Now That's Using Your Coconut

Apparently when they went to the store last week, the oldest boy was bugging momma to get a coconut. I have no idea what he wants a coconut for, but he really wanted one. We were at a store over the weekend and he was asking again for a coconut, so I got him a coconut. I will keep you posted on what he does with it.

A Throne Fit For A Sofa King

It started out simply enough. Two huge trash bags of clothes that are now way too big for my wife, and a trip to the Goodwill to offload them.

While we're there, I needed to run into their computer center to see if they have any sound cards. Last weekend they didn't have a one. Have I made mention here that I've put my wife's new computer together??? I don't think I have. The onboard audio and networking never would work. You can install the drivers that come with the motherboard, but that messes up the operating system EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! Screw that, I put in a PCI network card and ended up putting my boy's sound card into it. That left him without a sound card (which I thought he would no longer need with the USB speakers I got him for Christmas, but it turns out that the only thing they use the USB for is for the power to the speakers. Stupid.). Anyway, this week they were flush with sound cards!!! I found a couple of cherry looking Creative 128mb sound blaster cards right off. I've also been working on my aunt's comp, and mostly have it, but once again, the onboard audio doesn't want to work. I have more trouble with audio than any other thing.

Well, after that, my wife wanted to go the the St. Vincent's store around the corner and find a new dress or two. They have a much better selection and better organization there. First thing you see on the way in is furniture. 50% off chairs and sofas, today only. Hmmmmm.... I have been wanting to get a recliner.

There were only three or four recliners there. The brown one is a tad threadbare, but it is supremely comfortable. Upon closer inspection, it has a massaging back and butt, remote compartment in one arm, drink holder and magazine slot in the other. We had no idea if it worked or not, but it felt great to sit in and reclines soooo nice!!! The blue one is in a bit better condition, except the recliner handle isn't attached. I flipped it on it's back and it looks like a couple of bolts will attach it right back. It also swivels and is a glider-rocker too. Also very comfy. Paid for them with a $20 and had enough change to buy a couple of sodas!!!

All this was a great shopping experience, but the best was yet to come, it turned out!!! We had called up Aze's mom to see if she'd help us haul them in her little pickup before we bought them. No problems there. We got to our house, and there was a row of cars parked on the street there. Basketball players. Now, my street is very narrow, if there are any cars parked on it, only one car can make it by at a time. It is around a 10% grade, and I wasn't wanting to walk the chairs up or down half a block, so I told her to just park it by the steps to the yard and we'd hustle 'em out and then get her truck out of the way. Wifey took the boys upstairs and started getting a place prepared for the chairs while Aze's mom and I untied the chairs and started getting the first one out. We already had it hefted up, so after taking it up the steps to the yard, she suggested that we just continue up the steps to the house. Turned out to be easier. About the time we were getting snaked through the door, here comes someone down the street, and they start honking. Yea, we know, be right there. They honk again. About the time we get down there, one of the ball players has come out and is giving horney an earful. Oh yea, horney is driving one of those damned BMW mini vans. Typical. Ball player is telling the driver that we already knew after the first beep, no need to keep on honking, it's rather disturbing to the local residents, if you really have to get somewhere, back your ass up and go down the next street over. You could tell that the BMW's driver was being typical BMW driver. Aze's mom gets her truck out of the way (backwards down hellacious hill in a stick shift) and the BMW gets going, from what I can tell still bitching back to the basktballer. As they roll off, he bounces his ball off the back window. I gave the ball player a grin and a salute as he headed back. As we got the truck back in place, the BMW stops (a ways down the hill, but just opposite another parked car, blocking the street there, too!!! Do you think another car didn't try and come up while this was going on???) and asks us if we'd seen that, the ball player was being very agitating, and he hit their car. Ummm, nope, no one here saw a thing!!!

What a great day, I'll top it off by laying in my vibrating recliner!!!

Chain

My youngest and his imagination!!! On Friday my wife was seeing to the older's friend Aze, who had a day off from school. They went out for a walk, and while walking found this piece of wood.

