Top Chef Alert

Ok fellow TCers....It's been 2 weeks but it seems a lot longer since saw our favorite chefs cooking. Last episode was a "touchy feely" one where the judged pretended to have some "Christmas spirit" and didn't tell anyone to pack it up. This week times running out for 2 unlucky ones.

I have to say now that it's been a few months into the show, I am surprised by my lack of any sorta of "I can't stand this personistis." Although they all seem like competent cooks, this season lacks any of the spice (ok - yes bad pun) of prior seasons. Where's the guy with the hat from last season (who opened a restaurant and D.C. and has already been given bad press -- shocker). You know, the inspiration for the "Culinary B****r" T-shirt. Although he was annoying, he kept the show interesting. Then there was Stephanie, last season's winner. Every one's favorite -- and she had the votes too! You had a someone you could root for. The women this season just don't seem as strong or as interesting. The men seem rather blah. Maybe it's the editing and that they just aren't capturing anything as interesting. Perhaps it's just that I had too high a hopes. Then again, it's reality TV. Guess it's just what's "real."

Some X-Mas Cheer

Christmas in New Mexico was a great time. My family is small. To give you an idea of size, I have a total of 6 cousins (on both sides) and a few aunts and uncles and a grandmother. E on the other hand has a huge family. We arrived in Albuquerque on Christmas Eve, being lucky enough to fly out between the 2 big storms of the week. It was luck that I bought the tickets to fly out of our local airport versus driving several hours down the Gorge, as it was closed by the bad weather for days leading up to the holiday.

We landed (and miraculously we were on time...), picked up our rental car, and headed down to E's father's farm. We stopped, of course, at Blake's Lotaburger on the way down. It's a NM tradition. Green chili burgers. When E and I first started dating, I was schooled in the art of red vs green or even "christmas" - a mix of the two. Green is usually a little more mild, but you always have to ask.

Christmas Eve was wonderful. All of E's siblings and their families, including a bit of extended family, made it down to the farm. We ate dinner, which included favorites like green chili stew and biscochitos and not so favorites like menudo. I knew menudo as a 80's boy band. Turns out it's also a soup made with tripe. Both are pretty awful. We rounded out the evening opening presents from family and having birthday cake for the multitude of family birthdays in December (there are 7 out of the 16 of the immediate kids and spouses).

We got up early on Christmas morning and attended early service at a Church in the Albuquerque area. By the time we got back, it was time to start making breakfast. We had 24+ people at my brother in law and sister in law's house (where we were staying) for breakfast. It was a great time. Christmas morning was for opening gifts from Santa (and Ivanhoe the dog). Here's a snapshot of breakfast on Christmas morning:

By the time we'd just settled out breakfast, it was time for dinner. We ate up at my sister-in-law's parents house. They've got a beautiful house up next to the Sandia mountains. They've got a wonderful view from their roof, which we've seen some great sunsets as well as Fourth of July fireworks.

Dinner was filet mignon, smoked ham, mashed potatoes (with real cream and cheese), rolls, and green beans. Very good. Again, there were a lot of us -- almost 50 or so -- so we were spread out across many tables. It was nice to visit with folks that E and I hadn't seen in awhile. All of E's sibs as well as my sister in law's sibs and their families were there. It was mayhem -- but in a great way!

E and I headed up to Santa Fe for the weekend for a little get away. We stayed at El Farolito B&B. We'd stayed there last year for several days and it was quite nice. The innkeeper stocked the kiva with fresh firewood and we had a fire that night. We needed the warmth, as it was REALLY cold (2F) overnight as well as the days we were there. It didn't climb much out of the teens.

We saw the usual haunts (The Plaza, The Chapel, etc) and did some window shopping. We ate lunch at the Blue Corn Cafe. It was a return trip for us, as we'd had some tasty lunches there in the past. I had the carne adovada, which was a step up in the heat dept (cooked in red chili -- so no serving on the side). It was fantastic. E had his usual green chili burger. Their homemade root beer was also quite good. We ate dinner at another old haunt -- El Meson. It's a tapas place and it was worth it. Last time we had the made to order paella in lieu of the tapas. It was very memorable, but this time we thought we'd do tapas. Very yummy and makes me long for better restaurants here in Eastern WA. Reminds me of all the fantastic places in D.C. (like Jaleo) where we used to get good tapas.

