Kid Activities

Sunday brought warmer weather and bright sun, so we went out to Tsankawi for a walk. It was beautiful and quiet as usual. The kids loved the caves and Roy took great photos of the views and rock formations.

On Monday we had a girls day/boys day. Casey and I went to a paint your own pottery place near downtown, then had lunch, did a little shopping and finished the day off with an ice cream crepe. Jake, Roy and Evan went horseback riding in the Ortiz mountains where they got in a good ride looking at old mines, turquoise samples and great views. In the evening we all went to a Taiko drumming concert at the children's museum. None of the drummers were Japanese, but they sounded great and were very energetic. The show is a combination of drumming and dancing around the drums.

Yesterday we drove out to Bandelier, a larger and more civilized part of the national park that includes Tsankawi. Although you can't tell from the photos, several of the trails were closed due to ice and snow. After Bandelier we went to the Bradbury Science Museum in Albuquerque. The museum had a special exhibit of brain teasers as well as permanent exhibits on the history of the labs at Los Alamos, stewardship, weapons safety and security, and information on current research done at the labs. We even saw photos of our relatives who had worked at the labs during the war!

Fun in the Snow

Casey, Evan and Roy are out visiting from Florida, so our first activity on Friday was to play in the snow!

Yesterday we dropped the cats off at the mall for an adoption event then went to buy more firewood. We had tamales and burritos for lunch at Posas and went to see The Tale of Despereaux at the movies. The movie was okay, but not great. None of the cats were adopted despite our high hopes after talking to a woman with two kids in the morning who was definitely planning to adopt a cat (they chose a younger kitten from Felines and Friends). On the other hand, Casey loves playing with the cats so they are providing an important source for amusement this week.

Merry Christmas

With another foot of snow the night before Christmas eve we were assured a white Christmas! Fortunately the roads were in much better shape this time around. On Christmas eve we joined a few thousand other people walking up and down Canyon Road and Acequia Madre where galleries and homes put out thousands of farolitos, otherwise known as luminarios or luminaries. Groups of people walked along singing carols and hot cider and hot chocolate were available along the route. A school had an entire labyrinth lined with farolitos. It was a beautiful and merry way to start Christmas.

Christmas day brought sun and cold, but we built a fire in the kiva and the cats had a great time with all the paper and boxes. In the afternoon we drove down to Albuquerque to pick up Jake's brother and his two kids, ages 7 and 11. More on our recent activities to come!

Railrunning

The new commuter train service between Albuquerque and Santa Fe started this week and they offer free special weekend rides the first three weeks. We decided to take the train down to Albuquerque Saturday afternoon, have dinner with friends and catch the last train back to Santa Fe. We arrived at the Railyard and circled looking for parking among the crowds of holiday shoppers. We finally found a spot and walked over to the train depot. There were quite a few people waiting for the train. The train pulled up about ten minutes late and sat there for another 5 minutes before the doors opened to let the passengers off. Quite a few passengers stayed on the train though as they were just riding up and back. Jake and I managed to find seats across the aisle from eachother on the upper level of the train, but quite a few people had to stand or sit in the aisles.

It was remarkable how many people along the route stopped their cars to take pictures of the train and how many people stood at intersections and in backyards waving at the train.

Our respective seat companions turned out to be quite knowledgeable about trains. The guy across from Jake works for the Railrunner and the guy across from me worked for thirty years for a rail service that ran from Belen to Clovis. Jake's guy pointed out a former train wreck, old signs left from when there used to be rail service and an old cement plant that had burned and been partially reconstructed. My guy talked about railway jargon (a slow train is called a dog and if there transients are spotted on it, you tell the conductor "that dog's got fleas".). And both talked about the new rail line construction techniques and how bad signal problems can be. They now build railways with 1/4 mile long sections of rails that are brought in by train and the ties are made of cement. The RailRunner has been plagued with signal problems since its inaugural run.

When we got to Albuquerque we walked uphill on Central Avenue from the station to the University of New Mexico. There we stopped for a cup of tea and then called our friends to pick us up for dinner. They live in a more northerly part of Albuquerque and are doing a beautiful job of renovating their suburban home. Tom was in Jake's woodworking class and I got to see his table. His wife Christine is an artist who works with clay and the sculptures of faces and torsos she sculpts are really well done, full of personality.

