November 19, 2024 Lunch - Leftover Moo Shu Pork. Dinner - Stir Fried Rice Noodles with PPI Red Cooked Pork and Vegetables

 November 19, 2024 Lunch - Leftover Moo Shu Pork. Dinner - Stir Fried Rice Noodles with PPI Red Cooked Pork and Vegetables 

Around 8:00 I sliced the remaining strawberries and put some of them in a bowl with granola, milk, and yogurt and the rest in a jar that I filled with cognac and put in the fridge for brandied fruit.

Today was awesome. Everything seemed to work. We sent an invitation to three couples to invite them to a holiday dinner on December 15. Then Suzette made contact with Innovage’s V.P. of Development, who wrote that she would look into an acquisition. 

Then I received a call from the State Bank of India telling me how to correct my application for a checking account.

Then I coordinated with Chloe at Zia Trust and accepted Mickey’s offer to invest in his Metalayer hedge fund and Chloe started working on the paperwork to make the investment from my Zia Trust IRA account.

Then I drove to Doug Baker’s office and Doug’s Secretary Sharon notarized my driver’s license so I could complete the application to State Bank of India. 

At 12:30 I took a brake to eat the leftover Moo Shu Pork and two Mandarin pancakes left from Suzette and my lunch at East Ocean last week. I warmed the pancakes on the gas stove top like we do with flour tortillas and heated the Moo Shu Pork in the microwave and made a cup of Chinese a green tea and ate a delicious lunch while watching the first half of a EUFA match between The Netherlands and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

I did not get to watch the second half of the match because I got busy.

I got a call from Bill, who wanted help with a possible condemnation of some of his property. 

I was filling out the form for the Bank and talking to Bill when I was interrupted by an emergency request by a client for an employment agreement and a new LLC. I had to tell Bill I would visit his office in the morning.

At 3:00 I finally got a moment to check my portfolio and it became instantly apparent that investors were bidding up the price of Nvidia in anticipation of a blockbuster earnings announcement tomorrow.

Nvidia closed up $6.58 per share and was bid up further after hours. That sent my portfolio to within a hair’s length of an all time high and confirmed my strategy to transfer shares of Nvidia from my IRA to my personal account to meet my Required Minimum Distribution from my IRA for this year without reducing my investments further. Since I have already paid the estimated taxes for 2024, I do not need any of the distribution to fund my estimated tax.

I finished my application for State Bank of India and drove to the post office and mailed it.

When I returned home I started drafting my client’s requested Employment Agreement and finished and sent it to my client at 4:55.

I caught up on my emails and revised my client’s employment agreement by 6:28 and talked to Suzette for a couple of minutes and ate a few corn chips that I dipped the guacamole crema Suzette made by stirring sour cream/crema into the PPI guacamole from last week.

At 6:30 I meditated until 7:00.

Then I heated the onion soup and added 1/2 yellow squash, a T. of better than bullion, the last 1/2 cup of Côtes du Rhône white and four sliced mushrooms to the French onion soup to give it more flavor.  Suzette informed she had planned to use the onion soup as the roasting medium for the pot roast we cook in the next or two.

We decided to stir fry some rice vermicelli with the PPI Stir Fried Red Cooked Pork and Vegetables. So,I boiled two bunches of rice vermicelli and we then stir fried the resulting noodles with the leftover Red Cooked Pork and Vegetables. 

We watched episode Two of Leonardo and went to bed.

Bon Appetit

November 18, 2024 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel. Lunch - Padilla’s Dinner - Lamb and Tabouli stuffed Pita Sandwich

November 18, 2024 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel. Lunch - Padilla’s  Dinner - Lamb and Tabouli stuffed Pita Sandwich 

I woke up at 7:00 just as the Market commentary, Squawk on the Street began and I was amazed that Willy said that many commenters are saying that Palintir had become over valued and was ready for a pull back.

It closed at $66.00 on Friday and today it fell to $60 on the open and traded up and down, closing at $61.42, down $4.51. I realized that Willy was following the true pulse of the market much more closely than I was.

As it turned out Apple went up and my portfolio ended exactly where it began, which is 2.56% below its recent high.

I toasted one of the honey and whole wheat bagels that we bought yesterday at Costco, spread it with cream cheese and garnished it with red onion and Gravad lax slices and drank a cup of tea for breakfast around 8:15.