Here are a few snaps from the train:

Since we'd been up there before and done all the museums (G. O'Keefe, Palace of the Governors, Folk Art, etc), we decided to take the scenic Santa Fe RR tour. We tried to do this in a prior visit, but the train ended up out in a movie shoot. We were in luck. The train ran on the Sunday after Christmas, but since the Rail Runner (commuter rail between Santa Fe and points south) just opened up the final leg to Santa Fe that weekend, the trail station was a mad house. Our train was 30 min late and despite buying "silver passes" (aka more money for "better seats), they just let everyone board en mass and we ended up being crowded into the dome car. It was like a little hot box. E joked the carpet and vent system were vintage too (car was supposed to be from the 20s). We enjoyed the ride down to Lamy and took lots of pictures, but on the way back we ended up sitting on the tracked for almost an additional hour (waiting for the commuter trains to pass). We got the feeling the train must have started making a habit of this, as we found a "message" etched in the snow that was meant specifically for the railroad. It said "f*** the rr." Unfortunately, the children on the train could read it too and it was repeated out loud for all to hear. Not cool.

After our Santa Fe weekend, we headed down to the farm. My mother-in-law went to CA to visit her kids and the siblings/spouses were taking turns staying down at the farm with my father-in-law. We spent the next few days there, with a final sojourn up to Albuquerque for an afternoon touring the Albuquerque Nat History Museum (getting a personal tour from my brother in law), dinner at the aquarium cafe, and a stroll through the lights at the botanical garden.

We wrapped out our last day with a final swing through Old Town in Albuquerque as well as a trip to the Zoo. It was a nice day (almost 40F) and we enjoyed the walking and the animals. We spent our last night having dinner with family and visiting.

We were really sad to go and are already planning our return.

New Mexico Christmas

Hello Dear Readers:

My wife and I went to New Mexico this Christmas to spend time with my family. When we left on Christmas Eve, we had about a foot of accumulated snow in our little town. When we came back on New Year's Eve, the snow was completely gone. It was quite odd. It seemed like a giant toggle switch was flipped in the sky and snow was gone - poof!

Well, it was no illusion. The day I had to return to work, it snowed a couple of inches while we slept and it made the roads slick and slippery once again. I had to look up to the sky and ask, "is this a sign?"

As you can see by the attached picture of the Church of San Felipe de Neri in Old Town Albuquerque, the weather was beautiful. I am always amazed by how blue the skies are in New Mexico in the winter. When we arrived at the Abq International Airport, it was a comparatively balmy 40 degrees! Trust me folks, when we were experiencing all the snow and highs in the mid teens and twenties, forty is a warm number.

If you consider a trip to the "Duke City" here are some highlights everyone should see in no particular order:

The world's longest Tram--it goes from the base of the Sandia Mountains to the top of the Sandias (altitude over 10,000 ft)!

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

The Albuquerque Museum.

Old Town Albuquerque and the Church of San Felipe de Neri (founded 1706)

The Albuquerque Biopark and Aquarium.

And of course, there are so many gastronomic delights, I cannot label them all!

Now while you are there, take a 45 minute drive north to Santa Fe. Be prepared for COLD! Santa Fe is 2000 feet higher than Albuquerque at 7000 feet. Getting there is worth the trip and it is easy to get to the Old Central Plaza and the Basilica of St. Francis. Unfortunately, it tends to overshadow the smaller but no less magnificent Loretto Chapel. It has a mysterious spiral staircase which still baffles engineers to this day.

As you can see by the report, R and I did not want to come back home. But alas, we did and we are sure to return hopefully soon.

