The Past week

Woo hoo! This week I decided to listen to mariachi music. All week every time I listened to it, all I could think was, "where are the chips and salsa?" The only time I hear this is when we are at our favorite Mexican restaurant on the night they have live music.

I am posting the first song I heard each day when I opened Spotify and entered "Mariach. I actually listened to a lot more mariachi music than this post seems to reflect.

I will admit I am glad this past week's choice is over. This week I will be listening to music by composers who lived on/near the Danube.

Monday: The week began with nothing much different than every week. The weather was beautiful, and I had the usual after the weekend things to do. I must admit since TheHub retired, there is not a lot of difference in a weekday and a weekend, and quite truthfully I do miss some of my previous alone time. 

What I Learned: I learned I was not crazy about mariachi music, but was determined to listen to it every day for the week.

Listened to: La Pistola Y El Corazon by Los Lobos

Dinner: My beloved sister came to eat with us.

Crab cakes, cauliflower mash*, tossed salad

Tuesday: I ran back to Publix to grab a couple of their BOGO's while they were still on sale. I have mentioned before I keep a well stocked  overstocked freezer and pantry, and there were a couple of items that I use regularly and even though Publix jacks up the price on most of their BOGO's, there is still a substantial savings buying things on sale.

What I learned: I accidentally stumbled across a magazine called "Go Wild" and now I think I want need to plan a trip to Ireland. 

The Libby app I use as my online library is a wonderful app, but for someone like me with a tendency to wander off any set path, the magazine choices are dangerous. Do I really need to look at food magazines written in Japanese? Evidently I do.

Listened to: Cien Anos by Los Panchos

Dinner: This is one of our favorite summer nights meals.

Grilled steak, baked potato, tossed salad

Wednesday: I have mentioned before, our church has begun an "appreciation for staff" event. Monthly those of us who volunteered are given one of the staff's names and we create a small basket with some of their favorite things.  (i.e.  a coke, Baby Ruth candy bar, pretzels etc.) There are 54 folks on staff and it takes quite a lot of volunteers to make it happen.  

I am mostly happy to do it, but I have a tendency to forget about it until the very end of the month, then I scramble to get it to the recipient with just a couple of days to spare.

We are leaving town for a few weeks, and I had to make sure I was able to get this month done earlier than my norm. 

On their bios, they not only list their favorite snacky things, but also list their interests. My name for May listed painting as his hobby. I had several new, still in their wrapping, smaller canvases in my art supplies and was able to pass one of those on to him as an extra item. I met him at the church to give him his goodies and think he liked that more then the Coke Zero, Snickers, and trail mix.

What I learned: I was reading a book about how AI is/will impact and/or intrude on our daily lives. Curiosity would not keep me from venturing into the bright and dark side of AI. You know that old saying about how there can be two truths that are at odds with each other. 

It certainly applies to AI.

Listened to: El Jarabe Tapatio, by Mariachi Vargas

Dinner: I didn't feel like cooking

Chef's Salad

Thursday: My Beloved Sister and I went to my happy place. This time we tried another experimental recipe, but I had no Independence Place participant to blame failure or credit success, this was totally my gamble. The peanut butter banana pudding went over so well the previous visit,  I thought we would give spumoni pudding a whirl.  

With the exception of one participant who does not care for cherries, it was a success. 

Once home, My Beloved Sister and I sorted through my clothes to pack for my trip. I have no idea why I assumed our destination would be warm, and all those summer duds I bought might not  aren't going to work well. High temps in the 50's is what I think of as winter. What a bummer!

Afterward, TheHub and I ran out to grab him take out  for lunch. He still has trouble not having whatever he is in the mood for when it is lunchtime. 

One day he might learn lunch when you are not working in an office and eating out every day means just gathering up the fragments that are in the fridge. I doubt it, but maybe.

I spent more time reading and doing laundry, when I should have been doing something more productive, but it was what I did anyway.

Listened to: Zacatecas March by Marachi Vargas

What I learned: DIL2 took a quick photo of My Beloved Sister and me as we were leaving IP. Later that night she sent the picture to us. MBS and I look a lot older and worse than we both thought. Yea! 

Dinner: It was veggie dinner night

Squash casserole, coleslaw

Friday: I did more laundry, tidied the house a little, read a lot, and ran to Walmart's free standing grocery store near me to pick up a few essentials. 

Then it was time for Bama's softball game. They were hosting a regional tournament and the crowds were huge. The day was a perfect ball game day and I would have enjoyed being there, but was content to just see it on the TV.

Actually we had the television on various softball games all day, though we were not actively watching them. We would just keep up with them when we walked through the den, stopping to watch if it seemed like something exciting was happening or about to happen.

Listened to: Los Gaviotis by Los Caminantes

What I learned: After reading Remarkably Bright Creatures, I was compelled to go down an internet rabbit hole investigating octopus shenanigans.  I just couldn't help myself.

Dinner: TheHub wanted to try something to see if it impacted his new eating regime. It didn't

Taco Bell regular tacos (not anything I would have chosen to eat, but I ate it anyway)

Saturday: We ran by our favorite produce stand and grabbed tomatoes and cucumbers. "B's" fields are not producing tomatoes right now, but he has an arrangement with a farm in Perry, Florida who is harvesting perfect tomatoes. I had rather pay a little more to get these delicious tomatoes than buy any at the grocery store. 

We had a couple of other quick errands before heading home to watch Bama softball again. Yes we are a little obsessive about watching them play. 

We do keep up with Bama baseball too, but it is about like watching paint dry compared with the speed and action of softball.

The rest of the day was spent doing things around the house, and, of course, some reading.

Listened to: Chiapanecas by Mariachi Azetca

Dinner: Sometimes our meals are good, and sometimes they are simply using what is available. I had thawed a small package of ground chuck, had it in the fridge and decided we needed to use it right away.

Sloppy Joe's, coleslaw

Sunday: We woke early and began our usual Sunday morning church routine. I enjoy starting my week this way. For me, it helps to "sets my sails" in the direction I need to go each week to hopefully be my best self. 

The Bama softball game was going to begin shortly after we got home, so we called in an order and stopped by our favorite take out Chinese restaurant. No matter what you order they always give the same wait time, "ten minutes".

We were able to pick it up, get home, scarf down the meal  and then settle in to watch the game. It was the final of the Regionals and Bama won. Next they move on to the Super Regional, which will also be in Tuscaloosa against LSU. Yikes!

We spent the rest of the day doing odds and ends around the house, talked to all 3 sons and DIL2 before watching a new (to us) series, Memory of a Killer, which airs on Fox but is replayed on HULU. Enjoyed the first episode and the series looks promising.

Listened to: La Chuparrosa by Mariachi Cobre

                       

What I learned: I learned the exchange rates of Euros, Korunas, Forints, and Swiss Francs to the U.S. dollar.

Dinner: When we ordered lunch, we also ordered something for dinner.

Hot and sour soup, maple pecan scone*

What's possibly up for dinner:

1. Leftover Chinese

2. Peppers onions and tomatoes, with smoked sausage, cauli mash

3. Grilled chicken, brussels sprouts, sliced tomatoes

4. Frittata of some sort, coleslaw 

5. Grilled tuna, baked sweet potato, tossed salad

6. Hamburgers with all the fixings, coleslaw

7. Big salad meal TBD

What I read: Culpability by Bruce Holsinger

Have a great week staying on plan, going off plan or with no plan at all.

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

* Did not go with the meal at all, but it was in the freezer and we wanted something sweet but also sugarless.