A post in which it is Halloween!

I was excited about today.  I had some things to do, but I was mainly looking forward to having folks in for trick or treating tonight.

At work they went all out.  There was candy galore, and one of the supervisors brought in Halloween bingo, which we played short games of periodically.  It was nice.  It's silly, but it is fun, and it makes the day go by.  I almost didn't think about ISO documents. 

After work, I scampered home to make things ready, but I wasn't going to do tons.  I lighted the candles, both of which promptly went out, having asbestos wicks or something.  I just decided to replace them.  I've been trying to baby them along, but they won't burn and I'm tired of fooling with them.  I lit two new candles.

Billy and Logan came in with Rhonda.  I already had the candy in the basket and ready to roll.  I had missed the first two trick or treaters when I was getting in from work, but I was determined not to miss any more.  I don't think I did. 

Billy came in and was making salad when Russ got there.  I was just going to order pizza, but since they are on a diet they wanted big salads.  I hate to ask them to bring anything - they feed me all the time - but I just didn't have time to go buy diet food for what was supposed to be a casual get-together. 

I ordered the pizza, and we settled in to give out candy and watch movies. The movie tonight was The Witches, which Russ had just bought.  It is a cute movie, and Rhonda and Logan hadn't seen it.  We talked so much that I don't know how much of the movie they got to watch.  Plus there was candy to give out, and supper to eat in between all that visiting.

Billy and Logan looked at the laptop and got some stuff straightened out on it.

It was just nice to have everyone in, and it was  great evening.  A very happy Halloween :)

A post in which it is dinner out

I talked to Lisa last night, and she indicated that Eve is trying to nail things down for Thanksgiving.  She is going on the Polar Express train ride with them that same weekend, so she basically dumped the decision in my lap as to when and what we do.  That's fine with me. 

Dinner out with the folks tonight.  I've been trying to keep up with my commitment to see Dad every week.  To be fair, he's been doing his best too, and behaving pretty well despite it's being an election year and all.  For some reason though, it just seems to be weighing on me lately.

Thanksgiving was discussed.  Apparently Eve tried to make reservations at the Grove Park Inn, and they basically laughed at her.  They've been booked since AUGUST (really?  who lives that kind of life?), so she's made reservations in Greenville, but they are dependent us arriving within fifteen minutes of the booking time.  This is including my sister, who, God love her, I'm quite sure will be late to her own funeral.  It's never her fault, and she always has some great excuse; but she is always, ALWAYS late. 

Tonight we met for supper at Lieu's, and I ordered some curry that lit me up - that was my fault, I asked them to spice it up a little and they obliged.  Stilll, it was tasty and I finished it off.  We went back to the house for a visit, and Eve only had to intervene a couple of times.  That was based on old stuff though.  I don't know how we end up going over the past again - Dad and I have had some rough times.

But it all ended well enough, and I went on home. 

A post in which it is Monday

And back to work.  The weather, after being obligingly warm for the party, had turned off cold, and I wore a jacket to work this morning. 

It was a beautiful day, at least to start, which was surprising, considering that Hurricane Sandy is moving in today and threatening to shut down New York City and disrupt a presidential election.  I watched the news online today, and as the afternoon started, read the reports about the storm surge.  I watched a special about just such a scenario a couple of years ago, and it went off just as they had predicted.  Michael got out just in time.  It looks as if it's going to be a mess.

I invited Rhonda, Russ, Billy, and Logan to the house Wednesday for Halloween.  I usually get a good many trick-or-treaters, and RBL never get any, so it looks like they're coming.  I hope the hurricane doesn't mess up the weather.  It did turn off cold today. 

I spent way too much time today exchanging steamy emails with an admirer from the party.

After work, it was cloudy and the sky look angry.  I should have gone home, but felt the need to lay in supplies.  I guess it is survival instinct or something.  I don't keep nearly as much food at the house as I used to.  I went by Publix and picked up the cereal and milk I actually went after, and then crap I didn't need.  But some of it I did.  Usually when I go in now I just get a couple of things, but today I went down all the aisles to be sure there wasn't something I would remember that I needed. But it was fine.

Leaving there, I ran through CVS.  No prescriptions today though.  By the time I got out of there, I was ready to be home.  It looked like rain and I didn't want to be caught out in it. 

I had left-over hummus for dinner, watched telly (watched some CNN storm coverage - they had commercials, which seemed odd), and played on the computer.  A quiet-enough night, snuggled up cozy with the cats. 

A post in which it is a recovery/hang-out day*

I was up surprisingly early this morning, all things considered.  The boys had been talking about making omelets this morning, but I knew I had a while before they would be stirring. 

I was on the internet vortex for a while, and had a buddy come over. 

After he left, I got in touch with Billy.  I was STARVING.  He said they were all still a-bed, so I made breakfast.  I decided to get ready to go when I got the call.  I stripped the bed and washed sheets, ate breakfast, and cleaned up the kitchen.  I lay down for a while (could have used a nap actually), but when I checked my phone, I had a message that the boys were getting up.

I had my movies already packed up, so I brushed my teeth and headed out. 

We had coffee and caught up notes from last night.  Logan had been feeling NO pain, but didn't seem overly hung over today.  I shared some rather disturbing party news I had stumbled across the night before, and we talked about that for a bit.

Sabrina and Wendy were in for a visit, and we all settled in to watch Mockingbird Lane, the re-make of the Munsters.  I had read that the pilot was so bad that they had decided to scrap the series and air it just as a Halloween special, but I enjoyed it. 

After that, we took a little break.  I had brought a pile o' movies, and surprisingly  the next one they picked out to watch was The Watcher in the Woods, a pretty cheesy Disney movie from late in Bette Davis's career.  It's fun to heckle. 

Next was the new Dark Shadows movie.  I hadn't seen it, but it was pretty good.  I even thought Helena Bonham Carter was pretty good.  Johnny Depp didn't bug me either.  I really like Tim Burton, but I wish he would vary his cast just a bit.  Occasionally.  By the time that was wrapped up, we were ready to EAT. 

It was off to Irasiai for some sushi, which suited me just fine.  After supper we went by Bruster's for some ice cream, but it had turned off cold, and I hadn't brought a jacket with me.  We took the ice cream home and put in House on Haunted Hill (the original one with Vincent Price).  I love that movie.  It's pretty creepy, and VP is at his campy creepy best.  That was really the main movie I came to watch with them today.  Logan hadn't seen it, and had said he would watch it with me. 

By the time the movie was over though, I was very sleepy.  It was way time for me to go home and hit the hay, which I did.  It was a great weekend though!

A post in which it is the BIG party**

I was up early, which was good.  As it ended up, I had a lot to do today.

Initially though, I fell into the internet vortex for a while, and ended up visiting a guy.  We have been sniffin' around each other for a while, and it was nice.

After that, it was off to the flea market for produce.  I had some goat cheese left in the fridge that needed to be used, but was craving cabbage for some reason (pending cold weather, change in seasons?  who knows?) and it was a harmless enough craving to accommodate.  I bought an enormous cabbage, some potatoes, and some big pretty Rome apples.  I guess this week, the lunch theme is 'fall bounty'.  There was no glass today, but then I don't really need any.  Still, I'm beginning to think I've hit a dry streak.

By the time I left the flea market, I was starving.  I also had a real craving for pancakes.  I wanted to go out to breakfast.  I usually don't go out to breakfast, especially by myself, but I decided to go to K&S Restaurant, a little meat and three near my house.  The prices are cheap as chips, the staff are nice, and it does my heart good to leave one of them a decent tip for a change.  The clients there are old-school, and I'm sure none of them is getting rich.  Plus it would be better if I didn't make and eat an entire batch of pancakes, as I would do at the house.  So off I went. 

