October 24, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Monte Carlo Steakhouse. Dinner - Dungeness crab claws with tomato, avocado, and radish slices and guacamole and deviled eggs

October 24, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Monte Carlo Steakhouse. Dinner - Dungeness crab claws with tomato, avocado, and radish slices and guacamole and deviled eggs 

We had a pleasant day. I started by watching Coventry v. Ipswich and then at 8:00 we drove to the Farmers’ Market where we bought croissants and a raisin roll.

When we returned home I watched Aston Villa best No. 1 Man City in a real upset.

Then around 11:30 we drove to El Super to buy a few more groceries. We bought green onions, plums, and tomatoes. Then I suggested that we split a green chili cheeseburger at Monte Carlo Steakhouse, which is two blocks from El Super on Central. Monte Carlo is a relic of past dining  in Albuquerque. It is probably the last surviving Greek Steakhouse which that’s dark atmosphere, Naugahyde booths, an open kitchen and next to the kitchen a full bar.

We ordered a green chili cheeseburger with fried onion rings and two Negra Modelos. The hamburger and onion rings was served in a plastic basket covered with a decorated sheet of paper with a pile of dill pickles, a slice of tomato, and a slice of onion on a pile of shredded lettuce. We would have preferred the more traditional leaf of lettuce.

The hamburger and the fried onion onion rings were wonderful, but when we put the pickles, tomato, and onion on the traditional white bread bun it began to disintegrate in our hand, which made it difficult to eat. We split the hamburger which was of sufficient size to share. We were surprised when the bill was delivered that every aspect of the hamburger, such as onion rings, the garnish, and green chili were à la carte, and our simple lunch was $29.11.

I asked for the TV to be turned to the TCU v. West Virginia game on the TV near our booth at the restaurant and that was done.

Even knowing everything is à la carte, we will probably go back for the ambiance.

We returned home and Suzette napped and I dozed in front of TV in our large comfortable rocker with my feet resting on the ottoman and watched a number of upsets among the top 10 college teams, starting with the West Virginia v. TCU game, which TCU lost because it was unable to score on its last drive.

Then Auburn upset No.1 Georgia and LSU beat No. 6 Alabama, then Texas beat No. 7 Ole Miss. 

Other upsets included:

Another wild weekend of college football action around the country is in the books, and we must now wait for the updated AP Top 25 rankings ahead of Week 9.

This week, we saw No. 2 BYU fall to unranked UCF in double-overtime, No. 8 Texas Tech lose to unranked CIncinnati, No. 11 Tennessee lost to unranked South Carolina on a last-second field goal, No. 15 Iowa lose to unranked Minnesota, and No. 16 USC get steamrolled by unranked Wisconsin.

From 2:30 until 5:30 I edited my Motion to the COA while Suzette prepared dinner. We had bought Dungeness crab claws at Costco on Thursday. We usually combine a meal of cold salad with eating and picking the crab claws, then Suzette makes crab broth, and we have a quantity of crab meat available for a crab soufflé and crab cake dinners and sometimes a crab salad. Tonight was no exception. Suzette sliced tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, and radishes and served them on a bed of lettuce. She made an anchovy guacamole and a dozen anchovy and herb flavored deviled eggs. Everything was wonderful and we drank Gruet Pinot Noir champagne with dinner.

It was an especially unusual experience to walk from editing a legal document at my desk to the dining table in the TV room filled with all the wonderful foods and glasses of champagne, because I usually am involved in preparing dinner, but I loved it.

After dinner we watched Texas beat Ole Miss, Bill Maher, and Have I got News for You and Father Brown and the second game of the World Series.

Then after Milwaukee won the game Suzette went to bed.

I stayed up to watch the last upset of the day, when Utah University beat Houston and New Mexico beat North Dakota State. New Mexico finally has a competitive football team.

I went to bed at midnight.

