Bologna, Italy: I look nearly daily on the Costco/Instacart page to see if Kleenex (3-ply square boxes) and paper towels are back in stock at our local Costco. Today was the day! It was like hitting the lotto. Instagram will also deliver handles of Tanqueray gin! Romaine lettuce hearts! Tomatoes! Dishwasher pods!
Anything you want!
A Costco Life would be easier if we had ten mouths to feed, but we do not, so we have to choose carefully. (Plenty of Caesar salads in our future.) Still, what a nice surprise to find “facial tissue” back in stock. I’m not kidding: I hit ORDER NOW, and 30 minutes later the Instacart team were at our door. True, we are one mile away from the warehouse, but the shopper told us Costco now has a dedicated INSTACART check-out line.
We had another pleasant surprise today. Somehow, when Leo was out riding his bike over the weekend, one of the nuts holding his front tire in-place fell off. Lost. Gone. DT had Lenny leave the bike here (they will return soon) and said he would buy/order/replace the nut. But... while Grandpa was out on his walk (after riding his bike 15 miles!), he happened to see the lost nut laying along the path in the golf course! What would be the chances? 100%! This was great luck - not to mention saving another trip outside The Bubble. DT busied himself cleaning both nuts and getting Leo’s bike right again.
And just like that, another day had passed.
With temperatures dropping, we are again suffering from winds. Desert Life. It is still fine inside our covered pavilion. With the screen walls down, we are sheltered... but the NOISE is fairly remarkable.
Appetizer plate tonight: fig & olive biscuits with goat cheese - radishes - almonds, cashews and sesame sticks - Tillamook Cheddar and Swiss cheese cubes. That’s all.
We had a second appetizer plate/salad on our laps while catching the latest news: tomatoes, artichoke hearts, pickled asparagus spears, avocado, Kalamata olives and hearts of palm - with a mustardy-oregano vinaigrette.
Tonight’s dinner was to have been last night’s dinner... before someone said they didn’t want dinner. There were many mushrooms left-over from the pizza party Friday night, so they were sautéed with shallots and garlic, finished-off with white wine and cream, and then tossed with a very fun pasta. Lisa gave us a bag of Sagne a Pezzi from one of her local shops. This pasta (look at the photo above) is said to resemble the wavy edges/rags of lasagna noodles. How fun! Lisa always finds the funnest stuff. After I used 1/4 of the bag for dinner tonight, I looked on line to see the manufacturer recommends serving this pasta with butter and Parmesan. Next time!
Until my next update, I remain, your carbo-loaded correspondent.
Did you maybe get into the GIN?
“Instagram will also deliver handles of Tanqueray gin!“