Monthly Archives: March 2018

Coffee Snob

For years, I was a coffee snob. Grinding whole beans with a burr grinder was my morning ritual. I would brew coffee in a drip coffee maker or use a French press. Then I bought an espresso machine. I was very particular about my coffee and preferred dark roasted beans. My all-time favorite was a coffee bean called Harrar which came from Ethiopia. It became scarce around 2005 and now I haven’t seen these beans for years.

When we were living in Michigan, Donna did spokesperson work for Keurig. They sent her a few of their one-cup coffee makers and several boxes of K-cups. We started brewing individual cups of coffee with the Keurig machine. It was fast, easy and convenient. Back in the workday world, I would rise from bed at 6am, have coffee with my breakfast and head out before Donna woke up. So, brewing one cup at a time worked out. I also took a Keurig machine to work and would brew my own coffee at the office.

My employer provided coffee, but it wasn’t fresh and the drip coffee makers there used a heating element to keep the pot of coffee hot. Keeping a pot of coffee on a heat source for more than 40 minutes or so changes the coffee. It becomes bitter and some of the water evaporates, changing the strength of the brew. When I retired, I gave the office Keurig to one of the guys that worked for me.

When we hit the road, we brought a Keurig with us. We liked the convenience. We bought Kirkland Signature Pacific Bold K-cups at Costco. The hard water here in Arizona and in southern California meant frequent de-scaling of the Keurig was necessary or else it wouldn’t brew the coffee correctly. This was becoming tiresome. We decided to go back to our old method.

Donna ordered a Mr Coffee 10 cup thermal coffee brewer. A thermal brewer heats the water, then drips it through the coffee grounds and into an insulated carafe. There’s no heating element for the carafe, it keeps the coffee hot through its insulation, therefore the coffee doesn’t get over-cooked. The carafe will keep the coffee hot for a few hours. I also ordered an electric coffee bean burr grinder. I prefer a burr grinder over the blade type because you get more consistent results.

Yesterday, Mike Hall let me use his truck for a Costco run. I stocked up on a few things we’ll be needing in the coming months on the road. I also bought a three-pound bag of whole French roast coffee beans that were grown in Sumatra.

Whole coffee beans, thermal coffee maker and burr grinder

I’d forgotten how good a cup of coffee made with fresh ground coffee beans was. It takes a little longer for me to get the coffee on – the Keurig was fast and easy. But, I think this is worth five minutes or so to brew an excellent cup of coffee. I need to experiment a bit with the coarseness of the grind and the water/coffee ratio, but I’m sure I’ll get it perfected in no time. The counter space foot print is about the same as the Keurig machine, but we do have an extra component with the grinder.

While I was at Costco, I decided to try another Kirkland Signature branded product. They had a Speyside Scotch whisky that looked interesting. It’s aged for 18 years in oak ex-bourbon barrels, then transfered to an Olorosso Sherry cask for six months to finish it. The price was $54 – I haven’t seen 18-year-old single malt Scotch whisky for under $90 for a 750ml bottle before. I thought it was worth a try.

18-year-old Speyside Single Malt Scotch whisky

After dinner, I poured myself a dram. It was fantastic. Complex flavors with hints of honey, vanilla and spices. I think I’ll pick up another while it’s available. Kirkland Signature branded Scotch whisky is bottled by Alexander Murray. Alexander Murray is an independent bottler that buys Scotch whisky from a dozen or more distilleries and re-brands them. They bottle for Costco, Trader Joe’s, Total Wine and others.

Alexander Murray was founded by Steve Lipp. He grew up in Scotland although he lives in California now. The name Alexander Murray was his uncle’s name. His uncle taught him about Scotch whiskey and he used his name for the company. I read that they bottled over 180,000 cases of whisky in 2016. Some of the Alexander Murray branded whiskys reveal which distillery it came from. However, Costco, Trader Joe’s and Total Wine keep the source a secret. I’ll never know who actually distilled this 18-year-old Scotch, but they made a good one!

Speaking of dinner, Donna sometimes keeps it simple. Last night she grilled chicken feta spinach sausage with Southern fried cabbage and bacon. A simple and delicious meal.

