Tag: shopping

Cinco De Free Comic Book Day!

The first Saturday in May is, apparently, Free Comic Book Day. And today is also Cinco de Mayo. So let the celebrations ensue!

I had quite a few things on my running list o’ stuff, so planned my route in advance. (I hate to drive somewhere for one thing, so I keep a list going of what I need/want and when it gets full or I know I really need to get out of the house, I grab the running list and hit everything that needs hitting.)

  1. Post Office: a Saturday tradition. A Monday through Friday tradition, now that I mention it…

  2. AAA: I needed some passport photos and my local post office (which doesn’t do ’em) recommended AAA or the Troy Post Office. I figured I’d get a deal at AAA – and they were only $8. The photos do focus on my chins rather well, however…

  3. Bookery Fantasy: Yay for Free Comic Book Day. They gave us each a small Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer poster as we entered the store. Inside, there was a line of folks waiting for their free books & stuff. I stood in line and got a sack full of free comics, 4 of which we picked out ourselves. Wound up with a total of 15 free comics and 1 Batman Hero Clix figurine. Cool. Got my DWM and Astonishing X-Men and headed on to the next place on my list.

  4. Jeet India: Indian Fud! ’nuff said.

  5. Hot Fuzz: I’ve been a fan of Simon Pegg since the TV series Spaced was on, so of course I saw Shaun of the Dead and really enjoyed it (and I don’t go for zombie flicks normally). So I had to see Hot Fuzz. I’d’ve gone out the first weekend it was out, but the weather was so nice, I couldn’t sit in a film all that time. But today was nice and rainy, a great day for shopping & a movie. And the movie? Most entertaining. A wonderful blend of humor and cartoon violence. But Bill Bailey with short hair is a crime and let’s hope that never happens again!

  6. Andy’s Garden: The cheerleaders were selling discounted flats from Andy’s Garden again this year, so I bought two certificates from them. On the way back from the Fairborn area, I stopped at Andy’s to pick up two flats of Vinca. Last year I had picked up two flats of assorted annuals and discovered that the one type which survived my benign neglect were the Vinca. Here’s hoping they can survive another year with me!

  7. Other Shopping: Finished my excursion at a few shops in Troy to finish up my running list. One thing I decided to get was a George Foreman personal grill. Earlier this week I was frying a chicken boobie and was getting oil spattered everywhere. I got to thinking, a personal grill should help prevent lots of spattering and assist in cooking my ChickNSteaks and Ranch Steaks from Market Day. Tonight won’t be the night to try it out, however – I’m still stuffed from lunch.

My timing worked out just fine today. My main concern was getting to the movie in time, which I did. There were 15 minutes worth of previews, of which I was interested in one movie. (Another Simon Pegg movie, actually.)

So, today has been a good day. 🙂

Trina on the Greene

Since we have so much fun shopping around Christmastime, the lady staff decided to try a Spring Shopping Spree this year. The destination? The Greene, a new shopping complex (think inside-out mall) in south Dayton. The one drawback to a Spring Shopping Spree is that it takes place in the Spring. And as many teachers can tell you, Spring is a chaotic time for us. So how many of us lovely ladies were able to attend? Three…

Still, we met at Tammy’s house & MBA drove the three of us to the Greene. There are several clothing stores which I’ve seen at malls (Talbots, Victoria’s Secret) and some I’ve only seen catalogs for (Coldwater Creek, J. Jill). And as an added bonus, Books & Co. has a branch there. It’s a nice two-story affair. Thank goodness I didn’t find any books that I had to have. I’m still reading from the last two crops that I got. (A trip to Books & Co. during spring break had me buying several more books.) I did buy 2 little votive candles from Yankee Candle – vanilla cupcake. I liked the scent of those – very yummy.

For lunch we agreed to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. I’ve never been in one of those before. Quite an impressive array of cheesecakes! And geez, they give you enough food to feed a third world country. (And folks wonder why Americans are fat?) Tammy & I tried the Georgia Peach beverage, which was quite tasty and, since it’s a vodka based drink, I barely tasted the alcohol. I chose the lunch portion fish & chips and was treated to the best beer-battered fish I’ve had in ages. Not at all greasy and very tasty. And for dessert? Cheesecake! Since I knew they couldn’t compete with elsaf‘s cheesecake from a couple of weekends ago, I decided to get one of their specialty flavors. I went with vanilla bean cheesecake, which was very decadent. And very vanilla-y. Yum! I’m still full from lunch!

