upcoming anniversary

Well, we did it! August 28, next Friday, is one year! Summer's almost over, soon October will bring lower humidity and lower temperatures, in the low thirties. We've weathered the summer well, although I should speak softly, since September can be the hottest month.

Shadow's new friend Sadie meets us most mornings now, and she's taught him to swim out in the deep water. They both swim and swim and swim, and then they come over and get held by their guys, to give them a rest. Then they swim and swim some more. And when we all get out, they run and run. Good to be a dog. I'll try to get a picture of Sadie on here one day.

We hear interesting stories down here. Here's one recently told to us- a friend had a nasty divorce when he was young, and came to Mexico to recover. He met a young woman and fell in love, even though neither one spoke the other's language! He wanted to marry her down here and then get the paperwork done in the US for her to become a citizen, but found out that could take months if not years. In fact the easiest and fastest way was for her to sneak into the US, marry him, then they go and pay a hefty fine, get the paperwork and they're done. So that's what they did. He speaks Spanish now, and they've been together for 15 years.

Many people are brought up in the states, then for one reason or another are deported down here, and when they get here, they don't speak the language! It's a completely foreign place to them and they have to get up to speed fast! Imagine what that must be like.

Rained here yesterday, here's something you don't see often:


Here we are at Cheryl and Dan's place, stealing their Tecate:





Lessons are going well, I'm studying every day and trying to learn verb forms. Soon I hope to be able to read these:



My tutor is good, she's a real teacher, with a degree and everything! I'm studying every day, and even my overwhelmed brain is learning a few things. The most fun is when she tells me a story, telling me about Clan of the Cave Bear, complete with sound effects. It's quite entrancing, and then the next week I get to tell her what she told me the week before. FUN!

Oswaldo and Marysol are moving into their new house at the end of the month. This is one that Oswaldo built from scratch by himself. He's been working his ass off getting it ready. He had loaned us his fride all this time, because he didn't need it. So yesterday we bought a used fridge and cleaned his out. Here's our new fridge.

We thought about getting a new one, and even a stainless steel one, but in the end it seemed more frugal to just get a used one. This one cost 1800 pesos, and it's a. big b. clean c. works. Really all you need in a fridge. Other fridges we looked at were in the 6000 peso range.

Our car A/C is broken again, sigh. We thought we got it fixed on Friday but no luck. We REALLY like it when the car A/C is working.

I'm investigating the various different tacos around town, for our website. :) Not just because I love to eat. My newest favorite is Arracherra, skirt steak. So tender, so delicious!

Bike rally is coming in November, come on down if you love a good harley. Hasta Luego.