de-Intimidator

Rough Day

2012-01-22T06:09:00.003-07:00

On Friday we were able to get my Dad home from the hospital. But it was a tough day all around. Any of you who have dealt with the medical system understand how difficult it can be to get all the pieces to work together so you can actually get out. In our case we had to have the 24 hour in home health aide hired and in place. That in turn required a doctor's certification to provide legal cover to the home healthcare company. And we needed to pass him on to hospice care - a separate organization. That required a doctor to take him under his care. However is primary care physician wasn't authorized to work at the hospital he was at plus he had been out of the office for a number of days.

Late in the morning, the pieces all finally came together and then (as I've seen a number of times before) the system seems to click into place and go into high gear because they ambulanced him home exactly when they said with the hospice evaluation taking place very shortly after he arrived.

But that's not what made it tough. What made it tough was earlier in the morning my Father asking me to stay longer. I was scheduled to come home Saturday with my other brother from Hawaii arriving Saturday morning. My Dad didn't feel that was enough time to do all we needed to to handle the contingencies going forward. But what made it tough was my emotional reaction because my Father has never made a request of me in his life. Even in a number of other highly stressful situations in recent years like Mother's death and the fire at his house, he never asked for help. In fact it was more like you had to shove assistance down his throat. So the mere act of asking was this pronouncement of his end in my eyes. And I was pretty much an emotional wreck for the rest of the day.

Working Through It

2012-01-19T05:06:00.003-07:00

My older brother and I arrived in Connecticut Sunday late and drove to the hospital where Dad was still in the emergency room. We were there until around midnight when they (the hospital doctors) decided that he had enough going on combined with his weakness to admit him to the hospital. We drove to Dad's house and collapsed.

Next morning was the usual frustration in the hospital as we waited around until some sort of focus could develop on what tests to run toward the end of potentially finding out what. By the afternoon however, a series of tests were scheduled and run. The only negative to these was that my Father was totally beat up and worn out by them all so he looked and felt terrible.

Tuesday was better and worse. Better in that without anymore testing procedures Dad was resting and looking better, but worse in that the doctors were honing in on a diagnosis and unfortunately it was lung cancer. We went through discussions as to whether it made sense to have another procedure that would allow a biopsy. Dad was very firm that if it was cancer he was going to do no chemo or radiation put just wanted to go out as peacefully and painlessly as possible, meaning going into a hospice program. But we thought without the biopsy data that hospice would not be prescribed.

On Wednesday, we found that the doctors felt they had enough information to put him in hospice without the harsh biopsy procedure. That led to a frantic search on the part of my brother and I to research his options - going into a nursing home or having 24/7 care in home. It was really clear the later was going to give him a better quality of end of life. Through Wed and today more running around to get all the pieces together that will allow for this to happen - various MD sigh offs, contracting with this agency for home health care and that agency for hospice services, starting a claim against his long-term care insurance. And there were financial things to do in terms of getting powers of attorney so my brothers and I can act on his behalf.

Everything is supposed to be in order for him to leave the hospital and come home tomorrow. But from my own experience, I know that isn't going to go smoothly - it never does.

Stopped Before I Started

2012-01-15T16:44:00.002-07:00

So Saturday morning I was already to head out to the hills for my first full day of hiking since the "Malaise". I've got my gear packed. I'm almost out the door. When wife staggers into the kitchen looking not well at all. She's picked up some kind of injury from water aerobics that evidently tightened up over night (something we found out afterwards after seeing the doctor) and she is in excruciating pain. Wife is a tough lady, so for her to screaming out in pain just trying to lift a glass of water is not to be taken lightly.

We spent most of the morning icing her area of pain and me helping her drink, eat and move. We surmised that it was a pinched nerve and she was showing some improvement. She decided to call her medical group and fortunately the muscular/skeletal injuries person was on duty. He told us it was in fact a muscle/soft tissue injury and gave her a bunch of muscle relaxants and pain killers.

So I figure I can go on something this morning, Sunday. I've got my gear packed. I'm dressed and ready to go when I make normal Sunday phone call to my Father. He tells me he's in bad shape and that he needs help. He NEVER asks for help. This precipitates calls to my brothers back and forth and the decision that I need to get out there. I was lucky to catch a flight and I'm now in Chicago changing planes on my was to CT.

To be continued.

The Internet Unveiled!

2012-01-13T10:27:00.002-07:00

Every wonder how your web browser and email system actually know how to find things and move things about? Ever wonder why certain things don't work? Ever feel like the Internet business is some big Loony Tunes cartoon?

A blogger, Mike of "Bloggin It" is a IT dude who put a post out a few days that explains this better than anything I've seen. I recommend going to his post and checking it out. I also strongly advise you have a beer with you when you do this (you will find out why when you get to the post.)

Inventing A New Cooking Technique

2012-01-12T17:30:00.002-07:00

Well, I doubt if it is really new. I'm sure it's out there somewhere. But as far as my personal experience and research are concerned, it's new. I'd quote a bunch of anthropological stuff just to drive Joe nuts now but I'm too tired to look it up.

OK - so I've had this problem...not problem really...more of a challenge. I'm still on the under 300 calorie for dinner regime because Wife still has a ways to go on her weight loss desires. (Thank you two month long illness for pushing me through the barrier to my goal and some how changing my metabolism so I'm staying there in spite of the holidays and everything. By the way Wife says if I really loved her I would have gotten her sick so she could have lost weight too. But for crying out loud, I kiss her, cook her meals, breath on her. What more could I do?). Trying to come up with innovative flavorings to keep variety in the meals is an on-going challenge.

I've wanted for sometime to come up with a way to create a cream type flavoring/sauce but have been stymied because of the calories involved. This week I came up with the methodology.

I started with a cup of 2% milk, 130 calories. I added some stock to that, in this case fish stock because I was preparing shrimp as my protein. Then I added my flavorings to the combination. In this case I did an Indian spice blend and a couple of tomatoes. I let that simmer for 15-20 minutes while I partially steamed the vegetables (broccoli and corn) in this case and let the shrimp marinate in a dry rub. Then I strained the flavorings out of the milk-stock mixture. I added some corn starch to thicken. I finished the veggies in the sauce and added the shrimp at the last two minutes.

It came out very, very good and had that creaminess I was looking for. The caloric amount of the milk was about a wash for the usual 1 tablespoon/100 calories of fat I use in most of my other preparations. I'm excited on trying this technique with some of my other flavor profiles as well.

Getting Back In Shape

2012-01-09T17:07:00.002-07:00

After the two months of illness immediately followed by the two weeks of family visit and wine inventory reduction, I got completely out of shape.

As soon as I put the last kid on the last plane, I started a series of walks and small hikes to build myself back up. At my age this is a royal pain...as in really painful. But I've been through it before and I have a system. The first few walks are not that bad. Then I start doing the local hike to the Meadow that is not too long but is a steep climb. The first one of those I really was gasping for air and my heart was racing a mile a minute.

Last weekend Gaius Derf and I went on the first, lower portion of the La Luz trail, a nice 4.6 mile hike with a gradual ascent but at higher altitude. I am happy to report that I had no breathing or cardiovascular problems at all. Legs were sore.

This coming weekend will be the first 'regular' hike, my six mile South Crest Trail go to hike. I'm really looking forward to it.

Annual Sighting

2012-01-06T17:14:00.003-07:00

The picture you see below is a rare occurrence. It is a picture of the top of my desk. Many would say that I am pretty anally persnickety person. And that may be true. But it has never applied to my workspace organization. Typically my desk is a series of piles - large diameter piles on the outside with many smaller diameter piles as you get closer to where the computer goes.

Fortunately, I took an archeology class why back when with a field lab so I learned how to grid off areas and go through strata to get to certain time periods. Because that is the way I usually end up having to find things. But once a year at the New Year, I go through everything on the desk, throw tons out and start all over.

However if you look carefully you will see that I've left my little starter piles to build upon. No sense have to do everything from scratch!

Book Bonanza!

2012-01-04T19:45:00.003-07:00

I love to read. I love reading history. This week a location of regional bookstore chain, Hastings, that is just blocks from our house is being closed by the chain. So there's a big sale. Wife was in there on Monday and got four books for $13! So we decided to go in see what we could find.

As Mrs. de-I said, "You're fortunate that your tastes are so esoteric. There will probably be lots still available for you." And there was. I bought around 10 books. There were three books I had wanted from a favorite author, Bill Bryson (not history - and he's fairly popular). And the second to latest Terry Pratchett, Disc World book that I have read. I was surprised they were still around. But the things I was happiest about were the history books. Among them I got this one.

A complete history of British-Napoleonic Wars from 1789 to 1815.
I took the picture from an angle so you could get an idea of the size of this baby.
"Sigh"

And there was this mega volume, one of the definitive histories of the American Revolution.

We also got a guide book for our trip this year to Spain and a map. But best of all, tops of all was this:

A Biography of Charles the Second of England and a history of the Restoration Period of the late 17th Century.

Can you imagine the arcane analogy material I'm going to get from this! I bet there's enough in here to drive Lakeview Coffee Joe nuts for a year.

I can't wait to start reading it.

10 Days Of Family Togetherness

2011-12-30T19:51:00.005-07:00

I have been a absent on the blogosphere over the holidays. But having the entire family visiting for 10 days took a bit of focus. Entire family consists of:

The #1 clan from the East Bay area - Consisting of #1, 1A, 1.1, and 1.2- aka the Ostrogoths
The #2 clan from the Washington DC area - Consisting of #2, 2B, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 - aka the Visigoths
The #3 clan from Amsterdam - Consisting of #3, 3A, and newly minted 3.1! - aka the Vandals

Actually it was a gradual build up with the Visigoths arriving first, the Vandals the next day and the Ostrogoths the following day. With all 14 (including Lord and Lady de-I, castle owners) here for 3 and half days when slowly they started to depart.

#3 and 3A practicing their first ever - "Let's get baby into the car seat after the 18 hour flight from Amsterdam" - technique

The #2 clan are enthusiastic about cooking. I felt a little like Tom Sawyer getting both 2.1 and 2.2 (only 6 years old mind you) to literally spend 40 minutes peeling 5 pounds of potatoes!

I guess you have to be of Eastern European Jewish extraction to appreciate this.
The production of schmaltz (rendered chicken fat for cooking) and gribbnes (the crispy bits of skin left over from the rendering). This is 6 pounds of fat and skin for the process.

My crew LOVE gribbnes!

I mean everyone - the kids, the sons-in-law, the kids - everyone but Wife :(
2.1 my, designated sous chef for the whole holiday (a BIG help at 13 years old) made sure she brought home a container of schmaltz - chip off the ole block :)

#3 and 3.1 aka Munchkin

1.2 - 2 years old. You have to take to spend a morning with him at the 'hands-on' children's museum and listen to his totally joyous "Wow, Look at That!" to appreciate the shear joy only a child can have :)

One of the main objectives of having all the clan here was too drink up a bunch of my older wines (so I have room to buy more! Love buying wine)
This was the oldest one I had, a 24 year old white burgundy that I got at an estate sale a couple of years ago. I was concerned that it would be vinegar but it turned out just fine with all the spicy attributes of a great old white burgundy.

Decorating cookies - absolutely de rigeur for a Wife inspired Christmas

The two six year old cousins (1.1 and 2.2) are like fissionable material. So to give the adults some rest, there is resort to the electronic pacifier.

A little Christmas Day action

2A has decided to make a serious, serious run at the Silly Awards this year (Best Son-in-Law). So he decided that he would understudy Wife and become apprentice bread maker.

Here he is starting with learning how to make pizza dough.

However, 2A is giving him a run for his money by solving with Wife a problem with my computer connecting to our printers and then sucking up to critical Silly Voter, Wife by putting one of the printers of limits to me!

1.1 playing at the computer with 1.2 looking on

Daughter #3 was having lots of issues between sleep habits of the 4 month old and jet lag but mastered the art of napping.

Need to catch a nap in the middle of the afternoon? Not a problem.

Husband and parents talking for too long in the evenings? Not a problem.

There is a certain 'center stage' status the only comes when you are the newest, youngest member of the clan.

Don't think that Munchkin stole Wife's (and de-I's!) heart?

We are a very, very lucky family. We enjoy each others company. It is very difficult for us to even see each other with given the great distances that separate us (which will be even more when #2's diplomatic career takes her and the clan to Manila this spring). But when we do get together, it is as sweet as can be.

Make Your Holiday Plans To The Sunny Southwest While You Can!

2011-12-20T16:53:00.001-07:00

Before the impending Ice Age turns us into the next tundra!!!

Pictures from this morning

Turning Your Fortress To A Fine Hotel

2011-12-19T16:59:00.003-07:00

At de-I Tower, we don't exactly welcome people...hot boiling oil, moats with monsters, pits with spiky things in the bottom...not exactly what you'd call welcoming. However, from past experience even we here in the Imperial City have learned that the best of defenses is no match for a determined barbarian horde. So in addition to feeding them and plying them with drink, we've found that if we seduce them with civilized comforts, they soon lose that harsh barbaric edge and then can usually be persuaded to move on.

Hence Wife and I have been converting various parts of the Keep to suit the purposes. After all the Visigoths are scheduled to arrive tomorrow!

Convert your torture chamber to...

...The Mountain View Suite

Complete with cradle in case your barbarian guest has an infant

That tower dungeon?

...Converted to the Pink Suite

Complete with private terrace for that late night smoke.

Those storage rooms for all your old armor and jousting equipment...

...Convert the the quiet Brown Suite with nearby...

...dormitory for all the younger members of the horde.

Now should I gift wrap the manacles and leg irons? Hmmmmmm.

