Almost Out of Thyme

After my weekly (when both of us are in town and available) coffee chat with Janice, I stopped at what used to be my local Safeway with two items on my groc list, thyme and corn cobettes, and a side of bananas and maybe apples and celery in my brain. Somehow I managed to spend >$100.

Well, things were on sale, so shoot me.

I saved $29.16 - nearly 1/3!

After I picked up produce, I headed for the spice row, and this lady was standing in front of the spices which I wanted to get to, holding a container of garlic salt in one hand, her other hand on the bar of her cart, blocking the whole aisle, and after about half a minute of that I reached past her, saying, "sorry, lady, I'm almost out of thyme", as I grabbed three bottles of thyme (they were on sale - buy 2 get 1 free). She gave me a dirty look, then saw the labels and grinned. And moved along.

Other things which lured me with 2-fer savings were Kraft sliced cheeses (aged swiss & sharp cheddar), Breyer's ice cream (mint chocolate chip and their very chocolaty chocolate), Chicken of the sea sardines in water, kippered snacks in water, Devil's food donettes, meatballs in tomato basil sauce, and Bush baked beans.

I resisted the $9.99 huge scallops, and the $5 re-unfrozen lobster tails. And lactaid milk. I did pick up a pair of turkey frank packages, the plan is to make pigs in blankets tomorrow with the frozen bread dough which is taking up too much freezer space. 

I'm sure you are thrilled to be reading all this, but it's called journaling. Deal.

Home, the ipod cable for the new in-dash unit was in the mailbox, too late to do anything with it this weekend. Unless the place is open Monday, which I doubt since they are closed Sundays.

While I put stuff away and had dinner (cobettes and meatballs), I watched the first 3/4 of the Oregon game. 50 points before halftime. And then they pulled their first string and went to sleep. Nice to see they have a championship first string, sorry they have no depth. There was a guy in the stands in a Ducks-colored (bright yellow and bright green) Darth Vader helmet.

Waiting for dinner, there was plenty 'o' time, and the cat tree parts were staring at me in the box, so instead of putting that off till tomorrow, I assembled it, with pauses for dinner and dessert. I really like the way the cobettes came out. I put them in a bowl with about half an inch of water, in the microwave and nuked them for 3 minutes.

While I was having dessert, with the first level of the tree done, Domino came over to it and tried out the sisal scratching posts.

There was a "huh?" moment when I needed the two short bolts, and only saw one. After counting the long bolts it was clear I'd put the other short bolt where a long one was called for, so I used a long one instead. It worked.

Shifted some furniture to get the old tree out of the livingroom and into the foyer, which exposed all the dirt around where I put my feet when I'm on the recliner, so I did some vacuuming and then pulled out the steamer. It's not good, but it's better.

While I was moving the old tree, Domino climbed up it and into her sleeping tube at the top. She did not want to have that go anywhere. I put some treats on the new tree, which she gobbled when I was not looking, but she hasn't bought into the change yet. It's for her own good, the inside of the tube is all clawed up, and she gets caught in the strands. I don't have a way to reline it. It will be dumpstered tomorrow.

Now the new tree is where the old one was, and the old one is in the foyer, waiting to be dollied outside.

( pix )

Plans for tomorrow:
Trim the celery
Old cat tree --> dumpster
Dose the cat
Tech rehearsal

Weird Dream Channel

I'm driving some friends, we are in somewhere in Berkeley, when a gang who looks like they are out of the cast of a Grease copycat musical walk across the street in front of us. I stop to let them pass, but they stop too, the line blocking the road. After a minute they cross. I drive another half a block, and there they are again, blocking the road. They are taunting me to drive into them, but eventually let me through. This goes on four or five times. There is a muscular young man with his shirt open who is especially vocal and taunting, and he sidesteps at the last second.

I tell my friends that next time I'll hit him, and they take that as a suggestion to get out of the car.

I am on a 1-way, 2-lane road, I am in the left lane. At the next intersection it becomes a two-way road. He is standing in the middle of the lane I am in, on the other side of the intersection. I signal to merge right, but the cars quickly fill up the gap and won't let me. There is no traffic from the other direction, and the guy is daring me to hit him as I angle to merge out of the lane. I am driving at half an mph, he stands his ground shouting something about Berkeley's pedestrian right-of-way law, and as my bumper touches his leg he does a phony stage fall away from me, holding onto his leg, still shouting.

I don't see any cops, but to be safe I head toward a shop on my left which has its door open. Somehow I am riding my bicycle now, and the shop looks like it is either a children's bike store or a place where children park their bikes. The floor is hardwood, so probably the latter. As I put down the kick stand, I say to myself "If the cops take away my bike, I can always take BART home".

Not much done today, yet

Slept till 9 when a weird dream woke me up, and since I have been forgetting those quickly I got online and posted about it. And stayed at the computer till 11:30.

Got dressed, thought ab out how to move the old cat tree, the light dawned and I got the mechanic's dolly out of the storage room, tilted the base of the tree under it, and it was seated on there firmly in a few seconds. From there it was easy to (slowly) wheel it down the path, down the driveway, through the garage and to the dumpster. I left it beside the dumpsters in case someone else wants it, and because it is too heavy for me to lift.

Made a batch of pigs in blankets, which came out beautifully. Had a few for lunch, froze the rest. Mint chocolate chip ice cream did not want to be eaten, I think. As soon as I got the lid off, the carton flew out of my hands, and landed top-down on the floor. Scraped off the surface, and tried again - the first scoop also flew across the room, committing suicide in front of the fridge. Finally got two scoops into a bowl, and the rest was history.

Looked for NFL football on TV, and I found the Raiders-Seahawks game. Watched about a quarter before it was clear this was not being played live.

Watched an episode of "Undercover Boss". Sat outside on the patio with Domino. Gave her the monthly dose of flea stuff, and she deserted me. Back inside, played the piano (I have not touched it in way too long).

Listed one more item on eBay, acknowledged payment for another.

I hunted up my AVI backup DVDs and found that all of the clips had been recorded at postage stamp sizes. 160x120 and 320x240. Crap.

Fired up the video editing program, popped the 1999 Anything Goes tape into the VCR, and the audio was all garbled. Cleaned the heads, and the head cleaner audio was garbled, even on the second pass. Ordered yet another VCR on eBay. To be continued.

Time to go to the theater for what they are calling tech, but is really cue-to-cue.