Thursday (1/31) was a fairly busy day…Jan picked me up at 8:30 and we headed off to Mary Jo’s.  We both need some fabric to go with our focus fabric for the mystery, and Thursday was the only day we could go.  We had 5 places on a list of places to stop, and we only made it to 2 of them.  Mary Jo’s was first and since we both had lists of what we needed, we thought we’d be in and out quickly….not so  L.  This mystery requires that you have a light-medium-dark to go with your focus fabric.  Jan and I both had our ruby beholders…and the fabric we had pulled from our stash, and the new fabric at Mary Jo’s…it was CRAZY!!  I swear to you, I had a pale blue, very pale that I had bought for my light.  I pick out a dark coral, really going towards rust…and it was ‘reading’ lighter than the blue!!!  Frustrating, as each of the fabrics take different amounts…so I couldn’t suddenly make the blue my medium…I didn’t have enough.  We both spent hours walking around the store trying to find fabric that would work with what we already had.  The mystery teacher had explained that the quilt wouldn’t work until you really had the light-medium-dark separation…so I finally scrapped the blue I had…scraped the desire to use a coral, and picked up a pale yellow and a darker blue.  I also found some black/silver that I think will work with my small purses (Janice reminded me that dressy ones might still sell).  After that, we headed over to SEW MUCH FUN.  They have moved to a new store since we had been there last, and the new store is HUGE!!!!  and FABULOUS!!!  We spent so much time there that neither one of us could wait to eat lunch (we were both starving) so we nixed the Mexican restaurant closer to home, and stopped at SCHLOTZKY’s (right across the street) instead.  I knew I had eaten in one in the past…probably when I visited Chicago, and it was just as good as I remembered…..Jan pointed out some good looking salads, but I said ‘I think what I liked about it last time was the bread’…and I was right.  I got a turkey club on jalapeno cheese bread with chipotle sauce on the side….it was YUMMY!!  We finally got home around 1:30 and I was exhausted.  I took a short nap, then met with Beth to see which purse she wanted (she ended up taking all 4 home so that Bill could weigh in on a decision).  I puttered a bit in my studio, then got showered and dressed and we headed into Charlotte.  Michael likes to see plays where the cast of characters includes people he knows.  He worked with a young man several years ago in INHERIT THE WIND, and Grant was in a production called NEXT TO NORMAL, about a family where the wife is bipolar/schizophrenic.  Most of the ‘dialogue’ was sung…and although I initially didn’t want to go to see the play…I enjoyed it.  It seemed like an honest account of what the wife’s brain was telling her was going on.  The acting was incredible and Michael really enjoyed talking to Grant after the performance.  Grant is a high school senior this year and hopes to study musical theatre in college.  As much as we enjoyed the play…by the time we got home, and stayed up a bit to play with the dog, it was after mid-night when we crawled into bed.  These late nights just kill us....