Have You Missed Me?

This is Friday, day five of our sojourn with the Alurus. Need I say that we all stink by now? At least the Meadors' side of the family does, although we have had showers and brushed our teeth regularly. It's just time for us to get out of here, if we want to stay on the good side of our son-in-law #2. I told Annie the next time we came (and she didn't start screaming in horror), we would drag their bed into the living room and sleep in there, so that she and Daniel could have their bedroom back.

One might wonder how we spent fish day and the day Daniel took off work for vacation. Again, one might not, but I'm going to tell you anyway. On Wednesday, we spent most of the day running from grocery store to grocery store looking for lamb meat. Daniel wanted to fix lamb curry. Unfortunately, the grocery stores we tried here in Madison (Kroger's) and Hendersonville (Wal-Mart) had discontinued it. That was a big disappointment. I figure they will have a search on their hands like unto Little Bo Peep's. Wednesday afternoon, David fixed hamburger goulash along with corn, green beans, and sweet potatoes, for supper--it was supposed to be lunch, but it came ready closer to supper time. It was great. That night, Everett and I took our newly purchased pool noodles and headed toward the apartment complex swimming pool, only to meet Ann and Daniel on their way back from a walk with the news that the pool was closed. We went home, ate ice cream with Magic Shell, and conked out for the night.

On Thursday morning, everyone slept WAY too late. We had intended to head for the zoo at 8 or 9, but instead ended up eating "live" dosas that Daniel graciously cooked for us. We went to the Parthenon to see the statue of Athena, replicas of the Elgin marbles, and a nice little art gallery. After that we took Ann for a job interview and waited for her across the street at Jack-in-the Box. That was the entire family's first experience with JITB, and it is a nice little chain. We took our own sweet time eating lunch, saving Ann a french fry or two. When we picked her up, we took her to lunch at the same place. The woman at the counter got a kick out of Everett's comment: "You told us to come back soon--so we did." Gentle fun.

Daniel fixed supper for us--dal and rice. Really nice. After that, we went to the Ryman and saw Marty Stewart. That was a great show--a highlight of the trip. Eddy Stubbs, the announcer and a commentator on WJM, told us there was a difference between a concert and a show, and that Marty would do a show. He did. It was great. He had guests, Charlie Cushman, who plays banjo with Mike Snyder, Leroy Troy, a commedian and banjo player from Goodlettsville, the Sullivan family (also known to Everett as "Mighty Lemon Drops of Joy"), a gospel group--according to our family musicologist, the "first Bluegrass gospel group", and Connie Smith, Marty's wife. Did I say it was a great show?

Now we're packed, waiting for the clothes to finish drying in the dryer, and Ann and I are leaving shortly to get her hair cut. Then we're off to Lydia and Geron's. This has been a really good week. Love to all, and God bless.