September 26, 2025 Lunch - Pita Sandwiches with kebabs. Dinner - Oysters at Winrock concert and Snack - Salami and cheese sandwiches

September 26, 2025 Lunch - Pita Sandwiches with kebabs. Dinner - Oysters at Winrock concert and Snack - Salami and cheese sandwiches

I awakened at 7:40 and ate a bowl of granola with milk, and grapes.

Then I worked until 12:25 and heated a PPI kebab and two pieces of a large Iraqi pita and spread creamy feta and tzatziki on it and wrapped 1/2 of a kebab and ate two sandwiches with some cucumber, tomato, and onion salad wit water for lunch. I also called Whole Foods and ordered 36 oysters on the half shell, 12 well fleets, 12 Standish and 12 of another oyster recommended by the seafood attendant.

Then I worked I drove to a 1:30 meeting that lasted two hours.

After the meeting I drove to Costco and bought six bottles of wine, a Kirkland New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, a Côtes du Rhône, a Vacqueyras res, a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon marked Dow from $22.95 to $13.95, a Precision Cab, and a Kirkland Malbec.

I also bought fresh trout, lamb chops, butter, and white mushrooms.

I then drove home and arrived at 4:45. I ate some shrimp salad on a heated toast point and lay down for 10 minutes.

While I rested Suzette made cocktail sauce. When I woke up I poured the rest of a bottle of Santiago Station Chilean Sauvignon Blanc into a water bottle and we drove to Whole Foods where I picked up the 36 oysters and we drove to Winrock Shopping Center. 

We carried our oysters to a table within the children’s play area. Winrock has transformed the center of their mall into a stage and grassed music venue with the children’s play area next to it and to the east a pond with water spouts.  It is all quite beautiful.

We finished our oysters around 6:20 and the music started at 6:30. Los Gatos, a South Valley conjunto rock band played for an hour and then Cafe Mocha played until we left at 7:45.

There was a sense of community among the 2000 to 3000 gathered for the free concert. On the way out we stopped to talk to Anna and her husband, Jim, who live in Bosque Farms.

We arrived home around 8:15 and I made three salami and cheese sandwiches on toast points with Mayo and one shrimp salad sandwich on toast points.

We watched the game until 9:1 t when Suzette went to bed. 

I stayed up to watch Arizona State beat TCU and then blogged this entry.

Bon Appetit

September 25, 2025 Lunch - Dave’s High Desert Grill Dinner - PPI Penne Pasta with Pesto, Squash, Chicken, mushrooms, steak, and shishito peppers

September 25, 2025 Lunch - Dave’s High Desert Grill  Dinner - PPI Penne Pasta with Pesto, Squash, Chicken, mushrooms, steak, and shishito peppers

I had three clients at a pn 8:30 hearing with a pro se person trying to practice law that went nowhere. The judge wisely sent us to mediation.

Then at 11:00i I drove Charlie to Dave’s High Desert Grill for lunch with the book club.

The menu was vast but it was more like a chain restaurant. I succumbed to the lure of a specialty hamburger with Andouille sausage when the waiter said it could be served with onion rings instead of French fries. Unfortunately the fried shell on the onion rings was broken and the onion rings were soggy with grease instead of wet with steam.

I was immediately put off when the greeter said we would need to wait for our entire group before we were seated because Charlie and I were the first to arrive. 

I took my seat at the table anyway. I should have argued that I would move to any other table in the nearly empty restaurant if our party did not arrive. I had the immediate feeling of being in a chain restaurant with frigid rules that were decidedly inhospitable.

So a bad experience.

We then drove to Travis’ house for book club and had a rather somber discussion of in the Wolf’s Mouth by Foulds.

After book club around 3:45 I drove Charlie home and drove to Walgreen’s and got a flu shot and a Tetanus shot.

When I returned home Suzette was in an ebullient mood having enjoyed her two day conference and a shopping spree at two estate sales where she bought two sets of silverware. One was gold washed and the other a Japanese specialty set for, as yet, unidentified uses.

We gave up watching the news at 6:00 and went to the garden and picked basil, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and shishito peppers. When we returned to the house we decided to add squash, PPI steak, and six fresh shishito peppers we had picked in the garden to the PPI Penne pasta, pesto, and chicken dish.

