Regresamos a Guanajuato...

From the 8th through the 14th of March 2005, we visited León, Silao, and Guanajuato in the state of Guanajuato, México. The main reason for our journey was Corona Rally México 2005, but of course there was much more to it than that. Everyone was great; the Rally Travel group we were with, and especially all the people we met along the way. At the Arrancado Ceremonial on Thursday in the theatre district of Guanajuato, the mayor of the city of Guanajuato especially thanked the people of Guanajuato for making this possible, and while one's mileage may of course vary regarding things spoken by politicians in general, he was completely right---the people we met were absolutely lovely. It was indeed a severe case of I LOVE EVERYTHING.

With that in mind, here are some photos from Wednesday, 9th March 2005, where we spent some time on a walking tour of the historical district of the city of Guanajuato, which is the capital of the state of Guanajuato. This is without question the most touristy thing we did, but it was still fascinating---so much so that the photos won't do it justice, no matter how good they are. As always, click on these thumbnails to see a larger version of each photo.

Here is the entrance to the Museo y Casa de Diego Rivera. Aside from some early works of his, you can also see his cradle if you go inside; this is his hometown, after all.

Here is one of the many cobbled streets we walked along. The genesis and growth of the city was mainly influenced by two things: the silver mining industry and the Rio Guanajuato. What you see when you walk the streets is largely a result of these two things. There is a large maze of underground tunnels where much of the automobile traffic goes, but cars and people alike walk and roll in the narrow cobbled streets, taking turns. Gorgeous, definitely something to keep one in decent shape, and not a place you want to be if you're handicapped.

Here is a stage where the estudiantinas from the Universidad de Guanajuato often perform, amongst other visiting theatrical troupes from around the country and the world. Our guide told us that it gets craziest in this area in October, when the Festival Internacional Cervantino is going on. This city is all about the Cervantes love; one of the museums we visited (no photos or videos allowed) was in fact the Museo Iconográfico del Quijote, which used to be a private dwelling but became a museum housing works based on the story of Don Quijote in the late 80s. It's an amazing collection of Quijote-related works from around the world and throughout time, in many different media, and I can't even begin to tell you how breathtaking some of the works were.

Here is another view off to the side of that stage. There doesn't seem to be a bad view in this city, to be honest.

We also stopped in the Callejón del Beso. One thing the page linked in the sentence before this one doesn't mention is that apparently the big issue Carmen's father had was that Luis was incredibly poor. Also, if you're a couple and you visit this alley, it is allegedly incredibly good luck to kiss there and incredibly bad luck if you don't. Though with the legend being what it is, I'm not sure exactly where the good luck comes in. =)

Here are some images of the outside of the Museo Alhóndiga de Granaditas. It used to be a granary in the late 18th century, but became instrumental in México's battle for independence. In 1810, rebel forces stormed the granary where supporters of Spanish rule had barricaded themselves. This victory was short, however, as later that same year, four of the leaders of the independence movement were beheaded and had their heads hung in cages from hooks at the four corners of the outside of the granary to serve as a message to all other would-be supporters of the rebellion. The hooks are still on display, though the building is now a museum of history. Down the street from where we stood is now a gigantic market, which you can sort of see in the second photo.

Somewhat fittingly after that, our guide took us in a cable car up the mountain to visit the statue of El Pipila (and look down on the city of Guanajuato from above, after having wandered around in its streets for a few hours). Why fitting? El Pipila (Juan José de los Reyes Martínez) broke down the door to the granary, thus allowing the rebels entrance. Here are some photos from the cable car trip, as well as one of the statue of El Pipila.

Finally, while this photo was taken looking out at the parking area near the statue of El Pipila, it's really more representative of most of the cars we saw while we were in the state of Guanajuato. There were tons of things we don't get in the US, but I'd say at least 80% of the cars we saw were VWs. Also a fair amount of Opels rebadged as Chevys, some Mercedes A-classes, several Seats, some Peugeots and Renaults, many Mercedes busses and trucks, a couple of MINIs (apart from the Red Bull one, which I'll post photos of at a later date)...and some Hyundai we don't get here, either. What astounded Spaz most of all was all the Mk I VWs we saw that were in unbelievably great shape, as you can sorta see in the photo below. We expected all the old-style Beetles, because México didn't stop building (and selling) them until a couple of years ago---but we hadn't expected the deluge of Mk Is.

