Well, it's been a while, but I thought I'd return with a photo of a new "friend" I found in my back yard: a giant (fist-sized) toad.

The toads here burrow underground, coming out when there's enough rain to surive. Hopefully this one will be OK; I poisoned a nearby ant hill (full of large, biting red ants) that he/she might have been using for food.

Other news: I discovered that the compliation "Whore: various artists play Wire" has a My Bloody Valentine song that I've never heard before (apparently the last one they recorded). I ordered the CD from Amazon last week and was pleasently surprised that it had arrived already today. I've been listening to the MBV song (Map Ref 41 N 93 W) over and over.

Tongue-containing foods

Yesterday I smoked a turkey with my friend Dan; we started the turkey at 8:30 a.m., and were finished by 4:30 (there was some worry that we wouldn’t have it cooked in time for dinner, since every single recipe for smoked turkey that I found had a different cooking time, from 4 to 10 hours). During the smoking marathon, we headed over to the Alpine Sausage Kitchen to pick up lunch. Dan bought some A.S.K.-made salami, while I stuck with the standard bratwurst. But as usual, I wanted to try something new, so I picked up a couple of slices of tongue-blood sausage (just to be daring). If you get by the appearance (pictured below), it isn’t too bad, although I’m not sure I’d buy it on a regular basis.



After trying a bit of this sausage, a guest at dinner related his recent experience with a tongue burrito, which he recommended I taste. So today I headed over to “Taqueria Mexico” to order a “burrito lengua”. Again, it was OK, but I was a little disturbed by how the tongue was not peeled and still had all of its papillae. Your food shouldn’t be able to French you while you eat it. I’ve been telling friends for some time now that when tongue is cooked, the skin is always removed; my credibility will be going down a few notches now. Here’s a picture of the half-eaten burrito (I didn’t finish it), showing a piece of the tongue with skin (I apologize for the blurriness):

Weekend shopping

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time shopping; not for clothes but for guitar parts and sausages (amongst other things). I started off by heading over to the Honda dealer to look at the new Honda Fit (a possible replacement for Mr. Honda if he were to catch on fire or be riddled with bullets). This car, besides being very practical, has received good reviews and is supposed to be fun to drive (I probably wouldn’t think of getting a subcompact, but his one seems pretty decent). Anyway, I was tagged by a sales agent there who sat me down and started filling out some sort of form wile trying to sell me car. After it became clear to him that I wasn’t there to buy a car that day (I thought I made it pretty clear from the start), he folded up his paper, threw it away, and took me out to see one of these cars. Apparently they are in high demand; they won’t even take orders for them. Anyway, I’m the kind of guy who annoys car salesmen by doing my research and telling them I’d have no problem flying to another state to save $10, just to stick it to a car salesman.

Then it was off to the Alpine Sausage Kitchen to pick up some German-style sausage. A customer there corrected my German pronunciation when I was giving my order; this is embarrassing considering I took a total of 4 years of German and have visited that country three times.

I also hit a local bakery, The Golden Crown. Although this place is pretty famous (I’ve seen it featured on The Food Network), I’ve never been there, even though it’s five minutes from my apartment. Another embarrassment. Anyway, The Golden Crown is famous for Green Chile Bread; I bought a loaf but was very surprised to find out that it cost $8. It was tasty, but I’m not going to buy $8 bread every week. The place was cool, with an ancient bread oven (it had to be at least 50 years old), but the fact that they sell pizza (which I was not aware of until my visit) broke the charm a bit. Kind of like going to France and visiting a traditional cheesemaker but finding out they also sell frozen yogurt.

For guitar parts, I went over to Grandma’s Music and Sound. A decent place, but unfortunately over on the west side (for those of you not from the area, that’s the west side of the Rio Grande; it’s where most of the new development in Albuquerque is happening; ). I wanted to pick up some new pickups for my Telecaster. Apparently I went to the right place because there is a guy there who owns 27 Telecaster guitars and was able to steer me in the right direction.

I will be doing some customization of my Telecaster; in a few weeks I should have it done and will post a picture of it here. It'll be the only guitar in existence that combines country twang (as the Telecaster is famous for) with Bollywood glitter.

