Let's go out to eat? Part One

I usually kind of get stuck doing most of the cooking when guests arrive. I don't mind but.........I wanted to give them a chance to experience the local cuisine and let them see what we are up to here in little Patzcuaro.
We have good and we have bad, no... make that awful.
The good is when the food is tasty and the plates arrive in about the same time, within a drink or two of when it was ordered.
The biggest issue is when everything arrives at the same time, the appetizer, the juice, the main plate and the coffee.
Maybe it's our fault, we should just order it bit by bit, and see if it comes out in that order. Probably not.

So there are a couple of restaurants worth mentioning, the ones that are not, we won't . My tolerance level is directly proportionate to the amount of money that is spent on the food. After all you can't complain of something when you're only paying 5 pesos for a taco, but if you're somewhere and that taco costs 24 pesos then that's another story.

We usually won't go there, but occasionally friends dictate their immediate hunger level or they have an aversion to standing around a taco stand balancing the folded taco so that the grease won't drip onto their leather shoes. There are great taco stands around town, you just need to use some common sense to check out your acceptance level, i.e. cleanliness, location and existing customers standing around.....

Thats why I have my taco shoes. They have already been graced with more drips than a Procter Silex coffeemaker.
Back to the restaurant review:
First of all, my favorite cheap eats or comida corrida, is in Morelia, two doors down from the Immigration office.....for 25 pesos you get my usual, Milensa de Res, or a thinly cut, breaded beef steak friend in whatever, includes a little salad and some rice. Always good and the fresh orange juice is 9 pesos......

In Patzcuaro,


El Primer Piso, Located on the big plaza, upstairs above a couple of galleries, has been an average ok place that runs from good to mediocre over the years, visitors enjoy the views and the service can be excellent to disappointing. $$$

El Patio, same street as Primer Piso, on the street level, and next door to the new Oxxo store, (Why we need an Oxxo store on the plaza is beyond my comprehension) it is average fare, with OK food, service has been good, their Sopa Tarasca is probably the best in town.$$$

Priscilla's, located on Ibarra street , in front of her hotel, she came from LA, and revamped the building which has a beautiful mural inside, and created a upscale dining spot, probably the most impressive in town. It has an international menu, which to me says that they only cater to tourists, since the ingredients for such preparations cannot always be provided in the best condition or supply. The other stuff is OK to good, but in my opinion unless you need to calm the personalities of your guests by providing an American dining experience, there are other venues first worth experiencing. $$$$$

Compania
It is located on the east side of the big plaza, on the corner under the arches of the street going up to the Basilica. (Portal Matamoros #35) Kitty corner from Primer Piso. It is sometimes filled, usually only one or two tables, owned by the same people that have the place by the ice cream stands, it is a last resort kind of place, unappetizing room, something about it doesn't make your meal comfortable, maybe its the stage they have music on above the room, but the food is mediocre with matching service. $$$

Have an alternate plan......

Many friends show up for Dia de los Muertos. We arranged to pick them up at the Morelia bus terminal at the ETN bus at 8:00.
I know that the ETN gets there on time, so we were there around 7:45, and waited for them. 8:00. 8:15, 8:30.
I saunter over to the ETN desk and ask if the Guadalajara bus has arrived. The clerk checks the computer and say it is due any moment. I then ask her if my friends are on the bus. She looks it up and you bet, their names or on the screen......
8:30, 8:45 the bus has arrived and no friends.
Back to the counter, and I ask another attendant, "did the Guadalajara bus arrive?"
"oh yes, it was here on time at 8:00"
Hummmmm.
That's a different story this time,
where my friends on the bus?
Yes sir, there names are right here on the computer!
But they are not here.
They were on the bus!
Ok, maybe they are on the next bus that arrives at 1o.
9:45, 10:00.... 10:15.......no friends.
So I go to the cybercafe at the bus station to check my email
nada.......
That will be 7 pesos......
back to the car, that will be 20 pesos for the parking, thank you!
The original plan was that we would pick them up and go to San Miguelito for dinner......
So now, it's VIP's for a club sandwich and worrying about where are our friends?
Back to Patzcuaro.
Next morning, check the email, check the voice mail check the carrier pigeon.
The have disappeared of the face of the earth.
NO , they are in Tlaquepaque.
Their plane was delayed 3 times, and they got there after the bus left.

