Thursday, March 23

Today is Niece's birthday. Happy Birthday, Niece! It's also the birthday of one of my friends, with whom I worked years ago in the capital city. I must call her, since I forgot to put a card in the mail.

We were up at 6:30 this morning, so I could get ready to go to water aerobics. It was a sunny morning, though quite a bit chillier than it has been. I love the sun, but exiting my driveway was tricky, since it was difficult to see the road to my right, thanks to the glare and the undergrowth along the neighbor's fence.

The slightly wet road leading to the college was like a mirror with a huge spotlight shining on it. Between the sun and the glare from the road, I had to slow to a snail's pace, squint toward the grassy right hand side of the road, and just crawl along until I got to a shaded area.

Arrived at the parking lot safely, and enjoyed the cool walk to the gym. The water was pleasant today. I was told that it was pretty chilly on Wednesday, making me feel better about wimping out of going. Only eight showed up that day, though a dozen of us were there today.

Our leader commented that the man who had surgery to replace a heart valve is still in the hospital, because it became necessary to implant a pacemaker. She also told us that she will be having cataract surgery next week, so we will be led by a substitute for a few days.

Back home, once I was ready for the day, I went to the clinic for a blood test. This is a re-test to check if my white blood cell count is now normal...it was a little low, I was told, which might indicate that I had a silent virus. Hopefully, I tested normal this time.

At home again, Mother and Sis were visiting at our house, while Mother finished a jigsaw puzzle. Since I was busy all morning, Sis helped Mother with her shower today.

I put together a lunch of hoagie sandwiches, served with chips and cottage cheese, and followed with servings of chocolate cake.

After lunch, Sis and I went shopping. We started at the greeting card shop, where I used a 20% off coupon to buy a jigsaw puzzle featuring cats...a Mother's Day gift.

From there, we went to a pharmacy store, where Sis bought two cartons of hair color using extra $2 coupons that I had, and I bought a cheap bottle of nail polish to match a blouse I'm wearing to the Red Hot Luncheon Monday.

Then we went to a boutique shop, where I used a $10 off $20 purchase to buy a reed diffuser gift set, and three pretty purse-size jars of hand cream. I gave one to Sis, kept one for myself, and set one aside for Daughter.

We went to a store that has a sale every weekend after that. There, Sis and I both bought sandals advertised in the store's newspaper insert. We used 20% off coupons for the shoes. Neither of us like open-toe sandals, so these pairs of closed-toe slingbacks are just right. And they're very comfortable. We both opted for the tan color.

Our last stop was the WDCS, where we shopped for Mother.

It was sunny to partly cloudy when we left on our shopping trip, but began sprinkling as we traveled home.

While we were gone, Mother cut zucchini, yellow squash, and onions for the steamer. She also prepared fresh salmon for the oven. Hubbie scrubbed sweet potatoes for the oven, too.

I put the potatoes in the oven, and started the squash cooking. Then, while Mother and Sis worked on another jigsaw puzzle, and Hubbie watched a basketball game on TV, I washed a load of clothes, and played on my computer.

When the potatoes were done, I put the salmon in the oven, and by 5 p.m. supper was ready. Funny: I didn't notice until I was filling Mother's plate that I'd only baked three sweet potatoes. I'm so used to preparing for three that I forgot about Sis. Fortunately, the potatoes I baked were enormous, so three were sufficient for the four of us.

After supper, we played nine games of Duo, with Mother once again running away with five of them. Sis and I each won two, and Hubbie went out with a goose egg.

Sis and Mother went to her house after that. Hubbie popped popcorn for us, and we settled in to watch Kentucky play Indiana in an NCAA game. Kentucky won, as expected.