Week 8: Farewell to My Fabulous 50’s

Well I am eight weeks in and feeling pretty satisfied with my progress so far. The check marks are flying and the bucket-list items that require ongoing commitment are also doing well. As Mike was off this week, we had a little more time to accomplish some of the things on our summer wish list (and my bucket-list). Fun fact: I thought we were approaching the midway point of summer, so I googled it. And guess what? Summer is not half over until August 7th. We still have a lot of summer left! Doesn’t that make you feel better? So let’s get on with it, shall we?

The bathroom is rounding home plate. Tony, our contractor extraordinaire and jack of all trades came on Saturday to finish up. The last items needed will be a custom glass door, which is scheduled to be measured by Al, someone Tony recommended, on Tuesday. It also needs painting which I’ve lined up for Tuesday. I picked several paint colors and we narrowed it down to the top two contenders. We painted swatches on the wall and have decided to go with Sherwin Williams Seasalt. Did we make the right choice? Let me know what you think! The wainscoting will be Extra-white, also by Sherwin Williams. The last thing we need are all of the accessories, towels, wash cloths, waste baskets, artwork, i.e. the fun stuff! I’ll wait to share bathroom pictures though until the final product.

Unfortunately the true colors didn’t translate well. They are a bit lighter than this appears.

I also used my herb garden to prepare a dish this week, Skinny Teriakyi Pork Chops topped with a few chives from the garden. It’s from a recipe I printed off the internet a few years ago. It was yummy! I wish I could attribute the recipe to someone however, despite an exhaustive internet search, I couldn’t relocate this exact recipe, just variations of it. Here is the recipe:

Skinny Pineapple Teriakyi Pork Chops

20 oz can Pineapple Slices in 100% juice, (reserve 1/2 cup juice)

1/4 cup less sodium soy sauce

2 TBSP brown sugar

2 TBSP rice vinegar

1/4 tsp ground ginger

4 -40z boneless pork chops, trimmed of fat

1 tsp fresh chives, chopped

In a small bowl prepare marinade. Whisk together pineapple juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar and ground ginger.
Place pork chops in a large resealable bag and cover with marinade. Seal bag and place pork chops in the fridge for 3-4 hours or overnight. If possible, turn bag every hour or so to evenly cover pork cops with marinade.
Remove pork chops from bag. DO NOT DISCARD MARINADE.
In a small sauce pan over medium heat, bring marinade to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer sauce for 15-17 minutes until sauce thickens, making sure to stir sauce frequently. After sauce has thickened, remove from heat and place in a small dish. You will use this marinade sauce while grilling pork chops and pineapple.
Preheat the grill to medium-high heat. Lightly coat grill rack with nonstick cooking spray.
Place pork chops on grill and brush often with marinade sauce while cooking. Cook pork chops on each side for 4-5 minutes or until cooked through.
Delicately add pineapple slices to grill and cook for 1-2 minutes on both sides.
Let pork chops rest for 2-4 minus before serving.
To serve, place a grilled pineapple on top of each pork chop and sprinkle with chives.

Serving size is 1 pork chop/1 pineapple slice, 268 calories

Skinny Teriakyi Pork Chops topped with garden chives and a side of my “special” coleslaw.

Yoga lakeside was ah-mazing! (bucket list item #50) Thanks to my sister-in-law Sharon and my niece Ashley, our instructors, for the excellent start to our day. Thanks also to Katherine for sharing her beautiful lake-front with us. Class started at 10:30am and it was H*O*T*. It felt like what I imagine hot yoga must feel like. Sweaty. Despite the heat, it was an amazing class. I know the heat seemed to improve my flexibility, but the best part for me was, as we were resting in savasana, a gentle cleansing rain came and cooled us off. Thank you Mother Nature!

Favorite way to do yoga: Outdoors with friends.