Oddities of the world

If you’re looking for something crazy, go no farther. The argument about pet self esteem is a bit wacky…..I never knew that they could be sensitive about their packages. And if you’re strapped for some Christmas gift ideas, check out the merchandise section. The pendent necklace is especially classy.

The garlic verdict

So the candied garlic was eaten. Surprisingly, every bit of it. Wally tried it first, and declared that it didn’t really taste too bad. He had another piece, and then others at the table had to give it a shot, including myself. It was edible, but I have to say that I probably won’t make it again (later my stomach rebelled). And the last piece? Eaten by Wally and his iron stomach.

Some new activity

This weekend Wally and Paula are in Albuquerque. Friday I had dinner with them; somehow the idea of candied garlic came up. When something ridiculous like that is mentioned, it’s hard for me to bypass giving it a try. So tonight I whipped up a batch. Wally will be giving it a taste tomorrow during breakfast.

I also made a new bet today. The bet is over the differentiation of dog vs. human snacks; I will select six different snacks (3 human, 3 dog); my opponent must correctly identify which snack goes with each species based on appearance and smell (although I wouldn’t complain if taste became involved also). The wager is lunch.

Another activity: making lime sorbet today. I had forgotten to put the ice cream maker insert into the freezer last night, so I tried mixing crushed dry ice into the sorbet liquid. The verdict: it worked OK, rapidly freezing the sorbet (although I had to finish it off in the freezer). A key factor seems to be the amount of dry ice, as well as the fineness of the crush (you don’t need too much, and it should be as powdered as possible; I ended up having to lift out some large chunks of solid CO2 from the sorbet). The evaporating gas seems to fluff up the sorbet nicely. But don’t forget that dry ice is extremely cold, and if the sorbet is completely frozen by the dry ice, you need to let it warm up a bit so you don’t burn yourself.

1500 calories of meat product

A while back, I mentioned a bet that I had won against Sean regarding the age of his father-in-law’s tractor. Well, Sean has finally fulfilled his wager and eaten a pound of canned Vienna sausages (including the broth that they are packed in). It was an inhuman scene, but Sean was brave and finished it all (well, I did have one sausage, and his daughter had a few bites, but Sean was by himself on the broth, which he had to slurp from a plate since all his bowls had been packed away for his move back east). Sean tried adding barbeque sauce to improve the flavor, but I’m not sure that helped. Ironically, today at Love’s, I noticed that you can buy Vienna sausages in different sauces and flavors, including barbeque (truckers must be quite the connoisseurs of canned meats to demand such a variety of flavors).

I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures, but video was taken so there is a permanent record of the event.

As an aside, when buying the sausages, I looked at the ingredient label for “Potted Meat”; I really am curious as to what “partially defatted cooked pork fatty tissue” and “partially defatted cooked beef fatty tissue” is. Maybe that’s the stuff left over when fat scraps are sent to the rendering plant to be made into soap?

A temporary lapse....

I've been bad about updating here, but I promise more will be forthcoming soon....

What I saw on my bike ride today

Elephants hiding behind some trees.



A future home for endangered fish.



Fields of chili plants.



A (blurry) roadrunner.

A distant wasteland.

The underside of a train.

A junkyard full of VWs.

A little visitor

The other night I had a spot of Bourbon; as I often do, I didn’t quite finish the glass, leaving a bit of the alcohol in the bottoms. I left the glass on my stove…..the next evening, I found this in it:



In case you can’t quite identify what’s in the glass, it’s a two inch centipede that crawled in and died (either from drowning or alcohol poisoning). As gross as this is, I’m more disconcerted by the idea that a centipede could one day crawl on me while sleeping or zoning out in front of the TV.

A dietary issue you'll probably not have to deal with

I’ve been reading "Pickled, Potted, Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World" (Sue Shepard)...it’s been an interesting read, but I think it’s missed some important (or at least interesting) information. For instance, no where does it even mention lutefisk. Another item of note regards something that I learned when researching botulism poisoning (in preparation for my pepperoni-making experiment.....it failed miserably, yielding a funny tasting overly dried sausage stick). Apparently, Alaskan natives eat quite a bit of fermented meat. Fermentation under anaerobic conditions (like in a jar or tupperware container, instead of the traditional hole in the ground) encourages the growth of Clostridium bacteria...these are the suckers responsible for producing the toxin that causes botulism. This practice has led to a number of botulism poisonings, including this one......get this.....from eating fermented beaver paw and tail.

