Will you accept Jesus as your personal

Trainer?

I mean, somewhere in the world there has to be a personal trainer named Jesus, right?

http://www.ymcala.org/Branch/Staff.aspx?ENT=58

Is It August Yet?

Usually when I'm anticipating a trip, time whips by at an alarming rate, and I find myself with many preparations to make and no time to make them. Not this trip. Time has slowed to a crawl. Yesterday at lunch I picked up £160 from B of A, in 5's and 10's, so I should be covered for cab fare and such. Last night I did some shopping, got some travel-sized toiletries, also re-stocked the DayQuil which I'd used up during the week, and H₂O₂, which I've been pouring prodigious amounts of over my left palm, which I skewered with my extremely fine and way too sharp chef's knife several days ago while slicing an orange. Went to Petco in Sunnyvale to buy some cat food, and discovered I had left my discount coupon at home, so instead went across the street and checked out a new eatery, called the American Diner. They moved into what had for eons been a Lyons.

American Diner is very much like the name says, but add wall to wall, floor to ceiling crap on the walls. The whole wall behind the cash register is Elvis stuff. There's a human-sized statue of liberty off to the side. All kinds of stupid signs, the occasional license plate, and lots of kitsch. Service was glacial, the place was mostly empty. A live bad was playing tunes like Peggy Sue over in the lounge area (I was seated all the way at the opposite end of the building, so I could read). I had the prime rib, which was mediocre. Horseradish sauce was so watered down I couldn't taste the horseradish. The dinner salad was fresh, with a huge on-the-side serving of dressing. Mashed potatoes needed more mashing, corn bread was very good, veggies somewhat charred and not enough non-broccoli.

Today's main attraction was a visit from Patty, the cat sitter. She's a lovely woman, works as a vet tech for my vet. She brought along her 13-year-old granddaughter who was kind of shy but sweet. The cats loved them both, so I'm happy. That was at 1:30. I started off the afternoon by doing some more shopping, just a bag of cat food at Petco and a box of inkjet greeting card blanks. After perusing two stores' worth of wedding cards I decided to make my own.

The cat food purchase took an unexpected turn. I'd been feeding the beasts Iams indoor food for cats 7 years +. Lately Pumpkin has been puking that up every few days, so I figured a change of food might be in order. There was a Science Diet rep at Petco, and she explained that the problem was probably hairballs, which would make sense since he doesn't exhibit any other symptoms and he's 40% fur. She gave me a coupon for their senior hairball treatment food, which, together with the Petco coupon, made the bag less than the Iams food. She also reminded me to only mix about 1/4 of the new food in with the current food, which I already was planning to do, but it gave her more credibility.

After Patty's visit I was off to a cleaner's in Mountain View which advertised alterations. They don't do them on weekends, and they take a week, so that's out. Looking at the pants, it's a simple 3-inch cuff take-up, I should be able to do it myself. I thought the liner went all the way to the bottom of the leg, but it's about a foot short. If any of my costume expert friends have any tips on how to raise a cuffed pants hem 3 inches, let me know. The current plan is to turn the pants inside-out, un-tack the current cuffs, fold everything up, iron it, tack the excess up, then turn the pants right side out, iron a cuff line and tack that in place.

No plans for tomorrow. I'm tempted to go to the Garlic Festival, but the price of gas and the hassle of getting there may stop me, unless they are running trains at a convenient time. Tonight's projects are:

Take up the pants
Make a wedding card for Shana & Spike
Go online and make some hotel reservations for Penzance, Cardiff, Glasgow & Inverness.
Check CalTrain's Garlic Fest schedule
Check the chicken soup cauldron simmering on the back burner. The crock pot was not large enough for this batch, so I'm simulating a crock pot on the stove.
Possibly sleep some.