A VERY SPECIAL DAY

Yesterday was a near perfect day.  It started with DH and I having a leisurely breakfast at our favorite bagel joint.  Have you ever had a cheesy bagel fresh from the oven, slathered with salmon cream cheese?  Definitely a moaner -- especially when you only get to eat them a few times per year.  Afterwards I dropped John off at the office and went back to the hotel for a bit.  When I was ready to head out on my adventures, I discovered that the key gizmo I had (John's car is a hybrid that uses a sensor thingamajig, rather than an actual key) was dead, which meant walking all the way back to his office to get his key, in the rain, then walking back to the hotel again, to get the car.  Know what?  It was actually rather pleasant.  I can't remember the last time I walked anywhere on a nice, overcast day, holding an umbrella over my head!  Again, some things are much more fun the less often you do them.

First stop was my favorite mall from days gone by.  It was time for my annual clothes-shopping trip, mostly to replace the everyday essentials that I had worn to a frazzle.  I also nabbed a couple of summer tops, shocked that they had already been put on clearance.  I couldn't believe how quickly I had forgotten the way the stores do everything a whole season ahead, after all the time I'd spent working in retail! After a solid three hours of trying on clothes, coming on top of my walk to John's office and back, I was feeling a bit weak in the knees, so I headed off to get one of these.

That's the old-fashioned, char-grilled hickory cheeseburger at Beck's Prime -- the only burger I really love!

Mid-afternoon John called to say he'd had enough of work and would rather be having fun with me, so I wen't to fetch him.  The mall was filling up with people by then, and I'd had enough of it to last me another year.  Was there really a time when I used to go to malls almost weekly?  Next we headed for our favorite cluster of free-standing stores.  I like it way more than the mall.  For one thing, it has a great bookstore, where I found a promising new book that I will probably be reviewing for you soon.

It also has a Williams-Sonoma shop, and the most gorgeous container gardens around.  I could do pots like these, if it weren't for the dang deer.  A former boss and I used to do them for all the La Madeleine cafes in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, because it added to their French ambience, but then the economy went south and they had to tighten their purse strings.  I love visiting this shopping center each season, just to see what these pots have in them!

At W-S I bought a jar of beef demi-glace, to use in a crock-pot recipe for Boeuf Bourguignonne that I've been wanting to try, along with some really good olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and, at a nearby HEB grocery store, I nabbed some Barilla whole wheat pasta and French green lentils! (see 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Cooking)

From there we went to have dinner with son Austin, only I was so busy catching up with him (and, perhaps, pumping him for information about his new girlfriend) that I totally forgot to pull out my camera.

So, how do you end a most wonderful day?  By paying tribute to the ending of the most wonderful book series ever written.

 

Won't someone out there please write another good one?  Soon?  I'm feeling rather bereft right now.