Saturday, Sept. 18

We got up around 7 a.m., but I skipped my exercises, because we wanted to visit some of the yard sales in a county-wide yard sale event. We started on Main Street, where there were only three sales set up.

We didn't find much, so we scouted around the downtown area looking for others. Nothing there. We decided to check out another part of town, where we had more success. I bought several hardback novels for fifty cents each, and a 713-page volume of "The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm," for twenty-five cents. Because they are fascinating, I'll read the tales myself and then pass the volume on to a family member.

I also found a few scrapbooking items, including a pair of decorative scissors, a Christmas themed rubber stamp, and a heart-shape punch.

One of the sales was at the home of a now retired Extension Services agent (she retired to become caretaker to her elderly and ill mother). We were glad for the opportunity to visit with her, and we promised that we would call her in a couple of weeks to make a lunch date.

Most of the items she had for sale were child or teen related (her daughter is now grown and working in Branson, and her son is a freshman in college), but she did have a large, beautiful book on flower arranging, entitled "Flowers, The Book of Floral Design," by Malcolm Hillier, published in 2000, that she priced at only one dollar. The book begins with a history of flower arranging dating back to ancient Egypt and Japan, and proceeds to basic equipment and container information, followed by floral designs for every season and occasion. It's such an attractive book that it'll join others in my living room, so I can refer to it often.

Hubbie bought a few items, including planters and a ramp for loading the lawnmower onto a trailer when he needs to take it for repairs. He got the ramp for three dollars, because it was late in the morning, and the guy running the sale was ready to pack it in. So when we walked away, having bought nothing, he said that he would make us real good deals on anything we wanted, and Hubbie wanted the ramp.

Mother went with us on our yard sale excursion, but she only got out of the van twice, despite the fact that it was actually her idea to go to the sales. She just doesn't have enough strength in her legs to frequently climb in and out of the van, or enough energy to do a lot of walking.

When we were done with the sales, we decided to have lunch at a newly remodeled restaurant. Older Niece used to work at the restaurant. Now it has been renovated to look rustic, with wood siding, a wrap-around porch, and heavy oak tables and chairs both in the dining room and on the porch. The menu features several specialty items like Reuben, club, and Philly steak sandwiches. Mother and I chose the club sandwiches, but Hubbie just went with the monster burger. The lunch was Mother's treat.

We stopped at a couple of more sales on the way home, but didn't find anything else of interest. At home, I fixed a made-from-scratch banana pudding, using skim milk, sugar substitute, and egg substitute. When the pudding cooled, I layered the pudding with reduced fat vanilla wafers, and bananas we'd bought on sale yesterday.

Later, Hubbie and I watched our favorite college football team play to an amazing win with a touchdown in the last forty-eight seconds of the game. While we watched the game, Mother fixed Parmesan potatoes for the oven.

We had the potatoes for supper, with pork barbecue sandwiches, and corn on the cob. Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I settled in front of TV. We saw the 2009, PG-13, movie called "Obsessed," starring Idris Elba, Beyonce Knowles, and Ali Larter. An office temp becomes obsessed with her boss to the point of threatening his relationship with his family (sound familiar?).

Note: Mother is beginning to show some forgetfulness. Today, after I'd made the pudding from a recipe in a very old cookbook that belongs to Mother, I mentioned I needed to copy the recipe for my files. She said she thought I had already done that, and she went through three binders of collected recipes and finally found it. Later, as she was leaving for her house, cookbook in hand, she commented that she needed to find the copy of the pudding recipe for me. I asked if she'd forgotten that she already did that today. She thought about it and then laughed and nodded.

I'm forgetful, too...after all, I forgot I'd already copied the recipe, but I'd done that a long time ago. If enough time passes, I forget a lot of things, but usually not something I've done on the same day.