We tried a new restaurant, San Morello (bucket-list item #11). This little gem is located in the new Shinola Hotel in downtown Detroit. We brought Mike’s stepmom, Louise, out to lunch there for her birthday. The atmosphere was lovely and everyone’s meals were delicious. We ordered 2 dips with bread for our starters: Sheep’s milk ricotta with hot honey and garlic and also Italian butter bean wild mushroom sott’aceto. Both were yummy though I especially liked the ricotta dip. Louise ordered a traditional breaded eggplant al forno, (Melanzane for you Italians out there.) I had a classic tomato, mozzarella, basil wood-fired pizza, and Mike ordered Tuna tartare as an entree. Our waitress was very good and I would absolutely go back. We opted to sit inside as it was extremely hot but they do offer patio seating and I’ll bet it’s lovely on a cool summer evening. Here is a link to their website if you want to check it out for yourself. https://www.sanmorello.com

San Morello. You can see the patio dining to the left.

After lunch, we walked around the city a bit and discovered this cute little coffee shop, Madcap Coffee, next to The Brakeman. It had large windows that open in the summer, allowing you to place your order street-side. We ordered their summer blend, which we enjoyed before heading home.

Awaiting our coffee. Bonus: a good place to people-watch.

Newsflash on the wine front: I may have a contender here for new favorite wine. I gave the waitress at San Morello my likes and dislikes and, after conferring with the bartender, she suggested I try a white wine from central Italy, Verdicchio Classico Castelli di Jesi Felici 2017, Marche. It was $12 by the glass, and I was able to find it online from $14-$20 a bottle depending on the vendor. If you, like me, prefer less dry white wines, with crisp fruit notes, you might like this one. Currently, it is my top contender for new favorite wine!

Top contender so far for new favorite wine!

Bucket-list item #43 was a sunrise breakfast on the pontoon. Mission accomplished. We got up early on July 4th before the lake gets busy and had a lovely little sausage/egg/English muffin sandwich with fresh pineapple orange juice, and fruit. I hope we are able to do this a few more times this summer. What an awesome way to start the day!

Breakfast on the boat. Don’t mind if I do!

On Sunday, we had planned to tackle that bike ride to Lake Eerie but we decided to take a raincheck. Literally. Rain would have affected much of our ride and why make it unpleasant when we don’t have to?

As you can see, it was a busy week. Hope you all had a happy and safe July 4th. Until next week, happy trails!

Week 6 Of Farewell to My Fabulous 50’s Tour

The weather has finally been beautiful and we’ve been busy with yard work and cleaning the boat. Of course, when your boat is clean it’s mandatory to take it out for a spin, because, why wouldn’t you? In addition to the chores and pleasures that come along with the nice weather, the bathroom renovation continues to occupy much of my time. It is coming along well and our contractor, Tony, has remained true to his word. He shows up and stays all day and does the work. We anticipate being done in about another 1 1/2 weeks. The drywall is repaired and ready for sanding. On Monday, he continues with the plumbing. Excited for each new phase! Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

Work in progress: mirror removed, all cabinets, plumbing fixtures and tile removed. This is the “yikes” phase.

I am excited to report that one of my herb gardens is thriving. It looks and smells great! The other, I’m afraid will need transplanting. As it happens, this pot has no drainage and the plants were too wet with all the rain we’ve had. The chives, a sad little cilantro and a single spindly twig of dill are the only survivors. I will transplant them but I am trying to decide whether or not to replace the herbs I’ve lost. On a happier note, I did harvest some basil and made a mini caprese salad as a side with our BLTS one evening. You guys, if you haven’t tried Rachel Ray’s Drizzle Reduction with Balsamic Vinegar, you are missing out. So yummy!

Thriving! Parsley, basil, sage, and rosemary.

Lost a couple plants and the survivors don’t appear very healthy. Need to give this guy a transplant and then a little intensive care. (Why do cardiac nurses always seem to revert back to familiar terminology? Or maybe it’s just me.)

Mini caprese salad with fresh basil and balsamic reduction drizzle

I have to admit that the recent sky-diving plane accident in Hawaii has me a little spooked. I’ve not scheduled my jump yet, but have been perusing Youtube watching videos to prepare myself. After a bit of reflection and a good self-pep talk, I have decided I just need to do it! I will be jumping tandem instead of solo and plan to use Skydive Tecumseh. If anyone has any feedback on them, I would appreciate hearing it.

