Happy Halloween!

Today is Halloween, the day we are all allowed to dress up in costumes, party, and gorge on candy.

Like the vast majority of my neighbors, I did not go trick or treating. The baby is still too little to appreciate trick or treating, but my neighborhood is largely Mexican and with trick or treating being a largely American custom, it's just not a common practice down there (Mexicans, however, have something better-sugar skulls, sweet bread, and altars set up in memory of deceased family members!). It also doesn't help that just about every lot in the park has a fence of some sort up and some kind of dog(s) behind them. A barking, snarling dog or two makes it kinda hard to go up to someone's door and say trick or treat.

But, we did celebrate in our own little way! Some months back, my husband's cousin sent us a care package from her home in southern Louisiana. In addition to some classic Cajun/NOLA goodies, she sent a pumpkin outfit! We broke out the pumpkin outfit for this afternoon's outing to church.

Growing out of the blankets on the bed was...a pumpkin baby!

While some claim that supernatural activity (especially the evil kind) reaches its apex on Halloween, we had a rather fortuitous encounter with one of our Carmelite padres when we went to the other church for Confession. We were getting ready to leave and go home when we saw him crossing the parking lot on his way back from the bakery across the street with a few boxes of doughnuts. He was not wearing his habit, so I didn't recognize him at first, but his distinctive hair and eyeglasses gave him away. He offered us some of the doughnuts and while I admittedly don't care much for doughnuts, I was not about to turn down free food. My husband took it as a sign of approval from God for time spent in good penance and not causing mischief while going door-to-door for candy.

And that was how I spent my Saturday. Hope you had a safe and happy Halloween, and I can't wait to score some half-off Halloween candy tomorrow. 

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Cuteness attack!

That Princess Leia-style blanket on the baby's head was actually inspired by a Hong Kong based beauty vlogger who made a similar headwrap for her son and herself using a towel. That headwrap is known as a Sheep Head wrap from Korea, and it is used in the sauna or bath. It was too cute not to try, even though it ended up looking more like the headdress of a member of the Sisters of Charity.

Have a good week!

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A most vigorous chomp!

About a week ago, my mom sent a care package which included that chompy toy for the baby. It's become her favorite chompy. The company that made it was Nuby, and I must say, I'm quite pleased with the quality of their products. My daughter's disgraced godfather bought her a teething toy by the same company a while back, and she likes playing with it when we're out. They're both easy to grasp and effective at soothing sore teething gums.

I love being a mom. There is something fulfilling about watching my child grow from a tiny helpless infant into a boisterous child who is curious about the world and everything in it. I only hope that I don't become a helicopter parent and render her completely unequipped to deal with the world at large when it comes time for her to leave me and make her own way in life. I also hope that I can accept her for who she is and not someone she should be, a very painful lesson still resonating with me today.

The Taquero

Greetings!

Here's something to make your mouth water:

Support your local establishments. This torta (top) and taco plate were from a nearby taqueria

http://www.buzzfeed.com/norbertobriceno/tacos-tacos-tacooooos?utm_term=.hbqm7pNNR

In English, a "taquero" is someone who makes tacos. They can be found in food trucks or taco stands and are renowned for whipping up delicious down-home food. Here in Arizona, taqueros and their ventures are dime a dozen. Their tacos are a great fill for cheap (often less than $1!).

My time here in Arizona has spoiled me. Why should I patronize chains like Taco Bell and Chipotle when there are places nearby where I can get REAL Mexican food? That right there is an incentive to keep me here in Arizona for the foreseeable future. I've become accustomed to spice and would hate to move someplace where what passes for Mexican food is bland and corporatized.

Enjoy the article, and thank your local taqueros for the delicious work they do.

Daily Deliciousness

Greetings, dear readers!

Last night, after discovering a new recipe for cornbread, my wonderful husband set about in the kitchen to work his magic for dinner.

Homemade buttermilk cornbread topped with bacon and E-Z Chili

And here is the chef proudly showing off his work.

