It's a holiday weekend!

 

I'm not sure if my readers have noticed this, but I usually am a couple of weeks behind in my published posts.  The reason for this is that I don't want to give away my current location when I travel.  By doing this, I can always play catch-up with my posts when I return.  Hopefully, this explains why I gave this entry its title.

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Some quick thoughts on how I expect things to go:

RQS is coming up later today, and my place is a mess.  That's OK for now, but I have to clean it up a little before she gets here.  I'm not sure of how I plan to dress when she arrives.  But if I'm wearing trousers, it may be a surprise for her.

Sometime this weekend, we will be going to either Shoprite or Stew Leonard's to buy some live lobsters while they are on sale. My refrigerator is already filled to the gills, and I don't know where I'll put the lobsters while I'm waiting for the water to boil in which I'll cook them.  

I'm tempted to take a drive up to the New York State Museum (an exhibit is pictured above) over the weekend.  Saturday may be the best day for this long drive, as we can take our time going up to Albany and coming back to Westchester county in the evening.  Unlike my last long drive to the North Country, I plan on avoiding speed traps by taking slower routes on this trip.

Sunday may be a day spent nearby, where we may go to see a movie.  The third movie in the Equalizer series interests me, only because of its leading star.  With that being said, I'm not sure if I want to see another "action" film.

And Monday, RQS and I will be going to Yonkers to spend the day with the Game Night crowd.  RQS is usually busy on Thursdays, and would rarely see these people   But she was there once, and enjoyed being with these people.  So she's thinking of making them a dessert this weekend.  At least, it will not require the use of my oven....

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As you can tell, I didn't have much to say about my life today, save for my plans for the weekend.  Later on, I'll find out whether things went according to plan....

A quick run for lobster before the movie.

Both RQS have a craving for lobster rolls.  We'll go out of our way when we can to catch up with the Lobster Truck to get our fix.  This week was different.  Instead of chasing the lobster truck, we went to Stew Leonard's for their summer weekend lobster cart.  And it was almost as yummy as lobster from the truck.

But first....

RQS planned to come to my place, so that we could go see the movie "Oppenheimer" on the IMAX screen at a theater on the other side of the Hudson.  I was in Marian mode when she arrived, and she commented that she'd have been surprised to find me in a pair of trousers.  That made my day in a very pleasant way!

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Saturday came, and we proceeded to Stew's for lobster rolls.  Unfortunately, there were no more seats at the theater we wanted to go to, so we had a fallback plan - see the movie at the Drafthouse in Yonkers. In-between lobster and the movie, we killed some time at the book store, and proceeded to the theater in time to see the movie.

I was glad to have some background knowledge about  J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project before seeing this film.  Coming out of the movie, I had a better understanding of why this man was the least likely person to lead such a large project, and why this man was to be spit out by the powers that be shortly after he was no longer needed.  Like many excessively smart people,genius in one part of his brain was balanced with character deficiencies in another part.  Even though I am nowhere near his level of intelligence, I understand the nature of someone like Oppenheimer, as I have similar flaws of a lesser magnitude.

Would I have wanted to live Oppenheimer's life?  No!   He was a great man, but with greatness comes people trying to bring you down.  That has happened in my life, and I have suffered for it.  I am grateful that I never had a burden like he had....

 

Another end to a weekend

 

The above is the menu at the Blue Pig.  Yesterday, RQS and I decided to go there instead of the local Carvel, and she loved the ice cream there.  Today, we could have used some ice cream.  But we decided to relax before going out to do a weekly shopping run for my weekly lunches....

Our original plan was to trek down to Wegman's so that I could buy some Asian lunches.  However, with a traffic jam on I-287, it made sense to abandon this plan and go to Stew Leonard's for our shopping run.  Once on this path, I knew that I'd need to spend more than I planned for the day, as a typical run to Stew's runs about $100+ these days.  (And it's worth every cent!)

One thing about shopping at Stew's is that there are few goods on sale there that are not related to food.  (Yes, they have sold linens, slipper socks, face masks and other things.  But they are not known for selling the greater variety of things found at a typical supermarket.)  About $115 later, I had enough food to get through the week, and some money left over to buy RQS and I a couple of ice cream cones.

All too soon, RQS had to leave.  So I drove her to the station, filled up my car, and went home to take a nap.  After waking up TCL called, and I served as her sounding board for the next 2 hours.  Only then could I get some rest and fall back to sleep....

I was supposed to go out to dinner but....

I was supposed to go out for dinner today.  Sadly, my friend called to tell me that her dog was very sick, and that she was bringing it to a 24x7 animal hospital.  So our dinner date was cancelled.  Even sadder, the dog had to be put to sleep. If I could have known this was going to happen around 10 am, I'd have gotten showered and dressed, then go into NYC to visit MoMA.  I guess that I'll be doing this next weekend.

Years ago, I had to put a cat to sleep.  Although I wasn't attached to the cat, this was the right thing to do.  It's even harder to put an animal down when one is attached to that animal.  This is one of the reasons why I might never own an animal again.  I don't want the responsibility of looking out for the best interest of an animal again.

Instead of going out for dinner, I ended up chatting with TCL, then going to Stew Leonard's to pick up my lunches for the week.  If I had a feminine face (without makeup on), I'd have dressed as Marian.  However, getting dressed as Mario made it possible for me to get out the door on time to have a leisurely walk through the store.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to do my laundry for the week, so I'll have to take care of that when I get home tomorrow.

What a bland and boring day....
 

 

Thank Bruce it's Friday!

 

As you can guess, I enjoyed "Bruce Almighty", though it hasn't been on cable in years.   It's a pleasant, mindless piece of fluff - something perfect for a night spent at home, where if you miss anything in the film, you can either go back a scene or two, or just keep playing the film.

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Today, I was awakened by a person looking for some paperwork from me - which I sent in (in parts) throughout the day.  If all goes right, there will be a job waiting for me in two weeks.  And it'll be something that stops the drain from my savings account, something that the census provided last year. However, this good news is balanced by some bad news - I still don't have income tax info (W2 forms) for the Census and for my Pension. I'm hoping that I don't have to start making a lot of phone calls to get this mess resolved.

Sometime towards mid afternoon, I ventured downstairs and found a box addressed to me.  In that box were the prescriptions I asked my doctor to send to the mail order pharmacy.  Yay!  Now I know that my problems with the health insurance company are over.  Hopefully, I'll be able to go to the doctor on Monday, given the storm they expect to come in that morning.

Eventually, I decided to go shopping for food.  Considering how cold it was, I figured that the car needed a good half hour run - and Stew Leonard's was perfect.  So, off I went to Stew's, and I returned with a full bag of goodies.  Knowing that I still needed stuff I couldn't get at Stew's, I stopped at the Stop & Shop for canned Chicken breast meat, so that I can make something filling if I can't get out Monday afternoon.

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Tomorrow, I'll be seeing FH again.  It'll be another shopping day (for her) and she wants to see what the Brooklyn Wegmans is like.  I told her it's a big supermarket, but until she sees it, she won't appreciate it.  Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll be able to get some premade dinners that only need to be nuked.  Otherwise, it's my turn to take care of takeout....