Grilled feta-spinach chicken sausage and Southern fried cabbage

The weather has been near perfect. We hit the low 70s yesterday with a few clouds. Today there isn’t a cloud in the sky and we should see 75 degrees. By the end of the week it’ll be warmer – maybe 90 degrees by the weekend.

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Grillin’ and Chillin’

Our time is getting short here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. We’re staying active on the pickleball courts and getting out with friends before we move on. Many of the snowbirds have already left for home and I expect to see a lot more heading out before the weekend. The weather has been mostly pleasant with daily highs in the upper 70s and low 80s.

On Wednesday evening, Donna grilled wild Alaskan salmon on the Weber Q and we dined al fresco at our folding table. It was nice to eat dinner outdoors in shorts and flip-flops.

Grilled salmon with mango salsa, steamed asparagus and baked potato

On Thursday, we had dinner plans with our friends, Dave and Stilla Hobden. Stilla is from Germany and Dave was stationed there for many years. They recommended a German restaurant on Main Street called Zur Kate – they said the cuisine was authentic German fare. They were right!

We all ordered schnitzel – they have seven varieties on the menu. Although the most well-known German schnitzel is wiener schnitzel which is made with veal, these were Vienna style schnitzel made from pork tenderloin. The tenderloin is pounded flat to tenderize it and then it’s breaded and pan fried. Dave, Donna and I ordered the Jager schnitzel (hunter’s schnitzel) which had a brown mushroom gravy and onions. Stilla had the schnitzel cordon bleu which had a thin slice of ham and Swiss cheese on it covered with gravy.

Jager schnitzel with home fried potatoes and red cabbage at Zur Kate

The food was great and it was fun to catch up with Dave and Stilla – it’s been a year since we last saw them.

On Friday morning, our friends Mike and Jodi Hall took us out in the desert by Sycamore Creek to do some target shooting. Mike and Kim Childs joined us along with Jeff and Chrissy Van Deren. It was a fun morning. While we were out in the desert, a military Blackhawk helicopter suddenly appeared as it climbed out of a ravine below us and flew overhead no more 100 feet high. It would have been illegal for a civilian helicopter to fly that close to people, but the military has exemptions.

On Friday afternoon, Donna’s friend Audrey Muehe came by and we loaded the Sea Eagle 370 inflatable kayak in Audrey’s car. They went to the Salt River to kayak – Audrey has a Sea Eagle kayak too.  They took a two-hour cruise on the river from the bridge on Bush Highway down to the Phon D Sutton Recreation Area where they pulled out. They saw wild horses, bald eagles and herons along the way.

Wild horse on the Salt River (Audrey Muehe photo)

Saturday evening Donna got busy on the Weber Q again and grilled boneless chicken thighs with olive oil, minced garlic and fresh herbs. She served them with smashed garlic potatoes and sauteed spinach.

Grilled boneless chicken thigh with smashed potato and spinach

Donna’s getting pretty good with the grill and has taken over a lot of the grilling which used to be my domain. I still run the Traeger though.

Sunday morning I watched the first race of the Formula One season from Melbourne, Australia. It was a very entertaining race with some close racing on a track that’s very hard to overtake on. Lewis Hamilton was leading from Kimi Raikonnen and Sebastian Vettel when Kimi pitted his Ferrari after lap 18. Hamilton pitted on the following lap. Vettel inherited the lead as he stayed out. On lap 22 a disabled Haas car on the track in an unsafe position forced a virtual safety car – this means that everyone must slow down and hold station – no overtaking. Vettel was nearly at the end of the lap and dove into the pits for fresh tires. With the rest of the field lapping slowly he came back out on the track still in first place. The obviously biased British announcer cried foul claiming he somehow took advantage of Hamilton and took first place away. The fact is, he was in first place when the virtual safety car was declared and he remained in first place – he didn’t pass Hamilton or anyone else, he held station as he is required to. Vettel went on to win the race.

Sara Graff picked up Donna Sunday around 10:45am. I loaded the Sea Eagle and they met Audrey at Phon D Sutton. They left Sara’s car there and took Audrey’s car up river where they put in again. They spent a few hours on the river. It had more traffic than it did on Friday, but they still had a great time and saw more horses and wildlife.

