Staycation

A few months ago Debbi and I were thinking of going to Hawaii this month. We never got around to planning the trip, but when we finally decided we weren’t going, I looked at my calendar and though, “Actually, September looks like a pretty good time to take a vacation anyway, even to just stay around home”, and I had the vacation time to do it.

Well, after last week, I was oh-so-glad I’d taken this week off, because I really needed the break.

I’ve kept plenty busy this week, though. For instance, I went up to have lunch with Debbi at her workplace twice this week (they have a very nice cafeteria and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve eaten there). I also cooked dinner twice, making an Indian dish on Wednesday, and sautéed marinated chicken with rice pilaf on Thursday.

Monday I went into the city afterwards and did some shopping, notably stopping at Borderlands Books (although I didn’t get to see their new kitten). I struck out going around to the comic book stores up there, though. In the evening I played Magic over at my friend Chris’ place, and was able to play later than usual since it wasn’t a “school night” for me.

Tuesday I drove down to Campbell and had brunch at Stacks, which was only blemished by the fact that I was sitting at the one table right across from the toasting machine, so it was a little too warm. But I spent the morning walking around downtown Campbell and shopping at Recycle Bookstore West and at Heroes. Heroes is the one comics shop (other than my regular store, Comics Conspiracy) that I make a point of visiting every few months: They’ve resisted the move to becoming a trade paperback store, and still have a large back issue selection which turns over regularly, as well as many other goodies. They’ve been reorganizing over the last couple of years and they now have little nooks which have little surprises waiting for just the right customer to come in and find them. (For example, they had a copy of The Collected Works of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.)

I’ve spent most of the rest of the week hanging around at home, reading comic books and a novel, revising my Magic decks, and doing a bunch of housework, such as trimming the tree in front of the house and cleaning up the front room a bit. I thought about going to play poker, but could never quite motivate myself to go.

It’s been a warm, sunny week. The painter’s been working on the trim and other details around the complex. I haven’t really missed going bike riding this week due to the heat and keeping myself so busy. I did utterly fail at my plan of trying to do a journal entry a day and get caught up on the partially-written stuff in my drafts folder. Oh well. But I did talk to Mom today; she gave me a call since she just got high-speed internet service and is able to put her new computer to work with it.

But overall it’s been both relaxing and productive, and I’ve managed to get past all the turmoil of last week. Newton’s even been taking his thyroid pills without complaint! (Turns out he loves pill pockets.)

Ahh, if only I had next week off, too.