finally walking in the mall again...

Having espresso and hot chocolate at Eataly in the mall

Our youngest granddaughter came with us to walk in the mall this past week. We stopped in at Eataly's so I could get an espresso con panna in their coffee shop. (I love good espresso and don't find it in many places) Granddaughter had hot chocolate and DH had black coffee...

She was impressed with the large wheels of cheese

There are so many displays of food that it's fascinating to walk through this place. There were even larger wheels of cheese on the other side of this counter... and rows and rows of pastas... and breads... and chocolate!  We ended up buying some of their home-made pizza and taking it home for lunch. I got cheese and DH got salami - but the proper names were: Quattro Formaggi and (I forget the other?).

DH and granddaugher by fountain

Next time we go I want to take home one of the home-made pasta dishes... 

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new cat doormat

We saw this doormat online not too long ago... and thought it perfect for our front porch. The black feral cats are usually hanging around the porch or walkway all the time anyway - might as well let them know they're welcome. 

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Started this post Thursday - and now it's Friday morning about 4 am. Went to sleep at 10, so did sleep about 6 hours pretty well, but decided to get up, have a cup of tea and a piece of toast and maybe go back to bed in an hour or so. 

We need to run some errands this morning... pick up my print-out from the Physical Therapist for exercises I'm needing to do to strengthen my core, stop by Walmart to get some things that weren't available on our curb side order, and get a cheesecake from Central Market for DH's Father's Day. And if the weather isn't too hot, we need to start using that pressure sprayer to clean the windows and back porch. 

I find it hard to believe that we are in the middle of June already. And I am worried about the increasing heat. Our Texas power grid is not up to these extremes in weather. It should be... but it isn't... even though our governor is trying to say it is fine. It isn't. After what happened during the Arctic freeze we experienced this winter, nothing has been done (as far as I know)...  just talk. Now they're advising us to conserve energy as it's getting close to the limit already and it's only June. 

And although the pandemic seems to be (how do I put it) being 'held at bay' possibly due to the vaccines, it's still out there - with variants threatening. So, even though many (including myself on a limited level) are loosening up on what we do, I don't think we can stop being vigilant... not yet. If another wave comes due to variants or people dropping their guard too soon, we could be in big trouble... (and all we've gained could be lost). 

OK... it's now 5 am, guess I should think about going back to bed.  Thanks for listening to me ramble on - and have a wonderful Father's Day weekend!

Oh... thought I'd add this on here. It's now Friday afternoon and I did go back to bed and slept until 8. And we've now finished all our running errands. 

Thought I'd leave a pic and a video of the game I've been playing since the pandemic started. I've mentioned it before I know. It's called Animal Crossing and is on Nintendo's Switch. Anyway, my granddaughter is now addicted to it too. So I gave her a character on my Switch to work with until she gets her own game (which I may give her sometime this summer). 

Anyway, here is a picture of one of my characters on the island... and a short video of her in front of her house on the island. I wanted to do a video of her swimming in the ocean, but hard to handle the camera and the Switch controls at the same time. 

Nintendo Switch 's Animal Crossing

Hugs (virtual),

Rian 

same o'... same o'

Nothing new to post about.  Summer is definitely here... it's 90 F today and will continue to get hotter.  Texas is not the place to be in July and August.  

I'm working on my wind chimes as my summer clay project. Haven't ever tried to make wind chimes before so it should be interesting. We have some out front that make a really nice sound and I've been wanting to get some for the tree out back... so I decided to make my own. They may be all ceramic or they may be ceramic and copper tubing. Haven't decided yet.

Also I took a Word 2016 class this past week. It was offered by the Library and was a beginner class. Now I've used Word 2007 for a long time, but probably only use a small percentage of what it can actually do. We were told that Word 2016 basically does the same things, but may just do them a little differently. Most of the things he showed us I already knew, but I did pick up a few new techniques. There's an intermediate class next week. 

I was talking to someone this past week who has recently retired and we were discussing the pro's and con's of retiring in place as to moving to somewhere they've always wanted to live.
In our cases, we both seem to lean toward retiring in place... as everything familiar is just too convenient... doctors, friends, classes, etc. (not to mention family). Not that we wouldn't mind traveling a little and visiting some wonderful places. But it's expensive to move and feel that retiring in place and visiting the other places would be the practical thing. Starting over (new surroundings, new everything) after a certain age seems difficult. But many do this... and it works out well. What are your thoughts?

Place Saver...

Texas heat

This picture is just a place saver as I haven't time to blog this week.  We have family in town and are spending the days running around in the heat and 'eating'.  This morning we drove down to Terrell and checked out Ham's Peach Orchard.  We came home with an ice chest full of home-made peach and  strawberry ice-cream... (hmmm, really good stuff!)  as well as a fresh chocolate brownie pie, butter pound cake, and baskets of fresh plums.  And that was just this morning.  Yesterday we made buttermilk pie and stuffed artichokes... (we ate part of the pie, but are saving the artichokes for another day).  Anyway, I'll blog again in a few days.

Our Aga...

In 2005 we remodeled our kitchen and put in an Aga.  It's a simple story, but there is a story.
For years I followed an online friend's blog, and he made mention several times in his posts how much he missed his Aga.  He lives 'across the pond' in England. Being from the States, I had no idea what an Aga was. So I researched it and found that even though they were not popular here, they were still available.  So DH and I decided to check them out.  Well... for a kitchen appliance, we both thought they were absolutely beautiful. I had the intention of 'admiring from afar'.... beautiful, but not attainable.  DH had different ideas.  So... tada! 

And if you're wondering if we later regretted our purchase because of the Texas heat (an Aga is on 24/7 - continuous heat - no knobs), the answer is no, we love it! The cats love it!  It does get a bit warm in the kitchen in July and August, but the rest of the year it offers warmth and comfort to us all. I tend to sit on the floor with my back to it and drink my coffee with the cats in the early mornings...