After we returned to Tammy’s place, she had to show me the Wii. Her son (who’s also a student of mine), Tammy and I played a round of bowling with the Wii. It was quite fun. And I even broke 100! (109 to be exact). Tammy stomped on us with 154, but her son held his own as well, such that I came in third. 🙂 Not sure it’s enough to convince me to get a console, but it was certainly interesting!

Once I got home, I tried to make a dent in the mess that my house has become. I’ve at least taken the trash out and cleaned up all the paper the kitties have strewn around the house. I’ve got a long ways to go, but it feels good to have at least done something for once. 🙂

Tomorrow, I’m taking the parental units out for lunch. Actually, we’re meeting at the Piqua Cassano’s, but I’m buying. (They’re at the Lake now, enjoying their anniversary weekend and beautiful weather.) It’s not the classiest anniversary present, but I know it’s something they’ll both enjoy. 🙂

Yesterday’s Shennanigans

Yesterday morning, elsaf and I got up at the same time. judiang, however, had gone into hibernation. Still, she eventually got up and we forced her to exercise up in her apartment complex’s exercise room. It’s fun watching a near-comatose woman exercise. Today we intend to torture her again – even though it IS her birthday. Maybe especially because it IS her birthday.

When we returned from the “gym” (which has some very nice pieces of exercise equipment), we still had 10 minutes to spare at the city equivalent of a Garage Sale. Someone in Judi’s apartment was having a Moving Sale. So we popped up to room 1606 and poked around. The couple were young & very nice. They are moving out Friday and heading off to Switzerland. Cool beans. Their two little ones were off at the grandparents, so couldn’t protest when Elsa bought their TV and DVD player. Judi bought a lot of bakeware (which I fear will only ever come out when Elsa’s around) and I managed to avoid buying anything. Well, at this place. Money would be leaving my wallet soon enough.

For lunch, Judi had found an Indian Restaurant which was near to our afternoon destination, Intimates. We took the #3 bus, which originally we were beginning to doubt the existence of due to it being quite absent. I became abusiestic while Judi decided she was more agbustic. However, I had an epiphany when the #3 finally showed up. We were off, moving up Michigan towards Ontario. (Sounds like we were planning a trip to Canada, no?)

Lunch was at the Indian Garden, which promised us nervana and nearly delivered. We all got the buffet because Judi FORCED us too. (Well, actually she was just telling the server that she wanted the buffet, but he thought she was speaking for all of us.) There were many good things on the buffet. Basmati rice, dal makhani, saag paneer, samosas, chili chicken, etc. etc. There were two dessert items, one made of carrots (which the girls originally thought was made of sweet potatoes) and the other made of goat cheese soaked in milk, sugar, and pistachios. The food was very good and I think I had the best aloo gobhi I’ve ever had. (I prefer Jeet India’s saag paneer & dal, but you can’t have everything. Heh heh.)

After our very filling lunch, it was on up Michigan to Intimates. This is a store where they have professional bra fitters. We made appointments and then moved back down Michigan to the Borders that we passed.

At Borders, they had several books in a 3 for the price of 2 sale. Damn them! Damn them all to heck! I found 2 books right off the bat, then went looking for a third. Eventually I found a possible one when Judi then said there were other 3 of 2 displays in the store. Of course, at the next display, I found 2 more books. Damn! Some more searching found me a third for that set too.

The books that I sprung for were:

  • Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

  • In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

  • Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (freebie #1)

  • Lamb by Christopher Moore

  • Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore (freebie #2)

  • The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Stupid book sales!

We returned then to Intimates to fullfil our appointment and the rather amusing incident is something that I have shared with just the girls, hergrace, and the lovely women in my family. The rest of you will just have to imagine it. Heh heh.

Anyhoo, it was time to return to the roost. I’m sure Lance was crossing his legs when we got home. While Judi was walking him, I was busy downloading some very important torrents… The new Doctor Who ep and it’s corresponding Confidential. Once Lance was back, the three of us walked off to Grace O’Malley’s for supper.

