Back to our routine

November 16, 2008
Peoria, AZ

I can't believe it's been a week since we were at the NASCAR races. What the heck did we do this week?

Monday was easy: we unloaded the coach and got it back in storage. Other than finding the beginnings of a leak in the drain pipe from the kitchen sink, this was pretty uneventful. I'll have more to report on the drain issue, which is located where the drain from the sink in the slide-out connects to the fixed pipe in the coach, in the future as I work out a fix.

The rest of the week has been pretty routine. Tuesday, we shopped. Thursday, Geri had a medical appointment and started the Christmas shopping for the grand kids. I cleaned out the shed in the back yard and reallocated stuff between the shed and garage. Yesterday, we did the Home Depot - Post Office - Bank - Farmer's Market - drop stuff at the coach loop. Well, Geri only did part of the loop as she was feeling poorly and I dropped her back at home mid-loop.

We're going to try a slightly different approach this fall to see if we can reduce the grocery bill (one of our top 3 expenses - who'd have thunk it?). We'll shop weekly on Tuesday or Wednesday, and aim to get some fresh fish (as fresh as it gets living in a desert hundreds of miles from the water). This week, we "reverse-engineered" three different recipes to come up with a dish that Geri saw a picture of in a magazine: prosciutto-wrapped halibut with risotto cakes and pea puree. Talk about the long way around! We could have made any one of the three recipes and been OK, I suppose, but where's the challenge in that? We found the fish from one recipe, which also called for a potato wrapper outside the prosciutto which we bypassed. The risotto cakes were from another recipe, starting with saffron risotto, which is cooled, molded, and then sauteed for color. The pea puree came from a third recipe, which also gave us the pea-olive-tomato salsa that was a topper. With a nice 1999 Volnay red Burgundy from the Wine Box, it made for a very nice meal.

We've read that Tuesday may be the best day to find fresh fish, as deliveries may have replenished stock that sat around over the prior weekend. Who knows if this is true, but at least it gives us a routine that's the first step to fiscal discipline. The budget took quite a hit in the last few weeks with Merlin's "mystery illness", and we're working hard to offset the impact with a few months of dedicated saving.

Speaking of Merlin, he's almost back to normal. He's much stronger and still trying to replace the 10% of his body weight he lost by wanting to be fed every couple of hours. He's moving better on his walks and back to playing at night, so we're hopeful that the worst is over for him.

Last night, we caught up on some recorded shows from the DVR. Today, we might catch the NASCAR race on TV, and then it'll be NetFlix movie night. The next week or so will be (hopefully) routine, leading up to a quiet Thanksgiving (for which the menu planning has already begun - more on that later). That's it for now...