                 A ceramic fish Suzette bought at the estate sale with a fossilized seashell

We sautéed the squash and shishitos and steak and then added the leftover Penne to make a hearty penne mixed grill dish.

I really liked this dish, with the added beef and fresh sautéed squash that added to the richness and freshness of the dish and added meat and vegetable flavor that integrated with the pesto and cheese sauce.

We drank the leftover Chilean Red wine from the party last Friday.

After dinner we watched a local documentary about the period of federal court jurisdiction of New Mexico from 1846 to 1912 that described the facts and law surrounding a number of famous cases.

Then we watched Midsomer Murders and went to bed at 9:30 after a long day of activity for both of us.

We are really enjoying the fresh vegetables and herbs from our garden this summer and happy to be at home.  It looks we may shift our period of travel to the early spring and late fall in the future so we can enjoy our garden every year.

Bon Appetit

September 24, 2025 Breakfast - Shrimp Omelet. Lunch - PPI Vietnamese soup from Saigon City plus green onion and Spinach, Dinner - PPI Penne pasta with chicken and snow peas

September 24, 2025 Breakfast - Shrimp Omelet. Lunch - PPI Vietnamese soup from Saigon City plus green onion and Spinach,  Dinner - PPI Penne pasta with chicken and snow peas 

I had a busy day. I paid the first three quarters’ estimated taxes and sent Willy a gift and talked to Willy about investment strategy for a while I cooked a shrimp omelet with Napa cabbage, red onion, and mushroom for breakfast.

Then at 12:00 I added spinach and green onion ringlets to the leftover Vietnamese egg vermicelli soup from Saigon City Restaurant. I was sweet and delicious.

Then from 12:45 to 2:45 I met with Frank to discuss the trial tomorrow.

I printed the exhibits until 3:25, when I meditated for thirty minutes.

I lay down for a nap from 4:15 until 5:15 when I walked to Laguna and back that got my steps to 3850 for today.

Then at 6:30 I heated PPI Penne Pasta with Chicken, snow peas and mushrooms and added fresh basil and grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

I downloaded exhibits from 7:00 to 8:00 and spoke to Luke briefly.

Then at 8:00 I watched an episode of a nova documenting the spread of Homo sapiens from Africa across five continents starting around 75,000 years ago p. The theory is tharpt our larger brain allowed us to adapt to regions that were inhospitable to earlier forms of primates.  Next week will discuss the interaction between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

At 9:00 I watched a documentary on the effects of climate change on holy shrines in Japan and how the Japanese are planting forests to protect populations from Natural disasters such as tsunamis and cyclones and typhoons.

I checked my portfolio and it was down again today, about .06%.

I drank a limoncello after dinner and ate some fruitcake with a cup of tea at 9:00 before bed at 10:00.

Bon Appetit

September 23, 2025 Breakfast - Chocolate Croissant Lunch - Saigon City Restaurant. Dinner - PPI Roasted Chicken, PPI Rice, Steamed Green Beans and Onion, Tomato, and Cucumber salad

September 23, 2025 Breakfast - Chocolate Croissant Lunch - Saigon City Restaurant. Dinner - PPI Roasted Chicken, PPI Rice, Steamed Green Beans and Onion, Tomato, and Cucumber salad

I woke up at 6:30 and worked at my desk to finish transfer documents and Earn documents.

Then at 7:45 I ate breakfast of a chocolate croissant with tea because I knew I would eat an early lunch with Aaron and Monica. I harvested some lovage to take to them and dug out two invasive trees in the flower beds.

I met with Frank at 9:30 until 11:30 on a case.

Then I drove to Saigon City Restaurant ht Aaron’s barber Tony had recommended as the best Vietnamese restaurant in town.  Monica and I ordered soup with egg vermicelli noodles. Aaron ordered a rice dish. What was interesting was our soup came with a Vietnamese donut. All of our dishes were served with small bowls of a fiery hot chili sauce. I tasted a bit of it and it burned my lip, but Monica and Aaron seemed to enjoy it.  Monica put it into her soup and Aaron dipped the pieces of meat into it.

I mixed some with hoisin sauce a dipped my won tons into that mixture until I burned my lip.

I had some soup left and they helped me put it into a container in a plastic bag to take home.

