Aprendiendo español

Domingo 20 - Sábado 26 Octubre 

The beautiful delicate flowers have stopped  appearing daily on the passion fruit vine, but Dan is happy that some of his efforts at hand pollination were successful, as we have a half-dozen or so fruits now ripening on the trellis up on the terraza.  And, down on the front porch we seems to have a new orchid suddenly blooming every day or so.

Catwalks are narrow elevated walkways. When we first got here, Dan built a catwalk for our cats to use along the high ceiling in our living room. We also realize that we have a different kind of catwalk in our bedroom. It is along our mattress at the head of the bed, once our pillows are pulled down a bit from the headboard. This allows our cats to visit us both, without stepping on us.

Dan is still limping around a bit from his almost-fall on the hike a week ago. Carmen is proving that even after a blonde's hair turns gray, she can still be dizzy headed, most especially when raising or lowering her head from the bed. Dan found a new online Spanish course that Carmen actually finds easy to use and fun. The lessons and practice at DuoLingo are tailored for each user's level (you can take a quick test to place yourself above rank beginner), and the website tracks your progress thru the levels.  We have various CD-ROMS  of spanish courses we've tried.  Other methods we have found useful have been a set of 400 flashcards that came with a Think Spanish Level 1 course by Vis-Ed, loaned to us by Ania, and various of the online spanish flashcard "decks" provided at Anki. We use the physical cards every few days (bright days on the mirador are best), with Carmen responding to the questions posed and Dan correcting pronunciation and the like.  Dan's found that Amit's take at Always Spanish (reviews of learning spanish resources, and hints to make the process quick and painless) to be right on.  Dan made long verb, adjective and adverb lists for Carmen's vocab building, and he as he reads or listens to tv/radio he often looks up new words to amp up his vocabulary too.

We bought two adorable plants from our “plant man” who comes down to Fortin several times a week from his home in Ixhuatlan del Café, east of Coscomatepec. One is an “Easter eggplant” (Solanum ovigerum, around here called a ponedora (laying chicken) plant.. The egg hanging from it is white and will turn cream color when ripe. The other is a succulent with softish spines with some dark maroon blossoms, which proved to be a Huernia schneideriana (Red Dragon huernia). His prices are great, MX$25 each, or about US$2 – wonder what he will bring next from his little home vivero (plant nursery).

Ania and Frank came over for a pasta lunch and fresh-made garlic rolls. Carmen also used the limes we picked on our hike last weekend for a meringue pie. Though the texture was good, it was basically tasteless as these wild limes lack much of the acidity we like in this pie. We used our Wii set for the first time since we moved here, and the day before Dan set up a Mii (avatar) for each of our guests. Ania and Frank had never interacted with a Wii before. We chose to play bowling for four persons, and perhaps needless to say, Ania won. They brought along the three packages of Belgian chocolate truffles from Sam's Club that we asked them to pick up for us. Scrumptious smooth petite dark truffles rolled in toasted cacao powder. Can we stick to one per evening?

The construction across the street is progressing slowly. Still filling in the perimeter trenches with concrete and rock mampostería footings. We had a hard rain one day and the southern trench filled with water. The two workers used the rainwater, which does not drain out very fast, for their concrete mixture.

Una caminata a la caldera

Domingo 13 - Sábado 19 Octubre   Sunday morning we had a leisurely breakfast of rocky mountain hash. This is but a scramble of chopped potato, onion, sausage and egg. Ours also had nopal, which we have come to enjoy in many foods. Served on top of warmed corn tortillas and topped off to our individual liking with salsa picante.  No sooner did we have dishes finished when the telephone rang. It was Frank asking us if we would go on a caminata (hike) with them. It would only take two hours, and they felt that Dan needed a break from the computer where he had been helping a friend over a LogMeIn remote connection. After hemming and hawing for a few moments – this was of course after previously advising them that Dan could not afford the time until after 15 October – we scurried about changing clothes, rounding up cats to bring inside, locking doors, prepping our backpack, etc. Carmen had understood that Shattucks were picking us up, so she was straightening the house a bit – only to find Dan heading out the back door with the car keys. Oh, WE are driving! Off we happily go on this gorgeous day, and find them walking along their road near the autopista, with a backpack.