Well, the youngest has added it to his menagerie!!! It is named Chain, and apparently Aze does a voice for it. I don't know a lot about Chain, except that he is a rather handsome piece of wood!!! Chain is off the chain!!!

Two Minds

But with one single memory!!! Or something like that...




Lilly and I seem to have a degree of telepathy going on between us. It has been so pretty much ever since we met, we very often seem to be on the same wavelength.



These photos were all taken last Saturday, half on the East side, half on the West side.



While she was out early in the morning getting her first awesome shots in, I was in bed dreaming that I was taking some awesome shots!!!



That evening (well past her bedtime) we connected and shared some of our pictures with each other. What we discovered is that we took some VERY similar shots!!!



There were more, but blogger will not let me share them all...

You Are But Dust

For out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.



Last weekend we attended a service for my wife's aunt.
She died relatively young, only 54. Her daughters and sister live in Arizona, but most of her family is buried out here.


Today, we took her mother and went to the cemetery where her father, two brothers, and nephew are buried, along with her earthly remains.


I'm pretty sure we were breaking some kind of law by the disposition her ashes on those four graves.



It afforded me many good shots. The grounds are very picturesque.


I do like the old style headstones and markers, but all the ones here are flat.

Do Your Job, Go To Jail

Maybe you've heard of this story, maybe not. I find it to be a complete outrage, so I am relating it here.

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. Sounds like a couple of Mexican nationals, huh??? Wrong, they are American citizens, and what's more, they are doing what I feel to be an important job. They are border patrol agents along the Texas-Mexico border. Their job is to keep the bad guys out. Terrorists. Drug smugglers. Human traffickers.

One day, they see a suspicious van. They attempt to stop it, and it leads them on a chase. When the van can't outrun them, the driver bails and starts running. Shots are fired. Ramos says "I see Compean on the ground, but I keep running after the smuggler." The smuggler escapes. The van later was found to have about 800 pounds of marijuana inside.

Turns out they shot the smuggler in the ass.

All in a day's work, right???

Fast-forward to more than two weeks later: a Department of Homeland Security investigator tracks down the smuggler in Mexico, offering him immunity if he testified against the agents who shot at him.

Huh???

Compean has been ordered to serve 12 years behind bars. Ramos was ordered to serve 11 years.

Is this bizarro world or what???

Imagn'ry Menagerie

I thought I would share with you my youngest son's imaginary animals. He has a chihuahua who is colored red and green. His name is Christmas. Christmas was his first imaginary pet.
The second pet he added to his collection is a green dragon he has named Meat, because that is what he likes to eat. He goes out for a fly every morning and evening.

He also has a pet armadillo. The armadillo has no actual name, and is of normal coloration (although I think green would be considered normal for a dragon) I suggested that he name him Armarillo, because I thought Armarillo armadillo would sound good together, but he just calls him armadillo.

The final, or at least most recent, is an orange poodle. He seems to have no name, either.

Lickey Lickey

Make of it what you will, but you'll likely concur,

Licks are good, no matter who you are!!!

The Final Three

The ones that I couldn't get yesterday. Interesting architecture that I really liked the look of(although those cool glass blocks aren't high in structural integrity, I remember the week before September 11 there had been a minor earthquake, and all week that was one of the top stories *can you say "slow news week"* with a shot of a place where the front of glass blocks had tumbled down, the most damage it did)


And Chucks chucked over the wire.

10 Shots

I've been feeling a bit under the weather the last couple of days. This morning I was rudely awoken by the loudspeakers on a fire truck.



Damned red flag days!!! At least they warn you instead of just towing or ticketing cars.


Since we were going to have to take the cars to the bottom of the hill, I suggested we drive them both down, and take our time and take a nice walk back.

The high winds (well, they really aren't that high around here) make for some really nice, clear days!!! I took my camera along and got several of the best shots that I've gotten in a while.









P.S. The original title of this post was going to be "13 Shots", but it wouldn't let me upload any more than these 10.

