We spent 4 nights in Ajijic, parked between the beautiful homes of friends on a small cobblestone road. We had a great time with Ken and Anita, played dominoes, talked and laughed. We got to meet their daughter Katie who is staying with them, she's a beautiful young lady.

We had 20 large jars of special mayonnaise that our friend Bob had shipped to us in Cathedral City. He didn't realize the jars he ordered were 48 oz each! We had them stashed all over the RV. We also brought some very old, very rare wine down for them that they had had stored at a winery in Napa. We had it in a cooler and every day I would change the ice packs in the cooler so that it stayed around 70° or below. This is Bob with his cooler of wine. As a reward, Brigitte cooked a phenomenal meal for us and opened a bottle of 1978 Lafitte Rothschild to go with it. Incredible wine, excellent food and great company.

Brigitte and I went into Guadalajara to the upscale shopping area of Tlaquepaque on Friday. The shops were converted colonial mansions full of handcrafted hardwood furniture, hand blown glass and alabaster lights, and lots of other stuff. Oh, we saw some beautiful furnishings. We were sort of looking at chandeliers, she just finished a remodel on a colonial house and I'm contemplating the start of one.

My new fetish is alabaster... alabaster lights specifically. When the light shines through the alabaster it shows the veins and colors and each one is different. I saw some 6 and 8 light chandeliers with alabaster globes that were gorgeous. Also, I really liked one that was just a long tube of alabaster hung from a wrought iron hook and chain. We saw a lot of blown glass that I also liked, some very modern and some traditional. I could spend some serious money there if I had it. It's just as well, I guess. The only thing I bought was a ceramic baby parrot for Mimi as an anniversary gift. Yes, our anniversary was last week as well. 17 years! Time flies.

We didn't drive over to the area that was hit by the mudslides. When we came into Ajijic we detoured farther through Guadalajara so that we came in from the opposite side. I did hear a lot about it and it was a huge tragedy for many people. Those of you from California will be really familiar with this story. There was heavier rain than usual this season and the ground on the hills was saturated. Apparently there wasn't a waterspout involved after all, the ground just gave way after a very heavy storm cell and the dirt and boulders slid down the mountain. Along the way it wiped out several houses in an upscale development and it ended up in a very poor village on the lakeshore.

Most of the damage was to the village at the bottom of the hill, many people lost everything and it seriously damaged an orphanage as well. There were also several people up on the hill that lost their homes and everything in them. While the relative damage is different between rich and poor, tragedy and loss feel the same to both. My heart goes out to all of them. The community has been incredible in responding, the orphanage is already cleaned up, refurnished and the kids have all new stuff. Most of the houses in the village have been dug out and cleaned and all the roads are open, some in better shape than others. There is still a lot of water running off the hillsides, I saw that. I hope that the rainy season is over and there are no more storms.