Back from Mexico with new teeth

Off to Mexico, for dental work

Tomorrow, I am flying to Phoenix, AZ. Then I will drive 200 miles to Yuma, AZ. Yuma is a border town with Mexico.

In the past, I have enjoyed visiting Mexico for several wonderful vacations. This time it's purely economic. I'm going to Mexico for dental work. I need four root canals with crowns and a couple fillings done. Sadly, given the state of my teeth, I need either a second mortgage on my house or a trip south of the border.

In North Carolina, a going rate for one root canal and crown costs around $2,000. My dental plan will pay for a small part. But, it does not cover crowns, and has a cap of $1,500 per person per year. I need at least 4, maybe a few more. That would cost me $8,000.

In Mexico, a full root canal, x-rays, build-up and crown cost $375!

The Mexican dentist that I'm going to comes highly recommended by my mother-in-law who has been to see them a couple times. She lives in AZ, and has had fairly complex work done with them. I trust her opinion. Even so, I'm nervous.

I'll update the blog with my progress. While I prefer to head south of the border for some real guacamole (and maybe a margarita or two, too!) Wish me luck and think of me under the drill, not under a sombrero.

Our recent visit to Boston

A few weeks ago, I took my kids to Boston to visit my family. My dad's health is not doing well, so it was nice to see him.

My sister Marianne was very generous to buy us all tickets. We spent time with her and her boyfriend. My kids were very excited about the snow and her dogs.

We went to the aquarium together. It was hard to manage Owen there. My sister doesn't have kids, and she was surprised by my two. She offered to bring them to an orphanage. They are a handful to say the least.

We went to Tricia and Mick's house next. It was great to see them and their amazing baby Ian. Zoe had a great time playing mommy with Ian.



I left the kids with family for a night on the town. Four of us went out to the theater. It was very nice to do something adult for a change.

We took the kids on the subway. Owen loves trains so it was a special treat for him. It's amusing to me that my kids are such country bumpkins. I grew up in the city and my mom didn't drive until I was 10. She used to take us "downtown" on the bus and subway.

We went to have lunch at my friend Christine's place. She lives in the finacial district near the waterfront. Owen climbed on their sofa, tried to jump out the window, licked their windows, and nearly broke their blinds. Luckily, my kids didn't break anything. It wasn't for lack of trying. We walked to the Children's Museum. My kids were pretty rotten, and my friend who also has no kids was very tollerant. Very.

We had a family birthday party with cake and candles. The cake was amazing, from my favorite Boston bakery.

It was nice to see everyone and have a few days back home.

Ian! the cherub

Ian is SO CUTE! We wanted to keep him. Zoe and I tried to hide him when his parents were packing up the car. We hid him amonst my yarn. He was pretty quiet, and it took them a while to find him. I wasn't even upset when he spit up all over my yarn!

Daniel's visit

I'm overdue to update several things to my blog. This draft will have to do. I will add more links.

We had exciting visitors. Our new little friend Daniel kindly brought his parents to visit us!

We had a great time. We had fun being tourists in our own town. We went to WholeFoods, drove through UNC's campus. We went to the Carrboro Farmer's Market, LocoPops, Franklin Street, Southern Season. We drove out to the country to see tobacco in the fields, visited Hillsborough, ate at a nice Mexican restaurant (yum) and back to the mall for the wonder that is Southern Season! Now, did I forget anything?

Daniel was a delight. He's a great baby. We had so much fun.

Peace, love and understanding

Bob and I went to a concert last week. It was Elvis Costello and the NC Symphony. Now, Elvis is a blast from my past. He was very popular when I was in college. He toured and performed at UMASS. The big show was sold out. My boyfriend, at the time, and I managed to see him after his show. He played a set with his girlfriend, at the time, with the band The Pogues at the on-campus bar the Cage. In early 1993, I saw him on a snowy St. Patrick's Day concert at Boston Symphony Hall playing his collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet on The Juliet Letters. That was a wonderful night. Now, he's working with a full orchestra!


