:: Scuff Productions ::

This gives me hope for what I see as old age beginning to appear in the distance. Life is going to take every one who lives through peaks, valleys, forests, deserts, riches, droughts of pain and loneliness, but isn’t the LIFE experience missed entirely if throughout that trip you don’t occasionally experience pure JOY?

I’m only hoping that, if I make it to this age, I can be doing something like this on our little piano:

The fun these two are having should be that “something” you touch on throughout your life. It is NOT just for the young.

**The video was taken by the daughter of a patient at the Mayo Clinic …..just watching in the lobby….. Fun, huh? **Thanks, Karen.

In summary, a FEW Mormon activities going on THIS week:

*Federal Judge Jay Bybee. New documents show he was one of the chief attorneys who WROTE UP the articles of torture eventually approved by the Justice Dept. He’d been asking for a judgeship, and when it was hinted, that Bushco needed help getting torture approved, Bybee jumped on the bandwagon. So HIS judgeship is an immensely ugly appointment to me.
**I DID read today: The more religious people are, they become slightly more tolerant to torture. WHY would that be?

*U.S. (R) junior Congressman Chaffetz, from Utah has VOWED to help defeat the District of Columbia Council vote to approve Gay Marriages solemnized in states where it has been deemed legal. He is ON the commitee that will be working on the case.

*Utah Fiction writer Orson Scott Card has been appointed to the Board of the NOM (protecting straight marriages from gay marriages….the org that has Miss California working with them?) and he has SAID, as quoted in the Utah Tribune, that he would work to OVERTHROW a government that approved gay marriage:
” How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

Biological imperatives trump laws. American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die.”
***Ah, Yes, the beauty of Christians view of “love thy neighbor”. ***

*THE Mormons have JUST baptized President Barack Obama’s dead mother into the Church, and done her temple work to protect her in the afterlife.

Apparently, her own religious beliefs were not enough. That obviously also means your new president’s current religious beliefs are NOT good enough for them either. The Obama’s were NOT consulted or asked permission when this occurred.

*Another Utah legislature member form Provo (of course), Don Larsen, a state Republican delegate recently proposed a resolution claiming that the Democratic party was headed by Satan.

*Utah legislature member Chris Buttars from the Salt Lake Area said last month: “gays were a bigger threat to the country than terrorists.”

NOT TO WORRY THOUGH………..as a last note, Marie Osmond was just interviewed on Channel 4 in Salt Lake.. . … . Guess what? She’s in favor of Gay Marriage. Will she be excommunicated or just called in to be “admonished”. . . ?

Returning the refilled feeder to its hanger on the tree,

I am followed, and from my first step out the door

to the careful slipping of the loop of twine over the hook’s tang

made to understand – as he darts within inches of my eyes –

that this hummingbird, while he may not despise me,

finds my human dawdling not simply unacceptable but offensive,

a lumbering no less appalling than the moonscape of my face

and its billion plumbable pores. Even the vast tidal wash

of my infernal, slow-witted breathing disgusts him. Therefore he loops

so swiftly around me I can hardly blink, and when I tell him he is

beautiful, he hears only the two ton roar of a woolly mammoth

as it thrashes in a bog, at the edges of which, this time of year,

the red, sweet flowers he loves most of all still thrive.
= = = =

**from today’s Writer’s Almanac, the poem by Robert Wrigley.
***If you’ve EVER carried a hummingbird feeder and thus been harrassed by one of the little birds, then that poem is sheer beauty. **Thanks, Karen.

Thankfully, we escaped dying of swine flu.

This morning, we awoke HUNGRY after a big day at yesterday’s plant sale…. We headed to another nursery THIS morning (Marbott’s. . . a fun place)…………to find a couple of things we missed yesterday. $134. later . . . . . somehow some “impulse” buys happened into the mix, eh?

But I digress. On the way, we went past what WE consider the classic little authentic Mexican Restaurant….. NO budget for nice booths, NO budget for professional decorators, NO budget for fancy art, lighting, and NO budget for marketing or advertising anywhere. BUT…….all the determination in the world for this little family to turn out wonderfully prepared Mexican foods ALL prepared from fresh ingredients (including the bit of salsa one always gets with the bowl of “chips” when you come in. Here, you can THIS important fact: Those fried chips you get, and ALL the tortillas that arrive at your table with the meal have been JUST made after you ordered them. That makes this food melt in your mouth.

So, without a care of thought of ALL the Media have been warning us about, we stopped at SUPERIOR TACO (**Oregonian short review at the end of this post**) on Lombard Ave in N. Portland, and lovingly ordered some fresh tacos, some fresh enchiladas with their fabulous green sauce, some guacamole and why not some fresh tortillas for the rice and beans, eh? We were served the perfect food after lovely hand preparations in the little kitchen by the crew of 3. There were other diners there, and we were happy to see this little place seems to be getting discovered.

So, we finished, shopped at the nursery, headed home, and panicked THE people who prepared our foods were from Mexico! They KNOW Mexican people! How did we KNOW their relatives from Mexico City hadn’t been visiting THIS weekend? The other clients in the place were MEXICAN! Oh NO! We began to feel feverish with worry. As we got home we realized this place wasn’t completely sterile in being clean. NO bleach spray of the floors and windows here. Oh NO!

Those bacteria the MEDIA have been warning me about must have been EVERYWHERE I touched. I even used a napkin that had been placed by Mexican hands into the dispenser! Oh NO! By the time we unloaded the car, we’d decided we must be sick….we were getting tired, achy, needing to lie down.

Our temperature was still normal……… was THIS to be our end as the MEDIA have been warning? Did we need to call the MAYOR and have PORTLAND shut down?

It was then we also realized that just about ANY TIME one decides to ingest a HUGE Mexican MEAL of big carbs, read, Enchiladas, guac, coke w/sugar, chips, tacos, tortillas…..you JUST MIGHT feel like having a nap anyway. WHAT A RELIEF! We were NOT going to die as we’d been warned.

Should I call the media and tell them to QUIT making the PANIC in this country WORSE than it IS? I continue to hear from the CDC that THIS form of this new Swine Flue shows NONE Of the markers that marked the killer flu in 1918. Do I hear much about that in the media? NO. I wonder why?

Oh well………we SURE DID HAVE a GREAT LUNCH TODAY? Hope YOUR weekend was great too.

= = =
Oregonian Review of Superior Taco (In a general Review of Portland Taco stands):
La Superior Taqueria

In the shadow of a monolithic Walgreens, on the highway otherwise known as North Lombard, this little taqueria is easy to miss. But if you manage to find it, you’ll be welcomed by tangerine and lime walls, sunny yellow tables and an impressively varied menu, including breakfast served all day.

Start with the wonderfully cheap tacos ($1.15). The super-soft, handmade corn tortillas threaten to steal the spotlight from the tender, expertly cooked meats. Caramelized bits of carne asada (beef), to moist, shredded carnitas (pork), to tender chunks of grilled chicken — they’re all good. But the spicy al pastor (marinated pork) is a must. It doesn’t skimp on flavors — chile, cumin and citrus — like so many other taco fillings.

The complimentary chips are thin, crispy and fresh. Guacamole is prepared to order. It’s mild, but the fiery habanero salsa on the well-stocked salsa bar will take care of that — oh, yeah. Fans of Mexican Coke can get their fix, or try a bottle of Jarritos soda or Sidral Mundet, a dry sparkling cider. Fans of cinnamony horchata won’t be disappointed, but the agua de Jamaica, alas, is much too sweet.

2727 N. Lombard St., 503-283-2851, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily