1. I brought home several left over mole wings from Sunday's family dinner and heated up four or five of them for lunch and, since I have a slight surplus of sauce, I made a bowl of wings, sauce, and brown rice. I enjoyed this simple lunch and I thought that serving myself the mole sauce at a higher temperature than I served the wings on Sunday excited the spicy heat of the sauce a bit.
2. The other day I brought a can of tuna fish upstairs and set it on a kitchen counter. As much as I try to live a mindful life, I do, well, quite often, fall short. Later in the day, I was decluttering the kitchen a bit and I mindlessly (not mindfully) put the tin of tuna in the box on top of the fridge with the other cans of cat food.
So, a couple of mornings ago, I mindlessly (not mindfully) reached up, grabbed a tin from the cat food box, opened it, and remarked to myself that this can of food looked a lot different from the other cans of Friskie's cat pate I'd been serving Luna and Copper. Just as I was about to spoon some of the contents of this can into the cats' bowls, I suddenly realized I had opened a can of Starkist tuna.
I laughed out loud at myself (I'm easily entertained), put the tuna fish in a glass container, and grabbed a can of actual cat food for Luna and Copper.
Well, today, I finally made use of that can of tuna and combined Kalamata olives, feta cheese, chopped celery, zucchini, cucumber, and the tuna in the bottom of a bowl and dressed it with an on the spot (and tasty) vinaigrette I threw together. I topped these ingredients with chopped red lettuce leaves and thus ended the saga of the mistaken tin of food.
3. Six o'clock rolled around and I was nervous. Earlier in the day, I'd told both Byrdman and Stu I was anxious. I was feeling shaky about the Oregon Ducks' men's basketball game against the Pac-12 Conference leading USC Trojans. I felt jittery not only because USC has a terrific team, but also because Oregon had just played Colorado and Utah in Eugene on Thursday and Saturday. Both games were nail-biters. That the Ducks had to travel to L.A. and play a great team on the road on Monday, with little time to rest or prepare, had me on edge.
Turns out my anxiety was warranted.
This game, especially the first ten minutes or so, was a nightmare for the Ducks.
In the opening minutes, while USC's Tahj Eaddy was torrid, hitting his first three shots from three-point range, the Ducks made a painful visit to Clang City and missed their first twelve shots and quickly fell behind 17-1. In fact, the Ducks didn't hit a shot from the field until 11:57 was left in the first half. I've never seen a Ducks team, since Dana Altman became the head coach, look so discombobulated. The Ducks were sluggish on defense, seemed confused on offense, and just didn't have any zip for, I'd say, over half of the first half.
The Ducks were behind by 21 at half time and, in the second half, started to play better. So, even though the Ducks outscored USC in the second half, the horrible start to this game was too much to overcome. The Trojans triumphed, 72-58.
I understand the impulse coaches have not to make excuses for a team's performance. Personally, though, I don't think it's making an excuse to point to rational reasons why a team performed poorly.
In the first half of this game, the Ducks looked like they were still on the plane flying to L.A. To me, they looked tired, both physically and mentally. As happens with athletes, later in the game, their energy returned. That was good to see.
The Ducks are on the road again on Thursday and Saturday against Stanford and Cal.
I hope a few days rest, especially to rest their minds and spirits, will refresh the Ducks and they play at their best in the Bay Area.
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