As an aside, I just got "Here come the warm jets" by Brian Eno in the mail (ordered on Amazon, where I pick up about 95% of my music these days)....it’s easily the best album I’ve purchased in quite a while.

Lung diseases, the element Si, and outer apparel

I was over at the John Brook’s again tonight, picking up some diet tonic water; the checker who rang me up was complaining to another employee about smelling "pneumonia" in some container that she had opened. I didn’t say anything, but maybe I should’ve. At work, I correct people for making similar mistakes, although there I think that’s my duty. A common mistake I hear is confusion between ‘silicon’, ‘silica’, and ‘silicone’. Silicon is the element, the stuff they make transistors and computer chip out of. Silica is silicon dioxide (formula SiO2); basically sand. And silicone is the polymer that is often associated with breast implants (if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know what I think of those) but is in many other useful day-to-day items such as bathtub caulk or those new-fangled rubbery baking trays (the latter taking advantage of the excellent heat resistance of silicones). The monomer present in silicon is -Si(CH3)2-O-, although other organic groups can take the place of the -CH3.

Anyway, a checker at John Brook’s recently complained that I never said anything. I explained that I was quiet, but the real reason (I’m definitely not quiet) is that I don’t like to small talk too much. In fact, I’m downright bad at small talk. In Vegas, I’ve tried to chat with my fellow Blackjack players about the luck of players at the table, or some similar shallow topic, but I just end up falling on my face socially.

Speaking of small talk, the temperature here has taken a sudden downfall. I love the fall....I really like this slight chilliness (well, at least at night... the day is still 70 degrees here), the crispness of the air, the smell of turning leaves. But an issue I’ve been dealing with related to fall is my need for a new jacket appropriate to this season. I’ve got a jacket that is reasonable comfortable, but it’s kind of a middle-aged man’s jacket (in fact, I saw a middle-aged guy earlier this year wearing the very same coat). I tossed out my Dickie’s jackets. I liked those quite a bit, but they were falling apart and on their last legs. New Dickie’s jackets all have a Dickie’s logo on the front, which I don’t like. I enjoyed the anonymous style of these jackets; I don’t want to be accused of wearing a fashion jacket. So now I’m stuck; I want a light coat that is hip, but not trendy. And I’m not ready to be middle-aged yet (even when in middle-age, I hope to maintain some semblance of fashion sense. If anyone catches me wearing something like this, please shoot me).

What's at the grocery store

This evening I wandered over to the grocery store across the street to pick up some beer (I was in the mood for a brew); I don’t think I’ve actually ever purchased any malted beverage at "John Brooks", but there’s always a first time I guess. Out of curiosity, I wandered down the cold case to the "swill" section to see if they still sell some of the budget brands I remember so fondly stocking at Safeway. For $6.59, you can pick up a half rack of Hamm’s Light or Premium (I was shocked to find that the Premium was the same price as the Light! Are they crazy? I’m surprised they haven’t gone out of business yet!)....you may remember Hamm’s as "From the Land of Sky Blue Water". They still have that slogan, but I think they got rid of the cartoon bear. If you’re feeling a bit spendy, for only 50 cents more you can upgrade yourself to Pabst or Schaefer (as an aside, Pabst sells their beer in China....it’s pretty much the worst beer I’ve ever had). But then, if it’s a special occasion, you can splurge on Old Milwaukee (only $8.99/12 pack). If that’s a bit rich for your blood, Milwaukee’s Best is only $7.99 for the half rack. Not only is it the "Best", it’s also a whole $1.00 less than its competitor. How can you go wrong!

My theory is that all of these beers are exactly the same, except for the label on the can. They’re all brewed at one of a handful of breweries, along with the other similar beers such as Olympia, Schlitz, Animal Beer (a.k.a. Schmidt), etc. Can anyone seriously tell the difference between these? I think there’s an experiment brewing (no pun intended) here.

As I was leaving the store, I walked past the security guard; he was standing on the sidewalk, having a smoke. Except it wasn’t the normal kind of tobacco. My feeling is that it wouldn’t be too hard to slip a few items past this guy.

In case you're wondering, I bought some "Bridgeport IPA". Those other beers are for comedic effect, not for drinking.

A big update

What I’ve been listening recently.....

