Tonight I had the distinct pleasure of watching the Redlands Christmas parade. Pat called me this afternoon to tell me about the parade and I leaped at the opportunity. Like I've said a few times, I get so bored. There was no way I could turn down his invitation.
I watched this parade in a previous year. Katie, Pat and Lisa's older daughter is a girl scout and her troop walks in the parade. On that occassion I joined their family on a very cool evening and Katie walked by us without any of us seeing her. Tonight I wore a sweatshirt and a jacket for what turned out to be tee shirt weather. (In fact, at one point I pointed out to Pat and Mike that the rest of the country would be decidedly angry at us for watching a Christmas parade in tee shirts.) Tonight Jessica was also old enough to walk with her girl scout troop. And, since Lisa is now an official troop assistant, she also walked. So it was just Pat and Mike and I watching the parade this year... and both Jessica and Katie got by us without any of us seeing her. (We did, however, see Lisa, who spotted us first and pointed out that she seemed to be in charge of wheeling unknown children through the parade.)
In addition to girl scouts, there were several troops of boy scouts, the city mayor, several council members, old muscle cars, various charity organizations, and all the local schools of every level in attendance. I expected to see tractors, but I guess there's just not enough agriculture left in or around Redlands for farm machinery.
After all the girl scouts walked by and we confirmed that we'd somehow missed the girls again, Pat and I split for the car. On the way back, Lisa called and said that she and the girls were ready to be picked up. Perfect timing. Dinner was at Famous Dave's BBQ a few minutes later. Yum!
My other event of the day was buying a laptop. I've been pricing and speccing them for the last month or so. With my severance check in the bank, I wanted to finally make the purchase. I expected, however, to delay until returning from North Carolina next week, but on a whim I went into Office Depot. There I found a nice Compaq that was $749 but which had— today only— an instant rebate of $250, bringing the price to $499. That was in my price range. I added a wireless laser mouse, and looked for a carrying case, but I'll have to get that elsewhere. I believe I got a good deal.
Well, I haven't been nearly as amusing or snarky as I'd like to be tonight. Guess I'm just too tired.
"Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president."— Eleanor Roosevelt
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment