Readers' Poll, or obsessive compulsive episode--you decide!

So you've probably read how I've been painting / nesting / whatever you want to call it. Because the whole apartment is a light gray and the carpet in the hall is dark blue, at first I tried painting this entry hall wall a dark gunmetal blue/gray. Of course, it didn't come out gunmetal gray, but a bright cobalt blue. It looked good, but it wasn't what I wanted, and I didn't think it would 'go' with the rest of the colors. Under peer pressure, I decided to repaint the wall red, which would add excitement, yet combine with both the blue carpet and the existing gray. So I painted. Again. And this is what I got. It looks okay in the photo, but it is really more rusty than a true red. I don't think it goes with the gray at all. Here is a photo of the living room, just beyond the reddish wall. I guess the rug sort of brings the rusty color in, but I just don't know what to think.

Here is a photo of the two colors together: you can see with the flash the more orange nature of the red hall wall. Just to the left is the living room, and you can see a tiny bit of the dark dining room (also light gray). What do you think of the two colors together?


Today I also painted my bedroom a cafe-au-lait color, which looks really cozy. My question is this: Should I have carried the color all the way up to the ceiling? You can't really tell, but there is a piece of molding just where the white begins. The gray paint stops there in all the other rooms. I know I need a headboard and some art and stuff, but it looks okay with the rug. And probably even with the rusty-red, but what about with the gray? It's far enough away not to matter, but does the upper part of the wall look funny?


So thanks for all the help. I think maybe I'm obsessing. I don't want to paint anymore, but I think I'm going to have to! Just to get a true red (maybe the color of the pillow shams?), and maybe the top part of the bedroom walls. Help me, because I obviously can't help myself!


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Mexico City: Pretty and Clean!

The sun is out! After weeks and weeks of rainy cold days, the sun has finally come out. And I feel Fine! Everyone says the rainy season this year is strange: it rains for hour and hours at a time, and gets really cold. Before, they say, the rains came in the afternoon for a couple of hours, but the sun shone both before and after. I think it is due to the increased tropical storm activities caused by global warming. But do I think that because Leonardo DiCaprio tells me to think that? ... Probably--but it still rains a lot. And that is a known fact.

But anyway, this is a picture of the walkway down the middle of Avenida Amsterdam. If you look closely, you can see Chicle, the chihuahua. She and her adopted sister were stars of another post 'Man About Town'

It was a loverly day. Just loverly. Even those kids on the street who try to wash your car windows with dirty rags took advantage: This spy shot not-so-clearly shows one of those kids in the fountain near my house. He and a few of his friends had gotten some soap, and were bathing and washing their clothes. I thought it was a pretty domestic scene (except for the public nudity), that says a lot about these guys. Even if they are homeless and live on the street, even if it has to be in the fountain, they're going to be as cleans as they can be. I'm wondering now if I should have offered them towels....or maybe fabric softener. oh, well--hindsight.

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Independence Day

Yes, in case you didn't know, this past weekend was Mexican Independence Day. And how did I celebrate? Good question! Because our school was one of the only to give Friday off (hardly anyone else was on holiday), I decided to go with a couple of girlfriends to Guadalajara. They stayed in Tlaquepaque, and I went on in to Guadalajara to visit MPM and his roommate. The first day, when I was dropping them off, we shopped a little bit around Tlaquepaque, but found the prices a bit too high. Friday evening, I hung out with MPM and his roommate, then on Saturday went back to meet the girls in Tonala for more shopping. That was it. We bought the place out. We had so much, I had to tie crap on the top of my car. They had a lot of stuff, but I had some big stuff--mirrors and such. Then Saturday afternoon I went back and met the boys for lunch and free time, then later we went down to the centro for the Grito.

If I were a good blogger, I'd explain all of this, but I think for now I'll just put the pictures, with a little explanation.... (That first picture up there is of some masks in the girls' Tlaquepaque hotel.)

We got lost on the way there (a 2-hour detour), but found the Alabama Restaurant somewhere. I asked the guy why he called his place the Alabama Restaurant, and he told me that he had lived in Birmingham (Pelham, actually) for over 8 years! We were neighbors of a sort. He also had the cleanest bathrooms we saw anywhere on the road.

I bought coconut with salt, lime, and chile from a little old man in Tonala. It was delicious.

A day of the dead skeleton, decked out for Independence.

The fireworks in the centro for the Grito were really great--sparks fell on my head, on the buildings nearby, on the trees around the plaza, and just about everywhere else. No fires, though.

Road adventure #2--we almost ran out of gas somewhere in Michoacan. Seriously, we were about 40 miles from the nearest gas station (we asked at the tollbooth), and below the red line on the fuel gauge. We thought our luck had changed when we saw one of the Green Angels on the side of the road (you know, the trucks that patrol the highways 'helping' stranded motorists). Well, of course the guy didn't have any gas, but he did direct us to the next little town, where this cool old guy and his grandson (?) sold us some gas out of a bucket. The girls tell me that it was the highlight of their trip. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it was pretty fun. The people at the carport gas station were all really nice, cracking jokes and such.

I guess that's all for now. I need sleep.


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