Sunday, July 24

Up at 7:30, and did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast. Once I was ready for the day, I did several loads of wash, and other household tasks. Mother came over around 9:30, and put chicken in the slow cooker for lunch.

We had the chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy, boiled yellow squash from our garden, and sliced tomatoes. Very yummy meal.

After lunch, we went to the fairgrounds to pick up our entries, ribbons, and award checks. Everything that we made (and it's a tidy sum) goes to Mother for her "mad money"...to use for entertainment, or whatever she wants.

Back home, I counted the ribbons...74 blue (first place), and 14 red (second place), plus one Best of Show that Mother won. There were lots of nice comments on the entry tags. The tag on my garden basket noted that it had been considered for Best of Show.

We were a little amused by the judge's comments on our baked goods. All but one entry were given blue ribbons, with comments that the cookies, muffins, and breads were "tasty, with good texture," followed with the comment that they were "too dry"...except for one entry that was, in the judge's estimation, "too moist."

The judge obviously doesn't like chocolate, because our candy entries all had "too much cocoa" in them, when, in fact, none of them had cocoa. We used chocolate morsels. We didn't mind the comments, because we got blue ribbons on our entries, anyway.

All our greeting cards got blue ribbons, too, with lots of nice comments. My quilled card was also considered for best of show.

We're glad we saw fit to go collect our entries at 1 p.m., because around 2 p.m., a severe thunderstorm cropped up, with scary lightening and loud claps of thunder. A time or two, we lost our power for a few seconds. During one of those times, Mother was coming out of the kitchen when lightening caused a frying sound in there. We found nothing amiss, however.

Later, we had an afternoon snack of peaches and ice cream, and then relaxed for a couple of hours. We intended to go to the college tonight for an outdoor showing of "The Blind Side," but it was probably cancelled due to inclement weather. Whether it was or not, we decided to just watch it at home, since I'd recorded it on DVR just in case.

Hubbie and I saw this really great movie at the theater, but it was the first viewing for Mother. She is as enchanted by it as we are. Afterward, I walked her to her house, in case the ground was slick from the rain. The rain had quit, but it was still overcast, and the foggy atmosphere was thick with humidity. Mosquitoes were out in force, too...another good reason for not attending an outdoor movie.

After Mother went home, Hubbie and I watched the 2002 sports movie, "Goal 2: Living the Dream." A small-town kid continues his dream of becoming a professional soccer player.

Note: we're glad to see hummingbirds are at last visiting the feeders. I guess they've been here all along, but found the nectar of the spring flowers more to their liking. Now, since there aren't many flowers to choose from other than rose of Sharon and zinnias, the birds welcome the nectar in the feeders, since they need to concentrate on fueling up for their long migration later in September.