February 5, 2026 Breakfast - Granola Lunch - Mary and Tito’s Dinner - Vara

February 5, 2026 Breakfast - Granola Lunch - Mary and Tito’s Dinner - Vara 

I  watched the second or third day of the tech meltdown spread to the entire market and then dressed and around 9:00 ate a bowl of tropical fruit salad, granola, milk, and mango yogurt, and started reading the Earn refund documents.  It occurred to me that it would be better for several reasons for me to fund the refund from my personal assets rather then my IRA, including stepped up basis, ordinary income tax on IRA distributors, and the fact that I had available money in my personal accounts to fund the refund without selling any stock.

I called Wayne to confirm and he agreed, so I then revised the documents to transfer the warrant from my IRA to me personally.

The morning went smoothly with calls with a client regarding his case.

Finally by 12:30 I sent out the draft documents and started calling Aaron to see if we were still planning to meet for lunch.

Finally around 1:15 when I called Aaron’s number Monica answered and told me Aaron was not well, so I drove to Mary and Tito’s for lunch.

By 1:30 there were several open booths, so I did not wait. Soon I ordered my usual, Blue Corn Enchiladas with double beans, extra onions, ground beef, an egg over easy, and red chili. All this plus a flour tortilla and chips and salsa and a fresh flower bouquet on the table for $10.95. I love Mary and Tito’s refried beans, red chili, and prices, so it is my favorite New Mexican restaurant in Albuquerque and the fact that it is near my house is a plus. I ate the entire platter of food because it was so delicious and because I was hungry.

After lunch I drove home and check my portfolio. It had suffered a .93% loss. Painful, but not the disaster of yesterday.

At 3:00 Suzette arrived and after another long phone call we drove up to an estate sale near Paseo and Wyoming. Suzette bought several items, including two lovely Chinese fabric lanterns, and I found a soy sauce pourer.

After we loaded our purchases we drove to Vara and ordered two flights. Suzette ordered whites Prius the newly Zero, which is a slightly sweeter reimagined Sauvage by Laurent and I ordered a red flight. I liked the media and really liked the Tinto, but hated the Zingara (an attempt to create a Southern Rhone blend).

After we selected our wines, the waitress asked, “Are you here for Paella. Thursday is paella night.”

We immediately said “Yes.”, and ordered a small paella for $25.00. A large is $50”00. The paella was moist with lots of flavor dotted with shrimp, small sausage balls, strips of red pepper and mussels.

We both enjoyed it and took half of it home.

When we arrived at home around 6:30 we watched news until 8:00 when we watched Midsomer Mystery.

Suzette fetched the last fruitcake and we ate slices of it for dessert.

We went to bed at 10:00.

Bon Appetit

February 4, 2026 Breakfast Toasted Panetonne Lunch - Leftover Enchiladas and beans. Dinner - Leftover Chirashi and cold Potage

February 4, 2026 Breakfast Toasted Panetonne Lunch -  Leftover Enchiladas and beans. Dinner - Leftover Chirashi and cold Potage

Today was interesting. I did not want to eat fruit for breakfast again, so I toasted a slice of Panettone and spread berry preserves on it.

Then I drove to my doctor’s appointment at 10:00.

At 10:30 after the appointment I drove to A-1 Oriental Market, a Japanese grocery store, at the corner of San Pedro and Montgomery bought curry sauce for Aaron and garlic chives to garnish the potato soup. I then drove across the street to Qud’s Mediterranean market where I bought ground lamb, a container of labni, and six pita

I then drove home and at 11:30 ate the leftover enchiladas and beans from our lunch at Padilla’s on Monday with a toasted flour tortilla.

I then filed a change of Registered Agent form for a company with the Secretary of State.

When the market closed I checked my portfolio and it was down 1.66%, a dramatic loss driven by weakness throughout the tech sector.

I then went to pick up a rent check and then at 3:30 meditated until 4:00 when I lay down and watched Ari and the news.

Suzette came home at 5:00 hungry so we ate a simple dinner of leftover chirashi from lunch yesterday and a bowl of potato soup with  a generous handful of minced garlic chives.

It was a filling but light dinner.

I lay down at 7:00 after the news to blog and read.

Bon Appetit

February 2, 2026 Breakfast - Granola. Lunch - Padilla’s Mexican Kitchen, Dinner - Warm Smoked Pork Chop and Potato Salad

February 2, 2026 Breakfast - Granola. Lunch - Padilla’s Mexican Kitchen,  Dinner - Warm Smoked Pork Chop and Potato Salad

I woke up around 6:00 after a bad night’s sleep and dressed and ate a bowl of granola with milk, mango yogurt, and tropical fruit salad. At 9:15 i lay down for a short 1 hour nap and felt better.

Then at 11:00 I picked up Janine and drove to Mary and Tito’s only to find out that it closes the first Monday of the month.

So I drove to Padilla’s Mexican kitchen on Girard near Indian School.

Almost as soon as we sat down Dee Silva, one of Mrs. Page’s best friends, came over and had a long talk with Janine.

I think Janine instantly liked Padilla’s.

Janine ordered a sopapilla stuffed with beans and meat smothered with green chili.

I ordered blue corn enchiladas with meat and double beans and red chili. Janine ate all of her dish but I took half home to leave room for Padilla’s wonderful sopapillas.

After lunch we drove to my house and were able to read the memory drive that Janine bought an adapter to use in a USB port, but found little additional information.

