Three Beautiful Things 04-25-2024: David Byrne on *Fresh Air*, Into the Great Wide Open, Spicing Up the Curry

1. Out of the blue the other day, Deborah called me. She was out driving around in her car, listening to Fresh Air, and wanted me to know that Terry Gross was interviewing David Byrne. She knew that I'd been ecstatic last fall when I went to Spokane to watch the remastered version of Stop Making Sense at Riverstone Square's IMAX theater. She figured, 100% correctly, that I'd love to hear this interview.

Today I listened to it while on a cardio machine at the Fitness Center. I'm not sure what my expectations were, but the interview exceeded them! I was very impressed with how forthcoming and open David Byrne was about his young life, his songwriting, his influences, and his sense of himself as a performer,  how he moves and sings on stage, especially in Stop Making Sense. 

2. Stu and I were yakkin' by text message about all the uncertainties in our lives. Debbie and I yak about the same thing from time to time. She and I chuckle at ourselves for having thought, when we were young and life was tumultuous, that when we grew older, things would smooth out, life would be settled, we'd get to coast. Ha! 

So, after listening to the David Byrne interview, I dialed up the episode of Tom Petty's old show, Buried Treasures that was playing on the 24/7 Buried Treasures channel on the Sirius/XM app. 

For many reasons having to do with uncertainties in our life right now -- you know, kidney transplant, will Debbie teach another year?, etc. -- just hearing Tom Petty's voice as the show's host planted in my mind his song "Into the Great Wide Open". 

I'd always thought of this as a young person's song, of the way life, when we were young, could seem so full of possibilities and so many unknowns, as if we were about to jump in a car and just travel, without plans, the wide open roads stretching across the USA.

I'm seventy years old. 

Maybe the Great Wide Open has become The Great Unknown, but whatever it is, I know what it's not. 

It's not the Great Wide Certain.

Thinking about these things and listening to Tom Petty's music selections kept me going as exercised for a last half an hour on a second cardio machine. 

3. I broke open our second HelloFresh bag and fixed Debbie and me a Creamy Chicken and Potato Curry. It was supposed to include peas, but either the packers at HelloFresh didn't pack our peas or I lost the packet. No problem! Today I had bought another big container of spinach and I simply put spinach instead of peas in the curry and it worked out great. In fact, I think spinach worked better than the peas would have. This curry was mild, no heat at all, so Debbie and I both added smokey red pepper flakes to our helpings and enjoyed the spicier version much more than the mild one. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-24-2024: The Washing Machine Didn't Walk Away, Slow Weight Loss, A Fun Tortellini Dinner

1. In the past, when I've put the queen sized blankets from my bed in the washing machine, it's made the machine rock violently during the spin cycle and try to walk away!  Each time I thought I'd balanced the load, but I guess I hadn't. 

Today, I decided to see what would happen if, instead of taking the blanket to the laundromat, I tried putting them in our machine again.

You know what happened? 

NOTHING!

I divided the blankets into two loads and felt a great sense of triumph (!) when both loads cycled through peacefully and my blankets were clean.

2. I did a lot of writing today -- more on that at a later date -- and I didn't want to leave my laundering project unattended, so, as far as exercise goes, I took a day off. 

I'm happy to say, though, that my slow, not always steady, effort to lose weight continues to move in the right direction. I set goals for myself in five pound increments and I just surpassed my most recent goal. It took several weeks, but I've tried not to get anxious about the slow pace of my weight loss. I just do my best to stay the course. 

3. Debbie and I enjoyed our chicken dinner very much Tuesday evening. Our remaining HelloFresh bag is also a chicken dinner and we decided to do something different tonight. 

Drawing upon things I've learned from preparing HelloFresh meals, tonight I sautéed a half a white onion and, when the onion got tender, I added finely chopped cloves of garlic. To this mixture, I added all the spinach we had left. At the same time, I boiled a batch of frozen tortellinis and I roasted panko in butter.

Soon, I pulled it all together. I put the boiled tortellini in the pan with the onion, garlic, and spinach and topped it with the roasted panko and added chopped green onion bits.

Had this been a HelloFresh meal, I'm sure the bag would have included ingredients for a sauce, white or red, but Debbie and I had decided we didn't want a sauce.

