On schedule.

If it's Monday and we are in Florida on vacation, we must be going shopping, right on schedule.

Grandma loves the shops at the outlet mall about a half-hour drive up the road, so we pack everyone in two or three cars and head out, getting there just around the time the shops open.

Once there, everyone scatters to his or her favorite places.  Children head toward the stores that have stuff they won't be caught dead in once another 30 years have rolled around, but you can't tell them that now.  Sweetie is mostly along for the ride, wanting to see the knife store and little else.  Grandma goes to the cosmetics store to get a year's supply of her favorite perfumes and pretty stuff, and though my interest is in finding a pair of jeans that fit and maybe a new undergarment or two and i only wear make-up about once a year, i stick with Grandma.

She and i do agree on one thing though:  Sketchers.

Sweetie is the one in our family with the over full closets and huge shoe collection, and i only keep about 5 pair of shoes at any one time.  My Sketcher Go-Walks were worn out, my only pair of sneakers had holes in them, and my other three pair consist of nice ballet flats i can wear to church, one pair of heels for when i have to put them on, and my bedroom slippers.  All of them except the slippers are solid black so they can go with anything.  Can you tell i'm a fashion maven?

Anyway, we were trying on the Sketchers and Grandma noted that she wasn't sure what size she needed, as these seemed to run a bit big.  When i told her that i wear either a 7 wide or a 7.5, she asked me how my feet got so big.

It's simple, i told her, i had 5 pregnancies in 7 1/2 years and my feet are now flat!

Of course, she and the sales people and customers within ear shot had to laugh, but it's true!  When i married, my shoe size was 5.  Anyway.

At one point, Grandma got thirsty and tried to get a water bottle from one of the machines.  It wouldn't take her dollar.  We tried the next machine, and it ate the money and gave her nothing for it.  After getting her the money back we tried another machine, which wouldn't give her a bottle but did give her the dollars back -- as change.  Eventually she settled for a Sprite, which she hates, because she was so thirsty.  It was warm.  Sometimes you just don't win.

We reeled everyone in with the only place of interest to all, which is the food court.  At noon we ended up there and all got lunch, and Grandma tried to get tea.  None of the vendors have unsweetened tea.  She bought a cup to get soda, that particular vendor's soda machine was out.  She put ice in the cup and i took it in the rest room and filled it with water.  Maybe life with declare that a draw.

After lunch i finally found a pair of jeans that fit at a kid's department, and socks were purchased for everyone because i am so tired of never having enough socks in the house and the kids swiping each others and fussing about it.  Grandma was tired and we took her back to the condo.

Sweetie and i still had a bit of energy, so we decided to check out two of our personal favorite places, the Five and Dime Store, and the Grocery and Tackle Store.  Why?  Because the Five and Dime Store has everything, and the Grocery and Tackle Store has everything else, including the Hula shirts and Top Siders Sweetie wears any time he is not at work. 

Sweetie's newest Hula shirts, thanks to the Five and Dime Store.

Hula shirts Sweetie brought with him.

The young people ended the day by going to the movies, while Sweetie and i went for a beach walk at sunset.  Very relaxing.


Today is

Coronation Day -- United Kingdom

Coronation Day and Social Forestry Day -- Bhutan (anniversary of  the coronation day of the Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the 4th Druk Gyalpo, in 1974, and the day children plant trees)

Festa della Republica -- Italy (National Day/Feast of the Republic)

Festival of Light and Dark Spots -- Fairy Calendar

Festival of Utter Confusion -- an internet declared holiday, and this is the one for me!

Full Strawberry Moon / Rose Moon*; related observances
     Ancient Celtic month Equos (horse-time) begins
     Nayon Full Moon -- Mayanmar
     Poson Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

Hristo Botev Day -- Bulgaria (poet and national hero who fell fighting the Turks this day in 1876)

"I Love My Dentist" Day -- no one will claim starting this one, so it makes me suspicious

Isabel Province Day -- Isabel Province, Solomon Islands

National Bubba Day -- created by comedian T. Bubba Bechtol for Bubbas everywhere to have their day

National Rocky Road Day

St. Blandina's Day (Patron of girls, people falsely accused, torture victims; Lyon, France)

St. Elmo's Day (a/k/a St. Erasmus; Patron of ammunition workers, boatmen, childbirth and women in labor, explosives workers, mariners, navigators, ordnance workers, sailors, watermen; Gaeta, Italy; against abdominal pains, appendicitis, birth pains, childhood intestinal disease, colic, danger at sea, intestinal disorders, seasickness, stomach diseases, storms)

Stevenson Depot Days -- Stevenson, AL, US (bringing back the days when the Iron Horse of the Rails was king of transportation; through Sunday)

Yell "Fudge" at the Cobras in North America Day -- at noon, your local time, because according to Wellcat Holidays, cobras hate fudge and will not stay if we mention it


Anniversaries Today:

U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom, 1886 (only president to wed in the executive mansion)
Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories & Head of the Commonwealth, 1953 (the first major international event to be televised)


Birthdays Today:

Justin Long, 1978
Zachary Quinto, 1977
Queen 'Masenate Mohato Seeiso, Queen consort of Lesotho, 1976
Wayne Brady, 1972
Wentworth Miller, 1972
Joel Tobeck, 1971
Dana Carvey, 1955
Gary Grimes, 1955
Dennis Haysbert, 1954
Diana Canova, 1953
Cornel West, 1953
Jerry Mathers, 1948
Marvin Hamlisch, 1944
Charles Haid, 1943
Stacy Keach, Jr., 1941
Charlie Watts, 1941
Sally Kellerman, 1937
Milo O’Shea, 1926
Johnny Weissmuller, 1904
Hedda Hopper, 1890
Sir Edward Elgar, 1857
Thomas Hardy, 1840
Marquis de Sade, 1740
Martha Dandridge Custiss Washington, 1731


Today in History:

The Vandals enter Rome and begin 2 weeks of plundering, 455
The First Siege of Antioch ends when Crusader forces take the city, 1098
The first Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France, 1615
Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
The Derby horserace is held for the first time in Epsom, England, 1780
P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States, 1835
The Slavic congress in Prague begins, 1848
Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his early radio device, 1896
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act, making Native American Indians withing US territories and states US citizens, 1924
Lou Gehrig begins his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played, 1925
In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic, and exile their king, Umberto II di Savoia, 1946
The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations, 1955
Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft land on another world, 1966
Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country, 1979
The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time, 1999
Europe launches its first probe to voyage to another planet, Mars, 2003
The World Health Organization announces the E. coli strain responsible for the 2011 E.coli O104:H4 outbreak had never before been isolated from patients, 2011