Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

I found these on Instagram, and bought about a zillion of them, hoping that they will be the answer.

The answer to what you ask?

Our inability to get away from UN-RECYCLEABLE PLASTIC BOTTLES!!!

And, to have clean laundry.

As you can see, there are 30 sheets per package, so for us, doing laundry biweekly, we can use these until we’re dead. 🙂

There are 30 ecological, clean, laundry detergent sheets that come in a paper/paper board container, and will do 60 half loads, or medium loads for those of us that do small amounts of laundry, 30 large loads, using one full sheet, or 45 really big loads, using 1 1/2 sheets.

I haven’t tried them yet because of the Anheuser-Busch boycott. I’m so upset. 😉

Yah, no.

I haven’t tried them because I haven’t moved the crap from the top of the washing machine to the space I still need to make in the pantry so I can OPEN the washer lid. What a shame that I can’t do laundry today. Hahahahaha

When I do, I will let you know how well they clean our clothes. You need to understand that we don’t do anything that really makes our clothes dirty, so apply a grain of salt to upcoming detergent review.

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

This is the last app I’m going to try in order to help me lose weight, and get back to living.

Wish me luck.

For reference, as much as I hate to display this to you, I’m starting at 154.5 cm tall, and 86 kg weight. Ugh!!! I obviously will not be getting any taller, but hope to get down to 63-65 kg. Again, please give me just a bit of encouragement, now, and then. I’m a mental mutant.

I will keep posting my results, good, and/or bad, because I need to be held accountable to all of you. I am committing myself to the loss of 20+ kilos by the end of the year.

I will just have started when you read this, and have no idea how it will go but they promise to be really committed to helping me stay on track to accomplish my goals, and get back to living.

Quite a bit of this weight loss system is the psychology of eating, and why we eat what we do. As I am a fan of psychology, I am going to do my best to get back to eating, and, more importantly, exercising, especially walking, so I can get back the health I have given up with the incarceration due to CoVid restrictions.

We were sedate for so long that I can’t even walk around the park anymore without terrible low back pain. I walk around the grocery stores grunting, and groaning like an older woman. I’m close to 68 but feel 88. Not good. I want to feel 58 again.

Let’s get me started.

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

We have found the ultimate butter brand.

Aguascalientes.

I had been making butter from whipping cream for about 4 months. That was until we discovered the Aguascalientes brand of everything dairy.

The butter is almost white, it is so pure. The crema, (cream), is also so white, and smooth. The taste of each is superlative. (Isn’t that a wonderful word?)

Bonus: we can buy them online at Mercado Libre. We found them in a store but can’t remember which one it was. Duh!!!

As I have been watching so many videos on YT about Mexican cooking, and so many of the cooks use squirt bottles, it seemed to me to be the way to go.

So I did.

The two different salsas I make, green, and red, obviously, the two bottles on the left, while the two different cremas, media crema, (half & half), and full crema, are on the right, respectively.

I put the salsas, and cremas on just about everything we eat, now that they are all so easy to access. I can’t tell you the difference it makes in the flavor of the meal. I will also mention, quietly, how much more fun it is to squirt them, easily, from bottles as opposed to scraping them out of containers!

I found out the other day that the media crema acts, and tastes very much like the real crema, but has a slightly different texture to it. These subtle differences make very little difference in the flavor of what you are eating.

If this gives you a push to put commonly used oils, salsas, cremas into squeeze bottles, good on you. They are a convenience I highly recommend.

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

What the heck is going on in the US?

Think what you want about trans people; you have to come to terms with that on your own.

But stop shoving it down my throat.

I don’t accept that a transgender female is allowed to compete with biological females, win a competition, be praised, and made famous for it. That is absolutely ludicrous. Women need to stop accepting this kind of treatment. Boycott, petition, do whatever needs to be done to stop this insanity. Transgender females are NOT females. Period. They are men that, supposedly, think like females.

Also, stop trying to force me to think that the exposure of innocent children to the depravity of adults trying to indoctrinate said innocents to their way of “life”, or the mutilation, and death of children succumbing to sex change operations, is ok with me.

It’s not. It sickens me.

