Stewart Creations

Mom cooked a huge feast and Mary and Juan came over. We had it out on her patio, and it was blamy and nice. We took Mary home about dark-thirty.
I made the gravy thoward the end, when things get kind of hectic. Mom had boiled off the giblets and had the juice and chunks in a jar in the fridge. Soon as I opened it and got a whiff….!! Whew, something was not right. I took it out to let her sniff it and she declared it okay, but what does she know, she can’t smell anything except all those cigarettes she smokes. But she was getting agitated and testy that I would question her broth, so I just went ahead and made the gravy. I’m not there to fight. There was a day I would have dug in my heels and made a stand, but those days are over. You should see her, she looks so frail these days. None of us is getting younger, we don’t really have time to fight. So I made the gravy, gagging all the time, I really boiled the heck out of it so at least I could kill off some of the buggies. A few people ate the gravy, mostly the drunken Mexicans and Mom.
The non-drinkers, not so much. Nobody seemed worse for it the next day. NV diet pills should be made out that stuff, but they are not, of course.
Mom made home-made bread rolls that made me really jealous. Hers turned out so great!! But it was all white flour, still….. I was envious. She said it came in a pre-measured package with the yeast separate from the flour and she added the liquids from her own larder. The bread was a hit. The whole meal was great (except the gravy). She really knocked herself out.
My dental was good, Dr. Socorro did a deep cleaning (it had been a long time, over a year) and checked everything out. She decided that my teeth were pretty good and we made plans for one more of the old fillings to come out in December and she can build a bridge to fill the empty place next to that one. Almost all my old fillings are replaced with nice white porcelain caps now.
Dra. Socorro’s phone number from the U.S. is 011-52-638-383-4898. She’s great!

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It was a pretty good trip. The motel was real cool about letting the dogs stay in the room with us and we all had a real good time on the beach. We put clean dog blankets over the beds so they didn’t get dog hair on everything. La Fea did not like the fireworks, a bunch of kids had a fistful of boomers outside our room last night, but the other dogs didn’t mind. I had not noticed Fay being upset by booms before, but this time she just wanted to stay in the room while they were going off. So OK.
It was nice getting up in the morning and having the beach right there. We left out of here around four or four thirty Wed. afternoon, and by the time we got our travel insurance and a snack at Gila Bend, we got there about nine or nine thirty and walked the dogs on the beach a little. We have been working pretty hard, so it was nice to go to bed early. The wind was howling through the windows, I checked them out and it looks like they were installed incorrectly, we stuffed the curtains around the corners and it helped a little, but inside the room it sounded like a gale force wind was going on. Outside, not so much, just kind of a stiff breeze and warm. The people next door checked in Thanksgiving day and said it rained like hell in phoenix just before they came, they almost called off their trip, but it was calm ans sunny at the beach, they were really glad they came on down.
I forgot the camera.
On the way back we took the dogs for a nice long walk at the Ajo wash, but apparently it didn’t rain much there, because we didn’t find any puddles.

Comments Off | In: Rocky Point | tags: family dinner. | #

Another thing, I wanted to share my good news!
I won an Honors scholarship, they told me last night. It’s $500.00 for next semester. It doesn’t sound like much compared to the cost of school, but they only have two to give out and they gave one of them to me.
That makes me feel so validated. It also makes me feel a responsibility to live up to the standards a Honors scholarship recipient should have.
Anyway, I’m still working through all the feelings of responsibility and questions of my view of my own self-worth ….. but I’m feeling very Honored and proud.
And let me tell you, (my sweetie agrees) scholarship sex is great! Tee Hee.

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dial this .. starting with the zero
011 52 638 383 2742
We did get the room we wanted for $88.00 per night. There are several of these rooms on the bottom floor that have the beachfront door and little palm-frond palapa with table and chairs. I hope they still have the palapas. They will take reservations, but they couldn’t take a credit card, so we hope the room is really ours. Mom said the guy wrote it in the book and said someone is there 24/7 to check us in. But cash only, it seems.
I need to get some muscle relaxers while I’m down there. It’s true you can get diet pill and other drugs like penicillin, birth control pills, etc. at most all the pharmacies. Even some hard drugs. You have to restrain yourself because the law won’t. But I get these little blue mild relaxers for when my neck is real bad. Better living through chemistry, I say.
I started physical therapy for my neck and it was getting a lot better real fast, but today I have the twinges again, wish I had a muscle relaxer right now.

