Faded but home at last (warning, high boringness factor)
We've been home from Houston (with a side jaunt to Austin) for a whole week now and the sabbatical feels real at last, always excepting the upcoming Thanksgiving marathon -- Bakersfield and San Jose on consecutive days for two different T-day dinners. Happily my brother has decided to do a lovely pork loin, so I won't be faced with two sets of turkey. And I've bought pie from the best bakery in town, thereby fulfilling my commitment to the event(s). I had briefly contemplated doing the visits in reverse order so I could go down to LA for the BPAL Anniversary Weekend/Dark Delicacies Extravaganza, but calmer heads prevailed. i have far too many bottles on hand as it is. But they're so pretty!
Ten minutes before we left for the airport for the Houston trip, B's replacement Mac Mini was delivered, so as soon as we got back I had the joy of setting it up and getting all his files back in place. So far, it's been a champ (fingers crossed). Plus they sent along a CD of the new 10.5 OS, which is only fair, since the system came all the way from China by way of Indianapolis. The ways of Fed Ex are strange and wondrous to behold. I have not yet had the nerve to contemplate a system upgrade. Maybe next month.
Swamped with books to process and there are a dozen boxes coming back from Texas (I managed a total of 9 Half-Price Bookstores in the Houston/Austin areas). i did however get the November book list out to my faithful customers, who are actually buying from it (some, anyway).
Pale and wan from the unscheduled filling replacement and crown fitting earlier today. Still drooly and soon to need pain killers. What I had hoped last Thursday night was just a lost filling turned out to be a tiny piece of the remaining molar, and while we were in there, the dentist discovered the adjoining filing was cracked and needed to be replaced. Whee. Not in the holiday budget, i must say.
Also slightly overwhelmed by the unexpected whirlwind visit from an old friend who happened to be visiting town with her brother last night and arranged to get together this morning...adore KA as I do, I cleverly remembered her inability to get anywhere on time and smoothly negotiated their visit here on their way out of town rather than trying to get together at a coffee place in town. We ended up with approximately 17 minutes to catch up, but at least I now have her latest address and phone number and the reassurance that she is still married to the same delightful husband I remember from 25+ years ago.
Lovely rainstorm yesterday (we need more, but we were glad to get it, all gray and misty most of the day) and cool enough to justify a nice fire. Just for fun, after watching the new and rather ridiculous "At Bertram's Hotel" with Geraldine McEwan, I talked B into sitting through the earlier version with Joan Hicks, who will always be Miss Marple in my mind. Odd how different the two scripts were starting from roughly the same material. And really, the new version is incredibly silly, although I am very fond of GM in other parts (the perfect Lucia).
We have tested out the hot tub since returning home, although we have to share it with a small frog that has taken up residence under the cover...that moist warm air is obviously frog heaven. So far he's been smart enough to stay out of the actual hot water.
Saw "Beowulf" over the weekend and was prompted to finally read a translation of the actual poem (Kevin Crossley-Holland's was at hand rather than Seamus Heaney's, alas), which is of course far less lurid than the cinematic version, but I'm finding it more interesting than I would have years ago when I resented most forms of poetic expression, especially the heroic epic.
Halfway through Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower which is fascinatingly stuffed with historical and individual tidbits, and completed Gerald Durrell's "My Family and Other Animals" which I see will be dramatized this weekend. It was a favorite book of my mother's, so I'm glad to have read it in her honor.
That's all the news that's fit to...well, something. I AM glad to be home.
::waves feebly on way to sofa::
Ten minutes before we left for the airport for the Houston trip, B's replacement Mac Mini was delivered, so as soon as we got back I had the joy of setting it up and getting all his files back in place. So far, it's been a champ (fingers crossed). Plus they sent along a CD of the new 10.5 OS, which is only fair, since the system came all the way from China by way of Indianapolis. The ways of Fed Ex are strange and wondrous to behold. I have not yet had the nerve to contemplate a system upgrade. Maybe next month.
Swamped with books to process and there are a dozen boxes coming back from Texas (I managed a total of 9 Half-Price Bookstores in the Houston/Austin areas). i did however get the November book list out to my faithful customers, who are actually buying from it (some, anyway).
Pale and wan from the unscheduled filling replacement and crown fitting earlier today. Still drooly and soon to need pain killers. What I had hoped last Thursday night was just a lost filling turned out to be a tiny piece of the remaining molar, and while we were in there, the dentist discovered the adjoining filing was cracked and needed to be replaced. Whee. Not in the holiday budget, i must say.
Also slightly overwhelmed by the unexpected whirlwind visit from an old friend who happened to be visiting town with her brother last night and arranged to get together this morning...adore KA as I do, I cleverly remembered her inability to get anywhere on time and smoothly negotiated their visit here on their way out of town rather than trying to get together at a coffee place in town. We ended up with approximately 17 minutes to catch up, but at least I now have her latest address and phone number and the reassurance that she is still married to the same delightful husband I remember from 25+ years ago.
Lovely rainstorm yesterday (we need more, but we were glad to get it, all gray and misty most of the day) and cool enough to justify a nice fire. Just for fun, after watching the new and rather ridiculous "At Bertram's Hotel" with Geraldine McEwan, I talked B into sitting through the earlier version with Joan Hicks, who will always be Miss Marple in my mind. Odd how different the two scripts were starting from roughly the same material. And really, the new version is incredibly silly, although I am very fond of GM in other parts (the perfect Lucia).
We have tested out the hot tub since returning home, although we have to share it with a small frog that has taken up residence under the cover...that moist warm air is obviously frog heaven. So far he's been smart enough to stay out of the actual hot water.
Saw "Beowulf" over the weekend and was prompted to finally read a translation of the actual poem (Kevin Crossley-Holland's was at hand rather than Seamus Heaney's, alas), which is of course far less lurid than the cinematic version, but I'm finding it more interesting than I would have years ago when I resented most forms of poetic expression, especially the heroic epic.
Halfway through Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower which is fascinatingly stuffed with historical and individual tidbits, and completed Gerald Durrell's "My Family and Other Animals" which I see will be dramatized this weekend. It was a favorite book of my mother's, so I'm glad to have read it in her honor.
That's all the news that's fit to...well, something. I AM glad to be home.
::waves feebly on way to sofa::