Thankfully Merv Griffin took everything I hate about crossword puzzles and put them into a TV show.  There’s one crossword that everyone tries to pick at throughout the game.  You still have to think of a very specific word, or sometimes concatenated words, or the always fun Trivial Pursuit-like clues about 1960s pop culture.  On the show, I can only guess about a third of the words, which about matches my expertise on local newspaper crosswords.

But that’s the easy part.  That part’s obvious to duplicate.

So how did Merv copy the half-done frustration?  Well, after the two contestants are half-way through the game, 3 random people pop out.  If either contestant can’t solve a clue, and one of the new people can, the new person gets to replace the person of their choosing.  So if you’ve kicked ass on the first half, you’re bound to be replaced — and lose everything!  It happens every game to the top player.

And the third?  At the end of the game, the person with the most money gets 3 minutes to solve the rest of the crossword: Whatever’s left from the 30 rounds previously — which is usually around 30-40 clues.  No one ever solves it.  I don’t even know what the prize is.  Do they even bother announcing it?  Maybe the producers don’t even know!

Like most other urban Seattleites, I’ve started to take the bus everywhere.  But many buses have gotten stuck on hills, stranding them, and now there’s fewer buses to go around.  On Saturday and Sunday, routes that normally run every fifteen minutes ran a half or a third as often, completely packed with people.  Many routes aren’t even running.  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday it took me about an hour to get to downtown or back, or about an hour and a half to Fremont or back.  This is about three times longer than normal by transit — but normally it’s a 5 to 10 minute drive in my car.  It shows a general breakdown of transportation in Seattle.

With this backdrop, I have to get to the airport Tuesday morning for my 6:30am holiday flight to Virginia.  But how do I get there?  1) I can’t drive, my car would get stuck.  No question.  2) Cabs won’t take advanced reservations because they can’t predict which taxis will get stuck.  And if I call when I need it, do I really think they’re going to come?  With leaves me with: 3) The bus.  But as I just said, half of buses aren’t even running!  The tracking website is down due to too many requests.  But it’s worth a shot.  To reduce my risk, I’m going to aim for one bus earlier than I need.  Which means I have to leave my house at 2:45am.  Almost 4 hours before my flight.  Ridiculous.

According to the Seattle PI, our Mayor Greg Nickels said "he believes the city’s response to the snow has been ‘very good.‘  But most cities don’t completely shut down, with residents waiting 45 minutes for buses on major arterial routes or resorting to cross country skiing.  I haven’t been able to make it to work for 3 days.  I haven’t been able to shop 2 miles away without it taking me multiple hours just for travel.  And many stores are just closed because their employees can’t make it in — 3 days before Christmas!  I have to imagine many others are in a similar situation to me: Three days more or less wasted thanks to snowy streets.

This problem would have largely been prevented if Seattle had a sufficient snowplow fleet — at least enough to plow downtown arterials.  But Nickels thinks it’s not worth the investment.  But isn’t it?  How does Seattle’s lack of snowplowing impact our city’s productivity in economic terms?  3 days is almost 1% of a year, affecting almost everyone.  And it’s not that there’s no snow in Seattle: Between 1979 and 1995, 7 out of 16 years had months with over half a foot of snow.  While other snow storms aren’t this bad, there’s usually one or two days a year I can’t make it to work due to snow.  And nor can many others.  The Seattle metropolitan area generated $166.9 billion in goods and services in 2005.   If people could go to work and go shopping even on snow days, would that be 0.1% higher?  That’s $167 million a year.  Are we spending even $16 million a year on snow removal?  With 22 snowplows, it’s doubtful.

For a while I was asking, "que?"  And usually I’d get a simplified version back, which was nice, and it gave me a moment to think about the context of their question.  But that works less and less as I start branching out and trying to ask for new and different things I’m completely unfamiliar with.

So I’ve started to revert to just pointing at stuff on a menu.

That only works when there’s a menu, though.  Tonight, before blogging, I wanted to have a beer while tapping out these words.  The minibar is locked, and it’s US $3.50 for a beer in it anyway.  So I put on my clothes, head downstairs, and ask the doorman if he speaks English to find out where I can buy one or two beers.  He says no, he doesn’t speak English, then points me as the front-desk, but there’s people in line there.  So I ask "Donde estas un mescelane, o, me puede da una o dos cervezas — no seis cervesas - solo una o dos… donde …", reverting to English a bit at that point.  He replies in Spanish that "solo [on] la primera [floor]" can I do that.

