Month: December 2023

Down here, they’re life saving.

As I have said, there are very few homes that have central heating, or air conditioning here.

Ours is not one of them. So, we layer our warmth. Long sleeved shirt, thermal shirt, and for me, a cotton shawl.

Thermal pants of some sort, with fleece lined socks. A must. I also have the fleece lined neck thingy that was from the set Ivan gave me for Christmas.

The shawl goes over my head, and wraps around my upper body; it’s a long, wide shawl, pashmina I believe.

I don’t have on the mittens yet, but sitting at my computer tray, I have a thermal shirt draped over my legs, helping, slightly to ward off the cold air. It’s about 8ºC this morning, and I’m blessedly chilly.

As I have said before, it may be that cold where you are, but you have central heating. Try to remember how cold you get when the electricity goes off for a day, or so. That’s how cold it is here all day.

Funny, though. I can remember being the only one sweating here when we first moved down here. Everyone thought I was crazy.

Not any longer. I have finally acclimatized to the weather, and am just as cold as everyone else.

Layers.

If the weather is changing in your area, please drive with caution, and care for yourselves, and the others on the roads. Don’t take any silly, or unnecessary chances. Please.

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

Post script; a very happy birthday, to our BIL, Larry, a few days early. I hope each, and every one is better than the last one.

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas holiday season.

I started walking, again, outside that is, the other day.

I walked two separate times around the park, at just under 11 minutes per kilometer. Each time around is just a touch over 1 kilometer, so each round is just a bit over 11 minutes. I am trying to get in as many steps per week as I can, now that the weather is cooler. It doesn’t really matter what time of the day, or evening I walk, the temperature is moderate at worst, and cool/chilly at best. Win, win.

I had been exercising nightly for about 6 weeks without any weight loss, but with significant muscle redevelopment. That, in turn, has enabled me to walk for significantly longer lengths of time without my back muscles seizing up. Spasms still make me stop, and stretch, but I can go 3, sometimes 4 minutes at a time before having to do so. Win, win.

So, now I am going to do a few core strengthening exercises, and a daily walk, (or 2), to see if I can drop a few kilos before the holidays are in full swing.

We are, for the moment, planning to spend both Christmas, and, possibly, the New Year in Los Altos with the Garcia family. Hopefully, that will all come about by the 22nd of this month. I’ll let you know.

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

Post script: we have both been under the weather for the past several days, so the above post is just a memory. I walked for about 3 days, then came down with a cold. Maybe next week. We’ll see.

As I sat down to write this post I had to laugh at myself.

We are both down, but not out, with colds. Ivan’s is, hopefully, on the mend, but mine is just starting to wind up. Lovely.

Just in time for Christmas.

I chuckle because, for the past 2 years, I have been waiting to, asking to, expecting to, at some point, be cold.

I have gotten what I have asked for.

I bought a full length flannel nightgown, thinking to wear it in Los Altos this holiday season, but we are staying here. I have the nightgown on, and had to find Ivan’s old terry cloth bathrobe to put on. Then, I put on the fleece lined hat he bought for me the other day, part of a set that includes a fleece lined “scarf”, and a pair of mittens. The scarf is really more like a wide, thick collar. It stretches to be pulled over ones head, but is snug, to keep ones neck warm.

I suspect, in the not too distant future, I’ll have the entire set on. Plus my heavy, fleece lined socks that I bought last year.

Or, I could plug in the small electric space heater.

But, that would be admitting defeat.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and hoping all is well with you.

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

I had quite the week, a few weeks back.

I started off that weekend heating a hotdog, waaaay too hot, took a bite, and burned a piece of the roof of my mouth that lasted almost another week. Here is what it looked like after 5 days.

I kid you not; it got worse from the photo above.

Anyway, that’s all gone now, just a bit of a glossy feeling still, but shouldn’t be any more trouble.

It’s been overcast, and cool here the last few days, so I took some time to download free fall wallpapers for my iPhone, and the iPad Pro Max I’m using. Fall here is nothing like it is in Iowa, for sure.

