What are you doing today?

This morning we took a short drive and had a lovely breakfast before going on to homes of ladies who had graciously donated tea pots to our neighborhood women’s club. In between breakfast and the first stop, hubby looked at house cameras and discovered the fearless cat had gotten out and was snooping around outside the fence. Fortunately, one of the neighbors was home and went and got him. We unlocked the front door and she dropped him inside. Whew! When we got home we discovered he was going UNDER the fence on the one section without a dog on the other side. It has now been backfilled. Brat.

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lizkat said:
Video and recipe seem great for that kind of chili - but I'm still recovering from how at least that particular West Virginian (Texan?) says both "chorizo" and "purée."
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He is a West Virginian for sure, but he owned a great little Mexican place. Started off with like 7 tables, then he got the space next door and expanded it to about 20 and all was good. It was a hole in the wall with atmosphere. Then he built a whole new building that had 40 tables and lost the atmosphere and the quality went down. But he would travel like a month or two a year to places in Mexico learning to cook and experiencing the culture. Great place.

The Texas Red was my favorite side with fajitas. He does have another Chili recipe, but I haven't tried it. Also, for his, I bought the chorizo. ;)
 
Herdfan said:
The Texas Red was my favorite side with fajitas. He does have another Chili recipe, but I haven't tried it. Also, for his, I bought the chorizo. ;)
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Don't get me wrong, I love chili with pork and beef in it, I just don't make it any more... :)
 
Alli said:
Happy birthday! But why did it hit hard? A fellow I follow on Twitter celebrated a birthday yesterday and said the same thing. When I asked him about it he said it was because he’s now older than his parents when they died.
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Sorry it is so late on the response, but thank you for the birthday wishes. To answer your question, 2022 has been really hard for me, a lot of family drama (including the ancestry stuff I posted earlier), and I recently got a not so great blood work results from a doctors visit. Basically, stop what you are doing and get healthier or face the consequences. So on top of the aches and pains that seem to be multiplying every year, I now have family stress, health issues, and trying to fit in a wedding for May 2023. It just was a little bit of a downer, maybe the outside factors just weighed in more this year.

On a good note, I had a wonderful dinner with my intended that night. So in the end I had a bit of joy in my pessimistic outlook for the day.
 
DT said:
Lots of code and documentation delivery, some legal review, daughter has several things going on with her internship, ACE program, she's doing a couple of tests early since we'll be OOT on Friday (and Monday is a school holiday), setting up reservations and whatnot for our several days at Universal, lots of HHN plans.

The wife, using her superpower, was able to score a suite for the same price as a normal room, hahaha, it should be really fun (some friends coming in for a night and staying with us), the daughters is staying in one night, we're getting her all sorts of food and movies, she's excited about having this all to herself for several hours, we think maybe a friend of hers is coming down for a day, which should be a blast for them
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DT said:
Getting started :D. The suite is amazing! Daughter has a huge wing to herself :)

Probably checking out for a few days …
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Well that was a __blast__. :D

The suite was so much fun having all the extra room for an extended stay. We took a pretty big cooler, lots of season beers, a couple of bottles, ginger beer, made walktails a number of times - plus took some good creamer (and other coffee supplies), so we had terrific "room coffee" and I got a mug that made it extra delicious :D


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We found out an event cup drink (that also lights up, *snicker*) gave you a few bucks off beer or a double for a single price around the park, so we started with The Weeknd's Save your tears cocktail an went from there:


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(Those are peach liquor filled bubble tea type balls in a bourbon + tea, pretty tasty)


And our secret bar spot, this is during a fairly busy time, made friends with the bartenders, got a lot of perks :D


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Had some incredible weather, this is across the main lake one of the nights:


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Had some terrific food, drink, scares, got to chill by the super nice pool, hit up Voodoo donuts and had a late movie night on Saturday (took the AppleTV :) ), buffet brunch at Hard Rock (yes, we ate ... a lot ... :D).

If anyone is curious about how a park like Universal does up a haunted house (they had 10, plus 4 scare zones, 2 shows), this was the most beautifully produced house of the event (and probably a top 5 of the last decade of us attending):

 
DT said:
Had some terrific food, drink, scares, got to chill by the super nice pool, hit up Voodoo donuts and had a late movie night on Saturday (took the AppleTV :) ), buffet brunch at Hard Rock (yes, we ate ... a lot ... :D).
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Oh, and for the record, while we did seem to eat kind of non-stop, we also walked ... and walked, and I just reviewed our pedometer app stats :)

Looks like 44.2 miles (97,771 steps) for the 5 days :D
 
DT said:
Oh, and for the record, while we did seem to eat kind of non-stop, we also walked ... and walked, and I just reviewed our pedometer app stats :)