When I got home I turned on TCM (they were having a horror move marathon today) and started chopping and frying cabbage.  I added onions, apples, hot sauce, vinegar, and some honey.  The cabbage was HUGE.  I had known it was big, but hadn't been able to resist.  When I was about half done, I turned the television over to the Carolina game.  Dana had invited me over to watch it with her earlier, but I knew I had to do chores today.  We won the game, but at a heavy price.  Sadly, Marcus Lattimore (one of the best running backs in the league, and a key player), was seriously injured.  It looks as if he's out for the season, and the analysts have written the team off for the season as well.  It was a sad end. 

After the game, I turned it back to TCM in time to watch the end of Village of the Damned while my garlic smother-fried potatoes finished cooking.  Ironically, although I was cooking all this food for next week, I was eating dibs and dabs for lunch.  I didn't really feel like eating anything, but knew I needed to or I wouldn't be worth anything at the party tonight.  I wanted to take a nap too.  I finished up my potatoes, cleaned up the kitchen, turned the television over to something less eerie, and tried; but no dice.  I couldn't go to sleep.

Since there was still much to do, I got up and started doing it.  I got out costume stuff and ironed my shirt.  Then I did the cat chores and got cleaned up.  By the time I had done all that, it was time to start getting ready.

 Vince, looking utterly gorgeous in costume, as always

Me in costume as Hugh Hefner, although I was also accepting a generic playboy, some Victorian dude, Liberace in mourning, or Sherlock Holmes in the off-hours

I got in touch with Vince, who had called and wanted to ride with me tonight - he came over and we headed out. 

The party, at Bill and John's house, is always amazing.  This year was no exception.  Although Vince and I were both having a hard time getting in a party mood on the way there, after I'd been there about a half hour or so, I was fine and enjoying myself.  I dropped off my donation (it's a Red Party) and settled in to find a drink and some place to sit.  I greeted friends, and met up with the boys. 

But I had been on my feet a lot today, and socializing in such a maelstrom is tiring even at the best of times.  I met up with my friend Rodney, and we headed out to the gazebo/potting shed for a bit of quiet.  Although there were lights all over it, it had just been set up as a kind of rest station.  We sat and talked for a while, greeting various passers-through.  Rodney drifted back to the party, and I met up with the boys, met a charming bartender named Gretchen, and  sat there for a while by myself.  I wasn't really upset or anything, just kind of tired and ready to go home.  But a casual passer-through and I struck up a conversation.  He stayed for a while, and eventually we went for a little walk.  That was nice.  Leaned up against an obliging wall, under the full moon, we visited for a while.  Very nice indeed.  I seem to be all about communing with the moon this weekend.

When I got back though, I was majorly ready to head home.  Sabrina obligingly delivered Vince, and we headed out.  Unfortunately, Vince still didn't seem to be in a very party-like mood.  I listened to him, because that's what friends do.  All. The. Way. Home.  Then I sent him on his way and turned in. 

A post in which it is FRIDAY!

And man was I ready for it!  Alan continued to be out of the office, which was peaceful, and we got paid, which is just always a good thing.

I sent the boys an email this morning.  I've been feeling pushed to the side lately.  It could be me, but I wanted to check in and make sure I didn't need to apologize for something.  I didn't hear anything back though.

I did a bit of shopping.  I'm trying to crank up the machinery and get started on Christmas shopping.  Today I bought my gift for the bear party, so I'm good there.  Liked it so much I got one for me too (LOL I guess charity truly does begin at home.

Towards the end of the day, there was an interesting development on Facebook.  Mom had changed her relationship status to 'in a relationship' earlier in the week.  Hmmm I thought.  She hadn't seemed that serious about the latest guy, but then I just decided that was really her business.  Well this afternoon some other woman started posting all these comments on the status update about how many women he had on the string, etc.  I called Mom and told her what was going on, but her faithful friend Maureen was already on the case, so she knew.  She told me that she had already cancelled a dinner date with him for tonight, and was waiting to see what happened. 

After work I had an appointment to have my hair done, and headed for the shop.  On the one hand, I thought that might have been why I didn't hear from them today.  On the other hand, I thought maybe they were waiting to talk to me about some transgression in person.  As it turns out, I was fine with the boys, they're just going through a very hectic phase.  That happens peridoically for all of us, and I have been doing a lot of family stuff recently.  It turns out that one of the things in my mind was kind of true, and Russ and I talked about that for a while.  I miss those talks.  Now that he doesn't smoke anymore, we don't get as much porch time as we used to.

After my haircut, we headed to Tuk Tuk Thai for supper.  My meal wasn't as spectacular as it was last time, but it was still very good, and Russ and Billy enjoyed it as well.  Tonight I had pad thai, one of my favorites, and the true way to judge a Thai restaurant IMHO.  After we got some lime and a bit of spice, it was lovely.  Not as good as King and I used to be, of course, but then very, very few places are. 

We met Billy at the restaurant, so I got to talk to him as well.  Logan was having a 'bro night' tonight, but that was fine. 

After supper, we headed back to the house and got in the hot tub.  I've never wanted the up-keep on one, but..  Well tonight the weather was beautiful, cool without being cold, a pretty moon, and clear.  Being on the deck in that bubbling hot water under the full moon was just bliss.  Billy and I had a good soak, then went in the house to watch telly for a bit before I headed home. 

It was a lovely evening, and it was really really good to touch base and spend some quality time with Russ and Billy. 

A post in which I am out wif da bears

Alan was out of the office again today, which is a refreshing break, but which doesn't incline me in the least to work on my ISO documents.  I did.  A bit.  But not as much as I should have.

The morning was dominated by my dreading going to the cancer center.  I knew they weren't going to do anything today, but that didn't stop my heart from being weighed down.  After putting it off as long as I could (hmmm, could a pattern be emerging?) I went.  Despite being the middle of the day (when they are usually running anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour behind) I got in pretty quickly.  It was good to see Dr. Go, and he re-scheduled me for April.  No scans or anything in the meantime either.  I was glad to get out.

There was one disappointment today, and I called Jason to talk about it, but as usual he didn't answer.  Just as well, I guess.  I needed to turn it over in my mind before I talked to him.  He did call me later in the day, and we talked for a few minutes.  It was good to hear his voice and his laugh, and I'm really looking forward to seeing him on the 10th.

Dad went in for his umpteenth angioplasty today.  I didn't hear much, but what I did hear was that everything was going fine, so I didn't worry.

The Thursday night dinner group was happening tonight, and meeting later than usual because of Todd's schedule.  I decided to go to that, fielding the million or so texts it took to set it all up.

I had plenty of time to run errands after work.  First it was off to Dollar Tree for discount beauty products.  I needed some hair gel for my costume, and decided to pick up some other stuff while I was there.  Next to the library to pick up a book.  I am finally starting to read a series by Janet Evanovich that my mom recommended some time ago.  I picked up One for the Money tonight.  Then it was off to the grocery store.  I was almost out of half and half for my coffee. 

I went home and put a load of clothes in the washer (I'd worn cologne on my thighs today because my khakis were a teensy bit whiffy) and contemplated the important thing.  What was I going to wear to dinner?  I had washed my camo pants earlier in the week, but I'd just worn them to the movies and dinner Sunday night.  I really couldn't show up with the same group of folks in the same pants tonight.  I finally sucked it up and put on my jeans.  Things have eased - a bit - this week, I could tell by the way my work pants fit, but they were still far from comfortable.  On the way to the restaurant, more text messages were coming in, and I was doing positions worthy of a French acrobat trying to get my phone out of my jeans pocket, while driving, to make sure that the location hadn't changed. 

