Here's an example of why it feels like I never accomplish much of anything. About 10 a.m., I was searching Bartlett's for a quote I needed for a writing project when I stumbled upon some excerpts from 'The Country of the Pointed Firs' by Sarah Orne Jewett. The writing was magical, and I went on to read all the Sarah Orne Jewett quotes that Bartlett's had wisely included in the collection.

Not satisfied, I went to Amazon to see about buying a copy of Pointed Firs. They had it in stock and it was even at a reduced price. Pointed Firs went into my shopping cart and up popped a message telling me that I was only $21.47 away from free shipping. I decided to look for other Sarah Orne Jewett books while, at the same time, checking out the bargain book bins. I found some amazing buys and took a little time to read reviews and research authors on the web. Some of the bargains were too good to pass up and went into the cart along with Pointed Firs. (I know some day I'll have time to read all these gems.)

Then I remembered that I wanted to replace some old favorite videos on VHS with DVD formats. When I found 'Babette's Feast' on DVD, Amazon thoughtfully informed me that others who'd bought Babette had also bought-and there was a list of videos that lovers of Babette had found necessary to add to their libraries. Some I was familiar with, like 'The Big Night' that went into my cart along with Babette. Others were new to me and I took a few minutes to look them over.

My cart was now filling fast with Pointed Firs, three more books from the clearance shelves and the two DVDs. I had easily reached the $25.00 for free shipping and decided I'd better check out. It had been a while since my last order and the credit card Amazon had on file was expired. I had to physically locate the card to update the expiration date.

While looking in my wallet, I found a note with a friend's phone number and realized I'd forgotten to call her with a piece of information she needed. I quickly made the call and enjoyed a short chat. She told me about a peach dessert she had tried that was good, so I copied the recipe down over the phone, thanked her and we said goodbye. I was glad to get the recipe because I have a stock of canned peaches from an ambitious Costco buy. One of the other ingredients was a stick of butter so I took one from the refrigerator to soften, felt the meat that was supposed to be thawing the safe way in the fridge, found it still frozen and removed it to the counter to speed up the process.

At this point I figured I could just as well let the meat thaw in the baking pan which, for several reasons, is stored on top of the cabinets in the utility room. Since I'm short, it's always a bit of a trick to retrieve my special pans that line the top of the cabinet. The easiest way I've found is to grab the yardstick on the wall next to the dryer, stick it through one of the handles of a pan and pull it slowly toward me while tipping it slightly. On most days I'm coordinated enough to catch it as it falls.

Since I was already in the utility room, I transferred a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer and hung up a polyester hiking shirt that my husband insists should be air-dried. Then I carried the pan to the kitchen, unwrapped the meat and placed it in the pan. We keep potatoes in the garage, so I grabbed a colander and went to the garage to retrieve four of five of the cold spuds to add later to the roast. I poured the last cup of coffee, rinsed out the pot and decided to start a batch of decaf. The Tupperware keeper where we store coffee (meant for 9x13 cakes) was a little low on choices so I went to the garage (again-our back-up storage pantry) and got two boxes of Gevalia and another handful of filters. After starting a pot of mocha I finished loading the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher. That's when I spotted the credit card on the counter.

Chuckling slightly at my attention deficit, I headed back to the desk, credit card in hand. At the computer I updated the expiration date, completed my order and, with email confirmation in hand, stood up, stretched and realized that I felt hungry. Maybe it was just the smell of freshly brewed coffee stimulating my salivary glands. But no, surprisingly, it was lunchtime.

While heating up reduced-salt vegetable beef soup, I finally remembered the quotation I'd begun looking for almost two hours ago. Well, well, well. Now if I could only remember what I was supposed to be doing while I wrote this!