisted, so I left the birthday card behind; it was the only way she would give me the BOGO with one pack of cards being free. I have previously successfully bought two packages of cards as a BOGO and another small item (stickers, or another card) at other Publix stores without this type of argument. The coupon clearly said "of equal or lesser value," not "lesser value only." I sent a note to Publix about this when I got home.

We made a stab at getting into Costco, which is a dicey proposition on a Saturday afternoon, but lucked out and found a handicapped space in front. It took a couple of minutes to get a cart, but then we gathered what we came for, including generic Flonase and Breathe-Right strips. Also got a multipack of Band-Aids, liquid soap on sale, and another moon landing book, this one about JFK and the space program.

Then, since it was wayyyy after two o'clock, we went to Uncle Maddio's for a very late lunch. We both ate all our personal pan pizza. No big supper for us.

Climbing back up the stairs pretty much knocked any energy James had out of him. He eventually had to take a pain pill. He had a sandwich for supper and was restless for the rest of the evening, I cooked up some egg noodles and had them in chicken broth. My joints are all achy and my throat is sore, presumably due to the pollen count, which was "only" 1600 today. (Yesterday it was over 6200.) We spent the evening amused by Caught in Providence.

The only other thing of note is that our bats are back! When I took Tucker outside this evening they were flying back and forth across the street past our street light. Hard to tell in the dark, but I think there were at least three individual bats; pretty certain there were two, one right after the other, and a third one. I hope they get all those mosquitoes that will be birthing soon; I much prefer bats to West Nile virus! 

Labels: books, food, illness, shopping, television, wildlife

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:44:00 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...

Labels: food, friends, games, wildlife

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

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Since the Stupor Bowl was being held this year at new our Origami Stadium—that's what I call Mercedes Benz Stadium anyway, because of the way its roof unfolds—there was more of a furor than usual around getting ready for it. I didn't want to set foot in a supermarket this weekend, so on Friday I went to Sam's Club (for milk and popcorn mainly, but also picked up a rotisserie chicken) and to Publix (for the twofers, and also found some nice lamb shanks) and got that over with. Both places were definitely more crowded than they usually are on Friday and you had to swing your cart wide to avoid the pyramids of soda cans, stands of snack foods, and the overflowing bakery plinths.

So we had a whole weekend with nothing to do! What a treat! On Saturday, we went to the Container Store (we had a coupon) and got James a new lunchbox for work. He hated to give the old one up, but its vinyl innards were shredding. They didn't have the little flashers for his power chair, though; not sure if they were out of stock or they quit selling them. Since we went to the Perimeter Mall store, we could also walk past the makeup store and nip into Barnes & Noble. I hate it that they no longer put the new books "up front" in the various genre sections. This makes it very hard to see what's new in mystery, SF, etc. One of the clerks told me once that all the new books face out, which is a fib; I've seen books facing out that have been out for six months sometimes.

We took our time and by the time we were finished it was late enough to head to Town Center for dinner: we went back to Fried Tomato Buffet. We figured going early we would beat the crowd, but there were at least two birthday parties in there! They found us a booth in the back and a place to park the chair, so it was copacetic. Later we drove home through the Kennesaw battlefield park, and there, amongst the walkers out in droves, were three deer calmly grazing on the greensward in front of the park building, between the sidewalk and the hiking trail at the back.

James spent some time down in his "man cave" that night while I listened to some episodes of the "Happier" podcast. Next morning we were able to sleep in, only going out to CVS (with another coupon) to get Band-Aids. Once again he spent the afternoon in the man cave and I watched the Puppy Bowl, part of the Kitten Bowl (adorable, but dull), and some Caught in Providence. I bet my mom and dad would have liked this show.

At 6:30 I put the Stupor Bowl on to see Gladys Knight sing the National Anthem—finally, someone who can carry a tune! instead of these recent pop stars and their dreadful vocal fry—and catch the Thunderbirds flyover of the Origami (they had the roof open for it, then closed it for the game), and learned to my dismay that this had been part of the pre-game show. Huh. To me the National Anthem is part of the game. Phooey on you, NFL.

In the evening, of course, it was time for another installment of Victoria. I had not known that person was going to be killed off, least of all in conjunction with another historical event (the cholera epidemic in which Dr. John Snow figured out that the vector was not bad air or "poverty," it was one particular contaminated well). Apparently the actor has another continuing role in another series where they play the polar opposite of the one portrayed on Victoria. It was very sad.

Labels: books, food, hobbies, shopping, sports, television, wildlife

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:16:00 PM

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There's not a lot to say about the rest of the week. James did get another dizzy spell on Wednesday. By a process of elimination, we believe it is the blood pressure pill which is causing this problem; the pharmacist did warn us that, while taking it, if he sat up or stood up suddenly, he might get light-headed. On Thursday, instead of taking the pill before breakfast, he ate it with breakfast. He has been okay for two days, so we may have this licked. I guess absorption with the pill is important.

Now that this problem is (hopefully) taken care of, and after the nurse visit today, I should feel safe going back to work.

James has nearly finished his "Good Food" recipe project (although I think there are more "Good Food" mags downstairs in a box; we'll see); he's just cutting them out of the pages now and putting them in brown envelopes. I've finally vacuumed the stairs; the dog has been bathed, medicated, and his bedding washed; the refrigerator is cleaned out; the kitchen is back together; and the animals are happy (we assume they're happy, as Tucker is over his clinginess and Snowy has been singing since James got home). I don't think I've caught up on sleep yet, but that seems to be a perpetual problem. I'm still having nightmares, though, and I woke James up last night crying, although I didn't realize I was.

Other miscellaneous news: our bats are back. I saw them Wednesday in the lower cul-de-sac during Tucker's end-of-the-night walk, three of them flying around the streetlight, hopefully catching lots of mosquitoes. They also appeared to be dive-bombing my head, whether it was just being protective or just for bat laughs, I don't know.

We've had thunder with no rain, thunderstorms with spitty rain, and the heavens opening up, but nothing slow and steady that will help the drought. BTW, a funny: the other day the Channel 46 weatherlady stated that the reason we're in drought conditions right now is that it's been so dry. Um. Ya think?

Houdini and Doyle was cancelled. I'm really not surprised, but it was a fun series. Historically, it was a mess, but it was entertaining. I didn't like it much at first, but I kept watching and grew to like it. I think the one that tipped it for me was the one where Doyle was poisoned. But I had a feeling it wouldn't survive. A pity, since even the worst episode is better than any reality series going. And I loved both the leads. Stephen Mangan has such beautiful eyes.

Labels: health, pets, television, weather, wildlife

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 12:23:00 PM

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