It hadn't, and I arrived at Papas & Beer miraculously in one piece.  We were eleven for dinner tonight, in the continuation of a disturbing new trend.  For some reason, RBL can't go anywhere now without an entourage to rival Madonna's and a fire-juggling nun from Buenos Aries.  Now that's fine sometimes, but sometimes I just want to hang with my boys, ya know?  I did at least get to sit with Billy tonight, so we talked some.  It's not that I don't like everyone, it's just sometimes I would like some quiet time with my brothers. 

It was a good meal.  The food there is good, and if it took me twenty freakin' minutes to get a drink, well, the waiter was struggling with two large parties in the very back of the restaurant and it was close to closing.  With that many people at a table, it was (good-natured) pandemonium.  There was much discussion of Bill and John's big party this weekend, who would be there, what they would be wearing, etc.  I am looking forward to the party, although I found out at dinner that since there are three of the boys now (RBL) and since Sabrina and Wendy are coming in from out of town, and since they have invited another guest to go with them (a friend of Logan's), yours truly is on his own for a ride to the party.  Again, not devastating, but telling of the current situation.  I kind of feel that I'm being marginalized from their lives.  I'm wondering at the same time if I'm over-reacting. 

Jake and a really big margarita

Another picture of the huge margaria - I was fascinated, but at the same time am now wondering what it says that I have more pictures of the drink than I do of the people?

After dinner we all filed out onto the porch to visit for a bit before we headed home.  (About time too - the combination of tiny hard chairs and tourniquet jeans had me living in fear of involuntary amputation.)  Jake had ordered a ginormous margarita for his supper, and hadn't ordered any food, so he was tipsy.  It would have been fine, but he was kinda making a nuisance of himself.  Eventually though, I'd had enough companionship.  I said my goodnights and peeled off from the group - the first to leave - and headed home to turn in. 

A post in which I tell a lie

Well I got down to it today, and completed two ISO documents.  Better than nothing, but I hated every minute of it.  I wasted a lot of time today just because the assignment is so vile. 

Today was the 'International' food day.  As it turns out, it was fine that I phoned it in, because almost everyone else did as well.  We did have Velveeta cheese dip with salsa though, and that is one of the very few acceptable and edible uses for Velveeta IMHO.  I loaded up my plate, and was strangely almost immediately queasy when I finished.  Unusual for me.  Usually my stomach accepts an overload of rich food with contentment, but not today.  Because I didn't eat anything else for a while, my blood sugar tanked.  Then I had a cupcake in the afternoon and it spiked again.  I spent most of the day feeling not-so-great.

I was strangely, well, anxious today at work.  On the one hand I was, well, horny.  I was just hungry for the touch of a man today.  Enough so that I sent out some text messages, with no result.

I am also strangely dreading the trip to the cancer center tomorrow out of all proportion to anything that is going to happen.  This is a check-back, and the most they are going to do is schedule me for a PET scan, but for some reason, I am really trepidatious about going at all.  I'm going, but I'm really not liking the fact. 

I made an appointment to see Russ today.  He has scheduled me for Friday.  I had kind of thought it might work better to leave my hair longer for my costume until after the party, but I guess I'd rather go ahead and have it seen to. 

I was ready to go home today, and glad that I got to go home.  Dad called as I was en route to invite me to dinner.  Oy.  I love him, he's my dad and all, but it just seems like they would eat my whole life if I let them.  I just spent all day with them on Saturday, and went to dinner with them last night.  I told him I had plans.  Now I did kind of have plans.  I have to wash my lounge lizard robe tonight in preparation for the party on Saturday.  I guess I could have done it another night, but had planned to to it tonight, and frankly I wanted some down time.  So while it wasn't exactly a lie, I'm sure that he would see it as such if he found out about it.  Sigh.  I do try to be a good son, but it never seems like I do enough. 

In other, more positive news, I heard from Jason today.  He usually gets back to me within about 24 hours.  He is coming to town the weekend of November 10th.  I can hardly wait!  I am really excited to see him.  It has been too long. 

When I got home, I put in the load of laundry and collapsed on the sofa to be worthless for a while, in which case I was wildly successful.  I played with my music for a while, starting on getting it organized after the move.  After a while I got up, threw some thawed spaghetti in the microwave for supper (at least it was homemade, had veggies in it, and was wholesome), and moved the clothes to the dryer. 

I went on to bed shortly after eating.  It was good to spend a little time at the house when I was conscious. 

A post in which it is dinner out with the 'rents

After my lovely dinner last night, I made sure to post nice things about Tuk Tuk Thai online.  They have a Facebook page set up already.  I actually had a very nice message from the owner of the restaurant.  I tried to talk Eve and Dad into going back with me tonight, but she was having none of it.  Eve has a pathological aversion to curry - not just in her food, but indeed anywhere in her general vicinity.  Whatever.  I just told her to choose.  We ended up at Cracker Barrel.  What a step down LOL.  Miss Kat, Dana, and my mother just love that place, but there is a limited selection for me there.  No worries, I just ordered breakfast. 

After supper we went back to the house for a visit, but I didn't stay late.

First, Dad is back to the doctor in the morning.  I knew that he was hurting on Saturday, but apparently he has a complication.  He's in atrial fibrillation.  They are going to check some things out, and have put him on a powerful drug to try to get his heart back beating properly.  They're going to do another angiogram (this time through his arm) and possibly an angioplasty, if needed.  If his heart isn't beating back in rhythm by Thursday, they're going to do a cardioversion, where they stop and re-start the heart to try to fix it.  Dad is pale and tired.  I know this is serious, but he's had so many procedures done that I've become kind of inured to it.  He doesn't seem overly worried, and was in good spirits, considering.  Maybe he just doesn't want me to worry.

We talked tonight about my going in to the cancer center for a follow-up on Thursday.  I hadn't heard from them until I was on my way back from the beach trip with Mom.  Cassie (my chemo nurse) called to tell me that I had been due for a follow-up in July, but no one had set up an appointment.  So she had Amy set me an appointment for this Thursday.  Now I knew that I was probably due in, but I sure wasn't going to call them.  I know that's stupid.  I know I have to do my follow-ups, but I have such a dread of that place that I sure wasn't going to call them to volunteer to come in.  So I'm going.  But I'm not happy about it, and I'm really dreading it out of all proportion to what is going to happen. 

The other reason I had to leave early tonight was that I had been reminded today that there is a UN- inspired food day tomorrow.  I don't remember the particulars of why, but they called it a week or so ago and I hadn't put it on my calendar.  I knew I wouldn't have time to cook anything tonight, so I ran by Publix to pick up some Sabra hummus, which is my favorite, other than what they make at Pita House, which is the BEST.  They have a new 17 oz. container, which was nice, because that meant I didn't have to buy two, but I was thinking that's an odd size.  They had it in one of my two favorite flavors too, the Roasted Pine Nut, which is delicious.  I love the roasted red pepper too, but the garlic is way too strong. 

Anyway, I futzed around the store for a while (there were several really cute guys in there), but eventually emerged triumphantly with hummus in hand, ready for tomorrow.  Then I went home and got a little broody listening to Wide Awake on the computer.  That song always reminds me of the camping trip with Jason these days.  They were playing it at the pool that late Saturday night when we were frolicking, happy and carefree.  I miss him.  I sent him a text, but of course got no response. 

A post in which I have glorious Thai, and get the music back!!

I went in to work today determined to make some progress on the ISO project.  The flesh was willing, but the spirit was weak.  With one thing and another, I had ample reasons to procrastinate.  I had letters from agencies, scanned my bankruptcy paperwork, and basically just did everything else on my desk to keep from doing it.  But I know I have to at some point.