I go up there, but I know the beers there are like US $3.  And I think, "da" means "have", so he probably thought I wanted to drink them on site.  Wrong!  So I go back downstairs, out on the street, see a gas station across like 20 lanes of traffic on Reforma street, and head that way… running across streets to avoid the unpredictable taxis.

I pick up two Negra Modela.  I bring them to the cashier, she rings them up, and I look confused.  Confused because I’m trying to read the computer screen and count the right pesos: 15 — or around $1.20.  I hand her a 20 peso bill.  But she takes my confusion to mean I’m confused by why the price is so "high".  She explains in depth (while I look blank and confused, but somewhat understand) that they’re imported, and in glass bottles, so there’s a 3 peso deposit.  She was acting like I didn’t pay her enough.  She printed out the receipt to show me, 15 pesos, with the 20 peso bill in her hand. 

It did not dawn on me that she thought I’d be concerned about 30 cents. But yes, she did think I was concerned about 30 cents.  As I went to take my 20 peso bill away so I could go get Victoria or some non-imported beer (which she was explaining I should get to save money), she just dropped 5 pesos change in my hand and that was that. 

And again I’m frustrated that my Spanish remains poor.  Back to pointing at stuff!

We get to the hotel, relax a bit, and enjoy the view from the top floor.  Then we headed out towards Centro Historico right near dusk.  We go up Paseo de la Reforma street, which is kinda like Canal Street in New Orleans, then down Avenida Juarez eastward, through the Alemeda Central park, and then we continue east on Bellas Artes and Tacuba.  This part was all pretty nice, and there were some interesting buildings along the way. 

When we finally get to the Plaza de la Constitution o Zocalo, it’s stunning.  There are religious buildings around, including the Zocalo, a humongous Cathedral, and several temples. We go inside the Cathedral, which is preparing itself for the Days of the Dead, and walk around looking at the different scenes and alters they have lit up.  Maeve and I believe the priests must illuminate different scenes depending on the religious season, and what lessons ought to be learned during that time.  All the alters related to Mexican saints, plus the Virgin de Guadelupe, and were all very beautiful.  We took no pictures.

Away from the Cathedral, we walk around the Zocalo Plaza which is absolutely packed with people celebrating the Days of the Dead.  There is a large offering table set up on the southern side, 30 feet high, decorated with marigolds and symbols of the dead.  There is a concert stage being set up, and many merchants selling everything from dolls and figurines to fried foods.

While definitely a larger and largely impersonal walk compared to exploring Condesa, it was a very memorable experience.  I would recommend it.

We stayed in Condesa for our first night.  It’s south of the central financial district.  Maeve picked out a very friendly bed and breakfast here, The Red Tree House, where we have a private bathroom.  The location is wonderful: We’re a block from the Hipodromo park, which used to be the circle of a race track.  In fact, the entire Condesa road layout is based on the old circular route of the track.  And throughout, since its initial construction in the early 1900s, there are nothing but Art Deco and Modern Contemporary buildings — many of which are worth a second look (and some pictures).

As for food, there are half a dozen upscale Italian boutique restaurants around the park, including a cafe mentioned in the airplane magazine we read coming in, plus trendy "international" cuisine restaurants scattered around the easily walkable neighborhood.

My favorite restaurant was "Ocho," on Avenida Amsterdam.  It was completely packed on a Thursday night, despite the chilly open air flowing through the entire restaurant.  I had a hamburger which was pretty friggen close to an American hamburger: pink in the middle, mayo, normal lettuce, tomatoes — plus avocado with no additional cost!!  Maeve and I also split the "humos de garbonzo," which was great, and Maeve had a very cool looking salad with black sesame seeds.  Part of my love for this restaurant may be our homesickness for America, but for food in general, it was darned yummy by US standards.

The following morning we went to Chapultepec Park to see the castle there.  The castle was apparently built by the French invaders in the 1800s, but Mexico has since converted it to a national history museum.  It is built on top of a hill with amazing views of the entire city: It is worth the $3.90 admission just to see the views.  But the museum itself was fascinating.  It’s interesting to see the Mexican perspective on the Spanish-American war, in which America gained California, Arizona and New Mexico: The museum’s placards in no uncertain terms expressed that Mexico felt swindled.