The 512 Treatment

This is how we roll on vermin!!!

Meanwhile, on the Other End of Colorado...

Thousands were camping out on the curbs of Colorado Boulevard on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, staking out a viewing spot for the Rose Parade. I live just minutes south of the area, and it is always fascinating to drive down this street in the weeks leading up to the parade, with bleachers set up in parking lots and parkways, and that stripe that the floats follow going down the middle. However, just a little bit to the west of there, across the suicide bridge, lies Eagle Rock.

On Saturday, after a trip to Fry's, we went past Tommy Burgers in Eagle Rock for lunch. About a block away is a fairly new restaurant, Oinkster. I had heard of it, and seen it before, but had never been there. Sunday, while the preparations for the Rose Parade were underway, we went to check this place out. Having seen it the day before, it had stuck in my head. There were several classic rods in the parking lot, a '32 highboy, a duce coupe, a 30's pickup, and as we ate on the patio a '53 Chevy panel truck and a '63 Falcon ragtop came through. The shakes were one of the things that had been touted, so we got several of those. Belgian fries with roasted garlic aioli dipping sauce were also on the menu. I don't know what classifies them as Belgian, but they are slightly larger than most, and the salt was coarser than what usually comes on fries. Very tasty, tasted very fresh, like the ones you get from In-N-Out. The sauce... I've never tasted anything like it!!! This is what fries have been waiting for!!! The boy and I both ordered the pulled pork sandwich, which was indescribably tasty. My wife got the veggie burger (lower in calories and fat) and it was quite good, too.

Their slogan is "Slow fast food", whatever that means. They do give you a number and bring the food out to you, but it didn't seem to take much longer than what it takes at Carls Jr. Pricey, though. The shakes alone are nearly as much as a combo meal at many of the "faster" fast food places. After we paid up and went to the patio to await our food, I said "Hope you enjoy this, it will probably be the last time we come here." I could have gone to a real restaurant for right around the same amount. However, after the food arrived and we got to eating, the consensus was that we'd probably be back, at least once more!!!

Christmas Corn Revisited

(Haha, I have NO idea what the deal with it is, but I found a tamale with a carrot!!!)

On the comments to my last Christmas Corn post, I discovered that our friends north of the border are not familiar with this culinary delight from south of the border. Picture if you will, a kind of corn meal dumpling wrapped around some kind of meat, and that is kind of like a tamale. To this end (and since Moon Goddess was so good as to bring me up to speed on trifle), here is a recipe I found for chicken tamales. I found it on MexGrocer, who in all likelihood will be a necessary stop for vital supplies of masa and corn husks, should anyone decide to try this out. Chicken is good, but I also like beef or pork tamales, as well as having had them with just cheese or chilies in them, too. I should qualify this by saying that I've never made my own tamales, but I've had other people's for years. My sister made some AWESOME ones for us just last week. Eyeball, if you've got a tamale for me, I'm there!!!

Ingredients:

6 cups Maseca Corn Masa Mix for Tamales
6 cups Chicken broth
1 cup corn oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 large rotisserie chicken
2 cans salsa verde or tomatillo sauce
1 bag corn husks



Recipe Instructions:

Soak the corn husks in warm water until soft.
Blend with an electric mixer Maseca corn masa mix for tamales, corn oil, salt, baking powder and the chicken broth to obtain a consistent mixture.
Shred the chicken and marinate in the green salsa or tomatillo sauce.
Spread masa evenly over corn husks, and spread a spoonful of marinated chicken on top of the masa.
Fold the sides of the corn husk to center over the masa so that they overlap to make along package.
Fold the empty part of the husk under so that it rest against the side of the tamale with a seam.
Place the tamales in a steamer and cook tamales for 35-40 minutes. Check every 20 minutes.The tamales are cooked when they separate easily from the corn husk.

By the way, those hot tamale candies are in my top ten of favorite candies... could be the perfect meal, hot tamales and hot tamales!!!