A Walk

First of all, Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you had an enjoyable day. Love You.

J.D. and I walked to his new place of employment today. It was 2.5 miles, one way. It took longer than the 30 minutes we initially planned because all the Clayton residential streets twist and turn and often dead end. But we had a lovely time walking all the same. The weather here is weird for August. When we moved here 7 years ago, it was humid and hot as hell. We pretty much thought about loading everything right back in the van and turning around to go home. But we didn't. This summer there have only been a few days when the temperature went near or over 100. Today it was probably in the high 80s.

As we walk, J.D. and I like to analyze what we like and dislike about each house. We both like brick houses. We're not fond of funky looking colors or designs. We like classic, simple designs with well-kept yards. Today we commented a lot on the immensity of the homes around here. I honestly can't imagine that kind of money. We don't want a Mansion or McMansion, just a nice house someday. We really don't want a McMansion. They annoy us. We want someplace with unique character and not the homogeneous collective or tiny patch of land found with McMansions.

After walking by Clayton's well-to-do housing, we went into the business downtown area. We went into Straub's for the first time, just to look around. As a general rule, you know you're in a fancy-schmancy grocery store when you walk in and see a spiral staircase. J.D. teased me when I was looking at some different types of pastas in the corner: "Tammy come over here, you're on the low-class side of the aisle." I don't know what would possess anyone to pay $6.00 for a handful of grapes... but I guess if you've got money to burn.

After shopping and not buying anything, we wandered over to a place for lunch called "Oceano." The seafood was good and not too expensive, surprisingly.

We strolled home, left-overs in tow.