The Big Wiener

It was still gorgeous and fairly cool when I headed out for this week's Saturday errands. I checked out two yard sales nearby in Oaklyn. One was all baby toys; the other was all knick-knacks. Nothing of interest, so I moved on.

The Farm Market, on the other hand, was hopping! I could barely get in. Anyone who wasn't on vacation must have taken advantage of the behaving weather and decided to pick up some things for barbecues and family reunions. There were tons of dogs out today, too - a beautiful brown grayhound, a pug, an adorable golden retriever puppy, a collie with black-streaked fur, and several cute little terriers. I picked up plums, bok choy, little yellow apples, two organic cucumbers, two tomatoes, blackberries, blueberries, and a small jar of Peach Butter from the orchard booth for a thank-you gift for the family in Cape May County for having me over. (I tried their Apple Salsa, too. Yum! It wasn't bad at all. A little spicy, but not intolerable.)

Headed straight home after that. Normally, I would have lingered, but I didn't have the time. I wanted to pack and get the rent together for my landlady. I got everything together but what I'd need tomorrow morning, like my cell phone and toothbrush. I tried to go online to check on my finances, but my internet kept going down. (Thankfully, it seems to be ok now.)

I was actually looking forward to working today. Today was the day the Wienermobile was at the Acme! Yes folks, the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile was pulled up to the Acme between 10 and 5. We had a little fair around it. The Wienermobile had free hot dogs and soda, a raffle for a ride, and picture-taking sessions. The Acme organized a bake sale for "Make A Wish" and face painting. I bought a soft pretzel from the bake sale during my break, but the freebie food was long gone by then, and I didn't think the store would appreciate me having my face painted while I worked.

Other than some obnoxious beginning-of-the-month people, work went pretty well. It was steady at one, but by quarter of 6, it was so quiet, I offered to spend the last hour putting candy away and bagging for other cashiers.

And my schedule next week is...vacation! I'll be leaving to visit Mom and Dad in Erma around quarter after 9 tomorrow morning. I'll be there until Tuesday morning. I'm really looking forward to it. I haven't seen the family in Cape May County since Christmas Eve.

Summer Breeze

The air conditioner was still on this morning when I woke up...but the moment I stuck my nose out the door, I knew there was no reason to keep it on. The weather was stunning. It had to be at least lower-mid 80s, breezy, and sunny as could be, with no humidity in sight. Perfect day for running chores and errands.

I went to the Acme first. Picked up my two vacation paychecks, then did my grocery shopping. In addition to food (yogurt, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, fish, shrimp, beef for stews, the Fiber One Granola Bars that were on a really good sale), I bought a Finding Nemo book and two Hot Wheels cars for my nephew Skylar, whose birthday is tomorrow, and a new pair of sunglasses for me. (My old pair got really scratched in my purse.)

Headed home after I finished shopping. My ride felt great, too. It was so nice, I decided to bake again after I put my groceries away. I just ran out of the Peach-Blueberry Muffins; had the last one with my shrimp and tomato-cucumber salad lunch. I did a variation on them, but replaced the blueberries with one of the small yellow apples I got at the farm market. They seemed to come out well enough, not too sweet.

I went across the street to Newton River Park after I left CVS. I'm so glad I went for that walk. It was a wonderful day for it. Everything is in bloom, thanks to all the storms we've had over the past few weeks. I rode the slide with the rollers and landed flat on my rear on the soft dirt ground, laughing my head off. I saw gorgeous wildflowers in beautiful shades of pink, peach, magenta, and purple. I saw a tree with strange, long seed pods that were woody and tough. The looked like giant green beans hanging off of the tree! I saw fat pale green-yellow pods with spiny coverings. I saw downy thistles being visited by enormous, mutant-sized bees.

I was hot and thirsty when I arrived back on West Clinton Avenue. I stopped at Leo's Yum Yums for something to quench my dry throat. I treated myself to a small Orange Vanilla Yum-Yum (a kind of creamier water ice) while watching an adorable little boy eat his chocolate soft-serve cone with his mother and grandmother.

After I finished, I went next-door to Doria's Deli. I picked up a half-pound of turkey and chatted with the owner. He suggested taking the NJ Transit River Line Train to Burlington City or Trenton as a day trip. I may look into that; it's something different, anyway.

