Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

James' 6th grade class. Tall, skinny kid on the back row is his best buddy, Santiago. Joseph's 4th grade class. Unfortunately he was absent on the day they took the class picture. He's best buddies with most of the boys (except for the 2nd to left kid in the front row ... we heard a lot about Abdiel this year) and one girl, the one with the knee socks in the front row, Angie. She was nice to him.  

Friday, on the last day of school, the big kids paraded off campus through a gauntlet of little kids waving (and whacking) balloons. James and (tiny) Spanish teacher, Miss Karla. Joseph and School Director (and nearly six feet tall) Miss Maggie. And with James, who is now hovering around 5'4", Bunch of sketchy looking 12-year-olds. James and buddies Santi, Leo, and Sahir with English teacher Miss Xemi. Santi and James, probably speaking English. Saint Patrick Elementary School is a private bilingual school that is a little bit Catholic. They had a special Mass at a local church to celebrate all of the incoming kindergarteners and the outbound 6th graders who are heading up to secondary school. (In Mexico, it's not "seventh grade" it's "first grade of secondary.") The kids were all pretty excited. The parents were all a little bit weepy. James and his far-too-fluent-in-English best buddy, Santi.  Director Maggie, Spanish teacher Miss Karla, and Engli...

 First off, and for no particular reason, this telephone pole. I like the way somebody has tied it to the window grate with a rope for extra support. (Oh, Mexico....) The Young Men's group got together at the church to watch the Czechia vs. Mexico game. Mexico won 3-0. We made it through the Group Stage! They were inspired.

[Disclaimer:These pictures are in reverse order because that's what Blogger is insisting on today for some reason.]  We wrapped up the day at Parque la Plancha where the park activities committee was running a "Family Feud" style quiz game just for dads. I volunteered Tom and his team won! Their prize was a gift certificate for a smoothy. (They were in it for the glory, not the riches.) Why were Spider-Man and a big brown dog there? I do not know. "One hundred Mexicans dad were surveyed. 'What do you do to get your pants zipped up?'" Top answers included hopping up and down and laying on the bed. "Say a favorite food of Dad." Answers: Seafood, grilled steak, tacos, hamburgers, pozole, roast pork. We went to six p.m. Mass at the nearby church. Here are Tom and Joseph walking up to get communion. For whatever reason, kids here don't usually get First Communion until they're like 10 or 12, so Joseph has gotten turned away before and he...

This week's collection of cool things. My dad is eternally cool. (Picture my mom recently found.) Cool little shower lizard. Neighbor puppy Milo is fun and cool (and a little blurry). Unusual color of flor de maya (plumeria) struck me as cool. Itsy bitsy kitchen lizard.  

We joined about 300 of our closest friends at the Cinemax Theater to watch the Mexico vs. South Africa game. Mexico won, 2-0. It was exciting and LOUD. Afterwards we hit Walmart (for the dozenth time this week) to buy a birthday present for yet another one of the boys' school buddies. We didn't buy either of these, but we want you to admire the looks.

 Turns out that if you plant Joseph in front of a screen, he'll let you do anything you want to his hair.

 It started raining this week, I think I've mentioned this before, but Mérida and most of the peninsula are a flat flat flat limestone plain. The water can't run off anywhere so the storm drains are really just wells with permeable walls. The water goes down, filters through the limestone, and eventually goes into the cenotes and out to sea. But the rain comes down fast and filters out slow, so the whole place looks like this: Tom usually shouts "Amphibious mode!" right before we drive into a section like this. So far, it's worked. We had a play date with James' friend, Santi, on Tuesday. First stop was Dunkin Donuts. Or, as it appears on the menu here, "Donas." On Wednesday, the boys played in a videogame tournament with the church youth group. Joseph made it to the final round and came in 2nd place. His prize was a bag of chips. :) I often see this guy on my way to Spanish classes downtown. Take a good look at this rig. He's taken apart a motor...

 Last year we had a shower lizard for several weeks. He hung out in the palm leaves in our bathroom and shamelessly watched us shower every night. (In fairness, he wasn't wearing any clothes either.) Then one day he disappeared. Now we've got THREE new scaly little voyeurs. Introductions: This is Peeping (Peep, for short) This is Tom And I want to call this guy Joe (aka Shoeless Joe) but James wants to call him/her Godiva.