Romans in Mexico

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

Miller's Middle School Years, oh my....

2011-10-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

My First Time

2011-10-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

We all have them. Here, everybody talks about theirs. Well, mine happened two days ago. That's right, after almost four years in Mexico, I finally got pulled over by the Federales.

I was driving through San Ignacio, a neighboring town, on my way to pick up the kids from school. I saw them on the side of the road and, as usual checked my speed. I was fine. A few miles down the road, they pulled up behind me and put on their lights. Now, I KNOW I was doing nothing wrong. I've heard all kinds of stories of folks being pulled over for money and fake Federales stealing cars. I've also heard of many approaches to this: studpid gringo, irrate local, etc. I decided to play super nice mom local, waved to them nicely and told them I would pull over just ahead where was was a space off the highway. I pulled just off the highway, where I could be seen by driving cars. I stayed in the car. One of them got out of the car and asked me if I had imported the car. In my best Spanish, I was super nice and told him that I had imported it , showed him our importation sticker and offered to show him my local ID and our boarder permit. I then raddled on about how I live in Sayulita, was on my way to pick up my son at school, really anything to bore him. He looked at the importation sticker, walked around the car and then put on big smile and informed that that everything looked fine and I could go on my merry way. Just like that.

Like all first times I guess, I bit of a dissapointment. Maybe it will be better next time.

Violence is Everywhere

2011-09-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

As the news of violence in Mexico new dwindles, the news of it in the United States takes over. Will all the people now visiting the US cancel their trips? I wonder if travel warnings will be posted?

Look at this article on New York

North of the Border II

2011-09-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

II
In our book group, we have been reading several novels set in Mexico. Almost all of them focus on the Mexican/American border and really seem to create a mystical view of it. I guess not surprisingly, the border has come to represent so much to so many. So, this year, when we drove across it, my eyes and ears were peaked.

We hit the border about noon after three days of driving north from Sayulita. It is really a beautiful, uneventful drive-a bit hot in July! We entered Nogales-or the Mexican part of Nogales -and was immediately struck by what a shanti-town it seemed. Don't get me wrong, I understand that there are beautiful part of Nogales. However, the part viewed from along the highway really seems to be an overcrowded mess of homes and lean-twos there to support border traffic. All signs are in Spanish and English, tons of garbage, not too many folks walking about. The strange thing is that this is all set in what seems like a valley of unbelievably gorgeous dessert mountains. The whole town takes on a strange quality as it is a bit of a grey zone between the "real" Mexico, the actual town of Nogales (which is actually in Mexico and the US) and the infamous United States. Daily, working folk cross the border all the time to do their daily business and stay withing the world of the gray zone, the borderless city.

As we follow the "FRONTERA" signs, a chain link fence starts to emerge on both sides of the highway-obviously designed keep people in and out. If you are brave enough to try to cross , there are actually several places that it is not to bad....Then, out of no where, there is a metal and wood fence about 8 feet tall that , by its imposing stature, simply must indicate the actual Border. Somewhere near the border fence, we come to a crawl as there is now a line of cars waiting to cross and we have to wait in toll-booth style. From everywhere, appear locals trying to make a living by basically doing anything-some sell trinkets, some try to wash windshields, some beg, and others just yell. No one sells water. About 10 minutes into our wait, all the vendors scatter and a thunderstorm and shower move in, making the rest of our hour wait more pleasant.

Okay, so we are American. We have passports, we were in Mexico legally, we speak both languages, we had nothing illegal in the car. However, I have to admit, when you get up to the radar, x-ray or whatever machines and are next to speak to the border patrol, it is a bit intimidating! Who in the world could hide a person or illegal items under this stress!! The very nice border man then pulls us over to take our fruit....

We pull out of border check, turn a corner and then I get it. I get the magic of the border. There is no welcome sign to the US-just a clean , landscaped highway, off road shopping with no signs in Spanish, and an IHOP (I kid you not, all this within 1/2 mile of the crossing). We stop at IHOP.

So, here we are. We are eating tons of California summer fruit, shopping at Trader Joes, watching cable TV. We are in the land of IKEA.

Back in the Saddle-for another year

2011-08-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

We returned to Sayulita about three weeks ago and we are soon approaching the year anniversary of our town's flooding disaster. While we have seen several small threats this year, it is nothing like last year. However, we have already put in our time digging out neighbors cars and problem solving over washed away roads.

Instead of digging, we have been spending out time getting Miller ready for Secondario which he began almost a week ago. No more kid in this house! He gets up at 6:30a.m., puts on his uniform, coughs down Ovaltine, washes up and then walks in the dark (and water) to our or Jade's car for the almost hour drive to school. He then gets home about 3:30p.m. and faces 2-3 hours of homwork-in two different languages. He first weekend, he probably spent 6-8 hours doing homework. Needless to say, we are working on efficiency and taking lots of vitamins along the way.

We are hoping that hurricanes, floods and landslides decide to stay at bay this year. We just cannot get up any earlier!

For Stan

2011-07-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

Moving In!

2011-05-30T17:20:00.001-07:00

Soooo close. In typical Roman style, we installed the granit about 4pm yesterday and had a dinner party for 8 at 6:30pm. It is so nice that even a local beach dog decided to liver here. Meet Kali, Maya's new best friend and sister.

We Have Finally Arrived

2011-05-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

When we are sitting around looking back on our lives, I know one of the things I will try to remember is when Miller suddenly turned from a kid to a teenager. Note to self: Semana Santa 2011.

This had been building slowly....little glimmers of independence, wanting to stay up later, wanting more time with friends, longer showers. While we noted all of this we figured we were a few years off. Mind you, Miller still likes cudling and still likes the bathroom light on. I am not really sure at what point this vacation it happened but somehow Miller entered vacation as a kid and left it a teen. It might have been when he had continual sleepovers, the night that he simply could not choose between friends and just had both for dinner, movie and the night-the new hammock bed, his new room with cool colors that he picked out, his sudden desire to surf, he self-scheduling, his slight pulling away from his girl friends and hang with the dudes, his first paid babysitting gig, or-this morning-when he slept late and woke up with a sudden and important urge to change is profile picture on Facebook. Now that was interesting!

While I cannot nail down the date or time, I do have the month, so please remind me when I ask.

Life in Sayulita

2011-04-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine called the other day asking for her umbrella. She is one of the vendors at the Mercado del Pueblo and I had her umbrella in a friend's storage unit waiting for her to pick it up. Turns out she was with a lifeguard crew that had set up for Semana Santa and wanted to lend them the umbrella. I gave her directions to the bodega, how to get the key from yet another friend, and then we hung up. As I hung up, I realized how common place this conversation was- a friend needing something. However, then I realized that the conversation I just had was in Spanish and that I was having it from Costo in Puerto Vallarta. It happened, I am finally here, home.

Mitch and I have often wondered when we would somehow realize that we were home-not just on vacation or on some silly adventure. It is moments like these-just going through life-that I get that we actually live here. I also realize how different it is from when I first arrived and from what most of you think. After three years of living here, the original sacrifes that I thought I had to make are mostly gone. I shop at Costo, a large grocery store, home depot ,etc. I can find most of what I need-okay, not matzah. The first year we lived here, I realize now that we were totally ruffing it as less was available and we just did not know where to find things. Time and increased Spanish ability has helped with all of that. I am now designing my new kitchen and need butcher block-no problem!

Our dusty mess that we call home actually is.

Passover 2011

2011-04-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

This year Passover was almost as big as Thanksgiving, a whopping 22! Dad flew in towing matzah ball mix and matzah as critical elements in the Sedar. I actually think we had all the jews in Sayulilta present-maybe all 5 of them.

House Pictures, Some Updates

2011-04-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some quick updates of the facade, our room and Miller's room. Miller and Mitch actually slept upstairs last night. More pictures to come soon as we are finishing the floors and have already moved up furniture.

Big Fish, Small Pond

2011-04-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

It is easy to be a big fish in a very, very small pond. Just read this to find out more.

http://www.elsayulero.com/story/interview-lina-weissman

Surf Out 2011

2011-04-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who supported Miller and his school yesterday at the Surf Out! All the kids had a lot of fun and Miller even won a raffle prize! The surf was low and in my pictures of him surfing, he looks like a small ant. He also spent some time skim boarding so included some action pictures of that instead.

Updates

2011-04-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

While Mitch and I are working non stop on the house, the rest of the family continues to have way too much fun. Miller is somehow unbelievably busy with his friends playing games, building things, searching for fireworks, buying useless things, boogie boarding and doing strange things on the computer. Mitch and I worked probably 10 hour days on the house both Saturday and Sunday and Miller somehow managed his own social calendar. It appears they are only coming home for food and electronics! I guess I should be happy with that. Maya and Trouble are doing their own little play dates and the other cats are happy that Trouble is keeping Maya busy and out of their way.

For us, floor installation started yesterday, windows tomorrow and doors.....soon. Pictures to come in the next few days. The workers found ANOTHER rattler in the yard!

Adolescence, here we come!

2011-03-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Miller is almost the dreaded 13, and counting. In the last few months he went from being a kid to a preteen, and showing all the signs. A few weeks ago, he informed me that I should no longer volunteer for field trips as he has more fun when I am not there. Of course, he still volunteers me plenty for cooking things! Today, we painted his new pre-teen room with one wall being neon green (to serve as a green screen) and the others blue. His bath will then be dark blue. His friends think it is cool. I will be putting up shades.

CVIS Fundraiser 2011

2011-03-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

After working long and hard, Mitch and I brought back a great prize from te fundraiser. This is a painting of Luche Libre masks painted by Miller's class.

Our New Family Member

2011-03-07T18:07:00.000-08:00

About two weeks ago, a parent at the school, on Treva's recommendation, came by the Market with a kitty that she had just rescued from a dog. She is beyond cute. Even Mitch and Maya could not get over her. Maya actually thinks it is her baby and cannot stop licking her to death. Stay tuned for a name, we don't even know if she is a boy or girl yet....

House Update

2011-03-06T10:40:00.000-08:00

Slow but steady on this end-mostly slow. At least it is starting to look like something! We get to start priming the inside next weekend!

A Mexican Tradition

2011-03-04T19:12:00.000-08:00

This year, CVIS became official as our sixth grade class got decked out in uniforms and performed at the Sayulita Day Parade. The kids practiced for weeks as they had to show the judges several feats of fancy footwork to earn the priveledge of marching in local parades. They passed and now they perform at their school every other Monday. So serious!

No Camera for Us

2011-02-26T18:46:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Iris for taking this picture at the Fourth Annual CVIS Fundraiser. I have to admit that the lack of blogging is due to our lack of camera. Posting does not quite seem the same without images. Hope to get this resolved soon! In the meantime, we are stealing the pics of others off Facebook!

Hi Sweetie, There's a Rattler in the Bodega

2011-02-22T18:38:00.001-08:00

These were the words that Mitch arrived to earlier today.

I have been crazy busy putting together the annual fundraiser for Miller's school and was innocently digging for tools in our bodega when I saw Miller's wooden snake in the back of a crate that holds many of our tools. I went to pick it up, and thought it looked a little more realistic than I remembered. I then thought that one of the cats must have caught a snake and "left" it for us for a present. As my hand was about to grap it, an overwhelming "wisemind" thought came to me that said "maybe you should just make sure it is really dead first". Sounded reasonable. So, like any Arizonian, I threw something at it. To my shock, a rattling tail came up followed by a very angry face. I must have jumped a few feet.

