Author: iagardener55

I know it.

If I spent all of my time apologizing for not posting regularly, I’d be overwhelmed.

For now, I’m only going to post on Wednesday, or Thursday, to be read the following day. There isn’t enough going on here to warrant a daily post anymore. I will recap the weeks happenings, provided there are happenings.

The excitement for this week is the 3-in-1 Apple charger. I cannot tell you how fast it recharges my Apple products. It is amazing. Here is what it looks like.

I bought it on Instagram, I think. Here is a shot of the results of charging Ivan’s AirPods, from 0% to full charge in, as I recall, about 10-15 minutes.

It charges the AirPods, an Apple Watch, and an iPhone, simultaneously. The charge is just a bit slower when all three are charging, but it’s still faster than charging with a flash cable by itself.

Oh, the other thing I have to show you is my “stuff holder”. We got these awhile ago, and have cleaned our trays off considerably.

These we got on Amazon.com.mx. They go over the arm of your chair, and have Velcro on the inside of the flap that goes over the arm, which attaches to any material on your chair.

I have pens in the outside left pocket, scissors, and a couple of nail files, of course, in the outside right pocket. In the large inside pocket, you can see, obviously, a large metal clip full of 4” x 5” scratch paper, that we tear ourselves from leftover, unused printer paper.

Some of us, (ahem), have difficulty printing items, and have lots of paper that wasn’t necessary, or able to be used. Can’t let it go to waste. Actually, we let very little go to waste.

One last thing for this past week: the new fruit baskets.

We have a beautiful fruit basket that I saw on the TV show Elementary, and found on Amazon about a year ago. You’ve seen it in other photos with stuff on the counter. Here is the before, and after of the fruit basket. Get ready. It’s awesome.

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Let me explain: in the top basket are limes, here called limones, lee-MO-nes. Middle basket has bananas, or PLAH-tah-nose. Bottom basket has sweet potatoes, or cah-mah-ROW-tehs, and plátano macho, the bananas that you cut up, and fry once they are very dark, or black on the outside. They are amazingly sweet.

Go to a Mexican grocery store, buy one, or two, let them ripen, peel them, cut them into 2” pieces. Fry them, on medium heat, in a bit of butter, for 2 minutes on each side, then put them on a paper towel to absorb the oil.

I like to smash them, slightly, and sprinkle each with a touch of salt on mine. Oh my gosh. Ivan likes his cut only in half, then lengthwise, into slabs, fried as above, with crema, and a touch of maple syrup.

Savory, and sweet. That’s us.

Until next week, if anything exciting happens, I’ll let you know. See you next week.

Hydrochlorothiazide. A mild, Potassium sparing diuretic.

Ivan takes 25mg, I take 50-75mg. That’s daily.

When we were in the States, it cost us about $120 for 60 tablets, but now, with the ability to purchase these on line, we pay $5 for those same 60 tablets. Yay for us.

Plus, they are delivered to our door. Doesn’t get better than that.

The other day, we got 18 bottles of 20 tablets, for $100 MXN/3 bottles. That’s about $5 for 60 tablets. Yay!!!

We have enough for now, and won’t need to order again until probably mid summer. Good enough for us.

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

We had one delivered today.

He is so cute, so small, so colorful. He doesn’t eat much, doesn’t poop all over, or bark.

This is our new chihuahua; what do you think?

We’re trying to decide on a name for him, but are undecided. I like Pedro, Pascual, or perhaps, since he’s so small, Fernando. He hasn’t agreed to anything, so I’ll keep you in the loop. I’m sure you’re going to be waiting on pins, and needles to know.

If you think of a name that is not goofy, (or Pluto 😉 let me know. Until then,

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

This little gadget has become indispensable in our kitchen of late. I use it to remove the hot bowl of instant oatmeal from the microwave for Ivan; to remove a half sheet pan of buffalo wings from the Smart oven. We tried a different style, but this one works the best.

It feels so secure in my hand that I can move whatever I’m picking up with ease. The other ones we had were a bit smaller, and not spring loaded; I think that is the difference- the spring. This one, also, has the little locking mechanism so it stays shut in the drawer.