Puebla is an hour and a half east of Mexico City.  We flew in to Mexico City, then bought a one-way ticket there from the airport for MX$ 170 / US$ 14 each.  It was a breeze to get there.  We showed up at the Puebla bus station, and there’s a desk there for buying taxi fares so that the taxis can’t rip you off.  We paid $4.50 for a crazy ride through the city, entirely more distance and work than any Zihuatanejan taxi driver did for $4, and showed up to our hotel in one piece.

But once we got there, it was incredibly polluted.  There’s really no emissions standards for cars there.  A car drives by, then instead of a pleasant draft afterwards, there’s a stench of unburned fuel.  Walking down a street with more than one or two cars on it, you get a headache in a hurry.

Second, I had food poisoning.  I think it was from some red melon fruit I had in the Zihuatanejo airport earlier in the day.  Regardless, that, plus the pollution, was a recipe for quite a night of fever, nausea, chills, and a wonderful second taste of my dinner.

But our hotel was amazing.  We stayed at La Purificadora, a designer hotel built out of the ruins in a historical area.  A famous architect here in Mexico designed in, putting away his usual bright color palette and using only one non-natural color: Purple.  But in the natural stones and woods, plus the aquamarine chlorinated pools behind centimeter thick plexiglass, there was plenty of contrast and interest.

The only complaint I’d have about the hotel would be the restaurant.  We had dinner there the second night.  It was more expensive than a US restaurant!  I had a $17 entre of duck which was pretty small, luke warm, and too sweet.  We also had two $9 cocktails a bit later, which were entirely too sweet!  Yuck.  But what takes the cake is the US $9.50 bottle of water I bought, without knowing the price until later.  $9.50 for 500ml of water??  It was "imported" from Costa Rica.

In retrospect we probably could have skipped Puebla.  The air was nauseating, the food was definitely blah, and for city life, Mexico City beats it hands down.  But the hotel will be a fond memory.

Doña Prudencia at Villa Mexicana. $$. Score: A (Jon: A, Maeve: A). Playa de Ropa. 

Very delicious.  Even though not a soul was in there when we arrived on a Saturday night in October, the food was good, the drinks were good, and the service was good.  The food had inventive ingredients and spices, and despite being Mexican, was not heavy like Mexican food in the states.  We sat 20 feet from crashing waves on the beach, with coconut palm trees all around us.  Wonderful.

Paty’s. Score: B (Jon: A-, Maeve: C+). $. Playa de Ropa.

I really enjoyed my chorizo omelette here, though Maeve’s veggie egg scramble didn’t meet her liking because they scrambled the egg in the pan rather than before frying.  The chorizo was delicious — best I’ve had in a long time!

Restaurantes Mexicanos "AnY". Score: B/B- (Jon: B-, Maeve: B). $. Centro.

Over a dozen kinds of tamales!  Chicken, pork, veggies, picadillo steak, in red sauces, green sauces, and more.  They screwed up my order and gave me a chicken and a pork in green sauce, but I wanted the pork with red sauce, so my plate was a little redundant.  And there wasn’t much sauce to help flavor the corn.  But generally it was an enjoyable experience.

Il Mare. Score: B- (Jon: C+, Maeve: B). $$. Carr Escenica La Ropa.

The view is absolutely fantastic, the service is good and the servers had the best English of restaurants we’d been to, but the food was eh-alright.  Of course, it’s Italian food, in Mexico, so it’s weird for me the American who’s used to either Americanized Italian or actual Italian, not Mexican Italian .  The salad was okay, Maeve’s ravioli were pretty decent, but the wines by the glass were blah and my pork chops tasted a little like their mango sauce had been used for fish previously.

La Perla. Score: C+ (Jon: C, Maeve: B-). $. Playa de Ropa.

We just stopped by here to get a cabana, some chips and guacamole, and some drinks.  It was only US$4 to get a cabana, so that was nice.  We first tried to rent nicer cabanas at The Tides but they refused, since we weren’t staying there.  The guacamole at La Perla was absolutely delicious, but the fresh tortilla chips were a bit undercooked, and they brought (and we paid extra for) some really weird and watery salsa we didn’t order.  The drinks were basic.  They didn’t bring us back the right change.  Overall, it was less than optimal, but we did have drinks on the beach!

Daniel’s Restaurante y Bar. $. Score: D (Jon: D, Maeve: D). Centro.

