February 10, 2026 Breakfast - Vietnamese Noodle Soup. Lunch - Steak Salad. Dinner - Leftover Moussaka and Calabacitas

February 10, 2026 Breakfast - Vietnamese Noodle Soup. Lunch - Steak Salad. Dinner - Leftover Moussaka and Calabacitas

Today was a day of eating leftovers and ingredients that will perish in our absence.

I ate the leftover Virtnamese noodle soup for breakfast.

At 10:00 I walked the long circle.

The pinball machine repairman came at 11:00 to repair and clean the machine.

At noon I made a steak salad with green leaf lettuce, some red onion, a bag of diced cucumber and tomato, a diced tomato, the leftover bits of steak cubed and about 3 oz. of Humboldt Fog goat cheese. Imade a simple Dijonnaise dressing with red wine vinegar, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, dry tarragon, 1/2 clove of garlic minced, and olive oil with a warm pita.

I watched the USA women’s hockey team decimate the Canadian team and watched the market close. There was a slight pull back today. My portfolio was down a slight .4%.

Then I worked on my Earn transaction and called Aaron who came by to sign documents and pick up a check until 4:30 with about 15 minutes of meditation from 3:45 until 4:00.

At 5:00 I walked around the block with Willy that helped me accumulate more than 5300 steps.

Then at 6:00 Suzette heated up the leftover moussaka for our third meal of it and also heated up the leftover calabacitas.

I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of Chateau Rodiers from St. Emilion that we served with dinner.

We watched a finding Your Roots at 7:00 and then packed and went to bed by 9:00.

Bon Appetit

February 9, 2026 Breakfast - Granola Lunch - Vietnamese Noodle Soup with Wontons Dinner - Leftover Moussaka with salad

February 9, 2026 Breakfast - Granola  Lunch - Vietnamese Noodle Soup with Wontons  Dinner - Leftover Moussaka with salad

I woke up at 7:00 and saw that the tech rally was still going, so I got dressed and ate a bowl of granola with milk, mango yogurt and Blueberries while watching the women’s stunt skiing.

I then completed typing the discussion notes and grades for One for the Blackbird, one for the Crow and sent it to the book club members.

Then at 10:00 I drove to Costco to pick up a prescription and bought sardines and chicken bone broth for Willy and razor blades, Lubriderm, and glucose tablets for me. I left my hearing aids for changing and forgot to pick them up until I reached the I-40 off ramp at 12th St.

So I returned to Costco a second time to pick them up.

This added effort helped me accumulate over 4200 steps today.

It also tired me so I took a glucose pill when I arrived at Costco the second time.

When I finally returned home around 11:30. I rested and watched Canada women decimate Chechnya 5 or 6 to 0. 

I had invited Peter for lunch and around 12:15 he let me know he might arrive around 12:45 instead of 1:00, so I began preparing lunch.

I started by reheating the chicken and pork broth from my lunch at Lime a couple of days ago to which I added two bundles of dry rice vermicelli noodles, beef steak, water, and Knorr dehydrated chicken stock to increase the volume of soup and noodles.

Then after 20 minutes, when the noodles had cooked, I added the leftover noodles and wontons from Lime and then I chopped and added the last four or five garlic chives plus two green onions thinly sliced.

I fetched a can of condensed sweetened milk and made cups of coffee and made a iced Vietnamese Coffee for each of us.

We each ate two bowls of the soup and then after lunch I made a dessert plate for each of us with a slice of Suzette’s fruit cake and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Peter complemented Suzette on the fruit cake and left around 1:45.

I then watched the U.S. women decimate the Swiss Women’s hockey team 4 or 5 to 0.

I checked my portfolio around 2:30 and it was up 1%. Gold was up again today to over $5,000 per ounce again.

I then opened mail and called Wells Advisors to schedule a charitable donation to the ACLU as part of my 2026 RMD.

 

I then watched Ari and mote Olympics until when Suzette arrived.

Dinner - After a short rest Suzette began preparing dinner.

