Another day of home improvement labor, a culinary victory, and... losing to a nine-year-old at Up For Grabs.

After working hard in the basement bedroom, I retreated to the main floor to play a few games with the two youngest children. However, not too much time later, they were noting quite vehemently that the hour was late and supper was about to be past due.

I thought about going back downstairs to ask my writing student's parents if they wanted me to cook something, but I decided to just investigate their refrigerator. I spotted some ground beef and flour tortillas and thought of tacos. They ended up having hard taco shells as well, so L and I started cooking.

L surprised me by declaring that we could make refried beans from scratch with the pinto beans we found when looking for the former. The result was rather tasty, if I may say so.

Also tasty was my first attempt to make guacamole. My writing student's mother had to pop over to the home improvement store for some more supplies, so I asked her to pick up some chips, limes, avocados, and more tomatoes. After mashing the avocados, I added minced onions and garlic, cumin, lemon juice, dried cilantro, salt and pepper. The general consensus was that my first attempt was a success.

I have to admit that I had planned on working for no more than five hours and then go home because I have been pushing my body physically far too much of late. But once we started cooking, my notions of cooking a meal for them and then going home left rather quickly. Yes, I took advantage of more free food. However, it was oh so different from the monotonous fare I have been eating of late that I found myself digging into the meal with relish.