Alice's Restaurant. My favorite hole-in-the wall strip mall greasy spoon, separated from St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store by a neighborhood Ace Hardware and Lutz Swiss Bakery. At Alice's the decor is Pepsi vs. Coke peppered with mid 80s country geese. We sat at the counter, Jack and Dave coloring a page in the construction truck coloring book while I sipped bad black coffee from a Victor mug, when an acquaintance walks in and sits at the counter beside us. OK, more than an acquaintance. My friend's ex-husband. They are freshly divorced just this year, and hear much from her side but little from his. I hope I treated him with dignity and respect. I think I did. We talked about work (how he can't get any because he works in the housing market and we all know how depressed that is), about his kids, about the dog. But I could tell he was nervous. He cleared his throat often, shifted in his chair, even started whistling a little tune when the conversation lulled. I excused myself to the restroom; he paid his bill and left in my absence. I'd meant to give him a hug when we parted ways but I guess he wouldn't have been comfortable with that.
After breakfast we spent half an hour in St. Vinnie's, just long enough for me to find a fabulous peach dotted swiss snap front cowboy shirt (when I tried it on, Jack said, "Wow. That's really cool") and a black polka-dot two piece dress I paid $6 for, which is well out of my thrift store range for a single item but I fell completely in love. Jack found a selection of knight toys and books, most new in their packages and each a dollar.
Moxie checks out Jack's finds.
I got a handmade angel javelina ornament and a MADE IN PERU angel ornament, each for 50 cents. Somebody made that javelina just for me.
And the dogs got a new baby (from a bin of free stuffed animals). This one is, literally, a baby.
They made short work of it.
So this is what I've been doing with my afternoon: watching High School Musical for the fourth time and knitting the Carousel Hat. High School Musical is de rigueur among the preschool set, and I like to keep my head in the game. See my kicky new kicks? $2.50 at Goodwill, 2 weeks ago. See?
After breakfast we spent half an hour in St. Vinnie's, just long enough for me to find a fabulous peach dotted swiss snap front cowboy shirt (when I tried it on, Jack said, "Wow. That's really cool") and a black polka-dot two piece dress I paid $6 for, which is well out of my thrift store range for a single item but I fell completely in love. Jack found a selection of knight toys and books, most new in their packages and each a dollar.
Moxie checks out Jack's finds.
I got a handmade angel javelina ornament and a MADE IN PERU angel ornament, each for 50 cents. Somebody made that javelina just for me.
And the dogs got a new baby (from a bin of free stuffed animals). This one is, literally, a baby.
They made short work of it.
So this is what I've been doing with my afternoon: watching High School Musical for the fourth time and knitting the Carousel Hat. High School Musical is de rigueur among the preschool set, and I like to keep my head in the game. See my kicky new kicks? $2.50 at Goodwill, 2 weeks ago. See?
My sister's dog, Bishop, stealing the limelight.
Have a great Saturday!
Comments
ng superbly and I think you are soon going to surpass me in knitting.
You'll have to come up and see some of the stores we discovered, the best of which was "Flo's on 7th" run by the Florence Crittendon folks.