Halloween - 2010

We went trick-or-treating with the neighbors.



(I went as Raul's doctor.)

Suzaku

In early September, we brought home this little fuzzy Tazmanian devil. Suzaku is a red shiba inu, the smallest of the Japanese breeds. He has no fear and immediately attacked the white dog within a few minutes of bringing him home. What has been the most fun to watch (he is 18 weeks as I write this) is how he has grown up. Shiba puppies (like their big cousin, the Akita) don't look like the dogs they will grow up to be. Suzu was very fuzzy, mostly grey, with a bit of reddish, black ticking, and just a patch of white on his chest. He now looks very much like how he will look as a grown-up -- all red except for creme on his under-belly and legs, and sleek harsh fur (though he will always have an undercoat).



Here you can see where the fuzzy puppy fur is coming off in chunks and underneath is red fur.


(This is a bit of an illusion. Suzaku isn't this orange. This is just sunlight reflecting off of the house.)

Summer Finale

Raul built sofa forts with the girls.
Spiders needed to be photographed.
Zorra decided the best way to catch bird was to dress up like a tree. Our laughter scared the birds away.
The police used their authority to speed to the local taco place.
We went to Texcoco to visit with this little 4-week old fuzz-ball.
Introduced the girls to teppanyaki.
Read a lot of books
Zorra turned 11 and we did a photoshoot based on the theme of her birthday gifts: Greek Mythology.

Zorra's b-day also marked the day we discovered a leak into the maid's quarters.
School started.
Scorpions invaded the house. I shot them.

We went to a highly recommended modern art museum, were disappointed, but saw the fliers again.
Watched a lot of movies. The end.

Summer Round-up Part 2: The Reunion

Raul's mother's side of the family had a reunion in rural Illinois, so we excitedly flew to Chicago via the airline Mexicana. I wish to take a moment to say a few things about Mexicana... our plane was a bit rundown, but we had excellent service -- no checked baggage fee and they served a meal each way (which came with sudoku placemats). I had forgotten how exciting it is to get a meal, even if it is nasty airplane food.
Nevara had been asking to get her ears pierced for ages, but in Mexico, little girl babies have their ears pierced at the hospital when they are born, so there aren't a lot of places around where you can just walk in and get your ears pierced there. A few hours after the plane landed, we drove to a Claire's and had it done. There were tears, but Nevara was brave and didn't shirk at getting the other ear done. An hour later, after deep-breathing exercises, she was all better. This Thursday, she will have hit the 6-weeks mark, when she can exchange these earrings for something different. She has done an excellent job at keeping her ears clean. I am still very impressed with how she has handled the whole thing from pain to hygene to saving up and buying new earrings.
At the farm there are about 13 head of cattle and many acres of feed corn and soybeans.
Amongst all of the farm equipment, Uncle D also has a Th!nk electric car, and the girls were able to drive around the almost 300 acres with adult supervision.
Each night there was a fire in the firepit after the girls spent a good portion of every day gathering sticks from the oak grove.
The girls and their Abuelita filled water balloons for both firing into the fields with a water balloon slingshot and for the water balloon toss.
The final night there was a big bonfire and fireworks.
Zorra and Nevara were the only kids their age and then there were the two 2-year-olds, T and J. T was a little doll-baby, and the girls enjoyed following her around and playing. J is scrumptios too, but didn't want to have a lot to do with his big girl cousins.
Of course, it wouldn't be a true family gathering if we didn't have Famous Wafers and Cream. We managed to polish off a few logs of it in no time at all.
Our last evening, I was sitting inside, facing the front window while talking with Raul's cousin when behind her I watched as a huge crabapple tree just fell over. There had been no wind nor had anyone cut the tree, it just gave up. The girls and J helped clean up by tossing the crabapples over the fence for the bovine ladies.
Finally, we packed up the car and drove back to Chicago, stopping on the way at White Castle to stock up on their nasty little burgers. Sentimentality makes a pretty good sauce until that wears off and you go, "These are just gross!"

We arrived back in Mexico (missing it while in the US and then immediately regretting being back while in DF traffic). I spent 2 days doing nothing but processing the photos. The family photo is actually a composite of 7 different shots so that I could get everyone's best face in one picture. Zorra didn't smile for almost any shot, so we just had to accept what we had. Nevara looks rough because of the mosquitos. After a very wet summer, the mozzies were monstrous. We had brought bug-off, but it had to be reapplied frequently, and poor Nevara, the morning of the photo she woke up with bugbites around her eyes, at her hair-line, and along her part -- everywhere that we hadn't put the bug lotion. So she was a bit puffy.

Summer Round-up Part 1

So, summer is the time when people arrive or depart from the post. Our good friends C&J packed up, and we watched Baby A (who isn't so much of a baby anymore) while the movers did their thing.

Before school released for summer, a few girlfriends and I went to the Basillica of Guadaloupe (that's my friend L crashing a group of lovely blue nuns). Afterwards, we explored the religious item vendors nearby, and we stopped at one shop that had a poster of the Virgin explaining the symbolism. The vendor came out and chatted with us (in Spanish), and when he found that two of my friends are from California and Texas, he went on and on about how those states were once part of Mexico and how Mexico was going to take back all of the lost territory, etc. We allowed him to continue, thinking to ourselves and outloud later how Mexico is having enough trouble keeping the states it has now, but we were very polite and he gave me the poster that we had been reading, refusing payment. (Maybe it was a consolation prize for the eventual loss of the American Southwest.)

Raul and I had a table built, based on a design from Pottery Barn. The difference between this table and the PB table is that this one is made of solid wood, it's bigger, and was 1/4 the price. I have since stained and finished the table, but the polyeurethane turned out to be very Mexican in its quality, turning gloopy and cloudy, so as soon as the rainy season lets up, I plan on refinishing. Since I wanted to do the finishing and since I don't have a garage, I ordered the chairs when the table was delivered, so I could do everything in stages. The furniture guy agreed to the design, quoted me a price, and then we've never heard from him again. He's a very dependable guy, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming that he's gone away for the summer.

School let out and a few of us ladies piled everyone into the car and went to the Ciudadela Market where despite all of our best haggling skills, we could not get anyone to take the kids.

My good friend K found out at the very last moment that instead of moving back to Mexican California (formerly of the USA) she and her brood were going to Africa. There was much stress to be had, so I kidnapped her and we went to the Zócalo. Though by this time Mexico was out of the World Cup, the giant FIFA Fan-fest screen remained showing live games. I was sort of astounded at how many Dutch people were hanging out in Mexico City to cheer their team on against Brazil. K and I climbed the Metropolitan Cathedral in time for the noon bells which were really impressive. We visited the National Palace and saw Diego Rivera's famous murals and received some lecture about my sunglasses being prohibited for safety reasons.

We visited the Templo Mayor, the main pyramid/temple complex for Mexico City that the Spanish built right over the top of in an act of defiance. Outside were some groovy Aztec dancers, some of whom scared the crap out of me.
I started a photo-a-day-for-a-year project that has resulted in some of my pictures having a watermark on them. Since the girls are out of school right now, often my photo for the day starts with "Hey, girls, let's go outside!"

The rainy season started and true to form, July was very dark and very cold. But when we get blue skies, boy are they beautiful.