One and all,

Life continues to be too good here in old Mexico. While the weather has cooled a bit in the mornings, the days continue to be quite sunny, varying from bright blue, cloudless skies, to some high thin clouds that relieve all from the heat a bit. Wind does pick up at time, thus the cool mornings.

Visited our favorite bakery yesterday. They make some of the best bread I have ever had. They have a whole schedule of varieties and days they are available. We had the Fugasse yesterday. It is a spongy, chewy bread that has bits of zuccini, roasted tomatoes, onions and a little cheddar cheese. Delicious. It is so nice to see this bakery succeed although the owner says it is still a struggle as most of her customers are snowbirds, here in season, but gone the rest of the year. She is a very nice lady whose husband absconded with everything last year. She is making a comeback and seems to be supplying quite a number of restaurants as well as very satisfied American and Canadian tourists.

We had another easy day. WE saw our friends at La Fuente del Puente. There 2 x 1 beers keep drawing us in and we are drinking there for about half what it costs us with wine last year. Also, they are just nice people. We met Francisco, their new host. He speaks nearly perfect English, which is not surprising since he was born and raised in Fresno, CA. He moved back down because of his wife's desire to be close to her family. He complained that he is very bored in this job. He loved his old job, just loved it! I asked him what he had done and he calmly us that he was an "undercover narcotics agent"! One can see where being a host of a Mexican restaurant might not live up the that! Anyway, a nice man, who is not happy in his work.

We headed back home for a bit of lunch and our siesta. Did fail to mention the other day that we did, after buying a "Happy Chicken (Pollo Feliz), manage to acquire our first refrigerator magnet.

Now, it truly feels like home.

We wandered down to Época to see Hannah and have a drink. Had a nice conversation with the owner and he invited us to the Oregon National Championship game party on Monday. I usually enjoy watching the game in the privacy of my own home, but I think we will go. One of the advantages will be that I can watch in English rather than Spanish, as I am watching the Seahawks game at this very moment.

From there, we drifted up the Malécon and went to a little French bistro, La Cigale (the cicada) for a French style dinner.

We ordered appropriately in French (the owner is from Marsielles), but it gets a bit confusing. He is French, his staff is Mexican and you find yourself going back and forth from oui to si to gracias to merci. The staff seems very tolerant of the confusions and let them pass by. We had some delicious escargot.

And then Polley and I shared a Noiçoise Salad that was very disappoiinting.

It was odd as we both thought we had the Noiçoise last year and enjoyed it. This time it was not good. First, if there is lettuce in a Noiçoise, you know they have got it wrong. Things just did not seem fresh. Also, even the wine was mediocre, he said, giving them the benefit of the doubt. So we ate and then quickly moved on to El Patio de mi Casa. It was supposed to be jazz night, so we got a table and waited. We had arrived about 9:30 for the 10 p.m. music. We saw musicians wander in, talk, look for cables, etc. but at 10:40 there was still no music and there did not appear to be any on the horizon. So, it was up the hill for a nightcap, a good book and another nights rest in Paradise.