They drove us to the Los Ranchos station and there we waited, and waited, for the last train. Several other people were also waiting. We called the Railrunner office and there was no answer. The emergency call button at the station said no one was available. So after 45 minutes we gave up, called our friends Tom and Leah to beg for shelter, and Tom and Christine drove us to their house.

Sunday morning there was no word in the paper about what happened to the train. I guess it was just delayed more than an hour. But Tom fixed us a great breakfast and we took a walk around the neighborhood before catching the 11:30 train back to Santa Fe. That train was also crowded, but we got seats together on the upper level. We were sitting across from a 4th grader from Belen who was on the train with his family. They were on the other side of the aisle down a row. He was getting bored after 2 hours on the train one way so we talked to him some. Somehow the topic of women leaders came up and he declared that the Bible says women can't be leaders. Jake asked whether he ate pork, and he said of course, so Jake pointed out that the Bible also says not to eat pork. He didn't believe that though, so even after pointing out that Germany, England, Chile and Argentina all had (currently or in the past) women leaders, he still was determined that the US couldn't have a woman leader because his mom said the bible said so. Jake was very refrained at any further disillusionment.

We finally got back to Santa Fe around 2pm after which we had to drive across town to pick up the cats (another foster parent had had to pick them up from Petco since I couldn't get back in time!). Then home to shower and change to go to a Christmas open house at a friend of Jake's from his Spanish class. Fortunately they had great food at their party that made up for a lack of lunch and served as dinner!

Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree yesterday! It's a pinyon tree from the mountains. Pinyons in many areas have become much more abundant than they were in the past and that has led to a lot of die-off due to a pine beetle. Ours was probably taken from an area that needed thinning. The state forests offer permits for cutting trees, but we didn't think the Focus could get into the backroad areas where you can cut trees so we got ours from someone who had already done the cutting and transport. Jake and I managed to agree on a decorating strategy after looking at ribbons for a half hour at the Hobby Lobby. We also came up with an ingenious tree holder since everyone was sold out of Christmas tree stands. The trunk is set into one of those orange Home Depot buckets filled with rocks. The orange bucket is then inside a big plastic tree pot. The real test will come on Sunday when the cats are back from Petco.

Last night we celebrated our 3rd anniversary by dining at The Compound, a restaurant on Canyon Road. It is in an old adobe house that has modern windows set into the deep walls. The food was excellent. We started with a glass of New Mexican Gruet champagne and tuna tartare flavored with preserved lemons and a tiny drop of caviar. The fall vegetable salad was a unique blend of yellow beets, tangerine pieces, radishes and fennel with a few watercress and frisee leaves. A very nice combination of textures and flavors. I had a main course of scallops in a very rich cognac cream sauce with chanterelles. The chanterelles were a little overpowered by the sauce, but it was a great way to prepare scallops as a winter dish. Jake had the salmon accompanied by risotto and apple. It was supposed to have artichoke, but neither of us could taste it. Still, the salmon was perfectly cooked. For dessert we had a delicious molten chocolate cake served with bitter orange ice cream. Here's to many more anniversaries!

Winter images

Snow in the High Desert?

A gorgeous but inconvenient snow storm blanketed the high desert yesterday and continues to mount. Pictures from our back and front doors are attached. Sorry to have been snowbound and unable to fly east to visit family for Christmas. Fortunately, our flight to NYC was cancelled so we got a full refund.

The other pictures are of the coffee table I just finished making in my "Art of Fine Woodworking" class. My first reaction to seeing the completed work was "that's all for 13 weeks of work?" But I like the figure in the wood (ash) and I sure learned a lot about how to do things right and how to work with woods other than 2x4's. One of the pictures shows in the background one of a pair of southwestern style floor lamps and one of a trio of picture frames designed and built in prior creative bursts.

The "Las Posadas" experience described in yesterday's post was one of my favorite local events both because it was so Santa Fe and because it was almost all in Spanish.

