By the time Forrest finished looking I was captivated by the Anne Fadiman book and decided I had to buy it to finish it. I later observed to FFP that growing up the daughter of Clifton Fadiman (and Annalee Jacoby, no slouch as a writer herself) might be a bit, um, different than growing up as Clyde Ball's daughter on a black land farm in Texas. However, I think I learned to love books from my parents, too. But not from such a lofty perch.

I'm not sure where the rest of the day went. I did get the paper read and some of the book. I did some little computer tasks. I sorted through stuff I removed from my old Civic. Forrest's car was ready and when we picked it up they put the new plates on my new car. We went to Fonda for dinner and then I relaxed with a drink and some more reading. This is the life!

Today, I was settling into another reverie in my office, another unstructured day, when SuRu called and asked for a ride to work from the Honda place. I decided that as long as I was in the neighborhood I would go to Mom's and take her shopping. I actually had in mind to look at the retail stores for a computer and maybe a desk although I fully intend to buy these things on-line. Maybe. She did want to go shopping but she wanted to buy a gift for a friend in Mesquite and had in mind a sweater.

Mervyn's was dead. Lots of things on sale, few customers. We found a suitable gift and my mom spent time trying it on on the theory that her friend was about the same size. Hobby Lobby is next door and we paid it a visit. Mom likes to look around when Dad isn't there to pressure her. She picked out some material (pink) and some pillow inserts for a project. She has settled into a good place here, working on her hobbies, decorating for Christmas (then putting it all away), organizing her house.

I picked SuRu up and we went to this place on Burnet for lunch. Marisco's Mexican Food and Fresh Seafood. Another friend recommended it. I had a seafood cocktail to die for and some good crab quesadillas and SuRu had garlic shrimp that were the real thing, redolent with tiny brown chips of real garlic. We figured the Honda place would be done then with her car, but it wasn't. So I took her back to work.

I'm getting better at shopping since I actually do some of it. I went into Grapevine Market, wandered about a bit and then ask for help on a champagne that 'tasted like Veuve but cost more like $25 a bottle.' I was out of there with a case of something that won there taste battle and just happened to be that price. Then I made a strike at Randall's to pick up coffee beans for the Capresso, toothpaste and sparkling grape juice for the non-drinkers on New Year's Eve.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lolling with books and papers, writing a letter to my sister, and generally enjoying having really free time. It's so easy to spend free time. And I guess it's never really free. It's a limited commodity, no matter how you look at it.

For those of you that are Austinites, you know what I'm talking about when I say '37th street stroll'. This tiny stretch of street in Hyde Park, near the University, celebrates Christmas in a bizarre, chaotic and totally delightful way. Last year SuRu, FFP and I took the dogs on a stroll down the street with all of us decorated with chemical light necklaces. We decided this was a good tradition and the weather finally cooperated. Things were a little dead on the street, actually, and some peripheral displays were unlighted. But it was fun. This year Zoey wore her flashing, racing lights (which make her appear in the dark as lights alone). SuRu and I put flashing red lights on and I added a string of battery-operated Christmas lights. It is so weird on this street that no one took much notice of us. I had a couple of chemical necklaces, but they were old leftovers and didn't really glow like they should.

The displays were chaotic and cool including a George W. Bush and a UFO. I took a couple of digital pictures for you of things that I thought really captured the possibilities. One guy has stopped doing much to his lights beyond removing the outside cardboard. He just leaves them on the inserts they are wrapped on and plugs them in. One guy left the ladder up and had a dummy in the tree as if he were still lighting the place up.

We relaxed with our reading and TV again. I could get used to this!