And Now A Word From Our Guest Blogger...

My friend, Amber, is my travel buddy, food and wine appreciator, and yesterday, she was my personal shopper.  I've been begging her to guest blog for forever, because she is one of the single funniest women I know, and she's finally done it.  But I'll let her take it away from here...

So I'm trying to write this while watching the Colts game... it's not going well. The game. Not my writing. It's gonna be a tough season if this keeps up... but this is still the most wonderful time of the year.

Now on to what I believe I'm supposed to be talking about.

Saturday morning I roll out of bed and take my car to the shop right away for an oil change, and to have a leaky tire checked. I feel like this is the kind of thing grown ups do on Saturday mornings. So I get there and place my order for service and sit down with my Glamour...

...when out comes the manager. The leaky tire is off the car and Mr. Manager takes me to look at it, and there's this gaping hole in it where you can see the tubey part... I don't know a ton about tires, but my understanding is that this is not exactly safe. He says they won't be able to patch it, and he couldn't really in good conscience put it back on my car. *sigh* Mr. Manager then has me take a look at the other tires on my car, which are apparently cracking... "dry rot"... so on and so forth. There are some other bulges, and some smooth patches on the outer walls, and he says,"looks like you may have hit something here...?"

***Montage of me slamming into a number of curbs.***

"Yeah, I'm not sure what that would be," I said.

So the verdict is, I will buy a new set of tires. No problem.

Just let me call my daddy.

"... so that's what you need to look for. You're on your own now, so it's your decision. I know you'll do fine." That's right. Like I said, I'm a grown up.

About a gajillion dollars later, I've got new tires and am no longer in danger of exploding rubber all over the road on the way home. My main regret is that if I had known I would be there for over 2 hours, instead of like 25 minutes, I probably would have showered beforehand.

Then I am summoned by Kate to take a detour on my way to Anna, and stop at Annie Laurie's. I'm game. There was allegedly an old Navy recruitment poster that she wanted me to pick up, if available. No problem. So I get there and proceed to the super creepy basement area. Kate tells me later that Annie Laurie's, before being a house and antique shop, was a mortuary... that's the kind of information I am thankful I did not have prior to visiting the super creepy basement area. Down too narrow cement steps... in 4 inch wedge heels...

I find the poster, but there is no price tag, so I'm not completely certain it's for sale. So I go back upstairs to ask the lady who is working... she says to bring the poster up. No problem. Back down the stairs to rip the poster off the wall...to reveal a big hole in the wall behind the poster. Can't worry about that now. So I turn around, and there it is...

*BROADWAY*

Yep. An old street sign for Broadway in Cape... love it. You know who would love this?

I take the poster upstairs and the lady calls the actual Annie Laurie to verify that the poster is for sale. While she waits for the call back, I go downstairs (again) to inspect the road sign. It's completelyy awesome, and it's really for sale...what with the price tag and all. So I call Kate...

"BUY IT!!! YOU ARE THE BEST PERSONAL SHOPPER EVER!!!"

The sign is screwed to the wall. *sigh*

Back upstairs.

'Annie Laurie' has called back, and the poster is in fact for sale, which is excellent, but may I please have a screwdriver? I haven't mentioned this, but the employee that was working had on a walking cast, so I didn't exactly see her trudging down the cement steps to take down that sign for me.

No problem. Back downstairs (is anyone counting? Because at this point I am sweating and huffing a little...) I pull up this chair, which is also for sale, and stand on it so I can reach the sign. Then I unscrew the sign... or rather, attempt to unscrew (because it's apparent that a man with a drill was responsible for this). From where I'm standing, you can see up into the rafters... and had I known about the mortuary thing... no time for that now. I finally manage to get the sign down and take it back upstairs. *Whew*

After all that, it was off for dinner at the Brick House (woot!)... I highly recommend the Tucker Hill from Hedman Vineyards... delish.

My Saturday adventure then takes me to a gallery opening... but I don't want to overstay my welcome, so I'll let Katie tell you about that.