                                        A pleasant constructivist composition

Then I did some consulting in the morning from 11:00 to 12:15.

At 1:30 I went to Padilla’s for lunch with Aaron. He ordered a taco plate and I ordered a blue corn beef enchilada plate with onions, double beans, and red chili. 

We discussed Aaron’s recent trip to Europe and lawyers, who he has a real affection for. I asked Aaron if he had eaten at Padilla’s before and he reminded me that we hatched the idea of Earn at Padilla’s. I was very pleased.

After lunch he drove me home around 3:30 and worked until after 5:00.

I was reading the Ancient Celts when Suzette came home around 5:30 and had her usual cocktail. I joined her with a glass of yogurt milk to try to settle my bloated stomach from the Mexican food.

At 6:00 we decided to make stuffed Pita pocket sandwiches. Suzette sautéed the two lamb chops she had thawed several days ago.

I the cut the last pita in half and heated 1/2 in the toasted to warm it so it would open more easily. I opened the two halves and stuffed each with slices of tomato and red onion, labni, a leaf of lettuce, and tabouli. Soon the two lamb chops were cooked and I sliced them and Suzette sautéed the slices because they were still really rare.

When the lamb slices were cooked to medium we put slices into our pita sandwich and poured out the rest of the Portuguese wine I bought at Costco for under $10.00 and we enjoyed a pleasant light dinner.

We watched the Ken Burns documentary on Leonardo from 7:00 to 9:00 as we sipped cognac and ate a few chocolates and went to bed at 9:00, when it ended and I wrote this entry in bed while Suzette slept.

Bon Appetit

November 17, 2024 Breakfast - BLT Sandwiches Lunch - PPI Chicken Curry. Dinner - Stir Fried Vegetables with Red Pork

November 17, 2024 Breakfast - BLT Sandwiches Lunch - PPI Chicken Curry. Dinner - Stir Fried Vegetables with Red Pork 

I woke up at 7:00 and watched news programs until 10:00.

I then fried four strips of bacon and went to take a shower and Suzette took over.

When I returned to the kitchen the bacon was fried and drained. Suzette wanted a BLT, so we toasted slices of whole wheat sandwich bread and I fried two eggs and then we made our BLT. As usual mine were open faced ad Suzette’s was a standard sandwich.

After breakfast at around 10:30 we talked to Luke for a while. He is planning to come to Albuquerque for Christmas with his friend and then live in L.A. for January and February.

At 11:00 we drove to the recycling center and then Costco. Suzette bought cranberries, Collagen protein powder, smoke alarms, and brown sugar to make cookies. We bought olive oil, mushrooms, a beef roast, flowers, goat cheese, and a balsam pine wreath for Christmas decorations.   And I bought a bottle of Kirkland Gigondas and a Pinot Grigio and another package of French Chocolate Croissants plus eye vitamins and eye drops.

It was starting to rain as we left the parking lot and drove home.

When we got home I watched some football and Suzette worked until 2:30 and then we heated the PPI chicken curry Suzette thawed yesterday. It was a little spongy in texture but the flavor was good and we enhanced with our apricot chutney and I added some Swad mixed pickle.

                                                The end of the meal

We shared a Carlsberg beer.

Then I rested and napped until 4:30 when we hung the Helmuth Naumer 30 x 40 inch pastel we bought at the Santa Fe Art auction last week that we picked up on Friday over our bed. It looks great.

Suzette watched her HG TV shows and I read about the Celts until 6:00 when I started chopping vegetables for dinner. I sliced a zucchini, 1/2 of a yellow squash. 1/3 of an onion, the last four baby bok Choy, about ten sugar snap peas, four mushrooms, 1/4 of a yellow bell pepper, and some ginger, and garlic.

I also diced the approximately 1/2 lb. pork shoulder we thawed yesterday and marinated it in soy, Mirin, and Cornstarch to coat it so it would be red cooked, which gives the meat a slight crust that is a pleasant variation in texture.

Suzette fetched the wok and heated peanut oil in it and stir fried the hard vegetables and ginger and garlic

She removed them from the wok and then cooked the red pork, then she added the soft vegetables and mushrooms to the wok.

