I visited the NY Botanical Garden with my BFF today, whose special-needs kids will likely be home for weeks and weeks so I won't get to see her for a while. They won't get educational therapy while they're at home, so she despairs of keeping them entertained while trying to get work done. 

The orchids were very pretty. There weren't many people.

I went with her to the Aldi on Broadway in the Bronx. The lines wrapped up and down the aisles. I didn't need anything from there. Just curious.

Ed starts working from home tomorrow. I had a shopping list in hand, for my own neighborhood. 

As I rode a bus home, my iPod offered up, in a row:

The Weeping Song, Nick Drake

I Wanna Be Sedated, the Ramones

Bad Medicine, Bon Jovi

THEN the supermarket all-70s muzak offered up OH MY MY by Ringo Starr.

"I called up my doctor to see what's the matter

He said come on over, I said do I haveta..:

THANKS UNIVERSE.

I bought a lot of durable groceries this week, to supplement the stuff we already had: rice, pasta, ramen, canned tomatoes, butter, cheese, potatoes, turnips, carrots, hummus, peanut butter, crackers, chocolate, cookies, frozen sausage, frozen veggies, matzoh, popcorn. Hot sauce for all the rice and beans in our future. WINE. Got a hunk of corned beef for the weekend, enough to share with Ed's elderly aunt whom we are still planning to visit on Sunday.

(We already had beans, coconut milk, jam, canned soup & shelf-stable broth, corn chips, pumpkin, couscous, bulgur, cornmeal, coffee, tea, cereal, raisins, nuts, granola bars, chutney.)

The supermarket had lines, but I've seen it worse on just a regular weekends. Shelves were being restocked all week. The usual stuff was flying out: paper goods (we have plenty), bread (we have enough), Clorox wipes (we have LOTS). I did buy extra laundry detergent and dishwashing liquid.

I got good at prepping due to 9/11, Hurricane Sandy and various big blizzards. I know how to cook meats and veg nobody else seems to bother with.

The bus home passed the Met Museum. I felt heartsick for the street vendors who won't have thousands of tourists thronging their carts for weeks and weeks. I hope they can survive. 

This week's Crock Pot Sunday adventure is Butter Chicken sauce. I've never made this before, since, Indian food was never on the menu in rural New England while I was growing up. I am venturing into culinary Terra Incognita.

I blame Jill. Since I had it one time the Philadel group went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. I've kind of been jonesing for it ever since.

So, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

• Three roma tomatoes
• Two carrots, peeled
• Two green onion stalks
• Two stalks of celery
• 6 small mushrooms of varying kinds
• 6 ounces tomato paste
• Goodly shake of MatoZest
• Goodly shake of italian seasoning 
• 1/2 tablespoon nutritional yeast

Chop everything. Chuck everything in a vitamix or good blender. Add enough water to get the blender to cooperate. Blend until it looks right — no huge bits but still texture, mostly from the carrots.

Simmer and serve over zucchini noodles.

The carrots lend it a meat sauce texture.

Simple. Daffodil. March. laser cut craft foam. Cutting blue foam with a blue laser is a pain in the ass. 

It's like 20C outside. I should go for a walk. Got errands to run anyway. 

Revised my workout routine again, thought I'd share it. 

Day 1 - Arm/core - 3x 
Incline Crunch 13x, 1st oblique, 2nd double tap, 3rd asap
Triceps dip w/ hip extension 10x
Cable machine 10x l/r, 1st oblique @50, 2nd pulldown @50, 3rd one arm row @100
Advanced Bird dog 15x l/r
Lat pull down to fail @11
Pec machine to fail @47

Day 2 - elliptical 30min @ 12

Day 3 - Leg/core - 3x
Box jumps x15
Alternate Leg press 10x l/r @ 100 (90 degrees only)
One leg deadlifts 10x l/r @40
Farmer lift box step up 10x @ 50x2
Leg curl machine to fail 9
Dumbbell swing 10x @50 (we don't have kettlebells)

Day 4 - Treadmill walk/jog 30min @ lv 12/4.3mph+

Day 5 - Arm/leg - 3x
Leg extension machine 10x @10
Bent over row w/ dumbbell 10x l/r @60
Side plank leg lift 20x l/r
500m row max effort
Three point reverse fly 10x l/r @30
Push press dumbbell 10x @ 30x2

Day 6 - elliptical again

Then it repeats, alternating strength w elliptical/treadmill days. If you google any of the exercise names, you'll probably see how the're done, though some results are different because no one agrees on names apparently?

These are designed to take about 30 minutes. I revise this every couple weeks as exercises become passe or weights need to be bumped up, but I've been pretty careful to keep each day's exercises fairly focused and not overlapping with other exercises on that day, and to allow aerobic and lactic acid recovery as needed, and to give respite for healing from session to session.

Oh I should also count the walking down 9 flight of stairs and back up again to our flat as part of the workout, my watch certainly does.

I was dancing with one of my favorite Argentine tango followers last night in close embrace. She is a very good dancer. Despite that, she somehow kneed me in the balls. Not nearly enough to hurt, but enough for us both to be aware it happened.

So she knew, and I knew she knew.

We danced on with that little elephant in the room for another couple of measures, whereupon I whispered in her ear, "Is that all you've got?"

We both stopped dancing and bent over laughing uncontrollably.

"So you like it rough?"

"Sure, but not too rough, let's not get carried away!"

​​​​​​​

My son and I went to see "No Exit" at the community college theatre. It's a three-person study of the thesis that "Hell is other people."

What would you do in such a room for all eternity?

So I did another thing. More info in a blog post at my site.

My FXTec Pro1 finally arrived!  Except it won't work on Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile.  Hope i get my $700 back.

I dreamed last night that i saw Faith No More in concert (whom i've not yet seen) for the second time (at a venue i didn't recognize).  This morning, i got a Songkick alert for an upcoming FNM concert.

I can't process this.