Day To Day Happenings

Weekend over it was time to begin a new week by heading over to San Carlos to the Monday morning art class.

I will have some of my paintings for sale at a show/sale at El Mar Restaurant in San Carlos this weekend, so if you are from around here stop by have brunch at the restaurant if you are hungry and at the same time have a look at the various artists work that will exhibited.

Art class over, I headed for some groceries and then home and did some baking.  Deep freeze is beginning to fill up I am happy to say.

Tuesday dawned sunny,breezy and chilly. I went downtown to pay some bills and then to Spanish class.  Class finished we headed for an early lunch as some of our friends are headed back to Canada tomorrow.  A tasty lunch of seafood and then home for their pup to have a farewell visit with Roy before they headed back to their house.

I have been having some pain in one of my teeth for a while now and finally yesterday I found I could no longer chew on that side of my mouth without awful pain so made a dentist appt. when I got home.

This morning very windy and cold again, heavy coat weather for sure.  Off to do some more errands and then to the dentist.  He found I had somehow broken one of my upper molars right in half and so it had to be pulled.  Several shots of Novocaine later and some wiggling and the broken tooth was removed.  Cost 500 pesos or about $39.00 CAD, this dentist is perhaps a bit more expensive than some; but we like his work, he is gentle and does not take any longer doing the work than necessary.  This is a definite plus for someone like me who has a distinct aversion to dentists.

Not sure what the rest of the week will bring; but definitely some painting time in there somewhere.

I finally finished the set of 3 Blue Door paintings, here is a poor photo of the 3 of them together.  All 3 are now for sale either separately or together as a set.

Hope your week is going well.

Blog Slacker; Home Busy

Man, how time flies when you are having fun, I can't believe that it is almost a month since I posted anything on here.

I may not have been here; but I have been busy.

At the end of December we bought a deep freeze, for a myriad of reasons.  I love to bake bread, buns, etc.; but in the summer here it is just too hot to turn on the oven.  In the winter though it is nice to have the heat in the apartment as it is our only source of heat, our electric heaters have died over time and we didn't use them much anyway.

Another reason was that we both love turkey breast and around the Christmas season is the only time we can find it here in one of the stores, neither of us likes the brown meat so buying a whole turkey doesn't make sense for us, either size wise or meat wise.  We love roast turkey breast with cranberry sauce and then sandwiches the next day.  The breasts that I can buy here are large and when cut in half by the butcher, each half with give us 2 meals.  A very nice friend also muled some Cranberry Sauce down here for us and when that runs out I will try making some with some dried cranberries which I can get here.  With only having the deep freeze portion of a 9 cubic foot refrigerator there isn't much room for storing meat chunks long term.

So you can see the need for a deep freeze.  As space is an issue for us as well as the electricity cost to run it in the summer heat, I only wanted about a 5 cubic foot one.  I was surprised to find a few freezers here in the stores; but the smallest was a 7 cubic foot, (Frigidare brand),which I bought.

They delivered it in 2 days and it was damaged, which they pointed out to me as soon as they started to unpack it.  They put it back on the truck and said they would return in another 2 days and they did.  This time it was in perfect condition.  They unpacked it and brought it into the apartment for us, (up the stairs, etc.) and we were happy campers.

After letting it sit for the afternoon and overnight I plugged it in and it seemed to be working well.  So, let the baking begin.  After a trip to the store to stock up on flour and other baking supplies I was set to go.

Since then I have baked my way through around 17 kilos of flour along with many other baking supplies.  We have enjoyed eating fresh buns, bread, cinnamon buns, raisin tarts, pumpkin pie, gingersnap cookies, peanut butter cookies, bran muffins, etc..  Some of it has made its way downstairs to the landlady for her to try and we have also eaten a good deal of it.  Roy got brave the other day and got on the scale to find out that he has gained 4 pounds, oops.  Slowly, but surely the deep freeze is filling up.  I did manage to buy the last of the turkey breasts in the store and so we have about 8 chunks of that in there also.

After todays baking of buns and french bread loaves the freezer is starting to look fuller, which I like.  Still more to go; but a grocery shopping run is in order to get more flour, eggs, etc..  Oh well, another day.

I have also been busy painting.  I finally finished one that I have been working on and have also been working on a commission painting for my landladies livingroom.   She chose a photo she liked and I had a canvas made for it, 2 ft. x 3 ft. so it is taking some time as it is quite involved.  I am also working on an oil painting of the church in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora.  I have a dog portrait to do also which is on the back burner at the moment.

My art classes at the Casa de la Cultura are on hold due to glitches in the administration change over from the election so I signed up with the Art group in San Carlos so have started going out there every Monday morning from 9 AM to Noon.  They have a show coming up on February 3 at El Mar restaurant in San Carlos so I will likely be taking some of my stuff there for that.

The cold weather we had the last couple of weeks exacerbated some health issues for me so I also have been doing some doctoring, with good results I am glad to say.

No pictures; but as you can see I have been busy, not just laying around taking the proverbial siesta.

My grand daughter received her Tutu and accessories yesterday so am waiting to see photos of that.  The package was apparently a hit with her, so all is good there.  She had her 2 nd birthday and now has her "big girl" furniture as a new baby will be arriving in May and they wanted her to be used to her new bed and not feel dispossessed by the baby in that way at least.

So that's it for now, until next time.  Stay warm and stay happy.