Since I was in an Irish pub, I decided I needed to have a reuben. I also ordered the Guiness cheese soup for starters. The girls split a grilled salmon meal which they claimed was very good. (I’m not into salmon, so it could have been heavenly and still not tempted me.) The soup and reuben were great, though the fries were only so-so. Since Judi’s birthday was just looming around the corner, she decided she was gonna have dessert, damnit. So we ordered the 4 layer cake (with ice cream). Elsa got the tip of the cake and Judi and I had the rest. (Judi and I have been so proud of Elsa, who has not succumbed to our excesses. Today’s dim sum will be the ultimate test for her. If she passes, she is, indeed, the rockingest dieter that ever lived.)

Once we came back home, we had a few moments of technical difficulty regarding making the CDs for the evening’s viewings. But Judi finally convinced her CD/DVD recorder to finally make the CDs of Doctor Who & Confidential. So we all gathered on the sofa to watch. Even Lance joined us and kept running back and forth across our laps so that he could sit with all 3 of us at once.

Although I will miss Rose, I am loving Martha. It’s about bloody time there was a cute black girl as an assistant. And Freema is just perfect for the role. I’m looking forward to series 3 of Doctor Who. Woot! As far as the Confidential goes, I must admit that I prefer the Cut Downs that show up on the DVD sets. This went on too long and repeated too much. No matter, when I’m on me own, I don’t actually watch the Confidentials (mostly so I won’t be disappointed when I buy the DVD sets later.)

Anyhoo, yesterday was a blast and today should be as well. Once Judi gets up, we’ll drag her to the exercise room. Then we’ll stop for a hazelnut soy latte so that Judi can wake up enough to enjoy dim sum. Elsa’s plans are to make us a fabulous supper (and hopefully we’ll find some filo dough today!) And then Judi gets to open her presents – thankfully the one that I ordered from Amazon arrived yesterday – woot!

An Intimate Visit

This is a post for just my closest female friends – basically Steph, Elsa, Judi, and Amy Lou (and Rachel should she so desire). I’ll probably show it to mom when I get back too.

Anyhoo, thanks to Steph going to visit Intimacy in her town and getting fitted properly for a bra, Judi decided she’d take Elsa and me there when we next visited Chicago. So our afternoon was all about boobs and the things that hold them.

We arrived around 3pm, but the soonest they’d be able to work with us was 4:30pm, so we shopped some. We arrived back at Intimacy around 4:45 (they said they’d call us on cells when they were ready, but hadn’t yet called) and they were nearly ready for it. Judi got her fitter first. Then I got Tanya. Finally Elsa got her fitter.

They don’t actually measure you at Intimacy, they just look at you, go get a bra, try it, get another, etc. Tanya, it turned out, had her work cut out for her. I remember looking at my watch during one bra hunt of hers and it was 5:28pm. When we were in the cab going back to Judi’s, it ws 6:32. So I was in there for over an hour while first Tanya tried to find the right fit, then the store manager (whose name I’ve forgotten) tried to find the right fit.

It turns out I have a lot of upper breast material, which makes things hard. When we’d get the right diameter, the cup wouldn’t be big enough. When they’d get a bigger cup, the underwire would either attack my armpits or poke out in front or (most often) both. These were the reasons I stopped using underwires years ago.

The manager decided to start at the beginning again and we tried a few more bras. By this time, both of the girls (E&J, not the bouncing ones before me) were done with their fittings and coming up with theories about why I was still there. Elsa’s theory was that they had failed to fit me and were now disposing of the body so there’d be no evidence of their failure. In actuality, the manager was getting closer to the desired result.

In the end, she found a 40H that was (a) comfortable and (b) looked just fine under a shirt. Success! My current bras are 44F’s. Most of the bras they’d tried were 42s and looking good there, that I was surprised when the 40 came to the rescue. So I plonked down $60 and got meself a bra that fits. Will I buy more? Well, I’ll see how it goes with #1 here.

Bridge Contest 2007

As of Wednesday, school is back in session. I had a lovely time with my family and friend’s this holiday season. Indeed, the folks, Amy, Rachel and I spent Tuesday out shopping. We started with lunch at Sakai, the new Japanese place in Troy. Sushi for all (and some chicken cutlet for dad too). We tried many different types of sushi and rolls and enjoyed it. I love California roll, especially with crab salad, but I also love ebi sushi (steamed shrimp) and various tuna rolls and sushis. We discovered that the yellow tail roll that I got didn’t taste as good as the other items on the table, but I think that was the only real loser of the bunch.

Shopping started at Kohl’s and moved onto to the bookstore in Troy. I spent some of my birthday money there (for Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett and American Gods by Neil Gaiman) and also bought everyone coffee or tea at the coffee shop which is in the bookstore. I had a caramel steamer and it was very yummy. We finished up there and then moved onto the Piqua mall. I returned the leather jacket which I’d received for Christmas but which didn’t fit. Despite checking every store in the mall that might carry one, we just couldn’t find a nice replacement for that jacket. Perhaps mom and I will find one another day out. Still, I was able to complete my birthday purchase by getting The Beatles Love.

When we returned home, we had Wine Time which wound up sating us all for supper too. Alas, I had to work the next day and miss out one some quality A&R time, but I gotta be making the money to buy food for my kitties! So Wednesday morning, I got up bright and early for work.

The full week before Christmas break, my seniors were building bridges using only toothpicks and glue. (They also had Monday & Tuesday of our last half week to finish up.) Yesterday, we tested them. The bridges had to span a 30cm opening and at least hold the bucket. And all of them did that. Then the students were to add up to 15kg (~33 lbs) of mass into the bucket. Normally bridges break before the full 15kg is added, but this year we did have one bridge that held the maximum! Indeed, the girls who built this bridge wound up with the highest efficiency (mass held divided by mass of bridge). It held 550+ times its own mass! Pretty impressive!

I had dad drop off my camera because I’d forgotten to bring it that morning, so I managed to get a few photos in. And since my camera can do video, I tried to video some of the bridges breaking. Alas, my timing was off and I usually ran out of video time mere seconds before the bridge actually broke. (My camera does videos in 15 second segments – and doesn’t record sound.) However, I managed to capture the last two bridges that we tested as they broke. And I have uploaded one of them to YouTube for your enjoyment!

This bridge managed to hold quite a bit before it broke. Off hand, I can’t remember how much, but I believe it was around 7 kg. I was quite pleased with all of the bridge performances. And it was interesting to see the different techniques students had to add their masses to the bucket. As one student said “I think I used more physics to place the masses than I did in building the bridge!”

Busy Weekend

This has been a good weekend. I got some stuff done that needed doing and had a nice time with my kitties, which also needs doing. 🙂

Friday we had our staff Xmas lunch. The superintendent had it catered and staff brought in desserts. The shredded chicken was good (as probably was the shredded beef, but I didn’t get that) and the deserts were – wow, let’s just say I had a sugar high that day. That evening, we had a small gathering at BW3s for the first time in ages. I enjoyed the chicken wings and the conversation. Oh, the amaretto sour was good too. 🙂

Saturday, I had a dentist’s appointment which put me in Troy around lunchtime. What better time to check out the new Japanese place? I stopped at Staples on the way to the dentist for some Xmas gift supplies. Was told I had boring teeth by my hygienist (I’ve had her as my hygienist for, like, ever). Had a wonderful sushi meal at the new Japanese place. They have hibachi there was well. Wonder if I can convince the family that we should all go there for lunch one day when the girls are here. 🙂

After a short stop in Walmart for breakfast items, I drove to the Piqua Mall. I needed to get bags for my vacuum cleaner at Sears and thought I’d look through the mall. I was pleased to see there were many folks shopping there. And it was fun looking at the N-scale train they had on display from the Dayton N-scale club. They even had a train’s eye view playing as the train went around the track. I, of course, watched it go the entire distance.

I popped into Home Depot to see if they had the type of wood I want for my bookshelves (Lowe’s ran out last time I got some) and they do, for the same price. I didn’t buy any since I didn’t have dad and his truck to help, but I did buy one of those cardboard tubes used for cement molds. I intend to make a Cat Jungle Gym at some point and needed it for the curved platforms for sitting. Dunno when I’ll make it (most likely with dad’s help) but I will.

The final stop was Meijer where I got the last of my Xmas gifts and some supplies. Then I went home to hang with the kitties. We worked on a Christmas gift for awhile and played and cleaned and stuff. And today, more of the same. I discovered that I have enough underwear to last til Tuesday, so I’ll do laundry then. Heh. I even got to read Linus a book (that I bought when several teachers and I went shopping on Monday). He didn’t look at the pictures, cute though they were, but he did listen. Or maybe he was sleeping? With a cat, who can tell? 🙂

For the most part, I’m done with my holiday shopping. Waiting for a couple of orders to arrive and still have one to finish. However, I won’t be wrapping presents until Christmas morning probably. The closer I get to the actual days of presents opening, the less chance there is for the kitties to unwrap them all.

