Decisions, decisions, decisions

 And a good Monday morning to all. Managed to keep kind of busy over the weekend. Still too hot to get out even before sunrise. So I walk circles in the house during commercial breaks. Supposed to be getting a little cooler at nights this week. One part of the valley got a lot of rain a day ago, us nothing. An unusual sunset. The dark cloud is where it rained.

I took this from inside but never the less - the smoke in the air is really visible - this mountain  is usually very clear to see. 

Another sunset, at least with the clouds it looks pretty.

Got a new bunch of puzzles from Amazon. I really like the lion. 

A 500 piece puzzle from the previous package of puzzles. I did the 1000 piece and took me almost a week to finish. 

All of the hummingbird feeders were empty so made a big batch of nectar. Why did I take a picture of the pan. Well many, many years ago my first husband sold waterless cookware and this was one of the pans - I still have one other sauce pan and lid. How long ago was that - about 63 years ago. Getting my monies worth out of it. Though it has lost one handle. 

I made the nectar at night so first things in the morning we could refill the feeders, The birds were already flying around looking for them.

Remember my little cactus that has been traveling with us. It is really growing. Need to get it in a bigger pot, but afraid we'll have to break the one it is in to get it out. So haven't done it yet. 

I decided I wanted eggs for breakfast yesterday. I got one egg out of the Styrofoam container but when I tried to get another one out all I got was the top of the shell, the rest of it stayed in the container. Nuts! So I tried the rest of them, several were stuck to the container. Managed to get these out kind of. 

These no way were they coming out, so cut up the container. So what do you do with some broken eggs? Well make brownies of course. Guess I'll wait till next week to start losing weight. 

So about the decisions - yesterday was a full sports on TV kind of day. The Champions League for soccer was on.

At the same time as the Indy 500 was on and...

The NASCAR Cup race. So I was switching back and forth among the channels. Bill watched the soccer game in the sewing room. And then later in the day the Vegas hockey team played and won. 

Fooling around with the air fryer again. Here Bill is roasting red peppers. Turned out really good. 

Then last night I used it to make dinner. The corn I boiled - the salmon and potato wedges were done in the air fryer. Both turned out really good. I even use dour pretty hand made Mexican dinnerware. 

Making work - Bill needed something to do so he decided to make crepes. Beside it would also use up some of the broken eggs. If I tried to flip one it would end up on the floor, but he has never dropped one. And doesn't use a recipe so I've never learned how to make them. 

He makes quite a few at a time. We eat them as snacks with dulce de leche [caramel] in them. 

This mornings sunrise with all the smoke from California still hanging around. 

Got our grocery delivery at 8:00 this morning. Substituted three things, but the substitutions were okay. If they aren't you just have to contact them and get your money back - and keep the items. And did three loads of laundry. So done with chores for the day. And it is only 10:30!!!

Blessing in disguise - the repair work.

Have discovered a couple of things that have changed since the repair work has been done. Come to find out that the old microwave that was above the stove had NO venting ability. Since we've been living here I never could figure out why all the glass and wood furniture got so greasy. I would dust and dust and nothing ever looked clean. When we moved all the knick knacks off of everything I discovered that everything was sticky - a layer of grease was coating everything. No wonder they never looked clean after dusting or using Windex to clean them. So scrubbed every hard surface in the house to remove the grease. Now with the new microwave that has a vent to take the cooking fumes out everything is staying clean. Just a quick dust to make everything sparkly again. [I know I should have discovered that before but had no idea the old microwave did not have a venting capability.]

Also with the new flooring - it has a wood grain texture to it - the furniture has stopped slipping all over every time we sat on it. I used to spend half my days putting the chairs and couch back where they belonged. Well I exaggerate a little there but...

The sunrise a couple of days ago. 

Taken at 6:19 in the morning. Only time we could be outside. 

It just kept getting prettier. 

9:30 in the morning. And it just got hotter from there. This thermometer is always in the shade. Taken from inside through the kitchen window. 

Sunrise the next day, it too was pretty. 

And sunset that night. I could feel the heat of the street through the soles of my slippers. 

Today I had an appointment with the doctor to get a new med for my chronic hives. No longer can get one of the ones I've been taking for years, Zantac. I was supposed to be there at 3 o'clock, half way across town. Yesterday and today and tomorrow at 3 o'clock it is/will be about 114/5 degrees out. No way do I want to go out in that. So postponed it for nine days and then will go at 9:30 in the morning. The electrical company issued a "conserve energy from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. request" for yesterday and today. Hoping to keep the power grid up and running. And to add to that there was a water leak in the community where we live and the water was shut off for part of the afternoon to fix it. Luckily the office always sends us a text when there is a problem like that. 

Also very smoky out from a fire just across the state line in California. Cannot imagine being a fire fighter in this heat. 

For over a week the coolest it has been at night is 88 - never give the house a chance to cool down. Yesterday the west part of the valley got thunder and heavy rain storms, we just got heat and high winds. 