After Mitch got home and was greeted by my warm welcome, we sat around scratching our heads. A workman next door offered to "grab" it but I thouht that was a bit dangerous. The snake was now poised to kill as I had clearly interrupted its slumber. Then, welcome Mexican ingenuity. The worker next door fashioned a snake trap by putting a noose through a PVC pipe. He then put the noose around the snakes head (protecting himself by a few feet of PVC) and pulled it slightly into the pipe. With its head safely contained and its body whirling around, Mith and our new friend Miguel walked the snake into the canyon and released it.

I would have attached a picture but our camera is broken-hense the reason the blogging has gone down! Pictures are motivation!

Happy New Years!

2010-12-23T11:54:00.001-08:00

This greeting customized with Smilebox

Amazing Art by Treva

2010-12-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

Treva had her first local art show this week and another one coming up. She only has a few pieces left. You can view them HERE.

2010-12-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

Our luck never seems to run out here. Donna got booked to take pictures of an amazing new 60 foot Tri-maran and we got to go along for the ride. We spent the day with some other families going out to the Marietas, a reserved island off the coast. We ate, read, talked, snorkeled and Miller- you guessed it. He spent most of his day talking the head off the Captain and learning how to drive the boat.

On our way back, we all had the shock of shocks. It started with a spotting of jumping Montereys-who knew they jumped-at least 6 feet out of the water. Then, here they came. We had a whale show that no one, including the boat Captain, had ever witnessed. Three whales staying with us for at least an hour. First, they were 50 feet away, then 30 and then, before we realized it, one showed up about 10 feet from the boat and swam under it. Several of us were waiting to go under. Simply amazing. As if that were not enough, we then had a small team of dolphins follow us!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2010-12-01T17:27:00.001-08:00

In the whirlwind of construction and market development and work, we managed to have 25 people over for Thanksgiving. All brought lovely things to share and there was too much food to pass around. Dessert was followed by a bon fire on the beach, which is clearly our new annual tradition.

We topped off the weekend by buying our first piece of real art. The artist, Fernando Diaz, is a Mexican Jew from Mexico City. He is now living in San Miguel. All of his art is based on Jewish symbolism and he totally sold out. We were able to commission a piece from him that will arrive in March!

How did I ever have time to really work?

2010-11-21T17:22:00.000-08:00

First Focaccia Bread from Oven

Celebrating Pizza Oven with Lisa

New Pizza Oven!

Farm Boy

Ranchero Living in Mascota

Miller's Public Musical Debut, Minuet in G

I am now averaging about 5 hours a week of paid work. I say paid work, as I put in time every week helping at Miller's school and running the Farmer's Market. I feel busier than I have been in years-but with good things.

So, let me catch you up. Two weeks ago, in the span of one week, I ran a fundraiser at Miller's school for his music program where he was one of the featured artists, I got food poisoning (don't let your imagination run wild, it was from salami in my refrigerator) and opened up the Farmer's Market for the season, where I am a vendor. Uhg. Last week, we went to Mascota and stayed on a farm with some friends, did lots of homework and did even more work for the Farmer's Market which expanded in size in one week by double. This week, we are having close to 30 people over for Thanksgiving in the middle of construction and I still need to cook for the Market, as I keep sellling out! Oh, and we inagurated the Pizza Oven! Focaccia and pizza worked but my loaf of bread burnt to death-maybe next time.

Living in paradise, we still do not have much to complain about. Today, after making pickled carrots for the market, we sat our butts on the beach with friends and did nothing.

Work? I often forget to do it.

Miller's 12th Birthday

2010-11-07T17:44:00.001-08:00

They are now the size of adults. We realized this after 15 of them showed at our house and went nuts. The size of adults-but not the impluse control. A calm swim party turned crazy after they began chasing each other around the pool. We could only distract by water balloon fights, lotto and finally, out of desperation, a trip to the beach for cake. You know how in the states you invite 15 and get 10? Here, we invited 9 and get 15. Some of them I did not know. Welcome to small town living. There's a party-let's go!

Birthday/Anniversary Weekend

2010-11-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

Another weekend in Yelapa. This is at least an annual event for us. It is the perfect mix of nothing and nothing. A beach vacation for folks living on the beach-a bit redundant I know. However, the pace is very different as there really is nothing to do. Doubt me? Here was our schedule for Saturday:

Wake up to the sound of the ocean, which is 20 feet from our hut;

Sit on lounge chairs wrapped in wool blankets, sip coffee and stare at ocean;

Breakfast time, on beach;

Card playing time;

Reading time:

Lunch time:

Message time:

Swimming time:

Reading time:

Cocktail hour:

My Name is Maya

2010-10-17T09:18:00.000-07:00

I am a dog. A nice lady found me on the street and made me stop eating garbage. She gave me a blanket and a bone! She already had a dog so she looked for a new home for me and she found me a good one! Now I live with a family. I have my own bed, my own food and I share a water bowl with quite a few other furry things that don't really want to play with me. All I know is that they look at me, run away, I chase them (that is my job anyway) and then they won't wrestle with me-what is their deal anyway?

I already have several friends in my new neighborhood. My favorite things to do are to chew on things, play tug of war, cuddle, ride in the golf cart and give kisses. Today, I found a new toy. There is a long green thingy that shoots our water that I can chase, who knew?

I think I am going to like it here. But I still want to wrestly with those other furry things!

The New Roman Clan

2010-10-08T19:40:00.001-07:00

Yes, she is as cute as she looks. We finally broke down. Between years of my father saying "Every boy needs a dog" and her eyes, we just did it. While I am still the only person in Sayulita without a tatoo, I am no longer the only person without a dog.

We figure she is mut crossed with mut- which usually makes the best dogs. Miller even cleaned her pee. She is quite mellow for a pup and just ignores the cats, which is perfect. CPK wants to play with her but then gets freaked out and Cruz, I think, likes her as long as she is in her place. They will work it out. Miller already donated a stuffed animal to the cause and her dog bed is in his room. Tonight, Miller played Bach on his teclado (keyboard) to put her to sleep. Nice....

Oh, her name is Maya. If Miller was girl, he would have been Maya. More pics to come. Shhh, she is sleeping now.

Praying to the Huichols

2010-10-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

We went with our friend Susan to Alta Vista Saturday and prayed to the Huichol gods. Oh, and swam. When we returned, the town's electricity was back to normal, my oven was working, the pool pump was working ,we had water. Today, we got the go ahead to have the Farmer's Market in the Community Center and I found two new local growers.

I'm just saying.....

For Our Friends and Neighbors

2010-09-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

Trailer on Calle Chiripa, will be dug out tomorrow

In front of Rusty's house

Corner of Palmar, in front of Barry's house

Between Alemendros and Peter's house

In front of Mike and Angela's house

This is Calle Chiripa AFTER one day's work with one back hoe and two dump trucks. We were originally keeping track of how many dumps they made, but that quickly got old. Cobblestone is starting to reappear on our lovely street and , last night, the rain actually moved down the street instead of getting stuck in the quick sand which has become our street. All is improving. The workers will be back tomorrow to keep at it!

Another Adventure in Mexico

2010-09-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

Adventure might be overrated-at least by me. I am a bit adventured-out these days and thrive normalcy. Let me explain. Here is my new definition of normal:

Normal = working oven, electricity on, water on, clean feet (ie. not muddy)

Trust me, I have left lots of other things off this list. Since the big storm, we have gone without power quite often and, when we do have it, it is registering at about 96 volts-as opposed to the regular 210-220. I should not even know this. I, however, do know this as the low voltage has prevented my oven from going on, caused pump damage, and does not allow us to use air in fear of it exploding. We are currently using our ceiling fans against the advice of all electricions in town. Apparently, there is a main line down in La Penita north of here that is causing the problem and no one seems to know when it will be fixed.

The water system in town is sneaking by as functional. As there are lots of leaks and really not enough electricity for the pumps to pump it anyway, we are lucky if we get water for a few hours every day. When we do, we can actually only get it into the house if our pump (which needs electricity) has it-oh, and enough of it.

Mitch and I debate every night about whether loosing water or electricity is worse. Of course, the problem here is, when we loose electricity, we loose both!

When services are turned on, we literally run around and get things done ASAP as we simply do not know when they will go away. Today, our water went on and Mitch and a neighbor spent 1/2 hour trying to get the pump working so we could actually get water in the house. As they were doing that, my adventuresome self started setting up a dish washing station in the drive way thinking I could just hook up to the street water from a hose-or at this point, just wash dishes in the creek in our street. Just as I was getting started ,they got the pump up and running! We RAN around the house doing dishes, doing laundry, showering,etc. OMG electricity and water at the same time-go!

Of course, I should not really be saying this. I bumped into a friend of mine in San Pancho today. In the storm, he literally saw his house float down the river and all his land is currently under water. All of his belongings-gone. I asked what he needed and he simply said "work". They are just starting again-on a new adventure.

Sayulita Disaster 2010

2010-09-12T08:37:00.000-07:00

Calle Chiripa,under 4 feet of mud

CVIS, classroom is now on river

CVIS playground

home in Tamarindo

cleaning a home in Tamarindo

home in Tamarindo

We are now about a week past the initial damage to Sayulita and neighboring towns. As many of you know, one of the bridges to Puerto Vallarta fell due to high currents about two weeks ago. What many do not know is that much more has happened since then.

On the evening of September 3rd, the first of several major storms hit the Nayarit area. That evening, the river rose and mud slides shut down most of the roads. The businesses next to the river in town all fell as the river widened by at least 10 feet. However, the big problem came when two more storms arrived on Sunday and Monday nights. After all was said and done, Sayulita saw more water than anyone can report for the last 30 years.

All local bridges are gone and mudslides shut down all roads for four days. Electricity and water went out and are still out for some. The river banks are now at least 20 feet wider than last week. Last Wednesday, the Governer came to town and declared what is similar to a state of emergency, releasing needed help and supplies to the area. DIF(similar to the Red Cross) brought food and blankets, backhoes have been clearing debris and filling in gorges and the military has been helping dig out homes.

Most of us have spent the last week digging and bailing. Homes everywhere are flooded, with the worst being in the Tamarindo area which is the low lands close to the river. Homes there had mud as much as waist deep and most of the neighborhood has been homeless for almost a week. Our street, which is a natural river and flows every summer, is now covered in about 4 feet of mud from the canyon-raising the water level. CVIS was completely flooded as the back wall of the school caved into the ever expanding river. Luckily, the public primary school looks fine.

We are now canvasing neighborhoods making lists of needs and cleaning out homes. PEACE and Groupo are both helping with supplies for families and we are slowly able to move some families back in. Much more is needed.

Please donate where you can! All proceeds to the school are going to rebuild the back wall and clean up homes in the Tamarindo area, where we have had volunteer crews all week and will continue.

DONATE HERE TO HELP!

