PM Non-Market Post

I had a very enjoyable day today. My daughter goes to college full time, but she has a job caring for a 7 month old. She's been caring for this baby since day 7. She was sitting at the country house. I wrote about this beautiful and historic place here. Last night I was at a loss for what to fix for dinner. I had some flour tortillas. I also had some frozen meat mixture that I had used to make spicy beef empanadas. I concluded that if I thawed this I'd have a shot of making something easy.

I thawed and then heated the meat mixture in the microwave. I opened a can of black beans. I then cut cherry tomatoes in half, tossed them with some balsamic vinegar and then grilled them (in a grill pan on the grill). So our 'burritos' were spicy empanada meat, black beans with roasted cherry tomatoes, cheese and sour cream. If I ever had a restaurant, that would be on the menu. It was out of this world good.

My daughter liked it so much that she hinted that it would make a good lunch that I could bring her to Marl Hill. H. normally goes into town to watch A. But the couple were in the country house which is conveniently 9 minutes away.

I prepared two burritos, grabbed a languishing bag of Sun Chips, a couple of ginger ales. I stopped by a little convenience store on the way and got two nutty buddies for dessert. We found a shady spot underneath ancient trees. It was a perfect, idyllic setting, with my beautiful daughter and this beautiful baby. Very relaxing. The baby adores H.; and I realized what a grandmother must feel when she sees her daughter with her own child. I'm not anxious to be a grandmother--but I realize now what a stage it is in the life of a woman who has a daughter.

On the way back home, I had this clever idea to go home the back way. My 9 minute drive became a 50-minute odyssey. I'm quite confident that I have some sort of spatial learning disability that robs me of the ability to know (1) where I've been; (2) what direction I'm heading. I also must confess that few things get me so unnerved as being lost and not being able to work my way through it. (I'm not good at video games either for that same reason: I never know where the hell I am in the game).

I did not have my phone with me (or so I thought). But at my second dead end, I decided to stop and dig through my purse. I found my phone. My 17 year old son talked me in. I screwed up by turning around at a point where had I gone just 1/2 mile further, I would have been where I thought I was going (as my husband informed me). He he's a wanderer. I'm not. The experience was not too unlike the current investing environment.....!

I've lived in this county my entire adult life. It's not that big of a county. There are not that many roads. I probably traveled on all of them today. It was at least a lesson that I should explore my own beautiful county more. But I wasn't anxious to get home, and I purposely enjoyed the scenery. When you live in a rural county, there is much of that. And I live in one of the first settled counties of our nation--so there are some really old tucked away places.

The market had not changed much since I left it. I did see that my best performing holding (I don't have many) was SDP--the Ultrashort (2x) Utilities. Utility stocks have been a little weak looking. I suspect that when the market finally bottoms, money will come out of the utility sector. One of those little theories; sometimes they work--sometimes they don't!

My kittens are growing up so quickly. Minnah sleeps beside my keyboard. Wyatt, her brother, likes to seek out Chloe, my old, blind, incontinent poodle and sleep with her. She's been very kind to them. I feel like I'm out of the danger zone with my two larger dogs. Daisey (English Setter) is the one who likes to mouth them. Macy does not pay them any mind. However, the other night they slipped out when Daisey had to go to the bathroom urgently (she had a steroid shot). Kittens running around at night drew the dogs' immediate attention. They were ready to grab them, not realizing what it was. (Dogs react to motion: bite first, ask questions later).

Hmmm....two neighbors are over, abandoned by their families....I guess I'm abandoned too! I'll go curl up with a book. My mind has been a little restless lately--I've been combing through my stacks of books and becoming reacquainted with old friends.

I did a little stylistic change on the blog. The little bird picture captivated me.

I hope that you had a good week. Enjoy your time with your loved ones--to include yourself.