Las Posadas

Last night we participated in Las Posadas, a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph's trip to Bethlehem. This particular version combines elements of Las Pastorelas, plays that re-enact their search for an inn on the night of Jesus's birth. Starting at the front of the Palace of Governors on the Plaza, the crowd held candles and (for the few people who knew the words), sang the traditional Las Posadas song requesting shelter. But a devil on the roof (see blurry photo), taunted the crowd and drove us away. This was repeated at five different spots along the plaza with different devils calling the crowd puercos, perros and turistas. The crowd was a little quiet, maybe because not enough people understood the Spanish or maybe because it was cold out. The route was lined with farolitos (the northern NM word for luminarios). Finally, at the side entrance to the Palace of Governor's, the couple was granted admission and we all streamed into the courtyard. There volunteers handed out hot cider (none too soon!) and cookies. A band played under a big tent where we gathered to sing carols, mostly in Spanish. They handed out the words for most of the songs. The mostly non-Hispanic crowd really got together on "Feliz Navidad - I want to wish you a merry Christmas".

Today snow continues to fall and when Jake went out to run an errand this morning he turned around and came back because the roads were slick and unplowed.

Caroling

On Thursday night we attended a concert and sing-along at the St. Francis Cathedral near the plaza. The church has been undergoing renovation inside and out and inside you could see where they had cleaned the white arched cieling and colorful stencils along the archways. The Catholic churches here are not as ornate as those in Latin America, but they still have some lovely decorations. There was an interesting baptismal font in this one as well in the middle of the chuch made of black granite with a metal flat sculpture under the water.

There were 3 groups performing, a choir, the brass section of the Santa Fe Symphony and the Santa Fe Women's Ensemble. The latter had excellent singing voices and sounded wonderful. The symphony brass seemed to be lacking the rest of their instruments or something. They were somewhat muddy sounding and not always in sync with eachother. The choir was pretty good, but not outstanding. We had fun singing as an audience though. It was difficult for the conductor to get everyone to stay on pace though, so some songs were a little slow!

Afterwards we had dinner at La Boca, a Spanish tapas restaurant a couple blocks off the plaza. We had excellent grilled artichokes with goat cheese and pork sausages with a pomegranate sauce. We also had an eggplant cazuela (basically pureed eggplant) with flatbreads and duck breast with morcilla sausage diced apple. Those two were good but not outstanding. Jake's sangria was very well made!

More movie reviews

Two of the showings yesterday were a bunch of short films. The first was 11 shorts mostly written by women new to the movies. Some standouts in that group were a short about 2 older homeless men who share food, false teeth and a blanket, "George and Karl". "The Drummer" was about a drummer who has just turned 40 and is out of work when he gets a call to play at a wedding in Connecticut. He and the singer save the day when the rest of the band is late. The actress who played the singer had an amazing voice. Her name was Asmeret Ghebremichael. I don't think she has recorded any albums unfortunately. Another short I particularly liked was called "Havdalah" about an orthodox Jewish woman in New York who decides she wants to learn to ride a bike.

The second set we saw were all animated films. Who knew there were so many types of animation?! My favorite in that group was "Hose" about a garden hose that decides to explore the neighborhood. At one point it gets into a tangle with a tough old hose but manages to escape by climbing up a fire escape. "Animal Instincts" was really funny about a cow and a sheep on a farm that get into a huge fight over the sheep eating a flower in the cow's pasture. It ends with them driving a tractor over a cliff. There was also a rather touching animation called "Coyote Travels to Gringolandia" about 2 children from Guatemala that try to join their mother in the US. A woman courier (coyote) strands them near the US/Mexico border.

In the evening we saw "Em" about a woman with bipolar disorder and the man that falls in love with her. It is a very honest and moving portrayal of mental illness both from the perspective of the person who has it and the person who wants to help. The director spoke afterwards and is trying to find a distributor. The story is based on the writer's experience with a close friend who had a mental illness.

One movie we didn't see that I would like to have seen (over Jake's objections) was "Wiener Dog Takes All", a documentary about daschund racing!

Movie Reviews

Today is the last day of the Santa Fe Film Festival, so I thought I would update you on what we've seen so far! The best thing about the film festival has been that many of the film's directors, cast and crew have been in the audience and have participated in question and answer sessions following the films. It makes you feel much more connected to the movies. If you like the descriptions, put them on your Netflix list for when they eventually come out on DVD.

The first movie we went to was "Taos", filmed mostly in Taos, NM. It's about a young corporate lawyer from DC who becomes stranded in Taos on his way to Aspen where he is supposed to propose to his type A girlfriend. It's a great story line and the acting is reasonably good, especially the Indian auto-mechanic who is the sage of the movie. Some side-stories were cut out which makes those characters less well-developed, but it probably gave the movie more focus. The mayor of Taos was at the screening and views the movie as a great advertisement for the town!

