It's a fantastic day......

And as the sun sets on another day......

I have had my luckiest day ever.  

Picture if you will, a three lane road, with a speed limit of 55mph.  I'm in the middle lane, probably going about 50-55 mph.  All is as it should be.  I look down at my phone ~ just for a second.  When I look back up, the car that was in front of me changed lanes (which I didn't see) because there is a car that is at a complete stop in my lane.  I tromp on my brakes, but realize I will never be able to stop in time, and at the last minute swerve around the left, barely missing the stopped car and the car in the right lane.  

To say I was freaked out is an understatement.  I shook and cursed myself for 15 min.  I stupidly thought to myself "wow, I had some quick reflexes there", and then immediately berated myself.  I could have killed the people in the stopped car.  I could have been killed.  It could have been fucking awful.  I've always prided myself on driving safely, and now realize I was kidding myself thinking I could even glance at my phone and drive safely.  

I am an idiot.  A lucky idiot.  

But it sure reminded me that when I drive I need to focus solely on that and nothing else.  

I have some meds for anxiety which I hardly ever take, but let me tell you my friends, I took one when I got home.  Just to stop the shakes.  

Love, 365

Cranky Sunday.....

Hahahaha

Romeo is at his worst on the mornings he wakes up grumpy.  He'll go off on a tangent....this morning it was about plastic containers.  He didn't think you could put them in the dishwasher.  I mentioned that I put them in the dishwasher all the time, but he still had that look on his face.  You know the one?  The one that says "I'm still bugged", "why didn't you tell me sooner", etc.  I did what most wives do when the other half is dogged by a dark cloud ~ I went to my office (to blog about it! Hahaha).  Poor man, he's overwhelmed and when that happens he just has to get it out of his system.

Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood

Now, The Great British Baking show has it's issues as apparently in the U.S. we are not watching them in order, and after a bit of a tuffle, it was picked up from PBS to a commercial channel and Mary Berry is no longer on the show.  Which is a shame, because I dearly love her demeanor and skill.  Paul Hollywood is a bit more harsh with his criticisms, but if you've ever watched "Chopped", he is much more kind with critique.  Of course, the two shows are as different as black and white.  Chopped contestants are presented with a basket of ingredients (with one really crazy one thrown in each one) and only have 30 minutes from start to finish.  The Great British Baking Show's contestants are home bakers, not professionals.  So, it can be encouraging (or discouraging depending on what they're baking) to home cooks everywhere that have an interest in home baking.  One of my co-workers brought her cookbook ~ Mary Berry's Baking Bible ~ and I ordered it for myself.  And made this yesterday:

My first French Tart

It took me 3 hours ~ but I've learned a few things from this one.  

~Peel those apples.  Underneath the thinly sliced apples on top is, well, basically applesauce of sorts. You cook the apples until soft and then strain them (undoubtedly the longest part of the whole deal).  The book says you don't need to peel them, but if I had, it would have taken half the time to push the mushy apples through a sieve.  

Once I baked it, I knew those peels, that give it a nice color admittedly, would pose a problem with cutting it.  Which it did.  No matter though, it's just the two of us eating it, so if it gets a bit messy, no problem.  

The truth is though, although I could cut the time down to 2 hours, that's still a lot of time.  I don't see myself baking it more than a few times a year.  It is so delicious, that when apple season comes back I will likely make it again.  If I were a stay at home wife, I would make it monthly.  Yep.  It's that good.

Love, 365

Saturday morning musings....

A little fun with a new photo app

If you've been reading this blog, you know I've been waiting for the grade on my summer class.  The grad student who was teaching it had some surgery scheduled right after class ended, and explained she had asked others for help with grading our final papers.  The university has a policy that we are to receive our grades one week after class ends.  So, on Monday I e-mailed and called, only to get a recording.  Tuesday I called again and spoke to the woman who answered the phone, and she said that the department is aware of the issue, and the department head (yes, the department head, omg) would be grading our papers.  Which made me break out into a sweat.  Noooooooo........

By Wednesday I had my grade, which was an A.  I was surprised.  I figure the dept. head was a bit overwhelmed, scanned the papers, looked at our grade averages to that point and graded accordingly. This has happened before, where the final project was rather large.  So, I wonder why they do this if there's no time to look at them properly.  Not that I'm complaining.  Hey, I ended up with an A because of the rush to get them graded.  But truly, unless there is a minimum of stuff a class must do, why even ask us to write a 6-8 page paper when you know you can't grade them?  I guess shit happens at every level of any given organization.  Moving on......

I can see fall on the horizon.....the sun is coming up noticeably later, the mornings are cooler.  Fall is my favorite season in New Mexico.  Soon we'll be heading down to Corrales to order our green chile.

Leaving you with these:

Albuquerque Sunset ~ Mikey Brooks

Old Homestead ~ Rita Smith

Rio Grand in Espanola ~ P. D. Skowronek

Clayton, NM  ~ Edward Sisneros

Not only do we have talented photographers in NM, we have awesome scenic landscapes to shoot.  These photos are from "Memories and Photos in New Mexico" Facebook page.  

