24 hours later

Just 24 hours after our chiaquiles breakfast, I was back in East Nicolaus, playing with Sophia and visiting with Thais before heading for the hospital to see my mom.


Mom fell out of bed on 12 Jan and broke her hip. Justin and Thais had taken over her care, dealt with the surgery and post op, and contacted me by email. Dick rented a car on Wednesday and drove me to Tucson International Airport. At 8:30 am Thursday, I flew to Sacramento via Salt Lake City. Here Justin shows me the break, where the titanium plate is located and the 4 lag screws it took to fix it.

Chilaquiles a la casa de Roberto

Chilaquiles at Roberto's house.

My favorite breakfast: put tortilla chips in a frying pan, top with salsa and cheese; heat for about 10 minutes. Serve with a side of refried beans, fresh-squeezed orange juice, coffee, and for dessert dulce de membrillo (a firm, sticky, sweet reddish hard paste made from quince). The chilaquiles were even better this time because Francesca made her own salsa and refried beans.

I got this picture of dulce de membrillo from the web:

Tortillas de papas = lefse

Potato tortillas are almost the same as Norwegian lefse. One day last November, Dick saw tortillas de papas for sale at Santa Fe market and bought some. He asked for 6 and the clerk began weighing out 6 kilos. No, no, just 6 tortillas, and later he said they were almost like lefse, a Norwegian treat the Skaug family enjoys every Christmas Eve. Although he checked back almost every day since then, the tortillas de papas have never been available again.

He decided to make his own. It was a 2-day process with the first day being peeling, boiling, and mashing the potatoes. We don't have a potato masher on the boat so Dick used my plastic colander to force the potatoes through the holes, a lot like ricing potatoes. A very good idea, but later I had to poke a wooden skewer through EVERY hole to remove potato bits and still had to take it off the boat and squirt it with spray nozzle of the hose. There was a fine flour dust everywhere and lots of potato-flour cement on mixing bowls. New kitchen rule: if you make lefse, you clean the galley.

Day 2: the dough was sticky and hard to work with. Rolling out the balls of dough was difficult until Dick covered a plastic panel with a clean t-shirt. Nice rolling pin, huh? Dick cleaned the galley!

The final evaluation from Dick: "They're not as good as the lefse made by Merrilyn and Grace." I thought they were delicious.

Día de Reyes

Kings Day. Today the three kings arrived with their gifts for baby Jesus.

A rosca is the traditional bread served today. It's supposed to look like a crown. There's a tiny plastic baby somewhere inside. Whoever gets this piece is supposed to host the candelaria celebration on February 2. I'll be hosting this year's celebration although I'm not quite sure what that means yet.

This reminds me of the time my good friend Paula sent me a King Cake, the traditional pastry served in New Orleans and surrounding area on Epiphany.

Clavícula Rota

Broken clavicle.

A look at the latest x-ray shows that the bone is healed, but no boat work that requires exertion for the next month.
Dr. Sanchez.

The sign outside the door said this is where surgeries are done, the equipment looked like it was straight out of the 50s.

Once again, we were very pleased with the quality and cost of the health care received.

Trash talk around the yard

On November 1, Dick fell about 4 feet when some scaffolding broke. Debra wagged her finger at him everytime she saw him, because he wouldn't go to the doctor. Finally in early December he went to a local doctor who confirmed he'd broken his clavicle. This only happened thanks to ongoing nagging from Debra, Dick's sister Carolyn, and son Greg.

Domingo, a young man who works in the yard, touched his shoulder and grimaced everytime he saw Dick.


Elke, from s/v Wind of Change from Hamburg Germany always crooked her arm.

Luis suggested that Dick's should hurt more because he'd been tipping a few too many beers.
Luis comes occasionally to the yard to sell super-fresh, gigantic shrimp.

Gil, s/v Sunday from San Diego always had a joke or story to tell, but my favorite was about the teasing he took from his fellow firefighters after a particular rescue effort. An old woman had fallen out of bed and was wedged between the bed and the wall. Gil laid on the bed and was reaching out to help her when she looked up at him and said, "Aren't you a little OLD to be doing this?"

Próspero Año Nuevo

Happy New Year! The cruisers had a potluck barbecue on the 31st just of the port bow of our boat. I went for little while, but where was Dick?

On the settee with the flu with everything he needed: tissues, bug spray (year-round mosquitoes here), fluids, a clock, ibuprofen, a knit cap to keep his ears warm, a book to help him sleep, and an extra blanket for his perpetually-cold toes.

I generously gave Dick my little cold I'm sure, but it hit him harder than he's ever experienced. Previously, if he had a cold, he'd lay down and rest for 6 hours and - poof! - it was gone. It's taken 5 days for him to feel any improvement.