Mexico City or Bust!

In approximately sixty hours I will board a plane headed for Mexico City, crossing the border into our southern neighbor for the very first time. It is a business trip, of course, but I am eager to see what awaits...what should one expect from a city of 25 million people?

To help prepare for the trip, however, I've been visiting my local Wal Mart as much as possible. The language barrier is tough to overcome. But it should be interesting, with two full days (read: twelve hours each) of business meetings, IT systems discussions, and the like. I don't think I'll get to do any real extra-cirricular activities but that's okay. Should be fun!

In other news, I've done a few other things this month I've never done before: play cricket, use a leaf blower, play competitive Scrabble in person (punched my geek card on that one), go on a thirteen-mile bike ride, hit a softball about 500 feet straight up in the air, installed a dishwasher, ran cable underneath a house, set up a regular telephone that operates for free over the internet, achieved a level 55 druid in World of Warcraft (punched my geek card again), and finally got a cubicle at work that I can sit in and not feel claustrophobic. What a month! I'm currently having a lot of trouble trying to cut back on things I enjoy in life, because I'm trying to do way too much and burnout is looming on the horizon. Hopefully I'll hold it off as long as possible.

As I mentioned, the new house is still coming along very well, aside from a five-year old refrigerator that hates us. We've fully painted four rooms, bought several new pieces of furniture, and have a large outdoor grill thanks to my over-generous father. I mow the yard once a week, Kelly whacks all of the weeds into oblivion, and best of all we have a mailbox that doesn't need a key. Life's pleasures, right? Now all we need to do is hang the last few things on the wall and start throwing massive parties. The kind that always happen in the movies when Mom and Dad go away for the weekend (only to return unexpectedly early!). Hopefully we'll have many of you over at some point in the coming months--you're welcome anytime.

I hope all of you are doing well out there, soaking in the sun and 140% humidity that can only come with August. Can't wait for that crisp feel of a fall football weekend...