The ETN people don't know that and if anyone ever gets on the bus or not.

It was like the county and western song, " Wasted days and Wasted nights"......
They US office callsl around 1 in the afternoon, their office says they are lost somewhere in Mexico.

Get in a taxi and go to the Don Vasco in Patzcuaro!
The Bom Basko?
No the Don Vasco!
An hour and a half later they arrive at the Posada Don Vasco.
Two hours later we are having Margaritas overlooking the Lake Patzcuaro.
The flight in Houston had problems, not once , not twice but three times.
They didn't have my cell phone number.
They forgot to bring my email address....

Moral of the story.......have an alternate plan for contact, it's not as easy it use to be!

They paid for dinner the next night, they felt bad for making us go to VIPS.

All is well in Patzcuaro!

Que Hora Es? Time doesn't matter

My Friend Scott flew down for his annual DOD trek and to celebrate his birthday which is on 11/1. Mexicana has jumbled around the flights from SFO. Seems the convenient flight that left at 11 and got to Morelia at 5 am is either gone or comes on weird days.

So he left from San Jose and told me to pick him up at the local taxi drop off point at the entrance to Patzcuaro. He said pick me up at 315. Since the flight arrives at 1:15, then an hour or so for etc. BUT don't forget daylight savings time.
Ok, last time I remember waiting for a long time for him, so I would make it simple. I'll just check the Mexicana Web site!
No problem, except.
One page says the flight arrives at 1:15
The next page says the flight arrives at 2:15
Hummmmn........
Well, I get up at 3, arrive at the motel spot at 3:20.
3:30 a cab pulls up and I think to myself this was nice, perfect timing! Then 2 people get out and stagger to the entrance to the hotel.
3:45 two workers from the hotel exit the workers exit carrying a long heavy object across the street to the other buildings.
4:00 Nothing but an old car with some blaring music loud enough to propel the dead into powering the forward motion of that vehicle passes in the early morning, still no Scott.
4:15 Another cab pulls up, this time 3 people exit, enter the hotel...... maybe I will try and go to sleep for a few minutes......
4:43 I receive a tap on the car window, my friend arrives.
He says Mexicana doesn't know what time their planes fly!
The person next to him was also coming to Patzcuaro, and they thought the flight arrived at 4:10. But they were smart and had their family check at the airport. The airport said no flight arrive at 2:00? Or 4:00 so when is it scheduled to arrive.......This is sounding more like the Twilight zone as this continues...
So, the flight takes 3.5 hours, it left on time, the big question is what time did it arrive. Taking in account that the daylight savings time changes in the states, at midnight, the flight leaves before midnight, arrives here sometime after..........
Good Question.
We got home around 520. Patzcuaro was starting to come alive, couple of breakfast stands were firing up their stands.......
Life is good......Time is not important... Fiesta tonight!

We're having some company over for dinner tomorrow night and I needed to finish making my chili sauce for the shreeded pork I cooked a couple of days ago. Down the hiway we have a store called Codallios, it's a local supermarket that has almost everything you need......almost.

I thought that I was the only one that had to store hop in order to get the correct stuff. I use to go to the Mercado down in the center of town until it got to the point that the parking was so bad that I had to park the car and walk for 4 or 5 blocks.
Walking 4 or 5 blocks is usually not a big problem going there. However when you have stuff like a kilo of tomatoes, then a couple of beets, a head of lettuce, a chicken, some tortillas ( from the Indiana ladies, they have the hand made blue corn ones) maybe some rice and beans and pretty soon you have 15 or 20 lbs of stuff to schlep back while your fingers are getting cut by the cheap plastic bags that you happen to stuff to overflowing in order to test the tensile strength of the bag.
So, here comes a big chain called Soriana.
Locals merchants didn't want it.
The parking lot is about a third full, I park and walk in.
Stuff more stuff and even more stuff.
Do we really need that much stuff?
We did just fine years ago, stopping by little family run stores, where the clerks would cut the cheese for you, weigh the eggs, and fetch the aspirin. Stores that a shopping cart would block the few isles the store had.
Where else would be be able to get our variety of Campbells soup then?
Before I made my own soup, but at Soriana they have 10 ft of shelves devoted to soups.
Mine tasted better and was cheaper. Besides it was a way to off the left overs.
Progress sucks!
Going to the Mercado was a social happening. Shopping at Soriana is overwhelming.
I don't overwhelm very good.

