Yesterday and Today

What a difference a day makes..... yesterday was pouring rain, today was sunny and summery.

I drove to SteinMart yesterday.... just drizzling when I left the house, but pouring when I was driving home. I went to that store in search of Christmas presents for my husband. I had been looking around other stores and not finding what I wanted, then I thought I'd give SteinMart a try. They had a better selection that I expected, considering that the SteinMart store is much smaller than the other department stores in this area. But I found just what I was looking for... two of them, so I bought both. He can either choose which one he likes best, or keep them both, since they're not identical. I can't write down what I bought, because I never know when my husband reads these entries.

Of course, while I was in SteinMart, I found things that I didn't know I needed till I saw them. For next Thanksgiving, I found beautiful flowers made of caramel-colored silk and amber beads-- perfect autumn colors. I plan to put one of them by each place setting for next Thanksgiving. They were also having sales on Christmas things, so I found a few gifts for my sister, which are now in her Christmas box for next year. (My Christmas shopping for next year has now officially begun.)

Heaven forbid I go to SteinMart without looking at the clothes, so of course I did that too.... and found a perfect black dress skirt. I have about six or seven black skirts already, but the one I bought yesterday is different.... a straight skirt, but it flares out a little bit at the hem, which is just at knee-length. Perfect fit, perfect length, gorgeous fabric. And, according to my Aunt Dolly, you can never have too many black skirts. I can still hear her telling me: "You can go just about anywhere in a nice black skirt and a pretty sweater or blouse."

It rained for most of yesterday, but today was bright and sunny and warm... a gorgeous summery day. (Now this is the December weather we're supposed to get.) And what did we do on this pretty day? My husband and I went grocery shopping. (I hate, hate, hate grocery shopping.) I couldn't put it off another day... my list was getting longer and I was running out of too many things. In fact, my list was so long that I was thrilled when my husband asked me if I wanted him to go with me..... we took his car, which was great because all of the stuff we bought wouldn't have fit into my little car.

All of that food shopping this afternoon.... and then we went out for dinner tonight. We had planned tonight out anyway, being that today is my husband's real birthday, not to be confused with the surprise birthday dinner I arranged for him ten days ago. So back we went to Babbo Bruno's for a nice dinner out.

My sister called tonight.... and I told her about the grocery shopping, again saying how much I hate doing that chore. She told me that she doesn't mind shopping for groceries, simply because she knows that she can go in a store and buy whatever she wants. In her words: "Just think.... you can be living in Russia and go into a store and find empty shelves.... we live here and the shelves are never empty and anything you want is right there."

Well, that's another way to look at grocery shopping, so maybe I'll try that. I've already told my husband that when he retires, I plan to retire from grocery shopping. Since he likes to go to the supermarket, I've told him that he can take over that job. Until then, I'm happy when he comes to the store with me when he has the time. But just wait... the day after he retires, I'm handing him my Kroger card and I may just never walk into a supermarket again, no matter how full the shelves are.