On Saturday we saw 2 movies, both very serious but with some comic relief. "A Line in the Sand" was based on a play called "The Mayor's Limo" that played off-Broadway in NYC. It is about a homeless man who is arrested after pissing on the mayor's limo during a protest by the homeless over the sale of a shelter. The movie still has the feel of a play with most of the scenes in a jail/office of a police precinct. The plot revolves around the life of the homeless man and politics and police-work. The actor who played the homeless man was very convincing and it was an intense role to play. The play was written by an actor and he plays one of the police officers in the movie. He said it was based on the life of a friend of his and on having lived in the Bowery district of NY.

"2:22" is a heist drama, but with a lot of focus on the characters who take part in the heist. This one features gun battles, drug dealing and some blood, but it wasn't overly violent. The acting was superb in this movie and it's a gripping tale. It takes place in Toronto, Canada. 2:22 was written by 2 film students from a small school in Nagadoches (sp?), Texas that apparently is known for its film program. They said all the classes are taught by one professor! Anyway, they wrote the script in less than a month and directed and filmed the movie in 3 weeks or something like that. Apparently they wrote the script in part knowing what actors would be performing which parts.

3 more movies today - descriptions to follow!

Outdoors

The hills are covered in white again and there was snow on the ground at our altitude two mornings in a row. This morning we went for a nice walk on the Atalaya Mountain trail near St. John's College. The trail begins along an arroyo then climbs through pinyon juniper forest on pink granite hillsides. There are great views of the city and mountains as you go up. On the way home we bought a car load of pinyon and juniper firewood from one of the many vendors along the side of the road. They seem to have replaced the rock vendors mostly this time of year.

Last night arriving home from seeing "Quantum of Solace" (not one of the better Bond movies), there was a woodcock right by the front door! It was polite enough to wait while I went inside and got my camera. The bird book says they only go as far west as TX, but I guess this one has strayed from the proscribed range.

Cat update

The week we were in Mexico the cats were at Petco, and Boo was adopted! So Mija, Jet and Onyx are left. Yesterday I picked up Thursday, a little orange kitten who is in need of socialization. Poor little guy was neutered 2 days ago and then yesterday he was taken away from his siblings to be put with our 3 cats instead. He has been hunkered down ever since arriving and growls and trembles when I pet him. The other cats have sniffed him out but generally leave him alone since he growls and spits if they get too close.

Upon arriving Thursday immediately secreted himself in the most secure space he could find behind the cat cage. I set up a box for him lined with a tshirt, but when I picked him up to put him into it he darted under a cabinet. I took it as a good sign that he did soon move into the box on his own. This morning he was in a paper bag the cats play in, so I'm not sure if he spent the night in there. He has since moved back to his box. I did see him get up to eat and drink once!

The other cats seem to be getting bigger every day. They have learned not to get on the dining room table, but are now almost large enough to jump on the kitchen counter. They are all still very friendly and love to nap with you if you're sitting on the couch. Three cats is almost as good as a blanket!

Isla Mujeres

We spent the last five days on Isla Mujeres, an island near Cancun off the Yucatan peninsula. The whole island is about 7 km long and is very thin in the middle. The largest town is at the North end of the island where our hotel was located. We stayed at Na Balaam which is on the north shore. The hotel's rooms are simple but clean and nicely designed. The deck had a hammock and Adirondack style chairs to lounge in. On the beach they have platforms with mattresses during the day and beach chairs. There's also a restaurant that will bring food and drinks to you, so you could just stay on the beach all day. The waters on that side are calm and shallow a long ways out.

The first day we were recruited to visit the Avalon, a resort on it's own little rock island connected to Isla Mujeres by a wooden bridge. This was an attempt to get us to join the Avalon Vacation Club. I'd never been to one of these sales pitches and Jake wanted to see the resort so we decided to try it. Plus the day was a little cold and grey and not so great for sitting on the beach. The sales person assigned to us was very pleasant and we were shown around the resort and got a free buffet lunch. The sales pitch at the end though was tough to sit through, and after Jake explained the concept of compound interest to the salesperson things got rough. (Jake calculated the actual cost of buying into the beach club versus investing money in something else. Since Mexico has a 17% interest rate, the money you could make after 25 years was astronomical although he did use 6% as a more "realistic" example. The cost for the vacation club was $29,000 for 25 years plus a $680/year maintenance fee!). Having overstayed our alloted 90 minutes by another 60 minutes they pulled out the manager who finally signed off on our form after we refused to try the resort for a week at some future date. We got our baseball caps and beach bag and went back to our vacation.