Lifetime warantee only with a reciept!

The salesman at the new Sears patrolled his department and was happy to see me perched over the tool kits. Now the new store is probably the best equipped department store in town, even better than the old national Fabricas De Francia or the Liverpool Group.
So now we will see if they improve to throw the gauntlet to Sears? Somehow I don't think the average citizen here gives a damn especially since you see the proliferation of hole in the wall shops selling stuff. You can buy almost anything here.
The only problem is finding the location of where to go.
Sears expanded the store and wow, it's really nice! Nicer than the Sears in the US. Now Mexicans can stuff there homes with tacky modern furniture and microwave ovens galore.
As I signed the credit card slip for my new tool set, he told me about the lifetime warantee. Yes I knew about it, but in the US you don't need to place your receipt into a Lexan block in order to preserve it for lifetime so that your family members can honor the warantee of the fallen piece of tool. I wonder how many people would actually have their receipt for the tools 3, 8 or 15 years from now?
I guess they don't plan on honoring too many warantees......

Good Bye Mr. Roebuck!

We needed some new tools for the ranch. We had a complete set 10 years ago, but for some reason they have developed legs and walked off. Trying to do work on the 20 hp brush mower required some ½ inch and 9/16 sockets. The missing sockets have eloped to Mexico City. I hope they will be happy there.

So it’s either WalMart or Sears.

No contest, Sears has Craftsman Tools, with a life time warrantee. I really don’t need a lifetime warrantee since I have exhausted 80 % of my life, and I doubt that I will be fixing much other than the wheels of my chair in 5 or 10 years……

Sears…Roebuck .my first memories were that of traversing the store seeing beach balls floating 3 or 4 feet above Kenmore Vacuum Cleaners immediately adjacent to the stand with the smell of the roasted peanuts or popcorn on the first floor.

My parents would let me go to the camera department or to the TV area.

As a little kid I loved the TV department, where the tape recorders, radios and phonographs were located. My brother would be left off at the sports department where J.C. Higgins was the brand of fishing reels and creels.

So it’s off to Sears in Morelia. Yes there are Sears in Mexico.

That’s the Big Box that still has refrigerators and clothes, cosmetics and screwdrivers. The Sears in Morelia has just undergone an expansion. It use to be just 2 floors with stuff now it includes a parking garage and 3 levels. Somebody must be buying a lot of cosmetics.

The Sears in Morelia has no beach balls, popcorn, nuts or JC Higgins. It's now Eureka Vacuums, and down the isle are Nike sports shoes, that’s what has become of the sporting department, OK there are a couple of soccer balls, weight lifting accessories and footballs. No fishing reels or creels.

The hardware department still has Craftsman and the 50 piece set that I remember for around $ 40 bucks in the 50’s is now $ 149.00

It seems that you don’t get very much for your money like you use to, maybe because I have been around too long, kids now a days have no perception of what value things use to be.

But at least now the tool set includes a cheap plastic tool box. The metal one is $69.00, without anything…….

10 Bucks a Day!

Friends often ask, why I chose Mexico. No they are thinking about change also as change attacks their complacent comfort zone. Not being Rockefeller or T Boone Pickens, we only have a limited amount of dinero to last until dirt hits my cold face underneath the crab grass. California is worse for making the funds last, Ok maybe Idaho would be better, but figure on how many trees of cubic feet of natural gas it will require to keep the frost of my cold bones, we needed to seek possible alternatives.
I figure that Mexico will catch up to California at some time, but it will thankfully be after I am recycled for cilantro or a nice tomato plant. Yesterday we walked around the plaza, I splurged on buying several pairs of earrings for my wife, had a coffee and then we decided to have a shrimp cocktail.
A shrimp cocktail in an average California restaurant is usually a small ice cream dish perched up on a little stand with maybe a half dozen 21-25's impaled on the rim of the glass, dusted with drippings of a cocktail sauce. (21-25's is the size, of the shrimp, you get anywhere from 21 to 25 per pound)
The cost usually between 9 and 12 dollars depending on if the place has white paper, or white cotton table top covering.
La Chema a small dive on the street which circles the town which proudly displays 3 separate refrigerators loaded with beer, softdrinks and flavored sugar water adjacent to the master chef's counter where he chops the onion, avocado, cilantro then mixes it with Katchup then dumps about 25 (35-40's) into the tall glass for the waiter to present to you along with tostadas and an assortment of hot sauces. The damage per cocktail 30 pesos. A ice cold Negro Modelo was 18 pesos and for the two of us, sharing a beer plus individual cocktails and tip it was 105 pesos.

