We got invited to a Cinco de Mayo get-together at the neighbors last week. It was a great excuse to wear the straw hat my brother-in-law, Lauro bought for me while he was in Columbia. I know a Columbian hat is not the optimal thing to wear when one is celebrating a Mexican holiday, but then Cinco de Mayo is not wildly by any Mexicans I know outside of the United States. Before I started going down to Mexico a bunch about twenty five years ago, I though Cinco de Mayo was Mexican Independence day. A friend disabused me of that notion explaining that the Cinco de Mayo celebration is about the Battle of Puebla when the Mexicans routed the French in 1862. Mexican Independence Day is celebrated with “El Grito de Independencia” on September 16. Notice the very cool guayaberra shirt my mother-in-law gave to me as a gift specifically for such occasions. She also gave me a pair of muslin peasant pants to go with it. I think Kelly looks quite pretty with the bright flower in her hair.
Christian wore a Mexican sombrero to make up for my Columbian hat.
The other picture is of Christian sitting by the computer and camera system we put together for our big project with Troy at North Carolina State University. Christian did the bulk of the work. Everything is pretty much ready to install in the Ag Engineering lab now. We are just waiting for Troy and Youngin to get back from vacation. The camera is VERY cool. It is a weather-proof, wireless IP camera with infrared LED’s that come on when it starts getting dark. We will be talking about this more as the project moves along.