tell me do you hate me or do you want to date me

The first half of today was supremely lazy - I slept until almost ten, which significantly altered my averages sleep for the week (I've been averaging 6.5hrs, which is not enough). Then, groggy, I mostly sat around and made to-do lists that I had little real intention of completing. In my defense, it was brutally cold and under five degrees and snowing off and on this morning; the sun did come out later, but that wasn't enough to warm things up to anything bearable. But today will probably feel like a pleasant memory by the time Monday and temps around -16 roll around....

So I was lazy this morning, but I eventually showered and forced myself to accomplish some tings. Since my dad is still in the hospital, my mom was there all day, and so [censored] and I took care of a variety of house / life issues. For [censored], that meant running some errands and then dealing with the drifting snow that was blocking our driveway. For me, that meant cleaning out the fridge, vacuuming, and then making dinner.

Tonight's dinner effort was a ham that had been sitting in the fridge downstairs + potatoes au gratin + baked beans. All in all I was delighted with the results:

• cooking a ten pound ham for three people was perhaps overkill, but I love ham, and also now there is ham + a ham bone in the freezer for future meals and/or soups
• the potatoes au gratin were a modified Barefoot Contessa recipe - I've made her version with fennel and onions a couple of times, but tonight I skipped the fennel/onions since it makes the texture a little different from the usual midwestern scalloped potatoes of my youth. The non-fennel/onions version turned out excellently, and super easy - just potatoes, gruyere, heavy cream, and salt and pepper, baked until bubbly and browned on top, and completely comforting.
• my baked beans weren't quite as perfect as my mom's, but it's challenging to get them just right because there is no recipe, just eyeballing the amount of brown sugar / ketchup. However, they were totally good enough, especially since I haven't made them myself in at least a decade, so I'll take them

Everything was ready shortly after my mom got home from the hospital; unfortunately for my dad he was stuck there eating hospital food instead of this feast, but it sounds like he had a good day overall, so I'll take that.

And now, I suppose I should go to bed - goodnight!