While Donna was out, I tackled a chore I had been putting off. Our Delta kitchen faucet had loosened and needed to be re-secured. It’s a high rise single handle pull-down model. The base has a hollow threaded tube that the hose for the pull-down spray head runs through. A nut is threaded on the tube to clamp a rectangular base pad under the kitchen counter, securing the faucet in place.

I had to remove a fitting on the spray hose, then use a special Delta faucet tool to reach the nut. The tool is hollow and has a 15/16″ hex on one end to fit the nut and a couple of wings on the other end for leverage to spin the nut tight. It seems like it should be a simple task, but RV plumbing is never so simple. I had to squeeze into a tight opening under the sink and I couldn’t see the nut I was trying to reach. The hot and cold pex supply lines run right next to the nut, making it difficult to get the tool in place. I saw that I hadn’t oriented the rectangular base plate correctly when I installed the faucet and I think that’s why it loosened. I turned it 90 degrees so it would rest squarely against the underside of the countertop – it was riding on part of the sink before. I got it done and I think it’ll stay tight now.

Delta faucet tool

After Donna returned from kayaking, she started preparing dinner. While she was doing that, I enjoyed a bottle of one of my new favorite beers – Duvel Citra. It’s a Belgian golden ale that’s triple hopped and features citra hops. This gives it a unique flavor – the bitterness borders on sour and I like it.

Duvel Citra

The Duvel is tasty, but it’s dangerous at 9.5% ABV, so I only had one. With dinner, I had another new beer I found. It’s from Lagunitas Brewery in Petaluma, California and it’s called Aunt Sally. They describe it as “A unique dry-hopped sweet tart sour mash ale.” The description fits. I like it and at 5.7% ABV, it won’t make me get cross-eyed.

Lagunitas Aunt Sally

Donna served the flank steak with parmesan-herb potatoes and a side of sauted sweet peppers, red onion and Mexican squash. It was delicious!

Flank steak with parmesan-herb potatoes, sweet peppers, onions, and Mexican squash

The forecast calls for the pleasant weather to continue before it gets up to 90 degrees next weekend. I don’t think we’ll see any rain as we count down our last 10 days here in Mesa. I’m getting the hitch itch and I’m looking forward to hitting the road.

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

 

No Green Beer

We had mixed weather here in Mesa over the weekend. Friday was pleasant with the high temperature reaching the low 70s.  Donna had a couple of errands in the afternoon, so she planned to ride with me on the Spyder to handle them. First I took her to the dry cleaners on McDowell and Power Road. I waited in front while she picked up a dress she had altered there.

While I was waiting, I heard the growl of a V-12 engine. An older Ferrari 575 Maranello drove into the lot and came past me. The 575 Maranello was made from 2002 to 2006 and had a 5.75 liter V-12 engine putting out 508 horsepower. A higher performance version called a Super America was also offered with 533 horsepower.

From there, I dropped Donna off at Home Depot where she wanted to return a phone cord she purchased – it wasn’t the one we wanted. I rode on to Lucky Lou’s where I joined the usual suspects and Donna walked over from Home Depot to meet up. When we were leaving Lucky Lou’s, something caught my eye. It was the same Ferrari 575 Maranello parked over by the Walgreen’s Pharmacy. I’m guessing the owner was in Lucky Lou’s and parked the car out of the way in the near empty Walgreen’s lot.

Ferrari 575 Maranello parked near Lucky Lou’s

I always like seeing exotic cars that are driven on the street. This Ferrari looked like a daily driver for someone – there were a few paint chips on the front, but it was a nice looking car in good condition. Originally these cars sold for $250,000 and up – a Super America was closer to half a million dollars.

On Saturday morning, Donna played in a 2.5 level pickleball tournament. I went down to the courts to referee the games on court one – there are five courts. Donna played well and won all five of her five games. She then played in the championship game, but she and her partner were beat and finished the tournament in second place. The weather stayed nice Saturday afternoon with the high in the low 70s, but clouds moved in during the afternoon.

We spent Saint Patrick’s day at home. Donna prepared a traditional Irish meal – she always does on Saint Patrick’s Day. Before I met Donna, I usually went out to a pub for Saint Paddy’s and drank green beer. Donna’s Irish heritage calls for something a little better than green beer in a pub. She made corned beef, of course – and served it with a potato side dish called champ, cabbage and carrots that cooked along with beef in the crockpot and Irish soda bread.

