And then there were none

What a gorgeous day today!

It got all the way up to 67º officially.  It felt warmer in the sun, which I managed to soak up in great quantities today.  Maybe I’m part reptile — I love soaking in the sun.

Grace had a playdate this morning.  I didn’t really want to get up early enough to go, but I managed to haul my tuckus out of bed.  I am glad we went.  Grace and this little girl play so well together.  It’s one of the few little girls Grace has played with who has been just as rough as she is.  Usually Grace enjoys playing with boys more since they are rough like her.  Most girls are too fragile and gentle.  This girl is just like Grace, nice and sturdy, and so when they tackle one another, no one gets hurt.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Grace’s friend lives in a really neat house.  Her mother told me that it was built in 1994, but it was built like a house from 1894.  They had a formal living room, a formal dining room, an eat-in kitchen, a laundry/mud room, a den, a bathroom, and a guest bedroom — all on the first floor!  Upstairs was three bedrooms and at least one bedroom (there could have been one in the master bedroom; I don’t know).  What was neat was the little girl’s bedroom led into another room, which they’re using for storage at the moment, and that room led into this large playroom that contained all of the little girl’s toys!  The cool part was, Grace and her friend could make all the mess they wanted to, without having to worry about cleaning it up.

I want a playroom like that!  It’s no fun having Grace’s toys scattered all over the living room.

But it is kind of odd that the only way to get to the playroom is to go through the little girl’s room.  I wonder what the architect was thinking when he designed that.

Eventually it was decided that it was time to go outside.  Grace and her friend ran themselves ragged while the mother and I sat on the deck and soaked up the rays.  Boy, did it feel excellent too!

Not only that, but I got to hold a seven-month-old baby boy too.  He was a wiggly one too!  I had him on my lap, facing his mother, and he kept rocking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.  Then he got hold of his sister’s snack bowl and blew raspberries all over it.  He was such a sweet baby, giggling and laughing at me when I made crazy faces at him.

I love babies, can you tell??  Good thing I’m pregnant!

This afternoon was devoted to a small commissary run.  When I’d gotten almost to the gate, I realized that I meant to go to Shaw’s too to get some things I can’t get at the commissary — like my salad dressing.  I have been craving Annie’s Sesame and Shiitake Mushroom Dressing for months, and I hate running out.  Initially I was irritated because the Shaw’s was in completely the other direction!  I should have gone there first.

Argh.

But!  I decided to go on a little adventure.  I made the next left and headed down a little side street.  I could see where I was, relative to where I wanted to be, the entire time I was on that road because I was on a hill.  The side road ended right in front of the street Shaw’s was on!  Hooray for finding a short cut!

My Shaw’s run complete, I headed on to the commissary.  Wow.  Prices are really going up.  It’s really insane.  I noticed when I’d gone last week that prices are skyrocketing.  Hot dogs that had cost us 70¢ a few months ago are now over a dollar.  Cans of soup that had been $1 each are now $1.60.  Milk is up to $2.50 where it had been $1.80 in Washington.

And I know I can’t complain.  Prices are so much worse out in town.  But you know things are getting bad when the prices start shooting up at the commissary.  We’re not in a good situation here in the States, folks.  I’m starting to look at my Depression-era cookbooks and figure out how to cook like my grandparents and great-grandparents did.  I’m less willing to buy red meat, although I got a flank steak today for my Thai beef salad.  I argued with the meat man, however.  All the pieces of flank steak for sale were at least 1½ lbs, where all I needed was one pound even.  When Kurt had gotten the flank steak initially, a meat man had gladly cut him a smaller piece when he asked for one.  Today the meat man said no way and informed me there was no way he could cut a smaller piece because it would leave him with a piece too small for sale.  When I pointed out a piece that weighed 2.16lbs, he then informed me health regulations wouldn’t allow him open a package and re-cut it.  Ah well.  You can’t win them all, I guess.  I just wonder how Kurt managed to get a piece cut for him when he went.  Maybe he flirted with the meat man; who knows?

I managed to bring home a large pack of paper towels, a large pack of toilet paper, and six reusable tote bags of groceries.  Total cost?  $85.  Yeesh.  And I don’t buy much in the way of convenience food, and lots was on sale.  I didn’t manage to use any coupons today, which is rare for me, but lately all the coupons have been for stuff I don’t buy.

I don’t know how people who have serious money problems manage it.  I just can’t imagine.  It’s hard enough on Kurt’s income, which isn’t really that bad.

We need to get out of this hole somehow.  I wish I knew how to make it so.