Argh!
6:53 p.m. - 2005-05-24


I had a fear that while I was gone to Texas the folks at work would discover how little there really is for me to do there now, and would axe me when I came back, or find something else for me to do. I made a few jokes to this effect to the spouse, but fate is cruel, and it turns out I was right!!! Visible-Thong Girl put in her notice and I am now going to man the lenders desk. Oh, the horror!!! Actually, I think I can probably get the hang of it, since the last time I subbed it was easier than before, and they felt they had to bribe me to do it by giving me a raise. To help myself recover from the shock of it all, I took myself to the yarn shop on my lunch hour and bought three Jaeger books with lovely classic sweaters.

I asked my boss when my new hours will begin, because they tell me I will no longer be doing the namerun! After three years of stress I will be free, free, free! Tallia is coming back from maternity leave and they are going to make her do it. How's that for a welcome back? Especially since her first day back will be the end-of-the-month day. One can only laugh.

Now that I am rested a little from the jaunt to Texas, I will describe some of my culinary adventures. I ate an excellent pozole at the puffy taco restaurant, had the best ribs ever in Flatonia, finally tasted a fried pickle, and enjoyed (who would have guessed it?) fried okra. I also had a dish that was new to me, Pollo con Calabacitas y Elote. I have to hunt up a recipe for that. I also cooked some shrimp.

When we got to Galveston, we cooked for ourselves in the beach house, but we wanted to try the local seafood. One day, the hubster and I went to a local shrimp shack and bought 2 lbs of fresh-from-the-ocean shrimp. I have never in my life cooked shrimp before, but I knew the shack was an OK place because a man from the fire department was there ahead of us buying shrimp. We found a cheap copy of "How To Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman at the used book store, and this book told us how to cook the shrimp, but seemed to assume we would be using cleaned shrimp from the supermarket. Ours had heads, feelers a foot long, and legs, though thankfully not wiggly. Not knowing if you cut the heads off first or not, I just threw them in the pot whole. Those feelers would not stay down in the water and hung out over the edge of the pot. It was very unappetizing. My splendid spouse had volunteered to behead, shell, and devein them after cooking, so I left him to it. In spite of the grossness of it all, they were the sweetest, tastiest shrimp I have ever had. Lucky Southerners, with all their cheap shrimp. Here, all the shrimp are frozen and exceedingly expensive.

Tomorrow I have to train again with Visible-Thong Girl. Sigh.