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More and Less Accomplished
Dec. 26th, 2013 11:54 pmThe day didn't work out exactly as planned, but that was ok.
We slept in a bit (despite the best efforts of little girls). After I showered and shaved, I went out and shoveled the driveway for the second consecutive day. I had planned to run out and bring![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daisy_knotwise coffee, but then Julie asked if they could go to McDonald's for lunch, which meant that Gretchen could get coffee there, so we scotched that plan and I started off toward Sam's Club.
I called Gretchen to test the mobile phone dialer (more about that in another post) and she informed me that Julie had now decided that she wanted to go to the McDonald's with the PlayPlace, so I offered to join her there, but Gretchen wasn't sure when they'd get out the door, and I had advanced to "pretty hungry", not having had breakfast, so we decided I'd check back with her post Sam's.
Happily, I was able to score a couple of big rolls of foil gift wrap, two nice boxes of bows, and a package of gift bags for half-price, fulfilling the basic objective of the trip. After checking out, I went back to the car and called Gretchen again only to discover that there was now a new plan. The mother of one of Gretchen's best friends from another class at school called and asked if Katie wanted to join them on a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Gretchen asked if she and Julie could join the troupe, so they headed off in that direction, leaving me to get lunch at Five Guys and then head over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to see if they had a vertical paper towel holder to replace our old one which had died in a ceramic crash on Christmas Day.
Sadly, they didn't have anything that I liked. (I have an aversion to both cheap construction and moving parts in this application and the towel holders there suffered from one or both of these defects.) But they did have some half-price shatterproof ornaments that were distinctly different from the ones we already have, so I bought them and headed out to the car, planning a trip to The Container Store, where the deceased towel holder had come from.
I've used vanishingly little data on my new phone, but this was a good occasion to switch it back on for a moment and verify the location of the store, which turned out to be not quite where I'd remembered it to be. That saved me a bit of time on the trip out to Schaumburg, as I took a slightly circuitous route to avoid the no-longer-there construction on Golf Rd. west of Algonquin. (Yay! That construction zone was a menace to traffic...)
I didn't find a towel holder like the one that we had, but I found a heavyweight one in brushed nickel that would do the job and brought it home, sailing happily past the former construction zone on the way. And then I ran into the house and started dismantling the enormous box that the new TV came in.
See, the problem is that when you have little girls, enormous boxes are the best toy in the world and they cannot possibly be thrown away. I had maneuvered it into the library to get it out of the way, but that had only postponed the problem temporarily. And while out of sight was out of mind, if I tried to dump it on Friday, Julie or Katie would notice and object. But if I could get it torn apart and into the recycling bin before they got home, I would win.
I didn't win. They arrived while the box was still being disassembled, but they were so anxious to duck out the back door and go see their friends that they didn't notice. So maybe I won after all. :)
Gretchen and I took a few moments to discuss our plans for the closet in the library, chatted a bit more, then adjourned to the dining room to play a few games of Ticket to Ride using the 1910 expansion. The game play is still quite good, but the strategy is substantially different now.
As we wrapped up, Dave arrived to pick up the Camel. We hauled it downstairs and put it into his truck and it has now headed away with him, which is good, as he is more likely to be able to repair it successfully than I was.
Dinner followed. Little girls were eventually retrieved from the neighbors and fed, tablets were loaded up with more games, and eventually the girls went to bed.
So less was accomplished than I might have hoped, but that's ok.
More was accomplished than might have been. :)
We slept in a bit (despite the best efforts of little girls). After I showered and shaved, I went out and shoveled the driveway for the second consecutive day. I had planned to run out and bring
daisy_knotwise coffee, but then Julie asked if they could go to McDonald's for lunch, which meant that Gretchen could get coffee there, so we scotched that plan and I started off toward Sam's Club.I called Gretchen to test the mobile phone dialer (more about that in another post) and she informed me that Julie had now decided that she wanted to go to the McDonald's with the PlayPlace, so I offered to join her there, but Gretchen wasn't sure when they'd get out the door, and I had advanced to "pretty hungry", not having had breakfast, so we decided I'd check back with her post Sam's.
Happily, I was able to score a couple of big rolls of foil gift wrap, two nice boxes of bows, and a package of gift bags for half-price, fulfilling the basic objective of the trip. After checking out, I went back to the car and called Gretchen again only to discover that there was now a new plan. The mother of one of Gretchen's best friends from another class at school called and asked if Katie wanted to join them on a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Gretchen asked if she and Julie could join the troupe, so they headed off in that direction, leaving me to get lunch at Five Guys and then head over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to see if they had a vertical paper towel holder to replace our old one which had died in a ceramic crash on Christmas Day.
Sadly, they didn't have anything that I liked. (I have an aversion to both cheap construction and moving parts in this application and the towel holders there suffered from one or both of these defects.) But they did have some half-price shatterproof ornaments that were distinctly different from the ones we already have, so I bought them and headed out to the car, planning a trip to The Container Store, where the deceased towel holder had come from.
I've used vanishingly little data on my new phone, but this was a good occasion to switch it back on for a moment and verify the location of the store, which turned out to be not quite where I'd remembered it to be. That saved me a bit of time on the trip out to Schaumburg, as I took a slightly circuitous route to avoid the no-longer-there construction on Golf Rd. west of Algonquin. (Yay! That construction zone was a menace to traffic...)
I didn't find a towel holder like the one that we had, but I found a heavyweight one in brushed nickel that would do the job and brought it home, sailing happily past the former construction zone on the way. And then I ran into the house and started dismantling the enormous box that the new TV came in.
See, the problem is that when you have little girls, enormous boxes are the best toy in the world and they cannot possibly be thrown away. I had maneuvered it into the library to get it out of the way, but that had only postponed the problem temporarily. And while out of sight was out of mind, if I tried to dump it on Friday, Julie or Katie would notice and object. But if I could get it torn apart and into the recycling bin before they got home, I would win.
I didn't win. They arrived while the box was still being disassembled, but they were so anxious to duck out the back door and go see their friends that they didn't notice. So maybe I won after all. :)
Gretchen and I took a few moments to discuss our plans for the closet in the library, chatted a bit more, then adjourned to the dining room to play a few games of Ticket to Ride using the 1910 expansion. The game play is still quite good, but the strategy is substantially different now.
As we wrapped up, Dave arrived to pick up the Camel. We hauled it downstairs and put it into his truck and it has now headed away with him, which is good, as he is more likely to be able to repair it successfully than I was.
Dinner followed. Little girls were eventually retrieved from the neighbors and fed, tablets were loaded up with more games, and eventually the girls went to bed.
So less was accomplished than I might have hoped, but that's ok.
More was accomplished than might have been. :)