This concludes the most touristy portion of our trip. Succeeding photos (and .MOV files) of Corona Rally México 2005 shall be posted in the following days; watch this space. Also watch Joe's Garage, as he took even more photos than I did. You may want to give us both time to sort and post them all, though---we took an awful lot. Did I mention it was an absolutely brilliant trip? Because it really was.

pumpkin party!

as today is the best holiday of the year, we had a little party earlier this evening.

in attendance were four good friends of ours:

it seemed they had quite a good time.

some, in fact, had a better time than others.

very good...

yes, very good indeed.

one friend was already quite giggly on its own.

another seemed very...square.

and the last just...glared.

as time passed, something began to happen to one of our pumpkiny friends. it seemed he'd overdone it on the Ichabod Pumpkin Ale (ale made for pumpkins and by pumpkins)...

alas, the party continued as usual, and it seemed no one even noticed.

it was actually quite a normal party indeed.

happy hallowe'en. =)

ETA the following: pumpkin credits! Spaz and i carved two apiece; Spaz carved Beery and Glary, and i carved Giggly and Squary. i took all photos, and Spaz helped set proper manual exposure settings on my camera, since he uses them more than i do. XD

i could teach you, but i'd have to charge.

happy holidays, if you're of a mind. ^^

public service announcement

this is a freezer.

this is a freezer full of keeki.

any questions?

(this post brought to you by: a frozen butter stockpile. XD)

keekiland comes true!

without further ado, here's photos from the other night, when Sarah and Eric came over to test the keeki. (for those in the home audience wishing to play along, the keeki itself is pumpkin, with a cognac truffle filling and a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. it's not torted as evenly as it could be, mainly cos it was my first time torting. actually, every cut but the very first one turned out pretty nicely. the first one was a bit sketchy, but that's not entirely surprising. XDXD)

look, here's our star!

and alas, its keeki fate has been revealed...

Eric has taken a rather big bite...

...while Sarah carefully contemplates the vintage of the cognac involved.

as for the tasters (both at home and at work), they seem to have convinced me that this keeki was a smashing success*. with this, i believe we're fairly well prepared to take on the true keeki mountain. stay tuned for updates!

* = and yes, this keeki did, in fact, get the Spaz seal of approval. XD

how does your garden grow?

(i wish i could say this came out of my garden. unfortunately, it did not. it came instead from the good people at River Valley Ranch.)

and alas, this mushroom is no more. but it went the way of all mushrooms in our house in quite a nice way, really---marinated in extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a bit of rosemary and then broiled (as it was too rainy out to grill).

nyum. ^^

the people that you meet each day...

had a visitor stop by earlier on in the evening. took me quite by surprise as i went to uncover the grill for dinner.

wish i'd gotten a better picture, but this is one of the bunnies we see around pretty regularly, i think. rather bigger than most around here, though. we left some food out for the bunny after it ran to the next yard; hope s/he finds it if s/he comes back. ^^

(there's always the romaine, i suppose...XD)

the birds in your garden

skipped into 57th St. Books in a thoroughly great mood yesterday afternoon, on the way home from work. skipped out again quickly, as i decided i really oughtn't be spending money, but not before skimming amusedly through Alexander Theroux's The Strange Case of Edward Gorey. shall have to scoop it up at a later time.

everything's growing really well; repotted the basil this morning (it's a house-basil, not an outdoor-basil---although i really ought to plant a few outdoors as well) and put the remaining dusty millers out by the strawberry. i cannot believe the asparagus---it had completely disappeared a few weeks ago, only to return (and quite tall) this week. O.O;; very strange. anyway, here's some more photos...and ones of the celosia plumosa and dusty millers we planted around the tree out front.

here's our aloe, which has grown beyond all reason. there's actually three in this pot. we need to get more pots and separate them---i really think they're out to take over our kitchen. o.o;;

and here's our cute little basil, which i swear grows an average of a whole inch every day. put it this way---i watered it yesterday, and today i repotted it. by the time i repotted it this morning, there were roots sticking out of the hole at the bottom of the pot. roots that hadn't been there when i watered it yesterday. O.O;;;

here's one of the four chocolate peppers we've got. these were looking pretty sad when i took them out to plant them a couple of weekends ago, but they've perked up quite nicely. they really like where they're planted. ^-^

one of the early girl imp tomatoes. isn't it cute and...impish? XD

the romaine is doing quite nicely, too---although i'm convinced something's going to come through the fence and eat it before it's fully grown. i hope if something does, it's at least the neighbourhood bunny collective. there's at least two wandering around here---and a whole bunch more i've seen by other houses and by the train station around here. i hope they leave some for Diesel, though. speaking of which, what i really ought to try growing is kale. that's her absolute favourite. ^^

finally, here's what we did around the tree out front last weekend. they've shifted a bit since then; we had some fairly violent storms, and the celosia plumosa don't really bend very well, so they got moved around a bit. still nice, though. as always, click the thumbnail to view it quite a bit larger...