The concert was held at the Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary. It was an outdoor concert -- a beautiful night. His performance was strong. He emphasized his anti-war sentiments and love for America. He also seemed happier, talking about his happy marriage and infant twin sons. He joked and belted out some passionate oldies but goodies. He joked that he tries to imagine that we're all the hot young things we used to be when we first discovered him. It seems that the angry young man has grown up, just like the rest of us.

It was a late night for us. We didn't get home until midnight. I even had to wake up the sleeping babysitter--gulp! The very next morning I had to dash to the airport for a trip to Atlanta. I'm not sure why I had to go. I put in some face time with the boss and some VIP authors.

Now, back to the ususal work week...

101st post

My last post was my 100th post. I meant to mark the occasion but I couldn't come up with anything clever. Then a lot of time lapsed. And, now I'm ranting again.

The reasons are many, and typical. My doctor had me worried for three weeks about some blood work. I had some nasty, brutal dental work with more to come. I got stressed out from that and then got sick. I enrolled in yet another computer class (Dreamweaver). My new job is harder. The book club I joined is reading interesting books that I feel compelled to read.

My kids are being extra difficult. Owen is screaming all the time. He's waking up screaming about missing blankets and scary monsters in his room. Zoe is having trouble with school. She avoids and deliberately looses her homework every week.

I had to go on a stressful, freezing business trip to New York City. The average temp was 12 degrees with a terrible wind bring it to -12 degrees. Even though I'm from Boston, I can't remember ever being so cold. And, my return flight was a nightmare. The plane was broken, and we had to get off, wait, wait, wait and wait. Then rush to another airport and try to get home. That flight was full, and then delayed. Are you surprised to learn that I threw up on the plane, and in the parking garage, and again in my car? (Their barf bags do work surprisingly well.)

And, my husband is working too much, and traveling more. Oy vey!

Of course, the things that I drop are exercising, sleeping, blogging, and knitting...not necessarily in that order. Just all the things that I do to help me relax.

Back to blogging

I've been busy and away. As a result, I haven't been blogging. I'm nearly recovered from the big demands over the past month including winter break from school, mad-dash holidays, end of year projects, travel and new job responsibilities.

I went to Canada to print a book. I flew up to Boston, where I spent two days with my family and friends. Then I went to a small town that is far outside of Montreal. Everything went very well. The salesman was great. (Thanks Joe!) The printer was terrific. We had a couple small things to address and the rest was fast and perfect. In fact, I received my bound books today. They look great.

In two days, I managed to see very little of Canada. A great deal of Canada was still closed for Christmas holidays. I walked around a nice town Trois-Rivières, Quebec.

It looked like a nice place to be when more of the shops and restaurants are open. We had some interesting meals. Poutine is a local favorite dish of French fries with brown gravy and cheese curds. It sticks to your ribs and doesn't let go. I had to give it a try. When in Rome,...it was good, but not great. I could definitely see the appeal of Poutine as an internal heat source. I prefered the classic French food we had at a couple other places.

The weather was freaky warm (here too). The Canadians were all upset that it wasn't cold enough. 27 degrees Farenheit (too lazy to do the conversion) was cold enough for me!

I missed my family. And, boy, did they miss me. I received very sad calls from Zoe telling me she loved me and she missed me. It certainly is nice to be wanted.

Homesick

At this time of the year I do get a little homesick. I miss the traditions that I grew up with. They're simple things like the hustle-bustle of going shopping in "downtown" Boston, visiting Faneuil Hall, seeing the lights on the Boston Common, eating Chinese take-out with my family on Christmas, and just doing the same things you've done for years and years and years.

Project 351 gives me a chance to see some of the familiar sights. There are a lot of references to Boston on the internet to give me a taste of home.

And, luckily, next week I'm going to stop in Boston on my way to Canada for a business trip. I'll get to spend some time with friends and family. Even though it's only a couple days, it's nice to go home.

Go west!

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

It looks like I've neglected most of western USA. Next month, I'm visiting Canada to print a book. I guess it will be a while before the whole country is filled in red. Oh, if only I could print in Hawaii.