Day two and already behind?

The plan for the year is beginning to get into disarray and it is only January 2! The plan to blog- the idea that if I am awake I can blog is practical if not terribly sensible.
Michele and I had a lovely time going to the sale at Michael's. The New York Times had  a sale voucher for 20% off so I tore it out of the paper and put it in my bag to make sure I didn't forget it. We then headed up to 97th and Columbus Avenue to see what there was at Michael's. Michele was amazed by the array of goods on offer. We browsed the shelves selecting a range of paper and sticker embellishments and I bought only two more little pots of Golden paint.
We were there early and a couple of workers were setting up new displays of products- things for Valentine's Day! Already I said and the young guy stacking the shelf looked at me and nodded glumly. Thinking about it I suppose one does need time to create those craft items for this over the top celebration of "lerv" - needless to say we cruised on by this part of the store and got into serious stuff like cloud stickers and grass stickers. No idea how I'll use some of the stuff but I feel i was selective.
On our way back to the subway after a short detour to Duane Reade Michele reminded me that we were going to visit Bernard at his locale wherever he was selling today. I sent him a text message and he rang back to say that he was opposite Filene's Basement on Broadway at 79th Street so another little adventure across to Broadway. The snow clearing was still happening but in a most unusual way. We noticed  (one could hardly fail to notice actually) a bright orange grader scooping up snow and then backing out back into the middle of the 96th street and rapidly, for a grader, driving into Broadway and spilling the snow out of the scoop and onto the road. The effect on traffic was horn blaring and cars gingerly trying to skirt around both the snow and the grader. The driver continued on going back for scoop after scoop of snow. There were two other snowploughs there I presume they were distributing salt on the snow as they have very large loads on salt. It was a bit like the exercise that was happening on New Year's Eve eve on Broadway at 50th preparing the road for the big party that was occurring. However the big difference was that the traffic had not been blocked off while this truck hurtled around- no one was going to argue with a grader!
We made it safely to see Bernard and Michele contributed to the US economy recovery and Bernard's income and purchased a great etching entitled Blue Bottles. She'll get it framed when she gets home.

Over breakfast Michele read in the New York Times that Ruth Park had died at home in Australia at the age of 96. She was a wonderful writer and contributed to a great deal to adult and children's literature. The Times referred to one of her children's books which was published here under a different title. The book in Australia was (properly) called The Muddle Headed Wombat and apparently here titled The Muddle Headed Mongoose. No wonder many Americans are confused about Australian animals. To begin with wombats are not carnivorous and they do not have long faces and long bodies. In fact the opposite the a big lumps of things and look ever so friendly especially in Ruth Park's story- muddle headed kinda suits the nature of wombats but I am not too sure if that is terribly applicable to a mongoose. Am I again over-thinking this? Nah