Parabéns meu velho amigo.

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

".. por um longo tempo .." instead of ".. velho amigo .." but the more I thought about it......

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Cheese enchiladas with rice and beans

meu amigo velho!!! The position of the adjective does wonders for the meaning!! Of course it's also probably appropriate to state "Muito obrigado me velho amigo velho!" Friday was a busy day, to say the least. Yesterday I actually got out to the gun range for the first time since some time in March or April. I burned up a box of ammo in celebration of the day and having a valid permit. Still no word on when they'll have some to replace it with, but that's why it tends to get hoarded and rotated, although this time I did shoot up some of the more recent stuff as I'd not tried any of the brass cased ammo yet. The stuff they sold for years was nickeled brass with brass colored Brazilian primers, known by their "factory ammo stamp". The newer stuff is different, but I got good accuracy out of it (good being a relative term) once I settled down and remembered what Matt Ostrander taught me back in June. A good time celebrating the Lord's blessing of another trip around the sun in the company of my lovely bride.

I actually did the rice and beans, but in moderation as the main course was a Brazilian rodizio with, if I recall correctly, 8 different cuts of meat cooked over the coals to perfection and brought to the table smoking hot. Cheese enchiladas are nice, but a good rodizio beats them in my book.

On/in the floating prison otherwise known as a knox class frigate there was an annual exercise known as u.n.i.t.a.s. in this case 1988. The last half of nov. that year was spent training the brasilian navy. We had ports of call and liberty in r.d.j., salvador and recife (spelling?) In each place there were elderly retired professional harlots who acted as tour guides for no cost to the sailors other than a gratuity at the end of the tour. Apparently they were licensed by the govt. at some level and were paid by the establishments where we gave custom.

I bought unset emeralds for all of my immediate female kin and leather jackets for pop and bro. We....me, dubose, davis, and another davis (HT, YN, SK & SH) dined at one of those joints you describe. I think it cost us $15 each and we sprung for our "guide". It took a while for us to ken the "green light/red light" signals to the wait staff. We filled to the back teeth and regretted our gluttony when we sallied forth into the syrupy atmosphere perfumed with diesel smoke and that ever present sanitary landfill antiredolence.

Of all the roasted flesh offered off of the skewers, my favourite without a doubt was the chicken hearts. They raked them onto my plate five at a time and I endeavoured to consume an even hundred but ran out of gullet space what with the other choice cuts.

A proper dulce was out of the question and a single slice of mango with my coffee sated the sweet tooth.