Some time on Sunday, I decided that I would instead make my own Mexican food to celebrate Mom’s birthday rather than settle for a version of Mexican food that might end up being disappointing. I had a stash of emergency “in case you really miss the US” supply of kitchen essentials. This cache includes things like Field Roast Apple Sage Sausages, Amy’s Organic Refried Beans with Green Chilis, nutritional yeast, ancho chiles and really good all purpose chili powder from PCC. It is a small stockpile, one of each so if things get really critical, I have some resources. I decided to make vegetable fajitas like they do at Cactus only without tortillas since all the tortillas in this house belong to the boys. It was really good. Not as good as Cactus but way better than anything I would have found here. The boys also benefited from the avocado and the rice before I added the spices.

Tonight I decided that I would eat the leftovers. I don’t have a microwave or as they call it “a magnetron” so I have to reheat things on the stove. Fine and dandy, used to it by now. Except I was also trying to avoid stepping on George, light the gas flame and not spill hot water. This means a good portion of the rice (but now with lots of spices added to it) fell out of the container and on the floor. Faster than you can say “upright vacuum” George was there to gobble it up. I am not sure what the effects of chili powder will be on a dog but I have a feeling that I will be finding out shortly. The good thing about George is that his entire existence, including his digestive system, is instant gratification oriented. So, if we are going to see unpleasant side effects, they should be happening just about any time. At least there won’t be any surprises in the middle of the night!

I guess I should be grateful that I didn’t spill the beans, so to speak!

Had a banjo lesson today, the first one since early December. My teacher could tell I had been practicing 🙂 Okay, I still can’t sing and play at the same time but I am working on humming. At this rate, if I continue on, I should be able to bust out all the Christmas carols on the banjo by December! Not sure that is necessarily a plus. Sort of like “Have yourself a banjo little Christmas”.

I think the following photo gives a little example of how big the boys are vs how big they think they are.