Wacky Weather

I wish the Arizona weather would make up its mind. First it was cold, record overnight lows in many places. With the low temperatures I would like to thank my neighbors for blasting their heat and keeping my apartment at a fairly reasonable temperature that week. A week after this we broke record highs with temperatures making it in the low 80s.  I nearly had to turn the AC on!



With the cold leaves fell off many of the trees giving the area around where I live a fall feel. The picture with the bare trees and leaves piled up remind of September growing up.  While walking around someone shared that "It feels like Indian Summer back home." That it did.


Then the rains came. This is the pond near my office. It isn't supposed to be a pond.

 I played with the image a little by cropping it:

Then to be silly I rotated the image

 Then I cropped it some more

And I rotated it too. You can tell this is the reflection by the patch of grass visible at the upper left and the ripples in the upper right.

I've been pretty busy with classes and other administrative duties so I haven't been particularly creative in the kitchen lately. This weekend I did make tacos. There were plenty of leftovers so I will be able to properly celebrate Taco Tuesday this coming Tuesday. I usually make fairly dull tacos by browning ground beef and adding some kind of seasoning packet (Simply Organic's Southwest Taco this time). To make them less dull I pickled some sliced red onion and also added boiled cubed potatoes to the ground beef just before adding the seasoning packet.  The tacos turned out well. The melted cheese with seasoned ground beef and potatoes made for good eating. I ate my tacos with Amy's Traditional refried beans which I maintain are the best canned refried beans on the market.



While shopping I came across a can of beer that caught my attention. Ska Brewing Company (I'd add their link but it makes noise when it loads!) made a Mole' Stout as a seasonal release. The description sounded interesting so I bought a six pack to give it a try. Not bad as stouts go. I don't detect any chiles but I did taste the cocoa. Given that this stout is a little sweet and with the cocoa powder and the spices I have to say it tastes a lot like a cookie my mom makes at Christmas.  Yes a beer that reminds me of cookies! As long as they don't make a samoas beer I'll be okay.