Traffic, traffic & more traffic

Overall, a pretty quiet day once daughter & I returned from a couple of errands. I had to buy an invisible zipper to replace the one on my favorite pants. I wanted to do some grocery shopping. It shouldn't have taken more than an hour and a half- less really.

Holiday traffic, however, had other plans for daughter & I. Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1 north and south on both roads were at less than 25 mph. Photos on the link are old, but will give you a sense of the sheer volume of cars. The HOV lanes were all heading south & they too were nearly at a standstill. In toto twelve, yes twelve lanes full of merry nog & coffee filled holiday travelers all enjoying scenic suburban northern Virginia at the blinding pace of twenty five mph. I suppose that the travelers ought to be grateful- at least it wasn't summer & therefore ninety degrees outside.

Anyway, after enjoying the grocery store & Wally World & the fabric store, daughter & I turned the radio WAY WAY up on the ride home knowing that we unlike many of our fellow cars were actually quite close to our destination.

Once home we made two batches of brownies. Washed, dried & folded three loads of laundry. Made dinner. Opened the doors and windows to let in the fifty six degree breezes. At this rate my bulbs will never come up again. The buds on the tulip tree outside church are fuzzy & swelling- either portending a mild winter or future damage to the tree.

One very cheerful & happy event- a Secret Santa at Husband's work hid an XM Sattelite radio in a giftbag in his locker. He called me, thrilled to death. We seriously looked into it last month, but decided to wait until the spring. He's pretty sure which coworker bought it for us, she's heading to Iraq in a few months. She & Husband are buddies. A very, very kind lady who knows her stuff inside and out. We will certainly pray for her while she's deployed. Send care packages. The usual drill.

Currently on a LOTR watching extravaganza. Husband laughed last night, "You couldn't even wait until the kids were home a full day before watching it, could you?" Of course not. It's vacation, are you crazy? We have to watch it. All weekend. He's working, what does he care?!