Champurrado y chalupas

Glass of Champurrado

I think I've mentioned this before, but every Tuesday night, there is an activity in the church.  Since I am in the Primary (aka, I work with the kids), I always end up at the Primary activity (aka, activity for the kids), but they always have an activity for the women, as well.  After the Primary activity, if the women are still around, I will go in there to see what is going on.

Tonight, I got to try a couple new things.  One is called champurrado, which is a hot drink.  I thought it tasted like mushrooms, though I really couldn't put my finger on the flavor.  The texture felt a lot like cream of mushroom soup, which may be how the idea of it tasting like mushrooms got into my head.  It turns out, it is actually a chocolate drink, but they use corn flour in it as well.  I guess that is where the texture comes from.  It was interesting, and at first it was good.  But I got weirded out by the end of the glass and couldn't finish it.  I haven't found too many Mexican drinks that I like, including Jamaica and Horchata.  They also had chalupas, which were good, but spicy as things generally are around here.  They were a little too spicy for my taste, but I still enjoyed it.

Chalupas

White Sands

On our way to White Sands, we had to stop at one of
the checkpoints for CBP to check our citizenship status.
There I noticed this sign, so if anyone is looking
for a job, here's one! :)

I went to White Sands National Monument in New Mexico today with some work friends.  We got a slightly late start, but the timing worked out fine.  The drive to White Sands from here is about 2 hours.  We arrived around noon and went to the visitor's center.  There they had an interesting video about the area.  Did you know that shrimp eggs can lay dormant in the sand for hundreds of years?  So when water actually pools in the area, it fills up with shrimp and other living creatures.  I had no idea that happened.
After the video, a couple of my friends bought sleds and we went sledding in the dunes.  At first it wasn't very fast, but the more you used the same path, the faster you went down.  The hard part was climbing back up the dunes.  It was still fun.

The White Sands National Monument Visitor Center

When we had our fill of sledding in the sand, we started the hike.  We did the longest, almost off-the-beaten path hike.  It was about 5 miles round trip and we followed posts with reflective plastic on the top.  It was really beautiful and the weather was gorgeous.  It was nice to be outside and walking, even though I got a little burnt.  Walking up and down the dunes also really worked my calves.
The hike has a register at the beginning that you have to sign in and out of.  That way if you get lost, at the end of the day, they'll know that someone is missing.  We stopped back at the Visitor's Center on our way out.  I bought a souvenir and we headed out.

Ready to go sledding!

We stopped at Cracker Barrel just over the Texas-New Mexico border for dinner.  I got beef stew (which I was very happy to find had veggies so soft I could actually eat them) with mashed potatoes and corn bread.  At first the waiter brought biscuits, but he made a mistake and thought I wanted the biscuits for some reason.
I went over to one of my friend's house to watch House.  We made it just in time.  I didn't see the first episode yet, but she explained to me what happened.  Things are getting pretty crazy in that show.  As a result, I'm getting to bed a little late tonight, and I didn't make my lunch for tomorrow.  But oh well, sometimes sleep is more important than food.

The register at the beginning of the trail . . . just in case

Hiking up these dunes really works your legs.  Its quite
exhausting

Mountains in the far distance

The sand dunes move over time, the smaller
orange sticking out of the sand is where the
trail sign post used to be

A formation in the sand dunes.  I think this was made by the
plant behind me as a way to protect itself from the
moving sand.  You can't take off your sunglasses in
this environment because the sun is so bright and the
sand is so reflective

Ripples in the desert

The changing landscape

Shopping

Wow, I am feeling really tired right now.  I'm not exactly sure why except maybe its because I've had such a busy weekend so far.  And tomorrow is a Holiday, so its not over yet!
In any event, I recently bought a new dress and I wanted to share a picture of it with you all.  I am wearing one of the pairs of shoes that I bought yesterday.  Now, do you think this dress is too bold for me to wear to work? Or does it works as professional attire?

What's your vote?

Having Fun

Gizmo hanging out with me while I put my lawn mower
together

This weekend has been really busy for me so far.  Yesterday I went to El Paso (got stuck in border traffic) to meet some friends from work for dinner.  We went to this great little restaurant called Forti's Mexican Elder Restaurant off of I-10 and Paisano Drive.  It had a great atmosphere and the food was really good.  I tried my first chile relleno (stuffed and breaded chili pepper) which I didn't care for, but the other food was really good.  And I managed to eat most of it!
After that I stopped at Target to looks at picture frames for the kids in my church.  I found one that would have been perfect if it wasn't so expensive....  Oh well.

