Wednesday, Jan. 30

January is winding down...only one day left.

We were up at 6:30 this morning, but I skipped my exercises, because we needed to get ready to go to a town about an hour and a half east to shop, and have lunch with Hubbie's sisters.

We left home around 9 p.m., and arrived in the other town by 10:30. Our first stop was at a hobby shop, where I bought blank cards in white and ivory, glue squares, stickers, and a couple of on-sale rubber stamps. I'd printed two 40% off coupons...one for Hubbie, and one for me...to use on the highest priced items.

From there, we went to an intimate apparel shop, so I could use a $10 birthday gift certificate from the store to buy five tubes of on-sale hand cream.

By this time, it was 11:30, so we headed to the restaurant to meet Hubbie's sisters for lunch at a popular Italian restaurant. Hubbie and I opted for our favorite meal...soup, salad, and bread sticks...for which I used a birthday gift card given to me by one of Hubbie's sisters.

Funny: one of Hubbie's sisters discovered that her silverware was not clean and asked the waiter to bring another set. He disappeared for quite a while, so in the meantime she went to another table, where an elderly man and woman were seated, and grabbed what she thought was an extra set of napkin-wrapped silverware.

"Is it okay if I take these?" she asked.

"NO!" the old man said, snatching the silverware from her. "Those are mine!"

Sis, embarrassed, hurried back to our table, deciding it would be best to wait for the waiter to bring her another set.

Following lunch, Hubbie and I went to the warehouse club store for grocery and other items. Headed home after that, around 2 p.m.

We were surprised to see Mother and Sis here, since it was raining when we left this morning, and turned cold and windy this afternoon. But they were comfortable in the living room working on a jigsaw puzzle.

Later, we fixed a supper of potato soup, with chicken salad sandwiches, made with homemade white bread that Sis brought with her yesterday. After supper, we played six games of Skipbo, with Mother, Hubbie, and I winning two games each. None for Sis this time, though she has challenged us to a rematch tomorrow night.

Around 9 p.m., Sis and Mother went to Mother's house, and Hubbie and I watched TV for a while, including an episode of the second season of "Dallas."

Note: I was glad to see that the article I'd written about the upcoming readers' theater production was in the newspaper tonight. If it hadn't been, I would have had to call the editor to make sure it had arrived in her e-mail. The article appeared on the front page, above an article by one of the reporters about the book that the play's director has written. The two articles occupied half of the front page, and all of page two.

The book author and and play director called me this evening to thank me for writing one article and setting up the interview for the other. He was elated with both, and hopes they will inspire folks to attend the performance. If audience attendance is low, it won't be because we haven't put forth our best effort in promoting it.

Also got an e-mail from one of the actors in the play inviting Hubbie and me to a cast party after the performance Saturday night. The hostess will provide drinks for the party, but she asks that the rest of us bring food. I think I'll take onion/chive dip, and veggie chips.