After driving on the highway about 15 minutes to the east of Córdoba, we arrived at the exit where the free route to Veracruz takes off. We followed a convoluted route onto increasingly narrow roads thru the dusty village of San Rafael, still roughly paved for the most part. Ania kept us informed of all the sights along the way. Ex-haciendas, fruit trees, birds we might see – soooooooo many interesting things to tell!  Next we turned onto a dirt road, and finally onto a narrow grass lane. This was our car's first experience with an overgrown grass lane. We expected but a short distance on the grass path, but it seemed a fair distance to us paved road travelers. Eventually, the other two got out and walked ahead to be certain that no large rocks had gotten into the track since they had last been there. It was difficult to travel in spots where the wheels had worn down into the surface, and we had to cant off to the side to avoid high-centering the car. Finally we got to a point but a few paces from what would have been the end of the road, providing an ample parking spot with ample turn around space, to find there were two trees down across the road. Dan's heart fell, as he imagined having to back out over the rough and twisting route when we headed back home. Luckily we found a nearby slight widening of the path with a bit less undergrowth, and were able to turn the car around, backing over the bushes between a rock and a tree to face more or less back the way we came. Hopefully no one else would come down the track to block it later...!

Now, with feet on the ground, at one of Shattuck's favorite hikes – off we go to explore the Caldera del Diablo (Devil's Caldron)!  Dan had insisted on bringing his Komperdell “trekking pole,” just knowing that at least one of us would find it useful. Okay, Carmen grudgingly took it out of the car, and Dan hefted our pack with water & snacks onto his back. Carmen soon discovered soon that she is no longer quite so stable on her feet. She had been expecting a well-worn sendero (trail), but after but a couple steps, she was very thankful to have the help of the staff. The ground was in fact a bit slippery from rains a few days before, plus many large rocks of many shapes and sizes littered the way up the slope. Seems that this site was over 1000 years old, where a small volcano had erupted,. It left an oval (when viewed from the air, as in Google Earth) open cone and an interior caldera (crater) about 960 feet across its longest width.

From the base, it looks like just another hill covered in forest greenery, and the inner caldera itself is accessible by a rocky trail up thru jungle liberally sprinkled with coffee bushes. Looking down from near the top it is revealed as a really deep hole with very steep interior walls, and a basin-like floor way below, now heavily forested. After getting near the top of the outside of the cone, there are two breaks in the rim of the vent, allowing access to a well worn rough path around a ledge maybe 100 feet or so down from the upper rim. Step off the ledge, and there is a steep tree and brush covered slop to the bottom of the big round hole in ground. In some places the ledge is large enough to set up a camp, especially in areas undercut back into the cliff-like vertical sides above, The only real problem here was that the path in places was only about a foot wide, or slick with a thin covering of slippery algae-capped mud. Not a “walk in the park,” by any means.

The views of rock formations were fantastic, rising high up the inner cone walls high above us! Carmen, true to recent form, kept losing her balance, so we kept one person near to stabilize her when she wavered. Unfortunately she mostly tips to her right – the down side of the trail. Dan slipped twice on the slick underfoot, and by the next morning he could hardly put weight on his left leg where a ligament in his left knee was complaining. We were too late in the day to see the parrots and parakeets, but heard a few. Saw lots of butterflies. The crazy thing about this cone, is that all the rocks are gray, the color of aged limestone, and the seepage from above has formed stalagmites on the walls and flowstone-like formations in the undercuts (almost caves) inboard of the trail we followed.  The rocks that littered the trail also were of this same material, and showed the clear effects of water erosion.  So just how can a volcano be made of sedimentary rock?  Is this an example of carbonatite, which we understand is pretty rare?