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I found a good nut crust recipe in my Martha Stewart cookbook. It uses half nuts and half flour. I will be using organic wholewheat flour this year, don’t tell anybody, they all pretty much think wholewheat has to mean bulky. I think this one will be tender because you don’t roll it, you press it into the shell like a graham cracker crust. But no sugar. Yummy, I think I’ll use pecans if they are still on sale at Sunflower, that would make a rich crust for the pumpkin pies. I have a can of good pumpkin puree, and that should make one or two pies, but I am also making a couple of squash pies.
Roughage is the best fat burner I know. At least the best organic one. I keep looking though, hoping I will run into a perfect solution. Meanwhile, roughage is my friend, and pumpkin and squash pies are loaded with roughage, especially with nut-wholewheat crusts.

1 Comment | In: Uncategorized | tags: pumpkin pie. | #

Today I am packing ziplock baggies of dog food for the freezer so we can easily travel with it. The trip is only four or five hours of driving, but we need meals for the three dogs for two or three days. I’m sure there will be turkey leftovers for one meal, but they need some of their own, too.
These dogs of ours are pretty well-fed. Not fat, they get off-the-leash walks almost every day, but they eat all home cooking, nothing canned.
I make their chicken, carrot, rice food every week in the crockpot on the back porch. When we go on a trip they get it frozen in little baggies. These travel in the ice chest and then we just throw away the baggie. Total portability. Of course, we will recycle the baggie if we can, but Rocky Point so far has not got up to speed on recycling plastics.
They have security cameras everywhere, though. The parking lot of the motel we will be staying in, The Granada del Mar, phone number (from the U.S dial these numbers –>) 011 52 638 383 2742
has security cameras, and if you look for it on the web you’ll run into Manny’s beach cam. He has the party up and running 24/7. Not much to see until weekends, though, the beach is pretty quiet until party time.

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we decided to book a room. I have a favorite, you park in the back, there’s a door in, and then on the other side of the room is a door right out to the beach! We got it for only $88.00 per night. And this is considered ‘in season’. It’s kind of a waste because it has two queen beds and a kitchenette and there is only the two of us and we won’t be cooking, but I love that room. There are three or four of these rooms in a row, they are next to the Pithaya bar. Each of them has a little table and chairs under a palm frond palapa. Great spot for morning coffee.
So we don’t have to buy a camper. I did not relish the thought of kicking Mom out of her bed, and she gets up and around at four every morning anyway, with all the smokers cough, etc. So this way we each have our own space.
The dogs will have to stay in the truck, but they won’t mind, there is beach right there.
Now I’m getting excited.

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We had been looking for a camper to put on the truck, I want my own bed! But my sweetie is worried that our old truck will not like it. What we ultimately need is a fifth-wheel/toy-hauler, but that will mean a different truck to pull it, it seems so complicated and expensive that we keep putting it off. Just shopping for it makes us weary.
I don’t think the Mexican insurance will be any more with a bigger rig, will it? We will have to shop insurance quotes to find out.
So after I found a bunch of campers for him to look at on Craig’s list, he looked, got weary, then suggested a motel. I think it’s a good idea, we can leave the dogs in the camper shell if the motel doesn’t like the idea of dogs in the room. We will miss them, they tend to take over the bed, but they are warm. That reminds me, we should give them their flea spot a week before we leave. We don’t keep them spotted up here at home, no bugs (knock on wood) in our yard, but when we go anywhere we put the stuff on their necks to keep them bug-free. It takes a couple of days before it’s fully effective.

