Thankfully, it was cool - but warm enough for a nice dress

 

The next time the weather gets hot, I may finally again get to wear the dress in the above picture.  It's comfortable.  It's lightweight, and it is very prone to developing wrinkles after a few minutes of wear. But today, I wore something slightly more substantial - a dress I got from Kohl's this year.

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Last night, I didn't get much sleep.  So, when the alarm sounded, I shut it off and woke up an hour later.  Looking at my phone, I saw a message from Vicki #2 - she was available for lunch.  But I wouldn't be ready in time. So I messaged her to say I couldn't make it, and proceeded to take care of little things, such as dealing with my cable TV box.

When I sat down to deal with the cable TV box, I was pleasantly surprised - the cable company dealt with my problem overnight, and I hope it stays "dealt with".  So, I then relaxed for a while before deciding to get dressed and go to Costco for some retail therapy.  (Nothing I bought wouldn't be put to use.  So, it was money reasonably well spent.) While driving home, I chatted with my brother.  The bank has approved our buyers' mortgage, and we're waiting on a date from their bank for the closing.  I can't wait for the sale of the family homestead to go through, as it will be nice to have extra funds in my bank account.

At home, I sent out the link for next week's Co-Op board Zoom Meeting, then chatted with TCL and RQS before getting around to cooking dinner (a shrimp concoction from Trader Joe's which I will likely not buy again.).  And finally, I got down to writing this blog entry to close out the day. 

For some reason, it was a jammie day. (a short post)

Again, I didn't have much energy today.  I stayed in my jammies almost all day, and watched YouTube videos to relieve the boredom.  Although I woke up early, I had no energy, and fell asleep on the couch in the afternoon, losing my chance to do things in the daytime.

Why have I been so tired lately?  God knows, I don't.  I have a feeling that I'm suffering from the effects of depression.  Yet, I don't feel down.  So, around 7 pm, I finally started to get ready to go out for dinner.  Unlike yesterday, I decided to get dressed as Marian and go to the local buffet. 

Now, I have some of my winter wardrobe available to me, but I didn't want to deal with putting on tights to be worn with a dress.  So, I found a pair of leggings and tried on a dress that I bought from Target.  One problem - it was a size too small for me.  Now, I had to figure out what to wear.  And I decided to wear a summer dress with the leggings, and go out wearing a denim jacket over the dress.

When I finally went outside, I was glad to be wearing the leggings and the denim jacket.  It was too cool for the dress alone.  Then I drove to the buffet and chowed down for an hour.  (I'll pay for this when I get on the scale in the morning.)  Eventually, it was time to go home for the evening - a short evening out, but one I needed as Marian.

A trip for lobster ended in Fettucine Alfredo (a short post)

 

RQS came up this past Thursday, and we knew we were going to do a few things over the long weekend. But, for the most part, we would relax and chill out.

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We woke up on Friday, and relaxed most of the day (as usual).  Around midday, we got showered and dressed, then went out for a couple of errands.  First, we drove down to Yonkers to return her old phone (she traded it in last week for her new phone) to the cell phone store.  My plan was to NOT pick up lobsters until the drive home, as we would not have refrigeration, and I didn't want them to go bad before getting home.  So, when we drove back home, we stopped into the local Shoprite - and....  NO LOBSTER! The crustaceans were sold out for the day.

What could we do?  I had some leftover rotisserie chicken in the refrigerator, and we decided to make some Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo. So, we changed our plans.  Today, we'd eat pasta. And tomorrow, we'd eat lobster. So, we picked up some pasta and some cheese for grating, then home we went.

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RQS has gotten used to seeing me in dresses, and this weekend would be no different - my nails were polished, and there was no way Mario would appear until the polish was removed.  If we woke up, got dressed, and got out early enough, we might take a long drive and go to a museum.  However, I knew we wouldn't be doing this.  When was the last time either of us woke up early?  And for this weekend, when would it be warm enough for me to enjoy wearing a dress (sans leggings) outside?

T minus One and counting

 

Saturday.  The last day I had to get ready for the upcoming cruise.  Was I ready?  No.  But some things have to be prioritized, and others have to be dropped from the schedule.  And yet, I had last minute complications....

When I woke up, I found that a file had gotten corrupted on my computer.  Unfortunately, this file made it possible for me to restart my email client.  After looking around on the internet for a solution, I was of the mind to delete everything in the "Program Files" folder related to Thunderbird, and reinstall from scratch.  One problem - some files just didn't want to be deleted, even with me in administrator mode.  So, I renamed the folder, and reinstalled everything.  After a couple of tries, I was able to restore the program and was lucky to have the bulk of my old emails.

RQS didn't get moving until 11 am or so.  (I had awakened earlier, and finished fixing my computer problem before going into the living room to chill.) Neither of us were in the mood to start getting ready to go out until 12:30, but this would mean that we wouldn't be going to the movies later on. By the time we got out the door, I ended up changing my dress because it was too warm to wear the heavy dress I had first put on.  (It would have been perfect after the sun had set, but this was yet the daytime.) And then we were off to the nail salon for our mani-pedis. 

Both of us were starting to get hungry, but our next stop was Micro Center.  I needed to buy a new cell phone charger and RQS needed to buy a cruise safe power outlet.  Sadly, RQS could not find what she wanted in Micro Center (or in Best Buy later on).  By the time we left Micro Center, we were both very hungry.  I was getting weak due to low sugar level (I had much less than usual to eat) and needed to eat something soon.  So off to the one Arby's I knew of in Westchester.

I'm not sure of how many of my readers have eaten at Arby's, but i remembered their Roast Beef as being very tasty.  Their Yonkers outlet was very small, and designed for take-out customers.  It took a few minutes for us to get our food, as only two people were manning the store - both doing food preparation duties when not at the cash register.  Although the sandwich was tasty, it did not fit my memories of the place.  Yet, I might go there again if I have a craving for a roast beef sandwich.

Once done with food, we returned home (with a stop for ice cream),  By the time we neared home, I was glad to be wearing leggings under my dress.  Hopefully, I won't return to weather colder than this when our ship comes back from Bermuda.

Leaving DC

 

James Smithson - a man whose gift to a nation he never visited in life created an educational institution which is known the world over.  His crypt is pictured above, and I'd bet that he'd be surprised to find out how much his gift has benefited our nation.

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Tuesday was the day we planned to leave Washington, DC.  RQS made one mistake which she regretted. There was an exhibit at the Arts and Industries Building she wanted to see, and it was closed for the day.  So we walked over to the Smithsonian castle to see what was inside of the welcome center and for me to make my visit to Smithson's crypt.  

This visit would be the shortest time we'd spend inside a museum, as it was already very warm outside and we had to vacate our room at the hotel by 1 pm.  So, once we finished our visit, we went back to the hotel for a couple of hours, and then to Union Station.

We killed time at Union Station before boarding our train.  This time, we ended up in the quiet car, and this was a blessing.  The quiet was what we needed after an exciting trip.  It was warm when we left Washington, DC and cool when we arrived in NYC.  But we learned a little bit more about each other, and the trip was worth the time and money spent to do this....