ladders, and replacing lights and how even easier it will be to take down those outdoor decorations in 80 degree weather and with Jose!!), lit the lights, and are set to enjoy the season. 
us, and with carols playing on the iPod, we have been reflecting on what a blessed life we have been leading here in Merida. We have a beautiful home which we enjoy and appreciate every day. We are healthy enough to walk around and competent enough to drive around even at night. We can take care of ourselves and each other. We delight in just sitting around talking or watching TV (mucho thanks to Angie for that!!!) or joining friends for activities or drinks or meals or all of the above. We thrill in having a swimming pool -- even though right now it's too cold to actually enjoy going into it (for me anyway, Eva is in it as I write this). Our garden is a constant source of wonder for us. We can afford (barely) help almost full time to spoil us. As the song from Candide says "we have everything we need, life is happiness indeed." 
for a week here in Merida before they headed off to Cancun for two weeks. This was a lovely time of cocktails, fishing (at the mercado and for a few hours in Chelem!), Uxmal, and dentistry. We dined at a new Thai restaurant called S'Thai on the north side of town joined by Merle and Steve. Food and decor and service were all wonderful and it tasted Thai, so this will merit a return visit. We'd picked up Dale and Gary at the bus and then started the evening with drinks and massive hors d'oevres at Steve and Merle's but we were still hungry for more!!
We hosted Marilla and Rhodri for a dinner at Alinea which we recommend to EVERYONE. Food, ambience, service, and did we mention food was all sublime. An incredibly memorable meal during which nothing looked like food, but rather sculpture, and all tasted fantastic. Our favorite dish was hot and cold potato soup. This was a tiny 2 inch in diameter dish of cold potato soup with a pin in the side sticking up holding a small piece of hot potato and a sliver of truffle. We removed the pin so the hot potato was in the cold potato soup and then downed it in one swallow. There was also a popcorn and lobster dish that included a ball of melted butter that you popped to roll over the pureed popcorn ribbon and lobster. Waygu beef was served over wild mushrooms and smoked dates having warmed up in front of us during the previous course. The dry caramel dessert looked like sand in a shot glass until you put it in your mouth and it melted into the most delicious caramel we'd ever tried.
was dinner at the Casino downtown hosted by three couples who are long-time friends of the Lane family. This was a rock around the clock shower and we were each assigned a different hour of the day for our gifts. We learned that almost every hour of the day is a good time for a cocktail!! Then Saturday, my dear friends, Angela and Marlene, hosted a Christmas shower and ladies lunch -- soooo much fun!! Marilla got wonderful ornaments, Christmas cookie aids, music, and beautiful decorations so her first Christmas with Rhodri as a married couple will be beautiful.
wonderful dinners at Puerto Madero, Harry's (our new favorite -- so beautiful and food wonderful culminating in our check which was served with a huge cotton candy), and La Dolce Vita (for our annual Thanksgiving dinner with Patti McCormick, her son Christopher, wife Dana, and two beautiful and sweet daughters Madison and Quinn, and the Baders and Tom and Jerry this year as well). We managed with leftovers and snacks in between. Tom, Jerry, Eva, and I took a fun tour in two-person speedboats to the reef for some fabulous snorkeling. We had gorgeous sunny warm weather which was a blessing, even though Eva had a horrible bronchial infection finally necessitating a visit to the doctor, and this caused us to miss a day at Xcaret, although Tom and Jerry reported having a wonderful time there. She spent time napping while the rest of us enjoyed time around the pool. The beach by the Royal Islander is still pretty much gone with huge limestone rocks jutting out. The water comes up to the breakwater at high tide, but this has made for terrific shelling.
In Mexico, most people don't really celebrate Halloween -- although if WalMart has anything to say about it, they soon will be purchasing costumes and candy just like the USA. What they do instead is take two days to honor their dead family members. The first day is to honor dead children and the second day to honor adult dead.
dead. Here, in Merida, the celebrations primarily are private in individual homes. The week before these days is a flurry of activity including cleaning the houses, cleaning the gravesites, making food, preparing an altar at home of all the favorite things of the dead people to entice them back, adding flowers, and then just as quickly, taking it down..jpg)
They appear in native dress early in the morning with materials to build small huts with thatched roofs, tables, pretend wells, and in some cases, they get more elaborate with pathways lined with rock and fencing. Crosses, pictures of the dead loved ones, and flowers (especially orange carnations) play a large role in the decoration of the huts. And food is key -- not only the traditional pib (a masa and chicken dish that sometimes also has beans and is steamed in a banana leaf under ground or under coals at any .jpg)
rate) but also whatever favorite foods and drink loved by those no longer on this planet is represented. They bring large stone molcajetes to grind the corn into masa and hammocks for the dead to rest in while the preparations are being made. There is music that reminded us of sounds you might hear out in the jungle made by native flutes and drums. And by 7pm, it is all gone as if it had never been there..jpg)
As we wandered through both Santa Lucia and Plaza Grande installations on Friday, we were struck by the joy and reverence for these activities. Even though public displays, rather than private celebrations, people were laughing and talking and enjoying what they were doing. Some were praying privately, but all were delighted to be right where they were in that moment. As were we -- until we came home to discover pigeon shit all over the back of our shirts!!
