Friday.... 65 degrees today, 85 yesterday......

And "baby, it's cold outside," as that old song goes. Cold for here, that is. But I'm sure my friends and my sister up in New York would think that 65 degrees on a November day is a heat wave. Down here, we call it a cold snap.

Lots of errands this morning.... post office, the bank, Kroger, the bagel store, the Senior Center (to bring donations-- I am not a member!). Had my hair trimmed and stopped at the Hot Wok for take-out. I came home with enough food for lunch and dinner today, as well as lunch and dinner tomorrow, and then some. They make wonderful "summer rolls" there-- fresh shrimp and vegetables rolled up in rice-paper, served fresh, not fried-- totally delicious and they aren't fried, so you can eat them and smile. As opposed to eating them and imagining your arteries clogging up with every bite.

After I had my hair trimmed, I stopped into a League City shop called Nana's Attic. They have all kinds of wonderful coffee beans there, and they grind them fresh for you. There's one coffee called "Angel's Kiss" that my friend A discovered and told my husband about... it's his favorite coffee so I hate to run out of it. Smells delicious when it's perking, but I'm not a coffee drinker so I've never tasted it. Just the aroma is enough for me.

I was "playing" with the chandelier in my sitting room last night. This is the one that used to be in our dining room. I love that fixture... found it at a yard sale for $20. It's absolutely gorgeous. It wasn't when I found it-- my husband had to take it apart and clean & polish it. Talk about a diamond in the rough... it was really rough. But I knew it would be fabulous underneath the dirt and dust that coated it. And did I mention that it was missing half of its crystals? Between yard sales and flea markets, I found all the matching crystals that it needed, poor thing.

So last night, I added even more crystals to it. Beautiful glass tear-drop shapes of amber and amethyst glass. They were in my husband's mom's basement, just sitting in a box. I didn't know what I would do with them, but I knew they were vintage treasures. Now they are dripping here and there from my chandelier and they make a fabulous fixture even more so.

As I'm typing this, my oldest cat (Rusty) is trying to make himself comfortable on the pink velvet fainting sofa in my sitting room here. As soon as he walked into this room, I knew where he was headed, so I got up and spread a pink & green cotton afghan over the pink velvet. Well, you would think I'm forcing him to sit on a bed of nails. He's behind me now, meowing and using his paw to try and move the cotton afghan out of his way. Now honestly-- can this cat really know the difference between the pink velvet and the pink & green cotton? Apparently so, judging from the grunts and moans I'm hearing. Talk about spoiled. Well... he's not going to win this one. That pink velvet is pristine, and that's the way I'm keeping it. Rusty will have to make do with the cotton afghan. Cats. I swear, they're like babies.

I'm not as stressed as yesterday. Probably because I'm just getting things done instead of looking at my list of all the things that I need to get done. As my husband's mom would say-- you can only do one thing at a time, so don't worry about the next thing till you've finished what you're doing. Truthfully, I think I just got stressed out because I was stuck here while the chandeliers were being put up. I knew the chandeliers would take time, but all I could think of was everything I had to get done before the end of the week.

I stopped at the Senior Center this morning. I gave the director there all the sweaters that belonged to my husband's mom. She couldn't believe that they weren't brand new. I'm sure they were worn just once or twice, and I had them all dry-cleaned so they're nice and fresh. She will sell raffle tickets for each one, a quarter or fifty cents per ticket. All the money they collect goes into the fund they keep for their bus trips. Plus the winners get to pick their choice of those lovely sweaters. Wonderful!

I told my husband to get used to looking at the table-top Victorian Christmas tree that's in the corner of our bedroom now. I have it up on top of a round drum-shaped table, and that's where it's going to stay, even after the holidays are over. I used to keep it on the floor in my storage closet, but since I cleaned out that closet this week, I don't want anything that big on the floor in there anymore. It's a pain to get around it, and it seems that with every passing Christmas, that Victorian tree gets heavier and heavier. I never un-decorate it... I had always put it away as is. It's filled with Victorian ornaments-- shoes and purses, dresses and fans, tiny dolls, and there are strings of faux pearls for garland. I've got pink roses stuck all over and inbetween the branches, so it looks sort of like an overgrown topiary. In the corner it is, and in the corner it will stay. Much better there than bringing it back into that closet. In that corner of our bedroom, it's going to be Christmas all year long.

Now I understand why so many people here rent storage spaces. We have no basements in southeast Texas, so you lose that storage space. Attics here are too hot, garages can get too damp. So when you have a lot of seasonal things, what do you do? You either rent a storage space (which I refuse to do) or you down-size what you keep (which I've done). My rule is that if it doesn't fit into my storage closets, then I don't need it.

Anyway... that's my story for this cloudy cold-snapping Friday. Not a drop of sun out there today, so the 65 degrees feels at least 10 degrees colder. I'm sitting here in a heavy sweater and corduroy slacks. No bare feet and sandals today-- knee-hi stockings and shoes is the order of the day here. No fair! Summer disappeared without a warning!