Still no vay-cay

Puerto Marques! But that's next weekend's news...

There was no fun in the sun this past weekend, but it was still pretty fun-- to sum it up: party, party, surprise visitors!

First, our colleague Perla celebrated her 25th birthday (remember that one?) this past Friday with a group dinner at a neighborhood restaurant followed by karaoke with a crowd. Sasha bailed early after the restaurant (which included an item on the menu called "Strawberries in Chocolate Pajamas!") but Sergio made it to the karaoke where he claims he was dragged on stage by strangers who insisted that he perform back-up vocals for a faded Mexican pop star (Perla was apparently very jealous). Sergio doesn't have any photos to prove it, but he did snap a few of the karaoke set-up with the birthday girl. Apparently karaoke here includes a full live band!


On Saturday, we went to an afternoon party hosted by Sasha's cubicle neighbor, Elizabeth, who is living it up while her husband is here on leave (at last) from his 1-year post in Baghdad. They have a great house in the suburbs and they had put on quite a spread. We were delighted to see that the Hanukkah sombrero we had purchased for the Festival of Lights Gift Swap had made its way into her home decor!

She looks as surprised as we were.

Even better was the afternoon entertainment: a Brownie troop's live dance concert on the back patio!

Very confusing. We think one of the girls was playing Death.

On Sunday we walked to the always impressive Auditorio Nacional to take care of some ticket business:
Sasha had been reading over someone's shoulder on the bus earlier in the week that Bob Dylan was making his first appearance in Mexico in decades. We had just watched a lot of Bob Dylan documentaries on the Netflix and decided we would like to be in attendance for his "Never Ending Tour," especially in as groovy a setting as this 195o-something auditorium. We're predicting it will be way more civilized than Sasha's only previous Dylan show experience at a converted train depot in Dublin, Ireland. At any rate, Bob's not getting any younger.

It's a wonder that he still knows how to breathe.

But first, we got to spend an evening with another singing sensation, Cousin Leila:

Remember her from our wedding?

Professor Leila was in town for a conference sponsored by the Organization of American States on education policy. Leila brought along a Canadian colleague (and Michigander!) for dinner at El Bajio (mmm, carnitas...) where we had a great time catching up on Duenas family gossip and the Mexican public school system. The Michigander exchanged yooper stories with Sasha.

And now, we're just crossing the days off until Saturday when we drive out of town to enjoy a nice long holiday doing very little at Puerto Marques bay. So stay tuned for a full account of our first shared experience at a bonafide beach resort. Will we love it? Time will tell...