One day we rented a golf cart and toured the island. The southern end has rocky cliffs with a sculpture garden and small Mayan ruin at the point. Another day we went to Parque Garrafon, a national park, for the day. This park has zip lines, a pool, snorkeling, restaurants and snack bars and a path to the Mayan ruin. You pay a set fee that includes snorkeling equipment, lunch buffet and all the drinks you want (yes, full bar). We staked out our beach chairs and spent the day alternating between activity and reading in our beach chairs. If you just want to snorkel, our taxi driver recommended Garrafon Castillo just up the beach which is much less expensive.

There were many dining options in our neighborhood. We tended to have a drink and ceviche or guacamole at one of the beach bars and then pick out a restaurant on "restaurant row", a pedestrian street in the middle of town. We tried an Argentine place (great beef, 2 for 1 drinks, and complimentary shots of mescal at the end of the meal - as Jake was being good I had to down most of the drinks!). One of our best meals was at Bamboo, an Asian inspired restaurant where I had tempura battered grouper and Jake had a tuna steak. The best soup was at a stand at the Mercado Central where I had Sopa de Lima, a traditional Yucatecan soup. Other dishes we had were shrimp grilled with garlic, fish tacos and fish fillets with Yucatecan spices. For breakfast we had a hard time finding places that opened before 8 am, but once we finally settled into the island rythym my favorite place was Cafe Cita with its decent coffee and banana, pineapple, coconut jam that could be spread on pancakes or sweet rolls. There was also a coffee shop that served Illy coffee and had good quick breads. There were several gelato stores and another good dessert were marquesitas - crisp crepes spread with your choice of fillings. These were made at little carts on the street.

On Friday night the Mayan Caribbean Cultural Festival started. Bands and dancers performed on the main plaza the first night that were pretty good. On Saturday we caught some children dancing traditional dances from Veracruz at a stage on the beach with the sun setting behind them. Saturday night's entertainment started with a play about skulls (I think it was titled 40 Heads). Unfortunately no one could hear the actors and the play continued on with many short scenes for the next hour and a half. After a while it stopped and taped music started playing so we all thought it was over, but then they started up again! They were a little better about microphone use, but not enough, so we abandoned it. We felt bad for the actors who had obviously worked hard on this somewhat surrealistic series of plays. Scenes included a soliloquy to Urich's skull of Shakespearean fame, a giant spider, a beheading, cave women one of whom's face became a skull, a clown who kept stopping because he rattled, a flautist whose teacher only wanted him to play classical music, ghosts that meandered through the audience, . . . (I swear I did not dream all this nor was it the effect of too many margaritas!). People in the audience would occassionally yell out that they wanted music and dancing, but no one ever stopped the actors to effectively fix the audio problems.

Overall we had a wonderful vacation and I would highly recommend Isla Mujeres for a low-key vacation spot that still has some culture to it.

Isla Mujeres wildlife

We visited the government "turtle farm" where they raise and release three species of sea turtles. They had turtles of all sizes in tanks indoors and outdoors and in an ocean pen. There was also an enclosure where they put the turtle eggs to hatch out. We happened to get a ride from a taxi driver who volunteers to collect turtle eggs on the nights the turtles are laying.

Iguanas were also fairly common on the rocky southern shores.

Birds included frigate birds and several shore birds. One sandpiperish bird seemed to have adapted to picking up human food crumbs and was very bold. Grackles (great tailed?) were also very common.

On our one snorkeling outing we saw lots of pretty fish including blue ones, silver ones with yellow spots, and yellow and black striped fish.

Isla Mujeres - Erosion and Hurricanes

Isla Mujeres was attempting many solutions to the beach erosion problem. On the rocky Atlantic side they used layers of rock gabions to reinforce the limestone on that side. On the beach side they were pumping sand onto the shore and using sandbags and groynes in an attempt to reclaim sand.

People seemed pretty optimistic - check out the model condo on the Atlantic side shown above! This building is being rebuilt after the last hurricane.