Just thought you might not have known about these, but that it might come in handy for you too.

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

We all have at least one, don’t we? My most recent, but least offensive is

Château renovations.

Seriously, I am obsessed with a few of the château owners on YouTube. There is one couple, Anna, and Philipp, on How to Renovate a Château (without killing your partner), that are hysterical. He has the best sense of humor of any of the owners.

Ok, so, these folks, from all over the world, move to France to buy, then renovate, not remodel, their château’s. Some are as old as the 16th century, and have 40+ rooms, but most are from the 17th, and 18th centuries.

There is one that I follow whose new purchase has 8 bedrooms. Yikes. Who wants to clean, and change bedding in 8 bedrooms? I have a hard enough time with one.

Update: no, I haven’t really started my Keto diet yet; I’m pacing myself. Besides, I have to get organized. I certainly don’t want to start off half cocked, willy nilly, and get it wrong. Slow, and steady wins the race.

I’m still looking for the track.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves. We are, for the most part, mask free down here, and have been for several months. Yet, when we leave a store, get in the car, out comes the hand sanitizer. Don’t become compliant.

I haven’t. I don’t think ever.

The other day, I went to put the load of clothes I had just washed into the dryer, only to discover this.

I’d been burgled.

Somehow, the load of clothes I thought I had washed remained exactly where I had put them; on the floor in the kitchen.

Seriously? Who does this? Just me, probably.

Well, the washing machine is clean now, however, as I use vinegar, not softener, it doesn’t build up any gunk. Yay.

Oh, on a side note, Liz is not pregnant at the moment. False alarm. Too bad. We’re all hoping for baby #4, another girl. Someday. Hopefully.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves. Remain vigilant; another variant is out, and about.

CARE packages.

We got another one the day before yesterday from our favorite youngest sister, Mayra. Thanks doesn’t cut it. Look at what we received.

First, let me say that she had originally sent all of these in 2 boxes. The folks at Estafeta, the shipping company, decided to put them all into 1 very heavy, 52 lbs. box. That would have been fine except that the night before, we lost our power in certain parts of the apartment, which also included the elevator. You should have seen us lugging this behemoth up 2 flights of stairs. It was pathetic. Golly we’re getting old.

Mind you, we bought all of these things because we can’t get them here; well, certainly not at the cost we can get them from the US. I will have to see if the shipping charge, and her time, is worth the cost of having them shipped here. I hope so.

Yes, there is a plethora of candles, 23 actually. I bought them, actually, to have them for the fall, and winter; even as Christmas presents. Things conspired, however, to delay their shipment, (we kept buying stuff,) so we didn’t get them until just. There’s always Easter.

Bisquick, in the size box you see, costs about $390MXN, or $20USD. Would you want to pay $20 for a small box of Bisquick? Oh. Maybe, with this new administration you are paying that much.

We try not to look, too often, at the cost of the items we need; it can make cooking, then eating said items difficult. The cost of things, here, is getting difficult, as it is said to be in the US. We have to eat, shower, wash our clothes, so we do what we must.

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

We went “fishing” the other day, not to catch the fish, but to buy freshly caught fish.

We didn’t have to drive far, either, only 6 kilometers, but it took us almost 30 minutes; it was Sunday afternoon. Duh! We decided midweek would be best next visit. 😉

The place we went to is a wholesale fish market, and let me tell you, they had so many different types of fish that we had never seen, it was amazing.

Here’s one for you. This little guy, (and his friend, we bought 2), has been cleaned, and is ready to cook. Here, he’s called a Mojarra, (mow-HA-rrah), though he’s more commonly known as a

Tilapia.

Pay particular attention now, because this is important; it comes complete with about a gazillion bones. We pan seared this one, wrapped in aluminum foil, having been marinated overnight with citrus juices, onions, and salt. It was delicious, but very difficult to eat with all of the bones. We’ll buy it frozen from Costco next time. His friend is residing in the freezer.

We bought a kilo of head-on shrimp that had been harvested from the Gulf the day before. They are going in the freezer for now as well.

This is just one kiosk, full with its rewards for our drive, but there are over 100 similar kiosks in the marketplace. Each is up against the next, or perhaps, has a two foot space for shoppers like us.