I had made plans to have dinner with Justin tonight, and we exchanged text messages trying to decide where to go.  He wanted Vietnamese, but there are really only two Vietnamese places in town, and I'm not wild about either of them.  We had settled on Kannika's Thai Kitchen (I thought they had pho, which was what Justin wanted), but when we got there we found that they are closed on Monday.  After some discussion, we decided to try the new Thai place up on Pelham Road.  They had opened in the place that Thai Sky used to be. 

The name of the restaurant is Tuk Tuk Thai.  I was rather disconcerted to note on entry that they had covered up the gorgeous and elaborate ceiling with a cheap dropped ceiling.  I can't imagine why.  The recessed carved gilt in there was beautiful and had to have been expensive.  It's been there through three different restaurants.  The place was also deserted, except for one pair of Asian guys who left shortly after we came in. 

We perused the menu, all of which sounded delicious.  There were the classic Thai dishes, plus some other house specialties that sounded wonderful.  I was having a hard time making up my mind - my mouth was watering over half the menu.  When I finally did, I saw that Justin was having a hard time.  He had eaten Thai before, but could only remember the number of the dish on the menu.  He remembered nothing about what was in the dish, or the restaurant where he had eaten, which was not terrifically helpful.  But the menu had a whole section of just soups, and when I directed him thither, he seemed to be pretty satisfied. 

After we ordered, they came out to tell me that the salmon had gone over and couldn't be served.  I was a bit leery, but they told me they would sub out some tilapia instead.  Since I like that, I agreed.  So Justin and I were talking when our food came out.  It was HUGE!  My food literally came out on a serving platter - the kind you would put a turkey on or something. 

My enormous platter of food, with Justin's hand for scale. You can see Justin's soup above right.

Justin, showing his approval of our beautiful meal, right before we tucked in.

The first order of business was to take pictures.  The photo of my plate really is under-exposed and doesn't do it justice.  It was beautiful.  The next thing was to taste it - GORGEOUS!  It was literally some of the best Thai food I have ever eaten.  The plate was so huge that I really should have taken some of it home, but it was so good I couldn't stop eating it.  I ate the whole thing.  Every scrap.  And scraped my plate.  Pants be damned.

After we got some food in us, the conversation started back, and we caught each other up on what's going on.  It's good to see Justin.  He inspected the window over the sink for the new glass to see what I had, and we talked about glass excursions, men, and men that mutual friends we know are seeing.  It was s good visit.  After finally finishing dinner, and heaping praise upon the restaurateurs to the point that I believe they were a bit embarrassed, we headed out, replete and satisfied. 

On the way back, we ran through Publix for some fruit.  I had to go to the grocery store before work today and I hate that.  Tomorrow night is dinner with the folks, so I won't be able to go tomorrow unless I go very late.

I talked to Justin about the problems I was having getting my iTunes into the PC, and he told me he would take a look at it.  When we got back to the house, he downloaded it and got all my music transferred in 0- while he talked on the freakin' phone.  And of course it was just easy peasy Japanesey for him.  Sigh.  But the important thing was that I HAD MY MUSIC BACK!!  It's been locked up in that Mac forever.  I was SO excited. 

After the music thing, Justin told me he was going home to watch the debates (better him than me), and he left, with my profuse thanks ringing in his ears as he withdrew.

I then scampered back into the house to wash up the lunch dishes and finally, finally download Wide Awake.  I played around in the music for a while (I'll have to re-make my playlists, unfortunately) just because I was so excited to have it back, but I knew it was time to go to bed, and did so.

A post in which I get a little time to myself*

Of course, since today was the ONE day I could sleep in this week, I couldn't sleep.  I was up at 1:30am, hungry.  That salad was gone.  By the time I got up and had a snack I was awake for a while.  I was back up at 5:45am to go to the bathroom, and then couldn't get back to sleep for the usual reasons.  Other parts of my body were waking up and ready to start the day, regardless of whether I wanted that.  Eventually, I just turned on the computer and fell into the internet vortex for a while.  Since I had practically approached sainthood for goodness yesterday, I immediately set about righting the balance today.  I was pretty bad this morning.

I ran into my buddy John on line.  He lives out in Greer, and I have been out to see him a couple of times.  We had a (WOW) excellent visit today - I think the best one yet.  Near the end of it, I'll frankly share that I was channelling the volcano Krakatoa.  Whoa.  Afterwards, he started showing me all of his NASCAR collectibles.  At first, I was like why the &;^%$#@!! is he doing this?  It was rather annoying.  Then I realized that he was showing me his 'fancy stuff'.  I kind of felt like Puff the Magic Dragon.  Looked at from that perspective, it was touching.

Eventually, I dis-entangled myself and headed home.  On the way, I was thinking about my friends, and various things I needed to call and tell them.  I passed a sign that said "WE HAVE PANSIES", and thought Oh yeah, Justin lives right back here.  I decided to stop off and see him.  When I got to the apartment, I thought I would call him before I climbed all those steps.  Good thing.  He was on his way home to York this morning, and it would have been a wasted effort.  We made plans to go to dinner tomorrow.

By this time, I was prodigiously hungry.  By the time I got home though, the last thing I felt in condition to do was cook.  I foraged for various cabinet snacks, and toasted some raisin bread I had in the freezer, thinking that since Russ was out of town, today was a good day to eat it, since I wouldn't have to worry about him having an allergic reaction to me later when I went to the house.

I had made plans to hang out with the boys today, but first I had to have a nap.  I turned on telly, got comfy on the couch (covered in cats), and when I was next in the world it was 1:30pm.  Shit!  There went a huge chunk of the day. 

I got up and made some more toast (this time with plain bread) and gave up on the idea of cooking anything today.  It would be freezer surprise for lunch again this week.  Eventually, I recovered enough to start moving and doing a few Sunday chores. 

I had just gotten my sheets in the washer when I was deluged with a series of text messages from the boys.  Vince wanted to see a movie today, and apparently they had decided to form a coalition of Thursday night dinner people to go.  Eventually it was decided that the movie would be Seven Psychopaths, and the time would be 5:30.  I started getting ready to go. 

At about 4:40, Logan sent me a text to tell me that the movie time was actually 5:15.  That meant I could just barely make it if I really hustled.  I was in no mood to hustle, but thought if I didn't make it in time, I would just find them in the theater.  Leaving a load of towels in the washer, I headed out.  Happily though, I made it in the nick of time. 

The movie was interesting.  I can watch almost anything with Christopher Walken in it, but afterwards several of us agreed that he usually brings more of a presence to the screen than he did in this one.  Woody Harrelson was great though, and looked fantastic.  He is such a sexy man.  Seven is very violent, but that appeased Vince a little.  He likes violent movies, and had been strongly lobbying for Paranormal  Activity 4, which happily I wasn't the only one who refused to sit through.

Afterwards, we decided to go over to Ruby Tuesday for supper.  When we walked in, the restaurant was almost empty, but we were asked to wait while they seated another party and prepared a table.  Fair enough.  There were only eight of us, but they were short staffed for Sunday night I guess.  When they came back to tell us it would be twenty minutes before they could seat us, Bill (one of the guys out with us) went off.  He went to have a word with the manager, but told us that we would not be eating there tonight.  I decided to walk over to the next restaurant to see if they could seat us while he did that.

The next restaurant over was Cheddar's. Usually the one here has a ridiculous wait, but tonight serendipitous fate smiled upon us, and we were seated immediately.  The food was good (I had spasagna, a baked spaghetti they apparently feel strongly about - they have trademarked the name LOL), and we had a good time trashing Ruby's and discussing the movie while we ate.  We also talked a bit about John and Bill's Big Halloween Party, which is next week.  I did get to sit next to Logan and got to talk to him and Billy, which was nice, if not quite the boy time I've been craving.  Vince was on my other side, and it's always nice to spend a little time with him. 