E out

Baby It's Cold Outside

I've lived a lot places that get cold. When I say, I mean the kind of cold where your eyes freeze shut after about 5 minutes of standing in the elements. The kind where you lose feeling in your limbs and don't get it back for hours after you've returned inside. In a word -- cold. This usually meant somewhere in -10 or 20F range with another 10 or so degrees cooler for windchill. I haven't been that cold for a long time, but this week brought back good (and some bad...) memories.


It's been in the single digits to even as cold at -3F here in the mornings the past week or so. The snow started last weekend on my birthday. I took a nap on Saturday afternoon, and when I got up, the downstairs was decorated with lights and my cake was lit with a "73" which I suppose could be my age in dog years rather than my birth year. He made me a scrapbook with photos in it from our first meeting until the present, as well as a plate painted especially for my birthday. What a great guy!

The last time I lived somewhere this cold was upstate NY in Ithaca. We would routinely get more snow than Syracuse or even Buffalo (although Buffalo always claimed to win the "Golden Snowball") each year. The cold was ushered in with snow. I love it when it snows. Time to have hot cocoa, sit by the fire, and snuggle up with your honey. We've been able to have a few nice moments of respite this week, despite our rather busy schedules.

About 10 years ago or so, when I lived in NY, we got a big storm right after Christmas. We were in an ice storm (2-3 inches) followed by 2+ feet of snow in less than 2 days. Snow was squalling (a word I learned upon moving to a state that butts up against a Great Lake) and visibility was zero. Thankfully, I was still on holiday, so I wasn't in need of having to be anywhere. We even dug out the driveway in anticipation of the plow knowing they'd pile all the street snow onto the driveway and if we didn't already clear what had fallen, we were sunk. There's a photo of me where you just see my hat -- not even my head -- due to the snow and ice. The weight of the snow and ice started to take it's toll. S, J, and I were outside enjoying the snow when we witnessed a brilliant flash of orange in the sky followed by more flashes and several pops. Seconds later our power (including all the street lights) went out. It was the start of a cold few days. Thankfully our pipes (one froze, but it came out on its own) were OK for the most part, but the sump pump stopped working. Water starting getting in the basement. Frost was forming on the interior of the windows. Not good. On a plus note, all our neighbors came together and made sure everyone was OK, had food, and a supply of candles. We tried to make the best of it and pretended we were camping in really cold weather. That was the last major storm I've been in.

Life in WA doesn't mean storms, but more likely little bursts of snow. It's still pretty here, too though, and I've come to have a fond remembrance of my days of snow (including Wyoming and Ohio, where we'd get a lot). E took a post-snow picture here to commemorate the event. Some years this is more than we ever get, so grateful we've even got this so far this year.

Re-Connecting with Friends...

Coincidently, the friend I went to France with, back in 1998, just got in touch with me again after I mailed off a Christmas card hoping that she'd still be at the address that I had. D and I had a great time in France, although I recall the trouble we had leaving it. We'd asked the SCNF (train) worker at the Paris station which train to get on. Although they pointed us to the correct train, they'd failed to tell us which part of the train to get on. A critical issue when it uncouples midway during the journey. We were supposed to head to Turino, Italy. Instead it was Montpilier, France. When we first got off I remember thinking "wow, they are really bilingual here," until I realized that everything was in French because we were still in France. Little detour through Nice, Cannes, and Monaco before heading to Rome, as we decided Turino was not meant to be for us. Italy and Austria were followed by Slovakia before heading back to France and home.

D called me last night and encourage me to check out FaceBook. I'd set up a profile back when I was still a grad student, but hadn't done anything with it...I hopped on tonight (although I really should be working....) and found lots of friends, many of whom I haven't heard from in years. It was really neat to see them and wonder what they've been up too.

D isn't the only friend who'd I've lost touch with that's gotten back in touch. A grad school chum from Cornell found me through my LinkedIn page. It was nice catching up. She'd since had three kids, including 1 set of twins. They are now all under 1.5 years so she and her partner are keeping very busy!

Off to logout from all things electronic...