It was a simple menu. She reheated three portions of the Moussaka we made on Saturday. I tore green leaf lettuce and diced a hard boiled egg and added the leftover Mediterranean salad we made for the moussaka dinner Saturday evening and made a simple Dijonnaise dressing with red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, a pinch of salt, and olive oil.

Willy joined us for Moussaka and salad.  We drank water.

After dinner we watched the Antiques Roadshow until 9:00 when Suzette went to sleep.

I then filled in and filed the Wells Advisors form to make the ACLU donation. At 10:30 I went to bed to blog and sleep.

Bon Appetit

February 7, 2026 Breakfast - Red Cabbage, red onion, tomato, and garlic chive, Jarlsberg cheese omelet with toast and a sausage patty.Lunch - Sautéed Pot Stickers Dinner - Moussaka with Mediterranean Salad with Mike and Joy

February 7, 2026 Breakfast - Red Cabbage, red onion, tomato, and garlic chive, Jarlsberg cheese omelet with toast and a sausage patty.Lunch - Sautéed Pot Stickers  Dinner - Moussaka with Mediterranean Salad with Mike and Joy

I woke up at 6:00 and watched Man United beat Tottenham 2 to 0.

At 8:00 Suzette went to work to manage the big garage sale until around 1:30

At 9:00 I fixed breakfast for Willy and me. I sautéed two patty sausages, toasted two slices of bread on the stove, and made an omelet filled with sautéed red onion, red cabbage tomato, slices of Jarlsberg cheese, and garlic chives.

Then I watched an exciting match between Everton and Fulham that Everton won and finally a very exciting fixture between Newcastle and Brentford that Brentford won.

I also switched channels to watch some Winter Olympics Coverage.

Then at 12:30 I drove to El Super to buy eggplants for the moussaka dish we were making for dinner. I also bought avocados, cilantro, lemons, limes, Nixon’s, tomatoes, a cucumber, eggs, a head of green leaf lettuce, green onions, and snow peas.

When I returned home I was ready to eat some lunch and so was Willy and Suzette arrived, so I suggested sautéing pot stickers. I heated some peanut oil and sesame oil in a skillet and placed about 14 or 15 frozen pot stickers in the skillet and turned them every three minutes until they started brown a bit and it appeared that the outer shell of dough was cooked. While they were cooking I made a dipping sauce by combining soy, sriracha, and about 1/3 cup of minced garlic chives,

I drank a beer with my lunch.

The I watched the women’s hockey group play between Canada and Switzerland, which Canada won with two power play goals.

At 4:00 Suzette was ready to start cooking dinner because the moussaka needed to bake for 1 1/2 hours and we had invited Mike and Joy for dinner at 6:00.

Suzette had thawed the ground lamb I bought two days ago.

I chopped a medium red onion and two cloves of garlic while Suzette sliced potatoes to create a layer on the bottom of a baking dish and the two eggplants to create two layers of eggplant.

Suzette then partially baked the potatoes and eggplant slices in the oven to soften them and while they were cooking, sautéed the lamb, onions, garlic, and seasonings, including, sugar, salt, and cloves.

Then Suzette made about four cups of Béchamel sauce to which we added fresh grated nutmeg. I grated 3.25 ounces of Pecorino-Romano cheese for the moussaka.

She then constructed the moussaka by pouring a layer of Béchamel on the baked potato layer. Then a layer of eggplant slices, then a layer of sautéed lamb, then another layer of eggplant slices, then the rest of the Bechamel, and finally she covered the top with the grated Cheese.

While Suzette was assembling the moussaka I prepared the Mediterranean salad. I went to the garden and picked five or six sprigs of fresh oregano and de-stemmed and minced the leaves. I then peeled, seeded and diced a cucumber. I diced a tomato, the last cup of pickled beets and red onion, another 2 oz. of fresh red onion and about 20 pitted Kalamata olives. I combined all of these ingredients and added about 1/2 tsp. of salt and refrigerated them for an hour. Then when Mike and Joy arrived I cubed the 1/2 lb. of feta I had bought at Cafe Istanbul and added the cheese to the salad and Suzette drizzled the salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

At 5:30 I walked with Willy to 16th and back and that one block walk combined with my shopping and moving around the house resulted in 4300 steps for the day.

