I'm typing at least some of this from the Albright Memorial Library where I managed to get some research (genealogical and printers' marks) done.
***This is as far as I got at the library before my computer session expired.***
Alright, it turns out my aunt and uncle had planned on visiting TAFH this weekend and convinced her to stay home and they would take Grandma down for the day on Saturday. There was good and bad with that. Good: it got Grandma out of the house and area for a day and one of the other relatives was actually doing something with her. Bad: it meant that instead of pretty much having Friday night, all of Saturday and some of Sunday off from Grandma duty, we only had part of Saturday off.
We can live with this, though not totally happily since my uncle could have called and asked if we'd already made plans before he essentially planned our weekend for us. We have for how long now? It would have been cool if he'd planned to go next week and taken Grandma, then we'd have two weekends with vacations. ;p
Anyway, my uncle was to pick Grandma up at 9am. They would spend the day in Philly and come back around 10/10:30pm. Mom and I made plans to see Chronicles of Narnia and a friend's band after she got out of work at 5pm. I figured I could catch the earliest bus to town, go to the library and do some research.
First problem: My uncle is never on time. I should know this by now. He came by at 10:10am. No phone call saying they were running late, nothing. He did say that TAFH had told him Mom and I were planning on seeing a movie so he'd stay at the house till we came home. Cool. Although, to be honest, we didn't intend to cut our single night out in over a month short just because he had work at 6am. (Honestly, I get three and a half to four hours of sleep on average a night and I'd actually feel sorry for him if he only got six? Puh-leeze.) His running late made me miss the bus and since there is only one running this route on Saturdays, I had to wait another hour.
Second problem: I got to the U's library and lo and behold, it was CLOSED! Of course. I had some time to research, so why would the place I need to research at actually be open? *gigglesnort* This happens almost every time I have research time. I should be used to it. I called Mom at work and left a message as to what happened and that I'd be at the Public Library instead. She had a good laugh over it. So did I once I got over my very brief mad. I was laughing by the time I'd left the campus. I think I scared some poor college kid, laughing to myself as I'm walking down the street, listening to my music.
After that, the day went pretty well. I went through the library's vertical file on the printers' marks again, to see if I could glean anything else. Nothing new; I've pretty much picked their records clean. I'm going to try the Historical Society next. Maybe some of Conrad Schroeder's papers went there after his death. He was the contractor for the Albright Library's construction.
The library closed at 5pm, so I walked down to the mall to meet Mom and bought a few things: hairsticks, perfume, candy, socks. Boring stuff. Oh, on the way there some guy flirted with me. I was dressed up kinda nice, I must admit, since we were going to see my co-worker play later. It's funny. The guys that whistle at me are so not my type, but it is nice to hear it every once in a while. Does my vanity/ego some good.
We got to the movies and used two of the free passes we got at Christmastime to get our tickets ahead of time. Then we went to Johnny Rockets and both broke our Celiac's diet. I had a huge Rocket Double with extra cheese and gravy fries (yummy yummy yummy) and Mom had a BLT. We got there just in time. The rush started right after we were seated. After eating we went to the movie.
Okay, if I were Mom, I'd be gushing over the movie right now. As it is, I'll gush over the effects. It was a good movie if you like the story, but I'm just not one for epic battles. I've never really liked the Narnia story - not even that old animated one from when I was a kid. I've managed to avoid the books thus far. There were some funny moments, scary moments and I really liked Tilda Swinton (Jadis) and James McAvoy (Mr. Tumnis) in it. Whoever played the centaur did a really great job too. Liam Neeson made a great voice for Aslan, of course. It's Liam Neeson, 'nuff said. The beavers were a cool married couple. The kids just left me cold, except for Lucy - I have to love the wide-eyed optimist. You could totally understand why Edmund disliked his siblings or place in the pecking order. I would have had to knock Peter around myself. Susan was just annoyningly pessimistic.
The effects were primo. There were only a few matte shots that were really evident. The movement of the various creatures was excellent. The scene where Mr. Tumnis clops his feet/hooves (Do fauns have hooves or cloven feet?) at the entrance of his house to shake off the snow was cool. One of my only effects complaints might not even be effects. I'd say it was costuming, but it involved the centaurs, horses and unicorns - CGI critters. They wore armor on the tops of their bodies, covering their backs and half of their sides - none on their legs or bellies. From a strategic viewpoint that was so stupid they all deserved to be gutted, heart-thrust and hamstrung by the dwarves Jadis had in her army. It's like they assumed only giants and minotaurs would be fighting for Jadis. I have to say it, I loved the gryphons. I just adore gryphons and they were definitely used wisely in the battle, as were Jadis' archers in taking them out of the sky as they dropped boulders on her army. WAH!
We'll buy it, but I won't be watching it very often. *snort* I still have to watch the LotR movies I bought on Black Friday - never even took the cellophane off them.
After the movie we went to the Eynon Pub where my co-worker's band was playing. They're really good. A few other co-workers were there, mostly my friends and their families. I was able to introduce them to Mom. We had some laughs and listened to a live band for the first time in forever.
I got carded and didn't have my ID with me. I'd left it in the car, not thinking. I mean, how often do I go to a bar? The security guy told us the cover was $5. I gave him a ten and he just looked at me and held his hand out in the vague shape of an ID card. LOL. It took me a moment to figure out what he wanted. Mom just laughed at me, the witch. I took her keys, went to the car and showed him the card after I got back in. The three of us talked for a few minutes about ID cards versus drivers licenses and being nearly thirty and still looking under 21.
We left around quarter to 11. Mom had called the house to make sure everything was alright. Sure enugh, problem three had occurred. Apparently, when Mom woke me up early Saturday morning, she told me the bag with grandma's stuff was in the refrigerator. I only remember her saying something about waking up in time for Grandma to eat before she left. I had already ahd the alarm set to 8am anyway and must have tuned out whatever else she said. She says I told her okay and she thought I heard/understood everything. Um, no. Well, by the time I got downstairs, there was a bag sitting with Grandma's purse with a change of clothing and another adult diaper in it, just in case she had an accident on the trip.
It turns out Grandma had made that bag herself. Mom had apparently also told her about the bag in the refrigerator but she forgot about it. LOL. Actually I looked directly at the bag and grandma asked about it when we were trying to figure out what she'd eat that morning. Neither of us looked inside it. Well, she didn't have her pills, tester or coverage insulin when she went down there. Instead of calling us and asking, they all just let it go, figuring we'd take care of it when we got home. Which we did, of course. They were actually afraid they had thrown out Grandma's testing supply stuff, since the bag was ripped when it went down there. I'm sure TAFH's obsessive/compulsive streak wouldn't have allowed Grandma to keep that bag. She must have thrown it out.
All in all, it was a pretty good day with a few relatively minor annoyances. We both got out of the house and away from Grandma. We had some entertainment. I had some broccoli dynabites down at Pappa's. And even more important, Mom is hoping she got through to my uncle that we appreciated the rare night away/out and maybe, just maybe he'll take the hint.
Cheers.
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