What to do with all that stuff....Or at least a part

Moving was like going shopping, but for my own things. For years we'd lived in either small condos or houses, which made it difficult to even unpack half of our stuff. Knowing that we'd never afford buying all those items back, we decided to suck it up and just have a bedroom "of stuff" and a garage that was well-packed to the gills. Once I had a chance (and there's still about 5 or 6 bins to tackle) the majority of the items, I realized there were still some things, despite being able to unpack, that I still didn't know what to do with. Translation == mentos from past trips: (maps, ticket stubs, coins, etc), pictures (which I plan to pull into an album), my grade school report cards -- including kindergarten (OK - yes admittedly I need to get rid of these), newsclippings (including the "newspaper" my 7th grade class put together where I had a review of the British comedy "The Young Ones" and of the band "The Cure"), and even the bracelet I had as a newborn baby.

NM -- this is for you.....I figured out what to do with the maps--especially the really colorful ones. They look great in a frame. E and I were down at IKEA this past weekend and I bought several inexpensive (because we don't say "cheap" in my house anymore...) frames. I took out the metro map I have of Paris, which is especially colorful. What made it even less painful in cutting it up was the fact it was a freebie from the dept. store Samaritaine. They try and convince you to go to their store and ride to the top of the building for the "free view." Looks like the place has been closed since 2005. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Samaritaine.





I cut up the map and framed it. Voila -- bright new "art" for the cost of the frame.

Christmas Trees -- The Good, Bad, and the Fake

We pulled out the Christmas tree this past weekend and plugged it in. I love having the lights already on the tree. It makes it so much easier to get straight to the decorating. Not that I don't love real trees. We had real trees when I was a kid, at least until the cat climbed up the tree one Christmas and took out a clock, the tree, and a few presents on the way down. Time for the fake one....When I was in college, we were forbidden from all things green and Christmasy, as they knew the college psyche for lack of care for anything other than one's self would likely result in the "tree" turning into a fire hazard. By the time I got to graduate school, it was time for a real tree again. I remember one Christmas when E, J, and I went hunting for a tree at the U-pick place in Ithaca. We got a little over zealous, as it took about an hour to cut it and even longer to cut the trunk down to fit into the holder. Things seem so much smaller when you're outside. When we put it in the house, it was like it was spring loaded. It barely fit, but it was pretty. The cats, of course, saw this as a new toy. Drinking from the stand, attempting to eat whatever ornament was closest, and chewing on the branches (Charlie...) was par for the course. The house smelled wonderful. It reminded me of childhood. The "pine" air fresheners somehow just don't cut it....


Our tree this year.....

We finished pulling out our ornaments and putting them on the tree. We listened to Christmas music (Vince Guaraldi -- Charlie Brown Christmas is a favorite) and told little stories about some of the ornaments as we were putting them up. We like to pick them up as we travel. We have quite a collection from NM now, as well as some from the Maine, Wyoming, the San Juans, Quebec, Spain, and Alaska (thanks Aunt A). My favorite, however, as the ones that my mom gave me as I left home. There's the tin soldier my Grandmother made, the bird's nest we used to put in our tree every year (a Swedish custom that brings the family good luck), and the gold star of Jinx my first cat to name a few. I have to carefully remove the old hooks from a few of them, as getting stuck with any of them would have required a fresh tetanus shot.



E put up lights around the front of the house today. Although we wanted to put some up on the facing of the house, we decided that our 2 step ladder just wasn't going to cut it and it was getting dark.....perhaps next year.

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. It's when you're snow bound (although this is the first time in my adult life I haven't lived in a cold and snowy winter climate), you are relaxing with friends and family, and celebrating just being in one another's company. It's hot cocoa, too many marshmallows, putting up the tree, listening to carols. I'm a sucker for all except the run over by a reindeer one and the song with the dogs barking in time to "Jingle Bells." My family always had clam chowder on New Year's Eve and then headed to midnight service (which was actually at 9 pm or so).

We're heading to New Mexico this year to spend the holidays with E's family. All his siblings will be there. We're very excited to see everyone and can't wait for the trip.