Cleaning in Tamarindo

Roshashanah Celebrations

2010-09-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

We have certainly not had our usual holiday events. In the midst of flooding and cleaning up homes, we still tried to do a bit of celebration. Friday night, after discovering that our oven was not working, we had Roshashanah dinner at Treva's with some local families. We had most of the fixins including home made challah, kugel, maztoh ball soup and chicken. We also threw in a little chorizo for the mexi-jew effect. We did the prayers and shared the story of the new year. We also got to listen to stories about the Huichol tradition as well. However, the best part of the evening was looking at the faces of 15 year old Irma and her boyfriend as they attempted to eat Jewish food. I think it is the same look I would get from Miller if he was invited somewhere to eat eyeball soup!

Last night, we had our first Pot Luck of the school year. We had planned on playing some family friendly poker when they skies opened up again. Our street, which had dwindled down to a babbling brook over the last two days, quickly became a raging river. All hands went on deck as we spent part of the night literally bailing out our neighbor from flooding and digging out several cars as our street became quicksand. Our wet selves then came back and enjoyed massages from all the children.

Back to the Summer Season

2010-09-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

Back in the saddle. We are almost unpacked and Miller has completed his first week of school, with already one test and one project under his belt. We have seen most of our friends, had some time on the beach and had our first Shabbat at home for awhile.

As many of you have heard, the bridge to Puerto Vallarta washed out last week in heavy tides, leaving a two lane bridge left to fend for itself. That bridge is now one lane each way so it is slow going. Luckily, we have very little need to go to the city. However, the rains are anything but stopped. We woke up yesterday to Rio Chiripa and a private island of debris in front of our house. I can only imagine the force of the water that brought these rocks down the canyon and deposited them right in front of our driveway. Lotto got here just in time as we barely got out yesterday. In addition, most of the businesses along the river caved in as the water rose and the little pedestrian bridge in town fell down-which is actually a good thing as it needed to be rebuilt anyway.

As we enter our third year of living in Mexico( do you believe it!) these things seem almost normal. As we drove back from La Penita yesterday and got stopped in a mile of parked cars as workmen cleaned up the jungle landslides, we simply got out of the car and waited patiently with the other locals. In our one week back, the figs have dropped, the bees have come and gone. The worms are dropping and the beattle weekly season is here. Nothing is dry and mud is every where. And the children are making boats to float down the street.......

It's Never Boring- Chapter 2

2010-08-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

Please, please-let there not be a Chapter 3.

I think I need to go backwards to go forwards. The original plan was for Mitch to leave Phx Monday to drive down to Sayulita and for Miller and I to follow by plane on Thursday-today. Of course, that was before the car died and Lotto entered our lives. It was also before we naively thought that we were following all Mexico custom laws by only having our car leave the country for a certain amount of time and reentering the country with our valid car import sticker which Mitch carefully removed from the old car.

On Tuesday afternoon, when Mitch should have been almost to Novahoa, he called to let us know that he had been turned away at the border, spent some time in the American Consultate in Nogales and was now on his way back to the US. Hmmm. Not what we expected.

Over the next 4 hours, by phone and by internet, we learned quite a bit. Mitch was turned away as our perfectly legal car import sticker was listed as covering our old car and was nontransferable. No problem, rip up this one and give us a new one-right? Not so fast. Before they did that, we had to prove that the old car was not sold in Mexico and that we owned the new car. No problem. We had the papers that clearly showed that the old car was sold in Arizona, the new/used car was bought in Arizona and a clear Title. Okay, now all we had to do-they asked-was to SHOW them the old car to prove that it was not ours. What? How does one drive a car-that one does not own- 12 miles over the Mexican border (where the car permit office is) to "show" them the car and then get it back into the US, get back to our new car and keep going? That question-along with many others that come while living in Mexico-could not be answered. He was only told that, until that could happen, the old car remained listed on his FM3 and he could not import another car.

Mitch swiftly went to the Consultate who was only able to give him a form that would remove the old car from his FM3 about 6-8 months after we mailed it in to the customs office in Mexico City.

When he called on his way back to Tucson, we almost had to laugh. The thought crossed my mind that we had clearly lived in Mexico long enough to know that we just had to go with the system and somehow figure out another perfectly legal way to get what we needed. If this had been two years ago, I think we both would have been in a panic. After discussing many alternatives-won't even bother with the boring details-we figured the best option was for Miller and I to cancel our flights, drive down with Mitch and import the car under my FM3. We cut our stay in AZ short and dad drove Miller and I down to Tucson to start the new version of our trip.

While we have lived in Mexico long enough to know you can always get around something, we have also lived there long enough to know it is not always that easy. We barely slept that night.

Wednesday morning-early-we got up, visited to local Waffle House and started driving. We hit the permit office, just south of Nogales, about 9:30am. No line, good sign. I told Mitch to hide out as I was afraid that someone might recognize him from the day before and ask questions. I got through the first part of the process fine, made the copied I needed to make,etc. Then, I had to go to another office where Mitch told me the "problem" was discovered. I had this fantasy that they somehow had our FM3s connected in the system and would not allow me to import a new car either. It turned out that the second office did turn me away, but for another reason. All papers were in order, he said, except that my US insurance did not list the new car. Of course not, I responded, the current insurance covered the new car for the allowable grace period we were in the US and we were now in Mexico, where US insurance is no good. No new insurance card required. Not good enough. After explaining to him several times that the insurance card in front of him was the most recent , perfectly valid (even offered that he call my insurance company) AND that it was not good anyway as we were in Mexico AND that we had already shown proof of Mexican insurance, he simply said, "We are in Mexico now" and walked away.

At least it was not on my FM3. We were now in the game of-okay, you ask- I'll just damn well get it and then you will have to shut up. So, we went to a nearby office, got on the phone with our insurance company and 15 minutes later had a new insurance card-with Lotto's VIN number on it-emailed to us. We had already been told by Mr. Mexico "No faxes". The challenge then became finding a place with not only internet access but a computer connected to a printer-not as easy as you might think in a border town. We went back to Nogales, back to the American Consulate, and begged them to break into our email and print out the new insurance card. They did.

Miller threated to do a happy dance if this worked.

He did the dance about an hour later. Four hours after we first arrived at the permit office.

It's Never Boring

2010-08-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

We started our travels south on Saturday crossing the desert between Los Angeles and Phoenix. We actually got out earlier than expected with everything in the car or precariously strapped to it. As we were going our merry way, we noticed in Palm Desert how much we could really feel the desert heat. Wow, it is hot here in August-we said. Only a few minutes later did we realize that the car's air conditioning, the very one that we had fixed twice, died on us. Five hours to go in 100+ degree weather. ARRRRHHHH. We stopped for a long lunch in an air conditioned Sizzler, then every hour just to throw water on our faces until we arrived in Phoenix and jumped into the pool. On our way, we planned our next move......

Our old lovely car, with my fav built in folding table in it, was simply done. Done having us throw crap in it, done crossing the border, done trying to pretend it is a four wheel drive. It needed to retire.

Welcome Lotto as our newest family member. Bought used with our beaten down car as a trade in and the remains of all the money we made this summer. Trust me, this was not the car we started off looking for, but it ROCKS! Summer rains, slippery slopes, beaches-here we come!

Our Summer-Finally

2010-08-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

We are about to return home and, before we begin our Mexican adventures again, I thought I might take a moment to catch up on this summer. As planned, we lived and worked in SF and played tourists as much as we could. We began out summer as we do most, with the Mountain Play-this summer featuring Guys and Dolls. Always one of our fav days of the year.

We then spent the July 4th weekend as any true blooded American would-in the woods swimming and catching fish. We saw the best fireworks exhibit anywhere as some locals light up sparklers on the small lake in front of us with the only fire protection the watering down of the dock they operated off of-nice!

Finally, we went to places that have been on our list for years including Alcatraz, Santa Barbara, Pasa Robles and we even had time to return to some of our favorite haunts including wine tasting, the Russian River, and Santa Cruz!

After the coldest summer in SF in 40 years, we are about to head home after some time with grandparents in LA, Balboa Island and Phoenix. While it was great to see friends and do the Bay Area-and eat amazing food- we are definitely ready to be home. We miss our beds, our animals, my garden, our friends and our new outdoor kitchen! We are once again returning with a car load of god knows what that seems so important right now and, in a few months, we will mostly likely wonder why we bothered.

Off to new adventures-my paddle boarding self....

Bad Blogger

2010-07-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

I've recently received several formal-and informal- complaints about my lack of blogging this summer. This is why I moved to Mexico. Need I say more? Work life in San Francisco is about all i can handle right now.

Stay tuned, last day of work in August 5th!

Mercado del Pueblo Lives

2010-06-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, hard work pays off.

Myself, Summer , Melissa and all the vendors worked our behinds off to get the Sayulita Farmer's Market off the ground. After six weeks of our "pilot" we identfied over 20 vendors, had a stable client base and all of Sayulita's support. In November, we will be back bigger and better-with serious media coverage. Check this out our upcoming article in PV Lifestyles. So proud!

Ohlone Way

2010-06-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our sweet cottage on Ohlone Way, in San Francisco. No number, just a stable door that has been there since the early 1900's. Of course, by now we are use to living in quarters that do not have addresses. This cottage is literally next door to our old house in Glen Park that was built in 1904 and Mitch and I faithfully restored for 7 years back to it original splendor. We have not lived in Glen Park for at least 8 years and now find ourselves back in familiar territory.

Our old house was one of the few on the blocks that actually did not connect with Ohlone Way; it actually fell a few small feet short of it as our triangle lot melded into our neighbors. Hence, we just ignored the alley. Glen Park news would constantly have updates about the alley, and others like it and there was even a club dedicated to this little alley's survival. We, of course, thought that folks got involved in this as they just had nothing else to do and way too much money.

Then, we moved here- at least temporarily. Turns out Ohlone Way has a bit of a life of its own. It actually started our first day here. It was so lovely outside, I had the barn doors open as Miller and I were unpacking. After a little bit, we noticed some boys about his age running around playing so he went to check it out. He played with them all day and, sometime that evening, we figured out that they were actually the boys who use to live two doors down from us in Glen Park and they had all known each other since birth. That same day, we bumped into another Glen Park neighbor who we had also known since birth. Her now 11 year old son was looking at bugs in the alley.

Since then, we have met most of the neighborhood in this small, sweet alley as they prune their shrubs, sit on a makeshift bench and eat lunch, walk their dog (some at 4am) or just enjoy the scenery. The alley is also Miller's favorite place to practice his black and white photography. I spend my time in the alley looking for herbs and edible plants. No horses have appeared near our old lovely stable house, but it is still the beginning of summer.

The Other Side of the Border

2010-06-04T19:07:00.001-07:00

Over the last two years, I have come and gone so much from California to Mexico and back again that it seems like old hat. Every time I do it, the US seems so clean and so commercial and Mexico seems so old world and dusty. This time was no different. Miller and I arrived last night to SF where we will be staying for almost two months. Mitch is driving up the car and will join us Sunday night.

We actually arrived on a beautiful sunny day, unusual for the Bay Area. We grabbed the car from the lot, stopped at the market for essentials and came home-which , for now, is a cottage in Glen Park behind our friends Chris and Livia's house. Today, we got a little Americana and walked through a mall-Brookstone still makes amazing, useless gadgets. We then went to do our two favorite things: 1) Book Store and 2) Trader Joes. We each got new books and a magazine-such a luxury.