Chocolate

Last week was all about chocolate in the Chocolate and Sugar class at the Community College. As with sugar, we ran into some problems, but the results were delicious none the less. We did chocolate tastings of chocolates that ranged from 40 - 100%. The percentage refers to the amount of cocoa butter and cocoa liquor in the chocolate. The rest is made up of milk solids or sugar usually. Some of my favorites of what we tasted were the 85% Vivani, the 74% Dagoba with chili (that was the only flavored one we tasted) and the 91% Theo. The 91% is a little too dark for regular eating, but the flavor was intensely chocolate and still edible.

We failed in all our attempts at tempering chocolate, so we put the blame on the chocolate deliverers for the chocolate getting out of temper on its way to the college. Tempered chocolate creates the glossy, crisp coating of candies. But we still made chocolate coated truffles in various flavors and peanut butter cups. Everyone made a different truffle flavor. Mine were honey almond. Other exceptional flavors included saffron, black walnut, mint-tarragon and cinnamon. Pictured are a truffle and candy assortment including pecan brittle from the week before.

Fortunately we had company both Friday and Saturday nights to help eat everything, and the neighbors got some too!

In other food news, we had a delightful dinner at Bin 351 where highlights were duck pate with roasted garlic and pickled onion relish, a flavorful stewed lamb, and an apple pastry. The restaurant is small, located in an old adobe building decorated inside with the colors of Provence. They have an excellent wine selection as well.

Geology on Horseback

On Sunday we participated in a community college class called "Geology on Horseback". A geologist from the University of New Mexico led the trip and the Broken Saddle Riding Stable in Cerrillos provided the horses and guide. After an introduction to geology of the Ortiz mountains and some rock samples (including a "belly stone" from a dinosaur!), we saddled up. Jake and I both had Tennessee Walkers, who are known for their smooth gate. The other horses were a Missouri version of the TN Walker.

We rode through Cerillos State Park looking at the shale formations from when the area was an inland sea and the volcanic rock domes and dikes that form long lines across the hillsides. You can find fossil clams and worm burrows in the shale. Prospectors would look for the intersection of dikes because that was where they were likey to find minerals. More vegetation tends to grow along the fractures where minerals can be found too. The Ortiz mountains were mined for turquoise, lead and silver. Abandoned pit mines are all over and we stopped at one to look for pieces of turquoise. It wasn't at all hard to find, but most was just a fine layer of turquoise rather than chunks or veins.

Afterwards we enjoyed a nice lunch in Madrid, hotbed of quirky small shops and galleries. Jake got the last hamburger with provolone and prosciutto, served on a biscuit, and I got the pork biscuit, smothered in a flavorful pork stew. Unfortunately they were out of fried green tomatoes, my first choice!

Kittens, Sugar and NM tour

The kittens have been at Petco all week awaiting adoption, but we will have them around again for another week starting Saturday afternoon if no one falls for their cute faces!

My Chocolate and Sugar class started on Monday to keep me busy. This week was all about sugar. The first day the chef's anti-corn syrup stance led to a total flop for all but one student in making cashew brittle. The results were still tasty, but the sugar crystallized so it was rather granular. The next day she gave us a revised recipe with corn syrup and the results turned out beautifully. The brittle had a 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon and chili powder - surprisingly yummy! One student made a version with sesame seeds, cardamom and black pepper which I think I will make for Christmas. We also make the sugar garnishes shown here on day two. On Wednesday we worked on spun sugar and sugar ribbons which came out fine and attempted nougat, which for me and half the class was a dismal failure once again. We may have added the butter too quickly. The chef and one student were going to have another go at it yesterday and report back on what the results were. Next week is chocolate week! That's the real reason I'm taking this class ...

On Thursday afternoon we decided on the spur of the moment to drive down to Albuquerque to do a little research for the tour I'll be leading in July (call Adkins Arboretum in January to sign up!). We visited the Rio Grande Nature Center since I hadn't been there for a few years (see photo of the cottonwood trees along with invasive Tamarisk). They have replaced their herb garden with a native plant garden which I think will be lovely in July. We also stopped at the Hotel Albuquerque where I think we'll all stay the first 2 nights. It is just 3 blocks from Old Town Albuquerque's plaza and the major museums are close by as well. We had pasta for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in the University area with Tom and Leah who recommended High Noon near the plaza for authentic Mexican/New Mexican food and atmosphere for the tour welcome dinner. In other tour planning news, the staff at the Santa Fe Botanic Garden are going to arrange for us to visit three private gardens in an old neighborhood of Albuquerque!