Saint Patrick’s Day dinner

A few rain drops were falling by bedtime. It rained lightly off and on during the night and on Sunday morning, we had a couple more showers before the sun came out. The temperature only reached the mid-60s. Sunday marked the start of the Moto GP season and we were treated to an excellent race from the circuit in Qatar. Valentino Rossi proved he can still ride with the leaders in the highest level of motorcycle road racing at the age of 39.

For Sunday night’s dinner, Donna prepared teriyaki BBQ pork kabobs and grilled them on skewers. The recipe called for the pork to marinate, then a different sauce was used to baste the skewers on the grill making a delightful glaze on them. Yummy!

Pork kabobs over a bed of basmati brown rice

This morning I was back at the pickleball courts playing in the 3.0-3.5 round robin. Tomorrow Donna will join me in the 3.0-3.5 open play – she’s ready to move up. Today we should see a high in the mid-70s with clear skies. The forecast calls for 80s in the next couple of days and 91 on Thursday!

Lingering in Mesa

In the winter months when we’re stationary for extended periods of time, I find it difficult to maintain this blog. My days fall into routines and I don’t have a lot to say. We’ve been here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona for nearly three months now. Most of my days revolve around pickleball. I play from 8am to 10am when the courts are reserved for players in the 3.0-3.5+ group. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we play an organized round robin. The rest of the week, it’s open pick-up games.

Playing with people at similar or higher skill levels is a great way for me to improve my pickleball skills. I’m playing at a much better level than I was three months ago. After two hours on the courts, I usually have over 8,000 steps recorded on my smart phone and my legs feel it. It gives me a good excuse to kick back and read a book for a couple of hours to recover.

On Sunday, we had guests. Andrea and Tim Brundage came to our site for happy hour. They brought a veggie tray and dips. Donna made chicken satay with peanut sauce and I grilled the skewered chicken on the Weber Q. Along with good food, we enjoyed good conversation. Donna and Andrea met years ago through the Arizona professional organizers group and I met her a few years ago when we hosted a meetup to discuss full-time RVing as a minimalist lifestyle. But it was our first time meeting Tim. They have a toy hauler and also enjoy the RV life.

Most days I head out for happy hour at Lucky Lou’s around 4pm. Donna joins me a couple of times per week. I meet up with the usual crowd there.  Last Monday, we went there to celebrate Mike Childs’ birthday. Donna and I joined Mike and Kim Childs along with Mike and Jodi Hall, Jeff and Crissy Van Deren and a few others for a couple of cold ones.

On Thursday night, our neighbors Chuck and Sue invited us to join them for a concert in the ballroom here at Viewpoint. They had tickets for a Doobie Brothers tribute band. I like the Doobie Brothers music – particularly the early albums featuring Tom Johnston. The tribute band thing baffles me a bit though. It’s a little strange to see musicians playing the role of another band. These guys had wigs to look like the Doobie Brothers of the 1970s and clothing from that period.

Fuzzy image of the Doobie Brothers tribute band

The band faithfully reproduced the sound of the early Doobie Brothers. The later stuff when Michael McDonald fronted the band was little off – a bit fuzzy like the image above! I think there may have been about 1,000 people in the audience. We had a good time – it was all fun.

Although I can claim to have fallen into a routine, Donna continues to experiment with different dinner recipes and feeds me like a king. Here are a few plates from the last week.

One-skillet Italian chicken sausage with tomatoes and asparagus

 

Mojo pork tenderloin with sweet potato and spinach hash

 

Pan-seared chicken thigh with buttery orzo

 

Tortilla-crusted tilapia with seasoned black beans

 

Herbed chicken breast grilled under a foil-wrapped brick with sweet potato and asparagus

Donna rode the Spyder to Scottsdale yesterday. Her friend Stevie Ann recently became a certified massage therapist and treated Donna to a massage. Then Donna treated Stevie Ann to lunch at Arcadia Farms, one of their favorite restaurants.

The weather was mostly warm for the past week with temperatures in the low 80s. Yesterday was cloudy and windy and the temperature only reached 70 degrees. But I can’t complain about that in mid-March. The cooler weather will prevail through the weekend. We may or may not have rain Saturday night – depends on who you believe. One forecast calls for zero percent chance of rain while another calls for a 50% chance of rain – we’ll see.

