Into the New year

Christmas Day was lots of fun, but Cheryl has already blogged about it, and she has pictures!
http://cheryl-dan-mexicanmadness.blogspot.com/

We built a gingerbread house from a kit given to us by Tanya's mom. I've never done that before, it was fun! The artist at work...such concentration....




The weather is mild but pretty cool at nights- it's 62 F when we get up. But we have heat, so we take the chill of and open blinds and drapes and let the sun warm the house. During the day it's really nice.



Thinking of Alicia- How are you, sweetie?? And how about you, Larry?

Christmas in Mexico is pretty noisy, but it seemed louder last year, I think we've just tuned a lot of it out. Lots of fireworks and especially firecrackers. Last year on Christmas Eve Shadow was trembling, but this year when there was a particularly loud one he'd just lift his head and look at us. As long as we weren't worried, he wasn't either.

We went out for dinner Christmas Eve to a certain restaurant. It was OK, but not great. My food was cold, it took forever to get a waitress and the bill was messed up, but still fun was had by all. All in all I'd rather go to the Parrot on half price day.

People in the market are buying these little fruits up like crazy! Bags of them!


What are they? I don't know! But they have no taste, so it must be for a recipe of some kind.


At Dan's place, some guys came by asking for work and when there was none, they backed up quickly- right into my door! And then took off. We were all down at the beach, this was reported by Dan's workers. Oh well, what are you gonna do? Right?



New Year's Eve is going to be quiet, I don't see us going out anywhere. What's everyone else doing?

Feliz Navidid part two

We arrived at the event at Shrimp Plaza last Saturday three hours before it was supposed to end. And it was pretty much over. Oh well, they got lots of toys and blankets.



Cheryl met Sebastian, Oswaldo and Mary Sol's son. Last time she saw him he was a tiny infant.


A few Christmas lights around town. I didn't try to take any more, it's no use without a tripod and some talent.



The boys next door have finally become friendly towards me. The other day we saw them marching around with boxes on their heads, so I popped out to take a picture. They're awfully cute. Last year all we ever got was a scowl from them, but now they wave and smile.


On Saturday, Carl came inside wide-eyed and said, "Well, you don't see that every day!". It seems that there was a brown horse with a blond mane just racing, riderless, down the street next to our house.

Later that same day, some of the local teenagers were playing soccer outside. And let me just interject, I love how the people here are so flexible. They play soccer and baseball on the sand streets, but when a street gets paved, next thing you see is a basketball net mounted on a street pole. But I digress. A ball bounced into our yard, and they politely asked Carl if they could get it. He let one of them in, and Shadow was going crazy in the house, so Carl let him out. If someone is invited in, Shadow will go and say hi like the guy is his best friend. Usually. This time apparently he went for the guy's ass. Only got cloth, but the guy was over the fence pretty fast.

Carl apologized, and the guy said it was no problem, laughing. Then he went off and returned with five beautiful grapefruit from the tree in his back yard, I guess to show that everything was fine. Carl doesn't like grapefruit, but I love it!

The Thirsty Parrot is having a half-price on everything sale this week.




The four of us went for dinner there last Friday and got out with a bill of $42, so we tipped pretty big.

On Friday we're going over to Cheryl and Dan's, where I will be "celebrity cook". I like their kitchen much more than ours, and as Dan said, they consider toast or microwave popcorn to be cooking. Here's the tentative menu:

Vietnamese Salad rolls (the only non-Mexican dish)
Crisp Chicken Flautas with homemade salsa and sour cream
Queso Fundido (Kind of a Mexican fondue)(serve with tortillas and pieces of anaheim peppers)
Tacos de Guisado- seafood stewed in tomato sauce on a tortilla
Ancho chiles stuffed with tuna and potato salad
Slices of filet mignon with rajas con crema

Thanks, Pattie, for the cookbook!

That's it till after the New Year, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! Feliz Navidad!

Publish Post

Feliz Navidid part one

Well, everyone, it's still been a slow week, this flu is hanging on like a... like a... nope, I can't come up with anything that's not rude.

It's getting cooler here, Carl even had to haul out the gloves one day!



The town's starting to be decorated up, here are some shots of city hall. I love the fake snow on the trees.






Cheryl and Dan and I are going to a little fiesta today for a toy drive. Cheryl and I went out and bought some toys yesterday, that was fun.

Here they are winding up for the event- it goes until 7 PM tonight, so we're going around three, but it's certainly started!




It's great to have Cheryl and Dan here again, and if you want to see some shots of around town, check out Cheryl's blog- she's camera crazy!!

http://cheryl-dan-mexicanmadness.blogspot.com/

We all went out to Game Planet the other day, and here are some of her pictures that I stole:

This game was hilarious, you had rubber balls shooting out of an airgun, and were trying to shoot them through some holes. Sometimes it hit so hard that the balls bounced back at you! Other times they barely left the barrel.. bloop.









Merry Christmas, everyone!

Gringos got wheels and the flu

Hi, Everyone, we've been out with the flu all week, and the Nov 26 weekend we spent celebrating American Thanksgiving up in Phoenix. Even this will be a short blog, since there hasn't been much going on but a lot of coughing.

We are so happy to report that we have our car back, with a mostly rebuilt engine. Facebook followers will already know that. 5000 pesos($400) for pretty much a rebuilt engine. And it took us to Phoenix and back. We should really buy a little four-wheeler runaround for Mexico and keep the car for trips. But first, tax season! oh yay.

We are thrilled that Dan arrived with Taz and the van, and it's nice to see the van parked where it should be.


Cheryl isn't having as smooth a transition, as she finished work Friday with plans to fly down here early Saturday, and was promptly snowed in. I sent her this picture of our backyard to let her know once she gets down here it will all be better:


She has managed to get on a plane today, we think. If she got on the flight she was planning on, she should be in Phoenix within the hour.

We felt up to going for a beach walk on Friday:

Beach walk? Let's go!


The friends together again. Taz is staying at our place while Dan's picking Cheryl up. Taz will sit and let Shadow lick her face, and they like to have paws touching.


A girl in her element.

After a beach walk, the $3 beer. Nice location, don't you think?

That's a whale rib bone below.


It's a big beer for 3 bucks.


And dogs are allowed- what could be better?
i

For our golfing friends:


Did I say a short blog? That's pretty much it, folks, we're alive (we think), and hopefully will feel up to doing a bit more this week, although Friday was a cautionary tale, we did too much and had joint relapses yesterday. I've discovered an herbal tea here that loosens up the old chest though, so there's hope yet.

Last minute addition- a friend sent us some photos of the old neighborhood. So here you go:

Our house in Calgary today:


Our House in Mexico today: