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About Ramblings of a Hopeless Khowaga

Welcome to my Web site. My name is Chris, and I’ll be your host. I live in Austin, Texas, with my partner, Ray, and our child dog, Mocha. You can read more about me, learn 100 random things about me, and if you’re wondering what the heck a khowaga is, click here. Feel free to browse, read, and leave comments!

Tag: ‘thailand’



Randomness

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Each of the following is too short for a posting on its own, but I’ve worked up to a collection:

  • My brother and I seem to be incapable of having a phone conversation that doesn’t involve one of us waking up the other.  He called me at 11 PM my time and woke me up (I mentioned this previously).  I returned the favor by waking him up when I called him back.  In my defense, it was 1 PM his time when I called (he’d taken the red eye home from Thailand and was sleeping it off).
  • When I was trying to call my brother, I was having frustration issues with Skype: it absolutely refused to dial my brother’s South Korean mobile number–it kept dropping a digit.  Skype insisted that mobile numbers in South Korea are only supposed to have 9 digits–my brother’s has 10.  I was able to download an updated version of Skype that accepted the crucial 10th digit, but … I installed it on my laptop in early summer, at which point it was the latest version.  My brother has had the same mobile number for three years.
  • I just had a conversation with a coworker in which she was telling me–in great detail–that being gassed is a pain-free way to die.  I’m really not sure that I want to know why it is that she knows this.  This was after she ran down a list of everyone in the office that she didn’t want to hang.  It was a relatively short list.  Fortunately, I was on it … which didn’t stop me from backing away slowly.
  • I’m pretty sure there was an amateur porn star behind me in line at Wendy’s in the student union today.  Not right behind me,  just close enough for me to wonder why I thought I’d seen him before … and then to be embarrassed later when I realized where.  And relieved when I realized that I hadn’t actually seen the video in question (for the record: the haircut and crooked teeth.  Most of the guys recruited for those things are so interchangeable, I remember seeing an ad for his and thinking, “Jeez, what were they thinking?”)
  • This afternoon, my boss brought up four stacks of books from our reading room that had been on the shelves in his office, “for a little while” (as he said).  The books have been in his office at least since before we got new bookshelves in the reading room … which was in 2002.  I know my sense of time is a bit off, but wow.
  • This is funny.

Pickling Jalapenos

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

Taking a break from seriousness today — cos I needed it.  My brother called from an airport in Thailand last night at around 11.  The problem is that my back had been hurting all day so I took a muscle relaxer before I went to bed, and it wasn’t until I woke up this morning and saw my cell phone on the nightstand that I was sure he’d actually called.

I may have told him that mom has Dutch Elm disease.  I really don’t remember much about the conversation.

Anyway.  My afternoon project was to do something with the jalapenos growing in the garden.  I’ve pickled them before, but I didn’t care for the recipe much, so I decided to try a different one.

Pickled jalapenos are milder and just a touch sweeter than the fresh ones.  Also, this time I decided to slice them beforehand, so what I’m essentially making is nacho slices like the ones you get in jars at the grocery.

So, we start with mustard seeds, allspice, cloves, garlic, peppercorns, kosher salt, bay leaves, and brown sugar.  We add apple cider vinegar and bring it to a boil.

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While that’s working, I wash and slice the jalapenos.

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Then I slice them.

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And once the vinegar mixture is boiling, we pour it over the jalapenos.

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Into the fridge for 24 hours, then we strain them and pack them away with some of the reserved picking liquid for the cold winter months … er, weeks.  Or possibly days.  It’s hard to tell down here in Texas.

Hope your Saturday was calm :)

Police by Sanrio™

Monday, August 6th, 2007

The Bangkok police department has come up with an inventive new way to punish officers who break the rules: they must wear an armband that displays Hello Kitty.

“Guilty officers will be made to wear the armbands in the office for a few days, with instructions not to disclose their offenses. Let people guess what they have done,” Police Colonel Pongpat Chayapan said.

Well, that’s one way to do it. And tomorrow, if the President gives a press conference in a Hello Kitty T-shirt, well …

 

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