Spent the rest of the day at home. I really needed to do the dusting, and the porch needed to be swept badly, too. As I was standing outside sweeping, I thought...wouldn't this be a nice night to eat outside? Which I did. I enjoyed my Chicken Taco with roasted fresh peppers and gray squash sauteed in white cooking wine outside. I haven't eaten outside this summer because it's been too hot. I've missed it. It felt so nice out there, with the lovely breeze.

Clean Up Balance

Started today with yoga class. It was mid-sized, 12 plus the teacher Karin. Good thing, too. We worked on balancing and on twisting poses. I can twist pretty well, but I can't get my leg all the way out to balance. At least I'm getting much better at bridge pose.

Went straight to the Collingswood Library next. The DVD cases looked somewhat better. Classics still hadn't been mixed in, and the kids' DVDs were still on the new releases shelf. Everything else had been thinned out and give more room, including the last shelf. Mysteries and horror also have their own section now, under "Suspense." I also shelved some non-fiction upstairs.

Headed home next. I had a quick lunch of leftover shrimp stir-fry, then continued cleaning. I vacuumed and did the windows. The windows were really bad. I didn't do them last month because the patriotic cardboard stars were still up then. The dust and cobwebs around the blinds was horrible!

I got to work right on time...but I needn't have rushed. Work was exactly the same as Tuesday - steady during rush hour, but dead otherwise.

It was on-and-off sunny today, and still hot and humid, but by the time I was riding home, there was a really nice breeze.

Libraries On the Run

I did a lot of library volunteering today, starting with the Oaklyn Library. I continued my attempt to clear out and re-organize the paperback series shelves. Did Goosebumps, Junie B. Jones, the Arthur chapter books, and The Magic Tree House. After that, I went straight to the Haddon Township Library. There wasn't much going on there; I just organized DVDs and kids' books. Didn't take anything out at either place. I have too much going on this week.

Made a very quick stop at Dollar Tree to buy a birthday card for my nephew Skylar (who will be turning six on Saturday) and a thank-you card for Mom and Dad for having me over next week. It was almost 2 by that point. My stomach was rumbling, but I didn't have the money for lunch, so I went home.

After a peanut butter and honey sandwich and a plum, I started in on the next part of the day - cleaning! I'd really like to get most, if not all, of the cleaning done this week before my vacation. I got a nice scrub in on the bathroom and kitchen. The bathroom in particular needed it. The tub was really bad.

I decided that a cooling swim was in order after I finished the kitchen. It felt really nice. It was hot and humid today, but neither as hot nor as humid as it was last weekend, and there was a wonderful breeze. The water reflected this - cooler than it was on Sunday, but not too cold. I was the only one out there. Uncle Ken and Dolores were inside watching NCIS re-runs, and no one else is home right now. It was wonderful and relaxing.

Dinner was nice, too. I made a shrimp-summer veggie stir-fry while watching Weekend at Bernie's. (I'm going to bone up on my vacation-themed movies this week.)

Baking for A Birthday

First of all, I would like all my readers (especially one) to recall that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Any flames or nasty comments on this blog WILL be rejected, so don't bother sending them. I don't appreciate name-calling or trolls. I've been picked on all my life; I won't tolerate it online, too.

Otherwise, this was an ok day. I slept in and spent most of it baking. Tomorrow is Dad's birthday, but he's going on another cruise-ship job tomorrow morning and won't really be here. I baked Honey Squares. The recipe comes from the British baking book I bought at the thrift shop several years ago. It's a sticky bar cookie-cake, very tasty, low-fat, and quick to make. I gave half of them to Dad and will give the other half to the family in Cape May County to thank them for having me next week.

Work was almost exactly the same as yesterday - on-and-off steady during rush hour, otherwise dead. I was able to shut down and leave, even though my relief was late.

I tried running to the Oaklyn Library to return the late DVDs from there, but they were closed. I dropped the DVDs in the book return and will give them the money tomorrow.

Perfect Weather, Beautiful Day

The gorgeous weather that rolled in after the storm yesterday afternoon continued today. I awoke to sunshine, 85 degree temperatures, and no humidity whatsoever. I slept in and was having a pleasant Cheerios and blueberries breakfast when there was a thump outside. I turned around to see a man drop a package on my porch (he didn't look too happy about it - I guess he didn't like hiking up to my apartment) and immediately pulled it in.

