Put 'em together for Maverick

We are up to our eyebrows around here in tulle, ribbon, candles, and all the other accoutrement of wedding preparation that you can think of.

The wedding is a week from Friday. This is when the phrase "down to the wire" takes on a whole new meaning.

But life goes on around us, and so it was that yesterday, Brittany and Andrew dropped in for a few minutes to show TG and me our new grandbaby.

A Boxer puppy named Maverick.

He's so new, he can't even stand. Mostly he snoozes. Brittany feeds him puppy formula from a bottle.

Can you believe?

Rambo shows encouraging signs of being fond of -- if a trifle perplexed by -- his new little brother. Certainly he's being a great example of sleeping all day.

Our spring continues coolish and occasionally very wet. Currently it's raining steadily and that's the forecast for the day. Highs in the mid sixties. I love it! My favorite kind of weather.

My task at present is assembling wedding favor boxes. There are several steps to completing each favor and I do believe I could do the moves in my sleep.

Fold, tape, fill, tape again, place tag on ribbon, pull ribbon through tiny holes, add decorative trim piece, tie bow, fluff bow. Repeat. Many times over.

I will show you a picture of these creations when I can. For now, we'll keep the details under wraps.

Later on, Dagny will join me for a few hours and we'll hang out.

What are you doing with your last week of April?

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Happy Monday

Cake and no mistake

Speaking of Puglix -- and we were, at near-obnoxious length -- I used their bakery when I needed a special-order cake for Andrew and Brittany's rehearsal dinner.

Our dinner was held at Outback Steakhouse in Asheville, with twenty-two in attendance. We sent custom-made invitations and even had place card favors of little cardboard suitcases full of Hershey's kisses.

I wanted the cake to be beautiful and delicious, and Puglix excels at both. Several weeks out, I sat down with the lady behind the desk at Puglix Aprons and told her our cake vision.

She was awesome. So courteous and conscientious, easy to talk to, attentive to every detail of our event and the sort of confectionery masterpiece we had in mind.

I told her that the cake was to celebrate the wedding, which would take place outdoors in Asheville in the late winter/early spring. The colors were spring green, a tan or brown for trees, and maybe a touch of soft pink.

The lady asked what sentiment I would like written on the cake. Since I have a black belt in orginality, I said: Let's go with Congratulations, Andrew and Brittany.

Haaahhahaa. Like I said: I'm nothing if not original. But it was all I could think of to say. On a cake.

So that's where we left it. I checked back with Puglix Aprons once in the intervening weeks, to make sure they had everything they needed from me, and to confirm the date and time for pickup of my cake.

So it was that on the day before Andrew's wedding, TG and I packed up and started out for Asheville. We only had to stop at Puglix, to pick up the cake for the rehearsal dinner that evening.

I made my way to the bakery and told the lady behind the counter why I was there. She went over to a trolley that appeared to be stacked with special-order cakes waiting to be claimed. She looked for my name, then picked out one of the boxes.

She brought the box over and slid it towards me across the high treat-laden bakery case. I grabbed it and brought it down to eye level to make sure the kids' names had been spelled correctly.

And it was then that, getting a good look at our cake, I burst into tears.

Because see, a great deal of artistic license had been taken with the design of the cake I'd ordered, which I'd assumed would have the words Congratulations, Andrew and Brittany emblazoned in icing across the lush expanse of buttercream frosting.

The bakery employee looked alarmed. Is it okay? She asked with an anxious widening of her eyes.

Oh yes, I slobbered. I just thought it was going to say Congratulations, Andrew and Brittany, and ...

We can put that on it if you want! she said, reaching out as though to take the cake back.

I laughed even though I was still stanching the flow of tears from my eyes, with a handkerchief I'd fished out of my purse.

No, I said. I wouldn't have you change a thing about this cake.

And I wouldn't have. Because it was perfect. Just exactly right to celebrate our only son and his bride-to-be, all set to marry on the banks of the French Broad River in Asheville, surrounded by nature on a day in late winter/early spring.

Don't you agree?

And that is all for now.

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Happy Friday

BOGO. Or no go.

So TG and I like to swing by Publix -- or Puglix according to Dagny -- on Wednesdays, to take advantage of the five-percent senior discount.

Yes; I know we look young and hip but we really are those people. And we are at present much enamored of shopping at Puglix.

One thing they do there is put several displays of Buy-One-Get-One merchandise right inside the door. You can't miss them. There are tons of new BOGOs each week.

Therefore often before TG has even parked the car and come inside to find me, I'm still right there debating on which BOGOs to take advantage of.

