Thursday, June 16

Up about 7:30, but skipped my exercises, so I could bake a lemon cake and do household tasks to get ready for company tomorrow. I needed to get as much done as possible before lunch, because Mother and I were scheduled to go to a scrapbook club meeting at 1 p.m.

One of the members called this morning and asked to ride with us to the meeting, which was fine. She has an open invitation to do that each month.

She arrived around 12:45, and by the time we got to the Extension Services office, the other member was already there. We started the meaning by taking up annual dues to be submitted to the County Extension Homemakers Council. It's really expensive to be a member of the council...a whopping $4 a year.

At the meeting, too, the member who rode with us prevailed upon me to take over the treasury, in case she has health problems (she's been experiencing dizzy spells lately). So now, I'm both president and treasurer of our four-person club. Lucky me.

We also discussed the meetings for the next couple of months, and decided to go on a field trip in July to a nearby town, where there is a big discount business that offers scrapbooking supplies. We plan to have lunch at a blue plate restaurant, where only one menu item is offered each day.

In August, the member who rode with us will bring her Cricut machine to the meeting for us to play with. I'll also bring the newest rubber stamps and punches I bought on behalf of the club.

Back home, Hubbie completed a couple of tasks...bathing Shih Tzu, and removing the old feather mattress from our bed, and putting on the new one (that arrived by UPS this morning). He didn't make the bed, since he wasn't sure if I wanted to use the old mattress cover or buy a new one. Of course, I wanted to buy a new one. So off I went to the store that has a sale every weekend, where I found one at 50% off.

Once again, a young sales clerk launched into a lengthy discussion about the marriages of her various family members. At one point, the other, middle-aged, clerk, distracted as she rang up my purchase, lost the thread of the conversation and said, "you didn't know your brother was married?"

The young clerk assured her that of course she knew her brother was married...she was talking about the brother of his wife's cousin, or something (I couldn't sort out what she was talking about, either).

"Sounds like an episode of "Wisteria Lane," I said. "Or Peyton Place," the other clerk laughed.

As I was leaving, the first clerk launched back into her recitation, as the other clerk smiled blandly and nodded.

Spent the rest of the afternoon continuing to spruce the house, including using lint rollers on the couches to remove cat hair.

For supper, we had the remainder of the sauteed squash and steamed potatoes, to which we added helpings of baked beans, and sliced tomatoes.

We debated whether or not to attend a community theater play tonight, but we are pooped, so we decided to go to the final performance on Saturday night. That might be a better night, anyway, since Daughter will be here, and I'm sure she'd like to go.

So Mother went home after supper, and Hubbie and I watched the 2003 Lifetime Movie Network feature, "Wicked Minds." A young man returns home from college, and meets his abusive father's stunning, flirtatious wife. He falls for the wife, the father turns up dead, and there's a long list of suspects. Surprise ending.

The second feature we watched was another Lifetime Movie Network offering..."Alone With a Stranger." A man adopted a very young child is raised in a well-to-do home, but as an adult is surprised when a twin he doesn't remember shows up. The brother lived with an neglectful alcoholic. He is enraged about his brother's fortune and his own misfortune. He plans to see that his brother is killed, so he can take over his comfy life.