Goodbye March!

It’s time to say a cheerful goodbye to the month of March. A lot has been said about March. In like a lion, out like a lamb. March Madness. Somebody is always marching on something but it’s not always in March. As far as Birthstones go March has a nice one. Aqua Marine. There have been some pretty famous people born in March. A quick Google search harvested more names than space and time permit here but I’ll list a few of the most notable ones.


Rex Harrison

Ed McMahon

Osama Bin Laden

James Taylor

John Sebastian

Johann Sebastian Bach

Shemp Howard

Wyatt Earp

Harry Houdini

Eric Clapton

Vincent Van Gogh

Jack Kerouac

Mary Ann Vilim

Aileen Vilim

Cathy Woitena

These last three may not be famous, well they weren’t famous until they got their names in Snappybob’s Blog, but they’re famous to those that know them and that’s the best kind of fame. Ask some famous people and they’ll tell you the same.

March is always a very busy month for me and this March was no exception and actually a busier March than usual. We had relatives from the Pacific Northwest come for a visit. Always good to see them as they don’t get to come for visits that often. There was much merriment with Shrimp boils and Bar BQ’s and family gatherings. I ate too much, drank too much and slept too little but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The next weekend was the Gem and Mineral Show. This is an activity that I am involved in throughout the year but one that comes to a finale on the 3rd weekend of March every year. I arrive at the venue around noon on Thursday and don’t finish until around 8 or 9 pm Sunday. We raise a lot of money for a good cause and I look forward to it every year but it IS exhausting. For some photos you can visit our Facebook page here. Southwest Gem and Mineral Society Facebook If you’re interested a link to our webpage is here. Southwest Gem and Mineral Society Homepage

March is also Spring Break time. For some folks anyway. I’ve never gotten one. I think they have Spring Break too early. You always see advertisements for Spring Break events that include laying on the beach or Toobing down the river. I live in south Texas and I rarely feel like jumping into the water in March. Maybe a hot tub but not the river or ocean unless it’s waaaay down south. Like Cancun maybe.

Of course, the Battle of the Alamo came to a conclusion on Sunday morning March 6th 1836. Battle of the Alamo

Being an avid, some probably say compulsive gardener, March is a busy month in that respect also. It really starts in December when I plant tomato and pepper seeds in the house. I fuss with them and worry over them for about two months. The week after the Gem and Mineral Show is the week the garden needs to go in weather permitting. If the weather is too cold or too wet, it can set the garden back to being borderline too late. But it’s the only window I have in March. This years spring garden will consist of:

  19 Heirloom Tomato plants
    8 Pepper plants
    2 Eggplant Plants
    2 Zucchini Plants
    2 Tatume Squash Plants
100 Onions
A 24 ft row of beans and probably some more stuff as some more space becomes available.

So, as we wave goodbye to March as it marches off into the sunset we can look forward to !!!FIESTA 2010!!! Aye! Carumba! I can feel my brain cells running for cover.  Fiesta 2010 San Antonio



Adios!

Mexican Seinfeld Moment

From time to time things happen that I think are somehow note worthy. Maybe they aren’t huge “Alert the Press” type stuff but enough to give me pause, make me chuckle to myself or maybe just piss me off. Some of these things might not even be worth mentioning at the dinner table or at the bar over a beer. Of course after a few beers anything seems like fodder for entertaining conversations. If nothing comes to mind some folks start making things up. Not me though. Be it a curse, a gift or a luck of the draw, I don’t have to. I usually just tuck these things away in my brain until I remember to tell someone or I forget all about it whichever comes first. They usually don’t make for a long enough story for a blog entry so I thought I would string some together until I had enough.
(Weeks later)

Oh well, I guess I’m either going brain dead or lazy or both but nothing worth writing about seems to have happened lately. So, I’m going to throw this one out there anyway like a school kid who neglected to do the weeks assignment.

Here "tis.

This one happened one Tuesday morning. I was contemplating what I was going to have for lunch so I called the Mexican Food Restaurant down the street from my work to check the daily special. The following is a loose transcript of the conversation.

Restaurant Lady: Hello..... Mexican Restaurant.

ME: Hi, what's  your lunch special today?

Restaurant Lady: We have the Chicken Fried Steak with mash potatoes and green beans or we have the Chicken Fidel

Me: Chicken Fidel? What’s Chicken Fidel?

Restaurant Lady: It’s chicken with noodles covered with Fidel.

Me: What??? Covered with what???

Restaurant Lady: Covered with Fidel Sauce.

Me: What’s Fidel Sauce?

Restaurant Lady: You know, it’s sauce that…..it’s Fidel Sauce.

Me: Fidel is a man’s name.

Restaurant Lady: No it’s not.

Me: Yes it is! Fidel is a man’s name!

Restaurant Lady: It’s not any body’s name I ever heard of.

Me: How about Fidel Castro?

Restaurant Lady: Nope, never heard of him.

Me: Fidel Castro?….The leader of Cuba for like fifty years?

Restaurant Lady: Nope, sorry, I don’t know him.

Me: OK, never mind that. What’s in this Fidel Sauce?

Restaurant Lady: It’s a spicy sauce of tomatoes and onions.

Me: That sounds pretty good. I’ll come down later and try it.

I felt like had just been in a Seinfeld sketch.

Well after all of this they could have told me the lunch special was horse piss in a hub cap and I would have had to go down there and check it out. Anyway, I walk into the place and immediately look at the lunch special board and see that it says Chicken Fideo. I still didn’t know what chicken Fideo was so I gave it a try. Not bad. Not bad at all.
 
Bye!!