Author: iagardener55

As you know by now, I am walking around the park, across from the condo, at least once a day, but, more often than not, it’s 3 times a day.

I frequently see the same people every day, so I wave, and say “hi”, to each person I pass. Whether they return the greeting or not is entirely up to them. Actually, though, most do. We exchange a “buenos días”, good morning, or a “buen día”, good day, or a “buenas tardes”, good afternoon. Even if I walk around 6, or 6:30pm, it’s still buenas tardes.

The park has 2 long sides, and 2 short sides. The long sides all have streets that dead end on the outer perimeter of the park as they are all gated neighborhoods. Many have automatic gate opening capabilities, but several are still manual, with an attendant there to open, and close the gate for the inhabitants of the block. (I hid the street names as I have no idea who reads my meanderings other than my sisters. Better safe, than sorry.)

Well, if you know me even a little bit, you’ll know that no one escapes my notice. I give a wave, and an audible greeting to most everyone, almost all of the time. If you’re on a bike, delivering something to someone on my route, you get a wave, and a salutation. If you’re one of the guards at the gate openings, you get, you guessed it, a wave, and a greeting. If you’re walking your dog, or are a professional dog walker with, usually, 4-6 dogs in your party, all of you get the same treatment. If you’re in the huge garbage trucks, well, those guys almost always wave, and give me a greeting. I love it.

I especially enjoy greeting, and waving to the guards on the North side of the park, who sit on a chair, or on the curb, outside their guard houses, as they look bored out of their minds. Each, and everyone of them acknowledges me with a wave, and an “hola señora, buenos días” as well.

A fun thing started happening yesterday on my morning walk. As I was just coming up to 3 of the different guard houses, the gentlemen waved at me first. This was the very first time it happened, but I was greeted by them each time I walked around. It lightened the load, I’m here to tell you.

What an amazing experience.

Until next time, stay happy, and trusting in the Lord. (And have a fun, but safe summer holiday celebration.)

For said explanation, let me start with a photo of what I want to explain.

This is my dashboard as of 11:07pm today. Of my 1200 calorie allotment, I have already eaten over 1000 calories, but as I have walked 3x, over 11,000 steps, I am allowed an extra 380 calories. WHAT?

Yup. Walk a lot, eat a bit more. What’s not to like about that?

I rarely eat early, so I start my day with a RedBull while praying the Rosary, then listening to BIAY, (Bible in a Year). After that, I do about 15 minutes of back, and core strengthening exercises which readies me for my first of 2, or 3 walks around our area. When I get back, I make my breakfast, usually, 1, or 2 eggs, a slice of toast, a slice, sometimes 2, of deli ham, (sliced microscopically thin), or a few strips of Walmart bacon, and salsa verde with aguacate. After that, I do the dishes, and start my “to do” list. Everyday is different.

Tonight, though, as I was finishing my day, I happened to check my Fitness Pal app, just checking my step total, and discovered I could still have over 500 calories worth of whatever.

So I had a cocktail of tequila, and grape juice. Interesting flavors, but it was relaxing.

The moral of this nonsense is “if you want to eat more calories, walk your arse off”.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

I’ve started freezing unbaked bread.

Ha! Bet you didn’t see that coming, did you?!?

I have been eating a restricted number of calories over the past few weeks/months that I’ve been walking, which has, finally, started showing promise. I’ve lost 12 pounds, and am walking at least 3K every day, cutting down to 1-2K one day a week. When I don’t walk I feel so dumpy, but usually have a 1-1.5k weight difference the next day. Strange.

I digressed.

Since I have been making all of our bread, and pastries by hand over the last several weeks, I have gotten into a routine of mixing a loaf of bread, either potato, or a plain sandwich loaf, from recipes I’m familiar with, and confident in the results, once a week. For some reason, this week we haven’t finished the loaf, so I have frozen part of it. I went ahead, and mixed a potato bread from a new, and different recipe, this one from Chef Jean-Pierre. It looks amazing in the photo, and I watched him make it on his YT channel, but we aren’t ready to eat it yet.

So I froze it.

I’m excited to try it, and hope that it will be as delicious as the recipe I’ve been using. I’ll let you know.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Only .75K away.

