Saturday, Jan. 19

Today is Granddaughter-in-Law's birthday. Happy Birthday!

Slept late this beautiful, sunny morning, until around 8:30, but did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9:30, but we didn't accomplish much for the rest of the morning.

Hubbie ran errands, including to buy fresh batteries for the central heat/air thermostat, because the unit wasn't coming on. The batteries didn't help, however, and he had to call the repairman.

After lunch, Mother worked on her jigsaw puzzle, and I went upstairs to get ready for the day. Naturally, while I was in the bathroom, the repairman came to check on the unit, which is directly across the hall from the bathroom.

So after my shower, I threw on a robe and scooted to the office, where my clothes are stowed in a closet. The repairman's back was turned, and Hubbie stood between him and me, so it wasn't a problem.

The repairman got the unit running, but warned us that we are due for a new one. Figures. Of course, the unit is about seventeen years old, so it's no surprise it is seeing its last days.

Seems like everything is falling apart around here at the same time, though. On the plus side, the heat/air business has taken responsibilty for the water leak that caused a hole in the den ceiling, so after they install the new unit, they will repair the ceiling at no charge.

Back downstairs, Mother diced veggies to be sauteed for bagel pizzas later. She also washed a couple of bags of beans, so we can make recipes of 11-bean soup, with ham and Rotel, tomorrow. The soup will be our contribution to the "Souper Bowl Saturday" event in February.

Later, Hubbie and I watched our favorite college basketball team play to an expected, but disappointing loss. They fought hard, though, and had their opponents on the fence more than once. I'd recorded the game, and the game following it, on DVR, which was good, because there was a power outage in the first half of the game that lasted twenty-five minutes.

The bagel pizzas, served with cottage cheese, and vegetable chips, were very good. Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house afterward, and around 6:30, we went downtown to the old movie theater to see a $2 per ticket movie..."Breaking Dawn, Part 2," the last of the Twilight series. These are not my favorite movies, but Hubbie seems to enjoy them for some reason.

We got up to leave before the final scenes, though, because we thought the movie was over. So did lots of other folks. All of us stood in the aisle near the exit to watch the rest of it.

We always take our own snacks to the movie theaters, because I don't dare eat what's sold at the concession stand, since I can't read the labels for yellow dye and salt. So tonight, Hubbie made himself trail mix from cereals, pretzles, Craisins, nuts, etc. I sliced an apple and put it in a Ziplock bag, and fixed a thermal cup of hot apple cider. Hubbie opted for bottled water. All of this I carried in a quilted handbag.

Funny: got an e-mail from the writer and director of the upcoming readers' theater production, in which he thanked me for the cast selection article I submitted to our local newspaper. I thought I'd thoroughly read the paper last night, but somehow I missed that article. Maybe because it was under such a large headline!