Ania found many plants for both herself and Carmen. At one point, we three enjoyed some banana muffins Carmen had packed, while Ania was scrabbling up a rock to cut and pull off some favored plants. She always has in her backpack a plastic bag and a knife for such gatherings, plus Frank's hands for carrying more. She is careful to only take epiphytes which have been blown off their perches by storms, or off of trees which have fallen to the forest floor. Ania also packed up a large plastic bag with loose soil, of the type some of her plants like.The walk around usually takes them a half hour. Took us about three times that long. What can we say? We walked slower, with so much to see. Our amigos had never seen a snake here, but we did! A large thick black one, moving quickly away from us out of the arroyo trail on the way back down to the car! We believe this 4+ foot specimen to have been a culebra indigo (Drymarchon corais, probably the orizabensis variety that is native here).

As we drove back home, roads here and there were closed or very busy, so they guided us through areas in the city where we had not been before, and interesting tour of Cordoba! At one point we drove by the huge cementerio with it's big panteon (mausoleum), with a fantastic multiple block-long cut flower market outside the walls, close by to where families come to adorn the graves of the departed loved ones. When we dropped Frank & Ania off, we were invited for lunch, but we really did not have time, thinking Dan's friend would be waiting for him to come back online.

Carmen got all the new plant stems into pots. Thankfully we had purchased another huge bag of soil and some new pots last week. We now need more pots! There is simply no more space outside in the ground, without digging up other plants or getting rid of a least some of our tiny plot of grass in the front yard. Dan tied the orchids that came off of fallen trees during out hike, onto branches in our bougainvilleas.  As it turned out, the friend Dan has been helping never came back on line after we returned home, though Dan tried to raise him. Bummer – we might as well have stayed at Ania and Frank's for dinner. While watching tv this evening, our cable went out, so we went to bed and watched some of the maratón of the last season of Breaking Bad, which Dan had recorded on the DVR last weekend. Good day.

One evening our Gardi cat told us excitedly, that there was something in the bag on the floor which was holding the miter box that goes back for exchange. He was right! We took a medium sized brown saltamontes (grasshopper) outside for him to play with. We believe it is the same one he was with in the hallway the next day, so he must have been the one to bring it in in the first place. He is so good about telling us, with a meow, when he has found something that does not belong in our house.  It was a pretty quiet week here. Four days with no rain. We saw two green birds flying at a distance. Probably parrots? Had to put another butterfly outside.

Work has begun in the lot across the street. With the ditches dug around three sides for footings, next huge piles of sand and rocks were delivered this week.  Then on each of the next days, eight bags of cement plus eight five gallon buckets of water were delivered first thing in the mornings. A single man has been mixing cement by hand, bucketing it to the trenches, and then rolling/placing huge rocks into the mix, creating a mampostería (rubble-concrete) foundation for the lot's perimeter walls. Hot heavy work for 8-10 hour days. Don't know how his body held up to it!  Dan walked across the street and offered that the fellow come to our house if he needed anything.

Dan stopped in at the MasKotas store, and was surprised to find two little bags of Temptation treats, to which our two cats have a long-standing addiction. We have been trying to obtain this product for over a year, and all the pet stores professed never to have heard of it, despite the company's email message to us that it was available in our area.  Unfortunately, our cats' favorite flavor is chicken, and Mexico no longer makes that flavor.  But, second best is salmon, and that is manufactured here by Whiskas. The government has just put thru new tax laws, so the prices we pay for some things will go up. This includes a 16%  IVA (value-added tax) on pet foods and sweets. Cat food was already more expensive here than in the US.   In the store, Dan saw a puppy that he would love to have brought home. No more dogs for us though. They are a problem when we travel. Be nice if they could be trained to litter boxes like cats. The cats thought they had died and gone to heaven when they received their treats that evening.

The little man that comes to the back gate with potted plants that cost 20 pesos each (US$1.50) has been here three times this week. His plants are always small, but well rooted, and we don't mind buying from his little enterprise--better than those that come by just looking for a handout. One day we bought a pinkish peach color thanksgiving cactus. It looks nice on our fireplace mantel. We also bought a dark pepper plant, so he told us. Its leaves are dark green with dark purple on the back. Can't seem to ID it one the internet, so we wonder what it will turn into. At present its leaves are a bit rolled up and look long and pointed.. We potted it with our pepper plant that a neighbor gave us – the one loaded with the hot piquin peppers. Carmen again has everything planted. She dug out all the local soil that we had planted our corn in, which was in the large Earthbox planter we had used for tomatoes in the US. Then she put regular potting soil into the planter for four new plants which came from the Home depot discount table.