After I finally unwound the (copious) tape around it, I pulled out a box with the outfit I ordered for my Samantha doll off eBay, the Play Dress and Pinafore. I absolutely love it. So many of Sam's dresses are too ruffly and frou-frou for an ordinary energetic kid (even a rich one), but this one is just right. It's a blue windowpane check dress with a white ruffled pinafore and matching wide hair ribbon. (If you've read the books, Sam wears it in the very first chapter of her Meet story.) She's wearing it now with Springfield Collection socks and patent-leather shoes, and she looks SOOO cute! I seriously wish I'd gotten her this dress back in the mid-90s. In fact, this is the one outfit of hers that I've always regretted not getting, especially since it was retired before the rest of her collection. I'm really glad to have it.

It turned out to be a great start to a day that worked out very well. Laundry took less than an hour. It was far less busy than last week, just one woman with one load and a mom and her son with another load. It was so nice, when I came in, I dropped the bag of laundry in my bedroom and went for a quick 20-minute walk down to Goff Avenue to enjoy the beautiful weather. I wasn't the only one. There were a lot of people out riding bikes and working on their rejuvenated lawns today. I had a nice taco and peach lunch when I got home.

Work wasn't a problem, either. It was steady when I got in, dead when I left. I actually got a $5 gift coupon for improving my items-per-customer rate. I used it to treat myself to merangue cookies (the least fattening cookies I could get away with treating myself to) and pick up the Wesson Canola Oil that was on sale for $1.99 with coupon.

Feeling the Rain

I talked with Lauren until quarter of 3 this morning and quite happily slept until 10:30. Listened to the second half of Brunch With the Beatles while making Peach-Blackberry Whole Grain Pancakes. ("The Beatles and the Summer of Love" was in the spotlight today. That was fine with me; it meant we heard songs from Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour, which have some great music.)

I went on the computer after breakfast, but it did nothing but give me grief. The internet was running slow again. I uninstalled and installed the driver for the MP3 player four times, and it just wouldn't work. I finally gave up on it. I had enough trouble with it yesterday. I changed into my bathing suit and went back over to Uncle Ken's for a swim instead.

By the time I hit the pool, dark clouds were rolling over Oaklyn. It was still hot and humid, but not quite as hot as yesterday. This time, Uncle Ken and Dolores were the only ones home. I had a quiet, enjoyable swim.

Thunder was starting to rumble as I climbed out. I went across the driveway and over to the porch, where Dolores and Uncle Ken were listening to the Phillies/Rockies game. Even as I sat down, the announcers mentioned that the men were playing in heavy rain and thunder.

The storm found us about ten minutes later. It felt really great to be able to sit and watch the rain with Uncle Ken and Dolores. I don't get to see those two that often. They're usually out on some trip or errand when I'm around. They finally went inside when the game went on rain delay.

I leaned against the porch and watched the rain fall. It wasn't a really heavy, crazy rain like two weeks ago, but it was still a fairly good shower. As I watched it come down and the birds play in it, I remembered how my sisters and I used to love to play in the rain. We'd run out in our clothes, splash in puddles, and chase each other down the street.

I didn't want to just watch anymore. If the birds could, why not I? Besides, I was already wet and wearing my bathing suit. I ignored the lightening and the thunder's noisy growls and stepped onto the driveway. It felt so nice, so cool. I walked around the house's perimeter. I splashed in the few puddles that had gathered. I just stood in the middle of the driveway and let the cool rain wash over my face. It felt wonderful. Just...liberating.

Mother Nature must have felt pretty liberated, too. Uncle Ken and Dolores came back out for a little while to hear the game. When it became pretty obvious that neither the rain nor the delay were letting up, they went back inside...and I went out to enjoy the rain again. The wind was picking up along with the rain. It felt a hundred times cooler and less humid than it had when I was in the pool. I wasn't the only one who really needed this.

I would have stayed longer and watched the rain, but it was getting colder and windier by the minute. I was still just in my bathing suit and was beginning to freeze. With the game still on rain delay, Uncle Ken drove me home.

