Wednesday, March 11

After several very warm days, it was hard to face the cold today. I didn't have to get up early and go to water aerobics, but after breakfast, a treadmill session, and getting ready for the day, Hubbie and I did run errands, which meant getting out into the chilly air.

Off and on, it sleeted a little and rained a little, and a few snowflakes fell, but though winter weather, including possible snow, is predicted for our part of the state tonight and tomorrow, nothing much happened today. In fact, later in the afternoon the sun peeked through for a while.

We fear that if the temps drop much, flowering plants will be affected. Right now, the Bradford pear trees are in glorious white bloom, pink magnolias have put on showy flowers, and most yards feature brilliant yellow forsythia bushes.

All these trees and bushes were lovely to see on our trip around town this morning, which took us first to a grocery store to pick up heads of cabbage at three pounds for a dollar, and green onions at three bunches for a dollar.

From there, we went to the art gallery to leave off a donation in memory of our friend who recently died of breast cancer, and to talk with the gallery director about an idea I have for a fundraiser...a mother/daughter afternoon tea and children's fashion show at a local popular downtown restaurant the weekend before Mother's Day. The director loves the idea and is going to pursue it with the council board.

Then we went to the post office, a hardware store, and an appliance store. I meant to stop at the store that has a sale every weekend to see if I could use a $10 coupon (when you spend $25), but I forgot to take the coupon with me.

By this time, it was noon, so we came back home and had a salad lunch and then went back to town this afternoon. Since we were going to be out, Hubbie decided to fill the van with gas first. Then we stopped by the WDCS for a few grocery items. Here, we found that the price of heads of cabbage was, drat it, four pounds for a dollar!

On we went to the store that has a sale every weekened, where Hubbie dropped me off, while he went to a specialty store to pick up parts for our vacuum cleaner. I was interested in advertised ladies knit polo shirts for the summer, but the ones the store carries have cap sleeves, and my upper arms need a little more cover than that. I didn't find anything else I wanted, but I did run across a windbreaker shirt that I thought Mother might like, so I picked up one in size medium.

Mother tried it on here at home, but felt she needed a large. She's a petite, short lady, but she's pear-shaped, so it's difficult to find blouses or jackets that fit both in the shoulders and across the hips. So she opts for items that fit her hips, which in this case meant a size large.

She went back to the store with me to try on the larger size. At first she wasn't pleased with the way the shirt looked, until she decided to release the drawstring waist so that shirt flowed down over her hips. After that, we agreed that it suited her.

The windbreaker also has sleeves that have metal rings above the elbow for drawing the sleeves up. Mother will remove the rings and put elastic in the wrists of the sleeves. The shirt is bright blue and features a gathered yoke back, a zipper front and a wide collar. It looks nice on her, and will look even better with adjustments.

It was about 3:30 before we got back home. We didn't do anything of consequence for the rest of the afternoon. Supper was stuffed bell peppers, baked potatoes, and whole kernel corn. Later, Hubbie and I spent our quiet hour reading novels, and then we watched TV. I kept one eye on the movie, "Surviving the Game," while I ordered several Duo card games online, and otherwise played on my laptop.

"Surviving the Game," is an R-rated movie, starring Rutger Hauer, Ice-T, Charles S. Dutton, Gary Busey, and F. Murray Abraham. This 1994 movie is about a down-on-his-luck man (Ice-T), who becomes the quarry of a weird hunting party, the members of which pay thousands of dollars to hunt human prey. A guy movie with a disturbing premise.