Yesterday certainly flew by. Went & fed DD’s cats, and then headed over to the Audubon Society’s walking & hiking trail, which is only five minutes or less from our house, and I never even knew about it until my DD (whose house we are now living in the other side of) appeared on a Boston radio station to promote something called START walking, which the AHA is partnering with some other local groups on. This is a lead-in to her “Heart Walk” on April 26. Anyway, they were talking about walking spots for urbanites, and talked about the Audubon Society which, as I said, isn’t even five minutes from our house. SO, DH & I headed over there, and sure enough, there were marked trails all through the woods, and it was a beautiful, if somewhat strenuous (for me) walk up hills, down through ravines, across streams on makeshift “bridges” made of strategically placed stones, and back again. According to their trail map, we did just about two miles, and I have to admit that the last little stretch - maybe a hundred yards - which was steeply uphill back to the visitor’s center, was ROUGH (for me). DH had to literally drag me up that hill. Sorta. Mostly drag, anyway. I was moving my feet. That last stretch came after a gradual rise for I’d say maybe a quarter of a mile, and man, I was ready for the bench at the top, let me tell you!

Then, when we went back to the car, we decided to drive over to Barnes & Noble at the mall, which is maybe another five minutes away, because DH was looking for a copy of James Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake”, which I was never able to properly appreciate when forced to read the damned thing in college, but DH loved it for some strange reason, and has been hankering for a new copy since he can’t seem to find the one he had, what with the move and all. Anyway, we decided to have a cup of coffee in the Starbucks located in the Barnes & Noble store, and I’ve got to say that the service was absolutely horrible - we paid for our coffee and just stood there while the four/five people working behind the counter chatted with each other and ignored us. Finall one of them came over to us and very snootily told us that we had to pick up our coffee at the “pick up station” further down the counter. So, we moved down to the “pick-up station” and waited some more, even though we were the only people getting coffee at that particular point in time. The tables were all filled though. DH nodded to me, and when I looked in behind the counter, one of the girls was just then MAKING a pot of coffee. She’d been chatting away all that time we were waiting, and just then, apparently gone to get our coffee and discovered that there wasn’t any! No “just a minute”, no “There’ll be a few minute’s wait”, no “sorry” - just this arrogant “let ‘em wait” attitude. So, we waited. We’d both ordered a tall cup of “basic coffee” at $2.69. (I take mine black, and don’t care for all the sweetners and syrups and what-have-you that Starbucks puts in their coffee drinks, plus I had no desire to offset the calories I’d burned with that walk with one stinking drink!) ANYWAY, we got over to a table, sat down, took our first sip, and looked at each other….the coffee was HORRIBLE! Bitter, strong, and tasted almost as if it had somehow gotten burned. I mean, it was just rotten! So we just left it, and headed in to find DH’s book. So much for Starbucks, you know? They’re on the list of businesses most likely to go OUT of business, and as far as I’m concerned, the only thing they can claim to have is “snob appeal”, which doesn’t do a thing for me, let me tell you. As far as I’m concerned, the only way you COULD want to drink their nasty coffee is with that awful taste covered up with caramels and mochas and sugars and artificial flavors. Who needs it?

So, we got the book, and then went into Michael’s craft store and I got some red Eucalyptus to put up on one of the shelves in my kitchen, plus a grape vine wreath to prop up on that same shelf.

And I made a really good roast beef for supper, and had it with a baked acorn squash and some lima beans. Made myself a normal-sized plate and only could eat about half of it. Yay, me! Of course I had to have my Weight Watcher’s ice cream sandwich before going to bed - that’s become something of a night time ritual for both DH & I. Probably not the greatest dietary habit, but it’s sooooooo good! Slept like the proverbial log for a change. It looks like that walk did me some good in more ways than one. We’ll be doing more of those, you can be sure. Maybe we’ll even work our way up to the five-mile trail (Omigawd!).

Oh! And we sent away for that Jon Gabriel book - “The Gabriel Method” - and started reading it yesterday, too. Found out about it from reading a fellow blogger’s blog here on 3FC. So far, so good - seems to be making a lot of sense.

Now we’re looking for a flax seed grinder, because we both take flax seed in pill form, but it looks like that’s not really enough.

Over and out - one more day here before heading back into Boston. Need to make the best of it. Today’s the Boston Marathon, which I shall neither be attending, nor do I have any wish to ever participate in. I shall silently cheer on the runners here in the privacy and anonymity of my house. If I think of it. I’ve got to admit that marathon running isn’t on my “to do” list for the remainder of my life. I also noticed a picture on the cover of a body builder’s magazine which was near the Starbuck’s tables at B & N - it was a man who was so muscle-bound that I hardly see how he could move. Every muscle in his body was sticking out, and all of his veins were roped across them - he reminded me of those diagrams we used to have to study in biology or some such class showing the muscles of the body, except his were grossly inflated and covered with what appeared to be an extremely thin layer of skin. Absolutely gross, in my opinion.

As you know, of course, right or wrong, I AM opinionated.

Have a great day, y’all - I’m hoping mine goes by very slowly.

Hugs,

Z