Since Mother Nature was now in a more amiable frame of mind, I decided to make use of the huge bounty of produce we've had lately and do some baking. I changed back into dry clothes, hung my bathing suit and towel to dry, and made a Peach-Berry Grunt via Alton Brown's Blackberry Grunt recipe. A peach joined blueberries and the rest of the blackberries, and I replaced half of the flour with whole wheat. Even with less sugar than the recipe called for, though, it was much too sweet. (It did taste very nice with a scoop of Bryers Cherry Vanilla, though.)

I watched Chinatown while having salad and leftover steak for dinner. Chinatown is the stylish tale of a private detective (Jack Nicholson) who runs up against corruption, real estate, and an unbuilt dam in a very dry LA circa 1935. Faye Dunaway is the socialite who may have a few skeletons in the closet of her own.

I love mysteries, and this is one of the best. While it lacks the grit and toughness of the real film noirs of the 40s and 50s, it has a genuinely interesting mystery, wonderful LA cinematography, and fine performances by Nicholson, Dunaway, and director James Huston as Dunaway's millionaire father.

After Chinatown ended, I went online. With the storm out of the area and the internet up and running again, I was able to listen to The Dress Circle in peace. The theme was "Cast Albums Released or Re-Released Recently by Masterworks Broadway," i.e Columbia's Broadway cast album section. Shows in the spotlight included the currently-on-Broadway revival of Promises, Promises, the 1962 City Center revival of Annie Get Your Gun with Ethel Merman, and the original casts of 1776 and the wonderful musical mystery City of Angels.

(Oh, by the way, the Phillies were losing 3-2 before the rain delay, but they apparently came back once the game started and won 4-3.)

Hot Enough to Fry a Cow On the Sidewalk

I don't know if it got up to 100 today, but it was very hot, and even worse, very humid. Nevertheless, I got quite a bit done. I ran the usual Saturday errands this morning. Checked out a yard sale. They were just selling baby toys, so I moved on to the bank. After I left there, I headed for the Collingswood Farm Market. They were surprisingly busy for such a hot day. I found lots of things I wanted to try - peaches, an ear of corn, tiny apples, tomatoes, blackberries, blueberries, romaine lettuce, perfect purple eggplant, and the first regular-sized plums of the season.

I was sweating buckets when I finally got home. I put everything away, then thought I'd add music to my MP3 player for my visit to the family in Cape May County next weekend. I did manage to delete a bunch of old stuff and add a jazz CD and part of the first disc of the Birds, Bees, and Monkees special edition that I bought in February before I got a strange error that said "This USB Device can Perform Faster if Connected to Hi Speed USB 2.0 Port." I don't know why it said that. It WAS connected to a hi-speed 2.0 port. I checked three times. I rebooted twice and reset twice. Nothing seemed to change.

I got so frustrated, I finally decided to ignore the heat and go out to the mall behind the Acme and see if I could find an MP3 player. I didn't get an MP3 player, but I did finally buy a new pair of cheap sneakers to run errands in from The Shoe Depot and a new purse from Fashion Bug. (The lining on the old one was ripped, and I really wasn't that crazy about it. The handle wasn't nearly long enough, and it wasn't big enough for everything I haul in my handbag when I'm on a trip.) I took a look at MP3 players at Wal Mart and Staples, but I finally decided I'd see if I could do something about the old one.

After I got home, I changed into my bathing suit and went right over to Dad and Uncle Ken's for a swim. Dad's still out of town at a wedding, but Uncle Ken, Dolores, and several neighbors and Dolores' grandchildren Mercedes and Blake were around. I swam with the kids in the pool for a while, playing something called "Cattergories." You name a category (stuffed animals, TV shows), and everyone has to guess something in that category. If the person guesses something someone's picked, they have to chase them. If they make it to the other side, the other person is still it. Mercedes never did get anyone.

After I got home, I made a lovely dinner of steamed yellow squash and zucchini, cucumbers, and cornmeal-battered salmon. Oh, and Lauren helped me figure out what's going on with the computer. I'm going to have to re-install the problematic driver tomorrow.

Miss Redmer In Acmeland

Yup, I ended up working for most of the day. I got called in around 9, though I wasn't able to get there until quarter of 11. That's ok. For one thing, I went in for several adults who don't normally call out sick unless there's an emergency. I need to make up for that lost hour last week, too. And I discovered when I got my schedule this evening that I only have 21 hours next week. That'll give me a lot of time to get ready for vacation, but it won't be great for my paycheck.