The leaves fall, but the plethora that don’t are still green, and lush. Most of the trees here maintain their leaves all year long.

It is much cooler, though, at night, and even into the afternoon. In fact, we both wear thermal pullover shirts all day long now. Even if I’ve done something magical to work up a sweat, except when exercising, I leave on the thermal.

I love every minute of cool, or cold weather I can get!

Not much else to tell you right now. So, until next we meet, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Do any of you subscribe to a VPN?

We do. Surfshark, down here is a good one. I don’t know if you need it, trust it, can afford it, whatever.

The reason I subscribed to a VPN is because there are different channels on the computer, on YT, Netflix, Disney+, etc., that we can’t get because we are not in the US.

Problem solved. For the most part.

Do you even know what a VPN is? For anyone that doesn’t, it’s a Virtual Private Network, meaning that the address your compute is using is not necessarily the one that the broadcasting company thinks it is.

When our VPN is active, (you can pause it anytime you want), it appears to the computer that we are in the US, and depending on the city I choose, we could be in any major city, in any state. Actually, if we want to, we can choose any major city, in any country around the world.

Once in awhile, I want to watch MasterChef US, but can’t without the VPN. The computer tells me that the episodes are not available due to blah, blah, blah. So, I activate the VPN, and what do you know?! The episodes are suddenly able for play.

Love it. I don’t use it for anything more than that at the moment, as I don’t feel it helps with the few things I do on the computer normally. Definitely not getting our money’s worth out of it, but am enjoying watching videos I would not otherwise be able to watch.

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

A few weeks ago, I wanted the opportunity to clean the fridge, and freezer; the easier of the two first.

That would be the freezer. All I had to do, when organizing the freezer, was to take everything out, throw away what was no longer edible, (rare), vacuum seal anything that needed it, and put what was left back inside. Done, and dusted.

The fridge, however, is an entirely different beast. I have to maneuver the fridge out of the built in cocoon in which it resides, gently coax it around the edge of said cocoon so it is facing, slightly, the middle of the room, and try to get the doors open far enough to be able to remove the shelves from the fridge itself. (The available floor space is approximately 9’x5’.)

Having said that, once the fridge is “in position”, there is no getting in, or out of the kitchen, as there is no room to get through the door. And, Heaven forbid I find that I forgot to do something having already put the shelves back in, and moved the fridge back, because once it’s in, it’s in. Yes, I’ve done that one too many times.

As you’ve seen in previous photos, we have an LC French door, bottom freezer fridge which we wouldn’t change for the world. I don’t think a regular opening fridge door would have made any difference in my ability to remove the shelves as the amount of space in the room is so small.

Needless to say, I only clean it when I absolutely have to. Even then, it is with the utmost disdain. You know what? I hate cleaning the fridge even more than I hate dusting. Now that’s saying something.

I didn’t take any photo’s before cleaning the freezer because I just got down, and did it. Here are the results.

That’s it for another whimsical day in the apartment. We’re ramping up for the Christmas holidays; how about you?

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

So, still middle of November; still nothing to do.

Wrong. I took the opportunity, again today, to do some more picking up; this time, in the pantry. And, boy, did it need picking up.

We have such a small apartment, by our prior living space standards, that finding places for everything has to get creative at times.

Also, we can’t just take items we no longer need, or want, up to the Goodwill, or the Salvation Army. There is no such thing here. That is probably the most difficult thing we have to deal with on a routine basis.

On to the picking up. Recently, every time I’ve gone into the panty, I’ve had to skirt my way around bins of this, and that, having found their way into said pantry through no fault of their own. But, now was the day to take charge of the bins, and deal with everything accordingly.

Here is how it all looked this morning.

Again, I spent about 45 minutes rearranging, combining, moving each bin to a more efficient location, and hoping against hope they will remain thus for some time to come.

Here are the results.

