Author: iagardener55

More specifically, cutting peppers for roasting.

It used to be such a chore, roasting the peppers, putting them into a plastic bag, peeling them, removing the seeds, and veins, all part of the process when roasting peppers.

No longer is any of that an issue. I have recently come up with a better way. Let me know what you think.

I have learned, after years of doing it the hard way, (as described above) to cut open the pepper, whatever kind you are planning to roast, and remove the guts first, then roast them. When they have roasted, and are ready to be used, there are no messy seeds flying all over your counter, or onto the floor.

I have also learned a way to make the removal of the seeds, and veins a bit easier. For a bell pepper, I cut into a “seam” from stem to base, usually 4 times, as we buy bell peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom. (These are, frequently, a bit sweeter, and have fewer seeds, and are considered to be “female”, 3 bumps are male.) I digress.

Back to my pearl of wisdom. If you cut it as indicated above, turn it so the stem is on the counter, by gently pulling down one section at a time, you need only cut the section close to the stem end, and voila, mission accomplished. Move on to the next section, smiling at the ease of this new way of doing a messy chore. All you have to do now is clean up the pieces to your liking, and you can continue on preparing your meal.

I took a few photos, so, hopefully, you can see the progression of what I just said.

All you are left with is the center core, seeds contained. Now, all I had to do was clean off the lighter “stuff”, I can’t remember what that “stuff” is called, drizzle a bit of olive oil, and finely ground oregano, and into the oven they went, to roast at 400ºF for 25 minutes. Yum.

I did the same thing with 2 poblano peppers that were getting old. Here is what they looked like.

Easy peasy.

Now, go out, and cut a peck of peppers. Pickle them, roast them, or do whatever you want with them, but when you do, try the above cutting method, and let me know what you think.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect yourselves.

Liz, and I have been walking around the park, baby Brandon in his covered stroller, and Gabi running all around the place.

We started walking once around the park, which is .75km, sometime last week, Thursday, maybe. Started on Monday past going twice around same park. Fortunately for me, (large Marge), Gabi keeps us stopping for this or that, and I have a chance to catch my breath.

We are determined to lose weight. We are determined to lose weight. We are determined!!!

My back is so tight on our first go round I can hardly stand it. With the heat of the afternoon, though, things turn around fairly quickly. In the middle of the second round, things in my back have loosened up, and it becomes easier to walk.

The other day, while walking, my back had felt so good at the end of the second round, I felt we could go a third time. So, we did.

That worked. Once.

We are back to going twice around, and are hoping next week, if we have dropped a bit of the old tummy love, it will be easier to go the third time around from then on.

We shall see.

While we are waiting for said miracle, please, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect yourselves, and your loved ones.

First, let me start this days gab session with well wishes to my best friend, confidant, and lover extraordinaire, for 46 years of wedded bliss. Well, not all 46 years have been blissful, for either of us. We are, however, getting to know one another, and are working out the kinks. Check back in to see how things are progressing.

Now, for the main plot.

Skin tags, and moles, and more skin tags; oh, my!

We bought an Auto Skin tag remover kit, online, and have just started using it. There are both tiny, and small round silicone bands, with an applicator pen that, when loaded, places the band around the aforementioned skin tag, or mole, and chokes the life out of it.

Which is lovely, as I have had 3 along the front of my bra edge most of my life. No longer. The first one, I tied off with a piece of thread; the second one came off yesterday, having used one of the tiny bands. The third is taking its sweet time, however. As the band has come off while taking my last 3 showers, I have, therefore, had to reapply the blasted thing 3 times. It looks terrible, smells worse, and refuses to give up the ship.

So, be off with yourself already. I am sorely tired, (no pun intended), of having to keep reapplying the dang band. I am tired of the whole business. The results, however, are worth every minute of the above whining.

The moles get so sore having my sports bras rubbing against them all day, every day. Now, I have only one left. Soon, I will be celebrating. Actually, I think I will start celebrating in about 10 more minutes.

Shower first, brandy second. I have standards.

While we wait with baited breath for the last &%^# mole to die, and fall off, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect yourselves, and your families.

Post script: happy 25th birthday to the newest baby mama in our lives, Liz. Hoping she has 75 more.

And their tenses.

Is there anything worse, when learning another language, than verb tenses?

No. Emphatically, No!

It is horrible, trying to figure out how to pronounce the future tenses of “I want to”…… No less important is the past of “I wanted to”….

These are the bumps in my road, every day. Fortunately, I have Liz, who helps steer me in the right configuration of sentences that I think are correct, but, alas, they are not. She understand me, thanks to God, and I understand her. She corrects me, and vice versa.

We speak in a language, sometimes in Spanish, sometimes English. I learn from her Spanish, and try to teach her our English.

Gabi, however, is an entirely different child. We bought him thirty 6 sided wooden blocks for his recent birthday, and he was ecstatic. We, and his parents, showed him the different sides of the blocks; the alphabet, in both English, and Spanish, both lower, and upper case; numbers; shapes; veggies, and objects.

The alphabet, in Spanish, has a few more letters than in English; ch, ll, ñ, rr. These are all on the blocks of wood that he has to play with, and from which to learn.

The 3 of them were so excited to have these blocks, they played with them for over an hour. Really, we can all learn from these simple blocks. They are bilingual, and very helpful for Gabi, and me.

Actually, Jesús, Liz, and Ivan can learn from them as well.

Until we can all learn Spanish, and English, stay,healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones, and yourselves.

Post script: these blocks are manufactured by a company called Kids Korner. They have lots of educational items for kids. Enjoy.

Everyone, and their families, are outside today.

It appears they are all going to the same places we are. How unfortunate.