Still More Prepping For The Invasion

2011-12-16T08:39:00.004-07:00

I'm in Connecticut visiting with dear old Dad the original intimidator (O-I). Since I've been here I've felt the best I have since the onset of the great illness. In fact, I pretty much feel normal!. O-I is attributing it to his magical curative abilities not to mention the curing airs of Connecticut. First time of anyone going to Manchester to take the cure. Well I'm not looking gift horses in the mouth.

My sister, OK (Other Kidney) dropped over as she walks Dad's dog twice a day and asked me for pictures of all the grand kids. So I opened up my photo file and found not that many pictures of the grand kids but one butt ton of pictures of food and hiking! Hmmmm guess that shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

Before I left to come here last weekend when I made the lasagna, I also whipped up some slow cooked lamb (same stuff I made for the Chile Party), it freezes well. I didn't want to do it outside with the wood grill this time because of the cold so I did it in the oven. Didn't get quite the same flavor but Wife (who doesn't even like lamb!) pronounced it yummy.

Not that many step-by step pictures. But essentially you marinate your chunk of lamb (a leg in this case) over night with a paste of oil, herbs (rosemary, parsley), garlic, salt, and pepper. The next day you put into a very, very high oven for about 20 minutes and then slow roast with an aluminum foil tent at around 275 for 6 hours. In the pan are meat broth, carrots and onions. As the meat cooks, juices from the meat fall into the broth and the whole thing enriches.

Meanwhile reduce a bottle of red wine until it is about 1/8th its volume. When the meat is starting to get very tender, take it off the bone. Add the reduced wine and some Dijon mustard to the broth and the meat off the bone. Let cook again covered in the slow oven for another hour.

I will be serving this with some of the hot sauces that I did in the summer.

Maybe I Should Just Put The Book Under My Pillow

2011-12-14T07:35:00.003-07:00

For some bizarre set of reasons, I have been actually figuring out and solving my own IT/Communications problems lately. This is very unnerving because it is not consistent with my historical behavior at all. Historically, if something didn't work right within a day or so, I would throw a tantrum and return the device or wait until Wife or some other friend shoved a Valium down my throat and fixed it for me.

I related a couple of weeks ago how I had problem solved a problem with contact manager program and my new web site/email server service. Well when I was in Chicago, I suddenly had this problem where I couldn't send out emails using the new server service address. I would get an error message that said I wasn't connected to the internet when in fact I was receiving emails on the same address and sending out on another! This was only happening at Lakeview Joe's so I thought it might be a problem related to his internet access portal.

But then I got home and I started having the same problem. The tantrum started to bubble up but amazingly was contained. Instead I called Microsoft (even figuring where to call in the past would have frustrated me to no end). I got someone who very quickly told me where to look. Evidently the hosting company we use has some unusual portal numbers and you have set that in your settings. Problem solved.

Personally, I am blaming St. Louis Mike for all this, an IT person whose blog I follow. It must just be the IT problem solving vibes that infect his posts that have gotten to me over the years.

How To Defeat The Barbarians

2011-12-11T19:50:00.007-07:00

Preparation. That's what you do. You prepare feasts to keep them happy so they don't go on looting sprees. This holiday season we have not one, not two, but THREE barbarian tribes descending on the glory that is de-Iholm. Visigoths from the East. Ostrogoths from the West. And Vandals from over the sea. Rumor has it they will descend in successive waves hoping to overwhelm the defenses and raid the wine keep!

So with this in mind, I've been cooking up a storm. Forget about music soothing the savage beast...FEED THEM!

Phase 1 calls for lasagna...lot's of belly filling, pillaging inhibiting lasagna. Since some of our attackers are non-meat eaters, this calls for two versions

Start by prepping the fillings - Swiss Chard

Parboiled

Drain, wash in cold water, squeeze water out, saute in garlic

Pull handy dandy slow cooked braised meat sauce and fortify with Italian sausage

Fortify ricotta cheese by whipping up a few eggs, and adding chopped parsley and garlic, then whip in the cheese. Not shown here is the process for making a Fontina Cheese sauce for the chard lasagna.

Cook the noodles. Drain and save in cold water (if you don't they stick...very nasty when that happens)

Put down a layer of olive oil

Put down a layer of sauce (non-meat sauce for the chard lasagna)

Put down a layer of noodles. Note how I put them up the sides. With the upper layer I will do the opposite to encase the whole thing.

Now another layer of sauce

In the case of the chard lasagna now add the chard

Ricotta mixture on the meat one

Fonina cheese sauce on the chard one

Layer with whole milk mozzarella - has to be whole milk or it doesn't have the stringy texture you love.

Another layer of noodles, sauce and covering of Pamesiano Reggiano or Pecarino Romano

These are 'half' lasagnas. When I really do it up I put another layer on. Usually the 'full' version is around 6 inches deep. Freeze these puppies. Defrost and cook for an hour at 350 to feed the hordes.

Chicago Bits

2011-12-10T16:53:00.002-07:00

I was in Chicago for three full days of business. This was the first extensive travel I've done since the illness. Our schedule was very busy. We were doing significant strategic planning for three of our clients with two hour sessions with each of the three on each of the three days. This kind of work requires you to be very engaged and uses a lot of energy. When I flew up on Tue afternoon, I was tired on the plane. I didn't eat much that night and was very cold. I was very worried that I was relapsing.

But on Wednesday morning I was fine. I was catching naps whenever I could but I have to say that overall I didn't have any problems fulfilling my duties and for the most part felt OK.

Bits and Pieces

As I get around a bit, I see lots of public bathrooms. When I see a noteworthy one, I want to capture it. Look at the one below. Pretty nifty huh. Where do you think it is? High class hotel? Expensive restaurant?

How about a Korean BBQ joint in an OK but hardly upscale part of town.

One small step to remove Lakeview Coffee's ability to torment me.

Now I have admitted that one of my major reasons to go to Chicago is to push Lakeview Joe off of anything resembling his normal eating and drinking patterns. (Truth be told, it's really not much of a challenge.)

But Joe gets in as good as he gets. He takes full advantage of my innate klutziness by insisting that we always get Starbucks coffee then putting me in situations where I'm almost guaranteed to have some spill on me...like using all the coffee cup holders in the car and then driving on the most bumpy streets he can find...or refilling just before we have to walk long ways from parking lots, upstairs, going through sign in security...etc.

However, I have now found the way to thwart this diabolical action. The green Starbucks stopper!
I've known about these but just never remember them. What a god send. So go Joe. Go over the bumpy road. Make me fumble with my coffee and brief case to sign us in at Tribune Building security. I am not the new protected, confident coffee carrying de-I. (except when it spurts out of the little vent hole when I'm trying to get my drivers license out for said security).

Captain de-I of the 95th Minsk? You Are Recalled to Duty

2011-12-05T17:27:00.002-07:00

The origins of the 95th Minsk Feeding Regiment go back to the time of the late Romanoff dynasty of Czars at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. It wasn't a good time to be 'different'. If you were not an Orthodox Christian your loyalty to the state was questioned. And it was a time when the Czars were fighting lots of wars and in need of lots of cannon fodder.

Around Minsk (in present day Belorussia) were old, old communities of Jews and newer communities of Mennonites who had come from Germany during the 18th century. Neither fit the Orthodox criteria. A mixed group of Jews and Mennonites were put together in a single regiment that was involved in the logistics of feeding the Czarist army. They were very good at what they did.

As the conditions worsened leading up to WWI and the Russian Revolution, many of these Jews and Mennonites emigrated to the United States - Jews mostly to New York City and the Mennonites to farm communities in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa. Over the years they carried on the memories and the traditions of the proud 95th Minsk Feeding Regiment. Many of them found there way into the U.S. fighting forces during WWI, WWII, the Korean War, Viet Nam, the Gulf War, etc. They had knowledge of the old ways and used them carrying on the knowledge and tradition from generation to generation.

When Wife and I formed our mixed heritage marriage, little did we know that we carried these traditions with us. We first brushed off this tradition and heritage when Styling with Renee Michelle and I began collaborating on the feeding plans for the Wife's family reunion. We quickly found we had these common organizational methodologies for planning and feeding the multiples. Hence we formed our on little branch of the 95th Minsk Feeding Regiment.

In just 15 days the entire de-I clan - 3 daughters, 3 sons-in-law, 4 granddaughters, and 2 grandsons descend upon Albuquerque and the de-I Tower for a the Christmas holiday/family reunion/Wine Inventory Reduction event. Feeding this gastronomically driven crowd is not for amateurs. Hence out come the spreadsheets and organizational plans.

The 95th Minsk Feeding Regiment is back in business.

Well? I Mean Really Well?

2011-12-04T19:39:00.002-07:00

So I've been feeling better most of this week. Certainly I've been able to work a full schedule and I've started to exercise a bit. But there was still pieces missing. My mental and emotional energy would pop when I started to work but otherwise I didn't have any pop. And my appetite still wasn't there. And I still had a bit of a cough.

My doctor wanted me to get a chest X Ray for the cough. Since he is out of plan for my insurance it took us days to get clear that insurance would cover his referral. Fortunately for me the X Ray center of the plan (at one of their hospitals) was open on Saturday and took walk ins.

Low an behold I go there at 8:45 on Saturday morning and there was no one there! When was the last time that happened to you going to any major medical center. I had the check-in girl take a picture as proof.

Sunday, I woke up and I felt..NORMAL I ate breakfast and didn't have to force it down. I took my longest walk and even included a short steep climb. We made pizza for dinner and I ate with gusto. I still have a small cough but much less.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

de-I Orchardman In Training

2011-12-02T16:38:00.002-07:00

Last year we had incredibly cold weather. Unlike years past we had not covered our peach tree and as a result - no peaches last summer. Mrs. de-I, guardian and CEO of all things garden-ish was not about to let that happen again. So on Tuesday I saw on our refrigerator door the five day forecast showing very cold weather approaching. At dinner I was told we would be "wrapping the tree".

Forget Christmas presents, this is a task of much greater scope. High winds were in the forecast before the temperature drop, so Wife had us out there Wednesday evening working away in the darkness getting something up. Unfortunately the winds we had Thursday were almost hurricane force (up to 90 miles an hour), and I'm afraid our first effort did not fare well.

But the temperature had not dropped, so Wife went out and bought more frost cloth and we started again.

This time we have used rope to tie the whole thing down so hopefully it will survive any winds (since those hurricane force winds are not something common).

A Bunch of Stuff

2011-11-28T18:58:00.002-07:00

I haven't been very good at posting lately. I will use my less the robust health as an excuse. First the health update.

Last Wednesday was my first much better day in a long, long time. Then that night was horrible. No sleep. So our Thanksgiving Thursday was mostly me being a zombie. But then on Friday I noticeably improved and I've felt much better ever since. I'm sleeping better but I'm still cold and have little appetite. The latest batch of tests came in and they are all negative. I supposed to get a chest x-ray because of the persistent cough but my MD is happy that I'm on a generally positive trend. I can tell you that for the most part I'm substantially better than I've been. I even started some light exercise and have gradually been walking for longer time periods.

Thanksgiving itself we had Cabinet Lady, her sister and Dr. Debbie over. All I did was make the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce. I tried a new technique for the turkey. The last couple of years I brined the turkey. This year I saw a recipe for salting it that was suppose to produce a similar result with much less work. It came off as advertised and was such a good technique that in spite of an oven temperature problem whereby it got cooked much more than it was supposed to, the turkey was still very moist.

It turns out (after doing a measurement with an external thermometer) that our oven is running 30 degrees hotter than what it is set for!

Another exciting event was the transfer of our business website to a new hosting company. I have to take my hat off to son-in-law John the Armenian (1A) who did this. Like so many tech things it was supposed to be pretty straight forward. But the software that our website uses is an open-source software so there really is no help line to call if you have a problem. After many hours of panic (he's in the Bay are so I'm just sitting here hoping for the best) and not being able to figure out why the data base wouldn't populate the new host, he just started over and somehow it all worked out.

Then I had a panic with the new email set up. John had sent me the new instructions and I set up a new account in my contact management program. Unfortunately I let the old account up. So when the contact manager tried to connect it had two accounts trying to do this simultaneously and just froze (I figured this out later). What made it worse was that my contact manager is set up to automatically connect to the internet as soon as it opens. So no matter how often I force quit the program and restarted it, I ended up with the same problem so I couldn't even change my settings!

Then came my brainstorm (you'd be so proud of me St. Louis Mike), I deduced that the problem was occurring during the attempt to connect to the internet. So I disabled the wireless modem in the computer. When I opened the contact manager there was nothing to connect to so the program didn't freeze. I deleted the old account and then everything worked fine.

Pre-Thanksgiving Thankful

2011-11-23T15:12:00.003-07:00

It's a very, very quiet Wednesday afternoon before the Thanksgiving holiday. I am sitting in my office in the tower working on project for a client that I like a lot. I've finished my cooking this morning for the small gathering we're going to have tomorrow. I'm listening to a Beethoven Piano Concerto on my headphones. It is a gorgeous New Mexico Fall day. The sun is bright, the sky is crystal blue and I'm looking over the city and the mountains which I can do without hardly moving my head here in the serenity of my tower office. I'm feeling better...really a lot better...not well but better and that is a great thing. I have a great family and I know they all received a boon they had not expected that is going to make their holidays much nicer and easier. My most wonderful and lovely Wife just came up the stairs.

I am a very thankful person.

Have a lovely holiday and take time to appreciate all that you have.

The Latest Medical Update

2011-11-21T17:04:00.002-07:00

Interesting day today.

On the plus side, I am feeling substantially better. Glo/Mom noted that I was visibly and noticeably more energetic than I’ve been in a month.

