Saturday

I went and got my haircut Saturday morning. I had a text from Margaret asking me where I was. Huh? Apparently I was supposed to get my massage today, not next weekend as I thought. Dammit!

I rescheduled it for next week, but I felt bad.

Then I went to Kroger’s and resupplied. I saw they has some stewing beef in the discounted pile, so I bought it. It will come in handy this winter.

When I got home, my neighbor and his buddy were hard at work, installing my fence!

He was having his electrical service upgraded from 100 amps to 200 amps. So, he needed to plug into my house for the Sawzall. They hit some major tree roots digging the holes next to the large maple on the south side.

I put away the groceries and left to get some money from the bank. Unfortunately, I didn’t get enough.

They filled each hole with concrete. So, when they started working on the north side (after Rick rototilled the Tiger lilies), I lugged out water. I put two gallons of water on the concrete in each hole.

Then I started making an early dinner. I was making the Salisbury steak I’ve been putting off all week. I combined one pound of ground sirloin with 1/4 cup of grated onion, two minced garlic cloves, salt and pepper.

I made that mixture into four patties and fried them on medium high heat for about three minutes on each side.

I took them out of the pan and added a tablespoon of butter. I added eight ounces of cremini mushrooms I had quartered. I sautéed those for about four minutes. Then I added 1/3 cup of dry red wine and the remaining grated onions.

I mixed a tablespoon of A/P flour with 1 1/4 cups of beef broth. I added that in and brought it to a boil. I cooked it until it was thick (about five minutes). Then I put the patties back in and one teaspoon of red wine vinegar. I was supposed to let them cook another two minutes.

But, the doorbell rang.  It was Rick, letting me know they were done. I paid him what I had and said I’d bring the rest tomorrow. He showed me how they cut one section down on the south side to make it look right.

By the time they finished, the electrician was done and gone. I asked Rick what he was going to do with his old fuse box. I told him I’d buy it off him, but he said I could have it for free! I said I’d get the name of his electrician on Sunday, when I pay him the rest of the money I owe him. Maybe I can upgrade this stupid “Push-o-matic” fuse box in my house. I carried the fuse box back to my garage.

But, that all took a while and when I came back in, my beautiful gravy had boiled away. Damn! I didn’t have any more beef broth to start again. So, I made some Uncle Ben’s wild rice and ate one patty with the rice as a side.

Not at all what I planned…

I’ll make some more gravy tomorrow after I got shopping, again.

It was after 6:00 so I watched some news (hard to find as all my usual stations were showing college football). Then I moved to the living room and checked out the magazines that have been piling up. I went to bed at 9:00 p.m.