Notes from May/June 2007: Alma brought in Lychee Fruit to the office one day, something with a skin like a komodo Dragon and a core of white sopping flesh. Carlos announced that he was leaving to go work for Stanford Medical Center. Krystal received her Masters Degree. Obaid informed me that the husband of his sister in Afghastan was killed last month in a suicide bombing when he went to the market. Late June we received word that Bill Gaffney had died. Kathy Jung returned from a conference in Boston which she attended with several other administrators only to tell me how they all got sloshed in the bar every evening. One evening I dined with Gerardo from Guanajuato, tapas and sangria, on la Calle de Valencia. Spain has castles and the influence of the Moors, Gerardo explained, telling what sets Mexico apart from Spain. He told me if he was to live in Spain, he would live in Avila. I thought to myself, that I want to create my own Avila here – and so I’ve been looking at California Spanish architecture – and of course it requires a swimming pool because, at last, the hot weather has arrived and I’m ready to get sopping wet. (jah 6/14/07)