Tuesday expedition to Jefferson

In the middle of the night, Ed, who is on his computer rather than sleeping as he should be, sends me a link: what about this one?

Somewhere on Craigslist, that repository of other people's junk, he has found a dining table that he thinks will appeal to me.

Me, I'm asleep of course. I have Snowdrop to bounce around with. I really need the rest.

But in the morning, I take a look at the table photos.

It could be okay.

It looks sort of dull.

I so want a bigger table.

It's relatively cheap.

I fire off an "interested" email.

And that is how we find ourselves driving late in the evening, after Snowdrop has gone home, to Jefferson -- a town halfway between Madison and Milwaukee.

But of course, first there is breakfast...






... and a morning of errands, and more emails back and forth with the Jefferson table owner, followed by an afternoon with Snowdrop.

Oh, little girl, you bring so much normality to the day!

I pick her up. She is still sleepy after the nap. We snuggle. Her teacher smiles and recalls today's lunchtime conversation: I'm eating chicken and rice. Snowdrop looks over and asks -- "what is that?" I tell her -- chicken and rice. She responds -- "oh, but I just loooove peanut butter!" We laughed and laughed! I mean, it's not as if she was eating peanut butter! (The school is a nut free zone.)

We go home. I put stuff away, she gets Ed to read to her. It's a current favorite, one about Fancy Nancy. (Not that she herself aspires to be fancy. If I ask her whether she would like to be fancy or plain, she always says -- I like plain.)







Relaxed, refreshed, refilled with fruits and bits of croissant. We play school. Does that make her happy?





Yes it does.

Once again she and Ed are the teachers.







She teaches us songs. "On the guitar," which looks awfully much like a double bass in her rendition..






... and with the xylophone. Today, is a beautiful day! I wake up and today is a beautiful day! She improvises.






Running. There is a lot of running in her time here. She is in need of a snuggle. She brings pillows, resting next to me.
Do you love me a little or a lot?
Oh, there's a question with an easy answer: both, sweet one. Both a little and a lot.

She goes home, we drive to Jefferson -- just under an hour from where we live.

We examine the table. I want a table. I want to love this table and be done with it. I'm so easily satisfied!

I turn to Ed: I don't like it. The color... there's something off about it. 

Well I might cringe: the woman had had the tabletop replaced with new wood and the stain came out, well, different than she had intended, and so she wants a new table. I can hardly blame her. I don't want this one either.

Really? She sounds disappointed.
Really.

I had suggested to Ed that so long as we were out in the hinterlands for the evening, maybe we should find a place to eat out there. He finds a spot on the Main Street of the town just to the south of Jefferson --  Fort Atkinson. It's an Italian eatery called Mangiami Italiano.






You're not going to find many people eating out on a wintry Tuesday evening in these smaller towns. There is a couple, a pair of friends, and this group of young women:






We are so glad to be here. It's a truly delightful little meal -- the kind of dinner you hope to get when you're driving about: very fresh and honest.






We return to the topic of the dining table.
It had no character. Too muddy.... Ed comments.
Exactly, I smile.


So we didn't get the table, any table. But we had such a nice time trying. That surely counts for more!