Thursday, August 19

Again yesterday, around 3 p.m., our cable company shut down Internet services. In the evening, we also couldn't get the three main TV channels. They must be updating services or something, but it sure is inconvenient.

Was up around 7 a.m. and did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast. Mother came over after that, and we gathered our scrapbooking materials into totes, which Hubbie took to the van. We didn't do much else for the rest of the morning.

Hubbie ran to the grocery store/pharmacy to pick up prescriptions for Mother, and a jar of salsa for me to use in making a Mexican rice dish for supper.

Mother went home for lunch, and returned before 1 p.m. so we could go to a scrapbook club meeting at the Extension Services office. The other lady who joined us came by around 12:45 to ride with us.

At the meeting, one of the secretaries of the office took snapshots of the three of us looking through handmade greeting cards. I also shot photos of the cards and rubber stamps we used in making them. This was all for a report I am required to make, stating how our club spent $100 in grant money for buying rubber stamps and paper supplies for making cards to be donated to Caring Hands Hospice.

After that, we got down to work on our own scrapbook pages projects. I made two pages...one of my oldest son playing guitar with his band, and one of my youngest son posing in farm clothes in front of a bumper crop of corn he raised. Mother completed two pages featuring Niece's wedding photos.

As we were traveling to the meeting, the sky darkened as though there would be a storm. At the meeting, we heard a couple of thunderclaps, promising rain that didn't materialize.

We were back home just after 3 p.m. Mother went home, and I put together the Mexican Rice dish. I used brown rice that we'd prepared in the rice steamer, plus salsa, green chilies, refried bean dip, whole kernel corn from the freezer (thawed), spinach from the freezer (thawed), shredded Monterey Jack cheese, chili powder and cumin. The rice (four cups) is mixed with the salsa (one and one-quarter cups), 1 tsp. cumin, and 1 tbsp. chili powder, and half is spread in a cooking oil sprayed two-quart dish. A four-ounce can of chopped green chilies, the bean dip, and a cup of corn are mixed together. This is placed on top of the rice. The spinach (a cup) is placed on top of that layer, and this is sprinkled with half of a three-quarter cup of shredded cheese (can use cheddar). The rest of the rice is spread on top, and the other half of the cheese is spread on it. It is baked uncovered at 350 degrees until the cheese melts and the mixture is hot throughout. Makes six generous servings. Hubbie is fond of Mexican style food, so this tasty dish suited him.

We spent the evening as usual, watching TV. But while we were doing this, I brought another stack of "stuff" from the office, which we went through, discarding all of it except a newspaper article I'd written, and some squares of sample wall paper and paint sample chips that I think we can use in making greeting cards. These were from a large accordion folder of information about home decorating. If I ever need this sort of info again, I can probably find what I need on the Internet.

Movie fare tonight was "Traitor," starring Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Neal McDonough, and Jeff Daniels. In this 2008, PG-13 action movie of politics and espionage, Cheadle's character is a devout Muslim, living in Afghanistan, who is working with the FBI against terrorism. To do this, he is embedded with terrorists. To make them believe he is with them, a bombing incident is set up where dead bodies are planted in a building and then Cheadle's character blows part of the building away. Only thing is, eight innocent people somehow are killed. Now Cheadle's character is conflicted. But he is still determined to somehow thwart the terrorists' plans to simultaneously blow up a bunch of buses across America.