January 2022

 January update

The first month of the new year came and went with many a lazy weekend being had for Susan and myself.  I don’t know exactly why we were so unproductive but that’s how things played out.  

Some highlights:

Visiting Susan’s parents – 

January 8th – Susan went up to her folk’s place along with Kari to help out with this and that.  They ate pizza at some point and the girls did all manner of chores and upkeep where they could.  Susan didn’t get home until after dark.  

January 23rd – we picked up Kari on our way up to Karen and John’s.  We had a list of things to accomplish and got through everything.  That said, we had a new list of things to work on going forward.  

Pug trip to Kansas – 

January 22nd – we got up early to leave on our mini-adventure to Kansas to pick up two old soon-to-be foster pugs.  The drive itself was mildly treacherous at the start as there was some lingering snow and ice for the first couple of hours.  Once the temperatures came up the rest of the trip was smooth sailing and we made fantastic time in both directions.  

Susan was able to sleep for the beginning of the trip which was good for her and I got to make a sizeable dent in my latest audiobook.  

We finally stopped in a small Kansas town to meet the person transporting the two pugs.  She had driven some hours to meet us halfway(ish) which we very much appreciated.  She told us she worked several jobs which sounded quite unappealing to us both.  The pugs were two old boys, one fawn and one black.  After filling out the necessary paperwork and leading the boys around to do their business several times on several trees, we loaded up and headed back home.  

The pugs handled the drive back to Colorado with typical pug-aplomb.  They were generally quiet but would periodically try to join us in the front of the car via climbing onto the center arm rest.  Susan and I found them quite endearing.  

The foster person we were delivering the pugs to was waiting for us outside of Nordstrom’s at the Park Meadows Mall which was absolutely wonderful.  We didn’t want to have to introduce chaos to our home if we didn’t have to and it was great to have the foster be accommodating to our schedule.  We helped load up the pugs and transferred the blankets, toys, and other items that came along with the boys to the foster’s SUV and wished them luck.  

It was great to be able to help out Colorado Pug Rescue again!  

Racecar and De-vegetation Stuff – 

January 30 – Alvin and Kari arrived at our home in the late morning.  The plan was for Alvin and myself to work on the E46 and Kari and Susan to work on clearing out the dead plants on the east side of house.  Of course there was a meal in the mix which was BBQ’d chicken this time.  

Alvin and I worked to remove the E46’s interior.  Tearing out a car’s interior is satisfying work and we were largely successful in our efforts.  

Susan and Kari pulled the MANY plants that had cropped up on our east-side drive.  This was an enormous task and, in the end, there were nine large bags filled with crushed/stomped detritus.  

It was great to have such a productive day together and Susan and I really appreciated all the help.  I spread the trash-day trips over three weeks so to not overwhelm our trash collectors.  

Adventures in Zucchini – 

For reasons unknown I decided to cook with zucchini again after a long break.  I found my handheld zoodler to be overly cumbersome so purchased a tabletop version.  While I am not completely happy with the thickness of the zoodles, I find the convenience to be worth the size-compromise.  

I experimented with several different casseroles during the month: some with chicken, some with ground turkey, some tetrazzini-like, some tomato-y, some creamy.  For the most-part we found them all to be yummy.  The only real issue I’ve found is with the inconsistency of the produce’s quality from the stores.  Such is I suppose.