happy solstice!

We had a very uneventful trip up to Mexicali but unlike our previous border crossing, this one was just a bit more involved. At one point the customs person asked me why I was looking at her weird through her questions and I said we’d never been questioned like this before; that the last time through we were basically waved through. She was very unhappy with that information and told me we should be getting thorough examinations. Oh well. We had the most thorough revision at the military checkpoint where MX5 and MX3 meet, so I should have been expecting it. I don’t think we’ll go through Mexicali again; the traffic is quite bad and again, it took us about an hour to cross. We spent the night across the street from our usual spot at Lowe’s because I thought the kids would enjoy playing on the grass; we spent the evening at Target, however. I got all the kids nighttime clothes as a Solstice present; they all could use some (I just hope I got the right size) badly, except for Ellen, who is drowning in hand-me-downs. They all have blown knees as the kids frequently use the nighttime clothes as daytime clothes. Anyway, Target had a pretty good deal; 2 pairs of all cotton clothes for $12.50. I’ve never had good luck with thriftstore nighttime clothes so I hope they fit. I’ve decided not to wrap stuff and make Solstice low-key this year; they just don’t seem to get into it like I would. I’m greeting the sun this morning; not with 108 sun salutations, but by updating the blog. So, welcome sun, it seems like it has been a long time of darkness leading to the solstice; so much more than past years. I’m looking forward to longer days of light.

We thought we got up early yesterday morning but we didn’t leave the parking lot until 10am. It was to be a day of many delays. Ellen had an especially hard morning and between the many stops to either get her stuff or get out of the car to avoid her kicking feet, we were making 30 miles/hour. We had surprised the kids with a trip to “Golden Corral” (a buffet style restaurant) the night before, and between the variety and quantity of food, I think everyone was suffering from a food hangover. My metabolism being much slower, I started getting hit yesterday afternoon. We got really used to the simple food we ate in Baja and I think we blew our collective digestive system’s minds. So it was a long trip yesterday, even though we only did 150 miles.

At one point we saw some gigantic (but accurate) dinosaurs from the freeway and to the kids amazement, I pulled off and we stopped for quite a while for the kids to play, Jamie to rest and me to figure out where we’d head. I’ve found that it is not working well to simply drive until the adults want to stop. We need to have a place that the kids will enjoy playing in and have room to roam. We were really low on water, so I picked a county park and when the kids were ready, we headed out. This county park is 4.5 miles north of I10 before the first turn so I thought it would be nice and quiet. On the way to finding the park we passed a long series of playing fields topped by a playground. I remarked to Jamie that it looked like a good place to boondock; the kids would have ample play area, there were restrooms (and water) and being this far from the freeway it would probably be quiet. As smoke and steam errupted from his ears (he really is against boondocking) I dropped the subject.

We got lost, of course, with no signs to guide us, we should have realized that was an omen. I drove down a street and found a vacant lot to turn around in and remarked that the vacant lot looked like a good place to boondock (I really should keep such thoughts to myself) and with the directions of “well, the road dead-ends, but if you just drive around, you should be able to find it” we found the park. It is closed Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. BUT, two streets before the park we did find a sign.

The sun is rising under a cloud cover. Grey and blue and purple are the clouds overhead; as the reach towards the horizon they turn maroon then red-orange and then orange.


So, I backed up the street, found a place to make a three-point backwards turn and headed to the aforementioned sports field. Jamie gave his ok to stop there and contemplate boondocking. The kids LOVED the green grass, though, Ellen, waking, cried and moaned until her tummy was full of good chicken soup. Now the purple clouds are getting maroon highlights. I drove off to the fire station (as it turned out) to find water and someone has a wireless router allowing us Internet access without setting up the tripod. The morning joggers and walkers started Very Early This Morning and traffic is now dying DOWN at 6:38am. This must be an LA bedroom community. We’re just north of Beaumont. The road we’re camped beside is a State Route (I’m thinking a “country road” in Texas) and while we found those to be very quiet and (orange is turning to yellow and the deep colors of the sunrise are mellowing), this road has been full of traffic since before the sun even thought of rising. It looks like it should be such a quiet and peaceful area…

Today we head for Boron and once the family wakes, I’ll get the camera and post the dinosaur pictures from yesterday.

leaving Las Vegas

It has really been an awful week. Jamie and I got a weird back thing (I think mine was started by badly done yoga) that put both of us prone on the bed for a couple days. Luckily, we were able to stagger the days we were down. I have stopped doing Yoga to let my body recover and am really missing the daily practice. It was so weird for both of us to have done nothing in common and right after I started recovering, he was affected. Too weird.

We are completely and utterly hooked on “Six Feet Under”. Unfortunately, we have to wait til all the kids are asleep to watch it and this means that we are regularly up until 2am. We’ve got to find another solution. I’m pretty sure, from doctor visits and Internet research, that Jamie has Prostatitis. I found a really good support website and have a plan. The antibiotics don’t seem to have helped him with the majority of his symptoms but that seems typical for this condition. He’s going to have a urine culture and a DRE (just can’t get enough of those) for a second opinion on enlargment (thus far, he has been found to be inflamed but not enlarged, which is an important distinction). We’re hoping that bioflavanoids ((Prosta-Q) will be the “magic” cure it has been for many other men, but have a laundry list of many other treatments. For many men, this is a chronic condition that they simply “deal with” until they find a treatment (some pharmacutical, others dietic) that works. I am hopeful

one foot under

Jamie and I have started watching a new (to us) show called “Six Feet Under”. Jamie has watched it the last few nights; my Dad gave him DVD’s of the first season and he got hooked. Last night he talked me into watching it and we watched the pilot and the first three shows. We’ve been referring to it this morning; we really like the show (and the cop/boyfriend is SUCH eye-candy!) and Sissy now calls it “one foot under”. I realize that we’re woefully behind the rest of society but we haven’t seen TV for years. Give us a bit to catch up.

I added yet something else to my sidebar in support of my Dad’s fight against prostate (I keep wanting to type prostRate) cancer.

fruit bats

I can’t believe how much fruit these kids go through. I could swear I bought $20 of fruit yesterday but today I made a note. I bought bananas, guayabas, mandarinas, avocado and tomates; 7 kilos worth. We’ll see what is left by tomorrow afternoon. I know Deb will not be the least bit amazed after she saw them power through nectarines, peaches and plums at her house. The kids are dying to see Deb’s kids again.

We made tamales today and while I thought I had a steamer insert for a pan, apparently I do not. We made do with sardine cans (for support) and a pie plate but will definitely HAVE to get an insert. Everyone LOVED the tamales and for Jesse, who exists solely on salad, PB&J and bananas, it was quite a coup. Ellen and I did the shopping today; panaderia for bread, downtown for Ellen to buy Becky and Catie a Christmas present, abarrote for corn husks and fruit, another abarrote for fruit and other groceries, carniceria for meat, another abarrote for yogurt, novedades to look for a steamer insert and by the 2nd abarrote she was DONE. I brought her back to camp after refusing to buy her yet another treat and she collapsed in anger and headed back out again. I really miss the municipal markets of mainland Mexico where you can hit a panaderia, carniceria, cremeria, fruiteria, etc. all in the same building, and get lunch while you’re at it. She and Pike were great helpers making the tamales though, and while they are somewhat labor-intensive, they will be a staple from here out.