Thursday morning we woke up at six am, so we got up half an hour later, showered, breakfasted, and drove into downtown Córdoba. We had once upon a time found an agro-chemicals store there, and we since have not found it again ( the yellow pages have been useless in this regard). The traffic is horrid in this area, with only overfull on-street parking. Our thought was that if we got there early enough, the streets would not yet be full. At 7:45am the streets were only three quarters full! We drove up and down the streets 'til we did indeed find the missing shop. Plus, there was parking across from it! We purchased the weed killer we needed, plus some sulfur for getting rid of those nasty little chiggers.

Lots more stops during the day.  Being that we were close to the east side of town at this time, we went to the Soriana hiper-mart. This store has the best oatmeal. This may seem a small item to visit a store for, however, we do like good oatmeal for breakfast! We started down the aisle for our oatmeal and soon Carmen admitted to Dan that they had best take a cart. The veggies looked especially good this day, also this is the only store that seems to carry good canned sweet corn. The fresh baked goods were very attractive, And there were some pies with real pie crust!  Crusted pies seem to be rare down here. We selected a pineapple one. It was good, but the surprise for us was that the filling must have been pineapple juice thickened with cornstarch. It's saving factor was that it was not over-sweet. Since we do not drive the distance to this store often, we strolled all the aisles. Yes, our cart slowly filled. We found some more ant-proof plastic containers at a good price, along with small milks and juices that we give to folks who ring our door bell or call at the gate for anything we can give them. Several come by each week.

At Home Depot we exchanged the miter box which was missing a part. Of course we always check out the plants, and often buy one. This time we bought four. Two from the discount shelf, plus another large bag of soil.  Onwards to IMSS where we stood in line for ten minutes and never saw the line of over a dozen folks ahead of us move. We will go back another day. Walmart for various items and we spied a whole roasted adobo chicken, plus for ten pesos more we got 500g ranch fried potatoes. They were delicious and the potatoes made three meals. Next the RG store looking for a vacuum cleaner. Finally got back to downtown Fortín, for a fill-up at the Pemex station and a stop at the supermarket for their local apples. Home again before 1:30pm. Kitties met us at the door, they like us to be at home with them!.

Cosiendo y Cociendo

Domingo 06 - Sábado 12 Octubre   Our planned hike for sunday did not happen. It rained the night before, and we felt the forest would be too wet and footing would be slippery. None of us work after all, so we can do it any day of the week that might be dry and not too hot. Weather conditions are supposedly going to be such, by later this week.

Some fellows from Honduras stopped at our gate today, asking for anything we could help them out with. Dan gave them an old tee shirt and underwear, plus a juice box. We have decided to separate some of the extra clothes we brought with us to give to the needy at our gate. Too bad it is always men, as Carmen has some clothing that she now admits she will never wear again.. There seems to be a store in downtown Fortín that is for only second hand clothes. Every day there are fellows on top of the trains traveling across Mexico from south of the border.

We got a start on the big piece of fabric for our new futon cover. Just the cutting on sunday. Monday Carmen sewed three sides of the futon cover and tuesday she put in the two zippers. The cosiendo (sewing) all finished and it fits the futon very nicely. She had not done a zipper in forty years, so Dan found a site on the internet that had a video of exactly what she needed to do. It was so easy! Our sewing machine does have a zipper foot. This project went so well, that she took the stitching out of a triangle couch pillow to wash the cover. She now has to re-stuff the pillow case and stitch the opening back together. One by one perhaps she will get all our pillow covers cleaned.

