Friday, November 24, 2006

The Day After, and Questions Answered

Watched plenty of football over the past two days. I did eat turkey yesterday, although I may go ahead and let the "dirty little secret" out: Turkey is not my favorite food. Probably had something to do with being served bone-dry and flavor-lacking white meat pieces at numerous family holiday functions. But, as with most things to my 10-year-old mouth, the gustatory limitations were remedied by a dose of ketchup. I can still recall the disgust expressed by various relatives.

What made me think of that, I don't know.

Yet the dark meat turkey I ingested yesterday hit the spot. Moist, plenty of flavor, and the side dishes weren't bad, either.

And the Cowboys won.

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How did those beef ribs from a couple of weekends ago turn out, you ask? Not bad. Six hours on the grill was just about right. For next time I will need to marinate them overnight, as the flavor was just superficial. I have to keep reminding myself that perfecting these dishes takes practice. Plus trial and error.

How was Mexico? Pretty good. Neither of us got sick. No problems with U.S. Customs. The transportation was wonderful (I would definitely use those folks again!). And it was nice to be "unplugged," just sitting on the balcony, reading. No iPod, no background music of any kind. And no going to the computer every half-hour to check on the latest news. I still must reveal that it was still nice to return home and have all of these gadgets at the ready.

No need to abandon the world we live in on a permanent basis. And no need to stay in that world 24/7/365.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Anticipation...is (not) making me wait

This morning, Geogal and I leave for a few days in Old Mexico. Just needed to take a few minutes and do some quick blogging.

Geogal, of course, read the previous entry. She agreed with my self-questioning, but added her thoughts that once one becomes a parent, the wanderlust usually subsides. Yesterday, as I was discussing this subject with a colleague who is, well, more mature than me. (I don't want to say she's older, although she is a grandmother.) She had the same conclusion as Geogal. And she encouraged me to just relax and have fun. It's nice to be reminded of the basics at times.

By the way, no photoblogging for this trip. I am taking the camera, but will leave the MacBook at home, along with my iPod. Two reasons. First, I don't want to risk these things being stolen, even though they were just at much as risk during the recent Texas sojourn. Second, it might behoove me to be less "plugged-in" during this journey, to allow myself to just soak up the local culture, and spend some time reading as I sit by the sea.

I'll have fun.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

...but probably no tequila and lime

OK! Gotta make time, sit down, do some writing.

What do I write about today? Elections/politics?

Nope.

My latest gadget?

Negative. Don't even have one that I haven't written to death in this blog. Except maybe for my recently-purchased three-burner propane grill, which has been feeding the Geofamily well. Plus, my mom and dad gave me a tome: Weber's Big Book of Grilling for my recent b-day. I've already tried two recipes from it, with pleasing results. Today I am experimenting with true BBQ (which means cooking the meat slow over low temps). Beef ribs, with some hickory chips to provide a true smoky flavor.

I'll let you know how it turned out.

Something that is occupying my mind of late. Next week, Geogal and I will be going south of the border for a couple of days. (She has a work-related gig in Rocky Point, aka Puerto Penasco.) So why am I not excited about this, an upcoming road trip? I'm not sure. Am I becoming an old man, scared of change and finding comfort in the routine and familiar? Dear God, I hope not. Do I have trepidation about an international sojourn, even though this does not involve air travel or a return stop through customs? Maybe just a bit. Never mind that hundreds of Arizonans do it every day. And that Rocky Point, even though it's about 60 miles from la frontera, is still considered a border town.

I also need to remember that gringos head there to have fun. So why can't I?

And it seems just about everyone around here goes there. Case in point: Geogal just called me, as among her errands today was to go to the Alltell store to ensure our cell phones would have international service. The sales guy's response? "I was just there last weekend. (The coverage) is hit or miss down there."

I really should just relax. It's not that big of a deal. Not nearly the situation my brother-in-law faced some years back, which involved he and some friends getting ready to visit a Central American country, then a coup occurred.

I'm pretty sure that's a true story. Maybe I should get some more details from him.

As for next week, we'll be fine.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

All Hallows Eve



I don't remember halloween being that much work!

Work. Pick up Geoana. Head home, change into workout togs. Work out at gym. Return home. Prepare evening meal. Hope Geogal gets home soon. Take out pumpkin. Have Geoana use her markers and draw a jack-o-lantern face. Spread a great amount of newspaper. Continue to work on evening meal. Get old knives out of the garage and cut jack-o-lantern (not too scary!). Reserve the pumpkin seeds. Receive call from Geogal who says she's caught in traffic and won't be home for a while. Ask Geoana to separate pumpkin seeds from the top portion. Listen to Geoana get dainty about how her hands shouldn't touch the pumpkin slime that happens to be attached to the seeds. Get tired of listening to it, and choose to ignore it. Light the grill. Put beef kabobs on grill. Set the timer so I won't forget and burn them. Take clean dishes out of dishwasher. Start putting the dirty dishes in. Timer goes off, flip the kabobs. Ask Geoana to get her costume on. Hope to God that Geogal gets home soon. Get candy bowl ready. Take kabobs off the fire. Tell Geoana very firmly that she needs to get her costume on. Cut up beef kabobs for Geoana.

Lose sanity.

Actually, I survived it. Halloween went off without a hitch. Geogal got home, took Geoana trick-or-treating, and the rest of the evening was fairly relaxing. Sitting here writing is therapeutic, in that I am finally off my feet.

I hope Halloween gets easier as the child gets older.