Got an early start yesterday

And this is our weather for the next few days. Supposed to break some records for both highs and lows. The lows bother me more than the highs - the house never gets a chance to cool off. And no matter when you get up it is already too hot to go out and walk.  At least a few days will have some cloud cover and maybe, maybe we might get some sprinkles - that means you can count the drops on the ground. Still experimenting with the air fryer - these were supposed to be sweet potato chips. Needless to say did not turn out right - they were like chewing a piece of rubber. No matter how long we cooked them.Then we tried regular potatoes, not much better. Either not done enough or burnt. I'd rather buy them in a bag at grocery store. Did do corn on the cob in it again, both times turned out really good.

Yesterday morning I got out and about before the sun came up. The moon and the morning star - I think. Well I'm sure about the moon. 

So I walked down to the end of the park. Took several pictures of the sunrise. 

All are looking out over the wetlands desert.

Every time I looked up the sky was different. 

When I got home the sun was just breaking over the mountains. Got in over 6000 steps yesterday by end of day. 

Almost every one of our lantana plants have a palm tree growing up in the middle of them. This one kind of took over the flower plant. 

Working on a 1000 piece puzzle now. Should keep me busy for a few days.

Started this a couple of days ago, guess I was waiting for something interesting to happen to write about. 

But nothing is happening. Watched the soccer team we like get trounced yesterday - 8 to 2. Don't think they have ever lost that bad. Now the players can go home and enjoy the rest of the summer. But the Golden Knights, hockey team, won again. They play both today and tomorrow, so that will take up a little of the long days time. Also three NASCAR races this weekend. [dislike this new blogger, it does as it pleases - cannot get this to left align.  So trying justify.] 

At 7:30 it was already over 90 here. Never cooled down here last night. Bill went up to the mail box at 4 o'clock and he said it was oppressive out. 

 

Good weekend for sports.

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. The slippery slope of being cooped up is getting to me. 

Sunrise from a couple of mornings ago. Lately they have not been spectacular. But still a nice beginning to a day.  [wait till you read further - spectacular sunrise today.]

At least it has been cool enough when I get up that I can get out and walk some. Try to walk at least 1/2 hour and I walk not stroll.  One of the pretty bushes that loves the Vegas summer heat. 

And another one that flowers all summer. 

So I got out and walked, which for some reason gives me more energy during the day. So baked a bunch of marble [chocolate and white] cupcakes and used rest of batter to make a two layer tres leche [except I only used two milks] cake. Turned out good. I've mentioned before that my hands shake when I try to do anything. Well I didn't even think about it when I decided to make the cupcakes. Sure discovered quickly that getting the batter into the the little paper cups was going to be a challenge. Have never had so much batter on the cupcake pans instead of in the paper cup. Oh well good excuse to wipe it off with my fingers and eat it. 

A sporting weekend. Soccer, Barcelona won so moves on to next tier of the UEFA Champions League. Hockey, Golden Knights won two games so are first seed for the playoffs. NASCAR and even the #18 car put in a good two races. Didn't win either but finished in top 6 in both. At least the car showed some speed. And this weekend he might have an advantage, he is the only driver that has driver the road course at Daytona before. He did it earlier in the year in the Rolex 24. He needs a win. 

Continues to be triple digits here but low 100's for a few days. And best of all it is cooling off to the high 70's at night. Makes a big difference when the house isn't already hot when you get up. 

Speaking of getting up - Bill was up and out early this morning and caught this beautiful sunrise. It is the first time in weeks that we have had any clouds in the sky. 

I started writing this blog yesterday afternoon and didn't post it because I thought I'd post about our wonderful salmon patties I made in the air fryer. Well notice there aren't any pictures. And they were barely edible. I forgot how stinky canned salmon was. Ick. Anyway they did cook and we did eat them. But throwing that recipe away!

Bill has figured out the perfect way to cook french fries in the air fryer and is cooking them and eating them as fast as we buy them. Even cooked some sweet potato fries [frozen] that turned out really good.

Did another puzzle - all donuts, made me hungry every time I worked on it. 

Hum... I do not know why this is adding spacing between the paragraphs. 😡 Just discovered the symbols...

Quiet times.

Not much to write about the last few days. Got out for a short walk this morning, but waited too long and it was just too hot with the sun up already. But better than nothing I guess. Yesterday I got in 3000 steps just walking around in the house. Around, around, and around.

The sunset from a couple of days ago, not real pretty, but mostly from the smoke from CA fire. Looking kind of northeast.

Got a little brighter out front - looking south west. It continues to be warm. But we are cooling off some - only 104 today, then a 101 day coming. 

I tried another meal in the air fryer. Fresh corn on cob and Parmesan crusted tilapia. The broccoli I used the microwave for. Turned out very good. Though I feel the fish breading was a little dry. Learning curve. Will keep trying. I think it puts out almost as much heat as the regular oven. 

Trying to get the park manager to come down here and verify that all the repairs are done so they will release the money to the contractor. He keeps saying he'll call me back but doesn't.

Ah ha! got a hold of him and he was just here. Took all the pictures and will send them to "corporate" and everyone will get paid. Not holding breath. 

Working on my third puzzle this one 500 pieces, but it is going together fast. Have no other projects I feel like doing. Working on the wool latch hook rug is too hot.