On the other side, we’re ramping up the tests. After my doctor talked with Dr. Infectious Diseases they came up with a whole battery of stuff for me to be doing. For all of you with a medical inclination (that’s probably one of you) here are the tests we ordered (requiring three big ass syringes of blood – I accused them of making Twilight cocktails)

List of Tests

Free TC, Free T4, TSH
Urine culture
CBC with Diff
Urinalysis Complete (UAC) w/macro and microscopic
ANA with titer
HIV
Rheumatoid Factor
Blood Counts x2
(the mysterious) Test codes 7948 and 7856

Plus Chest X-Ray, EKG, and if I’m not better in another couple of weeks it’s on to the CAT Scan!

Picture of big ass syringe of my vital fluids (with technician face cropped out to avoid lawsuit)

So take that medical system, who says that I’m not doing my best to support full employment in the medical industry!

Still Ill

2011-11-17T17:23:00.002-07:00

No real improvement to report. The two doctors I've been (urgent care and my regular doctor) seem to be flummoxed by the combination of symptoms. I like to think that de-I isn't going to get just any run of the mill disease...needs to be something exotic...something that tests the system.

After my visit to regular doctor on Tuesday, I was sent for more tests (to see if it could be Mono) and I got a homeopathic remedy. (My doctor is an integrative physician meaning he is an MD with background in non-traditional remedies). I've seen no results from the remedy but discovered in reading the instructions for the fourth time today that I have been taking it totally incorrectly. Namely you're not supposed to take this with any fluid or in fact put anything in your mouth for 30 minutes.

I've been taking it with water so I probably have just flushed it through my system. Doh!

Anyway, I go back on Monday to get the test results. If nothing works, I get kicked upstairs to some sort of "infectious disease specialist". (Ominous music inserted here).

Inside de_I's Sandia Mountain Resort

2011-11-13T19:22:00.003-07:00

The joy that hiking enthusiasts have come to expect at de-I Sandia Outfitters has now been expanded to our new resort mountain hotel, de-I's Sandia Mountain Resort.

Our first guests were my niece Renee Michelle and her husband Andrew flying in from Miami. Andrew had taken advantage of our online activity reservation system to reserve a slot in the pasta making course.

"Andrew dearest. Have you ever actually read any of Uncle de-I's Sandia Outfitter posts?"

"No dear. Why?"

"So you really have no idea about his reputation?"

"No dear"

"And you don't remember the year I was slave labor in his restaurant in Albuquerque?"

"Oh. I never really connected that with anything."

"Doesn't it seem a bit odd to you that we're in the Tower dungeon making pasta for 40 people as part of a so called class?"

"It did seem a bit odd that the class was scheduled for 4 hours."

"I don't know what I'm going to do with you dear. It's one thing to lead unsuspecting hikers to their doom but turning our relatives to kitchen scullions? I will never hear the end of this from my brother."

Ahhhhh
Homemade Pasta

Styling In The House

2011-11-11T16:38:00.003-07:00

Niece and blogger Styling with Renee Michelle, along with husband Andrew are here in Albuquerque for the Veterans Day weekend. We originally planned this because Andrew loves to hike and I was excited to take him into the Sandia's. However he has a major leg problem and I am ill so that whole premise has been thrown out the window. Fortunately we can always fall back on food and alcohol :)

There was a bit of drama because their plane was late leaving from Miami and it looked like they would miss their connection and end up coming a day late. But SRM remember to say her prayers to the Magical Unicorn Pony Travel God so they ended up making their connection after all.

Our first day and we stop for New Mexican food
Green Chile Cheese Fries

Then since we couldn't climb, we took the convenient road and drove to the top of the mountain. 54 degrees leaving town and 34 on the top.

The camera folk all in action

Mandatory Sandia's Promo Shot.
(They wanted to stand together but I needed to get the South Crest in the background)

Always something cool to see up in the mountain - Tree roots exposed because of erosion.

And On To Food And Drink

SRM likes cocktails but Andrew not so much.
Wife was very happy to oblige her niece with this Pink Lady.

Many a cheese was lost getting these pictures to you.

As were there vegetable and fruit allies :(

Certainly SRM and Andrew are worthy of a 1998 Oregon Pinot Noir

Just for You SRM!

2011-11-08T16:32:00.002-07:00

Wednesday night niece, blogista, former NM resident, former restaurant slave...I mean culinary apprentice, Styling with Renee Michelle and her BHFOSOTP (Beloved Husband from Other Side of the Pond) will be winging into Albuquerque for an extended weekend.

SRM wrote just a couple of days ago that she was looking forward to going home to Ohio at Christmas to enjoy frosty weather! Well we here at de-I Sandia Resorts (our motto - That Moat Around the Tower is to Keep the Riff Raff Out not You In) always aim to please. So SRM, we arranged for you...

...snow and cold...

...and rain and cold...

...looking forward to a fun time.

"Igor! More chains in the dungeon by Wednesday"

Allies Victorious In Battle Of The Bulge!!!!

2011-11-08T10:27:00.002-07:00

This morning was a momentous day. People were in the street shouting victory (or at least one person-me-was in the bathroom shouting victory). For today, when on the scale for the morning weigh in the numbers were:

169.2

When last de-I saw numbers like Wife was not even a concept. We were still heading to the moon. The Stones and Beatles were just coming into their heyday.

It helped that yesterday, I ate very little for breakfast because I wasn't feeling well and then skipped lunch during the 4 hour doctors office stay. Makes no difference. It's the number that counts!

Urgent But Evidently Not Critical

2011-11-07T16:55:00.003-07:00

So with all my family, friends, and blogmates saying, "go to the doctor", I did exactly that today. Of course you can never get your own doctor on same day notice but there's always the medical plan's Urgent Care center right?

I tootled in at 10:45 after a meeting in Santa Fe. At 2:45, I was still waiting to be seen. Evidently 'urgent' does not mean 'critical' or 'timely'. At 2:45 they said they were moving people over to the Family Practice side of the operation since "they were so far behind" in urgent care. Gad who knows how long I might have waited. I was finally out an hour later. Basically the doctor said he doesn't have a clue so we might as well call it a virus and wait another week to see if it goes away. And let's do some blood work so we can feel like there's something being done.

On the plus side, they had guest internet and I worked the whole three hours I was there and got a butt ton of work done. So when I finally got home, I was pretty much caught up.

Well I think I'll go shiver and feel like crap for the evening since that is evidently what I'm destined for.

End of Season Color

2011-11-06T17:02:00.002-07:00

Well I'm still sick - I'm capitulating and going to the doctor tomorrow - so don't have a lot interesting to write about.

Morning - Did a little work and napped
Afternoon - Did a little work and napped
Evening - Watched TV for and hour and went to bed at 8:30

Boring

However, Wife after a whole season of frustration with her garden suddenly hit the jackpot with her fall plants in fine form since September. I took these pictures just a week ago.

Aren't geraniums supposed to be hot weather loving plants?

Of course this week, we finally got a killing frost so they're all gone now. But as one storm blew in on Saturday morning, I caught this rainbow.

Not African Sleeping Sickness

2011-11-05T09:34:00.003-06:00

Correspondent SRM informs me that if I really had African Sleeping Sickness, I'd be dead by now. Since I am not writing this from beyond the grave (you hope), it's not that.

But I'm still sick and not happy about it. It's over a week now. I thought I was on the mend Wednesday but on Thursday went down hill to where I am now which is not well.

Sigh. I may actually have to call the doctor on Monday.

Thank God for the Internet!

2011-11-03T17:24:00.002-06:00

My travel schedule bit back hard with my coming down with a mysterious ailment last Thursday that has left we with all sorts of weird symptoms and feeling like shit. I still had to do a day trip to Phoenix on Tuesday. But fate actually worked in my favor as I was supposed to visit patriarch, O-I, on Wednesday for four days in Connecticut. But he was without power as was most of the state so it made no sense to do so and we rescheduled to December.

That still left me with this illness where I'm in pain, am consistently tired, have a constant headache, constant body ache, and can't sleep (even though I'm tired). So I got on line and I have been researching the myriad of medical self-help/self-diagnosis websites. Using these tools I've logged many potential diseases and cross correlated the symptoms, eliminating hundreds until I came down with what I feel is certainly the definitive diagnosis.

I have contracted a combination of Mononucleosis, a Brain Tumor, and African Sleeping Sickness*.

I am now working with a compounding pharmacist to concoct a remedy (after releasing him from all liability)

*Not sure how I got this as it is only transmitted by the tse-tse fly which only lives in equatorial Africa. But you can't doubt what you find on the Internet. Right?

We is the Rocky Balboa of the Costume Party

2011-10-30T14:31:00.003-06:00

The we is Wife and I.

We were invited by our lawyer friends V and J to their annual Halloween shindig. Evidently this is a very big deal at their house. Their house (which is not small) is all duded up with the stuff of the season (I can only imagine how much time that takes them). And it is a costume party for both adults and kids (lots and lots of kids).

Wife and I have participated in quite a few...well a few...well occasional...well exactly NO costume parties in our adult lives! That is no as in none, never, nada, aucun, zip, nil, not a single one.

Of course, this opportunity was the course of great excitement...well no panic would be the better word. First thoughts were "How the hell do we get out of this". But the lawyers have been to our house numerous times and that would be oh so rude. So no it was on to the horror of what heck we could do.

I have to say that it never even occurred to us to just get a mask and fob the whole thing off. This was the perfect example of why Wife and I work so well together. After thinking about a number of classic Halloween costumes, an idea just popped out of my head that we should replicate the painting American Gothic. For a look at the original go here. (By the way it was that same intuitive thinking that led to our second story). However intuition without execution is just daydreaming. And Wife is the executor par excellence. She put some much time into studying the picture, going to yard sales, second hand stores, and regular stores to get everything needed in the detail needed. And the spent hours altering things.

Our end result (before going to party)

And we won BEST COSTUME OVERALL!

Not only that there was a buzz in the room. I kid you not. There will people pointing to us across the room and saying in soft voices "Look their American Gothic". And others telling their friends that they needed to see the "American Gothic" couple. And people telling of their seeing the picture in the museum, and histories of the picture, and one person pointing a minor detail missing in Wife's hair. Totally out of bounds.

It is now official. Wife and I are officially retired from the costume party competition circuit. Retiring on top,

Lakeview Coffee Joe Accusations - THE TRUTH UNVEILED!

2011-10-29T10:53:00.002-06:00

So there are a number of you who read this blog who also follow Hanging with Joe, the blog of my business partner Lakeview Coffee Joe. But there are many of you who don't know who this person is or the terrible accusations that he consistently makes about me, de-I, a person of great restraint and personal integrity (refer to de-I's Sandia Outfitters).

According to Mr. Joe, every time I come to Chicago for business (in his blog I use a nom de plume of El Supremo de New Mexico), I force him to break out of his austere lifestyle and consume mass quantities of food and alcohol which he documents in detail in posts like this and this.

So what am I to do in the face of such onslaughts! There is only one thing I can do...

...CONFESS
YES IT IS ALL TRUE!
LCJ IS A MERE TOOL...MERE PUTTY... IN MY SVENGALI HANDS.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

From the moment I arrive in Chicago, I put him under my spell. But what is hilarious is he doesn't even realize just how far gone he goes. Look at this example.

Look at the mass quantity of meat, veggies, rice and beans that Joe has ended up ordering.
You see this on his photo of our night a Irzaru, the Costa Rican place we went this week.

But what his picture doesn't show because of my clever spells is that...
...I'M EATING A SALAD!
Bwahahahahahahaha!

Think I'm kidding about LCJ being in a trance?

I submit Exhibit A.

And I will be back in Chicago in December to have more fun with Mr. Joe.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Happiness Is ...

2011-10-26T06:11:00.001-06:00

... Nobody in the middle seat on your late 3.5 hour flight from Los Angeles to Chicago :)

Weekend Cooking

2011-10-24T20:37:00.003-06:00

We had Cabinet Lady and Dr. Debbie over for dinner on Saturday night. The two ladies and I were supposed to do the epic North Crest Trail hike but they had major furniture moving issues that got in the way. Booo on that. But it gave Wife and I an excuse to cook.

I'm going to have to do some major rebranding of food cred because Wife in the last year has really become my co-conspirator in the kitchen and needs to be recognized for her achievements.

We actually have very complimentary skills as she is great with things like frying, bread, dessert to compliment my grilling, braising, sauteing and overall flavoring skills.

The first course we did on Saturday was a great example of this. It was a Swiss Chard croquetta. It is inspired by a Spanish tapa that is made with many flavorings but nothing like what we did.

I improvised with the interior which was Chard from our garden, parboiled, drained, chopped, and flavored with garlic powder, onion powder, Pimenton, salt and pepper, with some sherry soaked fresh bread crumbs and a little Parmesan cheese as binders. Wife is an expert at shaping and breading with an egg wash and Panko bread crumbs. She did the last minute frying.

In the meantime, I had made a sauce of tomatoes, red bell pepper, onions, garlic, fresh tarragon, and fresh basil. I roasted these for 90 minutes at 30o degrees. The cooked for another 10 minutes on the stove with sherry, pureed and strained.

Here is the finished product.

The Chard was clearly the star. Not overpowered with the sauce a great compliment.

The main course was another great collaboration. Wife wanted grilled meat since we so rarely have that with our low calorie regime. So I wasn't out when our guests were with us, I pre-grilled a set of country ribs (marinated in soy sauce, sherry, brown sugar, rice vinegar, white pepper, ginger and garlic) until they were to about 110 degrees internal temperature. Then I finished them later before eating in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes until around 140 degrees internal temperature.

Mrs. de-I in the meantime had made some fried potatoes from scratch. She pre-fried them at a medium temperature until they were cooked through. They were then drained and allowed to completely cool down. Just before serving they were browned in hot oil.

