The Pursuit of Dessert

Flan! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

Everyone else must love Flan too because it is incredibly difficult to find. On Saturday night, I went to the new Cuban restaurant down the street, and Flan was on the menu, but apparently, not in the kitchen. Just seeing it on the menu, however, was enough to spark my long-term taste-bud desire. So, in order to quench the desire for the Flan, Dena and I set out to go to Ben Michael's to get his exquisite Flan.

He didn't have any left, but promised free flan if we come back again another time. To make up for it, we enjoyed his excellent spinach and artichoke dip.

Now Flan is not something you give up on that easily, so we drove up Central to Bandido's Hideout, where we were served with chips and salsas. After ordering the Flan, the waitress went to the back to show us how big their Flans are, but when she came back, she reported that there were none left.

Sad, but not easily deterred, we continued up Central to the same Cuban restaurant, but as we pulled in to the parking lot, we saw that it was CLOSED!!!

Determined not to be disappointed, we drove back down Central to Flying Star to get some Creme Brulee (a close and almost-as-good substitute), but the friendly counter attendants informed us that it had been discontinued. They offered many suggestions for our continued search, but we thought most of them would be closed.

In our final, last-ditch effort, we drove to Lomas to Los Cuates, but upon arriving, realized that it, too, was closed.

Five restaurants later, and still no Flan, we decided to call it a night. The search will certainly continue at a later date.

WE. WILL. NOT. GIVE. UP!!!

Red-light cameras

At many intersections in Albuquerque, there are red-light cameras. There is a lot of debate about this: some say there are too many, others say too few. Some say we should have flashing yellow lights when the camera is about to go off, others say we already have yellow lights immediately following the green and preceding the red. Some say that it is unconstitutional to issue tickets for red-light violations when there is no physical police officer present, others say that the ticket is too high. The controversy goes on..... In general, I am of the opinion that they are good because sometimes people here act as if they are the only ones on the road and while laws might apply to others, they surely can't apply to themselves. We run into problems when everyone thinks this way. Red lights are not merely suggestions, kids. Yesterday, I was at the junction of University and Lomas (where they really should install a camera, by the way), and I was in the left turn lane behind one other driver. The left turn light turned green and he was slow in going. Just as I was about to get impatient, another vehicle came barreling along right through solid (for a few seconds) red light from the left. Good thing the guy in front of me was slow, and even better that I was not the first person in the line. I would have already been most of the way through the intersection, or most of the way to heaven. So I really have to say that God was looking out for me. Who knows how many near death experiences we are delivered from on a regular basis? Sometimes they are just more visible than others. (Thank you, God). The red-light runner made me really MAD, though, and now I am firmly in the camp of loving red-light cameras. Maybe some other time, I will discuss my views on the cell-phone hands-free-while-driving laws (which, in case, you were wondering, I also appreciate).

Reminders of Power and Intimacy

"What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate in the remote" - Edward Abbey

On Monday night, Nick and I went up to the crest and the sunset was INCREDIBLE. I was wearing Chacos so my toes were definitely numb, but the view was totally worth it. (pictures are in chronological order)

Our Daily Bread

"When Moses prays to God, "Yahweh, feed these people," Yahweh replies, "I will feed them. I will let manna drop from heaven but they are to pick up only enough to feed themselves for one day" (Exodus 16:4). The whole message of the desert is a message of continual dependence on God, minute-by-minute learning to trust in Providence. Some of them want to store up the manna in order to have some for tomorrow. They want to plan for the future, and allay their fears. Moses says, "No! Only enough for today. Yahweh will give you your daily bread. But some kept an excess for the following day, and it bred maggots and smelt foul" (Exodus 16:20). Instead we say, "Give us this day our daily bread." How strange these words sound to a people with savings accounts, insurance policies and three-year warranties, even on their toasters! "
- Richard Rohr - from The Great Themes of Scripture

How I need to learn this lesson! God is enough and will be faithful. If only I would remember to pray for my daily bread. Who of you, by worrying, can add a day to your life? And yet, I do it ALL THE TIME. Lord, take my worrying and obsessing. Remind me of my great need for you. God, give us this day our daily bread.

Adventures in the Sandias

This weekend, we decided to get my newly washed truck looking like a real truck again, so we took the road from Placitas to the Crest Road. At this point, it is only one lane wide in the higher elevations because of snow. There was some deep squishy brown mud and spectacular views.

From there, we headed down to Hwy. 14, and ate at Burger Boy - BEST Green chile cheese burgers in the world. After that, we made an impromptu stop at the Canyon Estates trailhead, where we hiked to the Travertine Falls. This is where we stop for a minute to consider the "awesomeness" of actual waterfalls in the desert. It is not very big, but it is still running, beautiful water.

In other news, I found this hilarious website that ridicules something I find utterly ridiculous - The Hummer. One almost ran me off the road the other day, so now I hate them even more.

The Wierdness

Many odd sightings to report this weekend.

