I know you've all been waiting with baited breath for a new weather report. Now, it doesn't have the same immediacy as the remnants of Hurricane Irene, which hurled wind and rain up the Eastern seaboard and on states as far away as Vermont, flooding and isolating towns that are still waiting for their electricity supply to be reconnected. Nor is it even on a par with Tropical Storm Lee, delivering up to 20 inches of rain on the Gulf Coast this weekend, but we did receive 2 inches of rain over Friday night!
We had nearly given up on any further rain; it's pretty far into the rainy season here and our 9-month dry spell will soon be under way, so everyone we spoke with was quite happy with the deluge. It caught us by surprise since after a few bouts of sprinkles in the early evening, most of the rain poured down later in the evening - after we'd retired for the night. Even with the cupola in the bedroom ceiling, the house is pretty well insulated from noise and the rain didn't wake us up until morning. Two inches probably isn't enough to make a noticeable difference in the presa, but any rain helps!
Luckily, it had rained itself out on Friday night and things were dry last night (okay; a few muddy spots remained) when we walked into town and back to enjoy a PreHispanic meal at a new restaurant. Actually, it is going to be a new deli specializing in meals-to-go using ingredients, seasonings, and cooking methods from the PreHispanic era. For instance, the mashed green bananas which played a part in the casserole of sweet, spiced chicken required two days of preparation. Even slower than the recent rage for slow cooking, eh? The meal - which included a salad with hibiscus flower dressing, a potato croquet stuffed with cheese and a spinach-based salsa, and the aforementioned casserole - was very tasty, particularly the casserole. I think they're having another dinner next Saturday; we may try another menu.
The chef is from Oaxaca, a hot bed of indigenous folk with distinctly 'early' cooking styles and recipes. Though formally trained in Italy, he has adopted the Oaxacan styles of cooking to good effect. It's his native part of Mexico and he combines the native styles with his formal training nicely. It did involve sitting at large tables with - gasp! - strangers, but we made the best of it. At least they were interesting without being slightly wacko. You have to be careful around here!
In even lesser news, we've finally gotten our hands on the correct battery charger for the new camera. It took two tries, but this last one seems to be the real deal. The camera came without a separate charger because it has the ability to recharge a battery while it is still in the camera, but I wanted to be able to travel without dealing with the cables, et cetera that are required to connect the camera to power. We also have a back-up battery that I wanted to be able to recharge while using the camera out-and-about.
The first charger had the additional ability to charge from a vehicle's battery, but didn't fit the batteries. Luckily, this second charger was cleverly researched before ordering and it specified that it would work with the battery series with which the camera operates. Additionally, this charger did not get entangled in our mail delivery service: it was dropped into the USPS mail on August 23rd and reached us on September 2nd - about 10 days, which is about right with the additional courier service to SMA. So we've got both batteries charged up and we're ready for our pending vacation!
Speaking of vacations, it was very strange to go to Costco in Celaya last week without two of our good friends. Their remaining aunt had passed on recently (oh, that's a long and separate story) and, as a result, the girls had a modest inheritance. They've been without a car for about five years (it was sold to finance some knee replacements) so once we arrived in town they stopped taking the bus to Celaya and we traveled together about every two weeks to Costco/Home Depot/Sam's Club in Celaya. This was particularly imperative when they opened a restaurant and needed supplies on a regular basis.
Well, what with the aunt's demise, the restaurant was closed; with the inheritance a small car was purchased; and now they've gone off to Europe for six weeks to re-visit Italy and sail around the Mediterranean on the Queen Victoria (another 30-year bucket list item to check-off). So it was a bit strange to visit Costco and not share a pizza with them - but that meant all the more for us! Lunch and dinner, yum!!
There's not much else to report this week. The dogs are getting brushed out before being sent to the doggie B&B while we're on vacation; there are no pressing transcripts at this point (our reporter is on vacation, herself); we're sorting out how to pack for two cruises and several days in Disneyland with formal clothes and piraty outfits and stay within the strictures of airline baggage limits (I think there might be an extra bag or two). We've simplified our pirate costumes for the trip: no big frock coats, no tri-cornered, plumed hats, no thigh-high boots. It was going to cost us $80 to UPS our hats to Canada for the first cruise! It'll be dreadlocks, instead. They pack much more compactly....
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