Thursday evening

Walked from the far bus stop and stopped off at the store for canned mushroom soup and heavy duty aluminum foil for the beef brisket. Turns out I didn't need the foil. Browning the brisket now before it goes into the oven wrapped up in foil, with the soup and the onion soup mix -- that's it. I'll leave it in the oven for 3 1/2 hours. Rendered a lot of the fat off one side of the brisket (it's a flat cut). (The other side is lean.)

[Later] "Project Runway" on now.

Brisket is smelling good. Now 45 minutes to go.

Came out great. Made perfect gravy. I sliced the whole thing up and packed it away with the gravy to take to work. Trimmed fat as I went. I cooked it fat side up. A lot of the goodness on top of the fat was discarded. If I cooked it fat side down, however, the gravy would be too fatty. So next time -- and I will make it again -- I'll put some of the flavorings beneath the meat, less on top. It's not that economical, however, since the meat shrinks. The whole roast (2+ lbs.) sliced up, plus gravy, fit inside a 3-cup container. But that's two meals. And it was so easy. (The roast cost $9-something, on sale.)

My mother used to bake pork chops with sliced onion and mushroom soup and I always loved it. Made its own gravy, which was great over rice or mashed potatoes.

I got an offer from my mortgage company (delivered by UPS) (?) to refinance my place at 4+% (currently I'm at 7%). I think I'll go for it. I'll get a 10-year mortgage and hope to pay it off sooner. I'll try to call them tomorrow.