Saturday, June 1

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

The first day of a new month...and what a rainy one. If it doesn't stop soon, I'm going to mildew.

We were up around 8 a.m., but it took a while for me get in the mood to exercise, since it was dark and stormy outside. I finally did an abbreviated session of just stair stepping, and then got ready for the day.

Once the rain had stopped, and Hubbie had cleared a path for Mother to walk on, he accompanied her to our house.

This morning, I decided to rescue some items from the refrigerator, before they went completely south. First, I put prunes and orange slices in a jar and poured hot water over them to hydrate and soften them. I remember Mother doing this when I was younger.

Then, I mixed sour milk and soured cottage cheese together and blended them in the blender. I used this to make a ginger cake (which calls for sour milk, anyway. It turned out very well. There's enough of the milk/cottage cheese mixture to make another cake, which I'll do tomorrow or Monday. The cake will go into the freezer for future use. Mother, of course, helped with this project.

After that, we had lunch, and then Mother went to her jigsaw puzzle, and Hubbie and I went downtown to the library to exchange DVDs.

Back home, I accomplished nothing but playing games on my e-tablet. The game that has captured my imagination right now is called "Word," which asks the player to find a word that describes four different pictures. Some of the puzzles are extremely easy, but others are challenging. Moving from level to level earns the player gold coins that can be exchanged for other game apps. I earned a game playing last night. If I don't be careful, I'll waste too much time with this game.

Later, I changed clothes, and we all went down the road to a Master Gardener's farm place for the group's annual picnic. About 30 of us gathered, and of course there was more food than could be consumed.

My potato salad was a good complement to the meal of barbecue, baked beans, and other salads, like carrot, macaroni, and broccoli. There was also a cheesy potato dish, but I avoided that one. There were also all sorts of desserts...a dark chocolate cake, brownies, and another chocolate layer cake, as well as cheesecake, and a frozen cherry dessert.

I got Mother a plate first, and by the time I delivered it to her, I ended up at the back of the line. By the time I got my food, she'd already finished hers. We shared helpings of three kinds of dessert. The only thing lacking at the picnic was coffee. If I'd been thinking, I could have brought a pump pot of it. It sure would have been good on this rain-cooled evening.

The farm house where the picnic was held is a very pleasant place to meet. It is furnished with antique pieces that, while they are suited to the house, are not very comfortable to sit on. There are two polished wood picnic tables in the dining room, and that's where Hubbie had his meal.

The tables crowd the dining room a bit, especially when the benches are pulled out, so in squeezing around them to get into the kitchen, I managed to introduce my face to the antique wall phone, which resulted in a nice bump on my cheekbone near my temple. I expect I'll have a bruise on my face tomorrow.

After everyone had eaten, and we'd visited for a while, the chairman of the food committee announced that there were several cartons of unopened barbecue left over, so she proposed having a drawing for them. Hubbie won one. There were two one-pound Ziplock bags in the carton, so I plan to serve one, along with potato salad for lunch tomorrow. Hubbie also got an unopened package of buns, so Sunday dinner is covered.

As soon as we got home, I accompanied Mother home, and then Hubbie and I finished the evening watching TV.