day 26 - your week in detail
This was probably not one of the better weeks to do this experiment. Being a holiday week, it was all over unusual. And moreover, it was a 4-day weekend holiday week. But here goes:
Saturday, November 20
We had a whole bunch of errands and we wanted to see RED with my Dad. So we planned our errands around the movie time, and a meal at a favorite local restaurant that features braised veal on Saturday. The day began later than I prefer to get my errands done, but the movie was for 4:20 and we didn’t want to go and come and go and come. So about 2:00 we headed out to the first stop – Lowe’s for some boxes and packing supplies, as well as light bulbs as we had burned out the last 200 Watt bulb for the living room lamp. After Lowe’s it was time for dinner, and we had books and intended to take our time. My Dad had the Saturday veal special, while my brother had a Philly cheesesteak panini and my mother and I split the special autumn menu pork chop feature. I added a side of mashed sweet potatoes to the dirty rice. After main courses, we all split an order of the autumn special feature cupcake trio. I had half a carrot cake cupcake, my mother had half a red velvet cupcake, and my father had half a dark chocolate fudge cupcake. My brother had half of all three varieties. After dinner we still had some time to kill before our movies – mom, dad and I saw RED, while my brother saw the new Harry Potter movie, so we sat in the cool shade and read our books. Before entering the theater, we stopped for snacks where I had a blue raspberry Icee and split a small bag of popcorn (no butter) with Mom and Dad. They shared a Mr. Pibb to wash down the popcorn. After the movie was over – our movies ended within 20 minutes of each other, we headed to the next stop on our list, Target, where they were having a sale on laundry detergent and a couple of other things we needed. Then we hit Walgreen’s drugstore where heat wraps were on sale. After that it was home for the evening. We got home just in time to give the cat her daily dose of fluids and to veg out with some tv.
Sunday, November 21
This was to be my day to stay at home, only we had a few leftover errands from the day before. Mom and my brother had weather-induced headaches, so Dad and I went grocery shopping. We needed a few things from the grocery, including a turkey for Thanksgiving and some stain remover sticks for the laundry. First stop was WalMart where I checked first for the turkey I wanted, and being unsuccessful, ran to pick up the stain remover sticks, which I can only find at WalMart. A very nice lady, seeing as I had only the 3 stain sticks, allowed me to check-out before her. I hope she got a nice reward sometime for that act of kindness. Having struck out at WalMart, we went to only grocery store I had not yet visited in my quest for the perfect thanksgiving turkey. It was Dad’s second time at the store that day, as he had been out early that morning to get milk and butter for breakfast. But finally, after 5 stores over 7 days, I found exactly the turkey I was looking for, and it was on sale! With just the four of us, a large turkey is too much. The guidelines are 1 - 1 ½ pounds of bone-in turkey per person, and ½ - ¾ pounds of boneless turkey per person. Max that’s 6 pounds for 4 people. Have you ever searched for a 6-pound turkey? They do not exist! Even the bone-in breasts I could find were pushing 8 pounds. I did not want a surplus of turkey to have for leftovers for weeks or months! Last year, when there was only 3 of us for the holiday meal, we found a small boneless breast roast with skin and dark meat. All the best parts of the turkey, without being too much. I knew they were still being produced, because I had checked both Butterball and Honeysuckle White’s websites to be sure I could find what was I looking for. Finally! At the 5th grocery store I went to, I was successful. Armed with such success, we headed home where I was lazy for the rest of the day, working a little on my dearest’s Christmas stocking and watching up some of the tv we had recorded. It was my brother’s day to do dinner, and he was planning a version of Cincinnati spaghetti, so I had very little to do in that regard. After dinner, I put away clothes, gave the cat her fluids and called it a day.
Monday, November 22
Work day #1 for the 3-day work week. As I am wrapping things up, it’s a swing between flat-out busy and struggles to find something to do at the office, and this Monday was no different. My boss had been out of town at a convention, so I had some things to get submitted for reimbursement, but other than that it was a lot of hurry-up and wait, interspersed with training my replacement. After work, I was home for some tv, dinner, which was forgettable, and a bit more work on the stocking before giving the cat her fluids and taking a bath.
Tuesday, November 23
Work day #2 began, as all my work days do at 6:00 a.m. when the alarm breaks the sleepy silence and I find the cat to give her her morning pills. After completing morning ablutions, it was a quick chat with my dearest and then off to work, where I served as fill-in secretary because my work co-conspirator was out that day. Would have been an easy-peasy day, but for the late afternoon search for a file, and the subsequent fight with a desk. No matter how hard you try, or how much of a fight you put up, you can never win a battle with a desk, particularly when they employ sneaky corner jump attacks. Two bruises and a developing knot later, I cried “Uncle” and headed home for the day. Home brought another forgettable dinner – which is not to say it was not good, jut that I do not remember what it was. Odd for me, as I usually pay such close attention to meal components. Tuesday is a good tv night – the programmers are against us and have put nearly everything we watch on Tuesday nights. And it was all new episodes. As usual, we started with NCIS and then paused the next show to give the cat her fluids, have showers and complete housework, before picking back up NCIS: Los Angeles. After watching that through, we started the recording Chopped over and finished that out before bed.
Wednesday, November 24
Work day #3 of the 3-day work week began quietly enough. It was spent mostly training my replacement on the spreadsheets and charts I have for keeping track of all kinds of things around the office. The office closed at 3:00 p.m. and I was happy to get out of the madness that much sooner. The downtown area is always busier than normal around holidays. My dad was not so lucky and we had to wait until he got home after 6:00 p.m. to go to dinner – though we were only going out for Taco Bell, but in the interim, I worked a bit more on my dearest’s Christmas stocking. We were home for 7:00 p.m. and left Dad to watch his Wednesday night shows and we relaxed upstairs, giving the cat her fluids and watching some recorded tv there, including the finale of Top Chef Just Desserts.
Thursday, November 25
in detail here
Friday, November 26
None of us are crazy enough to brave Black Friday, and it was a cold, rainy, grey drippy day anyway, so it was just a lazy day at home. Tv on the couch, leftover Thanksgiving dinner to nibble on and have again for dinner and work on the Christmas stocking. We had a few errands to run on Saturday, so we prepared for those, but it was really just a lazy day.
On the whole, it was rather easy week. Not the best week to pick for this task, but, not an outrageously unrepresentative sample either.
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