Busy busy busy

I foolishly neglected to make a reservation at Rufo's for dinner last night. We headed out about 5:45 and found it already partially full. This is not normal in that usually around 6pm, most places are close to empty. This not being the case, he could not seat the six of us. We chatted for a while about where else we could go and thought we might try Vado for a BBQ. They were able to take us.

We climbed the stairs into the restaurant and drink orders followed. As the early evening wore on the place filled up. The places on calle Adelita are probably experiencing the busiest few weeks of this winter season. Most of us ordered an appetizer and my Aztec soup was not OK since the advertised crunchy pork bits were more like crunchy pork little bone bits. Dominique and Javier had the eggplant offering and reported it was delicious.

While waiting for the main course, we saw the server carry some rib dishes to another table and then remembered the menu advertised this as 500g of ribs. When ours arrived, they were towering off the plate and Gail and I, who ordered ribs, realized the food was enough for two at least. These generous portion sizes may be easily consumed by teenagers, but not us. Each plate had six ribs. They were good but not the fall-off-the-bone good we experience many other places.

We headed out and decided to stop at the Bomberos rincon for a night cap. We chatted a lot there about TV series and movies we would all recommend to others. That was the second night recently that we hung out there. On our way out we read a posted about a fund raiser for the bomberos on February 28. This used to be a yearly occurrence then the city decided not to issue them a permit any more. Dominique, amongst many others we are sure, were disappointed by that move. Anyhow, it's back and we will check it out.

It's been a pleasure with Gail and Michael here, their heading back to Ottawa this afternoon. Dominique and I are starting the long process of investigating what may be available to rent in the Lake Chapala area, specifically a town called Ajijic. I have cousins who have been wintering there for years and Dominique has a couple she will speak to as well.

We headed downtown when Gail and Michael grabbed a cab for the airport. We went to Santino's meat market for some guess what ... meat. We picked up some ground pork and a few pork chops. She asked the chops to be cut at 2" and we will pretend they are a pork roast. A nouveau experiment by my lovely chica.

We started the washing today. At one point. I heard a high-pitched squeal from Dominique in the second bedroom where the machines are. As it turned out, we had a flood when the basked kept filling even after it reached its maximum water height. Oh my! We have not had one of these since late 2022 and thought we were done with them forever. There was what was probably a few litres of water on the floor. We broomed and squeegied what we could into the shower in that room then mopped up what we couldn't. We used a small bucket to empty the machine as much as we could then she put it on spin and it emptied the basked itself.

I wrung out the towels that were in the machine and she will try again in the morning. I placed our large fan in a few spots around the entrance to the bathroom to speed up the drying of the floor and counter top. I used a hair dryer on the countertop and that speeded things up.

Even though this was a nuisance requiring about 60-90 minutes of our time to get rid of the water on the floor, it was pale as compared to what I will mention in the next few sentences. Both Dominique and Ranae starred a while back in a B-grade movie called The Attack of the Lavadora. On two separate occasions during the spin cycle, the washing machine started inching its way across the floor. It actually sort of pinned Ranae against a wall, but only chased (very slowly) Dominique. The total budget for the movie was zero pesos and the box office raised 100% of that so no mullah was lost.

Our guests tonight are bro David and Javier. We are making one of our signature dishes ... a whole chicken in the air fryer. We also have plans for broccoli, a salad, and some roasted onions. They leave in the morning but it will not be long until we see them again. They will be in Ottawa before heading to Montreal for a cruise down the St.Lawrence, then into the Northumberland Strait, then on into the Atlantic to end up in Boston. I believe this is happening in May or so?

David and Javier showed up about 5:30 and I met them upstairs. He already knew the code since he got from brother Michael. We chatted and wolfed down gin and tonic to start. They had wine with dinner and I water as usual. The chicken was perfect as was the broccoli, rice and corn mixed together. We chatted until about 9:30 when they left. Dominique and David always have a lot to reminisce about and it was entertaining to watch mi chica take on the personality and mannerisms about people she loves/loved in her past.