a political dead heat!

this is an informational handout I just prepared for the study abroad students going to Merida. Sunday is a presidential election and it's down to the wire, which is very cool.

A general election is scheduled to be held in Mexico on Sunday, 2 July 2006, which will be this weekend right after you arrive, so there might be some really neat opportunities for photos. Mexico is going through its tightest presidential election in decades and the options are very different: Business favorite Felipe Calderon (PAN) wants to continue the free market policies of outgoing President Vicente Fox. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (PRD) advocates a shift toward greater social spending. Polls show Mexicans evenly divided between these two visions for their country. There was some discussion about the results being tied to the World Cup results; the argument was that if Mexico made it to the finals, then Calderon would win because of the status quo of the same political party.

On July 2, voters will go to the polls to elect, on the federal level: A new President of the Republic, to serve a six-year term, replacing current incumbent President Vicente Fox (in Mexico the President cannot be re-elected). They are also electing 500 deputies to serve for a three-year term in the Chamber of Deputies and 128 senators to serve six-year terms in the Senate.

The parties are not quite the same as U.S. political parties, but their history is what makes it so important. The National Action Party (PAN) is eager to hold on to the presidency for a second period, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) equally keen to regain the office it lost in the 2000 election for the first time in 71 years (now in coalition with the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico), and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) believing itself with a good chance to win after disappointments in the two previous elections (now in coalition with Convergence and the Labor Party). However, the two front-runners are from PAN and PRD, with the PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo not too far behind.

A couple of articles to read:

LA Weekly

Montreal Gazette

athfest and the pilgrimage to mecca

so I went to Athens this past weekend for their Athfest music and arts festival. I had a great time and got to spend quality time with Doo Doo Brown, which is always a treat. I bought a lot of cool stuff and saw some good bands as well. It turns out D. Brown is a teacher with the chick from Sleepy Horses and so I met the band and then got to see them play and I really liked them.

I have about a zillion stories to tell but of course I can't think of any right now. More to come.

Jet the pug and Bug the hound

so I am dog-sitting for John and Christine and Ella this weekend, so I have Jet and Bug as well as Oliver of course. First of all, the typical doggy-rules apply: nobody eats their own dog food. The other food is so much tastier, of course. I remember when Beneful was like crack to Oliver. But now, he craves whatever is in the other bowl.

The hilarious part is that Jet, the pug, has bullied Oliver out of eating his food so Oliver then comes and cries to me and is all distraught. 70 pounds of canine without much hope there, I have to admit.

Even funnier is that Jet is the ultimate winner. The photos detail the play-by-play. and yes Jet and Bug are sharing my bed while Oliver sleeps in his room.

flat rocks is off the trail

So my friend John has decided to come home but I am so very proud of him! Hiking as far as he did on the Appalachian Trail (705 miles!) is incredible and I think we are all very proud. Jill is still plugging away.

For those of you who have LOTS of questions, you can read John's thorough FAQ's about his experience: John's trail journal.

John--you're the best! All the doggies and people love you and are happy to have you back!!

summer doggy shuffle

I am currently enjoying the guests of Jet the pug and Bug the hound, and Oliver is here as well. Max and Lucy are visiting Jabula and Scamp Barnes across town. It's been a very fun visit so far.

good old Savannah

so I am here at a meeting and it is freakin' HOT HOT HOT here, like Mexico HOT. I got to eat a few good things: shrimp boil (said in that slurry southern way, bowwwl); fried scallops; broiled oysters; grilled quail; duck pate; oysters rockerfeller. Probably the best meal was shrimp and grits with tasso gravy and the white chocolate coconut cream pie at the River House on the River. For some reason I looked for the bar where Danny and I ate all those 35 cent raw oysters and couldn't find it. Uncool.

another highlight is hearing about the first tropical storm of the season...Alberto! Headed right for Alachua County! see, we always have to start off the season just right.

feeding my celebrity gossip interest

so my colleagues have brought this blog to my attention: Dlisted: Sex, Drugs, and Gossip

as if my subscription to US Weekly wasn't enough.

the mouth of the rat

so I didn't expect to have more to say about this trip but let me tell you.

I went up to the Town Center mall in Boca Raton, which is two exits north of where I am staying. Let's begin with the women with the extreme fakey tans and the plastic surgery and the heavy makeup and the pineapple blond hair and the high heeled shoes at the mall, shall we? They were everywhere.

