Day Two Trip to Geneva

Got up to overcast skies. What a surprise. :) Anyway, we got out around noon after doing a lot of nothing in the house. We had errands. Bank, post office downtown. Then find a tree and do some food shopping. The bank was eventful. Mom prefers the drive-thru window for some reason. Since she doesn't drive anymore (yippee!) she doesn't get to do that to frequently anymore. We got there, only to discover that it was closed for repairs. So inside we trooped. Only to discover that there was something sticky on her check. Ick! So she had to write a new one. Something she has, sadly, forgotten how to do for the most part. Eek! But we persevered and came out loaded with cash. Ok, not loaded. Off to the post office. Mom bought three sheets of stamps, two of them love stamps. In the post office, she liked them. Later she said they were garish and wondered why she had bought them. Sigh. I mailed off a check to my designer and a thumb drive containing some 3000 images that were Saucer related. Yippee.

Next, off to the top of the hill to look for a Christmas Tree. We have a store in town called Red Jacket. It is an apple store primarily and has been in business as long as I can remember. One of the few places that hasn't gone under here in Geneva. They happened to also be selling Christmas trees. Mom and I agreed that we wanted a tree in a pot, one that we might be able to replant at some point. They had three or four - and again we agreed on one. And it was on sale! Yippee! The attendant put it in the car and it looked really, really heavy! I was not looking forward to trying to get it into the house. But that was postponed for a short trip through the store. Mom has a favorite apple, but she has forgotten the name. So we wandered around and looked at the apples and other local foods that they had. Came away with one apple, a package of cheese and a package of crystallized ginger, of which mom apparently never has enough.

When we got home, mom suggested we use a little rolling dolly thing she has to help get the tree into the living room. Great suggestion! It was really, really, really heavy. And getting it out of the car and up the three steps and onto the dolly was tough. I lifted mostly with my back, so I don't think I hurt anything. I decided that it would be easiest and best to leave the tree on the dolly for the foreseeable future. Mom concurred.

After we got the tree into the house, we went food shopping. Mom doesn't do much food shopping because the taxi process is difficult for her to get her head around and accept. Met a nice woman named Leeana in the Natural Foods aisle who helped us to find some of the ingredients I needed to make food that night. Also found an interesting beer from Southern Tier that I am looking forward to trying. Bought a little of everything in the store, as well as the makings for hot and sour soup and croque monsieur.

Headed home to unpack and to also start decorating the tree. I have put some pictures up on Facebook of the tree. It took me a few minutes to find the Christmas stuff in the attic. Three boxes were all I brought down. I think we have one or two more. But it is a small tree, and I am not going in for decorating the whole house. The tree will suffice, I think. I got some "snow" from the linen closet, tossed on some lights and a few bulbs and called a halt for the time being. Next trip, Walmart.

Our walmart has been transformed. It was an early walmart and was dingy and unhappy. Then they added a grocery section and transformed the whole place to a new, happy walmart! Yippee. If I never had to shop at walmart, I wouldn't. But they have slowly forced a lot of other stores out of business. I was shocked to find that our local shoe store had given up the ghost recently. Anyway, I wanted to get mom a couple of things to put under the tree. Nothing major or earth shattering. But mom had forgotten her glasses and so couldn't navigate by herself. And when she suggested she wait outside in the freezing cold while I shopped for her, I opted to take her home and go back another day.

Once at home, I did some more tree decorating - I still want a garland or a strand of popcorn and tinsel if I can find it. And I thought about dinner. I ended up making the hot and sour soup, which turned out ok, and the croque monsieur which was yummy, but looked weird because I used red wine rather than white. Pretty darn yummy.

Mom watched some TV and then went to bed. I played on the computer till latish and also went to dream land. Wednesday - outlet malls and other shopping. Yippee!

Saturday

I actually did some work today. Nothing too strenuous or exciting. I chose a designer. Yippee! Lily Foks actually put us in contact. Heather was the only designer to get her act together and give me a proof of concept. Two others promised and neither delivered. One of those emailed me a proof of concept, but forgot to attach it. Great. Heather was also the most cost effective designer. I sent her a very long email today congratulating her and giving her some thoughts. I hope she doesn't back out after finding out that I am going to be a pain in the butt to work with. Anyway, I did that, a load of laundry, shopped for dinner tonight - salmon with dill sauce, artichokes and maybe another vegetable of some kind - and managed to keep mostly dry. It is a miserable day out there - unless one really enjoys cold, sleety sunless days - in which case, it is a beautiful day!

Maybe a monk

My friend Jeff swears that he was a monk in a previous life. Ok, swears might be too strong a word - still he does say it. And it could be true. Lately, I am thinking I might have been one also. Back in the day, there were lots of monks and monkettes. Or wait, nuns? Seemed like a mostly safe place to be. Daily food, a bit of hard work, a bit of not so hard work, lots of chanting. Early to rise, early to bed and all that stuff. In any case, I keep finding myself awake around 3 in the morning. And I feel very creative. So rather than fight it, I take out my laptop and do some writing. Yippee. I usually work for an hour or so and then go back to sleep. Last night, I started a fantasy story and worked on my Flying Saucer book. By the way, I am still looking for a graphic designer to help me with the Plate Addict project. They don't have to be available to work at 3 in the morning...

Starting Over, Again

I had a 3 am epiphany last night on how to organize my book about me and the Flying Saucer. Sigh. Means I have to, er, get to start over again. Not from scratch, but with more focus. That is a good thing. Still looking for a designer, though. I am going to need help - this will be a picture and words book. Hopefully full color! Woo hoo!

Beginnings

I have decided, after a bit of deliberation, to begin anew on my Flying Saucer book. I had a bunch of words already written - a series of journal entries from some of my plates, and some other thoughts - but it just wasn't feeling right. I couldn't get a handle on how to organize the thing. This morning I chose to start from the very beginning and go right through to the end - or at least the current time. I am still thinking that the book needs to be heavy on graphics, so if anyone out there knows someone who is design focused who would like to help me out, that would be wondrous! Ok, back to writing. 200 words a day keeps the doctor away.