Love, 365

Remember Pete? He's on hiatus....

Petroglyphs in Albuquerque

It is a bright sunshiny day here in Albuquerque.  It seems the monsoon season has taken a bit of a break with 0% chances until Thursday, which then bumps up to a whopping 10%.  It's unreasonable to expect showers every evening.  The landscape has greened up, and the view of the west mesa is beautiful.  It's been nice to take a break from watering plants, but we'll have to get back on it this week.  Truthfully, I'll take the break from the humidity, which I'm no longer used to.  

Romeo goes back to school next week, and he is both excited and bummed.  Once he completes his last test, which is next week, he will be fully licensed.  Next school year he'll be looking for a different school to teach in, hopefully one closer to home, and in the Albuquerque Public School system ~ not because it's a great system because it sucks, is part of the good ol' boy system, corrupt, bureaucratically heavy, but because NMPED (New Mexico Public Ed. Dept.) absolutely hates charter schools and is always looking for ways to exterminate them.  The charter school Romeo has been at has been threatened with closure at least 3 times in the last 2 years.  The last time NMPED had a closed meeting and voted to shut it down, only to have a hand smack that they can't do that legally.  Not that they didn't try.  Our state, like many others has a huge teacher shortage.  No one wants to do it anymore, and for a myriad of reasons.  One of our patient's at the dental office has kept an ongoing dialogue of "two more years" then "my last year" in teaching.  Apparently she has a principal that is not to her liking.  She says she wants to go into real estate, although I hope she doesn't think she'll have more family time in that profession.  That's all evening and weekend work, and it's tough to get established.  I actually obtained my license, but decided not to pursue it because I'd never be home when everyone else would be. 

Currently on my second cup of coffee, and soon will get dressed for racquetball.  I do love having a break between classes (I only have two more to go until graduation!), although there are times when I just can't figure out what to do with myself.  I think I need to plan it, because otherwise I just do stuff at home, stuff that needs to be done but aren't my favorite things to do ~ laundry, housecleaning, etc.  

And still no grades, although to be fair I didn't think there would be any change over the weekend.  Although that hasn't stopped me from checking.  

Love, 365

For Pete's sake......

You guessed it, I still don't have a final grade for my summer class.  Technically they have until midnight tonight to post final grades after a class has ended, but I've never had to wait so long before.  I've checked 3 to 4 times a day since Wednesday (but was checking at least once a day since Monday).  

On the plus side I returned my rental text book from Amazon, and apparently since I haven't had the book that long, they are refunding me the full price of the rental minus the UPS label for the return.  I'm certainly OK with that.  I guess they don't realize there are 4 week classes.  

We have had rain nearly every evening this week since last Friday (when we had and inch of hail).  Things will start to green up around here, although I think there's no hope for our Aspen tree.  It's green toward the bottom, but the top main trunk is dead.  We're not taking it out until the fall, although Romeo may decide to let it go until next spring.  As with all Aspens, there is a small tree just underneath the old one that we will just let grow into a new tree.  At one point Aspen groves were considered the largest living organism on earth until they discovered that there are types of fungus that grow much larger ~ the Humongous Fungus, which is in Oregon.  

I'm cleaning up all the paper that I accumulated from the class, and getting ready for the next one which starts on Aug. 21.  Not very long.....July went by in a flash.

I hope y'all enjoy your Friday and the weekend to come!

Love, 365

Still waiting..........

Nothing yet....

Love, 365

Waiting......

(Google images)

One of the first things I checked this morning ~ UNM learn platform to see if my grades are in.  Nope.  I know it's too early, but hope springs eternal, ya know?

While visiting my new Doc 6 months ago, I asked her about the new shingles vaccine, which she recommended we get.  So, we had the first one in April, and were due for the second part in July.  Unfortunately the second part of the vaccine is in very short supply, and there was nothing for it but to put our names on the list to be notified when available ~ which happened yesterday.  They had 6 vaccines left, so we took off after dinner to get ours.  Sure does make your arm sore....  Before the list, I had asked a pharmacist at the store about it, and what would happen if we weren't able to get the second one within 6 months, and she said not to worry ~ she didn't think they were that effective.  But I discounted her theory and went with the Doc's advise, which was to do it.  It decreases the percentage of coming down with shingles, which is no laughing matter.  I do value the opinion of a pharmacist, so I was surprised at hers.  Perhaps she was simply trying to reduce my concerns.  I hope the damned thing works!

And so, I leave you with this:

Love, 365

Albuquerque has been taken to the car wash.......

I am not kidding, this was us last night...

No, I didn't take this photo, it was on the Memories & Photos of New Mexico FB page

It's probably a time lapse photo, right?

