Cooking

No, Mom and I haven't killed each other, I just haven't felt like writing.  We are doing fine.  I took her to Tortilla Flats for lunch last week.  The food was good and she enjoyed the drive.  Yes, DD, they still have prickly pear ice cream.  Still didn't try it as again I was stuffed from my meal.  Some day I'll drive out there and just get the ice cream.  A few days ago we went to Boyce Thompson State Park, and I bought a season pass.  So far it is my favorite place to visit as they have trees there and lots and lots of interesting plants.  Mom and I each bought 4 small cactus plants to grow.  Mom has since found yet another type growing in front of some of my neighbor's places and will try to talk them out of a start of it.  They actually offered when they saw she liked it, but she was too busy looking at it to hear.

Another neighbor had recommended the Ranch Market for produce.  Actually, they were recommending Midwest Meats as a great place to eat (has a restaurant as well as a bakery and butcher shop) and mentioned that the Lutheran Thrift Shop and Ranch Market were in the same area.  Turtle Lady and Bill and I ate at the restaurant, and it is great.  I went back to the produce market a couple of weeks ago and was disappointed.   Mostly because it was so crowded at the time.  I did get a couple of yams to start my foray into cooking again.  I mean, what can go wrong with a couple of yams, right?  So they have sat there and waited patiently (mocking me) in the fridge since then.  Mom mentioned them, slightly puzzled why I would have real (as opposed to canned) yams, but dropped it when I just shrugged.  This morning I was inspired to DO SOMETHING with the darn things.  So, I peeled them (do you usually peel them?) and sliced them into the nice baking dish the casino gave me earlier this month.  They do strange things like that at the casinos here, give random gifts and we all stand in line for up to a hour to get this free thing that we wouldn't spend $30 for at Walmart.  But, I digress.  I put several glugs of Avocado Oil over them as I chopped them into bite size pieces.  The oil was something that looked interesting at Costco when Turtle Lady and I went there.  I mean, I was buying a large tub of Coconut Oil, which I have no idea what to do with, so what is another bottle of oil?  A young oriental guy in line behind me at checkout looked at me quizzically and asked me what does one do with Avocado Oil?  I said it has a high smoke temperature so it's good to fry stuff in.  I hope it is, anyway.  But again, I digress.  So, I did all this while Mom is still asleep so I didn't have to answer similar questions.  Who knows what will come out of the 350* oven in a little over an hour.  Hopefully something I can make soup with if nothing else.  I have the bag of quinoa to use up as well, because, well everyone seems to say how great it is.  Once I figure out how to use it I'm sure I'll be hooked as well.

Quick picture

This is me, near Jerome, AZ several weeks ago. Just a picture to start to catch up. It is a shock to me to see how I look now, vs. how I looked just a few years ago. I'm also almost ready to do something about the braid. Not sure what yet. The braid was what I did to take care of my hair getting everywhere and getting tangled up so it was difficult to brush. A diet and a new hair do. They are on the list.

Nothing is wrong

When folks start commenting and emailing to see if I'm ok I know it's time to do a post. I'm fine, life just got a little busy. Mom arrives on Monday. I spent the past 2 weeks cleaning and clearing. Then I spent 3 days in Vegas again. I think I'm about done with Vegas for awhile. It has been fun, but I'm ready to try other things. This is good as Mom doesn't gamble much. I'm at work, so no pictures right now. I kept thinking I'd catch up with the pictures, but that didn't happen. Oh, well.

365 - 4

Awhile back I mentioned a good Greek restaurant I go to sometimes. This is it, Niros Gyros.  I've liked everything I've had here.  It is on the expensive side to eat there every day.  Now the hours I'm working don't jive with eating there much at all.  If you are down I-10 near Elliott Rd., this is at 48th (I think) and Elliott, west of I-10 and a couple of stoplights.

365 - 3 Work in Progress

This is the sweater I'm working on now.  I had 3 times this much done, but I realized it was way too big, so I ripped back to the beginning.  I like it much better this time.  It is a self striping yarn, an acrylic called mosaic.

I am out of my original ideas for pictures now, so I'll have to get a bit more creative.

365 - 2

This is the sweater I started while I was in Honduras and finished a few months ago.  I learned to knit Continental style (holding the yarn in the left hand while knitting) while making this, transitioning from 40 years of the 'other' style of holding the yarn in my right hand and wrapping it around each time.  The quality suffered for awhile until the new way became natural to me.  This was an easy sweater to learn on as there are only knit stitches in the entire thing.

365 - 1

This is the front of my mobile home. I like it. Yes, the red flowers are artificial. I'll replace them with some cactus soon. It's on the ever expanding 'list'.  These pictures are to get me out of my rut of not posting pictures.  The plan is to get better at this as I go along.

The beat goes on

I've already fallen behind on one resolution. That is to take (and post!) a picture every day. Remembered when I got up this morning that I didn't do it yesterday. So, I owe you guys 2 today. I already know what I want to take, and the camera is now out on the counter waiting for daylight.

 I am in the process of moving my office to the living room. Turtle Lady and Bill cleared out a few things that I was having trouble doing with my back, and also provided a trial run for how the place is set up when I have company. Since Mom is due in a little under 3 weeks I decided that I need the computer in the living room and the guest(s) in the extra bedroom. With my odd hours it makes it easier, I hope, for all involved if we can each have run of the kitchen and living room while the other is sleeping. One thing I'll have to work on is that I discovered that the extra bedroom gets cold if the door is closed, so maybe Mom will be happy to just have the door cracked. We'll work it out when she gets here.

I will have updates on my works in progress later as that is one of the photos I want to take. I wanted to get this post out there as I started a post yesterday and got distracted and ended up just trashing it as I didn't take time to finish it.