It was a good day. A day that I needed. It reminded me that taking time for myself is important, and taking a big chunk of time (not some 15 minutes pencilled in here and there) is sometimes the only thing that fixes things.

(I'll post pictures of the yarn later, for those who aren't too repulsed by enhancement of an already-bloated stash. I will say that the yarn is all project-designated, so it's not like I'm randomly buying up stuff 'cos I like it...

...that's what quilt fabric is for....)

Anyway. It actually FELT like fall today, which was nice - it was cool (I actually wore a sweater vest) and overcast. Unlike some people, I'm really not depressed by gray overcast weather. It's interesting. It's atmospheric. It suits my sensitive eyes better than bright sun does.

The drive down was uneventful. I really don't mind driving long distances provided that there is not heavy traffic. I saw a few weird "oversized load" things, including some stuff that I'm not at all sure what it was (one of them looked like a giant bathysphere but it was wrapped in tarps so I really can't be sure).

I went to Barron's first. I really do wish we had one of these close to me. It's a combination bookstore (though the books do seem to be being squeezed out by other stuff, I note with some annoyance), fancy-home shop, nice restaurant, and place where you can get your Brighton fix.

(I am not sure I understand the popularity. Perhaps you have to be a Southerner to, or a native of Texas/Oklahoma. I am fairly sure Brighton was not a popular property in the upper Midwest where I used to live...it is fairly nice budget-priced jewelry (not quite costume jewelry but not quite "serious" jewelry), and shoes, and handbags. I guess I don't get it because I tend not to be much of a bag or shoe person, and most of the jewelry I like is either antique or one-off stuff that someone I know made. It's a very recognizable style. And that's fine, it just happens not to be my style.)

I picked out a couple of books (while waiting for the cafe to open) and left them at the cash register. (One of the nice things about these small shops is you can DO that; the people working there don't look at you like you're weird when you ask).

I've said before I like the restaurant there because they don't treat single diners like a pox. (And there are some restaurants - and not just upper-end ones - that do. There are a few chain places in which I will never eat again based on how I was treated on a couple exploratory visits).

Based on the server's recommendation, I got a cup of their black-bean soup. And on my own decision, the crab cakes.

The crab cakes were good, but the soup was better. It was a different recipe than I make - sort of a tomato base (I think it was pureed tomatoes and chicken broth, maybe in a 2:1 ratio) and it had, in addition to the beans, corn and fresh cilantro. Both of which were good additions. Corn is always good paired with black beans; the slight sweetness brings out the smoky savory taste of the beans. And the cilantro was surprisingly right. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of fresh cilantro; it seems that cooks that use it tend to OVERuse it and then all you taste is that sharp green off-mint taste that cilantro has. But the cook (chef, I guess you'd properly say) here hadn't used too much - he (I know it was a he; I saw him) used just the right amount.

So it's something I want to try to replicate in my own kitchen if I can.

I also had a big cup of hot spiced chai (the cup it was in is about twice the size of the mugs I usually use for tea. It was sort of an Alice in Wonderland cup, both because of the size and because it was broad and shallow. It felt almost like a little kid playing tea party. It was an oddly pleasant sensation to be drinking from such a large heavy cup).

I also got a slice of chocolate cake but left some of it because I decided I was just too full and reached a point where I wasn't really enjoying it.

Two things I got at Barron's - first, I finally found a suitable replacement for the Dopp kit/toiletries kit that was falling apart (the one I had been using was a freebee from Clinique). This one is sturdier. And it's big enough. One of the sort-of distressing things about being a woman Approaching A Certain Age is that you find you have a lot more impedimentia when you travel. For example, now I drag along two moisturizers (one for at night and one with SPF to go under the foundation by day). And I have my allergy meds and my Excedrin Migraine and some kind of antacid. And I have more cosmetics now. And some months back, I began taking a B-vitamin after having some symptoms that suggested I wasn't absorbing some of them well.* And recently, started taking Calcium with vitamin D - great big honking horse pills, twice a day. (I have pretty bad history of osteoporosis in the family, so I figured it was time)

So I need a big kit for all that - plus all the tooth stuff, plus things like bandaids and nail clippers and all the stuff that you MIGHT need and would rather not be without if you do.