Leakage, we had some interesting drips and drops around those damned windows again last night.  We have always had leaks around them, but Romeo is going to tar around the fireplace flue again.  I think he's spot on with predicting that's where the leak occurred last night.  So, a pile of towels on the window sills and on the floor to catch the splashes.  Grrrr.  On the plus side, if you want to see the Rio Grande in Abq with more than knee deep water in it, today's your day.  Apparently it's even running down in Socorro.  At any rate, the air is fresh, clean and cool this morning, so I opened up the windows.  Then Romeo was vacuuming and the stink from that bag ruined the moment.  I guess it's time to change the bag again.

I AM DONE with Intercultural Communications.  And what a finish.......after racquetball yesterday, a little lunch and a shower, I worked from 2pm to 8pm.  I had to hunt down the gadget Romeo bought to cool the computer.  I had the actual cooling pad, but couldn't find the cord that makes the fan run.  After it was located, we put a label on that sucker.  Have you ever had an adapter or cord that you couldn't figure out what it belongs to?  Yep.  Well, the laptop almost burst into flame (kidding) but I finally submitted my final paper.  Now to wait and see.  

Romeo is so sweet ~ he suggested I go shopping today, but I've seen the downstairs bathroom and I think I better clean house today.  

Love, 365

Last day of class & other thoughts.......

Meandering through life, mostly sunny skies ahead.....

My class is nearly over.  I have an A so far, but I haven't turned in the final research paper yet.  We are to write on an ongoing or longstanding intercultural conflict.  For some reason I latched onto the conflict over the Temple Mount.  I think I have 2 1/2 pages done and 3 1/2 to do today.  Due by midnight.  Don't plan to be up anywhere near that late finishing it up, though.  Midnight is waaaay past my bedtime, folks, haha.

2 1/2 years to go.....

When you look at that face (and there are tons of really ugly pictures of him on google, people), what do you see?  I'm thinking to myself, the man doesn't really know how to smile.  If he did, there wouldn't be so many goofy looking smiles on google.  I wonder if he's truly ever been happy.  Not that I care, but if he had a wonderful life he'd be able to crack a genuine smile now and again, eh?

We're having a great start to monsoon season, we really need the rain.  We had a great storm last night, but of course, I don't live in an area subject to flash flooding.  My favorite time to pull weeds?  Right after it rains.  Got rid of a bunch of milk weeds this morning.  Least favorite time to pick up dog poo?  Right after it rains.  Phew.

And finally, a discovery of ancient oats on a pestle (grinding stone) makes the case for my remarks about the ancient bread that was recently discovered in Jordan.  

Ok, off to get breakfast and start writing.  

Love, 365

Apathy.....

Yep.   Meh.....

I'm only a little ahead of the game ~ our final is tomorrow.  I spent my lunch time reviewing the first 6 chapters, the rest I just read last week.  I could spend tonight writing a bit on my paper.  I should be writing on my paper.  I know I will kick myself on Thursday afternoon if I don't, but I just can't bring myself to do it.  It takes me so long to get into the groove of writing, that by the time I reach that point it'll be bedtime.  So, meh.

Yeah, this is 14,000 year old bread.

Have you heard of the "discovery" of the world's oldest bread in Jordan?  Oh, yeah it's a big deal, because it predates agriculture.  It drives me nuts.  Because the assumption is that there was no bread before agriculture?  Really?  Humans have been hunting and GATHERING.  Gathering means seeds, rices, and grains.  What do you think they did with them?  Yep.  Flatbread.  Bread is the staff of life, ya know.  I think agriculture came about because people wanted more bread......and beer.  I recall seeing a you tube video that proposed the history of beer, but I can't find it.  However, there's a nice short article here from Smithsonian magazine.  

Well, it looks like I still have time to at least read some stuff I plan to put into the paper.  

Love, 365

Almost there....

It's almost time for green chile down here.....

Ah, I can almost smell the green chile roasting.  In a month or so we will be heading to Corralles to purchase our green chile for the year.  After it cools down from roasting, we bag it up and put it in the freezer.  Yummmm

Godless, a limited series on Netflix 

I just finished watching Godless, a western produced by Netflix starring Michelle Dockery from Downtown Abbey fame, and Jeff Daniels as an interesting villain.  I recommended it, especially if you are interested in New Mexico landscapes, westerns, lots of shoot outs, and cowboy heroes.  I hope they produce season 2, although they wrap up the story nicely in the final episode.

I have already completed Thursday's assignment, and plan to review for the exam tomorrow.  Looks like it will be a marathon to finish the research paper for Friday.  Good thing I have until midnight!  I just read today that the final will be comprehensive ~ making me apprehensive (haha) as I haven't had many comprehensive finals.  Figures that we would have one in this class, which is undoubtedly one of the most challenging classes I've had ~ not in terms of content, but in the sheer amount of work required to complete it in a very short amount of time.  Right now I have a 96.  We'll see how it is after the final.  Then I can calculate how much effort I have to put into the paper to pass.  :-)

Have a great week y'all.

Love, 365