Monday, Jan. 7

Slept late, until after 8 a.m., but did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 10 a.m., and she diced veggies for meatloaf. I sauteed the veggies and gathered all the other ingredients, and then Mother mixed it together. I put the dish in the refrigerator to be cooked later.

Note: this morning, we kept getting annoying calls from someone whose name came up on the TV caller ID. We didn't recognize the name, so we let the calls go to voice mail. Only thing is, the caller never left a message. Instead, all that happened was a high- pitched squeal.

After several calls like this, Hubbie decided to pick up. No one answered. He just got high-pitched squeals. Then he called the number himself...same result.

We knew we wouldn't be able to tolerate this all day (and maybe all night), so Hubbie called our cable service, and was given information on how to block the caller. I think we'll be using that info a lot, as we eliminate other annoying calls. The cable rep said the squealing indicated that the call came from a FAX machine.

After that, I got ready for the day. By now, it was lunchtime, so I heated leftover salmon and sweet potato for Mother, and made omelets for Hubbie and me. Then Mother went to her jigsaw puzzle, and Hubbie and I ran errands.

We stopped first at the post office, and then Hubbie dropped me off at a department store, while he went to the nearby pharmacy to see if my prescription was ready. It was not. I was a little irritated by that, since the pharmacy received a request for the prescription last Tuesday, and I now didn't have enough pills for the week.

Each time Hubbie stopped by for the prescription, he was told it needed to be updated by the doctor, and they had contacted the clinic two times and gotten no response.

So I decided to take the bull by the horns and go directly to the clinic and ask what the problem was. It didn't take long for my nurse to report that she'd sent e-scrips each time she received notice from the pharmacy (twice), but she would send another one today. I was to return to the pharmacy, and if the prescription wasn't ready, I should call her.

At the pharmacy, I reported what I had done, and the clerk admitted that the pharmacy had been having problems with their phone system and FAX machine. But she would now call the doctor's office to verify that it was okay to fill the prescription. Guess she didn't believe me.

I was pretty steamed about the whole thing. Why, if the pharmacy's phone and FAX has been wonky for a few days, has the clerk been telling Hubbie that the problem was with the doctor's office? And why, if she knew there was a phone/FAX problem, didn't she call the doctor's office earlier? How long would this have dragged on, if I hadn't asserted myself?

We figured it would take a while for the pharmacy to fill the prescription, so we went to the WDCS to shop for groceries. When we returned to the pharmacy, my prescription was ready.

From there, we went to a grocery store on the south side of town in hopes of getting a large bottle of olive oil for a sale price. Sis put us onto this, since she found the bargain at the same store in her town. Unfortunately, our store didn't have the same deal. But we did find canned chicken broth at a good price, so we picked up a bunch of it.

By the way, at the department store earlier, I was hoping to find another pair of boots like the black ones I bought on Dec. 31 (I would have liked to have them in brown), but they didn't have any more of them.

I would have settled for a pair of brown ankle boots, but they didn't have them in my size. The clerk checked the store website, but the boot is out of stock now. I'm not surprised.

Later, I checked the store's website to see if they had a pair like the black pair I bought, and they do, but only in size seven. Naturally, I need a seven-and-a-half. Oh, well, maybe I'll find a pair in the fall or next winter.

We were back home around 4 p.m., and I put the meatloaf, along with a big dish of green beans, in the oven. Hubbie peeled and quartered potatoes for me, and I set them to boiling around 4:30. Shortly after 5 p.m., the meal was ready.

The meatloaf was very good, despite the fact that I forgot to add Italian seasonings to it. There's plenty of leftovers for tomorrow night, and lots of meatloaf for sandwiches.

Hubbie accompanied Mother home after supper, and then he and I spent an hour reading, or in my case, playing on my laptop. After that, we watched the much anticipated bowl game between Notre Dame's Fighting Irish, and Alabama's Crimson Tide. The Tide rolled over Notre Dame.

Note one: Hubbie surprised me for my birthday by suggesting I buy a notebook computer. I researched various ones, and decided on a Kindle HD 8.9, which performs in much the same way as an Ipad. With this notebook, I can simultaneously download books to it and my older e-reader, so both Hubbie and I can enjoy them. Right now, he has my e-reader tied up, reading the novels I bought him for Christmas. Now, he will inherit the older e-reader, while I enjoy the new notebook.

It's always scary deciding the best choices in expensive items like this, so I hope I've made the right decision.

Note two: Got a call from the water aerobics leader. The pool will not be ready for us until Monday. It was supposed to be ready on Wednesday. Oh, well, Wednesday is predicted to be a stormy day, anyway. But Friday is predicted to be sunny and warm...it would have been nice to go for a swim that day.

Note three: Tonight's local newspaper has a front page story about a retired physician/psychiatrist, who has been arrested for terroristic threatening, because he carried a gun to the hospital, and threatened staff members.

His bond is set at one million dollars. We know him and his wife...particularly his wife, who was a longtime Master Gardener, before she became too ill to participate. He has never been one of our favorite people, for a number of reasons, but we like his very knowledgeable and talented wife.