Ok, I was wrong, it's less than 10 bucks. Yesterday we were getting 13 pesos for the dollar. Let me do the math for you. Figure on $ 7.50 in California dollars. Since we had those large cocktails our dinner tonight will be a gordito that we bought at the plaza, for about a buck or so.

It is interesting to note that our chef was wearing nice white duds while mastering the manufacureing of our shrimp cocktail. The chefs jacket was actually a pharmacists coat. I guess any white smock will do, a white coat is a white coat!

We don't go out every day, so the whole chicken that we get for $ 3.50 lasts us about 3 to 4 meals. Day one we have roasted or grilled chicken. The garbage bones and body start as a stock for soup later on in the week. Day two we skip the chicken, day three we will have a cobb salad or such with diced leftover grilled chicken. We skip the chicken on day four. Day five will have a great mixed soup with the stock, vegetables that are either left over or starting to get old, maybe a chili or two and some magic herbs and spices.
Were not finished!
Day 6 will have Breakfast with Ciliquililes. Thats Eggs, with beans, little cheese, tortillas with chicken in a sauce.
The next week we skip chicken for a whole week!

Sunday is slow, and the traffic is slower

Seems that Sundays are the time the family gets to put on the new shoes, grab grampa and grandma, the kids and pack the sub compact car or the Suburban and head down to the plaza in Patzcuaro.
We use to be able to find a parking space within a block or two, now you have to go for 4 or 5 blocks, so I support my local never used except on Sunday parking lot.
For 8 pesos, (was 5 last year) you can squeeze your car into the supervised lot behind the Panadelria. So that my wife gets to walk and check out all the boutique shops with the overpriced stuff around the plaza grande.
I only sprang for two sets of earrings today, only 30 pesos each. One of the pairs even had a vapor of silver on them. Next, me tired from walking around the plaza we opted for some coffee and then some fantastic ice cream. For some reason lots of writers from around the world have discovered our ice cream here. From Sunset Magazine to Frommer's guides, they all have driven up a cone from 3 to 8 pesos. I know, I know, it's still cheaper than Bings or Baskin Robbins but come on, must me the price of gas...yeah that's it, the price of gas!

Our Fast Food comes to us!
While , yours truly was enjoying his large cup of cafe ice cream, a little old Indian lady was providing free samples of her Goriditas. These are not what Taco Bell foists off as Goritas, these are actually very tasty and not saturated with chemicals and fat. Well at least not the chemicals...
So she rips a whole one and hands it to passers by, and me not wanting to offend her, courageously grabs one for me and for my wife. The first one was filled with beans and the second one was with potatoes and some chilies. Not wanting further to have her sample go unappreciated we bought a few for use with our Sunday dinner tonight......

I have friends coming down for Dia de los Muertos later on this month, so I know we will have lots of Patzcuaro fast food. Between the Indian Ladies and the Ice Cream not to mentioned the large glass of shrimp cocktails, I think I can get out of cooking as much as I use to.......that's ok with me.

Sunday is slow,Saturday is sometimes slow too!

We slept in till about 9:30 and decided to go out for breakfast. There's a sort of new restaurant 1/2 of the way to Morelia, built inside a large log cabin structure. This place is expensive, more so than the small local mom with no pop restaurant. One with 4 maybe 5 tables, usually filled, where you can get two eggs, tortillas, sausage and a coffee or hot chocolate for about 2 and a half dollars. This place we went to today is on the hiway, so since you have to be rich to own a car, and fill the tank at least half full, a bacon and mushroom with cheese omlet was almost 7 dollars. Bill for the two of us with orange juices and coffees was way too much for what we got, about $22 USD. We could eat all week at the small place, have a tastier meal and support the local mom. That's why we only come here once a year or when friends visit that don't understand mom less pop restaurants in the living room of the house.....
They just opened up a new sort of strip mall in the making down the hiway from the expensive restaurant called Illian's Cafe. it's a almost copy of Starbucks with the same prices. Eeaugh....25 pesos for a cup of cafe american. You can get a nice cup elsewhere for 6 pesos, and for 2 pesos more get a nice sweet bread. See what Americanization is doing to Mexico.

