Well, the original plan was to have steak but because it was a holiday, our little neighborhood meat market was closed. So, I went to Noriega Produce Market and picked up some veggies, fruit and frozen ravioli. We'd had pizza the night before so I was kind of red sauced-out. I sauteed half an onion, mushrooms, a yellow and green bell pepper. Right before they were soft, I added chicken broth. I served that over the ravioli and then chopped up an Heirloom tomato. Pretty NOM. Oh, for appetizer, I made a caprese salad with those same Heirlooms. Darn NOM!
It was a very busy weekend. My painting skills are lacking. I used to be such a good painter, but now, with the ravages of time, spending two afternoons on my knees painting a room has rendered me gimpy; my less than 20/20 vision isn't helping either. I finish a coat and then go take a look after it dries and there are all these drips. Tomorrow night I'll be doing a third coat after I sand down the drip spots. This red color isn't very forgiving either!
On the other hand, Poppy's home projects are coming along swimmingly. She's put in a rack on the door under the sink and an extra pull out shelf in the pantry. Whatever!
Not sure if I mentioned before, but both neighbors on each side of our house are Chinese, Chen and his family live to the left of us. He speaks very little English. Alex and his family live to the right of us. He does speak English. There's your background to this next story. Poppy and I have hired a contractor to build stairs off the deck. They're charging us about $4,000. I wanted to let Chen and Alex know that construction would be starting next week.
So I saw Chen on Saturday morning and tried to explain. I gather that Chen does some kind of construction work for a living. Anyway, I tell him about the stairs and he asks to see. I take him to the backyard and show him. Then he asks if he can get a tape measure. I said okay. I'm starting to get a sinking feeling that maybe he thinks I want him to do the job. He comes back and starts measuring. Thank the Gods, Poppy came downstairs to save me. What we're able to decipher is that Chen will do the job for $1,500. So Poppy is showing him drawings of the stairs and trying to explain what we want, but it's not going well. I had all that wood lying around from taking down the playhouse so Chen built a template for the stairs. I gathered he did this to show us he could do it. But we're still having this horrible communication problem. I would really love for him to do the work but we're not sure what it will look like when he's done. I kept asking if he could get one of his kids to help translate, but he didn't understand. I'm hoping to see his daughter one of these mornings so I can talk to her.
Argh! Life would be so much easier if I could speak Mandarin!
Check out Poppy's new ride:
It's a Schwinn Willy. She's very smooth!!
Chow!