Wife serving the potatoes

Perfectly cooked meat with perfectly fried potatoes

The collaboration of Mr. and Mrs. de-I is just getting started. Book your reservation now!

Interesting Things Are Where You Find Them

2011-10-21T17:39:00.002-06:00

For as long as I've traveled on business, I've had a philosophy - wherever you are there are interesting things. Hence, even if I'm in some out of the way place off the beaten track, I find things that are good to see and good to eat. This week I had a short trip to Visalia CA, in the Central Valley south of Fresno. Not exactly San Francisco or Monterey. I was there for work but I was going out for dinner to a place my client had recommended. It wasn't far from my hotel so I walked.

There were beautiful flowers

Murals reminding you that this is the gateway to the Sequoia National Forest

And cool looking buildings

The restaurant itself was a very neat, old school style in ambiance, service, and food - very much up my alley.

A wild mushroom ragout in a cream sauce with puff pastry. Very good.

Sweetbreads with a crust of mustard and breadcrumbs. It was so fresh from the oven and nice and hot.

The wine selections by the glass were among the best I've seen in near forever. First they didn't serve a glass. You got a mini-carafe with 8.5 ounces. Most were around $12. And the wines were unusual and good. I had New Zealand Riesling (you never see any NZ whites other than sauvignon blanc in this country) and a Barbera from Piedmonte Italy. You know how I like Piedmontese wines. Barbera is the everyday wine but this one really kicked butt!

One of the most enjoyable meals I've had for a long time...and in Visalia CA of all places.

Autumn in the Sandias

2011-10-16T22:06:00.002-06:00

I'm in training for another big hike next weekend...a trail I've never done to the summit. So I went on one of the harder trails this weekend and was rewarded with scenes of autumn color which sadly my phone camera didn't catch as nicely as my eye did.

Getting Back Into Road Warrior Mode

2011-10-14T19:51:00.002-06:00

After a nice almost two month period of no travel, I'm back in the grove of keeping the air transportation system solvent. Last week was Chicago, Reno, Las Vegas. This coming week I go to Visalia CA (dare you to find that one, ha!). Then the next week I'm in LA and Chicago. And the week after that in Phoenix and Connecticut (seeing the old man). Fortunately there is much paying clients associated with all of this. And truth be told, I was getting itchy not going anywhere over the last 60 days. :)

Twenty Two Thousan Words

2011-10-10T20:38:00.006-06:00

OK I'm way too busy to write that many words but a picture is worth a thousand words...ergo...

Pictures

SCENES FROM RED ROCK NATIONAL PARK

RETURN OF THE CAMERA SHERPA!

Yes, younger brother had me reprising my camera sherpa role.

HAIL STORM STILLS

The temperature dropped around 25 degrees in just minutes

AROUND HOOVER DAM

The big ass new bridge that channels traffic away from the dam

A really poor picture with all kinds of foreground distractions of the dam

SATURDAY IN ALBUQUERQUE

It was raining all night (yeah according to the news this week we got as much rain as we got the rest of the year)

In the morning there was snow on the mountain

It was the last day of the balloon fiesta. And lo and behold there's a balloon coming right down our street! We never get balloons up here!

Hey how come this picture is sideways?

And away down the street

Footnote: Anyone who is really into photography has to...HAS TO come to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta at least one (I'm talking to you Mrs. Photo St. Paul)

AND ON TO HIKING

Snow in the mountains - got to go hiking

Hmmmm. What kind of opportunities does winter hiking offer de-I's Sandia Mountain Outfitters

Hail in the Nevada Desert

2011-10-07T09:10:00.003-06:00

I was in Las Vegas with my two brothers for our second annual get together. If you remember one brother lives in Hawaii and the other lives in Maryland so Las Vegas is as convenient as it is going to get . Younger brother and I were killing a half a day so we went out to the Red Rock Nature Preserve and had the following experience.

Reno

2011-10-05T19:16:00.003-06:00

It was commented on the prior post, "What would the room in Reno for the debt collectors convention look like?" The convention/annual meeting was held in what I would call a low to mid range casino/resort hotel. I really, really, really dislike casinos. The picture below will give you a feel for the ambiance. I never got around to taking a picture of the room. It really wasn't that bad, it just wasn't the same caliber as the Peninsula...of course most places I would be willing to pay for aren't.

I won't bore you with the work details. I will say this. When I'm traveling like this with lots of time in the air and in between actual events, I'm incredibly productive. I get many, many times more work done than when I'm at home or traveling with my partners. And that's because in those situations I am filling my days up with meetings and it is very hard to switch modes from meeting with people to doing writing types of work.

This morning I flew from Reno to Las Vegas where I'm meeting my brothers for our 2nd now annual meeting. I had the most bizarre experience at the Reno Airport. I got there at around 7:15 in the morning. Reno is a reasonably sized airport. There was no one there! I mean no one

No one being dropped off

No one at any of the ticket counters

No one at security
(The TSA folks asked if they could strip search me because they were bored and wanted something to do)

No one on the concourse

I hadn't seen anything like this since the day I traveled two weeks after 9/11. I wondered if there had been some terrorist event and I hadn't been told about it. After about 3/4 of an hour, it started to resemble more of a normal airport.

Upscale

2011-10-03T04:49:00.004-06:00

I'm giving two talks this week - one in Chicago to an association of trust companies and one in Reno to an association of debt collectors. I like to think that I am providing the bookends to the financial world - gobs of money on one side and dead beats on the other.

The group in Chicago is staying a very, very upscale hotel call the Peninsula. I don't usually - no never - stay in these kinds of places so I thought the room was worth some pictures.

Entering the room there is a hallway

A side hallway leading to closets, a bench, and the bathroom

The Bathroom

Sleeping area

Fruit was hand delivered to my room.
What, you say you don't get fruit delivered to you at the Best Western?
I'll bet Jules delivers fruit to all her guests.

I'm having my talk video taped (look for the viral explosion on You Tube) so the videographer and I were checking out the meeting room. I told him as we were going up these stairs to the room that it felt like 'Gone with the Wind'. I also told him I felt mostly like Jed Campett being in a place like this so now he calls me Jed.

This Post Is Brought To You By - Work!

2011-10-01T20:02:00.002-06:00

I don't know who turned on the faucet and I am not complaining after 8 months of business blah, but suddenly things are going crazy (as in crazy good). On top of that - mucho travel this month. This week it's Chicago, Reno, and Las Vegas. I'm giving two talks - one for a group of trust companies and the other for an association of debt collection agents. I like to think of it as book ending the financial world - those with gobs of money and the dead beats.

Bits and Pieces

2011-09-25T16:39:00.003-06:00

Back to Normal

Mrs. de-I is amazing. She just shrugs off jet lag and jumps into her daily routine

de_I Sandia Outfitters (You Have Nothing To Lose But Yourself!)

Cabinet Lady told me she was being stalked by some gansta woman and hired me to find a way to take care of this problem

Here CL is with the problem.
Look at her with her baggy pants, hat on backward, sweat shirt.
No wonder CL came to the pros

Foodie Find

There's a new Vietnamese restaurant (though we have tons already here) that has some very interesting appetizers. This one (which you really can't see in the picture) has this kind of jelly substance on the bottom of the plate, which is warm, and all these flavorings on the top. You scoop the whole thing out. It was very yummy though I suspect many might be put off by the texture of the bottom layer.

Wife Home

2011-09-23T06:32:00.001-06:00

HAPPY :)

Decoding the de-I Family Code

2011-09-22T17:27:00.002-06:00

So blogmate Terri posed the question..."What's with the 1A, 1.1, 1.2 stuff?"

de-I has so much significant stuff rattling around in his head. Things like "How am I ever going to collect on the GD contract if he's too afraid to book again with de-I Sandia Outfitters (you have nothing to lose but yourself)" and "I need to encourage Steve that Pommard is our go to wine when he's paying" and "What crazy ass meal thing can I do next". Important stuff like that.

Remembering all the names of those grandchildren and all those sons-in-law. For crying out loud they don't even blog - any of them - so how am I to remember them? So I came up with simple system. Works like this.

Each daughter has a number according to their age so Motherrocker is 1, Pulisha is 2, AinA is 3
Each of their children gets a number according to their birth rank - 1, 2, 3, etc.
Each son-in-law gets a letter according to their sequence. Only have had one husband? The letter is A. If you're on the second husband, the letter is B.

It is simple for me then to remember them.

AinA's new first baby - 3.1
Pulisha's second husband - 2B
Motherrocker's second and youngest son - 1.2

Easy peasy for the megalomaniac on the go.

Gone and Back

2011-09-21T17:19:00.003-06:00

Only one more day til Wifepoo returns!!!! Let me tell you 3 weeks without the love of your life is a long time...unless you were in the centuries preceding this when couples regularly were gone for months and years at a time...or your one of the many people in the military today serving in South Asia...or...well OK I'll stop bitching.

I decided that I needed a little get away time during this period so I combined some business and personal stuff and went to the Bay area on Friday. My flight to San Francisco left at 5:49 AM!! Not happy about that. I had two business meetings in the afternoon. Then I drove down to Salinas California to spend Friday night through Sunday morning with good friends Steve and Lady Di. There is always much enjoyment of food and drink when we are together and Lady Di is a killer cook. On Friday we went to this one place and had a wonderful meal with a great wine, a 2005 Pommard. They have a top rated wine cellar which we got to see.

Saturday was mostly just lying around. Work has been busy and with covering for Wife's functions at the business my days have been stretched to the max. Lady Di cooked one of her fantastic meals on Saturday night. It was big ass lamb chops which Steve and I are very partial. I had bought a bottle of reserve Malbec which was very interesting. Even with decanting and letting sit for an hour, it was very tightly wound and clearly could have aged for a number of more years.

I am not partial to desserts but Di knows this and makes things that are very light on the sweetness.

This was trio of a almost panna cotta like cream with fresh strawberry topping, a fresh apricot tart (killer crust) and a flourless chocolate cake that was extremely airy and chocolatey but not too rich or sweet.

On Sunday it was driving up to Contra Costa County in the East Bay where daughter Motherrocker, Son-in-law John the Armenian (1A) and grandchildren 1.1 and 1.2 are now living (having moved from Chicago). We had fun hanging around watching 1.2 (who is not quite 2 years old) showing that he clearly has no intention henceforth of listening to anything that his parents say. We (I mean everyone even 1.2) all participated in preparing Mexican style skirt steak and shrimp on the fire with all kinds of condiments we made and fresh tortillas.

On Monday, I had scheduled video taping. I have started to put video posts on my business blog. The first ones were done on the cheap and I wanted to up the production value so I hired a firm to handle it. It's really nice to get the star treatment.

We drove all around the area to various parks taking shots on location.
Very different from the just sitting behind a desk shots we'd done before.

When you're a big star like me, you get your own dressing room!

Plus you get a black German car to drive you around with a driver and your own handler.

It was another 6 AM flight to get back to Albuquerque on Tuesday. Definitely feeling the effects.

Making A Fine Meal Fast

2011-09-14T20:26:00.005-06:00

So Wife is off in Amsterdam doing her super Mom-Grandma thing (she looks so happy every time we Skype) while I'm holding down the fort. Does that mean I'm going to just hole up and be a hermit. Well actually yes for the most part because I'm mostly troll with equal parts spiritual recluse. BUT I do occasionally have the need to be social. So I invited my friends K and A over for dinner.

Now it turns out that the same night that I invited them over was the day I did the hike to the summit. So I my challenge was how do I cook a meal that meets my standards with minimal time and energy available?

Ah acolytes - you do it by falling back on simple things with a twist and the trusty freezer.

THE GUESTS

Why do they look so terrified? Oh they probably read all of the de-I Outfitter posts instead of the foodie posts. Worry not. Your in for a totally safe experience...unless you decide to go hiking with me (ominous dun dun dah)

Dish One - Spanish Flavored Chard with Egg

This is a stand by for me. It looks complicated but isn't. Since Wife has Chard growing in the garden it's easy to access but you can do this with lots of vegetables.

Clean, chop and dry the chard

Start your flavor base by sauteing onions and garlic in olive oil.

Now the other flavor elements
Chicken stock base, pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika) and some tomato paste.

Add some water and dry sherry and cook for 10 minutes to meld the flavors.

Add the chard. Our chard is very tender so it only takes 10 minutes to get it tender.

This is done before the guests arrive.

Now take some pancetta (Italian salted bacon)

Saute until nice and crisp

This is done all in advance and takes around an hour. It was the most time intensive thing I did.
Then before serving, fry an egg, warm the chard mixture in the microwave, put egg on top of chard and sprinkle with the crispy pancetta and some pecarino cheese.

Dish Two - Shrimp Salad with Asian Mayonaise

Frozen shrimp from Costco. Love it. Defrosts in about 10 minutes
Marinate in some oil, spicy Szechuan Garlic Paste, some garlic, and some Thai fish sauce.

Shred some jicama and carrot, put in water with ice to get nice and crisp

Saute the shrimp for just a minute or two on each side.

Add some of the chile paste to prepared mayonnaise with a little soy sauce and sesame oil.
Drain and dry the jicama and carrots and mix with the mayo.
Plate with a scoop of the veggie slaw in the center, the shrimp around the salad and a scoop of the mayo in the center.

Dish Three - Linguine with Meat Sauce

Thank you freezer!
A trusty container of long, slow cooked meat in tomato. Ideal for a quick pasta.
I jazzed it up with a slurry of parsley, basil and garlic from the garden.

This takes no time at all. Cook the pasta, Finish it in the sauce with some fresh Parmesan and olive oil.

