Chillin' on Thursday

I woke up at 6:00 AM on Thursday. The forecasted snow apparently is north of here. But the wind is still stiff and it was 20 degrees F. (the high for today).

So, I posted the Blog, showered and got ready for therapy. I chugged down a cup of warmed-over coffee on the way out the door and was damn glad I did. It was freakin' cold out there!

Maureen busted my balls today. I told her that I'd loved the hot pack and the interferential current stuff last time; why did we move on? She just laughed (Physical therapists are evil, if you didn't already know that). So, after the hot pack and electrical current, we switched to exercises to "strengthen my core muscles."

Jesus!

None the less, when we finished, I voluntarily spent another half hour on the big machine, working out on my shoulder. Medically, (and more importantly insurance-wise), I am supposedly cured, but I am NOT happy with my current situation. I left there and headed for home about 9:30 AM.

Now, I still have about half a pound of cooked elbow macaroni (from when my stomach was upset last week) in the fridge. I had been trying to think of what I could do with it (besides eating it with salt, pepper and butter, as I did last week). It dawned on me that Lu used to make something her people called "goulash" back on Palms Road with elbow macaroni (I knew even then it wasn't really goulash).

But, I couldn't remember the ingredients. So, I gave her a call and luckily, she was in. She was pretty sure of most of the ingredients (browned hamburger, onion, a diced green bell pepper) all of which I had. She was little less sure about the tomatoes (whole, diced, stewed, tomato sauce, tomato paste?), but was pretty damn sure about the last ingredient: V8 Juice. Crap! Then I remembered I had a brief period where I would drink a glass of V8 juice every night after work (for some silly health reason or another). So, I checked the closet and I had two bottles of it left!

So, after we hung up, I started making today's lunch/dinner. I saut�ed two medium-sized chopped yellow onions and then added the thawed ground beef. When that was browned, I kicked it up a notch by adding four cloves of chopped garlic (not in the original recipe).

Since nobody is really firm about the tomatoes, I decided to take the rest of the tomatoes I bought for the BLT's (I'm sick of them, now), seed them and fine dice them. I added them and the V8 Juice to the right consistency (You don't want a soup nor a stew. It's kinda like what Rachel Ray calls a "Stoup") I let that get happy and then dished up a big bowl.

Hmmm... Not bad! I had another half bowl just to make sure, LOL.

As I said before the wind is still strong and the temperature is slowly falling (it was like 16 degrees F. the last time I checked) so, rather than turn up the heat (wasting money) I got into bed and covered up, and read a new magazine.

Of course, I fell asleep. I woke up and checked the TV guide... Hmmm... Nothing much on. So, I got out my DVD of "Tears of the Sun" and watched that (another of my favorite movies).

You may have noticed a comment on the Blog from my daughter Amy who mentioned it was -1 degrees in Minnesota. I did feel bad about whining then, but felt worse when I got an email from my old friend Canada Cathy. She sent pictures of the snow depth (unbelievable) and mentioned the high on Sunday is supposed to be -30 degrees!

Unimaginable!

I had another bowl of the "goulash" for dinner, but the elbow macaroni were now falling apart. So, into the trash it went.

I went back to bed, covering up and shivering and watched TV until bedtime.