We loved this sauceless meal! 

It's a dinner we'll return to again.  

Three Beautiful Things 04-23-2024: Good News at the Dentist, Good News at the Garage, Great Boxed Dinner

1. First thing this morning, I strolled down to the dentist's office and everything looks good. I have a couple of older crowns, but they are holding up well because I wear a guard at night to protect them. 

2. The Camry went into the garage today for a 30k mile service job and everything looks great. 

3. Debbie added a couple of boxed dinners to our HelloFresh order this week. Tonight we tried one of them, a most delicious Garam Masala Coconut Chicken Thighs with Golden Raisin Cashew Rice. I sure enjoyed it! 

Three Beautiful Things 04-22-2024: Blood Draw Snafu Rectified, Back to *Buried Treasures*, Steelhead for Dinner

1. There's a lab in Spokane that needs a fresh vial of blood from me every month in support of my being on the transplant list. I was going to head up to the hospital lab last Monday for a blood draw, but when I opened the box the lab mails me every month, it was essentially empty! I contacted Tara, my transplant nurse, and she had the lab send me a new box. Today, I took the full box to the lab, my blood got drawn, and now I'm back on schedule again.

2. Today when I exercised at the Fitness Center, I used my Sirius/XM app to play the channel entirely devoted to Tom Petty's terrific old show, Buried Treasures. Several years ago, I used to listen to Buried Treasures when it came out weekly on Deep Tracks. I also listened to the awesome Bob Dylan radio show called Theme Time Radio Hour.  Dylan's old show is archived online and it'll be fun to huff and puff and alternate between Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Lou Simon, and the Satellite Survey show hosted by Dave Hoeffel. 

3. I prepared a fun HelloFresh dinner tonight. For the first time, HelloFresh sent us a bag featuring steelhead trout which I roasted with fresh dill and mandarin orange and lemon slices. Lemony asparagus spears garnished with dill accompanied the fish and I plopped the fish and vegetables on a bed of garlicky jasmine rice seasoned with turmeric. I also made a creamy lemon and garlic sauce that tasted great on the fish. It was a fun dinner: new, fun to prepare, and delicious. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-21-2024: Hungry for Spinach, Debbie's Spinach Salad, A Gemelli Family Dinner

1. Thanks to our breakfast at Roosters Country Kitchen in Pendleton on Friday morning, where I enjoyed a spinach and mushroom omelette, and, thanks to having bought a large container of spinach leaves at Costco on Saturday, I think I'm going to fix myself eggs and spinach on a regular basis for a while. I got right into it this morning with a Yukon gold potato and spinach scramble topped with a small amount of grated sharp cheddar cheese and it worked! 

I gave my breakfast an hour and half or so to digest and headed to the Fitness Center for a good session and listened to the recent '60s Satellite Survey broadcast, entitled "The 60s' 40 Biggest One Hit Wonders". 

It was a great show and I finished listening to it when I returned home. 

2. Carol assigned Debbie and me to make a green salad for tonight's family dinner. Debbie volunteered to take charge of our assignment. She enjoys remembering when her mother discovered spinach salad some time in the 1960s and Debbie replicated the salad and the dressing her mother made all those years ago. 

I don't have the recipe handy, but I loved the bacon in the salad and the dressing was a little sweet thanks to the inclusion of a small amount of sugar and some ketchup, both of which worked beautifully.

3. Carol went all out today and made a complex and delicious pasta sauce that included roasted tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, vodka, butter, red wine vinegar,  cinnamon sticks, and other great ingredients. 

She boiled gemelli pasta, combined it with the sauce, and put it all in the oven. 

It was an awesome dish and Debbie's spinach salad paired perfectly with it. 

Paul created a bar where we could make "mule" drinks of our choice blending ginger beer with either vodka, tequila, or amaretto. 

Well, earlier this week at the Plateau Steakhouse, I ordered a Cadillac Margarita and it triggered a desire in me to drink some straight tequila over ice. 

So, for my cocktail, I decided not to have a ginger drink (which I love), but enjoyed tequila on the rocks with a squeeze of lime juice. 

It was really good.

We had a really robust time at the dinner table talking about a very wide variety of subjects and having a lot of laughs. 

