Friday, Oct. 19

Up at 6:30 to get ready for water aerobics. Chilly and windy morning that required both fleece wear and a jacket. The pool was nice and warm, though, and twenty-two of us enjoyed the session.

The group was to meet for lunch at 11 a.m. at an Italian restaurant, but I opted to go to the college's convocation events instead.

I left the aerobics session a little earlier than usual, so I would have time to get ready for the event, which was also scheduled for 11 a.m. Hubbie and I dressed in Sunday best for this...he in a suit and tie, and I in a pantsuit.

The convocation began in the fine arts auditiorium, with a processional, led by the bagpipe band. Then the former president of the college gave the address. He was president of the college when I graduated from there, and he is a very good speaker.

Various other dignitaries gave short speeches too, in praise of the new commons center and dining hall, for which this year's convocation is dedicated. The old building burned, when someone set fire to a trash can in the dining hall that spread throughout the building, totally destroying it. It has taken two years to rebuild. But the new building is state of the art, completely paid for by insurance and private donations.

Following the speeches, and music performed by the community/college concert chorale, the bagpipe band led us all across campus to the commons center, where a ribbon-cutting ceremony took place.

After the ribbon cutting, we were all invited to enjoy a complimetary lunch in the dining hall. Two rows of buffet serving areas were set up, and kitchen staff served us fried rice, corn/tomato/onion/bell pepper medley, steamed broccoli, cheesy potatoes, and baked turkey breast, carved on the spot. We were on our own to choose desserts. I chose dark chocolate cake, and chocolate soft-serve ice cream. Hubbie chose bread pudding and vanilla soft-serve ice cream. We each had steaming cups of coffee to go with dessert.

Following dessert, we toured the facility.

Funny: before we did that, we visited the bathrooms, where I had difficulty locking my stall door. Had to lift up on the door to get the lock to slide into the receptacle. I reasoned that when I was ready to leave, I could just lift up on the lock to release it. Well, no. No amount of lifting, tugging, or anything else I tried released the lock.

I began to think I would either need to scream for help, or get down on hands and knees, and then belly-crawl under the door. But finally the lock released. Now, though, I couldn't open the door. I pushed and pushed, with with little result. I was finally able to open the door just a tiny bit, and wedge myself out.

An older woman was standing outside. "I don't know what's wrong with that door," I said, frustrated.

She looked at me with a straight face, and calmly said, "The door opens inward."

When I related the bathroom story to Hubbie, he laughed and said he thought he knew what caused the problem. It was the color of my hair.

We toured both floors of the building that not only includes a kitchen, and the huge dining room, but a bistro, with outdoor seating on the second floor, an exercise room, a book store, a gallery, a game room, a media room, large and small conference rooms, a student government room, and student life suite for student support services.

It was about 1:30 before we got back home. Before I came indoors, I went to Mother's house to accompany her to our house.

I changed clothes, and then Mother and I made a batch of pumpkin muffins. The recipe made twenty-four muffins that will be good with stews and soups I plan to make over the weekend.

Funny: the muffins call for apple juice. I thought I had an individual serving of it in a sealed plastic container that I'd brought home from Mother's house...we'd gotten the juice at a food event we attended some time back. But I couldn't find the juice anywhere in the refrigerator.

I was sure Hubbie had found it and drunk it. He said he didn't remember drinking it, but he's been known to eat and drink things before without asking if I had a use for them. So I chastised him about the the juice, and said that he could just immediately go to the store and buy a bottle of it!

As I went on-and-on, chiding Hubbie about the missing juice, and how, after the nearly 32 years we've been married, he has never learned to check with me before devouring everything in sight, I picked up the gallon container of milk in the refrigerator, and lo, behind it was that little container of juice. Oops! My bad. Time to apologize. Hubbie thoroughly enjoyed my embarrassment.

When the muffins were in the oven, Mother retired to the couch for a nap, while Hubbie went to the barber shop for a haircut, and I did this and that, including confirming my mammogram appointment, because I got a message from my clinic that the appointment was for Nov. 15, instead of Nov. 6. It's for Nov. 6, as I thought.

I also called the scrapbook club member who could not attend the meeting yesterday to tell her we are thinking about visiting a pioneer village in another town the first weekend in Nov., if she wishes to join us. This would be considered an educational trip for us, for which we'll use club treasury money.

Then I played on my laptop until time to prepare supper, which was leftover Chinese soup. We sampled the pumpkin muffins with it.

Afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house. I thought she'd want to take a shower tonight, but she did not, so I returned home.

Hubbie and I spent the rest of the evening watching TV.