A lovely day visiting with my nephew and antiquing

Princess cookie jar in green by Anchor Hocking, circa 1931-1935

Dogwood footed sugar bowl in pink by MacBeth-Evans, circa 1929-1932

Bubble flat soup bowl in Sapphire Blue by Anchor Hocking, circa 1940-1965

The morning started off slowly - neither Lisa nor any of her family are early risers. I laid in the bed and read for a while. Ava got up eventually, and when Lisa got up to see to her, I got up with them. We had a leisurely morning. Lisa made a huge breakfast, and we drank enough coffee to float a barge. I changed a poopie diaper after Ava had her breakfast. I always try to do a couple for each baby - it kind of gives me a stake somehow.

After we digested breakfast a bit, I talked to Cole about going into town. The third book in the Eragon series was released yesterday, and he really wanted a copy of it. It is so rare for him to express a want of any kind that I wanted to make sure he got it. We got dressed and headed into town, after a brief adventure with the GPS guide Lisa loaned us. I have never used one before, and it kept losing our location, which both Lisa (by phone) and Cole assured me had never happened before. Eventually, it picked us up when we got near the highway, and directed us into town. When it works, that is a handy little gizmo. Russ and Billy have one. Of course, I rarely go somewhere that I need directions, unless it is to Lisa's. Anyway, I don't have the $150+ to drop on one right now.

Since we were going to be just down the street from Mom's, I called her to see if she wanted to have lunch with us, but she had a date with her new guy today. His name is Rob, and she seems to really like him. At her invitation, we went by the apartment for a short visit before we went to lunch. I met Rob. I liked him. He seems like a really nice and easy-going guy, and was genuinely friendly towards me. He also seems to be what she's been looking for. I hope things work out. Of course, this means my 61 year old mother can find a boyfriend, and I can't, but I decided not to dwell on that. She's been out for four years now, and I've only been out for two.

Since we were also very near a great antique store near her house, I decided to drag Cole over there for a bit before lunch. It is a huge place, the kind that has lots of little rented booths. There is one booth in particular where I can usually find a bargain, and she didn't let me down today. I found that Dogwood footed sugar for only $3. That was a deal I couldn't pass up.

I also found the Bubble flat soup bowl - which is apparently one of the more scarce pieces in that pattern - marked as a "small pie plate" and priced at $4. I know the book value on that one is $14, so I picked it up.

I found the Princess cookie jar marked down from $30 to $15, and couldn't resist. It has only some small flea bites out of the inner rim where the lid sat. With a lid, it's worth $55, but even without the lid, I thought $15 was a pretty good deal. Plus I haven't bought a cookie jar since I got so disappointed with a fake Mayfair one I bought when I first started collecting. I got a badly chipped up amber Madrid cookie jar at the flea market last summer, but it was in such bad shape I just bought it and gave it to Justin to use as an unusual planter. I figured I could look for a lid later.

By the time we got out of there we were both starving. Cole wanted to go to Macaroni Grill for lunch so we did. We had a late, huge lunch, and I was able to introduce him to tiramisu, which he had never eaten. He worries about his weight all the time, just like Lisa. He wouldn't eat but a couple of bites of dessert, because he was worried he had eaten too much yesterday at the party. I tried to reassure him, but he is a very sensitive child, and plus he sees the way Dad and I have gained weight. I guess it is better for him to worry about eating healthy than not, but I hate to see someone so young be so worried about so much. He takes after the Brewers (my grandmother's family) in that way - they're all fretters.

After lunch, we went over and got his book, since the bookstore was right by the restaurant.

By the time we got back, it was about 4:30pm, and I really hadn't intended to stay so late. But I rarely get time with Cole, so it was very worth it. I had already packed my stuff up, so I relaxed for a minute, and then hit the road.

On the way out, I hit the antique store near their house. It was a good one, with a lot of glass, but some of it was mis-marked, and all of it was high. I did see a couple of pieces I would like to have, but some of them were just too high for me to justify the money, and for some reason they had a large inventory of pieces that had been messed up going through the dishwasher. I did see a piece of beaded block - a pattern I rarely see - at a good price. I thought it was a cup, but it turned out to be a sugar bowl with one of the handles broken off. I looked until they closed the store down, and then hit the road again - having eaten up more time.

I stopped outside of Clinton to get gas, because they were advertising it for $3.699 a gallon (which amazingly now is a bargain). The station was complete chaos. There were about 20 people waiting, and since all the pumps were going simultaneously, they were pumping very slowly. I ended up being there over 20 minutes waiting to fill up, and I wondered if it was really worth the couple of dollars I was saving. But I stuck it out, and got my gas.

I got home about 7:30, and was just all in. Since I had such a large lunch, I was still full, and decided not to eat any dinner. I unpacked the few things I had taken and went to BED. The lawn still needs mowing, but it was really too late to do it anyway by the time I got in.