we're falling in, so let's swim

got woke up this morning by rather violent storms outside and hail battering against our windows. it's calmed down quite a bit now, but it's always alarming when one looks outside one's window and sees the trees in their yard bouncing. XD i just hope the plants are okay. we were busybusybusy this weekend. here's some of what we did.

here's the biggest part of our garden. i <3 the little rosemary tree. XD

didn't think we'd get strawberries this year; thought it was far too late in the season, and they don't really like summer much. we'll see how these do. that is, if they're really strawberries at all---in this photo (and particularly in the full-sized version, which you can view by clicking on the thumbnail), they kinda look like some sort of creepy alien life form...^-^

there's also some really neat flowers we planted around the tree out front. celosia plumosa, and some other things. haven't taken pictures of them yet, however, but i will soon. ^^

we also saw this really neat old 1936 Buick coupe, complete with rumble seat in the back. the little steps lead up to the handle on the trunk, and that door folds down to provide extra passenger seating.

there was also a Ford GT40. a real one. it was quite amazing. Spaz took loads of photos of it. here's the only part of it you'd be likely to see on the road, unless of course it got caught up at a stoplight...

(there was also much parentage this weekend. aieeeeeee. o.o;;;; no photos of that, however. call it generosity. XD)

the moon is out, the stars invite

wish i could've got better shots of it, but out by my house right now, the moon looks remarkably similar to this:

it's really a gorgeous night out. hope everyone's enjoying it.

(my neighbours probably completely think me a loon now for going out and taking pictures of the moon, but it's nothing they probably didn't already think before. as they've made abundantly clear. don't really mind, though---used to it by now. XD)

tomoyotastic weekend

finally, about a week and a half after the fact, i'm posting up the photos from Sarah and Eric's baby shower. this way, this way---don't crowd each other...and as always, click on the thumbnails to see larger versions of each photo.

...and here's the lovely pair now. ^^

amongst those also in attendence were Dale...

...Sarah and Caleigh's Nanny and mum...

...Jean, Dale's sister (who i'd gone to high school with, and despite meeting both of them around that time, i didn't figure out they were related until last year...^^;;;)...

...Eric's stepmom, Jeanie...

...some other relatives (apologies for not being able to name them)...

...Mike (foreground)...

...and, er, some girl and Caleigh.

the lucky three amassed quite a pile of tribute.

and lo, everyone felt quite...er...

thanks to Sarah's friend Scott, the baby's already got his glow-in-the-dark quota filled!

Sarah's Nanny made a bunch of absolutely stunning clothes, which all matched with this blanket she'd made:

someone else made them a lovely blankie, too:

sometimes, i wish i had a bib this dashing...

this is the outfit meant to make the baby look just like his daddy. it's allegedly about a zillion times more effective with the baby Chuck Taylors and little baseball cap that hadn't yet arrived when this set was unwrapped, but it's still pretty funny seeing him hold it. XD

we gave them toys. including the wigglin', shakin' monkey, which was awfully difficult to part with:

there was also the really neatly textured fishie toy:

which then begged a very important question: do you like Caleigh better with the fishie...

...or without?

Jean videotaped all the action, and Scott watched...

...as Lambchop attacked!

and in the end, it was in fact little Lambchop who conquered all!

what a party indeed. XD

b-day of DOOM

the weather yesterday was certainly encouraging. oh yes. although i s'pose it's a good thing we weren't anywhere near Indianapolis. O.O;;; a little Cessna crashed right next to the train tracks near my house, though. and funnel clouds were forming over Spaz' head at some job he was at. yay erfday! XD

there's part of how we spent yesterday evening. (and Spaz would like to note that no, that's not a subwoofer. XD) there was also car pr0n er, automotive enthusiast g33kdom featuring Tsuchiya Keiichi and Bill Bickard (yes, he of the Iron Chef English dub fame) in the form of Best Motoring International Vol.5, featuring an Impreza STi Spec-C vs. a LanEvoVII. amongst other things. total car pr0n. it was great.

and on Tsuchiya's racing suit in this video, there is a rather large Atlus patch. oho. XD

(still have to fiddle with the photos from the party a couple weekends ago. oh, and the STi got broken in this weekend and there's photos of that, too. all in good time, my friends. of which i have none, but that's beside the point. XD)

all quiet on the Diesel front

have i mentioned that i <3 my camera? ^^

which also calls to mind that i really should play with the photos taken last weekend and perhaps put them somewhere so that not only can Sarah and Caleigh see them (since they were actually there, and it was Sarah's party, besides), but so that others might be entertained as well.

and i will. oh yes, i will.

just not...now. ^^

*halos*