#1520 three things: The Martian, pumpkin kringle and my plan

Three things!

On Friday night MT and I went to see The Martian. MT has read the book and was bursting with excitement at seeing the movie. I thought the previews looked good so even though I'm not a big sci-fi fan, I was interested. MT didn't have to bribe me into going. :) I'm glad I went to see it. I really liked it a lot! Matt Damon plays Mark Watney, an botanist/astronaut who goes on a mission to Mars as part of a six person crew. Watney accidentally gets left on Mars - the crew thinks he died in an accident when a ferocious storm comes up and they leave quickly. Watney has to figure out how to survive on the red planet for four years until the next manned Mars mission is due to arrive. I liked the problem-solving aspect of the show, both by Watney and by NASA. Matt Damon was terrific. Great movie. Go see it!


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Today has been a day of food shopping. MT and T went to the store a couple of times while I was gone, but the fridge and the cupboards were pretty bare. I went to Costco for meat. I went to Smiths for the regular groceries and I went to my favorite grocery store, Trader Joe's, for fun essential stuff. Really, essential stuff like olive oil from Spain, Spanish-style cold cuts (made in USA, but still) and pumpkin products. Trader Joe's is chock full of pumpkin-related products for fall. I bought three pumpkin related items: Jo-Jos cookies with pumpkin creme filling (yum!), pumpkin bread mix (saving that for later) and a pumpkin kringle (nom nom nom!). You don't know what a kringle is? It's a pastry that is filled with pumpkin something. It's hard for me to describe, but it's delicious. I even convinced some ladies behind me in the line at TJ's to get one. I hope they like it. Here's a photo (not mine; found it on the internet.)

 Anyway, now the freezer, fridge and cupboards are full. I've been filled with the urge to cook and I've got plenty of recipes lined up. Now I have the ingredients, too.

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This morning I downloaded all my photos from the trip to Spain, both from my camera and from my phone, to my PC. Of course then I had to look at all those photos, too. As expected, some of the pics were good and some were not so good. There were many that I took on the Bus Turistic that are mostly sky because I was holding the camera up in the air and pressing the button. :) I'm trying to decide how to write about the trip. I think I'll try to tell you about it day by day and share photos. If I write every other day I can just about get in all the days. Hopefully I'll be able to remember stuff. I did a good job about writing in my journal the first week, but I had a harder time the second week. Our days were so full that I would get up in the morning and get going and wouldn't shut it down until late at night. I had hit my vacation stride and felt relaxed and ready to go. That second week, my journal entries were bullet points about stuff we did. The good news for you is that my descriptions probably won't be overly detailed. (Maybe.) My mom is writing about the trip and sharing photos, too. You can check her blog out by clicking here.

Okay, those are my three things for today. On Tuesday I'll write about beautiful Barcelona.