Most of the schools are back in session, but there are still a few teachers on strike and the manifestaciones are still closing the highways all over the state We are hoping to go to Orizaba before Carmen's scleroderma doctor appointment the first part of November. There is a small foam shop in Orizaba where we want to have the seat cushion for the closet seat in our bedroom made. Carmen is happy with the painted wooden cover of this center chest unovered, but Dan had in mind when he designed and built it, that it would have a cushioned seat, and he still thinks it will be better that way.

It's been awhile since we shopped at Home Depot, after being regular weekly or more frequent shoppers there for so long. Our foreman from the crew we had here building for us, called a few days ago and asked if we would check on the price of a pump for his little community water system. Oh yea! We now have a reason to drive to Home Depot for something other than a couple small items. It seems to be true that Carmen wants one of every plant available, but Dan seems to want one of everything at Home Depot. We each have our toys!

Dan bought a Stanley miter box to replace an almost worthless wooden one he's had for years. He wants to cut some accurate 45º angles to make some picture frames, and the old box just is too inaccurate. When we got home, he discovered that it was missing the two cam pins that hold the wood in place while sawing. Bummer. Now we must return it for an exchange. Maybe Carmen will need some more planting soil soon, and some lightweight tezontle (lava rock) which works out well for pot drainage. Perhaps some more slug bait too! In the US we were happy to see plants grow. Here they grow so fast! We are frequently pruning back. So far, we can put the prunings in the banana field to the north of us, but they will become a problem when that field someday turns into houses.

Rooster dear, from down the street to our west, has been crowing at two in the morning. Is this not a bit early for catching worms? But, the guinea fowl, that seem to live in the forest a block west of us, seem to be waking up later than usual – about 9am. They used to wake at 6am and do their cackling, as only guinea can do. If you are not familiar with their unique call, listen to them on the internet.  Saturday morning we woke to a woodpecker tapping away on our roof beams. We looked out the window, hoping to be able to see the bird as it flew away, but we were given a surprise as two landed on the telephone pole just outside our bedroom window! They appear to be Smoky-brown peckerwoods (Picoides fumigatus, locally named Carpintero café). They rattat-tap-tapped a bit, then flew off.  Just a little evening rain now, just enough to leave a few glistening jewels on some of the larger plants' leaves.  Our papaya tree is getting quite substantial--glad we picked a big pot for it.

We now have purchased enough tightly sealing lidded plastic containers that our friendly tiny ants can no longer get into our foods. Everything that is in the kitchen and not in a sealed can, is now in one of these containers.

Smij cat likes catching butterflies. We have seen her let them go after she plays with them awhile, as cats will do. Our deck outside our upstairs bedroom is a great place for catching such things. The best place to just admire them fluttering by is on the rooftop mirador. Now we can attest to the fact that black butterflies do not settle well in a cats stomach, and they have many parts, which are very visible when thrown up.

Carmen spent a full day cociendo (cooking) in the kitchen, which she has not done in a long while. She did catch up things such as pie crusts to freeze and cobbler topping, and hummus to eat for our supper and freeze. Then beef liver with bacon and fried onions with yams mixed with the extra cooked garbanzo beans. Topped off with a two person banana cream pie. On a crust of crushed coconut cookies. The next day she baked a two person portion of apple cobbler. The apples are so good this time of year. Inspite of these goodies, Dan is managing to lose a few pounds simply by serving up smaller food portions. He has a bad habit of always cleaning his plate, even if over-served. Carmen is just trying to keep her weight where it is.

A fellow has discovered that we are suckers for buying new plants. He does have nice starts. Lots of herbs, which we might now have all we will use. Also some flowers that we do not have yet. Our passion fruit now has eight fruits at least, and Dan figures his efforts at pollination are beginning to pay off. Dan can hardly wait for them to ripen. The flowers, of course, are magnificent, but only last one day.

The lot across the street to our east has been graded flat and a trench dug around it where we assume the perimeter wall will go. So, it seems that our wish for one large house, most likely on one level, will be built there. How exciting. We hope it will have a beautiful yard for us to enjoy, and it looks as if it will face us. A man with crutches just walked by on the calle. Many people here walk on the road instead of using sidewalks. Often the sidewalks have vegetation growing out over them, or perhaps a utility poles inset there (with no widening of the walkway around it,) so that little sidewalk space is actually available.