1) "Best of the JB’s"
2) "Eddie Bo.....The Hook and Sling" (kind of a New Orleans version of James Brown....very funky, even if Eddie Bo looks kind of like a Russ Troll Doll)
3) Say Hi to Your Mom
4) My Bloody Valentine...."Loveless". One of my all-time favorite albums.
5)Black Eye Peas...."Elephunk". A great album.
6) Corrine Bailey Rae. A super album, recommended by a friend with great taste (thanks for the lead!) who would probably agree with me that "The Toadies" suck. Wait.....that’d be most of my friends......
7) The Velvet Underground & Nico

Today I went into Kmart. I don’t know how they do it, but they manage to make themselves look worse that Walmart. And with limited claw machine options to boot. But at least it’s not crowded.

I received my 3.5 gt Le Crueset Braising Pan yesterday....I gave it a test run tonight with "Kecap manis chicken with star anise and orange peel". Incredibly tasty....I would even go so far to say it was the best chicken I’ve had in an incredibly long time. Kecap manis is an Indonesian condiment that’s basically a thick (chocolate syrup-like) soy sauce sweetened with palm sugar; it’s also a precursor for our western ‘Ketchup’, that most balanced in flavor of all modern condiments. I’d have to say that I’m a big condiment man...I’m a sucker for a good sauce or relish (but then, some would say I’m just a sucker).

Finally, here is a screen shot from "Disco Dancer", that Indian film I was raving about recently. Did you know if you went to a club here in the U.S., and started dancing Indian-movie style, you’d get your ass kicked?




Also, I haven’t really related this story to many people, but I was an extra in an Indian film called "Nothing but Life". I wasn’t dancing, but rather I was practicing my golf. Ask me sometime for the details.

Fashionable eyewear for your furry friend

If you're in need of some amusement, check out the following website:

http://www.doggles.com/about_doggles.html

A BAD KEYBOARD ARRANGEMENT

Why, on a keyboard, is the "Caps Lock" key in between the "Shift" and "Tab" keys? I can't stop hitting the "Caps Lock" key....it should be switched with "Tab".

A short trip log will be posted shortly.....

Why America's cats are getting fat

Carless pt. 2

I’ve been getting back into riding my bike, a consequence of the two days I had no other transportation (today I went on a 25 mile trek, and last night I went on a ca. 5 mile midnight ride along the bosque……I love riding at night); I’m going to try and bring my camera to document some of the things that I see. Here are some sights of note, all within a few miles of my place….

The Rio Grande is just a few miles away (the bosque is the area along the banks of the river).



No, the river isn’t chocolate, like Willy Wonka’s river. It’s just a bit on the muddy side.

The Atomic Museum moved into the old REI building in Old Town, a temporary home until a new building is constructed somewhere else. They’ve erected a Redstone missile in front of the Museum; it’s been pretty controversial to some of the residents of the area. In my opinion, the t-shirt shops have already ruined Old Town. The missile is there only temporarily, and it’s actually an important part of our history. Besides, this rocket was also used to send the first Americans into space….I found that pretty surprising, given it’s small size.



Finally, this locomotive is being restored and will, in a few years, pull passengers on trips from the “Wheels” museum, if that place is ever actually built.

Does William Shatner have a toupee?

Last Sunday was the “Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner”. It had it’s moments, but I thought that too much of the humor involved jokes about George Takei’s homosexuality. George Takei thought it was all funny, and I guess some of the jokes were amusing, but it seemed that card was played way too much. Andy Dick was as strange as ever. Betty White was old. The big news, however, was how unfunny Farrah Fawcet was. It’s not only that she can’t tell a joke; she never seemed to laugh at anything (of course, there were a few boners.....no pun intended......sent in her direction). I can’t say I ever drooled over Farrah Fawcet, but not being funny has made her pretty unattractive to me.

I've got skills.....

I made a rare trip to Walmart the other night; while there, I noticed that the Portrait Studio had a sign in front of it that said “closed for disinfection”. You think that you’re taking your child in for a lasting memory, but instead you get a skin fungus or maybe even pink eye.

I played $2 in the 25¢ claw machine, and won 3 stuffed animals. One thing Walmart is good for is their large selection of claw machines, making it a fine place for a claw machine ace such as myself to show off my skill.