St. Aindriu of Trader Joe's

We were out of ginger cookies, and Middlest had been unwell last evening and throughout the night. I didn't have time to make a shopping run before work, so I hit TJ's after leaving the office. The gentleman who checked me out had an interesting face and an even more interesting name. I looked at him, raised one eyebrow, and asked, "Variation on the theme of Andrew?" and he said, "Yes, exactly, and that's how you pronounce it." Turns out he has an Irish mother and a father from San Someplace. So he has a Gaelic given name and a Spanish surname, but he looked vaguely Eastern European to me. Skinny, not slavic.

Well, as my mother often said, we're all duke's mixture.

I came home with two tubs of ginger cookies and another of chocolate covered ginger, some tiny cinnamon stars, and a bag of magic beans. On my way up Greenville, when I was almost to Mockingbird, there was a sudden thwack to my mirror by a passing minivan.

Whatthehell? I switched lanes, followed to the light, turned left after her, and saw with relief that she was turning in at the first available parking lot. She walked back, concern all over her face. I rolled my window down cautiously.

"Are you OK?" she asked. "My car is OK, I think our mirrors are the only parts that collided, and mine's OK."

I thanked her for being honest, told her that my immediate reaction was Whatthehell? and she laughed and said hers, too. My mirror had been popped back but was unbroken, because we couldn't have been going more than 15 or 20 mph.

I wished her a merry Christmas. She did the same. She got back in her car and went one way. I went the other.

Poor Tardis. Shaken and stirred, but not a scratch on her.

I think I've figured out the problem with my arm last night. I think it was the way I stood when I used the long-handled shoehorn to put my sneakers on at the end of the day, because I don't remember hurting before then. By the time I was ready to change shoes today, my arm and shoulder had loosened up significantly. And they were a little tender again after I made the switch.

I think I'm on the verge of a respiratory thing. I bought some nasal saline yesterday and used it a few times, but left it on the bedside table this morning. I'm not congested or draining, but my sinuses feel tight, for lack of a better word. This weather has been so variable.

I added five or six rows to the Geology Shawl today and tonight. There are seven rows left of this pattern, and part of me wants to stay up however long it takes to knock them out. Instead, I'm going to take my meds, get off the computer, and bundle myself into bed. I'm hoping I don't have to resort to Mucinex. It gives me really weird dreams, and I have enough of those without it.