Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

The best thing happened recently.

My SIL, Mayra, helped me get access to 2 of our credit card accounts that currently do not accept international phone numbers.

I sent the companies requests to send security codes, we used her cell phone number, and they did, they sent her the codes.

We now have access to these accounts, which I haven’t had for well over 6 months, or more. I can now make changes to payments needing to be made, or I can make additional payments if I want to.

Finally.

Thank you Mayra.

That’s all for today. Just wanted to share my joy. It’s an awful thing when you can’t have access to such important accounts.

How did this happen? I got a new iPhone, and iPad, all within 6 months of each other, and didn’t have the information backed up, or some such nonsense. I got the iPad first, so I still had access on my phone. Then, when I got the new phone, my prior phone had been so damaged that I was unable to transfer any info to the new one. Meaning no access to either account. Bummer.

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

I cannot tell you how tired I am of our current shower heads.

Well, I can, but I won’t.

We bought a “rain shower” head for the shared bathroom we used over at Ivan’s cousins house, when we lived there, during our renovation, and had, already, one in each of the two bathrooms we use here, in our apartment.

I am sick of them.

There, I said it. I never thought I would, but they are driving me out of my mind. As I no longer have the stress of working all day at my former career, I am in no need of any more relaxation than I currently have. What I need, nay, want, is for a nice, semi-hard spray of water to get the job of showering done.

It takes forever for the gentle pitter patter of “rain fall” to rinse what little hair I have, or to rinse the soap off of the large framework I currently have for a body.

I am not one to use a lot of water in anything I do, so to take so long for a shower is maddening. I want to rinse, soap up, hair, and body, rinse off, squeegee the shower walls, and floor, and get out, and dry off. Done, and done.

Now, with the minimal purchase of a new shower head, I will be able to do just that. Of course, it was delivered about 45 minutes after my shower this morning. I could have predicted that. Ivan, however, got to use it, and said it was “fine”. That tells me absolutely nothing, but, that too could have been predicted.

I’ll have to wait, and judge for myself tomorrow morning. Am eager with anticipation. Maybe I can find some way to work up a sweat, and try it later today. Hahahahaha! That was laughable.

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

Post script: the new shower head, above, is exactly what I have wanted for forever. It is amazing. The force of the streams of water is perfect. It lets me rinse off, stop the water, wash my hair, rinse, stop the water, soap up, rinse, stop the water. I am in, and out in less than 10 minutes. I will say that it does use more water, but less time. Maybe that will even out over time. Or, I could shower weekly instead of daily. Always a thought. JK.

I did. I broke down, and bought a new nightgown. Finally.

I bought the gown I wear to bed about 5 years ago from the Vermont Country Store; one of my favorite online stores in the US. Fortunately, they don’t ship to Mexico.

I have worn the poor thing out. It is the same structured cotton as a tee shirt, and has worn just as well. I have worn out the elbows, in particular, that, and the back of the neck. That’s where I grab it to pull it over my head on my way to the shower. I’ve had to sew it up, there, at least twice; now, I’m just going to leave the hole.

I’ve got a new gown coming sometime next week. Looking forward to it. Here is a photo of the right elbow of my worn out gown.

Why are pockets in a nightgown so important, you may be wondering? Because, with my NOOM app, my steps are counted by my Apple products; my cell phone, or watch. I don’t always think to put my watch on first thing in the morning, but almost always grab my phone. In my pocket it goes.

Now, if my new slippers would just get here I’d be ecstatic!!!

I am looking forward to the change in design, and color. Until then, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

So far, 2 of the 3 products are good to go, with the 3rd being on the fence.

You may remember the laundry sheets, of which I bought 2 gazillion? That’s the one on the fence. I say that only because I washed a load of hand towels from the kitchen, and forgot to use OxyClean™. Duh! They weren’t as clean as I’d have liked. I use it in every load except that one. Needless to say, I was not impressed with their ability to get the laundry clean.

The towels will be washed again in appropriate manner, but it will be awhile. I have washed 2 more loads, but being darker clothing, I can’t really see whether they are clean, or not. You know something? I really don’t care if I can see it. They look fine, and were hung up to dry, so what’s not to like? I think I’ll give the sheets a 7 out of 10 at this typing, mostly for the smell, and the convenience. I’ll update if that changes one way, or the other. Thank me later.

