Cinco de Mayo means no reservations available at any of the Mexican restaurants in town and Bloomsday, which attracts runners from all over the world, including people with prams doing the walk behind the runners—for a teeshirt—means there is no table and no parking place available anywhere in town for anybody who has not planned for this…
Jane and I have walked it a couple of times. The last time I limped in with a sneaker tied to my blistered foot like a sandal, and I decided that was that. I have my teeshirts. We are good.
We are staying home today with a packet of tamales and a can of chili to celebrate—well, we are celebrating the happiness of those whose day this is, since there are never enough celebrations in life, and we are not taking the car out until Monday, at least.
Wise of you. Of course, you could use the Julian calendar and celebrate Cinco De Mayo and go out for Mexican food on the 16th. I’m sure you could get a reservation then easily. Do you ever see a brand of tamales called “Pedro’s”? They are made here, and are my personal favorite. I like them with a layer of refried beans, sliced black olives and cheese on top, either baked in the oven or zotted in the microwave. (also with chopped onions, which you would not like). A couple of Dos Equis to wash it down wouldn’t go amiss either. . . .
Something like this* (but less orange)?
Good idea to stay home, unless you’re a real huge partygoer!
* This is our Kingsday celebration on April 27th, when the whole country throws a gigantic block party annex flea market in every town and village and most people dress in orange to celebrate the royal House of Orange.
It looks like that if you imagine all of them bobbing up and down and moving en masse. We never beat the Kenyans, to be sure, but 40,000 of us get out there and try to do the 7.5 miles for the official teeshirt. I have a couple of them myself. The holiday was yesterday: the race is today, and only participants, spectators, and the unwary will venture near the course.
Tonight, I’ll have the last or next-to-last serving of pintos with Ro-Tel tomatoes and chilis (mild, but I should’ve toned it down even so), with some sour cream to do that toning down. Likely, a can of Wolf brand chili and some tortilla chips. — I miscalculated, thought I had another pkg. of tamales in the freezer, but sadly, no. There’s a semi-local brand I get here that has turned más caliente (spicier) lately, but is good. (I can’t recall the name.) They come in packs of 12 each, sealed in plastic and then in a cloth bag. — I may look for Pedro’s brand. 🙂
Last night was about as quiet as last year’s Cinco de Mayo celebration. I suppose this means folks are more American, despite many being recent immigrants. Or perhaps they are no more a fan of Mexican politics than American politics these days, which I can surely sympathize with.
Independence and celebration are good things. Mexican food, Tex-Mex or other Latin-American local food is certainly cause for celebration too.
Other than brief sprinkles and brief grey skies, this weekend has been very pretty and mild out.
Tuesday, I’m expecting to get to my storage space again for a bit more progress.
Outside, the local kids are either having tremendous fun or the kid version of an apocalyptic bar brawl, without the beverages. It is hard to tell from the sound which it is, haha. — No, they are having a good time and burning off excess energy, and this is fine. — As you can probably tell by how I post about that, I am still getting used to there being lots of kids around. This is a good thing, even though I’m not out there much. I am still very glad they can enjoy and have friends, and it’s reassuring to me, heartening.
Enjoying the holiday quietly inside with someone special, or outside with friends, either way sounds good.
Speaking of celebrating independence, a coincidence of timing; we celebrate ours on May 5th as well: “Bevrijdingsdag” = Liberation Day, the day the Netherlands was freed of German occupation at the end of WW2. The evening of May 4th is Remembrance of the Dead, with 2 minutes silence nationwide and wreath-laying ceremonies at monuments and special sites (like war cemeteries and places of mass executions), a time to remember the fallen and the victims of war and armed conflicts.
Personally, I really like that combination: first a time to solemnly remember the victims of war, agression and oppression, and the brave people who sacrificed and fought against it ; and then the next day we celebrate the liberty which they gained for us by their sacrifice. That way, you always remember that freedom is something that must be defended, and is worth fighting for; but also that waging war (and armed conflict by any other name) has a heavy price in human suffering, which mustn’t be forgotten.
Still, it took an American expat to remind us Dutch that we have our own Declaration of Independence (called the Poster of Leaving, in old Dutch), very similar to the American one except about 200 years older – 1581. We did get taught in school about the 80 years war with Spain to gain our independence, and the national anthem refers to it in passing (saying we’ve always honored the king of Spain, eliding that we just didn’t want to belong to him anymore…), but I can’t recall ever learning about the “Poster of Leaving” (Plakkaat van Verlatinge, in very oldfashioned Dutch) until I saw this on YouTube recently.
Ah. Cinco de May, the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla. In the US, it’s an excuse for getting drunk.
