SUITCASES CHECK, POTS AND PANS CHECK...

Pay day...... or is that Pay dirt.. Costco, yippee, we found awesome suitcases, perfect size, twin comparments, one for your wetstuff and expandable, only $40. So we were thrilled. As we went by the kitchen isle we noticed that the huge box set of stainless steel, thriple clad pots and pans were gone.. oh well we waited too long..wasn't sure we wanted those anyway. Side story to this saga is that Randy is the cook in this family. We have bought very nice cook ware for him to use, along with knives and accutrements. Unfortunately his wife (me) has this knack for whipping up a little something now and then... and in the process I have ruined almost everyone of his pans. Who would guess, there is a HI setting, why shouldn't I use it? I have even snapped a henkel knife in a block of chocolate. So you can see he has every right to replace all these items and then ban me from the kitchen.

Randy did find a great sale on pots and pans so off to Macys we went. It was nice to see that he found something he could be happy with and that if I did sneak into the kitchen I would probably be able to save them with some heavy scrubbing of the burn parts...

We have been talking about test packing up our suitcase for our friends to haul back when they come in April. So while Randy was busy prepping for our Sunday nite dinner party I ventured into the packing world. We are taking our vitamix so it went in the bottom, underware and socks stuffed in the areas open and pillowcases, then the pots and pans. I hate puzzles so stacking and restacking to find the best fit was not fun for me but I did feel a great sense of accomplishment when I figured I could layer my tshirts inbetween the pans, and we have lots more room...ugh.. its heavy. Randy weighed it. Not bad! 40.5 lbs and we have tons of room left! Maybe we will repack it all into a smaller suitcase, and save this one for "the big move"...we shall see.

NO WIND IN OUR SAILS

We are in a lull, somewhat like a sailor experiences when the wind quits.. they just float along until the next bit of wind moves them along on their journey. We are in a lull... there is nothing urgent that needs to be done, we have more time than we have issues, or so it seems.

We walk the mall and stores looking at cooking supplies, comparing prices, trying to determine if we only need a few pieces is it wise to buy a whole set because its cheaper? Or is it really cheaper? Is it a good deal if you really dont need all those pieces? Randy was excited at one store because we could get 4 pieces of luggage for $99. I pointed out that we only needed one big piece, oh yeah... not a good deal.. We actually need two big suitcases because we will be sending one with our friends in April when they return to Cuenca. So the search continues. We find one at the Liquidation store here locally, $30... Randy thinks its too cheap. What? For one trip? I think its fine. We are just looking anyway, neither of us has any money... we are on a budget..