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Nancy & Paul

Paul and I are excited about our son Adam and his wife Martha making us grandparents of a little girl this coming January!

We have known for a while about their wonderful news, but I hesitated to share it with you until I had asked them if it would be all right. I'm glad I waited, because just yesterday they called with the news that their latest test changed the boy they had been expecting...to a girl.

It's funny. They liked lots of girl names, but had only a couple boy names. And we had always felt that if they ever had a child, it would be a girl. So it had felt a little strange when we thought that it was a boy, the girl-thing felt so strong.

Throws me for a loop, though, since I bought yarn when I went to the US in July to make a blanket for him....in blue and white! Yarn is hard to find around here so I need to put my thinking cap to get something appropriate that isn't blue. (Does anyone know of a nice yarn store in Mexico???)

Since we're so far away from our grandkids up North right now, it will be great to have them just an hour away by air in Mexico City. I'll try hard not to be a nuisance, guys!

Adam and Martha are smart, hardworking, funny, love to read, love art, love to get dirty in the garden. They have a ton of varied interests and are always having people over, traveling somewhere, or have a new project going on. I believe that their child will be challenged daily with new ideas and that is what a child needs to develop to her full potential.

I think she already looks smart and beautiful.

It's going to seem strange to say this, but I can kind of get into being dripping wet a lot of the time.

I had read a post Jonna made a long time ago where she said she kind of got into the heat. I really couldn't understand it at the time, but now I can.

This morning I vacuumed the entire house. I came back from walking the dogs already pretty wet. Then the activity of vacuuming turned me into a faucet. I was dripping everywhere, and I mean everywhere! I was dripping on the floor and my clothes were soaked. The only thing I disliked was when it dripped into my eyes. My glasses had big drops on them.

Afterwards I took a shower and (of course) changed my clothes. A nice loose dress and long undies. For the rest of the day, depending on my activity level I was either dry or dripping. Or something in between.

We have air conditioning in the bedrooms and office and for an hour this afternoon I turned it on. But then it was time for a dog walk (they don't have a backyard anymore, after all!) and the dripping started again.

Later, I got sidetracked on the computer and forgot about shutting the blinds, and started dripping again! (Do you see I now have a menu bar underneath the header graphic at the top of the page?)

Then it was dinner time, and another walk, and I am still dripping even though we just turned on the air. Give me five minutes and I'll be nice and cool. Later, a nice cold shower, and bed.

It's just ordinary life here in Mexico these days. The humidity hasn't been too bad this summer so far, until yesterday. It just felt wet most of the day. I didn't eat or drink enough and had kind of a bad moment in the late afternoon but after a bunch of water, a smoothie, and a shower I was back to normal. You really need to pay attention to your body in the heat. I won't make that mistake again.

The men who have been working in our backyard worked throughout the whole day in the heat and humidity, breaking up concrete, mixing concrete and hauling sand and gravel in. I am amazed at how they can work. Truly, I was dripping all down my face, and neck, and back just sweeping the patio this morning!

Paul and I realized that even though we are by no means fluent in Spanish in our ordinary life we do just fine.

He went to the doctor yesterday about his hip and came back saying how much he loves the health care system here! He went to the doctor's office to make an appointment and was told the doctor could see him in a few minutes. The doctor wanted him to get an X-ray, and sent him to a clinic a block away, saying he should come back with the X-ray. He was in and out with his X-ray in just a few minutes. How often would that happen to you up North? The doctor thinks it's inflammation, so I went and got the injection for him and he'll run up to the clinic so they can give him the shot sometime today. Easy as pie. Hopefully he will be back to his old self soon.

Today I had to go to the farmacia for Paul's shot, and also the super medicine for Lucy. Over to the Mercado for Neem capsules for Lucy, too. Then to the eyeglass place because my glasses had a problem. Back to the farmacia.

So the thing that is kind of giving me a thrill is that I don't get apprehensive before I venture out anymore, and I don't rehearse what I am going to need to say. I just go and do my thing, my ordinary things, in Spanish.

Do you like to read news about Mexico? The News is an excellent daily paper in English. Most of the paper is on line, and if you wait until after 3 pm Mexico City time you can download a pdf of the entire edition.

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I said I'd give an update on the peace walk in Mazatlan....well, it's kind of a funny story. People were supposed to gather at the Fisherman's Monument at 5 pm, with the walk starting from there at 6 pm and heading towards the Plaza Republica.

So, Paul and I headed down to the Fisherman's Monument (maybe a mile) but no one was there at 6:05. We walked along Najera up to Serdan and walked along to Zaragoza (another mile I guess.) We didn't see anyone who looked like a marcher, so we were thinking it had been called off. No police, or leftover candle stubs or anything.

By now we were about to expire from the walking in pretty much the hottest part of the day so we stopped at a tienda and bought cokes. Sat in the park on Zaragoza and drank our cokes. Paul's hip has been bothering him lately and he decided he wasn't up to continuing over to the Plaza Republica to see what was up.

I regret we didn't go over there because as it turned out there were 2,500 people and they left EARLY, go figure. The local paper, the Noroeste, has a video of the march here. Live and learn.

As an aside, (two days after the peace march) this morning's paper reports that a young couple and their 5 year old son were shot in their car in Mazatlan yesterday. The child has survived so far. We assume it is drug related, with the story of white pickup trucks, black pickup trucks and a Hummer, but it is pretty unsettling.

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You can see from the picture above that the ginger is growing! I got inspired by LaGringa's post, and am looking forward to my very own ginger farm!

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While we are waiting for the permit from INAH, the historic preservation department, for permission to build the roof in the backyard, the guys are preparing to pour footings. They've cut out the cement where they need them and are putting all kinds of rebar, etc. there. They are going to pour the new slab over the existing, which will be the tiled area under the new roof. The rest of the concrete in the yard will be removed, but not right now. They can use the surface for mixing concrete, and since it is still rainy season keeping the slab until the last minute will prevent a muddy mess.

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I wish I had started my blog using my own software or wordpress or something, but after two years I don't want to give up my URL and start over. But Blogger makes me so mad sometimes! Maybe some of you have some answers for my fustrating issues?

Why does blogger put the picture every time at the top of the post?

If you switch from Compose Mode to Edit HTML Mode it adds weird div tags all over the place?

Why is it when I comment on some Blogger blogs you have a check box for receiving follow up comments by email and sometimes it doesn't?

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Paul and I read the Noroeste every morning without fail, our trusty dictionary by our side. Here's something we read in the paper and have been chuckling about. Maybe it is our "new word of the day?"

Two kids, aged ten and twelve, stole a car here in Mazatlan. Somehow they started it with a spoon, the paper says. Here's the funny part: "Los muchachitos iban zigzagueando por las calles, no sabían manejar bien, por eso los policías los vieron y es cuando les marcan el alto." So now our favorite word is zigzagueando!

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