happy thursday pups!

Hola, Suz. Hope you are not down!

Aloha, Suz…! My sick okole is missing this OLB event, happening right now…! 8-(

hey bg — how’s nm tonight?

aloha tut — cold isn’t any better? fork

Hi suz and bg. Finally got some sunshine on my coast. I like it.

hey dearie — sunshine!!! woohoo!!! how ya doing tonight?

NM is what it is, today I drove up and back to Los Alamos, had a nice unOc meeting, feeling fairly chipper though my allergies are kicking up tonight.

I’d experienced both the hot sauna, then the frigid chills, a mere 20 mins later…! If I hadn’t popped a vicodin last nite, I’d have been up all nite…! 8-(

Hey, Dearie and CT. Spring flowers blooming, and also plus, I have a new roof.

tonight the bottle let me down

tis that time of year… i hope you don’t have a bad bout of them this year

I was reading that within a 2 minute period some time back, there was a change of temperature in South Dakota from minus 4 degrees to plus 45 degrees. Hard to get my head around those numbers.

ouch! no fun at all dood :(

Aloha, bg…! A new roof is always a good thing…! ;-)

Well, it seems to have started a freaking lot earlier than ever, in my estimation. It used not to be until sometime in April at least.

a new roof! sweet!!! gotta be a good feeling knowing that is off your list

Well, I have not got the bill yet, technically my insurance is paying for it, but there are probably issues about that, so the number may not be what I planned. We’ll see.

i think our norms are gone with the wind… weather is all forked up all over with everything outta balance

For sure. Hey, so I went on a little road trip last week, counting hawks, turkeys, elks and such. I saw a bald eagle and a beautiful great horned owl. It was totally kewl.

dance the night away

sweet! i’m jonesin’ for a road trip — thinking about heading up to seattle to see how the leg does with that trip

…i think our norms are gone with the wind…

Define normal these daze…! *gah*

*sigh* our normal isn’t

oh what a crying shame

That sounds great, friends there?? I would like to visit Seattle too, my brother and his wife live there.

Great tunage tonite, Suz…! ;-)

i know a couple peeps up there — not sure if i am thinking of an overnight or maybe just a day trip up and back to see how the leg handles that much time in the car. it is my driving leg…

thanks dood :) so glad you are enjoying them

How are you bgrothus? Haven’t checked on you for a long while.

blue moon

hey loohoo — how was your day?

I am pretty good, actually. I mean, I am still a fighting jailbird, but spring is here and I can put my head in the sand for a few minutes every day at least. My life is too busy and at the edge most of the time, but I have been able to enjoy some changes of pace, so the layers of good are working their way into my life it seems.

Nice to see you!

its 36 outside and the weather dood is reporting snow about 15 miles up the road at 800 ft… we did get snow in march of last year but the weather dood was pretty confident a couple weeks ago that winter was over and not much chance of low elevation snow

Agreed. Great tunage.

Everything will settle down.

thanks loohoo :)

things i cannot change

It’s a lovely maverickey night, rock on!

Hi folks.
This is the chili I made tonight, Meaty meat-less Chili
It was really good.
What i want to make next is a pork tomatillo chili like the kind at Chili Up.
Any one have a good recipe?

so glad ya’ll are enjoying tonights tunes :) puts a big ole smile on my face :) :) :)

hey spocko — how ya doing tonight?

How are you doing, Suz? Steady as she goes?

I wish I ate at your house tonight! I’m going to have to try that!

back in your arms again

*heh* Did ya see this, Suz…? YouTube reaches 1 billion monthly active users… Small wonder, eh…? ;-)

yup :) hanging in and hanging on :)

well, i am active *laughing*

Only meatless? I’ve got your chile, but it involves hamburger.

that’s not my name

Oh I’ll eat meaty chili too, I just tried that because Mrs. Spocko doesn’t want to eat too much read meat.

I also got a recipe from the Food Network that was a smokey turkey recipe.

Fry your pork in a small amount of corn oil. (Please don’t try to mix Mexican food with olive oil for the love of god.) Get it crispy. Then add chicken bullion, serrano chiles, onion, and good tomato. Simmer for a good while.

Good suggestion, but I’m allergic to corn :-( How about canola oil?

how about crisco?

Oops, the chicken bullion should be dissolved in 1 cup of water.

fine, anything but olive oil. That’s for Italian food!

With 90% of all corn products being made with GMO corn I don’t blame ya, spocko…! But, that GMO rapeseed oil is not much better…! 8-(

Today is the birthday of an ex-girlfriend. She broke up with me in the most cruel way. I just looked at her facebook page. It’s strange. I’m glad we broke up because otherwise I never would have met the wonderful Mrs. Spocko, yet is strange looking at her life now thinking I might have been Mr. Rich Lawyer.

Her family had money and I remember going on her dad’s yacht. He said, ‘Say Spocko, you ARE a Republican aren’t you?” I couldn’t walk home so I just did the mumble thing. I wasn’t really “political” at the time but I was always very liberal. I was on the left end of the spectrum in the midwest when I came to California, but here I was practically a centrist.