Janine mentioned that there were several properties in Barbara’s name that had a location at 110th St. and Central, so I looked up the location and found the parcels and printed their location from the Assessor’s map for Janine.

After I drove her back to her ABNB, I returned home and checked the market. It was a tough day in the market with wild swings up and down. For example, Nvidia went down $5.52, while Apple went up $10.53. These two stocks’ moves almost netted both to zero. So my portfolio has a small .3% gain.

At 3:00 I walked around the block to get some air. When I returned I read my new book club book, Stella Maris, and rested until 4:00 when I watched the news until 5:00.

Suzette came in and asked what I wanted for dinner and I said, “Salad”.

So Suzette chopped and sautéed a smoked pork chop and one of the baked potatoes and hard boiled an egg and made a lovely salad. I diced a tomato and 1/2 of a cucumber and Suzette added slices of red onion and pickled beet chunks and torn green leaf lettuce to the salad. I really enjoyed the warm salad. I drank water and Suzette drank Pinot Grigio.

After dinner we lay down until 7:00 when the Antiques Roadshow came on. 

Bon Appetit

January 31, 2026 Breakfast - Shrimp Omelet. Lunch - Chicken Sandwich. Dinner - Potage

 January 31, 2026 Breakfast - Shrimp Omelet. Lunch - Chicken Sandwich. Dinner - Potage

The food got progressively simpler as the day went on.

I slept until 8:45 and then watched three or four PL soccer matches, Arsenal hammered Leeds 4 to 0, then I watched some of west Ham v. Chelsea that came back from a 2 goal deficit to win 3 to 2 that resulted in a scuffle at the end as the loss places West Ham facing relegation, then the end of the Brighton v. Everton which Everton tied 1 to 1 in the last few seconds of added time, and finally a wild but convincing win by Liverpool over Newcastle 4 to 1. In the midst of all this around 9:00 Suzette made a lovely omelet with leftover shrimp and the leftover mushrooms, leeks, and spinach from last night’s dinner.

This was the best and most elaborate meal of the day.

After that Suzette went shopping for three hours to find a dresser for a new tenant.

At 12:30 I walked a mile in the neighborhood and then rested until Suzette arrived, when Suzette sliced a chicken breast, a tomato, and an avocado and fetched the gourmet salad greens and Mayo and toasted two halves of a baguette each. We each spread Mayo and then I lay a slice of tomato, then chicken breast, then a pile of lettuce, and finally slices of avocado.

We drank a Dos Equis and we ate potato chips with the sandwiches.

Dinner - 

Then I lay sliced six cups of leek and 8 cups of russet potatoes and cooked them in a large casserole With 2 T. of Knorr chicken stock. 

Then I went to bed and napped until 4:15 when I walked around the block which helped me get to over 5000/steps today.

We ate bowls of soup for dinner with glasses of the bottle of Côtes du Rhone with the small bird on the wine label.

Hill Maher and Have I Got News for You completed the evening’s entertainment.

Bon Appetit

February 1, 2026 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel. Lunch - Lamb Kebab Pita Sandwich. Dinner - Grilled Lamb Chops and Asparagus with Roasted Potatoes and Carrots.

February 1, 2026 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel. Lunch - Lamb Kebab Pita Sandwich. Dinner - Grilled Lamb Chops and Asparagus with Roasted Potatoes and Carrots.

Today was very interesting. I dug into dematerialization deeper and watched several exciting soccer matches. In the first match Brentford beat No. 3 Aston Villa 1 to 0 at Aston Villa, which has not occurred in the last 90 years. Then I watched No. 2 Man City’s 2 goal lead at halftime evaporate as Tottenham came back to tie the match at 2 to 2.

I toasted a Wonder bread bagel that tasted surprisingly tasty and smeared cream cheese and added slices of thinly cut red onion, thicker cut Gravad lax, and capers.

Around 10:30 Janine, Mrs. Page’s granddaughter, arrived and we went to the garage and found the file she wanted after looking at many boxes of files that were not helpful.

After Janine left around 1:30 I cut the lamb kabob in half and made  two pita pocket sandwiches with creamy feta and gourmet lettuce plus two Polish pickles and about a dozen Kalamata olives.

Then I helped Suzette load a dresser into her Highlander and then worked at my desk until 3:30 when I rode my bike around the neighborhood that accumulated 3700 steps. I reached 4790 by the End of the day.

Dinner - At 5:00 we started cooking dinner. The menu was Roasted potatoes and carrots dusted with chopped mint and Grilled Asparagus and lamb chops dusted with ground fresh rosemary.

Suzette chopped and roasted the root vegetables. I went to the garden and picked a handful of mint and two sprigs of rosemary. I minced the mint and pulled the pedals from the rosemary stalk and snapped a dozen asparagus. This time Suzette added the mint with the olive oil and salt before roasting, which produces a soft almost sauce like result as the mint clung to the vegetables.

Suzette took it from there, grilling the lamb and asparagus.

I opened the bottle of 2024 Justice Pinot Noir I recently bought at Costco. It was a pleasant Pinot without much bitterness on the finish.

I opened a new bottle of homemade mint jelly that I like with lamb.

We had a delicious meal and then watched Miss Fisher, Miss Scarlet, the Grammy’s and Bookish.

I ate some brie with sips of Pinot after dinner and later I took a sip of Calvados with two chocolates and Suzette sipped a cognac.

Finally I drank a cup of tea with a chocolate chocolate chip cookie.

We went to bed at 11:00.

Bon Appetit