Reading the morning paper

After church this morning we went to a steak house for lunch. I had the country-fried steak. I brought half of it and all of the huge baked potato home to eat tomorrow.

This afternoon we had an ice cream social at church. That was fun.

Friday and Saturday

Yesterday afternoon we went to Wal-Mart and bought a dog crate and scratching post for our cat.

Then I stopped and picked up the Jan-Jun 07 bookkeeping work from the locksmith.

We went on to our favorite family restaurant and had lunch.

We stopped at an estate sale near our home but they didn't have anything we wanted...and they were overpriced with what they did have.

Our yard man was planning to do our lawn today but his helper called in sick and he wasn't able to do all of them by himself. So he called and said he would plan on coming Monday.

In the meantime I did the bookkeeping work this morning that I picked up yesterday. It took just over 5 hours.

Then we went and got groceries.

The telephone/internet service bill came today. I also received a "freebie" sample bar from South Beach.

Tuesday, Sep 11, 2007

Today was reasonably busy at work but not as hectic as Monday. We got a little rain.

Wednesday, Sep 12, 2007

I left for work a few minutes early and dropped off a used color printer cartridge at Walgreen Pharmacy to be refilled. I have a coupon from the Sunday ad sheet to get a free refill there today only. That will save me $15 from their usual price.

A Day Late, A Dollar Short?

Yesterday (Mon, Sep 10) was a very busy day at work. I didn’t go home for lunch but just drank a can of nutritional drink - although later in the afternoon I did have some pumpkin pie that was in the refrigerator, left over from Sunday’s potluck dinner.

Then for supper last night I had a container of low-fat yogurt, a package of peanut butter crackers, something else I can’t remember what, and later a chocolate chip cookie.

On Sept 1st, I upgraded my Quicken software to the new Quicken 8 and I have been very unhappy with it so last night I did a system restore and moved it back to the 28th of August. But then I had to find my old Quicken 7 disk and reinstall that. Now I have to go through and re-enter everything since that date. Fortunately I ran a list of transactions before I did the “restore” action, so I have them on a sheet of paper.

I had to stop this to go feed the cats their morning ration of “wet” food. They practically inhaled it. The rest of the day they eat their dry cat food but they think they just "have" to have the wet food early in the morning.

Homecoming Sunday

We went to church this morning. We left a little early and went to the grocery to pick up the fried chicken that the pastor had ordered for the potluck dinner. We brought it back and waited downstairs in the fellowship hall until the service and meeting was over. There was plenty of food and quite a few people stayed for the dinner. I counted 57 in church this morning but not all of them stayed for the meal afterward.

After we got home I took a nap. Then later we went to the pharmacy and bought some indexed divider sheets.

From there we went to the funeral home for the viewing of a friend who died this week at 99 years of age. I saw some of her family members that I hadn’t seen for several years.

Saturday Happenings

Today is our sister-in-law’s birthday. We sent her email birthday cards.
Also our cat is one year old today.
This morning we went to a rummage sale at a nearby Assembly of God church. We got an electric juicer, a big bag of wooden clothespins, a big bag of balls of yarn, and two planters for $10. Then we went to an estate sale two streets down from our street. We got a piece of cloth material and a 3-ring notebook for 75 cents.
We came home and just as we pulled into our driveway we remembered that we were out of juice, so we pulled right back out and went to the grocery store and got that and of course thought of a few more things we needed. That ended up costing us $25.30.
I got a notice by email that my cell phone bill (family plan) for this month is $188.77. We just signed up on the family plan a month ago and it was supposed to be a $60 access fee. They charged $151.42 for the access fee. So I went to the cell phone store this afternoon with the bill which I downloaded and the copy of the verification letter which I received from the cell phone company recently which confirmed the $60 access fee to see what can be done to straighten this out. At first the customer service representative told me that it is a policy that they charge to switch the one line to the family plan and to charge 1 ½ months access fee for doing this. I questioned that because they never mentioned any of this when I was there to get it switched, and even two months access fee wouldn’t be as much as they charged me. The representative put in a request for an adjustment and said it would take a few days to find out if it would be approved. He said he would call and let me know. If they don’t straighten it out, I’ll pay the early termination fee and go to another company.
We went back to the church rummage sale and got a couple more items. We also stopped at another yard sale on the way home but didn’t see anything we wanted.
We are planning to take deviled eggs and macaroni & cheese to the church potluck dinner tomorrow. The church is providing fried chicken.

A Quiet Friday

This morning I had a small glass of orange juice, a homemade kolache and a cup of coffee for breakfast. It is a pleasant sunny morning.

We went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch and I had almond chicken with fried rice. It was very good.

This afternoon was pretty quiet. I took a nap and later we played a few games of Mexican dominoes.

We had egg salad sandwiches for supper and later I did a couple loads of laundry. I'd go to bed right now but the last load of clothes isn't dry yet and I want to hang them up as soon as the dryer stops.

Comfort Food

C

We had slices of fried cornmeal mush for breakfast. Mother used to make that and it is something I would classify as a comfort food.

Other comfort foods: cornbread and beans, deviled eggs, bread pudding, rosy red pickled eggs, rhubarb pie, baked chicken pie (made in a 9x13" pan with pie crust on top), bisque ice cream, gooseberry pie.

Every now and then I think of something my mother made that I would love to have again. It would be even better if she was here to make it for me. What is it they say...You can't go home again. In a lot of ways that is true.

When I was telling a friend about the mush this morning, she had never heard of it. So here is a recipe. Combine 1 cup cornmeal and 3 cups boiling water in a large microwave-safe bowl. Stir well, cover and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Then stir again and microwave 2 more minutes on medium. Stir again and serve, sweetened with brown sugar if desired. You can put the mixture in a loaf pan and chill overnight, then slice and fry.

A homeless man came to my office door this morning asking for food. While I didn't have anything he could eat without cooking it, it got me to thinking what kinds of inexpensive items could be kept on hand in case this would happen again. In the kind of office where I work, this is something that happens every now and then. Perhaps a packet of peanut butter-cheese crackers and an apple. In this particular case I did give him a couple dollars to get something at the little diner around the corner, but that is not something I would feel was wise to do on a regular basis, even if I could afford to -- which I can't.

I have been adding to this all day. This afternoon I went shopping and got some packets of snack crackers, a 4-container package of snack-size mixed fruits and some cans of vienna sausages. That may work for something to pass out in an emergency.