Most everything has been dealt with, and nothing is ever perfect. It is taking us some time to live with the “less is more” philosophy, not to mention, buying things we “need/want” usually comes in bulk. Bummer.

That’s it for today. Just going to go enjoy the apartment as it is. We still have lots to do, but as my favorite witch said, “All in good time my pretty. All in good time.”

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

It was a good one.

I am writing about earthquakes now.

As they go, the one we had yesterday, @ 10:44, 12/07/2023, was a good one. I don’t know what it registered, but I can tell you that

It was a good one.

There I was, sitting at my “desk”, in our bedroom, minding my own business, checking the amount of our electricity bill, ($43 USD), when, quite suddenly, and ferociously, the seismic alarm on both my iPad, and my iPhone went off, sending me into about 2 minutes of horrible, almost debilitating nausea.

The alarm doesn’t make me nauseous, but the movement of the condo, the round, and round, and round, and round, and round of it does.

It’s a fairly subtle movement, just a slight, but continuous movement of everything around you; just enough to make you think you’ve had way too much to drink. But you know that you haven’t had anything to drink; it’s just 10:30 in the morning.

I hope you never experience an earthquake, but to do so in our city, in our condo, in our apartment, well, you couldn’t be in a better place.

The whole building, as I indicated, moves minutely, but for me, it makes me immobile. I cannot move once it starts. It is the same movement my brain makes during a dizzy spell; with the earthquake, however, it doesn’t help to close my eyes, or change the position of my head. During an earthquake nothing helps.

I must tell you that I get fairly pumped when we live through another quake. It’s something that, years ago, before architects bettered the specifications of buildings, such as the one in which we live, people didn’t survive. The horrendous earthquake here, in 1985, killed more than 30,000 people. An uncle of Ivan’s was killed while working in downtown Mexico City.

That was where the real damage, and deaths occurred; downtown. It is the most unstable part of the city. It was built, originally, on a lake that was, over centuries, dried, but there was no bedrock to stabilize any future foundations.

In our area of the city, a southern colonia, similar to a suburb, the quakes are not only felt, and endured, but, importantly, survived. And I mean survived without incident. We have no cracked ceilings, no broken pottery, windows, or the like. No deaths.

When the alarm goes off, depending on the time of day, or night, we all go outside, those of us that can. We stand around for a few minutes just to make sure there’s no horrendous aftershock, then return to our lives, as if nothing happened.

I can tell you, from 4 years of experience, that they have happened, they do happen, and, for as long as we live in this particular condominium, we will continue to survive them.

Thank God.

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

Finally!

I have been putting this off for the longest time, because whenever I do it, and someone has had a bit too much of the fermented fruit, the cabinets are all magically rearranged when I get up the next morning.

Now that less of said fruit is being imbibed, I have had assurances that this will not happen again. So,

I spent 6 hours on a Tuesday, at the end of November, in the kitchen, organizing the cabinets to meet my needs, as I am the chief cook, and bottle washer, as my mother used to say. I need to be able to open a cabinet door and find the items expected behind that door to add to whatever I happen to be cooking at the moment. Not a whole lot more aggravating than spending 10 minutes hunting for the jar of dried chiles that where in that cupboard, but aren’t there now.

I got up, on that Tuesday, had a cup of coffee standing at the counter in the kitchen, trying to get my mental energy up to take everything out of the cupboards, and get going. I started with the cupboards on the left, and worked my way around the 3 cupboards.

Which is it- cupboards, or cabinets? I use them both. If it bothers you, move on.

Did I think to take “before” photos? Nope. This may not seem like much to you folks, but to me, it’s Heaven. Top shelf, left 2/3rds, dried chiles, and chiles en vinagre, escabeche. Then a big jar of dried porcini mushrooms. Bottom left, on the stand that I used to use for the dishes, are small jars of dried spices, and freeze dried spices. The rest is a variety of salts, flour, sugars, vanilla, black beans, and rice.

