SoapZone Community Message Board

My weekend was good! Saturday morning, I went to another craft supply swap held at one of the local libraries. This particular library is the furthest out in the country of all our county libraries, which might be why there wasn't many supplies there to swap, but I still picked up some paper and a plastic bin for holding beads that still had some beads in it. I was just happy to get rid of some stuff I wasn't using; if no patron picks it up at the library, then the library keeps it for future programs. I'm happy to be able to give back to the library that has provided me with plenty of entertainment, and occasionally help, over the years.

After the swap, I went to a local arts center for their summer festival. It was...not great. They had some live music, which I enjoyed, and a few crafts for the kiddos in attendance. The free "ice cream social" turned out to be small sealed cups of either vanilla or chocolate ice cream with some Hershey's syrup if you wanted it, and the ice cream had sat out for so long, it had melted. But TBH, that's actually how I *like* my ice cream <g>. I hadn't been to the arts center--which has won awards for being the best in the area for dance instruction--in many, many years. The building is designed to look like a castle; it was fun just going in and out of rooms and up and down the curving staircase.

From the festival, I hit up the local consignment shop, hoping they'd have a few neutral Chico's pieces. I snagged a pair of jeans, a basic black T-shirt and a cardigan, and with what I already had in my account from the items I'd brought at the beginning of summer, plus the 20% discount they were offering as part of their celebration of their 12th anniversary of being in business, it didn't cost me too much. As I was eating my free (and really good) piece of anniversary cake, I overhead a gentleman telling someone that one of the coffeehouses in town--not my preferred coffeehouse but a good coffeehouse nonetheless--was also celebrating their anniversary and had hot dogs. After a quick and disappointing trip to a senior community for their community garage sale (a whole lot of junk--I got nothing but enjoyed talking to the residents), I stopped at the coffeehouse, thinking they might have, oh, $1 hot dogs. But no...they went ALL out. They had pulled pork sandwiches, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, pasta salad, cake, cookies, cans of pop and bottled water, and it was all free. Now I am not anywhere near the point of "needing" a free lunch...but I wasn't going to turn one down either. Everything was delicious!

Yesterday was our church potluck. We had monthly potlucks for years, then it got to be a bit too much for the people who organized it. For several summers, we had a summer picnic at one of the local parks, where the kids could play on the playground or run through the sprinklers (depending on which park we were at). Those were really nice. I was hoping we'd have one this year...not sure why it was on the church grounds rather than at a park. Maybe it just cost too much to reserve a pavilion? It was still quite lovely though; the church provided hamburgers and hot dogs and the congregation signed up to bring a side dish or dessert or beverages. Church was PACKED yesterday, and almost everyone attended the pot luck. I'd seen the sign up sheets and wondered if we were going to have enough sides, desserts and drinks to go around but of course God is good and will provide...and of course most people brought enough of whatever they promised to bring to feed a small army <g>. Not only did nobody go hungry, some people brought home some of what they'd brought.

Which leads to the mini poll...

Question #1: you're at a potluck or a buffet and you see a dish that you don't recognize. Do you take a chance and try it?

Question #2: cherry/grape tomatoes. Yay or nay?

I'm one of those people who usually uses a buffet or potluck to try something I've never had before. I'm a lot like Dad...it pains me to pay for food and then discover I don't like it. At the potluck, someone had bought some Everything But the Bagel potato chips from Aldi; I don't love potato chips normally but I tried a couple of these and they were good!

As for the cherry tomato question...I like them in a caprese salad and that's about it. I made caprese skewers for the potluck yesterday and threw the extra tomatoes on the plate...I came home with only one skewer left but almost all of the tomatoes. One of my nephews loves cherry tomatoes so much, he used to eat them straight out of the garden we used to have, not even bothering to wash them off (ewwww). I was surprised I brought home so many cherry tomatoes...I actually brought home more than I took because whomever was cleaning up dumped the leftovers from a nearby veggie tray onto my plate without asking me, so I had a TON of grape tomatoes plus a few baby carrots <g>.