MeXscape

I was making piloncillo syrup, which I have adopted as the main sweetener in my house. I use it in my morning tea and in place of honey, maple syrup, and corn syrup. With just the volume of tea I drink in the morning, I can go through a batch of syrup pretty quickly, so I decided to make an extra large batch, throwing an entire pack of four cones in a pot with some water and setting the stove on medium. I didn't have anything else to do in the kitchen, so I went back into the office to get a little work done.

Can you identify this alien-looking substance? Have you seen anything like it before? You can click on the image to enlarge it. Give me your best guess.

I really enjoy what I do for a living. I think it is the best gift I have ever gotten in life. I'm not a drone punching a time clock just counting the hours until its time to go home. But that doesn't mean that some of the stuff I do isn't too easy or lacks a chance to have creative input. It happens. And those jobs are just a matter of cranking out the code. Thankfully most of the jobs I take are enjoyable projects that strike a balance between creativity and technical skill. And sometimes a project comes along that has me giggling from beginning to end. My most recent site was one of those projects.

I love corn. Always have. Fresh, roasted, sautéed, corn bread, corn chips, corn dogs, tortillas, hush puppies, pancakes, soufflé, pudding, soup, popped, fried, ice cream – you name it. If corn is a main ingredient, I am going to love it. Living in Mexico, where corn is the main grain, is tasty bliss. And here in Mazatlan, corn is actually a street food! I can stroll the Malecón and nosh on roasted corn, on the cob or in a cup.

I woke up at 3:30 a few mornings ago with what seems to be my malady of choice since having my appendix removed: gastrointestinal distress. I certainly wasn't going back to sleep, so since I am working on a huge project with a rapidly approaching, flaming deadline, I decided to go to the office and get a little work done as long as I was up. It only took me four hours of more interruption than work to decide I wasn't going to get anything done.