Virgin of Guadalupe

Yesterday was the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Each and every Baja town has a shrine to the Virgin. Along the highways in Baja and mainland Mexico you will see very many shrines. Yesterday was her feast day and it was celebrated well here in San Felipe. The wind has been absolutely still for the past few days and the kids love the still water on the beach. The day after they spent the entire day inside, they spent the entire day outside. Seems to even out.

A contingent of pangas left the marina and headed right to our camp beach for one of the many stops to celebrate the virgin’s day. A priest was in the decorated boat and you could hear the boats coming closer and closer by the loudness of his prayer. After visiting the small shrine erected on the beach, the boats left and headed out to the middle of the cove and then back to the marina. Of course, it could not have been a fiesta without constant firecrackers and the dogs barked and howled for hours.
It has been gloomy and overcast for what seems like days; when will the sun return? I can’t imagine living in snow…

Illiterate children

The past couple days, well, it FEELS like a week, but has only been a few days, I’m sure, the kids have been positively trailer-bound. The skies are grey and cloudy, the air is cool and they might be hibernating. For a couple days, I dragged them out to the dunes to the south of town and we spent many many hours playing in the dunes and the beach, watching the sunset and drawing in the sand temporarily vacated by tide. Yesterday the boys played a game of Monopoly that lasted until bedtime. I was going a bit stir-crazy after doing Yoga inside as it was too cold outside and by late afternoon was itching for some time OUT. I spent some time sitting on the beach, talking with others here in the camp getting progressively more drunk. It was quite enjoyable, watching the moon peek through high clouds, pangas come in from shrimp boats and the long horizon changing from blue to pink to black as the sun continued it’s journey to the other side of the world.

The other campers were certain that we’ve been keeping the kids inside, “schooling them”. When I explained that we do no formal schooling, George immediately responded, “so you’re just going to let them grow up illiterate????” at which someone else said, “Hell, they can all read; all except the 3 year old.” George thought for a nanosecond and said, “yeah, those kids have a better vocabulary than I do!” “How do they get their history and social studies?” Personally, I think the kids have a better understanding of Mayan history than many US kids and they have learned a LOT about Mexican history just from being on the road. We had started to dabble in First Nations history while in New Mexico and Colorado and Utah but too soon we left for Mexico once again. Everyone was astounded that the kids learned to read On Their Own, without anyone making them do it. If I were able to pursue the conversation, they would probably be flabbergasted that they LIKE to do fractional math, they frequently figure out different ways to convert dollars to pesos, beg me to give them math worksheets and spelling tests and read books on electricity just for the fun of it. I really worry that we don’t do enough but after typing this out, I feel marginally better.

Maus has been released and the kids were so happy to see him zipping here and there in newfound freedom. I just hope he is a Mexican maus and not a Yuma maus and we haven’t single-handedly introduced a blight on the Baja desert. Jamie is feeling better “down there” and we are hopeful that this is simply an infection. I’m going to have another PSA done before we leave here, but I need to do some research to see if taking abx while the PSA is being done would affect the results. We’ve decided to stay at Kiki’s to take advantage of Jesse’s wonderful electrical knowledge while we try to figure out why the van is not charging the trailer batteries (no current on pin 9). We’ll probably leave here Dec 19th and head for the Bay Area.

SHHHHH! Mousy's asleep!

Jesse just admonished everyone for talking so loudy; little mousy is sleeping. The kids are all whispering. I don’t suppose it would be possible to show humans the same respect?
These kids, as I suspected, have fallen in love with mousy. They were squealing with delight, just like Christmas morning, upon discovering the creature this morning. “He’s so cuuuuute!” “He’s so tiiiiiiiny!” “Look! He’s doing tricks for us!”

After all the children were asleep and I had placed the (if I do say so myself, ingenious) humane mouse trap in place, properly balanced (as that is the hardest part; balancing the top pan on the bent bamboo skewer), Jamie and I observed a moment of silence. Perfect silence. Within moments we both tuned into the noise of a scurrying animal ON THE ROOF. Jesse woke and came out; he was either too hepped up in the anticipation of a Maus Hunt to sleep or the mousy woke him with his roof antics. I was certain it was a cat on the roof - how could the maus get UP there? Jamie headed outside to watch the roof while Jesse and I listened. Sure enough, there was something up there. Eventually we heard him head to the wall with many electrical wires, the fuse box, the TV; all the wire stuff. I was SURE our electrical systems were toast, but apparently he found a way down and appeared soon after in the bathroom. Jamie surprised him and he bolted to the bunkbed room. In a stroke of incredible luck, he popped down into the heating vents. Jamie immediately covered the one in the bunk room, ran to the middle of the trailer and covered those, watching mousy scampering along the duct and yelled at me to cover the one in my room WITH MY FOOT! Um, what? I yelled back that I would NOT be covering the vent with MY FOOT and kept an eagle eye on the vent while I dragged the shoe box over it.

I was sure he had escaped somewhere, but Jamie was sure he was in the duct. We taped up 3 of the 4 vents with clear tape, covered the 4th with a clear plastic box, put a wedge of cheese outside the vent and waited. I was amazed to see him pop up and we quickly moved the box away from the vent and crowned it with a pan. He tried really hard to get out, but it wasn’t happening.

Today we get to figure out how to get something under the box so we can put a lid on it and transport him to the wonderful Baja desert. The kids think they have a pet. We’re now talking about The Plague. I SO hope I don’t need to create a “Maus” category for my posts…

it's the missing La Rue!

Is there some genetic and age defect that makes me the only person in the entire family capable of cooking and doing dishes? Why is that always MY job? I do all the negotiating (Spanish), purchasing, cooking and dishes. Someone tell me how it is physically impossible for anyone else to do this? After some 12 years, Jamie is starting to get on my very last nerve. His little idiosyncrasies, his little ways of doing things, his little habits; I know each and every one of them and they, all 2,847,091 of them, are driving me stark raving mad. Did you know the man is afraid of mice? More on that later. (the title might start to make sense to some…) I wonder if I’m PMS’ing…

We were on a mission today. Late last night, Jamie and I were awakened by a rattling. Like a rock being rolled along the floor, I couldn’t figure out what the noise was, but it started on one side of the trailer and moved to the other. When the noise started directly for my room, I sat up and turned on the light. “Jamie!”, I hissed in a loud whisper, “did you hear that?” He roused himself and said it was coming from the outside. “No way! It is coming right FOR ME”. He dragged himself out of bed and saw a tiny toy on the ground right in front of my bed. We both, groggy with sleep, but probably would not have been quicker with more sleep, confusedly stared at each other like the answer would magically appear on the other’s forehead. No such luck. Before we could stop puzzling, however, a small mouse darted out from its hiding place. Jamie SHRIEKED and jumped up on the sofa bed and I, blind without contacts, asked, “what? What was that? A cockroach?”. We spent the next few hours dozing, listening for the noise and staring wide-eyed at the black ceiling. I did a LOT more dozing than poor Jamie. He wouldn’t come to my bed; he really thought he could catch the creature.

