Thursday, July 9

We were in no hurry to get up this morning, but we roused by 7 a.m., and after breakfast, I got on the treadmill, followed by weights exercises. After that, Hubbie and I prepared a bowl of fresh fruit for lunch later...strawberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes, and Craisins.

Then Hubbie left to go to a Master Gardener meeting, and I got ready for the day. I had nothing pressing going on today, so I started the first of the "Twilight" novels by Stephenie Meyer. It's basically a romance novel, peopled with seventeen-year-old teenagers, some of whom are vampires. Naturally, one is an ultra-beautiful male, who attacts the new girl on campus. The book is an easy read, not requiring deep thinking.

I just finished reading "Outer Banks," by Anne Rivers Siddons, also an easy read. But it is a more thought-provoking southern Gothic novel that traces four women from college to adulthood. It definitely deals with adult situations, though, where cancer becomes the "vampire" for one of the characters. The book deals with the complicated friendship among the women while they are in college, and then as they come back together for a reunion 30 years later. I've read and enjoyed several of Siddon's books.

Hubbie returned from his meeting at noon, and we fixed deli turkey and cheese sandwiches, with lettuce and Vidalia onions, and grape tomatoes with dollops of cottage cheese, and the fruit for dessert.

Afterward, we decided to go to the flea markets in search of a lid for one of my Corning Ware baking dishes. A couple of nights ago, Hubbie plunged the lid, hot from the oven, into dishwater, and it fell to pieces. So now I need a new lid.

The first flea market we visited was closed...it is only open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sunday afternoons. The three other flea markets we visited have closed down and new businesses are going into them. So we were unsuccessful in finding a lid today.

But since we were out, we stopped by a couple of outlet stores, just to look around. I found packages of gift bags at one of the stores...five bags per package for less than $1.50 each. At the second store, I found small velvet bags with drawstrings that I can use to store various jewelry pendants to protect them from scratches. I also found packages of thank-you notes for three packages for a dollar. Hubbie found a $1 journal to use in making expense, mileage, etc., notes when we're traveling.

Back home, we continued reading our novels, and then later fixed leftover stirfry and rice for our supper. Mother stayed home all day today.

Tonight, we watched the movie, "Shattered Glass," a PG-13 film about the young journalist, Stephen Glass, who fabricated facts in his articles for "The New Republic" magazine. He was able to deceive the editors, fact checkers, and copyeditors at the magazine for about three years before his lies were finally brought to light by a reporter at "Forbes" magazine.

The second film we watched was "Dead of Winter," an R-rated 1987 suspense movie starring Mary Steenburgen. The plot: Steenburgen's character, an actress, agrees to go to the mansion of a millionaire. She thinks she's going there for a screen test, but her host and others at the mansion have other plans for her.