Well, things have been going pretty well here in La Ventana. Life moves more slowly south of the border, but there's a lot to be said for being perched aside the sea of Cortez in a spacious concrete compound, carrying on our merry way with a homebrewed point-to-point wireless internet link. It's not the office, and it's not home, but it sure is something.

Zacker speared a fish, and so did Farsheed, and we cooked 'em and they were good. Matt has started his idiosyncratic observation of Ramadan. Kevin (aka "the new guy") brought his kick-ass mountain bike and has been exploring the local trails.

I, on the other hand (ho ho ho), have been learning about oven safety:

Now, let me say up front that I am fine. I have a taste for posting grisly pictures of my injuries, it's true, but this is far from the worst thing that's ever happened to me. Our boy Benito, who's the medical student assigned to La Ventana for a year of service before going to specialize in surgery in Mexico City, took excellent care of me, and 36 hours later I'm already back to typing with both hands. Full recovery is anticipated and expected.

But man, it was pretty gnarly. Last night when the bandages came off, the blisters were so big it looked like I had spontaneously grown banana slugs on the backs of my fingers. I also have a deep purple "propane tan" below my elbow, lost a lot of leg hair as well as some head hair, and many of my winsome eyelashes. On the upside, all that grows back, and mild second-degree burns (which is what I have) don't tend to leave permanent scars.

So an evening of pain and a day of being a one-armed bandit. Not too terrible.

UPDATE: Steady but slow progress continues. Benito says that it'll be five to seven days more until I'm back to normal. I've also realized that most of my purple "propane tan" is going to peel off sometime like a really bad sunburn, which I'm not looking forward to. We're starting to pack up now, so the internet will go away. I'll update again from US Soil.