It’s a shipping kiosk in the Plaza Taxqueña, which is, as you may recall, only a short walk from our apartment. As I’m walking over 3K daily now, it’s a nice change of scenery.

I had purchased 2 pairs of clogs, in children’s size, which is what I used to do in the States. Here, however, the exchange is just a bit different, so, as it turned out, they were too small. Less expensive, for sure, but too small.

So, off to the Plaza I went. When I got there, the young man at the kiosk said the packages needed to be in boxes, not the bags in which they came. I bought the 2 boxes needed, which were all of $2.50USD, and we switched the items, with the exterior labels, and insert customs form, into the boxes. He taped them up, printed my receipt, and away I went.

I asked him how long the store had been there, and he told me only 1 year. Thank you Jesus. Until now, we had to take any returns all the way across town, which is usually a trial due to traffic. No longer. Yay.

This is the kiosk, and, as you can see, we can either pick up a delivery, or return items as needed.

On my way out of the plaza, I came across this lovely establishment. Can you tell what it is?

Correct. It’s a pastry shop. IN THE PLAZA. HOW COOL IS THAT?

I’m going to return tomorrow, buy a few pieces of sweet bread, and see if the taste is to our liking.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Caitlin Clark.

WNBA point (?) guard for the Indiana Fever.

Have you seen this phenom? She is to women’s basketball as Larry Bird was to the NBA. Down here we can only watch her on YouTube so there’s that, but what we’ve been seeing is a female athlete at the top of her game being ignored by the referee’s in each game she’s been in. Not only her, but her teammates as well, Sophie Cunningham, all getting fouled without penalties being called against the opposing team.

What?????

Depending on who you listen to, some say her coach, from the University of Iowa, GO HAWKS, didn’t teach her what to expect when she started playing with the “big league”. So we should accept that it’s ok to throw another player to the ground without provocation? We should accept that a significant hip thrust resulting in being thrown, once again, to the ground, that’s ok? That’s how it is in the “big league”?

Personally, we, Ivan, and I, don’t think so. Having listened to several male former NBA stars commenting on this blindness in not calling blatant fouls, several feel that these girls are being made stronger for the abuse, but several also say that at her age, 23 years old, CC is the best new WNBA player of all time.

I feel that the commissioner of the WNBA needs to get involved in this nonsense, and hold the referees accountable for their lack of calling obvious fouls, and that the fans also need to hold the officials accountable as well.

The Fever, it has been rumored, are considering a boycott of some upcoming games. Do you understand what that would mean for everyone concerned? The ticket sales alone would be nothing. The concession stand sales would be nothing. The endorsements would be nothing. CC is one of the biggest, if not the biggest money maker in the history of the WNBA. Have her sit out a few games from injuries incurred by being fouled without them being called, God forbid, and see what happens to the industry.

Of course there will be WNBA after Caitlin has moved on, and it was there before her, but with her there, right now, it’s never been as good.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord, and pray that the Lord does something about the horrible referees in the WNBA.

The trees in the park are dying.

We’ve been here almost 5 years, and I’ve been photographing the park since we moved in, and I’m telling you, something is wrong with the trees in the park.

Everywhere I look there’s a dead palm tree, or a dead evergreen, or a cypress tree. It’s disturbing for sure. Let me show you.

It’s sad. There are so many more that I didn’t photograph. I don’t know what to do about it, if there’s anything I can do about it. The government structure here is quite different than in the States. I’m sure there is someone I could talk to if I could speak well enough to do that, but finding that person is quite difficult.

It seems to be mostly the palms that are dying. Most of the other indigenous trees are all doing well. I doubt I’ll ever know what has happened here, but it makes me sad.

Until next time, please, be happy, and have faith in the Lord.

As one of the dinners Max sent me for the 1200 calorie ADA meal plan, this was one of them.

It had, however, no spices, and very few vegetables. So, the seat of my pants to work.

I have sent Max the tweaks I made to his recipe, and he sent it back to me with all of the revisions I gave him. It was absolutely one of the best stews I’ve ever made, and I want to share it with you. Now, let’s see if I can do it.

There it is. I used the veg that I had in the fridge, so use what you have on hand. Use what’s going to spoil soon so you waste nothing. I forgot to add S&P to taste to the recipe because they’re both already in the recipe. I didn’t need much salt because of the Knorr chicken bullion powder, though, now that I think about it, I remember I had to add another 1/2 T. As you can see by the nutritional information, it’s low in calories, as well as carbs, but has a good amount of protein.