Some of you may recognize, or remember your mom using this to chop veggies in the kitchen while you were growing up. When you punch the handle down, the blade chops whatever is in the cup, or, if you remove the cap you can see on the bottom of the cup, what’s on the counter; then the blade rotates a bit. The more you chop, the more the blade rotates, the finer the end results will be.

I had a hard time getting started with this, I suspect because the instructions that come with it are in some Asian language, Chinese, Japanese, who knows? Certainly not I. As I recall, there were 2, or 3 photos that kind of showed you how to keep the blade guard, the red part, from falling off every time you open the damned thing, but I couldn’t figure it out. I set it aside for a bit as I washed the dishes, then came back to it, and kind of figured it out.

Not really. I fumble with it but use it whenever I can so I don’t forget how to use it. The blade is supposed to “lock” into the cup, for whatever reason is beyond me. It does lock in with the blade engaged, but won’t fit into the cup this way. WTH?

The blade is very sharp, so it’s worth the aggravation to use it, and carefully clean it. It chops up small pieces of veg nicely, though mine absolutely hates carrots. I forced it into submission, and won. An 8 for this, only because of the terrible directions. Some of us need more instruction than others. Buy accordingly. 😉

And, last, but certainly not least, is the humble garlic mincer thingy.

This gets a 9 from me because it will mince 3 medium cloves of garlic after turning the assembled thing about 8-12 times, back, and forth. I don’t rotate the top 360º- I hold on to the top, and bottom, one hand on each, then do the b/f motion about a dozen, or so times. You need to. Make sure, though, that the teeth are fairly close to each other in order to do this. By the end, most everything is nicely minced. So it takes a dozen times; I couldn’t care less. It saves me from spending too much time cutting the damn things with my knife, risking life, and fingers in the process. That is the one thing I really hate cutting.

That’s it for product reviews for this post. I hope I was able to help some. If not, don’t tell me.

Until next we meet, have a wonderful 4th of July; stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Post script: I will say that since I remembered to use the OxyClean, I have used 2-3 sheets in each load, and the laundry is almost as clean as when I used the Arm & Hammer laundry detergent. You decide.

It’s about time, I think.

It was more than a year ago that I made the last batch of Kombucha. Oh the shame!!

I am going to show you what 1 year of “Mothers” looks like. I think you will be as amazed as I was. Here goes.

Each of the 4 pieces you see in the photo above, the 2 smallest are 1” thick, and the 2 larger pieces are easily 2 1/2” thick.

After making the newest batch of ”buch”, I couldn’t keep all of the mothers alive, having to discard some into the organic bin. I did keep the largest piece, cutting it into 4 chunks, and putting it into the hotel for mothers. (Similar to the Hotel California.)

Here is the final batch of “buch”; alongside is the hotel with the chunks of Mother. The tea in the hotel is fresh from the final batch, and will be changed, or added to with each new batch of Kombucha.

The Mothers are floating in a new bath of strong tea, and sugar. What’s not to enjoy about that?

That’s it until next time. The Kombucha is well liked on NOOM, so much so that homemade Kombucha has only 16 calories for 100ml. Yay!!! It’s because all of the sugar is digested by the mother, giving off its waste as CO2, and the fermenting process is begun.

The rest, as they say, is just amazing flavor. After the second fermentation, that is.

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

Herbs. I can’t keep them fresh on the counter, or in the fridge, and I can’t grow them very well.

But I’m going to try. Well, the growing of them anyway. Hopefully, with the Lord’s help, I can do it this time.

To get started, I have some small soil disc’s from a starter kit I bought who know when, and I have some seeds. I also have a few grow lights, small ones, not like the big set up I had in the US. These are small, portable, and set to a timer, which comes on at 7am, and off at 7pm.

Right now, I have one grow light shining on what’s left of my Aeonium Kiwi. I have done a bit more research on the Kiwi, and have found that it drops its petals, or whatever they’re called, in the Spring, and Summer, to start its regrowth in late Summer, early Fall. Well Hell. Wish I’d known that before I got all wacko about the leaves all dropping off when they first arrived. Sheesh.

Back to the herbs. I will be planting Albahaca, (Basil), Cilantro, Eneldo, (Dill), Epazote, Oregano, Salvia (Sage), and Tomillo, (Thyme). Those are the herbs I use most in cooking, but never seem to have to hand when I need them.

I buy them fresh, in the grocery store, but rarely have everything I need to use them in dishes. I didn’t list Romero, (Rosemary), because that is really hard to start from seed, so I’m not sure if I’m even going to try it. Would love to have it scenting the living room, but I’m fast becoming a wuss. We’ll see; that, and Lavadura, (Lavender).

Basil, for example. I would love to make a pesto but never have the pine nuts when I need them. I have Parmesano Reggiano, olive oil, salt, and basil, but no nuts. It’s always something.

Epazote. It’s not an herb that most people are familiar with, but in Mexican cuisine it’s quite common. It has an acrid smell, like a horrible lighter fluid, or strange chemical, but delivers an incredible difference to foods cooked with it; especially when used fresh. In black beans, while they’re boiling, a sprig of this gives the beans a wonderful flavor that is definitely missed if not used.

Now, with NOOM, they are teaching me to actually plan ahead, plan the meals I want to make for the next few days, and shop accordingly. It seems like such a simple thing to do, but it has taken me all of these years to be disciplined enough to actually do it.

The seeds are all here, except for the Sage, at the time I’m typing this, but they will be here this weekend. After they are all here, it will be a matter of gumption. Until then

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

I made the Sopa de Col con Pollo today, (Cabbage with chicken soup).

It is amazingly good. I had to add quite a few things to it for it to have any flavor that we would enjoy, and I wrote down all of the things I added.

Originally, it had only cabbage, obviously, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and tomato sauce. Boring.

I added quite a bit of sautéed mushrooms, spinach, epazote, oregano, marjoram, and fennel, and it has taken it to an entirely different level. Fortunately I made a large batch, so we will be able to eat it for another day, or so. While the newly arrived tomatoes are maturing, we will eat this soup, or at least I will. Then I will freeze some, and make another different soup with some of the tomatoes. I’ll let you know.

I might take a photo of this soup, not sure. I’m not sure it would be that appealing to you folks, but the taste, as I said is fantastic. A great start to cooking delicious, and healthy foods.

Normally, for us, because I have never been a very adventurous cook, we have eaten anything that will fit in a tortilla. Seriously. I can heat up a mean can of soup, but could never get a homemade soup to have any flavor. Now, I’m learning how to do just that; make food that tastes good, and is good for us. Amazing what fresh veg can do for a meal.

My weight is slowly, and surely going down. Each morning I get up, go to the bathroom, then weigh myself; now without trepidation. I actually look forward to it, as every morning, for the past few mornings, it is a welcome sight. The numbers keep going down, down, and down. Yay!

I also have to tell you that I am rarely hungry, and know that I can eat anything I want to at any time. When I have a little hint of hunger after any meal, I can go to the kitchen, and get an apple, or blueberries with yogurt, and not have to have potato chips with dip. Quite freeing I must say. The choices have become endless.

That’s all I have to tell you about my progress. Soon I will tell you about the herb garden I’m going to start. It’s so different planting things here, in containers, without direct sunlight than when we were in Iowa, with an entire backyard full of sun, and space. But I am determined to try. I believe, once they are established, I will take them upstairs, to the rooftop, and check on them every day. Hopefully, Liz, and I will be able to cook with fresh herbs in the not too distant future. Until then

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

I am making slow, but steady progress.

My clothes are fitting a little less tightly than the past few months, and my back hurts ever so much less, as well. I want to show you some of the soups I am going to be making over the next few months. They are from the Kiwilimón app. I don’t know if you get it in the US, but it’s very popular here.

The other day I spent $50 on Justo, our grocery delivery app, and bought all kinds of veg for the soups I’m making this week, and next. The first 5 are as follows, but not necessarily in this order: Sopa de Nopales con Chile Guajillo, (cactus soup with Guajillo chiles), Sopa Azteca, Sopa de Tortilla, and Sopa de Col con Pollo, (cabbage soup with chicken).

Each of them has ingredients that I can use in 1, or more, of the other soups. Neat, huh? NOOM is teaching me to sit down, and spend what ever time is needed to plan out a menu, for the day, and, if I’m able for the week. I don’t have to stay glued to it, but use it as a guide. They are teaching me why I eat the way I do, and how to change it since it’s obviously not working. They say it nicer than that but that’s the gist of it.

They also have a list of the 3 different food groups that I can choose from, with the % of each group that is ideal for the day’s calorie consumption. I can eat any foods I want, I just have to log them, and see where I have calories left from which to choose. It’s really very simple. No foods are denied, but veg, and fruit are just about free to eat however much you want. The rest, you have to make decisions.