It has taken us 30” to drive 10 km. We can only move 1/2 to 1 block with each stoplight change. The main roads here are 4 lanes of stoplight to stoplight traffic. The lesser, but still thoroughfares, are 3 lanes. They are all full of cars.

Wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t 86* in the shade. We are, however, in an area without trees to cover the road. Yuck.

Poor me. But, you know how much I enjoy the heat; sweating, thirsty, hangry. When we can, we are going to sell the apartment, and move to a more enjoyable clime.

Until then, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones, and yourselves.

I know you haven’t been able to sleep, knowing that I was struggling to finish the puzzle of the succulent.

I finished it. It took only 5 hours and 25 minutes. Again, not continuous. Here it is, in all of its glory.

I left the last piece so I could take a photo of the timer in the bottom left corner. Yay.

Now, I’ll be able to start on another photo, hopefully a bit easier, and faster to finish.

Stay happy,healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect yourself, and your loved ones.

No. It’s not CoVid19, 20, or even 30!

It’s a neat sponge that you can purchase on Instagram™, that exfoliates your skin, leaving your skin soft, and smooth. It is incredible.

I bought the blue one a week, or so, ago, and have used it twice. My skin hasn’t been this smooth, and soft in years. Seriously! This is one of the items from Instagram that I highly recommend buying, for yourself or for a loved one.

I don’t use it every time I shower, I don’t think it is necessary. But, when I do use it, it is definitely worth the few dollars it cost. Ivan does my back for me, as I am no longer limber enough to get even close; it has made a large impact on how little my back now itches.

As I have said in past posts, there are several things from Instagram that I have purchased, and given to others as time-saving gifts, that were very much appreciated. Not everything works as they would like you to think, especially those peelers that you can use back and forth. Those people are taught, and practice ad nauseum, how to use them so quickly.

Anyway, try the sponge. Look for it in a local store. We have to get ours online. It’s worth it. Trust me.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect yourself and others.

Remember, I showed you some of the photos I am changing into puzzles, to be worked on my iPad?

I have been working on this one, in particular, off, and on for almost 3 hours. Look how far I’ve gotten. Nowhere.

This is what it will look like if, and when I finish it.

Maybe you can understand why it’s taking so long to finish. I’m not sure whose idea this sort of thing was, but it is as difficult to finish this as a puzzle as it was to grow it before it died.

It was one of my favorites, and will be so once again before I die. I want to have a place to grow all kinds of exotic plants; succulents, cacti, small fruit trees, etc. I’m not sure what limitations I’ll have in the future, but it is a continuing dream of mine.

Folks, please, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect each other.

My entire way of playing Wordscapes™ changed today, in a matter of seconds. Duh!

I am currently on level 38145, having just finished the prior level.

If you will look in the upper right corner of the above photo, you will notice the “cent” symbol, and, the numbers 13939. Those are the number of points I have currently; having won, bought, or watched videos in order to acquire the currency. The cute little llama in the bottom left corner, with my current crown status, is your humble, well, llama. Me.

How has my playing of the game changed? Let me try to explain.

Here is what the screen looks like when I open the next ”round”. One must find as many words from the letters given to fill the crossword puzzle. Any additional words are stored in the small star, bottom left, and points are awarded when the round is finished.

As you can see, also in the circle with the star, that the 3 in crossed out; that means the words cannot be shorter than 4 letters. They can have more than 4 letters, just not less.

Now, for the other little doodads around the outside of the circle. From the right, the lightbulb with the 100 means they will give you a 1 letter hint for 100 points. (Until today, I used that much too frequently.)

Below that is the rocket, and, as you can see, I have earned 1 free hint in this form. What it does is send a spray of from 4-6 letters that land wherever they want. Helpful, but 200 points, if you have to buy it. Yikes.

Swinging around to the left, you already know about the star, so continue up to the bullseye. A you can see, I have 2 free bullseyes in my pouch, to use when I wish. If you touch it, you can touch any empty space on the puzzle, and, it will give you the letter. Fancy, huh? Very expensive. This one costs 300 point. I never use that unless I have some in reserve. Who can afford 300 points?

Now, to the crowning glory; the shuffle. You touch this, and the letters will turn in the circle, giving you a completely different view of the letters within. You can probably already see a host of different words in the circle; chipped, chip, pipe, piped, hide, hipped, and so on.

There are nine words to be formed from these letters; included is the “special” word, the one that has the 4 cent symbols on it. That one gives you four extra points.

Now, the shuffle doesn’t cost a single point. You can use it however many times in a puzzle that you want. So, why, if I think I’m so very clever, didn’t I figure out to use the shuffle more often, and stop using up all of my points? I have no clue. But, I did, I have, and I am. Finally.

I used all of my points in this past weekend’s tournament, so I had to break down, and buy most of the points you see. However, since I figured out to use the shuffle, I have not used a single point, and have collected several hundred points, from the tournament.

It is great fun, closing onto addictive, but it keeps my mind sharp, and my vocabulary in abundance.

That’s all for today. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: I forgot to mention that if you tap on the word you spelled, it will give you the dictionary meanings of said word. Neat, huh?!

I don’t know what is going on down here.

The high is going to be 90ºF today!!! Who ordered that I’d like to know.

You can take it to the bank that it wasn’t me. I wouldn’t be so foolish. It will only get to the mid 80’’s here in the apartment, but that is 10º too hot for my liking.

Fortunately, for the two of us, we have a plethora of fans at our disposal, as we use them day, and night. There is at least one fan in use somewhere in the apartment at all times, during this kind of weather, especially. Can’t afford air conditioning, so, multiple fans are the next best thing.

While we swelter in the heat, (I can hear my mother saying that we should be glad it’s dry heat), stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.