Special delivery, near misses, food fair, last pup

Mama and I had to give up our Friday evening to deliver a pup to a buyer meeting us in Alliance. The buyers were a young military couple coming in from somewhere about three hours from the farm, so we helped them out by shaving off an hour, meeting them at Costco. They were a very nice young couple. Very excited about getting the puppy. Mama and I were there for about thirty minutes before they arrived, but it was a very pleasant evening, so the wait was not a problem. The exchange took only a few minutes. After they were on their way, Mama and I went to a French Country Restaurant for dinner; La Madeline.

It was good food. The wait was very long. Mama and I were there for over an hour. Most of that time was waiting on our food. What I ordered had to be prepared from scratch since they had run out of that particular item. My bad. While we were waiting, Mama and I enjoyed some bread and jam. They had a strawberry-rhubarb jam that was outstanding. They also had a blackberry jam, but I cannot have any of that. Mama told me it was delicious. She had a quiche and two side salads. I had cream of mushroom soup and a pastry stuffed with chicken and mushrooms. We will probably go back – but it will be a special event when we do. It is not a restaurant that we would select for everyday meals – especially if we need to eat quickly.

We got out of the restaurant in time to hurry through Costco. We did not need much there. Mama still took a few minutes to look around and make mental notes of items we may go back to purchase. We got out as they were closing the entrance and headed to an Aldi store across the street. We took a bit of time looking but once again, we got out of the store as they were closing for the evening. It was after 10 pm before we got home to unload the groceries. No research that night. No research Saturday night either.

Saturday was a blur. I did manage to get a couple small chores done in the early morning – before bus calling. Mama took Mr. Plumley to Trade Days that morning while I was out so what she could get done was limited also. We knew the evening was going to be focused on the Chinese Food Fair Alex had invited us to. We did take a few minutes in the early afternoon to get a short nap before leaving for Carrolton to meet Alex and his family. On the way to the fair we stopped at the Asian market, so Victoria could see it – and to pick up a couple items. On the way to the store we were almost involved in an accident. Mama instructed me to take the turnaround at the crossover. I wanted to go through the intersection and make the left to get to the parking lot we needed. It was safer, but I followed her lead.

Coming out of the turnaround into traffic I did not see (the Sequoia had some massive blind spots) a car in the lane we were entering coming through the intersection – fast. He barely cleared the lane before I entered behind him. But it was close. Very close. It turned out okay, but the circumstance repeated itself Sunday afternoon on our way to the restaurant. I was set to make a right onto the street – and in no particular hurry – when Mama told me to “Go. Go. Go.”, to get in front a van approaching from the left. I not only did not go, I fussed at her – loudly. Told her to “STOP” I had to apologize and explain to Yilin and Cheyenne that I should not have yelled at Mama Kim. We got past it pretty quickly.

The food fair was fun. It was not as well staffed with vendors as Alex had hoped, but Mama and I got to snack on some good Chinese food. Mama even tried crawfish for the first time. She was surprised that she liked them. I was too. The lines were long, but everyone was patient, waiting on the vendors to make the food items as they went. We had fun. Alex enjoyed the fair more because we were there to help entertain the children between games and times we sat eat what we had bought. Mama took her wheelchair and Aubrey thought that was the best part of the evening; spending a good deal of time on Mama’s lap as we scooted from line to line. That really made the evening enjoyable for Mama. She would not have lasted very long otherwise. One time, as we were entering the fair, I had to have Mama get out of the wheelchair, so I could navigate an area I could not have pushed her through. Victoria hollered from behind us, “It’s a miracle!” Mama got a good laugh out of that.

Sunday afternoon we went to visit Grandma and deliver Mother’s Day gifts. We found the instant ginger tea that she likes at the Asian market. We were excited to get it for her and she was excited to get it. We have not been able to find it since we were in New Jersey. Later that afternoon, before church, a young Latino couple came to get the last puppy. It was delightful to watch the puppy go to the children and try to get them to pay attention to him. The parents were very happy to get the puppy.

I was very excited to sell him to them.