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I’m starting to get really excited about going to Rocky Point. We haven’t been there for so long a time!!! Mom is looking into our favorite room at the Pithaya Motel, the one on the end with the door that opens onto the beach is my favorite. It has a kitchenette and is cheap. Like $65.00 a night. At least it used to be that cheap. I don’t care if they raised the rate, it still has a lot of bang for the buck. The dogs will have to sleep in the camper shell, but not a problem. We can walk them on the beach early and late cause it’s right there.
I have the dental appointment set, can’t wait to get my teeth fixed and cleaned, it’s been so long. I went to a dentist on the border last summer for a quick repair and cleaning, but it’s nothing like my own favorite dentist right there in Rocky Point. I think the last time I went was with Pam, to close out her place when they sold that. We made a quick over-nighter and then right back. We get to stay a few days this time.
So I am making sugar-free squash pies for the trip. Of course I will make a lot of them, no sense cooking a couple once you have all the equipment out and the oven warm. They freeze nice, and I can spread some out to the neighbors, I think I will try my own crust. Usually, Dave and I buy crust, but this time I want whole wheat. I’ll probably make some sugar and some not-sugar. Mom will not eat sugar. I have to admire that, she took herself from borderline diabetic to no sign of unusual blood sugar in just a year of diet control. Wow, you go, Mom!

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Somehow, this whole semester is rapidly drawing to a close. Tuesday is Vetrans’ Day, so no school, and one of my classes, Spanish, is not meeting on Monday so the teacher can spend a long weekend at his cabin in the mountains. We have extra work there, and a test when we come back, but still, nice to have a break. Then a couple of weeks to Thanksgiving and a couple more weeks to the end of the term. WOW
Next term I intend to take harder classes and more credits. I find myself getting more serious about school.
When I started, I thought I would just get a certificate and then a job, but I got a fire lit under me and now have a passion I need to pursue. It turns out I’m pretty good at school, so now I think I will go on and get my Bachelors and then my Masters. I am aiming for International Business.
I would start in about my very specific plans (involving my love of clothing design), but that would take a whole ‘nother page.
I will piece it out as it unfolds. Next term I need some business classes. I will take Macro-economics, e-commerce, Spanish. Then for fun, Ceramics, Graphic Design and Yoga. I’m looking at 16 credits at least. I’m pretty confident that I can maintain my 3.75 and get even more extra money.
Oh yeah!! Guess what? I’m trying for scholarship money to do Costa Rica for a month this summer…. 4 credits and an immersion smash course of Spanish.
I’m as surprised as anyone that I turned out to be so good a student. I feel positively brainy at times.
School is great! And I would recommend it to anyone.
Hoping to get to Laughlin or Las Vegas for a short vacation with my sweetie this Spring Break. I imagine I need to book hotel las vegas early, though because it seems like a logical hot-spot for spring-breakers.

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Honey, I’m so sorry I didn’t get to visit with you last week. I just hate that events conspired to mess up our plans. They were really good plans.
You know that you have kids I haven’t even met yet. I am so looking forward to seeing you and spending time with your family this winter. I sure hope that happens. Winter on the beach is going to be a wonderful experience for your family. Let’s teach the kids spanish.. Does Justice already speak? I seem to have heard that he does already have some.
Hope everything is going well at your end. Closing the houses and such. I will have a nice long break between terms this winter and I plan to spend a lot of it down there, visiting with you-alls.
I love you.

Aunt April
Here is a random picture for your enjoyment.

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I got the ultrasound yesterday and I have great boobs! I mean they’re still old lady things, not any perkier, but I couldn’t care less when I got that clean bill of health. They did the regulat mammo, but harder (ouch), then when they couldn’t find anything they went ahead and did the ultrasound. It was just like they do for a baby, with the jelly (warmed) and the paddle that they run back and forth. I got to watch on the screen. Then the ultrasound-ist went and go another doctor to look at it while whe ran the wand back and forth. I was a little worried, but then she said that when she’s looking for something weird and doesn’t find anything then she get real careful. She decided that the first mammo just recorded a tissue fold in there or something to account for the suspected thickening. There was no fibromyalgia (is that the right term? or is it fibrosis?) or anything.
I was on top of the world. And then the Democrats won, so double celebration!!! Yippee!!
It’s been a long time since we had Democrats in office. Last time they were there times were pretty good for me, hope that condition repeats.
My mom had a breast removed twenty-five years ago, so I was a little worried.
Get those annual check-ups, gals!!!!
Here is a picture of my lovely mother.

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