Too darn smart

The forecast called for a wintry mix today. We were supposed to get some snow and some ice, but no one really could predict how much or for how long.

For several weeks, I'd been planning an outing with my friend Whitney. We normally don't have the same days off, but she had taken today and then changed her plans. So we started contemplating places we might go, day trips we might take.

When the forecast started sounding certain, we decided we should probably stay closer to home.

I had thought about taking Sawyer to preschool so we'd have a few hours to shop around town. But I woke up late and it was incredibly cold, and something made me decide to let Sawyer play hooky.

We slept a little longer and then got ready to meet Whitney. By the time we were getting dressed, the grass was covered in a thin, white layer of flakes. After discussing our options on the phone, we decided to brave the storm and do something.

Sawyer and I drove up to Whitney's house and then to Winston-Salem, where we hit the Habitat ReStore. The store is huge, and though we didn't find any bookcases Whitney liked, we got sucked into their super book sale. If you bought 10 books or more, they were 75 percent off.

Books AND a sale. I was done for.

Whitney and I browsed the shelves while Sawyer turned all the TVs for sale on and off again and again. We both found lots of books ... most of them for 25 or 50 cents.

By the time we were finished shopping, we were hungry. The wintry mix seemed to have ended, so we felt like we were good shape for lunch.

We went to a nearby restaurant where Sawyer amazed me with his reasoning skills.

We ordered drinks and the waitress brought them, tossing down four straws on the table.

Sawyer piped up and said, "We don't need four straws."

"Why not?" I asked him.

"Because there's only three of us," he said.

Pretty sharp observation for a 3-year-old, if I do say so myself.

The waitress wasn't exactly wrong though. Whitney had ordered a drink and a water, so there were four glasses on the table.

But it still amuses me sometimes the things that boy puts together.

If only he'd been that good the rest of lunch ... where he acted horribly. Refusing to eat or sit in his seat.

And by the time we'd finished lunch, the restaurant was closing up. Unbeknownst to us, the sleet and snow were coming down hard and the roads were getting ugly. It took us about three times as long to drive home as it normally would, and we saw half a dozen wrecks on the way.

Sawyer slept through the whole trip. Which is just as well for me. Twenty rounds of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" would not have helped my driving.