Friday, Jan. 20

Today is Sis's birthday. Happy Birthday, Sis!

We were up at 6:30 on this downright cold morning, so I could get ready to go to water aerobics. It has been weeks since I've been to the pool, so I was thrilled to be back in the water.

Nineteen of us showed up today, including a couple of other women who hadn't attended in a long time. One was the lady whose daughter was killed by her husband in a murder-suicide tragedy. The other was the woman who was treated for basal cell carcinoma.

Our leader was very excited to see the three of us and a few others who hadn't been attending for a variety of reasons. We now have two new members, one of whom is a young man in his twenties, who suffered a broken back in an automobile accident last August. His doctor recommended water aerobic therapy. We're glad to have him, and he seems quite comfortable among us senior ladies. We must seem like a pool full of doting grandmas to him.

Back home, after I'd gotten ready for the day, we made a trip to a town about an hour and a half east of us to meet Hubbie's sister and niece for lunch at an Italian restaurant.

His niece, who lives in another state, was here for a week's vacation, but will return to her home tomorrow. Niece is four months pregnant and still suffering morning sickness that she says last pretty much all day. This is keeping her from enjoying her pregnancy. She doesn't yet know the sex of the baby, but is hoping for a boy.

Hubbie's sister, being the sweet and thoughtful person that she is, gave me a little birthday gift of a journal and a stack of pretty notepads.

After lunch, we went shopping...Sister-in-Law and Niece going in one direction, and Hubbie, Mother and I in another. Our first stop was an intimate apparel shop, where I used a $10 birthday gift card from the store to buy on-sale tubes of hand cream. Mother stayed in the van while we went into the mall.

Then we went to a hobby store. We'd taken the wheelchair, so Mother enjoyed shopping here. We bought a couple of packages of plain white note cards, large ones and small ones, as well as sheets of patterned papers to use in making scrapbook pages of the new grandbaby girl, plus a punch that dials three different corner patterns. I'd printed two 40% off coupons from the store's website this morning...Hubbie used one to buy one of higher-priced items, and Mother used the other one. If I'd been thinking straight, I would have printed three coupons, and used one myself.

Our last stop was at the wholesale club store, where we picked up bulk paper products, and several bulk or large size boxed and canned food items, plus fresh produce...Little Cuties oranges and Gala apples for Mother, and grapes and apples for Hubbie and me. Once again, Mother preferred to stay in the van while we shopped.

We headed back home around 3:30 p.m. Along the way, we saw hundreds of Canadian geese feeding in the boggy rice fields, and hawks...at least a half dozen of them...perched on the crossbars of power poles, scanning the ditches alongside the fields looking for small prey like field mice.

At home, I accompanied Mother to her house. After unloading the van, Hubbie and I had a supper of leftover potato soup, with crackers and cheese, and slices of fresh apple. This is a variety of apple that is new to me...Honeycrisp. It's a delicious very crisp fruit with a sweet honey-like flavor. They are large, so one apple is enough to serve two.

Later, we watched the 2010 movie, "The Wolfman," starring Simon Merrells, and Anthony Hopkins. In 1890's England, an American man returns to his ancestral home, but runs afoul of a werewolf, and is himself turned into a werewolf. Things naturally go from bad to worse as the beast rips and tears a bloody trail through humankind. If you're squeamish, this isn't the film for you.