Beautiful Day, Busy Day!

I GOT a lot done today, with a head start before I had breakfast by beginning a load of clothes and doing the dishes. The back yard was beautiful in the sunshine, with the golden leaves from the neighbor's tree glowing in the back right-hand corner.
My friend Barb is coming tomorrow (from Michigan) and is going to stay with us for a few days before I leave (for Michigan) on Thursday (without her) - yes, you read this correctly - so I am getting "the guest room" ready.
In preparing for the trip, I am packing a quart size Ziplock bag with teeny, tiny bottles of fluids and am limiting myself to one small carry-on bag so I will be able to take my laptop. I will find time, I'm sure (hahahahahahaha!), to rack up more of a word count for NaNoWrimo, even though I'll be attending a work conference. I hope I get to the electric outlets before anyone else at the airports!
After a little house cleaning today I picked up my brother and we went to the local library book sale. He brought two big bags - one for each of us to fill. Look who I found for sale! Not a book, but a very special little person. He had his own balloon, but I didn't buy him. He told me he was meant for a little girl with blond hair and wanted to wait for her. No problem. I know men and their blondes.
We waded through lots of books. I found a delicious Maira Kalman book. I'd already bought several from Amazon and was happy to find one I didn't have - for a mere $1.50, sans postage. I saw my friend Sylvia at the sale and we went upstairs to look at foreign language books because she'd seen some Indian religious tracts, we think, with some comic book-style drawings. I found a great dictionary - English descriptions with the foreign word after - and Sylvia found a great Hebrew "dictionary" with the word and drawings. I think we'll use these for collage and trade some pages. One of the book sale volunteers let us in the "secret" storage room (not really so secret) and there were boxes and boxes of books bound for the sale where I will volunteer. There were lots and it made my fingers itch, wondering what treasure was inside them.
I saw a wonderful book at the sale with a big price tag. I denied myself the book, hoping it would remain unsold and make it to our book sale. (That's where the unsold books go.) But at the last minute I sneaked back (right beside Sylvia; I don't even think she saw me!) and I grabbed it and bought it. After all, it was for a good cause: the library! The cover says "Great Ideas." It's a huge hardbound book, a sort of self-promotion piece by the Container Corporation of America. They must have underwritten all of these artworks and along with them are great quotations.
Here's some examples. Well, I guess you can see why I didn't want to take any chances on losing such a find as this. I've regretted some purchases, but regretted more the things I didn't get when I wanted them.
After the library it was shopping for a pair of tennis shoes while my brother perused Barnes & Noble. Then we went to have lunch at the Golden Arches. I indulged in a small chocolate shake. Good while cold. I took my brother home and then went grocery shopping. (yuck!) Sunshine when I went in, dark when I came out. Waaa! It seems on one of the most beautiful days yet of November I was inside all darn day. But it's only the first day! That's right!
Oh, before I forget I have painted journal pages (with no journaling yet), and I've discovered what Kelly Kilmer said is true: Don't think about it too much. I just started sticking some things down and like them. Also, this morning, when I peeked inside the journal, I found the shoes I had cut out were turned over and I liked the back side more than the real looking shoes.
And the face with the huge eye got all mixed up and twisted together with a cutout hand, since nothing was glued down yet, and I really like that too!
Have a great Monday tomorrow - femminismo