My least favorite cupboard, as it is the “corner” cupboard, where nothing fits, nothing is easy to get to, or to see, or anything. I do not like it but I deal with it as well as I can. I’ll explain it nonetheless.

Top shelf has a plastic container holding all of our vermicelli, fideo’s, spaghetti’s, macaroni’s. You get it. Pastas.

Second shelf has odds, and ends, quart jars of bread crumbs, pinko, ground chicharrones, cornmeal; that kind of thing.

Third shelf is the baking shelf; baking soda, baking powder, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated mile, almond flour, erythritol, fake (keto) chocolate chips, anything I need for baking.

Bottom shelf are things I use for general cooking; dehydrated Idahoan potato flakes, oils, canned beans, canned peas, lard, canned Hatch chiles, saffron, sugar, cheap canned beer, tomato sauce, canned tuna.

That leads us to the last cupboard in the kitchen; the one next to the stove.

All of the items you can see in this photo are by far some of the most expensive items we consume; the dehydrated gravies, on the top shelf, Jif peanut butter, Bragg’s Nutritional dried yeast. But, they’re all products we have become accustomed to over the years, and find them difficult to live without. So we don’t.

Almost done.

One last cabinet, it’s the one of two, in the pantry, where we store the bulkier items, the containers that fill the smaller containers for kitchen use. Here goes.

I cannot even begin to tell you what a mess this cupboard was. Now, it’s easy to find whatever is needed.

Top shelf: avocado,grape seed, and olive oils, chocolate syrup, raisins, salt, and behind all of that are large bags of almond flour, sweet white rice flour, cocoa powder, erythritol, keto chocolate chips, fenugreek seeds, and not quite white sugar.

Next shelf: baking stuff, vinegars, Asian oils, large refills of peanut butter, almond butter, mayonnaise, honey, ACV, and ancho chile powder, cuz everyone needs a kilo of that.

Third shelf: spices start off at the left, different rices, boxed chicken, and fish stocks, come miscellaneous jars/cans of media crema, (1/2 & 1/2), pickled beets, canned green beans. Nothing too exciting. But organized.

Bottom shelf: left, plastic container of Asian supplies- you name it, it’s in there. Different tea’s for my Kombucha, large jars (new) of Better than Bullion roasted chicken flavor, Bread and butter pickles, and olives.

So, all that done, it took me about 3 hours to organize it. The rest of the day was spent making a beautifully delicious chicken vegetable soup, with fideo. Yum.

I need to rest for a bit. Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

I have been working, off, and on, on this amazing Celtic shawl for at least 5, going on 6 years now. Here is how far I’ve gotten.

I don’t remember if I showed you the pattern I’m using, but I’m going to show you know, cuz I need a little bit of sympathy in my dotage.

More proficient knitters would probably not have needed to do all of the doodling that I had to do, but, in my defense, I hadn’t been knitting very long before I started this, and had never knitted from a diagram before; only from the written pattern. So, for my mental health, and ease of working this pattern, I decided to do the homework I needed to do.

As you can see from the first pattern photo above, I printed two copies of the pattern, one for the right side pattern, and one for the wrong side. Then, I looked at the legend where it shows what goes in each square in the direction you’re knitting, and filled in the squares with either (k) knit, or (p) perl. I also had to made an arrow to indicate the direction that section is to be knitted; right to left, or left to right.

Next, there are 9 separate sections to be knitted across both the right, and wrong sides, so I indicated which sections each one was. They are labeled as A, B, C, D, and E on the pattern, but that was too confusing for me so I just labeled them 1-9.

I forgot to mention that the order they are knitted in is as follows: chart A, chart B, chart C, chart D, chart C, chart B, chart C, chart D, chart E. So, as I knit across, and I’m needing the information for the 6th of the 9 sections, I need to go back to chart B. At the top of the pattern, I have written in the sections to be knitted from each chart, making it so much easier for me to follow.

Then, I put it down, and don’t pick it up again for a few years, and that’s a whole other ball of wax. That’s why I did what I did.

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