Out with Jose Plano

Remember Flat Stanley?  I posted about him earlier, but here's a refresher:  a little while ago, my cousin asked me to help out her son with a school project.  He would send me a paper doll called Flat Stanley.  All I would need to do was take some pictures around town and send him back.  It ended up being a lot of fun.  Ulises's sister made clothes for him (a mariachi and an indio outfit).  We finally got out today to take some pictures.  It was a lot of fun.  We went to a few of the sights in town but the most important destination was the Casa de Adobe.  I plan to write a little about the history when we send Flat Stanley back.  But, we changed his name to Jose Plano.  Ulises thought we should call him Jose since it is a common hispanic name, and Plano means Flat.

Jose Plano in his Mariachi outfit

His pants kept falling off

Me and Jose in front of the Arc de Triumph
replica here in Juarez.  This is the
entrance to one of the wealthier neighberhoods

Jose Plano in front of the Casa de Adobe, ready to enter!!

The replica was built for the hundredth
anniversary

Jose Plano wanted to take a ride, too bad
there was no horse!!!!

He's still happy though!

Monument to Francisco Madero
at the Casa de Adobe

Ulises and Jose Plano at the first
border marker between the U.S. and
Mexico

Jose Plano, EWI-ing into the U.S.!!

Monument to Orozco, Madero, and Villa

Even Jose Plano needs to buckle-up!!!

This is in Juarez, but it looks like a street in the U.S.

An "X" in the making

Gizmo loves to be on top of our clothes, no matter where
they are located

Sunday With the Fam

Ulises Cooking Breakfast

After spending most of yesterday with Ulises's family, we spent all of today with them.  Well, I guess I spent most of the day because I excused myself to go to church, but other than that, it was all day.
In the morning, Mari worked on a skirt for me.  We bought material yesterday to make me a skirt.  Also material to make Ulises a shirt.
After church, my skirt was ready.  I tried it on and showed it off.  It is really comfortable.
Ulises's sister, Mari, made dinner, entomatadas and beans.  I had never had entomatadas before.  Basically it is a corn tortilla covered in a tomato-based sauce and topped with cheese.  We had nothing inside because I didn't have anything to put in them, but Mari says she likes them with chicken.  They were good, though.  While dinner was being made, I played mancala with Ulises's niece.  Then for dessert we had cheesecake!
I guess Mari had wanted only half a piece of cheesecake, and her daughter, who was serving the cheesecake, took that to mean that her father would have the other half.  We all had quite a laugh over it because he was left with a tiny piece.

Playing Mancala

Entomatadas

Mari's cheesecake, Ivan's, and their daughter's

I'm wearing my new skirt

Flat Stanley

Mari cutting fabric for Flat Stanley's clothes

My cousin's son has a project for school.  In this project, he needs to send a paperdoll, named Flat Stanley, to someone living in a different culture.  It appears to be a tool to teach the kids about different cultures/places/people.  Since I live in Mexico, and most of my family lives in the same state, I was selected for the assignment.  Well, I accepted the request.
The nice thing is that Ulises is excited about doing this.  I think he is excited to be able to share his city, his culture with other people.  So, we ropped his sister into helping us.  Today we went to the store and bought some fabric/other supplies to make Flat Stanley some clothes.  He now can now dress as an Indio (indian) or a Mariachi.  We will be taking photos of Flat Stanley at some of the historic sites around town.  It should be fun.

Fitting Flat Stanley

Making the headband for Flat Stanley

El Indio Flat Stanley

Working on his hat

Almost done!

Me "helping"

Ulises "helping"

Ivan "helping"

Mari disgusted by our helping

Mariachi Flat Stanley

Celebration Dinner

Tonight we had a dinner to celebrate my friend's marriage last weekend.  She got married civilly because in the life of a foreign service officer, in order to get the spouse on the orders, you must be married.  So if your spouse is planning on moving with you, there are tons of things that will be necessary, which makes it easier for many to do a civil marriage, and then have the actual wedding later.

My choice this evening

In any event, the wedding will be next year, and I have been asked to be a bridesmaid.  Luckily, they are planning on having the wedding in DC where I will be located for training, so I can committ to being able to go now.
I only have one real comment to make about the dinner.  I don't want people to read this as me being cheap, or complaining.  I just want to state that people think that splitting a bill between everyone when you are in a large group is fair and also easier.  In fact, in my experience, it is not.  I won't say much more than that, because in this case it didn't bother me because I was covering the cost of my friends, but normally this is something I actively speak out against.  Mainly because I don't drink alcohol, and alcohol quickly increases the cost of the bill.  So, generally speaking (is this is talking from experience from the times when people have wanted to do this), if I let someone just split the bill evenly between everyone present, I would end up paying twice as much as what I actually ordered.  I guess people assume that it evens out eventually, but not for someone like me.

Eating my food

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that.  We went to Maria Chuchena's, which is a place that Ulises loves.  I got something different this time.  It was better than last time, but I wasn't crazy about it.  I liked the atmosphere more, though, because we were sitting on the terrace.  They also had a mariachi band that played for us.  It was a good evening.

Home Sick

Ulises working in my backyard

I stayed home from work yesterday and today.  I hate being sick.  The only good thing about being sick is that Ulises came to visit me . . . and he decided to work in my garden.  I'm starting to feel a little better.  I thought I was going to have to go to the doctor.  I hate going to the doctor.  This is the first place I've ever been that I've had to go to the doctor to get over being sick.
In any event, after I woke up this morning, I was able to use the time to work on the book I've been writing about my brother.  It is a photo book and shares memories of Clarence.  I will link it to my facebook page when I'm done.  That will probably be later today.
Oh, there was an owl in my backyard today.  You should have seen Gizmo's reaction!  It was crazy!

Sick and working on my book

Owl in my backyard