Flapper's Folly

Quickie. I just finished roasting the green chiles that we bought at Central Market a few days ago. We planned to buy them already roasted, but they were through for the day by the time we got there. So back to the produce to pick up raw ones. We chose the mild. I love them, but I prefer mild. Oddly enough, when checking out, the checker told us they were all hot as they had sold out of the mild ones earlier that day. Argggghhhh. So they have sat waiting for the magic of roasting. I just put them under the broiler, charred them, and they are steaming in a paper bag. The Puter Ho is off to the store to pick up some latex gloves. Best way to protect your hands when peeling and seeding. I once did it barehanded and didn't regain feeling in my fingers for days.

I'm from New Mexico and I actually salivate to the aroma of roasting chiles. Tonight we will have rellenos and I'm making up enchiladas for later this week. It's nearly impossible to find "real" rellenos at restaurants here. Nearly every place uses poblanos, and trust me, chile rellenos are not made with poblanos.

And in case anyone cares, the best chile rellenos ever come from a place in Old Mesilla, right outside of Las Cruces. For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the place, but there are aquariums full of piranhas in the front. Kind of unique, I think.

So I'm off to try to duplicate those rellenos. I guess we'll see if Central Market deceived us. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend as much as we are.

Posted by Rockelle at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just read that Cameron Diaz is the world's highest paid actress based on earnings of $42.2 million. I'm thinking no way this could be true. Then I scroll down the page and find that Adam Sandler is the world's highest-paid actor, based on a salary of $49.5 million.

'Nuf said, don't you think?

Posted by Rockelle at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just a quickie update. Since writing about the season opener of 24, I found a site that features spoilers. SpoilerSluts.com features spoilers for a number of television shows including 24, Alias, Friends, and more. Although, at this point, I would seriously worry about anyone that interested in Friends.

Instead of writing about it, the link provided is to their page on 24. Some of the rumors are contradictory, but it's interesting.

I can't believe I didn't know about this place before.

Posted by Rockelle at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Recently the Puter Ho decided to get a little extra life insurance. Sweetheart that he is, he wants me and our little tribe to be well taken care of. Honestly, it wasn't my idea and I have no plans at all for the huge oleander out back.... It seems if you desire more coverage than what the insurance company considers the norm for you, you are required to have various tests. He had received a letter informing him of this and saying someone would be calling to set it up shortly. A week or so later, a woman called and sat up a time to get the required body fluids.

As he had to fast for 12 hours beforehand, she arranged to come by our house early one morning before work. Seems odd, huh? On the agreed upon day, a little grandmotherly type showed up and took his blood and urine. Well, actually he gave them to her. Since neither he nor I had ever had any kind of drug test, we were amazed that the little cup actually had a temperature strip on it. We are such goofs. Off she hustled with his precious fluids and we swiftly forgot the whole thing.

Yesterday an envelope arrived for him marked "Personal & Confidential." When I realized who it was from, I ripped it open silently praying. Because you never know...... People go to donate blood and find they have cancer. Bad things happen. Of course, if something was wrong, you would want to know so you could start doing something about it. But still..........

I scanned the profile of unfamiliar terms, referring to a second page of explanations. Serum HIV Antibody Status: Non-Reactive. I think to myself, that's negative. Yeah. The last thing I would expect was for it to be positive, but when were you tested? And if you were, wouldn't you feel just some tiny ping of fear until you knew? As it turned out, every single item was within normal range. His triglycerides were very mildly elevated. Not a biggie, I don't think, but something to bring up at his next doctor visit.

He thought it was funny that I was so worried. I couldn't help it. I was so relieved he was healthy.

No amount of money would ever make life worth living without him.

Posted by Rockelle at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't watch much tv, but when I find a show I like, I am a faithful viewer. 24 is such a show. It's not much longer until the new season begins and I can hardly wait. The third season will kick off Tuesday, Oct. 28 with a commercial-free episode, sponsored by Ford.

The final episode of season two had President Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) falling to the ground in pain after shaking hands with an assassin sporting a plastic sheet of who knows what poison or infectious agent on her palm. Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) is being wheeled off on a stretcher clutching his chest after having had his heart stop earlier while being tortured.

Fox has begun dropping hints of what to expect in the third season. Apparently we will skip forward a couple of years in time. Bauer will have a partner, as yet unnamed. Bauer's daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) will now be working at CTU. I really can't imagine this. I've always felt she was superfluous to the plot. I can only guess that it involved a contract or she was kept as eye candy for young males viewers. Haysbert apparently survived and will be back and in the middle of his re-election campaign.

