Come Saturday mornng...

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday. I felt pretty good. I had some oatmeal with my morning pills and then shaved and showered. I got dressed and headed out on the morning errands.

First stop was my 9:00 a.m. haircut. I had passed on my real appointment last Saturday (I felt too bad and didn’t want to get Michelle, my barber, sick). So, I really, REALLY needed a haircut.

Then I went to Kroger’s for restocking (missed that last Saturday as well). I got some carrots and parsnips and then moved onto the meat section. I never even looked at this week’s sales flyer, so I just investigated. Nah, nothing there that jumped out at me except for a beef roast. But none of them were small enough for my little household.

I checked for bone-in pork chops (I am still seriously jonesing about them). Nothing there but thin, little wimpy ones. So, I said, “Fnck it!”

Sidebar: I really did say,”Fnck it” out loud.  It seemed to disconcert my nearest shoppers (who were all women). But, I bet they hadn’t been searching for the perfect pork chop for three weeks!

So, I went to the butcher counter and picked out an inch-thick, bone-in pork chop. At $6.99 a pound, one was enough. The butcher told me since it was organic, or grass-fed, or something, I didn’t need to over-cook it. I didn’t plan on over-cooking it!

I did the rest of my shopping and was getting seriously bad by the time I was done. I had gone through three of Vicky’s Halls cough drops and the five Kleenex I’d stuffed in my coat pockets.

Sidebar: I had offered her the bag of cough drops back at 5:00 p.m. on Friday and she said she had the other half and those were for me. Thanks!

I paid an amazing $137.00 for my stuff. But, to be honest, very little was food. Most of it was cleaning products, cat food, litter and cat treats, aluminum foil, and various-sized baggies that I was out of. I had stocked up on paper towels and toilet paper, as well. I was going to get them at Costco, but the way I was feeling, I didn’t think I’d make it today. I also got three different suet blocks for the red-headed woodpecker. You have to take care of your pecker!

I had six stops to make after that: Costco, Office Depot, the gas station, the bank (to make a deposit) and the Post Office. I felt like sh*t, so I stopped at Office Depot for toner for my Samsung laser printer. It’s running out and the output is now hard to read.

I spent $87.00 on toner! I think the damn printer only cost me over a hundred bucks! WTF? Now I need to dig out the owner’s manual and see how to install it.

From there, I just went to the Post Office. I’ll do the rest of the stops tomorrow (if it doesn’t snow too badly) or during the week. The line was short and I got home about 11:00 a.m. I briefly left the truck outside so I could unload both sides.

Before I could put away the groceries, I had to clean out the fridge. So, I threw away a lot of leftover spaghetti and meatballs, the rest of that T-bone steak, the baked potatoes, Vicky’s Puerto Rican dish, (she told me I should) and all the rest of my soups (chicken noodle, my cabbage soup (I should have frozen that) and even Michelle’s cabbage soup. It was pathetic. But if you don’t eat for a week, your old leftovers become suspect. I don’t need food poisoning on top of the Puerto Rican plague!

Then I put everything away and started tonight’s dinner. I cut up the rest of the Yukon Gold potatoes and put them in the Dutch oven. I covered them with a bag of Dearborn Brand sauerkraut. Then I cut up the smoked kielbasa on the biase.

Sidebar: I normally buy the Dearborn Brand smoked kielbasa, but they had a sale Kowalski brand. When I checked the expiration date, I understood why. It had to be sold by 3/10/15! I put them on top the sauerkraut, turned it on high and then turned it on simmer when it started to bubble.

Speaking of expiration dates, my cubicle-buddy, Courtney, had a doctor’s appointment in Brighton, which has the only store left that sells Red Pelican hot mustard. So, I gave her $20.00 and asked her to buy me as many jars as that would pay for. She got back and told me that the expiration dates on all the jars they had were past! She said they apologized and offered her a great deal on them. But, she told them I was stocking up, so that wouldn’t work… She said she would check again next time she was there… (Sigh…)

I decided to take a nap, as I was wiped out. But, Caley had barfed on the blanket!!! So, I cleaned that up and started the laundry. I put everything into the dishwasher and turned that on as well. Then I laid down on the bed about 1:30 p.m. and took a nap.

When I woke up, I remembered to flip over the calendar page to March. That’ when I learned I needed to replace the blades in my electric shaver (a yearly event) and treat all my drains (every six months). I can’t do much about the shaver blades today except put them on the list.

So, I went to check on my supply of liquid Draino. I had enough to treat one drain. I thought about it and decided the sink in the downstairs bathroom had the slowest drain. So, I dumped all the Draino down it. I set the timer for 15 minutes and, when it went off, poured hot water down the sink to flush it out. I added Draino to the list as well.

Speaking of lists, I made up my Sunday errands list, in case I go out in the snow. I fooled around on the compute for a while, checking mail, checking out Facebook and answering comments on the Blog.

Sidebar: I try and answer every comment that is made on the Blog. I know how it feels to post or comment on something on Facebook, and nobody responds. But, my comments usually come a day after yours.

I read in the living room (with the fireplace on) until dinner time. I dished up a bowl (not really photo-worthy) and dug in. The sauerkraut and potatoes were great as always, but the Kowalski smoked kielbasa was a disappointment. I shouldn’t have cheaped out!!!

I cleaned up the mess and moved my reading into the bedroom. I read until a concert I wanted to see came on CMT. It was called “George Straight, the cowboy rides on” and is supposedly his last concert. He had a lot of great, guest country music stars on stage, singing with him. I thought it was really good.

I went back to reading afterward, until the 11:00 p.m. news came on. I watched that and most of Saturday Night Live (the nap really helped!) Then I went to bed.