This ain't your Taco Bell...

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I like cooking, and do most of it here at home.  Today we're having tacos, and I like making my own sauce for the meat filling.  These are a few of the ingredients I am using:

From left to right: achiote powder, chipotles, beef paste, unsweetened chocolate, anchos, guajillos, smoked paprika, New Mexican chiles, lime, oregano, cumino, cilantro.  I also add garlic and onions.
The dry chiles and spices are toasted, then I throw them in the spice grinder.  After the meat has been browned, I throw everything in the pan with it and at a touch of water or beer, and cook until it is ready to use.  I also use other chiles such as cascabels, pequins, puyas, and dried serranos in some sauces, but those above are the best ones for all-around cooking.

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Had to get my biannual checkup on my bad ticker.  The cardiologist says I seem to be doing ok, but still need to drop some more weight.  That I already know, so I'll have to go light on the tacos.

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Is it springtime where you are at?  I've got over three inches of snow here, and it is still coming down in large wet flakes.  Hope it ends in the next few weeks, I need to get my vegetable garden tilled up and ready for the new harvest year.

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I noticed in the news that Rhode Island is getting waterboarded by Mother Nature.  Good luck to the people there; hope everything works out.


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Any thoughts or comments on this list?

         "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart
         "She's Not There" by The Zombies
         "Honky Tonk Heroes" by Waylon Jennings
         "Dancin' in the Ruins" by Blue Öyster Cult
         "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi
         "The Best of All Possible Worlds" by Kris Kristofferson
         "Jump" by Van Halen
         "Wuthering Heights" by Pat Benatar
         "I Wanna Go Back" by Eddie Money
         "Amarillo by Morning" by Terry Stafford

One of his early songs, and a good one.



There are a lot of people who prefer the George Strait version of this song, but my favorite is still the original by the guy who wrote it.

"In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours." -Mark Twain

Leave it to Mark Twain to know the score.  I don't know how it is where you live, but that matches our weather.  Yesterday was sunny and fairly warm.  It rained overnight, and was snowing this morning after I got up.  By noon the sun was out, and steam was rising from the streets.  Right now it is dark outside, and looks like bad weather.  My joints are corroborating this.  I'll sure be glad when the weather improves; I'm getting cabin fever.
Managed to get some pictures yesterday, so here I am again with my sappy flower-blogging.

Crocuses and violets

Periwinkle

Daffodils

More crocuses

Flowering catkins on a quaking aspen

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Earth Hour is tomorrow, in which everyone is urged to turn off all the electricity for an hour.

KMA

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In other news, Sandra Bullock's husband is a man-whore.  I'm still trying to find a reason to give a damn.  Isn't there more important stuff going on in the world?

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Dennis Hopper gets a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.  He is currently dying from prostate cancer, so I imagine we'll be getting news about that before too long.  He's under 100 pounds, and fairly weak.

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Feeling a bit melancholy with the weather, the list shows it.  A lot of old ones here.

         "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire
         "Love Is Blue" by Paul Mauriat
         "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" by Hank Williams
         "Leaves That Are Green" by Simon & Garfunkel
         "Baby, It's You" by Smith
         "My Back Pages" by The Byrds
         "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & the Papas
         "Walk Away Renee" by The Left Banke
         "Snowblind Friend" by Steppenwolf
         "When I Was Young" by Eric Burdon and The Animals

"Eve of Destruction" is a classic from the sixties; if you listen to the lyrics, most of them are still applicable today.



"Snowblind Friend" is one of Steppenwolf's that is relatively unknown, but one of their best, in my opinion. It was written by Hoyt Axton, and is a familiar story to those who know substance abusers.  Snow was the slang expression for cocaine.

The nanny state sets its claws in just a little deeper

I don't really see much good coming from this bill, a lot of money spent for something that won't even start happening for another four years.  And no one yet has read the whole thing to see what sort of little surprises are in store for us.  We do know that it is full of pork, however.  Interesting that the only way the Democratic party could get it passed was to bribe their own people.  And Congress and the Senate have their own health plan, of course.

"I can remember way back when a liberal was one who was generous with his own money."
-Will Rogers

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."
- H. L. Mencken

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Got looking at my posting dates, and it looks like I've been here for four years; my first post was 3/18/06.  Where does the time go?

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My wife was in Denver visiting her brother for the weekend, so I went out and visited my mom Saturday.
It was fairly decent weather out her way, but a little chillier.


Double-click to enlarge pictures.

In some of my pictures at home, I have shots of the Oquirrh Mountains to the west of me.  This is a shot of them from the other side, over in Tooele Valley.  You can see the town of Tooele at the foot of the mountains.

This is a shot of the road from Grantsville to Rush Valley, where my mom lives.














Some of my mom's neighbors have llamas; they are very protective of sheep, very territorial, and have no problems fighting with and chasing off predators such as dogs, coyotes, and cougars.















