So yesterday we decided to stay another month, till the 2nd of December or thereabouts. I am very happy about this turn of events, it means we can fit in a trip to Mexico City, see the Day of the Dead properly, Sita can finish her interviewing relatively stress free and any other number of happy outcomes. ‘Cus is still slated to leave on Thursday though, and I can’t believe I’m writing this, but I’m going to miss him…

Anyway by way of a despedida for Atticus and celebration of one more month we had some good friends round and did the usual grilled arrachera and tequila thang. It was a fine afternoon. All the “‘Cus has a posse” photos are at Flickr. Here’s Sita, Ana and Jorge holding up the cake with “Felicidades, 1 mes más” on it.

Also of note is the photo of Beethoven, the enormous St. Bernard that sends Atticus into a frenzy when he’s taken on his walk by our house at around 9pm every night.

Last night we went out to a sushi restaurant thinking a change from red meat would do us the power of good. The place we chose however specialised in some kind of deep fried battered sushi / tempura affair which was pretty heavy on the stomach, still we walked home from there and watched a few episodes of the American Office and today´s been quiet so far. Today I´ve been rebuilding my lightbox and retaking the photos since they changed the labels on the tequila bottles and need new pix. Which is pretty therapeutic work to be honest. Later I´m off doing Amour Fou´s tech support and then we´ll have a meal and head of to Chapalita where there´s some kind of mini celebration of the Grito. Last year´s was fairly hectic in the centre so we´re toning it down a tad.

TelMex saw fit to block the internet tubes to our house yesterday, hence today´s early morning location. It’s always when you’ve got lots of work on that the interwebs stop. Hey ho, it means that yesterday I got to finish a novel for the first time in ages, Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down, which was alright as a novel but a tad grating due to his (characters’) overuse of similes. It’s like when you’re watching a daytime Antiques program on BBC 1. And all they do is use puns. But in the long run, it’s like you appreciate it. But sometimes, puns are like a comfortable cushion. Etc. that kind of thing. On the plus side it means I can finally start The Hummingbird’s Daughter, which after 10 pages looks like just my kind of thing. Atticus * also got more quality time than usual. And I spent a while strumming away at the gee-tar. So every cloud etc… And I love Starbucks’ burnt coffee too. So swings and roundabouts are the order of the day.

Ever wondered how to count to 1023 on your fingers? Cesar’s put his vast intellect into creating a demo. My fingers aren’t quite that flexible… The real challenge would be combining counting to 1023 while performing this Daft Punk track (it gets good at about 1 minute in).

Alrighty, back to my research y chamba.

* ‘Cus looked starving at 5.30 yesterday and Sita wasn’t back from the gym yet so I made him a gourmet meal with leftovers from Sita’s steak on Sat night. A couple of hours later and i remarked to Sita that the dog looked chubbier than usual, then I asked her if she’d fed him and she said “Of course, with the leftovers from Saturday mixed in”. So he’d had two huge meals. Anyway, several miles of running up and down the garden later and he puked like a good’un in the living room. There’s a lesson in there somewhere… We need some kind of “Dog has been fed” system in the kitchen. He’s full of beans today though. Not literally.

Recovering still from yesterday’s trip to the equipal making centre of the world and PocilgaFest 2007. Back soon.

Photos here and here.

but that’s not stopped us chilling with Olga and co. and being treated to a slap up meal at Sacromonte last night, and breakfast at cafe Azteca this morning. Ronaldo and me had a wander round the centre and Chapultepec this morning I snapped a few shots of the centre then went chasing bouncing cheques. again. A nice morning all in all, though I was knackered by the end of it and had a meeting about the jewellery site this avo. I’m wondering if I’m in a secure enough mental state to watch 28 weeks later/ Exterminio 2 later on…

I’ve almost finished on the cirugia plastica site and Dr. Hector gave me a bottle of San Matias Anejo Reserva tequila to celebrate which was a very nice gesture. A smoother tequila I’ve not tasted and much better than free liposuction. Though, come to think of it, maybe there’s surgery they can do to help you pronounce RRs better in español. I’ll ask me dentist.

Thanks to Monica, Annelise, Kristen, Mike, Vanessa and anyone else I’m playing scrabble with on FaceBook. It’s well entertaining. I promise I’m not cheating, I’ve just been very lucky with the tiles. Except in the game I’m about to lose to Claire… where it’s been raining vowels for the last 10 moves… Mustn’t grumble.

Grumble.

…that we´re leaving at the end of October. That´s basically 8 weeks away, a veritable bummer. Still, absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. Anyone interested in renting a very nice house, in sleepy Colonia Ladrón de Guevara? We´ll be back. Oh yes. I´m going to subscribe to Orbitz´s price alerts and any time a return flight from Oakland, California dips below a hundred bucks each way I´m coming back for tacos al pastor and a Pueblo Viejo…

Lots going on this week… meetings galore, restauranting tonight with one of Sita´s dissertation advisors, Wednesday possibly the cinema- 2 x 1 night, Paris Je T´aime, Thursday catching up with Aldo who´s back from Brazil, Friday not sure, and Saturday it´s the 4th annual Pocilgafest, invite only… If today´s cheque clears okay, I´ll also be booking myself in for as much dentistry as me teeth can handle before crossing the border back to the land of perfect smiles…

Have a video from the ´tube of one of me favourite bands, Black Box Recorder. All these years and I´d never seen one of their videos. I´ve made up for that now.

Also, new bits on me blog: A link to google translate which is probably going away very soon since it can’t handle me English. Also, below my recently commented photos there’s links to photos I’ve commented on. All very exciting I’m sure you’ll agree. That’s all for now. Cheers!