Dia de Los Muertos

Santa Fe was in its usual Fiesa mood for Halloween. There were many parties to choose from and we chose one at the Santa Fe Playhouse. They have been performing a series of short French horror plays and for Halloween it was preceeded by a reception and followed by a costume contest and party. The food was quite good, catered by Cowgirl Cafe and the Chocolate Maven, although since we had eaten before leaving we focused mainly on the desserts. We both came up with costumes, but decided they were really too subtle for an event like this one. The best costumes were 2 gnomes who were very padded, dressed in blue gnome coats with tall red pointed hats. There was one very tall slender guy dressed in drag and 5" heels. Another group had come as French men and women (a baker, another guy in beret and striped shirt and 2 overly fashionable women). Haven't guessed what our costumes were yet?! I'll post it at the end.

The plays were great, for Halloween - gruesome operating scenes and stories about lovers throwing acid on their cheating partners. There was also a funny one to start with about a guy who gets stuck in a guillotine that is on display at a museum and the only person who can get him out is his girlfriend's husband! The party afterwards was short-lived so we went on to Cowgirl Cafe where things were hopping! Most of the patrons were dressed in costumes - caveman, Santa Claus, pirates, catwoman, teddy bear (he had gone as "bear naked" the year before but was too cold). The band was dressed in drag and played a variety of rock music. Across the street was another party in a couple old rail cars, the "Angels and Devils" party sponsored by the Santa Fe Railway.

Okay, I was "Once in a blue moon" and Jake was questioning where the new RailRunner commuter railroad tracks go between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. They head off to the east at one point under the highway but then reappear on the west side of the highway in Albuquerque!

Like I said, maybe a little too subtle.

Wetlands and History

We finally made it out to the Santa Fe Botanic Garden's Leonora Curtis Wetland Preserve, just south of Santa Fe on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we had the best excuse for going there because of an end of season potluck lunch for garden volunteers. The preserve is 32 acres and is bounded in part by a living history museum, Rancho de las Golondrinas. The preserve features a unique wetland fed by water hundreds of years old that has seeped down from the Sangre de Cristo mountains. It surfaces here forming a marshy area and a pond dug out many years ago. The pond water is used occassionally by the ranch to run its old mills I gather. In the photos the yellow tree is a cottonwood surrounded by the grey of Russian olive trees.

I also attended an interesting lecture this weekend by a curator from the American History Museum on the unsettling of the continent - comparing histories of Jamestown, VA, Quebec, and Santa Fe. These are three of the earliest capitals of England, France and Spain in North America. The talk focused on the relationship between the settlers and the Indians in the three areas and why the different motivations of the colonists led to much different relationships with the natives. The end result of the near extermination of the Native American populations in each area may have been the same, but it was much more extreme in Jamestown where settlers wanted land to farm and had little interest in trading with the Indians or in intermarrying with them (with some exceptions in all cases of course).

Moving forward in time, on Saturday night there was a showing of films made during the New Deal. If this series comes to your town, definitely make a point of going to see it. It featured 5 films made by exceptional cinematographers (most were directed or narrated by Pare Lorentz) with scores by Aaron Copeland and Virgil Thompson. The Plow that Broke the Plains is a scathing and heartbreaking film about what led to the Dustbowl. The River rather glorified the construction of dams for the TVA project, but also talked about why the floods of the 1930s were so bad. There was also a film about the National Recovery Program's initiatives for African Americans and a very funny, patriotic film about the National Recovery Act that had the audience all singing "The Road is Open Again". The films were shown in the gorgeous Lensic theatre in downtown Santa Fe. This was the first time I'd gotten to go to something there because every program they have seems to sell out way in advance!

More Kitten Photos!

The kittens have now explored pretty much the entire house. Jet likes to read the paper with Jake in the morning. They've all decided they like hanging out in Jake's office as much as their crate. They tend to explore new territories together - so the first time they got in the bathroom there were 2 in the bathtub, one on the toilet and one on the countertop!

Kittens!

Today I have brought home my first set of foster kittens! I am in charge of 4 little black kittens for a few weeks until they find good homes. I am currently sitting in my office with the doors closed while they explore their new home and play with each other and any other loose object in the room. I haven't been able to get a photo of all of them in one place yet! Felines and Friends loaned me a great play crate and all necessary supplies. My mom donated a few cat toys and I've been making some paper balls from the recycling bag - surprised they haven't been in that yet.