We were really busy for most of the day, too. Didn't help that I was frazzled and tired. I also had to go grocery shopping after work. Good thing I didn't need much, mostly meat, seafood, olive oil, and yogurt.

I did get to watch the new live-action Disney Alice In Wonderland this morning and later this evening while eating tacos for dinner. I'm not normally the biggest fan of Tim Burton, but I really enjoyed this. This Alice is a teenager, a young woman who feels constrained by the rules of propriety in Victorian society. She's being pushed into marrying a wishy-washy Lord, but what she really wants is to do "six impossible things before breakfast."

When she falls into "Underland," she finds a world both the same as and quite different than the ones we're accustomed to in the books, one both enchanting and frightening. Alice discovers that she can take charge and slay the beast...including the one in her own heart.

On one hand, the "yo go girl" heroics aren't exactly true to the book or the time period. This has more in common with recent fantasy tales like The Golden Compass and the 2000s Narnia adaptations than any version of Alice In Wonderland. It's also much darker than many Alices tend to be, including Disney's animated film.

On the other hand, the special effects are absolutely amazing (check out the Bandersnatch, the Tweedle brothers, and the Griffith). The costumes are awesome. Alice alone wears at least five or six different ones throughout the film. There's some fine performances, too, including Helena Bonham Carter's Queen of Hearts and Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter. This is highly recommended for fans of Tim Burton, Alice In Wonderland, or fantasy...but go in with a mind that's open to alternative interpretations.

Starting Balanced, Ending Off-Center

I awoke to the nicest weather we've had in months. It was sunny, but the haze had vanished, revealing a robin's-egg-blue sky. It couldn't have been above the mid-80s, and there wasn't a smidge of humidity. It was perfect weather for July in southern New Jersey, and a great start for this week's yoga class.

Today's class was medium-sized, 13 people counting my friend Pattie and the teacher Karin. We had plenty of room to work on heart-openers and back-bends. I've gotten so much better at the bridge pose! I can now do it without trouble. I still can't do full wheel, but I'll keep trying.

Next stop was the thrift shop. I found American Graffiti and West Side Story on DVD and a vintage Tom and Jerry Golden book called Tom and Jerry's Party. Erica also gave me the good news that, as of now, the thrift shop will be open until at least November. (I wouldn't be surprised if they kept it open even longer than that. It's just too popular to close.)

The Collingswood Library was next on my to-do list. They'd attempted to fix the poorly-organized children's DVDs by moving them to the new releases shelves. It just made things look worse. There isn't enough room. I put everything away as best I could, then suggested to FA, the librarian on duty, that they completely overhaul their DVD shelves. They have these beautiful shelves and a wonderful DVD collection, but they're so badly done, you'd never know it.

First of all, they can remove the classics section all together and mix those in with the other DVDs. What makes a classic? Just because a movie is older than 1970 doesn't automatically make it a "classic." I pulled at least seven movies from elsewhere that I knew were musicals, and one that was a foreign film. And sorry, but there isn't much anyone can do about the kids' DVDs. They either need to find a better shelf for that, or just admit that kids will be kids and they're going to have to organize that a lot.

Went straight home after that. It was so nice out, I made Peach-Blueberry Muffins, then had one with yogurt and blackberries for lunch. I went briefly online to confirm something Erica said about it getting up to 100 here by Saturday. It says upper 90s - 100 is probably for the metro Philly area. As long as it's not humid, I don't care. I'm off Saturday as of this second anyway. If it gets really bad, I can hide in the air conditioning or Dad's pool.

Work wasn't anywhere near as pleasant as the morning. I don't know why, but people were really rude and ignorant today. One old lady got angry when her coupons didn't come off. She didn't buy the brands the coupons were for! Instead of saying, "Oops, silly me, I read those wrong. Can you get the right items, or maybe I'll do it?", she threw a fit and blamed me and the store for getting everything wrong!

(I discovered during break when I was reading the flyer for next week that she wouldn't have been able to use the coupons anyway, even if she'd had the right items. The coupons were for the sales that start tomorrow. She must have gotten the flyer today and been confused...though that was still no excuse for rudeness.)

