April Showers Have Brought the May Flowers

Click on the pictures for a bigger image.

The flowers around our house have really started blooming.

Around the corner from our house, there's a wedge shaped piece of land that had a ton of tulips blooming about 3 or 4 weeks ago.

Flashbacks of Texas

There's a saying that we Texans (and I'm sure many other states) like to use a lot: If you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes. I'm not really sure if they say that here in Maine, but they could have on Wednesday. As a little background, I've joined the company softball league - first to fill the quota of at least four females per team, but two games in and already I love it. Our first game was on Wednesday and I was able to make use of that Texas expression by the 2nd inning.

The games started off partly cloudy with spurts of wind here and there making for a nice breeze. Then the wind pick up even more and there were plenty of dark clouds in the distance threatening an oncoming downpour. As our team struggled to get a base hit, the clouds moved in faster and the wind picked up even more. It was coming from the northwest, which means that it was some brisk Canadian air. Before I knew it the sky was completely overcast and the temperature had dropped at least 15-20 degrees. Spike and I commented that it was one of the countless things that we miss about Texas.

By the way, the first game was ended by the umpire in the 5th inning since the other team was up by 10 runs - the mercy rule. Last night's game was along the same lines, but at least we made it to the end of the game. We were happy just to play, but to win would be even better!

Charlie John...I mean Jolly John

Jolly John sitting on the floor posing for a picture...uhh, what?!

We've established by now that it's a little difficult for me to understand the accents of some Mainers. Take for instance the car dealer Jolly John. I first heard his commercial on the radio and thought his name was Charlie John. It wasn't until I saw a city bus with a banner on the side saying Jolly John that I realized I'd been overcompensating the pronunciation. But really, this is one of the funniest accents I've heard in a while.

Last Saturday, Spike and I were in the car and one of Jolly John's commercials came on. I'd explained to him before that I made this discovery of a local car dealer whose accent totally threw me for a loop. But the best was yet to come. It was an ad for bringing in your old car and any other junk you didn't want and getting at least $2,000 for the trade. I wish I could convey his accent, but here's my interpretation

"Hi Ho, Jawly Jawn he-ah fuh Jawly Jawn Auto Groop in Sock-o. Bring in yah old cah and anything else as lawng as it doesn't eat and I'll give you two-thousand dollahs. That's right, two thousand dollahs fuh ya JUNK or my name isn't Jawly Jawn!"

Why try to explain, just watch a few of his commercials here and and one from the 80s here! This one is him on his soapbox, but you get a good idea of his accent. Enjoy!

Taking cartoons away one broadcast at a time...

When I was growing up, cartoons were the staple on Saturday mornings. I don't even remember what I used to watch. Probably Garfield, Animaniacs, Duck Tales, and Tail Spin. Gem when I was lucky. All was fine and dandy until the local news decided to bring the morning broadcast in on Saturdays too. I remember thinking "Is there breaking news? When are the cartoons coming back on?" But alas, the Saturday morning cartoons were forever gone. Now mind you this was probably when I was still in elementary school.

About two weeks ago, I was watching tv and a commercial came on notifying the public that the local morning broadcast was "now on Saturdays!" This started at the beginning of the year. Where has Maine been? I thought everyone did that now. These news anchors had it good for too long. Now they have to get up early on Saturdays to tell little kids that the race for governor has about a billion candidates. What am I talking about - kids are watching Cartoon Network and Disney Channel. They're the ones who have it easy. I'm the one who had to suffer with no cable. I love you, Mom and Dad! Really, I do.

The other thing that the local news doesn't have is a traffic report. Can you believe it? Despite Portland being Maine's largest city, they still don't have a need for a traffic reporter. They have it on the radio stations in the morning, but it's pointless. There's never anything to report. When Good Morning America cuts away to the local broadcast, the weatherman takes his time and the anchors get that extra "feel good story" in before handing it back to Robin Roberts and George Stephanopolous. Not a car crash in sight. Incredible.

It's Not All Bad

Looking back on the few entries that I've written, you might get the impression that I like to complain about Maine or Portland or the fact that it's just not as cool as Texas. I want to clear all those things up in this post. I LOVE Maine. It's beautiful (as everyone said it would be), the people are nice, the food is good, and the weather is nothing but great. You might want to ask me about that last one once October hits!

Despite not getting a sunset on the ocean like in California, the sunsets here are still really pretty. Portland is a peninsula and the bay that it surrounds is Casco Bay. There are some pretty good spots, like the one on the Coast Guard base, where one could watch a sunset by the bay and it would still suffice. A good spot is also our living room window where you don't actually get to see the sun set, but the colors are still there. I found the above picture on the Portland Daily Photo blog and yes, some of the sunsets really look like this.

Spike and I have found some prime spots to get really great food (that's a future blog entry in itself). Clam chowder at Gilbert's Chowder House would make you feel like a traitor for ever going back to the canned stuff. El Rayo is the best Mexican we've found around town with some pretty killer tacos and burritos. We're constantly reminded of how fortunate we are to have been stationed in some of the best towns for foodies - San Francisco and Portland have the #1 and #2 most restaurants per capita in the US, respectively.

