You have to listen to the notes they don't play

Did you hear we had an earthquake here on Sunday? Neither did we until we read the American news on Monday. Not a big deal, obviously. But the rainy season just might have started here in Mexico City. We've had spots of rain, and one true shower every day for the last week or so. It usually only lasts a short time and it is kind of fun to see clouds again. Of course, a little wet stuff won't stop the Morenos from getting after it. This past week was totally Gatsby-esque: fine-dining, playing the ponies, and an evening of jazz. Oh, and a tour of a hospital.

First, we went out Friday night to celebrate Sergio's birthday with a steak dinner. Sadly, I think Sasha enjoyed it more than Sergio as he had come down with a bit of a bug that seems to have been making the rounds.


Luckily, Sergio perked up in time for the races on Saturday.


We took a cab out with our friends and neighbors to the Hippodromo where we managed to keep our losses reasonable and even win a little bit on a fine filly named Miriam Love. Sadly, the pony named Sergito did not deliver the goods for us.

Trying to act like he's done this before.

We had a great time checking out the folks who hang out at the track and trying to figure out the racing forms. Sasha still can't differentiate between a "trifecta," "perfecta," or "quinnella" but she thinks it all sounds really, really cool.

No trifecta yet for these fellas.

We had to dash off, counting our leftover pesos all the way, and scoot home before going out to the centro to attend a jazz show featuring Anthony Braxton, a big-deal in the jazz world and possibly an even bigger deal at Sasha's old university where he is a professor. She used to make him deli sandwiches from time to time at Neon.


Sasha insisted on using the event as an excuse to wear the Diana Von F. maternity score her mom sent her. Straight out of Scottsdale (or Long Island?).

See Ma, I wear animal prints. Heck, I will wear anything these days.

The concert was cool, held in a great baroque-style theater overrun with a super young and artsy crowd. It lasted exactly one hour. (There was a running hour glass!) Apparently, all the young musical types in Mexico are jazzheads. The concert was part of a larger cultural festival going on in the historic part of town and there was a great buzz downtown. Sergio caught up on a little sleep during one of the more "challenging" passages of the piece---who knew brass instruments even made such noises? Sergio really needed his rest to get ready for the very stressful Rockets game on later that night. Pity it turned out not be televised...

Poor Sergio.

Things didn't go well for the Rockets this weekend, sadly.

But we turned our own luck around on Sunday with a very successful test-run out to the ABC Hospital of Santa Fe where we plan to deliver this baby. This new branch of the hospital just opened in January, and we hadn't been out there to check it out yet. At our doctor's visit last week (Mom and Baby looking healthy, growing and right on schedule!) , Dr. M suggested we take a practice drive out as part of our preparation for the main event. We couldn't argue with this sensible idea as we stare down the last month of this pregnancy, and frankly, it seemed the minimum we could do since getting dropped from our childbirth class before it even began! So even though we might not have a clue what to do with a birthing ball or how to breathe, we have got our route mapped out and our fingers crossed for an off-peak travel time for the main event cos Sunday morning's drive was a piece of cake.

25 minutes, door-to-door. On Sundays.

We took a little tour of the maternity ward, spotted some newborns through the nursery window and took note of the really important stuff like the flatscreen tv/dvd in each room.

Any suggestions on good movies to watch if we're settled in for a while? Sergio was thinking about finally watching LOST...