Bon Appetit

 24, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Monte Carlo Steakhouse. Dinner - Dungeness crab claws with tomato, avocado, and radish slices and guacamole and deviled eggs 

We had a pleasant day. I started by watching Coventry v. Ipswich and then at 8:00 we drove to the Farmers’ Market where we bought croissants and a raisin roll.

When we returned home I watched Aston Villa best No. 1 Man City in a real upset.

Then around 11:30 we drove to El Super to buy a few more groceries. We bought green onions, plums, and tomatoes. Then I suggested that we split a green chili cheeseburger at Monte Carlo Steakhouse, which is two blocks from El Super on Central. Monte Carlo is a relic of past dining  in Albuquerque. It is probably the last surviving Greek Steakhouse which that’s dark atmosphere, Naugahyde booths, an open kitchen and next to the kitchen a full bar.

We ordered a green chili cheeseburger with fried onion rings and two Negra Modelos. The hamburger and onion rings was served in a plastic basket covered with a decorated sheet of paper with a pile of dill pickles, a slice of tomato, and a slice of onion on a pile of shredded lettuce. We would have preferred the more traditional leaf of lettuce.

The hamburger and the fried onion onion rings were wonderful, but when we put the pickles, tomato, and onion on the traditional white bread bun it began to disintegrate in our hand, which made it difficult to eat. We split the hamburger which was of sufficient size to share. We were surprised when the bill was delivered that every aspect of the hamburger, such as onion rings, the garnish, and green chili were à la carte, and our simple lunch was $29.11.

I asked for the TV to be turned to the TCU v. West Virginia game on the TV near our booth at the restaurant and that was done.

Even knowing everything is à la carte, we will probably go back for the ambiance.

We returned home and Suzette napped and I dozed in front of TV in our large comfortable rocker with my feet resting on the ottoman and watched a number of upsets among the top 10 college teams, starting with the West Virginia v. TCU game, which TCU lost because it was unable to score on its last drive.

Then Auburn upset No.1 Georgia and LSU beat No. 6 Alabama, then Texas beat No. 7 Ole Miss. 

Other upsets included:

Another wild weekend of college football action around the country is in the books, and we must now wait for the updated AP Top 25 rankings ahead of Week 9.

This week, we saw No. 2 BYU fall to unranked UCF in double-overtime, No. 8 Texas Tech lose to unranked CIncinnati, No. 11 Tennessee lost to unranked South Carolina on a last-second field goal, No. 15 Iowa lose to unranked Minnesota, and No. 16 USC get steamrolled by unranked Wisconsin.

From 2:30 until 5:30 I edited my Motion to the COA while Suzette prepared dinner. We had bought Dungeness crab claws at Costco on Thursday. We usually combine a meal of cold salad with eating and picking the crab claws, then Suzette makes crab broth, and we have a quantity of crab meat available for a crab soufflé and crab cake dinners and sometimes a crab salad. Tonight was no exception. Suzette sliced tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, and radishes and served them on a bed of lettuce. She made an anchovy guacamole and a dozen anchovy and herb flavored deviled eggs. Everything was wonderful and we drank Gruet Pinot Noir champagne with dinner.

It was an especially unusual experience to walk from editing a legal document at my desk to the dining table in the TV room filled with all the wonderful foods and glasses of champagne, because I usually am involved in preparing dinner, but I loved it.

After dinner we watched Texas beat Ole Miss, Bill Maher, and Have I got News for You and Father Brown and the second game of the World Series.

Then after Milwaukee won the game Suzette went to bed.

I stayed up to watch the last upset of the day, when Utah University beat Houston and New Mexico beat North Dakota State. New Mexico finally has a competitive football team.

I went to bed at midnight.

Bon Appetit

October 23, 2026 Breakfast -Man on an Island. Lunch - Beef Enchiladas. Dinner - Eggplant Parmesan and Spaghetti

October 23, 2026 Breakfast -Man on an Island. Lunch - Beef Enchiladas. Dinner - Eggplant Parmesan and Spaghetti

It was a pleasant day.  I made a Man on an Island with a slice of South Valley Sourdough and an egg for breakfast.

