If your team isn't in the Super Bowl . . .

the only thing one really can do is go shopping.

I fell off the wagon hard yesterday. But, since it's the last of such falls, and I had a belated birthday present to buy that was part of it, and I bought some of the specialty fabric I need for ornaments, and specialty floss to finish a UFO that, despite looking everywhere for the floss, I just can't find. I did pick up CHS "Chincoteague", and the new Prairie Schoolers. I didn't realize til recently how quickly those go out of print, and I really prefer to NOT pay the retired prices for those charts anymore. I think I did pretty well with sticking to my budget. It helped that, even early in the day, the shop was pretty full, and it was hard to get to the thread area, but part of it was just understanding that I don't "need" all these things, and that I have plenty of good stuff at home.

I did buy a bottle of "Gloves in a Bottle"; this winter has been blustery, and the property management company at work buys cheap hand soap, so our hands at work have been sandpaper-y. Things have deteriorated to the point where I stopped working with silks, even to wind them, because they were snagging on my fingers. The only lotion that had seemed to halfway help, and I feel a bit embarrassed that I had to resort to this, was Gold Bond Ultimate Healing Foot Cream. It somewhat worked, but washed off. I've used this stuff before and had good results, so I bought a bottle for the office (I'm such a good co-worker, right?) We're going to try the GIAB and see if that helps; I think a weekend with normal soap, followed by this, will go a long way to fixing our dry hands.

We finally had some snow on Saturday. Too bad they weren't calling for it. I met Mom in the morning at the bigger city in the morning to go shopping. There was a place she wanted to go that doesn't have a store in the mall anymore, so we went up to the outlet mall in Gettysburg. On the way back, I asked Mom if she wanted to go to lunch. It's easier for me to make better food choices if someone is with me, since I have a wierd aversion to eating alone, and, if I have to eat by myself, I will just grab fast food, but we can actually sit down and eat. Mom said that would be good, and we picked the diner behind the mall. I know, diner food healthy? But this is a nice diner, plenty of choices, so it was good. Then the snow came. I asked Mom if she still wanted to go, since I worry about her driving in the snow. She said it didn't bother her, and I was OK, since it was just falling, not sticking. We went to lunch, ate, then I called Left-brain to see about dinner. He told me it was sticking in Crazyville. I started hustling home, stopped off at the store, in my completely not snow worthy fabric flats, then started off down the road.

Crazyville is a very small town, and you don't get to it quickly from anywhere. It is ALL backroads, windy and curvy, it makes me really appreciate that I live in a small town. Lovely ride for 360 or so days a year, but when it's bad weather, that ride sucks. Of course they hadn't treated the road, because it was supposed to snow later, and it was a slow ride. I'm OK with my own driving, just a lot wary of other people, since it seemed to be all 4WD pickup trucks, myself and one lonely Corvette out on the road. I just slowed myself down, and crawled home. It was pretty to look at in the house, all blue and grey outside, but not to be out in. It all melted yesterday, LOL, but the funny thing was, we were the only part of the area that got measurable snow. Mom said it was fine all the way down-county, the big town had none, even Gettysburg got little. More proof Crazyville lives in its own little world.

BTW, I did not get swept up in the Super Bowl hype yesterday. We're not Pats fans and definitely not Giants fans, and since the Cowboys didn't make the playoffs and the Ravens lost to the Patriots, I only watched for the commercials, and was bleary-eyed by half-time. I did REALLY like the Clint Eastwood commercial; it came at a time when it was much-needed and I think we need to hear positive messages about what we can do as a people when we come together. Clint should do monthly peptalks--his voice alone comforts and inspires.