When I was growing up, throughout college and my career with corporate America, I never learned to cook. I never had the time to learn. Even with large family gatherings, the women were in the kitchen cooking and for some reason it was not expected of me to join them. No, I was not hanging out with the guys.

One Christmas, when I was about eight (we lived in England), my parents gave me a Suzy Homemaker Oven, that I was never allowed to use.

Now, when I look back at these issues, I wonder why I was never expected to cook. I did not mind focusing on school and career, however think this is odd because I actually wanted to play with my new oven.

That said, I also never had kitchen chores. You may be interested to know, while I prepare meals, I clean up as this process is going on. I hate being distracted while I am preparing a meal. It is as if, I have it all planned out in my mind (same way I write code) and I do not want anything to interrupt my routine. It normally turns out pretty good. I would hate to have to do the dishes after preparing and then eating a meal.

I started cooking several years ago because I had to and have learned to make some of the favorites- my mother used to make. Two of those favorites, hamburgers and enchiladas.

Over the weekend I made the following meals (hamburgers shown above on Thursday, April 7, 2022):

This to say, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Yesterday, I made the pork chops for an early dinner/late lunch. We ate around 2:00pm. While I was preparing dinner, I was backing up and erasing data from my 2008 Macbook. Why? It weighs 4lbs. 3.6 oz., I rarely use it because new security protocols have advanced to the extent, the system software is now obsolete.

I ran into several problems backing up data on the Macbook, so I spent most of Sunday morning (4/10/22) with this task. Around noon, I decided to start cooking for dinner, so I was back and forth upstairs ensuring the backup processes were executing as planned. They were not, as I said, so this task was not as smooth as I wanted, however it was completed. I did not remove the system applications, so the Macbook is functional, however it is no longer a mobile resource and therefore I have lightened my load by 4lbs. 3.6oz.

I had a bunch of other work related tasks I wanted to complete over the weekend, however never found the time. Deciding to semi-retire my Macbook was on the spur of the moment and took more time than I planned.

It is about 5:00 am Monday morning here, and today I will be setting up a new Certificate of Deposit (CD) with the new interest rates now in effect, and if all goes well- will be getting back to work. Why is this bothering me? I have 5 banks and a Paypal business account.

I link all of these accounts to one another so that I can easily transfer money when I need to. Over the last year or so, CD rates have been too low, however recently the rates have started to go up. In December (2021), I set up a large CD for a relative with a bank already established in their portfolio, however at the time, none of my banks were offering the same rates.

Mint and Bank of America report my overall financial health, however for some reason the large transfers I made last week (to setup the new CD) are not showing up with Bank of America. They are showing up with Mint. I like everything to track and have to keep my financial status more transparent than most, because of ongoing legal issues.

Will I be cooking today? Breakfast maybe, however lunch- leftovers are on the menu.

The photos below, show two new plants I have added to my collection over the last month. The snake plant was purchased from a local market. The wicker basket, one of two my mother has had in her collection for over 40 years. The pothos is from clippings I keep in the kitchen window.

Not pictured, another pothos I am cultivating because I killed the one it replaces, trying to provide an interesting backdrop for Zoom meetings. I think I need built in bookshelves for my office....

What are my big business related plans? I need a real estate broker so I can activate my Maryland Real Estate License. I also need to fix several software issues. I am not sure why these tasks seem so hard right now. Software issues, normally are not an issue. Today, time is my big problem as related to my software issues. I wish I could afford to hire someone to take photos. Can I afford a cook or software programmer? No, for several reasons.