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Beginning a new year, completing projects
Yesterday Game Fanatic and family celebrated his completion of 21 years as he begins the next one. I think it went rather well for him. He woke up early to find out the crowdfunding project he backed had reached its goal and that pleased him considerably. He made a large investment in this project, made larger due to very poor exchange rates. I am relieved it reached it’s goal because there was every chance the money would be returned but at an even worse rate than before.
Our patio paving was completed over the weekend and we bought a table and new chairs to put out there, along with new cushions for older chairs that have been sitting in the elements the past year or two. Unfortunately there’s been some rusting of the older chairs but they are still quite okay to use otherwise. The new cushions are bright and cheery. The new chairs are just mesh ones but we could theoretically add cushions for those at some point too. We still have to move some displaced sand out of the backyard and clean up some of the mess but it looks really lovely. I will see if I can get some photos up in the next few days.
The weather turned out to be quite pleasant so the plan to spend much of the day outside worked out well. This kept the house from being quite so crowded with people and allowed much more personal space for everyone than inside our fairly small living areas.
Game Fanatic had wanted to have Indian food from a favorite local place on his birthday but they aren’t open on Monday. His Indian feast is postponed to the weekend and there was the decision of what food to prepare for guests on the day. He wasn’t too keen to settle on anything so the Scientist and I decided to try out Mexican style foods. Over half our visitors were vegetarian so it was important to find foods that would be suitable for all. I went back and forth on many different options. I got ingredients for more foods than I could really have managed and eventually decided to stop while I was ahead for fear of too much food.
I only did one meat dish, which was the usual chicken that I do with tomatoes and spices. It’s really straightforward to put together once the chicken is cooked and is agreeable to all family members. I found a recipe for baked marinated tofu which had some mixed results. The recipe I used for the marinade was pretty wasted because nobody could taste the flavors at all. I would have preferred not to have spent money on limes and coriander (cilantro) since they didn’t work in this case. I do wonder if a longer marinating time might have worked better on that. I had four blocks of tofu and did two with that and decided to use just some jarred salsa for the rest. That tofu came out really nice and the flavors were just right there. That’s not to say the other tofu was terrible but it was mainly like eating plain baked tofu.
I had wanted to do something with sweet potatoes and black beans, having been inspired by a recipe from Valerie’s Recipes. Initially I was considering using this recipe but decided it was more suited to much cooler weather than we have right now. I plan to try this next winter on a damp and chilly night when I think it would be far more enjoyed by those who are willing to try it. I did find another recipe which is more suited to warm weather. That turned out beautifully and was really easy to make. which was really good so late on the previous night when my feet were in misery after hours of standing. It ended up that this works really well just as a salad too. I’m thinking of making this for our Christmas dinner since it’s so easy and would be something else my MIL could enjoy.
I also made homemade refried beans, which came out pretty well for a first try. They were a bit on the dry side but when heated tasted quite nice. Also, I got some jalapeño cheese(Monterrey Jack cheese with jalapeños that has only recently been found locally) to grate over it but couldn’t find out grater when it was time to use it. I had a second helping later in the evening and it was quite lovely with that creamy cheese on it. I used dried pinto beans this time and they came out nicely cooked. I think maybe I have got the hang of cooking dried beans finally. Means it’s a lot cheaper to prepare than having to buy canned beans and hope for decent quality.
I had intended to do some zucchini and corn in a tomatillo based salsa but gave up on the idea due to lack of time and insecurity about using the canned tomatillos instead of fresh (these aren’t usually available here so canned is the main way to go). I still have the ingredients for that so will make it some other day this week.
We also had four types of Mission tortilla chips, mild salsa and chopped tomatoes and cucumber. We had gotten some lettuce to use but it had gone bad within just a few days and had to be dumped. :(
Anyway, the food was enjoyed by all then we had heaps of yummy brownies and cheesecake made by the Scientist. He’s done the brownies many times before but the cheesecake was a new recipe and it was well liked by almost everyone, but happily was pleasing for Game Fanatic. There is none of it left today.
I forgot I also made some potato salad for Game Lover but didn’t serve to all because it had bacon in it, which was his request.
There were various people coming and going from early afternoon to early evening. Afterwards, we hung out and watched Game Lover play his new Donkey Kong game on the Wii U and then we started the newest Danganrompa game, which was one of the presents. He had a pretty good day overall and seemed really pleased with a few things. He will complete the celebration with his curries on the weekend.
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Odds and ends
I am still here . I’ve not been posting much other stuff because I want to finish posting about my holiday. This hasn’t worked out so well and it’s now three months since I returned. The full memories have already faded a bit and each day I delay, more details are disappearing. Anyway, I managed to write up most of day four last night and after referring to photos I hope to finish and post tonight or tomorrow.
