One Left

Last night, there were a bunch of boxes on the front steps. This is the last of the items ordered. I have two more things coming but they are for me so they don't count in the madness of Christmas shopping.

The top box was "perfectly Pilchard-size" so I tossed it onto the floor. It is also the perfect size to ship the rest of Carole's things to her. Maybe it's the idea that she can lie under (sort of) the tree, but she showed absolutely no interest in sitting in this new box. She didn't even get up from her spot to go sniff it.

Everything was unpacked, put into piles and then wrapped and reboxed for shipping. I sent 8 items out on Monday; only one yesterday and will ship two today. That leaves 3 that are boxed to be shipped and two left to finish the packing on. I have to take some packaging material from the office to finish packaging those. That's tonight's task.

There is one left to get and it comes in on Friday. I can hardly wait to go get it. Then, I'm done. Finished. Fini. Ended.

I've always been one who wanted the shopping done early. "First Class will have it there on Thursday for $8.85 or Parcel Post will get it there by Monday for $7.50." I don't want my shipping options to all be one dollar and thirty-five cents more because I waited.

Plus, I was out in the crush on Saturday. It was gorgeous on Saturday; 65 and although cloudy, I walked around in a tee shirt covered with a heavier denim shirt. In December. In Chicagoland. People were everywhere. Merchants have to be thrilled. The warm weather brings out everyone, even people who don't have much to spend. They wind up getting some cocoa or a card for Grandma simply because they are out in "it".

But it's kind of a strain on me, to be out in "it". I don't have the stamina I used to. At the candy counter, the gal ringing up the guy at the head of the line was having an awful time. I don't know what the problem was, but she had to ring him up three times before they got it right and then, she put in the wrong amount of cash he gave her and she had to ring him up again. Three people in front of me made disgusted comments and left the line, leaving what they were going to buy on the counter for her to put away when she wasn't busy. I'm exceedingly patient and I understand computers, especially systems that have to process a lot of data from multiple sources, can be problematic. The more people who left the line, the quicker I'll get to the front when this problem is sorted out, is my philosophy. I don't have anywhere else to go.

Yet, this was the last stop in a morning, early afternoon, of shopping and errands. I was beginning to feel it in my knees. Years ago, a meander through a mall at Christmas was something I loved to do. Take me to Michigan Avenue and let's start at 900 North and walk south to the river, gazing in all the store windows, looking at the lights on the trees, maybe get some hot beverage along the way. Now, I think of that and think how painful it would be right now. It would be an endurance event. I'd get about a third of the way and say, "Okay, that's good. I can see from here."

Life has changed. If I really think about it, I can get all depressed about how narrow my world view is now. I don't choose to see it like that. My world view isn't narrowed, it's just changed. So, I can't walk from 900 North to the river, but I can walk from 900 North to 500 North. Then, perhaps, we go get the car and park at 500 and walk from there to the river. Or we decide that what we really want to see isn't down by the river, it's Water Tower Place and that's where we're going to stay. It's all about rearranging your perspective. Seeing the "can" instead of the "cannot".

So, my tendency to want all my shopping done before the 15th of the month works to my advantage. My former excuse was that I wanted to enjoy the holiday without rushing around. That's still a valid reason for wanting all the shopping done. The added layer is that it's a bit too hard on the old body to be standing online for 15 minutes while the computers decide to allow a sale. Once this last gift arrives and gets shipped next week, I am officially done and really can kick back, put up the recliner and sit. I have such a feeling of happiness as I look at these boxes. I've had fun picking and choosing and finding the fun stuff.

I do need new tags, however. When what you have left is the bigger than the present to which it needs to be attached...

Beverage:  Rooibos Tea

Deb

Christmas Dinner Party

The office Christmas "party", which is really just a grand dinner out, was last night. We went to the location on the right. I've heard a lot about it but I'd never been there.

This is the first party where I couldn't drink. I looked at Janine's martini and the wine the guys ordered to go with their steaks with just a bit of envy. I can have alcohol in food because it's usually cooked off. I just can't drink it straight anymore. It's all part of adapting to a new way of living. But I kept thinking that this was the one party where I usually had a couple of chocolate martinis and I certainly missed it this year.

We were remembering how the former boss loved his steaks and that's usually where we went, some steak house. We were also remembering the $750 food bill for Capital Grill. We never spent more than that. Even going to Morton's, which bills itself as "the place for steak", we didn't spend that much. Now that he's retired, we are much less likely to ever have a food bill that big again. We just don't like those kinds of restaurants.

The food at Wildfire was very good. The menu is 4 pages, heavy on steak. The steaks Mike and Jon got were over an inch thick. I don't think I've seen steaks that tall at any other place we went. The service was spotty. The waiter took everyone else's drink order and then turned and walked away before getting me. He came back with the bottle of wine Mike and Jon ordered and brought 3 glasses. He seemed offended when I said, "I did not order the wine. You walked away before taking my drink order." He got the wrong dressing on one of the side salads and the water glasses were never refilled, even when we asked if they could be refilled. Perhaps that's not his fault, but we asked him to refill them and he never did.

I had a difficult time choosing something to eat. I'm not a steak person. I really have never been. The chicken offerings were very small as was the seafood offering. There was no pasta on the menu, something that surprised me. Most restaurants, even if they don't specialize in pasta, have 3-4 items on the menu. There were none here. It was a menu heavy on steak and accompaniments.