To Market to Market to buy a Fat Pig…

Yesterday, due to WOEA Day (a union day off – we get that rather than Columbus day), we had the day off. So, the parental units and I headed doon south to the 2nd Street Market in Dayton for a look around. Mom & dad had heard of the place – in fact, a friend of ours works there. Sure enough, when we arrived, he was there selling his spices, bulk foods, and cheeses (the Spice Rack). We asked him for advice on which place to go for lunch, but he recommended them all. 🙂 He did advise going to check out the bread lady nearby, so we sampled here wares and I bought a loaf of Tuscan crusty bread. (Having some toast from that right now – yummy!)

We wound up all ordering from the Diva’s Gourmet. I got a Fresh Mozarella Sandwich which was very tasty. We looked around the market and then returned to the Spice Rack where I bought several types of rice and some vanilla beans. It’s a very nice indoor market and I hope we’ll be able to visit again. (They’re open the week between Christmas & New Years, so we might take Amy & Rachel there when they’re visiting.)

Our next destination was even further south – Trader Joe’s. I really enjoy shopping at Trader Joe’s and wish it were closer. I got quite a few things from there, including more bread and more rice (hmmm, Carbohydrate Girl, I guess). I got several cheeses (I’ve tried the cheddar already and it’s good) and some sushi (had the shrimp sushi this evening). Fun store and not as expensive as you’d think.

We’d brought a cooler with ice for the perishables during the long journey home, so we figured we could shop in Books & Co. while we were there. As soon as I entered, I saw the display for The End, the last book in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. At 30% off, I had to get it. Yay, only 7 books to go til I hit the 1200 mark in my inventory! 🙂

After we finished in the bookstore, we headed home where I vegged by playing my addiction (aka City of Heroes). Supper was cheddar cheese, toast (from Tuscan crusty bread) – some with margarine, some with marg & preserves (peach & hot pepper). Good eats. 🙂

Today, I traveled south on my own. It had been a month since I last ventured for Indian Fud and Doctor Who Magazine. So I went to the Bookery (DWM, Dreamwatch, Astonishing X-Men, and vol 4 of The Devil’s Panties were waiting in my folder). Then to Jeet India for Indian Fud. Yummy food – including a paneer dish – I love paneer! (Paneer is Indian cheese.)

I shopped some after lunch, but only found something to buy in Waldenbooks. They had some paperbacks in a buy 2 get a 3rd free sale. They had Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, which I was interested in getting. So of course, I looked at the other choices in the selection. I also got Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley and An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. Anansi wound up being the freebie. 🙂 So now I’m just 4 books away from 1200 in my collection! 🙂

Well, hopefully I’ll spend some time reading tomorrow rather than just playing City of Heroes. 🙂

S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G

Yesterday turned out to be Shopping Day. After our breakfast, Amy & I did the dishes. Then she took a nap & I geeked on the computer. Rachel got home around 12:30, so we headed off to Ikea. Ikea is across the street from the Mall of America. So it’s a bit south of where the girls live. We headed up to the cafeteria for lunch so we’d have the energy to shop. I got the Swedish meatballs (with potatoes, gravy, and lingonberry sauce), salad, and Sierra Mist. The girls got the chicken marsala. I got us the lingonberry mousse and Amy picked up some cookies for dessert. The meal was quite nice – turns out I like lingonberries. 🙂 (My second “new” fruit for the day – the first being marionberries from marionberry preserves at breakfast.)

Once fortified, we headed into the furniture store. I found a few pieces that I thought would work, however forgot to record the aisle and bin number of the piece I liked best, so we wound up going around 3 times before we were done. Then downstairs to the descorations and stuff. I picked up a pair of those thin plastic cutting boards for under $2. The girls got me a pair of slippers for when I visit & some lightbulbs. We went to the aisles & bins to check on a few things, then checked out, hoping to get a catalog. No go on the catalog – they were out and the new ones won’t be in until the second week of August. No matter, I thought, I’ll just order the piece I want online. In the Swedish food shop, I bought some cookies with chocolate hazelnut filling.

