Category Archives: Uncategorized

Simple Sunday on Monday…

Posted in cooking, decluttering, home stuff, minimalism, swimming, Uncategorized, Walking by

I got my flu shot on Friday and exactly 12 hours later( right around midnight) got hit with some side effects. Achey, headache ,general malaise so I didn’t swim on Saturday. Yesterday I did feel somewhat better. The shot was the extra strength for over 65 yo so maybe that’s why. Then for some strange reason my left foot starting up again and it was very painful to walk. Remember in 2016 when I just finished the 5 years of “Just Keep Walking Project” and I had gotten hairline fractures on the top of my foot from the repetitive motion. It’s like that. But what’s weird is in Tahoe we were walking over 3 miles a day and I had no problem. I used a bunch of arnica on it yesterday and this morning it feels somewhat better. Geez, getting old is not fun when you’ve got these issues popping up.

I made a new recipe last night ,Chicken Katsu. I saw it in the NYT and it looked good. Basically you pound chicken thin then coat with panko and fry. I guess what makes it katsu is the sauce which is described as Japanese BBQ sauce. I made chicken ones and tofu ones. The tofu ones were delicious. I did coleslaw on the side with a ginger dressing and some organic jasmine rice. Quite yummy.

This week I have a dental cleaning and that’s it for appts. I plan on swimming Tuesday and Thursday. With it being dark earlier till DLS, I may start to go just a tad later. Usually I’m there in the pool by 7:15am, so I might try to make it 7:30 or so.

IT WAS A MIRACLE!!!! AH walker was NOT there this morning. It’s the first time in about 20 months he hasn’t been there. I do have to say though he is staying out of our way and moving to his right when he passes us with his dog. We are just walking as usual and not trying to walk single file when he passes. So I do give him credit for that. But he’s still not using his flashlight in the dark and does pass us sometimes with us being surprised. The other day I saw he had his flashlight on over by the pond but when he came around the pond and saw our light he turned his off. ( passive aggressive anyone?) Oh well, he is not bothering us by walking into us anymore. Especially since now there are other people around and he’s more accountable then. All good, I’d say.

The laundry room has been almost completed. The shelves still need to go up and the one wall still needs some wood but it’s some tricky cuts at angles so I’m not sure when my son will get to it. At least the door is now back on and the new window in. It looks quite nice. I’ll try and get some photos up.

Also this week I need to take another car load to the thrift store. Honestly, I think decluttering just never ends and I do feel it’s like peeling layers of an onion. What used to seem important enough to keep is now headed to the Goodwill. I just keep going thru things and finding that I don’t need it anyone or my style has changed and it doesn’t fit it. Case in point, I have a number of very cool( to me) vintage 50’s lamps that I bought many years ago at an estate sale. One has a nice wood base and is curvy. But I took it out of the front room last year because I moved a different lamp there so it was out in the barn. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the almost 10 years of decluttering and minimizing is don’t just store something thinking ‘someday’ you’ll want that again. Most likely you won’t. In addition if you get rid of it and find 5 years later you really want that item again, I’m sure ebay will have something that will be similar.

Even though I’ve simplified our house and barn( aka as the large storage area for my son’s things now), I don’t think I’ve reached that final point of being ‘done’. Maybe that doesn’t ever happen and that’s just life.

Flylady is the kitchen zone. Most of my kitchen is streamlined and there’s not any decluttering but it is the biggest zone I have to clean that takes over an hour. Probably due to the stove, stove hood etc. Plus wiping down my jars takes time too. Since I don’t have a built in pantry, the Far Niente wine boxes I use that are under my stainless steel island work perfectly fine. My kitchen, even though it does need to be redone, works just fine for now.

Lake Tahoe

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,Definitely, our favorite place on earth. In fact we both want our ashes to go out on the lake somewhere.

This is not this year but 2 years ago when there was snow on those mountains. Now there is NO snow.

The smoke is back in this morning but hopefully will blow off. Today is just around camp day. We did a lovely 2 mile walk yesterday and will do again today. I finished another Ruth Rendell book. If you’re looking for a new series her CI Wexford is superb.

We had lovely bowls of ramen with tofu for breakfast.

This looking north west up the lake. Still no snow.

Beautiful Nevada Beach

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We made it up here no problems. A smooth and comfortable ride. When we got here the campground was almost empty except in our GD spot a freeloader decided to park his tent and shit load of crap. So the camp host people had to kick him out and that took an extra 40 minutes. All good in the end and we are here.

Our spot is one of the best on the outer ring and it’s the one we always stay at if we can get it reserved. It has been windy and cool but sunny.

We are learning new things about the Rv everyday and today we used the gas water heater and that gave us nice hot water.

The fridge is awesome and we’ve had great food. it’s a big fridge which is one thing we wanted that we gave up a closet for.

