delight in life

an interesting twist, and an idiot

"The end of the world has been anticipated many times and has never come, of course. And it won’t come this time either. We need not fear for our planet. It was here before us and most likely will be here after us. But that doesn’t mean that the human race is not at serious risk. As a result of our endeavors and our irresponsibility our climate might leave no place for us."

- Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, in a column in the New York Times

Earth is gonna make it out of this. It might be a little worse for the wear, but given time it will be able to heal itself. It's us that's screwed.  [link to idiot.]

not exactly pumpkin bread

Lately in blogland I've been seeing a lot of yummy fall recipes popping up everywhere.  Unfortunately, I can't bring myself to make chocolate chip pumpkin muffins when it's 91 degrees outside.  So today, I give you the world's most delicious recipe, brought to you by Hot Texas Septembers.  And my mother's cookbook.

Texas Chicken Enchiladas

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 (12.5 oz) can chicken broth
3 TBS butter
1 cup heavy cream or half & half
2 (3.5 oz) cans chopped green chilies, drained
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack
1 TBS chili powder cheese
1 tsp ground cumin
2 to 3 cups cooked chicken, boned and diced
½ tsp garlic salt breasts
¼ tsp pepper
¼ cup flour
package small flour tortillas

In skillet, sauté onion in butter until soft; add chilies and seasonings.  Stir in flour.  Add ½ can chicken broth and cream, stirring constantly until smooth.  Add remaining broth as you stir.  Cook over medium heat 10 minutes or until sauce is consistency of gravy.  Remove from heat and add 1 cup cheese.  Remove 1 cup sauce and set aside.  Add chicken to skillet mixture.  Spray 9x13 baking dish with vegetable cooking spray.  Spread thin layer of reserved sauce over each tortilla; fill with 2 tablespoons mixture; roll and place seam side down in baking dish.  Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese.  Bake at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes or until bubbly.  Serves 6 to 9.

And the leftovers are even better than the original.  I stress the drained after the chilies.  I totally missed that instruction.  Also, the 3.5 oz cans.  I missed that too.  I dumped 2-7oz cans in there, full of liquid.  I do that a lot.  You should ask my family about my blueberry muffins.  That is a good story.

Happy Wednesday.

yes. they rock. they really do.

This weekend I hit the family jackpot:  Mom AND Dad within the space of four days.  Nice.  Mom's visit was a surprise, and very short.  But so good.  Sometimes, living far away really sucks.  Christmas and summer is just not enough to be with my family.  They are so awesome that it takes more than just a few weeks every couple of months to completely soak it in.  Plus, it takes my dog a week to like me again once I come back.

yesterday was a little rough.

But it is ok.  We're just going to chalk one up to the Stuff Happens side and keep on truckin.   Because today, I get to see my dad while he's in town for business!

Dominos pro, baseball lover, guitar rocker, frickin genius, and all around père extraordinaire.  Dude.  I can't wait.

the penguins, they are just so talented

For some reason, on Friday at work we had an interesting discussion on penguins and their little known talents, namely, painting.  Apparently there are these penguins - little Picassos - who waddle around through paint and then waddle around on canvas.  And you can buy it!  Penguin art for your wall!  Someone told me these painting penguins were at the Dallas Zoo, so Saturday morning Chris and I headed off to Dallas.
It's a good twenty minutes farther than the Ft. Worth Zoo, but there are no painting penguins in Ft. Worth, so to Dallas we went.  As we bought a parking pass, the attendant warned us that the tickets today were discounted because the Wilds of Africa was closed.  No biggie, I just wanted to see the penguins.

We get in and check out the map.  I noticed two things:  a) Wilds of Africa = half the zoo.  b) Including the penguins.

Since when do penguins live in Africa?

What a disaster!  But, the tickets were very cheap so we stayed.  Plus we drove a long way.  And plus zoos are awesome, even without penguins.  Because apparently, the next best animals in the zoo, lions, don't live in the Wilds of Africa, as they were over next to the Galapagos tortoises.  (Which are awesome.  I plan to have one of those live in my backyard when I have a house.)
(As a side note, when we got home, I looked up these penguins, and they live in St. Louis.  Not Dallas.  Not even close to Dallas!  Someone was sorely mistaken.  But actually I think I just heard somebody wrong, so I guess that someone is me.  oops.)

i think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I got a new camera on Thursday.  For once, I was in my apartment to greet the UPS man and before he was back on his truck and out of the parking lot, I had ripped open the box and taken this picture.  Groundbreaking, I know.

today is a good day to be grateful.

And I have so much to be grateful for:

• I live here, in the United States of America.  A country with many faults, but one that I love nonetheless.
• The high today was 80 degrees.  So perfect.
• My hour and a half computer science class let out an hour early.  My three hour psychology class got out two hours early.
• The kitchen is clean.
• My 501 German Verbs book came today.  Theoretically, it should no longer take me an hour to do my German homework every night.
• YouTube.
• Starbucks Tazo Chai concentrate.

I live a sweet, sweet life.  I am trying to never forget that.  My deepest troubles are so much smaller than they could be.  I am healthy, happy and loved.  That is all I should ever hope for.

i am a fold.

If you've been sitting here waiting for something new to appear at the top of this page, I'm very very sorry.  Life is busy.  The good kind, though, the living and loving kind.  Not the sleep-deprived and permanently half-panicked kind.

In the meantime, here is my deep thought for today:

I am never again wearing anything other than cropped yoga pants and flip flops.

Obviously, all of the deep thinking and reading I've been doing lately has truly stimulated me.

also known as crazy.

ever since my lovely catalog from veer.com came in the mail, i have felt compelled to use strips of woodgrain on everything.

turn it off.

Today, I wasn't feeling well.  I stayed home from class.  In the morning, I did my usual combo of surfing/emailing/pretend shoppping/tv-watching/video game playing.  But then my box from amazon.com showed up with three books I have been dying to read.  I haven't read in a long time, I'm ashamed to say.  I love to read, but lately I've been terrible about actually doing it.  So tonight, I read.

It was wonderful.  Time stopped.  My brain turned on.  I thought.  And then, of all things, I felt compelled to write.

I sat down and wrote three pages in my new beautiful journal.  (Thanks, Mom - I love it.)  If it's been a while since I really read, it's been epochs since I wrote for pleasure.

Tonight, turn off your tv.  Read a book.  A short story.  Write something.

It feels good.