Month: April 2023

I’m going to save as many of the newest Aeoniums as I can. Period.

I bought 12 Aeonium Kiwi last week, and they arrived the other day. The poor things were in a terrible state.

Their larger, outer leaves were all falling off; the centers were dark, or almost leafless. They were wet, and bedraggled. I was not happy. which I will happily explain this to the seller, regardless of their outcomes.

I put them in a shallow container of lightly fertilized water for about 15 minutes, while I got the containers ready to plant them.

This morning, I got out one of my grow lights, and placed it, facing downward, on the large window frame in the living room, shining onto the container of Aeoniums. According to my plant app, they are in desperate need of bright light.

I have plugged the light into a wall outlet, with a timer attached, allowing the plant to get extra light from 7am. – 7pm. for a few days. I will definitely keep a close eye on their progress, and go from there.

Our ZZ plants are also not fairing well, either; they are in need of fertilizer. Well, I now have just the stuff. I hope.

Remember I showed you that I bought an orange liquid fertilizer on Instagram a few weeks ago? I started using it immediately, and have nothing but great results. You can see the little bottles in some of the photos I’ve taken of the plants. Definitely worth whatever little bit they cost.

Here is their “before” photo, just before giving them a “loading dose” of the fertilizer. I’ll show you next week how they look, regardless of their condition.

And, finally, here a long shot of the planter, with what are left of all of the plants we still have.

They’re not all included in this photo, but most of them are. Hopefully, now that it is Springtime, and with the new fertilizer, I can keep them alive.

By the time you read this I should have an update on all of Aeoniums, so stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Several months ago, Ivan wanted to buy Ding Dongs ™ so J&L, and Gaby, of course, could try them. (Not to mention that they are Ivan’s favorites.)

We couldn’t find them anywhere, so he went online, of course, to Mercado Libre, and found them there. Having found them, he ordered 2 boxes of 12 which would be delivered within the week.

Great. Can’t wait.

Time went by, but I didn’t remember that he said they had been delivered. So, I asked him.

He replied, rather sheepishly, that they had, indeed, been delivered. Period. Nothing else. No other comment, or response.

Ok. No big deal. I didn’t need one anyway. I went on about my business, and didn’t think anything else about them until one day

I was walking through the pantry, and caught, out of the corner of my eye, something I hadn’t noticed before. It was very dark in the pantry, so when I turned on the light, and looked at whatever that was, I started laughing. Maybe you’ll do the same.

There are, indeed, 2 boxes of 12, and they are definitely labeled as Ding Dongs™, but they are definitely not the kind we used to get in the States. Take a look.

Now we have all of these cups of Ding Dong™ flavored coffee, but have no way of using them. Do you think we can empty them into the nest of our percolator, and brew them that way?

Let me know. Until next we meet,

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves. Repeat.

Post script: this is the second draft of this post as after I typed, completely, the first version, (which, I think, was actually better), when I went to touch “Save Draft” I accidentally touched “Discard”. Unfortunately, there is no prompt to ask you if you are sure you want to discard it.

NO I DIDN’T WANT TO DISCARD IT. IT WAS GREAT.

Sorry. It’s me. I was gone but I’m back now.

The other night, I made my first pan of lasagna in a year.

I found a recipe on line, of course, after searching for Lasagna for Two. It is absolutely delicious. And, as it happened, I had all of the ingredients I wanted to use in the fridge, some of which needed to be used quickly.

I did some substitutions such as using 3 different cottage cheeses, instead of ricotta cheese. I had an “Italian sausage” link that needed to be eaten, so I took off the outer skin, and used that with the ground beef. Also, we had a few zucchini squashes, small though they were, that I was able to use, and some mushrooms, both of which were about a week passed their “use by” dates. (Once they were all roughly chopped, and sautéed, everything looked pristine.)

Anyway, all was assembled, dishes were done, and the results were better than I expected. The red meat sauce was quite flavorful, as I added about 2Tbs. of dried Italian seasonings, freshly purchased from Costco, some onion, and garlic powders, and S&P.

The white sauce of cottage cheese, 2 eggs, and another 2Tbs. Italian seasonings was blended, and made for a few wonderful layers in said lasagna.

The zucchini, onions, garlics, and mushrooms, all sautéed in butter, were another layer of incredible flavors, one that will forever be added to our lasagna in the future. The last layer added was of cut up fresh spinach. Never leave out the spinach.

I cannot tell you how good this lasagna turned out. Suffice it to say, two slices are reheating in the oven as I am typing this.

Until we meet again, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

We’ve done an about face recently.

We have come to the conclusion that where we live now, in our beautiful apartment, in the neighborhood we are in, is to be our forever home; not in Veracruz, as we had thought.