It was a pleasant meal, but there was no time left for a visit at the house.  I had to go home and go to bed.  I just caught the last of the current Halloween Wars episode, and was surprised at who went home.  Next week is the finale!

A post in which it is an exceedingly long day

The alarm went off at 6am, as usual, this morning.  The dawning awareness that I didn't have to go to work was of limited comfort.  I got up, had my coffee, and got ready to face the day.  Eve had wanted me at the house by 7:30.  I had a call at 7:39am wanting to know where I was.  I was in the car and on the way at that point.

My slight lateness aside, we got on the road with no incident.  Dad's back had been hurting enough that he asked me to drive, which was no problem.  At least it was something to do.  Since I hadn't seen them on Tuesday night, we had the beach trip and things to catch up on, and we chatted down the road fairly well.  It was a gorgeous day, and although the traffic was pretty heavy on highway 77, we made good time. 

We got to the home, got the tons of stuff out of the car, and started getting set up.  Grandma knew we were coming, and was sneaking up the hall.  Since it wasn't a surprise party, she came on in to watch the proceedings.  I had brought the beans, and was shaking the pot to 'stir' them, her technique to stir the beans without breaking them.  Dad said that pleased her as much as anything else we did. 

Eve had gone to a lot of trouble putting things together, and the party was very nice.  We had Grandma's Chicken Delight casserole, green beans, three-bean salad, potato salad, Grandma's pineapple topped sweet potatoes, scratch lemon meringue pie, and chocolate cupcakes.  She had bought some pink table-scatter plastic jewels, which Ava had a great time rounding up into a party favor bag.  My Uncle Chris and Aunt Pam were there, and they brought my cousin Mark, who was having a good day, and seemed pretty much like himself. 

Lisa, Ava, and Grandma at the party 

Cole, Ava, Grandma, and Dad

Various friends from the nursing home came by to say hello, and wish her well, and the odd resident wandered in occasionally to see what all the commotion was.  Overall, it was a success, and she seemed to enjoy it immensely.  She loves to get presents, and if she thought mine was something she wouldn't use, well she would never have let on, and she could tell that I had put some thought into it.  My beans were too salty (and seemed to have become more so during the re-heating process), but everyone ate them and said they were good anyway.  All the food was tasty, and it was shared.  I sat at a table with Lisa, Cole, and Ava, so it was a bonus visit to get to see them.

I cut the pies.  Bless her heart, Eve had worked for three weeks on the homemade lemon meringue pies (doing trial runs, perfecting her meringue, etc), which she made from a recipe given to her by a one of Grandma's friends.  But sadly, being made for 24 hours and traveling for about three of them in the trunk of a car is hard on a pie.  When I cut into them, they had sweated all over themselves, and were pretty much a mess under the meringue.  The crusts had all but dissolved.  But they tasted great, and everyone ate them.  But Grandma is, after all, 91.  She had a great time, but all the excitement wore her out pretty quickly.  I hope that all the rich food didn't make her sick. 

They took her back to her room, and we loaded the cars to go.  We left earlier than I had thought we would, and I was thinking I might have a bit of time to myself tonight.  Then we hit miles and miles of backed-up traffic on highway 77.  But we still made it in by about six.

After helping Eve get the car unloaded (Dad had to go to bed with a pill as soon as we got in), I called the boys.  I had completely forgotten we had a bear dinner tonight.  So I headed home, unloaded my car, and headed right back out to go.

Dinner tonight was at Stax Omega, which was fine with me.  I was in my camouflage pants (the only ones I can comfortably sit in at the moment that aren't work pants), so I had one of their huge salads.  It was delicious, and I sat at the end of the table with BooBoo (one of the guys from the group) and his lover Ronnie, alternately conversing with Ronnie and flirting with BooBoo (who is very flirty).  One of the guys brought his wife (that's a long story), but she was very nice, and I enjoyed talking to her.  She laughs at my witticisms, which I of course find irresistible.  The service was excellent, and the company was congenial.

So it was a nice meal.  I had kind of had in mind that I would go back to RBL's after the dinner to hang out, but they had plans, and truth be told, I was wiped.  It had been a very long day, and it was just as well that I went on home.  By the time I got home I was crashing and burning.  I was so tired I just went to bed on a Saturday night. 

Gigi was showing on TCM tonight, and I turned it on (it's one of my favorites), but I was asleep almost before the first song was over. 

A post in which I go to see Miss Kat and Dana

It is such good sleeping weather this week.  It was hard to get out of bed this morning, but even harder to leave the alarm set for in the morning.  Oy. 

I got my write-offs completed, back, and submitted today.  I also got through the twit meeting.  So next week is now free to work on ISO.  In theory anyway.  I certainly wasn't going to work on it today.  I figured I had worked hard enough this week (despite having Monday off).

After work it was off to Miss Kat and Dana's.  But first, dinner.  Despite the orgy of food at the beach last week, I had been feeling a little deprived at suppertime this week, despite out-growing all my jeans.  I had bought a pair of super fatty fat-fat jeans last week at the beach, and had even tried them on, but when I put them on and got to the office today, I started to notice (as soon as I sat down) that they fit me in the waist, but nowhere else.  Usually I buy the old man baggy-butt cut, but these were apparently tailored for normal people.  I spent most of the day feeling as if I was being devoured from the waist down by an anaconda.  By the time I got home, I was really glad to take them off.

Once I got into my sweat pants, though, all that was forgotten, and I stopped off at Long John Silver's for some of the worst food you can possibly eat, but it was tasty.  I kind of went oh shit in my head when I pulled in, because there were all these people milling around in there, and I've spent a good amount of time in there before waiting for 'fast' food.  Not tonight.  I hadn't even gotten my drink and gotten sat down before they had my food out.  Impressive.  They are apparently under new management, and the very nice, but overly-nice manager wasn't there tonight.  She was very nice, but had started recognizing me there for a while, and wanted to tell me all about her life.  Frankly, I wasn't that interested.  They are now offering onion rings, which would have been good had they been hot (really all that food just tastes like their batter anyway, and it doesn't much matter what's under it), but my fish was piping hot, and I put it all away post-haste.

When I got to Miss Kat and Dana's, I took my flashlight out of the dash for the trip back later.  Apparently the place is a-crawl with snakes, and I really wasn't looking for another encounter tonight. 

It was good to see them, as always, and we spent a pleasant evening catching up.  We watched an interesting comedy show called Assume the Position 201.  It was cute, and it was good seeing them, but of course I have to be up at work time in the morning, so I couldn't stay too late.  Shortly after the program was over, it was time for me to get out my flashlight and make my way to the car, which I happily did reptile-free.

A post in which I cook beans, and am besieged with invitations

I was a good boy at work today, but the necessity of completing the twit report kept me from finishing the write-offs.  Well that, and the fact that both agencies have apparently given up on working the Canadian accounts. 

I was out of the door on time today.  I had no time to work over, because I knew it would take all evening to cook the beans for Grandma's party on Saturday.  I was purposely cooking them tonight so I would be free to visit with Miss Kat and Dana tomorrow night.  Dana had invited me earlier in the week, and I'd really like to see them. 

On the way home, though, I faced a bit of a dilemma.  I received a text invitation to go to the Thursday night dinner with the boys.  I am in boy withdrawal, but I kind of had my week all structured.  After a brief debate with myself, I decided to stay on plan, and regretfully declined.  I called Logan to explain what was going on, because the text that said "I have to cook beans tonight." sounded lame even to me.  The equivalent of "I have to stay home and wash my hair." or the like.  Fortunately Logan understood, and we made potential plans to hang out on Sunday.  Russ won't be there - he has a hair show then - but that's just the best I can do. 