Morning dawned and coffee performed its magic and we discussed the situation with the kids. Each and every one of them adamantly demanded that the mouse be treated humanely. I think they think they have a pet. Ugh. So, off to the brilliance of The Internet we headed and found this guy. We borrowed necessary materials and scrounged the rest. Hopefully, we’ve built a mousetrap. We left the trailer after lunch and hoped to lure mousy out with a quiet trailer while we cavorted in the dunes south of town. I had hoped to score some shrimp as we have been shrimpless since we arrived and unless some shrimpermen go out and BRING SHRIMP BACK TO TOWN, there may be mayhem soon. We’re starting to develop tics from the long shrimp drought. Coming back from the dunes, we hit 3 different pescaderias and not one had the curly god.

Have you figured out the title? It is from “Mouse Hunt”. The kids LOVE this movie and all morning, while researching and creating our trap, we were humming the soundtrack. I uploaded some pictures from today at Flickr.

pining for the heat

Only because we’re FREEZING here in San Felipe. We are loathe to head north to spend Christmas in the Bay Area. I’m trying to do some data entry and Jamie keeps rattling off temperatures. “Guess what today’s high in Loreto was?” I guess 80F. He says it was 90F (32C). He then checks the rest of the country and finds 80’s to 90’s from La Paz (Baja) to Guanajuato (mainland). I can’t believe it is so warm as Guanajuato is in the highlands and it should be cold there. But he is insistant. Guess what we’ll be doing once we find the heat? Did you figure it out? We’ll be pining for the TEMPERATE weather. Just can’t be satisfied. Sure makes me want to hightail it to El Requeson though…

health and projects

We saw a different doctor today for Jamie. We were really in some kind of limbo not knowing what should be done. The one doc said to get parasite test, PSA and maybe colonscopy and did little on the examining side. All those tests (except the colonoscopy) were negative and the doc kinda left us hanging. I have been having trouble sleeping as I felt we really needed to do something but was at a loss as to what. I looked into getting US insurance, to emailing urologists, to harassing “friends” to ask a relative MD what they thought. Finally I decided to go back to the hospital and ask to see the doctor. He was on vacation but the colonoscopy guy would be in the next day (today). He is also about 100 pesos cheaper than the first doctor. When the first doc suggested a PSA we did a lot of Internet research and wondered why the doc never did a DRE. (I’m not going to define that for you; if you don’t know what it is, you don’t want to. Believe me.) Kind of a nagging question in my mind.

So off we tramped to the hospital this morning; kids with their Knex, books and Ellen with a headphone and cassette of Fairytales. Ellen in a sundress and Jesse dressed for the snow. These kids… Colon doc looks to be all of 16. He claims to be 32 but I had my doubts. He is also drop dead gorgeous. He listens to the whole history and asks if doc 1 did a DRE. He insists on doing one; he is homing in on the problem. After Jamie about faints with pain from the DRE doc is almost certain Jamie’s trouble is infected prostrate. He gave us a receta for a VERY EXPENSIVE antibiotic and 2 weeks worth turned out to be some 800 pesos. At least he warned us. He seems very confident that this is a simple infected and inflamed prostrate and Jamie should be feeling much better in a week. So think of him, will you? He was a wonderful doc; English was pretty good and I supplemented with Spanish. He took a lot of time with us; even when a nurse interrupted that a surgery was planned and upcoming he said he’d be ready and never rushed us; listened and waited until we were perfectly comfortable.

We’ve been doing some trailer projects; Jamie installed connectors in the cargo “basement” so we can close the cargo doors and still have Internet connection (tripod is outside). He also replaced the rails on 3 drawers and man oh man, are we SO EXCITED about having drawers that work! I can’t tell you how nice it is after so many months of crappy working drawers.

So, lots of minutia and not much substance. But my brain is pretty empty most of the time anyway. We hope to move to a more deserted area outside town where it will be more quiet or maybe we’ll head over Ensenada way before heading up to the Bay Area for Christmas.

it is slowly getting warmer

It was FREEZING in San Diego (Potrero actually) and last night in El Centro was the coldest yet. Both Jamie and I woke at 6am and piled on more blankets - the weird part of that is that we were in separate rooms. I spent an entire day in Potrero heading to San Diego and picking up all the stuff we had waiting for us there and getting yet more stuff. Thanks to the lovely Julie we got a new car seat for Sissy (Ellen got her Marathon), new contacts for me, a power adapter for Jamie’s “new” Thinkpad (hand me down from Dad) and software for the kids. I then picked up a router and two wireless cards (one for Jamie’s new ThinkPad and one for Jess in San Felipe) at Fry’s. Man oh Man, Fry’s is quite the experience in merchandise overload. I then headed to Trader Joe’s and purchased about 15 months of food. I got only stuff we simply cannot get in Baja as we’ll only be here a couple weeks; organic butter and cheese (now frozen), lots of organic stuff, Good Earth tea; I can’t remember the $200 of stuff I got there. I was also able to ship off my Sony camera to have it fixed; something I’ve needed to do since we were at Aunty Chris’s house. So errands were done! I stopped by a fruit stand on the way home and the kids powered through 2 Very Large Bags of grapes a few hours after I got home. The apples are now long gone. Apples are so expensive all over Mexico.  I put a picture of San Felipe in here just cause I wanted to. Look at all the shrimpers in the cove. It was WAY windy!

The kids were having so much fun at Potrero and I was involved in figuring out why I couldn’t get my Toshiba wireless (but Jamie’s ThinkPad was an easy install) that we spent another day there, hanging out and playing. The next day (yesterday) we headed to El Centro to hit Lowe’s. Last time we were there, boondocking, we were able to get free Wifi and we still needed to hit Target and Lowes anyway. Yesterday there was no free Wifi and I didn’t feel like setting up the tripod so we simply shopped. We got new rails for the drawers in the trailer. For over a year we’ve been struggling with these piece of shit drawer rails to the point that the boys have actually stopped using them and keep their clothes in their luggage bags (thanks to Aunty Michelle for the lovely Lands End luggage bags). Jamie installed one drawer guide on the “pots and pans” drawer and it is simply LOVELY! When we were last in Papa and Tata’s RV I was checking out the drawer guides and directed Jamie to his next project. It has been so worth it; he got one drawer done and we’ll do two of the clothes drawers when we get to San Felipe. The only problem is that there is no stopper for the drawers; in a moving trailer it is important to make sure the drawer doesn’t pop open. Not sure how we’re going to fix that. Maybe someone makes a special RV drawer guide like the ones we bought.

So, leaving Target with only toilet paper and wipes (oh, Jamie snuck in a couple DVD’s) we headed to Costco for dinner (Pizza) and to bed. It was absolutely FREEZING in the trailer and Jamie hooked up the generator so we could run the heater without draining the batteries. That generator was hands down, The Best RV Investment We Ever Made. We use it all the time boon-docking and even in Mexican RV parks without hookups. I am so glad he insisted on purchasing it.

We crossed the border this morning with absolutely no trouble and traffic was simply wonderful. All through Mexicali the traffic was light and easy, very different from our last experience of stop and go traffic. When we left San Felipe a week ago, the boys were DYING to play in the mountains that MX3 follows down the penninsula. We were trying to get across the border before dark so we put them off saying, “next time”. Today was “next time” and I found a wonderful pullout where I could actually turn around. It looks like there was once a community here; there are more than 4 or 5 slab foundations and we’re camped on a nice flat slab. I wonder if hurricane Mitch destroyed this area? You can see that when it is wet season, much of the area becomes a raging river. The kids were having such a wonderful time that we decided to simply spend the night. We don’t have a lot of water, so no dishwashing (Yeah!) but the kids were thrilled to stay here.

