Saturday, Feb. 4

Awoke at 1:30 to a storm with wind, lightening, booming thunder, and heavy rain. It passed in about 30 minutes. Don't know how much rain we got last night, but on Wednesday, we got more than any other county in the state, and yesterday, we came in second.

Awoke again at 7 a.m., but since Hubbie was still peacefully snoozing, I stayed in bed until he woke up at 8 a.m. After breakfast, I went to Mother's house to help her take a shower, and then throw a load of laundry in the washer for her.

Back home, I changed into exercise clothes and did a treadmill and weights session. By this time, it was noon. After lunch, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house. She diced onions and bell peppers, and cut up turkey bacon for a batch of baked beans. I sauteed the bacon and onions/peppers and added them to four cans of low-sodium canned pinto beans, along with beef broth, no-sodium ketchup, yellow mustard and spiced mustard, brown sugar substitute, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar substitute, and spices...pepper, no-sodium seasoning, and paprika.

I put them in the oven, to be baked at 325 degrees for about an hour and a half. But after the allotted time, I noticed the beans were not bubbly like they should have been...because I'd misread the oven dial, and set it at 225 degrees. I increased the heat to 400 degrees, and in about twenty minutes, the beans were bubbly.

That's not the only dumb thing I did today. I also forgot to send the four quarts of 11-bean soup downtown for the SOUPer Saturday benefit for the arts council. I thought I was so smart to prepare the soup a couple of weeks ago, put it into Styrofoam quart cups that I'd labeled, and then freeze it for today.

Don't know what's the matter with me. There must be a brain-eating zombie in the neighborhood.

While the beans sulled, Hubbie and I watched our favorite college basketball team as they played to a disappointing loss. They have yet to win a game on the road.

Later, I fixed hamburger/turkey burgers, and corn-on-the-cob, to go with baked beans, for supper. Afterward, Hubbie accompanied Mother back home.

Then we watched a creepy 2005 movie, "The Skeleton Key," Starring Kate Hudson and Gena Rowlands, among others.