And to think the holidays haven't even started yet!

The minute I got in the door, I put the beans on the stove, and then started putting in a load of laundry.  I wanted to make sure my new $3 super fatty fat-fat jeans were clean for the trip on Saturday.  (I have to either lose some weight or move to stretch caftans.  Seriously.)  While I was doing that, I intercepted the hundred or so group text messages the guys were sending out to try to coordinate dinner.  Really?  How many messages does it take?  I also got a message from Vince that he wants to do something on Sunday, but what he wants to do is go to the movies.  I had thought that we might have a cheesy 'scary' movie thing Sunday at RBL's house, but he apparently is not interested in that.  I got no response to that suggestion.

It was a great night on the Food Network, which I watched most of the evening.  They re-ran the Halloween Chopped that I had to turn off the other night (although I'm beginning to wonder if that show has jumped the shark - most of what they gave them tonight wasn't just awful, it was actually offal), and then the latest episode of Halloween Wars came on, which I also enjoyed.  They re-ran a Sweet Genius from last season, and then showed a new one. 

In between I was checking my beans and tending to the laundry.  I also made supper.  I ate my last white sweet potato tonight, and opened my last wedge of the goat cheese I got for my birthday.  It was good, but too strong for the sandwiches I made from it.  I had thought it was a milder soft cheese, but it was much more pungent than I expected.

Apparently my lack of success with sandwiches was prophetic.  My beans didn't turn out that great.  Having started out with six pounds, I ended up with about two quarts of cooked beans.  I was quite dis-heartened to see them cook down so much, and called Eve to be sure she was cooking a BIG casserole for lunch.  Then when I turned them out after they were done, it actually ended up being more than I thought, which was encouraging, until I tasted them.  I had gotten nervous and over-salted them.  They aren't obnoxiously salty to the point that you can't eat them.  I seem to have hit the salt level just right to make them taste canned.  Yergh.  I make this recipe all the time, and they come out delicious.  It figures that I would choke when I'm preparing them for the maestro. 

They're OK.  Most people eating them won't know the difference.  But it's her recipe, and she will.  Sigh.

Quite disheartened, I cleaned up the kitchen, turned in, and stayed up too late watching the new Sweet Genius before I petted the kitty goodnight and rolled over. 

A post in which I get ready for the birthday party

By the time I got to work today, I realized that I hadn't gotten a thing done yesterday.  I had literally forgotten something at every stop I made, which meant I was going to have to re-trace my steps completely this afternoon.  Grrrrr.  I started off by getting gas this morning.  I had been so aggravated over how difficult it is to find air for your tires now (even at $1 a freakin' pop) that I had forgotten to do it last night.

Since I had done reconciliations yesterday, I was able to get stuck in and make good progress on write-offs today.  It is a day or two early (I usually start around the 20th), but my plan is to get it done so that I can work on that *&^^%%$#!! ISO project next week.

So I left work tonight to re-trace my steps.  First it was back to the Dollar Tree to get Grandma's birthday card.  I don't think of myself as cheap, but I can't seen paying $3-$5 for a little piece of cardboard when I can get one for $1.  I found a very nice religious birthday card.  I also bought a selection of 'find-a-word' books (they even have large print ones), and threw in a Bible cross-word for good measure, then picked up a pretty gift bag and a fancy bow.  So for $9 I had a present she'll appreciate as much as anything else I could have bought.  I know my grandma, and if she had found out that I had spent a bunch of money on a present, she would have been upset about it.  Plus there is the simple fact that she doesn't need anything, and already has whatever she wants and has room for. 

Next it was back to CVS.  I was almost out of allergy medicine.  I had tried to order that online today, but apparently CVS was completely out of stock (really?  the whole chain?).  They had exactly what I wanted in the store, I just had to go get it.  It didn't take long, plus I was able to use a $3 coupon.

The next stop was Publix.  I was almost out of sugar for my coffee, which is defcon-1 at my house.  While I was there, I got Halloween candy.  They had the good kind on sale 2-for-1 today (all chocolate - don't judge me, I don't want the house egged), so I bought two bags.  It makes me happy to buy Halloween candy.  It makes me happy that in this age of paranoia and mistrust, when people won't even let their kids go outside to play, that they will still take them to a stranger's house to get candy.  I LOVE to give out candy and see the little kids in their costumes.  I know a guy who won't do it, because he's afraid of the possible liability, but I love that there is at least one day of the year when someone will come to my door, unannounced, and that I can share something with them.  It kind of renews our common bond as people.  So I was walking around the store grinning like an idiot LOL.  I decided while I was there to go ahead and get the green beans for this weekend.  One of the things Grandma asked for on her birthday menu was her recipe for green beans.  Dad tried to make them for her one time but messed them up.  I have her recipe, and although I have changed it for me, I can probably come the closest to replicating hers, so I was tapped to do it.  The main problem is the time of year.  Local beans are all done by now.  Eve had called me this morning to tell me that they had fresh beans at Publix, and they did, but they were not the prettiest beans I've ever seen.  She also told me that the number of guests has unexpectedly increased to thirteen.  After talking to her, we decided that five pounds of beans would be enough.   I bought six because I figured these would need a lot of sorting through since they were a bit rough.

Errands done, I headed home, put my beans in to soak, and ate a quick supper.  I had decided to cook the beans tomorrow because I want to go see Miss Kat and Dana tomorrow night.  So tonight I sat down and snapped six pounds of green beans.  They'll need all evening to cook tomorrow, and I'll probably end up staying up later than usual at that.  Snapping beans took pretty much all evening, even moving at a pretty good clip considering the amount of trimming I had to do.  I did end up throwing away at least a pound of them in ends and trimmed out bad places. 

While I was snapping beans, I watched Horror of Dracula on TCM tonight.  It was pretty cheesy, but then that's fine with me - I don't like scary movies.  I do like cheesy ones.

By the time the movie was over, the beans were done, and I was wiped.  I cleaned up the kitchen and went to bed.    

A post in which it is back to work

I was really down this morning before work.  Not sure why, although I really am dreading that ISO project.  My actual job is fine, and I'm in good shape for the month.  I got in and barrelled through email and calls.  I made short work of getting my desk up and running.

I had a spartan lunch of white sweet potato and salad with a pear for dessert. 

I heard from Dana this afternoon.  They found another snake, this time in the basement of their house.  Fortunately this one was only a gray rat snake.  Still.  Dana had killed this one just as dead, and was coming out of the vet's office after having had it identified.  She's ready to move in with me.  I can't say that I really blame her.  Snakes outside is one thing, but snakes in the house are not something anyone really wants to put up with. 

After work I had errands to run.  First it was off to put air in my tires.  As soon as the weather turns cold the 'low-pressure' alert goes on.  Because she's a front-wheel drive, Gracine eats tires anyway, and apparently the size she wears has to be run slightly over-inflated or they cup the road and wear out unevenly and too fast.  Of course the air pump at the gas station near work was broken - it apparently has been since last year - so I had to cross the highway and go to the other gas station.  Then it was off to the Dollar Tree for crackers - I had eaten the last of the ones in my desk today with my salad.  While I was there I picked up a couple of the miraculous callus shavers.  Then it was off to the grocery store (again) for the things I had forgotten yesterday.  I looked at Halloween candy, which I suppose I am going to have to pick up at some point, but it is just ridiculously expensive this year.  They had Snickers on sale, but I don't like Snickers.  I contemplated the questionable value of buying Halloween candy that I don't like.  On the one hand, I certainly don't need to be eating more candy, but on the other hand....  Well, I just decided to make that decision later. 