People fry stuff in Crisco? I’ve baked with it but never fried. I wouldn’t mind using actual lard (If i could find it.)

sounds like you have a much better life now spocko…. i can’t see you mumbling for years and years.

my mom swears crisco is the way to fry some foods…

Chile for Spocko:

Using dried beans, soak the night before:
1/2 Cup each:
Pinto
black
kidney
small northern
large northern
pink

drain beans and rinse.

Rinse and bring to a boil with salt, then simmer until cooked.

Separately, brown well 1 # hamburger. Drain fat then add 1 onion and 5 serrano chiles (chopped)and one half celery stalk (chopped).

Put cans of crushed or chopped tomatoes, turn down the heat and simmer until done.

Be sure beans are cooked through before adding them to the meat.

Top with chopped onion, cheddar cheese and tabasco.

I love fried chicken, but I fry it in vege oil. True southerners use Crisco. Sounds good but stick-to-the-hearty.

tis about time for token to save a blade of grass. thank you for stopping by tonight and letting me spend a wee part of your evening with ya

g’nite all

You can make your own lard or you can look for manteca in the Mexican section of your grocery store.

Just frying the tortilla in Manteca makes any taco great.

*heh* I’m a flaming Lib in one of the largest Micropolitans, outside of NH/Vermont…! ;-)

Sweet dreams, Suz…!

Ohh. good suggestion. There is a good Mexican section at my local Lucky.

I also and wanting to make a pie with lard. I’ve heard it makes a great crust.

Thanks!

What’s manteca made of, Dearie…?

Right!. Whenever I hear pie bakers talk about how wonderful lard is in their pie shells I just get jazzed to make a pie. But, a baker I’m not. I do use lard in refried beans, though. I figure that good tasting food is a good thing, and I’m not giving it up!

Yeah, but I am nothing if not polite. I grew up with Republican parents who were financially successful.

My sister swears by the butter-flavored crisco in her most excellent pies…! ;-)

Manteca is the Spanish word for lard. You can buy it in blocks in Mexican sections of grocery stores. I don’t use it often, but when I want something to taste just right, I’ll use lard. Hey, I eat lots of veges; I get to enjoy some refried beans made right!

Here’s a laugh for you……I was going through an old book that had clippings and notes from the 1970s/1980s. I found to my surprise that I’d been a block captain for Rob Portman in Cincinnati back in the late 70s. Back in the day when I was still trying to please my Republican businessman husband. And, actually, I grew up in a Republican family…… how was I to know the parties would flip/flop after Reagan? It’s all a bad dream, really.

BTW, I just read a GREAT interview from Bill Moyers.
It’s long, but it really is nice to hear someone talking about how broken the whole capitalism economic system is. The author “Richard Wolff has written many books on the effects of rampant capitalism, including Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It.”

He doesn’t attack the bankers and WS but looks at the flaws in the system.
The good news is that he isn’t going to be attacked for being a Commie or Socialist because he points out that it was the Communist and Socialist treat has been destroyed and then they went after the Unions. Right now there are really no checks on rampant capitalism. And that is a bad thing.
For everyone. The issue is, can there be an FDR who can talk sense to the 1%? “You are killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Things need to change.”

So you add the manteca as you’re mashing the pinto beans…?

Btw, a little wake up call, folks…

Putin: Russia, China Help Build New World Order…

Russia is Xi Jinping’s first foreign destination as China’s president. Xi’s talks with Putin on Friday are set to focus on oil and gas as China seeks to secure new energy resources to fuel its growing economy.

He added that Russia and China have set an example of a “balanced and pragmatic approach” to international crises — an apparent reference to their lockstep opposition to U.N. sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime…

I was thinking of joining the Young Republicans in college! Luckily I got smart and joined the Woman’s Resource Center. While in college I:
Took a year of ballet and modern dance
Was in musical theater
learned to sew
Wrote a parody of The Wizard of Oz that was performed for all the incoming Freshmen.
Brought The Rocky Horror Picture Show to campus and performed on stage.

When I told my gay friend this he said, “How did we miss you?”
I said, ‘Your recruiting bonuses just weren’t enough.”

Right. The beans are simmered to soften. Then cooled and then mashed and fried with additional seasonings as desired. I’m lucky to have found pinquito beans that are grown in Lompoc…… small pinto type beans that cook up in no time. I don’t refry them, but I did add a bit of bacon fat to them along with celery, onion, parsley, smoked jalapenos and some tomato sauce, spices, etc, etc. You don’t even have to par boil them, just put ‘em on and simmer for an hour and a half. Yum. They are a staple at steak houses in Santa Maria, CA.

Ha!

…I said, ‘Your recruiting bonuses just weren’t enough.”

*snort*

So I’m at a funeral for a relative and I go up to my aunt who is a hard core “Bring back the Latin Mass!” Catholic. She is talking to three priests. One is wearing a delicate bracelet, has designer glasses and a great hair cut. She introduces me to them. “This is my nephew Spocko from San Francisco. He’s not gay.” I came THIS close to saying, “Not that there is anything wrong with that.” but didn’t. It occurred to me that one of those three priests was gay, and it might be Fr. Designer Glasses. I just ignored the comment and started talking about the post funeral activities where I entertained my 23 cousins and their kids with Magic tricks and stories of the olden days, “BEFORE THE INTERNET!”