Back in the groove

November 2, 2009
Peoria, AZ

Well, we're back in the groove of being here in the desert, or mostly there anyway. I didn't finish the back yard stuff on Saturday as planned, but did get it done, and we've knocked off several things from our to-do list.

Sunday was an easy day. Geri had nail work done and did some shopping to fill in the gaps. I got everything finished up in the back yard (waterfall filled and working, patio and furniture washed off, decorations put out, grill hooked up) and even washed the Range Rover and driveway/sidewalk as a bonus. Geri picked up a pork sirloin roast and half of it went right on the rotisserie. With roasted red potatoes and haricots verts, coupled with a Domaine Alfred Syrah we brought back from California, it made a great meal. The rotisserie takes a while (almost 1½ hours for a small roast) but it's one of our favorite cooking methods for certain things. And the Yankees won.

Today, we were back into the whole "appointment thing", up early and out to the periodontist for Geri's follow-up appointment. Since she had all the dental implants done over the last two years, she's been rotating appointments between the two dentists. She's had "perio" issues in the past, the extra attention is welcome; we definitely don't want to get into scaling or gingivectomies if we can avoid it! Everything is OK right now but we'll keep an eye on it as there are a couple of areas with bone loss.

Once we were back home, we focused our attention to future appointments. Geri scheduled her annual mammogram and I made arrangements to get the Range Rover over to our "local" (Scottsdale, about 30 miles away) Land Rover Centre for the last of the two repairs. I also dug out the receipts from when we had the tow bar installed; we'll have to get over to Camping World in Mesa to make our case that they should do the re-install under the "lifetime warranty".

All day, we talked on and off about what to have for dinner. Geri had picked up a package of butternut squash ravioli, and we were trying to decide on the whole menu. We settled on a recipe that involved a brown butter sauce with crispy sage leaves, and Geri added in her fabulous pork medallions. What a winning combination! We paired it with a bottle of Badge Pinot Noir (this was a special bottle - it was shipped in error during the summer and two neighbors teamed up to "save" it from the heat) from the Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County. I think they did a great job, as it wasn't showing any signs of being "cooked" (flat and port-like).

On a final note, we heard from the vet late today that Merlin's blood work came back fine, so the "old guy" continues to do well.

OK, back to the Series...