Still on vacation … I am, anyways … learning foreign languages (added 1 new one – Czech), trying out new recipes (Mexican mainly) and looking at photos of places that we are normally at this time of year. Five years ago at this time we were on an eleven-day cruise to the Western Caribbean – last year a twelve-day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. Five years ago we spent time in Grand Cayman, Cartagena, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico. Last year the usual islands of St. Croix, Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and St. Kitts. Our favorite stop 5 years ago was in Costa Rica – the six of us went on a 3 hour / 18-mile white water rafting excursion on a category 5 river – category 5!! It was supposed to be on a category 2 but they changed locations without telling me first. So I didn’t tell the other five (who had never rafted before) until we finished the ride. Best birthday experience of my life!! 
One year ago our favorite experiences were on the beaches in Grenada(Grand Anse) and St. Kitts (Cockleshell). Oh, and 31 years ago today I ran 110 km (about 68 miles) from Yarmouth N.S. to Shelburne N.S. to raise money for an Xmas charity. A little chilly that day – about -18 C (about -1 F) I found another Mexican grocery store last Wednesday and stocked up on about 5 different chili peppers that I didn’t have. Last week I made some mole sauces from scratch and used them in a few dishes. Over the week we had Beef Birria, White Bean Chicken Enchiladas, Pork Mole, and two types of rice – Mexican Rice, and Black Beans with Rice. I’ve marinated my beef for seven days so we will probably have Sauerbraten with potato dumplings or pancakes. We watched a couple of Christmas series on Netflix – there’s ‘Over Christmas’ in German and ‘Home For Christmas’ in Norwegian. I watched HFC last year and enjoyed it so much I watched it again – Season 2 is coming up on December 18th. I finished ‘Cocaine Coast’ this week – it was pretty good, and it followed real life events fairly closely – and it was loosely tied into the Pablo Escobar saga. I started watching ‘Drug Squad: Costa Del Sol’ a series about how the drug scene started in Southern Spain back in 1977. It’s so bad to watch that it’s almost good – it comes off as a parody of ‘70’s and ‘80’s cop shows and the acting is pretty bad; I’ll watch one more episode to see if it gets any better. I watched all eight episodes of ‘Green Frontier’; an excellent Columbian police / murder mystery that takes place on the edge of the Amazon Jungle on the Columbian / Brazilian border. Beautifully shot and well acted it’s a slow burn mystery that has flashbacks over the last sixty years. It can be a little hard to follow at the beginning but worthwhile to watch just for the scenery itself. Watched the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico City this weekend – 5 Canadians qualified, only Corey Connors made the cut and finished 16th – that’s 3 good finishes for him in the last 3 PGA events. No major upsets in the NFL games on Sunday – except my Seahawks 
Biggest upset of the year – losing at home to the New York Giants And of course L.A. Rams beat the Cardinals – so L.A. back in first in the NFC West. The ‘Hawks are playing the Jets next week – if they lose that one I’ll burn all my Seahawks jerseys Got to go and work on my Sauerbraten …Have a great and safe week … we will see you in a bit!!
Post note: I don't feel so bad about the 'Hawks loss to the Giants anymore - Pittsburgh lost to Washington last night!! I mean, come on, Washington!!