So Anyways

The Spice of Life

In what's become one of my favorite annual traditions, Ed and I bought our green chile supply for the year yesterday. Life is looking up again. We buy a few pounds (7, this year), bring them home, separate them out into smaller containers and freeze them for later use. It makes me feel all Martha Stewart and domestic-like.

Having grown up in southern New Mexico, near the self-proclaimed green chile capital of the world - Hatch, NM - I've been a chile-head for most of my life. I can't ever seem to get my fill of the darn things. I don't think many people from outside of southern New Mexico really realize the love affair we New Mexicans have with green chiles (there's not a lot else to love around there besides cows and tumble weeds), but I'm proud to say I alone was able to convert Ed, a New Jersey boy with absolutely no "hot and spicy" experience, over to chile-head status in almost no time. Now it brings a smile to my heart anytime I see him breaking out the green chile to spice up whatever it is we're eating.

I really don't know what it is that I love so much about green chiles. They're often very hot, which I like, but beyond that, they have a unique flavor that makes just about anything you can imagine taste better. Even when they don't set your mouth on fire and send flames shooting out of your ears, they still add a nice spice to just about any meal. They make a great stew and add excitement to everything from scrambled eggs to steak to mashed potatoes to hamburgers. I've even known people to chop them up and add them to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, although I admit that's going a little overboard, even for me.

One of my fondest memories of growing up in New Mexico is the memory of chile harvest season, typically from late August through early October. The weather would be starting to cool down and vendors would be set up with their chile roasters around town, roasting tons of chiles in a gas-fired rotating barbeque grill type contraption. You couldn't escape that roasting green chile smell. That, more than the arrival of football season or the leaves turning color or cooler weather settling in, instantly signifies the arrival of autumn to my brain.

I think even though he's a convert, Ed still thinks I'm a little freaky about my green chiles. But, just like sex adds a certain spice to life, I'm thinking green chiles do pretty much the same thing. I won't rate green chiles up there with sex, but they're a not-too-distant second.

Vive le France!

I've always wondered why it is that Americans and French people seem to have such a love-hate relationship. We love their wine and their fine food (actually, I don't really like their food - work with me here), but we don't like their snobbish attitude.

French people don't like much of anything American, but they're appreciative of our help in liberating them a time or two.

I work with a lot of French people on a daily basis. In fact, my direct boss is in France, so I spend a lot of time communicating with my French buddies everyday. I actually have a lot of respect for them all and really have come to value their friendship over the years. I've kind of adopted France as my country away from home.

But, I have to say, one thing about France really annoys me. They get unbelievable amounts of vacation. As a matter of fact, they get so much of it, they're apparently running out of disposable income to spend on vacation.

This being August, all those French people I work with are out of the office, and most have been for the entire month. I freely admit that as much as I love these people, I get a bit annoyed that they're all off enjoying an entire month of uninterrupted relaxation while I'm continuing to lose a little bit more of my mind every stinkin' day taking care of all of the problems they're not even thinking about. So, right about now, I'm really not feeling all that sorry for them not being able to afford a soiree' on the Riviera this year. After all, I've taken one 7-day vacation in the past 5 years. And they wonder why I'm so grumpy everyday?

Even as grumpy as I may be, I can't hold it against them. Those French folks really know how to live.

A Little Bit of Nuttin

It's been so long since I've posted anything, I thought I should make a special effort to get something written today. The thing is, I'm totally out of practice and can't really get my brain to function in anything but a "gotta hurry up and get 277 more things done before the day ends today so I don't get my lazy ass fired" mode.

Not that work has been quite that crazy, but it has been much busier than I would prefer. And, being apparently incapable of accepting the fact that I'm behind and learning to live with it, I keep trying to catch up every day, even though I actually manage to fall further and further behind every day. So today, instead of stressing about it, I'm just giving up and trying to remember how to blog. So bear with me.

Here are a few of the things that have popped into my brain over the past few weeks that I thought might make good blog topics, but which never actually made it into written form:

• Those crazy (and, boy do I mean c-r-a-z-y) Fishers on Six Feet Under are one whacked bunch of people. My head was just spinning at how whacked they were in last night's episode, and I'm thinking they're not all gonna survive their collective mental illness. What's truly scary to me is that the writers of the show are even capable of dreaming up so many people who are so f-'d up.


• Those crazy Saudi's must be loving life right about now. With oil somewhere in the vicinity of $67 a barrel (I haven't bothered to notice the actual price today), they must be raking in about 1% of the entire planet's combined wealth just about every day. Doesn't take long at that rate for them to become actually pretty powerful. I'd love to buy a new sports car that uses premium gas, but I'm thinking that's not actually a very good idea at the moment. I think I need to buy a bike instead.


• Those crazy Republicans must be feeling kind of silly right about now. The president doesn't seem to me to be having a very successful start to his second term - his approval ratings are tanking, his big massive social security reform plan seems to be stuck in its tracks, his glorious effort to spread freedom and democracy around the world has ended up so far with a war that seems to be more and more out of control everyday, his "architect" has been exposed as either having committed a serious crime or come very close to it, and they've got a Senatorial candidate running in New York against Hillary who doesn't appear to be the brightest kid in the class. Of course, it's easy to sit on this side and list all the faults and shortcomings, but still. I keep shaking my head everyday thinking, "how did this guy get re-elected?" Unfortunately, I think that says just about as much about the Democrats as it does about the Republicans. But, being the Democrat I am, I prefer to focus on the other side's problems.

Anyway, that's about all I can muster for today. Tune in again tomorrow to see if I managed to actually think of anything interesting to write about.