It's been a 36-hour meat orgy here in central Texas, at mom's house. After spending the day before yesterday talking about possible future plans, I was told to put my money where my mouth was, so I made a big pan of meatballs and a cherry pie. G certainly didn't go to bed hungry that night. The next morning my cousin Joanne came over with two kids she's watching, and somehow the subject of bbq came up and the next thing I know we're loading up the minivan and zooming down Hwy 14 to get lunch at Wright's. Pork ribs and brisket! (Kirby's was open -- surprise! -- and to judge by the amount of cars parked out front, still had meat. And the only reason that's of note is because apparently Kirby's has good bbq but keeps erratic hours, so I've never been able to sample their 'que for myself. And sometimes when they are open, they don't have any meat. Whatever.) But my cousin was right and Wright's was the right choice. We grabbed a box of ribs for Joanne's husband Steve, back working at the ranch, and headed over to Teague to hang out.

Now, when Joanne came over to my mom's house in Mexia with 10-yr-old Dalton and his sister, Leighann, at first the kids wanted to 1) watch The Cartoon Network, 2) play their gameboys, and 3) play with Maggie, the gigantic Shepherd-Husky puppy my mom took in and is trying to find a home for. Because it was almost a 100 degrees the puppy play petered out pretty quick, and instead the two kids latched onto G and me for entertainment. Which I take as a compliment -- being preferred over cable TV. Much to my mom's horror, we played table hockey at Wrights before moving onto the trading of cheap rings and bracelets and, at Joanne and Steve's ranch in Teague, making swords out of sticks and practicing our killer kung fu moves in and around the tree fort, all the while looking out for snakes ("Copperheads and water muksins," Leighann said) and "poison trees." Ah, to run around and be a goof! We had a good time, and the kids were genuinely bummed when it was time for us to go. But now I have a set of the Mexia Dollar General's plastic wrist bracelets, and Leighann has one of Oaxaca's finest blue aluminum rings.

Since my running around in the oppressive heat after a bbq lunch didn't finish me off, my mom decided to break out the big guns and grill a trio of J&S t-bone steaks. Good Christ in heaven! I haven't eaten a whole t-bone steak in years. It tasted so good, I'm a little shocked at how good it was. I didn't touch my potato or salad until the steak was down to the bone. But I got my revenge by keeping my mom up late with tales of life in Oaxaca. And after she went to bed G and I settled in to watch a little HBO. We caught a little Bill Maher and Da Ali G Show, which had us in horrified stitches at song lyrics like "Throw the --- down the well!" repeated by (hopefully) blythe bar patrons.

Sometime today I'm going to say good bye to the land of family, plentiful food, air conditioning, and American political humor tv and head back to Oaxaca for the start of school. And I think that my time in Mexico must be drawing to a close, because I'm so happy to be here, even in a land where everyone assumes I moved to Mexico to do missionary work. Talk to you again from the road, y'all.