The man behind the meals

While I may not have the best relationship with my family, I am forever grateful to them for helping my husband and I buy this trailer to live in and raise our children. Something as simple as having a working oven was an all but distant memory until we moved in here. Now that we've upgraded from a precariously-balanced toaster oven to a real one, even I who seldom cooks will get a chance to try my hand at baking!

Rainy Day Fun

Fall has finally arrived in Arizona! It came late in the morning with a storm, but we finally get cooler temperatures for a while.

I shot a brief video of this storm, but Blogger wouldn't upload it due to size constraints. My late father-in-law would call this a "turd floater"

The flooded street

For the first time ever, I had to dress the baby in long sleeves and long pants! Like mommy, she's a lazy fashionista

During a break in the storm, we went outside to survey the damage. There wasn't any except for flooding, thank goodness, but there was something else waiting to be seen at the neighbors.

In addition to mom and dad, there are nine zooting pinchable pit bull pups in that yard. It was so cute seeing them all out with their little tails wagging and playful chomps!

There is no rainy day here without a selfie.

Copycat faces

The second round of the storm brought some small hail crashing down, but that was as ferocious as it got. What passed for the third round was some wind and a brief shower. There is some more rain expected during the night, but all remains quiet for now.

Welcome Autumn! It's good to see you here.

The Eclipse

Happy Monday everyone!

As many of you are probably aware, especially if you live in North America like I do, there was a lunar eclipse last night. While lunar eclipses are somewhat rare, they are not uncommon astronomical phenomena. As such, this particular lunar eclipse stood out because it coincided with a "supermoon", where the moon is at its closest point to earth during orbit.

Like many people all across Arizona and the North American continent (including Canada, where a photographer friend of mine snapped some pix of the eclipse outside his home in Toronto), I grabbed my camera and headed outside to watch the eclipse and take pictures. We were fortunate here in Southern Arizona to have clear skies, as many parts of the US were covered in clouds which obscured the show.

I took a ton of pictures and some video, but ultimately, my cellphone camera proved to have positively horrid resolution. It made getting a good, accurate picture impossible. I'll post the best ones out of the bunch, but they're not photographer quality.

Contrary to certain apocalyptic prophesies, the world did not end when the earth passed between the moon and the sun. A little knowledge of orbits and time can predict within reasonable degrees of accuracy when eclipses will occur, and the next time a supermoon eclipse like this is slated to appear is in 18 years.

The moon rose eclipsed

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It was pretty well covered at this point. I used the night photo setting on my cellphone to get this pic

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The eclipse was over pretty fast

We brought the baby out to watch the eclipse too. She'll be a teenager the next time one of these rolls around

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. As much as cellphone cameras have improved within the last couple years, they're still not as good as regular digital cameras. My digital camera wasn't working, so cellphone it had to be.

Throwback Thursday

It's that time of the week!

Me with my favorite pink bandanna and Desert Storm windbreaker, and my brother looking like a hitman

This is my brother and I at Alcatraz Island in 2012. My uncle took us to San Francisco, CA that year for our annual family vacation (my parents did not come, so these vacations were some one-on-one time that we could spend with our uncle). Sadly, this would be the last family vacation I would go on with them. My overall family situation severely deteriorated and I would leave a few months after this photo was taken (my computer dates this photo to August 14, 2012).

Family vacations were a special time for my brother and I. Since our uncle was not married or had children and he made quite alot of money as an optical engineer, we basically became like "his kids". We enjoyed it when our uncle would come to visit us from Indiana and he too liked to spend lots of time with us. Vacations with him were a way for us to see the places that my parents would never set foot in either for cost constraints or other reasons. This annual tradition began in 2007, when my mom finally allowed my uncle to take myself and my brother to New York City, something we'd wanted to do for years. I have many fond memories of my vacations with my uncle.

Throwback Thursday

Hi everyone!

A little something for #TBT

Yechh!

This photograph was taken in 2008, just before I'd left my home state of Illinois to go to college in Arizona. That hideous pillow in my hands was created by one of my dad's patients (he was a tailor and made that pillow as a down payment until his check came in).

I have no idea what happened to that pillow after this picture was taken. I think we wound up donating it to Salvation Army or something like that.