Tonight, we had a smorgasbord style dinner of-get this- brie and wheat crackers, dill pickles, cherries, sugar snap peas, and olives-YUM. I had CA wine to drink and Miller Hanson's soda. We are now eating our dessert of See's Candy carmel pop and dark chocolate Milky Way. You just can't complain.

Wagon Dragons

2010-06-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

No more cars, no more carts, no more gas vehicles. Welcome to our gang of Beach Wagon Dragons. Doing it wagon style on the beach and loving it. Tough life.

Photo - Donna Day.

Mitch's Birthday

2010-05-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

Mitch is about to celebrate his 48th birthday. His actual birthday is Thursday and he will be in the middle of driving to SF, so we celebrated today. He got two original presents for his birthday: a tattoo and an outdoor kitchen. Can you guess which one he got and which one I got?

A Day in Civilization

2010-05-23T17:53:00.000-07:00

Ever since we got back from the camping trip, we have been looking for a little of the soft side of life-something clean, easy and entertaining. Enter the movie theater in PV, set in an air conditioned mall no less.

Today, I took Miller and Jade to see Iron Man 2. It actually does not get more comfy than sitting in an almost empty movie theater, eating popcorn and watching a first run American movie. After that, we walked around the mall, got lunch and did some shopping. Miller has been asking for a watch for a few months so we actually entered a department store-seemed very forgien-and found one on sale. The kids somehow decided it would be fun to live in a department store......in the rest of the mall iI found a moisturizer and Jade a water gun. We topped off the day with Hageen Daz Ice Cream!

We finished our day with a quite dinner at home and a night swim. Of course, our swim included picking iguana poop out of the pool. Welcome back to jungle life!

CVIS Camping Trip

2010-05-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

Volcano Ceboruco hosted the first ever CVIS camping trip. This is now an inactive Volcano just outside Guadalajara. Thursday morning 32 of us headed out with lots of gear, food and curious kids to see and explore. Mind you, this was after about 3 weeks of planning, collecting gear, multiple spread sheets and lots of shopping!

For some of the students (well, and even some of the parents) this was their first camping trip. Nick, John and Steve went up the night before to pitch tents and dig bathrooms. Treva , Julie and I got everybody up in one piece with plenty to eat. On the way, we stopped at a lava field so the kids could see the rubble and look at the flow that must have happened about 1000 years ago. We camped actually in the crateter itself-like in walking distance to vapor holes where steam is still coming out from the core. The kids ran around, explored and we finished the night with a soup cooking competition (I got to judge), roasted marshmellows and way to many kids piled in tents telling each other scrarey stories.

The next day, we packed up, made lunch and headed off to the top of the volano to explore two other craters and more vapor. The foliage was high dessert so some of the plant life was amazing and still in bloom. I've never been on a hike with 20 kids-and no complaints!

We spent all day yesterday cleaning gear and about 5 layers of lava dust off us-and I still think there is more. Hopefully, this will become an annual tradition as we all had a great time.

Springtime

2010-05-11T17:22:00.001-07:00

"Tis Springtime in Sayuita. In our house, that means new birds, baby iguanas, and lots of kitties needing homes. Just like last year, we have fostered two groups of kitties-one from the school and one from the jungle. Some of you may remember that last year a jungle cat showed up and had 4 kittens on our bed. Tiger, the mother, is still here with one of her babies, Runty, and we found homes for the others. Well, about a month ago, another jungle mama showed up and dropped her 4 kittens in our kitchen. We fed them and they have been living with us since. The new unnamed jungle mama also adopted the only kitten left from fostering the other 4 kittens from the cat that had babies at Miller' school. Uhhhhh. Today, I found homes for two and we obviously have a few more homes to find.

On Saturday, Miller started covering a friend's shift at Sayulita Animals, the non-profit animal clinic in town. When I went to check on him, I found that they had left and left him in charge for the entire shift-welcome to Mexico! He answered the phone and sold close to $200US of goods for them in the 4 hours. I think they should move him to commission-then we can retire.

Market Updates

2010-04-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

We are a hit. We are even news in our neighboring town, San Pancho. Word is getting out. We are having a steady flow of locals all there to buy organic produce, locally grown greens, herbs, tamales, ice cream, soups, pet foods, lotions and, of course, items from Sayulita Indulgences. I am selling out each week. We are up to about 14 vendors and still growing. Everybody is talking about it. We are going to the end of May and then starting up again in November, as you cannot really grow anything here in the summer months. People I don't even know are talking about the market, telling me how much they like it and bringing ideas about vendors. All the vendors have built a great , local community of people who are into food, into growing and into sharing their goodies. Miller and I have been invited to local farms and I am really looking forward to the visits. My Spanish is improving rapidly! For more updates, go to Mercado del Pueblo's facebook page. I am now being called the Farmer Market lady-at least it is better than the pickle lady.

My First Mexican Cooking Class

2010-04-24T08:47:00.001-07:00

Starting with traditional Chile Rellenos, this cooking class was a blast! My friends Michelle and Jon hosted it and their chef, Juan, taught us all how to make two kinds of Relleno, Mexican rice, and cheesecake. Juan has some amazing tricks up his sleeve and we all had a great time. We already have a list of dishes we want to learn next. Want to know the secrets of a good, crisp Relleno? Well, you will have to come to dinner.

For Stan

2010-04-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Roman boys and their 4 wheel vehicles

Garden Updates

2010-04-08T18:03:00.000-07:00

Growing season is almost over here , but our garden is going strong. I can almost see the herbs grow and those pinapples that we planted to sustainability mountain almost two years ago? Wow!

Mercado del Pueblo

2010-04-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today was the day! First ever Sayulita Farmer's Market. Crazy fun day with lots of folks being every excited that we are doing this. Good showing first day and will only get better from here. Tons of work!

MexiJews

2010-04-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

This is our second annual Passover Seder in Sayulita. Rabbi Treva led all of us in a wonderful family friendly seder which explained the story of Passover to the non-Jews in the room and reminded the children. Miller read the four questions and I helped with the Hebrew during the seder. With minor substitutions (ie. no walnuts so I made haroset with pecans), we had a fairly traditional seder. Although I do have to admit that I served fresh tuna and sausage paella-we are in Mexico after all.

The Regularization Story

2010-03-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

Everyone has one-this is ours.

For those of you not in the "know", there are two ways to own land in Mexico. One is through a Prestanombre which means that the land is in the name of a Mexican and then authorized to you. The second is called Titled Land which means that the title sits in a Mexican bank and is titled to you for use, etc. Most folks believe that Titled land is more stable and, therefore, it holds a greater value. While the jury is out on this, we have been trying to move toward getting a Bank Trust for almost two years. The first, and most interesting, part of this process is getting the land regularized which is a bit similar to the title process in the states-the government or government representative measures the land, surveys it, ensure there are no leans against it, make sure property taxes are paid,etc . and that all of this is on file. Once this is done, the Bank Trust or title process can begin.

Sounds straight forward-right. Wrong. Welcome to the wild west.

Several years ago we finally decided that we should just jump on board and get our land titled. This closely followed our area of Sayulita being deemed "ready" for regularization from the Ejido-or local land owners. To start the process, we went to our prestanombre, a very respectable and valued member of the community and told him what we wanted to do. No problem. He told us about the process which appears to involve countless redundant trips to various government office, most of which he would have to do. He started the process the year before we came down for Sabbatical. As we did not hear much about it, we would occasionally send emails asking. After one year, all we got was that we could not pay taxes as the government could not figure out what street we lived on or where our land was. Great.

When we got here last year, Mitch would stop by our prestanombre's office regularly to see what was up. Yes, we have to do a land survey. Yes, it would be great if we could get a copy of the one our neighbor did. Yes, there is a new company in town doing this and we do not seem to be on their radar. Yes, maybe we should wait out the process until the new company either left or got their you know what together. Another year passed.

I've stopped in a few other times since I've been here. Still trying to get the land survey done, then a wrong one done,etc. I casually stopped by Wednesday expecting to get the same old story. Instead, I was told that Corrett, the land company who has taken over this process, is here is town surveying land and that, for a small fee, they would get the land survey done and set the rates for our regularization process back a few years as we were eligible to do this a few years ago. However, all had to be complete by the end of the week as they were then changing the process and rates would then go up. Now, I have been in Mexico long enough that this did not even surprise me. We meet with the all powerful man for Corrett, I agreed to his fee and we set up a schedule. The next day, I ran to the bank and learned that the "fee" exceeded my daily allowance, so I then had to go to the ATM. I arrived at the prestanombre's office feeling like a drug lord I was carrying so much money. I got there just in time as the Oz just went off to file my land survey and my smart prestanombre told him to bring back the receipt before he got any fee.

The next day, I once again went to the bank to pick up a check I had ordered for Corrett to pay for the regularization. They had , in fact, set the fee back a few years. As you have to order checks here 24 hours in advance (don't ask me why), I got the check just in time and met my prestanombre back in his office. Luckily, he has just gotten back from yet another government office where we was now able to pay our property taxes for the last 5 years. He had is own story which involved getting a quote on the taxes, expressing disappointment that they were so high, agreeing to pay a "fee" and having them lowered. I am embarrassed to say that the taxes for the last 5 years accounted to about 320USD....I then gathered up my check, some house documents, our tax money, another "fee" and my prestanombre expenses and finished my day. Monday, he is going to file in the capital. Even our prestanombre is overwhelmed.

Cross you fingers, almost there.

First Sleep Over

2010-03-27T21:30:00.001-07:00

Miller's first sleepover-with a girl in a van......that is if they sleep, they have movies and snacks.

Farmer's Market

2010-03-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

We did it. Check out Andrea's article to find out about Sayulita's First Farmer' Market

Flash Backwards

2010-03-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

We are in SF this week working and catching up with friends. We are seeing SF at is best as we hit a heat wave and it has been between 70-80 all week. We are also staying with our old neighbors, Chris and Livia and their kids-right next door to the first house we owned-a 1904 Victorian. Our old house looks miraculously the same, same plants, same curtains, same detail. The only difference is that the new owners painted it a putrid blue with green neon trim. I think they were trying to add character, but they failed miserably. Oh well. it is still an awesome house and it still payed for our home in Mexico.

We have been doing the rounds of the old neighborhood and it has definitely up scaled. Glen Park is mostly made of old, small cottages. Most have now been remodeled and many added onto. When we first bought our house here in 1994, it was way ugly and no one else was remodeling. Times have changed. And, it is shocking what is still here. Today, we visited the cheese shop that Miller and I use to go to every week to split a cheese sandwich and talk to the owner who always let Miller come behind the counter and change his radio music and dance-mind you, Miller was 2. The burrito store, the greasy Chinese counter, the morning diner-all still here. It is also surprising how much Miller remembers; we moved to Millbrae when he was 3 1/2. Being back, it hardly feels like we have not only had the burb experience but are now full fledge ex-pats. It all came back as Miller was ordering Chinese food and slipped into Spanish......

The Pickle Lady

2010-03-12T19:06:00.000-08:00

This is what people keep swearing not to call me. After hand slicing about 80 cucumbers and countless onions in the last 24 hrs, I probably deserve it. On order are jars of Bread and Butter Pickles, Thai Spice Pickle and I am making Sweet Relish for the Farmer's Market.

