Daily Archives: May 15, 2007

Mother’s Day

Events, Family, Film, Food

Dean and the kids said they’d do whatever I wanted to do for Mother’s day, so I suggested we go to Lilit for brunch, see some artwork at the Fine Arts Festival in Bethesda and then see a movie. All three of the ideas came via email announcements.

I’m on Lilit’s mailing list. They send out announcements for their wine and beer tastings and occassional special events as well.

I heard about the movie, Waitress, through the Fox Searchlight email list I’m on and they announced a special showing of the film at a local theater and promised free goodie bags as well. Who can resist free goodie bags? Not me.

Finally, the art festival is a yearly event in Bethesda. I think we went one year, long ago when it was held further up Woodmont.

Dean exclaimed more than once that we never do these kinds of things and he was loving it.

We got into Bethesda around 10 am and walked to the area where the art festival was taking place. There were over a hundred booths of very pretty art, at prices we couldn’t really afford – and nothing really caught our fancy, although I was interested in a floor covering for our dining room. I spent a bit of time chatting with the wife of the artist who makes floor cloths. As much as I’ve wanted one, $1200 seems like an awful lot of money to spend. Maybe we will end up getting a rug after all.

Brunch was delicious – I had a spinach and red-pepper omelet with feta cheese and toast. They also poured me a complimentary mimosa and handed me a long-stemmed red rose. I love that place!

After brunch we had a couple hours to spare so stopped at Second Story Books. I’ve written about that part of our day on Clutch Cargo Lips.

The movie was good fun. I don’t necessarily want to think too deeply about it or analyze it because I know it would fall down under scrutiny, but as a form of entertainment, it was a perfect accompianment to the day thus far. As we left the theater we were each given a white paper bag full of coupons, lipstick, hair balm, liquid soap, and a magazine. We also each received a frozen Sarah Lee pie to go with the pie theme of the film.

When we got home the kids set to work cooking the menu I’d planned for the day. It was easy to plan because I’d seen it on Rachel Ray’s show. The only downfall was when the kids mistakenly mashed all of the black beans instead of just the small amount I left out for them to mash. I ran to the store and saved the day by buying more beans (after a few choice swear words).

Dinner was delicious, albeit a little spicy hot. No one really had room for the pie.

After dinner the kids gave me their gifts – one by one Andrew brought the presents out under his shirt. They gave me:

  • a bag of Cheeto’s (the crispy kind I like)
  • a container of cookies – the round, tubular kind with chocolate in the middle
  • a pen set (fountain and ink pen)
  • a bird feeder – platform for the cardinals

It was a lovely day and a testament to what a wonderful family I have.

Used books

Life, Reading

On Mother’s day between brunch and the movie we stopped at a used bookstore. Whenever I enter a used bookstore I wonder why I rarely go to them. I love used bookstores. I love used books, especially well-read, jacket-less hardbacks. I love books that have writing in them — inscriptions, notes in margins, autographs. It’s not the bargain I love, I love holding a book that was owned, read and loved by someone else.

As I wandered through the fiction section at the back of the labyrinth-like bookstore, I picked up a few paperbacks I’d been meaning to read. After a while I realized I really didn’t want those books — I could pick them up at a library and if I loved them, buy them somewhere. I wasn’t really looking for anything special — maybe an H. E. Bates if they had one.

At the end of the fiction section is an unmarked room. It held the store’s only armchair and seemed to hold a mish-mash of genres. There were craft books and books about sex. There was also a long, tall self of children’s books. It was obvious the proprietors didn’t expect children to be looking at these books because they ascended far above my head — that and the sex books a few rows away. Directly in front of me as I scanned the titles on one of the children’s shelves was a small, worn-looking book that had slightly familiar type-set on the cover. I picked it up, opened it and was delighted to discover it was a book by James Whitcomb Riley. We own two other antique books by him – An Old Sweetheart of Mine and Farm-Rhymes. The book at the shop had an inscription:

To Grace E. Montgomery
Aug. 5 1899.

From C. F. Benedict

It also had a scrap of paper between the last page and back cover containing someone’s homework, done in pencil on notebook paper. It was in another language and looked very old.

Of course I picked this book up.

Two other books I found were a Larry Woiwode book I didn’t have and a book called The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor. I’d been meaning to pick this book up after I had a brief discussion with the author on Flork.

Clare found a very good copy of the Harry Potter book she lost and a copy of Froud’s Faeries.

Those books and one Dean picked up cost us less than $20 thanks to the 60% off everything in the store sale they are having. Great books for a good deal in Bethesda. Can you think of a better way to spend Mother’s day? I can’t.