HARD TO BELIEVE

If you were to stroll around my house and take note of the things I like to decorate with...

and to eat or serve off of...

and to wear...

If you were to discover that I could (and sometimes do) eat some sort of Mexican food almost daily; and if I told you that I never, ever read my books more than once, except maybe for Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna, and Tony Cohan's On Mexican Time, which I have read three or four times; well then, you just might assume that I was a gal who was gaga over all things that even hinted at life in Mexico, and you'd be absolutely right! In which case, you might be surprised to learn that I have never actually been to Mexico. (Well, except for a couple of day trips to a border town when we lived in south Texas, and we all know those don't really count.) To tell you the truth, I can hardly believe it myself.

Perhaps, then, you are now better able to understand why I get so crazy-giddy each time I am hit with the thought that, in just a few days, these two little feet of mine will actually be walking on the cobbled streets of San Miguel de Allende! GAAAHH!!

WE'RE GETTIN' THERE!

We're just about ready for our big adventure to San Miguel de Allende! I've narrowed my choices down to three tops, three bottoms and three light jackets (mornings and evenings will drop into the 50s), all of which can be mixed and matched to make eight or nine different outfits...

three pairs of shoes...

and a few faux baubles -- my favorite kind!

Now all I have to do is pare down the amount of art supplies I want to take with me...

to just what I need to take, if the mood for some art journaling should strike.

A page from Mari Le Glatin Keis's The Art Of Travel With A Sketchbook

Aahhhh, the colors of Mexico!

One last thing on our To-Do list...

try to trade these boogers in for the next size down, so that we don't get slapped with a $75 per bag oversize fee by Southwest. Wish us luck!

THE BEST KIND OF NEIGHBOR

I ask you, is there anything better than a neighbor who rings you up on a Sunday afternoon, just as you were sitting there wondering what on earth you could piece together for dinner, and says "We planted too many tomatoes! Could you use a few?" Next thing we knew he was at our door, with all of this!

So I cut up some of the tomatoes, the herbs and the green onions, tossed them in a bowl, added some minced garlic, a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil, a sprinkle of coarse salt and some freshly ground pepper, then covered the bowl with a plate and allowed the ingredients to meld at room temperature for an hour or two.

When we were ready to eat I boiled a bit of pasta, tossed it with the tomato mixture while still warm, and topped everything with some freshly grated Parmesan.

Voila! Dinner problem solved.

GUESS WHO?

Guess who joined the Wimberley Valley Art League a few weeks ago, then took a couple of his photos up to the Community Center this week to see if he could get one selected to be in their next juried art show?

And guess who ended up winning one of only nine prizes awarded, his first time out of the chute?

My Hubby, that's who!