Oh woe is me, says Carmen. She counted the jigsaw puzzles she brought here, and she has already done seventeen of the 37. However, she has done the 500 and 750 piece ones and has the 1000 piece puzzles left. She also has to take the time to clean and repaint the upstairs bathroom shelves. We were going to leave them stained & varnished, but have decided they will look better if they are painted the same as the walls. In the past, whoever painted took little care to cut in the paint edges, leaving sloppy paint on the shelves. Also, as she considers herself the painter of our family, she will eventually scrape and re-paint many inside wall areas where the paint is loose. Dan has a far longer list of little things that need accomplished around the house, some definitely more pressing than others. However, since the pressure to complete renovation tasks while our crew was here is over, he doesn't want to rush into things, but would prefer to putter thru these things de vez en cuando, as the inspiration strikes and there's nothing more interesting to spend his time on. After all, isn't that what retirement should be all about? Plus, we really need to venture out by car and do some exploration of the surrounding countryside. And travel to some of those places that we have not visited by bus in the past is definitely in the cards.

Our spanish lessons on the mirador still are a looked-forward-to time of the day. Many of the folks passing by give us a cheerful wave. Gardi cat especially enjoys his time up there with us, as he walks the wooden counter-height shelf around the structure, and purrs to us. He also enjoys the mariposas (butterflies) that chance by. This week there have been more of the little Turquoise Emperors. Also a yellow variety with vertical black stripe patterned wings.

Una semana atareada

Domingo 29 Sep - Sábado 05 Octubre   What a way to start a semana atareada (busy week)! As Carmen was reaching for her storage container of oatmeal, she noticed ants in her new unopened two pound bag of sugar! No sooner did she get the little ones sifted out of the sugar, than she saw a new package of cookies with far more ants than the sugar had! Breakfast was very late! Mother nature always seems to balance the bad with some good happenings – and so it was. While giving plants out front a drink, Carmen was watering near this sizable rock behind the geraniums, when suddenly the rock made a hop! Who would ever expect to see a toad in such a small garden area. Cats were warned not to bother it. We can just sit inside and imagine toady working hard to catch his dinner.

Early in the week, an excavator was busy removing the remaining vegetation and leveling the new building lot across the street. As a result we had men using our little wall at the base of the fence as a front row seat for watching their excitement of the day. We had a great view ourselves from the rooftop mirador, during spanish lesson time. After all had gone from the site, Dan went across the street and found some pieces of broken concrete there to bring back and put in a developing hole just west of our parking entrance. Heavy vehicles have driven over and broken up the edge of a new section of concrete we had put down. You may recall we told you that the city elected not to repair an obvious waterline leak we spotted there, asking us to wait until rainy season had passed to see it it would go away on its own. As if! But, aren't cracks wonderful! So much more decorative than plain old smooth surfaces. Nothing new has happened at the field across the street since the clearing that took place. We are anxious to see what will go in there.

Wednesday morning we left home at 7am. First stop was the bank in downtown Fortín for an atm draw. Next, we both had IMSS appointments with Doctor Rendón, scheduled for around 9am. We arrived nice and early at 7:20am, hoping to be amongst the first in to see him. Well, there were many others with the same idea and we did not get taken until 9:30. We both had books to read, just for this situation. Carmen was there just for her monthly meds, and Dan to set things up for his yearly physical. Seems that all the IMSS family physicians do is talk to patients about any perceived health changes, pains or complaints, authorizing prescriptions & necessary tests, and generating referrals to any specialist that might be called for. Weight and blood pressure are checked by the doctor's nurse and he checks lungs and heart with a stethoscope. All the data is entered on the computer terminal on the doctor's desk. We shall see how an annual physical is conducted, after our test results are in. How different will it be from what we are used to in the US? After picking up the prescriptions, we left there about 10:30a. Doctor Rendon's english may be improving faster than Carmen's spanish.

