Rating a recent dining experience at 
Si Senor on Hall in Beaverton:

Using the Arizona Girls Rating System 
for Mexican Restaurants

(one point available 
for each item on the list, 
bonus at our discretion)

1) Free hot crisp chips (0.50, they were prompt and crisp but not hot or homemade)
2) Two or more salsa choices, one of which should be spicy HOT (1.0 salsa delivered with chips was quite good, didn't ask for more, had plenty of sauce with my relleno)
3) Margarita with tequila and lime in it, no high fructose corn syrup (0.50 for containing tequila)
4) Food and plate temperature sizzling hot (.75 warm)
5) Menu: simple, fresh, authentic, not "creative" (1.0, this is Mexican food)
6) Good sauces/beans&rice/tortillas (.50, the sauces were good but the beans, rice and torts were meh same as the last place)
7) Good entrees (1.0 good options, lots of sauce)
8) Reasonable price (.25 overpriced along with most Mexican food places in this town)
9) Pleasant space, warmth, colors, lighting, smells, service, etc (1.0 busy but clean)
10) "Sopapilla o' tortilla?” (.25 they actually have sopapillas on the menu but they cost $8 and are served covered in cinnamon sugar with a scoop of vanilla, yuck, did not order)
BONUS: House was packed and service good (+.25).
Total score: 7.0, not bad for a Texas-sized business, someone's making good money.

We just received a couple of Christmas gifts from our friends in Lake Oswego.  One of them was a hand made ornament, a chicken sewn out of a red and white floral patterned cloth.  On Hawaii, chickens are everywhere, especially on Kawaii where there are no natural predators for the wild chickens.  The Hawaiians do not think of them as food.

A Brit named Cooke explored the Pacific islands three times and on his third lap he was killed by natives on a Hawaiian island.  I think that was in 1799.  He was trying to kidnap the king, who was clueless.  Empire builders like to start by kidnapping the king.  I just finished reading Sapiens by Harari and he speaks of the progress of empires around the world.  The Aztecs and then the Incas were enslaved by small bands of Europeans who landed and said "We come in peace.  Take us to your ruler."  They were taken to the rulers and promptly captured them, stole their wealth and enslaved their people.  If we are to take any lessons from this, it might be to immediately slaughter any godlike strangers that show up asking for our leaders.

This is a great post with a few specifics about gestures that mean something different in other places.
http://www.scienceofpeople.com/2014/07/gestures-shouldnt-making-abroad/
by Michiel Andreae from The Netherlands
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TYPES OF HANDEDNESS
Redirected handedness = learned handedness
Natural handedness = genetic or inherited
Pathological handedness = caused by brain injury or other pathology

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http://www.hpathy.com/diseases/Swine-flu-symptoms-treatment.asp
Don't assume that I approve. I'm filing this to examine it later.
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I've been using medscape to keep abreast of medical news...for a while now. They're good. Anyway, here's the swine flu alert center. I ran across an article that mentioned Medscape as possibly a good stock investment, too.

--4/28/09
--state and public health agencies authorized to widen the use of precise diagnostic test
--they want to find out for sure where this flu is and how fast it is spreading!
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--a swine flu
--not known where it began
--currently all over Mexico (including near the US border) and inside the US (CA)
--known outbreak began in mid March, this is very late in flu season
--they're calling it "entirely new". Is that H1N5? Or??
--affects young adults the most (possibly because older adults are more likely to have been exposed to a previous similar flu and to be immune)
--schools and events in Mexico City are closed
--in Mexico so far: 60 deaths and 1000 infected
--authorities are working to determine what kind of flu it is and come up with a vaccine
--athorities all over the world are working furiously on their prevention plans
--a "cure" is said to be possible if the flu is detected and treated early

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8017000/8017958.stm

And that is to Legalize Pot. She makes a good case for it here, in the Arizona Republic:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/2009/03/14/20090314Valdez15-vip.html?&wired

Here I am eating my eggs and grits, and Suzanne is reading the headlines to me. Mexico drug wars: five human heads in a cooler. Germany: man in military garb opens fire at secondary school. The leading line in that story was that it looked like something that would happen in America. Alabama: 27 year old man with an Irish last name kills his whole family plus a few. The only survivor was 4 months old. If the news is right. Every source has a slightly different story.

Grits and garlic still taste good. I'm comfortable in my large apartment just blocks from the homeless hangout by the tracks. But the insanity is at our door. The desperation is building. I wonder about the Alabama man. Why kill one's entire family? That angry? Or could it have been in part a mercy killing? The news says that he was a mild mannered nice fellow. Being nice on the surface does not mean a person is happy on the inside. Times are hard and getting harder. More people are going to loose it. Drugs will be increasingly valuable. And porn. I read last night that one of the few markets that is showing great gains is the "adult entertainment" sector. This is just the end of the beginning.

Suzanne is on day 15 of no cigarettes, no nicotene, after having smoked for more years than many of my classmates have lived. She's been reading about the history and marketing of tobacco. Now it appears that the tobacco companies are planning ahead to HELP PEOPLE QUIT SMOKING while they perpetuate nicotene addiction by offering a variety of Nicotene Replacement Therapy options. Sounds medical, doesn't it? It's nicotene gum, lozenges and 24 hour patches. "How to use nicotine patches: Use a new patch every day! Don't skip a day. Be sure to buy more patches before you run out. " The trademark is Zyban®.
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