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Was too pooped last night to write. Here's why.

Work ran late because at about the time I usually go home the boss came by to ask if I could set up my SNMP app to monitor one of the engineers', machines. I had come in half an hour late thanks to the grueling Thursday rehearsal and was planning on being there till 6 instead of 5:30, so sure. But the engineers involved had to negotiate which machine I'd be looking at, and that took an hour.

But that's okay because I was planning on driving to South San Jose to visit a candy shop in the mall, and one doesn't make that trip until after 7, when the commuter lanes are open to all.

I had been looking online for places which sold taffy in plain paper wrappers, because it was obvious the gold plastic ones I had gotten from Scotland would not work for a play set in 1760. There were two, one at the southern edge of SJ and one a little farther north in Willow Glen, but not much. Both were open till 9.

It took 45 minutes to get to the mall. And I parked on the opposite side from the candy store, so add 15 minutes of walking. And it's Friday night at the mall on a warm Spring night, and the short shorts and spandex was out in force. So I walked all around the mall and watched the scenery. The candy store had some taffy in plain translucent wrappers, but the taffy itself was mostly brightly colored, not at all what I was looking for. The nice man behind the counter helped me find enough white and brown and not too fancy ones.

Back to the car, punched in the address of the second store, and the GPS took me the longest possible route. I don't know the area well enough to find the direct way, and I also didn't know the secret parking lots behind the stores. The store is on Lincoln, which has no cross streets on the east side for half a mile. I ended up parking on the next street over, but guessed wrong on the address and ended up walking that half mile to the 2nd to last shop on the block. I walked very quickly because it was getting close to 9.

The store is tiny (so was the other one) and the taffy was cleverly hidden in baskets hanging from a coat tree near the door. I missed them the first time because they are mostly pointed away from the door. After going through the whole place and not finding any taffy, I picked up some Scharfenberger 82% and some dark TCHO. Then I found the taffy as I walked toward the cash register. Spent $3 on taffy and $30 on the other stuff.

The GPS again took me the not very scenic long way back home. So, home by about 10, exhausted from all the walking.

Made ravioli and mozzarella for dinner.

Domino has not been eating her whipped cream lately, so I decided to switch her over to the same treat Kaan gets, Fancy Feast. They each get half a tiny can of it. They both demolish it.

I still had to box up an eBay sale and a present for my new great-nephew and his grandma.

So much for Friday

Took a long time to get to sleep.

Today I slept in till 9:30, but had to get my butt in gear to get to the post office. Got there at 11, the eBay box was fine - they do okay with the prepaid labels on flat rate boxes, but my gift needed another 16¢. But most of my time was spent with the flat rate envelope containing the entire 2012 tax code which had been sent to me by an incompetent "operations manager" at the IRS when I disputed her reading of the 2010 tax code. The carrier who picked it up from where I worked was not supposed to have accepted it - some stoopid Homeland Insecurity thing about anything over 13 oz. going by air has to be handed to a clerk at the post office. It's just paper, you fools. So they returned it to sender, and the cretin who delivers the mail at the apartment folded it in half, tearing the seams, and shoved it into the tiny mail box, which isn't quite big enough, after he closes the front panel, to get it out. So I had two complaints to pass along, and the poor clerk had to tape the thing up, print a couple of bar codes for $0.00 to show it had gone through the rite of passage.

Next stop, Lyric Theatre warehouse/set shop/rehearsal hall. I worked till 4 (when my knees gave out) helping paint, and build trees out of way too large wooden frames, cardboard and kraft paper.
( photos behind the cut )

The props woman was there, and she said my taffy would not work. She thinks paper was rare and way expensive in 1760s Scotland, and the candy, which would be toffee and cream fudge, woud have been served naked. And maybe on a stick. She had some light foam which she was going to paint and cut into fudge-like shapes. I'm 90% sure she is wrong about paper - one of my college projects was to research how the Declaration of Independence was covered in colonial newspapers, and it was clear there was all kinds of paper to print on. Every city had a broadsheet, and most of the political debates were done by distributing pamphlets. I would expect Scotland, which was heavily forested, to have a going paper industry by then. I suppose I should look it up.

I was pooped, went home, petted the cats, took a nap. Got my butt in gear at 7 to go to Target to restock enteric aspirin and multivitamins, and ended up spending $90 on such things as a new Swiffer (my old one lost one of its Velcro strips, and was the old style with a single central squirter - the new on has dual squirters left & right), and some other stuff. Caffeine Free diet Coke which they stopped putting in the machines at work, 45¢ a can (50¢ for caffeinated at work).

But they didn't have Crystal Lite Classic Orange mix, or those non-refrigerated single-serving boxes of chocolate milk. So I went to Lucky's, which is sort of on the way home. They didn't have those either, or rather they didn't have them at a reasonable price, but I did get a deal on shrimp flavored cup of soup (my usual breakfast at work) for 26¢ each (in the machine at work they lately have only had beef, for 50¢) an limes (4/$1) and bananas.

Home by 10, dim sum for dinner (Ha Gaow and Sui Mai) and sesame balls.

Gave the cats their treats. Gone in 60 seconds.

Plans for tomorrow:
None.
There's a lot more work to be done on the set, but they have plenty of younger hands.
If the sun comes out, I think I will head for Shoreline Park and enjoy it. My Mountain View coffee pal is in Puerto Rico on vacation till April.