Christmas in Guadalajara

This is a Torta Ahogada, a specialty in Guadalaja. Sourdough type bread, filled with porky, side of onions and lime, then drenched in a tomato chicken broth. It is supposed to be THE hangover cure. You need this sort of thing living in Mexico.

The Heneghans took off for Guadalajara with our friend Brett for a couple days between Christmas and New Years. Guadalajara is the big city in these parts, with close to 5 million people. We are in mountain country in Vallarta, and Guadalajara is all the way up at the top, so it's quite a bit cooler. Drier too.

3 days with a little chill, basically eating and walking among a lot of great art and history. Dig it.

The main Cathedral and square in Guadalajara. I'm sure there's a reason, but every square I've seen in Mexico has a gazebo in the middle of it.


Above is part of a set of really fantastic, modern murals done by a Mexican artist named Jose Clemente Orozco. The building they are housed in is the Hospice Cabanas, which is a sprawling structure. What I thought was interesting, in addition to these murals from the 1940s, was that this place was built to be an orphanage. Guess they knew how to build em back then. It housed over 300 kids at one time. That's a lot of poo-poo.If you look closely in the pic above, you can see huge patterns of blueish-green below us. That is mezcal growing, the plant used to make tequila. Tequila, not unlike champagne (and this is the ONLY way they're alike. Well, that and the fall down go boom), can only be made in Jalisco, the state where we live.
Kickass central market in Guadalajara. Sprawled for blocks and blocks. Sold everything under the sun (most of it is indoors, though).
Part of Plaza Tapatia, where we strolled for much of our time. The Cathedral sits on one end, the Hospice Cabanas at the other. Mare Bear and balloons in between.
Horsey ride with Mary, Brett, and the nice man who didn't overcharge us too much.

Peace in the New Year,

Mike, Corrie, and the Bear

Separated at Birth

Merry Christmas everybody,

Mike, Corrie, and the Bear

Sucks to Reformat

Bummer. Huge bummer.

Not sure how great the pics were on our SD memory card, but we'll never know, as they are gone now. Anybody else have that problem?

It is what it is, no living in the past.

With just a few days left until Christmas break, we wanted to send out a message about our November exploits. Sans pictures.

Speaking of formatting, I'm in no mood to organize paragraphs , so you'll just have to embrace the bullets.

• Corrie and I have discovered the best thing for our marriage (besides separate laptops): a babysitter every Friday. Inspired by our friends the Picketts, we head out every Friday, 4-10pm. Sounds early, but we pack in a lot, including sunsets, beverages, din-din, etc.
  
• Not sure what's more annoying: applying Off! every night (Mary included) to fend off the skeeters that strafe the room every night or the molasses-level progress of our Spanish acquisition.
  
• 80 degrees and sunny pretty much every day now. Hauntingly awesome.
• A Heneghan first: we got a fake tree this year, though surprisingly, they actually have real Christmas trees for sale down here. Best part: Corrie and Mary made all the ornaments. Pretty cool to see Mary's hand shapes all over our tree.
  
• One reason I'm able to write this blog tonight: Corrie is out carousing with her friends at Book Club. Apparently, not only can Corrie read--apparently it's like TV?--but she is a scary-fast reader. She's like the W.O.P.R. from "War Games". Corrie heads out with the chicas once a month and "talks about books". We all know what that's code for.
• Semester one is almost done for me. It's been a fun year so far, as most of my co-workers are only a little bit ass-holey (just kidding, people). Actually, biggest challenge has been adjusting to high school students, AP in particular. Apparently, they take finals. Who knew?
• With weekly regularity, I have cuts on my legs from our Mexican softball league. We are in the playoffs right now, so you read between the lines.
  
• Saw a commercial today for the IU vs. Kentucky basketball game tomorrow. Kinda cool.
• Biggest Heneghan news since Corrie started regularly cooking family dinners: MARY PEE-PEE'D IN THE POTTY TONIGHT. Nuff said.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Anna, Catherine, and Bruce, we look forward to seeing you soon. Bruce, I saw a Marlin the other day, and he said, and I quote, "Bruce Conner is a pussy." I can't make this stuff up.

Love to all,

Mike, Corrie, and the Bearcub