7 December 2001
Last year: Gramma Brooks will want to know if they fed us on the plane. We'll explain that we ate at the airport between trips, but she'll probably try to feed us anyway.
I went shopping yesterday. I went to Barnes and Noble and J.C. Penneys and Added Dimensions and Naturalizer shoes and the grocery store... I went shopping, b'gosh.
I stopped first at Barnes and Noble. It was on my way to the other places, and I wanted to pick up some gift certificates. While I was there, I contemplated the difficulty of getting something for my mother. I saw a book I thought she'd like - a collection of pictures and photos from the Civil War era - but it was $75, marked down to "only" $60. It seemed a little pricey for a book, even a large book full of pictures.
Nevertheless, I had no better ideas. I went and stood in the surprisingly short line. When I reached the counter, I thought it couldn't hurt to ask - and so I asked about the book I'd originally wanted to get her. After a few moments of typing, the cashier nodded. "Did you want to get it?"
"Yes, please!" He disappeared and returned a few minutes later with the book, and took the Civil War book to put on the stack of books to be re-shelved. Ta-daa! Mom has been taken care of! Along with several friends who will be getting gift certificates!
From there, I went over to K.T.'s, dragged her kicking and screaming from her new Everquest upgrade (well, okay, I didn't exactly drag; I just hovered in the computer room and made sarky comments until she gave up and came with me). We went down to the mall.
First stop - J.C. Penney's, where I found some flannel shirts for my dad. Then we went in search of a dress for me to wear to Matt's office Christmas party tonight. I found several dresses I liked - if I went to fancy-dress parties more often, I'd have bought that dark purple velvet dress with the beads. It was gorgeous, and clung in all the right places like a new lover.
But it was $150, and only suitable for fall/winter wear, and would have required a strapless bra, which I hate wearing. I found a basic black dress that fit well, and a bright red silk shirt to wear over it.
K.T. - wonder of wonders - found a coat that she liked. Unsure whether to buy it, put it on layaway, or just tell Kevin she wanted it for Christmas, she called him on her cell phone. Kevin obviously thought she was deranged. "Buy it!" he demanded. (He's wanted her to get a new coat for some time. Wait - I'll rephrase - since she didn't have a coat at all, he's wanted her to get a coat for some time.)
Another couple of stops - I tried on some shoes, but they didn't fit well. K.T. ordered a pair. I peeked into Bath and Body Works, but restrained myself. We stopped for dinner, made one last foray into J.C. Penneys (I'd seen some shawls in the first trip that I thought might go well with my dress, but eventually decided against) and then left the mall.
I'm going to be trying some new recipes for Christmas cookies this year, and some of them call for some fairly exotic ingredients - or at least, things my Food Lion isn't likely to carry. Like powdered green tea, and something called "Lyle's Golden Syrup," which I'd never heard of.
K.T. has had good luck finding strange and vaguely exotic foods at her grocery store, though, so that's where we went. She found some ingredients they'd been out of stock on previously, for her own Christmas baking, and then led me down the exotic foods aisle.
We found green tea easily enough, but not powdered. I admit to some astonishment when we found the "Golden Syrup" though - I hadn't the slightest idea where it would be, but we sort of stumbled across it. (At $5 for a pint jar, it had better be good stuff!)
Christmas shopping done - there are only a handful of people left on my list, now - I dropped K.T. off and went home. When I logged in, I discovered that my Amazon order had shipped - that's another six people taken care of, as soon as the package arrives!
In celebration, I had three Hall sessions, finally crawling into bed around 1:30.
Now I just have to get through the work day...
Word of the Day:
sylvan - 1a: living or located in the woods or forest; b: of, relating to, or characteristic of the woods or forest; 2a: made, shaped, or formed of woods or trees; b: abounding in woods, groves, or trees; wooded
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Villians Victorious edited by Martin Greenberg
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Burning Monkey Solitaire