Next we drove the ten blocks to the main hospital in downtown Córdoba, and finally found a parking place a couple of blocks away. We waited behind a dozen or so people for Carmen's labs appointment, which was set up for the week just before her early November visit with the rheumatologist in Orizaba. Unfortunately, Dan's labs appointment can not be made until next month. We can not see how the IMSS system could work out for people who are working full time. However, what else do we have to do but stand or sit around and wait? And, the people-watching is always great. We did see, while at the hospital, the widest woman we have ever seen. Perhaps she has a thyroid problem, otherwise, why would anyone carry that much weight around willingly?

Our next items on our list required lots of walking around downtown Córdoba. We passed the Casa de Cultura where a free exhibition of some of the artworks of Diego Rivera were on display. We wandered thru the cool rooms, admiring the works, however we were disappointed in the selections of his paintings. There were some of his early cubist works, before he came back from studying in Europe and changed his more realistic painting style. Dan had been hoping to see more studies of his murals of working life, or maybe a portrait he made of his wife Frida Kahlo. It was well worth the stop nonetheless. As usual, the attendant wanted to know all about where we were from, etc. Such friendly folks here!

Dan had looked up various addresses in an almost year old phone book, which is notoriously incomplete and unhelpful. And again it was wrong several times, citing addresses where the tenant no longer was the store we were looking for, or just totally misdirecting us. We were trying to find a battery for a Clarity phone brought south with us, which has an answering machine attached. Seems to be no such battery in existence here. Not even at Radio Shack. Also looking for a fabric shop to buy material for a new futon cover, and an agricultural chemicals store for some weed killer. Wish Home Depot would get it in, to make our shopping easier. At any rate, we walked many blocks and made many stops and found nothing. By late afternoon we were beyond exhaustion. Had not eaten since breakfast, and foolishly had nothing to drink. When will we ever learn that we must drink when exercising in the heat of the day?

The last three downtown stops of the day were within a block of each other. Thank heaven for that! We went to Sears to check out their vacuum cleaners, which we had looked at online. However, the store had only two models, neither of which we wanted. Next was our favorite fabric store, ModaTelas. Here we handled and considered lots of fabrics, finally narrowing choices down to three, then finally, one. Next thread, none of which matched well, and then a long closure. We had to be satisfied with two shorter zippers (which will slide open in two directions), since nothing was available longer than 70cm.

Leaving the purchased items at the fabric store, we went next door to Waldo's, where we assumed we would find what we wanted. Wrong again. The store's stock had been changed since the time of our last visit, and the sections in the store moved around. The large glass lever-lock storage jars which we had purchased there several times were not there. Nor were Dan's favorite oatmeal cookies, or the fig or apple bars he had been longing for. We did find the bulk hand soap. After picking up the stuff from the fabric store, we walked the five blocks up and down hill, to our car. Always so happy to see that our car is right where we thought we left it!

Next a drive to Chedraui and a walk over to Josefinas. Still looking for those favored cookies. Plus we still need some tightly closing storage containers to keep the ants out. Found some containers at Chedraui, plus we bought a large toronja (grapefruit, our favorite thirst quencher) soda pop and started drinking. Did we ever need the liquid. Next stop was WalMart, where we found more storage containers for the kitchen, which was a good thing, since while we were gone, those ants found a small piece of chocolate in a ziplock bag. We do seem to keep our ants happy! Had to make one more bank stop, since at the morning stop only Carmen's card would work.

Finally back in Fortín, we made one last stop at the floral market, where we checked with the lady who was trying to purchase a true citronella plant for us. She finally told us that she was not able to find a source for this, even though we believe this lemon grass relative is grown somewhere in México for medicinal & industrial purposes. Disappointing, as we hoped to grow some natural and effective mosquito repellent here at home. Back in the house again by 6pm, talk about exhaustion. Groceries & goods stored away and a quick bite of leftovers.