I also found it pretty cool to be able to get online. I’d looked up coordinates (lat and long) for both El Centro and San Felipe. I was able to extrapolate from them to get our general bearings and Jamie setup the tripod. I wasn’t sure we’d actually get online; not having accurate measurements, but we did. It is a testament to the training we got that we were able to.

The stars are simply AMAZING here and as you might imagine, it is indescribably quiet. It is much warmer than El Centro (or is it a state of mind?). On the way down we knew we were in Mexico when we saw the pothole crew working on the road. One guy had a shovel and got a shovelful of black stuff (asphalt?). He then looked up and down the road, ran to the pothole, dumped the matter, looked again for traffic, looked absolutely PANICKED and RAN to the other side of the road so traffic would pass. I’m sure this was repeated ad-nauseum to fill the holes.

Tomorrow we’ll be in San Felipe with a sink full of dirty dishes.

tech update

I have updated the maps links in all themes to reflect our true location; no matter where we are, as long as I update the Datastorm map, you’ll get an accurate reading.Second, I found this really neat
create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands
You can get it here.
I have uploaded a gigantic amount of photos to Flickr. I have even organized them in numerous sets. Next to come will be geographic sets. The kids wanted to stay another day in Potrero, so tomorrow we leave for El Centro. Janet, I owe you an email!
I spent almost the entire day getting my Toshiba working on the new wireless router. We went to Yuma to pick up a satellite internet dish and I wanted to be able to connect to the internet wirelessly, so I picked up a router and a couple NICs to do that. Course, my Toshiba already has an integrated NIC and we’ve used it all over Mexico and the US. I got Dad’s old Thinkpad up and working wirelessly without any effort. I spent all freaking day (it is freaking COLD in San Diego) getting mine working. I could get online, but only wired. Finally, just before I had to make dinner (so the kids wouldn’t die of hunger) I got it working. Thanks to the folks at the datastorm users group.

Poisoned hair

I think you had to be there.  I was certainly the only one in the car laughing so hard, but Ellen has Poison hair. At some point in time, when we were staying at Aunty Chris and Uncle Chet’s house, the kids were introduced to the idea that oleander was poisonous if ingested.  The adult probably said, “if you put this in your mouth, you’ll get sick” but what the kids heared was, “if you even LOOK at this plant, you will begin to experience sharp stabbing agonizing pain and will die a very slow and painful death.”  Each and every time we pass within ANY proximity to an oleander, the kids scream at each other to avoid the plant like it could reach out and squeeze the life out of them.  They’re a little dramatic, my kids.  Have NO idea WHERE they get it.  Ocassionally, a child will brush up against an oleander, and Pike or Sissy will scream with alarm and insist on immediate removal of the poison atoms.

Yesterday, we headed to Target to stock up. For some reason Target is always a 2-3 hour adventure. If I were alone, it would take about 20 minutes, but Jamie LOVES to shop and the kids devour the books and wish upon the entire toy section. As we left, Ellen and Sissy needed to play on the big red balls that Target decorates their entrance with. The rest of us sat at the curb and waited. At some point, Ellen found oleander. Ellen loves to push the limits of everyone’s tolerance and seems to take certain joy in tormenting her sister. Though the youngest, she is definitely the alpha dog of the pack. Once the oleander was found, she rubbed her hair and hands in the plant. As far as I’m concerned, she could rub her body in the plant and I wouldn’t be bothered, but the kids went apeshit. Jamie washed Ellen’s hands and told her he’d wash her hair at the trailer. We piled all the kids into the car and headed back to the trailer. It was late and everyone was tired and JEllen must have thought it was time for some fun. She first found a necklace of her sister’s and put it around her neck. Sissy had an absolute coniption and screamed that the neclace was now poinsoned as it had passed over Ellen’s hair. With a maniacal gleam in her eye, Ellen then found numerous toys belonging to Sissy and started rubbing them on her poinsonous, infected head. Sissy erupted in screams and tears and I seriously began to worry about hearing loss. Unfortunately, I was in much more danger of killing the family as I was driving and laughing so hard I could hardly see. Jamie, never one to keep a calm head in chaos, started freaking that I’d crash on the freeway because I was laughing so hard. Ellen was rubbing toys in her hair, Sissy was screaming and crying with despair, the boys and Jamie were yelling that we were all going to die from me crashing the car and I was laughing so hard I had to pull over until I could see again. It was a fun night.

Today we’re on the way to Potrero County Park. We stayed here in January and we really enjoyed it. It was unseasonably green and lush after a very wet winter. It will be interesting to see what it looks like now. We’ll stay there, it is a great place for the kids, while we do errands in San Diego before returning to San Felipe. We’re having a lot of fun setting up the tripod and I promise to post pictures.

Picture is from just south of San Felipe, BCN (added 9/10/12).

on the beach

After last night, I don’t think I’ll ever complain about drunk Canadians. To be perfectly honest, the DC’s and DA’s have been really quiet and calm this winter. Both Jamie and I have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of noise and partay. There is usually a campfire and drinking but the noise stops at a very reasonable hour and it has been quite pleasant. It is still really loud in camp; noise from the town and firecrackers and simple goings on. Jamie and I have been quite spoilt by the empty camps we found all over the mainland and have had us longing for El Requesón; a spit of water along the Bahía de Concepción.

I guess we didn’t appreciate the lack of general noise. About 1:00 this morning, a young(er) man who had been staying in a trailer close behind ours came hone in a belligerent mood. Coming home from a hard night of drinking in town, he began to yell and swear at his trailer-mate, waking everyone within a 10km radius. They burst out of the trailer, yelling and egging each other on. I was astonished to hear the unmistakable sound of punches landing and bodies thumping on ground and other campers vehicles. One of them started yelling about a gash to the head and I honestly started to worry about OUR safety. I honestly didn’t care much about the fighters; I just wanted peace and calm to resume. They continued fighting, yelling and there was only one adjective used; you can imagine what it was, though I did learn a new one, “cck fck”. Finally, someone called the police who must have scared the boys enough with nightmares of Mexican jails and they kept the fight inside their trailer. I’m not sure, but I think the police might have told them to stay inside the trailer. They took that suggestion to heart as we then heard glass and other sundry items breaking in the trailer. The door was slammed repeatedly. They finally relegated the fight to lower tones and eventually we heard laughing. I was astounded that they could be beating each other’s brains out one minute and 30 minutes later laughing. They left early this morning, half-heartedly continuing to berate each other.

The wind whipped up last night and by morning, there were 10 shrimp boats in “our”cove. Camp really emptied out today and Mom and Dad’s old spot against the sea opened up. I have always loved that spot and with (big) Jesse’s help (not my son) I was able to back out of our spot and up against the beach. Only took about two hours. Piece of cake. We will stay here tonight and tomorrow night, leave Tuesday for Yuma; head over to San Diego; back to San Felipe (and hopefully a camp just as empty as today) and hang out here for a couple weeks before heading back to the Bay Area for Christmas. After Christmas we’ll head for the Pacific coast of the mainland.