Often it's the salad dressing brand we like -- Ken's -- or there will be Planter's Dry Roasted Peanuts, or Arnold's breads, Quaker oatmeal, Progresso soups, Hormel Black Label thick-cut bacon -- all things we enjoy having on hand.

Then after you go all Noah's Ark, groceries two-by-two, on your cart when you're barely in the store, you go cruising the aisles and find more BOGOs around every corner.

What's that you say? It's just a gimmick? They double the price before giving you two for the price of one? I'm that dumb?

Don't judge. It's legit.

Anyway on a recent Wednesday -- before my surgery -- I was really scooping up some BOGO deals at the display tables just inside the door at Puglix. TG joined me and when I'd finished there, we went deeper into the store.

But not before I'd scored two loaves of Pure Joy Good Foods cinnamon bread -- a treat I'd never heard of, much less had, but which I thought would be nice to have in the freezer during my recuperation.

We have our morale to keep up.

We always start at Produce -- you know; where the grapefruit are -- before proceeding to the inner aisles where all the evil processed food lurks. We don't buy much in those aisles but we do go down them because everybody needs things like condiments and coffee.

So it was that I rounded a corner about mid-way through the store and there was a whole display of Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids food storage systems and it was all -- wait for it -- BOGO.

Whoa, I said. Erica had a shower coming up and every bride needs food storage. I slowed and became interested in some beautiful clear glass pieces with those sturdy but attractive Easy Find Lids.

I love glass and rarely use plastic storage at home. I figured Erica would prefer glass too.

Everything of the Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids variety was on sale, according to several signs hanging from the shelves. I examined the signs to make sure I wasn't being led astray. Nope; BOGO all.

So I picked out two medium-sized glass storage bowls that, after the discount, would be six dollars apiece. They were high quality and I thought that was an excellent price. Into my cart they went. Erica would be pleased.

You would've done the same. They were so nice.

Presently we found our way to the cashiering area and chose a checkout line, piloted by Daisy, a sweet lady who often serves us.

Everything was going swimmingly until I noticed on the scanner screen that the two Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids units had rung up full price, with no discount shown.

I spoke up. Hey Daisy? I said. Those Rubbermaid storage things are Buy One, Get One. But I think they rang up full price.

Daisy stopped. She hunted amongst my groceries and located the bowls in question. She reviewed the transaction. Then she turned around and walked away.

? ? ? ? ?

The checkout lady had checked out.

Everyone stood in awkward silence, as you do at such times. A woman in line behind us held two potted ferns. One in each hand, resembling Lady Justice, scales in one hand and sword the other, only with plants.

I don't know if they were BOGO.

Eventually -- it seemed like a long time -- Daisy returned. She didn't really look at me but she said: That was only for the plastic.

? ? ? ? ?

OK wait a minute, I said. What on earth? The sign didn't say the discount was only for the plastic items. It just said Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids and that's what these are. I pointed helpfully at the storage bowls that only wanted to be Erica's.

But: It's only for the plastic, Daisy repeated.

She wasn't going to budge. I shut up, even though I knew I was right. Too bad you weren't there to take a picture of that rare occurrence. Not of me being right -- that happens with startling regularity -- but of me shutting up.

I will thank you not to snicker.

But I did say: I will not take them at that price. Without comment, Daisy shoved Erica's storage bowls to the side.

So then do you know what I did? I made it worse. I myself -- with no assistance, and without a single drop of rum.

I noticed that my two loaves of Pure Joy Good Foods cinnamon bread -- also BOGO, according to the signs on the table just inside the door -- had also rung up with no discount.

I alerted Daisy to this fresh injustice, pointing to the BOGO tables (which we could actually see, from there), where I'd found the bread. She turned and walked in that direction.

The ferns in the hands of the lady behind us dipped lower, toward the floor. 

We all waited. TG stared a thousand yards into the distance, debit card poised at the entrance to the reader, as is his habit at such times.

Eventually Daisy returned. This time she was holding a sign approximately 12x9 inches in size. I can't quote it exactly, but basically what it said was that the Pure Joy Good Foods cinnamon bread was four ninety-nine a loaf.

And not BOGO.

It's a trick, I thought. I may have even said it out loud. It's a trick to put one table of full-price stuff right next to the BOGO tables. I actually did say that. The girl bagging our groceries chuckled. 

You may be right, she said.

Daisy waited for me to make a decision. Buy the bread at full price, one loaf or two, or refuse it altogether?

I'll take them both, I said. It was too good to pass up, even at four ninety-nine a loaf. And I'd never even tasted it. I have now tasted it and all I can say is: Go to Puglix and get you some Pure Joy Good Foods cinnamon bread, even if it's ten bucks a loaf. Make toast. You will not be sorry.

