Sep. 3rd, 2007

rivka: (baby otter)
It turns out that holiday weekends are a superb time to shop on eBay.

My big scores: a bright red, hooded, excellent condition, Land's End Squall parka, size 3T, for $19.99. Currently retailing for $69.50.

And!

...Okay, I'm a little embarrassed to admit this. But I might as well get it out of the way now, because I'm going to have to explain it anyway when they start showing up on my "new books read" list.

I got myself a set of ten Cherry Ames novels, all in the battered red covers I remember from my mother's 1940s and 50s originals. Did anyone else ever read Cherry Ames? She's a perky and dedicated young nurse who solves mysteries in her spare time, and oh boy did I ever love reading about her incredibly dated adventures when I was a kid. I think she's the reason my mother became a nurse, and I know she's the reason I wanted to be a nurse when I was a little girl. We only ever had three of them, and I read them over and over. Now I'll have those three again, plus seven more - including the books covering Cherry's career as an Army nurse in World War II. (I've heard that the series was sponsored by the U.S. government when it debuted in 1943, to try to get more young women to go into nursing to help the war effort.)

Anyway: ten books, kind of beat-up but in fine reading condition, for $15.99. I've seen smaller lots go for so much more on eBay, in the past. Hooray for most people having better things to do than bid on eBay over Labor Day weekend!




We ourselves at least had better things to do today, if not for the whole weekend. We spent the day with [livejournal.com profile] bosssio and her family down in Northern Virginia, just hanging out and relaxing and talking. They've got a great little stretch of undeveloped parkland just a few blocks from their house, so we took the kids down and let them splash around in a shallow creek for a while. Alex has finally satisfied her burning desire to know what a crawdad is - they were everywhere. Shortly after an idyllic creekside picnic, the outing ended in drama (Liam beaned Alex in the head with a rock), and we headed back to the house to fortify ourselves with wine and safer playthings. We enjoyed a lazy afternoon drifting back and forth between the house and the beautiful back garden (with an ornamental pool, even), and topped off the evening with an absolutely luscious chicken tikka masala, followed by vanilla ice cream with blackberry syrup. [livejournal.com profile] bosssio's husband Andy gets four stars in the kitchen.

I couldn't ask for a more enjoyable goodbye-summer day. ...Well, maybe if it hadn't involved Alex getting beaned with a rock. But everything else was wonderful.

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