Just Horsing Around

Ok, first of all, the phone's working again, at least as of this afternoon. My Internet's running three times as fast and hasn't gone down yet, either. When I went out to run my Economic Stimulus check and paycheck to the bank, I saw Verizon phone crews working on wires on Manor Street. In fact, Verizon seemed to be on every other block, especially on the White Horse Pike. I guess I wasn't the only one having phone problems. The rain and high winds over the weekend must have taken more of a toll than I thought.

It probably helped that I changed the gadget that filters the DSL signal on my phone when I got home on advice from one of the owners/operators of Doria's Deli, which I'd stopped at to get a diet soda and turkey for dinner at work.

Though still windy, cool, and on-and-off cloudy, I had some time before work and didn't feel like hanging around the house again, so I went for a walk down to the Willie the Woodsman Gift Shop on Pine Street in Audubon. (I discovered on my birthday last month that Willie's is one of the few small shops in the area that's opened on Mondays.) No, Willie's didn't have the Samoyed Dog or Lil'Kinz Chicken yet (and it sounds like they won't be getting the Dragon), but I did walk out with the Gray Arabian Stallion, the Brown Arabian Stallion, two packs of cards, and another bookmark.

Meet Amelia the Brown Stallion and Emerson the Gray Stallion! Both are named for Amelia and Radcliffe Emerson of Elizabeth Peters' wonderful Amelia Peabody mystery novel series. I got the idea when I saw a list of Arabian names on AdultKinz and one of them was Abdullah, another character in the Amelia series. I considered Abdullah before I decided to name them after the lead characters, who are often described riding Arabian horses and have adventures that are mostly set in Egypt and Arabia.

The wind made for quite a ride to work. I enjoyed the workout and arrived at the Acme feeling refreshed. Work was steady today, not really busy except during rush hour. I did pick up some extra hours tomorrow morning.