Mike and Joy arrived a few minutes before 6:00 and since the moussaka needed to cook until 6:30 we served dolmas and poured glasses of the 2023 Purcari Chateau Romanian red wine made with rara  neagra Saperavi grapes that Monica gave us at the Romanian dinner we ate at Aaron and her house with their Romanian friends at Christmas. It was delicious, a very refined smooth wine. Romania straddles the 40th parallel, which is similar to the 45th parallel of latitude of Bordeaux and the Willamette Valley, which seems to be ideal for growing grapes.

When the moussaka was ready Suzette plated squares of moussaka and salad and we enjoyed dinner.

After dinner I made dessert by putting scoops of vanilla ice cream in a parfait Dish drizzled with chocolate syrup and garnished with fresh blueberries and slices of halvah and Suzette’s fruitcake.

I poured cognac and we talked until 9:00 when we said goodnight and went to bed.

Bon Appetit

February 6, 2026 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel. Lunch - No. 16 at Lime Dinner - Paella and Potage

February 6, 2026 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel. Lunch - No. 16 at Lime Dinner - Paella and Potage 

I woke up at 8:00 and dressed and helped Suzette load a couple of heavy items into the Highlander.

Then I watched the market take off. It almost recovered all of the losses of the last three days by the close. My portfolio had its best day ever, gaining 3.58% and finishing within .344% of its level four days ago.

It was like somewhere someone turned a switch to risk on from risk off.

At 9:00 I toasted two slices of bagel and spread them with cream cheese and I sliced the last of the lax and several slices of red onion and tomato and garnished the bagels with them and a few capers and drank hot tea and reveled in the rapid ascendancy of the market. The Dow ended up over 1200 points and the NASDAQ ended up 490 points.

Gold and Bitcoin were up also.

I talked to Scott for a while and then Aaron called and said he was available for lunch. We decided to meet at Lime for No. 16, our new favorite dish, a bowl of chicken soup with egg vermicelli noodles and wontons and pork.

Aaron ate only about 1/2 of his and I ate even less, so we each took soup home.

After lunch I drove to Cafe Istanbul and bought feta cheese, dolmas, z’atar for Suzette, and a large bottle of cracked green olives.

Then I drove to Smith’s on Carlisle where I bought milk, a baguette, a can of condensed milk, bread crumbs, and six bone in rib steaks on digital special at $6.99/lb.

When I returned home I was tired and ate an apple and rested until Suzette arrived at around 3:30. We were both hungry so we decided to add leftover shrimp and chicken and a diced smoked pork chop that we sautéed to the paella left from last night’s dinner at Vara and share the paella as an early dinner.

I opened the bottle of Finger Lake Seneca rose and Suzette drank a Negra Modelo. The paella went from mostly seasoned rice to mostly meat with bits of rice. 

After dinner I walked around the block that got me to nearly 4000 steps. Suzette rested because she had already accumulated 7500 steps today.

Aaron called to tell me at 4:30 that Tall Grass has approved my request to transfer the Earn warrant from my IRA account to me individually. I think buying the $130,000 of shares and funding the warrant individually rather than in my IRA will greatly reduce the tax burden on my heirs, when I die, mainly because the sale of the shares will not be taxed if sold at a price close to the stepped basis value and avoid being taxed at ordinary income tax rates because they will not be distributed from my IRA.

We watched the news and then at 7:00 watched the Opening Ceremony for the Winter Olympics from Milan and Cortina, Italy until 9:30 when the torches were lit and Suzette went to bed.

I ate a bowl of warm Potage with minced garlic chives during the ceremony at around 8:30 and drank a cup of chai at 9:45 and went to bed to blog at 10:00.

Bon Appetit