Monday

I cooked a strange medley of peas, corn, and black beans in a paprika garlic sauce tonight. I was planning to make spaghetti, but about halfway into the process of making my patented "ninety-minute sauce," I realized that Rosy had tossed out all my tomato stuff: veggies, puree, everything. All I had were some cans of V8, and I'm not making V8 sauce ever again. So I made do out of powders. A little curry, a little turmeric, a little poblano, a lot of paprika: the only real ingredient I used besides water was some nice, fresh, chopped-up rosemary. The food turned out all right, all things considered. It is just about monarch butterfly season* again, a subject near and dear to this blog. Over the weekend a moderate five point five earthquake* hit just off Mexico's southernmost point, near Puerto Escondido, and was felt 240 miles away in the capital (although, as with the last one, there have been no reported casualties or damages). ALMO has again named* a number of people in connection with a conspiracy theory to deny him the presidency, again offering up highly interpretive "evidence" as corroboration. At the same time, leftist protestors agreed to release the important Reforma Avenue* in Mexico City to alleviate concerns over getting kids through back to school traffic, though they immediately blocked the Cathedral instead. Workers walked out* of the Volkswagen plant in Puebla on Friday, and possibly this, too, will help with the capital's traffic situation*. On the other hand: apparently a long line of brand new, well, tanks* have appeared parked outside Mexico's federal congress building after police had to subdue the largest mob violence yet in connection with the political situation there today (several legislators knocked around, no real injuries). Now that's trafficking! [Cavin]