Salsa Fairy?

A couple months ago, I got a package containing Tolteca salsa from my sister-in-law, Tonya. As she and the rest of the family know, I am obsessed with the chips and salsa from a small restaurant in Azusa, CA called Tolteca - actually, there are very few things on their menu I do not like. The salsa was an awesome birthday present, and I still have a couple jars left (which are still good).

So, when I got a package in the mail with more chips and salsa a couple days ago with the name "Brent Cornelius" on it, I had to raise an eyebrow:


It is a gift basket from a place in Phoenix, AZ - "Coyote Kitchen".

The guys back in Engineering said "what are we waiting for?" and wanted to tear into it immediately, but given that I had no idea who the sender, "Brent Cornelius" is, nor who would have sent me more salsa, or even who would know that I like salsa (hmm, ok that's probably a lot of people at this point), I thought we should do a little investigation first. We took the above picture, and set to researching Coyote Kitchen.

It turns out they specialize in more than just salsa; from their website:

"In 2007 Desert Rose Foods, Inc., a 30 yr old Phoenix, Arizona based salsa and southwest condiment manufacturer, merged with Coyote Kitchen, a 13 year old private label food manufacturer of shelf stable and refrigerated acidified food products. Coyote Kitchen, Inc. the parent company operates out of a 27,000+ sq ft FDA approved facility that offering both branded and private label products to the retail and foodservice trade.


The combined company, currently offers 7 brands with over 90 items ranging from salsa, salad dressings, condiments, organic fruit spreads, flavoured lemonade drinks, Asian finishing sauces, Kosher and Kosher for Passover products, soups, and more. Our Chefs promise to bring you new and exciting items on a continual basis. Currently in development; Indian specialty sauces."

Wow. That's a lot of stuff. Then we looked for "Brent Cornelius" - apparently, he is the CEO! I am also fairly sure he personally sent the package; it was his name on the customs form and the USPS doesn't let other people mail stuff in your name ...

The package has three jars of Desert Rose salsa (it is still sitting on my desk, so I'm not 100% sure on that, but that's how it looks from the picture), and I'm guessing they made the chips too. The general consensus was that the package was not an attempt to poison us or reduce our morale with gastrointestinal problems in an effort to end the US presence in Iraq sooner (and you can take that analysis to the bank - it was from Army Signal Corps "experts" ... it's not like we only run networks and know nothing about food except how to eat it, right?). We went with the simpler guess that Coyote Kitchen's CEO saw the earlier OIT posts I made on salsa and sent this as a gift.

So, if you're reading this, Mr. Cornelius - thanks for sending the package, personally to boot! You have four grateful network engineers and a happy salsa fan!

When It Rains, It Pours

I posted a couple months ago about how mail works over here in Iraq, which is really a "best effort" extension of how it works back home; the military post offices here collect mail from us and inject it into the mail system at home, and from there we wait the requisite time for delivery. Priority Mail, for instance, takes 2-3 days normally, so if we use it over here, it is however long it takes to get to the US, plus that 2 or 3 days. Getting mail from the US to here works the same way, only in reverse, with mail addressed to my ZIP first getting delivered to the Army, then flown here by them or a contractor on a best effort basis.

I mention all of this because I got four packages today, some of which have postmarks from two weeks ago!!

So, without further ado, the first package I got was:


Shoelaces. I opened this one on the spot at our supply office, since I got an email that an order came in. Yes, I really got a plastic envelope with two sets of shoelaces in them (bootlaces to be more precise). The Army set up this system to replace uniform-related stuff in country that wears out and ... (ok, I think no one cares about the shoe/boot laces).

I took the laces and went back to my housing unit, where I discovered my roommate, Bob, had picked up my mail for me - the other three packages, which I did not know were waiting for me at this point. He reminded me as I gleefully started cutting them open that he recently carried a large metal pole for some distance, which was currently providing us Internet (I knew I would not live that one down for a while ...). I assured him that if these were what I thought they were, I could repay him in spades!