On the language front, my French class is now on hiatus until end of July. C’est la vie. I continue with daily Duolingo and have maintained my streak, currently at 675 days. I hope to meet up with a few of my classmates at least once over this break.

In the search for a new wine, I sampled and loved a Washington Riesling (Chateau Ste. Michelle Harvest Select Sweet Riesling, Columbia Valley, vintage 2017) which was delicious. Almost all of the rieslings I’ve sampled have been very good. And fun fact: I’ve learned that the high sugar content of rieslings make them age well. So despite many white wines “going bad,” sweeter rieslings apparently will still do well if left on the shelf for a while. Good to know but somehow they never end up on the shelf very long around here. I’ve come to the conclusion that I would like to find a different varietal, OTHER than Reisling, which I already know I love. All suggestions are welcome!

A comfy chair, good wine and a good book. #winning

I am in the process of teaching Kobe a new trick (#31 on the bucket list). This resonates with me because it is pretty emblematic of my whole blog, teaching an old dog a new trick. He is a quick study! I’m teaching him to play dead (which he’s almost perfected except for the telltale tail wag). He’s a clever guy! Now we are working on getting him to jump through a hoop, thanks to some tips from my bootcamp coach, Shirley, who is also a dog breeder and trainer extraordinaire! She knows her stuff because we are making progress daily. I will share a video of both tricks once we’ve perfected them.

My Nordic track work-outs continue. I am doing a bootcamp series on the beach in Bora Bora. I have completed 17 work outs of my goal of 50 for the year, which I believe puts me 10 ahead of schedule. My favorite moment so far is when a group of dogs joined the trainer on the beach while she was running. It felt spontaneous and real and made me smile while running, which almost never happens. Have I mentioned I don’t care for running? I also did a simple yoga stretch class at home to fulfill my weekly goal.

Dogs! They were “fishing” in between running along with the trainer.

I am on book # 35 of my 50 book goal for the 2019 calendar year, which is 11 books ahead of schedule. I finished book #11 of the Poldark series and am going to read a few summer reads before tackling the last book of the series. I finished The Right Time by Danielle Steel. (Thanks April) Ms. Steel is not an epic writer, but she is a good story-teller. I am currently reading a book using Overdrive from one of my favorite authors, Lisa See, Island of Sea Women. I just started it last evening. So far, so good. (Thanks Kelley for putting it on my radar.)

So, that’s it for this week. I need to get that skydive on the schedule. I’ll just keep reminding myself that growth won’t occur in my comfort zone. Let’s hope this beautiful weather continues. Make it a great week and I hope you all continue to find new ways to grow and thrive.

Week 5 Of Farewell to My Fabulous 50’s Tour

This week has been a busy one! Most of my time and effort has been directed towards our kitchen and bathroom renovations. I am happy to report we are making great progress! Much of the kitchen has been done. The only things left to do in the kitchen are to paint the shiplap and to accessorize it to suit the new vibe. Our old cottage kitchen pastel accessories just don’t suit the space. I have to go on record as saying our contractor Tony has been awesome so far. He’s on time, on budget and a hard worker. Mike and I are very pleased with the results. In the kitchen, he put in a glass tile backsplash and a new sink and faucet as well as added shiplap to the front of the breakfast bar area. He accomplished all of this in two and a half days. My job was to be on top of purchasing the sink, faucet, tile and grout. I picked out some new cabinet hardware and Mike and I replaced those ourselves. Overall, we are delighted.

Next up is the bathroom space. Can I just say how much I dislike stripping wallpaper! YUCK! What a job. Happy to report that part is finished. After a mishap with a back-ordered tile selection, we finally arrived at our final decision. We are going with a linen look tile and a mosaic accent tile in grays, whites and creams. Mike and I also hauled all 900 pounds (really, 900 pounds!!) of tile down the back steps. He did the bulk of the heavy lifting. I forgot how many little decisions go into a bathroom remodel. I’ve picked out a light fixture and towel bars. Mike and I ended up going to a specialty shop for the shower heads though. We wanted a rain shower and a hand held shower as well as body sprays which we just weren’t finding at the big box stores. Tony returns on Tuesday to start in on the bathroom. Can’t wait for it all to go in and to share the final result with everyone!