We’ve extended our stay here for two additional weeks. We’ll hit the road on April 4th. I’m getting the hitch itch and I’m looking forward to adventures on the road ahead. Last week I visited the Mesa Buckhorn Elks lodge and renewed my membership. I wanted to renew in person so I could ask them not to mail my new membership cards. I wanted to pick them up at the lodge rather than have them sent to South Dakota. When I asked the lodge secretary if I could pick up the cards there, she told me to sit tight for about two minutes. She opened a file and found our pre-printed cards and I was set to go. Now that’s efficient! We will undoubtedly stay at an Elks lodge or two this summer on our travels.

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

 

 

A Sight to See

We’ve always said that flexibility is the key to happiness with our nomadic lifestyle. Our original plan was to stay here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona for three months. We planned to hit the road on March 21st. It looks like Donna will be flying to New York City on April 2nd, for a television spokesperson job. So, we may extend out stay here for a couple of weeks because it’ll be more convenient to fly out of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport rather than Tucson or any other place we might end up in.

Meanwhile, we’re staying busy on the pickleball courts while I try to finish a few items on my to-do list. Donna has been chipping away at her project list as well. Yesterday she did a deep cleaning of all the wood cabinets. First she cleaned them with Murphy’s Oil Soap, then she conditioned them with Old English.

I received a part I’d ordered from McMaster-Carr the other day and installed it. Our Alpine Coach has a surge tank for the cooling system on our Cummins ISL 400 engine. The surge tank has a sight glass so you can see if the coolant level is correct. The problem I had was that our sight glass didn’t give a good look at the coolant – it looked dark regardless of the coolant level.  In the McMaster-Carr online catalog, I found a high-pressure sight for dark liquid, nickel-plated steel with a 1/2″ NPT threads. The part number is 1079K42 if you have an Alpine Coach and need one.

McMaster-Carr high-pressure sight

I wrapped the threads with Teflon tape to seal them.

Threads wrapped with Teflon tape

The old sight glass was useless.

Old sight glass on surge tank

The new one is much better. In the photo, you can see the pink coolant – it’s Fleetguard  ES Complete OAT long-life diesel coolant.

New sight glass – much better!

Large diesel engines with wet liner cylinders are prone to coolant cavitation. This phenomenon occurs when the fuel ignites and the liner vibrates and coolant moves away from the liner, creating a small vacuum. The coolant then rushes back to fill the vacuum. Over time, this can cause erosion and pitting of the cylinder liner. I’ve read that Ford 7.3 Powerstroke engines are especially prone to this as are the larger diesel engines. Special diesel coolant and supplemental additives are used to prevent this type of damage.

Donna likes her new Spyderco Santoku kitchen knife. Last night she used it to dice onions, mince garlic and chiffonade basil for a spicy shrimp pasta dinner made with yellow lentil penne. The dinner was superb!

Spicy shrimp pasta

We’ve had 80 degree weather this week and it looks like it will continue to be warm for at least another week. We’ll figure out our plan by the weekend and decide if we stay here at Viewpoint or move on.

 

Concert at the MIM

Donna and I always enjoy live music. Donna found a place called the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix. We hadn’t heard of this place before, but it’s ranked among the top 20 museums in the country. They have a theater in the museum complex and a full calendar of performances. A blues guitarist named Tinsley Ellis had a concert scheduled Saturday night. Tinsley is from Atlanta, Georgia and has been around the music scene for quite a while. He’s performed with many notable musicians including Warren Haynes, The Allman Brothers Band, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy. He recorded his first album in 1988.

Donna found tickets online – the concert was nearly sold out. She found four seats and bought the tickets. We invited our friends, Mike and Jodi Hall, to join us. Mike came by our site at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort around 5pm and drove us to his place. Mike and Jodi bought a house in Mesa a couple of miles away from the RV park last year. We enjoyed a cold one and toured their new home. It’s a nice place on a cul-de-sac . Mike has been doing a few upgrades such as a nice tile backsplash in the kitchen and new wood laminate flooring in the bedroom. The backyard features a pool and hot tub and also a koi pond.

While we were checking out the koi pond, a hummingbird appeared. Mike has a feeder in the backyard, but the hummingbird was hovering over the pond. In the rays of the late afternoon sun, we could see gnats buzzing in the air over the pond. The hummingbird would dart from his hover and snatch a gnat out of the air. We watched him do this for several minutes. I knew hummingbirds eat insects, but I’ve never seen one do it before.

The concert was scheduled to start at 7:30pm, so we hit the road around 6:30pm. Phoenix sprawls and the Musical Instrument Museum is on the far north perimeter near the junction of the loop 101 and AZ51. We figured it to be about a 40-minute drive.

The museum is a beautiful, large building with the theater and offices on the first floor. The museum itself is on the second floor and houses over 200 musical instruments. The museum closes at 5pm, so we couldn’t enter – we were just there for the concert in the theater. The theater is a super venue for a concert. It seats 300 people – there isn’t a bad seat in the house. It’s very intimate and acoustically designed. We learned that over 250 concerts were performed there last year and they’re on track to have 260 this year – that’s about five shows per week! Who knew?

Donna, me, Jodi and Mike at the MIM

Tinsley Ellis put on a great performance. He played nearly non-stop for about 90 minutes. He had a variety of guitars – one was especially interesting to me. Back in the 1950s, Ted McCarty was the head of Gibson, the guitar manufacturer. In 1957, he introduced some futuristic models to capture a younger rock and roll market demographic. He introduced the Flying V and the Explorer. At the same time, another model called the Moderne was announced. The Moderne of 1958 is the holy grail for collectors – because no one knows what happened to it. Supposedly a prototype was built, but it wasn’t put into production. In 1982 and 1983, Gibson broke out the blueprints and produced a small number of Moderne guitars. Tinsley Ellis had one – I was told it’s a 1982.

Tinsley’s guitars – Left to right – National Resonator, Fender Stratocaster (blond neck), Gibson ES335, Fender Stratocaster (rosewood fretboard) and Gibson Moderne

We all enjoyed the show. I’d like to come back see the museum sometime – and of course, see another show at the theater. Mike and Jodi dropped us off a little past 10pm.

On Sunday morning, Donna went for a bike ride. She rode 9 miles west to the canal bike trail and then looped south. She stopped at Kokobelli Bagels to meet her friend Jody Owens for coffee and a bagel. They visited for a couple of hours. Donna hadn’t seen Jody since we moved to Detroit in 2009.

I mostly puttered around. The Tinsley Ellis concert inspired me to put new strings on my guitar and practice a bit. I also straightened out a few things in the trailer. We’re down to our last two and half weeks here before we move on.

Last week, I sharpened kitchen knives for Donna. We have a set of J. A. Henckels knives I bought about 15 years ago. While sharpening the chef’s knife, I noticed the blade was nicked and chipped in a few places. I used a medium coarse stone to re-profile it, but I wasn’t entirely happy with the result. If you follow this blog, you probably know I have an affinity for Spyderco locking blade pocket knives. Well, I found out that Spyderco also makes kitchen knives.

I ordered a Spyderco Santoku. A Santoku is a Japanese design utility kitchen knife. Santoku means three virtues – slicing, dicing and mincing. The design incorporates a sheepsfoot-style blade where the backstrap of the blade curves down at the tip. The cutting edge of the blade on the Spyderco Santoku curves upward near the tip more than the traditional Japanese Santoku – this facilitates rocking the knife on a cutting board to dice vegetables or chop herbs.

Spyderco Santoku kitchen knife

The blade is about seven inches long and is made from MBS 26 steel in Seki City, Japan. This is a stainless steel with a high resistance to corrosion and also sharpens easily. It has high toughness which allows the blade to be ground thin – in steel, think of toughness as the opposite of brittle. I think Donna will enjoy using this knife for food preparation.

This morning was windy. I played in the 3.0-3.5 pickleball round robin and the wind was challenging at times. We expect the temperature to reach the mid-70s today and hit the 80s for next week or so. I’ll have to finish checking off my things-to-do list before we head out. We have a general idea of where we’re going. We’re set to be in Austin, Texas by April 19th for the Moto GP race at Circuit of the Americas. But we have no reservations between now and then – or after for that matter!