$$: Groceries, an Odwalla, & “Harvey”

The painter showed up with her crew at 7:30 this morning.  Must have been 7 or 8 guys.  We confirmed the colors and where they would all go.  Then she took off, they got to work, and I was stuck home all day answering little questions here and there and basically just holding down the fort.  Luckily the weather was somewhat warm because they propped open my front and back doors and said they needed to be open for the duration.  I put on a jacket, turned off the furnace, and let them do their work.

The doors, which were going from an pink-tinged, off-white color to a deep red needed no less than five coats each.  When the kids and I left the house a few minutes after 5pm, the front door still felt slightly tacky to me but I had no option but to close and lock it.  Luckily, closing the door didn't damage the paint job at all.  The painters did an excellent job and I'm very pleased with my color choices.

I did manage to run out for a gallon of milk (and a few additional incidentals) once the kids both got up.

Natural Grocers -- $48.53

• gallon of Horizon 2% milk -- $5.19
• Applegate Farms sliced roast beef -- $5.15
• Applegate Farms sliced organic smoked turkey -- $5.49
• Applegate Farms frozen chicken pot pie -- $3.55
• Amy's frozen pizza pocket -- $1.99 (saved $0.46)
• box of Dr. Oetker's organic chocolate brownie mix -- $2.75
• box of Mocha Chip Balance bars -- $12.99 (discount for buying whole box of 15)
• 7 Cookie Dough Balance bars -- $0.95/ea.
• box of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal -- $3.59

Each year, each class in The Daughter's school puts on a play.  This year the juniors (The Daughter's class) performed their play first.  They always give three performances -- the first on Thursday when they do their dress-rehearsal for the middle- and high-school grades.  Then they give two evening performances: Friday and Saturday.  Well, The Daughter's class play was this weekend though I didn't know about it until Wednesday.

As you already know, The Son and I attended the ballet on Friday night (I bought the tickets before I knew her play was this weekend) so we attended her play tonight.  The Husband, unfortunately didn't get to see this year's play due to lack of available vehicles (Friday) and other obligations (Saturday).  Too bad for him.  They performed Harvey and did an excellent job (all of their dramatic performances are top notch).

But before being treated to a second evening of cultural entertainment, The Son and I had to entertain ourselves for an hour and a half -- the time between when performers (The Daughter) needed to be at the school and when the audience (The Son and I) needed to arrive for the performance.

I had figured I'd buy The Son a bite to eat but I forgot to mention that fact to him so he ate shortly before we left.  I, on the other hand, was starving.  Naturally, due to my extensive food allergies, I had almost no options available to me so we drove to the nearest Whole Foods where I bought an Odwalla juice (yummy) for $2.50 and a Pumpkin brulee (not so yummy) for $2.99.

After that, we killed time by driving around the neighborhoods between the store and the school and counted Obama and McCain yard signs (the ratio was about 40:1 in Obama's favor) and discussed politics.  Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy The Son's company and intellect?  Sure, in many ways he's a typically idealistic and naive 14 year old but he's also terribly astute.  And witty!

Finally it got close to curtain time so we went to watch the play.  As I said, they did an excellent job.  The drama teacher is a former set-builder but the school is small and operates on a tight budget so the sets are always minimal yet incredibly clever and exceedingly well done.  Each student did an excellent job with their role and everyone seemed perfectly cast.  The Daughter played Nurse Kelly.  Between the sets and the acting, it proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Although the school never charges an admission fee to the class plays, they do pass the hat afterward.  I contributed $15 in cash.

Related posts:

1. Bagels & Shmear
2. Day 193: A Bushel of “Apples”
3. $$: Bone-Knitting on Veteran’s Day
4. Day 258: Activities
5. Day 55