Meanwhile winter has arrived here in Australia. Funnily, it’s actually pretty warm right now but rather muggy. There is plenty of time ahead for really cold days and nights so will enjoy warmth when it’s around. It has been a bit wet the last couple of days so not much happening in the walking or cycling arena. I decided to use the spin bike yesterday instead of trying to go out and about for exercise since the showers were pretty random.
The big news for our house is we have finally had our patio roof installed after all these years. It looks lovely and a couple days ago we had the electrician out to install lights and to upgrade some of our plug points inside. When we built this house we were very low budget and didn’t have any ideas of where we should have our plug points and how big they should be. Well, we do know after twenty years more about what our needs are.
In turn the clean up involved before the electrician arrived allowed for clearing out quite a bit of dust. The Scientist did most of this work but I did clear out space in the bedroom so I could get a second plug point on my side of the bed. Nothing like stirring up dust that’s been sitting for months or years. I must admit that clearing out dust have surely been good for the body with so much less yuck being inhaled.
Today marks twenty-one years since I arrived in Australia and Perth. The day I arrived was pretty dreary and wet and today is also kind of dreary. But not so wet and the sun does poke through the clouds every so often. The Scientist is going to bake some brownies later to celebrate the occasion.
Speaking of occasions, apparently it was the Italian national holiday on Tuesday so we had pizza from our favourite local shop. I overindulged but don’t regret it. I was just that hungry and the pizza was just that good. I usually only manage two slices but this time I finished all four of mine and still wasn’t overly full.
I bought yet another camera a couple weeks ago and I do believe it’s a perfect match for me. I had been eyeing a different model for a little while but it was only just released and there were no great deals happening yet. Meanwhile, I’d read about the older but more advanced model from this line of cameras. It was a bit bigger than I had wanted and also I was worried about the weight after having a proper look at one. But the grip on it is really lovely and so I also put that into consideration. I had intended to postpone any purchases for a little while due to some family budget issues. But then the camera company came out with a deal for an extra battery and camera grip for free with the top end model. Plus the top of the line is actually less expensive than the new model so it was kind of what some might call a no-brainer. I went ahead and purchased it and got it with the pro lens kit and I am have been more than satisfied. This is the first time I have taken so well to a new camera so quickly. I am now thinking less on the camera models and now thinking about lenses…which I never thought I would do but I guess it does happen. I have also found the really good lens has been a lot more noticeable than I ever expected it would be.
I had to send my Nokia Lumia phone back to Microsoft for repair this week. With the Scientist’s help, we worked out that one of the microphones wasn’t functioning at all and thus I could use voice recorder mode or the Cortana app. It feels weird to be without that phone and I am now using the old iPhone. Not that I haven’t used it lately but the other was always there. The only reason I have used the old phone lately is if the power was low on the Lumia or to just use up some credit left over on the other sim card. I need to also let them know that the Bluetooth was dropping out quite regularly too. The form I used was limited to one issue so I chose the microphone issue.
I think there were plenty of other things I wanted to write about but figure this is a good odds and ends update until I get back on track soon.
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That darned honeysuckle
A couple weeks ago our neighbors knocked on the door and the dogs went bonkers, of course. I didn’t hear the knock but did see one of them walking back down the driveway. The Scientist went to investigate and returned to say our orange honeysuckle plant was weighing down the shade cloth they had between the fence and their house. This is the plant that I have cut back to nothing several times and it always comes back. We hadn’t done anything with it in ages and it had grown up and over the fence again. It was bigger and stronger than ever. I immediately set about cutting it back with the Scientist joining me when he wasn’t working. Between us we got almost all of it off the shade cloth. I continued on a couple days later and removed lots more of it. I also managed to clear a huge space on the ground where it had been. There are still some strong roots that will need more tools to remove though.
Meanwhile, two large piles of cuttings appeared near the fence and sat there for a couple weeks. We’ve had several days without rain and the forecast is for rain from Tuesday onwards. I decided to work on shredding some of the green waste before it got wet again. This didn’t work as well as I’d like but I did manage to get through the better part of one of the piles. There have been other cutting from shrubs and trees, dried along the periphery of the yard so I used some of those branches. After a few hours of work, I found I had one box filled with shredded plant waste. Those piles took up considerable space but the shredded material fit quite neatly into the big box our food processor came in.
One of our goals is to clear the honeysuckle completely, along with other weeds and yard trash, enough so that we can have a patio installed outside. We’ve only lived here nineteen years but still have no covered area outside. I’m hoping we can complete this before the end of our winter. With so much cleared away, it actually looks like there is quite a bit of space there. Here’s hoping we stick to our goals this time.