Tom has been busy with lots of things, and so I decided that I would take over one of his usual jobs by cooking a simple dinner tonight, something suitable for a cold and gray day. I went with a chicken corn chowder (I admit I just dressed up a commercial soup with some leftover chicken and other stuff), and thought I would dress it up even more by making cornbread. I know, I know -- way heavy on the starches, but it was a day that cried out for comfort food.

But when I tried to preheat the oven -- no preheat, no heat, no nothing. The range works fine, gas comes out, little flames lick the bottom of the pan. The oven -- zilch.

So no cornbread. No huge loss, but I am disappointed.

Worse, Tom called to get a repairman out tomorrow and -- you know the rest of the story, right? At some point tomorrow, maybe, they will be here. Tom has a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day up in Mauston, so I get to babysit the house and wait for the repairdude or -dudette.

Maybe it will be fine and they will show up early. Whatever. It's supposed to rain anyway.

At least the chowder tasted pretty good.
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On another note ...

My friend Barry has MS. This past weekend his sons put together a golf tournament in his honor and raised about $6500 for MS research. It was such a success they are thinking about making it an annual event. Such a creative way to honor a great guy and to help others at the same time.

Congratulations, Barry!