#2812 Saturday with Sandy

Oh, hi! I did a few things today. The first thing I did was take my car to the Xpress Lube to get the oil changed. It's a good thing, too, because one of the things they check is the windshield wipers, and mine needed to be replaced. More snow is on the way, and I'll be glad to have new wiper blades. 

A fun thing about being at the Xpress Lube: the Morocco/Portugal World Cup match was playing on the TV there, and I noticed one of the workers came in to ring up a customer and he stole a glance at the TV. There was no score at the time, then Morocco scored a goal. When it was my turn to pay, another employee was taking care of me checked the score, and told me that the employee who had peeked at the score earlier was from Morocco. He has only been in the U.S. for about a year. He was really excited about the match, but also very nervous because Morocco has never made it to the quarterfinals before, I think. When the Moroccan employee came back into the lobby, his co-worker told him to check the score. He whipped his head around, saw the score was 1 - 0 Morocco, and he got so pumped! I think he would have hollered if there weren't other people in the waiting area. It was fun to see how happy he was - I'm sure he was thrilled when the game was over and Morocco advanced to the semi-finals. 

When my car was done being serviced, I came home to finish reading the pages for the book club meeting. The book is good, but I kept dozing off. It was just so cozy on the couch with the dogs and my blanket. I did finish the reading; we just discussed the first half of the book today. Our group often speculates on whodunits and red herrings on these thriller books. (We are reading A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham.) Since our meetings are on Twitter, I had the France/England World Cup match on TV. It was a good match. France won. 

With soccer finished for the day, and the book club meeting over, it was time for Christmas shopping. I went to some cute local shops first, then to a couple of chain stores. I think I am mostly done shopping for the women. I'll shop for the menfolk this week. I don't have a bit more leeway on their deadline since I don't have to ship packages to them. 

Tonight, MT and I got burgers from Five Guys, then we watched the movie Ticket to Paradise starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney. It's streaming on Peacock. I'm quite glad I didn't pay to see it in the theater. It really wasn't good. Yes, I smiled on occasion, but blech overall.  

Today's IG prompt was BRINGS ME JOY. This is going to sound super-goofy, but shopping at Trader Joe's brings me joy. I went to the store yesterday during my lunch break. The Christmas specialty items are fun. I enjoy watching the other shoppers load their carts with boxes of panettones (one woman got about a dozen), peppermint Joe-Joe's, and anything gingerbread. There are so many types of chocolates and cookies. seasonal cheeses and meats and random stuff. It's awesome! I bought a porchetta roast that I am excited to cook tomorrow. I bought a few things to give as Christmas gifts, which sounds strange, maybe, but I don't think it is. I got a Kringle, my favorite one of the year, with the original almond filling. I got cookies, Jingle Jangle, chips and dip, and a five cheese Greek pastry. You know what else I like about Trader Joe's? The crew is so nice. I don't know if I have ever been there when I haven't had a friendly exchange with the checker. It's just so freaking pleasant, even when it's super busy, as it is during the holidays. 

Oh yeah, I also got my annual wreath for the front door. It makes me happy every time.

I hope you are having a good weekend. Stay safe and have fun!