This weekend I did not clean house to any astonishing degree, I did not ride public transportation, and I did not do laundry. This weekend, I ate and shopped.

Mostly for me (regardless of the season, cleaning supplies, paper towels, and shampoo must be bought) but a little bit for others.

Saturday, after taking public transportation all week to avoid driving on bad roads, I hopped in my little car and drove ten miles northwest in a snowstorm, on already-icy roads, to have lunch with a dear friend and a couple of strangers who are now by way of being acquaintances and who may someday, who knows, become friends. Really nice people, both of them.

As if to reward me for this feat of derring-do, the food and conversation were excellent, the skies cleared, the roads dried off, and three hours later I puttered home again to scoop up the R.C. and go on the long-planned shopping expedition.

The R.C.'s office "adopts" needy families every year and they employees draw to see which kids they're going to buy presents for. This year, she got a teenage boy so we got him a basketball (my contribution) and a CD player. (I hope I got the right basketball. Who knew there were different types of basketballs?)

Yesterday we tried a different store. I bought moisturizer for me and no gifts.

I dug around in my Gift Closet to see what I've accumulated for others for this holiday season so far. The pile was less-impressive than I might have hoped, owing to a few critical items being on order, but I'm doing pretty well. Mom's pretty much taken care of, and she's one of the tough ones, so that's a relief.

The R.C., overachiever that she is, already has things wrapped and under the tree but, me being me, I think it's amazing enough that I have almost everything purchased at this point.

Okay, not almost everything. But about half the stuff I need. And I pretty much know what I'm getting everyone, it's just a matter of getting to the right stores.

It was not an eventful weekend, but it was a very enjoyable one.