My lawn mower

Then today was a busy day.  I woke up around 6:30, exercised (which I've started doing again lately), showered, and then decided to work in my yard.  I finally put together my cordless, electric lawn mower that I got several weeks ago, and mowed my lawn.  I also had to use my clippers to trip some of the edges.  I may need to invest in an edger or a weed whacker.  I had these huge weeds growing in my back yard that I had to pull out of the ground because I couldn't cut the stems.  They were practically like little trees.  I was really surprised to see such tiny roots when it just popped out of the ground, especially since the weed was nearly as tall as I am.  It was good to get the yard cleaned up a little, but I didn't finish before I went to my guitar class.
After my guitar class, I went to El Paso to look at more frames.  I ended up spending a lot of money, too.  I found a pair of long boots that actually fit me!  I guess my calves must have shrunk, because I've never been able to wear boots that went over my calves before.  It felt pretty good.  I also bought 5 pairs of shoes (I know what you're thinking, but they were all different colors/styles and for different purposes, so its not gluttonous or wasteful).  I bought a new jacket which probably was gluttonous considering where I live, but I am very open about my jacket fetish.  It must be from growing up in North Dakota.

Here's the end of the weed I pulled, you can see the tiny
and fragile roots, and above that the marks from my
attempt at cutting it down.  I'm sure there is a great
analogy to life in this little plant.

I bought a little table to put in my "maid's quarters" which is really just this little room outside under my staircase and next to the garage.  Its not heated or air conditioned, but I keep my lawn tools out there, and I didn't want to just leave them lying on the ground.  So I bought the table to put the tools on.
I bought 3 new pairs of jeans, some kitchen utensils, a table runner, a ceramic vase and some fake flowers, a push broom for sweeping my sidewalk, a purse, a wallet, and a shelf for my DVDs.  I got a few other random things, but those were the major purchases.  I guess I just haven't done much shopping lately and I really let it out.  But all that stuff was bought in stores that I originally entered to look at frames.  Most of them had frames way too expensive for my needs, but I got some good deals.

My first attempt at decorating.  What do you think?

I came back, put my stuff away and finished working in my yard.  It looks so much better now, despite the dry spots/dirt in the grass.  I'm going to do something eventually to my yard.  And I'm thinking I could fit a table/chairs in my yard.  That would be nice for if I ever have anyone come over to my house.  But that will wait for another day when I'm feeling slightly crazy.

If you like pina coladas!

I was just about done when one of my friends called to see if I wanted to go to dinner.  We ended up going to this restaurant near the Consulate called La Diana's.  I got Creme de elote con chile verde (cream of corn soup).  It was actually pretty good.  My friend got empanadas with jamaica as an appetizer, which was alright (better than the drink which I don't like) and shrimp enchiladas for her meal.  She didn't really care for any of it.  We also got cheesecake for dessert which wasn't anything special.  But the atmosphere was nice, except for the waiter that kept snapping a towel at his fellow employees.  That was NOT very professional.  I also got a virgin pina colada.
I was supposed to do something else tonight, but it didn't work out.  That may be for the best because I am feeling rather tired.  But so far this weekend has been a lot of fun and rather productive.

International Balloon Fiesta

Entertainer at an intersection, visible for a brief moment

I went to the International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM this weekend.  I went with some of my colleagues.  We left last night.  As I was headed to the border last night, I was surprised to see an entertainer at one of the intersections.  The entertainer was twirling a flaming stick.  I couldn't see it most of the time, but it was still interesting to see another way that someone tries to make a little money around here.
We left for NM on a bus around 11:30 last night.  It was pretty easy to get to sleep until we were woken up by CBP at one of the checkpoints.  You see, something like 30 miles from the border, CBP has checkpoints to check on citizenship and permission to be father in the US.  People who have border crossing cards (basically a visa, but in card form) are allowed to be in the 30-mile border area without getting the normal permission called an I-94.  The I-94 allows people to go past the 30-mile border and stay as long as CBP allows.  So the checkpoint is to make sure that people have their I-94s, or are citizens.

Vendors at the fiesta

Anyway, after that we had a few hours before we arrived at the fair grounds.  We arrived around 4:30 am, and already there were lines of cars arriving.  We waited a little before we headed out.  Despite the early hour, there were a lot of vendors open.  We checked out some things and I decided on what I wanted to get later, then we got breakfast.  It was pretty cold, so we walked around to keep ourselves warm.  Around 5:30 or so they started inflating the first balloons and around 6:00 they launched the dawn patrol, the first balloons. It was pretty cool.  After the sun rose, the rest of the balloons started being launched.  There were hundreds of balloons of all different shapes, sizes, and colors.  They kept launching until around 9:00.
After that, we basically relaxed (I ended up falling asleep) until we went to get lunch.  After lunch, we bought our souvenirs, walked around the emptying grounds before returning to the bus.  We headed back around 1:00.  It was a short trip, but it was fun.  And now I really want to go for a hot air balloon ride.

The damn patrol, lit and almost ready to go

Flag balloon

Me at the fiesta

Balloon carrying the U.S. flag

Rolling out a ballooon

Balloons flying overhead

A tourist penguin

Darth Vader

Balloons in memory of POW-MIA

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta