Tuesday, January 19

We were up at 7 a.m. this morning, but I skipped my exercises so I could get ready to go to another town east of us to shop and have lunch with Hubbie's sisters. We headed over there about 8:30 a.m. It was an overcast, but mild morning. About halfway there, the sun broke through a hole in the clouds, casting bright sunbeams on the marshy rice fields, where a large flock of Canadian geese grazed.

We arrived at Daughter's house around 10 a.m. Hubbie's ex, with whom we have a friendly relationship (they were divorced many years before we met), was there, along with Daughter's housekeeper. So Mother had company while Hubbie and I shopped.

We went first to a hobby store, where I found two beautiful brushed silver frames and a silver mat for the portraits of my kids. The frames and mat were on sale at half price, so they were a real bargain, the total cost of which was the same as the gift card the kids gave me. So Hubbie charged the frames to his credit card, and I gave him my gift card in exchange.

From there, we went to an intimate apparel shop at the mall, where I spent a $10 birthday gift card from the store to buy on sale tubes of hand cream. While at the mall, we also went to the discount variety store, where I looked for stemmed glassware to add to the sixteen I already have, but they don't appear to carry that brand anymore.

After that, we went back to Daughter's house to pick up Mother and Ex to go meet Hubbie's sisters at a buffet restaurant for lunch. Before we left, Ex showed me a beautiful quilt top that she's making for her bed. Ex is a skilled quilter and has made many of them over the years for her family. I admire her skill, though it was never one I was interested in learning.

When we got to the restaurant, we found that one of the sister's had brought along a friend, so there were seven of for lunch...Hubbie picked up the tab for all of us, and the extra guest took care of the tip.

We took Mother and Ex back to Daughter's house after lunch, and then we went shopping again. This time, we went to one of the stores that has a sale every weekend, where I used a 20% off coupon to buy a suede-like chocolate brown jacket from the 70% off rack...I got the jacket for $10.

Then we went to a Christian book store, where there was a 90% off sale on Christmas cards, and we selected six boxes of them, which we got for about $7.

From there, we went to the warehouse club store, where we got a surround sound system, plus various fresh fruit and other grocery items. Hubbie stopped by the club gas station to fill the van, and then we went back to Daughter's house.

Ex and the housekeeper were gone, but Daughter had arrived home from work, so we were glad to get to visit with her for a short while before we headed home. As we were traveling, I hollered, "Deer!" and Hubbie braked just as a young buck bounded within a couple of feet of the front of the van and dashed off into the field on the other side. We've never hit a deer, but I can certainly see why it's so easy to do...in the dusky late afternoon light, the deer's brown color blended perfectly with the similar colored tall, winter, field grass, so that I didn't catch sight of it until it leaped onto the road.

We got back home about 6 p.m. Shih Tzu was plenty ready to arrive, since she had spent all day in the van. And since we hadn't thought to bring extra food for her, she was hungry for her supper.

Since we'd had a large lunch, we didn't eat again until around 8 p.m., and then we had cereal and toast, while we watched the movie, "The Life of David Gale." This 2003 R-rated movie (for language, nudity, and sexual content) stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet. A respected professor, who is an anti-capital punishment crusader in Texas (where more executions take place than anywhere else in the U.S.) is accused of rape, and is himself placed on death row. Winslet plays a reporter who investigates Gale's claim of innocence during his last four days on death row.