Monday December 10, 2012
I would tell you about our weekend, but other than the outing we had on Friday night, really nothing has happened. I believe it was a combination of cold, rain, and laziness, but we spent all of Saturday the boat with only venturing as far as the restrooms and showers of the boat yard. Sunday we made it all the way across the street for thirty minutes while seeing what the local farmers market had to offer. There weren’t as many tents as I thought there might be, but we still managed to spend all the cash we had on us, close to $30.
 Our first stop was to an up and coming bakery where there were samples of all kinds of cookies, breads, and cakes. Even if you’ve just finished eating it’s almost impossible to turn down one of their treats and I left with an apple fritter bigger than my hand while Matt had some kind of bacon & maple doughnut concoction that was really really good. We skipped the coffee stand right next to it, as tempting as it looked, and went straight for The Nut Shack next. Laid out on a table was just about every kind of nut imaginable as well as trail mixes and dried fruits. I think Brian and Stephanie would be in heaven at this tent. But then again, so were we. Stocking up on some almonds and trail mix we thought we were done with our spending for the day. But then the next tent over had apple butter for a ridiculously low price and the stand after that was stocked with clearance priced boxed foods, things like cereal, muffin mixes, and even Starbucks and Seattle’s Best coffee grounds. Probably overstocks from a nearby grocery store, we didn’t care, we just kept loading up bag after bag. Finally when our money was out we cut across the field back to the marina before giving away things like sunglasses or jewelry as payment for more things.
But that was only thirty minutes of our day Sunday and the rest of the time was spent on the boat, reading or watching tv. The worst part about the weekend for me (and still) is that the charger for my computer has gone kaput which means my battery is dead and I have no way to charge it until a new one can be ordered and shipped. Hence the lack of posts even though we’ve had constant internet connection. Trying to wrestle Matt’s laptop away from him is like (insert joke here). I’ve also found out that while I can access the internet just fine on our HP touchpad, trying to type on that thing is the devil. So all I can do is surf the net which now has me constantly reading travel blogs from The Everywhereist and upping my sarcasm level at the same time. If you’ve noticed a rise, blame her. Or Jackie and Ron (our Lake Michigan sailing buddies) since I’ve had the chance to chat with every day now and their sarcasm levels also top out pretty high. It’s part of the reason we love them so much.
Today we finally had to get off the boat and not only run some errand, but just be off the boat. Telling ourselves we’d finally make the six mile round trip to Walmart we were ecstatic to see the sun was out and it was actually warm which we haven’t seen in just over a week. We strapped our backpack on our backs and started pedaling. The ride out to the main strip was very nice, but I was still huffing and puffing a little bit to keep up with Matt. I think he believes he needs to ‘out-man’ his little one speed Huffy with a basket and cup holder on the front by peddling as hard as he can and treating it like a mountain bike. I was still enjoying the fresh air in my face though and it was much better than our ride on Thursday where we were being poured on. Getting past our normal stomping grounds of Target and Home Depot we began and uphill trek which really wasn’t that bad and only pathetic if you’re me, but by the time we arrived at Walmart we were both sweating and panting. (People of Walmart observation coming up) We didn’t have anything to even wipe off with but we figured our sweat soaked shirts made us blend in with the rest of the crowd shopping there. (What? We always had Meijer to compare it to at home)
Grabbing a shopping cart we tried to orient ourselves from the spots we were seeing in front of our eyes and blindly picking aisles to get out of other people’s way. Right away we were able to find the things that we had gone all the way out there for, a king size set of microfiber sheets that I may actually sew to fit the v-berth,’ and a 2 qt water pitcher that won’t spill even if it’s on it’s side in the chill box. We then continued to load our cart full of groceries even though we just stocked up, and while I convinced Matt we needed to stock up on more bottles of wine since our Three Buck Chuck had run low in Annapolis I couldn’t get him to budge on that one. Even though my mom pointed us to Walmart’s $3 bottles of wine so it’s just like restocking what we had run out of. One day I’ll just have to figure a way to get up here on my own….
Arriving back to Serendipity we stuffed everything into cupboards and the chill box until they didn’t want to close anymore. I’m almost this close to getting those nets that hang from your grabrails that you can throw food in, but I don’t think I’m quite there yet. When everything was finally put away we got on to the fun things for the day like opening our very first sympathy package sent by my aunt. All of us made out very well, including Georgie. She was gifted with a soft fleece blanket to cuddle up in and a bag of treats. Just under that was The Cat Owners Manual which I was thrilled to see because it might actually give me insight on why Georgie does half the things she does. Like mew at me non stop when I’m in the galley or eat hard food most of the time and refuse it on other days. Or another moment today pertaining to her cat litter. The shelter sent us home with a big bag of pine pellets or something like that which is environmentally friendly, biodegradable, and turns to powder when it’s wet. What we soon realized though it that every time she went potty and the pellets turned to dust they became incredibly difficult to sift out with the scooper. Then we wondered….are you supposed to wait until it’s all dust and then change it? Because that sounds disgusting and very unsanitary.
So while out shopping today we picked up a more traditional variety (after standing in the aisle for 20 minutes asking ourselves questions like Why do they all say ‘for multiple cats’? Does it work the same for just one? Or What’s the difference between High Traffic, Dual power, and Odor Eraser? They’re all claiming to do the same thing! It was a very difficult decision, but after going with one that claimed to cover up smells from number 1 and 2s we brought it back and quickly changed it out from the dusty pellets. At which point Georgie decided to crawl in it and lay down, treating it like her new bed. Noooot good, since cats won’t go potty where they sleep. But ten minutes later she showed us that she remembered it’s actually purpose and we could breath easy again. But that cat manual? I think it will come in very handy. Besides that we got some miniature bottles of Bacardi which was also desperately needed, and a few other things for Matt and I. In all, a very generous gift that brought huge smiles to our faces. As for what I’m off to next? I think I’ll sit down with that book and try to figure out why Georgie is the way she is.
