Irresistible

I should know better than to go shopping when the after Christmas sales are on. Who can resist items that are 50 or 70 percent off? Not me! I had to get a new battery for my wrist watch, so I went to Penneys where I bought the watch. They couldn't do it right away, so the clerk asked me to come back in an hour. Could I spend an hour in the mall? Silly question! I needed new snow boots because the ones I wore in England for three weeks had developed splits in the fabric. (They are at least 10 years old.) I had patched them with duct tape (wonderful stuff), but the result is rather odd looking. Anyway, there wasn't much choice in snow boots, since we did have a huge snow before Christmas, but I'm not fussy about boots, so I found a pair, marked down from $100 to just $34! I LOVE bargains! Then I went wandering around the mall, poking into stores I never shop at - Ann Taylor, Chico's, Lord and Taylor's - and checking out all the bargains in the less expensive department stores. I resisted pretty well, until I hit the sales at Macy's. I ended up with slacks and zippered top in a lovely dark blue-grey. Here's the funny thing: they are advertised as being slimming, especially in the stomach. What they have is a stretch panel all around the waist. It looks just like the maternity trousers we used to wear about 40 years ago! No kidding! Luckily the top covers that panel. They are very comfortable, but I can't see that my stomach looks any flatter. Oh well, that's not really important these days. They were a bargain and I'll enjoy wearing them.

After I picked up my watch, I could have gone on home, but I needed to return a book to Target, which just happens to be in the same shopping center as JoAnn's. Need I say more? All Christmas stuff was on sale at 70 percent off. And notions and thread were also on sale - 50 percent off. Oh yes, and I stopped at Michael's along the way and picked up a few items there as well. In my house, after the holidays, I display black and white pottery and decorative items in silver. It's a nice change from all that green and red. So I got a few silver leafy stalks and some birdhouses for inside use only. And, I bought buttons and thread for future projects, like the ATC swap I'm participating in this year.

change of plans

I was all dressed up for church (not that I really dress up for anything these days), planning to have lunch with friends at the Mall and do some shopping afterwards. I went outside and guess what? my car wouldn't start. Actually, I had a bit of trouble starting it yesterday, but then it ran fine, so I didn't think anything about it. Today - dead battery. That battery is the original - 9 years old! I can't complain that I didn't get my money's worth from it! I called AAA and they are here now, replacing the battery. I am missing church, but I can still get all my errands done, assuming that the only problem is the battery. I'll soon find out. The AAA guy has closed up the hood and is in his truck, hopefully he is writing up the bill. Yep! All is well. I'm off to run errands.

London Lights

Bakery windows.

Department store window, with Kate and Alex hurrying past.

Lights, high about the streets.

Here are some photos of the lights in London, after Christmas. Only a couple of the stores still had Christmas window displays, which was disappointing. However, we did get a few pictures. We walked all along two main shopping streets (Bond St. and another), then into SoHo, to Trefalger Square to see the Christmas tree and into Chinatown, where my camera quit. Kate has some good photos of the street decorations in Chinatown, probably not yet available in flickr.

another book review

I was just re-reading my last blog and decided that I should say something more about Mary Wesley's books. They aren't full of sex scenes, like many modern romances. Her books aren't romances at all. The characters are mostly not particularly pleasant or beautiful. Many unpleasant things happen, although the two I read did have 'happy endings'. (I find enough unpleasant stories in the newspapers, so when I read for pleasure, I want happy endings.) Anyway, I will read more Mary Wesley books the next time I go to Kate's.

Here is a book that I took with me and read on the plane coming home. The trip was VERY LONG and boring. I read three books - two of which were good and one which will be discarded (to thrift store), as it was really stupid. The best one is called 'The Wedding Officer' by Anthony Capella. It wasn't at all what I expected from the title. (I thought it was just another romance.) It is a romance, or rather it has a romance at the center of it, but it is much more. Takes place in Italy during WWII. As far as I could tell, the author did a lot of research and included many events that were true. I highly recommend it. Not always pleasant reading, but the kind you want to just keep on reading and not put down.

Ok, enough about books. I got home last night at 9 PM Eastern Standard Time, after a long flight, with many delays and irritations. My carry-on luggage was searched before I could board the plane. The lines for that were very long and slow. We were only allowed one carry-on, but at least the airline didn't charge me for the second bag to be checked through. None of my stuff was damaged or stolen and my luggage arrived at the same airport and same time as I did. So I guess it was a pretty good flight. However, US Airways does NOT impress me as an airline. They seemed rather disorganized, although some of the problems were not their fault.

