Saturday

I woke up late on Saturday (7:00 AM or so) and ran through my daily rituals. Then I shaved and showered. I left about 10 minutes to 9:00 for my haircut. That should have got me there in plenty of time, except for the mile-long train that caught me at the Inkster crossing!

BTW, the loveseat was still out there (dammit).

I got my hair cut and then headed out, doing errands. One of them involved me going to Plymouth. Knowing that Plymouth Road is all torn up, I went down I-96 to M-14. I was going to get off on Sheldon Road and head south to Ann Arbor Trail. But, like everywhere else in Michigan, M-14 is under construction, so we all had to slowly funnel into one lane and the Sheldon Road exit was closed!

So, I got off on the next exit and made my way back. I did finally arrive in Plymouth, only to find the store I wanted didn’t open until 10:00 AM. So, I spent the next 15 minutes sitting on a bench, people-watching.

Now, I’m not much of a “town” person, but if I did live in a town, Plymouth is definitely one of the ones I would choose. There are people walking or bike riding. It’s clean and has flowers planted everywhere and there’s a nice city park with a fountain in it. There are a lot of small shops and boutiques, including a bakery I want to go to one day for their specialty breads. I probably couldn’t afford to live there, but I wish I did!

Next, I went to Lowe’s to get more items on my shopping list. I may or may not have mentioned the difficulties I have been having with the garage door opener in my car (the battery’s not dead, its just some 10 years old and I think the switch is worn out). It hasn’t worked at all since I got back home, so the next stop was Sears to buy another one.

But, Warren Road is also under construction and the road I needed to turn on (Central City Parkway) was completely shut down at the intersection! So, I turned into a parking lot further down (where World Market used to be) and went through the alley to get to Central City Parkway. Geesh!

I got the new remote (which looks completely different and I will have to program) and finally headed home. Luckily, it was still before noon when I remembered I wanted to call the insurance company. So, while I was still in the Sears parking lot, I called and cancelled the bike insurance.

I got home, confused the cats yet again by coming in the front door to open the garage door and then I unloaded my purchases. I was just about to tackle the remote when the phone rang. It was my daughter, Melissa, and we talked for quite a long while (which was okay with me as it was really muggy outside and I didn’t want to go in the garage with the door closed, anyway).

But, all good things come to an end and so did our phone call. I remembered that I needed to go to the post office and Westborn, so I opened the garage door (with the switch on the wall) pulled the car out, went back inside and pushed the button to close it and ran (as best I can run these days) and ducked under it. This was the second time I did that today and I vowed it would be the last!

I breezed through the post office and then went to Westborn. I gotta tell you, I was disappointed in myself about Friday night’s dinner, so I decided that I would make that eggplant parmesan casserole for my Sunday Supper. So, I picked up everything I will need.

I did make one impulse buy. They had city chicken on sale! I can’t remember the last time I had city chicken, but my mother used to make it a lot, so I bought some and a big baking potato for my side dish.

Back home, I changed clothes and started the weekend wash. Then I went out into the steamy garage and, after three tries, finally programmed the damn opener. I clipped it on my visor and breathed a sigh of relief.

It’s supposed to storm late tonight, so before I began to make dinner, I went out with the furniture dolly and rolled the love seat back in the garage. It sounds harder than it was, BTW, as it’s very lightweight.

Back inside, I got out my 12-inch skillet, added some canola oil and fried the city chicken. If anyone doesn’t know what that is, its ground pork with seasonings, formed around a stick and breaded. So, its sort of like a chicken drumstick. It is also sometimes called “mock chicken.”

I “baked” the potato in the microwave (it was too hot for even the toaster oven, I decided).

I got a nice crust on the city chicken, both because I like a crust and I didn’t want to eat undercooked pork. I let them rest, draining on a paper towel, while I fixed my potato (salt, pepper, butter and sour cream).

I ate dinner watching the Olympics and it was delicious (the dinner, not the Olympics – well, they were good, too, but I’m talking about food here). Someone alert the media! The Captain not only actually cooked food, but he plated it on a real plate!!

I spent the rest of the night watching some TV and then reading. The predicted storm still had not reached us yet when I went to sleep. But, judging from the havoc it wreaked on Chicago, I knew that damn radio was gonna go off in the middle of the night and scare the crap out of me!