They were supposed to have been spayed/neutered today, but the vet decided they were still too young, so I guess I'll have them until they are old enough to go back to the vets at least. After their operations they will go to Petco during weekend days for adoption.

Their names are Mija, Jet, Onyx and Boo. Mija is the most adventurous so far having twice climbed to the top of the play crate. Jet was probably named for his very loud purr. Boo has a little more gray fur than the others and is a little smaller. Still need a personality trait for Boo and Onyx. Jet is a boy and the rest are girls. They are identifiable because each has a paper collar around their neck with their name on it!

Syracuse

On a beautifully clear Friday morning I flew from BWI up to Syracuse, NY via LaGuardia. The plane flew over the Bay just north of the Bay Bridge and I got a great view of the Delmarva. I could see the areas where Carol and Michelle's houses were, the visitor's center and nursery buildings at the Arboretum and the cove my house is on. Over Syracuse I was on the wrong side of the plane to see where my parent's currently live, but I could see our old house. The leaves up here are beautiful this year, just past peak (photo coming soon).

Calla (the dog) was very happy to see me and we have been on several long walks with my mom to Green Lakes State Park and along the Erie Canal. We went to the Syracuse Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. This is a great farmer's market, very large and inexpensive. In Santa Fe the farmer's market has a lot of vendors but I've been amazed at how expensive the food there is. Maybe they just don't produce as much in NM since there is less arable land. In Syracuse, all the farmers had harvested the last of the tender crops like lettuce, tomatoes and peppers ahead of the first hard frost so that was certainly one reason why things cost less this time. (In one photo Calla is eating an apple peel)

Sunday afternoon we went over to the University to see an exhibit on Michelangelo. They had a few drawings and sketches he had made and a copy of the Pieta. After viewing the exhibit there was a nice concert of music from his era starting with a viola trio followed by a madrigal singing group. The concert was attended by many students who apparently were required to be there, and they really could have used a lesson on concert etiquette!

Maryann asked for more food descriptions, so since we ate out last night and had a great dinner I'll add a mention of it! We had dinner at Lemongrass, a Thai/French restaurant downtown. We all got different curries, green curry with chicken, a sweet and sour curry with shrimp and mushrooms, and a red curry with crispy duck. The crispy duck was perfectly cooked, moist meat and crispy skin. Just Bob and I got dessert but with 3 spoons. It was fun to see the desserts because they used some techniques we had learned in pastry class! Mine was a chocolate mousse encased in a dark chocolate pyramid. A little tuile boat held vanilla ice cream topped with a chocolate tuile crescent moon. Bob's was layers of thin chocolate cake with a hazlenut filling encased in a rounded mound of dark chocolate. It had a skirt of tuile on top and tuiles shaped like dancer's legs sticking straight up - the dessert was called a Can-Can something or others (so like a can-can dancer). It was accompanied by a scoop of coffee ice cream.

Tonight I'm making green chile stew with some roasted green chiles that I mailed up before I left!

I do have to relate a sad but funny travel tale for this leg of the trip. I decided to check my suitcase at BWI since I knew the planes would be small traveling to Syracuse, and when the check in person asked for my id, I discovered I couldn't find my driver's license! She said not to worry, that she could check my credit card against my reservation and I could get through. I decided that I had probably left my driver's license in the rental car because I had gotten it out to leave the rental car garage, but I couldn't reach the local rental car desk and the security line was really long. So I took my chances and entered the security line. The first security person highlighted the boarding pass and punched some holes in it. They said to go stand behind a desk until another security person came over. That person asked about my missing id and scribbled some more on the boarding pass. Then I was sent through the "suspicious persons" line (my name for it). There was a big black guy ahead of me who caused the metal detector to go off so while he was removing a belt and checking numerous pockets I went through the metal detector, but the woman holding my boarding pass on the other side decided the black guy was giving her attitude and they got into a heated discussion. Fortunately someone else came over and after being patted down I was sent to have my luggage swabbed. The other guy managed to get through and not have his luggage searched. I have renewed sympathy for Jake's mom who once forgot to bring her id for a trip and had to presumably go through all this to get through security!
(I got through to the car rental desk before my flight left and they found my driver's license and are mailing it to NM, meanwhile Jake mailed my passport to Syracuse)