I was exhausted when I got home, as my body was saying it was 2 AM and I had been awake for 19 hours. I walked in the door, dropped the suitcases in the living room and went to bed! This morning, I did manage to sleep until 5:30, so I had enough sleep. However, I am getting tired already (at 8 AM), so I know that by late afternoon, I will crash again. It always takes me three or four days to recover from the return flight.

We still have snow on the ground! I was amazed to see it. Of course, my deck never gets any direct sun in the winter. The front yard is snow-free. My Christmas lights outside are still working just fine. I would like to get them down this weekend, but that will depend on the weather.

Today, I may do some laundry (I have tons to do) and am meeting a friend for lunch. That's all I expect to get done. At least the post office is closed, so I cannot pick up my mail. I will have a huge pile of mail, but at least some of it will be enjoyable - Christmas cards!

home soon

Tomorrow morning I leave England to return to Maryland. It's been a good visit here, with all the kids home for several weeks, as well as my son-in-law working at home most days. Good food, good company - a lovely Christmas.

I've done a lot of reading here. I read at home as well, but only in the evenings. Here, I have a great deal of free time, as the kids are old enough to have their own activities and don't need (or want) Grandma playing with them. Anyway, I read two novels by Mary Wesley, an author I haven't read before. She is an really old lady (still alive, I think), but writes books with more sex than one would expect from her generation. It makes me wonder what kind of a life she led. Must have been an exciting one or she has a really good imagination! I've also been re-reading the Gregor Demarkian mysteries written by Jane Haddam. Kate has all (almost) of them and I am enjoying them even more this time than I did the first time. I recommend both of these authors.

I'll not post again until I'm back in the US and recovered from jet lag which may take a day or two. I also will need to catch up on my snail mail and email. I read my email online from here, but I'm afraid that all the messages I deleted online will reappear in Outlook Express when I get home. So, I'll just say - see you next year!

generation gap?

I've been learning some things from my grandchildren - things about electronic gadgets. Probably you already know these things, but I didn't. The last time i visited, Sarah put some of my friends into the address book on my phone. I had a little trouble using it to call them, but at least the numbers are there. This visit, I learned that my cell phone also can be used to create text messages. I don't expect to ever use this function, but I guess it's good to know that it's there and how to use it. (Actually, I'm not sure I do know how to use it, but I have a rough idea.) I've also learned several things about computers, such as how to increase the size of all the 'thumbnail' pictures when I am scrolling through my photos, trying to see which ones I want to put on the blog. Of course, I learned how to do this on Kate's computer, which runs Vista. My old computer runs XP and my new one, which I hope to buy in January will have Windows 7. Hopefully, it won't be too different than Vista.

Kate is very good with computers, Ipods and other electronic things and the kids are pretty good as well. However, today I've discovered I'm not the only member of this family who has some trouble with them. My son-in-law needed to send a text message to one of the people from his office. (they were both at home today). Olivia (age 10) took the phone and he dictated the message which she texted and sent! Guess I'm not the only one who needs to learn to use these gadgets!

Christmas photos

The first photo is Kate and Sarah looking at something. Sarah got an Ipod, but I don't think that is it. Then Olivia is showing off her new socks. Next is the girls with their stockings. And, Alex with his stocking. Finally, Olivia with hers.

I know that all of these pictures are rather dark. Somehow the settings on my camera were changed. I certainly didn't intend to change them, but somehow........Anyway, I think I have put them back the way they belong, now. However, it seems as if every time I use the camera, something goes wrong. It is a fairly sophisticated digital camera and is obviously the wrong one for me. It does have a 'point and click' setting, but there are still too many ways in which other things can be changed. Perhaps one of these days I will take the instruction booklet and get it all figured out - or perhaps (more likely) I will just limp along as I have been.

Last night we were in London, looking at the decorations and lights and taking pictures, and of course the batteries wore out. And, when I put the spare ones in, the camera insisted that I needed to replace the batteries, despite my having just done that. So, Kate gave me some spare batteries she had, and the camera said again - REPLACE BATTERIES. At this point, I gave up and Kate took photos with her camera. As it turned out, her batteries were also bad. However, the weird thing is that when I got back to the house and tried my spare batteries once more, they worked! I really don't understand most of the electronic gadgets that I own.