Saturday. December 1, 2001

assorted junk spices up a wall in Clarksville

so much more Martha Stewart anyway

"The inexorable boredom that is at the core of life."

Jacques Bénigne Bossuet

I wake up extremely early considering that I didn't go to sleep until after 1:30. FFP is rattling around. I get up and go to the bathroom but decide to go back to sleep. The phone rings at 8. It takes SuRu and I a little while to get it together and go. FFP elects the health club and errands.

The eXtreme team attacks the Clarksville route. (Where someone has posted the sign above in their yard. Not directed at us I hope. We scoop poop. Usually.)

We park in the same old place but take a slightly different route. We walk down Ninth Street to Lamar which causes us to discuss the Donna Memorial. SuRu asked if I'd ever made a WEB page for it. The memorial is no more, having been ruthlessly tarred over by a city crew. So it lives on only in our memories and T-Shirts. So, I said that no I hadn't made a WEB page. But then I did it.

This weird route also took us down an alley where a rock wall has been built incorporating a wide variety of junk including an old gas wall stove, a coffee cup, a bowling bowl and several animal figures and faces. We'd never seen this before. I don't know how long it's been there. New routes are good.

We stopped at Sweetish Hill. As usual I saw several people I knew there. When we arrived back at the car, I was convinced there was still time to take the scenic route home through intervening neighborhoods and also get home, shower, and get a haircut. I was wrong. The barber couldn't get me in before closing so I'm still shaggy.

So I did an errand with my Mom. The idea was to put some candles in the fireplace for a festive decoration. First, we had a bad experience with Michael's. They had a sign on votice holders that were red and green. It said '4 for $3.' Good price. So we got a bunch of them and some tea lights and we were going to do this Martha Stewart thing with them. It was hard getting them down because they were on a top shelf and there were boxes, a hand truck and a ladder in the way. At the register, the gal started ringing them up a 1.99 each. Nope. She tried another way that she was satisfied was right and got 5.99/4. Which turned out to be 3 for $4 and one at 1.99, I think. Um, no. She showed me that the ad paper said 3 for $4. I went back to the shelf, got the sign and took it back. I was right about how they were marked. I had said, if I'm wrong, I'll pay it. If not, we are walking out. And walk out we did leaving them with a basket of these holders. Mom asked about the butane candle lighter we were going to buy.

"Nope, we aren't shopping here."

I felt satisfied that other people's baskets around the store were stocked up with these things (in groups of 4 I noticed) which, if they didn't pay attention, they'd pay too much for even if they thought they were getting the ad price. I hope it caused them lots of trouble because they are the store with the worst management I know of. (Not that, with my shopping phobia, I make a detailed study of these things.)

So...we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond. We got some pillar candles in two sizes and some candle rests in two heights and a lighter. The candles were this dark, antiquely finish like dark wood or something. And the whole effect is more Martha Stewart and less specifically Christmas. And cost me a bunch more, too, of course except for the lighter which was a dollar cheaper. So there. Having been to two stores, I resisted further shopping.

I took Mom home and we put the candles in the fireplace and lit them. It looked great. And, yes, I know they make candleholders especially for this purpose. But the grate is screwed in this rather small hearth. So they wouldn't work nearly as well.

This was the latest thing my mom wanted to shop for. It never ends, I know that. I just have to take her shopping now and again. So it's important that she keep something 'on the list.'

Santaland Diaires. It's been running at Zach Scott for a few years. But I never saw it. It's based on that David Sedaris book. I have seen him reading his work. Anyway, I always wanted to see it and FFP got tix.

He wasn't real happy about leaving the football game, but he took me. He listened in the car until time to go in. He taped it. He got to see the end when we got home from the (intermission-less) performance. But they broke all the Longhorn fan hearts anyway.

So, the play. Personally, I thought the funny, irreverent Christmas songs sung by that gal named Meredith something were a highlight. Martin Burke is a little over the top. But it was funny and now I've seen it and that's that.

Where did the day go? The weekends just disappear. Oh, yeah, I found time to read the paper. There is that. I had time to spend with my mom. Not just shopping but showing her once again how to use the CD drive and talking to her about doing her Christmas cards on there. Gradually, she learns things about the computer although she still is a little scared of it.

JUST TYPING
Saturday Clothes.
Saturday Errands.
Saturday Feeling.