Wall paper stripping was not my favorite thing to do. It was hard and I have the blisters and calluses to prove it!

In other bucket-list items, my random act of kindness for this week was letting an elderly gentleman with just a few items in his cart ahead of me. My Duolingo streak continues with day #670 and crown level at # 817. I’ve jumped a level up to Saphire and my new goal is just to stay in the top 10 on the leader board, which has been challenging. I continue with my French class which is coming to a close this week. My teacher, David, is taking a hiatus until the end of July and classes will resume then for me. In the meantime, I will continue listening to Pimsleur French V in my car and plan to review all we’ve learned in class.

I’ve done a couple more Nordic Track work-outs. One was a stroll along the Seine and the other a walk along a beach in Bora Bora. That puts me up to 12 out of a goal of 50. Daily meditation continues, using the Headspace App, as does visualization.Visualization must work because I have been visualizing ourselves in our Florida home and we just got word that they are breaking ground in two weeks instead of August. We are psyched about that! I also did a relaxing yoga flow via Youtube. We had to postpone our lake-side yoga class but looking forward to being able to do it soon!

Strolling along the Seine and later a view of Notre Dame.

With my reading goal, I am still on Poldark series book #11 The Twisted Sword but happy to report I am rounding home base with a book on deck (thanks to April!). My new recipe for this month was again from The Doctor’s Diet, a chicken vegetable stir-fry which Mike really enjoyed. As usual, I’ve altered it a bit to suit our tastes. Recipe to follow.

Chicken Veggie Stir Fry

Olive Oil cooking spray

1 pound chicken cut into bite size pieces

1 yellow pepper cut into 1 inch strips

1 red pepper cut into 1 inch strips

1 cup broccoli florets, chopped

3 celery stalks, chopped

1/2 cup fat-free, reduced sodium beef broth

2 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce

1 TBSP chili paste (more if you like spicy)

Spray skillet with olive oil cooking spray. Over medium high heat, stir fry meat until cooked through. Remove to a plate. Turn off the heat and spray pan with more olive oil spray. Over medium heat stir-fry the veggies and cook until crisp-tender. Combine the broth, soy sauce and chili paste, stir into vegetables, add meat back into the pan and heat for 2-3 minutes. Top with cashews. Make 4 servings.

Adapted from The Doctor’s Diet by Dr. Travis Stork

I’ve reached out to friends and family this week and enjoyed a Fathers’ Day barbecue at my parents. Have I mentioned my mom is amazing and hosts our family almost every single holiday? Now I have!

I am still working on finding that new favorite wine. I tried two. Both sounded promising but neither delivered. The Rosé was in a super cute bottle with a rose on the bottom and a glass stopper but that was where it peaked. Despite the fact that I generally like Rosés, I really didn’t care for this wine. The second wine, San Angelo, an Italian Pinot Grigio, sounded promising in it’s description: fresh fruit-forward bouquet with notes of pear, banana, peach, anise and honey; rich and full-bodied with a long finish. How could I say no to a banana note. I’ve never seen a wine mention banana before, so intriguing! But…uhmmm..no. Not the one. I didn’t taste much in the way of fruit notes, but of course, my palate is not really that developed. I do, however, know what I like! The quest continues.

Rose bottom of the bottle was the best thing about this wine.

Notes of banana? Nope, at least not for me.

Unfortunately the jet-ski is STILL sitting in the drive-way. Of course, whenever we have time to do it, it’s raining! Maybe next week.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Father’s Day! We brought Mike to brunch at Parc, one of our favorite restaurants. It is located in Campus Martius, Detroit and featured some great menu items and an amazing vocalist. I wish I knew her name (think Jewel).

I am anticipating next week focusing primarily on the bathroom remodel but I do hope to squeeze a few more things in. From our family to yours, we hope you all had an amazing Fathers’ Day! Until next week.