Monday, March 17

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone who is Irish, partly Irish, or just Irish for the day.

Naturally, since I needed to get up at 6 a.m. to get ready for water aerobics, I had trouble going to sleep last night. It was around 1:30 a.m. when I last looked at the clock. So I was pretty groggy when I got up.

Fortunately, there was no wintry weather last night, so it was clear sailing for going to the pool. I bundled up in winter clothes, though, for the cold walk to the gym. I'll be so glad when warm weather arrives.

About a dozen of us showed up for the session. The water was warm, so it felt really good swimming. Hope the pool stays that warm, but it probably won't. Some of the ladies were wearing green leprechaun or bowler hats, or cute bobbly four-leaf clover headbands. My only nod to the day was the green stripes on the bodice of my swimsuit.

Back home afterward, Hubbie ran errands, while I got ready for the day. He checked on Mother before he left. She was fine, but chose not to come over today.

Back downstairs, I found that Hubbie had peeled and quartered potatoes, quartered a head of cabbage and a couple of onions, diced celery, and washed carrots for making New England stew. I seasoned and browned beef, and put it, along with veggies, spices, and chicken and beef broths in the slow cooker.

The meal acted as a stand-in for traditional corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day. I'm not sure what the traditional St. Patrick's Day dessert is, but I chose to make a blackberry cobbler. If that's not an Irish dish, it ought to be.

Didn't get much accomplished for the rest of the afternoon, except calling the scrapbook club members to remind them of our meeting Thursday. One of the ladies wasn't home, so I left a message. Spent quite a while on the phone with the other lady, though, who is always quite chatty. For the rest of the afternoon, I read newspapers and my novel...when I wasn't nodding off.

Later, near suppertime, Hubbie and I took the stew, some bread, and the cobbler to Mother's house. Like me, Mother was wearing a green turtleneck shirt in recognition of the day.

The stew hit the spot on this cool day. Mother even had two helpings. I think her cold is getting better. Since the weather will be better tomorrow...temps to rise to nearly 70 degrees...she'll probably decide to come over.

Before we left Mother's house, Hubbie decided to clean Mother's coffee pot, which ran extremely slowly when he tried to make coffee to go with dessert. Took a while, so we visited with Mother until it was done.

Returned home around 7 p.m., and watched a couple of movies borrowed from the library. The first one was called, "A Little Bit of Heaven," a 2008 film starring Kate Hudson. A young, full-of-life woman gets bad news from the doctor. Relationships with friends and family change. Rated PG-13. Good movie, but I probably wouldn't have gotten it if I'd know what the subject matter was.

The second movie was called "The Women," starring Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Cloris Leachman, Bette Midler, Candice Bergen, and others. This PG-13, 2008, comedy-drama film is about a woman whose husband strays, and how her friends and mother try to help her deal with it.