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!

Does this scarf make me look gay?

The other day, my housemate asked me if I was going to wear a certain scarf when I was going out. I said yes. She said that the scarf made me look gay. Even gayer than I already seemed. I think she meant this mostly in jest. She wanted me to wear a scarf that she had made. I wanted to wear the scarf that I had made. 30 years ago. I started it when I was eight, worked on it off and on until I was ten. Didn't touch it again for almost 8 years. A friend and theatre colleague saw it in my closet and offered to help me finish it. She showed me a couple stitches and I finished it up pretty quickly. In time for the winter season at school that year. Here is a picture of me wearing the scarf. Ok, so it makes me look a little fat, maybe...

Day one Trip to Geneva

Travel day! I do so enjoy traveling. Even when it doesn't go as smoothly as one could hope. All in all, it wasn't a bad travel day. I did have to get up pretty early for me. Cate and Daniel do it all week long - getting up around 5 or so. Eeek! We all got up and got ready and got out on time - we chose 6:15 as the leaving time so that Cate could get to work on time. I hope she did! I zipped through the security check with narry a difficulty. Oh, I think I did lose a pen. 1 down, 250 to go (I have way too many pens). I found the gate and sat down to wait. By waiting, I mean napping. Napped and napped. And then got on the plane. Teeny! I couldn't even stand up straight in the aisle. But it was a jet, instead of a turboprop. Found my aisle seat - I like the aisle for the view of the plane that they afford. Got my elephant pillow and my sound canceling headphones out and was getting comfortable when a couple got on the plane. Their seats were separated, so I agreed to swap. Still an aisle seat. And proceeded to nap. I hope I didn't drool on the doctor flying to Burlington in the seat beside me. Anyway, I napped and napped and kept looking out the window to see that we weren't moving. Apparently we didn't move for an hour! No window of opportunity to land at Reagan National in Washington. Oh well. More napping.

The flight was uneventful. I got a glass of water and napped some more. When we were getting close to landing, the steward starting asking about people's connections. Turns out that most of us were going to miss ours, since we were an hour late. at least 6 of us were going on to Syracuse. I bonded with a woman and her two lovely college daughters. Their answer to the question of what they were studying sounded practiced: Daughter one (Meredith College) Psychology, Daughter two (Elon College) Psychology, Mother "Just plain Psycho!" She was great, though. When it came time to get our boarding passes to the next flight, she convinced the agent to give us all a free lunch! Woohoo!

So, I sat in the airport for more than two hours. Napping. Ok, not all napping. I did some people watching. I love people watching. Did some writing - started maybe four blog entries that may or may not make it here. Helped out a man from Jamaica by lending him my phone. We commiserated about the state of the nation and talked about all sorts of things. Including Marijuana. Ate my lunch - from 5 guys - still not thrilled with their food - really don't like their french fries at all. The ten dollar voucher was almost entirely used up on that meal! Eeek! I also texted with a friend for a while which helped to make the time more pleasant.

Finally got on another teeny plane and flew to Syracuse. Yippee! Lovely, overcast Syracuse. I used Enterprise for my rental car company. My mom's Discover card was declined and I ended up having a nice chat with the security people. Turns out that there is something wrong with the card's data strip. Not going to worry about it. The car I got (a picture has been posted to Facebook) is some sort of Chevy. Reminds me of a PT cruiser but larger. The drive was pleasant enough, despite blowing snow for the first 20 minutes.

Got to Geneva safely, which is always a good thing. Mom and I decided that the first night I would not cook, so we got Pizza hut pizza - I like their pan pizza - and a few chicken wings. Then off to the movies to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I think I read those books 41 years ago. Weird! Fun movie, though. I wonder if they are making a version of The Last Battle... Then home to bed for me. Long day! Today - shopping!

Nesting?

Weird. That is all I can say. For the past couple of months I have been cooking. A lot. When I was ten to about 14 I liked to cook. Especially bake, but I would cook anything. Recently, I have been trying recipes, being creative in the kitchen. I like it. I like making stuff and people eating it and them saying it is yummy! Yippee! Also oddly, I don't mind cleaning in the kitchen, and elsewhere, nearly as much. I would make someone a pretty good househusband. Sadly, I can't find anyone who appeals who is interested in settling down and having a child or two. Oh well. Life is like that sometimes. Still, I am getting to eat some great food. Last night, baked salmon with dill sauce. Woo hoo!

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!

Small things

So, I came out today to run errands and everything has been swell. I got to the mall and went to the Apple store to exchange a dongle. I had feared there would be a brew haha. There wasn't. They just said, oh, ok, swapped them out and I went on with my life. Sat in a sitting area and filled out a check I had to mail to my editor for her work on my Saucer book. Walked to the Post Office at the mall and dropped off the letter. Headed home - now that was a bit of a challenge since the mall has changed all of the exits around for the holiday season. But I made it here to the Saucer relatively easily. Got my first beer and Adam Springs showed up, as he had warned on my status update last night. We chatted and he mentioned the glass from the night before. Apparently they had shown up around four on Thursday. I looked up, noticed there were a couple glasses on a shelf and asked my server about them. Minutes later she handed me one. Yippee! It is the small things that make life so sweet.

Long time, no post

Sad, but true. Blogging consistently, well doing anything consistently, can prove to be a challenge. Anyway, life has been dandy, all things considered. Weird thing, though. I have been on a saving money kick - trying to go to the Saucer less, eating out less, etc. And I don't seem to be saving money. What is that about? I have been successful in not going to the Saucer as much. Which is sad, because I am working diligently on the book. Ok, others are working diligently on the Saucer book right now. I have an editor who is working through the text. And I am very close to finding a designer. We shall see. I am hoping for a Spring release of the book. Anything is possible...