When guest asks what they can bring, tell them to bring dessert and that saves time too :)

Da New Wheels

2011-09-12T17:59:00.003-06:00

Da Durango is no more. Every 14 years or so, need to get a new car. Wife can now clean up the garage from all the oil leaked over the last 5 or 6 years.

Yes, de-I finally pulled the trigger and got the new car. The VW Tiguan I wanted - just not with the manual transmission. Went to a dealership in Santa Fe because of the horrible experience I had with the one in Albuquerque. But because of my bitching to VW HQ, I had $1K to put toward the vehicle. With the trade in of the Durango for five acorns (I was happy I didn't have to pay them to take it!), I was able to do a 3 year lease with zero cash out of pocket. Sweet.

Climb to the Top

2011-09-11T21:19:00.002-06:00

As much as I hike in the Sandias, it is rare that I take the signature trail, the La Luz trail, one of only a few that allow you to climb directly to the summit. And most of the times I've done it, I cut short just before the summit and go to the Tram that takes you down.

On Saturday, I and Gaius Derf decided this would be our hike. The first part of the hike is deceptive because it has a gentle slope and accounts for the first 2/3rds of the 7.5 mile hike. (climb of 4,000 feet. This is made up for in the last 3rd where it is very steep with a long section crossing over 15 switchbacks of a huge rock slide. Derf wasn't feeling well so he turned back just before the rock slide. But I was filled with the lust of accomplishment and pushed on to the summit.

I was pretty freakin tired. And it got cold and rainy. It even snowed just a touch when I was at the top. It's another 2 miles or so from the summit to the Tram terminal. So about 9.5 miles all together.

The weather was pretty bad so I didn't take may pictures.

Drowning the Sorrows of Failure

2011-09-06T20:25:00.002-06:00

Oh the humiliation. Not only did I lose my commission because my freakin' client avoided over 5 of my traps, but on top of that the creep hijacks my blog and humiliates me in from of my 10's of fans.

Well there's only one way to deal with failure...THE BOTTLE!

Well maybe a few bottles.

Hmmm. Are those grapes in my pocket? Good idea. I can always ferment them if I run out.

Hmmmmm. It's dark out.

A Survivor's Tale

2011-09-05T15:25:00.004-06:00

Testimonial posted by a Mr. GD on the de-I's Sandia Mountain Outfitters web site (You Have Nothing to Lose But Yourself)

My beloved wife AW knew that I was excited by the opportunity to hike in the Sandia Mountains. So on our trip to New Mexico she arranged to have me taken into the mountains by what she told me was one of the top guide firms in Albuquerque.

I thought it was a bit strange to start the hike with this posed picture next to a skull!

And I have to say that when I questioned my guide about this pile of rocks, he told me not to worry it was just a burial mound!

We weren't that far into our hike when suddenly this tree fell down almost on top of me! My guide told me not to worry. Trees falling were just a way of life around here.

Geez then we went through this field of poppies. I was getting so light headed. I didn't know where is was taking me.

Ow. OK trees falling but trees popping up from the ground! Somethings not right I'm telling myself.

OMG that one almost got me. Mr. Guide this can't be right!

Wait a minute. I saw you that time. These aren't accidents. You're triggering these!
You son of a @&%!@

That's right. Run away you bastard.

OK. Finally got away from him. But where am I. It so foggy and dark. I'm sure that AW will be sending out to someone to help me. It's so lonely.....

Home Alone

2011-09-01T20:11:00.002-06:00

Wife is jetting her way across the Atlantic to spend 3 weeks with daughter AinA, the newly minted mom, son-in-law OH, and newest grandchild 3.1. That means 3 weeks of being by myself. Can't say I'm terribly exited but I super glad Wife is getting to spend time with them and I'm willing to bet they're going to be glad she's there too.

Rain in Albuquerque

2011-08-30T16:27:00.002-06:00

While the East is flooded beyond belief, we here in the drought stricken Southwest welcome any rain we can get. Even at the best of times our rain is a hit or miss affair. And when it comes it is often highly localized. So you see this big ole blob of rain and you say, "well maybe it's going to come and give us soaking."

Or more likely it just goes to the south of you.

Behind the Scenes at de-I's Sandia Outfitters

2011-08-28T18:20:00.000-06:00

With all the work over the last few weekends for the Epic Food Event, I must admit that I've kind of let the mountain touring business slide a bit. However, I'm hoping for some new blood...I mean some new business this coming weekend. I got a request on the website from a Mrs. AW. It read:

"Dear Mr. de-I. My husband, GD, recently purchased a very, very, VERY large insurance policy on his life with me as beneficiary. He likes to go hiking but for the most part is obsessed with going when there are storms out...they typically go to the south of him for some bizarre reason. Anyway, I was told that you are very good at what you do. However, if by some horrible, horrible coincidence something terrible was to happen to him, I would want you to know that I would feel obliged to share some of the proceeds of this policy with you in order for you to restore your good name. Please let me know if your will take GD on as a client. The sooner the better!"

Well we certainly don't want to disappoint Mrs. AW. So I spent this weekend working on some trail improvements which you can see below.

This is designed for the client who decides he just has to look at the trail sign post. Often you can encourage folks by asking them if they want their picture taken next to the pole. They stand there and then Kerplop!

If you blow up the picture, you will note how this is cleverly designed so that no matter which side of the pole the client stands, the desired effect takes place.

Ah there's nothing that gives one more pleasure than a well made tool.

Now and Even Half Dozen

2011-08-23T20:19:00.003-06:00

Direct from the hospital in Amsterdam, de-I is proud to announce that the potential guides for Sandia Mountain Outfitters and potential sous-chefs has increased by one to six. That's six grandchildren with the beautiful new child born on Saturday to Daughter # 3.

Picture with Daughter 3, Son-in-Law 3A, and new addition 3.1!

Today I had a chance to Skype and see here in real time...And I was in a Starbucks between meetings! How cool is that.

Cooking Event of Epic Proportions - Part 4, Conclusion

2011-08-21T20:53:00.007-06:00

Final Cooking

For the most part we have completed our cooking but there are a number of that need to be done the day of because they need to be fresh. These include two salads Wife is making and a final chile sauce and guacamole that I'm making.

Chimichuri

This and Argentine/Uruguayan steak sauce.

A lot of parsley and garlic are pulsed to chop them

Add grated carrot, chile flakes (made from home grown and dried small hot chiles), black pepper, thyme, salt, white wine vinegar, and olive oil

Blend to combine

Home Made Chile Paste for Flavoring Guacamole

I don't use prepared chili powder because it's so easy to make your own paste.

Garlic pounded with salt to a paste changes the flavor of garlic

Add ground dried chiles, cumin powder, and Mexican oregano

Pound with the garlic paste

For guacamole, I loosen the paste with lime juice then add to mashed avocados

Wow it's a day later and my Minnesotan indentured labor is still at work! Wonder if she worked all night.

Party Time

Cabinet Lady and Dr. Deb have a fantastic place for a party. I was so busy that I didn't take a single picture. Gastronomic loving friend Contessa P took these and sent them on to me to include in the post.

We had around 24 people. Many were survivors...I mean friends of...Sandia Mountain Outfitter hikes. Gaius Derf, Agent W, Wild Bill, John the Grain along with Count and Contessa P were all there.

The Spread

Wife made name tags for all the foods with country of origin

Orientation and instructions

"Take the meat, choose your chile sauces, then decide on the salads you want..."

And desserts

Much food was eaten. Much was drunk.

Cooking Event of Epic Proportions - Part 3, Hot Sauces, Salads, Desserts

2011-08-19T16:53:00.003-06:00

No de-I cooking event would be complete without Wife's additions of fantastic desserts. For this event she's making three crisp/cobbler type desserts - peach (made with the last of our peaches from last year...no peaches this year because of the cold, sob), rhubarb strawberry, and rhubarb blueberry.

8:00 Am - You don't cook for lots of people without adequate help.
We've noted many times on these pages that rather than look for the illegal Mexican help that is prevalent here, we prefer indentured Minnesota labor.

Ginger Chile Relish (India)

Pick a bunch of green chile from your garden
Seed and cut into thin slices
Do the same for a big ole piece of ginger

Get about a half a cup of fresh lemon juice

Mix with some sugar and salt and let sit for at least a day.

Rajas Poblanos

Saute onions for around 10 minutes

Add chopped garlic, Mexican oregano, thyme, and salt cook for another minute

Slice roasted poblano chiles from your garden

Mix chiles in and take of heat

Two Toned Potato Salad

I don't have the recipe for this because wife made it. But it has both white and sweet potatoes plus capers, onions, parsley, mustard, mayonnaise, and celery.
4:00 PM - Indentured Minnesota laborer still at it.

Where we got our recipes

Correspondent In the Sticks asked if we had searched the Internet for the recipes or if we made them up. We actually went to our library of cookbooks primarily Mahdur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian, Rick Bayless' Secrets of Mexican Cooking, and Richlen's Barbeque Bible.

7:30 AM on the Road to Santa Fe

2011-08-17T17:53:00.000-06:00

Cooking Event of Epic Proportions - Part 2, Let the Hot Sauces Begin

2011-08-15T20:44:00.005-06:00

Since the Epic Event is a "Chile" themed event, it is necessary to get with making the sauces.
(Note: In the press to get everything cooked this weekend, the 'completeness' of my cook-u-mentary is somewhat...abbreviated)

Crispy Szechuan Garlic Pepper Sauce

This baby calls for 6 HEADS of garlic. Six heads!
Ginger, 24 scallions, 45 crushed red chiles, and 2 cups of oil.

Ever peel that many cloves of garlic?

A substantial amount of chopped ginger

Scallions sauteing with the garlic and ginger.

When the garlic is browned and crispy, in go the chiles with toasted sesame seeds and sesame oil.

Harissa - Moroccan Chile Paste

Soak the chiles

Yet more garlic

Toast cumin, coriander, and black pepper then grind

Puree in food processor with oil, strain out seeds and skins.

Mexican Guajillo Chile Sauce

Chiles are grilled quickly and then soaked.

Garlic roasted

Chiles, garlic, cumin, Mexican oregano are blended with chicken stock, strained and then cooked in oil with more stock.

The result is a nice silky smooth sauce.

Smokey Sweet Chipotle Sauce

Sorry - no step by step pictures. You dissolve Mexican brown sugar in water. Fry dried chipotles in oil then put in the sugared water. Fry garlic and put in water. Puree and cook until thick. Ends up this smokey, hot, sweet condiment.

Homemade Spicy American Barbeque Sauce

This allegedly followed a recipe but in fact I just kind of improvised using these basic ingredients (please note the homemade currant juice - thanks gardener Wife!) along with onions, green peppers, and (of course) garlic.

Meanwhile Wife was making something called Central Asian pickles (more of these next week!)

Hello Uzbekistan!

Cooking Event of Massive Proportions - Part I, Core Meats

2011-08-14T15:33:00.004-06:00

The concept of this feast will be chile from around the world. We will be having a number of proteins as the core. Then there will be a variety of chile sauces and condiments, and a variety of cooling and crunchy condiments to offset the heat of the chile sauces. We will have pita bread. Our guests will be able to mix and match various proteins with various sauces and condiments.

Our menu calls for flavors from:

India
China
Morocco
Mexico
USA
Argentina
Japan
Central Asia (Tajikistan?)

The cooking got started this weekend with the core meats and a number of the sauces. This post is about the meats. I'm serving chicken (tastes just like chicken), beef, and lamb. There will also be beans if any vegetarians sneak in.

Chicken Fricassee

I know I've covered this in a prior post but I don't tab things and am too lazy to find it. You basically take cut up chicken, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika (lots), put it into a pot, squish it all up, add water (not much), bring to a boil, let simmer for a couple of hours, and voila,
a dish you can serve by itself or debone and use in other dishes.

Braised Lamb

I'm using rosemary, garlic, red wine and Dijon mustard as my core flavorings.

Garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper

Chopped together

Used to marinate the meat

Meat browned

Onions, carrots and celery roasted

Add red wine, broth, and Dijon mustard and braise the meat. When cool debone.

Finished lamb and chicken

G and S Hire de-I Sandia Outfitters

2011-08-13T20:07:00.003-06:00

Grumpy and Spunky came to Albuquerque and wanted the Sandia Mountain hiking experience. So after doing an internet search (I think based on "lowest price") and clearly not reading any reviews, they booked a hike today with de-I Sandia Mountain Outfitters (our motto: You Have Nothing to Lose but Yourself)

On their request form was:

A relatively easy hike
We have feet issues so a fairly well groomed trail would be appreciated
Somewhat afraid of heights, so please no precipices

Spunky - "Ah just what we ordered. Nice smooth trail"
Grumpy - "Yes my dear. Should be nice day."

Grumpy - "What the hell! We've been hiking on nothing but rocks and shards for an hour. What happened to our smooth trail?"
Spunky - "Now dear. I'm sure Mr. de-I knows what we want and will have us where we want to be in no time."

Spunky - "Ow! All this prickers and cactus! My feet are killing me. I thought we'd be back by now."
Grumpy - "@!#%@"

Spunky - "Oh my Gawd. This is so steep! My heart is going to beat out of my chest!"
Grumpy - "$&!@^!"

Spunky - "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Grumps love that's a cliff that the trail goes down just ahead. Do be careful please."
Grumps - "AAAAAHHHHHHIIIIIIIiiiiiieeeeeee"

Thump

Another de-I Sandia Outfitters hike accomplished.

Cooking Event of Epic Proportions!