I was wandering around, thinking about grabbing something to eat in the food court, when I discovered that they have a Legal Sea Foods! Oh my goodness! So yes I am being a hypocrite when I mocked chain restaurants, but as I only get to eat this in Boston I was thrilled. I bellied up to the bar (pun intended) and got a Sam Adams Summer Ale on draft, a cup of New England clam chowda, fried whole-bellied clams, and a pot of steamers (clams). I strongly considered the Lobster Bake which comes with a steamed lobster, steamed clams and mussels, the clam chowder, and corn on the cob, but I wanted to be greedy and get the fried clams. I have only been able to get clam strips outside of New England. So the real question is, is it worth it to drive 5 hours to eat this? Perhaps. Not 100% out of the question. So I apologize to the nola foodie. Regardless, I toasted to Jill on the AT, with whom I ate the Lobster Bake with a few years ago in Boston.

While at the bar, this woman sits next to me, I say hello. She rolls her eyes at me and asks if I can move my chair over a little more (this is as I am shoveling my chowda). I do. She proceeds to make at least eight cell phone calls while I am sitting there merrily eating away. She is probably mid-20's, but has a fake tan and fake blond hair and really long fake nails (takes one to know one). She has this brown low-cut top with gold shimmer on it and proceeds to be whiny on the phone because she can't find someone to hang out with her. My food arrives and she is clearly disgusted with my pigginess and quite frankly the mollusk overload of absurdity.

Then this elderly man sits on the other side of me and he is wearing an orange sweater, white slacks, and white loafers (all clearly expensive clothing). He chats with me, tells me that his son and grandson are both golf pros in Massachusetts. He mocks the blond on the other side of me. He told me that he shopped all day and bought clothes that look just like clothes in his closet. He asks me to guess how old he is. I guess 70 to be polite. He says that he is 80 and he plays golf 5 days per week. I tell him he should meet Grandma Ruth. Then he says "I bought an Infiniti today," as if that is totally normal. I reply that I am still driving my first car. It is clearly a moment of working-class meets bored and wealthy.

After I leave the mall, I notice FOUR Hummers in the parking lot. Because apparently you need a Hummer in south Florida. While driving back to the hotel, a very low sports car gets behind me. It is so low I can't figure out what the hell it is. In fact I can't see it in my rear view mirror while I am driving. Good lord.

So here's to all the normal people who have escaped out of south Florida! Godspeed.

my south Florida adventure

so I am attending a conference in south Florida this weekend. I am thinking of you, Scott, as I pass the Del Webb billboard. I drove down Thursday in a brand-new Camry of the city's which was very cool--it has tempted me to consider replacing the sensible Sentra. However that cannot happen anytime soon, let's be real, people. Anyway I went shopping at the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens; let's chat about the people-watching there, shall we? The number of hoochie-mamas pushing around babies in fancy strollers while wearing hooker-ish outfits was entertaining. The fact that there were no clothes in Ann Taylor greater than a size six was also pretty funny.

I then went over to the Downtown area, which I had assumed was a downtown. No, it's a big old mall thing that is a fake downtown but not really urban but big and boxy. I walked around the Whole Foods store (OMG if we had one of these I would spend a million dollars in there!) and even went to the Purrticular Paws Pet Boutique which had four dogs (three golden retrievers and a Rottweiler, just milling around the store) and ridiculous stuff for sale. I checked out a chilling cushion thing for the dogs to hang out on but the price tag was $84.99 so I controlled myself. I had a very nice sushi meal at RA Sushi.

While driving to my hotel, I saw somebody driving in reverse on the off-ramp from I-95. Yes, someone had changed his mind about getting off at that exit and then just went in reverse to try to get back onto the interstate. this, my friends, sums up all south Florida has to offer.

I am the youngest person at my meeting; of the 36 attendees, only 6 are women and there are only 5 native Floridians. Several of the attendees are retired Jersey police officers who moved to various south Florida communities.

For dinner tonight, we went to JB's on the Beach and I had a dozen oysters (from Massachusetts!) and steamed clams and a margarita and then berries with chambord over vanilla ice cream. I don't think I'll be presenting that receipt for reimbursement, I am a little embarrassed. While walking out of the restaurant, one of my fellow conference-goers says to me, "you know who you remind me of? Rachael Ray. Do you know who she is?"