Today was actually truly action-packed, and not just the 'action-packed' that I claim in Iowa when I have more than ninety minutes of things to do in a day. I ended up staying up until after three a.m. last night, and so dragging myself out of bed at 9:30 a.m. was v. v. challenging. Still, I managed -- my mother and I had plans to have lunch together, and she wanted to get there early to avoid the crowds. So, I somehow managed to shower, doll myself up, and get ready to leave by eleven so that we could drive to Humeston (about twenty miles away) for lunch.
As it turns out, lunch was fab; my mother had been there several times, including with fellow garden club members and for her secret society's Christmas party, and she thought I would like it. She thought right; the cafe is v. different from the usual offerings of burgers, chicken strips, and steaks at all the other restaurants in our county. I had a bacon and artichoke quiche with french onion soup, and my mom had a ham/broccoli/sundried tomato quiche with a 'tuscan potato' soup that included some spicy sausage. Needless to say, quiche is not particularly common here, but they serve a couple of different quiches every day, in addition to sandwiches, desserts, bona fide loose leaf tea, etc. It's also decorated quaintly, helped along by the fact that they're in a century-old brick building and have knocked off the plaster to expose the brick walls beneath the pressed tin ceiling. And the owner came over to chat with us and was quite friendly, so hopefully I'll go back there next time I'm at home.
After lunch, we walked across the street to Humeston's general store, which truly sells everything except groceries -- you can get clothes, stationery, all sorts of gifts, hardware supplies, medical accessories, etc., etc. We didn't get anything (although I almost bought some miniature 1oz pitchers to do shots out of at the next Lincoln Log Cabin party, but I decided that might be excessive), but it was fun to browse. We then went to the town where my high school was to go to the bank and another store, and then I dropped my mom off at home before going back into town to buy stamps. Then, I came home, wrapped the last of my presents, and infected the entire house with glitter because some of the Christmas cards I'm using are truly glittertastic.
But, rather than having supper and a quiet evening with some fine CBS programming, we decided to play Rail Baron on a whim. My brother won (damn his eyes) in around 5.5 hours, which was quite a fast victory; I was doing v. well, but made a critical error and didn't buy the last railroad even though I had the means because I thought it would drive at least one of the others out of business, and then Michael bought it instead and won while my cash levels stayed flat the rest of the game. Bleh.
Anyway, I should probably go to sleep; provided that the snow doesn't accumulate too much tonight (or, as some around here would say, 'God willing and the creeks don't rise'), my sister's family is coming over for Christmas Eve supper, so I should get some sleep tonight in preparation. Goodnight!
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