My pictures aren’t uploading so I’ll add some when we get home. We stopped at Cannablue in South Lake for some gummies for B and that was fun. Traffic and South lake in general was pretty empty and places like Raley’s was not busy and had few cars in the parking lot. For people like us that dislike most other obnoxious people/traffic in general it was great.

Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer and hopefully less wind. If I didn’t need to get labs Friday we could stay longer but I need them done as it’s already 5 weeks out.

If you look all the way down you can see our RV . The rest is all empty.

Tahoe delayed…

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Just got the update from Recreation .gov that Nevada Beach will open Saturday not Friday. So I had to modify again. I’m almost thinking of just canceling the whole thing. Is it going to be worth it?? I tried calling rec.gov but the wait time was too long so I nixed that. I don’t know I guess we’ll think about it for a while today.

😦

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, home improvement, Uncategorized by

Yesterday I chose not to go to the pool and stay home and cook. I wanted to get some freezer meals done so I have more choices when I don’t feel like cooking. So first I used my last #10 can of tomatoes and cooked up some ground beef and made a meat sauce for lasagnas. Then I used the other half of the can for sauce in the cheese lasagnas. I had decided to buy the freezer containers from amazon.

I started out making 2 cheese lasagnas, 2 meat lasagnas , and 1 cheese enchilada tray.

This week I’m in the bathroom zone. At Ikea I bought a round mirror to replace the one we’ve had in there for 25 years. I checked prices on Amazon and Ikea had the best price for this type of mirror.

Today we are doing a little painting in the laundry room. The window is in and there is still the new subfloor to put down.

We had an unfortunate negative run in with our neighbor that we want the fence built to block out his garage. So he seems to not have a job but works on old cars, that’s fine. He is often grinding or doing something making noise but it’s tolerable. Well, yesterday starting at 8 am he started air blasting an old truck. the noise was at 85 decibels which, if you look it up, is VERY loud. So I said, let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt and let it go till noon. Well, noon came and went and so the noise kept going Then he had 2 people show up doing other blasting things. I really was losing it by 4pm. So I said ok let’s wait till 5. At 5:15 I walked over to the fence behind the barn. One of the men came over and I said “you cannot be running industrial machinery all day in a residential area. I’d like to talk to the owner. He had his back to me and turned around and said ‘call the police’. I said that’s what I don’t want to do. He turned his back to me and ignored me. the other guy says, this is almost over and I said, regardless you cannot have industrial level noise in a neighborhood and it’s the owners responsibility. I was livid to say the least. I’m thinking what is with this guy. We’ve never had any encounters with him ever and he deals with me that way. So my daughter checked and we can file a noise complaint online. I really don’t want to do that but I will if it happens again. I hate conflict and am NOT good at dealing with these things really. But I will call the sheriff if it goes on again for that long.

What would you have done? and why do you think he was so belligerent to me.?

Frugal Friday( for the most part)

Posted in budgets, home improvement, Lake tahoe, swimming, Uncategorized by

I suppose the biggest save this week was shopping at Winco . I haven’t been in quite a while and ,once again, really shocked at the low prices as opposed to Safeway/BelAir.

I probably saved $50 at least on what I bought. I didn’t really go item by item but it was significant. What happened is, after swimming I decided to go over there and it wasn’t too difficult at all. Usually after my swim I come directly home. No stops. So this time I swam 35 minutes so I wasn’t too wiped out and it was perfect. Plus I was in there at 8am. So there were just a few shoppers( big bonus for me who dislikes people). All in all, I was quite pleased and will do it again, probably before we head to Tahoe ( if it is even open).

The truck AC we as fixed, we think, at no cost to us as we have the warranty. I’m still not sure it was just the freon but I’ll wait and see.

We haven’t done any take out in a while and that always saves money. Just haven’t been interested in other people’s food. Tonight is pizza night and I’ll do an Ooni. I’m down to 4 more and it’s paid for itself. If I were to order it again, I would definitely go for the gas one so if you’re thinking about an Ooni do the gas one. The pellets take more work and getting the temperature right is tricky. Not hard, you just have to keep adding the pellets at the right time.

I’m planning on going down to Ikea this morning as I have a 10% coupon I want to use. I tried to do the click and collect which is nice and easy but the item I wanted they said they couldn’t do that due to low stock. Oh well, it shows 4 in stock so I hope it’s there.

The laundry room is still torn apart but getting there. I decided to buy the less expensive window to replace the one that broke and was all fogged anyway. That hopefully will go in this weekend. I want it all done including being painted by the time we leave for Tahoe so that should give my son and B a timeline.

Happy Rosh Hashanah

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The Jewish new year started last night at sunset.

It is the Jewish New Year. We went around the table and each asked that the person on our right be inscribed in the Book of Life for another year. No we are not Jewish. Actually, we are atheists but I love many Jewish traditions so why not?

May you too be inscribed in the book of Life for another year.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cooking, covid-19, Gardening, Lake tahoe, travel, Uncategorized by

Lots being done today.

