Monday, Nov. 15

Up at 7 a.m., and did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast. Once I was ready for the day, I finished writing the letter to my friend in Texas and enclosed it with the handmade greeting card, so it could be taken to the mailbox before the mailman arrived around 10 a.m. My friend's birthday is Wednesday, so I'm none too soon in getting a greeting out to her.

After that, Hubbie and I ran errands...to a grocery store to pick up cottage cheese and another ten pounds of red potatoes; to another grocery store to get a free gallon of milk and another bargain grocery item; to a pharmacy store to pick up several on-sale items that we also had discount coupons for; and on to the WDCS.

I was interested in getting an 18-quart slow cooker to use during the holidays, but of course the store didn't have any. When we got back home, I checked online at every familiar store I thought would carry the cooker, but only one had it and it was on back order. There was a site unknown to me that carries the cookers, but I hesitated buying there, since I don't recognize the name.

We puzzled over this problem for a while and decided to just use two smaller slow cookers to do what we want (fix two beef roasts for this coming weekend, and two chickens for Thanksgiving). We had a new slow cooker on the shelf in the storeroom...one we'd bought a few years ago at a silent auction to use as a possible gift. Since an occasion hasn't arisen to use it as a gift, we'll just use it ourselves when needed. But I'd still like to have one of the larger units.

Mother had put noodles in chicken broth while Hubbie and I were shopping, and we had the soup for lunch. After lunch, we made another batch of chicken soup (this one for the freezer), and a double recipe of tomato soup (also for the freezer).

In between errand running and soup making, I called the scrapbook club members to remind them of our meeting on Thursday, and corresponded by e-mail with the Literacy Council director, in attempt to schedule a time to meet with the student. The student rejected the 6:30 to 7:30 time on Mondays and Tuesdays that I proposed. She said the days are okay with her, but it'd be better for her to meet from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Well, that is our supper hour, so I asked for a compromise of 5:30 to 6:30. We settled on 5:45 to 6:45. I'll start next week.

Later, we had a supper of beef strips and peppers, with baked potato and salad. Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I watched TV, including "Dancing With the Stars."

Funny: I was up to my usual silly stunts yesterday afternoon during the Literacy Council training. I started by missing the road to the church and ending up in the parking lot of the Department of Human Services.

Shortly after the session began, I noticed I was missing a gold loop earring on the left side. Rats! This is one of my favorite pairs. Oh, well, I took off the other earring and put it in my purse. Later, I was adjusting the collar of my turtleneck shirt and felt the other earring there, looped over the collar. Yay! I was glad to find it.

Then, at one point during the session, another lady and I needed a bathroom break. Our leader directed us down the hall to the lady's room, where she said there were two stalls. The other lady marched down to the end of the hall, but I whipped into the first door I came to, because I saw a sink there. The other woman had gone too far, I reasoned. Once I closed the door, though, I saw by the urinal that I was in the men's room. Oh well, the one man in the group had already taken a break earlier, so I figured I'd be safe in using the potty in this room.

During the training, our leader asked us to refer to a paper in the front of our notebooks. I immediately began flipping through the pocket at the back of the notebook. "In the front of the notebook," our leader repeated. "Oh, right," I laughed, "that's what you said. But I didn't believe you."

At another point, we were shown a video in which an instructor showed a picture to his group of teachers...it was not clear what the image in the picture was, but I commented that it looked like a horse. It was a cow. But at least I saw an animal, which is more than the group in the video, or our little group could see. Once a transparency outline of the cow was placed over the picture, the cow became very visible.

I found the picture online tonight and showed it to Hubbie. But even after he saw the outline of the cow, he couldn't see the cow. I think he was letting extraneous information distract him. What was completely obvious to me was a muddle to him. I need to remember this when I'm working with students...people perceive the same information in different ways.