Last week on Memorial Day, the family and I piled into Saundra's PT Cruiser for a little Monday Holiday excursion. And so, Neilbert, Saundra, Saundra's sister Eleanor and I set out on a day trip to Somerset County, from whence hails the Kane sisters' mother. The occasion of our trip was to visit with the Kane sisters' last surviving great uncle and aunt, who were in town from Florida for a class reunion.

The Family Cemetery

We met at their hotel in Somerset and proceeded on a circuitous route through Meyersdale—Grandmother Kane's hometown—to Salisbury, PA, where we had lunch at the Country Chef Buffet. I did not have any particular expectations for lunch, but I was pleasantly surprised at the salad bar. The trouble with most salad bars is that they offer a big tub o' iceberg lettuce, and while the Country Chef Buffet was no exception, I must applaud them for offering a tub o' baby spinach in addition. The dressings were also quite remarkable, likely homemade; Saundra said it was the best bleu cheese dressing she ever had; the honey dijon was nothing to complain about either. The hot buffet also turned out to be a boon for low-carb Saundra, as nearly everything was some type of meat—meatballs, fried chicken, ribs, ham BBQ, etc. Aunt Eleanor, being a vegetarian, wasn't in such good shape with the buffet, but sampled generously from the dessert spread. After lunch, we took a different, but equally circuitous route back to Somerset, stopping at a number of family landmarks, most notably the country-road cemetery where most of Grandmother Kane's immediate ancestors are buried, including my great-great-grandmother and namesake, Sarah the First.

Lenox Warehouse Outlet

And so, it was a Memorial Day filled with family memories and long-lost relatives... but the trip along Route 31 also allowed for a pit stop at the Lenox Warehouse Outlet in Mt. Pleasant on the way home. Yes, folks, you've got that right—recipe for trouble. Never fear though, my mania for Lenox crystal is tempered by my general thriftiness. In fact, I entered the Lenox Warehouse that day with very specific goals in mind. You see, I have noticed a somewhat disturbing trend among the Tuscany Classics offerings at major retailers. Particular pieces are disappearing from stock at Amazon and Macy's, and even Lenox.com, leading me to believe that these items in the otherwise popular Tuscany line are being discontinued. Among the Tuscany pieces missing-in-action are the pilsners, the cordials, the margaritas, the brandy snifters, the grand burgundy glasses, the Tom Collins glasses and the champagne saucers. My mission at the Lenox Warehouse Outlet was to buy up whichever of these dwindling items might be in stock. And indeed, I found three of these increasingly rare items—and each at 25% off to boot! I came home that day with a set of pilsners, a set of margarita glasses and a set of champagne saucers. The margarita glasses have already been put to good use with the discovery of the frozen margarita superpowers possessed by my Cuisinart ice cream maker.

The Tuscany Display

The pilsners are still in box, but I don't have any beer in the refrigerator, so this is to be expected. It was, interestingly enough, my shopping online for pilsner glasses that first got me immersed in the Tuscany Classics line—I had originally received some Tuscany Classics wine glasses as a gift, and when in my shopping for pilsners discovered they were part of a matching line of barware, decided to add them to my online registry, and then decided to add the rest of the Tuscany pieces, and then bought some for myself, and... you get it, the rest is history. So, it was the pilsners that started it all, and now I finally own a set. The champagne saucers had not originally interested me, as I prefer to drink my champagne out of a flute. However, along my various adventures in stemware, I realized that champagne saucers double wonderfully as dessert dishes, and I can't wait to serve ice cream or chocolate mousse in my Tuscany saucers.

And so, I arrived home last Monday with a richer understanding of my family history and a slimmer pocketbook, but well-equipped to save on socializing expenses by entertaining at home.