The evenings are cool, if not cold, but walking around downtown is relaxing and never overly crowded. We keep our back porch door open almost 24/7 (as noted in the Sun-up Up UP entry) because it really does feel THAT good outside. Currently, it's 53 degrees at 8:45 pm.

So you see it, it's not ALL bad. I just like to point out the things I don't understand or find stupid - like how they call Dunkin Donuts "Dunky's" and say "kitty-corner" instead of catty-corner. These are all things that I can overlook, but the fact remains that Maine is a cool place to live.

The Spice of Life

One of the houses on our street has a pink door!

This weekend I made chicken curry from my friend Rebekah's recipe. I love chicken curry. Two hot green chilies, two onions, and all the spices that come along with dish were having me take a sip of water every once in a while so I could safely dive back in. Since finding spicy food here is like trying to find a hill-billy in Paris, you can imagine the joy in eating hot Indian food. The people at work think I'm crazy with needing to put some heat in the food. Maybe I'm secretly afraid of losing my tolerance so I have to go way out of my way to get something hot enough to just maintain the level I'm on.

Mexican food in Maine is a joke. Try as I might, my downfall comes when it comes to choosing salsas. Well I made a grave mistake the other day in getting a salsa that was not made in the southwest. It was the Muir Glen organic brand and it tasted like tomato sauce. Spike and I tried to fight through it, but I finally came to grips with reality and realized that we didn't like it and I threw it out. I know, I know...it's such a waste. Believe me, I'm the one who bought it! It's back to Desert Pepper, Mrs. Renfro's and Frontera for now.

Something that caught me off guard the other night was the gelato I had at Whole Foods. I'm usually pretty adventurous when it comes to food so I decided to try a flavor I've never heard of. Passion Fruit Habanero. At first the flavor was sweet and fruity. Then BAM! the habanero hit me just like a little brother comes up and kicks you from behind when you're least expecting it. I had to get it, and then I regretted it about half-way through the kids size scoop. My mouth was on fire! But man it was good. I told my friend Jeni that I don't who came up with the recipe, but it couldn't have been a Mainer since they're spice wussies. Sorry, but it's true.

What's in a Name?

Answering phones isn't a hard task. What makes is difficult is trying to decipher what the other person on the line is saying. I'm talking about names, people. Seemingly simple names.

I've been working for a manufacturing company for 3 weeks now and every day when I answer the phones and people want to talk to someone in the company, I most likely have to ask them how to spell their contact's name. Not because it's a difficult name, but because I can't understand the accents of these Mainers.

The first few days, someone would call for Mark, but I didn't know it was Mark. I kept hearing Mike. Carl was Cal. Do you see a pattern here? There aren't any r's...they're all ahh's! Lovely. Then you throw in the people calling from Switzerland and Italy and India. The bastardization of some of the names is just too funny.

I keep joking to friends and family that when Spike and I finally have kids, I'll be hearing "Waa, ma. Waa." just like the New England accents. Lord help me if that happens.

Sun-up Up UP

Growing up basically in the middle of the Central Standard Time Zone never really made me think that much about other places and what their days were like because of a silly time zone. Living in California didn't really make me give that much pause either. But living on the East Coast has given me a whole new perspective on time zones and latitude and longitude like never before.

At present time, it's 8:15 pm. It's 7:15 in Texas except for El Paso, which is part of the Mountain Time Zone - it's 6:15. California is still enjoying the sunshine at this hour at 5:15. It's baffling to me that we have friends and family in all the times zones in America and if I want to talk to any of them I first have to think about what time it is. Will I be interrupting their dinner, have they gotten off work yet - or better yet, are they even awake?

I say living out here has given me perspective on latitude and longitude because Maine gets America's first sunrise...at 5:30 in the freaking morning. And do you know what comes along with the sunrise? Birds singing their tiny little hearts out...at 5:00 am. I've grown accustomed to this nonsense and bury my head under the pillow. To make matters worse, we sleep with the back porch door open to get a breeze in throughout the night. Birds are a lot louder when doors and windows are open. But we're not about to sweat through the night (with no a/c) just so we can sleep in longer. If anything, the earlier sunrise has given Spike and me just the kick out of bed we need on the weekends to get our day started. We're usually up and at 'em by 8 or 8:30 or so. I guess it's not all that bad.

This picture here is of our garage back behind the house. I feel it speaks New England to me.

Maine is just as self-centered as Texas

Being in Maine for the past month and a half has already given me the sense that Mainers love using the state's name as much as Texas. The only difference is that Maine has the unique advantage of it's name being an actual word. That's one of the reasons I named this blog Mainely Texan. This is something that a Mainer would totally do, and I've already seen it put into practice around Portland.

Let's just go over a few examples of where there is no shame in using main/Maine interchangeably:
Mainely Pro Painting
Mainely Tours
Maine Squeeze Juice Cafe (see picture above)
Mainely Frames and Gallery
and my personal favorite Mainely Parents Anonymous (WHAT?!)

Don't get me wrong, I love this kind of corniness. Spike is the master of puns so he's been enjoying groaning whenever he sees these business names. It's become almost predictable and UNcreative when you pass an establishment that uses Maine instead of main. So yes, that would make me predictable and UNcreative! Hopefully this blog won't be that by a long shot, and I'll be updating as often as I see something that really strikes me as unfamiliar or strange. Believe me, I've already found plenty for the next few entries!