There's a lot going on in our family these days involving the banjo, dogs, medical stuff, future trips, stuff from the past, teaching, performing, and more and we seemed to talk about it all tonight, one way or another. 

It was fun. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-20-2024: Exercising with *Jukebox Diner*, Quick Trip to CdA, Easy Chicken Dinner

 1. It felt good to return to the Fitness Center after being absent for over a week. I especially enjoyed dialing up Lou Simon's Sirius/XM radio show, Jukebox Diner, using the Sirius/XM app and listening to callers making their requests and hearing songs I wouldn't listen to on my own. On his April 7th show, Lou Simon got worked up as he disagreed with a caller's interpretation of Carly Simon's "That's the Way I've Always Heard It  Should Be" and, on his April 14th show, he returned to talking about that call, offered his explication of the lyric, apologized to the caller for getting his dander up, and played the song again. Later, the caller, named Steve, called in again and he and Lou made peace, reached a detente.

2. I wanted a haircut. I wanted to go to Costco. Therefore, I blasted over to CdA in the Camry. My trip was a success. I got right in at Supercuts and was back out in no time. I fueled up at Costco and had a good time stocking up on a few supplies in the store. 

3. Back in Kellogg, I shopped a little more at Yoke's and decided not to join Debbie at The Lounge. Instead, I put four chicken drumsticks in our cast iron skillet along with a small handful of baby Yukon potatoes, baked them, and steamed a pack of frozen broccoli and cauliflower. 

Debbie returned home and we enjoyed this nifty, easy, tasty little meal and, as a bonus, Debbie packed leftovers for her lunch on Monday. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-19-2024: Going to Roosters with Rooster, Easy Driving, Sweet Fatigue

1. Sometime in the last, oh, forty to fifty years, guys Ed worked with began calling him Rooster. I've always called Ed Ed, but I've known for a long time that he's had this nickname. 

Well, for many years now I've joined guys I grew up with at the Wildhorse Resort once or twice a year for a few days of food, socializing, gambling, and relaxation. 

Every year, coming in or going out of Pendleton, we've seen a billboard advertising a Pendleton restaurant called Roosters Country Kitchen. 

Every year, Ed and I have said something to the effect of "we really ought to eat there some time". 

We never did.

Until today.

Terry and Jake headed home earlier than Ed, Mike, and I, but while we enjoyed our nightcap on Thursday night, Ed, Mike, and I agreed to go to Roosters for breakfast after we checked out of the resort. 

Now we'll go back every time we go to Pendleton.

Under the care of a friendly, attentive, and energetic server, Ed and Mike were very happy with their breakfast steak and I thoroughly enjoyed the spinach mushroom omelette I ordered. 

Breakfast at Roosters was a perfect way for the three of us to conclude our time in Pendleton together. 

2. Ed and I had an uneventful trip back to the Silver Valley. We made a quick stop at the Country Mercantile just north of the Tri-Cities. Driving conditions were easy and traffic was safe and sane out on the open freeway and as we made our way, easily, through Spokane, Post Falls, and Coeur D' Alene. 

3. Back home, Copper seemed unfazed by my absence and equally unfazed by my return! He fared very well under Debbie's care while I was away. 

The drive from Pendleton to Kellogg involves a little over four hours of actual driving time. 

It's not that much driving, but all the same, when I arrived home I was ready for a nap and I went to bed pretty early.

I was tired, but it was a sweet tired.

The three nights hanging out with lifelong friends and having a great dinner with Colette was a blast.  

Three Beautiful Things 04-18-2024: Breakfast at the Oregon Trail, Relaxing Afternoon, Early Nightcap

1. Jake, Terry, Mike, Ed, and I piled into a couple of cars and blasted east on I-84 to the town of Meacham, OR to the Oregon Trail Store and Deli for breakfast. Every time we go to the Wildhorse Resort, we visit this superb dining spot run my a wife and her husband. Once again, our servings were plentiful, the food was superbly prepared, and we had a great time yakkin' and joking with the husband. He runs the front of the establishment while his wife cooks up awesome meals in back.  