I made a seasoning sauce with sherry, soy, rice vinegar p, salt and sugar, and sesame oil that we added to the stir fry after Suzette returned the cooked hard vegetables to the wok. She covered the wok to steam everything to cook it into a lightly thickened stew. We plated some of the dish in pasta bowls.

I made green tea and Suzette drank a Negra Modelo as we watched the finale of the Marigold Murder Club on Masterpiece Theatre.

After the mystery we watched The L. A. Chargers beat the Cincinnati Bengals and talked to Willy for a while.

After we said goodbye to Willy went to bed at around 9:45.

I stayed up to watch Sophie and Luna, a very smart German detective mystery and then blogged this entry and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit 

November 16, 2024 Breakfast -Mushroom and Asparagus Omelet. Lunch - French Onion Soup for Suzette and Pasta with Chicken and Yellow squash for me. Dinner - Fabada

November 16, 2024 Breakfast -Mushroom and Asparagus Omelet.  Lunch - French Onion Soup for Suzette and Pasta with Chicken and Yellow squash for me. Dinner - Fabada 

I woke up around 7:00 and typed the rest of the book club notes and then when Suzette awakened around 8:30 I made us breakfast. I sliced 4 mushrooms, a slice of red onion, I diced 3/4 inch slices from the tops of  six or seven asparagus stalks, I cut thin slices of two green onions and sliced 8 to 10 slices of Jarlsberg cheese.

I then sautéed the red onion, asparagus, and mushrooms in 2 T. of butter and 1 T. of olive oil until cooked. While the vegetables cooked I sliced strips of Jarlsberg, two pieces of Trader Joe’s Ciabatta, filled the tea kettle and turned it on and whisked four eggs.

When the vegetables seemed be cooked, I added the egg and let it cook until it started to firm. Then I added the cheese slices and let it melt and started toasting the bread and fetched the French cherry preserves and started the water boiling . I then sprinkled the green onions on top and flipped 1/2 onto the other half by using a lift of the pan to get the 1/2 airborne so I could flip 1/2 without having to lift the egg out of the pan; just a flip. 

The result was a perfect omelet. I made chai and buttered the toast and plated 1/2 of the omelet and a piece of buttered toast on each plate and we had a wonderful breakfast.

After breakfast Suzette went shopping for Christmas trees and I sent out the book notes and started watching Kuzuo Ishiguro’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech until 10:30 when I started watching the Texas v. Arkansas football game.  Texas was ahead all the game but it was close and about 1:00 Texas went ahead 20 to 10 and won, which was went Suzette returned.

We were getting hungry and Suzette filled a French Soup crock with onion soup and I sliced two slices of Ciabatta and several slices Jarlsberg cheese that she put on top of the soup and baked the crock in the oven to melt the cheese.  I put the container of leftover pasta, chicken, and yellow squash in a pasta bowl and Suzette sauced it with PPI Cream of Asparagus soup. I then heated it and poured a glass of the open Côtes du Rhône white and I sliced two corn muffins in half that I heated and buttered and put honey on.

Suzette opened the recently purchased bottle of Portuguese red wine I bought at Costco.

After lunch i lay down to read and nap and Suzette watched HGTV home remodeling shows, which she probably will do for the next four years.

Suzette came in later and napped.

I awakened at 4:30 and walked down the block and back to get some fresh air.

When I returned at 5:00 Suzette awakened and reminded me that we had tickets for the symphony at 6:00.

We dressed and drove to Popejoy Hall at UNM. The program was The opera, Tosca, written by Puccini and premiered in 1900, sung without scenery in front of the orchestra. We are not choral music fans. The music was lovely but not lovely enough to stay past the intermission at the end of the first Act.

We drove home arriving around 7:15. We watched the end of Have I Got News for You, the new CNN comedy show. And then watched Bill Maher at 8:00 and the rest of the comedy show at 10:00. I also switched back and forth from the big game of the week, No. 11 Georgia against No. 7, Tennessee. It was 17 to 17 at the half but Georgia pulled ahead toward the end to win.

At 9:00 I heated a bowl of Fabada and a buttered corn bread muffin for my dinner. Suzette was not hungry and went to bed.

I stayed up and watched the first episode of Masterpiece Theatre’s production of Sherlock Holmes until 11:30 when I went to bed and blogged this entry.

I accumulated about 3700 steps thanks in large measure to walking three blocks from the car to Popejoy.

Bon Appetit