1. I derive great pleasure from removing things from our house. I like having as little as possible in the house -- and the garage -- and today I made a trip to the transfer station and dumped some metal, wood, rugs, and unneeded blood sample boxes. The garage is a little less cluttered and the basement load is a little lighter.
2. Debbie suggested we dine out today and I replied that I was thinking about cooking up some curry. My offer ended the dine out talk, to my great pleasure.
So, I got to work. First, I grabbed a handful of frozen raw shrimp out of the freezer and simultaneously thawed them and started to cook them in butter. In the meantime, I put a plug of yellow curry paste in the Dutch oven and heated it up while chopping half a white onion, the last of our bok choy, and several baby potatoes. I poured two cans of coconut milk over the paste, stirred it, and added equal amounts of fish sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar. I removed the shrimp from the cast iron pan and replaced it with the bok choy which I sautéed in the leftover melted butter and shrimp liquid. I added the potatoes and onion to the curry sauce along with a few dried Kaffir lime leaves and then added the sautéed bok choy and the liquid it had cooked in.
I heated this sauce up to a slow boil, turned down the heat, and let the raw ingredients cook until tender. I fixed a pot of white rice. Once the potatoes and onions and bok choy pieces were tender, I added the shrimp bits, hoping I wouldn't over cook them, let the sauce heat a bit more and, voila!, once the rice was cooked we enjoyed the meal known between us as Old Reliable.
3. I watched some news programming around 8:00 tonight and once I'd heard the discussions I was interested in, I switched over to the Golf Channel and its show, "Golf's Greatest Rounds". Tonight's episode featured the fourth round of the 1984 Open at St. Andrew's. Seve Ballesteros' and Tom Watson dueled on the back nine. Watson played in the twosome behind Ballesteros. The tournament's outcome hinged on a dramatic moment when, with the two players tied for the tournament lead, Ballesteros sank a 12 foot putt for birdie on 18 while Watson pushed his second shot on 17 just off the road in back of the green and nearly up against a wall. Local rules offer no relief for a player who hits a shot to this wall and Watson had to punch an awkward shot, with nearly no backswing, onto the 17th green. He ran it about 25 feet past the hole and missed the putt.
Suddenly, Ballesteros was in the clubhouse with a two stroke lead.
Watson did not hole out his second shot from the 18th fairway.
Ballesteros won his second Open.
I loved watching this episode of golf being played nearly forty years ago. I felt weepy. Ballesteros was one of golf's most charismatic, energetic, and imaginative players. He died in 2011. I grieved watching him play in 1984 knowing the immeasurable impact he had on elevating Europe's competitiveness in the Ryder Cup, the inspiration he gave other international players, and the excitement he gave fans of golf with his bold and creative play. I missed him. I enjoyed the feeling of having him back, even though I knew he wasn't.
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