The first weekend in March, we had the pleasure of hosting Liz and Glenn and their 5 month old daughter. (I'm not sure the pleasure was as much theirs.) They arrived Friday evening, and we promptly swept them off to Los Cuates, our favorite New Mexican restaurant (although, admittedly, we haven't sampled that many). When the waitress asked "red or green," Liz innocently asked, "What's the difference?" Now, this is a perfectly reasonable question, as one is often hotter than the other, and also, Liz wasn't sure if they contained different kinds of meat since the meal she ordered specifically contained chili con carne. However the waitress snottily replied, "Well...one's red and one's green."
Yup.
She did later apologize, and I really should have prepared our guests for the rituals of New Mexico. When asked "red or green," you simply answer "red," "green," or "Christmas," or if you want a bit of judgment, ask for both on the side. Welcome to New Mexico.
Saturday Matt made us a pancake breakfast, then we trekked over to our garden to plant some potatoes, garlic, and carrots, after which we headed back to the panaderia for pizza lunch where the boys ordered both pizzas with the never-before-tried blue corn crust. It was not that great.
Then we checked out a yard sale, observed our landlady open our mailbox, look through our mail, then put it back in and close it...
Following this we walked down to Old Town to be tourists. Glenn was enjoying the shopping, but Liz not so much. And then we finally walked home, leaving our guests a bit exhausted.
That evening we went to OFBE's first ever baseball game, where I was left alone with a baby for almost 30 minutes. Let me tell you, I am not cut out to be a mother (and this was before I saw the following day's diaper debacle).
Sunday featured a trip to the Flying Star for spicy breakfast, as per usual, followed by a walk to the Rio Grande at Tingley Beach Park where they had recently cut down all the pretty green underbrush. The poor baby had gotten a small sunburn under her chin the day before and was not too keen on the heat. Nor was anybody else, except for me. Then we headed to the Frontier, the place where we were once frisked to get in and a girl tried to buy my shirt off my back. We sampled the "famous" cinnamon rolls, but again, they seemed to be a disappointment.
And so ended the visit of our first non-family guests to Albuquerque. Thanks for coming! We never mean to be bad hosts. If these activities sound fun to you, please stop by one day.
