A post in which it is a pretty quiet Tuesday

Today was the first day I’ve had at work where I really had time to draw a decent breath since I took over the Canada stuff. I appreciated it and took advantage of it; since month-end and year-end for the fiscal year starts tomorrow, I know it will be a while before I see the like again.

I went through the grocery store (since I hadn’t gotten half the stuff I needed last night) and the library again tonight (I had the notice on a book I asked to be held). I was ready to be home when I got home. I picked up the stuff to make burritos, since I wanted Mexican and just couldn’t bear the thought of another salad. They were pretty good.

Since I did so much last night, tonight was my flop night. I have about 8.5 million things that need doing, but I just plain don’t feel like doing any of them. So I did not. I did sit down with my new phone and put in all the numbers that didn’t transfer last night. I will freely admit to being gizmo-challenged. When I put the numbers in my phone when I first got a cell, I put in the 1 before the area code, which of course cell phones don’t need. The numbers worked fine in my old phone, but didn’t transfer over to the new one. That was a poser to me when I was trying to call Dad today and the call wouldn’t go through. So that was one productive thing I did tonight in a pool of sloth.

A post in which it is a busy Monday

I had all my calls to catch up on today, plus the usual weekly reports to run. That is before even thinking about month end, which starts on Wednesday. Sigh. I was caught up when I left though.

I heard from Billy today. Russ shared with me last night that he had given his old phone to Joanne while they were here for Thanksgiving, so I had thought I was SOL. But Billy said that he would see what he could round up at work. Apparently they give old phones to charity when the employees upgrade them. He came through. He was able to get me a phone for free! So top of the priority list was to go get it tonight. I ran by their place and picked it up. Russ had been to the dentist today for an extraction though, so he was in bed. I thanked Billy profusely and headed out.

The next stop was the Verizon store. I was there about an hour, but they got it all switched over, even if they seemed somewhat taken aback by my lack of phone savvy. I can't be the only person that comes in there that doesn't know how to program the things. I was able to ID the phone Billy gave me as a nice Motorola that would have cost $190 new!! It's by far the most expensive phone I've ever owned. This one isn't as cutting-edge as the phone Russ had, but then I really don't need cutting edge. This one suits me fine.

Leaving there, I had to go to the grocery store. I had no fruit for the week and hadn't felt like going to the store yesterday. After that I had to go by the library to turn in a book on CD that was overdue.

I was finally headed home about 8:30, and thinking I would collapse and look up the phone online to find the instructions, when it rang. Fortunately it wasn't hard to answer, but I couldn't get it unplugged with one hand, so I was driving kind of hunched over. It was dana, and how great that my first call on the new phone should come from her! She and Miss Kat wanted to visit, and of course I said sure.

I got in and had just enough time to run over the worst of the cat mess, put away the groceries, plug in the new phone to finish charging, and put on my pjs before they knocked. It was so good to see them! I love them both so much. We had a nice visit and chatted for a bit before they had to head home. I still hadn't had any supper, so I foraged through the cabinets for junk before turning in. What a day!

A post in which I head home

I slept well, and got up ready to head for home. I've really enjoyed my visit, but it's time. I had breakfast with Mom, and got her Christmas tree down from the attic for her before I left. It was a pretty day for a drive.

I got in tired. Just feeling run down. I've been trying to rest as I go, but E-B is pretty demanding. Before I could lie down though, I had to clean the kitchen and bathroom. The cats had destroyed both rooms while I was gone. They had knocked all the dishes in the floor in the kitchen, and the bathroom is always a disaster area after a trip. After yelling at them until they hid, I completely cleaned the kitchen, re-washed the dishes, and put it back in order. I gave the bathroom a lick and a promise, and then unpacked.

After a nap, I felt much better. I got in touch with the gang to find out what was going on. Originally, I had planned to be home early today to go to a family thing where dana was going to pop the question to Miss Kat, but she hadn't been able to wait, so that was no longer on the agenda. But dinner was on at Jeff and James's house. I cleaned the bathroom top to bottom, scooped the litter box, and got ready to go.

When I got to the house, things seemed off. It seems that Jeff and James had had a rough time. Sadly, Amy and Aaron broke up this weekend. I'll spare the details, but infidelity was involved, and Amy had showed up at their house, distraught, Saturday night. They all proceeded to get severely wasted and stay up all night. James had had about three hours of sleep.

