Jennifer wanted Ruth Anne to go with her to some fancy
aerobics class this morning. Ruth Anne
wimped out, and Jen said things about how she wouldn't want to go alone, so I volunteered. It was a pretty intense class; an hour and a half with lots of steps and weights. A few years ago, I would have joined such a class, done everything at a higher level than everyone around me, and scoffed at their weakness. This time I mostly held my own, and managed a "woo hoo" whenever the teacher asked "how's everybody doing" but that's about it. I'm really getting out of shape.
We went to the beach around noon (we're still in Jacksonville, Florida), and Amelia totally loved it. Last March, about half her life ago, in Hawaii we tried to interest her in the ocean, and she wanted nothing to do with it. This time she wasn't fazed by the waves crashing over her legs, and kept wanting to go further in -- smiling and laughing the whole time.
Afterward, I joined Jack in grocery shopping, at a place called Publix, which is a chain down here. The employees there were so amazingly polite and helpful it was weird. I was in the produce aisle, looking at the list, and the produce guy asks me what I'm looking for and eventually leads me to about eight different things. At one end of an aisle, I mention to Jack about the evaporated milk that really should be there somewhere, and from the other end of the aisle a voice says "aisle two". That same guy meets us in aisle two with some pumpkin pie spice, in case we needed that too (we didn't). Many more example could follow, but I'm going to stop.
Most of the late afternoon, I entertained Amelia while Ruth Anne made dinner. We had some amazing broiled salmon with hollandaise and a salad that included little squares of pita bread. Quite the delightful meal all around.
While out doing other shopping, somebody rented the DVD of Ice Age, which I hadn't seen, and we watched it this evening. It was fun, but nothing to write home about.
After the movie, when all the kids were asleep, Ruth Anne and I got a jump on the Thanksgiving cooking, peeling and cutting the apples for the pie, preparing the bread for the stuffing, stuff like that. Finally, I was too beat, and headed for bed while Ruth Anne was still puttering. Read a little more The Two Towers and went to sleep.