THEY'RE on the road

Mom and Dad left this morning headed for the Bay Area. Our plans change like the wind. We had planned to go back to the Bay Area until after the New Year, then changed that to go to El Requeson until Christmas (then back to the Bay Area), then to go to the Bay Area for a week and then down to Oaxaca, then well, we don’t know. Right now, our plans are to head to Yuma on Monday (or tomorrow) to pick up our new Internet satellite dish. Then we head to San Diego to pick up stuff we had shipped there (and a carseat I bought eons ago for Ellen). Then, well, our plans peter out. We know we’ll be back in the Bay Area so the boys and Drew can get together for a week and the kids REALLY want to spend Christmas there, but the adults want to high-tail it for the Mexican Pacific coast. We’ll see.

It was hard to see Mom and Dad leave, but we know we’ll see them soon. I don’t know if it will be possible to pepper this post with the pictures I want to, but I’ll try. If not, check Flickr. I installed it on each theme except the B one. What the hell is it called? Oh! Benevolence. I think. I’m recovering and Jamie is feeling much better. We’ll figure him out soon; his prostrate looks good; he doesn’t have parasites, but his tummy bugs him. So we’ll see.

a joke

My mom sent me this joke. I usually don’t laugh at a lot she sends me, but this one got me. Maybe it has something to do with all the medical crap we’ve been going through, or maybe I can so identify with the poor guy, but I got a chuckle and wanted to share it with you all. Don’t you feel lucky? 

The owner of this drug store walks in to find a guy leaning heavily against a wall. The owner asks the clerk : “What’s with the guy over there by the wall?”

The clerk responds: “Well, he came in here this morning to get something for his cough. I couldn’t find the cough syrup, so I gave him an entire bottle of laxative”.

The owner, wide -eyed and excited shouts : “You idiot! You can’t treat a cough with a bottle of laxatives”.

The clerk calmly responds: “Of course you can, look at him. He’s afraid to cough.”

organic mushrooms

Every time I post about our intestinal upsets in Mexico I feel like I’m single-handedly destroying the tourist economy. Even the lab technician said that to avoid parasites, you pretty much have to never eat out. Even then…

So, yeah, I have not only parasites (E Histolytica to be specific) but a raging case of mushrooms. Well, not exactly mushrooms, but that is the literal translation. Makes it much funnier than “yeast galloping madly through your intestines”. Mexican medical care is so much more civilized than the US. I suspected parasites, went to the lab, handed in my sample and at the end of the day got my results. I have some anti-aemoba drugs left over from Dolores (we got them for Jamie but it turned out he didn’t have parasites) and I’ve already started. I’ll head to the clinic tomorrow to verify the drug and dosage with a doctor and see what he thinks about the mushrooms but I’m hoping to be on the mend. To stop the viscious D I stopped eating, drinking only chicken bullion and sugar water ocassionally as even that would trigger D. It will be a very light TDay for me tomorrow, but at least I can work on it now. I think from now on, instead of trying to wait out tummy trouble, I’m heading direct to the lab. I’m now really weak and tire easy after almost a solid week of viscious D. I guess not eating doesn’t help.

We saw a doctor at the “American Hospital” today for Jamie’s complaint. He suspects an enlarged prostrate and Jamie had his PSA today. We’ll get those results tomorrow. The doctor spoke fluent English and thinks Jamie’s tummy trouble is completely un-related to the typhoid, even though it was after his typhoid that he started noticing problems. So tomorrow we get the results of his PSA, he’ll have a parasite check also (he was tested in Dolores and was negative so I expect this will be the same but we’ve already paid for the test) and see what comes up. We’ve been googling “enlarged prostrate” like mad and it looks pretty normal and uneventful.

I love Mexico; why does she hurt me so?

Once again, I’m doing electrolytes (chicken bullion and water with sugar as I cannot STAND the taste of Pedialyte) and I’m absolutely CHAINED to the toilet. You really don’t want to know more than that. The first two days weren’t that bad but the last three have been hellish. The stomach cramping, the issuance that can’t even be described as “D” but fiery burning and completely liquid. Today we found a clinic for Jamie. Ever since he had typhoid (May? of this year) he feels his digestive tract was never the same. I’ve read that about typhoid, but he thinks it is something so he finally gave the OK to start finding out what it could be. When we were in Dolores he was tested for parasites and typhoid and was negative, so we’re pretty sure it isn’t that. Parasites are REALLY obvious signs and typhoid is also REALLY obvious. Kind of like labor. If you have to ask, you know you don’t have it.

So he isn’t on top of the world, but mostly a feeling of disquiet; like something that he can’t put his finger on is wrong. Here in San Felipe, they have the “American” clinic. USD30 for a consult and while that is so much higher than the mainland (the clinic in Dolores Hidalgo, while not an “American” clinic, was a private and good clinic, only charged USD5), it can’t even begin to compare to what we would find in the US. He has an appointment on Wednesday and tomorrow I head to the laboratorio to find out what the hell is bugging me (and you can bet, it will be a bug). It is so nice to simply be able to go to a laboratory, tell them the tests you want, they do them, and THE VERY SAME DAY (at least in the mainland) they give you the results. I’m thinking I have parasites (again) and if not, will simply get Lomotil (or something like it), more probotics and hope for the best.

My folks are headed to El Centro to pick up Thanksgiving fixings as they plan to celebrate the holiday Mexico or no Mexico. No-one has an oven that will fit a turkey, so I think they’re planning on a couple ovens doing turkey breasts. At any rate, I’ve been so out of comission I don’t even know what is planned. The kids are excited at the possibility of partaking of many varieties of food.

We are planning on heading up to Yuma and San Diego to pick up technology items that we’ve had shipped there on the weekend, but we’ll see what happens. We might be down here for a while…

the Baja 1000

I can’t believe that Mom and Dad haven’t posted about the Baja 1000 yet and Jesse specifically asked me not to post yet, because Mom took an amazing photo of the boys with a rider, but I’ve never been one to follow orders.

This past week, the camp has been in quite a state of excitement as the Baja 1000 comes this way this time of year. Appartently, they have the 1000, the 500 and the 250. Today we got to see a part of the 1000. They run completely off road and have 30 hours (so I’ve been told) to do the 1000km course. I remember, sometime in the 80’s reading a story by Tim Cahill about the Baja 1000, well, I’ve spent some time on the basement of Google, and either it never made the WWW or I’m making it up. At any rate, Mom and Dad said they had such a fun time last year that we decided to head on over when they got close. It was a Very Long Day and, as I’d expected to spend only a couple hours (when in fact, we were there from 11:30am to sundown) I had to run out mid-day for food and water. The kids did pretty well considering that they had very limited room and there was only about an hour that was interesting; the rest was boring and waiting for riders to come in. There were motorcyclists, ATV’s, “buggys” and “trucks”. They all sprayed a LOT of sand and when they weren’t spraying sand, the wind was working at the same job. Today was the windiest of all the days so far and shrimpers are settling into our cove. We’ve heard to expect 2 more days of this wind. Some people can complain about anything…

IF we go again next year, we’ll know better to go for only an hour or two. This was really fun for the adults but not so much (the entire day) for the kids. Course, for a couple of adults with a cooler of beer, it probably would have been paradise, and, you might expect that we encountered this particular paradise pretty much everywhere we looked today.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with the surplus of pictures; maybe I’ll put them on Flickr.

