A post in which I run around with Jeff and James

After being up until after 4, the alarm going off this morning at 8:30 was actually rather shattering. I thought that the flea market trip might be called off, but Jeff and James were committed. After coffee and cigarettes, plus a call to their realtor (they are in the process of buying a house), we headed out.

It was a beautiful day, in contrast to our unusually drizzly, gray, yuckky fall weather lately. Right off the bat, I scored. I have one of these bowls already, but I haven't been able to definitively identify it.

Possibly Manhattan handled bowl in pink. I have seen this identified as a berry bowl, but it can't be. It is too shallow to be the serving bowl, and too large to an individual berry bowl. I've also seen it identified as a candy dish, but the candy dish in this pattern is footed, not flat. Still, it is a pretty thing isn't it? The handles look like the ones on the large fruit bowl, or I would think it should have the closed tab handles.

Walking on, I checked in with one of my usual sellers, and found the exact same bowl again! It's always interesting to me how patterns go in cycles. You may not see a pattern for months, and then you'll see several pieces in one day. To see the exact same piece again in minutes is just really weird. I haven't seen one of these bowls since I bought my first one years ago.

I declined to buy the same bowl again (although I was tempted), but she also had a footed candy dish. I already have one of these too, but I just LOVE footed pieces like this with the little legs on them. She had a great price on it as well. Plus mine's up in the attic, which was as good an excuse as any.

Manhattan 6 3/8" three-footed open candy dish in pink by Anchor Hocking, circa 1938-1943

I bought both pieces just almost inside the door, but didn't see much else, which was fine. We did the rest of the flea market, just enjoying being there, looking at the people and the stuff. J & J bought a pretty glass platter that will coordinate with their vintage dishes. I got all my produce before we left. I've decided to make an enchilada pie for lunches this week.

By the time we left, we were ravenous, having not eaten anything yet. We were looking for something to eat when James got pulled over. A bored cop in Greer had run his plate just for the heck of it, and put the data in wrong. As a result he thought we were in a stolen car. He took all our IDs and checked them for warrants I'm sure. When he ran the plate again correctly after he stopped us, he let us go. But it's still scary to be stopped like that.

That over, we went on to Greer for nasty ole Chinese buffet at my suggestion. James is on a serious diet, and he could find stuff to eat there, although his willpower was tested. They even paid for my lunch, I guess as a way of saying thank you for the glasses, which I wasn't expecting, and I thought was very sweet. After eating though, all the tiredness from last night caught up with me. I was crashing and burning.

We went by their house to see it. They're very excited. I remember what that's like. I don't guess theirs needs much more work than mine did when I bought it. It's interesting to see how much James has changed in the last year. But then he's 27 now, and I was only 29 when I bought my house. It seems like eons ago, but it hasn't been that long.

They wanted me to stay and go out to dinner with them tonight, but a) I just wasn't up for it; b) I had no clean clothes and was covered in dog and flea market funk; c) I didn't need to spend the money; d) they had been super nice, but I don't want to wear out my welcome; and e) I really needed to get some stuff done at the house at some point.

Not that I actually expected to do any of it, especially after my extreme lack of motivation yesterday. I did stop for cat food on the way home since I'm completely out, and I knew Jinx would give me no peace until she was fed. When I got home, I lay down for a bit, and dozed for a half hour or so, but the phone rang. Once that woke me up, I was surprisingly alert, and decided to at least fix the Spanish rice, to make cooking easier tomorrow. But once the rice was on, I went ahead and started chopping all the vegetables for the casserole. By the time I finished all that and cleaned up the kitchen, I decided to go ahead and take a shower while it was in the oven. Then I changed the sheets and folded the laundry from the drier before I sat down. I figured once I hit the couch again that would be it. And it was. But I got a lot more done than I expected to.

I ate supper and watched the Fox Sunday night line-up. The Cleveland Show continues to be fairly suckalicious, but I doesn't annoy me too much. I can sit through it while I wait for the good stuff to come on since I usually have the computer on now when I watch TV anyway. I also don't feel like I've missed anything if I fold laundry during the show.