Tuesday, July 19

Up around 7 a.m. this morning, and did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast. Once I was ready for the day, we all went to the fairgrounds to enter crafts, canned good, veggies (only tomatoes this year), and a garden basket.

Then we took a tour around the women's building exhibits, before going to the commercial building. This year, the fair board air conditioned the commercial building and added double doors with an entryway in between to keep the cool air inside. I wonder if the fair board will EVER see fit to air condition the women's building???

All the vendors were not set up yet in the commercial building, but we registered for door prizes at the booths that were set up. No one was manning the booths, but they had left entry slips and boxes or bowls on the tables for anyone who dropped by early, like us.

We picked up handheld fans for us, and coloring/activity books, and stickers, for grandkids. We didn't turn down the mini-chocolate bars at the Caring Hands booth, either.

Then we went to the veggie shed, where Hubbie agreed to help register entries between 11 a.m. and noon. We noticed that fair entries are way down this year...maybe due to the extremely hot weather. If others are like us, their gardens haven't fared well in the heat. Hot weather also makes folks want to hibernate in their air conditioned homes.

Mother and I came back home just after 11 a.m., but didn't accomplish anything else before lunch. After lunch, I made a coffee cake, while Hubbie ran errands.

For supper, we had leftover barbecued ribs, with baked sweet potatoes, and coleslaw. Mother insisted on washing the potatoes for the oven, but then she promptly fell asleep in her favorite rocking chair. She was done in from her excursion to the fair this morning.

I'm glad I was here to watch the potatoes, and finish other supper preparations, because I don't know when she would have awakened. I worry about her cooking and baking at her house without supervision, for fear she could start a fire. I think I'll suggest she set a timer by her chair that would awaken her.

We baked nine potatoes tonight, which was all that was left from a huge batch we bought for ten cents a pound at the WDCS back in the fall. They were beginning to sprout, so it was time to cook them, eat a few, and freeze the rest.

Mother went home after supper, and Hubbie and I toured the yard searching for what flowers we could find for me to make an arrangement to enter in the fair tomorrow. We found a variety of colors of zinnias, cone flowers, rose of Sharon, coleus leaves, and vines...enough to make a fairly attractive arrangement in a Mason jar, tied with a raffia bow. This is similar to arrangements I've made the past few years for the fair, one of which won a Grand Champion award over much more elaborate ones. I think the judge that year found mine appealing, because I'd obviously gathered the flowers from my yard, rather than using commercial ones. This year, I'll be happy just to get a blue ribbon, though.

Later, since I'd recorded no movies on DVR that we were interested in tonight, we watched one-hour shows I'd recorded from TNT channel: "The Closer," "Rizzoli and Isles," and "Memphis Beat."