I amn't!

That is Ellen’s new favorite phrase. Makes sense, if you can be “I am” and you are not, you certainly could be “I amn’t”. This is pretty much going to be a yoga post, so go ahead and skip over it. I think I’m going to have to set up a seperate blog for Yoga but honestly, this is supposed to be for me and the kids, so who knows…

Today I definitely got “lift-off” in Tolasana. I’m not in Lotus, or even 1/2 Lotus; just cross-legged and trying to lift my ass off the ground. Go ahead; sounds easy, doesn’t it? Try it. I’ll wait.

How did it go? Harder than it sounded? This is the LAST pose in the series. You’d think that they’d end it off with something nice and easy and relaxing, wouldn’t you? Something to sink into and rest? Nope. I’m getting deeper into my poses and finding that I am, on occasion, able to “surf” the asana (ala David Swenson). Yesterday the wind was blowing like no-one’s business and I just couldn’t get into the practice. I stopped at least twice in Sun Salutations but convinced myself to continue but it was the first absolutely half-hearted practice I’ve had. It was terribly hard to concentrate; the wind was blowing gale-force and I was slipping and sliding everywhere.

Today was so different I don’t think I could even call what I did yesterday “yoga”. I was inside the trailer and did some preparatory poses to prep my brain so I wouldn’t have to refer to The Book so often. I wasn’t even going to practice today; my Achilles must have been really strained yesterday as I was barely able to walk this morning. I really missed it though. I had convinced myself not to practice but after coffee (I usually drink/eat nothing before practice) I was musing over The Book and decided to try a couple things; just to work over some poses, and before I knew it, I was starting a practice. So go figure. This is something that very strangely REALLY resonates with me. I like it on an emotional and physical level.

A disturbing side-effect of Yoga is that I no longer crave coffee like before. I absolutely ADORE coffee, so as you can imagine, this is VERY disturbing. I had two cups today after having none yesterday, so perhaps not all is lost.

Need a hit of Talavera man?

Take yourself to a Talavera pottery factory. No, take yourself and your four children to numerous Talavera pottery factories. One after another. Like junkies needing a fix we simply could NOT stay away. We want more and more and more. We currently have SIX FULL BOXES of pottery (for friends and family, natch) and are greedily thinking of more. Must Have More Talavera. It goes for a song on Ebay and I can’t figure out why some pieces go and others don’t, so we’ve discarded the idea that we could simply sell the surplus. We were, however, able to see the process of Talavera pottery from beginning to end. And by George, we just might to see “the process” once again. You know, to educate the children. You know, so they can see the process (the process of their parents’ blowing the budget to smitherines).

No matter where you are; narrow cobblestone road, 4 lane highway or at the iglesia, horses are everywhere. Horse and rider take care when crossing a 4-lane highway, but they do it numerous times daily. Goatherders on horseback riding along the roadside and hearing the clip clop approaching on cobblestones while you’re sitting in the shade of the iglesia. Goats and cows dot the sides of the roads while the cowboy and herding dogs keep them out of danger.

Memories… (cause we’re SUPPOSED to be leaving today)

Along the roadway, hastily arranged roadside stands; the pickup beds decorated with a tall corn
stalk on each of the 4 corners and the bed full of freshly picked corn. A tarp over a few sticks for sunshade and a pot full of coals roasting the fresh corn. Families picknicking on the grass, sweet corn juice running down their chins. The largest concentration of roadside stands and picknickers were right alongside the fields of growing corn.

The rain rolling in, early to late afternoon and slowly turning the hills from brown to green. When we arrived, the news and people we met were full of concern about the lack of rains. Within days, the rains arrived; so much so, that we got stuck in our camp.

The incredible quantity and quality of pottery. If we never purchase another piece of Talavera pottery we will have missed out on a full life. We began with what seemed a simple and practical plan; we purchased some pieces as gifts. Then we decided to buy some for ourselves, for When We Settle Down Somewhere. Then we decided that MANY MORE people would definitely NEED these gifts and more gifts and then we found the factory to beat all factories and the most beautiful (and pricey, for factory prices) pottery. And of course, we had to buy some for more people and of course the kids needed some and then we were back to the first and second places we bought pieces from and had to have just a wee bit more and now we have at least SIX large boxes of pottery for friends and family. Oh, and ourselves. But not too much for ourselves. We completely and utterly blew the budget to bits and could honestly purchase oh so much more. The kids picked up broken bits of pottery (as well as purchasing whole pieces as gifts and for themselves) and when they were unable to get rid of the broken bits, I was mercenary and got rid of them myself. I’ll be surprised if we manage to roll down the road with the load of pottery we’re carrying. We were, however, by visiting the factories, able to watch the pottery being made, pottery being painted, pottery awaiting firing and pottery waiting to be painted.

It is so hard to believe it is summer. After coming from the Yucatan, we have to remind ourselves that THIS IS summer, as we keep thinking we’re in winter. Long pants daily; sweatshirts in the evening; this is the way to live summer. We dragged out long lost pants and long lost shirts and the girls haven’t worn a dress since we came up the grade.

I have had to imbed so many photos in my head of Santa Rosa J as I simply didn’t want to become such a tourist in “my town”. This is the town I get Internet access; where I buy our bread; where I get veggies and fruits; where the cheese and meat person keeps better prices than San Miguel and knows what I want; where the son of the fruiteria owner (yes, you go to the panaderia for bread; the fruiteria for fruit and veggies, the carniceria for meat, the cremeria for dairy, the water store for purified water, the pasteleria for empanadas and one of the numerous carnita stands for a kilo or so of cooked carnitas) will get fresher cantelopes out of the fridge for me; I have so many photos in my head because it would seem so vulgar to snap one when I’m shopping…

The pictures have absolutely NOTHING to do with the post. Oh, except for the pottery. Drool… Chris, if you’re reading, I included a picture of a palapa. I don’t think I ever posted one for you. Sorry…

La Cuña de Independencia

Well, we found out why the frist two rooms we were shown were interior rooms. We chose the “outside” room as it is a two-room room and we have two balconies and it simply seemed so quaint. It was REALLY quaint until the night. At 9pm there was a light and sound show at the church (where Hidalgo issued his “Grito” of independence) which pretty much enacted the grito with MUCH noise and sound. That was followed by what sounded like a parade of Harley Davidsons right outside our windows. The balcony doors really don’t close all the way; there is a nice gap at the bottom (for air flow, I assume). So not only did we get to enjoy the sound of the loud autos but also the exhaust. Yummy! The Harleys or very many autos with bad or non-existant mufflers (now I know why we pass SO MANY muffler shops on the road) were interspersed with Very Loud Rap Playing Autos. We could feel the vibrations before the music arrived.

We enjoyed a nice interlude of quiet until the iglesia began to sound the bells. Oh My Goodness.Not content to sound them a few times, we counted, each time they sounded it 40-50 times and seemed to be every 30 minutes to an hour. This began before dawn and ended at about 8am. The desk clerk said it was to notify people of masses. I asked him why the bells sounded 40-50 times and he just laughed. What a silly question, gringa.

