Tuesday, Feb. 7

Today is Son's birthday. Happy Birthday, Son!

Up around 7:30 this morning. After breakfast, I went to Mother's house to help her take a shower, and then put a load of laundry in her washer.

Back home, I changed into exercise clothes and did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises. As usual, it was nearly lunchtime by the time I was ready for the day.

After lunch, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, and we made a double batch of homemade tomato soup for supper. Then, I decided we needed to clean and organize the spice rack on the back of the pantry door, because I was tired of rummaging through every jar every time I wanted something. We took everything off the shelves, disposed of outdated spices, and organized the remaining jars in alphabetical order.

Funny: once we were ready to organize the spices, Mother asked, "What's the first letter?"

"A," I said.

"I know I'm losing it," she laughed, "but I still remember what the first letter of the alphabet is. I want to know what the first letter of the spices is!"

I handed her the Allspice.

When we'd finished that project, I set my e-reader to a word game for Mother to play, while Hubbie and I ran errands.

First, we went to the Literacy Council office, where I dropped off Level 2 books, and asked to have an illustrations book copied for my student. Then we went to the WDCS for a few grocery items; to the cable office to ask about mail and e-mail we'd received from them dealing with usage and spam e-mail, and found out I don't need to do anything about them...they will be automatically dealt with.

From there, we went to the newspaper office to drop off the word search puzzle contest (wish we'd picked up today's issue of the paper, since our delivery person failed to throw one today); then to the post office; and finally to a grocery store for free and on-sale food items (got a free dozen eggs, and a free package of frozen veggies, plus ten cans of sodium-free, name-brand, diced tomatoes for fifty-nine cents each, as well as other cents-off items).

After we loaded the groceries in the van, Hubbie decided to check the bags to make sure we had everything. He counted only seven of the ten cans of diced tomato. So he headed back to the store to see if we'd left a bag at the checkout.

As he walked away, I found the other three cans in another bag. I stepped out of the van and screeched like a banshee to get his attention. Everyone on the parking lot heard me. Except Hubbie. He kept right on walking. Wish he'd agree to a hearing test.

Back home, we relaxed until suppertime. Hubbie did the honors of making grilled cheese sandwiches to go with the delicious tomato soup. Hubbie accompanied Mother back to her house afterward.

At 6 p.m., I turned off the TV, and Hubbie and I cleaned a kitchen cabinet, put down fresh contact paper, and sorted the contents of the cabinet. Between the cabinet and the spice rack, we disposed of two grocery shopping bags of outdated stuff.

Back to TV, we watched the 2004 movie, "Man on Fire," starring Denzel Washington. A tormented former CIA operative with a mysterious past hires on in Mexico City to protect a nine-year-old girl. The girl is kidnapped. He responds with fury and violence. Very bloody.