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"I make special price today just for you... special price. Almost free!" This video is great. So yeah, I'm still around. My week in California was uneventful. I worked a lot and didn't take any time to see the local sights or try new places or things. I was generally unhappy and homesick. What is home these days really? I miss my pets a lot. My mother and sister were gracious enough to watch my four little companions while I was out west. I could go into the long story about all the problems I had flying American Airlines instead of my usual (Continental), but it would just make me tired. In short, don't fly American. When I arrived back in Texas on Friday night, they had not checked my luggage all the way through to my destination. It was really just par for the course at that point. Saturday morning, my mom, Bob, Beth, and I headed to Mexico for 24 hours of binge shopping and tequila consumption.

crossing the border into Mexico

We elected to stay across the border and found a nice little hotel that I'm sure I'll visit again. Everyone was so nice and hospitable. I was more interested in the small craft items, food, and drink than the touristy/trinkety stuff. One of the objectives for the trip was to find large kiln fired pottery to which Beth could transplant her palms.

my mom and stepdad getting their shop on

We wandered the streets of Nuevo Progreso with margaritas in hand after lunch at Mom and Bob's favorite city-overlook restaurant. The entire inside was one large mural. The windows overlooked the mercado in all directions. Almost every place in town that served food or beverage, also had live music. Our little picturesque rendezvous was no exception.

happy hour almost never ends

By the time the sun was setting, we were all direct contributors to Mexico's gross national product with thank you cards and letters pouring in from the leading tequila manufacturers across the country. At one point we even hallucinated that dogs were on rooftops and such! The taco bell Chihuahua was there with his "yo quiero" charm ringing through the streets.

woof!

Overall the trip was great fun and was a nice contrast to my uneventful previous week. I was off Monday for Columbus Day. It's one of those holiday's that sometimes falls into the corporate rotation, but not every year. This year was the bingo. Rob and his Buell happened to have Monday off as well, so I rented a Harley-Davidson V-Rod for the day so we could putt around the Corpus Christi Bay area. We spent the day working on sunburns at high speed as we worked around the bay to Padre Island via the ferry route to Mustang Island.

beth

My long weekend was over before I knew it and it was time to go back to work... back to Houston. I've left out a million little things, but I'm weary and the thought of typing it all is a little overwhelming without a nap. It felt good to be at my house again and even with all the lingering hurt, it felt like I was at home after a long journey. Traveling with work isn't all it's cracked up to be anymore. I didn't take a single photo all week long. If it weren't for Beth bringing her camera, I wouldn't have had any photos to share from the Mexican excursion. After I get caught up on my rest, I may venture out to make a frame or two to post this week. Maybe.