No Habla Espanol

Nope, no speaking Spanish for me. After one class I realized that it was not what I thought it would be.  The class seems to be more like "freshman English" is...only this is freshman Spanish. Everyone in the class seemed to be able to speak and/or read Spanish and the prof talked mostly Spanish all thru class. Plus he was late for class and told us he would be late every day as he teaches another class until 11 and ours starts at 11.  Then the kid who sat next to me texted all thru class!  Needless to say, I was not a "happy camper" at the end of that hour.  So I've dropped the class and will get a full refund.

Now, the Bread class was fabulous...give me a science class and I'm happy.... at least food science.  Prof was delightful and on time and told everyone that having their phone on or texting was not going to be tolerated and she would kick them out. Etc.  yeah! I met a great gal who is also named Linda, fairly close to my ancient age, and we are both glad to have someone else with "experience" in the class. The first session was mostly spent going over rules, regulations, syllabus and such and included a pop quiz. It was on Food Safety and Kitchen Safety and you had to get 100% to be able to go into the lab.  I got 100% on the first try! The old brain worked.  We didn't have time to do the lab work on quick breads after the lecture so on the 25th we will have shorter lecture and more lab work. (We don't have class this Monday as it's MLK Day and a school holiday.) This is going to be fun.  There is also a Culinary Arts Club on campus that I'll be joining. They have an event nearly every month from catering to fishing. Yup, fishing...at some lake near here where we will fish and then cook the fish!  and also going to Albuquerque to view a cooking competition.

Had a great visit with Paul and Joan. The guys got to go to Whittington to shoot on Tuesday while Joan and I bummed around town and sat on the deck reading in the bright sunshine... starting to work on our tans!!  We ate out a couple of times and discovered Dick's Deli and Liquor has an awesome restaurant with killer Sweet Potato Fries.  We'll go back there. And of course, breakfast at Charlie's Spic and Span before they left on Wed morning.

Gene is starting to work on my herb garden... picture attached is the 'before'....soil moved near to it and he's cutting wood to make a raised bed so I don't have to even bend over to work on it...about 30 inches high. with the two sides being concrete block, and the site getting lots of sunshine, I should have a bumper crop of herbs this summer.

Off to Girl's Night Out tonight to eat, talk, drink and find out what the neighborhood ladies have been up to! And tomorrow, Karyl and I head to La Cueva for a book club retreat till Saturday night. Staying at the Salman Ranch which should be very interesting. The ranch house is an old adobe (1835 approx) 8,000 sq ft... restored and the family home. Not open to the public so this is a real treat. And more food of course. Hoping the weather is good on Saturday so I can wander around and photograph the house and the old mission church and cemetery, etc.  Oh, yeah, and discuss the book.