Since I was ravenous I went home and ate, but I had to go back out.  Since I had gotten salad dressing all over myself eating supper, I threw that shirt in the washer, along with a couple of other t-shirts that have stubborn stains.  Eventually I prized myself away from Cupcake Wars and headed to the library.  My DVDs were overdue and needed to go back.  I had forgotten to put them in the car this morning.  While I was out doing that, I had to run by CVS to get a prescription.  I spent some time smelling shower gel, but they all either smell like some whore escapee from Strawberry Shortcake land, an old lady, or a lounge lizard with horrible and generous taste in cologne.  I'm pretty close to going back to Target and paying a stupid amount for some shower gel I looked at that smells roughly like something that might be found in nature.  It will still be less expensive than the stuff that actually smells good, which they have the temerity to charge $13-$16 a container for at places like Bath and Body Works.  Grrrrr.  I'm also very close to saying 'screw it' and just going back to bar soap. 

When I got home, I realized that one of the DVDs from the library was still in the player, which means I'll have to go back to the library tomorrow.  At some point I have to find fresh green beans to fix for Grandma Shumate's birthday lunch on Saturday.  It's going to be a busy week.   

I had to turn off a new Halloween episod of Chopped tonight.  It was a good one, and had a drag queen on it, but I was just too tired to stay up to watch it.  I need the sleep!

A post in which it is time to go home*

Well today was the day.  It's always sad to end a good trip, but we'd had a great time.  The beach seemed to be the most beautiful today, although the weather was gorgeous the whole time we were here.  It seems to work out that way for us every year.

Myrtle Beach, looking it's most beautiful on the last morning.

The press of life was pushing in on us, and there were things to be done.  I couldn't continue to consume hollandaise at this level and live anyway, right?  We stopped off at Omega for breakfast before setting out for home.  I noticed on the way out that clouds had come in, and the day had turned overcast, but we'd had our pretty weather.

The ride back always seems to take forever, and today's was just interminable.  But I made it eventually, and started the task of unloading, washing, and putting away.  I had thought about getting in touch with the boys tonight and trying to do dinner, but they're on a diet again, and I think they save up the splurge points for dinner out on Thursday night.  Plus there were 856 little chores that needed to be done before the week could start.

I put in a load of laundry to wash my new and trip clothes.  I put my white sweet potatoes in to bake.  I got the mail and went through it.  I washed the new pans and kitchen things I had bought, and put them away.  There's always the rigmarole of getting all the labels and adhesive off of things.  I had a buddy come over, although that didn't go so spectacularly.

After putting it off as long as I could, I tackled the bathroom, which the cats had destroyed.  It was in bad enough shape that after I did all the litterbox stuff, I had to run a pail of water and just wash the floor in there.  Then I changed, showered, and headed to the grocery store.  I had to have fruit for lunches. 

I got some salad at the store, and dinner tonight was salad and a baked white sweet potato.  It was quite a change from the bacchian excess I had been enjoying for the past several days, but it was time to be a bit more reasonable.  I had to eat something, because I hadn't eaten any lunch and my blood sugar was wonky.

I stripped the bed, changed the sheets, put the old ones in to wash, and then folded my big load from earlier so I could move the old sheets to the drier.  I was really exhausted, and wiped out when I finally crawled into bed.  It had been a very long day, but I was (mostly) ready to face another long week ahead.

A post in which we go to North Myrtle

This morning was designated for the North Myrtle flea market run.  First, though, we stopped off at Springhouse Family Restaurant for breakfast.  After tasting the food, I wished we had gone there before.  We had a really good breakfast with hot coffee for all, and headed out ready to face the day. 

Unfortunately, the North Myrtle flea market was rather a disappointment today.  It is always junky, but then I like a junky flea market.  But that seemed to be all that was there today.  Mom and I walked around for a while, but she wore out pretty quickly today.  I've run her pretty hard the last couple of days, so it's not a huge surprise.  I found her some place to sit while I ran through the rest of the buildings to look for glass.  I just scored here in May, but not today.  I believe I found the reason.  A little queen has set up a booth out there, and I'm pretty sure he's sucked up whatever out there was worth buying.  I did pick up:

- a pair of silver hoops (I usually buy my earrings there)
- a pipe for my Halloween costume
- a couple of grommets
- a pair of jeans (for $3) (after last night in my jeans, I just couldn't resist the extra breathing room)

On the way out, we saw a guy selling white sweet potatoes, which we both love, and bought a couple to take home. 

I wanted seafood for lunch today.  When we were down in May, I wanted to go to a big seafood buffet, but we never made it to one.  We were watching today as we drove back towards town, and ran across Bennetts Calabash Seafood #2.  It was one of the few open for lunch this late in the season - the really big ones are only open for dinner this time of year.  So it was kind of a port in a storm thing, but I was pleasantly surprised.  They had a large selection, and the food was fresh and good.  I played with some snow crab legs before moving on to eat a lunch that would have handicapped a less determined person.  It wasn't cheap ($27 for a lunch buffet), but there was a lot, and I didn't feel gypped.

When we left there, Mom said she needed some down time.  That was fine with me - we have done a LOT in the last couple of days.  We went back to the room and she went out onto the balcony for a while.  I went to the bedroom, opened the sliding glass door to listen to the surf, and took a nap.  Lovely.

me at the beach in my favorite old bathing suit 

Mom at the beach on our beach walk

When I woke up we took a walk on the beach (we try to do that every year), then sat on the balcony and talked until it was time to start getting ready for dinner.  It was one of those good talks that you don't seem to have at home - they happen in time out of time.  One of the reasons you go on vacation is to get away from everything, and take a little time to do the things you don't do in your regular life.  It is always interesting to me when Mom talks about when she and Dad were married, and the way things used to be.  It's good to have that perspective on the people they are now, and how those things shaped them.  In many ways, my father is an unhappy man, and I don't want to make the same mistakes.

Dinner tonight was at Abuelo's.  I found this place a couple of years ago during an internet search, and we fell in love with it.  I have dragged the boys out there, and it has become a must-have meal for a Myrtle Beach trip now.  Mom had been looking forward to it the whole trip.  Happily, the place was just as great as always.  Mom enjoyed her food, and they brought me an impressive platter of nachos, which I made a good dent in before calling it quits.  I think I have a new regular order there. 

The meal was lovely, but it was a little sad that it was the last day.  That's always a little bitter-sweet.  We got rather reflective over supper, and Mom told me that she felt she hadn't been there enough for me during treatment.  I couldn't believe that!  She drove up twice from Columbia to go to treatment with me, and this was before she retired.  I tried to reassure her that many hands make light work, that I'd had many people around me to help me and love me through, and that I completely felt that she had done her part.  Talking about treatment upsets me though.  I don't like to think about being sick, how miserable I was, or how close I came to not being around to make this trip.  I got control of myself though, and it was OK. 

One of the traditions we hadn't met yet was the perusal of the acres of crap at the beach shops.  They are all over the place down there, and I always enjoy seeing what's new in beach novelties, and what new stuff they've come up with to suck out that tourist money.  I like seeing the hermit crabs and stuff too.  Surprisingly (we had gone to dinner late) the stores were still open when we got out of the restaurant, and we set to with gusto.  We found some surprisingly tasteful colors out in hoodies this year.  I really wanted a zip one, but I have several, and when we found one in my size in a beautiful periwinkle color, I couldn't resist even though it was a pull-over. Mom got it for me for my birthday. 

It was a lovely way to close the trip.  We went back to the hotel and sat on the balcony for a while, watching the surf in the beautiful night before turning in. 

A post when we go to Surfside

This morning was a flea market day.  There is one north and one south of Myrtle Beach, and we do both when we're down.  They both have their charms.