And last night, shortly after the concert had begun in real time, we watched it on TV in the comfort and air conditioning and privacy of our own home. The TV producers had packaged a short informercial about Chichen Itza, with interviews with the performers and the live concert. The concert began with a huge chorus of adults and children, all dressed in white, performing with drums and singing in Mayan, which was incredibly moving.
And here is what the AP has to say about the event---
The flowers are gorgeous, white, and sweet smelling. They only live for one night, but are like the night blooming sirius, divine to smell. 
going there in November for a convention and wondered what to see. We started rattling off a list (Art Institute, various other museums, Magnificent Mile, water tower for view if it's a nice day, architectural tour, the Bean in Millenium Park). He asked us what would we do when in town -- and we said theater, art galleries, restaurants, Chicago Symphony, walk in the park, butterfly museum. He stopped us mid-thought to rephrase his question. What he wanted to ask was -- what is the one thing that every Chicagoan would say you MUST see when in town? 
So, the garden!! We had a 4 foot stalk when we left Merida which we knew at some point would turn into a tree but had no idea it would grow 8 feet while we've been gone this summer and sprout leaves. No kidding. And our pitaya has been blooming and sprouting fruit (see picture above). Some people may know this fruit as dragon fruit -- it has an inside like a kiwi but with white fruit and small black seeds -- with astoundingly pretty and fragrant white flowers that bloom only one night and then begin to fade and become fruit. And our 20 foot tall tall cactus has blooms all over it. You can hardly believe the bamboo which started as a stalk about 2 years ago and now needs thinning often to keep it from taking over and the stalks are 25 or so feet tall. Everything has grown in an amazing fashion. Even the orchids seem to be hanging on and thriving during this annual rainy season.
We had a lovely dinner with the extended Lane family while we were in Chicago and found they could hang with the extended Sweet family, phew, and maybe even liked it a bit. Here are my brothers and me enjoying ourselves (photo courtesy of sister-in-law Carol). Marilla is very lucky to be marrying into such a great family. And my brothers are trying to wangle an invitation to be part of the groom's bachelor party which they are also trying to organize as a Vegas extravaganza weekend or week-long event. Not sure if this is for Rhodri or my brothers!!
And finally, we had a fabulous time in the pool at Angie and Betty's with my niece and nephew, Hannah and David, courtesy of brother David and wife Tricia. Baby Ford hung by the side of the pool and smiled at everyone and everything. David learned to jump into the pool by himself and swim a bit. Hannah (almost 6 years old) mastered the dead man's float under the watchful eyes and sunburned backs of Aunt Sandy and Tia Eva.
For fun, Eva gets out the riding lawnmower (now that her knee is somewhat improved) to have some homemade entertainment. And often we sit outside and read, assuming the sun is shining which is not a regular occurrence, until the sun passes over the house and we are too cold to be outside any more. We found out the time that she mowed that she actually took work away from a nice local man who was not happy to find his job already done.
down from Seattle. Aidar, being from Russia (a location in eastern Russia so it's almost like Europe instead of western Russia and the steppes), had never in his life has s'mores so we made a bonfire and remedied that lapse in his education. It was fun after many years to try not to burn black a marshmellow, but we have found that graham crackers have changed over time and that these would taste better with ginger cookies. Here is the end of the bonfire, which we were quite careful to put out entirely since this region is prone to wildfires. Bern pointed out the three types of blackberries that are abundant on the property and in the area, and that one of them may be ready to eat before we leave, the others won't be ripe until later in the season.
The hydrangea are blooming blue and there are still some azaelas hanging on to round out the pink side. The peonies have come and gone as have many wildflowers, but now after the Queen Anne's laces and Scotch broom have faded, we have volunteer red poppies, fields of digitalis (foxglove in white and purple) with some blue bachelor buttons and giant, yellow dandelions lining some of the roadways. Very nice.
Headed out late the next morning for some wine tasting after a breakfast that included an asparagus omelette. The first and only place we stopped (although there were many other options but we'd been completely spoiled) around Eugene was King Estate (photo of the chateau above). We tasted 6-7 of their wines and fell in love with and bought three. Their 2006 domaine pinot gris is a crisp, but full bodied white that is a perfect summer wine served very cold. Their specially bottled 2006 pinot noir called Journey Red is simply divine now and for the next year or so. And Sandy fell for one of their dessert wines, a 2006 Muscat in their Craftsman series, that tasted like a poached pear and will be sublime served over the same.
