This and That

Since I'm off on Fridays, that is my day to run all of my errands. You can see that I had my priorities in order by my first stop . . .the ABC store (for those of you not in Alabama . . .Alabama Beverage Control ... liquor store). I actually don't go to the liquor store very often - we don't keep "hard" liquor in the house much - don't know why - just never have. So for me, it is kind of a fun thing to look at all the stuff. The guys who work in the store were really nice and helpful. My car was parked in front of the store and the guy who rang up my purchase said, "Is that your car with the Auburn tag"? I answered, "Yes, we have twins who recently graduated from Auburn". He then proceeded to tell me with much glee that when he was handed the work schedule for the weekend, he was scheduled to be off on Saturday and could watch the game. He was so excited. I love living in the south. We have more conversations with total strangers. (or maybe I am the only one who has these conversations). Back to the Margarita mix . . .I had to run a few more errands so it was about 2:00 before I got back home. The instructions on the bucket said to mix and freeze for 8 hours . . .I only had 4 1/2 hours until our guests were arriving. I had a brilliant thought. I have an old margarita bucket (from the last liquor store run) in the freezer. I'll divide the mix and liquor in half. Surely it will freeze in half the time. Right? Wrong! It was good and cold and slightly slushy but not frozen at 6:30. It was still good enough for me to drink two . . . which is a lot for me. I sure was relaxed the rest of the evening. I also made a Costco run. I love that store. This day's trip included a purchase of a giant bag of chicken breasts to cook for the young adult study on Tuesday night. I also bought a giant bag of shredded cheese. (everything is giant at Costco) I wanted to buy the newest Janet Evanovich book but decided that I didn't need to spend any extra money. I also bought disposable pans - I use those big ones on Tuesday nights and the ones from Costco seem sturdier than the ones from the grocery store . . .plus I don't have to buy them every week since it is a giant pack (once again GIANT).

When I came out of Costco, my car thermometer said it was 97 degrees. It was a very hot but gorgeous day (look at that blue sky). My next stop was Walmart. It is nice that all three of these stores are within 5 miles of my house and they are all within a short distance of each other. Now the reason I have these pictures at all is because of Walmart. Yesterday, I received one of those Walmart photo emails where people have taken actual pictures of people in Walmart and submitted them. There was this large woman in a pink mini skirt whose cheeks (not the ones on her face) were showing . . .in our town!! I saw that woman. I saw her coming out of Walmart that day and I think I actually gasped out loud. Someone needed to tell her, "NO YOU MAY NOT WEAR THAT IN PUBLIC OR EVEN IN PRIVATE." So I grabbed my camera thinking that maybe just maybe I would see someone interesting enough to sneak and take a picture (of course, my camera is too big to sneak anywhere - I assume that most of those pictures are taken on someone's phone). But did I see anyone interesting at all? No - just regular folks. You can just barely see a lady next to that car. She saw me with my camera and I think she thought I was taking her picture. . . of course, then I made up all sorts of reasons for that look on her face - witness protection; private investigator - I know I have read too many mystery novels.

All of those errands ended in a nice evening at home spent with food (steaks on the grill), friends, good drinks (even the ones that weren't frozen) and pleasant conversation.

We have a really nice stainless steel gas grill but we've been using the old charcoal grill (which we "inherited" from our friends, Hayden and Jan, when they moved). Meat just tastes so good when cooked on a charcoal grill.

What are your weekend plans? Hope you are doing something fun!!