While Roman has been in Mammoth, California this last week for the annual Black Tie Retreat, Lucy and I have been muddling through life in Quito. We went on a fun mountain bike ride in Parque Metropolitano on Saturday and enjoyed a Tanzanian/German/Ecuadorian (how’s that for a fusion restaurant!) lunch at a local restaurant with some friends. Saturday evening, my friend Amanda had a barbecue at her apartment a few blocks away. Just as I was into the second bite of my hot dog, thinking to myself “this is one miserably tough casing on this thing”, my friend Shannon said, “I had a hot dog the other day and I had to remove the plastic covering on it.” Needless to say, that tough casing wasn’t just a casing after all. I think I will stay away from hot dogs for a while.