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[ehowton]

Last night, I remembered omelette's. I was at one client site on and off for something like six years across two accounts. And there was this man, Richard. He was the short-order cook. Came in every morning early, and hand chopped all the vegetables and meats, and hand broke and whipped the eggs. He was a great man. Every morning, on and off for something like six years, he would make me an omelette for breakfast. He would put a little oil on the griddle and spread it out. While it was heating he would grab a styrofoam plate and pile upon it diced green peppers, crumbled bacon & sausage, sliced black olives, chopped tomato, diced onion & ham, and of course, sliced jalepenos. Once these ingredients were gathered, he'd put it on the oil, mix it up a bit, and move it to the side. With this a little more oil he'd spread out with his spatula and a ladlefull of whipped eggs atop it. As the egg bubbled, he'd gather up a nice portion of shredded cheese and cover the egg while turning the other ingredients on the grill. The smell alone...wow. I used to wait with gleeful anticipation of it all coming together. He'd fill the egg with three-quarters of the mixture and deftly fold it over itself before placing it on a plate and then topping the creation with the last quarter of ingredients from the grill, and topping that again with cheese. Now, this wasn't my favorite part. My favorite part was topping the omelette with the fresh cream gravy made every morning. This would melt the cheese atop the omelette, and I would lastly pour a healthy portion of Cholula on the gravy. These are my fondest memories of Richard, the short-order cook. Nowadays, I go to IHOP for a ham & cheese and an order of gravy on the side. It's not Richard's omelette, and I've tried to make them myself the way he could, and have failed. At least IHOP keeps Cholula on the table. Richard retired six months ago. You will be missed sir.

---

In concluding the first segment of this missive, and understanding that some of my readers may not have been familiar with Cholula, I chose to provide a link to my hot-sauce of choice. This isn't your boring Louisiana cayenne & vinegar hot sauce. This is the real-deal. Anyway, in linking it, I found myself on their web page and realized that I'd never been there before. This in and of itself wasn't exciting, but the discovery of new Cholula seasonings in three flavors was VERY exciting. I immeditely tried to purchase a case online, but couldn't find the 'sample pack' of them, that is, two of each of the flavors. All they sell is a case of six of any one flavor. Spying the contact number on the sidebar (a damn rare thing these days) I reached for the batphone and made the call. A very pleasent-sounding lady answered and after explaining my dilemna, she said, "What's your name?" I told her. "Are you going to put in an online order right now?" YES! YES! YES! "Ok, I'll flag the order when it comes in and make you a sample pack to ship out." Woo-hoo! Now, shipping is fully one-third the cost of the case, but hey, it's Cholula!

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Couple years ago some doctors came onto the Oprah show to talk about their new breakout book, YOU: The Owners Manual. They said some radical things and explained things with their enthusiam and visual aids that really stuck a chord with America and made a personal difference in my life. Yesterday, they were on Oprah again, and once again, another breakthrough book which my wife had purchased yesterday, the day it was released, YOU: On A Diet (Waist Management) and Oprah couldn't say enough fascinating things about it, and the doctors. "They have unlocked the secret to weight-loss and a healthy lifestyle," she said. I then heard her say, "America needs to know this!" Everyone was very excited. I was very excited. The show begins. It had the same amount of enthusiam and visual aids as the last time. A lot of information, a lot of excitement. The show concludes. Now, I want to save you a little money, as I have the book, will read it, and I did watch the show (there's a follow-up on Discovery Health tonight at 2200). I will tell you what the secret is, according to these two outstanding doctors:

• Eat a healthy diet.


• Exercise.

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I made an appointment to get an oil change this morning, as they were too busy last night. They promised me it wouldn't take more than half an hour. It took an hour. I perused the selection of magazines and finally settled on 'Ebony' as it was the most interesting magazine there. There was a lot of talk of politics, and a special on Jesse Jackson. There was a quote in there I agreed with (by none other than Al Sharpton believe it or not) who suggested that the young don't see it, but those who are older can appreciate what he's done. Now I'm under no illusions that they weren't expecting a white Texan to be reading their magazine, but I found myself in that catagory. And I know my father would tell me that if you do enough stuff, you're bound to do something right every now and again on accident, and that a couple of good acts don't erase a lifetime of liberalism, but I used to despise the man. That is, until he started bringing our captured soldiers back from all over the world. I really respect that.

---

Bill gave me his SGI Octane. I'm pretty excited, though I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do with it yet. In fact, I shudder to think of doing something with it before I get my SPARC box back up. Had a nice chat with unixwolf who also found my Sun rack. It was a good chat. Have a great weekend everyone!

Comments

[dreamkatch.livejournal.com]

1. I'm just sad that I didn't get to try one of those omelettes! I was thinking about omelettes recently...and western sandwiches. Mmmmmm......tomorrow is a sleep-in saturday, maybe I'll spoil myself with something like that for breakfast!

2. Never tried those sauces or spices. I'm not a big hot-sauce fan, but I'd be curious to at least try it. I wonder if it's something you can buy in Canada?

