Now, Tropical Depression Nate was in full storm when we finally got up at ten. The sky was slate grey and low, the trees were shaking their heads restlessly, and the rain was pounding down heading north up the street. I waited long enough that there was a slight break in the downpour to take Tucker out. It was still raining (just not sideways as earlier) and I put him in the dog coat so he wouldn't get too wet. He was glad to just pee on the lawn and beat a hasty retreat into the house.

We needed Chex Mix for my work lunches, so we piled in the car—the rain had slowed down, but it was still pretty steady—and went to Sam's Club rather than Costco, which has Skinny Pop but no Chex mix. Bonus: the Skinny Pop at Sam's was cheaper by at least a dollar a bag. Looked at the magazines, bought an Instant Pot cookbook, the popcorn, the Chex, some Lesueur peas (or as we call them, "leisure peas" after a typographical error in a Kroger ad many years ago), three gallons of milk at $1.86 each (!!!), and, in the meat case, a big hunk of boneless pork shoulder which was only $2.18/pound. Sampled some really good lobster ravioli (will have to remember that for a birthday dinner). Oh, and today the Sam's Club mobility carts were working fine; we usually take the power chair because they are usually badly charged and break down halfway through the store. James noted that there were all new carts; maybe someone made an ADA call on them?

We lucked out exiting; the rain had nearly stopped. I shoved the meat and the milk into the insulated bags, since we still had stops to make: first Petsmart for more dog food and a cuttlebone for Snowy (he loves sharpening his little beak on it and then using it on me 😀 ), then Nam Dae Mun for more ginger tea for James and sesame oil. We ran out of luck here: I dropped James off to park the car, and he couldn't find a mobility cart (they were hidden behind the cash registers; nice move, guys), so he limped around the store in considerable pain from his knees. (The new Nam Dae Mun with the better parking and more available carts that's near our house sadly doesn't stock the ginger tea.) Finally stopped at CVS with my 27 percent off coupon (yeah, I know...why that amount?) to pick up BreatheRights and other things, and then we could go home.

It wasn't the end of the chores, though; finally got to sit down after putting all the stuff away, making the bed, sorting both my and James' pills, getting ready for work, emptying the dishwasher, etc. It was quite late before I finally got to finish up Europe on Saturday Night, and then it was time for dinner. James cut the two big long pork shoulder "steaks" in half, I browned them in the Instant Pot, then browned some onions, then poured a concoction of no-salt vegetable and beef broth, miso broth, a little Grade B maple syrup, and water (two cups in all) on top of it all and we pressure cooked it for 65 minutes. It came out fork tender and James made a gravy with some of the juice, and we had it with teriyaki rice. Two other portions went into the freezer; the liquid was so basic that we can make one as a barbecue dish and another as an Asian dish, just depending on the sauce.

Later it was time for Alaska: the Last Frontier. My, all that snow looks good in this smothery weather. It was supposed to go into the 70s next weekend until Nate stuck his big frippin' tropical nose in. I wish Africa would keep its hot weather to itself!

Labels: books, food, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:05:00 PM

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