2011-08-11T19:35:00.002-06:00

Wife and I have committed to and will be executing a food based entertainment that is beyond anything we've done before. The impetus for this was in May when we had Cabinet Lady and Dr. Debbie over for dinner. At the time I commented on the incredible inventory of chile I had in hand and the likelihood of even more coming by the end of the summer because of gardening. I threw out to them that wouldn't it be a great idea if we pooled our resources and mutual contacts and had a big party all based on chile.

Much to my surprise they agreed and in the ensuing months continued to be supporters of the event. We expect between 20 and 25 people. Wife and I worked for weeks figuring out our menu. (We are doing all the cooking - CL and Dr. D are providing the drinks, venue, place settings, etc.) Wife jumped into this with full vigor and all of her incredible organizing skills. So we have spreadsheets that show everything we need to make, when we need to make it, ingredients require, time tables, copies of the recipes, master shopping lists broken out by store. I've never done anything with this degree of organization.

The cooking starts this weekend and I will try to be diligent on my photo journalism.

Why Would You Trust Your Life with de-I Sandia Mountain Outfitters

2011-08-08T20:22:00.002-06:00

Well it might be because you want to see this.

Or this

To hike up here.

A chance to see both wet moss and dry cactus within 10 paces of each other

The dried remains of a former customer...I MEAN A TREE!

Newly flowering growth out of the ashes of wild fire.

Call now for reservations!

So You Want To Be A Guide For de-I's Sandia Mountain Outfitters

2011-08-06T21:11:00.009-06:00

Not just anyone can become a guide at the prestigious (though there are those that say infamous but we don't pay any attention to those naysayers) de-I's Sandia Mountain Outfitters (Our motto - You Have Nothing to Lose but Yourself!).

A de-ISMO guide must have a combination of physical, mental, and ethical properties that are critical to accomplishing his or her mission.

A candidate must be in good physical condition. A guide has to be at least a bit faster than the fastest person they are guiding. If the party being guided is attached by a bear or a puma, a guide must be able to leave the person being guided as bait for said bear or puma understanding that it easier to get a new customer than it is to train a new guide!

A guide must understand the values and mission of de-ISMO as reflected in these statements from its application.

Release of Liability - Part 1 - Person being guided will acknowledge that they are the sole person responsible for their well being (even if we through our own incompetence cause you to be lost, fall down, get bitten by any wild animal or fellow hiker, etc.)

Release of Liability - Part 2 - Person being guided accepts full financial responsibility for their guided hike. Please initial here to indicate your acceptance of financial responsibility _______ and hereby make de-ISMO your legal heir, beneficiary of any and all life insurance policies, and entitled to all assets owned by you.

A guide must be responsive and understanding of customers.

Excerpts from the de-I Sandia Mountain Outfitter Guide for Customers:

Person being Guided is expected to follow any and all instructions of their guide (even in the event that said instructions put person being guided in danger - see Release of Liability)

Person being Guided shall have no recourse against de-ISMO in the event of guide error if they have not pointed out guide error when said error was noticed (not withstanding that clients are prohibited from criticizing or questioning a guide)

Person being Guided is expected to notify guide of their level of conditioning. Such level shall most likely be ignored by guide.

Person being Guided will be given precise distances, altitudes climbed, water requirements, etc. for each hike even though the hike itself will most likely not resemble anything provided to Person being Guided previously.

A guide should be a master of camouflage. How else can you keep sneak up on the customers and hear any libelous things they might be saying about de-ISMO!

A guide must be entrepreneurial and a self-starter

Excerpts from the de-I Sandia Mountain Outfitter Guide's Handbook

Guides are expected to find means for compensating themselves through 'living off the land'. Cash and jewelry taken from customers who have "unfortunate accidents" are considered part of 'the land'. Credit cards must be turned over to de-ISMO HQ. Guides are entitled to 10% of any assets or life insurance proceeds received by de-ISMO - See Release of Liability form.

If you can meet these incredibly high and demanding standards then yes you too can be entered into the ranks of the few, the proud, the wanted on Post Office posters,

THE DE-I SANDIA MOUNTAIN OUTFITTER GUIDES

Great Grapes

2011-08-03T18:24:00.002-06:00

On Sunday, Gaius Derf was insistent that there was this pizza place on his side of town that we had to try. So we did and it was great. Best pizza I've ever had in Albuquerque. So thanks Derf.

But this is not a post about pizza.

After the pizza and wine we went back to the Derf/Agent W abode. They've got a lovely view of the mountains from the far west side and it's lovely to sit in their backyard and sip some wine.

We were looking at the monsoonal sky.

Then I looked across the yard and espied Agent W's grape arbor

And right at the bottom there was this beautiful bunch of green grapes. So I asked if they were ripe. I tasted one and it was fab.

So naturally one has to find a lass of Italian descent to cut your grapes like Agent W.

Which we then savored with our wine.

No Change-Good News

2011-08-02T19:55:00.002-06:00

Around 9 years ago I found out that I had glaucoma, an eye disease that can lead to blindness. My Dad went blind because of a combination of glaucoma and cataracts. He got his around the same age as I did.

I am very blessed that medical science came a long, long way in the 20 ensuing years. Now if you catch it early enough it is much, much more rare for someone to go blind from it. I go into the eye doctor three times a year for a check up and once a year they do a complete work up. This includes this field of vision test (kind of like playing a computer game), and pictures of your retina, etc, etc.

Each year that I go in, I'm always just a little nervous because you wonder if you are going to start deteriorating. The sweetest words at these check ups are "No Change. Everything is stable".

I feel very blessed.

Magical Uniccorn Pony Travel God Sacrifice Truths Unveiled!

2011-07-27T07:14:00.002-06:00

Responding to my post last night AinA wrote:

"I believe consuming wine in honor of the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel is an acceptable form of worship"

Yi! AinA, you speak the truth for verily you are THE priestess of the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel.

Indeed for while I was wiling away my 3 hour wait at the Red Carpet Club (a secret temple of the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel), eschewed the lousy free glass of wine they gave me and bought the premium wine (a very nice Malbec I might add) for $12 bucks - certainly a sacrificial price.

Hence when I got to the gate of the replacement flight and they too said there was a mechanical problem! I wasn't worried. I had made the appropriate sacrifice and we only ended up being an hour minutes late (12:45 AM instead of 11:45 PM).

Oh Magical Unicorn Pony Travel God - Why Have You Forsaken Me!

2011-07-26T19:31:00.003-06:00

I have been on such a long roll of travel without problems that perhaps I have gotten lax in my performance of the necessary ritual sacrifices. After a relatively mellow day in Los Angeles with my having arrived in Burbank, CA with plenty of time for my flight home, they announced about 45 minutes before the flight that the plane was canceled for mechanical issues.

So we do the dash back out to the terminal and wait in line to see what they can rebook us with. I was thinking the worse since we are in the middle of vacation season. I was flying USAir and they found a direct flight for me out of LAX on United which is my preferred airline. And it was a direct flight. It would get me into Albuquerque at 11:40 instead of 9:15. Not too bad.

The shuttle ride to LAX was uneventful and I'm sitting in Ye Olde Red Carpet Club with a glass of wine and the internet to while away the hours until my flight goes.

The Pewter Chef Vs The Cornicopia of Doom!

2011-07-25T22:17:00.001-06:00

Readers will remember my alter ego, The Pewter Chef (not nearly has tough as an Iron Chef). The Pewter Chef invites guests over who are required to buy a few mystery ingredients. The operative word here is "few". I then will take them and make a meal.

Last Saturday, I invited friends the Count and Contessa P to partake. We had had them over in March when they had sprung on me that the Count was dieting. I responded with a diet friendly meal that I have described. The Count has hit is goal and I think because he felt guilty about my having to make the adjustment earlier, decided that he needed to make amends.

So instead of buying a few ingredients, he BOUGHT A FEW BAGS OF INGREDIENTS!

"Wow. First time someone has tried to stump the Pewter Chef with shear volume!"

"Hmmmmmm"

"Eye of Newt?????"

"Special Forbidden Rice from China"
(Didn't make the cut as a choice between potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pasta)

"Grapes?"

In the bags were 3 pounds of King Salmon filets, a pound of shrimp, the above mentioned rice, potatoes and pasta, Brussels Sprouts, red kale, an avocado, an onion, garlic, ginger, lemon, lime, cheeses, prosciutto and more.

Now, planning the menu

I ended up making:

South American Shrimp salad with avocado, lime and red chile powder
Salmon salad with capers and fresh lavender
Soup of roasted sweet potatoes, onions, fennel, and celery with smoked Spanish paprika garnished with shrimp
Pan seared oven finished salmon with a grape, blackberry, wine, and ham stock reduction sauce
Garlic mashed potatoes
Roasted Brussels Sprouts and prosciutto

"Allez Cuisine!"

The Contessa P preparing to sous-chef. Contessa's help prepping many of the veggies was a big, big help.

South American Shrimp Salad

Our lavender is 'fresh'

Salmon salad garnished with lavender

I think we all agreed the sweet potato, fennel soup was over the top

Wife, Count and Contessa P ready to do gastronomic battle. It would be complete surrender before we ever got to dessert.

Whipping up the Brussels Sprouts

One of many a piece of salmon. We finished off about 2 1/4 of the 3 pounds.

Salmon, garlic mashed potatoes and Brussels Sprouts
Everyone was amazed at how good the sauce was.

Evidence of gastronomic success!

You have to love it when your guests, royal though they be, jump in and do the dishes.

The Trails Be Open!!!!

2011-07-23T14:44:00.003-06:00

Friday afternoon I was sitting in a bar with business colleague, friend, and sometime hiking partner John the Grain talking mostly about a mutual client we have when out of the corner of my eye I notice on one of the two televisions above the bar the words,

"Sandia Mountain Wilderness Open 8 AM Saturday."

I stop my conversation and exhort John to check this out via his iPhone and sure as shootin' it's true. John says straight out we need to go. I call Wild Bill who was going to do the Trail of Death with me and he is totally cool with that change.

We arrived at the South Crest Trail trail head at five of eight. The barrier is down and there is only one other car there. We're getting our gear on when this fellow in a Park Service truck goes driving up with his arm and hand out of the window shaking like he's angry or something. We're thinking we're going to get yelled at for jumping the gun. But no, he is like smiling and pumped because (to quote him) "we're back in business". I guess it gets a bit boring to be a park ranger when the parks are all closed.

We talked for a little while because we were kind of surprised that they had opened so soon after the rains started. But he told us the whole science of ground sampling, and taking samples of trees, weigh them, then dry them, and weigh them again to see how much moisture they have. These desert trees are really effective at sopping up moisture whether from air humidity or the ground.

And as we started the hike we were amazed at how wet the ground was. Guess they got rain there last night. We didn't see too many people until we were well on our way back down. But everyone we saw was pretty giddy...as were we.

Battle of the Bulge - New Breakthrough

2011-07-21T19:50:00.002-06:00

Gad it's been hard. The last few months have been two steps forward and a step back. Each one pound barrier seems to take a month to breakthrough. Each time I go on a trip or something where I get off the routine (even though I have been MUCH better when I travel then in the past), it takes my body a week just to get re-stabilized and back into weight reduction mode.

This week I broke another barrier and got below 174! I would be very happy if I could keep my weight between 174 and 175 but I feel I need to go 4 pounds underneath to give myself leeway so I can go to a slightly less austere caloric level. So the goal is to get under 172. BTW I am at weight that I have seen since I was 30. Yeah me :)

And On The 210th Day There Was Rain

2011-07-21T09:08:00.001-06:00

Yes, after 210 bone dry days we actually had measurable precipitation last night. According to the news around 3/4 of an inch in our neck of the woods. This was such monumental news I decided that it warranted pictures!

Bad News and Good News

2011-07-19T17:50:00.002-06:00

The bad news is that like most of the southern US we are going through a drought of epic proportions. We are now one month into the official 'rainy monsoon season' and the Albuquerque airport's official measurable precipitation is 0 as in zero, none, nadah, no measurable precipitation.

On the good news front, for some bizarre reason, the City of Albuquerque reopened its open space so the foothill behind the house, home to the Trail of Death, is back available to me which I did last weekend.

End of My Auto Ordeal

2011-07-16T17:15:00.003-06:00

You may remember way back in February my frustrations related to my attempt to purchase a Volkswagen Tiguan. While being told that a car was going to be shipped from another dealer in the US, instead an order for a new car was put in which entailed waiting many months before getting the car. I was OK with this because I was fine with putting off having a car payment.

Fast forward to July. Since finding out about this, I not once was contacted by the dealership with any information about the car's status. When I called them, I would often be told that they though it might be built in this time frame, and after it was built that it might be shipped in another time frame, and finally that it was on the dock in Houston but they really didn't know when it would actually show up. By the way, I am being told this always in a patronizing tone of voice by the Sales Manager, my sales person having disappeared.

This last piece of news I got in early June. I figured, what, it'd take 2 weeks maybe to get a car from Houston to Albuquerque. Comes the 4th of July weekend, no car, no news. I finally hit my breaking point. I faxed off a letter canceling my order and asking for my deposit back. This by the way finally resurrected the mysterious salesperson who left a voice mail telling me that he had news on my vehicle. I voice mailed him back telling him all I wanted was my damn deposit back. Which we finally got this week.

In the interim business is going through a soft spell and neither Wife nor I are comfortable shelling out any funds for a new car or even a used one. So ye olde Dodge Durango looks like it may be here for quite a while.

I have never done this on a public forum but if you ever have the opportunity to do business with University Volkswagen...DON'T!

Dry Spell

2011-07-12T17:22:00.002-06:00

Not hiking. Haven't cooked anything lately. Not even doing much work travel lately (though I am in Chicago at the moment with Lakeview Coffee Joe) and other than watching the chaos of the extremest our political factions not understanding that compromise is essential to any meaningful change (unless you prefer the French Revolution model), my muse is on hold.