And they are good for you!

I sometimes drink orange juice, I use to a lot before I found out that it wasn't good for you. It seems that the stuff you buy at the store, even thought it says its natural and stuff is really bad according to a nutrition class I took awhile ago. Seems that they add sugar in natural form to preserve and make it taste better because the oranges are picked before they really achieve the natural sweetness they are suppose to.
So I was told that only fresh squeezed juice is ok. Thats fine if you can afford 6 or 7 bucks at home for a glass at a health foods store. Here I can by a 40 lb sack of oranges for about 45 pesos.
So it takes about 5 oranges to make a nice big glass, not the tiny ones you get at a restaurant for 3 bucks. Now I have fresh orange juice 4 or 5 times a week. Oh, 45 pesos is about 4 dollars......That sack was 4 bucks.........And it's fresh........no additives........no chemicals.......no preservatives........what a healthy guy I am!

Water, water, sometime too much sometime not enough

We get our water for the house from a natural spring thats located 10km away in the mountains above our property. Seems the town also gets a small portion of it's water from the same source, only ours is first in line, it's pure, cold, sweet and a pleasure to drink!
It only becomes a hassle when I have to work on the water distribution system.

We live on a slope of a mountain, the water comes in at the bottom, the house is in the middle and the tank is on the top. Years ago, some natives must have fetched water in buckets to use in cooking and an occasional wash job behind the ears and other places. Now we are use to turning the know clockwise and seeing a rush of cold clean clear water (Kind of like the Sons of the Pioneers song of years ago) The only problem is that there is a electric pump that must do the job of lifting all our water to the top, so foolishly it can run all the way down again.........Brilliant, simply brilliant.

For this we have to pay CFE (The Mexican Electric Monopoly) lots of pesos every month.
But, I have a plan...... Last year I carted down on top of the SUV two 90 watt solar panels, and purchased a 24 volt DC motor.......just think of all the pesos I would have saved if I had the energy to install it the same time I brought it down last year!
It's on my things to do list this month! I promise.

Patzcuaro Huh?

Well, why Patzcuaro, look it up! What you will find is that it is an old Colonial city, which means time stands still, at least in the city limits and surrounding area, hell, in 89 % of the country. The residents do not like change, and we just got our first street stop lights about 6 months ago, not that it makes much difference except for the people that are use to them, not much changes. Thats why we chose this area, and for a lot of other reasons. How about 8500 ft elevation at our house. So What? Well ask a cook in the kitchen it means a lot. Look at a box of cake mix next time and you will see that you have to adjust stuff for high elevations. It takes days for dried beans to cook unless you have a pressure cooker. Everyone has a pressure cooker here.
It took about 20 lbs of flour and 1 lb of yeast for me to get the bread making down to satisfactory results. I'm still working on the bagels.......
The weather is another reason. Not too hot, not to cold, not to rainy except between May and October in the afternoons, and not too dry except for the end of April when it hasn't rained for months......
There are a lot of other reasons........

May I See Your Papers, Please!

We have a cell phone down here with a local Morelia phone number. It's handy to call the cab to take visiting friends to the airport, having a cell phone here is only used for basics.
People down here do not talk on the phones like in the states. They actually come and visit, sit down, have a cup of weak see through coffee and spend eye to eye contact with you discussing the topic of the day and catching up.
This is something we have lost in the US.
Anyway our phone has been acting up lately and we visited our local Telcel centro de Servicio store to upgrade to a new phone we already purchased.
This relatively simple procedure (in the US) which takes about 4 to 5 minutes totaled to about 2 hours.
First of all you take a cue in a wining line which when straightened out would be about a 100 feet, after your wait of about 25 minutes you come up to a clerk who asks you for your phone number and name.
With the magic of electronic communications she types in the information and then we wait. She scrolls down through a screen or two then stops, possibly waiting for the screen to fill up maybe possibly watching a commercial, who knows?
Keep in mind that we're not signing up for new service, purchasing a new phone, or requesting our social security benefits here, all we want is what is called an ESN change, the meter is at about 1 hour at this point. Oh yes, she has left her position and consulted with a higher authority's at least twice during this transgression.
Back to the window.
She then picks up the new phone and again writes down our phone number underneath her previously written line of our previously written phone number on her little scrap of paper she is using for her memos.
Mexican business do not use post its. Why? Because every scrap of possible paper is a post it! Backs of bags, backs of used envelops, back of a cash register receipt from the last one or two store purchases, they have all been trained to use up every list bit of open space on any piece of paper than may be handy.
At this juncture she then asks to see my ID. I smartly present her with my US passport. She looks at it, fanning the pages as if to see if any freshly printed bills may drop out, checks out my last 5 years travel itineraries, and hands it back to me saying that she needs proof that we are legal residents in the country.
I then give her my Mexican FM3 which is their equivalent to our green card. My wife then asks one simple question to which I have no response.
She says " Why in the US can anyone by a phone, not show a credit card or any identification, and walk out with a working phone?"
Maybe because we make it too easy for anyone to do anything without "Showing their Papers"

