I had Friday off for good ol’ Abe Lincoln’s birthday. As Mr. W had to work, I had the best day for myself planned. I had to get up early to shoot up at the normal time of around 7am (I’ve recorded daily experiences as comments in the prior post entitled “Pincushion” so as not to TMI readers who are needle-queasy), so I figure I’d get my morning started, have breakfast and take my vitamins, then I’d talk a walk to the bank when it opens at 9am to close my frauded checking account (I’d left it open to wait for authorized pending transactions to get through). After the bank, I’d hit some local grocery stores and buy carrots, celery, onions, and a whole chicken for dinner. I’d come home, start the chicken in the slow cooker, then I’d take a walk to the Lake. I’d go kayaking on my own for the first time, soaking up the sun’s glorious vitamin D in my swimsuit, before I’m not fit to be seen in a swimsuit anymore. Then I’d come home and start the more active parts of making (commenter) Kit Kat’s chicken n’ dumplings recipe. Mr. W thought he’d be leaving work around 4, so I expected him home between 4 and 5. Dinner should be ready shortly after that.

Here’s what actually happened.
I did shoot up in the morning, and turned the TV on in the bedroom as I started to get ready. In my head, I call the TV “the kiss of death.” Sure enough, a House marathon was on, and I watched episode after episode lounging on the bed, playing with the cat. I kept telling myself that I’d go take a shower at the next commercial break, but with each commercial break, I decided I couldn’t afford to miss what was coming up next. Darn those strategically placed commercial breaks, that keep you glued to the TV so you don’t change channels. I finally took my shower around noon. Then I decided I had to eat something because I needed to take my morning vitamins and prescription, so I turned off House upstairs and turned on House downstairs. And stayed glued to THAT television screen for the next couple of hours. Then I decided I couldn’t keep doing this, so I forced myself to go upstairs to get ready to start my day. Finally, I was dressed and ready to run that first bank errand at 3:30-ish. With my hand on the doorknob about to go into the garage, my phone rang. It was Mr. W. “Hey, I’m home,” he said. I laughed, thinking he was lying. He must’ve just gotten off work, earlier than expected.
“So if I open the garage door, I’d see you, right?” I said, calling his bluff. I opened the garage door since I had to leave anyway. And there was his car on the driveway. ACK!
“Yeah, hurry up and get rid of him,” he joked. As he drove in, he looked at me and said, “Where’re you going?!” I said I had errands to run. He told me to hold on a second. Then he reappeared in the house with an armful of loot, like this:

Apparently he had a much more productive day than I did, because he went to work, AND he got out early, AND he went grocery-shopping, AND he bought me stuff! Yellow roses cuz those are my favorites, mixed flowers that he thought would look pretty, a heart cookie, and a bag of carob chips because I’m not allowed to have chocolate! It was hilarious! A coworker had made an amazing red velvet cake from scratch last week and I had some. He knew I’d freaked out when I found out red velvet is chocolate cake with red dye. I thanked him, took the picture, and went off on the TWO things I had to do. Obviously kayaking was nixed cuz I’d squandered all my sun time away. So was the luxury of walking to my destinations.

When I got home, I went right to work on boiling the chicken. I ended up getting two chicken breasts with ribs and bones (to better flavor stew). I got to hang out with hubby and play online for a bit while the chicken was cooking. Then I added the veggies and made dumplings. Note to future self: If you’re gonna modify recipes and replace portions of white flour with wheat flour, you need much more water and much more cooking time! The dumplings took forever to cook through and nearly dissolved my chicken. But the flavor was incredible. Mr. W was a happy camper for dinner. So that makes THREE things I accomplished in an entire day off. Thanks, Mr. Lincoln.