Saturday

Here we are at Saturday already. What to do...what to do.

I decided to go make my yearly donation to the Indians via the local casino. This time I went to Sandia Casino instead of the Santa Ana Star...gotta spread the wealth around. This time the ancient spirits were good to me...a rare occasion. There are only about 4,400 actual Sandia Pueblo residents but they have a fine resort and casino. Lots of performers stop there for concerts and there are other "big time" events. I think there are at least four Indian casinos in the immediate area.

I took my meager winnings and went to lunch at the Il Vicino Canteen, the actual brewery operation for several Il Vicino brewpubs. Il Vicino translates to "the neighbor" or maybe "the neighborhood" in Italian...why Italian? Don't ask, just drink. It is good beer. I had a "Dark and Lusty Stout" and ordered a brat with mustard and sauerkraut...totally ignoring New Mexican cuisine. The brat and kraut were very good. The mustard was good too but it was so hot it made me cry.  I've been eating my share of hot food while here but this was extreme. With the combination of the high/dry climate and the hot and spicy food my sinuses have been opened like never before. (Too much information?)

I enjoyed the stay at Il Vicino much more than my time at La Cumbre. The beer was good...I'm not hung up over beer contest winners. The atmosphere was laid back and not hyper. The waitress was not stressed out. They have a nice outdoor seating area with picnic tables...pretty casual. And they had the St. Louis U. vs. Butler basketball game on their TV...SLU won!

My 3 PM appointment was coming up so I headed back down to see the bungalow on 12th street. My builder was involved with some plans to rehab the house but nothing much happened and it is back on the market. She had a key so we met there and got inside. It has been vacant for five years or more according to a neighbor lady I talked to.

North half of the living room
Those are pocket doors leaning
against the wall.

At one time it was a beautiful house. It still has some relics of a proud past but it is in bad shape inside. It's a shame to see how it has deteriorated. It is owned by a non-profit outfit who seemed to be using some of their clients to work on it. I don't think they were helping any. Some of the work they did would have to be re-done. I'm not sure why some things are missing...like the hardwood floors. I suspect they were sold. There are holes punched in the plaster walls where somebody was trying to find wiring or maybe gas lines. The kitchen floor is in need of total replacement and extra support from below.

Dining room

There is a living room that runs full length across the front of the house, a dining room, library or study, bedrooms, one bath, a kitchen and extra rooms in an add-on at the back of the house. It is bigger than it looks. There is actually a basement under part of the house -- something rare in this area.

Kitchen has a nook and side exit

Library could be a bedroom

Hard to believe it was
vacant only five years.





My builder says that there are plans drawn up for a total rehab but nothing moved forward. Somebody with deep pockets -- deeper than mine -- would have to take it on. It couldn't be lived in even if someone would want to rehab it a little at a time.  It would be a beauty once it is rehabbed and the neighborhood is perfect...full of these great old houses.

Here is an example of a new Craftsman house built recently on the last remaining vacant lot. This is a Historic Zone neighborhood so new construction would have to conform to the house styles that already exist.

I headed down to the Plaza in Old Town to walk around and buy some trinkets and beads. I was giving thought to going up to Santa Fe but haven't worked it into my schedule. Going to the Albuquerque Plaza is just about the same thing. I actually want to buy some traditional retablos (Hispanic saint pictures) for a project I am working on at home. A man who makes retablos or santos or other religious art is called a "Santero" in the local culture and many traditional communities have a Santero.  By chance, I stumbled in to a Santero's shop on the Plaza (Roberto Gonzales) and spent about an hour looking at his work. Most of his work is painted images of saints but he does other types as well. He likes to talk about it...his wife brought me a glass of water while I learned all about it. He mixes his own paints and it can take a year to complete one large retablo. He makes an original and then reproduces a limited number of copies for sale. Historically, these were used in house altars and were very ornate.  I escaped with just a few very small ones.

La Placita in the olden days

It was after 5 PM so I decided to get dinner. I went to La Placita Dining Rooms on the Plaza. This place has been here forever. I think Coronado ate here. I remember eating here in the 1970s and several times since. I must say that it has gone down hill since way back then but then a lot of things have...including me. I hate it when things get "dumbed down".  I've heard people complain that you can't get decent Mexican food in Albuquerque like they have at Taco Bell.

La Placita is a rambling place that takes up most of one side of the Plaza. Indians sell their crafts on blankets under the shade of the portal. Inside you might be shown to an actual dining room or to a roofed-over space that once was an interior courtyard - or a placita. I ate in a placita that had a large tree growing up from the brick floor and out the roof. I ordered tostada compuesta which used to be a layered flat tostada covered with refried beans, spicy beef, chopped tomatoes, lettuce and cheese... with maybe some sour cream on top. It was a "taco salad" before there were any taco salads. This time I asked the waiter what the tostada compuesta was like and he said it was like a taco salad...and, sadly, it was except I couldn't find much tostada at all. They have something called a Navajo Salad that is basically the same thing but on Indian fry bread and two dollars more. The chips and salsa were good as was the sopapilla with honey.

I headed back home but had o stop at Walmart again because I broke my sunglasses...picked up a bottle of Chilean wine, too.

Enough for one day.