We then sat on their beautiful terrace overlooking acres of grapes just beginning to grow and had lunch. We could, and probably will, talk about this lunch for a long time. We began with a salad made with freshly-picked butter lettuces, perfectly ripe slices of avacado, and peeled and absolutely scrumptious grapefruit sections all happily dressed with a carmelized shallot, fresh basil, and oil salad dressing. Then Sandy had crab cakes which were kissed with balsamic vinegar and absolutely delicious, served with a braised onion and canteloupe balls, and Eva totally enjoyed a cheese and fruit plate including locally made Oregon blue, Manchego, and brie, and some very tasty local grapes. We enjoyed some of the wines we'd purchased and confirmed how smart we were to buy them -- especially after stopping later at two more vineyards and scrunching up our faces in disgust.
Then we headed east over the Cascades via the McKenzie and Santiam passes where we enjoyed views of Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington, and the three sisters. We stayed at The Riverhouse and had a room with a fireplace (that we used as it 
was dry and cold at night) directly overlooking the Deschutes River which we could hear all night long rushing along outside. We'd come to Bend (which was a teeny drive-though town 30 years ago when Sandy first was in the area and which has become a destination itself thanks to winter skiing nearby, white water rafting in the spring and early summer, and lots of golf during three seasons of the year) to see Mary Schlegel, a long time friend of Sandy's. Mary at 84 is living in a retirement home (which is close to her daughter Cass who lives in Bend and insisted she move there about 10 years ago). Sandy and Mary had worked together in Seattle 30+ years ago and have kept up in their fashion all these years. Mary and her husband moved to Seattle and lived aboard an 85' yacht moored in Lake Union and provided many entertaining outings. But Les died about 8 years ago hauling a Christmas tree home from the nearby woods and Mary is hanging in there, still feisty, beautiful, and independent with her wings kinda curbed by the lack of a car. She has found a giant Irishman whom she pays to drive her and her girlfriends around town. We spent the day with Mary and went out for lunch and some shopping, enjoyed the High Desert Museum (which had been the sight of her granddaughter's recent wedding and where we learned that early settlers to the area had to commute 10 days each way to a town large enough to have provisions for them -- made us laugh about our whining over our 45 minute commute for groceries from Bay Center!!), had a nap, and finished up with dinner 
at Greg's Grill which is right on the Deschutes River. We ate Alaskan salmon grilled on alder while watching people inner tube, kayak, and canoe past us and hundreds of geese going upstream to nest. And while we were east of the mountains, we had nothing but sun and fabulous views of the three sisters (see photo at right) and Mt. Jefferson.
After some sale shopping the next day, Eva and Sandy drove back west over the mountains by a different pass through Salem, Oregon and on to McMinnville where we spent the night at the Hotel Oregon, now owned by McMenamin's, but which was one of the original 1850s buildings in the town. And at night, it felt like it as we were kept awake by girls giggling and doors slamming, but we had enough rest to start off the day with organic and utterly delicious breakfast at Cafe Crescent in town and then headed out for more wine tasting.
We stopped first at Anne Amie, with absolutely gorgeous gardens lined with giant lavendar. We felt it was almost too early to taste anything, but managed to try several (and were charged to do so for a change). We bought a 2006 pinot gris, again for immediate summer enjoyment, and partly because of its neat label. We went on to the Carlton Winemakers Studio where 10 vintners produce wine, each under their own label. So we tasted a variety of wines here -- Sandy enjoyed an Andrew Rich sauvingnon blanc but it was too expensive to purchase and Eva liked and purchased a 2005 Boedecker Cellars pinot noir that one of the few women vintners, Athena Pappas, had designed. And then home with views such as this one of Mt. Jefferson below across Suttle Lake. 
We had a marvelous time and barely touched the surface of Oregon or Northwest wines, which began years ago with Washington's St. Michelle brand and Oregons' Eyrie vineyards and now includes hundreds of interesting vintners and vineyards.
The house sits on an acre of so of lawn plus more acreage that is not navigable. So, today we felt like we were back home supervising some yard work. A man from down the street named John rode over on his mower (although Eva had hoped to do this, Gary's machine has a clutch and she cannot count on her knee yet to perform this function) to weed whack and mow, so we instructed him on what to whack and just let him mow. And then the sun came out and it all looks so clean and pristine -- not to mention the fact that we can now see the foundation of the house!! 
and Washington and the one to the left is of the sign at the rest stop) because when Lewis and Clark came down the Columbia in hopes of finding the Pacific in 1804, they thought they were close to the ocean but were held up here for 5-6 days by horrible weather before reaching their goal which was less than 10 miles away. This is right by the large bridge that spans the river which we use to get to Astoria. This bridge is of normal height over the water and then soars up so that the large container ships can get underneath it on the Oregon side without the need for a draw bridge of any kind. Needless to say, this has ruined many a homeowner's view in Astoria. However, this access to the ocean is supposed to be so tricky beacuse of tides that it takes quite a wily tug boat captain to get these large boats out into the open sea.
We find ourselves two days later, sadly, tired of delicious cookies and pastries and dips and pates and so forth, but are still managing to enjoy the roast pork roasts Eva made. MMMM. And our house looks like nothing ever happened. Now to tackle the dismantling of the Christmas decorations!