Oh vey.

Grandparent Marathon

2010-03-08T18:15:00.000-08:00

One of the advantages of living in a tourist town is that people actually visit you. This week, we hit the jackpot. My dad came in for a few days and got to spend most of his time riding around in the golf cart with Miller at the wheel. We also went to the La Cruz Marina and missed Calderon by an hour or so. Mitch's folks came in today-for 8 hours-from a cruise ship. Yes, their third year in a row of taking the same trip. We picked them up at the dock and all went into Old Town for shopping and lunch. Next time, more than 8 hours!

Sayulita Indulgences

2010-02-27T12:54:00.000-08:00

Introducing my new endeavor: home made goodies made in Sayulita but remind you of home, including Bread and Butter Pickles, Thai Pickle, Sweet Relish, Pestos and more. Thanks to Nick for the awesome label and to Treva for the cool name. They are now being carried in Pico de Gallo, the new gourmet store in town and soon to be featured at the local farmer's market being opened my me and some friends.

The Good Old Days

2010-02-24T17:02:00.000-08:00

Miller and I just flew Mexicana Airlines for the first time ever. I have to say that I was a little nervous as their web site sucks, I could not do any type of web check in, and we went to the airport not quite being sure that our flight was confirmed. All our doubts quickly went away as we got to check in and they not only had our flights but took our bag without charging us. Damn, I should have brought two.

As we sat on the plane reading, we smelled something familiar. It took me awhile to figure it out-home cooking? someone with a hot plate behind me? an airplane cafe? I looked around and saw something that I feel I have not seen since childhood: steward's delivering hot meals on a tray-for free! This had not happened in so long I was wondering if Miller had even ever had food on a plane and started explaining what this was like I had to explain to him what the refurbished phone booth was in our favorite Italian restaurant. However,he reminded me that we actually had hot food on the Air France flight we were on 5 years ago. Wow, it had been five years.

We patiently waited our turn. As you may remember, they start at either end and work their way toward the middle. I actually use to always not try to sit in the middle as you have to wait so long for food and run out of choices. We were aisle 16 out of 30.....We were so excited. The stewardess arrived and, of course, they had just run out of pasta for my vegetarian child and only had chicken left. She asked me why I had not ordered a special meal as I stopped myself from telling her that no one serves meals anymore so who would have thought to do that. Luckily, just like always, someone actually ordered a special vegetarian meal and did not claim it so she gave it to Miller. I was having flashbacks to the 70's.

Then, it all came to me. The strategy, the aftermath-like deja vu. Once all the meals were served, all the stewardesses seem to disappear for an amazing amount of time while we are all trapped with our trays down and food and beverages in front of us. No getting up, no putting down anything on your tray and no getting anything from under your seat. My time-tested method of going to the bathroom before the cart comes out-putting my magazine away-placing my book behind my back for some after dinner reading had all failed due to lack of deployment. And, as usual, the second they trays were picked up, there was a mad rush to the bathroom. Nothing changes.

Okay, I have to admit that the food was actually edible AND they were pouring tequila as well. I confirmed by hatred for American airlines and will now be signing up for frequent flyer on Mexicana.

Building Project

2010-02-02T18:32:00.000-08:00

Miller and I have been very busy since last Wednesday. We went to the local lumber yard and bought about 6 meters of 12x1 and 3 meters of 4x4. We then carved out an area of our flat yard, measured and cut. As you might imagine, Miller did all the cutting. Our skil saw did not really have enough power, so he borrowed our neighbors. It took two cuts to go through the 4x4 and they are actually pretty straight. We made the posts high as we are in a jungle and wanted to leave some support to put netting above if we need. We put the whole thing together Saturday with Miller on the drill and me positioning the wood. It actually dropped in place perfectly and level! We then drove to La Penita (about 20 minutes north of here) to buy good dirt and herbs. The day before, Miller had loaded up 5 buckets of compost from the school so these plants will be very happy. We now have basil, rosemary, oregano, two kinds of heirloom tomatoes and mint growing. We also have room for other things we find along the way.

I think Miller is destined to be a contractor. He loves tools and creating something out of nothing. Next-solar food dehydrator!

The Adventure of a Lifetime

2010-02-01T18:28:00.000-08:00

Miller and Jade in their new workshop. They opened up a business today making and selling home made key chains. Total revenue so far = 50p. Not bad for 2 hours.

Neighborhood water fight

Miller eating brie that we found at a gourmet store

Sailing lessons in La Cruz

I think Miller hit the jackpot. He is outside, running around, learning new skills and having a blast. On top of all of that, he cannot get over the golf cart and is now trying to get an internship on a friend's boat. The world of possibilities has opened.

Oh Yea

2010-01-31T10:47:00.000-08:00

REALLY Homemade Cheesecake

2010-01-23T16:22:00.000-08:00

Today was a cooking frenzy. While I am not totally unpacked, it is good enough to ignore the boxes and have a cooking day. After all, I am due to explore the loveliness that is my new (okay used) gas convection oven. Truthfully, the frenzy started last night when Tamra had a pot luck with the theme of "T". Not a teramasu fan, I decided to bring a Two layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. As I only really have one round pan, it took me all day but was worth it. Today, the frenzy started with Treva's request of a cheesecake. While I make these all the time in CA, I have yet to try it here. I was able to find most of the ingredients except for ricotta. Mexicans are not so good at cheese. A friend of mine suggested I substitute tofu but I could not bring myself to make a New York cheesecake healthy. So, I spent the morning making my own ricotta and the afternoon making the cheesecake. I then had to make cornbread as I promised Tamra I would and am now making roasted vegetables to go with the dolphin I bought this morning. In addition to cheesecake, I now have homemade herbed ricotta for appetizers. Yum!

It Doesn't Suck

2010-01-19T18:52:00.001-08:00

Photo courtesy of Donna Day Photography

I am always being asked "So, are you on the beach with a margarita?" My pat answer is "Actually, I do the same thing here as I do in California-you know, work, get Miller to school, cook dinner, clean-the only difference is that I do in shorts."

There is something about this exotic move that has everybody dreaming.....However, I now confess, I do get to the beach once or twice a week, I have had three margaritas in the last three weeks, Miller is taking sailing lessons and it is gorgeous in paradise. Life does not suck.

The Low Tech Version

2010-01-14T18:01:00.000-08:00

All I can say is that our stuff left in a large truck with a hydraulic lift and a label on the side carted by two guys who had weight belts and a dolly and lots of paperwork-clearly union. Life sure is simpler in Mexico (good reframe, huh?). These two guys left Laredo , Texas at 1pm the day before and drove through the night. Our neighbor flagged them down as they were wandering aimlessly looking for a gringo who needed stuff. No dolly, no inventory sheet-thank god I had mine-no lift, no nothing. We had to get the workmen next door to help lift the oven and Mr. Cheng. One guy got it out of the truck, one carried it in and I did inventory. I actually think it is all here.

The problem now is unpacking. For those of you who have not been blessed with visiting our humble abode in Sayulita, it is just that-humble, with no storage. There is absolutely no place to put anything so I am finding myself just shifting things around. We are getting rid of much of our "rental" belongings and replacement them with our "real" stuff. We also brought things in anticipation of adding on, which is a ways away. I can barely walk in our back patio. The bright side is that, as I do manage to bring some items in, our home feels much less like a second home and more like our permanent one. Little things. Today, I brought in a ceramic heart container that Miller made and a baby picture. Yesterday, I got the oven in with the help of a neighbor and my bedding.

Yep, this is really home.

The Animal Welcome

2010-01-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

This is big daddy. He lives in the tree next to our house along with about 8 other of his iguana friends. He often climbs to the top of our papaya trees to have a nibble and then lounges around the back of our property. We don't see him often but, when we do, he always leaves an impression. God knows how old he is but he is about 6 feet long from nose to tail tip. His face is grey but his body is bright orange and his tail his black and orange stripped like a crazy snake. He is the king of our jungle and has earned his strips-literally. The King joined us to drink from our pool and visit on New Year's Day. A sign of welcoming.

We came back to all four of our kitties healthy and, I think, grateful for us to be home. Runty, as you may remember, was about 5 inches long when we left. She is now a gorgeous calico who thinks that the very place of her birth (our bed) is her castle. Libre has moved past her wild adolescent days and is quite a couch potato (although we understand she use to walk our house sitter to work, wait for him, and walk him home). Cruz is as goofy as always and Tiger, the jungle mama to Runty is Garfield's distant twin. We also have two white kitties from the jungle who have somehow decided that this is their home. I cannot begin to tell you how much cat food we go through.

The animal of the week, however, is the infamous suicide ant. I was minding my own business and cleaning out our outside laundry area when I noticed some small, white pellets. I moved a pile of towels to investigate and should have known better. There, I discovered hundreds of large ants everywhere surrounded by pellets. Welcome to Mexico! As I moved the towels they naturally started to scatter and I began to wipe away the white pellets not really knowing what they were. I had almost all the pellets on the washing machine so I could wash them away when, I swear-and I even have Mitch as a witness- that the ants began to jump almost two feet down in a suicide jump to the pellets. One went, then another, then another-trust me, this was calculated and determined to carry them away to safety. The pellets must have held some kind of baby or cocoon self in them that Darwin hardwired them to protect. I thought I was watching Aliens. After getting past disgusted to amazed and then, suddenly, back to disgusted, I sent Mitch for the raid. All I can say is that we definitely lost Karma points. At least I have clean towels.

Dear America

2010-01-01T09:23:00.000-08:00

I've left. I know you've noticed that we have drifted apart, spending less time together, having different interests. I think our time has come, at least for now, to go our separate ways.

I will always remember you fondly. There are things that are so "you" that I know I will not experience anywhere else. Playing football on the Mall in D.C., walking through the snow in Harvard Square, building houses in the Four Corners, the Mountain Play, cave exploring at Camelback Mountain, the PCDS wash, watching Miller in the fall Soccer league. Yes, I will always hold these memories and more. They are part of me and I take them with me.

It is just that so much has changed, for both you and me. While I still think your heart is pure, you have moved in a direction that I don't want to follow. I want something simpler, slower, less complicated. The way it use to be with us. I need a different kind of challenge-one more about people and culture and closer to nature and creativity.

I will always wish you the best and I know we will stay friends. I promise to visit. Who knows-maybe some day we will work it out.

We Did It

2009-12-29T22:22:00.000-08:00

We are here. Miller is asleep in his own bed, I am surrounded by cats and the window is open. We arrived with two very heavy suitcases-which then seemed small compared to what most folks seems to be bringing to Mexico-and I think a good deal of excitement. The flight was easy, customs was a breeze and then Treva and Astrid picked us up and we felt like we never left.

After a quick stop at the grocery store, we came home and saw our much missed kitties and went out to dinner. During the course of the rest of the evening, we walked the town, visited the plaza, had a drink in our fav restaurant and stopped by the neighbors house. I think we saw practically everybody we know in the span of two hours. I am sitting here petting the kittie that when we left was about 4 inches big. She simply cannot get enough.

The best part of the day? Miller getting off the plane and saying "Wow, it's good to be home".

