Lard

Can't remember the last time I went to a supermarket and saw boxes of lard sitting on the drygoods shelves. In the north you occasionally find it in the dairy aisle, if you find it at all. "Southern" fried chicken is cooked in lard, and that's what my mother always used. Her chicken was delicious.


Stayed in today doing odds and ends. My handy-person came and advised me about hanging the porch swing, finished up the caulking, and put in a new sink drain stopper. A small thing, but what a difference from what was there before, and the things we use daily should work correctly. Took a long nap then watched another movie on Hulu. Oh, talked to my therapist on the phone this morning.


Another watercolor class yesterday. Saw a beautiful snake wandering the grounds. I still always think of Steve Irwin and how his tv show and his interaction with snakes helped me get over my fear of them. Now I see them as fascinating and harmless.
























After the class I decided to drive down to "Furniture Row," a place I had been told about near Ormond/Daytona. It took me a bit to find it, but the drive down A1A along the ocean was interesting and pretty. Except for the McMansions that are built along the beaches obscuring in most places the view of the sea. And then a rock from somewhere hit my windshield and took a chip out of the glass right in my line of view on the driver's side!!!! I'll have to see if the new car warranty or my insurance will cover fixing it or replacing the windscreen. Really really annoyed me. More money.

Anyway, I found the place, just a huge sort of upscale row of furniture stores, all connected to one another inside. Went to Denver Mattress, a "factory to you, no middle man," mattress store and bought one of their Durango queen mattresses. Foam on top of individually wrapped coils. 30 day money back guarantee, 2 year no interest financing, less than 1K for the set and a frame and delivery and two pillows. The salesman did two things that I found impressive, although they may have been bogus. One, he had me lay (lie?) on the mattress, and raise my arm at a 90 degree angle from my body, and then he pushed on my hand as I tried to resist. It is the standard kinesiology manual muscle test applied to finding the most supportive mattress.



Secondly, he laid (lay?) himself down on the bed next to me to demonstrate that there was little to no movement on the mattress when another person got in or out of the bed. It was all very professional. The bed will be delivered tomorrow. Today I ordered a new mattress pad and a set of sheets online from Penny's on sale.

Here's an online abstract of a study done about the use of MMT to find mattress support for individuals.



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17521601



I missed my orientation for reading to kindergartener's on Monday, as my handy man was here then, too. He spent quite a long time opening two kitchen windows that had been painted shut many times. After he left, I decided I should check my date book and sure enough, it was already 1/2 hour past the time when the orientation began. I immediately called the contact to say I was still interested, and please call me when another orientation takes place. Ended up going to the beach with SM. She was burned out, so we just sat on the beach and talked and watched the shore birds. Water is cooling down (77 degrees now) but it would still be tolerable in the heat of the day.



Sunday afternoon I went to J & S's for the usual potluck dinner, and playdate for Bindi and Jasper.