Will try to get it kick started.

Visiting the Original

2011-07-09T07:37:00.002-06:00

I'm finishing up a few days in Connecticut visiting my father O-I (original intimidator). Since he got back into his house after the fire, he has been very mellow (by his standards). I think there is an appreciation of having and being able to be in his 'home'. Plus when we moved him back in last summer, we finally got rid of tons and tons of old stuff that was part of his life with my mother (who died 6 years ago). Watching this and the experience of another friend who lost his wife recently, I'm convinced that you can't really move on with your life if you don't go through that hard process. Otherwise you're surrounded by memories and ghosts and you just can't go on.

I get back home tonight, have Sunday at home then go to Chicago for a few days work.

Holiday Cooking

2011-07-03T21:11:00.005-06:00

I used the three day weekend as an excuse to try something new cooking wise. I've been enamored in recent years with developing my skill with the long slow cooking of large pieces of meat using indirect fire. Part of the challenge of this is using wood or coal since anyone can get a consistent heat using a gas grill. This is work in progress. Part of the problem is since you using large chucks of meat you have a lot left over and with just Wife and I it isn't real practical to do this often and without the repetition, it's hard to refine the process.

Anyway enough bitching. I saw this version in a recent Saveur Magazine where you put a container of broth under the meat while it cooks providing moisture and giving a great broth for a sauce at the end.

I decided to go with a lamb shoulder.

Here is my roast over its broth pan (with onions, carrots and celery), coals pushed to both sides.

I started the fire around 7 in the morning. I put a dry rub of fresh rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil on the meat the night before. It took me a while to get the heat adjusted right but I think I've finally got the hang of the right combination for this grill. Not having done this before, I wasn't sure of how long it would take to get the meat tender and I was worried that I had the heat too high in the beginning so I had a back up plan to braise the meat in the broth at the end to get the right. So after 5 hours I decided to act on that plan. The meat was still a bit tough and the meat had a very strong lamb flavor. But the broth was incredibly sweet from the caramelization of the vegetables. I added some Dijon mustard (a tradition French accompaniment to lamb) and some red wine for acid to the broth and braised the meat for another hour and a half. That got the tenderness that I wanted and the sweet sour broth offset the strong lamb flavor. It was really good!

I served it up as pulled lamb in the sauce.

So to eat all this I had polled our list of designated eaters (people who are happy to come over for food and drink) and was able to secure 4 couples for this Saturday night affair. I assigned various dishes so Wife and I didn't have to do everything. However. Wife had a couple of things she wanted to do. One was bake two kinds of bread - a country loaf and some rolls.

Roll Dough

Dough rising

Finished breads

We also had a bunch of onions that I needed to harvest. So I went and caramelized them.

And since I wasn't sure how the lamb was going to go over I made some Mac and Cheese

Meanwhile Wife was going bonkers planning out her drinks station. She had the idea for doing muddled drinks (thinks like mojitos and caipahinas that take fruit and crush them with sugar before adding the spirits. So she had lemons, limes, blackberries (from the garden), mint, and basil. For spirits she had rum, cachaca, gin, and vodka.

Spirits and mixers

Fruit cutting and muddling station

Everyone brought wines and I supplied a variety of whiskeys for after dinner including a single batch bourbon and an artisanal rye whiskey.

One of our guests brought a beautiful tres leches cake that the bakery for some bizarre reason decided to decorate as a wedding cake????

Another brought some homemade truffles.

Evidence that our guests took the "dress relaxed" policy seriously.

Conchas Fire Pictures

2011-06-30T20:46:00.001-06:00

I was driving from Santa Fe to Albuquerque Wednesday afternoon and I was able to take these pictures of the fire that is close to destroying Los Alamos. As a bit of perspective, I am about 40 miles from where the fire is burning when I took these shots.

Shut Out!

2011-06-29T20:53:00.002-06:00

From any and all hiking. Every mountain, national forest, city open space has been closed because of the fire danger. We're all hoping the residents of Los Alamos find their city saved.

Return to Trail of Death

2011-06-26T18:53:00.006-06:00

The "Trail of Death" is one of the first trails that I blazed when I moved to our current home in 2000. It is really a series of informal trails that go up and down one of the foothills just East of our house. I was a pretty novice hiker and this particular trail seemed to be quite a challenge. As I got more experienced, I confirmed to myself, "this really is a challenge!" The reason for this is the steepness of the trails and the quality of the trails themselves.

For years prior to my getting my snow hiking gear, it would be my winter hiking grounds. It has been a couple of years since I've been on it. But it has the distinct advantage of not being in the National Forest. Hence it is a trail still available to me during this period of drought and forest closures.
(Note: I was facing east early in the morning and with the rising sun my pictures were not very good.)

Here is the hill just a few minutes from the house. I will head to the left side to go up. Transverse the top. Head due east and then go down on the right (or south) side.

Here I am ready to go up. I will head up on the diagonal line that you see mid-picture going from lower right to upper left. Then, I follow the ridge line as I head up.

These two pictures show the nature of rock strewn and hard packed quality of the trails that make it extremely difficult both ascending and descending. The "Trail of Death" got its name from me because of how easy it is to slip and loose your footing. That is still true.

I took this from close to the end of the first major climb to give you an idea of the steepness.

After the first few climbs (my pictures of the stair step nature of the climbs didn't turn out) you transverse an area that is almost tundra like.

Climbing the last big climb, I am looking down on the south side area I will be descending through.

From the highest point looking west back of Albuquerque.

This the area that I was look down upon after making my first steep descent.

And looking back the way I came.

And looking down the final descent.

I was thinking as I was finishing the hike and heading home about how cool it is and how lucky I am to have something like this that I can walk to from my house and still live in a place where I'm 25 minutes from an airport where I'm just a plane change from getting to my kids spread over the world.

Hats Off To Albuquerque!

2011-06-25T11:45:00.003-06:00

Our local newspaper recently published a story that said that the water consumption in Albuquerque had dropped 19% over the last 10 or 20 years (I don't remember exactly which). The important thing to understand here is it dropped in real terms not just in per capita terms.

That means that even though we've had a lot of growth here, the rate of water use savings has been greater than the increase of water use from additional population. There are a lot of Western cities that have decreased per capita water use but their total water use has been undone by population growth.

Good job Albuquerque!

And now back to our ex-University President, Internet prostitution scandal...much more representative of our city.

It's Official...Progeny Now Will Be All Over The World

2011-06-24T18:38:00.002-06:00

We got the word today from venerable daughter # 2, Pulisha and husband 2B on their first Foreign Service (not to be confused with French Foreign Legion) posting. They will be going to Manila in the Philippines for a two year assignment!

They never expected this because they were told that they would not teach her another language, since she needs a brush up on her Mandarin. (As most of us would too...actually most of us would need a deep steam cleaning on our non-existent Mandarin...unless it was Mandarin Oranges). So they will be staying in the same apartment in DC until next April. Summer will be spent doing Consular training. (According venerable Pu consular work consists of having lines of people seeing you requesting visas; your job being to say "No you can't come to the USA...Please don't shoot me.) Then in September she will start an 8 month course to learn Tagalog (language of the Philippines.

2B will be able to work for his former company while they are in DC. So they will ship out in April of 2012 and be back in the states in April of 2014 when Pu will be doing 8 more months of Mandarin training before they will be sent to China. (Got it - DC..Philippines...DC...China)

They are over the moon excited about this assignment. The climate is supposed to be good. The cost of living is not bad. The climate is temperate. They’re close to the water which 2B loves. There are evidently a lot of spousal employment opportunities. They will be close to Australia and New Zealand (which Wife and I would love to visit again!). So start making those vacation plans for 2012-2013!

12 Hour Days - Not Happy :(

2011-06-22T21:39:00.002-06:00

I've been trying to slow down a a bit. You know sort of make some compensation to my advancing age. But there are still those pesky clients to serve. Especially those darn ones who are your major clients and paying you lots of money. So today was a long day.

Started with the 7 AM pre-breakfast with important client
Then drive 60 miles to Santa Fe for real breakfast at 9 AM
Then back to Albuquerque.
2 PM meeting with old client that had new work for me (yay money!)
The long ass meeting from 4 PM to 6:30 PM with important client again.

Could be worse. Could be unemployed :)

Al Fresco Dining...At Last

2011-06-21T20:15:00.002-06:00

The weather has been so crazy this year (you get that kind of thing just before an impending Ice Age...yes I said Ice Age...read your geologic history over the last million years). Our "windy" season has gone on two months longer than normal. We are cooler than normal. It's crazy.

As a result tonight was the first night that we've been able to eat outside for dinner (al fresco is an Italian term for eating outside...I think). We're hoping that this is finally the end of the incessant winds. And we're hoping for rain.

So Long To Hiking (for a while)

2011-06-20T20:57:00.002-06:00

So if you're looking at the national news you may be aware that because we've had no measurable precipitation in the Southwest since January and as a result large parts of it are burning up. As a result we here in Albuquerque are having days where the smoke rolling in from 250 miles away from a the fire in Arizona blotting out our view of the mountain.

As a result the National Forest Service is closing our mountain to reduce the chances of some idiot setting it on fire. Of course because of bureaucratic reasons only known by the bureaucracy, they made this announcement last Thursday. So we had one more weekend to indulge. My buddy John who I went hiking with commented if it was so dangerous why didn't they just close it immediately?

Anyway we did a 9 mile hike to one of my favorite look out points and greatly appreciated it. Hopefully the the monsoon rains come soon.

Cooking with Bloggers

2011-06-14T20:47:00.005-06:00

So at the end of our Wisconsin reunion trip, I had concocted the idea that since I was in the Northern Midwest that it would be a great idea to go to St. Paul MN and cook a meal for my blogging buddy Terri Terri. Terri has written a quite excellent post that covers our relationship and the feelings of the whole night. Thanks Terri! So rather than redo the ground she so eloquently covered, I will add some of my own complementary observations and give the traditional de-I foodie perspective :)

Maybe most of you wouldn't think this is an idea for those quite right in the head, but it's just the kind of thing that I love to do (you might remember my driving 600+ miles to Salt Lake City to cook a surprise meal for Gaius Derf in 2007). So after a trip that totaled 3100 miles, driving another 200 to cook for Terri and family was a no brainer...at least to me. (Wife has long ago given up trying to understand my idiosyncrasies)

So here's are cast of characters

Terri's husband Mark
He was a food prepping force

My buddy Terri - what a sweet soul, even more so in person!

Wife with Terri's oldest son Brad who ate with us. Wife is such a great sport and support and I really, really loved having Brad. I was doing my best to convert him to the dark foodie forces :)

Look at this great knife work by Terri - those finely chopped onions and garlic.
I'm soooo embarrassed that I actually forgot to use these :(
(Well I was in a strange kitchen and it was a unique situation!)

Evidence of how Terri takes all her cool pictures.
What is this am I going to Camera Sherpa for her too!!!

ON TO THE FOODIE DESCRIPTIONS

Course # 1 - Spanish Style Garlic Shrimp

This is a very common tapa or bar snack in Spain.

Marinate shrimp in fresh garlic, salt, pepper, pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika - very yummy stuff), some olive oil and dry sherry. Then simply saute in more olive oil for just a couple of minutes and finish with a little more sherry and some butter.

Course #2 - Ragout of Mushrooms

This is a dish I often make because I love mushrooms and it is pretty simple. Look for a selection of mushrooms. In this case I had fresh brown mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, and oyster mushrooms. Clean and cut into pieces. Saute some onions and garlic (or you should...I forgot :( ) and add your mushrooms. Salt, pepper and paprika (I like Hungarian) added - the salt extracts moisture from the mushrooms. Add some sherry and cream and cook until the mushrooms are cooked through. I served these with my own croutons. The croutons are just fresh bread cut into cubes tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and dried herbs of choice. Then toast in a pan.

Course # 3 - Spaghetti Cabonara

I love making this and it's always a hit. And so simple!

The prep -

Cut a pound of bacon into one inch strips, brown until crisp with a garlic clove, drain, saving the oil
Grate a half pound of fresh preferably imported Parmigiana Reggiano cheese
Whip three eggs in a heavy bowl
Add the cheese and the bacon oil and whip until combined

Cook the spaghetti. Drain and immediately add to the bowl with the egg, cheese, bacon oil mixture. Add the bacon. Toss. The heat from the pasta cooks the eggs and you have a lovely creamy cheesy sauce with bacony flavor.

I served up a bubbly Italian Prosecco and a Grenache from the Monterey CA area.

OK Terri and Mark - Next meal will be the two of you in Albuquerque!

Wife Family Reunion #3 - Devil's Lake Hike

2011-06-13T21:11:00.002-06:00

In addition to our trek to the Mid-West, I made a couple of 450 mile round trip drives to Milwaukee to pick up and drop off son-in-law 2B and grandchildren 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. So I when i wasn't driving, I was trying to not go anywhere. So I was not the most active participant in the various family activities. However, on the Thu morning (before I was to make the return trip to Milwaukee), Styling w/RM husband, Andrew, had agreed to go hiking with me early in the morning (everyone else was going later in the day). We were going to circumnavigate a place called Devil's Lake (so named evidently by promoters in the 19th century who felt a more direct translation from the Native American like Spirit Lake wouldn't sell as well).

From the state park parking lot we headed up the bluff's surrounding the lake

This is a rock called the Balancing Rock

Looking back toward our start

Andrew taking in the scenery (and avoiding my attempts to photograph him)

From the top of the bluffs looking back at our starting point

Looking at the lake

Another named rock called the Elephant Rock
Personally, I think that it should be called bison rock

Now we're on the other side of the lake going at lake level and looking across at the bluff's we trans-versed on the first leg.