(sissy took this picture)We’re considering staying another night as WE HAVE LIVE TOUR COVERAGE IN OUR HOTEL ROOM. At this very minute, we’re watching the last 20km of Stage 7! Stuey’s in the front, Go OZ!

We’re having a bit of trouble getting out of our trailer park; the rains have made the ground so soft that I actually got stuck twice just driving the van out. We’re hoping for a couple days of hot sun and no rain and we still may not get out. Yet another reason that we’re in our lovely Dolores Hidalgo. If we have to be stuck somewhere, we’re more than happy to spend the time in Dolores.

Jamie got to see the Tour LIVE this morning and after having a particularly wonderful ride to the foothills of Guanajuato (got to find out what range that is) we decided to spend another day here in Dolores. We’re feeling absolutely and positively PAMPERED here in a HOTEL! We’re dreading the campanas of the iglesia this morning (according to the desk clerk, they are at 5:40am and 6:40 am, but I could SWEAR they were every 30 min from 4am on) but the location is so worth it.

The kids and I chatted forever with a wonderful Indian woman selling roasted corn and painted some ceramics with another woman while Jamie was riding. We made friends with another family who is having a wedding tomorrow in the iglesia. We visited the house of Hidalgo and the Museum of Independence (here in Dolores) this morning and the children are thoroughly “historied up”.

Dolores Hidalgo

We keep coming back to Dolores Hidalgo. The town is so tranquil and lovely; I completely disagree with the Lonely Planet Guidebook representation. We had contemplated staying the night in Guanajuato, but after making multiple trips to Dolores, decided we’d spend a hotel night here. We’re currently at the best hotel in town, right on the plaza, have a King, a double and a twin with two balconies for 500 pesos. All rooms face an inner courtyard that has been converted into a restaurant and the third floor is a terrace bar and restaurant. This is the first town we’ve been to that I could definitely consider living in. Very few gringos, a very real town and the few hotels that exist cater to vacationing Mexicans (as this town is something of a pilgrimage site to Mexicans).

It has been so lovely to visit the town; we went to our favorite eating place in the municipal market and had yet another wonderful meal. Ninety five pesos for six quesadillas, five hot shredded pork (and many other ingredients) sandwiches, seven glasses of jamaica. Absolutely the most food we’ve gotten for that amount of money.

The kids made fast friends of a local family (and their kids) and we talked til sunset about families, life in the US and life in Mexico. The kids were so sad to find that their friends didn’t spend the night in the plaza waiting for them to return this morning.

But the best thing about staying in a hotel in town? Jamie is enjoying Tour coverage via one of the ESPN stations. He now realizes that he could have been watching it all along if he’d taken my advice and asked the restaurant next to our camping spot if they carried ESPN International. (they do)
Jesse had an amazing birthday. Pike was absolutely certain that Jesse would get absolutely NO presents and it would be a horrid day. We started the day with a release of the toys (the boys enormous quantities of toys have been in isolation for a couple weeks) and Jesse said that was the best present he could hope to get. He and Pike spent hours playing with their long lost toys and stuffed animals. We then headed to la Bodega (a giant superstore) that he wanted to visit and got a few presents. Much earlier in the day he had asked if Mexico had anything like “The Jungle” (a playarea we used to go to in the Bay Area) and I told him no. Believe it or not, as we left the Bodega store, and I took a different route to avoid some toys that were keeping Ellen captive, we found a “Jungle” like place. Simply amazing. So, I bought socks (just like at the Jungle ) and they played for an hour.

We had dinner at the restaurant and I snuck a cake and candles in earlier, so Jesse was enormously surprised to have a cake brought from the kitchen to finish the meal. Both he and Pike admitted that it we pulled out a wonderful birthday.

Dolores Hidalgo is the birthplace of the Mexican Independence (from Spain) movement and the entire town is steeped in history. It is quite colonial and the town square (and surrounding area) has beautifully painted homes and businesses. The boys and I headed out and explored the area and found a second municipal market and made some purchases. Jesse must have smelled this dulceria. A dulceria is a sweet shop, but on a grand scale. Generally, almost all items for sale are bulk quantities. It is simply a wonderland for the kids. In this last picture, note the flavors of ice cream.

Le Tour frustrations

If you don’t recognize “Le Tour” you might want to skip this one too…

We have been desperately trying to find Le Tour on TV Azteca. According to the official Tour website, Mexico (which for some reason known only to the French resides on the continent of South America) is supposed to carry Le Tour on TV Azteca. We haven’t been able to find it yet, have no Internet access (Velosport provides stage text coverage the last 3 hours of a stage) and are searching for a bar or cantina or restaurant with ESPN International (which is supposed to carry live coverage). Postings on the Velosport forum, emails to TV Azteca, Velosport and OLN and screaming to the winds have produced no results. Looking at the date, I realize that a holiday is in the works. One year ago, people from all over Mexico marched on DF demanding a decrease in kidnappings, violence, murder and violence against politicians. July 2nd was the anniversary of this march and celebrations commerating the decrease in violence were planned. Course, I gathered all this from the news and could be wrong on some points.

Me thinks that there might be another celebration happening north of the border, but why ANYONE would design to leave the comfort of their cable TV while Le Tour is on is beyond me. We watch no TV other than the month of July (Le Tour) and September (Giro de España). When we lived in a stick house (that’s how RV’ers refer to houses that aren’t on wheels; aren’t I so With the LINGO?) I would order cable TV once a year and take advantage of free installation and 3 months 1/2 price and then once the Giro was over the cable was turned off. Ten years of that and the cable company never once refused. They too must have understood the NEED for Tour coverage.

Eleven years ago, I was washing dishes in the teeny tiny kitchen of our first home (rental). The kitchen was so incredibly tiny that only one person could walk into it at a time. Of course, Jamie was watching Le Tour on TV. All of a sudden I felt a gush (you might want to excuse yourself from this one also; I can’t seem to let go of bodily fluids today…) and wondered if I’d just peed on myself. I was 9 months pregnant and due in two weeks. I wandered into the bathroom (well, more like waddled with my legs pressed tightly together; quite a feat when you’re so off balance by the enormous protrusion on your belly, that you are likely to fall over in a light wind) and waited. It didn’t take long to realize that it was not pee but my bag of waters.  While only 15% of pregnant women actually break their water before labor, I managed to achieve that feat in 3 out of 4 pregnancies.

Anyway, this being our first, Jamie bounded out of his chair and began running about the tiny little house in circles (which was much harder than it sounds due to the size of the place) discarding ideas of what to do as soon as they entered his head. I calmly sat and waited for the frenzy to stop. We found paper and pen and waited for the contractions to start so we’d have something to time. Surely we would have SOMETHING to time, no? We called the doctor (our first was born in hospital) and were told to come immediately to hospital. We decided to wait until we could wait no longer. My contractions began every 15 minutes and were, within the hour, at every 2 minutes. This didn’t seem to fit the textbook model and we were certain that delivery was eminent as the books indicated 2 minutes apart was “GO time”. We hastily called off picnic plans and rushed to the hospital, certain that I would likely deliver in the car. The contractions stayed this way the entire labor. Two minutes apart; they were exhausting and terrible.