Looks like 44.2 miles (97,771 steps) for the 5 days :D
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And so how many steps (or, miles?!) to walk off one Voodoo donut? What even are they?
 
lizkat said:
And so how many steps (or, miles?!) to walk off one Voodoo donut? What even are they?
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That's pretty funny, I'd imagine it takes a shocking number of steps to offset a big ol' donut :D

re: Voodoo Donuts, it's a donut shop, kind of boutique-y, it's themed around Voodoo, magic, etc., pretty fun. One of their signature donuts is a voodoo doll, filled with blood jelly, a little pretzel pin/stake stuck into him, hahaha :D

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rdrr said:
Basically, stop what you are doing and get healthier or face the consequences.
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So true. It's important to carry a little more, I guess you could call it "healthy momentum" into the later years, where you don't bounce back as easy. And start sooner than later, heck, health issues when you're younger won't seem like a big deal, but you hit 40, 50, 60 and that extra 30+ pounds you've been carrying has taken a toll on your joints, poor diet has led to diabetes, etc.

That said, never too late to start (or even start again :) )
 
Herdfan said:
You probably have a recipe you like, but if you want to go all in from scratch, this is some awesome chili:



But when I say scratch, I mean scratch as in make your own chorizo.....
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Terrific video, thanks for sharing, that dish looked delicious and absolutely amazing; the music he had playing in the background was wonderful, and so apt: Have you any idea what it is?
 
TBL said:
Well, I'll be working at a polling place on Election Day. I won't technically be an election worker, but I will be staffed at the place where the polls are (school library). Glad I don't live in a swing state. Election workers across the country are getting death threats.
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Good luck!! After half a dozen or so years I gave up once The Pandemic hit. It was already too much of a hassle before COVID. The 2020 primaries and Presidential was full of crazy extremist. I can't imagine what it's like now. I vote by mail now, that's how much I hate voting sites now.
 
Today, a few errands: A beautiful lamp (hand made, purchased in Sarajevo, Bosnia eight years ago while observing an election in that country) needed repair; I wasn't sure where the fault lay; whether it was the plug, fuse, switch, or even - as also transpired - the light bulb; anyway, this morning it was taken in for repair into one of those small shops I adore, family-owned, around for a long time, into stuff such as customer care; a lot of knowledge and experience and competence; older, kind and competent staff; anyway, the problems were diagnosed and repaired on the spot - the lamp didn't need to be despatched to their workshop - although I was perfectly prepared for that.

Then, I visited the cheesemonger, and the bottle bank. In that order.

My cheese purchases are described in the "cheese" thread.

And, fortunately, there is fresh focaccia in the house.

And I also paid a visit to a computer shop (another small, competent, family-owned, place, the sort of place where staff are polite and knowledgeable, where they remember you, and where customer care matters) where my own computer is currently residing, (battery and keyboard need replacing) and where I took a longing, lingering, look at the MBA M1.

While there, I treated myself to a pair of Jamaica Smile earbuds (ecologically aware, wooden casings - a little like the lovely earbuds that ThinkSound used to manufacture).

Mineral water (sparkling) was delivered: I have an arrangement with a taxi driver to do that sort of a shop every fortnight to so.

Moreover, I made some phone calls: My two pairs of Bowers & Wilkins P5 headphones no longer work (which is one of the main reasons why I have been buying earbuds; while in Bosnia, I bought - on my interpreter's recommendation. - a perfectly good pair of JBL earbuds, which we found in a store in the ancient town of Travnik); the cable (poorly-made on such expensive headphones) has come apart on one, and the actual sound in the headphones, in the other.

Anyway, I must see whether I can locate someone who can effect some repairs; these are old models, hence the actual manufacturer no longer supports them.
 
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TBL said:
Well, I'll be working at a polling place on Election Day. I won't technically be an election worker, but I will be staffed at the place where the polls are (school library). Glad I don't live in a swing state. Election workers across the country are getting death threats.
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Well done you, and the very best of luck.

As someone who has worked as an international election observer (or supervisor, or monitor - the exact title depends on my actual mandate for the election in question) for 25 years, and has served on almost 30 EOMs (Election Observation Missions) across three continents during that time, your work is invaluable.
 
Just signed off on new home insurance, might use this same company for the vehicles as well.

JFC, our current company went up by 50% a year ago, and was looking at another 100% increase into 2022, if I said how much, you'd think I was lying. The new policy, better coverage, is 1/4th the price, and the f***ers at the other company "missed" two discounts over the last several years which added up.
 
Put on a wash - a filthy day (that barometer is tumbling ominously) meant that I thought it best to spend the afternoon attending to domestic stuff.

And declined an (unexpected) invitation to an alumni dinner (as a guest).
 
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