August 12, 2026. Breakfast - Granola Lunch - Mary and Tito’s Dinner - Grilled Rib Steak with roasted new potatoes and Cucumber, tomato, and onion Salad

August 12, 2026. Breakfast - Granola  Lunch - Mary and Tito’s  Dinner - Grilled      Rib Steak with roasted new potatoes and Cucumber, tomato, and onion Salad

I worked from 3:00 until 6:00 and went back to sleep until 8:00.

I ate granola with milk, blueberries and yogurt around 8:30.

Then dressed and drove to a meeting at the Utton Center in the Law School building.

After the meeting I drove to Mary and Tito’s for lunch. I arrived a couple of minutes after 11:00 when it opened and there already were diners at almost every table. I ordered my usual, corn tortillas with beef and an egg, double beans, red chili, and extra chopped onions. 

After lunch I finished editing the Reply and thawed a rib steak and checked the market after it closed at 2:00. I gained .75%, about 1/2 of what I lost yesterday. 

I called Willy to tell him packages had been delivered for him and invited him to dinner. I then lay down until 4:00, when Suzette arrived.

We watched the news and discussed dinner and Suzette filled a tray with fresh figs cut criss cross at the top and inserted with dabs of goat cheese and sprinkled with chopped pinon nuts, doused with balsamic vinegar that we ate as appetizers, during the meal, and for dessert.

 We decided quickly to grill the steak with several of the larger new potatoes from the garden, but we lacked any green vegetable. Since we had a bag of lovely ripe fresh tomatoes from the Center and our garden, Suzette suggested a tomato, cucumber, and red onion salad. I prepared the salad while Suzette grilled the steak and potatoes that she had sliced and doused with olive oil and homemade basil salt and wrapped in aluminum foil.

Willy arrived at 7:00 as the grilled steak was resting and Suzette was dressing the salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I sliced the steak and Suzette divided the roasted potato slices and salad among three plates and I sliced the steak and we each selected slices of steak.

Suzette selected one of the bottles of merlot Johal gave us when we visited the family in Fairfield produced from grapes grown on their property. It had a rich taste and appealing flavor but a slightly acidic finish. As we ate and after the meal when we sipped with squares of the artisanal Ecuadorean dark chocolate Willy and Luke gave me for my birthday in July, the finish smoothed out and it tasted better.

Willy then helped us in two important ways. My Iphone was not charging well, so Willy cleaned out the collected dirt from the opening in the phone in which the charger fit with a wooden toothpick, which allowed the charger to make proper contact. As Suzette said, “Many what appear to be malfunctions can be fixed by cleaning.” She gave the example of the microwave on which the sensor reheat function stopped. Rather than buying a new microwave, she cleaned accumulated food and grease from the top of the cooking compartment and the microwave has worked perfectly since.

Then the second wonderful help from Willy provided was when suzette was trying to access the Hulu series Murders in the Building with Martin Short and Steve Martin. He helped us activate our Disney TV service that was part of the bundle of channels that are included in our Comcast package, but we have been unable to access because we did not understand the activation procedures.

After Willy left around 8:30 we watched the first episode of Only Murders in the Building and at 9:30 went to bed, with the happy knowledge that we will be able to watch its first five seasons in France.

Bon Appetit