So, the second package was:




SALSA!!! Yes, like the "precious" One Ring from Tolkien's classic, I knew it immediately when I saw the lids of the iconic jars Tonya picked in which to "can" them. I spent a few minutes telling Bob the importance of what I held in my hand, the history behind Tolteca, and how I could not get this salsa even when I was in Maryland. I guess if you are outside of driving distance from Tolteca, you might as well be on the moon if you are trying to get salsa there. Yet, here was a jar, in my hand.




The verdict: it was still good! Obviously, I did not have a reference dish of salsa to do a more scientific comparison, but really, it tasted great. I guess I don't necessarily want to know if there's supposed to be a difference when you perform the canning process if I can't tell as I'm devouring it. Still not convinced himself, Bob took a taste:


... and score another one with the broad side of the chalk for Tonya and Tolteca (but I'm still not forgiven for the metal pole incident). In all, she sent 12 of the jars, which hold a reasonable sitting's worth of salsa (probably about 2 dishes in the restaurant), and rationing it out I go through about a half-jar at a time.

The third package was another bag of chips from Tonya, pictured to the left in the next photo. That brings my stock to three bags, which each supposedly have around 220 chips.

The fourth package was yet another huge surprise ... a birthday party kit from Kathy!


Yes, that is a cake in the middle of the box, and the jar to the lower left is frosting. There are a couple of containers of "drizzle" in there too, which I guess is supposed to go on top of the frosting from what I read of the instructions. There are plates, candles, and little confetti, all emphasizing that it will be the "Big 3-0" for me in a couple of days. I'm leaving it as sealed as I can until Friday, when I will decorate a little, borrow a lighter from the smokers next door, and do a field-expedient birthday celebration!

One of the best parts of the kit was the DVD with pictures of Kathy and Matt making the cake - there are a few pictures of John feeding Matt lunch and getting him ready for the hard afternoon of quality testing (what other expertise does a guy with cheeks like that have?), then the lunacy of baking a cake with a 17-month old is chronicled in a series of pictures of Kathy and Matt working at the island in her kitchen. There were about a dozen prints, which I taped to the wall by some of the other pictures.

There were also Kathy's classic baked goodies in with the kit, which did not make it quite as unscathed as the cake and the salsa:


The Oatmeal Carmelitas on the top shelf and the Poppy Seed Bread on the bottom right didn't get mushed, they got baked more! It has been around 105-110 here for the past week or so, and the postmarks on the boxes indicate they've spent at least two in transit. I didn't see anything wrong with the OCs or the bread, so I put them in the fridge to firm up a bit. Bob thinks that aside from sticking to the bag a bit, they're going to make good midnight snacks (we are flush with things like microwave popcorn and small candies, but these are a meal!). The Pumpkin Bread on the lower left made it just fine, albeit a bit warm, so it's going in the fridge for a bit too.

Whew! What a great birthday I'm going to have in a few days!! Thanks Tonya and Kathy!

P.S. By the way, thanks for making the runs to the Post Office, John ... I noticed the customs forms mostly seem to have your name on them!

Back on line, back on duty

Wow, what a change in the blog since I last checked in!! I've been offline for a while, not just because I am lazy and let Autumn post updates while I was on R&R in LA, but even after the traveling, I just didn't call, didn't write, didn't post ... I didn't even write my customary letter/postcard/something to Kaitlin and Ashley for a couple days. I guess it's just my nature to do that.

I'm back to work again, coming off about a week of night shifts to attend some training given by people who only work at night. These guys do computer defense work, and a lot of their techniques use a lot of network bandwidth, making them really unpopular during the day. At night, even in a place that is 24x7, activity decreases, so these guys can work unencumbered. They train us on the actual equipment and procedures they use, so it only follows they would do it at night too. I previously was day shift, so I started acclimating myself to days here (nights in LA), only to go back to nights here, and tomorrow will be a day shift. Ugh. Good training though!