(*Another thing about the B vitamins...I realize just now that I have not had one of those horrible nights where I do not sleep since I started taking them. I still have the occasional bad dream (but less often) and I sometimes wake up too early...but I don't have those nights any more (knock wood) where I lie there and can't shut my brain off. I know that the B vitamins can affect serotonin metabolism, and serotonin can affect mood and alertness....so maybe there's something to that.)

Anyway. So now I have a nice new thing (and probably - hopefully - a sturdier thing that will not need replacing soon) to carry all my junk in.

Next was the yarn shop. It is always lovely to go to a yarn shop. I have never been in one that had the fabled crabby owner or snobbish owner - the only ones I've been to have had enthusiastic owners who are interested in hearing about what you plan to make, and who will proudly show off the newest lines the shop carries.

One nice change, this year? Instead of the big paper sacks they used to use, they give you a cloth bag that is silk-screened with the name and address of the shop. (I suppose the idea is then you can bring it back and they will re-use it for your next purchase. And it's cheap advertising for them when you carry the bag around. And most knitters can use another cloth bag, as many of us store our partly-done projects in cloth bags). Maybe the bag is only if you buy a certain amount, I don't know. It would seem a bit churlish to go in there and buy a $4 reel of crochet cotton and expect one of the cloth sacks. (But I didn't do that, as you'll see in the next post).

The owners of this store are very sweet people. The lady who was there today (I think it was Frances Hughes) commented on the vest I was wearing (well, it was one I had knit) and we discussed the projects I had planned for the yarn.

And it was good. I do wish I were closer to the shop; it would be nice to get there more often than once a year.

I did also get to Michael's and replenished some of the cheap-yarn stash (so I can now do Captain Capacitor, and maybe, Resisty, except I didn't find the right blue for Resisty so I'll either have to dig in the stash or look up other resistor color combinations and see what I can put together. And yes, using the correct color combination for some kind of existing resistor is important to me.)

Again: I wish there were a Michael's closer to me. (I think the closest one is in McKinney). It has much better quality yarn than Hobby Lobby; it concentrates less on the weird hairy plasticky novelty yarn.

And I got a couple of 14" pillow forms. One will be used in a Most Amusing to Me finished-object that I will probably post in a couple of days (it just lacks a bit of sewing); the other will be used in a planned companion piece.

I also hit the Books a Million. The one in Longview is about twice as large as the one in Sherman. And I don't know how much autonomy the buyers for individual stores have, but the Longview store has a FAR better History section than the one in Sherman (that may just be a function of the size difference, though). I wound up buying four books, all history:

One on the battle of Thermopylae (I do not know why but I am fascinated by the ancient Greeks)
One on the "Pirate Wars" which is a segment of marginally-related-to-American-History-history I know next to nothing about.
One on the leper colony at Molokai
and one (a Barbara Tuchman) about the state of the world before the first World War

So: Spartans, pirates, lepers, and (I guess) robber barons.

Interesting. The only thread that connects them is that they are all parts of history that seem interesting to me but about which I don't know a lot.

(Titles and authors? I guess I should supply those in case anyone cares:
"Thermopylae: the battle that changed the world" - Paul Cartledge. "Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army (and on and on...)" - Stephan Talty. "The Colony: The harrowing true story of the exiles of Molokai" - John Tayman. And "The Proud Tower: a portrait of the world before the war, 1890-1914." - Barbara Tuchman).

Okay; I see another thread that connects these: they are all titled in the format of:

Short grabby word: much longer description of what the book is actually about. (The "Pirate Wars" one almost slips into self-parody with the length of its title.)

Of course, I'm currently reading "Euclid in the Rainforest" (about logic...and how a lot of geometric proofs and such were independently figured out by many different people...you almost might say (if you are an Elizabeth Zimmerman fan) that they were "unvented"). And "The Pickwick Papers," which is so entertaining that I'm kind of sad I didn't think to read it before.

So it may be a while before I get to these four new ones. (But as I said before - book SABLE. Or maybe that should be BABLE - Books Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy. Or maybe BABEL - Books Acquired Beyond Expectation of Life, to make it a cute allusion. Though I only can read English and French, and perhaps some German, if it's something simple like a yarn label or a menu).