Busy Busy Busy

This morning it was cool enough and un-humid enough to do yoga with the patio door open so I ended up being serenaded by this loudmouth chipmunk that sat on the back of the Adirondack chair chirping or whatever you call that annoying sound they make the whole time.  Way to enhance my relaxation--not.

After spending an hour signing and filling out forms for the assisted living facility I went on a quest for a table and chairs for Durwood's studio kitchen area.  He's a table-sitter, has never been a couch or easy chair sitter, so I know that he needs a table.  I went to three thrift stores--Bethesda, Goodwill, and Salvation Army today.  I stopped at St. Vincent de Paul the other day but all their tables were either too big or too rickety.  Bethesda had only one table and it was waaaay too big and came with 6 chairs for nearly $100.  Nope.  Goodwill had a few tables, one of which was a bit too big but was square and had possibilities for $30.  Maybe.  At the Salvation Army store the marquee said "Everything in the store 50% off Friday and Saturday."  I was hopeful.  There were a bunch of tables, most with chairs.  One of them was exactly the right size, came with a leaf, and had 4 chairs with cushions but it was $80.  Even at $40 it was more than I wanted to spend especially since I thought that we had a couple of Durwood's parents' old dining chairs out in storage.  But there was a 4' x 2' wooden "work" table with

turned legs and a drawer in a long side marked $20 which made it $10.  Sold!  I ended up having to remove LC & OJ's car seats and all the junk I keep in the back of the car and cram it into the front passenger seat in order to fold down the back seats so I could put the table in there.  To be honest, taking those car seats out was a challenge.  I blistered the air with enough frustrated cussing that I'm surprised that the head liner is still attached to the roof of the car, but I managed to finally get the darned things unhooked and slide the table in.  After lunch I zoomed out to the storage to discover that my memory was faulty and there are no dining chairs out there, only rocking chairs, so the search for chairs was on.  I skipped Bethesda, they didn't have much in furniture.  At Goodwill I struck gold.  I found 2 wood and Herculon "motel" chairs for $1.49 each.  Sold!  So I have $13.66 invested.  On Sunday I'll scrub them with Murphy's Oil Soap and give them a rub with some Old English in a medium shade to see if I can't make the woods seem related.  I also plan to recover the seats and backs of the chairs, at least slipcover them so they're a bit fresher and less motel-y

Once I had the furniture dilemma solved I tackled the phone and TV issue.  There's basic cable/satellite included in the rate but Durwood's a big boxing and sports fan so I promised him that I'd figure out a way for him to watch them there.  And he wants a landline.  I called AT&T which is the company they recommend and got cut off in mid-conversation and didn't get a callback so I saddled up and went to the AT&T store a couple blocks away and a lovely man named Jose Manuel helped me.  I had to go to the facility to make sure that they had permission to install a dish and back home to pick up some info needed for Durwood's account but within 1 1/2 hours all the Ts were crossed, the Is dotted, and an appointment was made for installation next Friday.  Granted he's moving in on Wednesday but I have the phone thing and instructions how to hook it up and he can watch Basic TV for a couple days.  That just leaves purchasing a suitable TV and a landline phone--if I can't scrounge one up downstairs.  All of a sudden I feel like I've got this.  Whew.

For supper after my day of furniture hunting and technology service wrangling I enjoyed a lovely supper of Mediterranean Chickpea Salad on a bed of butter and leaf lettuce.  Yum.  The Basic Lemon Vinaigrette you're supposed to dress the lettuce with before putting on the chickpeas is way too tart and lemony for me so I added a little Splenda to the jar for next time.  If it's not to my taste I'll dump it and just be happy with the dressing on the chickpea salad.  

July 27--Indian, Malwa, Krishna and Vakasura.  The pile of cows is what took the painting from real to surreal.  The line of marching men, the pair of men walking into the giant bird's beak, those I could make some sense of, but the cows stacked one on top of the other?  No.  I don't have a lot of experience with cows, none actually, but they've never impressed me as being particularly cooperative animals that would be amenable to being stacked.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to drive away up the Door County peninsula to meet a friend at our favorite thrift store, then we're going to a deli for sandwiches and salads to take to a park or someplace overlooking the bay for lunch and then we plan to sit in the shade and knit and talk the day away.  I can't wait.  (better put my bag o'chair back into the car in the morning)
--Barbara