Thursday

It was sunny on my drive into work on Thursday and a little warmer, too. That made my mid-morning walk a bit more tolerable.

I went grocery shopping at lunchtime. Normally, that’s not a problem. But, this time I had too many items for the short line and all the packers were in some sort of mandatory meeting. So, the cashier checked me out and then packed everything up for me. This took about twice the time I had allotted for it. When I got home, I put the refrigerator and freezer stuff away, grabbed a container of soup and some crackers and headed right back to work.

One thing I did notice was that it was awfully warm in the house at lunchtime. Then I remembered that, when I was stuck here 24/7 after my surgery and after losing all that weight, I was always freezing. So, I reset the set-back thermostat so it was always at the same temperature, day or night. I put that in my mental ToDo list to make it so it really does go down when I’m at work and when I’m asleep. It would probably help with my heating bills!

I did get back to work in time to open the hood and check for leaks. But, I didn’t see anything, so I think its fine.

It was a long afternoon, but it finally was over and I went home. I treated the cats and then went to work on that thermostat. I got that done and then went to work on browning some ground chuck.

I had bought a three-pound roll on some sale or another and, for some reason (I usually break these up into three one-pound Ziploc bags) I put the whole thing in the freezer. So, I have been thawing it in the fridge for two days and decided I needed to use it tonight. I have two plans for it this weekend: one, to duplicate Michelle’s “Cabbage Casserole” but with more meat (hey, nobody could possibly use that big of a half-head of cabbage for say, coleslaw – you’d be eating it for a month!); and the other is to make some chili and freeze it for the coming cold.

I used my Bialetti pasta pot (so I could easily drain off the water and grease). The first time, I drained off the excess water, and then the final time, I drained off the grease. Then I let it sit to cool and then stuck it in the fridge.

I thought about trying to install that headlight, but its supposed to be much warmer this weekend and I think I will do it then. I’m not driving in the dark, anyway.

Speaking of a warm weekend, most folks at work were saying they plan on putting up their Christmas lights (figuring this may be the last nice weekend before winter). I don’t put up outdoor lights, but I do plan on one last trash pick up out back and to take down the hanging planter on the front maple tree (I forgot that in my Fall cleanup).

I needed to use up some milk that’s fast expiring, so I made some blue box mac and cheese for dinner.

I stayed up until after 10:00 PM!