Wife Family Reunion #2 - Madison WI

2011-06-12T20:28:00.004-06:00

Our two days of driving end in Madison Wisconsin where we have a half of day before we check into the reunion campground facility.

Cheetos - the official road junk food of Mr. & Mrs. de-I
No road trip is done without them!

We spent time visiting the state capital building which was very cool. It opens 8 AM each day even on Sunday. Wife and I were there at 8:15 and we literally had the building all to ourselves.

Photo Wife stalking the capital building

Even the elevator doors are artistic

Don't think Wisconsins take their badger seriously!

View of the capital from the lake front

Then it was on to the botanical gardens. I didn't take too many pictures.

I took these because I loved the stone work and Wife and I are thinking of using the idea in our backyard landscaping project.

And there was this neat Thai Pavilion which according to the write up is the only such authentic one int he country.

Wife Family Reunion #1 - Fried Pickles

2011-06-11T18:35:00.002-06:00

My picture taking at this, the 4th triennial Wife's Family Reunion, was erratic in the extreme. I'm going to post these in chronological order over the next few posts.

It takes Wife and I two days of driving to do the 1300 miles from Albuquerque to the upper Midwest, this time about 30 miles northwest of Madison Wisconsin.

Day one is through New Mexico east, then northeast through the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma Panhandle, and halfway through Kansas stopping in Wichita. We at a a local place called the Hanger One Steakhouse. It was pretty good. Reasonably priced, good service and good food for the price. One of the dishes was something I'd seen on TV but never on a menu where I've been, deep fried pickles.

These had a kind of curry flavoring in the crust. The pickles themselves were like kosher dills. The dipping sauce was something slightly sweet.

My first reaction when biting in was that they were strange. But the more I ate them the more they grew on me. This is the ultimate bar food. You will definitely what something to be drinking with them, especially beer.

On The Way Back

2011-06-11T06:25:00.001-06:00

Wrote last on the road to the Wife's family Reunion and now we're on the way back. I will have some a bunch of photos from a hike I did plus a post on a special one time blogger get together event.

But first 1300 miles of driving.

Quick Mid-West Trip Update

2011-06-07T06:32:00.002-06:00

We got to the reunion fine. Weather has been crazy as Joe noted in his comment from cold to thunderstorms to over 90 and humid (but nothing like when we visited Pulisha in FL).

The fried pickle report will have to wait until I have time to download pictures.

Yesterday I had to drive to Milwaukee to pick up 2B (Tim de Buffalo) and the brood. Daughter 2 has to stay in Washington for her Foreign Service Corps training. That was another 4 hours of driving. Folks are going to some cave today but that requires an hour's drive to get there. I'm bailing out of it. I need a day with no being in a car.

Great Mid-Western Trek

2011-06-04T05:23:00.002-06:00

Every three years like lemmings going tot the sea, Wife and I trek to the Midwest for her family's reunion. So it is that yesterday we drove through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and on to Wichita Kansas where we spent the night.

And for the first time ever tried fried pickles! I will report on that at the next stop.

Today it's Kansas, Iowa, and on to Madison Wisconsin.

The Puritains Would Be Using Trial By Electronic Device Today

2011-06-01T21:03:00.002-06:00

If there were to be witch trials today, you wouldn't be dunked into the pond and if you came out alive you were a witch. No your electronic devices would go on the blink and if you could actually get them to work, clearly you would be the spawn of the devil.

Up until today, I was comfortable that I would be one of the saved. My usual response to problems with electronic devices has been after 3.6285 minutes of trouble shooting to swear for an hour and toss the device out.

However, I am afeared that I may be one of cursed (no wonder I was left behind by the Rapture) because I troubleshot not just one device but TWO devices over the last four days.

First there was the TomTom GPS. I went to change over from the European map to the US map (why they make a device that is advertised as having both these capabilities doesn't have the memory to carry them both at the same time!). After 3 hours of working I could find no way of moving the map from the computer back to the device. And it didn't show up as available on the website either. Tried to buy the map but that didn't work either. Finally I sent a service help request and got an email back with 2 and a half pages of instructions. I gird my loins for the battle of trying to follow these. Hook up the device and miraculously the US map is available for downloading from the website which I do with no problems. Work of the Devil!!!!

Then I have been having weird problems with my cell phone...email function no operating...battery draining. I started by changing the battery. Perhaps it's old and not giving the system enough juice. Nope. So more knowledgeable folk then I suggested that I reset the device. I did this which of course meant that I had to reset everything including set up the email accounts. Got the bluetooth going. Got the data from Entourage back on the phone. But the email...NO! I put all the account information in and I keep getting an error message telling me the internet is not synching correctly. I can actually get on the internet but can't get the email to work.

Hours of trying go by. I call T-Mobile support. We try this and that without success. They tell me I need to call device manufacturer HTC. I do. They're really very nice (after the 15 minute wait on hold). I need to take the battery out to give them the device number. I do that and the lovely lady sends me to the customer support person. I put the battery in as the first lady told me because they will need to work me through the fixes. Mr. Support guy gets on the phone. Asks me what the problem is. I start to describe said problem. Look at my phone. And see 356 emails being down loaded! What the @!*%#! So far it's working fine.

WORK OF THE DEVIL. I'm doomed.

Memorial Day Cooking

2011-05-30T20:36:00.005-06:00

It looked like it was going to be a very quiet holiday weekend. But good fortune was ours as we were able to get Gaius Derf and Agent W over on short notice for a Memorial Day meal. I was inspired to try a new fashion of prepare chicken.

Marinade for Chicken

A lot of fresh garlic

Put in the blender

A lot of fresh sage

Sherry and Olive Oil

All goes in the blender with salt and whole black peppercorns

Butterflying the Chicken

Use a kitchen shears to cut out the backbone

Cut the ribs and wishbone out
The bird now sits nice and flat. It will cook more evenly and the white meat will be very easy to cut once it is cooked.

Put the chicken in a zip lock bag and add the marinade
Marinade for at least 4-6 hours

Don't waste the backbone and other pieces
Use them to make a little chicken stock

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I put the garlic flavor into the potatoes via the butter
I put a lot of fresh garlic into butter and cooked it over a very slow heat, around 20 minutes

I have found that a potato ricer is the best way of getting really soft fluffy mashed potatoes

Drain the garlic from the butter and use in the potatoes along with the potato cooking liquid to get the consistency you want.

Provencal Green Salad

I used a combination of romaine and iceberg lettuce along with some escarole.
The herbs below are fennel greens, lavender, and oregano - all fresh

I cooked the chicken in the charcoal grill over indirect heat after searing both sides

Guess what...this is bottle Gaius Derf is opening is not the first bottle of wine of the afternoon

Chicken, mashed potatoes, and slow roasted leeks

Of course, none of our meals is complete without one of Wife's desserts - strawberry pie in this case

Mega Hike of the Season (so far)

2011-05-29T20:41:00.006-06:00

Michael and Bill's Sandia Outfitters (Our motto: You Have Nothing to Lose - except yourself...to a bear...or a rattlesnake...or maybe over a cliff) is back in business big time. Now Bill has been lying low the last couple of years since the unfortunate 'Gary' incident. But liability has a short memory.

We have been working weeks for this big event...the South Crest Trail Challenge. 14 miles. 4000 feet plus of climb.

6:50 AM
Wild Bill readies himself for the hike ahead
He left signed copies of his will with Wife who dropped us off at the trail head.

Oh Deceptive Picture
This is picture is taken after the first hour of hiking.
We are at the start of a shortcut we take called the CCC Trail. It cuts 3 miles off of the hike.
Let me quote what Michael Coultrin author of the "Sandia Mountain Hiking Guide" has to say about the CCC Trail.

"The CCC Trail is a steep trail gaining 1800 feet over 1.8 miles (100 feet climb for each 10th of mile)...Hiking up the CCC route leaves me panting for air and stopping every few hundred yards to rest...the CCC route is a great challenge for the more advanced hikers."

I didn't bother to read any of this to Wild Bill before we left. He's a principal in this venture. He should no these things. We did not stop every few hundred yards. We slogged on up. And we suffered. But we prevailed. At the end we were back on South Crest Trail at the 9000+ foot range ready to move on.

Looking South

North along the direction we'll be hiking

Looking up toward the South Peak of the Mountain

This section of the mountain trail is very much almost tundra-ish with just short scrub oak.

Our first glimpse of our destination, the North Crest Peak in the distance

Looking East

One of a number of times we come to the edge of the crest looking West over Albuquerque city.

For many miles we are going through forested areas

We're about halfway now around 3.5 hours into the hike and look back south to the South Peak. The CCC Trail was climbing that incline to the left.

Looking due north, the peak in the distance is the Sangre de Cristo mountains next to Santa Fe

We're just about done.
However, the last couple of miles is another major climb to take us to the 10500 foot mark.
We took a long rest before tackling this.
We've learned that having plenty of water and food is important and we were fueling up for this last climb.

Hike Done
6 hours 20 minutes
It was tough
Looking south over the distance we've covered

North at Sandia Peak

Wild Bill ready to take the tram down for a welcome celebratory beer!

Leg Room Jackpot

2011-05-26T17:12:00.002-06:00

On Monday I was catching a 6 AM flight from Albuquerque to LA with a plane change in Phoenix. I noted when I was checking in on line that this was an unfamiliar aircraft, an Airbus 321. Since I fly the same airlines most of the time I know most of the planes and most of the good and not so good seats on these planes. But this was a new one and the seating chart looked odd.

So I went to the the Seat Guru website and checked it out. And I found this exit aisle seat that they said had extra leg room and a place to put your carry on underneath in front of you.

LOOK AT THE SPACE ON THIS!

And this is just a single aisle airplane. I was a happy air traveler.

Weekend Hiking and Drinking

2011-05-24T09:03:00.002-06:00

Gee I know those are two things I never write about :(

On Saturday, Wild Bill and I did our second big hike preparing for the mega South Crest Trail epic of this coming weekend. We had a scare because they are closing national forests throughout the state because of the drought and fire danger. We thought our epic was going to get closed off. But so far the Sandias have been spared a total closing.

We did a loop that I described years before but since I don't tag I can't easily find it - :(
It's a 12 mile loop with a steep first 2.5 miles that is similar to the steepness of shortcut next week. I did a much better job of eating and drinking properly the couple of days before the hike and made sure I brought plenty of food and water. Even though we paced ourselves we ended up doing the distance in a very good time. I was particularly impressed that after we took our sandwich and rest break that our recuperation was quite noticeable. Note to self - make sure you take those rests during the hike next week.

I also made sure that I iced both my calves and the backs of my thighs when I got back. Bill has advised me on this before but I didn't do it the week before. What a huge difference in how I felt the next day.

I had no plans for Sunday but talked to Gaius Derf on the phone and found out that Agent W was out of town for over a week. So I said if he wanted to have some wine to stop over but I wasn't planning on cooking or anything. He did come over and I asked him to bring over his popcorn pot. Derf makes the best popcorn I've ever had and it is a rare treat for Wife and I. We had two pots of popcorn with bottles of California Viogner and a California Provence style Rose. We ended up deciding we needed something to eat after all and I whipped up some shrimp on angel hair pasta.

I sent Derf packing pretty early because I needed wake up at 4 AM to catch a 6 AM flight to LA.

Is There The Jihad Equivalent for Gardening?

2011-05-20T21:50:00.002-06:00

And landscaping for that matter.

Mrs de-I over the winter decided that the backyard did not meet her expectations. I know that I've written in the past about the fact once Wife gets the bit in her teeth she really doesn't let go. It's one of the attributes about her that I love and respect most because she simply will out work and persist just about anyone I know to reach her objective. You may remember back to 2007 when there was Squirrelhad, the holy war against the squirrels that had the temerity to attack her garden.

So this year she took classes in gardening and landscaping over the winter. This resulted in major rearrangements of plant placements and soil amendments, etc., etc. Then there are the multitude of detailed graph papers (with color coding) of how the backyard is going to be redone. (Thank you Bank of de-I for the funding). I will try to sneak a picture or two of one of the plan versions.

In the meantime she is working like freaking maniac planting this, digging out that, mulching this other thing. I'm sure I will be very, very happy later in the year as the beauty and the bounty show up.

Msc Pictures

2011-05-17T20:50:00.002-06:00

Food from Saturday

Super Multi-Meat Sauce

Roasted Vegetables

Home Made Pasta

5:55 AM

A Question - An Answer

2011-05-16T20:51:00.002-06:00

I feel this special bond with fellow blogger Terri because we met as result of having blogged about our organ donation experiences. I put yesterday a little notice about it being the 3rd anniversary of the event and Terri put on a comment with this question.

"I know that those days must have been a monumental time in your life. Do you think about it often anymore? I probably go weeks or months without even thinking about it. Everyone should know what an easy thing it is to do!"

So I decided to make another post in response. Actually I hardly ever think about it. Life has this way of going from monumental to ordinary and at least for me I get fully engaged in wherever I am now. Neither past nor future are where I dwell much.

Accept when I do.

Because as Terri states, it was truly a monumental time in my life. I won't go into detail as I wrote extensively about it here (See tabs Living Organ Donor starting here). But in short, it ranks right up there with the most difficult things I ever did. When I go through those old posts it brings it all back (by the way I don't do that often!). And I would have to say that at least for me it wasn't easy at all. But each person's experience is different. I suspect a lot of what made it difficult relates to how old I was when I did it (60). Your body just doesn't bounce back that quickly as you get older.

So in conclusion, let me just say I'm very, very, very glad I went through it, that my sister did so well both physically and in terms of contribution to life, and that knowing everything I do now, I would do it again.

However, in case you are looking for body parts, I am officially retired :)