The revenge of the errands

[rolanni]

We were going to stay in today, straighten the house, bake cookies, put up the tree*. But we were out of Important Liquids and I wanted to check the post office box, and it was a sunny day, if a thought nippy, and Steve said he’d come with me, and so. . .

First stop, Agway, to take on Necessary Cat Items, and a mouse with a Certified Mouse Squeak, and! (this is the kicker) its eyes light up.  Perfect for the cat on your holiday shopping list.

That done, we went across the river, and the real fun began.

At the post office was the cover art for Carousel Tides, straight from artist Eric L. Williams** (yes, it says Dominic Harman on the inside of the book — printer’s error). It’s an absolutely gorgeous print on canvas — you’d swear it was an oil painting — and Amy will be seeing me on Monday so we can discuss frames.

From the post office to the redemption center, where we off-loaded twelve bucks’ worth of returnables; and thence to the shopping mecca that is Elm Plaza.

We lucked into a parking space, failed to find cookie cutters in Kmart, signed stock at Mr. Paperback where — surprise! — there actually was stock — then leapt into the fray at Hannaford.

An hour and a half later, we were loading Argent the Forester with a most impressive array of bags.  Steve cleverly got us out of the parking lot by the back door; avoided a traffic jam by making turn into Arby’s, where we  on-loaded a pair of Reuben sandwiches (mmmm Reuben), which we took home.  After the groceries were put away and the sandwiches consumed, we found ourselves exhausted by our efforts, and succumbed to a Nap Attack, ably spotted by Mozart.

Cookies are on the bake as I type and I’ve straightened the living room.  The tree will wait until tomorrow, as will the laundry, and (sigh) the dishes.

In its way, a festive and unexpected day.

And hoping yours was the same.
——————-
*This would be the ceramic tree that Steve’s mother gave us 30 years or so ago.

**Eric has said that he will happily fill orders for Carousel Tides prints. Contact him from his webpage (there’s a button under the eyeball.

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

You could call my day relatively festive.

I did some digging in the basement this morning and found another bin of ornaments, about half of which were spaceships which can be added to my space themed X-mas tree.

Next was caroling with my medieval/renaissance choir (outdoors, so lots of layering was involved when donning garb), followed by dark chocolate mint hot chocolate (not to be confused with hot cocoa) as we warmed ourselves at the nearby Chocolate House.

Then back home where before and after dinner I twiddled with adding more ornaments to my tree, which is looking very festive, in a geeky sort of way.

Day Nice but Not Festive

[claire774.livejournal.com]

Am impressed with your day and its wonderful shopping opportunities. I'm recovering from a cold so couldn't go to the Kanab event of the day which was going to Honey's Marketplace Supermarket (the larger of the two supermarkets in Kanab, pop 4,000 or so) where folks could have photos taken with Santa and sample some snacks at various tables around the store. My friend Tom, age around late forties or so, went to have his free photo taken with Santa. Can't wait to see that. But I... recovering from a cold.... had to stay in until the evening when ventured gingerly out....raining all day....still raining.... to our yearly Christmas AA/Alanon (me Alanon) Christmas Party Pot luck and White Elephant Gift Exchange. The most popular gift was a toy stuffed dog, quite large with long ears which flapped and played music too. Was snagged finally after being stolen by many participants and thereby passed around by a very deserving person who was very happy with it just as the alloted time ran out for the exchange. A great time was had by all. I had to go early because of the cold so missed the candlelight meeting which is always nice. Attended by many families with kids. No stealing gifts from kids allowed by the way. There is lots to do in Kanab just not the usual things one would do in big places. Or even in little places. This is Kanab after all. A challenge to live here for many. It's just not like other places at all. Maine is definitely one of my favorite states but can't live there. Too cold and too damp in the winter for my asthma. Southern UT in the desert recommended for asthmatics. Although quite damp today but not very cold....way down in UT on the AZ border.

Gus is objecting

[claire774.livejournal.com]

Gus is objecting to not being mentioned. I'm soon to buy a digital camera whereupon I hope to be able to post more photos if I can figure out how to do that. So Gus now gets to be the sole spokesdog. He's sending barks to the cats and likes to hear news of baking cookies. Just the thing he says. He wishes he was there.
C. and Gus

[keristor.livejournal.com]

A vampire mouse with glowing eyes?

Not festive, unfortunately. I was scheduled to drive up to Peterborough (around 60 miles -- I know, not much for Americans but then y'all think 100 years is a long time), and first to get laundry done (I leave it and pick it up 4-5 hours later). I delivered the laundry, went and did other shopping, picked up a new car ice scraper (my one broke, I now have three), and by then it was snowing quite a lot. By the time I got home, it was snowing an awful lot. When I called the laundry place at around 2:30 they said that they were about to close, and that the town was pretty much jammed for traffic. Having looked out of the front window and seen a 4x4 do an interesting pirouette (not intentional I'm sure) I agreed that trying to get in there would be futile.

So instead I stayed in, ordered a pizza (amazingly they were still delivering), and opened a bottle of cider, watched "Horton Hears a Who" and "Ghostbusters 2" on TV, and went to bed.

This morning it had stopped snowing, I scraped around 8" of snow off the car and drove in and picked up the laundry. This afternoon I have to drive back up to Cambridge (another 60 miles, but I gather not as much snow up there) to go to work tomorrow.

[kimuro.livejournal.com]

Did you find a replacement cat-shaped cookie cutter? Or was the old one retrievable?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Did you find a replacement cat-shaped cookie cutter?

Alas. We went with Plan B.

[kimuro.livejournal.com]

Everyone scattered, went into hiding and began preparing to take the fight to the enemy.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Is that an over-reaction?

[kimuro.livejournal.com]

Not in my book.

Oh wait.

My mistake - that's your book.