A spicy day

In my ongoing pursuit of knowledge about chili, Jeannie and I went to Pendery's Chili and Spice, a store that's been in Fort Worth since the late 1880s. Legend has it that DeWitt Pendery stepped off a stagecoach (or maybe a train) wearing a top hat and a cowboy shot a hole in the hat. Pendery calmly picked the hat up, put it back on his head, and proceeded on his way. The hat, with bullet hole, is on display at the store today.

Pendery's has the most amazing display of spices--you smell the aroma the minute you walk in. The variety of chili spices is overwhelming--I'm not sure how one would know to choose. But there are also bags of various flavored salts, peppercorns in all colors, fennel, cardamom--an endless list, along with dried chiles, books that seemed to jump off the shelf and say "Buy me," and cooking accessories I'd never thought of. I was particularly fascinated by the salt table, which is a block of salt on which you can serve appetizers; it seasons them just a bit more. Pendery's is online, with a catalog and a newsletter; check them out.

Jeannie and I went from there to a rather bland but delicious lunch at a local tearoom and then some browsing, but we didn't buy much. Still it was lovely to be out in the sunshine--we've been missing it for so many days.

Some days I feel that I don't get enough social contact--I have lots of work on my desk (including my tax information for 2010 to sort for the accountant) but I need people. I was really sort of blue about that thinking that lunch with Jeannie was my only outside event for the weekend. But my phone suddenly rang off the wall--one for a lunch date next week, another for a panel program participation in August (okay, that's kind of far away) and then I talked to Christian who said he's counting on going to church Sunday and taking Jacob with us. And I'll cook supper for them Saturday night, so the world is once again looking much more social to me.

I truly don't do well with just my own company for long spells of time. I lose my ambition, and, truth to tell, I get bored with my own company. How about you? Do you need contact with people? I know some who are perfectly content with their own company--one friend, totally my opposite, could be content watching paint dry. Not me. I want action!