Son of Return of the Farm Market

Began this morning with the usual cereal and Strawberry Shortcake. Strawberry and her friends want to enjoy the last of the warm fall weather before the cold sets in, so they decide to go on a camp-out. Huckleberry Pie is thrilled. Ginger Snap, not so much. She's so afraid of the dark, she packs every flashlight she can get her hands on and even builds a light-making machine! Strawberry and the gang try to prove to her that the dark isn't as scary as she thinks, but when they all get lost in the woods, it's Ginger Snap who teaches them a thing or two about there being nothing to fear but fear itself...and overactive imaginations.

I skipped Care Bears in favor of getting an early on today's errands. The earlier, the better. The weather did NOT look good. It was raining pretty hard when I got out of bed, but by the time I headed for the bank, the rain was at least on hold. The bank was surprisingly empty, but I did get there fairly early.

My next stop was the opening day of the Collingswood Farm Market. I was so glad to see all the usual booths again! The bakery with the great bread was gone, but most everything else was there. I picked up celery, honey, plum butter, radishes, spinach, asparagus, Colby cheese, garlic, leeks, and an onion. I made a quick stop at the thrift shop to say "hi" to Erica, then headed out again.

It started raining again while I was at the Farm Market, but by the time I left the thrift shop, it had slowed down again. That was fine by me. I rain into several yard sales on my way to Collingswood. Turns out they were having a huge city-wide yard sale day. Every other house was having a yard sale of some sort. It ended up being rather disappointing. Most of the goods for sale were little trinket items. No good books, toys, CDs, videos, or cassettes. I picked up Johnny Mathis and Moody Blues records, and that was it.

It started showering again around the time I picked up the records. Since I wasn't having any luck with yard sales anyway, I just headed back to Oaklyn. I made a quick stop at the Oaklyn Library first. I didn't take out any DVDs today, but I did walk out with a couple of free comic books. This is apparently Free Comic Books Day. I grabbed Disney's Cars, a Star Wars: Clone Wars title, and two X-Men comics, one from 1981. (I recognized the ads - they looked a bit like the ones in my 1983 Return of the Jedi Marvel comic book.)

It was raining yet again when I finally dripped back home. Since it was still pretty early, I decided to hang around for an hour or so and see if the weather changed. If it stopped raining by around 1PM, I'd go back out for a random bike ride. If the off-and-on rain continued, I'd just hang around the house.

The rain stopped shortly after I arrived home. It was still cloudy but dry by the time I finished lunch, so I headed back out. I mostly just rode around Audubon, Oaklyn, and Haddon Heights. I stopped at Desserts By Design to praise her work on my chocolate birthday cake and bought one of her massive chocolate chip cookies. I then went down the street to Abbie Road. Said "hi" to Bob and bought the live Eagles CD Hell Freezes Over. I used to have that on cassette, but that tape snapped at least three or four years ago. It was a favorite of mine, and I've missed it.

The rest of the day was less exciting. I stopped at several more favorite stores. Didn't pick up anything at Willie the Woodsman and Wife or Act Two Collectibles. Rode down to Haddon Heights, but didn't stop anywhere. I did stop at the CVS on King's Highway and picked up brush pick refills, which they don't have at the Acme. Rode back down the White Horse Pike and browsed at the comic book shop and House of Fun in Oaklyn. Got more freebie comics at the comics store but nothing else (and was glad to see as many women as men in there for once; I didn't feel so out of place).

Despite the fact that the weather was behaving, I still didn't trust it, so I just rode home and spent the rest of the afternoon reading mysteries and comics and baking Cocoa Angel Food Cake. Had a lovely dinner of turkey burger, braised carrots, and a delicious salad with fresh farm market radishes, spinach, and radish greens.