Got up early today, as L had to start his trip down to FL for the employee conference. Traffic was fairly light and we made it to Springfield in good time. Train left pretty much on time (7:00 AM).

Since I'm not down in the valley on a regular basis I figured I should get in some shopping at places I don't get to often, even when I am down there. Started with Stop & Shop in Holyoke though, given that nothing much else is open that early (the one that's on Rt. 10). Picked up some apples (MA), salt & pepper, various other things. Almost got a cabbage and then figured that I could get one at the farmer's market on Saturday. Last day of the season, so I'm hoping the fruit guy will have some winter apples and maybe some more sauce apples to mix with the ones I got today.

Then I ran in quickly to a couple of dollar stores ("map" - dollar store, JoAnn Fabric, Stop & Shop, dollar store -- all in a line) to see if they had anything that would do for the various projects I have in mind, and found a couple of things. In particular one of them had large clear glass gobs, which I can put pictures on the back of (so they show through the glass) and then stick a magnet on the back -- instant kitchen magnet! Great way to make personalized magnets -- artwork, photos, whatever you like.

JoAnn's was next -- it was kind of funny actually; I had a couple of coupons for X% off any one regular-priced item, and almost all of the stuff I got was on sale... photo boxes, tulle, a silk rose, and a bit of taffeta for the hats, some super soft plush silver-grey fabric for a future tunic top and probably a wrap of some sort.

One of the tulles is black with spiderweb patterning and some little bats on it. I'm going to work on making detachable hat decorations so I don't have to have a million hats in the house.

Thread was 50% off and that doesn't happen very often so I re-stocked on those, and also picked up some buttons for various projects. Was glad to see my favorites are still available. Also picked up some fancy beaded trim (50% off!) to deck out one of my lampshades. It's seen better days and could use a little freshening, so hopefully this will do the trick (that and maybe first re-covering the shade).

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Left the KMart Plaza and went to the Mall at Ingleside, which is also in Holyoke. Need more art paper so stopped in at AC Moore. Also wanted pigma pens but they apparently don't carry them anymore :( Picked up a few more silk roses, checked out what they're carrying now, and went on to other stores. Got some gorgeous sueded heavy-wt cotton long-sleeved shirts by Covington at Sears for L -- on sale for only $12 each! They look durable, come in subdued but lovely colors, and very pettable. As usual nothing really appealed to me from the women's clothing -- I think that's one of the reasons I keep buying stuff for L, aside from soft clothing making it even nicer to snuggle up with my sweetie. Hm, maybe I should get a couple of them in a smaller size for myself; he might appreciate it too... maybe on Sunday, on my way down to pick him up. No, I'm _not_ going to subject him to the mall after being on a train for ~24 hours!

Made it all the way to the well that looks down on Cafe Square and decided I didn't want to go down there and deal with mobs of people. My feet were killing me anyway.

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I was kind of wondering if the new shoes were ever going to be really comfortable, when I got in the car and checked the time (left my watch at home)... 1:20 PM! Aside from the 15 minute break between S&S and the other stores (waiting for them to open) and the 5 minutes to get from the plaza to the mall, I'd been on my feet for nearly 6 hours!

So, into the car and up to Country Corral in Williamsburg -- had to get dog biscuits for Duke, the very large dog my in-laws have. Country Corral carries most of what we like to get for the kitties as well as the Old Mother Hubbard dog biscuits, so we switched over from Dave's SPC and save gas. The guy there is kind of... interesting -- really nice, but it's pretty obvious it's a one-man show from the piles of boxes everywhere. He's one of our newly-adopted small businesses we're supporting.

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Finally got home about 2:15 PM. Tired, caught up on LJ, googlereader feeds, etc. Lunch was a handful of nuts in the car, an apple when I got home, and water. Just had a small handful of almonds, but should probably consider making a real dinner. Then on to an evening project or two.

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L's trip will take 23 hours, mostly by train. AMTRAK's working on repairs to a section in CT, so he trained down to Hartford, then a nice roomy bus (so the conductor said) over to New Haven, down through Penn Station, DC, and on to Kissimee in Florida. Regular seating because a sleeper would have been another $400 each way. Otherwise pretty affordable, which I'm sure makes the company happy. Hopefully I'll hear from him sometime tomorrow, once he's settled in at the hotel.

Okay, time to make dinner.

Water, water everywhere, and not even the high mountain waters are safe to drink

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Got my driver's licensed renewed today. Still pass the vision test. Have temporary photo until the new id comes in the mail in a week or so. In the b/w photo I look startled and in the color version I look like a dumpy middle-aged woman -- which, pretty much I am at the moment, I guess, especially with a cold trying to catch me.

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fitzw got his eyes checked out today -- it's all good. Yay!

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PT progresses. Added a new weighted exercise (just 2 lbs.) this week. Am discovering how pitiful my conditioning is, but hey, if I keep up the PT plus stuff around the farm, I should be in better shape than I've been in a few years. New exercise is lying on my side and using the topside arm, with elbow resting on my torso, to externally rotate the lower part of the arm, holding the weight. Basically, my external rotation is taking its sweet time catching up with everything else. Oh, and now half of my slant wall/counter pushups are on-the-floor knee pushups.

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MIL is going to have a small bathroom put into the hall closet adjoining her bedroom (but so she get use it from her room, so moving door, etc.), and also having another closet put in where part of the music room is. Things are moving or will be moving, such as a small organ is supposed to move up to our apartment. That should be interesting... it's very pretty looking though.

Part of getting ready to build the closet was taking out the old chimney at the west end of the house, so L had to move stuff up in the attic, and we also moved stuff out of one of the closets in the apartment. Workers were in most of the day, taking the chimney down and then blocking the holes in the floors/ceilings. More tomorrow, I expect. There'll be a bit more storage space in the attic and 2nd floor now. Yay!

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Made decent progress on re-typing of Mom's book today, putting in about 4 hours straight. More tomorrow. Slow-going really, with trying to make my old files from 2005 match the newer hard copy she sent me (PC crash), plus putting in her handwritten changes. But I'm cranking along now because in a week or so I'll probably be starting another project that's going to take serious, dedicated time. Hm, have to remember to do the downstairs bookkeeping tomorrow as well....