Some 15 hours later, after declining multiple offers of narcotics and then finally succumbing, I pushed out the tineyest little monster I ever saw. Pictures show me reaching for him immediately after he emerged though I don’t remember. He nursed only a couple minutes at a time every four minutes and I was certain he was underfed. He was a skinny, scrawny little minute. To this day, he eats the least of all of us. Even the 3yo, who subsists mainly on air, eats more than he does. He is maturing into a wonderful boy who has absolutely no problem being constantly taken for a girl here in Mexico. He is very much like me; he constantly questions authority and any decision made. He is very confident and a very healthy self-esteem. Were it possible, he would start each day with a five gallon container of sugar and work on it all day long. He is my first, my guinea pig, my ray of light and my best effort. I could not have hoped for a better child to challenge my assumptions and teach me the ways of the world.

Much more pictures later, but it has taken 17 minutes just to get this one uploaded. Ugh.

house of poop

No, not Pooh, but poop. Might want to skip today’s entry. Seriously. Might want to just pretend it isn’t there and give it the ole drive-by. Can’t say you haven’t been warned. With 4 kids under 11, poop is still very much on the daily radar.

The past two days we’ve been assisting Ellen with her battle against poop. She has a tendency to withold, but her diet is usually full of enough whole grains, raw vegetables and fruit that it isn’t an issue. Lately, her diet has been comprised of pan dulce (lard and white flour and sugar), cow’s milk yogurt (in the states, the kids never drank cow’s milk, but instead rice milk), more pan dulce, cheese, chorizo and a little pan dulce on the side.

So, it had been EIGHT DAYS since movement has occurred. Southerly movement. Her mood has deteriorated with the lack of movement; something we realized only after movement had been achieved. We began with a bottle, and entire bottle of prune juice. She has had prunes almost daily, but apparently not enough. We spend entire days concentrated on the problem of movement and yesterday achieved a measure of success. We resorted to threats (though not empty ones) of needing “medicine” (suppositories) which she then decided she wanted. It took three seperate attempts for her to accept the “medicine”. The first two were accompained with such screaming that I was certain she was allergic to the glygerine. After the first two attempts, some movement was achieved and after the third, she didn’t even realize the medicine had achieved it’s station and was skipping and playing about. The other threat (though not empty) was that of the “doctor”. If we hadn’t been able to achieve success with food, we then planned to resort to the “medicine” and if that either did not work or she refused, we would have been forced to visit a doctor. She’s never been to one in her life so I’m not sure where the terror lies, but she definitely Does Not Want To Go To The Doctor. I tried to re-assure her, but it is fixed pretty well in her mind that the doctor is not a happy place. We’re going to have to work on that in the event that someday she WILL have to go…

So today we’re on day three of the war against her witholdings. Yesterday she ate well for the first time in memory. Broccoli, prunes, brown rice, chorizo and cantelope for lunch; broccoli, brown rice, ham, prunes and cantelope for dinner. She has been a much happier girl but we still have a long road ahead. Breakfast today was oatmeal with sugar, cantelope, prunes and mango. Lots of water in-between. I’ve always tried to honor the kids’ own hunger and thrist, but the last two days I’ve been insisiting on prunes and water. She ate every bite she took for lunch and dinner; the best she’s eaten in over two weeks. Ever since Jamie got over Typhoid, he has been addicted to a type of “noodle soup”, a Ramen type of “soup”. He eats it for lunch and dinner and eats pretty much nothing else. As such, the kids want the same and think this is where the downfall began. She is somewhat prone to constipation and I think the solitary diet of “noodle soup” exceberated the problem. So Jamie is on the wagon. He’s starting to eat real food again too. 

Still in Queretaro

We’ve been talking about the Death Penalty, Texas vs. California legal system, 3-strikes, Mayan curses and kharma for hours. I’ve had a 48 hour fever and Pike had the same but it only lasted 24 hours. No other symptoms other than wicked aches and headache. Pike seems to have recovered well but I’m still wondering. Our appetites haven’t completely recovered and Typhoid is always in the back of our minds. Ever since Jamie got Typhoid he has been terrified any time that someone mentions an upset stomach.

We haven’t done much the past few days; I’ve been in bed for two of them and Pike was in bed all day yesterday. We are really loving this area; there is a small town up the road from us, Santa Rosa J and it has an absolutely gorgeous celeste-colored bell tower on it’s church. I think they are tiles. Against the mountains it is incredible. The town seems to specialize in carnitas; the entire main street is covered with one after another. We found a different type of tortilla there; the tortilla is made (in front of you) with queso in the middle and then fried as you wait. Ellen and Sissy could not eat enough of them. Next time we head into town I’ll have to take some pictures. The town is small enough that it doesn’t count with a supermarket and I didn’t see one abarrote, but did find a wonderful agua purificada store. We took our garrafónes of Electropura and Crystal and had them filled there for less than 1/2 the price of the water at San Miguel’s Gigante.

We found the Costco in Ceyala (or is it Celaya? I ALWAYS get it mixed up) and also found it is appartently the cajeta source for Mexico. Fabrica after fabrica of cajeta, but we’ll remember it for Costco. I ordered my contacts and they’ll be there by the beginning of next week; meanwhile we still have a LOT to occupy us here. Guanajuato, San Miguel (Jamie has changed his mind and LOVES the town), Santa Rosa, lots of balnearios in the immediate area and three in San Juan del Rio (about 60km from here); it is a wonder that we’ll be able to leave, but then again, we’re not thinking about it. The boys are desperate to be with Andrew and Sissy and Ellen miss Sara, Becky and Catie (and Aunty Chris) desperately, but Mom and Dad are in no hurry. The kids are really enjoying the area also. They LOVE Guanajuato and we found a wonderful playground/park in San Miguel that we go to each time we visit. Jamie rides almost every day and we found the station that broadcasts Le Tour (TV Azteca) so we might find it hard to find a reason to leave. Oh, and I got a year’s worth of vehicle insurance, so we’re sitting pretty.

We did, however, receive a solicitation to caretake some property in the Ozarks; a ranch with horses and the girls are drooling at the prospect. Not sure how we’d fit that into visiting Drew et. al., but I’m sure we’d figure something out.


We got electricity today; our nightly bill goes up to 70 pesos/night (from 40) but buying gas for the generator was costing about 27 pesos every two nights and we’ll be able to use electricity any time now. The kids really balk at turning lights off.

I heard something on the news yesterday about a tropical storm Fred hitting Veracruz and another headed towards Guerrero and other Pacific states. There is simply nothing on the TV news about it so we hope to get to an Internet café and see what we can find out. Luckilly we’re very much inland and should not be bothered by any hurricanes or storms, though we did get some much needed rain last night.

It is absolutely luxurious having full hookups; water, sewer and electricity. Amazing to flush the toliet with the toliet instead of a bucket and wash in the sink. The girls are looking forward to a bath tonight and Jamie and I may even SHOWER!!! The shower at the hotel, well, lets just say it leaves a LOT to be desired. There is water and it is hot, but it trickles out miserly making the shower experience somewhat frustrating and lacking.

I’ll have to post some pictures later… Pictures are of Santa Rosa Juagerui (something like that) and our second favorite town in the area.