The next day Ania stopped by to ask us if we'd like to come for dinner and games friday. But of course! She had walked from their new rental place nine blocks away while Frank did a bit of maintenance there. On her walk, she snipped off three starts for a plant she admired, and stuck them into one of our planters here to try to root.  Our plants up the upstairs terraza are doing well.  We actually have some yellow flowers on the Thevetia ahouai, a plant Ania ripped from her garden and which had so little root we were sure it would die.  Some bright red Bishop's Balls are not far behind.  Also we've posted a picture of a bloom from our white Mandevilla, happily spreading over our wall-top fencing.  Friday's meal was delicious and beautiful as usual! She had made a torta de elote (a polenta-like firm pudding) served with a sauce of yogurt & cotija cheese over it. She also prepared a salad of cooked then cooled alcelga (swiss chard) with a garlic yogurt dressing, a steamed whole broccoli head with cooked herbed garbanzo beans, plus some beef and chicken. Totally wonderful! Plus, for a change, Carmen won the set of four rummy tile games, with Dan winning one of the games. We tentatively planned to go on a hike together on sunday, depending on the weather.

Kitties made another trip to visit Doctor Vargas. He certainly is a friendly man! Both cats got free vitamin B shots. Apparently the vitamin is good for cats, just like people. Why did our US vets never suggest them? Gardi got his feline leukemia shot, and they both got two mouthfuls of a paste for internal parasites, plus we have three days worth of pills to get into them twice a day. Luckily we can crush the pills into their moist food and they happily chow them down.

We have a rotting piece of tree branch with many different kinds orchids well attached to it, near our front entry. We noticed termite debris under it, so have injected Festermicide into holes in the wood. Seems we are not able to get to the correct spot, because every day there is more termite leavings (frass) on the ground below it. Frustrating. While out one day, we purchased a pot of black petunias to hang up near our front gate, and Dan took his Craftsman taladro (drill) into a little repair shop where we see a man working on all sorts of domestic appliances on his street-side countertop. He immediately disassembled the drill, and it was done shortly, later in the day, and very inexpensively. Supposedly more rain is arriving for the next few days, followed by, finally, some clearing. Still having giant thunders briefly during the nights! Carmen's cousin Maxine skyped us saturday evening. Always is great to talk to friends and relatives, and we wish it would happen more often!

PS, iGoogle terminating, & a Chrome tweak

If anyone has been using iGoogle for your browser's start page, you will have noticed the message each day reporting the termination of this service at the end of this month.  A personalized start page, configured to be the page that opens when you call up your browser (whichever one you use), can be populated with convenient gadgets giving current news, data and links.  Think weather, news headlines, stock market reports, sports scores and the like -- hundreds of gadgets/widgets exist, mini-applications which run in little boxes you can place on your page.

I have been testing some replacements for the expiring iGoogle service.  The best seem to be Protopage and igHome, both are stable and flexibly configured.  Convenient widgets on Protopage for me are:  AccuWeather for Fortín, Breaking Mexico News, Random Quotes in Spanish, and Google Translate, plus some US/intl news sources.  igHome has more gadgets available: most of the above, three Spanish vocabulary builders (Word-, Verb- & Idiom-a-Day) and a even gadget that samples all the new MexConnect articles.  igHome also seems to allow more flexible sizing of the gadgets you select.  When iGoogle goes away, I will most miss the Nahuatl Word of the Day feed, not available from the other services.

Here's a fix if your browser of choice is Chrome.  Google recently made changes to the New Tab page.  Before, it opened a display of large tiles for your most recently opened webpages, with a second page (to the right >) for your chosen web apps, identified there by labeled large tiles.  Now the New Tab page opens with much smaller web history thumbnails, a big Search box, and any webapps you use accessible by clicking a new icon.  That icon opens a popup box of a small number of your webapps only identified by graphic icons.  Here's the fix to get rid of that superfluous, space-eating, Search box (you use the address bar at the top of the browser window for searches, right?), and restore utility to the display of webapps.

Open a new tab in Chrome, and go to the following address:  chrome://flags
Scroll down to the entry "Enable Instant Extended API" and click into the dropdown box selecting "Disabled"
Result: the new changes to the New Tab go away and Chrome behaves like it did before.

Dan