Then Suzette and I rode in the neighborhood 

I worked at my desk until 12:45 when I made beef enchiladas with three tortillas, ground beef, red onions, requeson, Valeciana hot sauce, and covered them with sour cream. Then Suzette sauce was old and not very tasty but I accomplished my mission of using up the requeson and eating lunch while I watched the Ipswich and Nottingham Forest PL fixture.

Suzette came home at 3:00 and at 3:30 we drove to El Super and bought limes, lemons, broccoli, and a cucumber.

We then drove to Walgreen’s where we bought Vaseline and baby oil and each got our Covid and flu booster shots.

I rested for about 25 minutes and then we discussed dinner as we watched the news.  

Dinner - we decided to make Eggplant Parmesan with Spaghetti because Suzette had bought a rosa Blanca eggplant at the Los Lunas farmer’s market last Tuesday and Thursday we bought Fresh mozzarella cheese at Costco for the dish.

To complete the dish we needed to make a Spaghetti sauce, so at 5:30 I started by mincing three small organic onions, four cloves of garlic, three Roma tomatoes and three regular tomatoes and six or seven portobello mushrooms.

Suzette went to the garden and picked oregano and basil and stripped the leaves. Then she sautéed the onions and garlic in a large casserole, added the tomatoes and finally the mushrooms, a 6 oz. can of tomato. Paste, and the herbs and cooked the sauce for an hour or two.

When the spaghetti sauce was cooked. Suzette sliced the eggplant up into 1/2 inch slices and layered them with slices of mozzarella and Spahetti sauce in a ceramic baking dish and baked the eggplant Dish 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven, which turned out to not be long enough to fully cook all the eggplant slices.

While the eggplant was cooking Suzette cooked a lb. of spaghetti.

She then plated a swirl of Spahetti in a pasta bowl and added several slices of the eggplant dish and I grated about 2/3 cup of fresh Parmesan cheese that Suzette garnished the dishes with.

I poured out the last half bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon Johal gave us when we visited him in May. It was slightly oxidized but still very drinkable and pleasant with the eggplant Parmesan.

Neither of us was hungry. Suzette had eaten beef stew for liunch and I had eaten the beef enchiladas and the de eggplant was only partially cooked, so we nibbled at the edge of our large bowls and then stored the rest to be reheated and more thoroughly cooked tomorrow.

We watched game one of the World Series, which the Brewers won, suzette put up the remaining spaghetti sauce and eggplant Parmesan and we went to bed around 10:00 after game one.

Bon Appetit

October 22, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Cassoulet and Tomato and lettuce salad. Dinner - Grilled trout, Cottage Fries, and Sautéed Bell Peppers and Zucchini

October 22, 2026  Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Cassoulet and Tomato and lettuce salad. Dinner - Grilled trout, Cottage Fries, and Sautéed Bell Peppers and Zucchini

I slept until 7:00. I watched the devastation of high tech shares unfold with a pain au chocolate and a latte machiatta.

Then I dressed and accompanied Suzette for a meeting with her financial advisor that lasted frm 9:00 to 11:00.

We then drove to Costco and bought 12 white wines to replenish.

Then we drove home and Suzette heated the leftover cassoulet and added lettuce to the Caprese salad from last night that we ate for lunch.

Suzette then drove to Lowe’s to buy plants while I stayed home and watched a EUFA match between Bournemouth and AC Milan that Bournemouth won.

From 3:00 to 5:00 I edited my Motion.

Then we started dinner it was rather elaborate: stuffed grilled trout, Cottage fries, and sautéed Zucchini, garlic, onion, and bell peppers. We stuffed the stomachs of each trout with a mixture of fresh minced parsley from the garden, butter and minced green onion.

When everything was ready I opened one of the bottles we bought and chilled, a Spanish white that was 80% Verdejo and 20% Godella from Leon. It was really delicious but I found it more interesting as I sipped it after dinner ($7.99 at Costco).