We have come to a parting of the ways with our friends, the Garcia’s, so it seems anyway. They say everything is ok, but their actions have proven otherwise.

Personally, I feel we have tried to bring them into the 21st century too quickly. We have upgraded their lives beyond their comfort zones.

We have tried to educate them beyond what would be comfortable for them alongside their families.

I never thought I would be a part of such a rejection of all things made to better ones life, or the lives of their children, and extended families. However, we are not here to judge them, nor be judged by them.

Now that that has all been mourned over, we have gotten on with our lives, and are starting to retake our apartment. We have packed up all of their things, put them in the portable stroller we bought them, plus a large tote, and will ask them to come down, and take it all upstairs. Where they will put it all is no longer our concern.

Also, as they are using our storage space on the roof, they will need to clean that out as well. We will move the plethora of extra “things” we had bought, to take to the other house, up into the storage unit. It will free up so much room in here that we will be able to live normally again.

After 3 years in this apartment, we were so excited to get space under the bed again. I can’t imagine how beautiful this apartment will be when we get all of the totes out of here. I’ll keep you apprised.

Next post I’m going to show you the “gardening” I’ve been doing. So much nicer than it was.

I LOVE SPRINGTIME.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves. Stay vigilant.

Important update: Jesús, and Liz have come down, and collected all of their stuff, but insist that we all remain friends. They even asked us to go to Los Altos with them when they go again. Can’t wait. So, all is well here.

Plus, we have half of the living room open, without “junk”. Yay. Win-win.

The other day Ivan asked me if I knew why barns were, generally, painted red.

Of course, I had to say that I didn’t, because who knows stuff like that? Certainly not I.

Do you?

Ivan told me the farmers painted their barns with the blood of livestock from their farm. Ok. Right! Uh huh. Sure.

Turns out, he is right. As usual.

I Googled it, and came up with a couple of different answers.

In turns out that wealthy farmers painted their barns with red paint mixed with linseed oil, and the blood of a recently slaughtered animal, which changed the color from bright red to a darker, burnt red.

Initially, however, barns were painted with a protective varnish, usually containing linseed oil, lime, or iron oxide, which, when drying in the sun, changed the color to the red ochre seen today.

Continuing on this theme, barns painted black, usually only in the Southern states, retain heat, and usually contain tobacco. The heat helps the tobacco dry faster, causing less waste from mold, and mildew growth. Nowadays, however, farmers growing tobacco use fans, and other means to keep their tobacco dry.

Now that you know all of that, please, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves. It ain’t over yet.

Well, I moved the furniture the other afternoon, just as I said I was going to.

Everything went 45º clockwise, and here is the result.

It took about two hours to finish because I had to vacuum a dozen times, maybe more, and then mop the entire floor. Nothing is under the bed at present, and I would love to keep it that way. It is expensive storage real estate so I don’t know how successful that will be. Or how practical. (Who does this? Vacuuming, and mopping? Not me, not often.)

Both of the walls will soon be given a bit of a boost with some of the art we have bought over our years together, and some we’ve been given. I can’t wait to see how it all looks. Of course, I’ll show you, too.

Yes, I took down the wind chimes. They’ll probably go in the other bedroom.

As our lives go, though, shortly after we took the chimes down, we all went outside for an earthquake alarm!!!!

I’ll let you know how the sleeping goes. Until then, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

I did more hard work Saturday, than I have done in an entire year.

Seriously!!! We want to move our bed 45º, from West facing to South facing. Not Feng shui so we’ll see what happens.

In order to do that, however, the entire contents of the space underneath said bed needed to be removed, moved elsewhere, and cleaned. Ugh!

Ivan started out helping me, then, as if by a miracle, he wandered away, to another room, and I didn’t see him until I was done cleaning. Funny how that happens.

I should have, but didn’t, take a photo of all of the stuff underneath, but didn’t, because I didn’t want to lose my momentum. It was too depressing.

Now, however, there is nothing under the bed, except a dust bunny warren. That, too, is going; as soon I regain some energy. I’m beat.

Until then, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

My SSA checks for March, and April have been deposited!

Just so you understand, that was Tuesday that we went to the Embassy, and today, well, yesterday when you read this, (Friday), both months checks are in our account. I guess the government here can, and does move quickly for some things.

This happened once before, a couple of years ago, but I remembered that it didn’t take long for everything to be straightened out. Thank the Lord.

Next year, and probably every year going forward, we’ll just take the form to the Embassy when it arrives. Have a little drive around the city. 😉

Now I can get back to paying off those pesky cards, and, hopefully, by mid autumn, we will be out from under the debt.

We’ll talk again, soon. Until then, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.