April 8th, My Anniversary

Saturday, April 8

Nick and I have been married (this time) for 10 years, today. So what do we do for our anniversary? We go shopping. Of course, we're not shopping in normal stores like normal people. After dropping Erika off at Wendy practice we headed for Idaho Falls. Um, Erika (Nan's daughter) is playing Wendy in the big Mystique production of Peter Pan. Back to Idaho Falls, we stop at the Army Surplus store where Nick bought another wool watchcap.

I had hoped to find another gorgeous thick green wool blanket, but no luck. I found one there earlier this year and am going to turn it into my new camping cape. In the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism – medieval re-creationist group) I discovered that a cape was far more useful than a coat. It is easy to put on in the middle of the night when you are stumbling out of a tent in search of the nearest shrubbery. It keeps your back warm when standing in front of a fire. It makes a handy blanket when it gets really cold. And it’s shareable if you want to snuggle with your honey. The blanket I already have probably has enough fabric, I just wanted to be sure. I’m going to line it with a brown cotton velvet upholstery fabric that has a diamond pattern. I used a candle to burn scraps of fabric, looking for one that didn’t catch on fire easily. I did not take the candle to the fabric store. Instead I went through the boxes of fabric in my own home. I have way to much fabric and I don’t really sew much anymore. I just can’t seem to part with it though.

After the Army Surplus store we headed in to downtown Idaho Falls to the Gem & Mineral Show. It was quite disappointing. Pocatello’s has more vendors and a larger venue. Still, it was fun to watch Nick (Geology student) look really closely at all of the mineral specimens. I didn’t buy anything here. Nick however got rooked into buying a polished stone to which someone glued eyes. It’s now riding around in my car watching the occupants.

Next, since we were so close, we went to the D.I. (thrift store). Nick had been hoping to buy a Dutch oven (he’s taking a Dutch oven cooking class this semester). I walked him out to the back yard part of the store and there it was, a 10” Lodge for $15.00. This was much cheaper than from a regular store. We also found more amber glass serving dishes. Mom shipped me all of the amber glasses we had as kids in Taylor. It’s been fun collecting serving items to go with. I figure I can use the amber with one of my white sets of dishes or the clear glass set of dishes when having a party.

Going to thrift stores is addictive. We have a hard time stopping at just one, so we headed to the large Salvation Army. There instead of finding anything to purchase we found Susan & Jeff Crandall. Susan had called me earlier in the week and I had not gotten back in touch, even though I had wanted to. When Melinda gets out of school I think we’ll try to go to Menan, Market Lake, Mud Lake, and Camas on a big birding trip and include Susan. We had a lot of fun last year when we did this.

Next we went to the Youth Ranch and Humane Society thrift stores, but found nothing of note. There were a couple of interesting candleholders that I picked up. Candles make great Christmas presents for work colleagues.

Lunch was a fast stop at the nearby Taco Bell. We were on a timetable. I had promised to be at work by 3:00 so Nick dropped me off at the Ross Dress For Less so I could continue my hunt for the perfect purse. He went over to the Sportsman’s Warehouse to see what their prices on Dutch Ovens were. Remember the family motto of “if it is worth doing it is worth over doing.” Now apply it to cooking outdoors. We’ll certainly need more than one Dutch oven.

Nick met me back at Ross. The Dutch ovens were reasonably priced, but I had the credit card. I found a purse. I wasn’t sure if it was perfect. I now know it is, absolutely, positively perfect. It is lightweight, with a long shoulder strap, black leather with lots of pockets for all of my electronic gadgets and best of all it will fit a small notebook and a novel. On our way back to Sportsman’s Warehouse he decided we should wait on buying another one until later.

To continue my fun-filled anniversary day, we went to the library. Here, I had promised to weed the science and technology books. Every two years we have a huge book sale. The books that are not purchased are boxed back up and saved for the next sale. The problem with this is that we end up with a lot of dreck coming back out year after year. It took me a dusty hour but I removed about 75% of the remaining science and technology books from the book sale round. This 75% will now be put out in the library for the public to take free of charge.

For dinner we had Kentucky Fried Chicken. Somehow this has become a tradition. For the past two years Nick has been embroiled in heavy classes and studying. We cook better than any of the “fancy” restaurants in town. So it’s not exactly a treat to go to one of these places. Nor do we really want to cook for our anniversary, so we’ve ended up with KFC. This year we might have done something different, but why mess with tradition?

April 8th is on a Sunday next year. I hope I’m not on sabbatical.

Jenny