The laundry room is torn apart and there’s hammering and banging going on. The one window is out and that will need replacing. Realistically if it’s done by next weekend, that’ll be good. The washer is hooked outside to a hose , real Okie( not to be prejudiced) but it does look a bit like, well maybe Appalachia. The freezer is outside too on the dirt:( It is covered and running but the whole effect is, well, Okie like. humm…..

I finished the Kitchen zone which took quite a while. But the floor still needs mopping and I’m too bushed to do it now.

I made some granola this morning for the week ahead. Then I made another Zojirushi pot of brown rice that used up the last of the organic brown from last year. The date on it was still good but best to finish it up.

Yesterday, I did more pickled jalapenos.

Tomorrow I’m planning on doing one last batch of jalapeno pepper jelly and that should do it. What a year for peppers.

My daughter has been busy cleaning out garden beds and surrounding areas of dead stuff. It already looks so much better. I think we’re ready to pull up most everything in the garden beds including the pepper plants:)

Barclays IGIV went well and he has more energy. Next week he gets his Covid booster, so that’s good.

No word from the dealer on the AC in the truck. They looked swamped when we dropped it off so who knows.

Tomorrow I will be modifying our Tahoe trip. The whole Tahoe basin is closed till September 17 so that affects our camping trip. Under these circumstances I’m fine with that and even if it all gets cancelled. Better for less people to be up there so the firefighters can do their job. …sigh…

South Lake Tahoe evacuated.

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The Caldor fire is still raging and ALL of South Lake Tahoe is evacuated. Believe me this is no easy feat and the roads were clogged. Everyone was routed one way out of town towards Carson City or over to I -80. Pretty Shocking really. I just hope it doesn’t get that far and is contained.

The pool has been closed everyday since last week. I’m planning on driving down there this morning but I’m guessing there will be a wait for a lane. If I haven’t been able to swim, then they haven’t either and everyone will want in. I suppose if it’s more than a 20 minute wait I’ll just give up and come home. I don’t have anything on my agenda this week so I can go any day really.

The big news is we bought a used truck. I’ll get a picture up as soon as I take one. It’s a very nice 2014 Silverado. We did add on the 2 year bumper to bumper warranty which added $4900. Still, we thought it wise to do. The truck has 135,000 miles but has been very well maintained. We may not need the warranty or we may but it’s one of those decisions you just have to live with. So far it rides very quiet and smooth. B has hooked up the trailer hitch and lights but I didn’t go out there to check the back with him. I’ll do that as soon as I’m home from the pool today. It has a nice bed liner too and seems perfect for what we need. Our travel(RV) plans aren’t extensive like driving across the country so for what we need in terms of mileage, I’m not worried. Most of our trips like to New Brighton are in the 300-400 mile range. We are still planning some longer ones along the Oregon coast but not till next year and it needs to be mapped out.

So far( only a few days) we are excited and pleased with it. Let’s hope it lives up to it and doesn’t have any major issues or I’ll be pissed.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, camping, Flylady, home stuff, Lake tahoe, swimming, Uncategorized by

Because of the smoke and unhealthy air quality the pool has been closed both Friday and Saturday. It’s smart they do that when it’s so bad you can’t see 100 yds. Well, since all the die hard swimmers will be enmasse on Monday, I’ll wait and go on Tuesday and it’ll still probably be busy. That’s okay, I’m swimming because #1. I love it and always have, #2 it’s good for me, and #3 just because.

Yes, I just checked and it’s closed this morning but there isn’t lap swimming till 11:30 am and then it’s only an hour and a half so I haven’t tried to do a Sunday.

My son is still undecided about the Van but I think I will talk with him and just say, it’s really served it’s time but if he wants then we will have to sign title to him. Then he will need to do insurance etc, repairs. I’m not sure he really wants to take that on.

This week is two flylady zones, the LR and the entry ways. This should only take 15 minutes each.

I made one more jar of pickled jalapenos for the fridge( so that makes 3 jars in there). I looked up doing it in a water bath and it looks easy so I may do a few of those. We opened the one 3/4 full jalapeno jelly jar and Wow!!! It is delicious!!! I may do that this morning but I’ll see how I feel. The biggest part is deseeding and deveining the peppers. Then cutting them up and waiting for the sugar and vinegar to come to a full boil. So somewhat more involved.

I was experimenting making corn tortillas yesterday. I did one batch with a tablespoon of oil and one with just the hot water. I think the one with the oil was slightly better. I pressed but still didn’t get quite as thin as I’d like. Any tortillas makers out there with hints?? I remember the nurse at UCD who was hispanic, made tortillas every day for her kids and she said just keep trying till you get the feel for the right consistency. I ordered some Bobs Red mill masa harina so I’ll try that when it comes.

I got an email from Recreation.gov saying that Nevada Beach was now closed thru the 16th. That is part of our reservation window. So we either need to cancel or modify. I’m going to wait till next week to modify and maybe something will improve. It’s really for the best they keep people out because people are stupid and do stupid things.