As we were leaving, I began to seethe a bit around the edges. I knew the Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids items were BOGO. The signs said so. TG was headed out to get the car, which he'd bring to the door to collect me.

Go back there and look again, he said.

And so I did. The same signs said the same thing: All Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids were BOGO. There was no mention of the sale only being on the plastic items, as opposed to the glass.

But I was tired and I wanted to go home. People were stacked up at the customer service booth. I didn't want to wait. Puglix is not the only game in town. Not by a long shot.

I later found Erica some cute plastic storage units at TJ Maxx to include with her shower gift. She loved them. 

A short while ago TG went to the store for us. Later that day I walked into the kitchen and found the two Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids bowls I'd wanted for Erica, sitting on our kitchen counter.

TG had found a Puglix employee and had taken him back to the shelves where the Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids stuff was still BOGO.

TG asked the worker to tell him specifically what was on sale there.

The worker looked at the shelves and read the signs. Everything that's Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids is Buy One, Get One, he said.

TG picked up the two glass units I'd wanted. Even these glass ones? he said.

Of course, said the employee.

TG took them to the cashier -- Daisy? Oh Daisy, are you paying attention? -- where the bowls scanned at half price.

BOGO. Booyah.

So Erica has them now, along with the plastic set I got her at TJ Maxx. A girl needs some of each. And we will ask her at a later date how easy those lids are to find.

All's well, and all that rot. Oh and -- good work, TG. You succeeded where I failed.

The pictures in this post are from Erica's third bridal shower, which took place yesterday at the office where she works. The ladies there love her.

I didn't attend but Audrey, Dagny, and Brittany were there. These photos are courtesy of Audrey and her iPhone X.

Dagny has been wildly enthusiastic about the showers, which she confuses with birthday parties because of the cake and presents. Happy Birthday! she says, until we tell her to stop.

She helps with every aspect of bringing the gifts to Erica's elbow for her to open, and even throws herself into cleanup. Yesterday she went into the office kitchen after the party was over, and asked a lady doing dishes if she could help dry.

She was given some paper towels and carefully dried every dish the lady handed to her.

What a kid.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Wednesday

Two for two

A lot has happened in the last three weeks, since Andrew and Brittany's wedding.

The newlyweds went to Jamaica on their honeymoon, had a wonderful time, and came back.

Their return to church as a newly married couple was met with so many lovely greetings and wishes for happiness.

On the next day -- two weeks ago today -- I had my second (of two, haaaha) total hip replacement surgeries.

I'm just about to ditch the cane and walk (still with a tiny limp, for the present) with no pain.

Hallelujah. It has been many years since I could do that.

I haven't been back to church yet, but we had a nice Easter celebration yesterday at our house, after everyone else went to services.

We had ham with salad, macaroni and cheese, Italian-cut green beans, and hot Sister Schubert yeast rolls with butter and a selection of apple butter, honey, and two kinds of preserves.

Then we had cherry pie and coffee.

Nobody wore their Easter finery to lunch, having already changed, but Audrey sent me the above picture later in the day. We bought Dagny her Easter dress and I can't believe how big she looks in that outfit.

She will turn four in June. We have a plan concocted to take both Dag and her mother to Atlanta, to visit the aquarium there. Stay tuned for a full report, with pictures, after the fact.

These two brave girls have just bought their first house. They'll be closing in about ten days, and moving in after a few improvements are made. We're so happy for them.

Audrey has the iPhone X and I can't get over the quality of the pictures it takes. I'll always use cameras but I'm obliged to admit, these phones are upping the ante.

I haven't seen pictures yet of the ones in North Carolina; my daughter will send them later I'm sure.

A few days after my surgery -- which was of the outpatient variety; I went in for the operation at seven o'clock in the morning and was back home by four in the afternoon -- darling Mari sent me a hydrangea.

I thrill at its amazing color. I hope I do not kill it. I'll ask TG to plant it for me in the yard later this week.

Speaking of flowers, Andrew and Brittany came to the surgery center to see me two weeks ago, and brought me a sweet spring bouquet. It was such a thoughtful gesture.

I enjoyed the flowers in a vase for a week or so, and then salvaged what was left of them for this metal basket of six mini-vases.

They didn't quite make it until Easter, but I think we got lots of mileage out of their beauty.

And now it's time for me to go into overdrive, finishing up all of the details of decorations and other things needed for the wedding that will take place four weeks from Friday, whether we are ready or not.

One down, one to go. Soon we'll be two for two on weddings as well as other things.

Hip, hip, hooray.

Isn't it marvelous?

And that is all for now.

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Happy Monday