After mind-altering, tough negotiations that lasted less than 30 seconds we now have set the date for our annual family outing to the Texas Renaissance Festival: We’re going on October 22. It’s a long day, starting before 5 A.M. and ending sometime short of midnight; at least it’s traditionally that. I do the driving [...]

1. Bye-Bye Lamar, Hello Lamar: The Trip Home to Texas With all the celebrating and visiting over, it was...

Me, I like to eat what [...]

1. Garden Update: Okra’s Up! Where did the word “gumbo” come from? From Africa,...
2. Garden Update: Radishes, Peas and Cukes, Oh My! The garden’s all in here, and it’s about time!...

We made opening day (October 10) at the Texas Renaissance Festival this year. We hadn’t done that in a decade or more! We went prepared fore wet weather, as a cold front passed by during the night. We didn’t have any rain all day, though. There was quite a bit of water in the [...]

Unbelievably, The last few months have been amazing here at the Chile Underground. Readership went up 37% in September alone, continuing a trend over the last four months that has seen visits increase by over [...]

With the month about to wrap up, I thought I’d bring in some “short bites” that won’t make a full article for the Underground:

The Austin Chronicle reviews a new book by a local author, Ms. Gesine Bullock-Prado: “Confections of a Closet Master Baker.”
If you’re in the Austin area, check out some of the food [...]

Today’s the day; the day the best damn calorimetry team you ever heard of packs up and leaves Washington DC for home…

One more breakfast in the small dining room at the Comfort Inn, elbowing our way through the crowd of eager tourists all stoking up for the long day of walking and touring. Juice, [...]

Tim and Derek had seen a lot of stuff on Tuesday, but they were ready to see another full day’s worth of sights today. We grabbed breakfast at the motel, then squeezed into the shuttle van with about a dozen other brave souls tourists headed downtown and hung on for the five-minute screaming session [...]

I’ve mentioned John Carey, our driver in Ireland, quite a bit the last few posts. Time to pay him his due in writing. The short version: He did a phenomenal job for us, and we’re grateful for his active assistance in forging strong memories during our trek.

I’ve known John for a few years now. [...]

Today was very hard. Just getting out of bed, after yesterday’s mad dash (and six extra hours due to time-zone relocations), is Very Hard. Realizing we’re not in Ireland anymore, well, that’s the Hardest of All…

It was fun, though. Grand, glorious fun! All the tasty pub grub; touring around Dublin, then travelling most of [...]