Regretfully, Penny Johnson Jerald, who plays Sherry Palmer, has not been signed as a regular. That's a shame. Her character has to be the most cold hearted, conniving, mean, bad-badder-baddest bitch ever. She is great. Of course, not being a regular doesn't mean she won't return. I'm sure we'll see her again. Sadly the same is true of Sarah Wynter who played Kate last season. We can hope she won't be back. More of my opinion of her here.

The show is always full of surprises. No hint from Fox on what crisis will drive the plot this season, but hopefully it will provide the same roller coaster ride the previous seasons have given us. I'm marking my calender on September 7th when Fox will air a four-minute trailer during the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Posted by Rockelle at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I'm over on the new machine. Well sort of. The thing sat in the dining room for weeks as the Puter Ho got it all loaded up with everything I need and desire. The problem is we cannot get my email to work. It will work, but we can't import all the stuff from my old drive. I've used Outlook Express for some time and I know it is a piece of crap, but like an unhappy marriage, one tends to stay just because it's easier that way.

At this point, we simply put my old drive in with the new and I'm still booting off the old drive so I can access all my email accounts and the various folders created in OE over time. The old drive is loaded up with crap and I am very unhappy with the situation. The Puter Ho tried everything, ran an OE backup he found, but nothing worked. He uses Mozilla Mail and likes it. He also runs Linux, which obviously has kick ass screensavers and is smooth, but I also sit and listen to him grumble as he tries to get software to work on it.

I'm not ready for Linux. Microsoft still has me in their noose, but OE is about to go. I run Windows 2000 and have absolutely no desire to change that. It's the only stable Windows platform I've used. I'm looking and it seems I'll go with either Eudora or Mozilla Mail. It will mean a lot of cutting and pasting to carry everything along, but hopefully, I'll end up with something I can live with. And I'll be reducing my dependence on Microsoft, which is always a good thing.

As it is, I'm mostly all new. I'm faster, smarter, and better all around. I even got a new case, though not the black one or the blue neon water cooled one (Actually I'm not that fast) I wished for. My CDROM will open even if there isn't a disc in it. :)

If anyone reads this and has suggestions for a new mail client, please tell me. I'm open to all suggestions. And, honestly, if you know a way to get OE to import everything, let me know that too. I'm lazy. I hate trudging through a 40GB swamp of .dlls, etc.

I'll be right here, slowing tranferring data, dreaming that someday I get to drive in the fast lane.

Posted by Rockelle at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Enough is enough! Yesterday the temperature was 109. Not for just an hour or so, but it hung there until late in the evening. Day after day, it's over 100 and I don't remember the last time it rained. I looked at the forecast this morning and nothing but triple digit temperatures for the next few days.

I dream of being a New Yorker and fleeing to the Hamptons, Nantucket, or Martha's Vineyard for the month of August. You know, I would suddenly have a mop of thick curly blond hair, baby blue eyes, and wear lots of white. I would frolic in the surf with a big yellow Lab. I would look down on my perfectly pedicured and tan toes and find a fine sprinkling of pale sand. Bare wood would shine and gauzy curtains would sway in the breeze. Ahhhhh.

Yeah, there are actually places that shut down for the month of August. But I live in Texas and not only is it hotter than Hades, but school started Monday. My stepson comes in from school with a tomato colored face and I offer up bottles of water trying to rehydrate him. They have to have recess indoors. The strange thing about all of this is that come October (when the temps start to fall and the kids are finally getting in the swing of things) they will have a weeklong break. Why on earth not have that week at the beginning when it's so hot and it costs so much to cool the schools? Last night it was 99 at ten o'clock. I can't even imagine playing football in that. Poor kids.

All the pretty flowers I have worked so hard to have are now either crispy brown or they have stewed when I tried keeping them alive with lots of water. It's true. Try keeping them wet and soon you have limp cooked spinachy stuff. The only thing flourishing is the cross vine planted by my husband's ex. It is native. In other words, it's a weed. Repeated chopping cannot get rid of it. Nice simile for an ex, huh?

I guess I shouldn't complain. My mother was born in August in Oklahoma. I remember my grandmother talking of how awful it was to be pregnant in the heat. No air conditioning. In fact, no electricity. She put wet dish towels over the windows to try and cool whatever breeze came through. Sometimes I have to remind myself of just how good I have it.

But a few weeks in Nantucket would be so nice right now.

Posted by Rockelle at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)