Losing a part of me

It was glorious to wake up this morning because of a lawn mower at 8:30am, and not because of an alarm ringing at 6:30am. Leslie was already up and about because she has to work today, but I do not… and it felt delightful.

The bathroom scale has me down over half a pound from yesterday, which is good progress. Yesterday during the day I was good (although I did eat the leftover Chinese food for lunch, it was not a huge portion), although in the evening I did have a glass of whisky. Not just any glass of whisky… a really good glass, in a crystal tumbler that Leslie bought for me in June. We enjoyed a drink and a cigar on the balcony together, and it was a delightful evening.

This, after a failed supper attempt by me. I had not pre-planned dinner, and although there were chicken breasts that needed to be cooked (they were a day beyond their ‘cook before’ date), I did not know what I was going to do with them. Deciding to experiment, I went the Tempura route. Leslie and I had gone to the Asian market on Sunday, and we bought Tempura breading, as well as the dipping sauce. How bad could this go, right? Pop them into the air fryer and twenty-five minutes later…

First of all, let me advise you one and all that tempura batter likely works better on smaller pieces cut up than it does on whole pieces of… well, anything I would imagine. Also, based on the consistency of what is supposed to be a light and fluffy batter, it is probably one of those things that would really work much better in an actual fryer than in an air fryer. The hard shell of the chicken was neither light nor fluffy, although the few bites of it that I had tasted fine. I should also mention that twenty-five minutes in the air fryer would be fine for a normal sized piece of chicken, but these came out not quite done, and needed to go into the microwave for a few extra minutes.

Bulldog sauce saved the day, and the dinner was not a total loss. Leslie and I now have one more funny incident to laugh about.

Today is supposed to be my last full day here. I am supposed to fly back to Canada tomorrow, although we are seriously discussing pushing my flight by a day or two. We will see… it is always better being with my wife, and spending a day or two with her son would be very nice as well. That decision will be made in the next couple of hours… we will see.

The next few days in Dallas will be cloudy with some rain, but that is definitely not a factor in my decision. If I do stay, I am really excited to make French toast for Leslie’s son, and to spending more time getting to know him. It will be nice. On the flipside, I have my neighbour looking after Princess Sophie, and knowing that in three weeks I am asking her to do so again for three more weeks, is another factor. We will see.

Have a great day folks!