3. So typical of Oprah. That's why I can't stand to watch that or Dr. Phil anymore. They make such a big freaking deal about stating the obvious! Like Dr. Phil will get some 500 lb beast on the show and every 10 seconds into her sob story there'll be a commercial break leading up to the big moment when Dr. Phil decides why it is she's so fat. Finally, 5 minutes before the end of the show, Dr. Phil yells out,"You can't lose weight cuz ya won't stop eatin! Ya can't lose weight if ya don't stop eatin all the time!"
and everybody gasps in the shock of,"Oh my gosh he's right!"

Ugh.

4. I believe that magazines like Ebony promote racism and racial inequality. I believe that the typical magazine that is geared around white people is pretty much the National Enquirer and not worth reading anyway. A good way to promote equality (at least as far as magazines are concerned) is to burn them all.

5. That Octane thing looks like a mini refrigerator. I have no idea what it is. I'm only a wannabe nerd. Not a real one. But I try.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

1. They were the best I've ever had, and I estimate I ate 1,500 of them. I miss them.

2. Send me your physical address (mailto:ehowton@yahoo.com) and I'd love to send you some!

3. Bingo. How very funny. I typically watch Oprah once every two years...when these guys are on.

4. I agree with your assessment; there wasn't one picture of a white dude in there. Still, it beat the hell outta Golf Digest and Engine Mechanic.

5. It's an SGI unix box. Runs Irix. You go girl. It does the opposite of a refrigerator - it gets hot inside!

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

5. Dude! No inuendos.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I assure you sir, I am connoting nothing negative.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

1. Lots of luck with your endavor.

2. Ibid.

3. My question is, why are so many people duped by that woman? The same with Dr. Pill.

4. Good point all around, but I wouldn't trade anything for my PC Mag nor for the programming perodicals and journals.

5. A refigerator? You can do better then that.

What think you of Sir Howton's new comic series?

Haven't seen you around in quite some time. Good to hear from you.

[ximo.livejournal.com]

I see he didn't give you the special "improved" SGI box that we all loved so much (and got him into trouble iirc).

Good sauce is like any other good ingredient, well worth the cost if you ask me.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I've got no point of reference to the other sgi box, but I know who ended up with it.

I'm already making a list of all the things I'm going to put my Cholula seasoning on...can't wait to use it on the grill!

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

If you are the expert of cunnilingus as you claim, you might want to watch where you put the hot sauce. It may taste better that way, but I'm not so sure that everyone involved would care for your "zest" of life.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Very funny. Apparently you've never tried it yourself, as it doesn't quite work out that way.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

Which way?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

The way in which you implied it would.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

I am sorry to hear that Richard moved on to bigger and better things. Did you ever think of tracking him down and asking him to teach you his mad skilz before his days on this earth are concluded? Did you ever think that maybe the secret wasn't in the omlet but rather in the gravy?


spying the contact number on the sidebar (a damn rare thing these days)...
Amen, brother!


Opehurrah, Dr. Pill and Nosy Rosy are not to be taken seriously. Think of their shows as reality soap operas minus all the bad acting.


The uhh Reverennnnnd Jacks-hnnnnn...it's always refreshing to hear a new point of view on an old issue.

Irix, eh? Interesting.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

The omelette, as detailed above, was a work of art. I ate approximately 1500 during my tenure there. Some days, they didn't have gravy, and I simply compensated by completely covering that fat buldging wrap with more Cholula.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

It is accomplished.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Listening as I type.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

ah! Now that must be quite a sound. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when you update Galinda today.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

Post already damn you!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Done.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

Thank you sir. Like my reference on my latest post?

[irulan-amy.livejournal.com]

I want one of those omelettes...badly. :)

You are right about that hot sauce - it rocks. I remember the first bottle I purchased because I picked it up at Epcot Center. I liked the design of the label. ;)

Healthy diet and exercise? NO! I have a mini-rant about that, ladies at work constantly whining about how they "can't" lose weight (while eating leftover pizza from a conference room). I know exactly what is contributing to the expansion of my hips, and for now it's controllable and I don't mind. I also don't try to disillusion myself that the piece of chocolate is "good" for me. I know it's bad. And I love it. ;) Anyway...

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Those omelettes were so fantastic, the mere words I manipulated didn't do the justice they deserved.

74% pure chocolate form the health food store is not only not supposed to be bad for you, but actually good for you. Might want to check into that one. It may take a little to get used to not being creamy milk chocolate, but...

[irulan-amy.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, and I tend to prefer the dark bitter chocolates anyway. Interesting...

[princessleia2.livejournal.com]

Woohoo for scoring an Octane.

We too are now proud owners of an SGI box, a friend of ours gave us an SGI O2 for a wedding gift.

Gosh we're nerds.

Similarly, we don't have a clue what we're going to do with it. The little Sparc32 that we have isn't even hooked up, it's just sitting around looking cool.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

What an awesome wedding gift - how cool is that?

Irix is a bear to install and load, and I don't even know at what level this one is yet - I'll likely use latest feature though and steer clear of maintenance. My little Indigo2 wasn't beefy enough to be a desktop box, but I hear the Octane can provide plenty of real estate ;)

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

What are you doing with the Octane these days?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Its holding up part of my desk. I've found it in that regard to be a very stable server.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

Just be careful that it doesn't crash!