Back to the USA

Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a corkscrew.
-- Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickelby

Sunday, December 17, 2000
One year ago: Build Problem
Two years ago: Follow Styling
Three years ago: Last Class

Jack and I woke up at a reasonable hour, stumbled around and packed, then went down to the mezzanine (I like that word!) for continental breakfast. They actually had a pretty substantial spread -- only eggs and meat weren't available. We had muffins, cereal, toast, yogurt, fruit, coffee, juice, etc. We sat down and chatted with Jules and Jane.

After we checked out, we looked for any other santas, since we'd heard a rumor that folks were going to eat at the Templeton diner (where Jack and I ate yesterday morning). But no one we knew was there, so we moved on, stopping in at the big rock-oriented T-shirt store across the street. Jack found one that he liked, but they didn't have any Skinny Puppy shirts, which he would dearly love to obtain.

We had a pleasant drive down to Bellingham, but we couldn't get to the duty-free shop -- they were closed for some reason! So we stopped at the outlet stores on the USA side of the border, by my request. Jack spent most of his time in the big remainder books store, while I also bought some tights at the hosiery outlet, which will be useful at dance camp. I was really pleased to find British paperback editions of three novels by Roberta Gellis, who is one of my favorite historical romance authors, emphasis on the history.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

I'd thought about continuing to Seattle, but I wasn't feeling up to it -- Jack and I both collapsed as soon as we got to his house. I think we both took a nap for an hour or so.

In the evening, I watched a DVD we'd bought in a shop up in Canada: A Christmas Carol, the version starring George C. Scott. I think there's a reason it was there -- there seems to be a scratch that caused the thing to have trouble at one particular chapter. I actually gave up and was reading a book, but when Jack came back downstairs, he attempted to get to the next chapter and succeeded. "Testosterone makes the remote work better!" he crowed.

I've watched this many times before (I taped it off the air some years back) and I still always like it. Scott (and the man who plays his father, and the younger Scrooge) show the reasons behind Scrooge's coldness. The music is good, and the drama is strong.