I get Veterans Day off. Yay! I decided to use it as a day of rest, or what is restful for me. I slept until nearly 9am, convincing the cats that I must be dead to have missed their breakfast. Most weekends I’m up by 7:30 so this horrendous delay nearly starved them to death. After assuring them I was alive and they would not starve, I got dressed and got ready to leave the house. As a rare treat I stopped for my favorite – Dutch Bros blended pumpkin with whip. They were out of pumpkin. It’s the middle of November, how could they be out of pumpkin? Armed with a blended mocha, which is still delicious, I motored across town to pick up my craft order. Crafts are restful to me. Followed by a trip to the grocery store to buy the items I can’t get from Walmart delivery. Winco is an old fashioned grocery store with a warehouse feel, bulk foods, a great produce department, but some really crappy store brands.
I was home again in just over an hour with my new craft supplies, a bag of mostly healthy food, and my slightly disappointing Dutch Bros. I spent a couple of hours making collage vintage-ish Christmas cards, watching Star Trek: Discovery, until my blood sugar dropped low. My blood sugar will be at least one post all by itself. I ate a healthy lunch of chicken salad with cranberries and almonds, and a small bowl of the biggest, sweetest blueberries I’ve had in years. After lunch, snuggled in my big chair with a couple cats and an old Western on the tube, I napped.
Feeling refreshed and hungry I decided to cook dinner. Yes, my friends, actually cook. Hey, if it has to be measured, mixed, and heated on a stove top, it’s cooking. I’ve been craving something new, something interesting, something cheap. In a stroke of genius I bought a box of Hamburger Helper (on sale). I can’t afford actual hamburger so I bought a bag of frozen fake hamburger, which is cheaper and will stretch further. Listening to my latest fictional serial-killer murder mystery audiobook I set out to cook. Trying to pull the little plastic ring thingy from the milk carton I spilled milk on the counter, the floor, me. I missed the cat this time. Cleaned that up and got the “hamburger” heating in the pan, added the water, milk, and dried noodle-like things. I nonchalauntly grabbed the paper pouch by the corner to shake it, ripping off the corner sending powdered flavor and goodness into the air. I dumped what was left into the pan, vacuumed up the rest, and gave it a good stir. A moment later I noticed the white powder covering the left arm and shoulder of my dark purple flannel shirt. Returning from the laundry I finished cooking my dinner. The flavor was a bit lacking, but it was edible, and there’s enough to take for lunch tomorrow.
No, the fake hamburger does not taste like the real stuff.
That’s my day off. Nothing earth-shattering, no profound realizations, or miraculous happenings. Just a couple of funny cats, some crafting, and sleep.
