I met Greg after his last class last night and we strolled around the llano to see what there was to see. Not much action going on last night; Adam says Friday will be the big night. Not surprisingly. As it was, we listened to some Mexican rap blaring from one of the upteen pirate CD stalls -- Hoy! 10 Pesos! -- looked at the incredibly ugly statues of dogs and cartoon characters offered as prizes at the games of chance stalls, watched a guy make incredibly ugly but in a black-velvet-painting sort of way pretty spray-painted religious and romantic pictures. Remember the German guy or the skinny guy with the 'fro with their painting shows on PBS? Start with that, add a dollop of black-velvet art, then picture apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe or a thorn-crowned visage of Christ floating above outdoor scenes featuring trees, waterfalls, and moonlit oceans with leaping dolphins and orcas or howling wolves -- all done with spray paint -- and you will have some idea. I'll try to get a picture of it today. He had quite a crowd watching him.

I want one.

And because it's a saint's day, and nearly Christmas, quite a few of the stalls were sporting religious iconography. I plan to go back to the stall with the clay nativity figures -- mix 'n' match -- to get another addition to my little nativity set: Santa praying over the baby Jesus (thanks, Greg!), and two out of the three Wise Men, a rubber Mr. Natural from my brother-in-law Andy, and a Gray dressed up like a shepherd Christmas ornament from the Little Al'e'inn in Rachel, NV. And a wood chicken from Gathering Tribes in Berkeley. I thought I might get the third Wise Man this year, but I'm tempted by the flamingo and palm tree combo.

We munched on toffee peanuts, sipped chocolate atole, and had a couple of quesadillas (chicken for Greg and mushroom and quesillo for me) then headed home. I plan on doing a lot of munching during this fiesta. We'll see how busy it is tonight.