Labor Day Monday

 

Rambutan

Monday was Labor Day and a holiday.  I woke up by 8:00 a.m. and fed the chickens.

Then, after a cup of tea, I drove the car to the nearby tire shop.  I was hoping that they would be open and they were!  They checked my tires and put air in them; such a blessing! I was told to come back if the light comes back on again.  There was no charge for checking the tires and putting air in them, but, I gave the technician a tip and he was very happy.  I was very happy, too, because the car was fine to drive and that meant I could still keep the appointment I had made to meet up with the lady who is helping us with trapping and neutering the garden cats.

After I came home, I made us a brunch of eggs, sausages, and fried potatoes.  We are starting to see yellower yolks in the newer eggs being laid by the chickens!

Then, shortly after noon, we drove to the appointment with D, who runs the cat rescue group.  We had arranged to meet in the parking lot of a diner type restaurant, about halfway between her place and ours, and she lent us three traps to trap the three kittens (who are now quite grown).  One of them, Mochi, is well on its way to being tamed, but, the other two, Mimi and Tora, are still quite feral and will come only when it's time for food.  

On our way home after collecting the traps, we stopped at an East Asian grocery store.  Primarily so daughter could stock up on the various condiments and sauces she wanted in order to make the Japanese and Korean dishes she likes to make and she insisted on paying for this grocery trip so it wouldn't come out of my regular grocery budget.  But, I also picked up a few other items such as a packet of rice sticks and Chinese style sausages:

Chinese Style Sausages

Daughter also treated me to a bag of fresh rambutan, one of my favorite tropical fruits:

Rambutan

The outer peel is removed and the fruit inside has one seed in the middle.  The edible part is the flesh covering the seed.  There was a rambutan tree in the garden in my childhood home and every year, during the rambutan season, there used to be bunches of rambutan hanging from the branches.  The fresh rambutan always tastes better than the canned or frozen rambutan.  At $3.99/lb., they were expensive and I told my daughter to put the bag down, but, she insisted on buying it for me.  Along with a package of my favorite raisin buns:

Raisin Buns

One of the other items she bought was canned congee (rice porridge):  

Canned Congee

This one was made with a variety of beans, coix seeds, and corn:

Canned Congee with Beans, Coix Seeds, and Corn

Daughter shared some of it with me and it was sweet and delicious.  Daughter also treated herself to a slice of taro cake and a taro latte!

About three quarters of the way through the grocery store, I began to feel tired, so, I left daughter to finish her shopping and went to the car to sit down and wait for her.  Then, we drove home and sampled some of the treats daughter bought.

Then, both daughter and I took naps!  She on the family room sofa and I in my bed!

After we woke up, we let the chickens out to run about in the garden and daughter cleaned the coop and enclosure.  Afterwards, I made us a cup of tea, cleaned out the vegetable drawer in the fridge (a couple of lemons and the last bit of a lettuce had to be composted) and ordered some groceries.  Daughter took the trash bins to the curb.

I texted with cousins V and N, exchanged emails with a friend, swept the kitchen, vacuumed the family room with the help of the robot, watched a few online videos and then, it was time to say my nightly prayers and go to bed.  I'd like to say that I am going to bed at a decent time now that I am waking up at 8:00 a.m. to feed the chickens, but, that only happened a couple of times.  I'm back to going to bed well after 3:00 a.m., probably closer to 4:00 a.m.

On Monday, I was grateful for:

- The tire place was open on Labor Day
- The tires only needed some air and it was an easy fix
- The lady from the cat rescue group lending us some traps for the kittens
- Ethnic grocery stores
- Daughter getting us some special treats

Monday's joyful activities included shopping at the ethnic grocery store and eating fresh rambutan!

How was your Monday?  Are there special treats from your childhood that you still enjoy?