Shopping in Austin with Glenda and Ellen

Monday, January 11, I was up at 7:00. Enjoyed coffee and read for a bit. The sun is out so I open the blinds. The low was 28 last night. We had a light breakfast and I get cleaned up. Glenda knocks at 9:45. She and Ellen came early so Ellen could get a tour of The Titanic. I give them each a sample of Christmas Date Cake. We bid farewell to Bob and we're off. First I point out the frozen Niagara Falls leftover ice chunks under the RV next door.

We duck traffic as we pull out onto Hwy 71 heading to Austin. Glenda takes 130, the new toll road, to Parmer. This is my first time on this stretch of the I-35 by-pass and I don't recognize anything. Glenda really knows her way around. Our first stop is Hobby Lobby at Parmer and I-35. I duck into Office Max and Best Buy to browse their digital photo frames. There is no sale going on for the one we saw in Bastrop. The young sales guy says they will honor all on-line prices we find that are lower but not 'other Best Buy stores.' Go figure. I bought a Cross pen refill and rejoined Glenda and Ellen. We all had a restroom break (wow, that place needed cleaning.) Glenda got Elvis material for a baked potato cooker for a friend. Ellen got backing for her Mother Goose cross-stitch baby quilt. I browsed for greenery and iron-on appliques but nada.

We head on to Cheddar's for lunch. I have Bourbon-glazed Salmon. Soup, salad, baked potato combos for Glenda and Ellen. We all split Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie-Yumm! Thus fortified we head on to Wal-Mart on the west side of I-35. I got a newspaper and contact solution. Glenda got ink and birdseed. Unfortunately they told Glenda only two Austin Wal-Marts still do one-hour photo processing; Round Rock and I-35 at 183. She passes on the 5-day turnaround.

Across the parking lot to AT&T next where Drew sets Glenda's cell phone to ring for 30 seconds before going to voice mail. He prints the instructions for me since I failed in my attempt. He's the 'go-to' guy at this location and even he had to look up how to do it.

On to Joanne's Fabrics (that burger place we saw on the commercials is right on the parking lot!) Ellen and I agonized with Glenda over yellow/green color combo for a baby boy quilt. We finally persevered and got a winner. We head back to Bastrop at 3:45--not very good timing but 183 to 71 is not too bad. What a fun day with the gals.

Bob sorted out the water filter (it was very rusty) and hoses and blocks of excess wood. He cut up veges for the fridge too. What a guy. We split a can of chicken and wild rice soup, read the paper and watched House, Fringe and Castle. It's 10:34 p.m. and 45 degrees. It is not supposed to freeze tonight. The top news story is about some guy in South Austin petitioning to get the moonlight tower over his house dimmed. There are only 17 of 34 of these famous towers from the 1890's left. And Austin is the only city in the U.S. that still has them. The City of Austin electric utility (Bob's former employer) maintains them.