Here in Chicagoland, we are lucky to have Turano Bread available in pretty much all of the local grocery stores.  I don’t really remember my mom and dad having sourdough bread in the house growing up, but then maybe it was just the time – mid-70s – everyone was making their own yogurt (my Mom included – but maybe only a couple times!) but now artisan bread is just about everywhere.  If I were to be deserted on an island and could only have two things, I would have unlimited bread and cheese.  Well, if I could have a third thing, I’d ask for unlimited wine too!

I happened to pick up some sourdough Turano bread and decided to make a breakfast panini.  No meat this time, just cooked egg whites, baby spinach, a couple slices of cheese ends and that wonderful, delicious sourdough bread. 

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That bread is the perfect panini bread – it gets nice and crunchy, but not too crunchy, yet tender on the inside.  And hello, see all the cheesy goodness?  I think the fresh fruit totally evens out the cheese, right?!

Just as I was about to go to the gym, Tony texted me “call me.”  I called and he said, the paperwork is all set, they are moving me to the next hospital.  The next hospital is the hospital that is actually going to be doing the transplant.  I said “do you want me to come now?” and he said “Let’s just wait and see.”  I had to run a work errand for coffee creamer and since Goodwill was right next door, I popped in for a couple minutes.  Of course it’s all decked out in Christmas stuff.  Skippy, they had a whole snowman section!  I bought the mug with the arrow above it for .99 cents.

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PicMonkey Collage - snow

How cute is that snowman with the bird on its shoulder?!  It was $4.99 – too pricey for me, but still cute.

For lunch I heated up some lasagna soup (Louise, this may be batch 68 – I’ve lost count!) that I made the night before last.  Okay, here’s the thing I wasn’t thinking about.  I made soup right before I went to bed.  Um, it’s not going to cool down before I need to go to bed and I can’t put hot soup in the fridge, so I put it outside my back door to cool off.  Yesterday morning I turned on the computer and I have a little weather icon on the top corner and it said 9 degrees.  Crap!  I bet my soup froze!  But it didn’t.  Instead of using lasagna noodles I cooked off some frozen ravioli – which was artichoke ravioli and worked nicely with the soup!  I added some chopped fresh spinach, and we had packets of Parmesan cheese leftover from a pizza party, so that went on top.  Pure comfort in a bowl if you ask me.

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I ended up leaving at 4:00 since I technically worked through lunch, and when I got to the hospital I was fully prepared to make the trek to the new hospital.  Nope.  I was concerned about all of his belongings going with him.  His back of clothes and outdoor coat when we got to the hospital now nine days ago.  His cell phone, cell phone charger, etc.  The nurse came in and said “we are just waiting for a call to say the bed is ready for him.  I ended up leaving at 9:00 and he was still there.  Bonnie (my MIL!) I would have texted you what was going on, but it was already 10:00 p.m. your time.  He could still going during the night, and I’d just get a phone call saying that he’s been transferred.

At about 6:50 I ended up going down to the cafeteria – it closes at 7.  I got my customary chicken finger salad, but since it was so close to closing time, the chicken fingers tasted more like chicken feet, but the salad was good.

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In case you are wondering, this is what it looks like when its all chopped up!

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So I still left the pot of lasagna soup outside for some reason.  I could have put it back in the downstairs fridge, but I was getting ready to go to the hospital before work and figured I’d deal with it later.  When I pulled into my driveway last night, I saw a giant raccoon running from my back door.  My immediate thought was “that raccoon better not have eaten my soup!”  Yep, ladies and gentlemen.  That’s what you say out loud when you live in the “sticks!”

So I come inside, drop off my purse and bags, and open up the back door to bring the soup in and a cat comes running into my house.  Yep, a cat!  I have seen it before around the neighborhood – I’ve even given it milk on a couple of occasions in the summer, but it never came inside the house.  Not gonna lie, I freaked out a bit.  What if this cat had rabies, what if it tried to scratch my eyes out?  Nope, it jumped into my computer chair like it was meant to be there!

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It’s hard to tell in that picture, but it’s all light grey with dark grey face, ears and paws.  I called my Mom and my sister, they both said do what you think is best.  My Mom said to keep it inside because it’s cold out, but when I was talking to my twin sister she said “you don’t have a litter box, or cat food.”   As soon as it heard the can opener it jumped on top of my counter. . . on top of the lasagna soup recipe!

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I ended up giving it a little bit of milk, some water and some canned tuna – in oil no less!  It ate two small bowls of food, and then I didn’t really know what to do.  It seemed friendly, but this is not the time to take a cat to a vet and have something else to take care of in my life.  So . . . I went outside to bring something else in from the car, it followed me out, and I ended up leaving it outside.  Last nights lows were in the upper teens, and I kind of thought, if it could survive the single digits last night, I am sure it will be fine?

I never did end up getting a call, so maybe today he’ll be transferred to the new hospital.  At least it’s not as cold today as it has been – it’s already 20 degrees out – almost balmy!  Ha!

Question of the Day:  Should I have let the strange cat stay in the house?  I am feeling a bit guilty this morning for not keeping it.  And by the way, it had a flea collar, but no tags.