Later as we watched Midsomer Mysteries Suzette heated, buttered, and spread strawberry jam on a slice of the quince olive bread she made rhat I ate with a cognac and Grand Marnier.

Suzette went to bed at 9:30 and I tried to stay up for Signori Volpe and went to bed after I blogged this entry at 11:30.

Today was the worst loss of my portfolio as oil went up, shipments through the Straits of Hormuz are down, the war in Iran is expanding, and Trump is threatening to start bombing after the mid-term elections, down 3.66%.

Bon Appetit

October 21, 2026 Breakfast - Granola. Lunch - East Ocean. Dinner - Grilled T-bone steak with Sautéed Delicata Squash and Mushrooms and Shishito Peppers and Caprese

October 21, 2026 Breakfast - Granola. Lunch - East Ocean. Dinner - Grilled T-bone steak with Sautéed Delicata Squash and Mushrooms and Shishito Peppers and Caprese Salad

It was a busy day of errands. Because the new printer is still not working I had to do things manually, although I amended by insurance policy on the telephone and bought five more shares of Micron after breakfast in the morning before showering and dressing.

I ate granola with milk, yogurt, and a diced plum for breakfast and watched the market open positive. Today was a day when everyone was a genius because almost everything closed up. My portfolio was up 1.68%.

At 11:00 I drove to Schwab and transferred the shares in the custody of Computershare to my Schwab account which took over an hour of completing and signing forms for each stock.

Then I drove to Wells Fargo to deposit my check from the Warher Brothers Discovery sale to Oracle.

At 1:00 I drove to East Ocean and ordered one of my favorites, Deep Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables in a Mandarin Sauce with rice. I love this dish because it contains 10 different stir fried vegetables; mushrooms, water chestnuts, baby corn, Bok Choy, onion, snow peas, broccoli, bamboo shoots, carrots, and zucchini.  I also like the egg drop soup that is made fresh m chicken instead of some dry mix.

                                                   My favorite waitress multitasking

I could only eat 1/3, so I boxed the rest in a take out container.

Then I drove to Shahin’s and went through several tax matters.

Then I drove to Half-life to try to collect the rent but David and Nikelle were out on a shoot.

Then, I drove to Smith’s and bought; milk, grapes, hamburger meat, orange juice, sheep milk Gouda, trout, green onions, and yogurt. I forgot to buy shallots and sugar.

I drove to Bosque Bakery and bought a loaf of South Valley Sourdough and a rustic baguette, arriving home at 3:24, six minutes before meditation. I meditated from 3:30 to 4:00 and then rested for about 1/2 hour. 

I joined Suzette for cocktails and a discussion of our dinner menu.

We decided to grill the thawed T-bone steak and sauté mushrooms and the baked delicata squash and shishito peppers and make a Caprese Salad.

Suzette diced the baked delicata squash and I sliced five portobello mushroom and about 1/T. of red onion, and stripped the leaves from several stalks of French thyme and sautéed those ingredients while Suzette made the Caprese Salad with chopped fresh basil from the garden, the red and yellow tomato she bought at the Los Lunas Farmer’s market, red onion, feta cheese and a balsamic and olive oil dressing.

I opened the bottle of Merlot Johal gave us, made from the grapes growing on his property in Green Valley. The wine was delicious with the steak. Merlot is the main grape used to make St. Emillon wine in Bordeaux and my favorite wine with steak.

Suzette grilled the steak to between medium rare and medium. It was a large thick steak, so we only ate the smaller filet side.

I sautéed the mushrooms and delicata for about twenty minutes so the delicata browned and developed a crunchy caramelized crust on one side.  I sautéed the shishito peppers in a separate skillet until their skin was evenly blistered on all sides and tender.

The Caprese Salad was terrific with the last great tomatoes of this year and the wonderful olive oil we bought in France.

We ate at the table outside on the patio in the pleasantly warm evening air.

Later I ate some of the red grapes and blogged while Suzette slept.

Bon Appetit