Chiripa! Artisan Crafts of the Americas

We spent the weekend in Madison helping Mom et. al. with shop preparations. I spent a good portion of the weekend high on a ladder painting the top of the exterior walls of the building. Naturally, the walls are just textured enough to require a lot of pouncing the paint into the grooves as well as brushing it across the surface. I strengthened muscles in my hand that I didn't know existed. To keep it from seizing, I worked on my Funky Scarf in the evening and early mornings.
I also helped sort, count, and bag hundreds of cornhusk flowers. Curt helped Dad bring copper pots and tin stars from a temporary storage location to the basement of the store. We did some interior painting, mom showed me samples of the product lines, and we watched Vladamir lay bricks on the exterior column bases (he's an artist). I think Mom is getting overwhelmed by the amount of work remaining and the personal dynamics of working with partners who have different philosophies and goals for the shop. I'm pretty certain things will be more peaceful when they open the doors to the public, but it's going to be a rocky month. C. and I will be back in town at the end of the month for a friend's wedding. I'm hoping to see huge progress and mom's planning to teach me the cash register system so I can run that during the grand opening, date to be determined.

Working on the store and being surrounded by brilliant color and amazing crafts from Mexico had me craving Mexican food when we got home. We tried La Cucaracha, but they're closed for remodeling so we headed to El Burrito Mercado. As soon as we walked through the door, C pointed out a tin star just like the ones he moved this morning. I had a quesadilla w/puerco adobado platter. C had the barbacoa platter. We wolfed down our food in silence and left stuffed and happy.

Early to bed tonight; C starts school in the morning. Summer is 'officially' over.