Pretty gross.  I had "chorizo molletas" — it was basically like having garlic bread with chorizo on top for breakfast.  I wonder if Mexicans actually eat it.  I can’t find any recipes for it on Google, so maybe they just made it up.  Maeve had pancakes — and yep, they were pancakes!  Two of ‘em, on a plate, with a bottle of supermarket maple syrup.  It was a mistake to go here.

Elvira. $. Score: D/F. Playa de Ropa.

We didn’t actually eat here, but we made friends who said it was an absolutely gross experience.  The ceviche was apparently like fish in sweet and sour sauce.

It’s not hot so much as humid here.  After any trip to the store, walk from the beach, or trip to Centro, a dip in the pool afterwards is mandatory.  That means we’re jumping in the pool four of five times a day just to keep our sanity.

After being denied at the gates of Casa Cafe, we wandered further into Centro for breakfast.  We found the first restaurant where we actually had to speak Spanish to ask questions.  I asked if they had "desayunes," and the woman was confused, so I mangled it more and she realized I meant breakfast, replying "Si, damos desayuno."  Maeve didn’t see much vegetarian on their menu, though, so we kept moving.  Ultimately we found Daniel’s Restarante y Bar, a popular gringo-oriented place on the downtown waterfront, and had some pancakes and molletas.

Finishing breakfast, we were still hot.  It’s hotter in Centro than at our hotel, and even just sitting under an umbrella downtown, one stays hot.  We roamed the streets popping into any store that had fans to cool us off.  Jewelry stores, some regional coffee bean shops, tequila boutiques, and art stores with textiles and Oaxacan skulls.  There are no chain stores here.  Out of all the stores we popped into, only an expensive jewelry store had air conditioning… so we looked over everything in there twice!  Then we jumped in a cab and headed back to Cinco Sentidos for a long awaited dip in the pool.

It’s much harder to practice saying a phrase in my mind vs. saying it to someone whom it actually means something.  When I took German, I had my German instructor and my fellow German students to bounce mispronounced phrases off of.  But here, my butchered phrases bounce off of real Spanish speakers.  Fortunately they’ve been very forgiving.  After margaritas and guacamole on the beach this afternoon, I said "Me puerde da la cuerta" to ask for a check.  "La cuenta?," the waiter responded.  Oh yes, damn, of course!!  CUENTA!  Disculpe, gracias.  When he came back, I was prepared with my 200 pesos.  "Puerdo combien esta?," I asked.  "Si, of course" he responded.  I finally got a full sentence right!  Yes!

Having a few phrases and nouns under my belt has made me feel more comfortable walking around.  I’ve mellowed.  At breakfast this morning we were able to make simple small talk with the maitre d’, and that was motivating.  Of course, he asked my name as I was leaving — and I didn’t know that question yet!  Next time!

The cab drove along unstriped streets and highways, finally going into town, then taking some one-way side roads.  In the city there were motorbikes passing us, random dogs roaming around.  We took a roundabout after driving about 20 blocks in the city and headed north towards Playa la Ropa, the gringo hotel area.

We got in, paid our chofer a mix of dollars and pesos, and a helper carried our things upstairs.  The hotel owner, Heiko, is very friendly.  He talks and talks about each thing we ask about: restaurants, how taxis work, exchange rates (1 USD to MEX$13.8).  Each time, he starts rambling after a while, then apologizes that his cervesa hangover from last night causes him to talk a lot.  We start to pay but the hotel owner is too hung over to set up the credit card machine.   We will pay later.

Heiko says the best place for dinner would be Doña Prudencia, in Hotel Villa de Mexicana down on the beach.  And the restaurant IS immediately on the beach.  It was high tide, so we ate literally 20 feet from the waves coming up on the sand.  To quench our thirsts and nerves from a day of traveling, I had a Victoria beer to start, and Maeve had a Chilean sauvignon blanc (Casillero).  For starters, I had a very delicious tomato based ceviche, and Maeve had an interesting salad consisting of sliced local tomatoes, Oaxacan cheese, with a sweet cilantro salsa.  Dinner was excellent.  I had a traditional Mexican chicken dish, grilled chicken stuffed with local cheese and mushrooms, served in a bed of pureed almonds and avocado, topped with crema, with spanish rice and steamed vegetables on the side.  Maeve had yummy chile rellenos.  All the food was surprisingly light and well balanced, nothing like Mexican restaurants in the states … and very affordable considering we were sitting right on the beach!