Monday Stuff On the Way to Other Stuff: Church Potlucks - And Updates

 Still here, and putzing away.

We spent a good chunk of last week going to LNCQ (thanks, guild members!), doing some appraising and attending the Southern Rocky Mountain Agriculture Conference. That meant we weren't home as much as either of us liked...although we had a heck of a time getting out of the garage, after the foot of snow dumped last week. Chains, four wheel drive and a lot of shoveling finally got the driveway usable. But the Brick says, and I agree, we need to look for a lightweight snowplow to attach to the truck! 

Today was a potluck. Our church, Calvary Blanca, hosts these once a month. We appreciate it, having come from Creekside (and Central) in Castle Rock, who were -- and are -- famous for their potlucks. (The original church site was on a garbage dump donated by the town. The building was constructed by the men in the church, who contributed their labor after work each night. The women would bring their supper dishes...and combine them for the most amazing potlucks.)

    I have been fascinated by my fellow church members' choices in food. The San Luis Valley is famous for potatoes -- and each potluck we've gone to has a high proportion of potato dishes. The other dominator is green chilies -- we're not far from Hatch and/or New Mexico in general. In fact, there are so many Hispanics in our county that I feel like I stick out too much when getting groceries or shopping at Walmart. The plus side to this is some incredibly delicious Mexican and green chili dishes. After all, Colorado is famous for its green chili. (Did you know that?)

A lot of writing and research needed to get done, so I wasn't able to collect as much Stuff as usual. Maybe next week. 

These aren't green chilies -- but they're tasty, too.

P.S. Oh and the Chiefs won the Superbowl in overtime against the 49ers. (Sorry, neighbors Laurie and Mike...)

And Gronk missed the field goal kick. Again.

Want to be a lighthouse keeper?  Here's your chance. (Applications are due by 12/31.)

Fifteen appetizers -- easy to make, and they look delicious.

Wait a second -- I thought we were being told that inflation of any kind wasn't happening! But 'shrinkflation' is? (And yes, if you buy groceries, you know it's true.)

Iffy Valentine's Day moments. Good for plenty of oddities,  including this one:

Beauty queen scandals -- a surprising number of these aren't really public knowledge. Weird.

A hundred movies everyone should see in their lifetime. Brian Viner's opinion, anyway. 

Self-awareness...from a chatbot?  This could get very scary -- fast.

Kamala Harris states she's "ready to serve."  Gee, I feel so much better, knowing this.

Stephen King's ten favorite novels. (We just watched the superb Cell...and I was curious.)

Wolf packs have been doing just fine in the Chernobyl area. In fact, the wolves have adapted much better to levels of high radiation than researchers thought they would. (Dogs, too.) Could this help cancer sufferers who need radiation therapy??

'Fascinating facts' -- and some weird ones, too.

The Vesuvius Challenge: some of the charred scrolls unearthed in Herculaneum are now readable, thanks to advanced techniques.

Great British dishes -- 27 recipes to try, courtesy of Kitchn.com. (Sausage rolls are high on my list. But I'll need to make some puff pastry.)

An interesting discussion of the 'Biden age question:'  posed by CNN! I am very curious to see where all this goes in the near future. 

And because I can't help myself -- a very funny Ben Affleck commercial for Dunkin' Donuts. (Poor Matt Damon.)

Have a great week.