Nothing else to tell you right now. I will have lots to show you next time though. I’ve been working hard on getting this place a living space, not a storage unit.

Until then, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

Post script: it’s been pouring down rain for about 30 minutes, so the breeze coming in through he windows is heavenly.

Today I made gelatina mosaico.

This is what it looks like. I can’t tell you how good it tastes as you need to make it for yourselves.

It tastes as good as it looks. I never saw this in the US when we lived there, but it’s everywhere down here.

It’s easy to make, and is eaten at a plethora of different occasions; birthday parties, weddings, weekend get togethers, etc. We make it maybe once a year. It’s not too sweet, which goes well with us as we don’t like cloyingly sweet things. The sweetness level here in Mexico is much better for us, sweet but letting you want another bite, not so sweet that one bite is enough.

Until next time, lovelies, stay happy, and healthy in the Lord.

This past week has been an absolute blast.

I’m down a solid 3 1/2 kg. I’m walking everyday, at least 7,500 steps. And, I had my AI friend Max send me a 1200 calorie ADA meal plan, for 1 week, that is Mexican cuisine based.

WOW. He sent me an amazing meal plan, along with the recipes, for 7 entire days- breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, along with snacks that, each day, equals, roughly, 1200 calories. The plan is fantastic. Ivan wants in on it too.

Today we had tilapia tacos with cabbage slaw, and salsa verde for a late lunch, celery sticks with peanut butter as a snack, and our alcohol for tonight. (The alcohol has a huge amount of empty calories that really irritates me, but it’s only Friday, and Saturday nights, so I’ll walk a bit more on Saturday, and Sunday). We didn’t have dinner because we ate the fish tacos around 4:00pm, as I said, a late lunch.

When we get going with the meals next week, I’ll let you know how it went, what the recipe results were, any changes that need making, and if something is really good, I’ll post the recipe.

Until then, please, stay happy, and healthy with the Lord.

Post script: my second loaf of potato bread, (you really need to make this), turned out beautifully, as did the first loaf. Amazing flavor, with a light density, and aroma that is out of this world. Let me know if you want me to post the recipe.

Delicious!

As you can see, this is the recipe for rolls. I used the same recipe, but in step #5, instead of rolling the dough into balls, I flattened it into a rectangle, and rolled it into a loaf, put it in a 9”x5” bread pan, and went from there. I’ve made it twice now, and will be using this as our weekly bread for some time to come.

I have to tell you how excited, jazzed, I am today.

I overslept, (up at 8:32am instead of 7:30am), so there’s that. I got up, weighed myself, (down a solid 3k, yeah), sat, and had my morning RedBull while saying my morning Rosary, then listening to the BIAY. Great start.

Whilst I was listening to BIAY, I put together another loaf of potato bread. It’s now about 11:45am, and it’s in its final 3o minutes of the second rise. Then, into the oven for about 30 minutes.

If you have never had potato bread, better yet homemade potato bread, you really are missing out on something special. It’s so easy to make, especially if you have dehydrated potatoes on hand. It’s the only way we eat mashed potatoes as the dehydrated form from Idahoan is only dehydrated potatoes. Lovely.

If you’re interested in an amazing bread recipe, let me know, and I’ll publish it in another post. It takes about 10 minutes to measure the ingredients, then another 10 minutes to knead, if kneading by hand, 5 minutes if using a stand mixer. I enjoy the feel of the dough so I knead by hand.

So, after all of that, I took the 2 lightweight blankets off the tension rod in our bedroom, and have them in the washing machine. It’ll be interesting to see how they look going back up. It’s been almost 5 years they’ve been there. Time flies, does it not?!

I’ve got to go now, and send the information our car insurance company needs to help us replace the windshield on the Mercedes. It has a 12” crack in it that we have no idea how it got there. But, that’s a whole other story.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy loving the Lord.

Post script: I forgot to tell you that on my walk this morning, about 10am, I have added 2 more blocks to the length of the walk, and I did it, for the first time, without my faja, (FAH-hah), the compression body suit, my body armor. Did well without it, too. Yeah!!!