SAN FRANCISCO CHINESE NEW YEARS PARADE 2010

COLIN POWELL: MY AMERICAN JOURNEY

I had been thinking for a long time about how I wish I knew more about Colin Powel as I have always had a positive mindset about the gentleman. Well, last Saturday I stopped by Thrift Village in order to donate a bag of Barney's sweaters that he had left for me to dispose of as he would have no need of them in Thailand. As I was on my way out of the store, I saw this book on the shelf and it was just $3.00 and I quickly bought it. I find it very interesting thus far: I did not know his family was from Jamaica. He was also, as was Kamaroh, a Geology major in College. And, he speaks of a remarkable circle of support from his relatives that I am envious of. I have a lot of the book to read yet and so will make very little additional comment for now. Except too say that I am proud of him for coming out as a car guy. If you
will notice in my profile, I have decided to follow his example and come out also.

HERO ENCHILADAS

I am celebrating my 70TH & 2 months birthday by making for the first time ever, enchiladas. Johnny Flowers led me through it. First I got a deal on some chicken leg quarters at Upscale Mart and boiled them soft in chicken broth and green chili and a pierced jalapeno ; then I flaked of the meat, chilled the broth & skimmed off the grease and put the meat and juice back together again. Well I got a whole big bag of white corn tortillas at Swifty's Better Deal Market along with some shredded Mexican Style cheese.

Why I found I like about using the leg quarters is that the meat is somewhat more tenuous like crab and isn't mushy when you bite into it. What Johnny Flowers had me do next was sit myself up a station near the stove where I could heat the tortilla a little big so as it would fold without breaking; plug some chicken slivers and a little cheese on the tortilla and then fold it and place it in the pan. We had lubricated the pan with some of the enchilada sauce. Okay, when the pan was full of enchiladas, we poured the rest of the green sauce on top of them; sliced some green onions and put them and some black olives on top as a garnish. The black stuff you see is diced black olive; the reason I used diced black olive instead of sliced black olive is because it was cheaper.

Then, after the first 14 minutes in the oven, we covered the pan with foil in order that it would steam up and heat the enchiladas through. Given another 15 minutes or so in the oven we took them out and I ate three and Johnny Flowers ate two while watching American Idol. The moral to this story is that if cooking green enchiladas is beyond your comfort zone, hey!, what the heck, that's the kind of stuff that heroes do.

DRAGONS & ROSES: BARNIE'S NEW THAI- HOUSE!

Today I received an Email and pictures from Barnie and he informed me that his house has been completed in Thailand and that he will return in March for a few months in order to collect money to furnish it with. It looks very nice and not as austere as I thought for less than $25,000.

VALENTINES DAY 2010 AND THE RED JADE HEART!

Dear Mmmmmmm,
I am not for sure what happened to me this year; I really didn't get into Valentines day as I have in the past when you were moments of real. For one thing I am not in love except with you, my muse, and that feeling is so constant it requires only internal subscription, private dues paying, prayerful homage, and flashy lyrical tribute in the shower. However, I know that would change were you embodied and corporeal to me and here with me in Muirsville. I wish though I had got my act together and created a Valentines card to publish here.

Therefore, this Valentines Day, I am positing just this plain jade sweetheart pendant. It was an easy-give from a merchant to me, but I have found it to be actually very cool! You can bet my Valentine's salutation will be more elaborate next year. For years I have bought greeting cards after much searching and pondering as to which one was the closest to what I had in mind and then editing and modifying them as best I could but it seems now that I have discovered the dexterity within to mine the trove of cards in my soul....

"HAPPY VALENTINES DAY,

Kamaroh

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PICK-A-RANCH

SPIRIT LADY

DRAGONS & ROSES: AN E-MAIL FROM BARNEY

Hello Buddy,

Sorry for the long silence but we've been really occupied as I will try and explain. The house was started on Oct 27th and finished on Dec 9th. The work was done by 4 or 5 guys a day every day including the crew boss. They took 3 days off at New Year and a couple others during the building. As close as I can figure, the house contains 1860 sq ft. It has 540 on its second floor and 1320 on its first. The crew did all the work except for installing the glass and doing the electrical.
When they finished we started the clean up. Unfortunately they didn't clean as they went and we had everyone cleaning glass, sweeping, dumping, scraping, and what ever for four or five days. Then we had to get ready for the blessing. We had hoped to get nine monks which is the lucky number but there was another blessing that day. We were told five but that morning they said seven which was better. The night before about six ladies from the village came and started cooking and cooked all night. We started with 10 invitations and wound up expecting about 50 people. Don't ask what really happened then! The monks came and we had a nice ceremony. After they left, the village people had another ceremony for Sang, her mother, her daughter, and I. It was all very moving!
After we recuperated from all that, we started moving things from the old house to the new. Everything had to be cleaned and sorted and thought of where to put. We are still adjusting to that.... Then, I started painting the toilet and shower room ceiling and trim which had been left bare. It is just one thing after another! Tomorrow the electrician comes in to install the hot water heater in the shower and help us get a pump for better water pressure. The town water went off for three days and we were skipping showers.
I guess that kind of brings you up to date except for one thing and that would be the final pictures. Hopefully they will come this week. Until then.
My best wishes to you Kamaroh,
Barney