No problem; I can do, and am doing that. It gets easier every day. Once I get my fat arse outside, on the park path, or ride my bike, the weight should come off even easier. For now, I’ll keep eating the rainbow, with amazing fresh fruit, and veg. See you again soon.

Here’s the Justo haul. I’ll explain what you’re seeing. Let’s get started.

In the back left, you’ll recognize green grapes, then a liter of plain sugar free yogurt, with a Chobani sugar free vanilla flavored yogurt on top of it. Continuing to the right, avocado’s, and mango’s, (they’re yellow mango’s).

Back over to the left are, standing up, nopales, (cactus), an unripe papaya, small cactus, blueberries, mushrooms, (the rest of the kilo is in a bag off camera), carrots, and tomatoes. Not too shabby, huh?

All of the greens on the right are, from top to bottom, a stalk of celery, cilantro, epazote, spinach, (there are 6 more bundles of spinach in the white papers), in front of the spinach is a bunch of basil, and a cabbage.

Not in the photo are 4 boneless, skinless frozen chicken breasts that I put in the freezer. Normally I remove skin, and bones myself, but for less than 5¢ each, I let them do the work. 😉

Now, I have to go disinfect all of above before putting them into the fridge. They have to sit in a bowl of water, with the disinfectant, for 15 minutes, each group. Well worth it though, let me tell you. If not, you can expect diarrhea within a day. Here’s what was at the bottom of just 1 bowl after disinfecting. You probably won’t see this in the US. They come already clean.

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

You know you needed a laugh.

I have, once again, started hanging our laundry on our newly repaired clothes line.

It has been several months since I was able to hang our clothes to dry, and not rely on the dryer so much. The dryer does get rid of the lint, but uses too much gas to heat it. Since we have a nice bit of airflow through the laundry area window, it’s silly not to use it to dry the clothes.

The only trouble with this way of doing things is that the window also lets in the dust from El Popocatépetl, our local volcano, which, at the moment, is very active. The amount of dust that has landed on every horizontal surface here is unprecedented.

Which means, I suppose, that I should dust more often.

Not!

I have taken a vow to allow someone to take up this task for me as whatever penance they feel they need to work off. 😀 Far be it for me to have taken that opportunity away from them. I don’t know who they are but I’m sure it’s someone.

I digress.

I believe I told you that a few weeks ago, I decided to fix the clothes line, after having waited for himself to do it for several months now. I took the rope off, washed, and bleached it, and let it dry. Then, I took down the metal piece that holds the rope, (see the photo below. It used to be hanging on by a thread), scraped off the peeling paint, and plaster, squeezed clear silicone into each of the 3 holes, and put the metal piece, and the 3 screws with the plaster expander things back in the holes. I had squeezed the silicone the entire length of the metal piece, then all around the edges. I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon.

As far as El Popo getting crazy, check it out on YT, I believe. It’s really quite active.

Well, I have 3, or 4 more loads of clothes to wash, and hang, so that will happen over the next few days. Gives me time to take all of the above down, fold them, and possibly put them away. Always a guess.

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

I really, really, really don’t like that word.

To come up to someone, whose name I presume you know, and call out “Hey”, as a greeting, just about sends me over the very close edge on which I usually preside.

Several of my coworkers used to do that to me, and I would immediately respond with “if you’re talking to me, my name is Diana.” More often than not, they would respond with the fact that they knew that, and then continue on with whatever they were going to say to “Hey”.

I’m not a “hey”, never have been a “hey”, and don’t ever want to be a “hey”. I have an identity, a name; my name. Diana. Use it.

Unfortunately it did get my attention, and that was its purpose, but I disliked it all the same.

If you don’t know my name, then just say “excuse me. Ma’am?” I’ll answer you. I’ll acknowledge you. I’ll talk to you.

Here, in fact, most store employees, cashiers, stockers, baggers, call me Abuelita, which suits me just fine. I’m close to 70, look 75, so the name is appropriate. It brings a smile to my face.

The only problem is that my mind still envisions me at about 55 – 60 ish, when I was not so heavy, or grey haired, or less mobile. Now that I am soon to be 68 years old, am heavier, and have close to white hair, it’s ok to be known to those young people as Abuelita. It is a term of endearment, whereas Abuela is more formal, less loving. I’ll take what I can get.

Which would you rather be, “hey” or Abuelita?

As Abuelita, I’ll see you soon. Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Post script: in case you haven’t noticed yet, I am posting, and will continue to do so, every 3 mornings, more, or less. It works for me.