But we were all hungry, and glad to see each other. James had promised sushi, and Amanda had her heart set on it. After a lot of debate (heedlessly, since almost all the sushi places close on Sunday around here) we ended up going to Kampai. OK, so it wasn't the best sushi in the world, we reasoned, but it was in fact sushi. Well that would be providing you could get it. There was apparently only one waiter on duty. The service was incredibly slow. It was fifteen minutes to get drinks, thirty to get appetizers, and a full hour after ordering before our food was all served. We were all pretty over it, especially James. But it was edible, and we were all together.

We went back to the house and had dessert before I said goodnight. Another long week ahead, and I have much to do.

A post in which it is flea market day!

There are two flea markets very close to each other in Columbia. Whenever I visit Mom, I try to work in a stroll through. I've made some very good buys at each of them. We just got up, had a cup of coffee, and headed out.

We made short work of the first flea market, and headed for breakfast at Lizard's Thicket, another favorite stomping ground of Mom's. I had an excellent cheese omelet, and Mom surprisingly ordered a salmon patty (of course feeding me half of it) before going to the second.

Mom picked up a couple of things, and I got a splatter guard for my microwave at the Chinese dollar store, but that was the only thing I saw that I wanted. It's just always fun to go to the flea market though.

We went back to the house and I took a nice long nap. I'm trying to pace myself so that I don't have an E-B flare-up like last year. I have the next four weekends completely booked. I just don't have time to lay around. By the time I woke up we were both starving, so Mom fixed the rest of her second Thanksgiving meal. We ate a big lunch, and then went back to the mall. I wanted some lotion from Williams-Sonoma, and it was late enough by now that people were clearing out to watch the football game tonight. We were going to watch also, but we had plenty of time to scamper out and back before it started - still no Christmas socks for Ava.

We settled in to watch the Clemson vs. USC football game. I was thinking about dana, and texted her during the game. I also sent some saucy texts to Lisa, who has turned into a Clemson fan. Shortly before the end of the game, I sent this text to Lisa "Mmmmmm chickens eating puddytat," to which she replied "Hope they get indigestion!" It was fun teasing her. Carolina won! It was a great game, made all the better because I knew how happy it would make dana that 'her chickens' won.

A post in which it is Black Friday

I slept in this morning, and good for me. I need the rest.

Rod was up and out fairly early, leaving Mom and I to our shopping. We used to go every year, but had left off the tradition until last year. I really enjoy shopping with Mom, and asked her to make a little time for me. We don't shop the way we used to - neither one of us can do that much walking any more, but we enjoy spending the day together. We had intended to have breakfast out this morning, which we both love, but we started eating pumpkin bread, and eventually just decided to go on.

We headed for Bed, Bath, and Beyond first. I got Mom a second bowl for her KitchenAid mixer that she wanted. We looked around at a nearby shoe store because I want a new pair of saddle oxfords, but since those are a summer item they didn't have any, which pretty much set the tome for that. We went to the mall, but none of the stores there had them either. Mom almost got sucked in by the Dead Sea nail people again, but was able to escape just in time. We also looked for some Christmas socks for Ava, (Mom had worn some to the Christmas show and Ava had been fascinated) but no dice. No one had any for little kids, amazingly. I did find some really adorable pajamas for Ava though, and added that to her gifts from me. They were half price too.

We adjourned for lunch and Ibuprofen at Casa Linda, a great Mexican place where we had lunch last year when we were shopping.

Since we had struck out on the shoe thing, we went by Best Buy. I want a new CD alarm clock. I also did some research on the computer I want. Dad has said he'll get one for me if the one I pick out isn't too expensive. The one I found today, though, was $780. I think I can find one a bit more reasonable, so I'll do some more research. Rod had helped me out with the specs on it, but I don't think I need all the things he recommended. They were out of CD alarm clocks though, and didn't have a copy of Xanadu, which I wanted. In desperation, we went to Wal-mart.

Ordinarily I'm an anti-Wal-Mart kinda guy, but nothing else was working out for us, we were both tired, and we didn't have to leave the parking lot to get to the nearby store. So we went. They did have one CD alarm clock, so we got it. They still didn't have the movie, but I can order that online.

That done, we went back to the house to rest for a bit. I needed it. After lying down for a bit, we were ready for some supper. I took Mom out for her birthday tonight, since it is on the 6th and I won't see her then. We went to Outback, because that's what she wanted, and she went for the steak and lobster tails - and good for her. It was a very good meal, we had a very nice waitress, and she brought Mom's birthday dessert early, and sans screaming waiters, which made it even better.