2. We returned to the resort. I spent quite a bit of time in my room, tending to my fantasy baseball teams, getting caught up on NYTimes crossword puzzles, and relaxing. I spent some time on the casino floor. Around 2:30, Jake, Ed, and I met in the lobby bar and enjoyed beers and, a couple hours later, Terry, Ed, Mike, and I met in the Wildhorse Sports Bar for a happy hour plate of nachos. 

3. Ed, Mike, Terry, and I met around 7:15 in Terry's room for an early whiskey nightcap. We made plans for leaving in the morning and talked about other things. Mike and Ed left after a bit and Terry and I yakked for a while about what's happening with government in both Idaho and Oregon and kept an eye on the PGA golf tournament being played at Harbor Town near Hilton Head, South Carolina. 

I wondered if Debbie's cousin, Sally, was staying at her condo at Hilton Head right now and let my mind wander, thinking about her husband, Ted, having died several years ago and how much the two of them enjoyed attending and volunteering at golf tournaments together. I felt Ted's absence. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-17-2024: Relaxing at the Resort, The Band Got Back Together at the Lobby Bar, Steak Dinner and Ginger Whiskey

1. One of the aspects of coming to the Wildhorse Resort that I enjoy is time alone in my quiet hotel room, solving word puzzles, writing in this blog, napping, contemplating, in short, relaxing. I spent a few hours today enjoying some solitude. 

In addition, I put the April 14th Jukebox Diner radio show on, put in my earbuds, and spent a half an hour huffing and puffing in the hotel's exercise room. 

That felt really good! 

2. Later in the afternoon, Mike, Terry, and Jake arrived back at the casino/hotel after playing eighteen holes of golf and, along with Ed and me, we all sat in the hotel lobby bar and enjoyed a round or two of adult beverages. It was the first time the five of us were able to get together all in one place on this trip and we had a great time yakkin' and laughing and making a concerted effort not to solve the world's problems.  

3. Later, at 6:30, the five of us met at the resort's Plateau Steak House for dinner. We make it point every time we come to the resort to eat together at the resort's fine dining establishment. I started off with a delicious and refreshing Cadillac Margarita and then enjoyed a fresh and perfectly dressed chopped salad before digging into a boneless rib eye with sides of crispy Brussels Sprouts and asparagus with a light stream of Bearnaise sauce. 

After dinner, Ed, Mike, Terry, and I sat around in Terry's room. Terry cracked open a fifth of Heaven Hill Kentucky Straight Bourbon. We mixed it with Cock and Bull ginger beer. This after dinner cocktail was perfect and we launched into a great session of yakkin' about everything under the sun, except the world's problems. 

We let the big world have those problems and gladly left it up to someone else to solve them. 

We had a lot of things on our minds -- things closer to our day to day lives in the little and excellent worlds we all live in. 

Three Beautiful Things 04-16-2024: On the Road, House Money, Dinner with Colette

1. I sprang into action around 5:30 this morning, fixed myself coffee, completed Wordle, and simultaneously made a last check of my packing list and put my remaining unpacked items in my bag. I flew out the door, rocketed the Camry to Ed's house, picked him up, and we enjoyed breakfast at the Breakfast Nook in CdA. 

We had one more stop to make after breakfast. We dropped into the Spokane Tribe Casino and I cashed in my ticket. I'd wagered on UConn to win the NCAA men's basketball tournament and picked up my cash. 

Ed and I hung for under an hour at the casino and then we hit the road.

2. Ed and I yakked our way to the Wildhorse Resort and checked into our rooms. I unpacked, fiddled around for a while on the casino floor, and went back to my room, having played with my UConn win and the other modest amount of money I won on machines at the Spokane Casino. I haven't lost it yet! 

3. I napped. 

A text message notification woke me up.

It was Colette.

Her meeting at work wrapped up earlier than she'd thought it would.

She could be at Thai Crystal in downtown Pendleton around 5 o'clock.

Perfect.

I had time to clean up and soar into town.

Colette and I enjoyed our dinner and talked and talked for over two hours about everything: Colette's work, medical stuff, working with students who need accommodations and special assistance, education (Waldorf schools in particular), and a host of other things. 

It's remarkable, given Colette's very busy work schedule, that we are always able to work out time to dine together and yak whenever I come to Pendleton.