Monday, Jan. 17

This is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Ordinarily, we would have hung the flag on the well house, but since it's raining, we did not.

Slept late again this morning, until nearly 8:30, but did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast.

Once I was ready for the day, Mother and I worked to organize scrapbook and card-making materials. We thought we'd finished that project, but I found another big box of scrap papers and elements that needed to be sorted.

While we did this, Hubbie took Shih Tzu to the vet, because she has been having bowel problems. He prescribed a medication and suggested we add mineral oil to her food, to treat colitis.

After lunch, Hubbie and I went to the WDCS, where I picked up photos at the one-hour service, and bought a couple of flash drives for storing photos. I got a smaller flash drive to transfer photos of my 50th high school reunion...I'll exchange this drive with a classmate. We also picked up a few groceries for ourselves and for Mother.

Back home, I used a black marker to identify the contents of the several plastic totes of scrapbook and card-making supplies, and stacked the totes in the storage room...much neater now. This should cut down on the frustration of trying to find the right materials when we get ready to do scrapbook pages or make cards.

After that, I called the scrapbook club members. This coming Thursday is our regular meeting day, but since there could be iffy weather, including frozen precipitation, and because one of our members is sick, we opted to cancel this month's meeting and hope for a better day in February.

Since I haven't seen these ladies in a couple of months, we chatted for a long time...about an hour...so it was around 4 p.m. before I got off the phone.

At 5 p.m., we had a supper of the remainder of the leftover beans and ham, with sauteed cabbage, and macaroni and cheese. Mother went home afterward, and around 5:45, I went to the college library to meet my student for a tutoring session. Wow, it was really foggy traveling up the hill to the college. I'm not crazy about traveling in heavy fog at night, but fortunately, there were very few cars on the road.

Tonight we reviewed the previous unit, and then moved on to the unit identifying nations of the world through role-playing conversation: "I'm from China...I'm Chinese," "I'm from Poland...I'm Polish," "I'm from the United State...I'm American," etc. And, "Are you from China?" "No, I'm from Korea," etc. This helps the student not only recognize the names of nations, but also understand questions and be able to make appropriate responses.

I was surprised when the student brought me a gift...an apron that she'd made. It's quite lovely in green print with tan pockets and trim. It's very well made, and I think she makes them and other items for sale.

Before I left for the college, I set the DVR for a movie for Hubbie..."The Gambler," starring Kenny Rogers. Hubbie is fond of westerns, old or new. Tonight, he watched the first episode. He'll catch the second episode tomorrow night.

When I got back home, we watched the R-rated movie, "Up in the Air," starring George Clooney. Clooney's character flies around the country firing people in companies where employers are too cowardly to do it themselves.

Then his own job is in jeopardy when a company hires a young woman who fires people over the Internet instead of in person. The man has always liked moving around and not committing to relationships, but then he begins to recognize the desirability of making connections. This is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic movie...tragic when folks break down emotionally upon hearing they have lost their jobs.