Mexican Mules

2009-12-24T15:39:00.000-08:00

As it is still hard to find items in our little neck of the woods, even with PV near by, we-and many others like us-become mules as we arrive into Mexico. All kinds of requests come in from simple to complex and normal to unique. We have received at least a package a day for a little over a week, some even coming to Mitch's folk's house in LA. It is hard to say no as it is not often folks come down and we like to build karma points in case we ever need anything.

This time round, we have our largest mule load ever including:

school supplies
sandals
computer battery
chocolate
curry
art supplies
software
cosmetics
an engine block

You got it, in the back of our car is a part of a Honda engine(the big part) for one of the teacher's at Miller's school. I can't even lift it.

Watch out immigration, here we come.

2009-12-22T08:14:00.001-08:00

Did you ever think about the one thing that means you are home? In our multiple transitions over the last year, we have been forced to. No, don't say the cheesy, easy answer of "family", duh. If you were really going to move around with only the things on your back-or in your car-what would it really be? What is that little item in your life that somehow has to go with you to function, to make sense, to live your life. It could really be anything. During our last minute packing on Friday (packing the 5th LAST box....), it suddenly hit me. One of the last things to ever be packed in our house over the last 10 years, the thing that always goes in our car and is often the first to be unpacked, the thing that somehow means "this is home now".......? For us, it is a wicker desk organizer that holds all our phone lists, some stray pictures and other important odds and ends of our life that somehow do not have a place anywhere else. However, when they are in this basket, we know exactly where they are. Huh. No, I don't think it is about our organization obsession but more about the important stray pieces of information that somehow end up in this thing-Miller's recent soccer pictures, business cards, receipts for items we are trying to remember to pick up or fix. It is our holder of where we currently are, our current life.

Well, our wicker organizer and lots of other junk, is now loaded into Mitch's car with a new hitch and trailer attached. We are now in Los Angeles for the week. Mitch and Nick are heading out this weekend to Phoenix to drop off the trailer and contents at my Dad's and then we all regroup in our new, permanent home.

The last picture? We got the royal Williams Family goodbye as we left Millbrae. Look closely, you will see 10 hands waving in unison. The perfect send off.

The Big Move

2009-12-17T19:51:00.000-08:00

The movers were at the house at 8:50am this morning. After I showed them around, they got on the phone with their boss and I was freaking out that we just had too much crap. Turned out, they just found out they had to open every box, do a full inventory and double check serial numbers.....of everything. Oh yea, when you do an international move, you have to list all electronics-like everything with a plug or a battery-on a list with its make, model and serial number. Who knew?

About a 1/2 hour into this very fun event, another 30+ foot truck pulled up and stopped in the middle of the street. I had a sudden panic, did the company who set up this move make a mistake and call two trucks? Before I could barely make this thought conscience, one of the movers says to me "did you call another moving company?" I didn't know what to say. A few minutes later, we realized together that they were there to deliver some furniture to the neighbor. Whew! Ten minutes later, I walked outside a noticed that the "new truck" is not only blocking the entire road, but the drivers are not putting together furniture on the sidewalk, or in the large front yard, or in the even larger back yard. No, they are building furniture in the middle of the street. To be precise, right behind the large truck that is blocking the entire road. The only thought that comes to my mind is "I'm already in Mexico". This thought ends quickly after the Millbrae police arrive and tell them to move.

So, the moving guys, who speak Spanish by the way, are finishing up and I decide to give up on Salvation Army who we booked to pick up the bed. I take a quick pic and in my oh so modern approach to life post it on craigslist-free. It is not two minutes later that the phone starts ringing and does not stop until 1 hour later when I go nuts and take the post down.

The movers leave-done! They take my electronics list and my inventory list and make yet another one. My garage is empty-I've actually never seen it this way. I go inside to pack the rest of our crazy belongings and , before I know it, a male voice is calling "hello". My life flashes before my eyes as I think that some door got left open , some strangle man is wandering around my house and all this is about it end in disaster. Turns out it is some woman's boyfriend who I had promised the bed to. After I figure out that he is simply a manic, very sweet Jew boy from Oakland, I let him in and help him carry out the mattress to his truck.

I am now sitting in a hotel with Mitch and Miller getting ready for Miller's last day at Spring Valley. He is unbelievably excited as he gets to run the soundboard in the Winter Concert. Tomorrow, we finish cleaning the house and load up the cars for LA. Right now, our 50+ boxes, art and various crap, heads to a warehouse somewhere where it gets loaded into two crates. Those crates then get shipped to somewhere in Texas where is get stored until a Mexican moving company decides that they want to come back after the holidays. It then gets brought over the boarder and all those inventory lists checked. Somehow, someway, it then appears at our house in Sayulita.

Oh yea, by the way, Miller decided that we should pull our car into our oh so empty garage for the first and last time ever-just because we could.

A Milestone

2009-12-15T16:39:00.000-08:00

After 30 years of setting an alarm, getting showered and dressed and packing a lunch, today was my last day of work.....Okay, not quite that dramatic; I will still be working remotely.

However, today was the last day, most likely for the rest of my life, of going into an office, having regular meetings and being responsible for others.

While I have been saying goodbye to folks at work for a few weeks, today we got together for cake and treats, told stories and laughed at each other. It is quite amazing what folks remember and take to heart over almost 5 years. Several stories were about my first few days on the job that I had almost forgotten about. All were meaningful and made me smile.

My new work life will involve me being responsible for me, doing creative projects and hopefully learning a new culture.

For now, I am returning to boxes and more boxes as the movers are coming Thursday!

New Kid on the Block

2009-12-09T18:22:00.003-08:00

Our preteen kid now has preteen stigmatisims. We discovered this as we used the remains of our American insurance to go to all doctors possible. In a regular eye exam. the doc found minor issues but, given that we only have a few months left of coverage, we decided to plunge in. Miller can now wear his glasses for homework and reading. I cannot tell you how happy Miller was to get these-if kids only knew.

It's Winter

2009-12-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is gone, Chanucha is almost here and we are on the edge of our first big Bay Area storm. This is normally where I console myself for being freezing by remembering that this means snow in the mountains so we can ski. This year, I am just realizing how utterly cold I am. I know you East Coasters think we West Coasters are wimps-but it is in the forties right now.

My year of warmth has long rubbed off my bones and even non stop packing is not keeping me moving enough to be warm. The chill is only stopped by our hot tub which we brave every evening. I cannot even imagine being in shorts for New Years!

The Goodbyes

2009-11-22T16:48:00.000-08:00

Well, we thought we had or last wine county trip and , thanks to Sue and Kyle, we had yet one more. Mitch met most of these folks in college or shortly after and many of them are his old dead head crowd. Over the years, we have all gotten a lot older, got kids and houses, but still manage to stay in touch for the important stuff-like having fun and saying goodbye for awhile.

We drove up yesterday to their house in Graton and joined up with some friends to take a trip to the near by wine county. We had all loaded up some food and caravaned to Armida's. Can I just say that we somehowh it one of the perfect Bay Area fall days with leaves turning and not a cloud in the sky. We did some wine tasting at Armida where Sue and Kyle are members so they treated us right. We bought a few bottles and sat on their deck which overlooks wine county all afternoon. The kids were perfectly entertained with boccie ball and just rolling like idiots in the grass.

As the sun began to come down, the chilliness picked up, so us wimps packed up. On they way home, we stopped at one more vineyard called Hop Kins. It is in a historic German building and makes food goodies as well so, in addition to the vine, we also got to sample mustards, oils and chocolate sauces-yum. It was truly a Bay Area best day.

Between now and December 18th, we are packed with goodbyes are trying to convince folks to visit. We are also giving away tons of things we hope others will use-and maybe even remember us by. Somehow, in the next three weeks, we will empty the house, clean out my office and hang out with folks we love.

The Ultimate Canvas Bag

2009-11-18T17:03:00.001-08:00

You know the only thing better than shopping with a canvas bag? Making one! I've been working away at a few varieties for holiday gifts. Cannot say or show much more here as I don't want to ruin any surprises.

The City Life

2009-11-16T18:36:00.001-08:00

We are committed to enjoying our time in the great city of San Francisco. On Saturday, we hopped in the car with our friends Julie, Tom and Nate and headed for the King Tut exhibit at the de Young Museum-how cultural. We had spent a few days talking it up with the boys and Tom had woken up early that do to do some research. We were up and out and got there early enough to miss the lines. For those who do not know, the museum was rebuilt a few years ago and is really incredible to see, outside of any exhibit. The exterior is copper and the patina changes annually. There is a nine story glass tower that provides a 360 degree view of the city. On a clear day, you can literally see forever.

We stood in line for a whole two minutes and were admitted to the first room of the Tut exhibit. Just like at Disneyland, the show opens with a two minute video-narrated by Omar Shariff none the less-which gives on overview of The Boy King and what role he played in Ancient Egypt. Did you know that he died suddenly at the age of 19 for mysterious causes (think governmental overthrow....).

We went through a series of rooms which were designed to have the viewer feel that one is walking into to tomb-dark, quiet-okay, a little stuffy. Some nice citizen handed the boys an audio tour of the show so they got to listen to a story along the way. Good call for kids! Let me just say, the Egyptians did it right. They clearly had a good living and focused on art and beauty. It seems like most of their efforts were all about getting to the afterlife, though. So much for the here and now.

About half way through the exhibit, Miller started asking where the infamous King Tut mask was. We were all excited to seeing the mask and, of course, figured it was in the last room. So, we walk into the last room and they have this crazy cool video of how the death chamber and tomb were found. They also had a halo graph of the tomb, mummy and body there. We look around and all notice at the same time' Hey! No mask! No fricken mask! What is up? All I can say is that we consoled our self at lunch.

After a visit to the tower, we went into the Sunset for lunch and ended up at an old Italian place that Mitch and I were familiar with. Mitch had been watching the Soprano's , so we had a very mafia inspired lunch of pasta and gravy, pizza, salad and even vino.

All in all, a successful day. Let me leave you with this thought-one that we did not think of until last night, "Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonya...King Tut.........". Brings 'ya back, huh?

It's Official,We're Moving- Really

2009-11-13T17:23:00.000-08:00

So you think it was crazy to pack up, rent the house and go to Mexico with our kid for a year? Hope you are sitting down....

We are moving to Sayulita, Mexico for good. We leave the Bay Area December 19th, having some various family stops along the way and arrive on December 29th to our new, permanent home. FAQ's:

House? Sold

Stuff? Combination of Craig's list, Goodwill and friends. We are also working with an international moving company to bring some things with us.

Miller's School? He will return to Costa Verde International School in January, which is a bilingual, green school about 2 blocks from our house.

Where? Sayulita, silly. We have been visiting for 8-9 years and built a house there almost 5 years ago.

Lina's job? I will work remotely for my current job part-time and will begin to look into opening a private practice in PV.

Mitch's job? He has to finish teaching this school year as he was on sabbatical last year. From January-May, he will come down every month and live in SF with a friend. He will move down for good in May.

Why the hell would we do this? Well, that's a good question.

