It's so quiet here without Mike. I got to sleep later this morning, nobody punching me in the ribs and shaking me with, "honeeeeey, I'm huuuungry." How nice. I hope he's enjoying his get-away with Ron as much as I am.

The rain started about 9:00, it's 49* outside, perfect conditions for spending the morning in the kitchen cooking. I'm hungry for a Southwestern cornbread casserole, found the recipe a couple of months ago on a bag of Martha White cornmeal. We love it, so I'll make one of those. My slightly altered version of this is a mixture of chunky salsa, black beans, corn, low-fat turkey sausage, and 2% Mexican cheese mix, poured over a thin layer of cornbread batter, then topped with the rest of the batter. I've found it's just as good to bake the cornbread separately, then split individual pieces, top it with this mixture, sprinkle the cheese over it, stick it in the microwave and voila! instant supper. I like doing it this way because the mixture is also good on baked potatoes. Lots of good recipes on their website, check it out.

http://www.marthawhite.com/recipes/recipes.asp

Also their theme song by Flatt and Scruggs is there. Wonder if I could download that for a ringtone on my cellphone?

An hour later. The rain stopped, and I found new pee spots on the carpet, my dogs hate going outside when it rains, so I've been steam cleaning the carpet. I've got some of the SW mixture in the freezer and some cornbread, so cooking a new batch was not necessary. I put the dogs outside unleashed, which irritates a couple of the neighbors, but I'm not the only one who does it, and my dogs don't bite. They love to bark, though. Hopefully, the sheriff's animal control deputy is not cruising the neighborhood. Mike keeps telling me I'm going to have to pick them up at the pound one day and pay a hefty fine, but so far, we've been lucky. After 5 or 10 minutes, they've come to the back porch waiting for me to open the door. I hear them now.

After all the worrying I did yesterday about not having enough time to plan a trip to Ireland, I realized that May 16 is 2 months away instead of one. What was I thinking? Just one more indication of how frazzled my mind is.