Impeached

This is from the front page of the Huffington Post.  The House voted tonight to impeach.  The vote went pretty much down party lines.

I think we all know he'll be acquitted in the Senate, especially given the statements these two have made thus far.

So, December 18, 2019 he was impeached.  It's also Keith Richard's 76th birthday

Leaf Travels

It's cold and it's windy.  It's supposed to die off tonight and that will be a good thing.  Our neighbors east of us have a Desert Willow tree.  It has lots of thin little leaves.  They just returned for the winter, and have not yet removed the tens of thousands of tiny little leaves that cover their front yard.  Since the wind is currently out of the north-east, our driveway is receiving many of those leaves.

It's interesting, first they stop in front of the garage.  Then they move west and eddy in front of the gate.  They they go under the gate and into the entrance walk way.   The red line is from the bougainvilleas.  I'm looking forward to a change in the wind direction.

That's it!  Piles of leaves is all I've got.

Pigs are Cute Until They're Not

The Tucsonans are freezing!  I'm freezing.  It's in the 50's and it's pretty windy.  I will be very surprised if there is any hiking today, especially on my part.  As I age, I seem to be losing my tolerance for cold.

Yesterday we were confronted with this.  This is the neighbor across the street's garbage being assaulted.

The pig  javelina has zero fear of humans.  I got pretty close to him banging two sheet pans together to make noise, he just looked at me an kept digging in the bag.

Another neighbor got him to move, but he came back.  Eventually he moved on and we cleaned up and put it with our bags.  I think this is why we have in-ground trash cans.  It's so the food waste can be locked up.  I still hate using them because I don't think it's good for the backs of the sanitation workers.  The truck used to come early, but now it's pushing 11:00 before they get to our street, so there is time for the pigs  javelinas to raid the bags.

Yesterday afternoon we did a short fast hike through the desert.  We saw a bone.  If you look at the top of the photo, there is a clump of pin cushion cactus.  Those things can live anywhere.

Here are the lengthening afternoon shadows.  We were out for an hour of fast walking.

Last night we made Coq au Vin in the instant pot.  It took forever to come up to pressure - 20 minutes.  We pressure cooked for 10 minutes and then did a natural release for 10 minutes, and then vented it.  I am still not using the saute function, it's just easier to haul out my big pan and do the saute step in the pan.  The main advantage is being able to get the pan under the exhaust fan in the range hood and vent the cooking smells.  It was good, there's enough for dinner tonight, so we're happy about that.  This recipe also messes up everything in the kitchen.

Fourth Avenue Street Fair

Yesterday we went to the 4th Ave Street Fair.  We go on Fridays because the crowds are smaller.  It makes it easier to walk, but you miss a lot of the good people watching.  We've noticed an increase in the older demographic on Fridays, they're not nearly as interesting as the college students.  This year there was an increase in non-craft vendors such as DISH satellite television, GEICO, a hot tub outfit, and such.  The people staffing the tents were not shy about hollering at people to come in and switch their services.  Sure, I will go to a street fair and switch all my insurance policies because I enjoyed your spiel.

Anyway, I gripe about this every time we park in the parking garage near campus, and this year will be no exception.  How much student housing does the UofA need? Half of what you see here is new.  The Islamic Center (look center photo) is being surrounded by students.  The new building on the right does not appear to have balconies.  That may be (and I'm guessing here) due to students dropping things from their balconies on the left.

Here is another one going up.

On to the street fair.  The pink thing being worn by the young woman was kind of cool.  You can pull the sides up if it's hot and ventilation is required.

As always, there is terrible food to be had.  All of it is boiled in oil.  Looking at the bottom of the sign, you see "carne asada fries."  These have been popping up everywhere.  It's a plate full of fries with meat all over it.

Exemplars of food that has been boiled in oil.

Rotating large something.  We're not sure what species was involved here.

This is a 1954 Mack truck fire engine.  It was found in a lot somewhere, barely running.  The Last Alarm Foundation spent ten years restoring it to its current level of beauty.  They use it to transport family members of firefighters who have died to their final resting place.  It's pretty impressive how much they were able to bring the vehicle back.

Caruso's is still here.  It was here when I was here in the early 80s.  Also, look at the color of that sky.  Yesterday was a good day.

This was seen on the way back home.  The university has bull dozed yet another block of businesses to build more student housing.

Today we got the road bikes out and did a puny flat eighteen miles.  It was predictably demoralizing since we haven't ridden since August.

The Maiden Voyage Was Not Terrible

Yesterday we were awakened at four in the morning by thunderous thunder.  It was loud, the kind that shakes the house.  It pretty much rained pigs and chickens all day.  It's from that storm that came from the Pacific and is now marching across the US bringing terrible weather for all.  Today it's not warm but the sun is out.  Much better.

So before the terrible weather, there were hikes in the desert.  Jim has been riding some, but I haven't felt up to it.  Soon, maybe, but not today.  Here are some random desert photos.

This cactus has a lot going on.  He's waving at the very least.

Looking back at Golden Gate.

A Saguaro has died over the winter, it's always sad to see them on the ground.  This one is still in the process of drying out.

Sunday we took the Instant Pot out of the box.  There is a lot of stuff in that box.   I think there will be more of a learning curve than we anticipated.   We made Chicken Adobo as our first venture into cooking with pressure.   I will say, that we managed to mess up everything in the kitchen.  We were running late, so Jim did the water pressure test, while I browned the chicken in my giant pan.  We assembled the rest of the ingredients, put them in the pot and turned it on.  It's kind of weird watching it come up to pressure. 

It was supposed to look like this.

Ours was slightly more pale and had more liquid because we did not saute on high for 20 minutes at the end.  Next time we'll add more liquid so there's more to spoon over the rice.  We did the rice in the rice cooker, there is no chance that we'll be getting a second instant pot for rice.  While on Facebook I made the mistake of looking at the Instapot for new users group and somehow joined.  I think I'm getting 20 - 25 Facebook things a day from them.

I was wondering where the heck the Instant Pot came from.  They're everywhere.  Here is a good article on the founder of the product.

Other than cooking and hiking, there is not much to report upon.

Baby Critters

The javelinas were on parade tonight.  There are two new babies that are just adorable.  Too bad we can't pet them on their little heads.

There were a bunch of adults crossing the road, as well.