We then made the mistake of asking that the phone be authorized for long distance....... that took another 20 minutes to accomplish, for a total time of about 2 hours. See what did I tell you! Time is not important down here, to them, to anyone except to us.

Guess what?

We returned home and tried the new phone. It works worse than the one we were trying to replace. In fact it doesn't work well enough for us to use it at home to call the cab. So back to the Centro De Servicio, to autorize the original phone. We have plenty of time.........

Catch Twenty Eight!

For some reason, the Mexican government likes to keep their staff busy. Since we have to update,renew,refund our tourist resident visas we need to visit the Immigration office once a year. The first challenge is to find a parking space on a busy boulevard which is dotted by small shops, hospitals, car lots, residences, apartments, restaurants and offices. It's not like the US where each building or two has a attached parking lot......NOT, it everyman man or woman for themselves.

So, dropping of my wife, I found a space and return to the office to wait our turn in line. This year we were prepared! My ever organized darling had made all the preliminary work ahead of time, even to the task of me taking new mug shots of both of us which are required every 5 years. We were so smart to do that since last time , 5 years ago, in the midst of the paperwork we were told that they could not proceed until new photos were taken which meant that we had to leave, lose our parking spot and maneuver the traffic in search for an open photo studio that was staffed, and one that could deliver the photos in some reasonable time in this millennium.
Armed with our new photos which we took before we came down, the immigration clerk examined them, inspected them, compared them to the last ones, compared them to the little shadow fame she had to be sure they were of the proper size, then , and only then she advised us that they would not be accepted.
Well seems that they now require not only a frontal view but a side double chin exposing view making all our super smart advance preparation all for not! In one swell swoop all my work was down the drain......I wonder why she spent 3 or 4 minutes reexamining the photos, when at home our bureaucrat would have tossed them back to us immediately after seeing that no double chin shots where included. In Mexico people don't want to say no to you , so this way she showed some interest and only after all her possible ways to see if the photos were ok, her last choice was to reject them because of no double chin views. In the US they are trained to say no immediately.......thats one of the differences between two countries.

Day of the Dead, or Dios de los Muertos

Patzcuaro is located half way between Guadalajara and Mexico City. The closest International Airport is located in Morelia which is about 45 minutes away from here. If you look up Patzucaro you will find lots of information, like it is where the first University was founded in North America a long long time ago, and most notably it's know for it Day of the Dead celebration and festivites. Just recently Morelia is known for it violent killings during some Independence Celebration where some misguided soul decided to toss some handgrenades into a croud of innocent celebrators in order to gain some noterity and have the government notice them........ Lots of people noticed them, and lots of local celibratory gatherings have been curtailed because of that. Kind of like pissing people of so that you will be noticed........and I thought that only happen in the good old US...........
So look up Patzcuaro and you will find that 250 thousand tourists flock here every year, from all over the world, to see the celebrations, maybe a few less this year now that there are people wanting to inflict pain and suffering more than their already is on a daily basis......
Anyway, the purpose of the D of the D celebration is to set up an altar for the memory of those who have passed the previous year and place items they enjoy, including bread, candy, booze and cigarettes. (probably the cause of their passing) anyway the remaining family sets these altars up at the homes and or at the cemetaries and spend the night getting "in touch" with the departed........ Hey I didn't invent the holiday, I'm just telling you what I see.........