The easiest way to explain it is that we are lucky enough to leave one good life for another. In this one, we have great friends, good jobs, a nice home and a great school system. In that one, we have all of that AND time to enjoy it. Life is simpler in a small jungle town-not easier, but simpler. While we were not able to understand the rationale of the local government and were not able to find many of the luxuries that we all take for granted in California, we did learn the pioneering spirit of making due with what we had, creating what we needed and having fun along the way. Miller is able to attend a local green school that boasts a garden and chickens and focuses on experiential learning-and Spanish. We can walk on the beach every day and watch the most amazing sunsets ever. We can grow our own food, be surrounded by friends who are looking for the same thing in life and take on a sense of adventure. You only go around once, so there you go.

As we have been sharing this huge news with others, it has been amazing how much others have said that they have fantasized about doing something similar, but just did not make it happen. Well, we are. Taking visitors starting January, 2010.

Miller Turns 11

2009-11-04T19:07:00.001-08:00

'Tis another year. Miller gets older and we refuse to. At 11, we are somehow entering early adolescence as he is going off to parties, spending time in his room, negotiating for himself, sitting in the front seat of the car and NEEDING to shower every day. However, like any good pre-adolescent, these times pass and he wants us to read to him, take a bubble bath and still wants us to turn his light on in his room.

For the last several months, he had really been wanting a remote plan. Not a little kid airplane-a real one that teens and adolescents alike take out to parks and fields to fly and do tricks. Independently, he did research to find out what would be a good introductory plane, rallied his grandparents to chip in and called and placed his order. He showed up at the store and asked all the right questions about how to put it together and fly it, then he came home and did what he needed-carefully and thoughtfully. Yesterday, Mitch took him to the park to do the voyage flight. Within two minutes, the plane broke. The interesting thing is that Miller took it in stride-picked up the pieces and came home. He then got on the phone with the toy store, explained what happened and asked if he could bring it in the next day to exchange. All was good when I got home from work and they explained to me what had happened. Miller said he was disappointed but that it was a complicated plane and that he could exchange it the next day. Very impressive-right?

About an hour later, we were finishing dinner and he fell apart. The artichoke did not quite taste right and -that was it-like any true blue pre-adolescent-he crawled up in a corner and cried for about an hour. He was only consoled by my reading him Harry Potter. Ah, it is going to be long way until we reach college.

You guessed it-we exchanged the plane for slot cars (think pre-pre-adolescent).

Happy 15th to Us

2009-10-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

At least we got it right this year.

Two years ago, we celebrated our 14th anniversary, only to discover a week later that it was really our 13th. Last year, we forgot our anniversary all together until my mom called to remind us. This year, it is really our 15th and we went back a few years to our old tradition of going out to one of the many fancy restaurants in SF.

Mitch got one of his star students to come babysit and we were off. So naive were we. We drove into SF expecting some normal traffic as it was a Friday night. We were quite proud of our maneuvering when we turned onto Van Ness-and got stuck in the intersection. I had a sudden thought/flash, similar to just about when you are about to make a fatal mistake. Ahead of us was about 3 miles of traffic waiting to cross the Golden Gate bridge as the Bay Bridge has been closed for a few days for repairs. As we were still in the intersection, we actually considered trying to make a left onto a totally empty street and just getting the hell out of there; however, cars were flying everywhere and all we could do was stay put and inch forward. We spent the next 30 minutes stuck between cars in front of and behind us, cars to our right and a large curb to our left. In that time, we made about 10 feel of progress. I had sworn to make an illegal left hand turn if we could just make it to the next light, when a brake in the curb to my left appears out of the heavens and ,instead, i made an illegal u-turn and high tailed it out of there.

We then spent the next 10 minutes getting stuck in one way streets until we could figure out how to get the two more blocks to the restaurant. On the way, traffic stopped again as Critical Mass (Friday night bike riders in SF) descended upon us. I've never been so happy about valet parking! Luckily, we had called and they had agreed to save our table and we had a lovely french meal at Absenthe. We took back roads on the way home through our old Mission neighborhood and remembered just how crazy and fun the city can be.

The Wonders of Matzo Ball Soup

2009-10-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

This is the year of injuries, first my leg and now Mitch. On Friday, he had a tear in his bicep tendon and rotator cuff mended. This is better known as surfing surgery as that is what caused the damage.

It took about 3.5 hours of surgery to repair everything so luckily my dad came up for the weekend to schlep Miller around to his various activities. After half hour in the recovery room and almost two hours in the surgery center, my tough husband was still nauseous and dizzy (the nurse confided in me that men are always the worst). They tried rest, they tried making him laugh, getting him up, multiple medications,etc. As it was after 6pm on the Friday night, they decided to just throw him in a wheelchair and give him to me. I got him home and in bed and decided to do the only thing I know how to do with sick people-make them matzo ball soup. OMG-his color came back almost immediately, he could sit up walk and his nausea went away. He looked and acted like a normal person by the time dad and Miller came home from dinner.

Mitch rested most of the next day and then we had some friends over to cheer him up a bit. We had not really had any real dinner parties since we have been back so I decided to do it up a bit. I served everybody lots of yummy stuff and then brought out the rest of the matzo ball soup for my vegetarian son and Mitch, who by then had decided that he was living on it, and the fists came out. So much for my fancy yellow tail with cilantro pesto, home made foccacia bread, etc. Folks just wanted to soup. Oh well.

Jewish grandmothers everywhere-be proud!

The Sighting

2009-10-19T19:05:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, Mitch and I dropped off Miller at his cousin's and headed to the Lodi wine county. For those of you not in the know, Lodi is the large grape growing area in the US and specializes in Zins-yum.

On the way out of the Bay Area, we stopped at Whole Food in Berkeley for a quick lunch. We enjoyed our outdoor meal and I went inside to clean up. On my way out, it happened. There, with Mitch, is the Sayulita Silver Guy! He recognized Mitch from town and stopped. If you are from Sayulita, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you are not, let me catch you up.

There is a guy in dreads and grey/silver skin that walks around Sayulita half dressed and drunk/high most of the time panhandling. There are several theories that explain the color of his skin-none of them yet proven. The only time he is seen sitting is when he is enjoying his custom meal of raw meat. He will tell anyone he can that he has some kind of special blood that allows him to do this. Basically, he is the Sayulita weirdo. Mostly harmless. However, he has managed to piss off enough folks that in July, on our way to the airport to come back to CA, our last vision of Sayulita was the local police picking up Silver Man to escort him out of town.

To get back to my story....I am walking out of Whole Foods in Berkeley and am greeted with the vision of Mitch talking to Silver Guy! You can imagine what went through my mind and god knows what came out my mouth. Apparently, he had told Mitch that , after he got kicked out of Sayulita, he proceeded to hitch hick up to coast and is doing a pit stop in Berkeley. Next stop-Washington and then onto Vancouver. As he was saying goodbye, he informed us that he was on his way inside to buy raw meat as he had O+ blood and could only eat raw meat. He was clear that most people just don't know what kind of blood they have.....

Almost a religious experience.

By the way, the wine country was awesome.

Sweet Building

2009-10-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

This was our rainy day activity today. On our way home, Miller had a brainstorm and needed to build. This is our almost Halloween, getting into winter, indoor activity. We started with brownies, added frosting and edible orange food spray, mini marsh mellows and graham crackers. Add a little mess and there you go.

Sayulita Salted Caramels

2009-10-11T19:05:00.001-07:00

Admittedly, this is a work in progress. It began with Treva and I, in May, making thank you caramels for the St. Regis. We worked and worked, faked a few ingredients that we could not find and came up with pretty yummy stuff. However, given the heat and humidity in Sayulita, we could not for the life of us get it to firm up-even in the freezer! It made great caramel sauce.

Yesterday, I had to try again. I found a little different recipe and actually had all the ingredients. It definitely made a difference. The caramel came together beautifully and I decided to take extra caution and let it set overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, it looked great. It took it out, attempted to cut it and still had a gooey mess-yummy but gooey. I topped them with Nayarit sea salt and wrapped them in wax paper. A leg up from last time but there is a reason candy makers have marble counter tops and equipment. There is a magic to caramel setting that still alludes me.

Pumpkin Day 2009

2009-10-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, just in time for our annual trip to Farmer John's in Half Moon Bay, the fall weather came. We thought it might be the first year we visited our friend the farmer in shorts, but we were wrong. We bundled up for the first time since Winter vacation and headed out. Since we missed last fall in the Bay Area, we were especially looking forward to this excursion. After hitting the typical traffic to the coast, we were happy to see that the farm was still thriving. We were also welcomed by lots of other families with children and LOTS of dogs in tow. At first we thought "Wow, that dog sure is common now", only to be informed a short time afterwards that it was officially Burmese Mountain dog day at the farm-poop and all.

We spent the morning watching where we were stepping, getting out of the way of dog pictures and finding some awesome pumpkins. Every year, Farmer John experiments with new varietals and always grows something we have never seen before. We also ensure to get out to his field to run in the corn rows and see the vines. This year, we were able to pick some of our own corn as well. On the way home, with our new fascination of chickens, we found a home that was selling fresh farm eggs and then a vegetable stand with local fruit and veggies. On the way home, we happily munched on strawberries and peas. Tonight, omelets for dinner with green and blue eggs.

Raising Money for Breast Cancer

2009-09-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

Ever walked into a back yard and found a butt load of naked women? Well, that's what I found today as I entered an artist's studio in Menlo Park. About 20 women, all bare chested and some baring more and most drinking champagne.

Today, my friend Hannah organized the first part of a fundraiser for breast cancer. She is a recent survivor and our other friend Sophie, could not make it as she is home sick from radiation.

The idea is simple. Strip down, have an artist plaster you from the waist up, sit in hot sun for awhile, take off plaster and be very messy, let plaster continue to dry. Once they are dry, we will all decorate them and show them at an art opening for auction. All proceeds to go breast cancer research. Clever, huh?

We spent the afternoon sharing stories and finding lots of funny connections amongst all of us. Many of the women are cancer survivors or know folks who are experiencing the disease. For a reason that no one seems to know, the Bay Area has an especially high incidence of breast cancer. So far, three women I know in the last year have been affected.

Me? I think I am going to cover my bust with inspiring pictures and quotes and then cover parts with some of my mom's antique button collection. Stay tuned.

To make a donation, go to www.her2friends.com

Typical Bay Area

2009-09-12T17:06:00.000-07:00

Picture a thick grey mist, not unlike the steam of a teapot at full throttle-but moving down and across rather than up. That would be the picture I would have taken today of Miller's soccer game had a had a camera. Today was a "travel" game, which for us meant driving about 15 minutes into the thickest fog on the highest hill in Daly City. For those not familiar with the locale, let' s just say that it is known for its proximity to San Francisco, its extreme weather conditions and its relatively lower housing prices-can you guess why? Miller's team played at the local high school where I am convinced they infuse Prozac into all food stuffs to avoid a high suicide rate.

I would tell you details of the game, but we did not see much of it. Nor did the kids see much of each other or the ball given that visibility varied from 5 to 20 feet throughout the game. I think I saw Miller play forward and get the ball up the field a few times. I tells me he did his first header but I did not see it. We, and all the parents, watched the game bundled up inside our cars sipping hot chocolate from the field's snack bar. It was a little pitiful.

I hear that Miller's team lost 5-3, which many folks blamed on the refs who made a series of bad calls. How could they not? I am sure they could not see anything either.