We celebrated Cinco de Mayo by ripping apart the upstairs of DH’s store. Our landlords finally decided to close the loophole that let us sublease to another group of tenants in the upstairs unit. They departed amiably enough, but when we went upstairs, we determined that all the partition walls they had installed would have to be removed. The walls turned out to be full of pink fiberglas insulation, for sound deadening (they were running a music studio), and it got everywhere and itches madly. They were heavy smokers, and the unit smelled like a used ashtray. At some point, they had also tapped illicitly into the mains for the building, and all their makeshift wiring had to come out (we got a real electrician to do that).
The upstairs has been 75% gutted now, and we still need to move out the remnants of the walls and remove the old destroyed laminate flooring. Then we paint what we’re keeping, put in new floors, and a movable divider wall, and better lighting, maybe ceiling fans and a new a/c unit, and voila! A nice new classroom/ conference room! I sympathize with CJ and Jane’s house gutting blues; my nose Hoovered up all the dust we generated and I’ve been sneezing nonstop.
Ouch! That “studio” sounds like a fire waiting to happen. You’re well rid of it/them. And poaching power when you’re a sublet is just rude.
Here in Georgia, I spent Cinco de Mayo with 102 other people and 52 greyhounds (in addition to my two) at Greyfest, the annual gathering of our local adoption group. (In honor of the date, lunch was tacos, burritos, black beans, and yellow rice.) 54 greyhounds, and the only time you heard a sound from the dogs was during the Blur of Fur, where greyhounds running one at a time across a sand arena were clocked with a radar gun…and the dogs waiting their turn howled with excitement. The fastest dog was a “senior” (at least 6 years old) clocked at 48. The “turtle” award went to a young dog who romped her way across at 24 mph. The oldest dog–a 13-year-old–ran at 36 mph.
My two dogs have slept through the two days since then; I’m not sure either one of them had ever been awake through 7 consecutive hours in their lives.
So what you’re saying is, even the slowest dog gets better mileage than some cars. 😀 Or perhaps that should be buses. 😉
According to the record books, the fastest speed ever recorded by a race horse is 43.97 mph.
We had 11 greyhounds who beat that on Saturday. Horses are slow… 🙂
SFGate has a story about eggplant tacos with pico de gallo – there are onions in the pico de gallo, but not in the taco. It sounds tasty.
https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/A-taco-recipe-that-proves-Less-is-more-12897020.php
That reminds me to revisit the ratatouille recipes I have. If I were to chop up the veggies, rather than leave them as rings in the more traditional manner, hmm, a nicely baked ratatouille could be OK with my still-stubbornly attached tooth.
Should I claim the tooth has persistent man’chi to my gums? Heh. It’s lose enough to move in inopportune ways while chewing, and seems only connected by the flesh of the gum underneath. I would’ve thought by now, my body would shut that down and disconnect the partial tooth, but so far, not yet. So it’s still not a serious problem and not really sore unless I bite down with it in the wrong configuration. Sigh.
So it seems to have a certain high loyalty or man’chi, which is still appreciated, if not quite ideal any longer.
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Eggplant tacos. One marvels at the ingenuity, trying new combinations like that. Eggplant certainly fits in Mediterranean cuisine, so why not Latin-American or Tex-Mex and Southwestern / Cali fusion? That sounds doable. (I’m fortunate that onions don’t bother me.) (I wish we knew some good substitutes CJ and Jane could use.)
CJ, I realize the taste isn’t quite a substitute, but what about bok choy in place of onion? Can you ladies eat leeks? Radishes? I wonder what other veggies with a bit of crunch or softness, and a mild zing comparable to raw onion, or the flavor of cooked onion, might work for you both. You both seem to like a higher chili caliente hot-spicy factor than I do, so maybe `the spices and chilis you regularly use, plus a veggie with a little crunch or body when cooked, is sufficient?
Smokey’s on my arm again and very pleased with himself at the companionship. But he keeps trying to add a grave accent or tab-character to my typing. We have so far not worked out the co-authorship details. 😉
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Be it resolved: From now on, I’m calling my friend the night before to remind him, even if we have a standing appointment. Didn’t get picked up for the storage space trip today, and I have a Prime Pantry and small office supplies delivery tomorrow or the next day, so I want to be here. So the storage space will be next week. Grumble. But now I think we’re back to something workable. Still adjusting.
Would love to know where my digital camera, in its case, wandered off to in storage, and a few other things.
Robbie, the BJD (Kidz ‘n Cats) is still in there somewhere too, I hope. — I checked in case he’s not, and the current going price is something like over twice what I’d paid, now several years ago. This means I’m not so likely to get an older-year model if I did end up replacing him due to loss or damage. It also means finding him in good condition, as I hope, has pretty good collector value; although I’d like to keep him around, as a fun and cute, positive influence.
My good cowboy hat, guitar, and a few other things of mostly sentimental value are still there in storage. So getting to those things and getting others sold or donated or trashing what’s not of value (old paper records, for instance) is still my goal for the year.
Tonight will be some writing and reading and possibly a video.