An Accidental Purchase

As Charity mentioned, we now own a Steinway piano. All I wanted to do was see how big they were so I could figure out how much space they'd take up in the living room once we remodeled.

Well, mission accomplished.

Volunteer Work

Did something new over the weekend: helped GRID Alternatives install solar panels in Oakland. Habitat for Humanity is rehabilitating a couple houses up there, and GRID was there to install the solar panels.

It was pretty interesting working up on the roof of a two-story house. It isn't very complicated work, but there's a lot of it. It was a two day project, but since I could only help out on Saturday, I didn't get a chance to see the finished product. I'm definitely going to try to volunteer again. Next time though, I'm going to work with the ground crew and see how the power inverter is installed.

Sunscreen

When we were in Mexico, Charity's mom pulled out a can of aerosol sunscreen. I didn't really like the idea of it, but used it anyway since I'd forgotten to bring any myself. Today I came across an article on sunscreens, and of course, the general message is that most of them don't do what they claim to do, and are potentially toxic to boot. As for aerosol sunscreens? Don't.

The story basically discusses a study done by the Environmental Working Group. Out of the 746 products they took a look at, only 19 were rated as both effective and safe. Scary!

Home Again

We're home again, and it feels good!

We spent our last two days in Mexico City visiting museums. On Tuesday, we went to the Museo Nacional De Historia Castillo de Chapultepec and the Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Both are worth a visit, although I felt that the second floor of the anthropology museum was pretty redundant. The entire floor is dedicated to all the different ethnic groups in Mexico, which sounds great until you realize that they're repeating very similar information over and over again for each group. It's more an issue of organization and layout; it would have been much better if they had made it easier to compare the different ethnic groups with one another.

Before catching our flight back today, we returned to the Palacio de Bellas Artes for their Frida Kahlo exhibit and then went to the Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño, primarily for its Diego Rivera exhibit. I must say I really like Diego Rivera's work. Kahlo's, not so much...

One last note: if you're ever in Mexico City, try to make it to La Fonda del Recuerdo. We had dinner there on Tuesday and it was muy delicioso.

Worms!

Went on another tour today. This time, it was to the Basilica de Guadalupe and Teotihuacán. Overall, I think the Basilica was much more interesting than the "pyramids" at Teotihuacán, especially the gardens behind the churches. The pyramids should really be called ziggurats instead, and while large, they're pretty drab. I may be a little jaded though after having been to Ephesus, Pompeii and the Parthenon.

For me, the highlight of the day was dinner at chef Patricia Quintana's Izote, which serves modern versions of old indigenous dishes. I ordered the crunchy maguey worms, the sautéed escamoles (ant eggs), and lamb shank wrapped in banana and maguey leaves. Once you get past the fact that you're eating what looks like large fried maggots, the crunchy maguey worms were actually rather tasty. Sort of like french fries... The escamoles was interesting, with the texture of corn kernels, but was a little lacking in flavor. As for the lamb shank, I've read quite a few reviews singing its praises, but mine was too dry for my taste. Flavorful, but dry.

Xochimilco and the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico

We went to Xochimilco this morning and took a boat ride on the canals. I was surprised at how many families there were picnicking on the boats. And talk about a riot of color...

In the evening, we went to a performance of the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico at the Palacio del Bella Artes. While the show itself was great, what amazed me the most is that they allowed photography! Which is how I ended up with these shots:

In between, we finally managed to file a report of yesterday's pickpocketing. We'd attempted to go to a ministerio publico (police station) the night before based on directions from the US embassy only to discover that it had closed down a while ago. Asking around for the nearest ministerio publico didn't yield any results until we asked a couple police officers, and by the time we finally got to one, all the interpreters had left for the day and we couldn't do anything. Which is why we had to wait till today to get it done. The scariest thing about this whole ordeal is that we were told more than once that we were lucky -- that it was just a pickpocket and not a robbery by a gang of thugs!