After hemming and hawing, I got their "Wildorf Salad". It was huge. I have half of it for lunch today. It's two kinds of lettuce, neither one iceberg, spinach, apples, dried cranberries, pecans, sunflower seeds and raisins with or without slices of herb roasted chicken breast. I got the chicken with it. It was really good. Usually, I get seafood when I go to these things and I know I should eat more fish. I was close to getting the cedar planked chicken, but the salad just seemed too good to pass up. I'm glad I made that choice.

It also meant I had room for dessert. Last year, we went to Claim Jumper. After a wonderful meal there, I ordered a slice of their chocolate 7 layer cake. This is what came.

It took me 3 DAYS to eat it. It was quite the novelty but that is way too much.

This year, dessert was perfectly proportioned and just the right size to finish the meal and not leave you feeling as if your pants would burst.

It's a chocolate peanut butter tart with whipped cream topping, dusted with cocoa and chopped peanuts. The plate it was on was huge but this is about the width of a baseball. It was creamy and delicious and I finished it all there. The only box in my fridge was the other half of my salad.

It was a nice place to go. I'd go there again. I can usually find, even on a menu heavy with steaks, something appealing. I bought myself a new sweater to wear and I thought I'd be under dressed but there were people in jeans and tee shirts. The former boss wanted us to dress up for dinner but we're not a "dress-up" crew. A place like Wildfire and last year's Claim Jumper restaurants fits us just fine.

Is it lunch yet?

Beverage:  Wild Berry tea

Deb

I Take Full Responsibility

It's going to be close to 70 in Chicagoland today. 70. On December 3rd. 70. Tomorrow is supposed to be 53. Then the weather is supposed to be 10 degrees above normal for the next 10 days.

I take full responsibility for the lack of snow.

On October 30th, I used the snow shovel to remove the rotten pumpkins from the front and put them in the compost pile. I looked at the shovel and decided, because we have received snow in November, that I'd just leave it by the back door. It's not in the way and it will be easy to get to when it starts to snow.

When it starts to snow. At the rate this end of fall beginning of winter is shaping up, that could be never, for the second year in a row.

Yup, it's all my fault. Just so you know, I'm leaving the shovel by the back door until mid-April . I'm not taking my chances.

Beverage:  Wild Berry tea

Deb

Something Worked

It's been quite the Monday. The tub has ceased to drain properly and when I run water in the bathroom sink, it backs up into the tub, so the clog is somewhere beyond that intersection. I need to move stuff in the basement so the plumber can get to that section of pipes. There's also a small leak where the tub meets the drain. AND, I can't actually have a plumber out until maybe Friday afternoon because we're so busy, I'm the only one in the office for a good portion of this week.

But, remembering this is the year of gratitude, I can wash up in the kitchen sink. I'll wash my hair at night instead of in the morning and I can wash sections of body parts at night too and wash other sections in the morning. I was remembering my childhood last night, as I plotted all this out. We had a tub. We did not have a shower. Gram had a shower and it was such a treat to go visit and take a shower at her house. What a nifty idea that was.

We took a bath once a week, more in the summer if our feet were really dirty or if mom looked behind our ears and you could grow a garden there. This idea of a daily shower or bath was rather foreign to us. We washed faces, hands, arms daily. I washed my hair twice a week. We didn't think this was abnormal at all. Even now, if I am not going anywhere over a weekend and have no prospects of being near people, I may not take a shower all weekend, pulling my hair up into a pony tail. This concept of a daily bath or shower is truly American and isn't needed unless you do hard physical work or exercise and work up a heavy sweat.

I kind of feel like karma is getting me back for thinking, after paying bills on Saturday and moving money into my savings account, that I was doing rather well for the end of the year. I can pay a plumber, which is wonderful, but there goes my feeling flush in the savings department.

So, I guess I can be forgiven for thinking all is right with the world, except for my plumbing. I have to go to the post office and start the mailing so I was loading up my lunch and my bag of presents. I need to remember that these girls won't go outside. They weren't raised outside. It's really a foreign, scary place for them. (Plus, today is rainy.)  I can leave the back door open while I make sure I have everything. Force of habit is to close the door as you're leaving to make sure a cat doesn't get out and that's what I did. I got to the car, looked around for my purse and realized it was sitting on the kitchen counter.

Pam has said, repeatedly, that she's just 5 minutes away and all I have to do is call her and she'll come over and unlock my front door. Then I don't have to crawl in through the office window. I looked back at the house. Call her. My phone is in my purse. I have the office windows covered with window kits. Plus, Pam is not in Wheaton. He's in Pennsylvania, bonding with her new grandson. That would be a bit of a wait for her to unlock the front door. Wait! After the last time I did this, I could have sworn I put a key in the center well of the Jeep. I dived into the well. Maps, hand sanitizer, flashlight, spare tire lock, sunscreen, KEY!

The next step was remembering which door this goes to. I finally decided I couldn't be smart enough to make it the back door so I trotted around to the front of the house. You guessed it. It was the back door key. Oh well. I retrieved my purse and happened to notice that I had not grabbed the keys off the key holder in the kitchen. I would have gotten out to the car and had to go back inside. Probably fitting for a Monday.

So, back in the center well went the key. Will I remember the next time I lock myself out? Probably not and I'll have that panic start to settle in when I try to remember if I did or did not put a key in the car. But, finally, after years of climbing in the office window, I did something smart and it paid off. Huzzah for me.

Beverage:  Wild Berry tea

Deb