Aaron’s trip to Milan and Zurich went well and it appears that our Earn system has been adopted as an international standard for describing conservation credits and content.

After lunch filled Willy’s car with gas and then drove to Zia Trust in Uptown and picked up my RMD check and said hello to Henry and Marie Elena who handle my Self-directed IRA account.

I then drove home and checked my portfolio. Today I lost about 1/2 of what I gained yesterday in a down day in the market with a drop in Nvidia of $5.18 leading the market down.

I rested and read my book in the afternoon until 6:30 when I made dinner.

Dinner - I snapped the green beans I bought at El Super and blanched them with a little water and butter in the microwave for 2.22 minutes. I then heated the PPI leg quarter and some rice in the microwave and fetched the Cucumber, onion, and tomato salad and poured a glass of Belle Vignes French Sauvignon Blanc and ate a wonderful dinner as I watched a new episode of Finding Your Roots. 

After dinner I returned to bed and read my book and finished it.

Bon Appetit.

September 22, 2025 Breakfast - Granola. Lunch - Latte Macchiato and Chocolate Croissant. Snack at Downtowner. Dinner - Chicken Curry and Rice with Tzatziki

September 22, 2025 Breakfast - Granola. Lunch - Latte Macchiato and Chocolate Croissant. Snack at Downtowner. Dinner - Chicken Curry and Rice with Tzatziki

I awakened at 6:30 and washed some pots and then ate a bowl of granola with milk, mango yogurt, and grapes as I watched the Market open. Apple took off early on news that I Phone 17 sales were better than expected and kept going up, ending up an amazing $10.58.

Nvidia was down over a $1.00 so it looked like another lackluster day until about 9:45 when Nvidia announced that it had made a deal with Open AI to invest $100 Billion in data center development using Open AI technology and Nvidia chips and know how, a deal that will probably  allow the U.S. economy to dominate AI for years.

Nvidia stock immediately went positive and closed up $7.01 per share.

The result of these two stock’s pops produced the best day my portfolio has ever had and resulted in it reaching a new high with a gain of  2.58% for the day.

At 11:20 I drove to El Super and bought milk, mango yogurt, radishes, green onion, brown onions, parsley, an avocado, carrots, green beans, corn, celery, tomatoes, limes, and condensed milk.

I returned home around 12:30 and after I put up the groceries, I made a latte Machiatta and microwaved a chocolate croissant for a quick lunch because I had a 1:00 appointment.

My 1:00 appointment arrived on time and I was able to complete the three documents he needed in one hour.

After he left I confirmed my good luck in the stock market.

 Most of the morning and the rest of the afternoon until 5:00 was devoted to papering my charitable donation to the Holocaust Museum and adjusting the documents for this year’s RMD to align with the donation and meeting a capital call for another investment.

At 5:00 we walked to Custom Cleaners and picked up a check.

Then we walked across 8th St. to the newly reopened Hotel Downtowner’s outdoor restaurant and bar. It was happy hour until 6:00 so Suzette ordered a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and I ordered a Chilean Malbec and an Oder of two crisp blue corn beef tacos. We sat outside in comfortable chairs and enjoyed our glasses of wine with a taco each.

At around 6:15 we walked home, which allowed me to get over 4500 steps for the day.

It rained this afternoon, so the weather was perfect, slightly warm with reasonably high humidity and a band of pink sunlight on the Sandias and the clouds to the West rimmed with bright white light.

We stopped to take a picture of the mural on the building bounding the north side of Washington Middle School’s sports field bathed in late afternoon sunshine.

When we returned home we decided to heat the PPI Chicken Curry and Rice and serve it with the PPI tzatziki instead of making Riata. We also fetched the homemade apricot chutney and Swad Mixed Pickle. The curry, rice, and Tzatziki were even better tonight because they were enhanced by the pickle and chutney.

I drank hot Earl Grey tea and Suzette drank water to stay on her diet.

After dinner we watched the Antique Roadshow and ate some red pepper hummus on seeded crackers because we were still hungry.

Suzette went to bed at 9:00 and I stayed up to watch John Stewart and then Rachel interview Kamala Harris in Kamala’s first interview since the election in support of her new book, 107 Days, being published tomorrow.

It was another amazing day.

Bon Appetit