An insulator from an old pole.

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A little something for those of us who like both rock and classical:




H/T to James at Nourishing Obscurity

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Some old, some older.

         "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin
         "I've Always Been Crazy" by Waylon Jennings
         "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys
         "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
         "Michelle" by The Beatles
         "Centerfold" by J. Geils Band
         "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan
         "Take on Me" by A-Ha
         "Theology/Civilization" by Basil Poledouris
         "The Actor" by The Moody Blues

The last two on the list:

This is from the soundtrack of Conan the Barbarian, an excellent composition from the late Basil Poledouris.




From the album In Search of the Lost Chord, one of my favorite albums of theirs, and in my opinion, has some of their best work.

Anyone got a spare muse I can borrow?

I was hoping to get better about posting more often, but not much luck.  Maybe some day I'll get my sense of focus back.

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I noticed that Fess Parker died; I used to watch him all the time.  Davy Crockett was one of my favorite characters as a kid.
 
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A public service message, concerning gun control:



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I guess in a few days we'll see the result of the healthcare fiasco; I'll be surprised if the socialist idiots Democrats  don't manage to find a way to grease it up and shove it to us.  So goes politics.

"I can remember way back when a liberal was one who was generous with his own money."
-Will Rogers

Times change.

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I imagine most people has seen the articles about this woman; it never fails to amaze me the lengths some people will go to just to be noticed or "famous".

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Some of you may have noticed that I like to post quotes.   As far as I'm concerned, most questions about government and people in general can be answered by a short list of people:
Mark Twain, Will Rogers, PJ O'Rourke, and HL Mencken. 
There are others who are good on other subjects, but for sheer wisdom and snark, it's hard to beat those four, so don't be surprised if you hear from them often.
So there.

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Sandra Bullock's husband has been cheating on her.
Tiger Woods is sorry, and is getting back into golf.

Who cares?

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Any favorites here?

         "Only the Lonely" by Roy Orbison
         "Who Am I" by Country Joe & the Fish
         "Hellhound on My Trail" by Robert Johnson
         "Hero Takes a Fall" by The Bangles
         "When God-Fearin' Women Get the Blues" by Martina McBride
         "Stardust" by Dave Brubeck
         "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band
         "Lady Willpower" by Gary Puckett & the Union Gap
         "Sick and Tired" by Cross Canadian Ragweed

         "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot

The first and the last songs:

Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours." -Robert Byrne

We're starting to get some hints that winter is winding down; some of the plants are starting to wake up.  Usually the crocuses bloom earlier than this, but we've been getting a lot of cloudy weather and intermittent light snow.

(Double-click to enlarge)

Various crocus flowers.

Daffodils; not ready to bloom yet.

Swiss chard; have already been using it in salads.

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It appears that Lindsey Lohan wants to sue  E-Trade for a million bucks because they they made a commercial that has a "milkaholic" baby named Lindsey.  Damn, if that girl was any more stupid, she'd forget how to breathe.


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Danger: rant ahead.

I've been watching the health care fiasco for some time now; it seems to get worse all the time.  I've noticed that both the POTUS and The Grand Harpy of Congress Nancy Pelosi have both been pushing the representatives to vote for their pork behemoth.   Some of the representatives are balking, since their constituents are against the plan.  They are being told by both Obama and Pelosi to ignore what their voters want, and vote for it anyway.   That sort of sanctimonious arrogance is uncalled for; people elect representatives to vote they way they want, not how they are told to vote by their party leaders. 

At the same time, the Bringer of Hope and Change is also trying to get the Senate to pass some legislation concerned with climate change.  First of all, I think someone needs to actually study the subject; there has been so much stuff coming out lately with "Climategate", that what is needed is to start over on the subject and look at it objectively.  Too bad the president and his "czars" haven't got a clue as to what any of it means, other than the fact that it give the government another excuse to regulate and tax stuff.  Is the climate changing? Probably.  Is it changing fast, and is it caused by humans?  No way to tell, since the people who have been harping on it have been shown to be fudging the data, lying, and using it for political and financial gain.  If a corporation acted like the climate people have been acting, people would be calling for their heads. Since it goes with the nanny state agenda, that makes it ok.

"There is something about a Republican that you can only stand him just so long; and on the other hand, there is something about a Democrat that you can't stand him quite that long."
- Will Rogers


"The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop."
-P.J. O'Rourke

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Oldies forever!

         "Over the Rainbow" by James Galway
         "Leland Mississippi Blues" by Johnny Winter
         "The Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin
         "Samba Pa Ti" by Santana
         "Silent Running" by Mike + the Mechanics
         "Five O Clock World" by The Vogues
         "Are You Sitting Comfortably?" by The Moody Blues
         "Bottle Of Wine" by The Fireballs
         "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" by Nancy Sinatra
         "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel

The last two on the list:

Try not to laugh too hard at the dancing



One of their best songs