We got our new pastor!

The pastor has been here since the first week of March. He is pretty cool. How can he not be, he is originally from CA?! :)

Anyway, I really dig his preaching style. He is straight all about the Word. We've been studying Mark 1 for the last 4 weeks. So much in there! I am really happy that he digs in and deep.

In other news...
Springtime is here! Yay! I am loving it. Some trees have started blooming. The ones with white fluffy flowers and these wild weedlike bushes that bloom bright yellow flowers. They are really pretty. My friend and I went over to one of my neighbor's (down the street) garden to pick these. She gave us some of what she was pruning off of her bushes. She says they grow like crazy! I think they are just so bright and lively. When Shane first saw them he thought they were sticklike and artsy. They were, right before they fully bloomed. ANyhow, I love 'em!

These days have been very reminiscent of summer nights in CA. It's been in the 70's almost 80's and cooler in the evenings. I think this will be my favorite season. Summer, here, is quite unbearable all hot and humid. The only consolation is the beautiful display of fireflies in the evening.

Isn't she cute?

Chispita finally got her bath & cut.

St. Patrick's Day in Virginia

I know there are a lot of negative stereotypes about how much the Irish drink and so on. But to set the record straight about the Irish, see me old post about St. Patrick's Day. Not sure what we'll be doin' today. Looks like the nearby city of Roanoke has a celebration that ain't so wee. Maybe we'll go get some Irish pizza.

Skateboarding people

That's right! People skateboarding other people.

Mexican Food.

Just because I am Mexican/American, does not mean I know how to cook Mexican food. It does mean that I like it and that I know good Mexican food when I have it.

It is not a secret that you will not find good Mexican food in this town or in the neighboring one, or even the next one. If you are from the west coast you will likely be sorry to try any Mexican food around here. Sure there is good tasting food and all, but to call it good Mexican food? No, not happening.

So, here I am on my high horse, a big Mexican food snob. I like rice, beans, enchiladas, tacos, mole, chile colorado, quesadillas, tostadas, ceviche, not-really-Mexican burritos, tamales, menudo, posole, albondigas, cocido, sopes, calabacitas, and so on. All until now.

Heres a little background. Since I dropped out of the workforce I have dedicated myself to most-things domestic. Cleaning, decorating, cooking, and stuff. (LOL! I can hear some jaws drop!) So, in the cooking category I have started using cookbooks. I never used to try recipes because it was too time consuming (it required meal planning and shopping for special ingredients). My menu consisted of many things I usually threw together with whatever was already in my fridge and pantry. Basic staple items. No really spectacular dishes. Okay some specialties, but nothing I would really brag about. Okay, I do brag about my beans and salsas... but what kind of claim to fame is that? Eveyone and their mother should at least know that, right?

Okay, so back to my so-called taste for Mexican food. So I am trying out new dishes from several cookbooks I have collected over the years (and I mean collected, cause I never used them!). Some recipes are yay, and some nay. Well, over the Christmas break I found a new cookbook. It has inspired me to try real Mexican recipes. It has familiar stuff, but lots more: caldo Tlalpeno, pollo al chipotle, picadillo, minguichi, budin Azteca, cochinita pibil, filete adobado, and many variations to moles, caldos, tostadas, rice, salsas, desserts and beverages.

The book is awesome. It really is beautiful, too. It is big with lots of pictures of the food and also pictures of the regions in Mexico where the food comes from. Every section is dedicated to a different region. It provides an itroduction to the region, its people, and history. Every recipe has a short summary/story behind it. It makes you wanna try every dish!

It is really funny that this is the furthest away, ever, from Mexico that I have lived and here I am discovering my roots. Of all places, Blacksburg!

Map of ancestry in the U.S.

According to some compiled data from the 2000 U.S. census, there are only a few states that have an ancestry where the largest group is defined as "American"--basically Franco-British Euro-mutts.

My dad was born in Arkansas, one of the red "American" states, so I guess that makes me a mixture of ancestries so convoluted that I can actually call myself an American of genuine American ancestry--and a native American at that, having been born and had my ancestors here for hundreds of years.

Makes you wonder at what point your ancestors have to be in the melting pot before you can all call yourself an American and drop the qualifying ancestry prefix, as in Italian-American, African-American, Mexican-American, Irish-American, ad nauseam.

Religious certitude is bad for you

In case you didn't know, certainty about religious or spiritual matters is not only dangerous and an impediment to progress, but is on the decline in the "Christian" world, and thank goodness, writes Stephen Weinberg in his review of uber-atheist Richard Dawkins' new anti-religion book The God Delusion.

Banished word list for 2007

Are you ready for it? There's a new Banished Word List for 2007. I'm a little disappointed with this year's entries. I don't remember what mine and Jessica's submissions were, but I don't think they made the cut. I know Jessica's put off by the overuse of the word 'glorious', as in 'that rug is simply glorious' (there are similar reasons in the official list against using 'awesome' for just about everything, especially those things which lack majesty and awe-inspiringness.)

If you've got any suggestions of your own, by all means, weigh in! Comments equals love, people!

You might recall I had my own banished word list for 2004.

And just to give you something to look at, here's a pizza.

Things that rhyme with 'Funky Cold Medina'

donkey told hyena

drunken old Regina

...

Today is blah.

It is so gray and gloomy outside. It is predicted that we'll be getting thunderstorms this afternoon. According to the forecast it should be starting any minute now. A perfect day for staying in to work on long neglected projects.

I just finished rewiring two old lamps. They've been in storage for at least a year now. I am glad that I finally completed that project. It was pretty easy but scary.

When almost ready to finish I reread the instructions to double check everything. In doing so, I noticed something I hadn't the first time. They stated that "the device should be installed only by an electrician or other qualified person." So, you can imagine my hesitation to plug in the first finished lamp.

So, I went to a wall socket that I knew had a special circuit breaker mechanism... the one in the bathroom. Then I sat on the sink so that I would not be "grounded." Fortunately, the light turned on and I did not get electrocuted. That was the first lamp. The second one will have to wait, because I don't have a light bulb to test it out.

That was my project for today. One of eight pending. Next is the sand bottle collection.