I spent all morning cooking a NM jambalaya for Christmas eve. If we were traditional types we would have posole and tamales, but neither one is our favorite. Beaker is a little more of a traditionalist and had to have a hot tamale on Christmas eve. Lucky for him I bought a package of  3 Alarm Hot Tamales for a stocking stuffer.

We had a grand time writing bad haiku and ROFLing about it this afternoon. I’ve come to the conclusion that haiku doesn’t really work in English. In my quick search for examples of really good haiku in English, I failed to find any.

I installed my new amplified “old guy, super simple” weather station yesterday. The normal weather station on the left is simple, but didn’t quite cut it for easy viewing through the kitchen window. The temp was 11 degrees in this pre-dawn photo.

I got a couple of bouquets of flowers yesterday, which Laurie used to make a very nice arrangement that’s giving me lots of colorful photo ops.

 

One thing nice about going out Christmas shopping late in a snow storm is that there are only a few other shoppers dumb enough to be out late shopping in the snow, as well.  By the time we headed home about 10:00 pm last night, Corrales Road was snow packed and we had two inches of snow at the house. I ventured out late this afternoon, and once I got out of Corrales, I couldn’t tell it had snowed last night.

Parrots are known for their longevity in captivity, but their average lifespan in the wild is around 6 years. They say it’s because of predators, but I think it’s because they don’t get regular breakfasts of cereal, milk and caffelatte, and other staples like green chile enchiladas, carne adovada, chocolate covered coffee beans, toast, cheese, eggs and filet mignon in the wild.

Puck was up to no good, threatening to knock stuff all over the floor if we didn’t let him out. He often knocks the pencil box on the floor, scattering pencils all over when we don’t let him out. What’s even sillier than Puck knocking the stuff on the floor, is that we simply pick up everything and put it back in the same place so he can knock on the floor again.

 

 

When the days are short, the temps are cold, and the weather is on the side of treacherous, you need not even step outside to photograph birds if you live in a zoo, and decorate your tree with feathery facsimiles.

 

Tristan and David had a solstice party tonight, so I photographed some more of their Polish ornaments. The mountains had clouds all over them this morning on my way to work. Laurie asked if I was going 75 when I did the photo, which is was a good guess; however, I have to confess I was only doing 50 when I snagged the photo.

 

 

Winter Rap
Low light, black and white, down right sad.
No sun, no fun, like living in the north land.
So cold, getting old, makes you just wanna fold.
Dry air, no fair, blowing noses everywhere.
All gray is okay for some places far away.
Winter rap for today, I just have no more to say.

From rain and hail in the middle of the night, to big flakes of snow by daylight, to sleet in the afternoon, then back to snow by nightfall is how the latest winter storm passed through Albuquerque. My weather widget says mostly sunny tomorrow.

The Sandias are an interesting study. Depending on the season, time of day, light and weather conditions the Sandias always seem to have a little bit different look about them. The top photo is from yesterday afternoon, the bottom photo is a month old.

 

Here’s to great friends, great fellowship and great happiness this holiday season.

 

 

 

The highlight of my otherwise rather dull day was a “Dead Texan” burger I had for lunch. I’m really not into cannibalism, but I just couldn’t pass up a dead Texan. BTW I’m not making this up:

Waitress: “What can I get you today?”
Me: “I’ll have one of those ‘Dead Texan’ specials.”
Waitress: “Very good.”
Me: “How did they slaughter and prepare the Texan?”
Waitress: “Oh! He was road kill. We scraped him up off the corner this morning.”
Me: “Mmmm! Even better!”

I started thinking what could be more green than recycling that mornings’ hit and run, and turning it into the day’s special? I had a few flashbacks to the ’70’s movie “Soylent Green” where Charlton Heston, beaten up, and being carried out on a stretcher says “Soylent Green is people!” I also suppose a dead Texan burger might be considered vegetarian by a few New Mexicans.

I spared you photos of the actual burger, because it looked pretty much like any other burger, except it was coated with red chile to help tame the wild taste, and it had a fried egg on top that, I believe, represented a 10 gallon hat. The burger, it turns out, was very tasty.

 

My PET scan had improved from the last one in August, so Dr. Marshall was very happy with the results. My blood work came back normal, but my white counts are still a little low, but she thought they were good for the chemo I had. Some of my ongoing complaints are related to chemo, while most of my aches and pains are more related to the ankylosing spondylitis.  I’m scheduled for blood work and a check up in 3 months and then another PET scan in July— that will have been two years since I was diagnosed with lymphoma.

Tonight’s photo is of the north side of the Architecture Department at UNM.