Another lady shoved a nearly-perfect loaf of bread under my nose and said, "Take it off, it's smashed. The lady I'm buying for doesn't like smashed bread." The loaf had two slices that were very slightly smushed. She eventually kept it and said she'd eat the two "smushed" slices herself. She was rude and fussy in general, too, muttering and whining about how she had to hurry because, oh, she was trying to impress such important people and everything just HAD to be right. Impressing people is also not an excuse for rudeness. Even the lady behind her said she was being rude.

I was very upset and angry when I got home. I called Mom to calm down and because I haven't heard from her in a while. She was working on a new scarf for her sister Terri and trying to help my brother, who is making a shadow box for his girlfriend Vicki. Speaking of Aunt Terri, her son Adam's wedding seems to have gone very well last week, despite a lot of guests not coming.

Oh, and I confirmed my vacation with them. I'll be in Erma between August 1st and 3rd.

Down in the Sweet Valley

I slept in and didn't get out for today's volunteering at the Oaklyn Library until nearly 11:30. Once again, it was hazy, hot, and incredibly humid. It was too hot just walking the ten minutes from my apartment to the library.

I decided to take on a big project today. There's a special set of shelves for the many paperback kids' and teens' series the library has, but it's a mess. I started with the very long-running Sweet Valley High series. For those of you who didn't grow up in the 80s and 90s and/or aren't female, Sweet Valley High (and it's later spin-offs, Sweet Valley University and Sweet Valley Twins) is an extremely long-running series of melodramas about Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, a set of perfect blond teen girls in a California town, their older brother, and their endless multitude of friends and rounds of boyfriends.

I was about 8 when I first started reading this series. Yes, I know that's young for what's essentially a very long-running soap opera for teen girls, but they were some of the first chapter books I ever read. I've always been a really good reader, far ahead of the other kids in my classes. I read them for about two years before I finally lost interest. Unlike many of my interests, this isn't one I've been able to ever pick up again. The stories are pure, unadulterated corn. Name a soap opera disaster, and it's probably befallen the Wakefield twins or someone in their school - death, disease, (temporary) blindness, kidnapping, cults, Romeo and Juliet-esque love affairs, divorce, reconciliation, broken dreams. They also have an incredibly 80s sensibility, from the emphasis on many rich characters and how money cures all ills to some of the more Dynasty-like plotlines. There's also a very distinct lack of diversity. You don't see anything besides white kids until well into the 60th books.

On the other hand, I always did like the hard-working Elizabeth, who shares my fondness for writing and is usually rather sensible, compared to many of the ridiculous characters in this series. I wasn't as fond of her obnoxious, me-first twin Jessica, who gets her sister to pull some pretty outrageous stunts and tends to fight with her as much as they get along.

Rearranging the Sweet Valley High books made me realize just how bad of shape the paperback series mysteries were. Most of them were together...at least, the ones with more than two or three books. There were some series, like Horrible Harry and Rainbow Fairies, with only two or three books in a series. Others, like Pink Flamingos, were leftover from the girls' series fad of the 80s and early 90s and hadn't lasted for very long anyway. And there were multiple copies of more than half the Sweet Valley High books! I didn't even get them all done before I realized it was getting late and I wanted to have lunch.

I went for a short walk around the neighborhood next to the library. It was too hot for a long one. Stopped at Doria's Deli for a Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi, then went home for lunch. I made a big steak and green bean lunch and had a small dinner of an apple, blueberry light yogurt, and a granola bar.

I took two movies out of the Oaklyn Library. Scooby Doo: Abracadabra Doo was to make up for the other Scooby Doo movie I took out of Haddon Township that didn't work, and for some reason, Haddon Township hasn't gotten the live-action Disney Alice In Wonderland with Johnny Depp from this spring yet.

I did Abracadabra Doo during lunch. It was a cute tale of Velma's little sister Madelyn calling the gang to her new school for stage musicians...which, of course, is in a castle brought over from Scotland that's being terrorized by a griffin. While Daphne gets jealous of Fred eyeing one of the teachers, we discover that Madelyn has quite a crush on Shaggy. (I always knew that stoner had the heart of a gentleman. A cowardly gentleman, but a gentleman.) Nothing you haven't seen before, but kind of fun if you're into Scooby and fantasy.

I spent a few hours messing around online, then changed into my work clothes, had a very quick yogurt dinner, and rode to work. Work was no problem whatsoever. It was steady but not crazy until about 9, after which it died quickly. I spent the last 20 minutes doing returns.