1. A Hilarious Bumper Sticker

2. A "Little Miss Sunshine" van HERE in Albuquerque.

3. Another interesting find at 99 Banh grocery store.

Spring Camping

On Monday afternoon, my brother Zarek, his friend Kyle, and Lucky and I all headed down to Alamogordo. We camped at Oliver Lee State Park. In the morning, we hiked up the Dog Canyon Trail. It was quite warm! The view was spectacular. We saw some beautiful and unique cacti.

Later that day, we went to Whitesands National Monument. Endless dunes of pure white sand just never get boring. From there, we drove east toward Carlsbad - after you get over the Sacramento Mountains, it is the most boring drive ever. We camped at Brantley Lake State Park. The sunset was spectacular. After dinner, I made the famous "camping peach cobbler". It was gooooood! Lucky the dog watching over the drying fly sheet.

In the morning, we drove down to Carlsbad Caverns. We did two tours - the Natural Entrance Tour and the Big Room tour. They were both cool.

The Natural Entrance - how nice of God to make such convenient paved switchbacks into the cave.

A stalagmite (of which there were many)SpeleothermsThe biggest speleotherms When we were done at the Caverns, we drove up to Roswell to Bottomless Lakes State Park (the coolest place we stayed the whole trip). I don't know how the lakes are formed, but there were several little lakes about three quarters enclosed by rocky cliffs. So we had our own lake all to ourselves. Lucky was tired from the trip. Again, we couldn't complain about the sunset. In the morning, Kyle had to do something to his truck in Roswell, so we just walked around for a couple of hours. What a cooky town. Here I am in front of the UFO museum.

And yes, such a thing not only exists but flourishes in the town of Roswell. So all in all, I can say that we saw several "otherwordly" things on our trip - whitesands, wierd cave formations, odd lakes, and ALIENS!

Spring

Two reasons I know that it is decidedly and irrevocably spring:

1.

I have been looking for the first cherry tree to bloom, and I finally found it!

2. The Great Shed has begun. This means that Lucky the Dog will have to be brushed several times a week for the next few months. And then he will get a big haircut.

I am going camping today for three days. It is too short compared to all my other epic spring break camping trips, but some is better than none, right? And of course, more camping is planned for the rest of the spring and summer.

All I want to do....

is KNIT. My fingers have been screaming for needles all day. I have been doing interesting stuff all day, but nothing that involves yarn or needles or patterns. There is nothing unusual about this, but for some reason, TODAY I want to knit. Knit, knit, knit far into the night. Socks and the shawl and the belt.... and just feel the yarn over the needle making its little loops and emerge with whole garments out of a single strand of string passing between my fingers. I want to knit something super complicated and hard and beautiful. (It didn't help that the spring issue of knitty came out today -this is the only thing I will consider making out of it though). I wonder whether this urge is somehow hormonal - like maybe some women go through a periodic creative "need" or something, or maybe it's just me. Or maybe it's the good side of my path of disintegration (FOUR) coming out, which is good. If that was confusing, read this book- it's lifechanging. I often think that my path of disintegration really is disintegrating for me, but that there are many good things about four, things to be desired, and sometimes, I "disintegrate" toward things that are actually positive. I could go on and on. But for now, all I want to do is knit. Oh by the way, I finally turned the heel and am onto the foot of my first pomatomus sock. Yay me!

Spirituality of Subtraction

"The notion of a spirituality of subtraction comes from Meister Eckhart, the medieval Dominican mystic. He said the spiritual life has much more to do with subtraction than it does with addition. Yet I think Christians today are involved in great part in a spirituality of addition. The capitalist worldview is the only world most of us have ever known. We see reality, experiences, events, other people, things - in fact, everything - as objects for consumption. The nature of the capitalist mind is that things (and often people!) are there for me. Finally, even God becomes an object for our consumption. Remember the bumper sticker "I found it"? The Holy One becomes "it," a pronoun, a thing. Even the Lord becomes a consumer object that I can privately possess. Now that is surely heresy in any religion. You almost wonder if true spirituality is even possible in this culture. Everything gets turned around so that we're in the driver's sear: God, the Bible, the sacraments, the Church, people and prayer. Everything is there to foster my own ego and its need to feel good about itself."
- Richard Rohr, from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction

One of my favorite teachings from RR - since I first heard this concept back in August, it has never lost its punch or meaning. I hope it never will.

Plug it in!

I just watched Who Killed the Electric Car? For those of you who haven't seen it, what are you waiting for? Those of you who have, email me - let's discuss it! Anyway, it got me fired up like none other. Here is a cool web site about electric cars. I am also really excited about Tesla building a plant in ABQ. More to come when I have more time to post.

26 things - March

The new 26 things list for March is up! Who wants to try it with me? Here it is:
camera
fancy
smiles
pots
curl
belly
take off
row
library
clutter
love
surprise
candid
button
apple
morning
favourite beverage
square
plastic
home
sleep
the great outdoors
fizz
family
glow
train