It just so happened that the restaurant was just across from a Ross's Dress for Less. Mom and I both love that store, so we went in to wander around. She ended up buying me some new bedroom shoes, and I got her a teeny umbrella to put in her little ladies backpack. We also ran in the dollar store while we were near it. I needed something, and it's always fun to swing through.

After all that, we went home to relax and watch a bit of telly before we turned in. It was a lovely day with Mama, and I actually have a gift or two under my belt, thank goodness.

A post in which it is a Happy Thanksgiving

But a long day nonetheless.

I awoke to the smell of boiling chicken. Mom was making stock for the gravy. We had coffee and a light breakfast - Mom had made two large loaves of pumpkin bread. We were supposed to eat at 1pm, but I put a protein base on my stomach just in case. We all got ready, packed up the stuff, and headed for Lisa’s house, getting there right at 11am, our proscribed arrival time. Carl was there, but he and Cole had just woken up. Lisa had put some monkey bread out, and we all picked at it. Ava was going hell-bent-for-leather as usual. Since the guys weren’t awake yet, and Lisa and Mom were both busy, Ava honed in on me as her buddy. We played, I read her a story (surprisingly about monster trucks), and watched the Macy’s parade.

Dad and Eve were surprisingly late getting there, but we ended not eating until about 2pm anyway, so it didn’t matter. We all ate like hogs. It was the biggest meal I’ve eaten in I can’t remember when. Lisa had gone to a lot of trouble to go out and dig up Quorn breast-like pieces for me to eat. Although they were excellent, I was sorry to put her to the trouble.

The day had turned off surprisingly warm, and since they had already turned the air off for the season, and since Lisa had been baking since 6am, the house was quite warm. After lunch we all adjourned to the living room. I ended up dropping off for a nap, as did Dad and Rod.

Eve was having problems with her legs, and Dad took her on home about 4 or so. Reagan (one of Carl’s other daughters) was there. We were waiting for Lisa’s other step-daughter, husband, and kids to arrive. They did, and we had pie while they ate. Mom made four (!!) pumpkin pies, but we ate one, and left one for Cole, so that left only two for us. Wow. Carl and Lisa’s son-in-law, Joey, has gotten exponentially hotter in the last year. He was just a little piece of heaven right here on earth. I tried not to be the creepy gay guy, but man he looked good! I'm thinking it's really been way too long since I had a date.

The kids were a bit of an issue. They have three (I thought really, I would have all the kids this man wanted, but I digress). Ava is used to being not only the only child, but the center of attention at all times. I don’t think it helps that their little girl is very pretty, and has long, thick hair. Ava, bless her, still doesn’t have much hair. She started to pitch a fit that the other kids were playing with her toys. They were able to pacify her – just; but as much as I love her, she kind of showed her ass. She really needs to be around other children more than she is.

Eventually, we headed back to Mom’s place. She had left a chicken in the crock pot (more food) because she wasn’t going to bring turkey home. She boned that and we had a sandwich after basically lying around worthlessly for a while.

It was a nice Thanksgiving.

A post in which I head for Mom's

It was a fairly quiet day today. A lot of the office was gone, and it kind of reverted to the sleepy buzz that an office gets right before a holiday. It was a long day, but bearable. I am still ready for the time off.

Afterwards I scampered home (through town, highway 85 was of course a zoo), took care of the cat stuff, did a few last-minute things around the house, threw the bags in the car, ate a meatloaf sandwich (the last of it, thank goodness), and headed out. I was only home for an hour. I was very grateful that I didn't have to get on highway 85 to get to Mom's.

I made good time. I couldn't use the cruise control a lot, but compared to 85, 385/26 to Columbia was a breeze. I was at Mom's by about 8:30.

Mom immediately fed me her supper, which she had picked at and left to die. It manicotti from the Greek/Italian place near her house that I like so much, and I scarfed it down, unsure if it was as good as I thought or if I was just grateful to be eating something that wasn't meatloaf. Rod was there, and we cleaned the remainder of a freezer lemon chiffon pie out of the fridge while we were at it. Fridge space was at a premium, since Mom was not only making a lot of stuff to take tomorrow, but was making double batches of a lot of it "so we would have something here to eat on here". Let the stuffing commence.

We ended up chatting and companionably watching a marathon of Full Throttle Saloon, the reality show about a big biker bar in Sturgis, SD until bedtime.