The one south of Myrtle is at Surfside.  I wanted to go back to a place we had eaten before, that resided in my memory only as 'the pink place'.  I had enjoyed it when we went before, but because I didn't remember the name of it, we've been kind of hit or miss on going there again.  This morning we hit it.  The actual name of the restaurant is Garden City Pancake House in Murrells Inlet.  Sadly, I had to pull a picture offline - the decor truly has to be seen to be believed.  It kind of looks like Liberace's dressing room: light oak, lots of pink, painted wrought-floral light fixtures, and tons of silk flowers.  I enjoy the kitch, but it could be seriously emasculating to the fixedly butch.  The meal itself didn't quite live up to my memory.  I had 'eggs Oscar' which was like a Benedict with crab cakes in place of Canadian bacon, which sounds freakin' perfect.  But my muffin was kinda chewy, the crab cakes tasted more like frozen chuck wagon steak, and the hollandaise was a disturbingly unnatural neon yellow.  Mom's coffee wasn't hot enough, but her breakfast was good.  I was hungry, and I'm usually pretty game, and since nothing was burned, I tucked in and we made a good meal of it.  Once a year, it's really worth going in there to be sure nothing has been changed (to me, anyway).

Hudson's Surfside Flea Market was just as we left it, and didn't disappoint.  I bought pretty much everything that wasn't nailed down, and looked at the one depression glass booth.  Interestingly, her prices have gotten a tad more reasonable, but she didn't really have anything I wanted today.  But I found everything else I wanted.  I got:

- two new pairs of aviator glasses (I broke my old ones)
- two big sun glass boxes to put them in (the fancy Beyonce kind for big glasses, one in faux-Vuitton, and one in basic black)
- a blue and white Myrtle Beach t-shirt exactly like the one I have almost worn the letters off of (the original washed and packed for this trip in its farewell voyage)
- a set of little pans to use in my toaster oven
- a microplane (Billy has two, and I've been wanting one to replace that worthless Pampered Chef thing I had)
- a new wallet (I just changed out recently, but the one I had in reserve is already falling apart)

So it was a successful trip.

On the way back we stopped in the Myrtle Beach Flea Market.  They have a lot of jewelery and stuff, and we enjoy going in there.  Also, it's all inside, so I'm sure in the summer the air-conditioning is a welcome relief from the heat.  I bought my flip flops there and I love them.  I was kind of hoping to replace them today, but no luck.  They have tons o' shirts on offer, and although it's mostly tourist-y junk, they do have some antiques on offer as well. 

The big surprise today is that I found a bathing suit!  I like it.  It fits me.  It's a Speedo.  And it was on super-discount markdown.  Of course it's last year's (or the year before's) style, but since my present bathing suit is about ten years old that matters not in the least.  They only had one in the right color for me, and it was the right size.  Mom talked the clerk into letting me slip into the store room to try it on, and it was mine.  For ten freakin dollars.  You just can't beat that. 

I looked around a bit, and they actually had more glass there today than I have seen before, but again they had nothing I wanted.  That was fine with me.

We headed into town for lunch at Peaches.  I love Peaches, and eat my one real (if indeed you can qualify anything as ambiguous as a hot dog as real) hot dog a year there.  The food is just as I remembered it.  I have a foot long there the same way I did when I was a kid; with ketchup, mustard, and mayo only.  Sadly, they have re-done the outside.  It looks great and all, and I know it needed to be done, but I didn't want them to change it.  I sound like a freakin' old man.  But lunch was good, and afterwards it was on to the Gay Dolphin!!

I love the dolphin. When I was a kid, I could go in there with a couple of dollars and buy half the store.  I just thought it was the most wonderful place ever.  Of course now that I'm an adult, I see it in a slightly different way.  I can't believe they can stay in business selling the same crap (in some cases the exact same merchandise that has been on offer) for the last forty years.  In this case, I love it because it hasn't changed, and I hate it because it hasn't changed.  I love the junky ole dusty feel.  I love that there might be a treasure (there frequently are) nestled in all that junk.  But it is at the same time frustrating.  They have a known and loved brand that they are doing nothing to further.  I would LOVE to have a Gay Dolphin t-shirt, as I am sure many of the people that shop there would love; but the only ones on offer are those awful embroidered ones that seemed like such a great idea when computer embroidery machines came into being.  They look like old lady clothes, and they're uncomfortable.  But if you want a Gay Dolphin t-shirt, it's that or nothing.  So while I love the fact that they haven't changed, it would be nice if they got some new things in every now and again.  I bought a pair of earrings, a Myrtle Beach shirt in that neon green color that looks so great if you have a new tan (I don't even have an old one) that looked unfortunately conspicuously cheap, and a postcard for Rhondee.  I later noticed that it was thirty-five cents.  I can't remember the last time I bought anything for thirty-five cents, and wondered anew.

At this point, Mom was wiped.  We had hit it pretty hard yesterday, and again today, and she needed some chill time.  That is the one problem with our trips together.  We both enjoy similar things, and a lot of time we pack so much in that we don't leave any time to relax.

We headed back to the hotel, and I went to get wet for a while.  The hotel boasts an outdoor and an indoor pool, in addition to an indoor lazy river (more of a stream, it's not that long), and two Jacuzzis.  But it is, after all, October.  And although we had lovely weather, it has been cool.  The outside pool was freezing.  The indoor pool was heated to the point of being too warm to be refreshing.  I got in an paddled around for a bit, but my heart just wasn't in it.  All I could think about was all the bacteria that could grow in water that warm.  I didn't stay down there for long.

Dinner tonight was at Rossi's.  We went there the first time in 2010 for my birthday, and Mom was pretty impressed with it.  It is a nice place.  They have upscale Italian food, and the meal we had there the last time was excellent.  Things started off well.  The salad dressing was homemade, and the garlic bread was lovely.  Our waiter was nervous (he seemed new), but nice, and willing.  Mom had the stuffed shells, and she said they were very good.  I ordered shrimp and angel hair pasta, but I asked for lemon butter sauce instead of Alfredo.  Bad move.  Now this could be on me, because I changed the dish, but the lemon butter sauce was like water.  There certainly was no hint of lemon in it.  I flagged down the waiter and asked for some Alfredo sauce, and that made it better, but it didn't live up to the kind of meal I would expect from a place like that.  Still, Mom was happy, and I certainly ate it, so it was fine.

We had to get through the meal and get back to the room because the Gamecocks were playing tonight, and we wanted to watch the game.  To that end, I had worn my new Gamecocks shirt tonight.  But first, we had to get still more food.  Larney had given me a gift certificate good for a dozen free Krispy Kreme doughnuts - one of the most delicious things ever invented.  My mother would pretty much rather have those than air, so despite the huge meal we had just eaten, we went through the drive-through for a dozen hot free doughnuts before heading back to the room. 

We got back to the room, put on our comfy pants (I had to get out of those jeans or hurt myself), Mom put on a pot of decaf (that's all she drinks now), and we settled in to watch the game.  Unfortunately, the ESPN channel the game was on was the worst received of any channel, for some reason.  All the other channels were crystal clear.  So we watched them play through the light dusting of 'snow'.  Also unfortunately, the third quarter went pretty badly for our boys.  I don't know what was going on with Conner Shaw, but he was losin' it.  I decided that I would not let him be my boyfriend.  He pulled it together in the fourth quarter and they started playing again, but it was just too late to bring the game back.  They lost.

Mom exchanged texts with her new guy during the game.  I didn't hear from Jason, but that's not unusual.  I didn't get a response from Dana, but that's not unusual either.  The game ran late, and by the time it was over, we were full o' doughnuts and way ready for bed.