Friday, March 4

Today is Mother's 89th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mother!

I was up around 7 a.m. Proceeded with my morning a little differently today. While I waited for my thyroid medication to take effect before breakfast, I cooked a double batch of lemon pudding, and let it cool while I ate, did a treadmill session and resistance exercises, and got ready for the day.

Mother and Sis came over while I was upstairs and worked on the jigsaw puzzle. When I got back downstairs, I made a recipe of spaghetti sauce for tomorrow night's supper. By that time, the lemon pudding had cooled enough to be spread on the lemon cake I baked yesterday, so I made a merigue icing to top the cake and pudding.

Later, I prepared a lunch of leftovers...cold meatloaf sandwiches for Sis and Hubbie, the turkey wrap we brought home from the restaurant yesterday for me, and the chicken salad from the restaurant for Mother. Hubbie, Sis, and Mother enjoyed servings of the lemon cake for dessert, while I had a chocolate cupcake and a small dish of strawberries (because I'm allergic to the yellow dye in the cake and pudding).

After lunch, I drove Sis to her haircut appointment at the beauty shop that Mother and I use.
As we were traveling down the road from our house, there was a strange noise on top of the van...like someone riding up there and pounding on the roof. Very eerie, like some sort of urban legend.

I looked in the rear view mirror, thinking that something would fly off the van, but it didn't. So we pulled off the road, and Sis got out and checked it out. She found that there was a floor mat up there, the edge of which was shut in the doors. It had been flapping in the wind and whopping the top of the van.

As if that were not enough, on the way home from Sis's appointment, the right rear turn signal on the van suddenly quit working. Yesterday it was animal frustrations, and today it was the van.

When we got home, I alerted Hubbie about the turn signal, and he went immediately to an auto service and got the bulb in the light changed. By the time he got back, we were ready to head to another town about forty-five minutes away to have dinner at a favorite restaurant in honor of Mother's birthday.

We arrived early and decided to shop a little until suppertime. So Hubbie dropped us off at a discount store, while he went to a home improvement store. We'd brought along Mother's wheelchair, because we weren't sure if the store would have one. As it happened, they did, but we used Mother's anyway.

Sis wheeled Mother around the store, while I browsed through a display of $3 DVD movies. I found four that I think we'll enjoy, and then moved on to explore the scrapbooking aisle. The only thing I found there was a package of sticky-back borders that will work in making greeting cards.

I took a brief tour of the rest of the store, and then met Mother and Sis at the checkout counter. Mother had one item...a box of hummingbird food. As we were checking out, Hubbie arrived.

Since it still was too early to eat, we drove around the small town for a while, and then went to the WDCS to pick up a couple of items. By then, it was time to go to the restaurant. Hubbie fed, watered, and walked Shih Tzu before we went in.

Mother thoroughly enjoyed her meal of baked white fish, lots of macaroni and cheese, glazed carrots, fried okra, and coleslaw. She loves the fish and mac and cheese at this restaurant. The rest of us enjoyed our meals...so much so that we probably ate too much.

It's been a very dreary day with on and off rain. On the way home, there was a brief spell of pretty heavy rain, but it abated by the time we arrived. Mother and Sis stayed at our house for a little while to watch the news I'd recorded on the DVR, and then went on to Mother's house.

Hubbie and I watched the year 2000 French movie (dubbed in English), "With a Friend like Harry," about a couple of men who went to high school together and then meet accidently in adulthood. One man insinuates himself into the other's life and things turn sinister.