Are we, or really, am I going to do anything about this?

What can I do? There are only a very few things that I can do from here. This blog post is one that I hope is beneficial, and a boycott of AB products.

Normally I back down from controversial things like this, I keep my thoughts to myself, but, with this, affecting the next generation of children in the world, it has to stop.

Children cannot be exposed to such as this in their formative years. They are called the formative years for a reason. They are easily led this way, or that way, dependent on the person/people of influence in their lives.

If someone wants to make a child something it’s not, they only need to gain that child’s trust, and keep gently persuading them that they should think a certain way.

Don’t believe me? Watch a couple of episodes of NYPD: Special Victims Unit. That will really open your eyes, not in a pleasant way, to what is happening to innocents when left to believe what influencers are telling them.

Please, let them grow up to make their own choices, good or bad, right or wrong, by what they’ve learned in a, hopefully, loving, stable, family/social environment.

Now, about AB, and that mess. You will be happy to know that I am now able to drink Bohemia Clásica™, a wonderful beer, almost as good as my favorite AB owned Pacifico™. Bummer.

I hope you will take what I have said here as my feelings on the subject. They don’t have to be yours, but it would be nice if some of them were.

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

Give what I have said here some thought, one way, or the other. Act accordingly.

Post script: the quote the other day was from a Three Stooges show called Niagara Falls. When a certain individual heard that phrase, having been hypnotized to act on that specific phrase, tried to murder anyone close to them. 🙂

Slowly I turned. Step by step. Inch by inch. *See note.*

Sorry. I couldn’t help myself, once I got it in my head.

Recently, I have been rearranging our apartment, now that we have, once again, an another entire bedroom, a full bathroom, and a covered storage unit, (on the roof), in which to occupy.

When we lived in Iowa, we had a 4 bedroom home, 1 1/2 bathrooms on 2 levels, plus a full basement. Here, we have a large, luxury apartment, (by CDMX standards); 1 level with 3 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, and 240 mt. sq.

We have added tons of storage by means of the overhead sliding door cabinets in the 2 main bedrooms, 4 new dressers, as well as utilizing the 3rd bathroom, meant for the maid that we don’t, (yet), employ. (Score!)

Now that J&L are upstairs, again, in their apartment, we have the 2 dressers in that bedroom, plus the 3 dressers in the guest bedroom. (Ivan requires 2 dressers, one which is completely empty, for all of his clothes). Not.

Anyway, I have been finding ways to move things, from totes in the living room, like our bedding, into the 2nd bedroom dressers; our blankets, and duvets into the overhead cabinet in the same bedroom; our bath towels, wash clothes, and hand towels in our sliding door overhead cabinets as you come into our bedroom. The more things I move the more ideas I have of where to put this, or that so it is more convenient for usage. Yeah!!!

I am just getting started on the kitchen; moving things from here, (where mi amor put them), to the pantry, where I need them. Not everything needs to be in either place.

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

*Note: any idea from whence this quote comes?

I’ll tell you in the next post. Love you. Bye bye.

Post script: Happy 46th!!!!!! birthday to our daughter Elisha. Many, many more.

One day, at least 20 years ago, Ivan came home, happy, excited, all smiles, with 2 dozens gorgeous red roses.

They smelled amazing; like roses should smell.

My first thought was

You have got to be kidding. Oh, my God.

What the hell did you do?

You need to understand that neither of us are Hallmark™ people; we haven’t, and still don’t give each other cards of any kind, and he certainly had never given me flowers.

All I ever understood about cards, flowers, and/or chocolates was that they were given to the significant other for reasons of an apology for some assumed, or real indiscretion/wrongdoing.

Little did I know, until several minutes, and a torrid converation later that these amazing roses

were bought to help raise money for one of his coworkers beneficent causes.

Well. Didn’t I feel stupid.

It took some time to appease Ivan’s anger at having his honor maligned, but I did it. He was appeased. We made our feelings known, and we went on to another chapter of our marriage.

Before you place judgement on your spouse, know the facts.

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

Post script: he only brought home roses in the fall, when his coworker needed the sales for his cause. We enjoyed every minute that they lasted, together.

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.