Mania

The ABBA Mania show was great - even better when we realized that what we were watching wasn't a 'concert'.  It was a 'stage show' - musical theater with everything carefully scripted and choreographed.  Right down to the hand movements.  Having never seen the group ABBA live in my life, there was nothing to compare it to - but apparently, their show was pretty full of 'dance' as well.  After the first few songs, the audience got more into it and it was a lot of fun.  It was also one of the longest shows we've been to at Gallo - a full two hours with a 15 minute intermission.  I did know most of the songs so enjoyed singing along.  Fun evening.

Yesterday, J. and I went to Mi Pueblo for lunch.  We must have been missing Playa 'cuz this market that opened here in Tracy about a year ago is straight out of Mexico.  We enjoyed a quick lunch from their 'food court' and then wandered the store.  The panderia is just like in Mexico.  And there is a great selection of fish, meats and cheese.  And their food court has a wide selection of items for there or take out.  We also got fresh tortillas right off the conveyor belt.  It was fun...and a little shocking to realize that their prices are really high on 'normal' groceries.  Not that we'd shop there often - but to get a grilled chicken fresh off the BBQ would be great for dinner now and then.

We headed to Savemart and dug around in the freezer case to find a 13 pound turkey.  That's the smallest we could find so we grabbed it.  I'll start meal planning and assessing inventory here and J. will shop tomorrow at Winco.  I'm hoping I can go with him - working Monday and Tuesday but hopeful I can leave a bit 'earlier' than usual (3PM instead of 5 or 6 would be lovely).

After 37 years, J.'s last and final paycheck was in our account Friday morning.  Now we're 'on our own'.  I'm sure we'll be fine....though Christmas is looming and that's a hard time to budget for no matter what the inflow is.  It's official - he's retired!  Though he is looking into being trained as an Affordable Care Act workers who can assist people with their insurance options. We'll see how that works out.  Mainly something to keep him busy vs. a money thing.

Some folks in our neighborhood have inflated turkey decorations on their lawns.  Others are already in full blown Christmas decor mode.  I want to have the house decorated before B. is home on the 14th so we have a lot to do - but there is no way we are decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving.  And also no way I will buy an inflatable turkey.  What's next?  Huge four leaf clovers?  Bunnies?  Hearts?  Seriously....

H. is off T-W-Th this week so that's great!  He's not getting 40 hours yet but considering he's making more than double the hourly wage he was making, he's doing OK.  He has to pay his union membership fee weekly so that's a chunk off the top...and he has to 'phone it in' weekly vs. them just deducting from his check.  He also has to pay us back weekly for the new phone we had to buy him when his old phone crumbled into bits.

I've had enough 'wake up' time so will get dressed and start the day.