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Man at work

Recently, our ancient and leaky bathtub faucet went to faucet heaven after corrosion finally destroyed the seals in the hot/cold handles. Since we live in a trailer, RV plumbing is both readily available where we live, and quite affordable too. The latter part is important because while we probably could have replaced the seals, that job would have been more costly and trouble than it was worth. So, we shopped carefully and ordered a new faucet for the bathroom. My hubby spent the evening installing the new faucet and making sure nothing leaked. No longer will we have to gorilla the handles when finished bathing.

As difficult as a financially impoverished existence is, it can be quite an instructive way to live. Since calling a repair person is not affordable, one has to learn how to fix things not only by themselves, but if parts are not readily available, what are acceptable substitutes.

I'm very grateful to have my husband in this regard. He's my handyman and my McGyver. It's a shame so much repair know-how is gone. Our disposable society has rendered us infantile.

Feuding with Fundies

Today's post was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend on Facebook this morning as I was eating breakfast. My friend, who lives in India, recently entered into an online relationship with a woman here in the US.  After congratulating him on the happy news, I asked my friend a few questions about his new girlfriend to get an idea of what she was like. He explained to me that while she lives at home with her parents and is a freelance DJ on the weekends, there's a feud going on between her and her parents because her parents are fundamentalist Christians while she is an atheist.

When one thinks of the word "fundamentalist", at least here in America, two specific images come to mind: one of a howling preacher standing in front of a congregation, waving around a Bible and admonishing his congregants to be "saved" or burn in hell; and the other of Moslem terrorists posing for pictures while brandishing a Koran in one hand and weapons in the other.

Dubs and Osama-two sides of the same coin

To understand these seemingly contradictory images, one must first know what "fundamentalism" means. Linguistically, the term "fundamentalist" is based on the root word "fundament", which means "foundation". In each of these two images, the preacher and the terrorist, the individuals believe that what they are doing is the correct way to practice their religions because their respective sacred scriptures say certain things which are to be followed, word for word.

This is where the trouble starts. Because fundamentalists believe that THEIR way is the "right" way, it causes all sorts of problems in society at large.

If you look beyond the linguistic definition of "fundament", you'll also see it refers to an anus; more crudely, the ass hole.

Pastor Robert Tilton, also known as "The Farting Preacher", appropriately enough

Ultimately, the fundamentalist is an asshole.

By its very nature, fundamentalism of any stripe (from the religious to the secular) puts ignorance up on a pedestal and says "this is what you must aspire to be. Anything outside our sacred texts is sinful!" It's one thing to be able to cite the preferred religious/secular texts backwards, forwards, up and down; but it doesn't mean shit if it renders you incapable of functioning within society at large.

That is ultimately the big beef I have with fundamentalism. Because of the ignorance that results from being exposed to such an insular world, the thumper essentially spits in God's face by telling Him "Your creation is not good enough for me! Therefore, it's not worth learning about!" Religious fundamentalists deny themselves knowledge of sciences, history, philosophy, and even knowledge of other sects of their own faith, much less other faiths. Secular fundamentalists deny themselves knowledge of religious traditions and practices, as well as humanities; the "why" aspects of life.

Do yourself a favor. Don't be a thumper. Don't be an asshole

Picture of the Day

Jambalaya, crawfish pie, and file' gumbo 🎶🐟#jambalaya #homemade #food #whatsfordinner #zatarains #lovefromneworleans

A photo posted by Tamara Tamtam Morris (@tr0u8ad0ur_520) on Aug 22, 2015 at 9:28pm PDT

For clarification on the origin of that caption:

Happy Sunday everyone!

Picture of the Day

Saw this on my Facebook feed and thought it was far too funny to pass up

Thus, your daily dose of humor

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Snoozing with Daddy #baby #girl #babiesofinstagram #daddysgirl #love #naptime #blackandwhite

A photo posted by Tamara Tamtam Morris (@tr0u8ad0ur_520) on Aug 4, 2015 at 11:57a

 My daughter and my husband enjoying a snooze together

Enjoy your time with loved ones. They're too precious to miss.

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