Next stop was Best Buy (with Rachel headed on to Borders) so I could buy Amy & Rachel’s birthday present, finally. Their birthdays are in May just 4 days apart. (4 days and 4 years apart.) I had so many ideas and talked myself out of so many ideas for their birthday gifts that I never did get them something. Amy thought maybe I could get them the stuff for a wireless network at home & set it up. Sounded like a great birthday gift idea to me!

I picked out the D-Link gold router & PCMCIA card and it was just in the price range I’d intended. Then we went to the audio/video section hoping to find a solution to Amy’s VCR recording problem. (She can’t record with her VCR since the Coax-in plug is sheared off.) The saleslady said that maybe an RF modulator would do what we needed, so Amy bought that.

We headed onto Borders to meet Rachel & look at books. I saw a few things I might want, but had the good sense to say “no!” So we returned to the car and headed north.

A stop at Amy & Rachel’s co-op for milk and a few other items (I got some cream soda & seasame sticks while there) and then we were finally home. We collapsed for a bit. Amy fiddled with the RF modulator, but no luck on recording cable. We decided that, if we were going to be hot & bothered anyway, we might as well walk to Brit’s Pub for supper.

It was oppressively hot on our walk to Eat Street (Nicollet Ave) and Brit’s Pub. The walk would have been quite pleasant if it had been 15 degrees cooler. The pub was air conditioned, thankfully, so we didn’t have any problems waiting 20 minutes to be seated. The girls got beers and got me an amaretto sour (which I later spilled – whoops!) while we waited.

For supper, I decided upon steak & kidney pie with chips. I’m not a kidney person. I don’t want to eat the body’s filters, so kidneys and livers are right out. However, the pie sounded very good, so I ordered it anyway. Rachel got a Cornish pastie and Amy got the fish & chips. Everything was wonderful and the chips were big & thick and perfect for soaking up vinegar. Since the girls have been such gracious hosts (and took me to a pub) I bought the supper. They’re a cheap date, really. 🙂

We waddled in the (slightly cooler) hell that is Minnesota in the Summer towards Target. We got some other necessary items and a switch for their cable/VCR so they didn’t have to keep swapping cords. Another stop at the video store for a movie (Tristram Shandy) and back to home again.

I set up the wireless network, which worked like a charm – yay! Then we put the movie on. It’s an odd thing, but it was neat to see a lot of British actors that I recognized. Naomi Harris, Shirley Henderson, Stephen Fry. And I’m still trying to rectify Mole from Mr Toad’s Wild Ride with Steve Coogan/Tristram Shandy. Same actor (Steve Coogan, oddly enough) but he was a lot cuter as Mole. 🙂

We didn’t get through the movie before folks just got too tired, so we’ll probably finish it later this afternoon. (Movie is due by 7pm tonight, I believe.) I spent some time online before heading off to bed. And I slept in until after 8am. Had some odd dreams – one of which was a murder mystery with the 7th Doctor promising to solve the murder of a woman’s nearly born child. I always think “I’ll be able to remember this later” but I really can’t remember anything more than that!

Rachel made us blueberry (and plain) pancakes and Amy cut up some peaches & a nectarine. It was a very yummy breakfast. These girls sure know how to treat me! 🙂

I’ve done some searching online this morning and discovered that the shelves that I want from Ikea are not available online. Bugger! So now to figure out how to get them to me. We have to take the RF modulator back to Best Buy, so maybe we’ll get down to Ikea once more this weekend. Wonder if they can ship from the store to my house? That would be lovely.

Plans for today? Visit to the library, doing stuff downtown, maybe a stop into Crate & Barrel, folks coming around this evening. At some point this weekend, we’ll be getting Galactic Pizza (delivered by a super hero!) I’ve been having fun with my girls with more fun to come!

The Weekend

This must be my spendy weekend. Yesterday, I went to the shops around WSU – first to my comic book store, then for Indian Fud, next to the Evil Puppy Mall, and finally to Gander Mountain, an outdoorsy sporting goods store in Huber Heights. I bought magazines, Chaco sandals, a watch, a billfold, and 2 pairs of FoxRiver Socks. A fine day out! Alas, I wound up forgetting to go to the Fishers for their Lousiana Boil. Bummer.

This morning, I got up at five til four am – gah! I drove mom & dad to the airport so they could fly to California for a week-long series of workshops through Westar. I received a call from them a bit ago – they made it successfully. Yay!

But anyhoo, after I dropped them off, I came home & went back to bed. When I finally did get moving, I headed off to Troy for the Strawberry Festival. I stood in like for 35 minutes for strawberry donuts (yum!), then I bought 2 CDs from a Native American flute group that was performing near the long donut line. Next was a lemonade shake up – yum! Lunch was BBQ chicken, and dessert was this super-sweet & bizarre concoction called a Strawberry Dough Ball. Basically, it was a Krispy Kreme donut, split in two like a hamburger bun, with whipped cream between the slices, strawberry pie filling on top and topped with more whipped cream. Very sweet, but hey, it was different! 🙂

I left the Strawberry Festival and did a run at the pet store and Staples, getting an automatic cat feeder for Leo (plus food & litter) and some double layer DVDs for me. I’ll leave you to figure which store I got which things at.

I finished my day out at Walmart where they repaired my glasses for free. Yay!

I’ve been goofing off at home ever since. Tomorrow’s the last day of school for teachers. Then I’m going to take Tuesday off. But then it’s back to work on Wednesday. Loads of computer things to do this summer!

It’s Beginning to Feel a lot like Christmas

I had so much fun recently rereading my LJ entries during last Christmas season, that I’ve decided to try and get as much stuff about this holiday down so that I can remember it as well as I remember last year’s.

Yesterday was our last day of school before Christmas break. As we’ve done for a number of years, we have Spirit of Giving Day. After students make donations to the Pleasant Hill Food Pantry (canned goods or $1) they can sign up for fun things to do during the school day. There are many activities and in my room, it’s Euchre & Card Games. As I love Euchre & other card games, I love hosting this for the high school kids. The first session was mostly seniors & juniors exchanging presents with each other. That was fun to watch. But the other sessions did have games going on. I played Sequence for the first time (a student brought it and Uno) and liked it. Must get that. Played a game of Uno with a group of sophomore & junior (and one senior) boys that looked as though it would never end. It did, right as the session ended. Watched folks play Phase 10 (which is similar to Shanghai Rum). Played spoons with a large group of sophomore girls (and one boy). Finally got to play some euchre, and finished off with a couple of Sequence games. Fun stuff, even if I usually didn’t win. 🙂

Lunch was Papa John’s pizza in the gym (along with some Chex Mix that the FCCLA made for me). And the day was finished with a Pep Assembly that wasn’t too horrible. Well, except for when the cheerleaders pitted 6 male teachers with 6 female teachers to do Pom Pom letters. The men were to spell out NHS with their pom poms. We women were to spell out RED. I kept explaining this to the other 5 women on our team. And they kept trying to make up some new cheer or other. And ended up with some “classic” called Watermelon. I just stood there looking frustrated (well, a bit of overacting for the audience – but yeah, it did annoy the anal retentive person within me) while they did what they weren’t supposed to, but ended up winning anyhoo. I thought the guys did a good job on their NHS, however. 🙂 One of the lady teachers later said “You know, if we’d been graded on a rubric instead of on style, we’d’ve lost.” Heh.

At 1pm, students were dismissed and it wasn’t long after that that our respective principals let us go too. Six of us teachers had plans for shopping and the early dismissal worked nicely into those plans. (The original plan had been to do this the previous Thursday, but the weather had other plans for us.) We all headed off to the Little Professor book store in Troy. I spent lots of money on my little cousins and got a hunk of my Christmas shopping done. Yay! Then onto a little boutique shop on the way to the square. I didn’t get anything there, but it was fun to look around. Once in downtown Troy we stopped in several shops. In the Amish furniture shop, I got more stuff to finish off everyone except Leo. Yay! The Bake House was also one of our stops, so I got a loaf of sourdough bread (sliced on their bread slicer – the coolest thing since, erm, sliced bread). Oh, and some filled croissants for breakfast. Yay!

We finished off our lovely evening at La Piazza, a nice Italian restaurant also in downtown Troy. The food, as always, was excellent. And the conversation with my 5 co-workers (or cow-orkers- a term I introduced to them much to their amusement) was very lively and funny. I really love the people I work with. There were only six of us who went this time, though we’d originally had more planned to go for the Thursday event. Perhaps we’ll get more together in another trip.

So my last day of work in 2005 was a grand day. Full of fun, friendships, and food. And that’s just the start to the holiday. Amy & Rachel are safely home as of 11:45am today. We’ve already had one family gathering and we’ve got more to come. I think I’ll have as much fun this year as last. 🙂