The trip over here was a miserable one, even compared to the couple of times I had done it before. I was a little sick starting the day before I left LA, and it didn't help that I was stuck in Kuwait an extra day. I did not realize how quickly dust storms come up and how much they impact things, but I walked into the movie/board game/cushy couch tent in Kuwait at 10 AM, and by noon it was like a blizzard of sand outside. Passengers for my flight were supposed to gather at 3 PM, which we did, and we got delayed until about 7 PM, eventually loading up onto a C-130 and taking off for Baghdad. There isn't an intercom on a C-130 like a commercial airliner, but when the hour and fifteen minute flight was still in the air at 2 hours, then 3 hours, we all put it together: we couldn't land. We finally landed, and I remarked to someone next to me, "hey, the only thing that could make this worse is if we turned around and went back to Kuwait!", to which he replied, "Chief ... we ARE in Kuwait." Two hours later, we were back at the tents with instructions to show up the same time the next day for another attempt. The dust had died down by then, and there wasn't a problem with that flight.

I find myself not really having the heart to work anymore. It's not that I don't think it's important, but I am exceedingly sad to have left LA. It was a great two weeks - seeing Loretta, Matt and Autumn every day, seeing my dad more times than I had in the previous 10 years, seeing my brother more times than I had in the previous 15 years, getting to spend at least an afternoon each with my family and Autumn's family, and of course, eating at Tolteca! That's the problem, though: it was the life we can never have until Autumn gets out of the Army in 11 years, being around family, living in LA, seeing the people and the things we love. Matt met a lot of people he had not yet met, family and friends, and he's already had his first birthday! I think about the 7 months or so I have left here and I know it pales in comparison to the years I will spend in places that aren't LA, and it's really that which takes the heart out of me. The deployment is only the beginning, it seems. My friends in the unit here sympathize, and they say I'll get my mojo back, but it's a hard reality to ignore, and one I guess I successfully buried for all these years. Maybe that's why I never call, and never write ...

I take solace in what everyone told me when I saw them: "I've got your back." I also could not tell that Loretta and Matt had only been living in their apartment for two days by the time I had gotten there - what unbelievable generosity everyone has shown making a temporary home for Loretta and Matt! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! If there's anything that keeps me going here, it's that I think my friends and family love me, and I can safely say there is no doubt in my mind I have nothing to worry about in that regard, much less whether Loretta and Matt will be ok.

Time for bed, if I can get to sleep after screwing up my Circadian rhythm this much ...

The many faces of generosity

I walked into Loretta and Matt's new apartment this evening, and I am speechless.

It is amazing!

The apartment is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath unit in Glendora, where Loretta lived for 25 years before moving to Maryland last year to live with us. The complex is very lush and green, which hopefully will suit Loretta and her green thumb very well. The apartment itself is newly-renovated, with new flooring and paint. It has a large living room area, a smaller breakfast nook, and a moderate kitchen. There is also a plethora of storage space both within the apartment and near the assigned carport.

I had been dreading arriving here and getting moved into the apartment. After all, I feel like I have spent a good portion of my adult life in the process of moving: I moved at least twice per year in college, then moved three times in medical school and residency, and finally moved to El Paso last summer. In the past 12 years, I have lived in three major cities and 12 different apartments/homes. Frankly, I'm tired of moving and wasn't looking forward to the mountain of boxes and shopping lists this move would require.

When I walked into this apartment, all of my doubts and fears vanished. It was completely cleaned, unpacked, furnished, and stocked with food, linens, toiletries, pots & pans, and toys. I knew that my mom and all of her friends and co-workers had worked very hard this week to get the apartment ready, but seeing the place for myself confirmed their generosity. They thought of everything, from a small office pack (with letters, stamps, stapler, post-its, etc) to hangers in both of the bedrooms to a garlic press in the kitchen to food for all of our pets. The best part was Matt's room: she decorated it with dinosaurs of all types - stuffed dinos, dino lamps, dino puppets, dino wall hangings - and it was completely ready for him, from a collection of books, to diapers, to his name in block letters on his chest of drawers. In fact, the room was so perfect that Matt had his bath, read books, and went to sleep without a problem - which is unusual for any 13-month-old in a brand new place. The sight of his room literally took my breath away.

The generosity of everyone involved in this move has been astounding. I could never have imagined a few months ago that so many people would band together to help me, James, Matt, and Loretta in our time of need. All of your hours of toil have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. To all of those who have contributed in some big or small way to making our lives easier and happier over the past month, I truly thank you. Your thoughtful and selfless personal sacrifice will allow me to enjoy the next few weeks and create the memories with my family and friends that will sustain me during my tour in Afghanistan.