Turns out Borders was down to their final eight days and, as you'd expect, the selection was very well picked over. I did find two books though, one with some fabulous knitting patterns for kids (which is somewhat troubling as about half the patterns I looked at I thought "I'd like that!") and the other about the belief system of at least one Lakota. I also found a book about Witch doctors in Africa, but that one I'd like to read, not own.
Fred was hosting SEMGS at his house, which is sorta across the street from Borders. Sorta because it's in the subdivision across the street, and at the other end in a more recently developed section that is very difficult to find. Particularly if you are me and have no sense of direction and the only thing you can remember about it is the name of the street. I tried exploring down the first street with a stop light and after much going around and finding dead ends, worked my way back to 13 Mile. I then tried the next stop light and drove by what I thought was the most gorgeous front yard I'd ever seen in my life. I promised myself that if I ever drove by again, I would park the car, grab my camera, take some photos and knock on their door to compliment them on their yard. But that was for the future and I was hunting Fred's house. So I drove hither and yon, eventually ending up on a one-way that dumped me onto Southfield Road. So I drove back up to 13 Mile, turned in at the second stop light and saw that gorgeous yard. So I stopped the car, got my camera out of the trunk, whipped off a couple of shots and marched up to the front door and rang the bell. One of the homeowners answered before I could chicken out so I told her why I'd stopped and she offered to show me the backyard too. Which is still very much in development but lead to her introducing me to her husband, who it turns out I'd met before -- he's the guy who lead the nature walk Jebra and I went on a few weeks back. They showed me around and we talked plants for a very brief while -- he's far more knowledgeable than I am, but he's also starting his own side business and I think I'll be able to hire him for a consult on how to improve our habitat.
He also gave me directions on how to find the street I was looking for. Which, if you knew me and oral directions, you would know would be hopeless. I can only remember two or three steps at the best of times and really need a map showing the critical intersections. However, I realized what had gone wrong when I reached 12 Mile (I'd been warned that the road I wanted lacked a street sign), so I backtracked, found the darn thing, and managed to locate Fred's house. Where, shockingly, I was the first to arrive.
I hung out until around 6:30, when my pain pills started to wear off and I was starting to worry about it getting dark before I got home. I was home with time to spare, but probably not as much as I'd have had if a huge storm wasn't rolling in. It hit about a half hour later, and I was damn glad to be home in my own house. It was still storming when I went to bed.
Although I'd gone to bed around 10:30 p.m., I didn't get up for real until 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. I know I'm working on an enormous sleep deficit, but honestly. It isn't normal to sleep that much and then have trouble staying awake four or five hours later. I didn't do much on Sunday either, I played on LJ for a bit, watched three of those Evil-women-who-kill true crime shows and waited for the new episode of Lewis to air. I was excited about it all day and I wasn't disappointed.
Sunday's other highlight was that I cooked carrots for the first time in my life. I wanted to make this recipe, http://blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com/recipes/honey-glazed-carrots/print/, but of course I was missing some of the ingredients. I went with butter and maple syrup instead. I also discovered that my unfamiliarity with cooking measures meant that I'd badly guessed how much 4 cups of carrots was. By the time I was done chopping the ones I'd pulled out, I had 12 cups. A horrifying discovery was that I can eat 12 cups of carrots and be hungry again two hours later. On the other hand, my stomach feels better today than it has in weeks, so I'm thinking all that fiber was good for it. I cooked up another batch today -- my sizing has improved -- today I chopped 10 cups and I had the sense to put away half of what I'd cooked before adding the toppings.
Today I'm trying to watch the final episode of Series 3 Blue Murder but I keep interrupting myself with laundry, cooking, and cleaning the upstairs bathroom. Speaking of laundry, I'm betting the washer has finally stopped so I should sign off and go swap loads.
This entry was originally posted at http://mrs-sweetpeach.dreamwidth.org/312942.html.