Love is Purple

It was good to be home for the weekend. Tania put the purple sheets on the bed. We like those sheets. We have a phrase about them, "Love is purple!"

An ExPat Thanksgiving

We had our staff Thanksgiving last night and it turned out pretty good. We had lots of great food including turkey. We had all the usual stuff, like stuffing, but there were other typical foods such as mash potatoes, corn, various salads, etc. My chile rellenos turned out okay. They were a hit with everyone. Not quite New Mexico rellenos, but they were good. I liked them. Today we had another Thanksgiving dinner at school. I helped serve which is an interesting experience, seeing what other people like to eat. When I finally had chance to eat, I described I eat my Thanksgiving plate like a miner approaches ore. I start at one end of the plate and work my way to the opposite end. Kind of weird, but that's how I eat my Thanksgiving food.

Chile Rellenos!!!!

I am trying to make one of my favorite New Mexican dishes for tomorrow night's Thanksgiving dinner at Aaron and Ada's (my boss and his wife). I am making chile rellenos! These are long green chiles stuffed with cheese, then battered and fried! Very tasty! The chiles here are not like NM big jims or anaheims. They look similar but are not hot at all. They are very mild but have a good flavor. Tonight I roasted the chiles on the stove top, let them sweat in a plastic bag, then peeled the skin off. I have them in the fridge now. Tomorrow I will stuff them and bread them and deep fry them! I hope they turn out. More news tomorrow.

Quiet Election Night and Experimental Photos

Yesterday was election day and last night was expecting some kind of celebratory reaction from either side, but nothing happened. Its still not clear to me what has exactly happened but it looks like Chavez's party lost most of the major positions he needed. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Last night I was messing around with my camera's shutter speed. Here are a few pics. I like the color in them.

Then there are a couple of astronomy pics. One pic is of Jupiter and Venus, and the other is a long exposure of the stars. Click on the star pic to open and enlarge it. You'll see lots of little stars. I couldn't even see these...neat little light bucket my Canon is!

Election Weekend

I don't like political posts, but this weekend are regional and governor elections in Venezuela. This could be critical to the future of the country. Because of travel restrictions in place, I am stuck in El Tigre. I won't get back to Lecheria until next Friday. I will try to get some pics of happenings this weekend. More later...

Anzoategui Day Weekend

We had a 3-day weekend which is always nice! Unfortunately I had a fight Thursday night (after a stressful 3-hour drive) with Tania and she was really pissed. To piss her off even more, I went to KE Cool (a small sushi bar) downstairs and met Daniel and Matt for a couple of beers (I had 4). This really pissed her off. I never know what to do in this situation. She can get very stubborn, but so can I. I can be a real idiot!

I posted a pic above that pretty much describes that I was in the dog house. I was the dawg supreme.

On Friday, I woke up fairly early and rode the Merlin SS solo around El Morro. I went up the "Falla" (Failure) trail for the first time in a while. I cleaned it! It took some effort but I did it. I rode around for a couple of hours and when I got back, Tania was gone. Gone to Anaco...Ugggh!

Oh well. She needed to cool down and so did I. I took Oscar to lunch at Anna Julia for pizza, then spent the rest of the day vegging, napping, and being Internet guy.

On Saturday Oscar and I rode a lap (backwards...meaning climbing the Falla again...easier that time) of El Morro together, then we hooked up with the group. We rode a second lap in the usual direction which meant to ride up "the Rails". I can clean the rails with the SS but it is a major effort! The slope is right at the limit of what is doable with my strength and conditioning these days.

I took this vid of Oscar.

Tania showed up Saturday afternoon after I called her. I apologized. I was a jerk...BIG TIME.

Sunday no riding, just vegging and getting ready to head back to El Tigre. I took Tania and Oscar out for breakfast, though Venezuelans do not do breakfast too well. Breakfast is always disappointing here...its not like a big breakfast you'd find in a typical restaurant in the USA. or even something regional like huevos rancheros in New Mexico. Anyway, the restaurant we ended up at was on the Paseo Colon, so I got to watch boat traffic move about. Saw a ship approach from the horizon which was interesting to watch.

On a completely different topic...

Since being back in El Tigre, I've rediscovered streaming Internet Radio. Right now I am into KCRW from Santa Monica, CA. I used to listen to this station back in the Mimbres Man days when doing business in Los Angeles...actually made the 405 freeway fun to drive.

Night Photos

I was home in Lecheria over the weekend. I didn't ride or do much, I just stayed put. I seemed to have had an inner-ear infection and because it it, I have been experiencing some weird vertigo. I think I have it under control now, but still have these crazy dizzy sensations from time-to-time.

Saturday, the electricity went out for about 5 hours. The sun set and it got dark. Took my camera down to the swimming pool just to have some fun with the shutter options. I had the shutter open for 4 seconds in these pics. Can actually see stars and the bright object near the crane is the planet Venus.

Feeling Pretty Good Again, and a Good Weekend

I had a good weekend in Lecheria with my wife Tania. I am feeling pretty much 100% again. No coughing up gook or phlegm in the last couple of days. Nice!

On Friday night, I seasoned a chicken for roasting Saturday.

Saturday morning I got out on my Merlin for a couple of hours. I missed the usual group, so I rode alone which is okay with me. I zone out a bit. I stopped and took a few pics. It was all good.

When I got home, we ran some errands. I tried to get my hair cut but there was too long of wait. I hate waiting, so we decided we should go home and cook the chicken.

I set the chicken up on the rotisserie rod. I am still learning the best method in doing this since I have only done it twice. Now I am glad we bought the oven with the rotisserie because its a better way of cooking chicken. Its less greasy for sure. It took about 2 hours to cook the bird, but it was worth it. We chowed that thing! Oscar, Tania, and myself ate the whole thing in one sitting. Crazy!

Saturday night, Oscar and I went to the movies. We saw "Journey to the Center of the Earth" dubbing in Spanish. The sound quality was rotten, but the story was very predictable and I was able to understand about 90% of the dialog. Simple stuff.

This morning, Sunday, I woke up early enough to ride with the group. We did the usual ride around El Morro. I was able to climb The Rails without stopping. It was hard, but its always hard on the single speed. I also cleaned the Fausto Trail to the steep part. Rode back home, ate a couple of empanadas for breakfast, then we went downtown. Tania needed to buy something for Oscar, and I still wanted a haircut.

After downtown, I slept for about an hour or so, then had to get ready to come back to El Tigre (arrrgh!).

Overall, it was a good weekend!