Today we had the day off for Veteran's Day.

I couldn't sleep in, as much as I wanted to, due to both Kari and the sun streaming in my window. So I ended up getting to the car place by 9 a.m.

I had them change my oil and check my coolant. They also changed my license plate for me. (I'd only had it sitting in my car since August ...)

It cost a bit over $40 for the oil change!!! The guy was very apologetic about the cost. He said that the price of oil had gone up significantly in the past few weeks. That if I'd come in a month ago, it would've cost $25. Ugh - procrastination is a killer.

In other car news, I was told that I probably need to get my coolant flushed and new hoses. That my hoses look to be the original ones. And that I should get it done before it gets colder. I was like "colder than 14 degrees??" Yep, much colder than 14 degrees.

He said that it would probably cost around $200, and that they could pick up my car from the school, and drop it off there as well. Nice. They have to order the parts, but probably the Monday before I take off for Thanksgiving, I'll have them do it. Won't even have to wait around at the car place.

(This place comes highly recommended by many people at the school.)

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After I was done at the car place, I headed into the big town. On my way there, I stopped at a Denny's and ate breakfast. I really wanted an IHOP, but the closest IHOP is nearly 200 miles away ... The usual happened when I ordered French Toast ... I told the waitress emphatically to *please* make sure it is smothered with powdered sugar. When it came, there was a light dusting. Ugh! She brought me more.

When I got to the big town, I stopped first at Big Lots. One of the main things I was looking for there was some kind of black out curtain for my bedroom (re: morning light streaming in + window blinds not exactly perfectly closing {[i.e. privacy!} ]. I found some maroon colored ones for $10 - it fit perfectly on my bedroom window. I put it up with a couple of nails. Susie homemaker I'm not.

I also found some great items for the library prize box - including a Diary of a Wimpy Kid puzzle. I'm curious if the kids will go for puzzles ...

Then I went to Family Dollar (ostensibly to look for tickets ...) and found more good stuff for the prize boxes.

Between the two I spent around $50 (but no tickets ...)

Then I went to Walmart. I found some great small posters for $1 each, as well as some cool inexpensive sticker sets. I also bought 3 Dork Diaries (we didn't have them ... and I am hoping they'll be popular at our school.) I also got groceries. In all, about $88. The lines were atrocious.

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While at Walmart I also decided to pick up some more Allegra D. I'd gotten a ten pack over two weeks ago (24 hour variety) and was out. So I asked at the pharmacy for as many packs as they could give me. I could only get one. I asked why I could only get one ten pack!!!! The pharmacist told me it had nothing to do with the quantity of the capsules, but with the amount of milligrams?? of whatever the regulated ingredient is (the one to make meth). It is SO aggravating! I have to drive 30+_ miles to get to a place that sells the only allergy medicinethat works for me ... and I can only get a ten day supply. Oh, and she wouldn't answer me when I asked what the limit was every 30 days ...

I really need to get a doctor's appointment so I can get a prescription for allergy meds again -- cheaper (in many ways) and SO much more convenient.

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I got home and put my purchases away, then watched the Monday episode of DWTS. I was going to watch the latest Peson of Interest also, but it wasn't up on cbs.com yet. Then I relaxed with a good book ... using the Kindle Cloud Reader. Oh yeah, before all that, I catalogued (except for barcode labels, etc) the books that came in on Thursday (Percy Jackson Series plus some others) and the Dork Diaries.

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It was funny this morning before I left to go to the car place, Kari got into the mood to do 'fetch' again. She hadn't done that for awhile. It was almost as though she was trying to keep me here. I played with her for about ten minutes before she got tired.

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I went out with some of my co-workers Thursday night and saw "Tower Heist." It was okay - not one of my favorites, but it did keep me entertained most of the time. I didn't like the ending.

However, during the previews I got to see my birthday present (i.e. Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 4 coming out in December) and I learned that in May I'll get to see yummy Robert Downy Jr on the screen again ( can't remember name of film, but he's playing Ironman in it. Yum!) I told my coworkers, "They're making us wait til May for this?" One of them thought I was talking about Taylor Long???? (from Twilight I guess). They guffawed when I asked who that was. Yeah, Twilight, etc. SO does not interest me.

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I rented Cars 2 from itunes, but will have to wait till tomorrow night to watch it due to watching DWTS this afternoon. (It was taking forever to download, so I decided to watch DWTS instead.) I decided to rent it because one of my coworkers was talking about getting Cars from Netflix and never having seen it ... so when I saw it for just $2.99 ... well ...

(some of the $1 posters I got today were of Speedy McQueen.)

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So today I did quite a bit of shopping, etc., but it was a good day.

*I read "After the Fire." It was very good - a little over the top romance novely in places, but it had a good story and plot that made up for the spots I skimmed over. It was a free Kindle download a month or so ago (Pixel of Ink for the World!!)