Old Friends

2009-09-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

I always think the sign of a good party is how many dirty dishes there are. Well, on Sunday, they were ALL dirty. Every Labor Day weekend, Millbrae has an Art and Wine Festival and the Romans have a pre-school reunion. To be fair, we see most of these folks regularly throughout the year, but we only really all gather together this weekend. Every year, we see which kid is the tallest, the clumsiest and the most shy. Every year, we baffle over how much they are the same and how much they have changed. Every year, we end up managing to promise each other that we will not go crazy in the eyes of our children and hold each other accountable when we do.

This year, something special happened. One of our tribe appeared out of no where (she literally drove by and saw us) and ended up joining in. Hanna, a good friend in the old day, appeared bald headed and thin but alive from almost a year struggling with, and beating, breast cancer. She finished her round of chemotherapy about two weeks ago and was just getting out of the house to be a person again. As another woman in our group also has breast cancer, it was a night of inspirational stories and laughs. Nice to see that folks do not change in the midst of disaster. In fact, they appear to become better versions of themselves.

So, here's to Hanna and her inspiration! Check out her website at www.pinkwashing.org.

The Last Days of Summer

2009-08-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Miller starts 5th grade. How did that happen? I suddenly have a kid who stays home by himself, can run errands, speaks Spanish, and sits in the front seat of the car-yes, I thought it was crazy too. Our friendly neighboorhood cop gave us the good ahead. Now, after 10 plus years of looking in the rear view mirror or craning my neck to see my kid, he is suddenly next to me. This will take awhile to get use to.

Miller and I had a blow out last summer day and went to lunch and ice-skating with a friend. I learned something very important. Ice-skating is not such a good idea two months after you brake your leg.

As the ultimate summer celebration, we also went to Irish night at the Giant's game. Why? Well, we missed Jewish night and our friend was dancing at Irish night-AND, we got a free t-shirt. For you non-SF residents, let me tell you the usual low down of a Giant's game:
1. You pay $30 to park.
2. You show up and spend lots of money on food, drink and treats.
3. After the first two innings, the wind wipes through and you freeze.
4. The Giants loose.
5. You spend more money on treats.

Well, this game was NOT the usual. Some friends gave us tickets-okay we did pay the big bucks for parking and food-and-get this....we had a heat wave. We showed up in t-shirts and flip flops, carried in about 3 layers each and left-you guessed it- in t-shirts and flip flops. On top of all that, they won!!! The Bay Area is truly embracing us.

As a final call to summer, I spent the day canning fruit. Just had to.

US Abundances

2009-08-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

It feels like a minute ago that we celebrated finding simple luxuries in Mexico like organic anything, non-toxic anything, and food varieties. The Bay Area is simply the opposite. Looking for organic fruits and vegetables-more sold here than anywhere in the world. Looking for natural cleaning supplies-just this past year it seems like it is all the rage. Wanting to make an extravagant dish with exotic ingredients-no problem, a plethora of local grocery stores and farmer's markets are at your disposal. Of course, everything is for a price and local and sustainable-while we are getting there, the Michael Pollen's of the world would still be disappointed.

I have to say, it is much easier to have everything at your fingertips-and toes. It is now easy for me to gather up natural products and make whatever I want. If I want to only buy local, I actually can and experience few reductions of diversity in what I buy. No complaints. Most folks I know now are buying more and more natural products and valuing them.

Then it hit me. It is somehow all too easy. The world of natural has become so corporate that everything says "natural" "low fat" "low cholesterol" or somehow "you will have a healthier live if you buy me". Except, we still do not know what is in anything. I was just at a friend's house and brought over home made brownies. She liked it so much she said "wow, these must be the Trader Joe's mix". I almost barfed. Making things from scratch-and knowing what is in things-seems to be from another lifetime.

My new mantra-if you don't know how to make it, don't buy it. Back to basic simplicity. Good old ingenuity-boy, am I sounding old.

Ahh, Russian River Weekend

2009-08-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

There are times when one remembers exactly why the Bay Area has starter homes at 1 million, the highest gas prices in the nation and lots of songs written about it. It's the weekends away.

This weekend, we headed toward the Russian River in Guernville where our good friends Chris and Livia have a second home. We have been there several times and love it more each time. We all drove up after dinner Friday night in order to avoid weekend Golden Gate bridge traffic (okay, big sucky barrier to fun weekend get aways). Miller and our friend's three kids went nuts as they had not seen each other for about a year and proceeded to play and chat until almost midnight.

Their house is on the river proper and you can swim and kayak right off the dock-which became our home base. We spent the weekend swimming, kayaking, splashing, reading, eating and drinking. Some of the adults even snuck off to do some wine tasting Saturday as Guernville has a fast growing mom and pop wine industry. Saturday we came home with two bottles of local wine-one an old vine zin and one a rose-invited neighbors over and enjoyed our new found vino with our outside BBQ that night.

Sunday, I woke up and went straight down to the dock. No one was around and the steam was rising off the water as the heat of the day was arriving. It was possibly the most calming moment I've witnessed lately.

Okay, the traffic back home was awful but it was worth it. It usually is.

Best Quote

2009-08-10T18:49:00.000-07:00

"See there are others who look normal on the outside but are fearless at heart!"

Yvette, a friend who lives in Berkeley and we met in Sayulita, just shared this with me. It somehow rings true now and wanted to share it.

The Resurrection of Girls Night

2009-08-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

After nearly a year, girls night has officially come back. We started this several years ago after we all looked around and realized that we had been raising families, working, running households and basically being way to responsible. While the crowd varies somewhat, the core group have known each other for years-mostly old high school friends and pre-school parent buddies. I still remember our first night at a San Francisco wine bar when we sat back and couldn't figure out why we had not done this before. Ever since, we meet a wine bars with an open invitation to all.

At some point over a year ago after we had caught up on our lives, there was a sense in the group of dissatisfaction. We all had successful lives yet something was missing. We were fast approaching mid-life crises. Since none of could afford new red porsches, we were a bit stuck. Good wine and company helped, but it did not do the job. Humph.

Last night, we regrouped. It had been almost a year. Between all of us, we had battled and won cancer, managed a bathroom remodel, fought and won insurance companies for needed surgeries, travels to new lands and gotten older. What a difference a year makes. We soon realized that somehow, without really knowing it, we had jointly come through our mid-life crises and were a pretty satisfied group. We also did not look so bad.

Wine bars-here we come!

Now We are Really Back

2009-08-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday we moved into our house. Our super big, super clean, super efficient (okay, its all relative) house. We almost did not recognize it. As we gradually spent the weekend moving our STUFF back in, I started to remember that this is where we have actually been living for close to 7 years. After a year of living with only the basics, a lot of items were taken out of boxes and put directly into the garage sale/craig's list pile. I literally cut my clothing supply in half. Who needs it all?

We are truly in the world of everything is easy-for a price. I am still in sticker shock and just cannot get past it. I keep telling people how much certain items would go for in Bucarias, La Penita or even PV. Shocking. Treva-are you out there? Our shopping excursions rocked so much more than here. I feel that we are bleeding cash-or should I say plastic as no one uses cash in the US.

Okay, I have to admit there is a good side-the luxuries. Once you can swallow the cost, one can actually find anything. Good wine, cheese, organic everything-you name it. Miller is digging seeing his old friends and having lots of play dates; his soccer team starts practicing Friday. We have started to catch up with old friends as well and have lots of BBQs and gatherings coming up. We also have plans to do some museum hoping soon.

We are actively trying to maintain our Mexico fung shui while we are here. I hung a clothes line today, I have basil plants waiting to be planted, lotions and potions to make and trying to not overbook, go agro or make commitments too far in advance. We will see how we do on maintaining this. Wish us luck.

The Country of Multi-Tasking

2009-07-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

As I walk around-or mostly drive around-the Bay Area, it constantly strikes me that it appears to be illegal to do only one thing at a time. Or to do things slowly, or both. One of the blessings about coming back with a bum leg is that I have been forced to slow down. Not so for my peers trying to grocery shop, get home to their families or get to the next meeting on time. As I have been making a stab at acculturation, I have been attempted to try this so called multi-tasking (I use to be the queen of it actually). Alas, I have found that , so far, it has caused me to miss several turns, forget where I was going and get so distracted that I simply could not get anything done. Luckily, studies support my recent findings and-get this-support the efficiencies of the Buddhist notion of doing one thing mindfully at time.

I have given up the notion that the multi-distractions, congestion, over simulation is part and parcel of cultural differences between the US and Mexico-although pieces may be. I think a lot of it is Bay Area vs. Sayulita. Think cosmopolitan vs. back woods-or something like that. I would imagine that walking into Mexico City might be something like living in the Bay Area. Cell phones, texting no stop, moving too fast, congestion, etc.

In the two weeks I have been back, there have been very few moments of quite-something our life in Sayulita holds the cornerstone on. I am already having to remember what having vacant time is like. Already having to make plans with friends far in advance as , what little time we do have, seems eaten up by work and commitments.

I already see the next few months disappearing into the ether of busyness. We will see if we remember how to keep up.

Coming Back

2009-07-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

I've been in the US exactly a week and Mexico already seems a million years away. To catch you up, we all met in Arizona and Mitch and Miller drove to LA and I flew to SF. I arrived Thursday night and started work Friday. Wow. We are not into our house until August first. We began our year with a month of couch surfing, learned how to really surf in the middle and are now ending it with another month of couch surfing. I think I like the real kind better.

So, what is it like you might ask. Before I groan to much, there are upsides. After I arrived in SF, my first stop was Trader Joe's. I felt like a Russian refugee; it looked huge and I could not get over the choices. I actually felt a little guilty. Between there and my favorite local market, I bought CA wine, chocolate, heirloom tomatoes, organic vegetables and fruit and non-funky cheese. I have also been reminded just how friendly we in the US can be. I traveled here in crutches and could not get over how helpful random strangers were. Maybe being in a depression is good for us. I spent the weekend in Sabastapol (aka-hippie capitol) and was surrounded by herbs and organic everything. I did my errands without my canvas bags-as they are in Mitch's car-and felt totally uncool. And-yes-as predicted, so clean and no bugs. I even think bugs are scared of California.

I've gotten a very warm welcome at work which has made the transition easier. I am trying desperately to pace myself and get no where near the schedule of the previous years. Nightmare. Today, I got my first taste of remembering what it is like to be in a 3 hour meeting, have a line-up of calls and emails to return, and still have a list of to-do's when it is time to go home. Balance.

Today, I think I had my first cultural shock panic attack. My friend Sophie invited me to a restaurant that had 2 for 1 tacos and margaritas. I'm thinking, "Great, I know how to do this". After work, I drive over and pull into the drive way. In about a minute, I realize that about everybody and their mother in SF had the same idea as the place looks packed and there is no parking. I cross the street and start looking for a place to park and hobble over when I realize, "This is not even fun anymore". I head home. Now, in my defense, in the past I would have felt responsible to go as just sucked it up. This time, I realized that the congestion was just more than I was willing to manage and left. I then became homesick for Sayulita Fish Taco, familiar faces, and the open table. I might have to go find their webcam just to calm me down.

The "fish out of water" syndrome is starting to hit. I look like I am from here, but am I? I think I live here, but do I? I feel like I have a hidden secret and not quite ready to share it. Congestion, over stimulation, multitasking-what is that? And-do I want to do it.