Next time we go, I think we’ll ask them to debone the mojarra, like the fish above, before we bring them home. The above photo is not of mojarra but Nayarit, a fish similar to a red snapper, or Huachinango, hwah-chee-NAN-go. You can see them in the second photo. They are scrumpdeliicious.

As soon as we were within a block of the market, we could smell the fish. It was just like when we went to a bay, East of Houston, TX, I can’t remember the name of it, and bought shrimp at a similar market. Here, however, the smell transported us to the bay, hundreds of kilometers from us.

The fish were fresh, you could tell by the clarity of their eyes, and the few kiosks we went to were quite clean. The fish is kept on ice, and, as the ice melted, it was brushed onto the floor, and fresh ice applied. Also, when the fresh ice was placed, the fish were flipped onto their other sides, keeping them cold throughout.

We have decided to go at least monthly to the market, possibly bimonthly. The prospect of having fresh fish on a monthly basis is exciting.

Now, if we could get beef as easily, and as tasty, we’d be in Heaven. Alas, it’s only Mexico; but it’s close.

Until we get beef like we had in the US, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

PS: happy belated birthday to my favorite S-I-L, Mayra. Thanks, again, for the CARE package.

PSS: it was reported on the local news that another variant of CoVid19 is sweeping through Mexico. We’ll be vigilant.

It has taken some time, but, finally, it is coming to fruition.

I enjoy using that word, and don’t get enough opportunity to use it, so I use it here.

The other day, I took the covers off of the stovetop heating elements, (I use that term because I cannot, for my life, remember what they’re called; where the flame comes out to heat,) and cleaned all of the burned on food, grease, what have you.

I scrubbed with Ajax, with steel wool, with a butter knife. Absolutely nothing touched the stuff. I had half a mind to order one of those foam sprays I keep seeing on the SM sites, where the grime just rinses off.

I didn’t. When the light bulb came on in my head, I went to the pantry, got my handy dandy putty knife, and within 15 minutes, the stovetop looked like new. I’ll show you, only the after though, as the before got away from me.

After that was done, I looked around, and saw, to my horror, the exhaust fan was filthy. The fan is worthless, and doesn’t exhaust to the outside, just blows in further into the kitchen, so I rarely use it; except to draw in air from the laundry area, like a small breeze. Then it works.

Caution required at this point. What you are about to see may shock you. (Shouldn’t really though.)

I have to wipe it down again with water, but I have temporarily lost the impetus. (Another favorite word 😉

So, this morning, about 1:30am, I was unable to sleep, again, and was tired of just lying there, trying to turn off my mind so

I got up, went into the living room, cleaned off the long, foldable plastic table, and put away as much of the stuff that was cluttering it all up as I could do without waking Ivan, or the condo. Went back to bed at 2:30am, got up at about 10, and finished what I had started. Soooo much nicer, I think. Once I get rid of the totes, and boxes by the folded table, I will have enough space to start exercising.

Lord knows I have to do something to help me lose weight. I can’t stand this any longer. It just isn’t me.

I have gotten out my resistance bands, put them into a semblance of order, have printed out a few weeks of 15 minute workouts, and will begin working out

Hopefully soon. I certainly don’t want to rush into anything. 😉

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

I’m not sure why, but I don’t really care.

He bought me a new MacBookPro.

I can sit here, typing away on this amazing new convenience; except I have no idea how to do anything with it.

Ok. That was a lie. I figured out how to do the italics symbol, so now, I can do that.

Never mind. I just went to some page from who knows where.

We made an amazing whole chicken, (with Baby Ray’s Barbecue sauce), sopa de fideo, and all of it was soooo tasty, so succulent, so juicy.

We sent some upstairs, to them, then, some to the guards. They all loved what we made.

I spatchcocked the whole chicken, covered it in honey, and vinegar, then sprinkled tons of spices on it before we baked it in the oven. When it was close to done, we put Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce on the whole bird, and let it bake another 20 minutes.

AMAZING.

While we wait to see what Gaby thought of the whole business,

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

I am compelled to tell you that here we no longer use facial masks; employees in stores use them, but the clientele do not.