"Great necessities call out great virtues." - John Adams

Top Secret .... Sssshhh..... Don't You Dare Tell

I'm tempted to tell you about the J.Cre* warehouse sale I went to on Saturday .... but then I wouldn't want too much more competition showing up at the future sales .... because let me tell you, it's fierce.

It's a dog eat dog way of life at these sales.

On your way into the warehouse, you're greeted by a police officer and then handed a huge (bigger than anything you'd find in a regular household) garbage bag and a flyer with prices listed. I would tell you the prices, but you would be beyond jealous, so I'll keep it to myself. Just know, they are good prices. Good -- as in -- you've never bought anything for this cheap in all your life.

Half the warehouse is lined with fold-out tables with open cardboard boxes atop. People - I mean girls - are frantically fighting their way through these boxes, trying to find anything in their size or close to their size. They're stuffing things into their garbage bag so fast you'd think it's free. Well, it's pretty darn close to free.

Then the workers start opening other boxes and holding garments up and yelling out the size. The girl with her hand in the air first wins the prize. If you notice a large, swarming mob in the room, you know there is a worker who has just opened a new box.

Meanwhile, there are no dressing rooms where one would try the clothes on. So the center of the warehouse becomes a makeshift dressing room. People are pulling dresses-- including wedding gowns-- over their jeans and sweatshirts trying to figure out if the garment fits. Other girls are like vultures, looking to others' piles of goodies in hopes that they can finagle an item away without anyone noticing. Some girls are schemers. They make friends with the fellow tryer-oners in hopes of their leftovers.

Like I said, it's a dog eat dog world.

I wouldn't go so far as to analogize it to Filene's selling designer wedding gowns, but it can get pretty crazy. Prepare yourself for some elbows and a bruise or two.

But then again, why would you go??? It's not like they have anything there. (wink,wink).

"Whatever the world thinks, he who hath not much meditated upon God, the human mind, and the summum bonum, may possibly make a thriving earthworm, but will most indubitably make a sorry patriot and a sorry statesman." - George Berkeley

(My husband will likely l-o-v-e this quote!)

Oh so helpful- The Very Best of British: The American's Guide to Speaking British

Savor Grace

Enchanting

Located in an Old Country Farmhouse.

So Inviting!

Last night Dad and I had dinner at Grace's Restaurant. (Rebecca, you would love Grace's!) Currently, Grace's is running a fabulous promotion to encourage "economic stimulus." I happily enjoy supporting local restaurants who buy local, organic, and biodynamic -- and Grace's does not disappoint in the flavor department. We both had fresh salad (the greens of which were grown in a Lynchburg greenhouse) and French country bread with homemade butter. Then I had orange butter Skate (a fish) with grits and peas. And let me tell you -- those peas beat any mushy peas I've had in Britain! We rounded out our meal with fresh gingercake and chocolate mousse. It was delish, and of course, the company was fantastic!

"If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it?... A book must be like an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us." - Kafka 

P.S.

I love that my sister will be on the 10 o'clock train into Lynchburg tonight.