peppers and persimmons/more expat voting info

Well, the forecasters were wrong, and we haven't had three days of rain. We did have one, followed by two days of undecided weather. Yesterday afternoon, there was a tremendous blast of wind, enough to make all the neighbors, including me, pop their heads out windows to see a scary-looking storm cloud sitting behind the village. But five minutes later, it was gone, and the sun soon returned. In the morning, I filled a basket of chili peppers to take to our friend C., who besides being a good friend is also a great cook. As I left to take the peppers to C., Antonio was sitting outside his house, cracking almonds. I asked him if he liked chili peppers. He responded, "Me encanta los pimientos picantes." So I picked out a few of all the different types. He explained to me that he uses the long, skinny ones (sorry, don't know their name....they are about 3/4 inch wide and 8 to 10 inches long) when he makes sausage. Antonio then popped into the house and returned with a bag for me. It was filled with an orange fruit whose skin had the same texture as a tomato. He told me this was caqui, a very sweet fruit. I had seen caqui before at the market but couldn't remember the word for it in English (this is happening to me more and more). When I returned to the house, a quick scan of the dictionary told me that caqui was the word for khaki. Sometimes the English/Spanish dictionaries are of little help. Got on the Internet, where I found my answer---persimmon! There is a particular species of persimmon named kaki, which I suppose is how the Spanish word was derived. I also read that they taste horribly unless fully ripe. I checked a couple from the bag, and they were supersoft, like an overripe tomato. My Internet search also found a bunch of recipes, including one for persimmon cookies, which I'm going to try out this evening. Antonio gave me at least a dozen, which I'd never be able to eat myself, so cookies seem like a good idea. And then, of course, if they turn out half decent, I can give a bunch back to Antonio and Iluminada, and the cycle continues. :-) According to yesterday's International Herald Tribune, starting today, civilians can use the emergency write-in ballot available on the FVAP web site (www.fvap.gov). In the past, use of this ballot was restricted to military and their families. But because of the myriad problems and many states not sending out absentee ballots in time, the FVAP has lifted this restriction. The ballot can be downloaded and either mailed or faxed back. Check out the FVAP site for more information, as well as for state-specific voting news. Another good source is the Democrats Abroad site and www.OverseasVote2004.com. As an aside, I saw a poll yesterday on an expat web site. The question was "would a second Bush term be good news for expats?" Eighty percent had responded, "No". hasta manana, mylifeinspain